The other officials looked around, all looking at the officials who gathered behind Xiao Shoufu, with cold sweat dripping from their foreheads, or righteous indignation, or anger, or shock, or timidity, or tension...

The chorus of Xiao Shoufu's party was still ringing out repeatedly, like thunder.

At the same time, two columns of Xiaoling guards in bronze helmets and iron armor poured into the Longen Gate like a tide, their steps rumbling.

The surrounding air was almost suffocating.

"Abdicate to the virtuous?" The emperor looked at Xiao Fengyuan, Pei Wenrui and others standing outside the hall as if he had insight into his scheming, with a sneer on the corner of his lips, "To whom?"

As soon as this remark came out, a certain name appeared in the hearts of the civil and military officials outside the palace and the concubines' wives, ready to come out.

As soon as Xiao Fengyuan raised his hand, the voices behind asking the emperor to abdicate for the virtuous stopped instantly.

There was a dead silence inside and outside the hall.

Xiao Feng Yuanlang smiled, and said clearly: "If virtue is not worthy, there will be disasters; good talents are used well, and those who are able will live in them. The emperor and ministers are willing to follow the example of the sages to remove the darkness, ascend to the sages, and set things right."

"Kang Kang is the first son of the first emperor. He is of the blood of the Chu family. He is known as the ancestor. He is wise and powerful, and has great talent and boldness. His succession can be said to be the result of everyone's expectations!"

Xiao Fengyuan's words were impassioned, his eyes were piercing, as sharp as an unsheathed edge, which seemed to be able to scratch people's skin.

When the word "Kang Kang" spit out from Xiao Fengyuan's mouth, everyone present only felt that it was true, and their hearts became heavier.

It was clear that there had never been a battle here, but they all felt that there seemed to be a faint smell of blood lingering in the air, lingering.

In the past dynasties, forcing the palace to seize the throne was often accompanied by bloody storms. Either you die or I live. Which deposed emperor in history has a good end!

Since Xiao Shoufu dared to lead a group of officials to force the palace, he would naturally not be unprepared. Today's "Longen Gate Change" may not be good!

They could almost predict that the imperial mausoleum would be flooded with blood today!

The emperor's expression was still very calm, he stared deeply at Xiao Fengyuan, and said in a calm tone: "What if I don't agree?"

Xiao Fengyuan snorted softly, the corners of his eyes and brows did not move, but his eyes were as cold as a cold pool, and he said again:

"Please abdicate the emperor to let the virtuous!"

This sentence was almost word for word, without any warmth in the voice.

After the words fell, the guards at the rear pulled out the long knives in the scabbard in one order, and the long knives shone coldly in the sun, adding a chill to the place where the mountain winds howled .

General Jianwei Wang Nanda strode forward, walked to the right rear of Xiao Fengyuan with his head held high, and first clasped his fists at the emperor in the hall and said, "Your Majesty, forgive me!"

Having said that, the next moment, he quickly pulled out the saber from his waist.

The tip of the long knife pointed at the emperor in the palace from a distance.

Wang Nan's rough red face was full of righteous indignation, and he said in a rough voice, "Gu Ce surrendered to the enemy and killed tens of thousands of lives. Even if he is cut into pieces, his crime will not be erased!"

"The emperor's attempt to reverse Gu Ce's case is really perverse, which chills the hearts of the last general and hundreds of thousands of soldiers in Dajing!"

Wang Nan's voice was high-pitched and sad, with raging anger, the voice seemed to burst out from the depths of his chest.

The bitter mountain wind sent out his words clearly.

The mountain wind kept whistling, not only in the area at the foot of Tianxi Mountain, but also in the capital today.

Under the blowing of the strong wind, the flowers and trees in the garden creaked, and the residual flowers of a tree were blown off the branches by the wind, and the residual flowers all over the ground.

The Empress Dowager Yuan, who was dressed in a black crane with a ganoderma lucidum in her hand, was sitting by the window, quietly looking at the remaining flowers outside the window, her eyes were unpredictable and deep under her half-down eyelashes.

The great eunuch lifted the curtain and walked in, walked silently, bowed and said: "Empress Dowager, everyone has been settled."

The head eunuch lowered his head halfway, swallowing involuntarily, his eyes were dimmed.

Early this morning, the Empress Dowager Yuan issued a decree on the grounds that the phoenix body was unwell, and summoned all the wives in Beijing, as well as the daughters of the county master and county master, to the palace.

The emperor and the eldest prince were not there, and the highest-ranking person in the palace was the Empress Dowager Yuan. With the order of the Empress Dowager Yuan, the imperial guards temporarily put the female relatives under house arrest in the Chunxi Palace.

