This is a chicken-and-egg problem, without the emperor's seal, the county king can't be a prince, and he can't become an emperor. As long as he is not the emperor now, he cannot seal anyone.

Since Li Siye wants to operate along the system of the Tang Dynasty, he must abide by the superficial rules, otherwise his behavior of supporting the new king to ascend the throne is a joke.

After racking his brains, he suddenly smiled and said: "How can this kind of thing be difficult for us, since the king of the county can't be the emperor directly, then we will first make his father Li Yao ascend the throne as the emperor, and then Li Yao will crown one of his two sons as the prince, and finally the father will pass on the son to the throne as the emperor." No one can find fault with it. ”

Cheng Yuanzhen was incredulous, and suddenly lost his words and said, "But Li Yao is already dead." ”

"Who said that he is dead, Ming Ming is still alive, you go to Li Yao's hiding place now, take him to the palace before he is buried, and then use ice to prevent him from rotting. To complete the enthronement within fifteen days, the next day after the enthronement, the eldest son Li Jixuan was crowned as the crown prince, died on the third day, and his son completed the transfer of the throne.

Good guy, Cheng Yuanzhen was directly stunned, what kind of underworld method did Li Siye think, even the dead could be forcibly ascended to the throne by him. ”

"This method is good, but there is still a problem, Li Yao's hiding place is known to several clans and slaves, and they now know that Li Yao is dead, so the matter of using a dead man to ascend the throne can still be spread."

Li Siye angrily reprimanded: "It's not too late, take control of the situation immediately, don't let the news get out, and let all the insiders shut up." ”

"Oh, the slave will do it." Cheng Yuanzhen was just about to turn around and withdraw, when Li Siye suddenly stopped him and said, "Wait, I will transfer you three thousand imperial forest troops, and you must handle this matter properly." If you want to know how many of the people left in Chang'an are inclined to Li Heng, it's best for me to do it cleanly, and don't let this matter become a scandal. ”

"Whoa!"

……

By the time Cheng Yuanzhen arrived at the mansion where Li Yao was hiding with his soldiers, several clan disciples had already put Li Yao in the coffin, and he almost covered the coffin.

He immediately ordered the soldiers to lift him out of the coffin, put him directly into the emperor's dress, and take his two sons with him.

The relatives and subordinates present had not yet reacted, and they did not know what the traitor was doing when he snatched Li Yao's body. Cheng Yuanzhen said with a smile: "Originally, I wanted you to keep this matter secret, but how can our family control your mouth?" So the best thing to do is to never speak. ”

Cheng Yuanzhen waved his palms cruelly as soon as his words fell, and the soldiers of the Royal Forest Army leveled their crossbows and threw arrows at them, and then drew their horizontal knives and brutally exterminated everyone in the house, even the children and women of a few years old.

He put his hands in his sleeves and smiled at the corners of his eyes, red blood flowed to his feet, and he hurriedly took two steps back and stood on the steps, and commanded loudly: "Everyone clean up the scene, the body is secretly transferred so that no blood is found, and the house is cleaned up without leaving blood." ”

He ordered people to kill everyone in the mansion and did not give up, and sent people to secretly lurk, but anyone who entered the mansion was arrested and secretly tortured, and tried to ensure that no fish escaped the net.

Li Yao's body was put into the imperial chariot and sent to the Taiji Palace overnight. Cheng Yuanzhen specially recruited a few criminal slaves and maids from the Yeting Palace, and ordered them to serve the new emperor with meritorious service.

That night, the palace maids trembled in the hall, because the corpse lying on the dragon bed was a corpse with a blue face, and I heard that His Royal Highness King Heng was still hanged, would it turn into a ghost in the middle of the night, and take the lives of these poor palace servants.

Li Yao's body was parked in the Taiji Palace for six or seven days, and Cheng Yuanzhen specially ordered someone to take out the ice cubes from the ice cellar in the palace to keep it fresh, but this could not stop the decay process of the corpse, and blue-black spots had appeared on the skin.

Cheng Yuanzhen reported the situation to Li Siye, and Li Siye finally made a decision and decided to advance the time of ascending the throne by three days, and ordered Cheng Yuanzhen to make careful arrangements.

On the night before ascending the throne, Cheng Yuanzhen led more than a dozen henchmen and eunuchs into the manna hall of the Taiji Palace, dressed the corpse of the "emperor" in a crown dress, and ordered someone to make up Li Yao's corpse, apply lead powder to cover the corpse spots, and paint the blue lips red. After putting on makeup, it looks even more terrifying, not to mention the palace maid, even the little eunuch is trembling when he stands beside him.

