Chapter 88: The Night of the Coup (2)
After Sima Lun, the king of Zhao, received the will from Empress Jia, he immediately brought his confidant Sun Xiu to discuss.
"Sir, what shall we do now?" As soon as Sun Xiu came, Sima Lun couldn't wait to ask.
"Don't worry, your subordinates have already prepared, General Meng has promised to stand on our side, this matter must be foolproof, so the prince doesn't have to worry. After General Meng and General Li Zhao come later, the prince only needs to let the two of them go to the East Palace, and after Li Zhao succeeds, let General Meng take it down, and then go to the palace to meet the prince, so that we can get the righteousness, hold high the slogan of revenge for the prince, gather people's hearts, and grasp the power! β
"At this time, the hundred officials are being controlled by Empress Jia in the main hall, and the prince can just mobilize the ministers to abolish Empress Jia in the name of the prince's justice, as for the foolish emperor, the prince doesn't have to be in a hurry, and after we stabilize the situation in the capital, we will find a way to get rid of Sima Zhen!"
"What are you doing now?"
"Lead the forbidden army to block the four gates of the capital, prohibit anyone from entering and leaving the capital, until we grasp the situation in the capital, in addition, the prince will personally lead the troops to immediately control the emperor, civil and military officials, and inside and outside the palace!"
"Good!"
After a while, Meng Guan and Li Zhao came to King Zhao's mansion with their escorts, and brought the holy decree that the queen had prepared for them in advance. The three of them discussed, King Zhao was responsible for the guards of the capital and the palace, while Meng Guan and Li Zhao led the troops to the East Palace. Among the three, only Li Zhao is the real confidant of Empress Jia, and he is also the most enthusiastic person to go to the East Palace.
Meng Guan and the two of them lit up the soldiers and horses and came towards the East Palace, Li Zhao could be said to be full of ambition at this time, and all he had in his mind were fantasies about making great achievements, currying favor with Empress Jia, and then being promoted to the rank of knight, without noticing that Meng Guan next to him was a little abnormal.
The two came to the East Palace, and at this time, the East Palace had not yet recovered from the festivities, and suddenly saw a large number of soldiers coming with open fire, and many timid people were frightened into trembling.
Li Zhao rode to the door and shouted: "Open the door!" God's will has come! β
At this moment, Sima Shu and the others, who were in the East Palace, had been waiting impatiently for a long time, and suddenly received a report from the guards that Li Zhao, the commander of the forbidden army, had come to deliver the decree, and they were immediately overjoyed.
Sima Shu picked up the horizontal knife and raised his voice to everyone present: "Everyone, success or failure is in the present day, I hope that all the monarchs can unite as one, cooperate sincerely, and punish the national thieves together!" β
"The ministers are willing to serve His Highness and punish the thieves together!"
"Good! Walk! β
Sima Shu and others came to the gate of the East Palace with their men and horses, and at this time Li Zhao had already surrounded the East Palace, but he didn't know that Meng Guan took the opportunity to secretly control all his henchmen.
"Today is the day of great joy for the two generals in the palace, I wonder what happened to the two of them coming to the East Palace together?" Sima Shu looked at Li Zhao coldly and asked.
"Hehe, the ministers and others came to the East Palace today because someone reported that His Highness had rebelled, and he specially came to arrest His Highness and confront the Holy One on the order of the emperor!"
Li Zhao said it easily, in fact, he had already received a secret instruction from Empress Jia, asking him to kill the prince immediately as soon as he had the opportunity!
As soon as Li Zhao spoke, except for a few insiders such as Sima Shu, the other people's faces turned white. The crime of rebellion in ancient times can be said to be the most serious, and if you don't get it right, you will be punished by the nine clans!
"Oh? Does General Lee have a holy decree? Sima Shu asked expressionlessly.
"Divine decree? Yes! Of course! General Meng take out the holy decree! On the way here, the two have already discussed, Meng Guan is responsible for announcing the holy decree, Li Zhao is responsible for doing it, and the two of them will each take half of the credit in the future.
