I am a prince in Zhutian Films

Chapter 120 Before leaving

The eldest princess was imprisoned, and everyone thought that the second unlucky person would be the second prince. No one expected that the person who was supposed to be unlucky would suddenly gain the power of regent.

The second brother naturally didn't expect this either. He just felt cold all over. His father's actions were always so unexpected and chilling. His methods were like floating clouds in the sky, and it was impossible to find any trace.

Li Chengze didn't believe that Emperor Qing didn't know about what he and Li Yunrui had done. Then why did Emperor Qing let him govern the country when Li Yunrui was under house arrest?
I really can't figure it out, but I only need to know one thing, that is, I must not cause any trouble during the period of regency and I must not let anyone catch me.

So after the excitement, the second brother became more honest and obedient.

Another half a month passed, and the procession for the sacrifice to the heaven was ready, and it was the midsummer of the eighth year of the Qingli period.

At dawn that day, in the largest house in Wuyi Lane in Kyoto, the old man who had recently taken a liking to growing cabbages had already gotten up and was watering the fields with a wooden ladle.

After resigning from his position in the military academy last year, Qin Ye stayed at home to take care of his eldest grandson. Since his grandson liked to eat cabbage, he specially set up a vegetable garden to grow cabbage.

As the most respected leader in the military, Qin Ye is already very old. It's probably like this for old people, as if they are afraid of falling asleep, so old people always get up earlier than ordinary people.

Today his second son also got up very early. Qin Heng, who has now become the deputy envoy of the Privy Council and was forced to leave the garrison of Kyoto, came from the front yard to the vegetable garden with a worried look on his face, and whispered a few words to his old father.

Old Master Qin frowned slightly, a hint of surprise flashed across his old face, and then he sighed: "It seems that Kyoto is really going to change."

"Should you tell His Majesty?"

Qin Ye shook his head: "Your Majesty won't care. Our Majesty went to Dadong Mountain to lure out some people."

"If His Majesty really died in Dadong Mountain, what should we do?" Qin Heng asked worriedly. He didn't know who threw the letter to him, but the fact that the letter was delivered to his house without the Qin family noticing showed that the other party was not simple. Perhaps the trap he set could really make Emperor Qing die in Dadong Mountain.

"If he were your elder brother, he would never ask such a question." Qin Ye said with some regret.

Qin Heng: "..."

He also knew that he was no match for his elder brother. If his cousin had not come to the Qin Mansion before leaving and asked his elder brother to take the path of a civil servant, he would never have been the heir to the Qin family.

Qin Ye sighed and said, "Your cousin is in Kyoto. We are from the Ding Wang faction. If he is not here, we are the emperor's party. We will listen to whoever sits in that position. You shouldn't even ask such questions unless you want to rebel."

Qin Heng quickly shook his head and changed the subject: "Father, is my cousin really still alive?"

Upon hearing this, Qin Ye said unhappily: "Even if you die, he won't die. There is clear news that he is on his way back to Beijing."

"That's good."

Qin Heng breathed a sigh of relief. Although he didn't know where his father got the news from, as long as he knew that Li Chengzong was still alive, everything would be fine. He felt relieved and even changed his way of addressing him.

"Dad, should we pretend to support the Crown Prince? Now that the Princess has lost power and the Crown Prince has been confined, it seems that the Second Brother has gotten a great deal, but I'm afraid that His Majesty is doing this to deal with him. In the future, it is very likely that Fan Xian will dominate. I'm worried about what Fan Xian will do. Should we pretend to support the Crown Prince or the Second Brother? At least before my cousin comes back, we can't let the Second Brother and the Crown Prince fall."

As the clear heir of the Qin family, Qin Heng also learned some things about the past from Qin Ye. For Fan Xian, the Qin family had killed his mother.

"Who do you want to choose?"

"The Crown Prince, the second one has the Ye family. If we continue to pretend to support him, it will not conform to the three-party balance that my cousin mentioned."

Qin Ye was silent for a moment, then hummed, and then changed the subject: "However, we have to wait until your majesty's trip to Dadong Mountain. Just remember that even if Zong'er is not in Kyoto, our Qin family does not need to rely on anyone."

Qin Heng nodded: "Dad, it's nothing, I'll go down first."

Qin Ye waved his hand and said nothing more. He picked up the wooden ladle and continued watering the plants. It was hard to tell that he was once the number one man in the military.

and the Prince's Palace.

