Changxi for three years.

The eighth day after the winter solstice.

Princess Yin Zhen, who had been sick for a long time, died of illness.

The heavy snow, which had been falling for several days, suddenly stopped on this day, and the colorful satin-like sunlight sprinkled the streets and alleys of Kyoto, and the courtiers who came to mourn rode through the main street of Yuhe Avenue, which runs from north to south, and pressed messy wheel marks on the snow-covered streets.

The palace has already been rendered with white flags at this moment, and the front hall of the main courtyard has also been changed to a mourning hall, and the king of Dingbei pulled his two-year-old son Baiguang to stand in front of the coffin, and the worshippers pulled their sons to kneel and worship in return after the incense.

The two-year-old white light was draped in linen, and there were still undried tears on his red face, and his black eyes looked at the endless flow of plain white people who came and went, repeating the single action of kneeling and getting up and getting up, neither crying wow, nor making the kneeling posture out of shape due to several kneeling.

The people who can come to mourn are all people with status, either clan relatives and nobles, important ministers of the court, or celebrities, and everyone is secretly amazed in their eyes.

The coffin of the princess was suspended in the palace for seven days, and according to her last wish to find her roots before her death, she needed to help the spirit to go south and be buried in the ancestral tomb of the Yin family in Jingzhou.

Emperor Yi personally prepared a condolence message, and sent the prince to send the coffin honor guard out of the south gate of the imperial city. The king of Dingbei dismissed the spirit scepter team arranged by the Imperial Decree of Emperor Yi, and only took his son, daughter, housekeeper Lao Ji, and twenty palace guards, and drove Jane south from the south gate to the coffin.

On the second day after King Dingbei left the city, Concubine Yue Guifei met with Mao Shouren, the deputy commander of the Praetorian Guard, in the side hall of Zhaochun Palace.

The Praetorian Guards guard the palace city, directly under the imperial front, and the commander Nie Bei is loyal to the emperor, and Concubine Yue does not dare to have any delusions about him. Among the other five deputy commanders, in terms of ability, qualifications and skills, Mao Shouren is the most outstanding one. In order to win him over for her own use, Concubine Yue made a lot of efforts, not only promising him as a concubine, Yueying, the most outstanding niece of her mother's family, but also promising him the glory and wealth of the Mao family after his success.

Mao Shouren loves beauty, as soon as he sees Yue Ying, he is reversed by her appearance, coupled with his enthusiasm for chasing the pinnacle of power, as well as the innate adventurous spirit in his bones, he only weighed the pros and cons of Yue Guifei's recruitment, and resolutely stood with her and became the first confidant in Yue Guifei's palace.

After Mao Shouren finished his salute, Concubine Yue went straight to the point after making sure that he was not being followed, and asked Mao Shouren if he knew about the king of Dingbei going out of the city.

Of course Mao Shouren knew, and he also knew the purpose of Concubine Yue inviting him to come to meet, but he didn't know why Concubine Yue was in such a hurry.

He understands Concubine Yue's methods, and he also knows Concubine Yue's ruthlessness. This woman gives him the impression that she seems to be dancing on the edge of a cliff all the time, but you are convinced that she will not fall.

But Mao Shouren is very cautious, which is one of the reasons why Concubine Yue chose him instead of others. He knew that he had taken this step, and there was no way to turn back, he was doing business with his head in his hands.

"Niangniang, is it too early to do it to the king of Dingbei now?" According to Mao Shouren's research and judgment of the situation in the court, it is simply a stupid thing to want to do it to the king of Dingbei now, first, the possibility of success is too small, and second, even if it is really successful, I am afraid that it is also a wedding dress for someone else.

"Early?" Yue Guifei stood up from the circle chair covered with fine fluff, and a cold cold crossed the corner of her thin lips, "Do you want to save it for later?"

"But Niangniang has already determined who King Dingbei will support?"

"I don't know, but I do know that he will definitely be the biggest obstacle for Ye'er to step into the ninefold position in the future. ”

"Didn't you think he'd be neutral?"

"Neutrality? Do you think it's possible? The crown prince is the prince, and Lidu is on his side. For the sake of the so-called righteousness in his heart, do you think he will stand by and ignore it?"

Mao Shouren was silent.

