The situation in this huge empire changed suddenly overnight. The grown-up prince died, as did the most competitive younger brother under the prince. Only the weak-natured Zhou Wang Li Xian and the thirteenth-year-old Ji Wang Li Dan remained.
But now the emperor issued an edict to abdicate, and Empress Wu's monopoly is unstoppable.
At the end of April, the ministers gathered outside the Shangyang Palace, asking the emperor to establish a new monarch before abdicating. However, Tianhou was furious when she heard about it, and killed more than ten important ministers in the name of colliding with the dragon's body to recuperate, and then ordered Shangyang to seal the palace, blatantly cutting off the emperor's last link with the outside world.
This is the first time that the Queen of Heaven has shown her ferocious and iron-blooded wrists since she came to power as regent.
The Luoyang family and the civil and military officials hadn't reacted yet. In the middle of the night, Tianhou secretly ordered to drive to Luoyang, and then rushed to Chang'an in a light car.
"... How long have you hated me?" The emperor leaned weakly on the soft pillow, looking at Empress Wu who was sitting upright and dragging her palace clothes across the floor.
Although the walls were tightly covered with luxurious thick blankets, the sound of wheels rolling over the ground and the roar of soldiers beating horses and galloping could still be faintly heard from outside the carriage window.
It was already late at night outside, but the brilliance of the night pearl made the carriage as bright as day. The queen's upper body was as straight as a javelin, and a smile appeared on her wrinkled face, which made her majestic and beautiful face even more charming: "Hate you? No, never, I can only be grateful to His Majesty."
"Then why did you do such a thing?! You just hate Mrs. Korea for giving birth to Li Xian, and hate me for doting on Mrs. Wei Guo. Otherwise, why would you be able to do what you are doing today! Killing your parents and children, killing King Yong, even the old Mrs. Wei Guo is also you—"
The emperor spoke in a hurry, and coughed heart-piercingly. Empress Wu reached out from behind the desk to pat him on the back, but the emperor waved it away in embarrassment: "Don't touch me!"
Empress Wu smiled and didn't care.
"What are you going to do next, force me to give way to you, and then send me a glass of poisoned wine? Serpent-hearted! Why did I fall in love with you, a woman with a snake-hearted heart and hatred born of jealousy!"
"Your Majesty thinks that I am born out of love and hate?" Faced with the emperor's hoarse roar, Empress Wu was very calm, and even asked a question with great interest.
"Is not it?!"
"No," Empress Wu laughed.
The emperor was choked up for a while, and she said leisurely: "The emperor's heart is changeable, and thunder, rain, and dew are all the grace of the king. These are the facts that I have clearly seen many years ago. Therefore, your majesty ordered Mrs. Han to give birth to an heir. Even favoring Mrs. Wei Helan's family is a trivial matter to me... "
"Then why did you poison the Helan family?!" the emperor said angrily.
"Because she's stupid."
Empress Wu shook her head under the emperor's resentful and disbelieving eyes, seeming to have a little pity: "In this deep palace, ugliness or badness are not capital offenses, but stupidity is. As a woman, there is nothing wrong with her wanting to be a queen, but trying to hinder I, Taishan Fengchan, are so stupid to the extreme, I don't even have one percent of her mother's brains... "
"From the beginning to the end, what I pursue is that position. Whether it is the legacy of the ages or the glory of the ages, what I want is the power and glory of this life. This country will shake me, and the country will change for me; I will go down in history like the Three Emperors and Five Emperors The name left in the book is not as a concubine of a certain emperor or the mother of some princes, but as the Supreme Ninth Five-Year, ascending to the Taimiao, dignifiedly leaving my surname Wu in the history books!"
The emperor gasped for breath and wanted to interrupt her several times, but for some reason he couldn't get the breath out of his heart, and finally he trembled and let out a weak roar: "You...don't dream! Can all the officials sit back and watch you occupy the magpie's nest, can the people of the world really watch a woman ascend the throne and become emperor?! What a joke!"
"What is kingly way?" Empress Wu said loudly.
The emperor stopped suddenly.
