The fourteenth year of Qi Jianwu, the fourteenth day of July.

At about three o'clock in the morning, Lu Shen walked into the palace again, four days had passed since the last time he met the Son of Heaven.

It's just that this time the Son of Heaven did not meet him at Guanyuntai, nor did he see him alone.

As soon as he passed through the Hening Gate and came to the flat and wide square in the palace, Lu Shen saw Li Daoyan, the left prime minister, who was surrounded by several important ministers.

As if sensing something, Li Daoyan turned his head to look, and then whispered to the officials around him, and everyone saluted respectfully goodbye, quickened their pace and walked forward, leaving Li Daoyan alone.

Lu Shen knew in his heart, and stepped forward to greet him: "How is the old man doing?" ”

Li Daoyan's eyes were gentle, revealing a little praise from the elders to the juniors, and said leisurely: "You said before that you hope that the old man can live a few more years, and now it seems that it should be possible." ”

Lu Shen shook his head and said, "How can a few years be enough?" The younger generations are extremely looking forward to the old man to live a long life. ”

"That's an old monster, it's just annoying."

Li Daoyan laughed at himself, and then there was more emotion in his tone: "But then again, if the younger generation of Daqi can know the general situation like you, and the old man is refreshed and happy, he will naturally be able to live for a few more years." ”

This sentence seems to refer to something.

If there was only one unrelated person in the capital who knew the inside story of the Qingfeng Street assassination, Lu Shen would not hesitate to say Li Daoyan's name, although the elderly prime minister was becoming more and more silent in the court, but Lu Shen would never doubt his city government and skills.

It's just that Li Daoyan's words were very vague and did not give a clear direction, Lu Shen did not ask in a hurry, and followed the other party's words and said: "The old minister's words are tormenting the juniors, if the privy councillor hears your praise for the juniors, I am afraid he will not be able to help but turn his face with you." ”

Li Daoyan couldn't help laughing.

Of course, he knew that Lu Shen was talking about the conflict in front of the Privy Council that day, and Guo Congyi's life was not very easy during this time, not only because Xu Zuo's ruthless man brought a group of tigers and wolves to find trouble with the Beijing army, but also because many good people publicized that conflict, which caused his reputation accumulated for nearly twenty years to be greatly damaged.

Dozens of heads were thrown in front of the door of the Privy Council, and they hit him in the face.

Li Daoyan did not blame Lu Shen's move of turning his face and flipping the table, but instead praised it: "Young people should draw their swords in anger, lest some people treat you as a soft persimmon, even if you are not afraid of that kind of role, you can't help but get bored again and again." You're only a weak crown now, what's the point of life if you're as dull as us old men so early? ”

A strange feeling welled up in Lu Shen's heart.

In the past, he didn't have much contact with Li Daoyan, but he knew that this prime minister was not bad relative to him, but today he was obviously more open-minded and straightforward, as if he regarded Lu Shen as his own nephew.

Thinking of this, Lu Shen said unhurriedly: "With the words of the old minister, the younger generations will definitely do more good things in the future to help each other." ”

"It seems that after a few months in Beijing, you have also learned the ability to coax people to be happy and climb up the pole."

Li Daoyan smiled and raised his hand to nod at him, and said: "It's naturally a good thing that you are full of enthusiasm, and it is even more rare to cherish your subordinates, but what impresses the old man is that you can calm down in the follow-up, and you don't act recklessly because you are a victim, so that everyone can't get off the stage." Especially during this period of time, he closed the door in the mansion, which can be described as a manifestation of truly understanding the way of being an official. ”

Lu Shen listened to the waves of appreciation, and a thought suddenly popped into his mind, so he said half-jokingly and half-seriously: "Old Xiangye, you are wearing a high hat for the junior today as if you don't want money, it won't be someone from the Jinlin Li family who was involved in that assassination case, so you are going to ambush the junior here in advance?" ”

Li Daoyan smiled slightly, and said with a little cunning: "You guess." ”

Lu Shen sighed lightly: "The old man laughed, how could the juniors guess your thoughts." ”

"It doesn't matter if you guess it or not."

