On the third night after the martial arts performance in front of the palace, Chang Miao received a secret edict from Liu Yan, asking him to enter the palace immediately.

Chang Miao, who didn't know what was going on, hurriedly followed the eunuch who came to deliver the decree into a secluded place in the palace. There was not a single palace maid and eunuch to be seen along the way, obviously Liu Yan had already removed everyone, Chang Miao knew in his heart that this meeting must be very important.

Sure enough, when he walked into this hut, Chang Miao only saw Liu Yan and Wu Sicheng. When Liu Yan saw him arrive, he raised his hand and motioned for him to sit down, and Chang Miao thanked him and sat down sideways. Liu Yan instructed Wu Sicheng to serve tea, and then said, "Chang Aiqing, there are a few important things to discuss when you are summoned to the palace this time. ”

Chang Miao hurriedly stood up and said, "Your Majesty summoned the ministers so solemnly, something big must have happened." ”

Liu Yan nodded: "These things are still somewhat related. The first thing is that the surprise attack failed this time, and instead plundered the people of our border county and returned, today he actually sent a messenger to invite merit, saying that he heard that there was civil strife in my silk country, and he was ready to send troops to help quell the rebellion, and now that the rebellion has been quelled, he came to ask for a reward. ”

"It's outrageous." Chang Miao sneered, then understood, and changed his words: "The Jin King Liu Qian's rebellion, if it weren't for Liu Xianzhi's report, I wouldn't know anything about it in Goryeo, how could Abicheril, who was far away in the desert, know about it first, and be able to invade my border pass, and now that the rebellion has just been quelled, why has he already come to ask for credit?" ”

Liu Yan smiled, Chang Miao's reaction was really sharp, and he instantly grasped the crux of the problem. He said: "The problem is here, the time is not right." Unless we have someone here to give him a message! ”

Chang Miao nodded and said to himself, "Could this person be the King of Jin?" Impossible. The king of Jin clearly had 100,000 soldiers at the border pass, and strengthened his defense against the sudden contract. Otherwise, Liu Xianzhi's hasty response to Tuqi to the south would not have been so smooth. ”

"And Tuqi's attack target will not be selected in the defense area of King Jin." Wu Sicheng, who came over with tea, said.

Liu Yan said: "Exactly. And this person who reported the news must have also explained that the King of Jin raised troops to the south, so Tuqi wanted to take advantage of the situation. Unexpectedly, the border defense there did not relax in the slightest. However, Tuqi obviously made two preparations, if the sneak attack was successful, he would continue to increase his troops to the south to expand the results of the battle, and if the king of Jin failed, he would say that it was to help us quell the rebellion, and he would not suffer a loss inside and outside. ”

"It doesn't make sense in terms of time, could it be that someone had informed Abichlir of the news before the Jin King raised his army?" Chang Miao said with some hesitation.

Liu Yan said: "If it is said that the King of Jin has long had the intention of rebelling, then it is forgivable for someone to inform the deed in advance, but according to Liu Xianzhi's recital. According to the confession of his brother Liu Tanzhi, the king of Jin decided to raise troops only after receiving four secret letters. Two of these four secret letters were written by the emperor, and two of them belonged to me. I don't dare to say whether the emperor's letter is true or not, but I have never written those two secret letters. So, someone forged the decree. It was under this circumstance that the King of Jin took up the name of King Bingqin and went south. ”

At this time, Chang Miao felt the seriousness of the problem, and subconsciously took a sip of the tea that had been in his hand, and after swallowing the tea, Chang Miao had gradually figured out a clue and said, "Could it be?"

Liu Yan stretched out his hand to stop him from continuing. "Don't worry, that's just the first thing. This is the second thing, before the night fire in Chang'an, and then someone entered the palace to assassinate. The target was the Queen Mother, I and the Empress, and afterwards the eldest son and eldest daughter of the King of Jin both committed suicide in the palace. I'm afraid you've heard about it. ”

"Yes, the minister heard about it."