"The Divine Decree has arrived!"
Meng Guan listened to Li Zhao's words, nodded slightly, and then took out a bright yellow satin from his arms, spread his hands, and shouted: "Fengtian carrier, the emperor edict said: Li Zhao, the commander of the forbidden army, wantonly slandered the prince, and separated the feelings of the heavenly family, the crime is unforgivable!" Meng Guan, the commander of the fateful guards, took him into custody and handed it over to the prince for disposal! β
After reciting the holy decree, Meng Guan didn't wait for Li Zhao to react, and took out his saber and beheaded Li Zhao with one sword!
Except for a very few insiders, everyone present was stunned all of a sudden, and they couldn't figure out what was going on, especially those forbidden soldiers, how could they not have thought that they were still acting on the king's orders just now, and why did they become thieves again in the blink of an eye?
"Minister Mengguan see His Royal Highness the Prince!"
"Ministers, see His Royal Highness the Prince!"
"General Meng is flat!"
After Sima Shu saw that the soldiers brought by Meng Guan controlled the situation, he immediately relaxed, he first asked all Li Zhao's subordinates to be put into custody, all the middle and lower-level officers were gathered by him, and the rest of the soldiers were all mixed into the five thousand elites he brought before.
In this way, the number of troops in the hands of Sima Shu reached 10,000, plus the 5,000 people in the hands of Meng Guan, although the number of forbidden troops in the hands of King Zhao was not as large, but at least he had the capital for a coup d'Γ©tat.
"Your Highness, what should we do next?" After resolving the current crisis, everyone looked at Sima Shu and asked for the next step.
"Mr. Mengsun, you can tell everyone about your future actions!"
"Yes, Your Highness. Generals, now the enemy is in the light, and I am in the dark. This is our advantage, so we must use this advantage to defeat the enemy as soon as possible, grasp the situation in the capital, and minimize losses. β
"The first step is General Meng, please send a confidant to tell King Zhao, that the prince has been assassinated by Li Zhao, and let him hurry into the palace to arrest Empress Jia! After King Zhao starts to act, we will take the opportunity to eliminate the forces of King Zhao's four gates and control the soldiers and horses in the capital as soon as possible. In the end, we concentrated our forces on attacking the palace and captured the enemy in one fell swoop! β
"General Li Te, General Meng Guan, General Sima Ren, General Sima Ya!"
"In!"
"Each of you will take 3,000 people to receive the four city gates of Luoyang, and anyone who dares to resist and disobey the order will be beheaded!"
"Yes!"
The streets of Luoyang were particularly quiet in the dark, and Sima Lun and Sun Xiu walked through the streets with soldiers and horses. After coming to the palace, Sima Lun, in the name of the general of the forbidden army, quickly let his subordinates take over the defense of the palace, although some officers had doubts, but in the face of the powerful King Zhao, everyone did not dare to say anything.
Just when Sima Lun wanted to open the palace gate and enlarge the team to enter the palace, he saw a man in an official uniform running over, shouting as he ran: "Who are you?" Dare to open the palace door privately! β
Sima Lun was shocked, Sun Xiu signaled not to panic, and the two looked at each other, and it turned out to be Empress Jia's first imperial physician Ling Cheng. So Sun Xiu's eyes rolled and he shouted: "It turned out to be Lord Cheng, this official heard that someone tried to rob and kill the emperor, so he entered the palace to escort him by the order of the queen and Zhao Wangjun." What, do you have any questions? β
Cheng Yi frowned and said, "You don't want to talk nonsense!" This official has just arrived from the queen, and he has never listened to the queen's orders, so do you dare to privately transfer troops into the palace? I think you are clearly going to rebel! β
As soon as Sun Xiu saw that the conspiracy was about to be revealed, he no longer covered it up, and shouted: "You're right!" Queen Jia killed the prince privately and abandoned the world, we are here to rebel against her today! β
Sima Lun shouted: "Sir Hugh wants to talk nonsense with him!" Whoever is out there will take the others! β
King Zhao rushed out from behind, urging the horse to dance the knife and step forward to fight with Cheng Ju, who is Cheng Ju? It's just a weak scholar, even if he knows a few hands, how can he be the opponent of King Zhao's warriors. Sure enough, after a few combinations, the chopping process was under the horse.
