Li Qi, the king of Mu, returned to Chang'an safely and soundly, causing a sensation in the government and the opposition. Before the news of Bazhou came, almost no one, including the emperor, suspected that King Mu had been secretly killed by the rebel King Gangneung.

Therefore, when the emperor walked out of the harem for the first time in more than a month and saw that it was really Li Qi himself who walked in from outside the palace in Yanying Palace, he couldn't suppress the excitement in his heart, approached with trembling hands, hugged Li Qi, and the father and son hugged each other and cried.

Headed by "Shang Father", Jin Guogong, and Zhongshu Ling Li Jinzhong, more than a dozen important ministers of the imperial court who were ordered to welcome King Mu back to Beijing saw this situation, and many of them also shed a few lines of tears.

What is strange is that in the memories of these important ministers of the court, Li Qiben, the king of Mu, was a suave prince, not only good at riding and shooting, but also reading poetry and books, and quite eloquent. Now that he has not seen him for a few months, he has become much more restrained and quiet.

When the emperor took him by the hand and asked him carefully about his escape from Jiangling City and his subsequent exile to Bazhou, he only replied briefly: "After his father's edict ordered Li Shu to return to Beijing arrived in Jiangling, he let his son continue south, and his son was alone and lost his way, so he strayed into Bazhou City." When he had said this, he bowed his head and refused to say anything more.

Li Jinzhong didn't believe that King Jiangling, who had long been dissident, would let King Mu go so easily, so he walked up to Li Qi with a smile, stretched out his hand and patted him on the shoulder and said, "His Royal Highness King Mu has been frightened all the way, and there must be something hidden in front of the ministers and other inconvenient to say." Today, the ministers who are waiting for His Highness in Yanying Hall are all His Majesty's ministers, His Highness does not have to worry about it, everything is okay, the ministers and others want to hear His Highness's legendary experience with their own ears. ”

On the way back to Beijing from Bazhou, Li Qi had listened to Tang Kuan's detailed description of the current situation in the court, and knew that Li Jinzhong had added the honorific title of "Shangfu" and leaned towards the government and the opposition, and did not think that he was disrespectful to him in public, but stood up, bowed to Li Jinzhong, and replied: "This is indeed the case, Xiao Wang does not dare to deceive all the adults. ”

The emperor sitting high on the dragon throne heard his words, and remembered that Zeng Qing returned to Beijing alone more than two months ago to report the news, saying that the king of Jiangling had left King Mu in Jiangling, and the two factions of the court and the lord Fu were in dispute, so he went to the harem Jingxuan to discuss the countermeasures, Jingxuan offered him advice, and ordered that the king of Jiangling return to Beijing to participate in the 100-day ceremony of the emperor, in order to observe a period of the past. At that time, Jing Xuan had analyzed that after King Jiangling received the imperial court's decree to return to Beijing, he would most likely immediately release King Mu for his own safety. Now it is verified with Li Qi's answer, and it is indeed so. The emperor secretly sighed in his heart that Jing Xuan was worthy of being born as a general, and when it came to strategy, he was no less than his father.

Li Jinzhong was bored, and mocked himself: "Your Highness and the envoy of the pro-ambassador are not yet over." Now that the Tibetan envoy is in Chang'an, His Royal Highness has returned to the capital safely this time, and the old minister has to ask His Majesty for a few days to be free. ”

The reason why Li Jinzhong took the opportunity of King Mu's return to Beijing to resign from the envoy to the emperor in person to negotiate with the Tibetan envoys was mostly because he was forced by the emperor. Because, recently, he found that the emperor has the momentum to point the blade of the sword at him.

In recent days, he has been busy negotiating with Yang Zong, trying his best to deal with him, and invisibly relaxing his attention to the emperor's abnormal behavior. When he returned to the mansion yesterday, he remembered that the emperor had asked him to recommend Jing Zhaoyin's candidate, so he hurriedly sent someone to call Wei Chang to the mansion.

Wei Chang was ordered to come to the Jin State Mansion, and as soon as he saw Li Jinzhong's face, he turned over and fell to the ground, begging in fear: "Grace save me, grace save me." ”

Seeing him so panicked, Li Jinzhong couldn't help but ask in surprise: "There is no reason, why is this?" Tell me, what's going on? ”

Wei Chang knelt in front of Li Jinzhong, didn't get up, and continued to beg: "Please be kind to Emperor Ming, assign individual envoys to the late students, this fact of the Jingzhao Yamen is not the director of the late students." ”

Hearing these words coming out of Wei Chang's mouth, Li Jinzhong's heart sank: he wanted to promote him to replace Zeng Qingze and take charge of Jingzhao Mansion, and before he had time to ask him if he was willing, he blocked his mouth first. No wonder some people blow the wind in their ears all the time, saying that this Wei Chang has been walking very diligently in Yaohua Palace recently, and Concubine Li also opened her mouth to beg him to be the master of the two babies of auspiciousness and wishfulness, and it turned out that he had climbed another high branch.

With this thought, Li Jinzhong decided to rub him first, so as to see what kind of medicine was sold in Wei Chang's gourd. He shook his head disapprenously, pulled Wei Chang up with one hand, and comforted him with a smile: "Sir, how can a small envoy of the Jingzhao Yamen be able to restrain him?" The old man is ready to recommend to the emperor, and you will replace Zeng Qingze as Jing Zhaoyin, this is from the official position of Sanpin, and since then you have entered the class of serving purple, how about it, are you still satisfied? ”

Wei Chang's foreshadowing has been done sufficiently, just waiting for Li Jinzhong to say this, so as to refuse him under the pretext.

He put on a pitiful look of having done something wrong and came to receive the punishment, and said bitterly: "The friendship of the grace is not forgotten in the later life. Jingzhao has a heavy responsibility and a lot of work, and his later life is willing to stay in this important place for his grace. It's just that Zeng's attention has been transferred to a foreign post for less than a whole month, and he has repeatedly derelict his duties in his later life: not to mention that more than ten days ago, the Persian Hu merchants were beaten in the western market, killing many people, and the main culprit has not been arrested so far, even the Uighur thief Bohu, who was captured by Zeng before he left office, was robbed from prison last night. Don't hide it, Wansheng led people to search Chang'an City all night, and even the figures of Bohu and his accomplices were not found. The late life is incompetent, and there is really a negative grace to carry each other, and the grace is cultivated with heart, how can the late life not measure himself and disappoint the grace in vain. ”

Li Jinzhong stared at Wei Chang's face with infinite self-reproach and remorse, and sighed secretly: Although this person is a genius of the world, he is born with a traitorous heart, and he can neither use it for himself, nor can he offend him, so as not to bring endless troubles to himself.

Thinking like this, Li Jinzhong deliberately pretended to feel sorry for Wei Chang, sighed lightly, and said: "The case of the Persian Hu Shangqun beating people's lives, it is difficult to arrest the murderer for a while, and there seems to be something to say about it. It's just that this wave of protection escaped for the second time, and the disaster is very great, and it has been less than 100 days since you were promoted to the fourth rank of young yin, and the old man recommended you to be the big yin, which is really a super promotion, if the emperor asks about the wave protection in person, it is indeed difficult to explain. Well, this one."

He groaned, peeking at Wei Chang's reaction, but he didn't see Wei Chang have any disappointed expression, and he was secretly annoyed that he had seen something different, obviously he had recently attached to the concubine Niangniang, maybe he had arranged his future future, but today he still had to behave in front of him, pretending to flatter. (To be continued.) )