The second day is the ceremony of Xiaolian, and the gates of the palaces and palaces of Taiji Palace are opened to welcome nobles, courtiers, and wives from inside and outside.
When Chu Ning went to the place of worship in the west hall of Taiji Hall with all the wives a moment in advance, he was keenly aware that the atmosphere today was different from yesterday.
The crowd continued to cry incessantly. At first glance, there seemed to be no abnormality, but upon closer inspection, one could find that three or five courtiers would gather in one place to whisper from time to time beside the wide open palace gates. go.
Chu Ning glanced a few times and immediately recognized the faces as the supporters of the prince.
Her numb and tearful eyes couldn't help but look in Xiao Yu's direction.
He stood beside the crying seat with his head lowered, and he couldn't stop crying towards his father's spiritual seat.
Others can't see it, but Chu Ning can immediately notice the difference. He must have arranged something with Xu Rong. Recalling that he had been secretly talking with Xu Rong for a long time every day, she was almost certain to be related to the king of Qin who was about to ascend to the throne.
Xiao Yu is not a reckless husband who can't hold back his anger. He must understand that he should not confront Uncle Wang and the Queen Mother Qi head-on at this time, so today's arrangement must be just to try King Qin.
It was so right that she also felt that she had no idea what to do with this Uncle Six Kings, so she just took a look at his bottom today.
After a while, everyone took their places and the ceremony began.
Amidst the cries of the crowd, the maid spread out nineteen sets of robes on the belt in turn, and then moved the body of the Emperor Daxing onto the robes, held up the quilts, and then wrapped the quilts with girdles, and then covered them with quilts. remains.
Afterwards, the valet helped Xiao Kezhi cry and knelt down to the Emperor Daxing, and everyone cried.
After the restraint, he went to a small confinement for the meal of the too prison.
After this cumbersome procedure was over, everyone's tight strings were able to relax a little.
At this time, the Zhongshu ordered Qi Mu to step out from the ranks of the hundred officials, and pay tribute to Xiao Kezhi, the king of Qin who was standing at the forefront: "Your Majesty, the Emperor Daxing is newly mourned, the whole country is mourning, and the minister is also unbearably grief-stricken. It is also heard that the honored position cannot be left empty for a long time, and the ten thousand opportunities cannot be left open for a long time. If one day is empty, the honored position will be imperiled; The minister urges the king to ascend to the throne as soon as possible to stabilize the leadership of the dynasty."
After speaking, several prime ministers of Zhongshu Province and more than a dozen officials from the six ministries stood up and seconded, asking Xiao Kezhi to ascend to the throne early.
Although the people below knew that this moment would come, they still couldn't help but whispered and talked a lot. While waiting for King Qin's response, they turned their attention to Prince Xiao Yu.
The wives reacted in the same way. Chu Ning could even hear a lady Hou beside her sigh sympathetically in her direction.
However, she didn't have time to pay attention to other people's attention, and just waited for Xiao Yu's response.
Xiao Yu stood there, his eyes lowered, his face pale and gentle, as if Qi Mu's proposal had nothing to do with him.
At this moment, Wei Fujing, the Minister of Punishment, suddenly came out, took two steps forward to Qi Mu and the others, and scolded angrily: "Don't you feel ashamed of the late emperor for saying this, the late emperor? At that time, the eldest son had already been canonized as the crown prince, and the throne in the East Palace has not been shaken for more than ten years. In terms of love and reason, His Royal Highness should inherit the great lineage. Why should there be another 'the first emperor's edict'? How can there be a prince who is still alive, but makes someone else take the throne reason?"
His voice fell, and another censor behind him came out and said: "The day the late emperor died, the Taiji Palace was under martial law, and everyone except the queen mother and the king of Qin were expelled, and even the prince who was the eldest son of the late emperor was not allowed to enter. But it is said that the late emperor has a posthumous edict, who knows if it is true or false?"
Afterwards, more than a dozen courtiers came out one after another as agreed in advance, opposed to King Qin's ascension to the throne, and advocated that the prince be the new king.