This is the residence of the eldest prince Li Chengru.

Early this morning, Li Chengru went to Prince Ding's Mansion in a hurry.

As for why he went to Prince Ding's Mansion, we have to mention the meals for pregnant women in Prince Ding's Mansion. Because there has never been any difficult labor in Prince Ding's Mansion, the meals for pregnant women in Prince Ding's Mansion have been praised as miraculous. So after finding out that his wife Zhan Pianpian was pregnant this morning, Li Chengru hurried to Prince Ding's Mansion to borrow someone.

When he returned to Prince Heqin's palace, he happened to meet a young eunuch coming to announce the imperial decree.

This eunuch's name is Hong Zhu, and he was once the chief eunuch of the Eastern Palace.

Many people died in the fire in the East Palace last winter. It can be said that all the palace maids and eunuchs died, and only the eunuch leader survived.

Not only did he survive, he was also reused. Although it was not stated explicitly, it was obvious that he would be the next Eunuch Hou.

The order was simple, which was to let Li Chengru attend the prince's family dinner at noon.

The prince’s family banquets have not been interrupted over the years, but this time, Li Chengru had some doubts.

Since he returned to Kyoto from the Western Expedition, things have happened one after another.

First, the power under the eldest princess was eliminated, then there was a fire in the East Palace, His Majesty wanted to depose the crown prince for no reason, and there was the recent uproar over the sacrifice to heaven and the second son's regent.

Except for the matter of the second son becoming regent, he went to the palace to ask for an audience after all other events happened.

Especially when it came to Emperor Qing's going to offer sacrifices to heaven, he went to the palace again and again to ask to see Emperor Qing, hoping that he would take back his decision, but in the end he couldn't even get into the palace.

Moreover, just yesterday, he went to the palace but still failed to see Emperor Qing.

Now he was suddenly asked to attend the family dinner, which Li Chengru felt was not simple.

After thinking it over, he still couldn't understand why Emperor Qing suddenly arranged a family dinner.

He wanted to find someone to discuss things with, but found that it was too late, so he hurried into the palace.

It was still the same place, but there were two fewer people compared to the prince’s family banquet in previous years.

One is Li Chengzong.

The other is Crown Prince Li Chengqian.

The three brothers were exchanging pleasantries and were running out of topics to talk about when Emperor Qing finally arrived.

At the dinner table, Emperor Qing gave some instructions to the second son about his duties as regent and praised the fourth son.

In the past two or three years, Li Chengping and Li Hongcheng have worked together to generate a lot of revenue for the Qing Kingdom's finances, which is likely to surpass the inner treasury in Fan Xian's hands, making Emperor Qing very satisfied.

As for the eldest brother, Emperor Qing did not speak to him at the dinner table, but after quickly finishing the family dinner, he kept him alone.

"In two days, I will set off to Mount Dadong to offer sacrifices to the heavens."

Everyone knew that Emperor Qing's trip to offer sacrifices to heaven was very risky. At the very least, the great master who had come out of seclusion in Dongyi City would definitely come to assassinate him. So in order to keep Emperor Qing in Kyoto, Li Chengru had already been to the palace several times, and submitted memorials to the emperor every day. Now that he had finally met Emperor Qing, he naturally could not miss the opportunity to persuade him in person.

Li Chengru nodded and said seriously: "Father, as the saying goes, a great ruler should not be in an unpredictable situation. I beg you to stay in Kyoto."

"The Queen Mother is in charge of the capital, Chen Pingping and two university scholars are here, as well as that old fellow Qin Ye. Who dares to move without authorization?"

"Father..."

Emperor Qing waved his hand impatiently and interrupted, "Alright, I have made up my mind about offering sacrifices to the heavens. You don't need to say anything more. I kept you here because I have something to tell you."

As soon as he finished speaking, the eunuch Hou who was serving brought an imperial edict, then bowed and retreated. Only Emperor Qing and Li Chengru were left in the imperial study.

Li Chengru unfolded the imperial edict and took a look at it, he was completely stunned.

This imperial edict was an edict to appoint a crown prince, and only the two words "Li Cheng" were written on the candidate for crown prince, and the third word needed to be added.

Li Chengru guessed that this family dinner was not simple, but he didn't expect it to be so complicated.

