Since Li Jingye spoke so confidently, it was naturally because of his 100,000 troops outside Yangzhou City and Li Hong's unwillingness to let war break out in Jiangnan, so he dared to ask for the price unscrupulously.
"Your Highness, now I have one hundred thousand soldiers and horses. Even when I founded the Tang Dynasty, these one hundred thousand soldiers and horses were enough to be crowned king and prime minister under the command of the great ancestor. Therefore, if your highness is sincere, please report to the court immediately. , your majesty, please grant me the title of king, and then I, Li Jingye, promise to immediately withdraw the troops from Jinling, Runzhou, and Changzhou." Li Jingye saw Li Hong looking at him with a smile and said nothing, as if he was thinking about his conditions, so. He stated his request again.
"Become a king and prime minister? At that time, the British Duke Li Ji was only granted the title of Duke by the late Emperor Taizong. Moreover, since the founding of the Tang Dynasty, there has never been a king with a different surname. Xu Jingye, your ambition is too great, right? ? But it's okay..." Li Hong's tone and expression were relaxed and natural. He looked at Li Jingye and King Yue and said relaxedly: "Now at least I know your ambitions. At least I know that you don't put the imperial court at all. In my eyes, even if I grant you the title of king and prime minister, in the end, both the court and my father will lose face. "
"So, His Highness doesn't agree? Seeing that the people of the four cities in the south of the Yangtze River are in war, with their wives and children scattered, their families destroyed, and they don't care?" Li Jingye's face darkened and he asked coldly.
Li Hong once again ignored him, but continued to stare at the King of Yue and asked: "Who found Lao Liu's substitute? Did Lao Liu know that you were going to Jiangnan? What is your purpose? How much was Lao Liu involved? Truthfully If you do, I might decide whether to send you back to Chang'an to meet my father, depending on the situation."
"Li Hong, don't bully others too much. Even if His Majesty comes to Jiangnan in person, he will not speak in such a condescending manner to my father. We are not subjects, we are royal family members..." Langya King Li Chong patted the table and stood up. , said angrily.
"So what?" Li Hong looked at Li Chong who stood up angrily, and said calmly: "Help Lao Liu fight for the crown prince position, and go south to the south of the Yangtze River to prevent me from returning to Chang'an. I'm afraid your purpose is to keep me here forever. Is this place disappearing from this world?”
"You... this is just your own guess. When we come to Jiangnan, can't we have some fun?" King Langya looked at the smiling Li Chong and felt that this was a lame excuse. How could we stay in the mansion for fun? A man who can change the strength of the government
So he glanced at Li Jingye and softened his tone and said: "It is indeed wrong for my father and I to mobilize our troops privately, but this is also because we did not expect that Yangzhou City would be in such chaos. In order to protect ourselves, I had to take this step. My father was just saying, let me inform you."
Li Zhen patted Li Chong's arm, motioned him to sit down, and said quietly: "Yes, we are indeed fighting for the crown prince position for Li Xian, and we have indeed found Li Xian's substitute to ask His Highness to punish him."
Li Chong was startled and looked at Yue Wang Li Zhen in disbelief. How could he tell the prince the truth
"What is the purpose of finding a substitute for Li Xian? To attract my attention, or are you going to come out to clean up the mess and accumulate reputation for Lao Liu after Li Jingye and I are both injured?" Li Hong continued to ask lightly.
Li Jingye was not willing to interrupt at this time. He also wanted to know what role he played in their plans after Yue King Li Zhen and others went to Jiangnan. He wanted to know whether he was so respected that he was not They despise.
King Li Zhen of Yue lowered his eyes and continued to speak calmly, regardless of Li Chong's obstruction: "Yes, Li Hong, you guessed it right. The reason for finding a substitute for Li Xian is because if Li Xian leaves Chang'an privately, it will inevitably cause conflict between His Majesty and the Queen. Note, in this case, our plan to stop you in Jiangnan will not be successful, but in order to prevent your plan in Jiangnan, it can also accumulate chips for Li Xian in the future for His Majesty and the Queen to make him the prince, and in the future Due to the reputation among the people, we came up with a plan to find a substitute to go to Jiangnan instead of Li Xian. "
When talking about this, Li Zhen controlled herself not to look at Li Chong, because he was the one who came up with this strategy.
But what frightened him was that when he was speaking at the end, Li Hong's eyes slowly moved from him to Li Chong.
"Then what?" Li Hong asked with a playful tone.
"Then I lured you to Yangzhou and used you to help Li Jingye when he was suppressing the war... and then put the blame on Jiangdong and put the blame on Li Jingye..."