Concubine Yue didn't look at him, and slowly paced to the sea beast bronze mirror near the Xuan window, "This kind of opportunity...... I'm afraid it will be difficult to have it again in the future. Commander Mao, do you have an idea, will it work or not?"

On the way here, Mao Shouren has been thinking about it, and now he has figured out some clues, so he only thought about it briefly and said: "From the capital to Jingzhou, according to my inference, the prince will definitely choose to take the official road, then, there is only one chance to start." ”

"Which one?"

"The official road is flat and open, there is nowhere to hide and hide, it is easy to expose your whereabouts, and it is easy to break through and escape, so you can't start......" Speaking of this, Mao Shouren took out a three-inch-long sheepskin scroll from his sleeve and unfolded it on the red sandalwood case, which turned out to be a map.

He flattened the corners with a black jade paperweight, waited for Concubine Yue to come to his side, his finger slid quickly on the map, and finally stopped at the chaotic stone mountain at the interface of Cheongju, he pointed to this place and said: "No matter which way the king of Dingbei goes, this is the place where he must pass." And that's the only chance we can make. ”

"You can tell me more about the rocky mountain. ”

"The mezzanine is so narrow that the carriage can't turn around. On one side is the rocky mountain, the mountain is steep and rocky, full of hairy reeds, up to five feet deep, easy to hide. On the other side is a deep stream......"

"Sounds good...... It's just that since you've thought of it, King Dingbei must be able to think of it too. What if he had taken precautions and ordered the local government to clear the road and close the mountain in advance?"

"He wants to get it, but he doesn't necessarily want to. Niangniang, you think, the prince has always not disturbed the local government because of private matters, when the princess's father died, Jingzhou officials greeted each other, and the prince only said goodbye to them at the crossing, and they didn't drink a sip of water. ”

"He's always done a lot of pretense!" Yue Guifei sneered, "This is the best!"

"But...... Although he didn't want to disturb the government, he would never put himself in danger. First, he wants to escort the princess's coffin safely, and second, he wants to protect a pair of children and daughters, and he will definitely not be without a backhand. ”

"Backhand? He still has a backhand?"

"His back hand is the ...... of the rivers and lakes"

"Jianghu!?Are you saying that there are also forces in the rivers and lakes of Dingbei Wang?" This is the first time I heard of it, the corners of Yue Guifei's eyes couldn't help jumping, and her hand involuntarily pressed the Moyu paperweight on several cases.

"It's not him, it's his housekeeper Lao Ji ......"

"Lao Ji?" Concubine Yue was even more surprised, and couldn't help interrupting him, "You mean that old entourage who will fall when the wind blows?"

Mao Shouren suddenly turned around and took a step sideways, almost sticking to Yue Guifei, Yue Guifei couldn't help but let go of the hand that pressed the Moyu paperweight, her pretty face was slightly red, but she neither retreated nor reprimanded. Mao Shouren's straight body bowed slightly, his handsome face showed a mysterious color, and he blew at the earlobe of Yue Guifei and said, "I heard that he is a swordsman who came down from Nanshan." ”

"Nanshan, swordsman, what kind of mess, this palace can't understand. Concubine Yue was blown by him so that her earlobes itched, and she was a little distracted for a while.

"In short, a very powerful sword master, a deadly sword master. Mao Shouren saw that she didn't understand, so he changed to an expression that the women in the deep palace could understand better.

It was difficult for Concubine Yue to associate the words Lao Ji and the master together for a while, but Mao Shouren also made a sword, and it was said that the swordsmanship was not bad, and he said that it was true that nine out of ten were separated.

There is a master by his side, and he is also a ruthless character who has experienced a hundred battles, and there are twenty personal guards who will die for him at any time. Concubine Yue was like a deflated ball, leaning weakly on the plush soft couch behind her, and sighed faintly: "After talking for a long time, it's useless." ”

This side hall is the warm pavilion, pepper mud painted walls, the four seas with the spring of the hanging light gauze curtain, the floor is covered with a thick Western Regions long plush carpet. Yue Guifei is only open in winter to rest and recuperate. Knowing that Mao Shouren was coming, he deliberately added two pots of carrot charcoal, and in the hall that was as warm as spring, the spicy and sweet taste of the pepper paste was mixed with a faint aroma of fat powder, which made Mao Shouren feel a little dazed.