Seeing Li Chengru standing there in a daze, Emperor Qing said calmly: "You are all my sons, and I will give you a chance as well."

After hearing these words, Li Chengru was so scared that he knelt down immediately.

"Father, I have never coveted the position of crown prince. Please understand." Emperor Qing nodded, personally helped Li Chengru sit down, patted his shoulder and said, "I know that you have always been a loyal person, so I am willing to give you a chance. You don't have to worry about anything."

"Father, I really don't have that idea. I know myself well and I know I am not cut out for it. You should just send me to the border army." Li Chengru was really frightened by Emperor Qing and now he didn't want to stay in Kyoto for a moment.

Seeing his eldest son's fearful look, Emperor Qing shook his head and said, "You have to stay in Kyoto. Not only that, but before I offer sacrifices to the heavens and return to the capital, you have to completely control the defense of Kyoto in your own hands."

"I'll do my best." Li Chengru said with a wry smile.

He really didn't have much confidence in the power to control the defense of Kyoto.

The current garrison commander of Kyoto is called Xie Su. After returning from the Western Expedition last year, he was promoted to garrison commander of Kyoto.

Xie Su was a general under his command, who had followed him for a long time. He could be said to be a direct descendant of the direct descendants, equivalent to the Blood-Cloth Guards under Li Chengzong, but Xie Su only held that position in vain.

There was no way. The Kyoto Garrison was first controlled by the Ye family for twenty years, and later it was managed by Qin Heng, the second son of the Qin family, who was the number one in the military. The Ye and Qin families had no idea how many cronies they had stuffed into the Kyoto Garrison. Given the status of the two families in the military, let alone Xie Su under his command, even if he personally served as the Kyoto Garrison, it would be extremely difficult for him to control the entire situation.

Emperor Qing also knew about this situation and felt that it was a bit difficult for his eldest son, so he lowered his requirements.

"I don't care what method you use, at least control half of the defense of Kyoto."

"Yes, Father."

"One more thing. If I cannot return to Beijing this time, kill Chen Pingping."

Looking at Emperor Qing's murderous expression, Li Chengru was dumbfounded.

"has a problem?"

Li Chengru came back to his senses and knelt down and said, "Father, Dean Chen has made great contributions and is loyal to the Qing Kingdom. Why do you want to kill Dean Chen?"

"Li Chengru, you know it's very difficult to see a person's heart clearly."

Emperor Qing suddenly began to sigh, and it was obvious that he was referring to Chen Pingping. He actually knew that Chen Pingping was loyal to Qing Kingdom, but it was hard to say whether he was loyal to him.

Of course, Emperor Qing wanted to kill Chen Pingping, not only because he could not judge whether Chen Pingping was still loyal to him, but also because Chen Pingping was too powerful. At least in his opinion, except for himself and his third son, no one else could control Chen Pingping.

If... He meant if he could not leave Dadong Mountain alive, Chen Pingping would push Fan Xian to the throne, and the princes in the capital would definitely not be Chen Pingping's opponent.

Although Fan Xian is also his biological son, the son of him and his most beloved woman, among all his sons, the one that Emperor Qing least wants to see is Fan Xian taking his position.

Seeing that Li Chengru did not answer, Emperor Qing emphasized: "In my Qing country, the surname can only be Li, not Chen, and not Fan. Do you understand?"

"Dean Chen won't."

"What if he did?"

Li Chengru was silent for a moment, then said firmly: "I will kill him there."

Only then did Emperor Qing nod in satisfaction, and chatted with Li Chengru for a long time before letting Li Chengru go, and then sent someone to summon Chen Pingping into the palace.

While Emperor Qing and Li Chengru were talking, Chen Pingping and Fei Jie were also having a secret conversation in Chen Garden.

"Has everything been arranged at Dadong Mountain?"

"It's all arranged, but you suddenly told the Qin family, there won't be any problems, right?" Fei Jie was a little worried. He really couldn't understand why Chen Pingping would inform the Qin family, who were staunch supporters of the imperial party.

"will not."

Chen Pingping shook his head and said with a smile, "Even if the Qin family informed His Majesty, His Majesty would still go to Dadong Mountain. His Majesty is too confident, so he is confident that everything is under his control. Of course, the more important thing is that he suddenly decided to go to Dadong Mountain because he wanted to get rid of Si Gu Jian and Ku He, so as to ease the current situation in Qing Kingdom."