"Those who don't obey the king will be killed. The king's way is free in history, free in the country, free in the battlefield, free in the heart..." Empress Wu's voice softened, and said in a low voice: "The kingly way has nothing to do with men and women, just like you and I are here today, and it has nothing to do with love and hate."
Empress Wu stood up and walked towards the car door.
"Stop!" The emperor propped up his upper body tremblingly, and shouted: "Even if you force me to abdicate, how can the people of the world obey you? King Zhou and King Ji are still alive, so you dare to ascend the throne openly?!"
Empress Wu looked back and smiled, her red lips shone like jewels in the candlelight:
"That's my business."
Empress Wu closed the heavy car door with her backhand, and the guard immediately stepped forward, and the iron lock clicked off.
"The Queen of Heaven," Ming Chongyan leaned over and said.
The chariots and horses galloped, leaving the Luoyang city gate far behind. The wilderness ahead is vast, the night is as black as ink, and in the distance is the precarious city of Chang'an.
"... have you found them?" Empress Wu whispered.
"found it."
"Where?"
"Qianzhou."
Empress Wu frowned and said, "Why are you in Qianzhou?"
Ming Chongyan remained calm and did not answer.
Countless broken thoughts flooded his mind. Empress Wu shook her head, and threw them all out of her mind with the howling night wind. After a while, she said, "That's all. Let Yu Wenhu personally take someone to bring them back... must be before the enthronement ceremony. Shan Chao doesn't matter, Xie Yun must live, remember!"
Ming Chongyan leaned back and disappeared into the night.
·
"We are leaving here today," Shan Chao said.
When they said this, they were sitting on the second floor of the Huixian Building by the window. Xie Yun picked up a chopstick of fresh vegetarian vegetables, swung them in the water to wash off the oil, and ate them slowly. After a while, he asked leisurely: " why?"
All the toxins on his body have been removed, but the injured left arm has not fully recovered. Shan Chao passed the pulse and knew that the meridian was injured, and the movement of internal force was already very condensed, even if it was forcibly instilled with the most refined and pure internal force, it would be useless.
The bodies of internal kung fu masters are stronger than ordinary people, but they are also more fragile. A small injury may have an irreversible impact on martial arts cultivation, which is also helpless. Fortunately, Xie Yun no longer needs to rely on the clear spring under the Dragon-Bound Grass to continue his life. As long as they leave, they can leave this small town at any time.
"Don't you want to visit other places?" Shan Chao asked, "Before you leave, let's fill some pots of spring water for you, maybe it will be useful."
Xie Yun tapped Dan Chao with the tip of his chopsticks, and commented in one simple word: "Stupid."
"..."
"The water source under the dragon-binding grass is called Xilongquan. As the name suggests, it has a strong adsorption effect on toxins, but it is useless to drink it. In the early years, the Qinglong people used to rely on this water source, but the dragon-binding grass got rid of it later. Inexhaustible, inexhaustible, the whole family had to move to Liangzhou, and no one of my generation knew the existence of Xilongquan... "
Shan Chao asked suspiciously, "Then how do you know?"
Xie Yun paused, didn't answer, just smiled with a complicated expression.
Xie Yun was dressed in ordinary clothes, his hair was tied up with a white string, and he was dressed like a commoner. But being in a high position all the year round makes him feel indescribable in every move, and his words and deeds are extremely aura, no matter where he goes, he is very attractive.
Seeing several groups of guests in the restaurant turning their heads frequently, Shan Chao coughed, and tapped the cups and plates in front of him to attract Xie Yun's attention: "In this case, let's take some spring water to Guanshan in Liangzhou so that we can visit your clansmen, why not?" Sample?"
"What are you going to do in Guanshan?" Xie Yun said in a faint mood.
"After staying in the capital for so many years, you don't want to go around?"
Xie Yun took a sip of tea and said, "I don't even care."
Shan Chao was just about to say something to tease him, when he suddenly saw something and glanced downstairs. I saw two men in dark blue clothes appear on the opposite side of the street where people come and go. They are both tall and neatly described. They are holding a portrait and standing at the door of the dim sum shop to ask Xiao Er what to do.
