"Speaking of which, when we were chatting before, my brother seemed to have talked to me about the secret edict of the former dynasty, and he secretly asked me what I meant. It's just that everyone also knows that this king has no ambitions and is not interested in this kind of thing. In addition, it has been a long time, so I didn't even think about it for the first time. ”

Qian Yuanyi's unhurried words made the mood of the ministers in the palace fluctuate. No one expected that before the beginning, they thought that the five princes had the absolute upper hand, but the situation turned into the current situation several times. With Qian Yuanyi's covert statement, the authenticity of this holy decree in the hands of the eldest prince has increased dramatically.

At the very least, no one dares to openly deny it.

But in this way, the succession battle has fallen into a very awkward situation. Both princes had a decree (ordination) in their hands, and each had its own evidence. Supporters within the royal family are also basically tied. On one side, there is Chengguo Gongqian Taizhuo, and on the other side, there are three princesses and King Fu who is relatively not too clear, but also expresses his tendency!

"Could it be that both decrees are true? It's just that the time when the decree was made was different, what happened during the period, and the emperor changed his attitude? ”

Some courtiers tried to put forward this interpretation, which seemed to be innocent, but it was not surprising that it was unanimously refuted by the two imperial parties. What a big deal is the establishment of the prince and the succession, and it is not a dinner invitation, how can it be possible to change the attitude? Is it child's play?

However, although the courtier's foolish attempt to make peace with the mud was unsuccessful, it was the attack of the two major henchmen and the resumption of the war. The two sides accused each other of the falsification of the holy decree in each other's hands, and then the situation developed to attack the two princes themselves, Wencheng, martial arts, and benevolence...... Seeing that this kind of mutual attack will turn into a scandal within the Qianyuan royal family. The furious Qiantaizhuo had to use his prestige to forcibly suppress the dispute!

………

The first Tai Chi Hall meeting. The two sides quarreled for half a day without any results.

The Grand Prince's henchmen were very satisfied with this result. Although he failed to get the ministers to admit the legitimacy of the holy decree in his hands, it also mixed up the so-called oracle of the five princes. The end result is likely to be the annulment of both decrees. In this way, the Five Princes' Party, which originally had an advantage in establishing the prince and passing on the throne, was instantly leveled to the same point as the Great Prince's faction.

Next, the two sides will compete on the same starting line. And this time, both sides rely on their strength!

Although the faction of the Five Princes occupied the City Guard and the Praetorian Guard, the Praetorian Guard could not leave Zhongzhou. Its role was to protect the Qianyuan royal family. This means that if it is really time to raise troops, as long as the battlefield is outside Zhongzhou, the strength that the five princes can use is not as strong as they imagined.

On the contrary, because of his external roots, the eldest prince, who has received the full support of the Song family and has been preparing since a long time ago, has an advantage over the fifth prince in military affairs!

Of course, the current situation has not yet developed to the final step. Although the Wudou Midao rebellion in the southwest was put down, the situation of the empire was still very weak. Chen Wu in the southeast is even more faintly angry. Years of foreign wars have left the empire's finances in deficit. In this case. If the two Imperial Sects attack each other, the empire will instantly split into three pieces and fall into an uncontrollable situation.

The truly discerning ministers of the DPRK and China all know the horror of the civil war. Even if the situation seems to have no choice now, they are still trying to avoid that scene.

This point, even within the respective forces of the two princes, there is a consensus.

What's more, they still have a lot to do before the shape is irretrievable. For example, announcing the bad news of the death of the first emperor made the whole country cover for a week; The coffin of the former emperor who is now in the temple will be buried and sacrificed to the temple; posthumously awarded the title and honorific title to the emperor; The migration of harem concubines and a whole host of problems such as the queen and the queen mother.

According to imperial regulations, the temple was closed for two weeks until it was buried.

In the absence of progress in the first Taiji Hall meeting, the two-week relaxation has undoubtedly become the best time for the two imperial parties to step up their activities. There are those who spread rumors, fight for public opinion, and enlist popular literary masters to help build momentum and bribe officials who are still neutral...... In addition to the text, the two princes also coincidentally made the worst plan, using this last period of peace to deploy troops.

Since Zhongzhou is the home of the Five Princes, the dispatch of troops here mainly refers to him.

In addition to the Praetorian Guard Corps guarding the Imperial City, the City Guard Corps has quietly left the city unconsciously, blocking the major intersections and arteries out of Zhongzhou, and can be strictly investigated at any time. After gaining the support of Chengguo Gongqian Taizhuo, the fifth prince communicated with Huo Taoluo, the minister of military affairs, and mobilized the Yingyang Army stationed in Xichuan County after the rebellion, and let it advance eastward to the border between Zhongzhou and Qinghe County.