Looking at Concubine Yue who was leaning on the couch, the lazy sigh, Mao Shouren only felt that his throat was dry, he barely suppressed the heat in his heart, and then stabilized his nerves, and then leaned forward two steps and said, "Niangniang, we can think differently......"

"Change your thinking, what kind of thinking?" Yue Guifei's already extremely depressed mood came alive again.

"It doesn't matter if it works or doesn't, it succeeds or fails, the plan is still this one, but it's ......," Mao Shouren said here and suddenly stopped.

"You just said it!" Yue Guifei blamed in her mouth, but her voice was so soft that she could squeeze out water. Mao Shouren leaned over to her sideburns and whispered for a long time, but she couldn't hear Concubine Yue nodding straight, "It's a little dangerous, but it's a good move, you go out of the palace as soon as possible and discuss the details with Lord Shangshu." ”

Mao Shouren simply took two steps back, turned around and walked out of Zhaochun Palace from the way he came, first looked around the Yongdao, and then walked quickly east towards the Taiyi Palace where the emperor listened to the government, pretending to inspect as he walked. When he came to the corridor of Taiyi Palace, the courtiers just finished discussing things and walked out, Xing Danyou, who was over fifty years old, glanced at him obliquely, and saw Mao Shouren's left hand make an obscure gesture in his sleeve, and slowly walked down the long steps in front of the palace.

After changing his guard and leaving the palace, Mao Shouren stayed in his house until dark, changed into a black shirt, and quietly entered the ...... of Xing Danyou's mansion.

In the middle of the month, in the early morning of forty-five days before the king of Dingbei sent the spirit out of the city, the carriage of Ji Min, the secretary of the criminal department, drove to the palace in a hurry, out of Yuhe Avenue, and turned to the palace street, Ji Min almost jumped off the carriage with both feet, shook off the hand that the entourage stretched out to carry, entered the Chonghua Gate, climbed the long steps in front of the Taiyi Palace, and was anxious for a while, and couldn't help but feel a little breathless.

Nie Bei, the commander of the Praetorian Guard, walked out of the corridor on the west side of the palace gate, and saw Ji Min constantly turning in circles in front of the closed palace gate, so he greeted him forward, "Lord Ji is really early!"

"Commander Nie is also early!" Ji Min replied absentmindedly.

Ji Min has always been strict and polite, today's behavior is a little abnormal, Nie Bei stared at it in surprise, saw that his face was a little ugly, guessed that he must have encountered something tricky, and was about to say a few words of relief, the door of the palace had been opened, Ji Min arched his hand to Nie Bei and entered Taiyi Palace.

There was a rule in the court of Dayi, the courtiers should enter the palace within five minutes of the opening of the palace door and line up in turn, and after a quarter of an hour, the emperor went to the court and began to ask for deliberations in turn.

Since the founding of the country, Dayi has abolished the Zhongshu Order, and the government affairs of the DPRK and China are divided into six ministries, and the six Shangshu of major affairs can be directly requested to the emperor, and the emperor and the courtiers will agree and then the cabinet will issue an explicit decree.

The advantage of the current dynasty system in Dayi is that the cabinet chief assistant still has the fact of the prime minister, but he cannot monopolize the power.

As soon as Song Li, the first assistant of the cabinet, finished playing, Ji Min immediately walked out of the ministers and presented the recital, and Emperor Yi took the recital from the hands of the imperial eunuch, and after reading a few lines, his face changed, and when he saw the end, his eyes were full of ruthlessness and murderous aura.

"King Dingbei has been assassinated!" Emperor Yi raised the piece in his hand to everyone below, and his voice was low and unusual, "Okay! Lawlessness has reached this point, you see, look!" Emperor Yi suddenly clenched his palm, crumpled the piece in his hand into a ball, and threw it the mud and gold brick floor of the main hall.

The paper ball tumbled on the smooth floor tiles a few times, and finally stopped in the center of the hall twenty feet away from the imperial case, which showed that the force of the throw was not small.

Emperor Yi's low tone was more shocking and palpitating than his anger, no one cared about the paper ball, everyone was gasping in their hearts, Ji Min bowed his head and knelt on the ground, not daring to make a sound, and the entire hall fell into a dead silence.