Thinking about it, the chief eunuch's heartbeat quickened, and he asked a little anxiously: "Your Majesty, do you want to go to the Chunxi Palace to have a look?"

Empress Dowager Yuan didn't even look at the eunuch, she looked down at her white and delicate fingers, the nails on her ten fingers were neatly trimmed, and her hands were well maintained, delicate and beautiful like a young girl.

She shook her head indifferently: "Don't look at it."

She put these female relatives under house arrest just to make those honorable officials be wary and not dare to act rashly, and the left and right are just some helpless females, there is nothing to look at.

Empress Dowager Yuan caressed the cloud patterns embroidered on the cuffs, and ordered lightly: "Knock."

Her tone was very calm, and her mood was also very calm, like a lake without a single ripple, clear and peaceful.

The chief eunuch hurriedly took the order to retreat, passing by the palace lady who was coming with a teacup.

Old tea is replaced and new tea is offered.

Empress Dowager Yuan gracefully picked up the teacup, lifted the lid, and gently stirred the tea leaves floating in the teacup.

She drank her tea slowly.

The refreshing aroma of tea permeated the room with the rising heat.

When Empress Dowager Yuan had almost finished drinking the cup of tea, the palace maid hurriedly came again and said: "Mother Empress, Mrs. Yuan is here."

Empress Dowager Yuan put down the teacup and said decisively: "Xuan!"

Almost at the same time as the words fell, there was a loud bell ringing outside.

"Boom!"

Immediately afterwards, there was the second strike of the bell, the third strike, and the fourth strike...

The sound of the bell striking like thunder resounded through the imperial palace, centering on it, it almost spread throughout most of the capital.

The people in the capital all came out of their homes upon hearing the sound, and all looked in the direction of the palace.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The ringing of the bell was repeated one after another, until people's ears were buzzing.

Soon, more and more people gathered on the street, bustling.

Among the crowd, a haggard old scholar raised his head to the sky, listened carefully, moved his mouth slightly, and counted silently. When he counted to twenty-eight, his expression suddenly changed.

He murmured, "Death knell, it's death knell!"

The twenty-seventh chiming of the bell means the death of the Empress Dowager and Empress.

But the death knell has not stopped until now, it has exceeded 30 times, but it is still knocking...

Not only the old scholar was counting, but other people on the street were also counting: "...forty-three, forty-four, forty-five."

The counting sounds were a bit messy at first, but gradually, these sounds became uniform.

After the bell rang forty-five times, it fell silent.

The streets and alleys of the capital, as well as the mansions and houses in the capital, were all silent.

All the officials and common people who heard the bell were terrified, and they couldn't help showing sadness.

The bell tolled forty-five times, the number ninety-five. It was the sound of a great mourning, which meant that the emperor had passed away!

Most people may only experience such a major event as the death of the emperor once in a lifetime, but thousands of people in the capital have experienced it once a year ago, and they all reacted immediately, knowing that it was the death knell just now.

Everyone's hearts sank.

Although the emperor has only been on the throne for one year now, he is benevolent and benevolent, and loves the people like a son. In just one year, he has widely implemented benevolent government, issued an edict to reduce taxes and corvees for the people, vigorously build farmland and water conservancy, and reduce punishments, etc. The people also Thank you very much.

"The emperor is dead!"

In the crowd, it is unknown who was the first to shout out.

The old scholar sadly faced the direction of the palace and knelt down slowly.

The two scholars beside him also knelt down with him, and the other people around him seemed to be infected with this emotion, one spread it to ten, ten to one hundred, one hundred to one thousand, one thousand to one thousand... All the people on the street knelt Next, everyone was a little shorter, and they were all in the dark.

The atmosphere is solemn and sad.

Suddenly, the sound of horseshoes came from the street in the distance, approaching "dede", gradually approaching, and awakened the people from their sadness.

A group of officers and soldiers of the Imperial Army with bronze helmets and iron armor galloped past, with their hooves flying, shouting loudly one by one:

"You and other common people all go home and are not allowed to stay outside."

"Anyone who wanders around is regarded as provoking trouble and will be taken down."

"..."

The people kneeling on the ground were frightened when they heard the words, they got up one after another and went back to their homes, fearing that they would be taken to prison.

The entire capital was in a state of turmoil. After a while, there were no passers-by on the street, and it became empty and lifeless.

A group of soldiers of the Imperial Guard rode their horses through the streets and alleys of the capital, shouting or waving their whips one by one, forcefully driving away the people on the street and not allowing them to wander outside.

Not only that, but teams of soldiers surrounded Jingzhao Mansion, Wucheng Bingma Division, Beizhen Fusi, and the mansions of all the noble generals.

