Longevity: Never leave the mountain until you are invincible

January 11th, the thirty-fourth year of Jingzheng period.

Emperor Jingzheng was buried in the sky.

There was a posthumous edict issued from the Yangxin Palace, ordering the third prince to succeed to the throne.

Holding the imperial edict, Duke Lu and Duke Hu led a group of martial arts masters from the three major gangs, including the City Guards and the Daning Gang, to escort the third prince into the palace.

With the support of Su Xiang and other civil servants and generals, the Prince's East Palace commanded the Royal Forest Army and cooperated with the masters of the Jin Yiwei to attack the palace.

With the support of Taishi Xu and others, the second prince mobilized the military and horse divisions of the five cities and gathered masters from many martial arts schools in the imperial capital in an attempt to invade the palace from the east gate.

In order to compete for the throne, the three princes fought all night long, leaving the palace filled with blood and corpses everywhere.

The fighting lasted all night.

It wasn't until the early morning of the next day that the turmoil in the palace gradually subsided.

result.

What everyone did not expect was that it was not the three princes who won the final victory, but the fourth prince.

The youngest prince of Emperor Jingzheng, the Queen's legitimate son, had just turned nine years old.

It is said that after the prince and others forced the queen to return power, the queen had been preparing for this day. She took control of the Imperial Guard step by step through Zhang You, the Minister of War, and secretly united with Dongchang.

When the prince and others were almost done fighting, he suddenly took action and killed the prince and others by surprise.

The prince and the second prince were executed by the masters of Dongchang. Su Xiang, Xu Taishi and other supporters of the two princes also failed to escape the fate of death and died in the rebellious army.

The third prince laughed loudly in front of everyone, hit his head on the doorpost of Yangxin Palace, and committed suicide.

The two princes, Lu Guogong and Hu Guogong, barely managed to save their lives. However, they were deprived of their titles because of cholera in the palace and seeking power to usurp the country, and their families were exiled to the frontier.

At this point, the dust has settled.

With the support of the queen and others, the fourth prince is about to ascend the throne and take charge of the throne.

…

"Brother Chen, you don't know how clever the Queen Mother is. The Third Prince has been infiltrated by the Queen Mother for a long time. Even Mr. Lu is a member of the Queen Mother."

Li Xiaoer looked excited and shared the news he had just received with Chu Chen:

“After the death of the late emperor, the Queen Mother used a fake edict to lure the third prince into bringing people into the palace, breaking the deadlock, so that the prince and the second prince had to bring people into the palace in advance.

In the end, when all three parties have lost their battle, they take action again and reap the benefits. "

After the dust settled on the battle in the palace, some secrets about this battle also vaguely spread.

To say that the most miserable of the three princes is undoubtedly the third prince.

The supporters around him, except for a few ministers such as Lu Guogong and Hu Guogong, are basically pawns arranged by the Queen Mother. It can be said that the three princes' fight for the throne has been a joke from beginning to end.

The prince and the second prince were also manipulated by the queen mother.

"A prostitute with such a method really underestimates the Queen Mother."

Chu Chen sighed in his heart.

At this time, he finally understood why Lu Qinghou was able to become the Minister of Household Affairs. Both the Third Prince and the Queen Mother contributed their efforts, which allowed Lu Qinghou to advance several levels in a row.

By the way, Lu Qinghou was promoted again.

Secretary of the Ministry of Finance.

The former Hubu Shangshu supported the prince in his bid for the throne. After the prince's defeat, the former Hubu Shangshu was liquidated, and Lu Qinghou took the position.

It can be said that Lu Qinghou rose to the top in one fell swoop. In just a few years, he went from a poor scholar to the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, occupying a pivotal position in the Great Yan Dynasty.

Li Xiaoer was very happy about this. The higher Lu Qinghou's status, the more stable the offal soup shop would be.

Moreover, taking advantage of the momentum of Lu Qinghou's promotion, he can also expand the number and scale of offal soup restaurants.