There is also a big problem in the enthronement ceremony, that is, the emperor has to walk to the Taimiao Temple to worship his ancestors, and then personally ascend to the Xuanzheng Hall of Daming Palace to accept the congratulations of the ministers, these things are not something that a corpse can do. Cheng Yuanzhen then ran over again and asked Li Siye what to do.

"This kind of thing can stump you, so I will first issue an edict in the name of Li Yao, saying that I am not in good health, and everything will be simple in the enthronement ceremony. When he ascended the throne, he could take the imperial chariot, and where he needed to walk, he found two stout and powerful palace maids to carry him away, and quickly handled this matter. ”

……

The enthronement ceremony was held as usual, and the civil and military officials who were coerced by Li Siye stood on the square in front of the Xuanzheng Palace, and due to the particularity of the matter, only a few people such as Li Siye, Xu Bin, Yan Xiaosi and Cheng Yuanzhen could contact the "emperor", and the rest of the ministers could only watch from afar.

The journey to the Xuanzheng Hall was a twist and turn, with five or six palace maids taking turns carrying the emperor's corpse to the ramp above Longshou Road, and they were sweating profusely. Of course, this is not the most uncomfortable, due to the direct sunlight and the temperature has become higher, Li Yao's body wrapped tightly in the dragon robe emitted an unpleasant stench, choking their tears.

They finally helped the "emperor" to the top of the main hall and stood facing the ministers. Li Siye, as the first hero, stood a few feet away from "him" and led hundreds of civil and military officials to play together.

"Congratulations to the emperor on inheriting the unification, I wish the emperor eternal peace and longevity!"

Li Siye led the ministers to dance and dance, and then knelt on the ground and bowed with their hands crossed.

However, the "emperor" standing there couldn't make any sound, Cheng Yuanzhen had already had a way to deal with it, pinched his nose and put his ear to the "emperor's" mouth, and then pulled open his mellow voice and shouted: "Your Majesty said, Zhongqing is flat." ”

The ministers stood up obediently, and they looked at the emperor standing like a zombie above, and their feelings were very complicated. Soon they heard the eunuch shouting from above: "I am sick, the enthronement ceremony is over, retire from the court." ”

After sending all the ministers away, Li Siye and Cheng Yuanzhen brought Li Yu back to the Ganlu Hall of Taiji Palace and continued to use ice cubes.

On the second day, in the name of the emperor, they issued a decree to entitle Li Yao's two sons, namely King Ying and King Yi. Three days later, Cheng Yuanzhen announced that the emperor had died, and before his death, he wrote an edict to pass the throne to King Li Jixuan, and changed the year name to Yuanshuo, which was the second year of Li Hengqianyuan and the first year of Li Jixuan's Yuanshuo. So Li Siye and the others began to prepare for the second enthronement ceremony in full swing, and it took a total of a month before and after the two times to erect this puppet court in a grand manner.

Soon after the new emperor ascended the throne, he began to reward the meritorious heroes of Anding Guanzhong. Li Siye has been the official worship of Taiwei, knighted the king of Xiliang, the new emperor and crowned him as the most prominent king, because he was born in Guanzhong Sanyuan, and perennial in Longyou Road of Anxi, Beiting Hexi as a festival envoy, for its main sphere of influence. According to the division of Kyushu in the pre-Qin period of "Shangshu Yugong", Longyou Dao and Jingzhaofu were called Yongzhou, and according to the ancient saying, Li Siye was named King Yong. He was specially given the privilege of going to the palace with a sword, not entering the court, and being a counselor, and was given to Jiuxi.

Everyone understands that such a reward is of great significance, but it is meaningless to Li Siye, all this is just a one-man show of Li Siye, whether it is the emperor or the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty, they are just puppets in his hands.

Under the instruction of Li Siye, Li Jixuan named Duan Xiushi, Yan Xiaosi, Tian Zhen, and Bai Xiaode, who he relied on the most, respectively, the prince of the county, the youngest son Li Xu as the prince of Yongwang, and Li Chongbao as the king of Shangdang County. The rest of the generals such as Zhao Chongxuan, Zang Xiye, Wang Tao, Ashina Silu are county dukes, and there are many old ministers of the Yan army, such as Yan Zhuang, Gao Shang, Cui Qianyou and others, as well as court ministers such as Cheng Yuanzhen, Guo Xi, Li Guangbi and others, all of whom were named county dukes, and the rest of the generals of the army were awarded large and small titles. This can be regarded as a consolation and reward for the soldiers who have followed him for many years.