Half an hour later, five Xiangguo, Chen Shuda, Pei Lian, Liu Wenjing, Tang Jian and Gao Shilian, two concubines Chai Shao and Zhao Cijing, and the general Li Shentong, a total of eight people, had rushed to the Wude Palace. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

Everyone knew in their hearts what was going to happen, the prince had been back for two days, and it was time to announce it.

For the abolished prince, everyone's thoughts are different, like Li Shentong and Pei Lin must be supportive, they support Li Yuanji, the king of Qi, as the prince.

Chen Shuda and Chai Shao were supporters of the crown prince Li Jiancheng, and they were firmly opposed to the abolition of the crown prince, while the other four, except for Tang Jian and Zhao Cijing, who were centrists, Liu Wenjing and Gao Shilian supported the Qin king Li Shimin.

If the abolition of the crown prince can make Li Shimin, the king of Qin, the crown prince, the crown prince, Liu Wenjing and Gao Shilian will also support the abolition of the crown prince, but the news from the palace is that the saint does not plan to establish another prince, and it may even be the son of Concubine Yin Defei who profits, so Liu Wenjing and Gao Shilian are a little ambiguous on the matter of abolishing the prince.

Everyone has their own thoughts, the hall is extremely silent, the Son of Heaven has not yet come out, at this time, Chen Shuda said to everyone: "The one-year truce is coming to an end in a few months, and our army has not increased, on the contrary, the army of the Zhou Dynasty has reached 800,000, four times as much as ours, if we can't unite sincerely, and are still keen on the power struggle, it will really be internal and external troubles, everyone, let's persuade the Holy Lord to give up the idea of abolishing the prince!" ”

The Son of Heaven was about to come out, Chen Shuda was also very nervous, he hurried up, he didn't brew emotions, he said quickly and urgently, but there was no reaction in the hall, there was still silence, only Chai Shao nodded to him slightly, expressing agreement with his point of view, at this time, a guard shouted: "The Holy Lord has arrived!" ”

Chen Shuda retreated, only to see Li Yuan, the Son of Heaven, walking quickly into the hall from the side, surrounded by several guards.

"Everyone Aiqing is here, please sit down!"

Everyone bowed and saluted, and then sat down, Li Yuan sat down on the dragon couch, and said slowly to everyone: "What happened recently must be known to all Aiqing, although the ugliness of the family cannot be publicized, but this is indeed not a family matter, it is also related to the Datang Society, and it is related to the future of Datang, I have been thinking about whether to re-establish the prince, but Datang is not my own country, but also your country, so I want to discuss this matter with you today, the stakes are very high, I hope everyone can talk about it." ”

After speaking, Li Yuan glanced at Pei Lian, meaning to let him say first, Pei Lin wanted to retreat, but he was targeted by the saint, so he had to get up and say, "Your Majesty, can you allow the minister to say a few words first." ”

Li Yuan nodded, "Pei Xiangguo, please speak!" ”

Pei Lin said to everyone: "Today I went to the East Palace to interrogate the prince by the will of the saint, the prince resolutely denied that there was an assassination of the Son of Heaven, of course, this is understandable, now it can only be said that the prince has the greatest suspicion of assassinating the Son of Heaven, and he is not sure that he did it, but the prince Zhongyun Wang Jue admitted that he was instructed by the prince to poison the king of Chu, and he also signed and detained, the motive for poisoning was that the king of Chu threatened the status of the prince, and the hook used for poisoning was also found in the East Palace, As for the steel needle found in the East Palace, I don't have much to say about this, everyone understands it in their hearts. ”

At this time, Chen Shuda got up and said: "Your Majesty, Weichen has to add three points to what Pei Xiangguo said, and ask Your Majesty to allow Weichen to speak." ”

Li Yuan was a little reluctant, he knew that Chen Shuda must be defending the prince, he asked Pei Lian to say it first in order to grab Chen Shuda's opening words, but Chen Shuda still picked it up, and it was very smooth, directly targeting the three things Pei Lin said, but the words had already been spoken, how could Li Yuan slap himself in the face.

"Chen Xiangguo, please speak!"

Luo's tone was very heavy, showing Li Yuan's helplessness, and everyone immediately heard the thoughts of the Son of Heaven, and still wanted to abolish the prince, but he was not as eager as the previous two days, the prince's strategy of rubbing into Beijing worked, and the Son of Heaven finally calmed down a little.

Of course, Chen Shuda also heard it, he seemed to see a glimmer of life, no matter what, he must keep the crown prince today.

"Your Majesty, Wechen is on the matter, and Wechen dares to guarantee with the head of Xiang Shang, that the dozen or so steel needles found in the prince's bedroom are definitely not the prince's doing."

This matter was poked out in the letter that Li Jiancheng asked Chen Zhongfang to bring to Chen Shuda, and Li Jiancheng told Chen Shuda how to know this secret, otherwise Chen Shuda would be dumbfounded as soon as the Son of Heaven asked about such a secret matter.

But there was an uproar in the hall, with Chen Shuda's prudence, he actually said the words of guaranteeing the head of the item, there must be something hidden here, and all eyes looked at Chen Shuda.

Li Yuan knew it, but he was a little strange, how did Chen Shuda know about this?

