I lost my wife and lost my army
The death of Ninth Prince Nangongsi cast a dark cloud over the entire inner court.
This heaviness even spread to the court. In recent years, although Nangong Rang has been under the curtain, because he has not shown up for a long time, many courtiers have made plans in private. It can be seen from the fact that the third prince and the fifth prince can each form a faction. .
The rise of the two princes has weakened the power of the emperor to some extent.
Many courtiers believed that the change of the old and the new in the imperial court was imminent, but they did not expect that the thirteen-year-old Ninth Prince would succeed the First Prince Nangong Ping.
Ding Ben, a member of the Nangong royal family, was not prosperous, and in addition to the constant turmoil and natural disasters in the past few years. The death of the ninth prince seemed to confirm some illusory "fortune" theory, which made the whole court panic.
It's ridiculous, but it's actually possible to find some clues. Even if these scholar-bureaucrats travel in and out in cars, they are inseparable from contact with the people.
I don't know since when, the entire Wei Kingdom seems to be enveloped in a dead air, it feels like returning to the last years of the previous dynasty, and some kind of stormy power is brewing under the repression and silence.
In the face of such a sense of oppression that is undamaged and evasive, these pillars of the imperial court do not even know why the common people have become like this overnight.
They heard that many disaster victims in the prefecture were all over the place, and they were fleeing the famine in groups in the direction of the capital, but what they heard was false and what they saw was true.
The capital is under the feet of the emperor, and there seems to be no change, but the market seems to be cooler than before, and the shouting is not as loud and powerful as before.
Some people can catch these subtle changes, but they can't find the source, and some adults don't notice it at all.
He simply attributed these incomprehensible and incomprehensible "fantasy" feelings to the fact that the emperor's vigour had been exhausted, and only the new emperor ascended the throne to bring the world back to life.
Nangong Jingnv didn't know about the above, and although Qi Yan didn't confirm it with her own eyes, she was one of the driving forces behind this incident.
…
Nangong Jingnu was very saddened by the death of the ninth prince. When she returned to the Weiming Palace, she closed the door and wrote a eulogy for her youngest younger brother.
Qi Yan went back to the side hall alone, and invited her doctor in charge: Ding You because of her physical discomfort.
Qi Yan knew that Nangong Si's death was by no means unusual, which was an absolute intuition.
Right now, she desperately wanted to know whether Nangong Si's death was due to an infighting in the palace, or whether it was related to the masked man.
There were only two people left in the hall, and Qi Yan went straight in: "What is the cause of death of the ninth highness?"
Ding You was silent for a long time before speaking. He didn't answer Qi Yan's question, but said, "The master has spoken to you and asked you to go to Luobei."
Qi Yan's eyelids twitched, and a sense of unease surged in her heart. Ding You's answer confirmed her guess that Nangong Si's death was indeed related to the masked man.
A chill swept across Qi Yan's body, and the fingers hidden under the wide sleeves curled unconsciously.
The masked person is not an impulsive person. Judging from her behavior of falling into madness from time to time, the other party's obsession with revenge is definitely not under her own.
But the masked man has endured for many years, and he can even suppress his hatred to carefully nurture himself, a nine-year-old boy, whose heart is evident.
Such a person, thousands of miles away, kills a member of the royal family without a trace, presumably everything is ready.
And according to what Qi Yan has learned: Nangong Si's exclusive medical officer is not Ding You, which means that the masked man has more than one piece of Ding You in the inner court.
What really made Qi Yan flustered was that he knew nothing about the deployment of the masked man. The more I thought about it, the more I felt the chill raging all over my body, the wind was blowing behind my back, and my scalp was numb.
The sky of the entire palace seems to be distorted. How many people from the previous dynasty are there in the inner court
They may be serving by their side and Nangong Jingnu, perhaps a minister in the court, or a concubine in the harem.
There is another point that puzzles Qi Yan: since the masked man has this strength, why risk exposure to kill an irrelevant ninth prince instead of directly killing the culprit: what about Nangong Rang
Qi Yan's pair of suns jumped suddenly, her brows furrowed, and a trace of anger and humiliation flashed in her heart.
Even after so many years, he is still quite afraid of masked people. The other party is like a shadow of Qi Yan's childhood, knowing that she is only the other party's pawn, but still has to rely on her.
Qi Yan originally thought that she and the masked man were using each other, but she had grown to such a point that she was still unable to compete head-on with the masked man.
Ding You: "Qi Yan?"
Qi Yan returned to her senses, still in a state of turmoil.
She needed more time to sort out the mask man's intention, purpose and next move, but Ding You didn't give her enough time.
Qi Yan: "I'm just a first-rank official, and now I'm also the official minister, how can I go to Luobei?"
Ding You smiled, his eyes were a little deep: "I don't know, the master just asked me to bring this sentence to you, maybe the opportunity will come soon."
Qi Yan: "I know."
Ding You took a deep look at Qi Yan and asked, "Is your heart the same?"
Qi Yan opened her mouth, feeling her throat choked, and replied, "It has never changed."
Ding You sighed softly: "You are still as stubborn as you were when you were young. After so many years... I am too lazy to persuade me, and at this point, persuasion is futile."