"Brother Chen, did you sleep well last night?"

Li Xiaoer suddenly asked.

"It's pretty safe."

Chu Chen smiled.

"I heard that big restaurants such as Zuixianlou and Yunlai Pavilion were robbed last night. Some martial arts masters sneaked into them and robbed money. Shopkeeper Wang resisted with all his strength and died on the spot.

Several offal soup shops showed signs of infiltration. Fortunately, I was alert and asked the waiters to put money on the table in advance, so no big losses were caused. "

Li Xiaoer said, feeling a little scared.

Last night, the imperial capital was in chaos and turmoil. Most people were focused on fighting for the throne, while some people were focused on robbing families and becoming noble men.

Many shops, restaurants, and people's homes in the imperial capital were robbed.

"Perhaps they feel that there is no profit to be made in the pawn shop, so no one comes to my pawn shop to take advantage of the autumn wind."

Chu Chen said, glancing at a corner of the courtyard.

The soil in this corner of the courtyard is quite new and has signs of being turned over.

Two little frog thieves were buried there.

In fact, someone also sneaked into the pawn shop last night. However, they fell into the trap that Chu Chen had laid out from the beginning. Not only did they fail to reap any benefits, they actually lost their lives.

After moving to this room, Chu Chen secretly arranged many traps.

These traps are all learned from the books in the secret room.

One of the poisons called Hua Gu Rong Jin Powder is the most terrifying. If a marrow refining warrior is exposed to it even a little bit, not to mention dying on the spot, his combat power will be greatly reduced. He placed it at the entrance of the secret room.

"That's good."

Li Xiaoer didn't doubt that he was there, he just thought it was Chu Chen's good luck.

…

Seven days after Emperor Jingzheng was buried, the fourth prince officially ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor, changing his name to Hongguang.

Because the new emperor was young, the Queen Mother listened to the affairs behind the curtain.

History goes full circle and returns to its original starting point.

The person in charge of the Great Yan Chaotang is still the Empress Dowager Zhang, the former empress.

The Queen Mother was ruthless and decisive. Through Lü Qinghou and others, she initially took control of the court of Dayan.

Then, she used the rebellion of the former crown prince and other three princes as an excuse to disband the Jinyiwei, disband the Imperial Guards, integrate them into the Imperial Guards, purge the Five City Military Department, and place her own people.

With the support of the East Factory, all the city defense armaments inside and outside the imperial capital were in her hands.

Three days later.

The Queen Mother issued an imperial decree, and the commander of the Imperial Guards, Zhang Erhe, thoroughly investigated the case of the three princes' rebellion.

For a time, the imperial capital was once again in a bloody storm.

Countless ministers were confiscated and exterminated, exiled to the frontier, and all their money was filled into the national treasury. Some famous wealthy businessmen and gangs in the imperial capital were also implicated and thrown into the Tianlao.

At that time, everyone in the imperial capital was in danger.

It was not until five days later that the turmoil was completely over, and the imperial capital once again returned to its former bustle and bustle. Entertainment venues such as Zuixianlou and Manchunyuan reopened for business.

But the decline of the Great Yan Kingdom is visible to the naked eye.

While the various parties in the imperial capital are fighting for the throne, the situation in the Great Yan Kingdom continues to deteriorate, becoming more and more severe day by day.

The three vassal kings divided and ruled, and expanded their own sphere of influence. If the queen mother had not quickly taken control of the imperial capital, I am afraid that several vassal kings would have entered the imperial capital under the banner of serving the king.

The southern uprising army also became powerful, occupying several prefectures and competing with the Great Yan court.

To this day, the territory that the Great Yan court can control is only one-third of what it used to be.

Of course.

The turmoil in various parts of the Great Yan Kingdom did not affect the imperial capital.

Generally speaking, as long as there is no change of the throne, there will be basically no major turmoil in the imperial capital.

Once there is a huge turmoil in the imperial capital other than the change of imperial power, it is basically not far from the destruction of the country.