For a time, the numbers of the two sides were evenly matched, and the stalemate could not stand, and it seemed that a chaotic war of words was about to break out in the next moment.
The rest of the people watching held their breaths, looking at the calm prince, and then at the king of Qin who still turned his back to everyone and didn't know how he was feeling.
Qi Mu's forehead twitched with blue veins, and while arguing with Wei Fujing with a cold face, he watched Xiao Kezhi's reaction from the corner of his eye from time to time, waiting for his response.
He expected that the King of Qin was a young prince who had been rolling around in a heap of warriors all year round. Even if he was brave, he had never seen such a battle in the imperial court, and he would probably be so anxious to argue immediately.
But he waited for a while, and even when he started to get a little irritable, Xiao Kezhi still had his hands behind his back and never turned around.
After a fierce quarrel, both sides were a little confused.
As the focus of the quarrel, neither the King of Qin nor the Crown Prince came forward to express their opinions.
If it is said that the prince's identity is sensitive at this time, his status is at stake, and it is inconvenient to speak rashly, then why is the king of Qin
Between doubts, the voice of argument gradually faded.
Xiao Kezhi then slowly turned around to face the crowd.
There was still no expression on his stern and profound face. His eyes were as sharp as ice knives.
Both of them were stunned, not knowing how to respond. Qi Mu paused, then cupped his hands and said, "Please make a decision, Your Majesty."
Xiao Kezhi didn't respond, instead he looked up at the sky and said, "It's not early, Vymore may be hungry."
Everyone looked at each other and reacted for a while before they remembered that "Wei Mo" seemed to be the gray wolf raised by King Qin.
"Your Majesty?"
Qi Mu couldn't help frowning and reminded, there was a bit of sullenness in his tone, he was tit for tat with the prince's party for his throne, but he reacted so coldly.
Xiao Kezhi still ignored him, and only made a gesture to the guard beside him.
The guard immediately understood, strode towards the rear of the hall, and in a short while led out a grey wolf with a huge body, sharp teeth and claws, and fierce eyes.
"what-"
There was a low cry from the crowd, and everyone was stunned and stunned, and they took two steps back one after another.
Perhaps because there were too many strangers, Wei Mo was a little restless, running around Xiao Kezhi and showing his minions to the crowd from time to time.
"Don't worry, I'll feed you later." Xiao Kezhi reached out and touched Wei Mo's head, then took two steps forward, stood on the edge of the steps, and glanced down at Wei Fujing and the others.
"Which one is the Hou Shilang of the Ministry of Industry?" he asked aloud.
Everyone's eyes were directed towards somewhere behind Wei Fujing, and even Xiao Yu couldn't help frowning slightly and looked at him suspiciously.
Hou Tongyi, the servant of the Ministry of Industry, who was suddenly named, was stunned, hesitantly stepped out of the queue, and stepped forward two steps: "This minister is here."
"Well." Xiao Kezhi glanced at him and asked casually, "You just said that the last emperor's edict was false, and the crown prince should succeed me, not me, the king of Qin, right?"
Although still separated by high steps, Hou Tongyi was still shivering with fear by Vimalakirti, wishing he could turn around and escape immediately.
However, he had no choice but to answer the words of the King of Qin. The scene where he stood on Wei Shangshu's side just now and tried his best, everyone saw it, and he couldn't bear to deny it. Moreover, if he denies or equivocates about this, he will not even think about having a foothold in the court in the future.
He didn't know what Xiao Kezhi's idea was, so he had to answer: "Chen, I did say so."
Xiao Kezhi didn't speak any more, he just lowered his head and made a gesture to Vimalakirti.
Immediately afterwards, before everyone could react, a gray shadow jumped up and threw Hou Tongyi to the ground.
Hou Tongyi was so frightened that his eyes were split open, and he struggled to escape, but his limbs were firmly suppressed by the heavy body of the gray wolf, and he could not move.