Every emperor has reverse scales, and offending the king of Dingbei is the reverse scale of the current Yi emperor, not to mention the assassination, it is simply rebellious, and everyone has not recovered from the shock, and the Yi emperor spoke again.

"How is the prince?"

"Alright. ”

"Childe, Miss?"

"It's all right, too. ”

Emperor Yi let out a long breath, and the expression on his face was slightly smoother, but in an instant, he turned fierce again, and looked at Ji Min, "When will the detained assassin arrive in Beijing?"

"According to the schedule, it will be about ten days from now. ”

"Check it out for me, for such a big thing, a gang of thieves don't have the guts. Ji Qing, this case is the responsibility of your criminal department, no matter who is involved, I will severely punish it!"

"Obey the order" Ji Min got up and returned to the queue after receiving the order.

"Li Qing. ”

"The minister is here. "The official department Shangshu Li Yan sent out a team to kneel in the center of the hall and listen to the order.

"Yuan Yue, the governor of Qingzhou, as the governor of a state, did not fulfill his duties, did not govern the state, and did nothing to do anything, and finally caused the king of Dingbei to be in danger, and his crime should be punished. From now on, he will be dismissed from his post and sent to prison, and will be dealt with after the facts of the case are clarified. ”

The corners of Li Yan's mouth moved, as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he didn't say anything, only whispered: "The minister's order." ”

After Li Yan returned to the queue, Emperor Yi rubbed his eyebrows and thought for a while, and said to the eunuch beside him: "Xuan Nie enters the palace from the north." ”

Nie Bei was just outside the hall, and after listening to Xuan, he knelt down in front of the golden steps.

"Nie Qing, you select a hundred good Praetorian Guards, hurry up and go to protect the king of Dingbei, remember! Before you see the prince, you can't delay for a moment!"

After Nie Bei received the order and left the palace, Emperor Yi slowly stood up, his eyes swept over the ministers in turn, and said in an extremely solemn voice: "At this moment, I know that some of you are not convinced, thinking that I am too partial to King Dingbei. But do you know that half of the splendid rivers and mountains of this Dayi were brought down by the king of Dingbei. Do you know who gave it to you on such a day? It was the king of Dingbei! It was he who ate the snow and lay on the ice, and exchanged the scars on his body, and he sacrificed his brothers and relatives in exchange for a drop of blood and tears, and even my life was saved by him. You say...... Is it wrong for me to treat him like this? He gave everything for the sake of Dayi. And now, someone wants to assassinate him...... He must be very sad at this moment......"

Emperor Yi's eyes were red, standing straight in front of the imperial case, looking down at the ministers in the palace, in addition to his anger at the moment, the most uncomfortable thing was the feeling of the assassination of Bai Qi, the king of Dingbei.

The ministers were silent for a long time, and a low and neat "yes" finally sounded in the hall.

Emperor Yi had no intention of listening to the government, and after a lecture, he entered the dormitory from the back door of the imperial case with a wave of his hand.

Even if the case occurred in the capital, it was first tried by the Jingzhao Yamen and then submitted to the Criminal Department, and if the Criminal Department had no objections, the trial would be concluded, and only when the case had doubts and loopholes would the Criminal Department rehearse the case. Those who are sent directly to the Criminal Department as soon as they come can enjoy this kind of treatment unless the offender is a high-ranking official with a higher rank than the Jingzhao Mansion Yin.

There were more than 100 people who went to assassinate, and all but one of the leaders died at the scene of the rocky mountain road. King Dingbei and a pair of sons and daughters were unharmed, and only a few of his relatives were slightly injured.

The one who was escorted back to the Ministry of Punishment was the only surviving leader. The case was too big, and when the king of Dingbei notified the governor of Qingzhou to come to collect people, he only ordered him to arrange for the safe delivery of people to the Beijing division, and did not let him interrogate, they were all characters he could not afford to offend, and the governor did not dare to try and did not want to try, but he was carefully escorted on the road, and he was afraid that there would be any more trouble.

Because it involved the king of Dingbei, Ji Min knew how much the emperor paid attention to this case, so he didn't dare to be careless. As soon as the prisoner was brought to the criminal department, he immediately opened a court for interrogation, but to his surprise, before the torture was used, the prisoner recruited the mastermind behind the scenes.