"Little Wish! Little Wish! The others knelt down and asked to surrender.
In the dark, in the palace, King Zhao and Sun Xiu led the rebels to carry torches and march in parting ways, and from time to time the soldiers or eunuchs of the forbidden army in the palace who came forward to inquire were killed.
At this time, Empress Jia Nanfeng was waiting for news, and hundreds of civil and military officials were detained by the queen in the palace and were not allowed to leave. The emperor Sima Zhen was accompanied by the eunuchs to dine in the Nine Flowers Hall of Hualin Garden, and more than ten dancers danced in the music.
Sima Zhen was thinking stupidly, and a eunuch ran in in a panic.
"Oh no! β¦β¦ Hooray! β
"There are people outside who rebel and lead troops into the palace!"
Before the words were spoken, a group of soldiers rushed into the door with open fire and rods. As soon as everyone saw Sima Zhen, out of fear of the royal family all along, the soldiers knelt down and kowtowed.
"The emperor is here!"
"Your Majesty!"
"Little one to meet the emperor!"
"Hooray, hooray, hooray!"
Emperor Sima Zhen didn't know what was going on, so he looked at the attendants who served him beside him, and the little attendants were bold and asked, "Who are you!" β
The leader of the soldiers replied: "Back to Your Majesty, the little ones are the military academy in the palace of King Zhao, and they came to escort your old man on the order of the king of my family." β
At this moment, King Zhao came with Sun Xiu, "Minister Sima Lun pays a visit to the emperor!" β
Sima Zhen smirked: "It's you, loyal minister?" Traitor? β
Sima Lun was stunned for a moment: "This ......"
Sun Xiu next to him was more clever and took the opportunity to reply: "King Zhao came to protect Long Live and is naturally a loyal minister." β
King Zhao then said: "Your Majesty, the queen killed the prince in vain, and the people and gods were angry, and the widow asked the emperor to depose the queen and rehabilitate Zhaoxue for the prince." Your Majesty, the queen ****, oppressed the Son of Heaven, and the ministers wanted to get rid of it for a long time, and asked the emperor to go to the east hall to ascend to the palace, and the ministers had already gathered hundreds of officials there! β
When King Zhao was forcing the emperor to abolish the decree, Queen Jia was still waiting for good news, and her nephew Jia Mi was playing chess with her.
"Auntie, now we can finally put our hearts in our stomachs!" Jia Mi said while playing chess.
"Humph! This is Sima Shu's kid looking for death, if he can flatter me wholeheartedly, this palace will not have to ask for the other party's life! Jia Hou put a white piece on the chess card.
Jia Mi said disdainfully: "Who let this kid not know what to do!" β
Somehow, Empress Jia was always a little uneasy in her heart, pondered for a moment, and asked solemnly: "Mi'er, do you think we are in a bit of a hurry to attack the prince this time?" β
"In a hurry? Auntie, if we don't do it again, he will kill the people from the East Palace! At that time, you couldn't even escape from your aunt! Jia Mi grunted from the couch and said urgently, almost pulling the injury.
"Okay, okay, what are you anxious about? My aunt just said it casually, even if my aunt is willing to stop, I'm afraid she won't be able to stop King Zhao and them. β
Jia Nanfeng knew that as long as this kind of thing started, there was no reason to stop halfway, if he couldn't put the prince to death this time, I was afraid that tomorrow the Jia family would be in a big disaster.
"By the way, aunt, you promised me that you would definitely hand over Wang Huiying to your nephew!"
"Don't worry, this matter is on my aunt!"