After that, Chen Pingping asked again: "How is the investigation going at the palace?"

"I found out that the young eunuch Hong Zhu is Fan Xian's man."

Chen Pingping was stunned for a moment, then laughed: "So that's how it is, that kid really gave me a surprise."

As they were talking, they heard faint voices outside Chen Garden. Chen Pingping and Fei Jie looked at each other, and Chen Pingping said, "It seems that His Majesty is going to summon me to the palace. You should prepare to leave Beijing. Remember what we are planning, and don't let Fan Xian know."

Fei Jie nodded: "I understand."

……

……

Imperial Palace, Tai Chi Hall.

At this time, Emperor Qing was sitting in the corridor of the Taiji Hall, looking at the palace grounds in front of him. His eyes seemed a little lonely and disappointed. He did not look like an emperor at all, but more like an ordinary middle-aged man.

Next to him was the black wheelchair. Chen Pingping half lowered his head, gently stroking the armrests on both sides of the wheelchair, silent.

The king and his minister looked at each other in silence. It was already very late at night, but the lights around the Taiji Hall still illuminated the surroundings clearly.

"Thank you for your hard work over the years. I owe you a lot." Emperor Qing did not refer to himself as "I" today. There was a layer of fatigue on his expression, and there was unspeakable tiredness between the wrinkles on his beautiful face.

This kind of tiredness was not the tiredness he deliberately showed to his ministers in the court, but real tiredness, a tiredness that came from deep in his heart.

Chen Pingping has worked very hard these years. In fact, he has worked very hard too. Wearing a mask to show his true colors to others is actually much harder than doing anything else.

But Emperor Qing quickly suppressed this fatigue and immediately returned to the role of a king.

Chen Pingping glanced at him and said sincerely, "I don't feel tired, and your majesty has never treated me unfairly."

This was his true feelings. For the sake of Qing Kingdom, he never felt hardship, nor did he feel that Emperor Qing had treated him unfairly.

The reason for setting up a plan to kill Emperor Qing was not for any other reason, but just for Ye Qingmei and for Ye Qingmei's ideal world.

He doesn't have much time left, but Emperor Qing still has a lot of time. He wants to take Emperor Qing down to ask Ye Qingmei to forgive her sins. At the same time, he also wants to let Li Chengzong and Fan Xian have no more constraints and create that ideal world to their heart's content.

Emperor Qing did not bother whether Chen Pingping was sincere or not. He changed his name back and said with a smile, "I will leave for Dadong Mountain in two days. Do you have anything to say?"

"I, your Majesty, wish you a successful start."

"All the civil and military officials in the court are trying to persuade me, why don't you try to persuade me?"

"Because I know your majesty is ambitious."

Emperor Qing suddenly changed the subject and asked, "Who do you think is the candidate for crown prince?"

Chen Pingping lowered his head even lower and said, "Whoever your majesty favors, I will favor as well."

"No crime in speaking frankly."

"This old minister is optimistic about the Third Prince."

"I thought you were going to say Fan Xian." Emperor Qing smiled and sighed, "In fact, I was also optimistic about that little fat guy, but it's a pity that he died."

"Fan Xian is only suitable to take over the Supervisory Council and assist the Third Prince. As for the Third Prince... Anyway, I don't believe that he is dead."

Emperor Qing was silent for a long time, then slowly said, "Let's not talk about that little fat guy. He has never done anything to satisfy me since he was a child. If he had killed Si Gu Jian and Ku He, I wouldn't have to go through this. Now Qing is facing internal and external troubles, and that kid hasn't come back yet. I have to rely on you in Kyoto. I don't want to see a chaotic Kyoto when I come back."

Chen Pingping slowly raised his head with an unchanged expression, but a strange emotion filled his heart. In order to take Emperor Qing away, he had already made a lot of preparations, and even did not hesitate to provoke a situation of attacking Qing from all sides. Although the location had changed to Dadong Mountain, the day had finally arrived, and the final result would not change, it would definitely not change!

"If there is chaos in Kyoto when Your Majesty returns, then this old minister should not be here anymore."

Emperor Qing stood up and said with a smile: "You must live well and keep an eye on Kyoto for me. Any place in Qing Kingdom can be in chaos, but Kyoto cannot be in chaos, and you cannot die. This is my order."

"Old minister, I obey the order!"

(End of this chapter)