The sound of these rumbling horseshoes was like drums being beaten one after another, beating the hearts of everyone.

"It's worth it..."

One of the teams quickly approached the west gate.

The leader of the dragon and tiger general, General Hong, took out a golden token, and said loudly to the soldiers guarding the city gate: "The emperor has passed away, and the empress dowager ordered the city gate to be closed, and no one is allowed to enter or leave the city until Emperor Daxing goes to the funeral." !"

The people inside and outside the city gate who were waiting to enter and exit the city also heard these words, and were stunned for a moment. Many people stood still, not knowing whether to continue to leave the city or simply go home.

On the city wall, a young general with a round face stepped down the stone steps in a hurry, frowned and looked at General Hong, who was wearing a short beard, and asked hesitantly, "Close the city gate?"

The capital city is an important place in the country, and the time for opening and closing the city gates has always been fixed. In the past fifty years since the founding of the Great King, the number of times the capital city gates have been closed in advance can be counted on the fingers of one's fingers, each time by the reigning emperor Make an order in person.

General Hong pulled the reins, and the horse under his crotch was breathing white gas. He moved the token engraved with the phoenix pattern closer to the round-faced young general, and said: "The queen mother's order of the phoenix is ​​here!"

"The emperor has just passed away, and everything is waiting to be dealt with, so people's hearts are unavoidably turbulent, so the empress dowager ordered the city gate to be closed!"

General Hong spoke righteously, his brows were tightly wrinkled, and he felt impatient.

"The emperor died?" The round-faced young general pushed the helmet on his head casually, and asked with a tilted face, "Who said that?"

General Hong's brows frowned even tighter. He originally thought this task was very simple, but he didn't expect this kid to drag his feet.

He got off his horse, rode his horse and approached the young general for two steps, and said condescendingly: "The death bell rang ninety-five forty-five just now. It's a great funeral sound. Didn't you hear it?"

"Da Sangyin?" The round-faced young general leaned lazily on the city wall, but he had a heroic aura of his own.

He said casually: "I didn't count how many times the bell rang just now, maybe the queen mother died."

As he spoke, he casually tossed two loquats to a bearded city gate guard next to him, and asked with a playful smile, "Isn't it?"

The bearded man caught the two loquats with a smile, and booed, "Lieutenant Fan, I didn't count just now...Third brother, have you counted?"

Qiubearhu threw one of the loquats to another city gate guard with triangular eyes, and that man also shook his head seriously and said, "I didn't count either."

"I reckon that the death knell just now should have exceeded 20. Maybe it's really the Queen Mother's death!"

General Hong was extremely angry, his teeth were chattering, his face turned blue and turned white, quite ugly.

He had long heard that the Jinwu Guards guarding the city gates were the same as the soldiers and horses of the five cities, and there were many unlearned and incompetent dudes from the families of honorable generals.

See you today, as expected!

General Hong clenched the reins tightly with one hand, and angrily let go of his cruel words: "If you resist the decree and don't obey it, you will not be pardoned!"

"You guys better think clearly!"

He raised his hand and made a gesture, and the dozens of imperial guards he brought rushed forward, aggressively.

They all drew out their sabers in protest, and their threats were palpable, as if a disagreement would splatter blood on the spot.

"Who will be beheaded?" A stern male voice suddenly sounded behind him, seeming to hum or sneer.

General Hong felt that the voice sounded familiar.

Who is it?

He subconsciously followed the sound and looked up the city wall, and saw another young general looking down at him from high above the city wall.

Under the backlight, the young general's face was somewhat blurred under the cover of the helmet, and his figure was tall and slender.

He took off the heavy helmet casually, revealing a smooth forehead and a handsome face with a bit of sharpness, and the narrow and long eyes were shining coldly.

Under the blue sky, the sun behind the young man was dazzling, and General Hong subconsciously narrowed his eyes.

This person seemed to be standing on the city wall just now, and he didn't seem to be there either.

General Hong's pupils fluttered rapidly, his body seemed to be frozen and unable to move, he looked at the young general on the city wall in disbelief.

Gu Yuan!

Why is Gu Yuan here? !

General Hong's mind was buzzing, as if there were countless bees rampaging in his mind, unable to think calmly at all.

Shouldn't Gu Yuan have traveled across the country with the First Prince to greet his relatives? !

If Gu Yuan is here...then, does it mean...

General Hong's heart beat so fast that it almost jumped out of his chest, and he hardly dared to think about it.

Tap the screen to use advanced tools Tip: You can use left and right keyboard keys to browse between chapters.

You'll Also Like