Tao Yuwei didn't know yet that just because she went to the palace to eat melons, the incident of Concubine Gao broke out ahead of time.
At night.
Tao Yuwei was eating at home, but she didn't see her father.
She didn't care.
At this moment, the sky outside has become completely dark.
A low-key carriage drove out from the back door of the Left Prime Minister's Mansion, quietly followed the alley next to it, and disappeared into the night.
Not long after.
In an inconspicuous courtyard in the south of the city.
A young man in a white brocade robe and with a face as pale as an immortal sat calmly in an armchair, holding a white teacup in his hand. He had an extraordinary temperament and waited quietly.
At this time, someone walked in from outside.
The moment the visitor saw the man, he stopped and looked at the white figure for a long time before saying, "Your Highness, I haven't seen you for many years. You are still as young as ever. You are worthy of being hailed as the Star-Grabbing Prince. But I am already old."
The Left Prime Minister Wang Lingchang walked up to the man and bowed.
Junshan King Xiao Long stood up calmly, holding Wang Lingchang's hand as he saluted. "It's been many years since we last met, and your spirit remains as strong as ever. There's no need for formalities."
The two of them sat down together.
"Your Highness, in recent years, His Majesty has been dictating government decisions arbitrarily. He re-instated the Xiao Yu Guard and appointed the Grand Duke's grandson, Prince Yong, as his heir. He has been arresting officials at court, and illegally detaining and imprisoning them for long periods of time is commonplace. If this continues, where will the court's laws be? Now, the Xiao Yu Guard has reached out to this old minister. Your Majesty has found a pretext to have my eldest son beheaded at Caishikou. My wife, unable to bear the devastation, is bedridden."
After meeting his former student, Junshan Wang, Wang Lingchang angrily expressed his helplessness.
"If that Prince Xiao continues to investigate, I'm afraid he'll find out what happened back then. So, why not take this opportunity to dig out that treasure and use it to expand Your Highness's power so that we can accomplish our goal."
"This prince and teacher will work together to purge the court of treason and complete our great cause, restoring a prosperous and peaceful Great Zhou."
When King Junshan's gentle voice reached Wang Lingchang's ears, the anger in his heart subsided a little.
"Your Highness and I, this old minister, were unlucky back then. We had originally overthrown the Duke of Zhuguo and had successfully recommended one of our men to succeed the Grand General before the late Emperor. However, Prince Yong's unreasonable behavior interrupted our plan, allowing the Fu family to take advantage of the opportunity and snatch the Grand General's position."
Whenever Wang Lingchang mentioned what happened back then, he felt regretful and sighed.
Junshan King Xiao Long was also reminded of his memories.
At the beginning, they were just a little bit away from obtaining one-third of the military power of the Great Zhou, but one wrong step led to another and they lost the initiative.
After the death of the late emperor, he had to choose to temporarily avoid the limelight. According to the late emperor's last wishes, he left the capital and went to Lingzhou in the northwest to take up his post.
Although Lingzhou was his fiefdom, the military power of the Northwest Army fell into the hands of his imperial nephew, Prince Yong.
His eldest nephew who sat on the throne seemed to care about family affection towards his royal relatives. During festivals, he would send people to his fiefdom to deliver gifts.
In reality, they are extremely narrow-minded and constantly suppress and restrict the development of these princes. The fiefdoms of each of their princes have harsh environments and are small, making it difficult for them to grow and develop.
At present, each prince can only take care of himself and live on his own small piece of land.
Thinking of this, King Junshan had been dissatisfied with Emperor Jianchang for a long time.
Otherwise, after so many years, he wouldn't have been thinking about returning to the capital.
"At that time, the eldest nephew, the crown prince, went south to provide disaster relief, and the late emperor was seriously ill. It was a good time to take action, but that unruly second nephew ruined everything. What's the point of talking about this now?"
King Junshan also thought that it was his bad luck that led to the accident and caused him to miss the good time to ascend the throne.
When they talked about Prince Yong, they both felt that Prince Yong was also a rebellious eccentric when he was young.
"Since childhood, this Second Emperor's nephew has been unwilling to stay in the palace and dislikes studying. He's a notorious bully in the palace. Anyone who offends him will be punished. However, the late emperor values him even more."
"It's a pity that he wasn't good at studying and loved to get into trouble, so the late emperor threw him out of the palace to cultivate his character in the royal garden. When he returned, the late emperor ordered him to marry the daughter of the Duke of Zhuguo. My good brother, as expected, loves the second nephew the most and will always leave the best for this son."
He had thought about marrying the eldest daughter of the Duke of Zhuguo, but the late emperor got there first and granted the marriage to his youngest son.
Helplessly, he had to settle for the second best and ignored the age gap and deliberately contacted Han Ruoxuan, the youngest daughter of Zhuguogong.
With his reputation as the Star-Picking Prince and his good looks, there were few women in the capital who could not resist him.
And Han Ruoxuan is one of these few people. The girl is so young, but she actually likes men who wield swords and guns. She doesn't like him at all.
Seeing this, he decided to take action, taking advantage of the late emperor's suspicion and making efforts to cut off Prince Yong's great help.
The Zhuguogong family collapsed.
He also failed to gain control of the 500,000-strong army in the northern border.
Today, the military power of the Northern Frontier seems to be in the hands of that man surnamed Feng, but in fact, the real controller is still firmly in the hands of the Tao family.
Tao Zhihong seemed to have resigned from the position of Grand Marshal of the Northern Frontier Army, but he still held a military token of the camp outside the capital.
His son Tao Zipeng is a major general in the northern border at a young age, and his nephew Wu Hanmo is also serving as a general of cavalry in the northern border. Although they are both young, their positions are not low, only below the general Feng Tao.
In a few years, when Feng Tao retires, the military power will still fall into the hands of the Tao family.
The military command of the Northwest Army is in the hands of Prince Yong, who favors his concubine and kills his wife and has a somewhat abnormal mind.
The military power of the Southwest Army was in the hands of Tao Zhihong's father-in-law Wu Daozhi.
After fighting for many years, he still couldn't get the military power. Sometimes, King Junshan felt helpless.
"They were lucky in the past, but they may not be lucky now. Your Highness, this is what I found. Please take a look."
The left prime minister Wang Lingchang took out a yellowed wool map from his pocket with an unexpected look.
King Junshan took it in his hand and after looking at it carefully, he could not hide the surprise on his fair face.
"Teacher is really amazing. He actually found this thing. With it, we can do something big."
Holding the map in his hand, King Junshan exudes a blazing glow that makes it difficult to look away.
Good-looking people, whether men or women, will make you want to look at them again and again.
The same was true for Wang Lingchang. His eyes fell on King Junshan without blinking.
"But why is there a piece missing from this picture?"
After King Junshan was overjoyed, he was reluctant to put the map down. He looked at it again and again, only to find that this wool map was missing the most crucial part.
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