Due to some reasons, a large number of users are suddenly unable to open the webpage to access this site today. Please remember the domain name of this site (first letter + org.dot.co) to find your way home!
The next morning, the news that the King of Diannan was assassinated in Jiannan Road North shook the capital. Hearing that the assassins were fierce and there were more than a hundred of them, the King of Diannan was ambushed while trying to protect his princess. He was wounded and in danger of death. Fortunately, his followers protected him all the way and he barely escaped from the enemy.
This was a plan that Yuan Cixian had agreed upon in advance with Zheng Zhuo and Xu Shan. She was naturally calm when she received the news, but she also knew in her heart that in order to make the play realistic, her father would inevitably suffer physical pain, and the so-called "numerous injuries" were not all illusions.
She immediately pretended to be panic and hurried into the palace, begging the emperor for help. She acted out a scene in the Purple Palace with tears in her eyes, forcing Emperor Huining, who was still in doubt, to quickly issue an order to impose martial law in the entire Jiannan Road and strengthen patrols. At the same time, he sent soldiers from surrounding counties to escort Yuan Yizheng and his wife south.
At this point, King Ping's plan collapsed, and Zheng Zhuo managed to turn the tables after successively injuring Lu Shiqing and Cai He.
When Yuan Cixian performed passionately in the Purple Palace, Lu Shiqing was accompanying the emperor. Emperor Huining tried to comfort her, but seeing that it was of little use, he simply handed her over to him and told the couple to go their separate ways.
Prince Ping had already set out for Huainan early in the morning, and Lu Shiqing's crisis was temporarily resolved. He had originally thought that perhaps he could confess his identity to Yuan Cihan as soon as possible, but he did not expect that she was still in the act after leaving the palace, and looked very worried about Yuan Yizhi, and even kept it a secret from him.
He was so upset that he couldn't speak, and pretended to be ignorant. He also analyzed the possible identities of the assassins with her. Yuan Cixian also nodded frequently, agreeing with his views from time to time.
The two of them competed with each other in acting skills all the way back to Shengyefang. Yuan Cixian said goodbye to him at the gate of Yuan Mansion and quickly returned to the study in the courtyard. Jianzhi was waiting for her there.
There was generally no need to worry about her father, but there was something in her mind that had been on her mind since yesterday and she urgently needed an answer.
Yesterday, near Hanliang Palace, Prince Ping mentioned Cai Siqing to her. She had never met Cai He before, so she was subconsciously stunned at the time, but she soon realized that Prince Ping was spying on her. When dealing with such a cunning politician, even if he shook his beard, it might have a deep meaning, not to mention the people and things he said.
This morning, Prince Ping left the capital, and many of Chang'an's spies withdrew. Seeing that the situation was safe, she sent Jianzhi out to inquire about the matter. Now she thinks there is a result.
Jianzhi saw that she had returned and hurried forward and said, "Young lady, there is a lot of information about Cai Siqing, but there are a few that you may be interested in." She picked out the key points and said, "This man is 31 years old, born in the common people, his parents died early, he used to work in the local government, and just came to Beijing to serve as an official four years ago."
Yuan Cixian was indeed stunned after hearing this.
This introduction sounds a little familiar. Except for the fact that he was an official, the rest is roughly consistent with Xu Shan.
She continued to ask: "Anything else you found?"
Jianzhi nodded and said, "I have been waiting near Cai's mansion for the whole morning. During that time, I saw Cai Siqing go out once. I noticed that the palm of his right hand was wrapped in a bandage, which seemed to indicate that he had suffered a serious injury."
Yuan Cixian blinked slowly three times, and in a flash, a scene flashed through her mind quickly.
On the day of the Flower Festival, at the top of the cliff, when Xu Shan was attacked, he had a chance to block the knife with his hand, but after he stretched out his right hand, he stopped abruptly halfway, and thus he was hit by the knife.
She did find it strange at the time, but later, seeing that he was seriously injured and unconscious, she naturally would not bother him with such meaningless questions, and just thought that he had made a mistake. Now, after hearing what Jianzhi said, she began to doubt again.
She suddenly had an incredible idea: Xu Shan might be more than just Xu Shan.
It was not that he could not block the knife, but that he could not block it. Because besides being a commoner strategist, he had another identity. Once his palm was pierced, leaving a wound in such an obvious place, this identity would be exposed. And this was also the reason why the assassin sent by King Ping still desperately stabbed him even though he knew he was powerless to kill him - he wanted to pull him out from the dark.
But Xu Shan was definitely not this Cai He. She saw with her own eyes that the dagger was stuck in his chest, not in his palm, so the right hand was injured. Cai Siqing, who was quite consistent with Xu Shan in age, background, and timing of entering the capital, could only be his stand-in, a false bait thrown by Zheng Zhuo to King Ping.
So, conversely, since King Ping believed that Cai He was Xu Shan, it means that he had originally placed his suspicion on the court. In other words, Xu Shan was most likely an official in the court.
Thinking of this, Yuan Cixian couldn't help but widen her eyes, as if she was a little dizzy with shock, and reached out to hold the edge of the table.
Her mind raced as she kept recalling her interactions with Xu Shan over the past six months, and finally her thoughts stopped at the night when he came to Yuan Mansion for a banquet and she pretended to be drunk and took off his mask.
A big part of the reason why she eliminated her suspicion and vigilance towards him was because she saw the mottled face behind his mask that night. But now, looking back, she found that there was a loophole in this matter - that is, she gave him time to hide his true face.
