As soon as the emperor gave an order, Gonggong Zhao hurriedly ordered to go down, and the imperial honor guard hurriedly prepared.

The emperor was just about to go to the jade chariot, and a guard came quickly, holding a letter in his hand, a huge envelope, sealed with wax, and knelt on one knee, "Your Majesty, the excerpt of Lord Zhao, the secretary of the household department, has just arrived in an urgent eight hundred miles." ”

The Emperor withdrew his foot, turned around and said, "Present it." ”

Gonggong Zhao hurriedly took the letter, cut open the wax, took out the fold inside, and handed it to the emperor.

The emperor opened the fold with the palace lamp, and when he saw the contents, his face changed in an instant.

"Your Majesty?" Zhao Gonggong looked at the emperor's face and suddenly lifted his heart.

The emperor clenched the fold in his hand and asked with a calm face, "How many days have you been in a hurry for eight hundred miles?" ”

"For three days and nights, three horses were killed."

The Emperor turned and walked back.

Gonggong Zhao didn't know why, so he hurriedly followed, thinking to himself, I don't know what was written in the excerpt sent by Lord Zhao in an eight-hundred-mile hurry, so that His Majesty was like this.

The emperor returned to the emperor's dormitory in a row and ordered Zhao Gonggong, who followed him, "Go out and close the door." ”

Zhao Gonggong was stunned for a moment, and the palace maids and eunuchs who were waiting in the emperor's bedroom retreated, and Zhao Gonggong also hurriedly retreated and closed the door of the emperor's bedroom.

The Emperor walked to the table, opened the fold by the bright light, read it again word by word, and then sat down in his chair.

His Royal Highness was assassinated all the way, and ten days ago, he was forced into the poison forest by a large number of killers, and the guards around him were all broken, and His Royal Highness himself was nowhere to be found.

In just one line of words, the emperor's eyes turned red.

In the unmanned emperor's bedroom, under the yellow light, the emperor's face gradually turned pale.

He remembered that when Xiao Zhen left Beijing, he didn't send someone to him, and for so many years, he didn't send people to his Second Prince's Mansion, everything in the Second Prince's Mansion, and the people around him were all arranged by the Internal Affairs Office.

The emperor sat for half an hour and shouted to the outside, "Call the commander of the Ouchi guards." ”

Zhao Gonggong answered yes outside the door.

Not long after, Zheng Ke, the commander of the inner guards, entered the emperor's dormitory and bowed his hand to the emperor, "Your Majesty." ”

The emperor looked at him calmly, "I have given you a secret decree, you take everyone in Ouchi to the area of the Poison Barrier Forest in Hengchuan County, search the whereabouts of the Second Highness, and find out who the Second Highness was hunted down and killed?" ”

Zheng Ke was taken aback, and lowered his head, "Humble and orderly." ”

"Go quickly!" The emperor didn't say much.

Zheng Ke took the order and hurried away.

That day and night, all the Ouchi guards were dispatched and quietly left the capital and headed for Hengchuan County.

The emperor called Zhao Gonggong in, looked at the white hair on Zhao Gonggong's head and asked, "Zhao De, how many years have you followed me?" ”

These words made Zhao Gonggong's heart beat a drum, and he said cautiously, "Your Majesty, the old slave has been with you for forty years. ”

"Forty years." The emperor leaned back and leaned back in his chair, "I have been on the throne for twenty-five years now. ”

"yes." Gonggong Zhao didn't know what was going on, but looking at the emperor's expression, he didn't take the initiative to say, and he didn't dare to ask, so he only followed the emperor's words, "The old slave followed His Majesty when he was eleven years old, and you were only five years old at that time. ”

"Well, you're six years older." The emperor nodded, and suddenly asked again, "I remember that Xiao Ze is twenty-two this year. ”

"Your Majesty remembers correctly." Gonggong Zhao nodded, "His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is born in September, and there is still a month to go, and it will be His Royal Highness the Prince's birthday." After his birthday, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince will be twenty-three years old. ”

The emperor bowed his head, "Well, every year I give Xiao Ze his birthday, and his birthday is September 16th, I remember." ”

He paused for a moment and asked, "What about Xiao Zhen?" When was Xiao Zhen born? ”

Gonggong Zhao stole a glance at the emperor, but he didn't see any expression on the emperor's face, he arched his hand and said, "The birthday of His Royal Highness is in February, which is the second day of the second month of February. ”

He didn't dare to say that it was the day the dragon raised its head.

The emperor nodded, "I haven't given him a birthday for so many years. ”

Zhao Gonggong lowered his head.

His Royal Highness Second Highness grew up, in the palace, like a transparent person, the servants in the palace worship high and step low, His Royal Highness does not say that everyone can be bullied, but it is really not good, the whole palace and even the entire capital know that His Royal Highness is not allowed to be seen by His Majesty because of his biological mother Concubine Duan, as for what mistake Concubine Duan made and was imprisoned in the cold palace, no one knows, even he actually doesn't know.