Li Daoyan shook his head and said calmly: "Actually, the old man just wants to say a word today, and you don't want to listen to it." ”

Lu Shen smiled, lowered his head slightly, and said, "The younger generation listens to you." ”

Li Daoyan looked up at the Wende Hall in front of him, and said indifferently: "If you live up to Your Majesty, Your Majesty will definitely live up to you." ”

Lu Shen's heart moved, and he said convincingly: "Be taught." ”

Li Daoyan didn't say much, although the pace was not fast, but he walked very steadily, just like the ups and downs of the sea for decades, he was always able to stand firm, and unconsciously became a towering tree.

At the moment when he walked into the Wende Palace, Lu Shen still had a deep puzzle in his heart, Li Daoyan was not the kind of person who played tricks, and there must be something else in this simple chat today.

Could it be that his ridicule inadvertently revealed the truth, someone in the Li family did participate in the assassination on Qingfeng Street, so Li Daoyan put down his body and took the initiative to talk to his junior.

But if that's the case, a few words of praise can extinguish the flame of revenge in Lu Shen's heart?

Even the Son of Heaven knew that this was unlikely, how could Li Daoyan be so naïve.

With doubts in his heart, Lu Shen followed Li Daoyan into the Wende Palace.

Today is the period of rest, but yesterday evening the Son of Heaven sent the inner eunuchs to various mansions to deliver the decree, so the important ministers above the fourth rank of the official rank did not appear in the palace.

Many people speculated that this sudden small-scale court meeting should be related to the Qingfeng Street assassination case, so at this moment, Li Daoyan and Lu Shen entered the front and back feet, and most of their eyes stayed on Lu Shen, the bitter master.

Lu Shen was unconscious, walked straight to the second row of Wuxun and stood still, raised his eyes to look ahead, and his pupils couldn't help but shrink slightly.

The three princes stood side by side on the right side of the imperial steps.

This is a very rare phenomenon, because the Son of Heaven did not give the princes the right to observe the government, and they will never see these three people at the court meeting, unless it is a ceremonial occasion like the Zhengdan Dynasty.

The princes naturally also noticed Lu Shen's gaze, and their reactions were different.

The eldest prince Li Zongchao's expression was complicated, his face was slightly nervous, I don't know if it was because he was standing here to accept the attention of the important ministers of the court, or because he remembered the words that Lu Shen had said at the banquet in Fengyuan that day.

The second prince, Li Zongben, was as frank as usual, and he didn't even salute Lu Shen without the slightest taboo.

As for the third prince Li Zongjian, he didn't seem to care about Lu Shen's appearance at all, which was also in line with the world's impression of him, but no one knew that the third prince's solemn face at the moment was not a disguise.

He pretended to casually sweep over Li Daoyan's figure, and his gaze immediately swept over the vacant position among the Wenchen.

Li Shizhi reported to recuperate, this was the news that the third prince learned three days ago, and what made him even more disturbing was that his people could no longer contact the Li family's son.

After thinking about it, the third prince could only think that Li Shizhi was timid and didn't dare to get too involved in this matter, so he put on a posture of avoiding it.

These gate lords are really greedy and cowardly, if it weren't for their support, the three princes would not be able to scold them in person.

When the solemn tone of the Son of Heaven came from his ears, the third prince immediately reined in his thoughts, and his mood was both nervous and excited at the moment.

"Eight days ago, on Qingfeng Street in Xicheng, Shanyang Hou Lu Shen suffered a ruthless assassination, and the mastermind behind the scenes made a generous move, sending a lineup of more than 40 people at a time, including many top masters who were quite famous in the recklessness. Fortunately, Lu Shen and the guards around him bravely united and thwarted the plot of those assassins. ”

Li Duan glanced at the ministers in the palace, and there was a little more anger in his voice: "I can't imagine that in this important place in the capital, someone would dare to take risks and assassinate the commander of the Beijing camp appointed by me in such an unscrupulous way. This makes me wonder, is Yongjia the capital of Daqi? I'm still not the emperor of Great Qi? ”

"Your Majesty is angry."

The ministers shouted in unison.