She underestimated Xu Shan's ability to grasp and calculate people's hearts. In fact, perhaps, when she invited him to play chess and asked him to teach her chess, he had already guessed her thoughts. Later, when they went to the banquet, he naturally expected that she would try to test him, so he made such a scary face in advance to be prepared.
The scar on his face was fake. He lied to her.
Jianzhi saw that her brows were furrowed and her eyes were flickering, so he asked hesitantly, "Young lady?"
She came back to her senses and responded, then suddenly asked, "Did any official take sick leave or personal leave during yesterday's court meeting?"
"I don't know. Can I check it out for you?"
Yuan Cixian nodded solemnly and said, "If not, draw up a list of officials above the fifth rank in the court for me."
Yesterday's court meeting was not a grand court meeting. According to the rules, only officials above the fifth rank could attend. As she expected, Xu Shan was among these people.
*
After a round of checking, he found that an old official from the Ministry of Personnel did not attend the court yesterday due to illness. However, after seeing his age, Yuan Cixian immediately ruled out this possibility and continued to screen the list.
Officials above the fifth rank were considered high-ranking officials. Except for the youngest, Lu Shiqing, most of the others were over thirty, and there were a few in their twenties and twenties, and their figures were not much different. Therefore, she only deleted those who were too old, and then selected military officers and a few who were born and raised in Chang'an, and finally listed about twenty key suspects.
However, there was no progress after that.
None of these high-ranking officials were easy to fool. With her status, she could neither visit them in person nor go to the Xuanzheng Hall to watch the court. She could not get close to them at all. She asked Jianzhi to risk squatting in the mansions of several officials, but did not find any injuries. She asked Lu Shiqing indirectly, but he looked unhappy, as if he thought that her climbing his "high branch" was not enough and she wanted to climb other branches.
She had no other choice but to wait until the first day of March when her brother went to the imperial court and ask him to keep an eye out. But half a month had passed since Xu Shan was assassinated, and it would be difficult to find out anything. Yuan Yu picked a few people on the list and deliberately got close to them. He pounded their chests one by one like brothers, but naturally he didn't notice anyone with a strange expression.
By March 15, the wound had healed, and the chances were slimmer. Yuan Yu returned empty-handed again, but he did bring back another piece of news that had nothing to do with Xu Shan, which diverted the attention of Yuan Cixian, who had been feeling uneasy: It was rumored that the Crown Prince of Nanzhao, Xiju, was planning to visit the capital in April.
After the battle in the first month of the lunar calendar, Nanzhao had quietly retreated outside the borders and had not harassed Great Zhou again. For unknown reasons, the crown prince of Nanzhao had changed his hostile strategy towards Great Zhou in recent years and instead made overtures to the imperial court, seemingly intending to submit to the Emperor of Zhou. Recently, he had even proposed to restore the mutual trade between the two countries that had been severed for many years.
Emperor Huining was a vain and face-loving person, and he always attached great importance to the so-called "great power posture". If Nanzhao was truly willing to submit, firstly, the other ethnic groups in the south might follow suit, and the long-weak Great Zhou would have an unprecedented opportunity to revive; secondly, the King of Southern Yunnan might no longer have a place to use his power, and he would be able to legitimately weaken the power of Southern Yunnan and eliminate the worry that had plagued him for many years.
So when Xi Ju showed such goodwill to the court, even though there were many opposing voices in the court and people felt that there must be something wrong, Emperor Huining still retained an accepting attitude and claimed that he was willing to talk to him face to face.
In early April, Xi Ju went north as an envoy of Nanzhao, and arrived in the capital in late April. He was welcomed into Chang'an by Emperor Huining with great state ceremony. On that day, Daming Palace held a welcoming banquet, with all officials present. From noon to night, there was an extremely extravagant feast of wine, meat, singing and dancing, and stringed instruments, harps, zithers, flutes and pipes.
Xi Ju presented the treasures he brought with him at the banquet, mostly jade, pearls, and gold from the Pyu Kingdom, which bordered Nanzhao to the southwest. After receiving them, Emperor Huining naturally gave him a more valuable return gift to show the great country's kindness to his subjects.
When the banquet finally ended, many officials who opposed friendship with Nanzhao shook their heads and walked out of the palace reluctantly.
Lu Shiqing was not a person who showed his emotions on his face. Instead, he exchanged a few friendly official words with Xi Ju, who was sitting second only to Emperor Huining at the table. Before leaving, he even smiled and praised the jade ring on his little finger, which he thought belonged to Yuan Cixian.
Xiju hadn't seen him for more than three months, and it seemed like more than two hundred years had passed. She asked him in a friendly manner in not very fluent Chinese when he was planning to get married, and said that she hoped to have a drink with him during this visit.
After the banquet, Lu Shiqing left the palace indifferently, sneering in his heart at his shameless attitude. When he returned home, he took a bath and prepared to rest, but he heard Cao An hurriedly report a message saying that the secret detectives found out that Xi Ju seemed to have lost his way due to drunkenness after leaving Daming Palace, and was now a mile away from Shengyefang.
Lu Shiqing immediately became indifferent.
How could he get lost while drunk? And how could he get lost just right? He perfectly dodged the night watchmen and ended up in Shengyefang where the Yuan family lived? Why didn't he come to Yongxingfang to stay as a guest
Lu Shiqing rolled back and forth on the bed twice, then stood up resolutely and said, "Tell the Saint that the prince's whereabouts are suspicious. I plan to keep an eye on him personally."
If you like "Holding on to My Dear Lover", please collect it: () "Holding on to My Dear Lover" has the fastest update speed.