The Son of Heaven did not object, but acquiesced to Chen Shuda to continue, Chen Shuda continued: "Wechen and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince in the study of the East Palace last year to discuss the negotiation with the envoy of the Zhou Dynasty, halfway through the Weichen went to the toilet, passed by the prince's bedroom, at that time Wechen was wearing the soft silk armor given to Wechen by His Majesty, as a result, Wechen was sucked at the door of the dormitory, Wechen knew that there were two huge Cishi at the gate of the dormitory, and later the East Palace found a steel needle, Wechen specially inquired, the two Cishi were removed by His Majesty two months ago, How did His Royal Highness the Crown Prince take a steel needle into the palace? ”

Li Shuda decided to go from easy to difficult, starting with the easiest thing to debunk.

Li Yuan also knew that it was true that he had to pass through the gate of the palace to go to the toilet from the prince's inner study, but he didn't believe Chen Shuda's statement, it must have been the prince who told Chen Shuda in advance, and no matter how bold the prince was, he didn't dare to take the ministers to his inner study.

Everyone in the main hall looked at each other, there were two Cishi stones at the entrance of the prince's bedroom, how did the guards patrol? It must not be an iron weapon.

Pei Lin secretly complained, the king of Chu drew a snake to add to his feet, and put a steel needle into the prince's bedroom, but it was exposed.

At this time, Li Shentong bowed down and said: "Your Majesty, in fact, if the steel needle is placed in a jade box or a copper box, it will not be sucked either, only an iron tool as big as a dagger will be sucked, and things like needles will not have much effect." ”

Chen Shuda immediately retorted: "May I ask the general, will the prince bring a steel needle to the palace even if he knows that there is a cishi at the door?" Even if you don't get sucked, at least you can feel it in your hand, right? In this case, I think it is more reasonable to use copper needles or jade needles, at least I am sure that these steel needles have nothing to do with the prince. ”

"This.... Maybe there were a few steel needles in the bed, and the palace maid sewed up the clothes that were missing, and they fell into the cracks for decades, and they happened to be sucked out by Cishi, I think there is also this possibility. ”

Li Shen informed that the conspiracy of the steel needle was exposed, and he immediately ripped off the reason, I am afraid that this matter will continue to be investigated in depth, anyway, there is no villain, and the steel needle can be used for other purposes.

Li Yuan waved his hand, "This matter can be investigated later, now I am not trying the case, don't dwell on these details." ”

"Your Majesty, this is not a trial, this is related to the innocence of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, please allow Weichen to say a few more words."

"Chen Xiangguo, what else do you want to say?"

"Your Majesty, the minister still wants to say that Wang Jue, he is dead, the minister saw his body today, covered with bruises, he was tortured to death, and even his tongue was cut off, Your Majesty, can you believe his confession like this?"

At this time, Chai Shao also stepped forward and said urgently: "Your Majesty, no matter what, the abolition of the crown prince is a major event that shakes the country's foundation, and it will make the people of the Tang Dynasty completely lose confidence, Your Majesty, the Zhou army is about to attack in a big way, we must unite and unite with the outside world!" ”

Tang Jian, Zhao Cijing, Liu Wenjing, and Gao Shilian also stepped forward to intercede together: "Please think twice, Your Majesty!" ”

Chen Shuda knelt down and said with tears streaming down his face: "All officials don't want the Tang Dynasty to go into chaos, maintaining stability is a top priority, we can further investigate whether we should set up a new prince in the future, Your Majesty, if the prince really has a different heart, he will not return to Chang'an, please think twice, Your Majesty!" ”

Pei Lin couldn't help but say: "Your Majesty, the prince has no power, and Weichen thinks that living in the East Palace is not a big problem." ”

Pei Lin reminded Li Yuan that as long as the prince is placed under house arrest and surveillance, it is one thing to abolish him or not.

Li Yuan pondered for a long time, and finally nodded: "Although I can't confirm that the crown prince is the mastermind of the assassination, he is indeed the biggest suspect, I demote him to the crown prince, and from now on, he is not allowed to leave the East Palace for a single step." ”

In the face of the steel needle case and the loopholes of poisoning, under the unanimous plea of the important ministers, Li Yuan, who was originally determined to abolish the crown prince, finally compromised and no longer sought to abolish the crown prince, but demoted the eldest son to the crown prince.

This is Li Yuan's biggest concession in the prince's case.

Although the crown prince Li Jiancheng was not completely abolished, but without the rights and freedoms of the prince, abolition and non-abolition are indeed similar, Li Yuan put his eldest son under house arrest in the East Palace, depriving him of all power, Li Jiancheng even wanted to spread a word to the outside world, or it was impossible for outsiders to pass a word to him.

Of course, things have not yet reached the worst point, Li Jiancheng retains the status of the crown prince and is still the legal heir to the throne, that is to say, if the son of heaven Li Yuan dies unexpectedly, the hundred officials can directly support him to ascend the throne as the emperor, but this must be supported by the army, if the army does not support it, this legal heir is still meaningless.

Li Yuan also knows this very well, Li Jiancheng once commanded the generals, all those who stayed in the capital, he did not hesitate to dismiss him, Pei Lin drafted a list of more than 20 people, from Lang General to the general, including the general Zhou Shaofan, more than 20 people were all dismissed, so far, Li Jiancheng's power in the army was completely cleaned by Li Yuan, and even the horse Chai Shao also lost his position as the secretary of the Ministry of War, and was reappointed as the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, and he had nothing to do with the army.