[[[CP|W:210|H:140|A:C|U:http://file1.qidian.com/chapters/201410/3/3304560635479541963430000252071.jpg]]] Chapter 1: Forcing the Palace

During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, after the collapse of the Tang Empire, the people in the Central Plains fled one after another to avoid the war. The decline of the central power prompted the situation of the division of feudal towns in the late Tang Dynasty to evolve into a situation in which various localities established themselves as kings, and even Huang Pao simply became emperors, and countries were constantly fighting because they wanted to annex each other. In the five dynasties and ten kingdoms where the heart of loyalty has long been overturned, the military generals have been killing the master and replacing them, and the world is in chaos.

During this period, Hangzhou Assassin Shi Qian Jun was meritorious in quelling the rebellion, pursued the policy of "doing good deeds to China, protecting the territory and the people", and was successively named the king of Yue and the king of Wu Yue by the emperor of the Tang Dynasty and the emperor of the Liang Dynasty who replaced the Tang Dynasty. But the country of Wu Yue in the troubled times is not a paradise, and the last year of the reign of the second generation of Wu Yue King Qian Chuanqian was full of disasters.

That year, Qian Hongxu, the son of Wu Yueguo, was only 28 years old and already had 5 princesses, two of whom were princesses from other countries. He is handsome and upright, with outstanding literary talents and good martial arts. He was a near-perfect crown prince, courteous and widely loved by the court's ministers. Qian Chuanjun, the king of Wuyue, was very fond of him, and asked him to assist him in handling court affairs a year ago.

This day was originally a festive day, Dai Yun, the generalissimo of Wu Yueguo, celebrated his birthday, and the prince Qian Hongxuan went to the marshal's mansion on behalf of the lord to celebrate his birthday, and sent the golden imperial plaque of "the pillar of the country".

When the honor guard of the prince Qian Hongxu came to the front of the marshal's mansion, Dai Yun was already waiting there with joy, but when Dai Yun saluted the prince of the car, a courteous corporal and gentle Qian Hongxu sat in the carriage and did not respond.

Wen Minghui, the commander of the forbidden army who came with Qian Hongxuan, who came to protect the prince, hurriedly lifted the curtain of the carriage, but he was immediately stunned. Qian Hongxuan, who had a normal face when he got into the carriage, was like ashes at this time, and cold sweat was dripping from his forehead.

Looking at the stunned Wen Minghui, Qian Hongxuan reluctantly said: "Commander Wen, I'm a little uncomfortable, you read the holy decree on my behalf and give a plaque to Marshal Dai." ”

Wen Minghui immediately said yes.

After Wen Minghui read out the holy decree and gave the plaque, Dai Yun saluted Qian Hongxu in the car and said, "Thank you, Your Royal Highness." ”

Qian Hongxuan endured the discomfort and smiled weakly: "Congratulations to Marshal Dai." ”

Because Qian Hongxuan was unwell, his honor guard did not enter the marshal's palace to participate in the banquet as originally planned, but immediately rushed back to the palace.

After several imperial doctors diagnosed the pulse, they all said that Qian Hongxuan was poisoned, but no one could say what poison was in it and when it was poisoned, so angry that the lord of the country Qian Chuanqian scolded the imperial doctors for being useless.

The imperial doctors prescribed some antidote prescriptions, wanting to observe the efficacy of Qian Hongxu after taking the medicine, but no one expected that that night, Qian Hongxu, the son of Wu Yueguo, who did not seem to be seriously poisoned, died of poison.

Due to the poisoning, Qian Hongxuan's corpse was swollen and twisted and hideous, and Qian Chuanjun, the king of Wuyue, could hardly believe that this was his handsome and extraordinary son who had placed his infinite expectations, but he still held Hongxu's swollen and deformed hand, and shouted his name over and over again, trying to wake him up. But even though Qian Chuanqian shouted tears and hoarseness, the corpse that was not at all like Hongxuan's appearance before his death has been silent.

Hongxu's violent death not only made the lord of the country Qian Chuanqian grief-stricken, but when the news reached the cold palace, Hongxu's biological mother was deposed and Ma was even more crying to death. Before being deposed, the majestic and invincible Ma clan was distributed, and at this time, she grabbed and beat the chamberlains and palace maids who blocked her from the cold palace, and even bit her teeth, who would have thought that this shrew in front of her used to be the daughter of the general of Muyi Wu Yue. What she said over and over again was one sentence: "It was those cheap maids who killed Hongxuan, and the mourning family wanted to see the saint!! Kill those and avenge Hongxuan!!"