First, it can continue to advance eastward at any time, and the troops will directly aim at Yanyun County in the northeast; On the other hand, it is also to intimidate the Qinghe Army in Qinghe County!

If you can persuade and entrap the commander of the Qinghe Legion and let him be loyal to the Five Princes, it will naturally be the best. If not, you can also rely on the strength of the ten divisions of the Eagle Yang Legion to suppress the other party, so that the Qinghe Legion does not dare to make any changes.

On the surface, the five princes were very well prepared. Although because of the strange death of the old emperor and the sudden decree of the foreign prince, the situation in the court did not go completely according to his expectations. However, relying on the Praetorian Guard Corps and the City Guard Corps, the absolute control of Zhongzhou was still ensured.

If it's really a last resort, maybe you can only mess around. The remnants of the Wudou Midao rebels have not stopped their activities in the past two years, and if there happens to be such a group that broke into Zhongzhou when they were worshipping the Taimiao......

Although this is very detrimental to image and prestige, and it is easy to attract criticism and accusations, as long as there is no direct evidence, the five princes cannot be helped. And those henchmen who follow the great prince, after their brother suffered misfortune, as long as they are not fools, they naturally know who to go to!

Once a person is dead, there is nothing, and history is written by the victors.

After thinking about the whole set of plans repeatedly, the fifth prince Qian Minghao's originally bad mood improved a lot. After being stunned for a moment, he sent an order down, ordering someone to closely monitor the movements of the Great Prince's Mansion to ensure that the Great Prince never left the palace. At the same time, he ordered the Praetorian Guard Corps and the City Guard Corps to completely blockade and cut off Zhongzhou's communication with the outside world. Before the burial of the emperor and the sacrifice of the temple. No one is allowed to leave - especially in the direction of Yanyun County!

As long as the eldest prince can't get out of Zhongzhou City. No matter how deep his roots are in Yanyun County, no matter how much foreign aid he has, he can't set off any storms.

………

The news of the death of the 14th emperor of the empire, Qianyuanji, spread quickly throughout the empire along with the Di newspaper, and then spread to the countries of the Eastern Continent.

All the countries that had envoys stationed in Zhongzhou, whether they were friendly or hostile to the Empire, were taken aback by this abrupt news. And in the news that came with the bad news, there was no explanation about the new emperor. It is related to the almost open struggle between the two parties within the Qianyuan Empire. A lot of people feel something from it.

A storm and storm are about to erupt within the empire.

Whether it was for the purpose of watching a good show or on the surface of mourning, in addition to the Tile Thorn in the northwest, the Lena people in the northeast, the Four Kingdoms in the Western Regions, the Incas in the southwest, and Oman in the southeast, their envoys stationed in Zhongzhou all conveyed their condolences to the Qianyuan royal family. As for the Barents principality, which had a fairly good relationship with the empire in the north, not to mention the Qingyue Kingdom, a loyal vassal state of the empire in the south. As Matsue, who is hidden in his own right within the empire, of course, it will not be without expression.

Since Songjiang's military intelligence bureau had already laid nails in Zhongzhou, plus there was a Lin family channel, it was before the empire's mansion report came. Chen Wu had already learned the news of the death of the emperor several days in advance, and he couldn't help but be stunned for a while.

Because of his own crossing interference. The situation of the empire and the old emperor were more severe than in the game. I was also mentally prepared for the news of the old emperor's earlier death, but I didn't expect it to come so quickly and so coincidentally!

It's the same battle between the two princes, and it's the same rainy night!

Of course, that alone isn't enough to say anything. But you must know that although the old emperor has all kinds of shortcomings and shortcomings, he is by no means the kind of person who does not know and master himself enough. If he dies naturally, he will definitely make proper arrangements for his successor before he dies. Instead of an abrupt death at the important juncture when he had just cut off half of the power of the Great Prince's faction.

Combined with the suspicions and shady scenes in the game, Chen Wu can imagine that the death of the old emperor this time also has great problems.

Perhaps, the civil war between the Great Prince faction and the Five Prince faction will break out sooner than you thought!

This is not good news for Chen Wu.

Although there was news as early as half a year ago that the old emperor would not survive the winter. But in Chen Wu's view, even if this news is true, it does not mean that civil war will break out immediately. The time he expected it would be in the summer of 677 in the continental calendar, or even later!