Ji Min recorded a confession when the prisoner was detained, and when he was already in charge of the lamp, he took the carriage that had been prepared long ago from the gate of the criminal department and entered the palace to resume his life. According to the instructions of the internal supervisor on duty, he came to the Yangyuan Palace, and met Mao Shouren, the deputy commander of the Praetorian Guard, next to the gold-lacquered column under the outer corridor of the hall.

Mao Shouren happened to be on duty tonight, and when he saw Ji Min coming to see the emperor late at night, he knew that the criminal had confessed, so he raised his hand and bowed to Ji Min, looking at Ji Min's back when he walked into the hall, and a sneer appeared on the corner of his lips.

Emperor Yi met Ji Min in the warm pavilion of Yangyuan Palace, reached out and took the case file handed over by the inner supervisor, slowly looked at it with the elevated copper table candle lamp, his eyebrows gradually frowned, looked up at Ji Min, and asked in an unbelievable tone: "Song Jie?"

"Yes, Your Majesty. ”

"I'm not mistaken? I know he's a bastard, but he doesn't have the guts to do it, and there's no reason for him to do it. ”

"The minister thinks so too, but ...... That's how people recruit people!"

Emperor Yi knew that it was involved in the first rank of the court, and when he was the son of the first assistant of the cabinet, he did not have his own edict, and Ji Min did not dare to ask someone for trial.

After a long groan, Emperor Yi said to Ji Min: "You take my message and go to the Song Mansion to get people immediately!"

Out of the palace, Ji Min stood for a while in the shadow of the tall and majestic Chonghua Gate, trying to sort out the chaotic thoughts in his mind, this case is full of weirdness, the prisoner confessed too quickly, and the person who confessed was the prime minister of the dynasty - the son of the queen's brother, the first gentleman in Xihao City.

There are human witnesses, but there is no physical evidence, but they can be tried impartially according to legal procedures, as for which level of trial, whether they can be convicted, whether it is unjust, false and wrongly decided, and in the end, the emperor will come up to make a holy ruling. After figuring out this layer, Ji Minxin settled down first, returned to the Criminal Department to arrange manpower, and personally took people to the Song Mansion to get people.

After Ji Min left, Emperor Yi drove to Zhengyang Palace, since Concubine Ruji gave birth to the seventh prince, the emperor was even more pampered like Ji, and the number of times he came to Zhengyang Palace became less and less.

Seeing the emperor again many days later, the queen helped him sit on the soft couch with incense, and asked Xinbi to bring a white fungus and red date soup to his hand, sit next to him and watch him finish drinking, and then gently pinched his shoulders with her slender hands.

Emperor Yi enjoyed his eyes for a while, reached behind his back to hold the queen's soft, and gently brought it to his arms, and Xinbi quietly withdrew.

Looking at the tenderness on the corners of the queen's eyebrows and eyes, Emperor Yi felt a burst of guilt in his heart. I haven't been close to her for a long time, and I don't remember it clearly, but she has never complained at all, but she has kept the harem in good order, and never let him the slightest bit. The queen's desirelessness, peace and rationality sometimes make him feel that the other party doesn't care about him very much, but when he gets together, the thousands of tenderness overflowing in the queen's eyes can really feel it.

"Zilu," Emperor Yi stroked the queen's sideburns, shouted her maiden name, and looked at the wife in front of him who was still delicate and had skin like congealed fat, his eyes were full of apologies, "I ignored you!"

"Your Majesty," the queen curled up in the arms of Emperor Yi, like a docile kitten, and her words were soft and sweet, "If you come here, the concubines will kiss you and love you, if you don't come, the concubines will miss you." ”

Emperor Yi came here today, originally just to tell the queen Song Jie about the crime, Song Li is her brother after all, so he has to inform her. But now like this, Emperor Yi couldn't bear to speak, and swallowed back the words several times when they came to his mouth.

The queen saw the clue and knew that the emperor had not come to visit him because he missed him today, he must have something else, but she didn't ask questions, just hugged Emperor Yi tightly, and rubbed her face lightly on his chest.

Emperor Yi gently pulled the queen's head to himself, seeing her cheeks flushed and her eyes misty, he couldn't help but recall the beautiful time when the two of them were grinding their ears and temples more than ten years ago, and his feelings grew stronger, and he got up and put the queen on the couch .......