The corners of his mouth twitched as he wanted to call for help, the bloody mouth was already open, and the sharp teeth slammed into the throat exposed outside the collar, tearing the flesh.
"Help, help..."
As the blood spurted, his lips moved to make a cry for help, but his throat, which had been bitten off, made him unable to make a sound.
In this way, a servant of the fourth rank of the Ministry of Industry was killed by a beast in front of the emperor's spirit.
Everyone looked at the pool of warm blood on the ground in horror, not daring to make a sound. It was rare for Xiao Yu to sink his face in front of so many people, and even Qi Mu's face was extremely ugly.
Xiao Kezhi's skill is so hot, which makes their debate just like child's play.
It was only at this time that they began to realize that the King of Qin who came from the northwest frontier had no fear at all, and that the set of benevolence, righteousness, morality and ethics used to bind the king would not work on him.
And in his hand, he is holding a powerful Ganzhou army.
No one can shake him.
"Qi Xianggong, where did you just discuss?" Xiao Kezhi waved his hand to the guards to take Vimalakirto away, but the battered corpse was still far away.
Qi Mu held back the breath in his heart and said, "I just implored the king to ascend to the throne as soon as possible, so as to strengthen the leadership of the dynasty."
"What does the prince think?" Xiao Kezhi turned his attention to his nephew Xiao Yu.
Under everyone's eyes, Xiao Yu glanced at Hou Tongyi's tragic state from the corner of his eyes, his hand hidden in his sleeve was tightly clenched, his knuckles were white and trembling.
Everything today is very clear, these courtiers under his command cannot compete with the King of Qin at all. For now, there is only temporary surrender.
He slowly loosened his clenched fists, took a deep breath, concealed the anger in his heart, and said respectfully, "Nephew, please ask Uncle Wang to ascend to the throne early."
Even the prince has given in, so naturally others can no longer object.
Xu Rong and Wei Fujing looked at each other and could feel the disappointment of each other. The two bowed their hands together and asked the King of Qin to succeed him.
Seeing that no one objected any more, Xiao Kezhi said: "Tomorrow before Dalian, we will perform a ceremony in the east order of Taiji Hall."
After the matter was settled, he took the guard and turned to leave.
Everyone was stunned for a while before they came back to their senses and dispersed.
"Ma'am?" Cui He covered her frightened heart with one hand and gently reminded Chu Ning's arm with the other, "It's time to go back."
Chu Ning recovered from his chaotic thoughts, tried not to look at the mess under the steps, and walked step by step in the direction of Zhu Mingmen.
Xiao Yu had already left first, surrounded by his vassals, so she didn't have to follow, so she walked more slowly.
It's just that the situation just now was terrifying. Her legs were weak, and she had to sit on the porch to rest after walking a short distance.
"Ma'am, King Qin's actions are really arrogant, and he's a bit ruthless..." Cui He's eyes were red, and she whispered next to her.
Several kings from the Great Liang Dynasty to the present can be regarded as benevolent kings, and no subject has ever been killed on the spot, let alone let a fierce beast bite his throat in public.
Chu Ning suppressed the fear in his heart and tried to recall what happened just now.
She was no stranger to that waiter.
He was originally just a ninth-rank water department head in the Ministry of Engineering, and after he took refuge in Xiao Yu, he was gradually reused. Last year, when he presided over the construction of a river embankment, he colluded with his subordinate officials to greed for money and money, resulting in the construction of the embankment was riddled with holes. When the summer flood came, tens of thousands of people along the coast suffered from it, causing countless casualties.
It was the Crown Prince who blamed several local magistrates for him and kept him safe.
From this point of view, he should be considered dead.
Xiao Kezhi deliberately pointed out him who he had never met, probably because he knew about it.
She suddenly remembered what she heard from Zhao Yanzhou yesterday about Xiao Kezhi in the army, only to feel that the face of this person has become more and more clear in her heart.
He is clearly a person who seems to be cruel, but in fact sticks to the bottom line.