"Then after His Royal Highness the Crown Prince disappears, you will attack me again, thereby achieving the goal of killing two birds with one stone. That is, you will win the crown prince position for King Pei Li Xian, and by eliminating the rebellious minister Li Jingye, you will establish a good reputation for King Pei Li Xian in the court, with His Majesty, and the Queen. In order to gain prestige, he was successfully established as the prince, but His Highness the Crown Prince was killed by me, Li Jingye. You were too late to rescue the Crown Prince, so you could only bring the traitor Li Jingye to justice, or I was afraid of the crime. And committed suicide out of fear of guilt, leaving all the truth unconfirmed!" Li Jingye stood up suddenly, looked at the Yue King Li Zhen and the Langya King Li Chong with a complicated look on his face, and asked.
"Yes, that's it. I think you already know this from King Cao. Asking me is just to prove whether there are other conflicts between us, right? If you have any questions, I will tell you everything I know." Li Zhen sighed and the hero said lonely.
"No, I just want to confirm how far my guess is from the truth. It seems to be almost the same as what I guessed. Bring it with you." Li Hong turned his head and shouted.
Immediately, two simple black coffins were carried outside the hall by several soldiers and placed silently in the sun.
"This is...?" King Yue looked at the coffins and suddenly had a bad feeling in his heart. He didn't know if this was prepared for him, or if the two coffins already had owners
"One is Uncle Cao and the other is Wei Siwen. If you don't believe me, you can go and have a look." Li Hong sat still in the hall.
But as soon as he finished speaking, whether it was Yue King Li Zhen, Langya King Li Chong, or Li Jingye, they rushed out and rushed towards the two coffins.
At the open window in the hall, with the sound of flapping wings coming from far and near, a huge bird spread its wings larger than the window and slowly flew over. When it was about to approach the window, two sides of it flew over. The wings begin to recycle.
Finally, Hai Dongqing stood at the window sill with a pair of cold and ruthless eyes, twisting his neck, looking for Li Hong.
After untying the thin tube on Hai Dongqing's steel-like legs, he took out the note inside and took a look. The smile on Li Hong's face became wider and wider, and his expression became more relaxed.
Hai Dongqing looked at the smile on Li Hong's face. After meeting Li Hong, he patted his left shoulder. Then he lightly flapped his wings and jumped onto Li Hong's shoulder, looking excitedly at the people outside the hall.
King Li Zhen of Yue and King Langya walked quickly to a coffin, stretched out their hands and pushed hard, and found that the coffin was not nailed, so they pushed the coffin board to one side with more force. When they lowered their heads, they saw Lying inside was Wei Siwen, and when his eyes glanced at his neck, the two of them suddenly felt their feet go weak and almost fell to the ground at the same time.
After all, King Langya was younger. He looked at Wei Siwen, who looked very peaceful, and turned around just in time to see Li Jingye looking over, so the three of them changed places silently.
"Li Ming!" King Li Zhen of Yue looked at Li Ming, who was lying peacefully in the coffin with his eyes closed, and a feeling of sorrow for the death of a rabbit and a fox suddenly rose in his heart.
Looking at King Cao Li Ming lying in the coffin, with the simply sutured wound on his neck, he knew that he was beheaded by Li Hong and then sutured again before being put into the coffin.
Li Zhen and Li Chong were separated on both sides. They had no time to think about these details. They reached into the coffin and wanted to take Li Ming out of the coffin and replace him with a better coffin that matched his status.
As the body of King Cao Li Ming was slowly carried out of the coffin, just when Li Chong was holding his head and shoulders with one hand and was about to carry it out, Li Hong's faint voice sounded from behind: "Li Jingye, here you go, look. Look at this and say harsh words to avenge Wei Siwen."
A note was thrown by Li Hong to Li Jingye, who was looking at Wei Siwen's coffin. When Li Chong heard Li Hong's words, he was suddenly distracted. The hand that was originally holding King Cao's head relaxed unconsciously. King Cao's head, which was originally sewn with only a layer of skin, seemed to be broken suddenly, completely drooping, and even still shaking there.
"In Yangzhou City early in the morning, there were very few coffin shops, so I had to offend Uncle Cao first. When I arrived, Wei Chao had already beheaded him. You also know that Wei Chao's father was After taking the blame for Uncle Cao in Prince Cao's Mansion and being exiled to Puzhou, Prince Cao never took care of him, so..." Li Hong slowly walked out of the hall and looked at the two of them.
Li Zhen and Li Chong turned around at the same time, and saw a huge bird standing on Li Hong's shoulder. A pair of cold eyes were staring at the sutures between King Cao's broken head and neck. There, the white, rotting flesh.
"Put it back. I've sent Bai Chun to buy a good coffin. If you two continue to carry his body like this, I can't guarantee that the flat-haired beast on my shoulders will not harm the skin and flesh of Uncle Cao Wang's neck." Tempted." Li Hong took two steps forward again and said with his head lowered.
As if matching Li Hong's words, Hai Dongqing's cold and ruthless eyes never left the white neck. As soon as Li Hong finished speaking, he stepped on Li Hong's shoulders impatiently. , looking eager to try the carrion.
King Li Zhen of Yue and King Langya looked at each other and then at King Cao's drooping head, and had no choice but to obey Li Hong's words and put King Cao's body back into the coffin again.
(End of chapter)