In order to keep the inheritance of his son Qian Hongxuan, Ma did not hesitate to kill the children of these "cheap maids" repeatedly, and even simply killed these "cheap maids". So when she heard that her child was poisoned, the first thing she thought of was: Hongxuan let these 'cheap maids' kill them.

It was only at this moment that Ma was completely desperate. Because although she was beaten into the cold palace before, because Qian Chuanjun, the king of Wuyue, loved his son Qian Hongxuan, before deposing Queen Ma, she passed on the two sons she gave birth to to her original wife, Concubine Tian. In this way, the status of Qian Hongxuan and Wu Yueguo's son was not affected by the abolition of his biological mother at all. As long as Qian Hongxu is still the son, there is hope for the Ma family, because she is the biological mother of the future King Wu Yue, and no one can abolish the blood relatives who were conceived in October. And she always felt that Qian Chuanjun, the king of Wuyue, deposed her, but she was just angry for a while, and when the anger passed, she would restore her status as queen. After all, after Qian Chuanjun, the king of Wuyue, deposed her, he never established a queen. But Hongxuan's death shattered all her remaining hopes, and she never had a day to come out, and the cold palace was her burial place.

On the third day of crying, the chamberlain and the palace maid who were in charge of guarding Ma suspected that Ma seemed to be crazy. She curled up in the corner of the room from time to time, trembling with fright, and in front of her appeared the concubine who had been beaten by her torture and saw the white bones; appeared to be a concubine who was manipulated by her during childbirth, screamed for two or three days, and died blindly; And those little princes who died in an accident on the surface, but were actually assassinated by her minions. In the face of these unjust souls, she could only scream: I didn't do it, don't come to me!! But she was still frightened just now, and she turned her face and shouted viciously: Hong, my good boy, the mourning family will definitely kill those cheap maids to avenge you! She hadn't served the queen in the cold palace for a long time, and she actually scolded the maids and palace maids who were holding her for their untidy appearance, urging them to ask when the new phoenix crown they made for themselves would be delivered? Warning these chamberlains and palace maids that if they delay her participation in the national ceremony, they will die without a place to be buried.

The murder case of the prince Qian Hongxu has been intensively investigated for two months, but the real culprit has not been found. In the past two months, Qian Chuanjun, the king of Wuyue, has been half-asleep and half-awake almost every day until dawn, and there is not a single day that he can really fall asleep. That night, when he heard the shouts of 'on fire, on fire', he thought he was having a nightmare. The attendants forcibly dragged him up and took him to Yangyuan Water Pavilion, because it was relatively safe because it was close to the pool.

As the capital of Wu Yueguo, Hangzhou City has been continuously expanded and rebuilt since the founding of the country, with a total of three independent city walls. The innermost layer is called Tooth City, where the royal palace is located; Outside the palace is Luo Cheng, which is the garrison of the forbidden army to defend the palace; Outside the city of Luo is the capital where the officials and the people live.

The fire began to burn from the palace, and Wen Minghui, the commander of the forbidden army, led the soldiers to fight the fire, but the wind was fierce that night, and the fire quickly spread from the palace to the barracks of the forbidden army in Luocheng. At that time, most of the soldiers of the forbidden army were still fighting the fire in the palace, and by the time they returned to the Luocheng military camp to fight the fire, the fire had already spread to nearby houses. House after house, house after house, I don't know how many houses collapsed in the flames, and cries and shouts accompanied by flames turned the night into purgatory.

Hangzhou city is Wu Yue two generations of monarchs poured their hearts and minds, spent a lot of manpower and financial resources to build, at that time there was the reputation of "heaven on the earth", frightened and heartbroken in the Wu Yue king Qian Chuanqian from then on a sick can't afford to pay.

Seeing that the king's limit was approaching, the ministers of the court began to blatantly persuade King Wu Yue to pass on the throne of the state to the prince Qian Hongyun, but Qian Hongyu was not Qian Chuanjun's biological son, but an adopted son. His biological father is Dai Yun, the generalissimo of Wu Yueguo, and Qian Hongyu's real name is Dai Feng.

