The film and television world begins with the battle for the throne in Kowloon

Chapter 64: The Eighth Brother Failed

The next morning, Yinzhen took a sedan chair to the Tenth Master's Mansion. Probably because he was afraid that Li Yan would go back on his word, he and Li Yan took the Taoist priest to the Eighth Master's Mansion. Li Yan thought of what Alan had said yesterday when he came back and said that he had successfully delivered the letter to Fifth Brother Zhang.

Let go
But until this morning, there has been no response. I know that Kangxi has his own arrangements for this matter.

The leader's reply had a profound meaning. Not responding was also a way of expressing his attitude, that is, he knew about it and would do what he had to do. Anyway, with this incident, he had cleared himself from the matter and could not be implicated in any way.

Li Yan brought the Taoist priest to the Eighth Master's residence. He did not let the Ninth Master worry and cooperated very well, performing a farce of pretending to be a ghost and catching ghosts. The Eighth Master got angry on the spot and sent the Taoist priest to the palace to be dealt with by Kangxi.

Kangxi said a few words to the Taoist priest lightly, which sometimes represented the public opinion, and then drove the Taoist priest out of the capital.

At this point, Tong Guowei felt that he had grasped the emperor's intention, and began to collude with the Eighth Prince, inviting many ministers to submit a memorial to recommend the Eighth Prince as the new crown prince.

When the imperial edicts of the ministers were piled up in the upper study!
Kangxi was stunned.
More than 80% of the ministers favored the eighth prince, and the letters recommending him were piled up in several piles, while those recommending other princes were sparsely distributed, only three or two.

Even a free man like Lao Shi has several recommended books.
"With one mind, we can stand firm!"

Kangxi said something vague and left the study room expressionlessly.

The ministers who were left in the study looked at each other, not knowing what to do.
Then he invited Tong Guowei to dinner, where he reminisced about the past and praised his achievements. Finally, he asked Tong Guowei to recommend talents from the Tong family, which made Tong Guowei feel uneasy. He tried to recommend Longkodo. Kangxi appointed Longkodo on the spot as the commander-in-chief of the Infantry Yamen, the so-called Nine-Gate Admiral.

The Nine-Gates Commander-in-Chief was in charge of the guarding and access control inside and outside the nine city gates of Beijing's inner city, namely Zhengyangmen, Chongwenmen, Xuanwumen, Andingmen, Deshengmen, Dongzhimen, Xizhimen, Chaoyangmen and Fuchengmen. He was also responsible for night patrols, firefighting, compiling and checking the baojia system, issuing prohibitions, arresting people, and judging cases. He was actually the commander of the Qing Dynasty's imperial guards and his rank was the second rank.

When Tong Guowei saw this assignment, he felt a chill in his heart and understood what Kangxi meant. He knew that he had overheated this time.

As soon as he got home from the palace, he called Longkodo and told him the details, and analyzed the situation in the court. Finally, he sighed dejectedly: "Little Duozi, this time, Sixth Uncle is finished. Now the Tong family is in danger, life and death are at stake, and it depends on you to come out and turn the tide!"

"Sixth Uncle, how can you say that? A few days ago, you said confidently that the Eighth Master would become the Crown Prince. With the merit of supporting him, you would find a good job for your nephew in the future!"

"Only one night has passed, and the situation has suddenly changed. Now the building is about to collapse! I'm timid, please don't scare me." Longkodo was terrified when he heard this. Although his sixth uncle didn't like him very much, no matter what, even if the bones were broken, the tendons were connected, and there could not be two Tongs with one stroke. Longkodo knew that when the critical moment came, the people he could rely on would have to be people of the same clan!

Tong Guowei said helplessly: "I thought the emperor favored the Eighth Prince, so I placed all my hopes on him. Who knew that fate is unpredictable? The emperor had a heart-to-heart talk with me today, and the deep meaning behind his words was very clear. The position of crown prince will not be with the Eighth Prince."

"By the way, who are you recommending this time?"

"Didn't I tell you before that I have a very good relationship with the Tenth Prince, so I'm recommending the Tenth Prince to be the Crown Prince!" Longkodo looked at Tong Guowei strangely and his heart sank. It seemed that the situation was really not optimistic. The Sixth Uncle was in a state of panic.

"That's good, that's good"

"You will do this tomorrow." Tong Guowei asked Longkodo to expose himself the next day, and then let the emperor deal with him. Through his own downfall, he would announce the failure of the Eighth Prince's party.

Finally, I have one more thing to do for the Emperor. I hope that the Emperor will show mercy to me because of my loyalty and not implicate the Tong family because of these events. I can step down, but the family cannot fall!
As soon as the court started the next day, Longkodo made a report against Tong Guowei, accusing him of forming a clique and colluding with others to be disloyal to the emperor. Kangxi was furious.

He scolded Tong Guowei so much that he was spitting blood, dealt a severe blow to the Eighth Prince's party, and finally decided to consider reinstating Crown Prince Yinreng.