Back then, everyone was kicked out, including him, only the Queen Mother knew, even Mama Sun didn't witness it with her own eyes, and stayed outside the palace like him.

Later, Concubine Duan was sent to the cold palace, and His Royal Highness was only a few years old at that time.

Since Concubine Duan entered the cold palace, the palace has only remembered the birthday of His Royal Highness the Prince, and the birthday of His Royal Highness the Second has been quiet every year, no one has given it, His Majesty seems to have forgotten, and the Queen Mother seems to have forgotten.

The emperor was silent for a long time, and then said, "How many years has Concubine Duan been beaten into the cold palace?" ”

Zhao Gonggong thought for a while and said, "It's been fifteen years." ”

The Emperor laughed dumbly, "Fifteen years." ”

Zhao Gonggong wanted to nod, but when he saw the emperor's smile, he was quiet and didn't even dare to nod.

"Over the years, Xiao Zhen hasn't been to the cold palace to see her, right?" The Emperor asked again.

Gonggong Zhao shook his head and nodded again, "The Second Highness went to the Cold Palace, but Your Majesty, you have an order, and the Second Highness is not allowed to see Concubine Duanniang, so the guards of the Cold Palace have never let the Second Highness break in." ”

The emperor bowed his head, "Well done the guards of the cold palace. ”

Zhao Gonggong lowered his head again.

The emperor sat quietly for a moment and said to Zhao Gonggong, "I'm tired, let's rest!" ”

Zhao Gonggong hurriedly called someone to come in to make the bed and serve the emperor to bathe, the emperor waved his hand, and he couldn't even bathe today, so he took the Mid-Autumn Festival palace banquet and the courtiers drank a little wine, and lay down on the bed.

Zhao Gonggong lowered the bright yellow curtain and quietly retreated.

After closing the door of God's dormitory, Zhao Gonggong showed a worried face, thinking that the excerpt sent by the eight hundred miles urgently today was probably about the Second Highness, and I was afraid that something big had happened to the Second Highness.

He stood on the steps, looking at the cloud-obscured sky, recalling the first time he saw Concubine Duan twenty years ago. A person who captivated the country and the city was suddenly brought in from outside the palace by His Majesty, just like a pearl in the harem.

Concubine Duan not only has a good appearance, but also has a good temperament, and is proficient in piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, the only bad thing is that there is a disease in the brain, and there will always be a day in a month when she will suddenly go crazy, so in the Duanfei Palace, there is no sharp anger, no scissors or the like, one is afraid that she will hurt herself, and the other is afraid that she will hurt others.

His Majesty invited all the doctors in the Tai Hospital to treat her brain disease, and one treatment lasted for seven years.

Until, after the queen died, Concubine Duan was beaten into the cold palace, and since then, His Majesty has also cut off the treatment for Concubine Duan, and over the years, His Majesty has never stepped into the cold palace, and the Second Royal Highness is not allowed to visit.

Everyone speculated that the death of the queen mother was related to Concubine Duan, His Majesty hated Concubine Duan, and the Queen Mother hated Concubine Duan, so that even His Royal Highness was extremely harsh.

In the East Palace, Xiao Ze has been waiting for the emperor, he does not believe that after his father and emperor love his mother so much, since he was born, he made him the crown prince, and every year he accompanies him for his birthday, Mid-Autumn Festival, Chinese New Year's Eve, although he made a big mistake this year, but his father and emperor have also locked him up for so long, and it is the Mid-Autumn Festival of another year, and the father and emperor will be so ruthless and not let him out.

He waited until dawn, and the emperor did not have a decree to let him out of the palace, nor did he appear in the East Palace.

Xiao Ze's heart sank to the bottom inch by inch.

Jiang Hao looked at Xiao Ze, who had been waiting all night, and felt unbearable and relieved, "Your Majesty is said to have drunk a lot of wine last night, and he couldn't stand it, so he dispersed in advance, probably drunk." ”

Xiao Ze shook his head and said with certainty, "My father will leave the banquet early every year, and there is room for him every year, my father is a person who is very controlling over himself, he won't get drunk, he just doesn't want to let the palace out, he's still angry." ”

He was a little panicked, "Could my father want to abolish me?" ”

Jiang Hao shook his head, "Your Majesty doesn't seem to have this performance these days, the courtiers suggested yesterday that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince should go out of the East Palace to have fun with the courtiers, and His Majesty didn't refute it, nor was he angry, but he didn't express his position." ”

"Yesterday was the Mid-Autumn Festival, and my father still kept me locked up." Xiao Ze looked at Jiang Hao, "Bengong has no bottom in his heart, what do you say to do?" ”

Jiang Hao asked tentatively, "Why don't you go to Gonggong Zhao to investigate?" Did Your Majesty drink too much last night? Or is there some delay? ”

"You go." Xiao Ze urged.

Jiang Hao immediately went.