King Qian Chuanqian of Wuyue had many concubines, and there were no less than seven princes who had already started a family at that time, but the courtiers suggested that the throne should be passed on to the only adopted son, and said that the merits of other princes were difficult to match with Qian Hongyu, who was already the commander of the border army at that time. Qian Chuanqian didn't expect that his decision to accept his son as an adopted son in order to show his grace and let him enjoy the dignity of the prince would evolve into a naked forced palace.

The reason why Qian Chuanqian adopted this adopted son was because he was dissatisfied with Queen Ma's evil deeds and wanted to abolish the queen. However, Queen Ma's father once served as a general of Wu Yueguo, and Qian Chuanqian was worried that his father's dissatisfaction would be caused by the abolition of the queen, which would lead to political turmoil. Therefore, he reused his cronies Dai Yu and instructed him to cut off the forces of his relatives. General Ma's military power was gradually eroded by Dai Yi with the support of the king.

In recognition of Dai Hao's merits, Qian Chuanqian not only named him the generalissimo of Wu Yueguo's soldiers and horses, awarded the tiger talisman golden seal, but also accepted his son Dai Feng as his adopted son, gave him the name Qian Hongyu, and served as the defense commander to lead the heavy troops to defend the border, so that the Dai family was powerful.

At this point, Qian Chuanjun, the king of Wuyue, understood that the real culprit behind the murder of the prince Qian Hongxu and the death and injury of a large number of people in Hangzhou was Dai and his son, who held heavy soldiers. He was angry but did not dare to speak out, lest he cause a mutiny. Despite this, he resolutely refused to hand over the throne to the Dai family father and son, whose hands were stained with the blood of his son and many people, and in the midst of danger, his eyes fell on his other young but special prince, Qian Hongzuo.

In addition to one side of the sea by the sea, most of the territory borders the Southern Tang Dynasty with a vast land area and a large number of soldiers, and a small part borders the Fujian State, in order to keep itself from being annexed by the Southern Tang Dynasty, Wu Yue Kingdom and the Fujian State formed a friendly state, Wu Yue King Qian Chuanqian Na Min General's daughter Xu Shi as a side concubine, Xu's father not only holds the power of the soldiers and horses of the Fujian State, she herself was also canonized as the Crescent Moon Princess by the Min royal family. After Concubine Xu married Qian Chuanjun, she only gave birth to one prince, Qian Hongzuo, who was only 14 years old this year. The alliance between Wu Yue and Min is related to the survival of Wu Yue, and Qian Hongzuo's mother and son are the key to the alliance, and any lord who wants to rule Wu Yue cannot ignore it.

This night, a bright crescent moon hung in the night sky, and the side concubine Xu was introduced to the bedroom of Qian Chuanjun, the king of Wuyue. Concubine Min Xu has not seen the lord of the country Qian Chuanqian for a long time, and after bowing respectfully, Concubine Xu said: "The concubine knocks to see the saint, a thousand years old, a thousand years old, a thousand years old." I wish the saint a speedy recovery and a healthy dragon. ”

(During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, Wu Yueguo did not regard himself as an emperor because of the above statement that he was subordinate to the emperor of the Central Plains, but if he was only called the king, he was short of the surrounding countries that established themselves as emperors, which was equivalent to surrendering his status in diplomacy.) Under the repeated deliberation of the Wenchen of Wu Yueguo, the king was called the holy monarch of Wu Yue State in the foreign literature, and the subjects did not call the king "emperor" but only "Shang", but added the word "Sheng" in front of "Shang", and called him "Shengshang". Because the emperors of the previous dynasty and the Central Plains rarely used "sage" to call the monarch, generally called the emperor, my emperor, long live and the like, so there is no objection to the honorific title of King Wu Yue, because in their concept of the title of the three emperors and five emperors and Qin Shi Huang is called honorable, but in later generations, because "sage" contains the meaning of wisdom, it is often cited as the honorific title of the emperor. ）

Qian Chuanqian seemed to want to sit up from the bed, but as soon as he moved, he triggered a violent cough. Concubine Xu hurriedly helped him lie down and patted him lightly on the back. After a long while, Qian Chuanjun's breathing calmed down again.