But according to the current situation, it is not clear that after 677 years, this civil war will begin.

The Songjiang Army is not fully prepared now, and the strategy on Luzon Island has only been halfway through!

After thinking for a while, Chen Wu had a set of ways to deal with the old emperor's early death. On the one hand, on the grounds that he was ill, he refused to let him go to Zhongzhou in person, and instead sent a personal envoy to go on his behalf; On the other hand, the military department was ordered to speed up the offensive against Luzon in an all-round way.

At the same time, two other preparations have also begun to advance.

First, the War Readiness Administration is ready to expand its armaments again at any time. And this time, once the war starts, the scale and duration are likely to be beyond imagination. The second is that the government has made a plan to take over Tokai County.

If the eldest prince really went to war with the fifth prince, Chen Wu would inevitably send troops and swallow the benefits given by the other party according to the agreement made with the eldest prince. If you can prepare in advance, the speed of annexation and digestion will be much faster, and you can integrate Donghai County into the Songjiang system as quickly as possible, and then transform the population and territory into real war potential!

………

Another heavy snowfall fell.

In the mansion of the Chen family in the Eight Great Lords, two distinguished guests were welcomed in the snow, namely the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Military Affairs, who came to the banquet. And the one who set up a banquet to entertain the two, needless to say, was naturally the Minister of the Interior, Chen Sansheng.

This important minister, who is said to have been named because he was born in the third watchday, has no special bias towards the prince. Although he was more optimistic about the eldest prince before, it was purely for the sake of his growth. After the old emperor Qianyuanji invited him for a secret talk, Chen Sansheng expressed his willingness to support the old emperor's decision and support the five princes instead. But the situation has evolved to the present, and there is a risk of civil strife if it is not handled well, which is undoubtedly not what Chen Sansheng wants to see.

Because of this, he hosted a banquet for two important ministers. Drinking is false, but the real meaning is to discuss the current situation.

The hall of the earth dragon is as warm as spring, the exquisite dishes of four cool and four hot, supplemented by a jar of hardcover Hanjingfang wine that has only risen in Zhongzhou in the past two months, and the three of them drink each other on a snowy day, which is undoubtedly a joy of life. It's a pity that in front of the wine and food, the three important ministers have no appetite for the next order. Instead, after sitting down, he sighed a few times.

Seeing that the master seemed to be in a bad mood, the Minister of Military Affairs Huo Taoluo naturally knew why he was worried, shook his head, and said bluntly: "The country cannot be left without an owner for a day, and the current situation is nothing more than the two highnesses of the eldest prince and the fifth prince to take one." Just to make a simple multiple-choice question, why should Brother Sansheng think too much. ”

"Just a choice!"

Chen Sansheng repeated, shook his head with a wry smile, took the wine in the cup and drank it all, and sighed: "It's easy to say, and it's not difficult to make a choice, but what worries me is the outcome after making a choice!" ”

The eldest prince will definitely not give up, and the Song family will not allow it. The five princes have the help of the first emperor, with the Praetorian Guard, the City Guard Legion in hand, and the support of Chengguo Gong, how can they be willing to back down?

The so-called two tigers will inevitably hurt each other, but the current situation is more dangerous than the two tigers fighting. The enemies around the empire are all eyeing this civil war that may break out at any time. And within the empire, there is also a Matsue here!

In the more than 300 years since the founding of the Empire, there has never been such a dangerous situation.

"Of course, I know that the consequences will be unbearable, but the decision is not in your hands and mine." Finance Minister Di Hongming echoed, and shrewdness flashed in his eyes, and said: "Actually, the situation that Brother Sansheng is worried about is not impossible to resolve. ”

Chen Sansheng was stunned for a moment, and immediately said: "I want to listen to Gao Jian." ”

Di Hongming smiled meaningfully and said, "Since the two tigers are fighting and both are losing, then as long as they can't fight, it's okay." ”

Chen Sansheng's body was shocked, he smelled something from Di Hongming's words, and he didn't answer for a long time.

Seeing this, Huo Tao said meaningfully: "Actually, Brother Sansheng has already made a decision in his heart? ”

Whether it was the Minister of War who was promoted by the emperor to replace Feng Wu, or the Minister of Finance, who was already a supporter of the Five Princes, they all supported the Five Princes. Chen Sansheng didn't invite others, but invited these two people to ask for advice, and the bias in his heart was already self-evident.

Outside the window, the snow in Zhongzhou is getting heavier and heavier, and the silver-gray heaven and earth add a bit of coldness and slaughter! (To be continued.) )