Li Duan smiled coldly and continued: "The thing that makes me feel most angry is that there were a large number of military-style bows and crossbows at the assassination site. How ironic it is that these weapons, which were exchanged for people's fat and people's ointment, were used to assassinate the good generals in the army who fought desperately to protect the territory and the people. Whenever I think about this festival these days, my face hurts fiercely, as if I have been slapped in the face by the thief. ”

Guo Congyi and Wang Yan's hearts tightened.

The two of them did not participate in this assassination of Lu Shen, and they were able to be calm in their hearts, but those bows and crossbows were like swords hanging over their heads, which could be cut down at any time, so they and the arrogant and domineering generals of the Beijing army have been very low-key recently.

Li Duan swept over these military giants, then looked at Xue Nanting and said, "Right Minister, I asked you to preside over the investigation of the origin of these bows and crossbows, have you found anything now?" ”

Xue Nanting came out of the class and said: "Your Majesty, the minister is ordered to investigate in detail the case of the leakage of the standard bows and crossbows of the Beijing army, and now more than half of the armaments of the armies of the Beiya and the three Beijing camps have been investigated, and it is found that there are a large number of missing ordnance in each army, so it is impossible to determine which department those standard bows and crossbows belong to, and no one admits that it is related to this case. The minister implored His Majesty to give him some more time, and the minister would sort out the specific problems of the various departments of the Beijing army, and then submit them to the imperial court in writing. ”

Guo Congyi and Wang Yan can be said to be full of distress, but they can't say half a word at the moment.

Li Duan groaned slightly, and said, "Quasi-play." The right minister must keep in mind that no matter how long the investigation lasts, no matter who is involved, I must have a definite answer, and I will never allow the mastermind behind the scenes to go unpunished! ”

Xue Nanting responded: "The minister obeys the order." ”

Li Duan looked around at the courtiers, and suddenly saw a middle-aged civil official standing in front of him standing in shift, it was Shangshu Ning Yuanfu, the official who held the power of official assessment and appointment.

The atmosphere in the hall suddenly became solemn.

Ning Yuanfu bowed to the Son of Heaven, and then said in a loud voice: "Your Majesty, the minister has a book." ”

Li Duan said expressionlessly: "Let's talk about it." ”

Ning Yuanfu's expression was not impatient or impatient, and his tone was sonorous and powerful: "Your Majesty, there is something in the minister's heart that I don't understand. On that day, the Marquis of Shanyang went to Fengyuan for a banquet, and the route should have been chosen randomly, and this matter was not known to outsiders, so why could the assassins set up such a careful ambush in advance? The location they chose was remote and quiet, and the deployment before and after was very thorough, which showed that it was not a temporary idea, but that they had already known the whereabouts of Shanyang Hou in order to arrange such a killing game! ”

As soon as these words came out, the hall was silent.

On the right side of the imperial staircase, the eldest prince's face changed slightly, because he heard the murderous intent hidden in the words of this official Shangshu.

Li Duan's eyes narrowed slightly, and he said slowly: "What exactly does Ning Shangshu want to say?" ”

Ning Yuanfu said awe-inspiringly: "Your Majesty, that day it was His Royal Highness King Chen who had a private banquet for the Marquis of Shanyang, and almost no one in Beijing knew about it at that time, except for His Royal Highness King Chen, there were only people in the palace. The minister did not suspect that this matter was related to His Royal Highness King Chen, but now that it is related to the stability of the court, everyone is looking forward to finding the real culprit who intends to murder the Marquis of Shanyang, and there is even more discussion in the market. His Royal Highness King Chen, as the son of the Heavenly Family, should explain the truth to the Chinese martial arts of the dynasty, so as to wash away his suspicions! ”

There was a commotion in the middle of the room.

Although Ning Yuanfu kept denying that he suspected the eldest prince, no one in the palace could hear it, he clearly wanted to accuse the eldest prince of being the mastermind behind the assassination on Qingfeng Street!

At this time, Li Daoyan turned his head and glanced at Ning Yuanfu not far away.

The old man's face was colorless, and no one could see what he really thought.

He withdrew his gaze to the ground in front of him, standing silently and lonely, as he had been for years.

(End of chapter)