Concubine Xu said with concern: "Holy Lord, have you taken the medicine tonight?" I'll ask the Imperial Doctor to come back and have a look. ”

Qian Chuanqian shook his head and smiled bitterly, and said, "Xinyue, you are of noble birth, and the Lone King has never treated you as an ordinary concubine. I have not summoned you tonight so that you can serve me to take my medicine. ”

Concubine Xu said humbly: "Since the concubine is a concubine of the saint, serving the saint is my duty, and it is also the blessing of the concubine." ”

Qian Chuanqian was no longer polite, and asked directly: "Have you ever heard that the courtiers suggested that Hongyu be the prince?" ”

Concubine Xu said truthfully: "I've heard about it." ”

Qian Chuanqian said to himself: "Zuo Yu is Marshal Dai's biological son, but he is only the adopted son of King Gu, why do the courtiers insist on persuading King Gu to make him the prince?" There are so many biological sons of the lonely king, but no one supports him? ”

Concubine Xu said: "The concubine is a ** person, and she doesn't dare to discuss the government." ”

Qian Chuanqian induced: "Establishing the prince is not only a government but also a family matter, so the concubine might as well talk about it." ”

Concubine Xu didn't answer, but asked: "Holy Lord, has the murderer of His Royal Highness Prince Hongxuan been found?" ”

Qian Chuanqian gritted his teeth and said, "Now I guessed everything." ”

Concubine Xu replied: "If Marshal Dai's son inherits the throne of the country, the other princes of the Holy Lord, their lives are only afraid of the same as His Royal Highness the Prince Hongxuan." Including the concubine's child - Hongzuo. ”

Qian Chuanqian was silent, looking at Concubine Xu deeply, he understood Concubine Xu's words and hit the nail on the head. Said: "King Gu is also very worried that the Qian royal family will be wiped out because of this. ”

Concubine Xu said: "Not only the Qian royal family, a person who does not hesitate to set fire to the city for the throne, can the saint believe that he will treat the people well?" ”

Qian Chuanqian shook his head on the pillow. This slight movement still caused a cough. After a long while, Qian Chuanjun's breathing calmed down again, and asked, "If Concubine Ai is a lonely king, who do you want to appoint as the prince?" ”

Concubine Xu said softly: "The concubine is short-sighted and difficult to decide. In the opinion of the concubines: which prince can keep the Qian royal family and the peace of Wu Yueguo, which prince can be appointed. ”

Qian Chuanqian was silent for a long time, and said: "Orphans and widows can't even save their lives, who can protect the Qian royal family?" Keep Wu Yueguo? Aifei, aren't you afraid? ”

Concubine Xu said: "If you are afraid, you can't protect yourself, and being afraid is waiting for death." Therefore, the concubines are not afraid. ”

Concubine Xu, whose voice was calm, moved Qian Chuanqian with the perseverance of her expression. Qian Chuanqian finally said: "Concubine Ai, you step aside, your heart is already known to King Lone." ”

Concubine Xu knelt down and kowtowed, and said sadly: "Since the concubines came to Wu Yue from Fujian and their relatives, they were blessed by the saints, and Fujian and Wu Yue also formed friendships, benefiting the people of the two countries. The saint is very gracious, and the concubines are grateful. The concubines will pray for the saint day by day, hoping that the Bodhisattva will bless the saint with a long life, in fact, as long as the saint's condition can improve, all crises can be resolved, which is more important than appointing anyone as a prince. When she said the last sentence, Concubine Xu was already choked up.

didn't dare to get up again, Qian Chuanqian just watched Concubine Xu's background leave with the corner of his eye. Although they have been with each other for more than ten years, Concubine Xu has always been deferential to Qian Chuanjun, but Qian Chuanqian can't guess whether Concubine Xu's obedience is for her motherland Fujian or out of true feelings. Therefore, Qian Chuanqian has always respected and not loved Concubine Xu, but now there is no point in the love between men and women.

More than ten days after summoning Concubine Xu, Qian Chuanjun, the king of Wuyue, died. Before his death, he passed the throne to the 14-year-old prince Qian Hongzuo, and issued an edict to canonize his mother Concubine Xu as the Queen Mother of Wu Yue Guorenhui, and temporarily supervised the country before Qian Hongzuo became pro-government. Empress Dowager Xu was 32 years old at the time.

In the first two years after Qian Hongzuo ascended the throne, two prime ministers died one after another, and some officials witnessed the danger of the government, some abandoned the official position, and some reluctantly stayed, but they were also silent above the court, and did not dare to say a word, for fear of causing death.