Liu Yan smiled slightly. said: "Everyone thought that this incident was ironclad evidence that King Liu of Jin was intent on rebellion, but there were some interesting changes. About this matter, let Wu Sicheng, this kid, tell you. ”

As he spoke, Liu Yan pointed his hand to Wu Sicheng. Wu Sicheng saw it, so he spoke: "The situation that night was very dangerous, for this reason, Lord Ji Chonghai was seriously injured, and the emperor himself was also in danger. But at the critical moment, someone came to the rescue, and killed nearly 30 assassins with chopsticks and stones in an instant, so as to keep the emperor safe. ”

"Is there such a thing?" Chang Miao almost knocked over the teacup in his hand. He only knew that the emperor had been attacked, but he never thought that the situation had been so critical, and what was even more surprising was that someone could take the lives of thirty powerful assassins with chopsticks, which was really incredible.

Wu Sicheng and the others calmed down before saying: "A few days ago, Xiaguan did not carefully investigate this matter because he was injured and did not recover, but in the past few days, he started with those chopsticks and found out the whereabouts of this person. It turns out that in recent months, the imperial dining room has been haunted, and there are inexplicably missing a lot of delicacies, but no one has seen anyone enter or leave. Therefore, Xia Guan secretly lurked near the imperial dining room, and sure enough, I found out the clues. ”

Speaking of this, Liu Yan immediately interrupted: "Are you waiting for the rabbit or are you caught by others as a rabbit?" ”

Wu Sicheng's face turned red when he heard this, and said: "The emperor is right, it was the lower official who let that person find out and arrest him." But because of this, I met this strange man. ”

"Strange people?" A curious look flashed in Chang Miao's eyes.

"Exactly. This man was a swordsman named Yang Tao. He had been walking on the rivers and lakes for many years, and on a whim, he wanted to try the dishes of the palace, so he sneaked into the imperial dining room to steal food, because of his clever methods, no one found out about his whereabouts for months. And the more he ate, the more greedy he became, and he refused to leave, and finally met the day of the night fire in Chang'an. That night, he had experienced something unusual. Speaking of this, Wu Sicheng raised his head and looked at the beams of the house, and then said: "That day, he went straight to the sleeping palace of the Queen Mother who was on fire to see what was going on, but he saw a good scene." Afterwards, nearly half of the ladies and eunuchs in the Empress Dowager's palace were burned to death, and many of them were slashed to death by swords, according to the Empress Dowager's men, when the assassins attacked Yanxi Palace. According to what this sheep hero said, these people were cut down by the Queen Mother's men, doesn't it feel strange? Yang Daxia felt strange, so he followed the Queen Mother all the way, the strange thing is that the Queen Mother and her party were numerous, but they did not encounter an assassin's attack, but a large number of assassins flocked to the direction of the emperor as soon as the cannon sounded. ”

"That is to say, the Queen Mother single-handedly planned this assassination and blamed Liu Qian's son and daughter?"

Wu Sicheng nodded and said: "Coupled with the inexplicable disappearance of Lu Hai, the inner servant who was arranged by the Queen Mother by the side of the former emperor, these things are linked together, so the Queen Mother faked an edict to order the King of Jin to raise troops to go south, and at the same time attracted a sudden invasion, and also planned the night fire in Chang'an, assassinated the emperor and the queen, and then blamed the King of Jin It should be a series of deliberate plans." ”

Chang Miao touched the sweat oozing from his forehead and said, "What a vicious plan." It's a pity we don't have proof. ”

Liu Yan nodded heavily and said, "Here's the problem." We have no evidence to confirm this inference, although it seems very plausible. If we had a sheep hero as a witness, the Queen Mother would have punished him for trespassing into the palace first, and I would not have been able to accept the testimony of a person who had infiltrated the palace without permission. ”

"yes. How should we deal with Empress Dowager Li? Chang Miao thought about it and muttered to himself.

"Do you want me to slaughter this woman?"

All three were startled, for the voice did not belong to any of them. (To be continued......)