A gleam of coldness flashed in Shan Chao's eyes, but he didn't show it when he turned his head. He gently put the wine glass on the table: "I'll pay the bill, get ready to go."
Xie Yun said "No".
Shan Chao hurried down the second floor, mixed into the crowd like a drop of water melting into the sea, and walked silently to the dim sum shop opposite.
The two men didn't ask anything at the second corner of the store. One of them was about to put away the portrait, but the other gently tugged at his sleeve, motioning him to look not far away. Not far away, I saw a strong and strong figure walking along the flow of people to the market. Although the clothes are simple and ordinary, but the pace is obviously different from ordinary people. The corner of the hilt is faintly exposed, The sun reflected a dazzling golden light.
"General Huaihua." One of the men whispered.
The two exchanged winks, and the person holding the portrait immediately turned back to inform his companion, while the other stepped on his heels and followed Shan Chao not too far away.
Shan Chao quickly walked through the market, bustling pedestrians passed by, children crowded around, and vendors shouted one after another. He didn't seem to realize that there were more and more people following him, and they were getting more and more urgent. In the eyes of everyone, he turned around and walked into an inn in the downtown area.
The follower stopped. The leader turned his hands behind his back and silently made a few gestures. Immediately, more than a dozen people dispersed and surrounded the entire inn vaguely from the front door, under the window, and the back kitchen.
"Guest officer, do you want to be a top player or stay in a hotel?"
Shan Chao stopped, and just opened his mouth, suddenly his back shoulder was tightly grasped by a thin and strong hand, and then a sharp dagger was stuck to his back heart: "General Shan," someone behind him said coldly, "please come with us!" Come."
Shan Chao didn't look back, smiled at the bewildered waiter in front of him, and casually threw him a piece of silver: "Compensation fee."
The person behind him suddenly had a bad premonition.
However, it was too late now. At the same moment when the voice fell to the ground, Shan Chao turned around and stretched out his hand—the man felt his dagger-holding wrist was grasped by a force like iron pincers, but he didn't even have time to snort, and the severe pain was accompanied by a "crack" and his bones shattered There is a crackling sound!
"Ah-"
The sword carved with gold and chiseled dragon was unsheathed, and rushed in all directions with vigor, and the figure fell backward together with the overturned tables, chairs, dishes and chopsticks!
The guard shouted angrily: "Do it!" Then they broke into the store from the front door and windows!
With a clang, Shangfang's sword was thrust straight into the floor, and Shan Chao put both hands on the top of the hilt, looked around at the encirclement surrounded by the face paint, and said calmly: "Let's go together, hurry up."
·
At the same time, outside Huixian Building.
Xie Yun paid for a donkey cart and gave an address, as if he didn't see the chaotic market behind him, he walked out of the city along the Qingshiban street.
The trees at the foot of Fulong Mountain are lush, and the sun shines through the shadows of the trees, casting colorful light spots on the ground. The donkey cart stopped outside the city gate. Xie Yun thanked the peddler who was driving the cart. After walking along the mountain road for a meal, sparse farmers and smoke gradually appeared on the side of the road. Cows and sheep were grazing not far away. It was a small farm on the outskirts of the city. .
He did not enter the farm, but detoured for two miles, followed the stream into the mountain behind the village, and stopped in front of a clearing in the shade of the mountain.
It was a dilapidated small courtyard. Due to wind and rain erosion and disrepair for a long time, half of the courtyard wall had collapsed. The grass climbed up the steps along the path, and the birds chirped and made their nests on the top of the thatch. Pale green moss.
There is a gray and black tombstone in the courtyard.
Xie Yun turned a blind eye to the luxurious carriage parked on the mountain road not far away, and the dozens of guards guarding the courtyard outside the courtyard. His face was calm and even a little indifferent, his steps were steady and unhurried, he walked into the small courtyard under the extreme gaze of everyone, and stood in front of the stone tablet.
Yu Wenhu put the three sticks of incense in the fruit plate, straightened up, and patted the mud on his knees: "Don't come here without any problems, Commander Xie?"