Tong Guowei's fate was in front of them, and all the officials were trembling with fear and dared not say much.
Li Yan also watched the whole show carefully. Naturally, Li Yan's recommendation letter was also from the Eighth Brother, and it was written in front of the Eighth Brother, the Ninth Brother and the Fourteenth Brother.

But Li Yan knew that this did not mean anything. These were just superficial efforts. He had expressed his true attitude in front of Kangxi, and the letter he had privately asked Zhang Wu Ge to write on his behalf also explained his attitude. Superficial things did not matter.

If the Eighth Brother asked for it, he would give it to them, but Li Yan knew that the Eighth Brother was out of luck. After the court was dismissed, before everyone left the palace gate, just after they stepped down the jade steps, the Thirteenth Brother and the Fourteenth Brother started arguing and fighting. The guards saw this and did not dare to stop them, but hurried in to report. When Kangxi came out after learning about it, the Fourteenth Brother insisted on asking Kangxi for an explanation, which made Kangxi so angry that he drew his knife and finally fainted.

Li Yan thought to himself, the Fourteenth Brother really wanted to trick the Eighth Brother to death!

Don't stop until you reach your goal.
At this time, what the Eighth Prince needed most was to be quiet and low-key. The more he made a fuss, the more Kangxi hated him. The Fourteenth Prince discovered from Kangxi's attitude towards praising the Thirteenth Prince that Kangxi appreciated people with a straightforward personality and who valued friendship and loyalty.

So he tried to please him by setting a trap for Lao Ba while trying his best to show off himself.

The Fourteenth Prince saw that the Eighth Prince had fallen and wanted to come to the fore, and could not wait to take over the Eighth Prince's manpower and power. Although this move seemed risky, he actually understood the old man's mind. He put everything on the table instead of engaging in conspiracies and intrigues in private, which fully catered to Kangxi's mentality.

However, the incident of the fake imperial edict left a hidden danger. As long as he found evidence, Old Fourteen would be brought to justice.

Li Yan, like the other princes, tried to mediate the dispute. He neither stood out nor lagged behind. His performance was very proper. The farce ended abruptly.

Li Yan returned to the mansion and told Wu Sidao in detail what had happened in the court. Too many things had happened in the past two days, and the situation was turbulent and changing rapidly. Li Yan was not sure if there was anything he had made a mistake or overlooked, so he still had to rely on Old Wu's wisdom to check it out.

In the middle of the lake in the garden of the Tenth Master’s Mansion, in the pavilion with transparent walls on all sides.

Wu Sidao listened quietly to Li Yan talking about what happened in the past two days, including the matter that Lao Ba asked Li Yan to pretend to be a Taoist priest. After listening to Li Yan's story, Wu Sidao asked some details and thought about it.

"Master Ten, congratulations. Judging from the current situation, you have already caught the emperor's attention." Wu Sidao's words made Li Yan's heart light up.

"Sir, are you saying that the Emperor has also listed me as one of the candidates for the new crown prince?"

"Yes, Master Eight went too far in selecting the new crown prince this time, causing the emperor to feel a strong sense of fear."

Li Yan asked: "How do you know that?"

"Your Majesty can just turn over the Twenty-Three Officials and it will happen. There has never been a prince who was deposed and then inherited the throne. Why? Because once he is deposed, his dignity will be lost, he will be looked down upon by the world, and he will lose the dignity of ruling the world."

"This time the crown prince was deposed, and many problems that had not appeared before were exposed. The princes jumped out to compete for the position of crown prince. Three princes were imprisoned before they even returned to the capital. And when choosing a new crown prince, the Eighth Prince's party, which had been hiding in the water before, also surfaced. Their power is beyond imagination, and the emperor did not expect that more than 80% of the ministers in the court are loyal to the Eighth Prince."

"When the water is full, it overflows; when the moon is full, it wanes. The Eighth Master has gone too far. Not to mention the Crown Prince and other princes, his limelight has overshadowed the Emperor, posing a great threat to the imperial power."

"The crown prince has been devastated by this blow, so it is relatively safe for the emperor. The emperor does not want to give the crown prince position to the Eighth Prince, but at the same time, he does not want to choose another prince as the crown prince, so as not to stimulate the Eighth Prince and make him take risks. Therefore, the crown prince will be reinstated to stabilize the situation temporarily, and then the court will be cleaned up calmly, especially the Eighth Prince's party. The emperor must buy time to break up the Eighth Prince's party and prevent Xiao Qiang from causing trouble."

Wu Sidao spoke eloquently, and in just a few words, he explained the entire court situation and Kangxi's mentality clearly, with a distinct logic, and Li Yan nodded continuously after listening to him.

That makes sense!

Wu Sidao continued, "Power needs to be checked and balanced, only then can the world be peaceful!"

"Last time in the Rehe Palace, the Emperor was worried that the Crown Prince would threaten the imperial power, so he suddenly conferred titles on the eldest, third, fourth, eighth, and princes as princes to restrain the Crown Prince. This was a reflection of this idea. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a false alarm, and the eldest and third princes did not understand the Emperor's mentality. They thought they could replace him, so they jumped out impatiently, causing the Emperor to dislike them and thus losing their chance to compete."

(End of this chapter)