Qi Yan's lips were tightly pursed into a line, and she was silent.
Ding You: "It's almost time, it's time for me to go back. I'll give you a recipe to calm the nerves and clear the fire later."
Qi Yan: "Ding You."
Ding You stopped and turned around with the medicine box on his back: "What's wrong?"
Qi Yan: "Nothing... Be careful yourself."
Ding You smiled indifferently: "You better take care of yourself, what's the matter with me as a little medical officer?" After speaking, he left without looking back.
Qi Yan also stood up, her amber eyes slightly hollow. She walked to the bed with mechanical steps and sat down, looking very bad.
Qi Yan stopped Ding You and wanted to ask him what the masked man was thinking, but he held back at the last moment.
Regardless of whether Ding You knew about it or not, even if he knew that he would "betray" the masked man, wouldn't he be more passive if he saw any clues again
What's there to ask, didn't the masked man give him the answer long ago
What she taught herself back then was that only when the royal family of the Wei Kingdom died, the Wei Kingdom was in great chaos, and there were riots everywhere, could it be considered to have avenged the revenge of the country's subjugation and genocide.
Qi Yan also hid this goal in her heart for a while, but later she walked out of the Valley of No Name and went to the folks of Wei State to travel in person. I found that the people here are not surprised by the people from the grasslands, but they are slightly different in looks, stature, customs and habits.
After marrying Nangong Jingnv, Qi Yan's mood changed. Although she felt a little sorry for the innocent people in the grassland, she still narrowed the scope of revenge to the imperial family of Wei Kingdom.
"Could it be!" Qi Yan sat up in shock: Could it be that the masked man is targeting the entire Nangong royal family? !
The masked man knew that the Nangong family was in danger, and wanted to kill all the Nangong royal family before the new emperor ascended the throne, so that the Nangong royal family would have no successor, so as to achieve the goal of annihilation
There is no special reason for poisoning Nangong Si, just whichever is easier to kill, which one should be killed first
Qi Yan's heart was pounding, and there was a thin layer of cold sweat on her forehead: If the masked person knows that the person hiding behind the screen and listening to the government is Nangong Jingnu...
…
On the other side, a strange scene appeared outside Ganquan Palace.
The fifth prince, Nangongda, who was handicapped, knelt down from noon to evening under the scorching sun.
Nangong Jingnv had already asked Chen Chuansi to pass the news to Sijiu, and Nangong Da had a closed door.
He threw the crutch aside regardless of his physical disability, and knelt at the gate of Ganquan Palace, stubbornly refusing to get up.
This scene was watched by many palaces and guards, and the news seemed to have grown wings, spread throughout the harem, slipped out of the palace wall, and floated into the gates of the upper ministers.
After hearing the news, Lu Quan of Taiwei's Mansion flashed a strange look in his eyes. He first sneered and then fell into silence. The ridicule and happiness in his eyes were gradually replaced by emotion and sadness. He sighed heavily and released his old illness. He ordered the two sons not to go to court recently, citing illness as an excuse.
Lu Boyan and Lu Zhongxing were at a loss, but they still followed their father's wishes.
After hearing the news, Xing Jingfu, the Zhongshu Ling of the Zhongjun faction, locked himself in the study and did not come out for a long time.
In the Gongyang Mansion of Zongzheng Temple, Gongyangzhong summoned the second son Gongyanghuai to the study: "You can find a way to enter the palace and ask to see the Fifth Highness."
Gongyanghuai: "But father... How can Your Highness see me now? What is the urgent matter of father, why don't you wait until tomorrow morning?"
Gongyangzhong sighed heavily and leaned back on the chair, his face pale and muttered: "God's will! God's will! God will destroy my Gongyang mansion!"
After speaking, she burst into tears, Gongyanghuai hurriedly knelt at Gongyangzhong's feet: "Father, what's wrong with you?"
Gongyangzhong covered his face with his sleeve, raised his other hand to wipe away the tears, and looked at Gongyanghuai disappointedly: "You don't understand?"
Gongyanghuai: "My son is blunt, and I ask my father to make it clear."
Gong Yangzhong sighed again: "I'm still young after all... I thought that the Third Highness was not here, and the Fifth Highness could show off his strengths, but who would have done such a self-destructing thing."
Gongyanghuai heard it in a fog, and in his opinion, what the Fifth Highness did for the younger brother of the same sect was a role model for brothers and sisters, and he should sing praises.
Gongyang Zhong hates the iron and scolded angrily: "I ask you, is the ruler and the minister more important or the father and son?"
Gongyanghuai: "The ruler and ministers are important."
Gongyang Zhong: "Is brotherhood important, or loyalty and filial piety?"
Gongyanghuai: "... Since, of course, it is loyalty and filial piety."
Gong Yangzhong: "His Royal Highness is the equivalent of forcing the palace! How does His Majesty handle himself when he kneels? If he agrees, he will violate the ancestral law. His own brotherhood has pushed His Majesty to the cusp of the storm! What is this called? Disloyalty for the minister and filial piety for the son! There is no virtue! It's over... it's over."