Chapter 275 Strange Movement
Before they knew it, the seventh day of the first lunar month had passed, and none of the anticipated crises materialized. Although the Lantern Festival hadn't ended, Xiao Qing had already begun attending court, and affairs both inside and outside the court had returned to normal.
Zhao Youchen has not yet returned, and Zhao Ziyuan is still in Nanhua, clearly becoming increasingly restless and wanting to return to Yingzhou.
Yu Zaiting adapted well, and after several interactions with Zhao Ziyuan, they both had a good impression of each other.
The Grand Tutor remained the Grand Tutor, but with Wang Xiang's disappearance, the position of Chancellor seemed to suddenly become obsolete, and no new appointments were made. However, some of the duties and powers that originally belonged to the Chancellor were transferred to the Grand Tutor, while the rest were returned to the various ministries, but all of them now belonged to the Cabinet Council.
The Six Ministries, the Court of Judicial Review, and the Censorate gained greater power, but at the same time, they were also subject to greater constraints.
The ministers seemed to have forgotten the Mengshan Rebellion, and no longer mentioned Prime Minister Wang. Many young and fresh faces appeared in the court.
And our young emperor, in the first month of this fifth year of the Dingyuan era, naturally assumed personal rule.
In addition, two other things happened.
One thing is that His Majesty has started bringing Prince Xiao Yan with him to court. Although it's just to give him a seat to listen in, what does that mean? Some ministers are already pondering quite a bit.
Some officials even thought that the Prince of Lang, who was crippled in both legs, was still in the palace. Although they had heard that he claimed to have only returned to Nanhua to "visit relatives" and did not want to participate in court affairs, and that His Majesty pitied his inconvenience and instructed him to rest all day and not to appear in court, the fact that the Prince of Lang did not return to Langzhou after the New Year festival meant something.
Another matter was that when the imperial court needed people, it held another special imperial examination. In this examination, a student stood before Xiao Qing with an outstanding first place score.
It was Qiao Bai who carried a basket of books and traveled almost all over the southern prefectures.
Perhaps due to the hardships of his journey, he was more robust than before, and seemed to have grown a little taller. His face was also much darker, and when he bowed in the hall to meet the king, he exuded a sense of gravitas.
Xiao Qing knew that he was well-read and especially familiar with the laws of the court. After discussing it with Fu Mingyi, he intended to place him in the Dali Temple for a period of time to hone his skills.
The new atmosphere in the Southern Court's court was so great that even the Yongxiao Palace in the north had heard about it.
People in Jiangzhou and Yuzhou, which are close to the Xiaoshui River, have clearly felt that the atmosphere on the north bank of the Xiaoshui River is more tense than before the Lunar New Year.
Yu Zhou sent messages to Fu Mingyi several times, each time mentioning the movements of Bei Ming. Fu Mingyi spent his days studying the defenses of the three prefectures south of the Xiao River, balancing between overly tense and relaxed deployments. The military forces of each prefecture, from top to bottom, also needed careful planning. Soon, he would need to send envoys to the area north of the Xiao River. Who to send, what to discuss, and how to discuss it were all matters that needed to be discussed repeatedly beforehand.
Another blank silk scroll was passed to Fu Mingyi by Mr. Wu. Fu Mingyi rummaged through it in the secret room and read the contents, which turned out to be related to the background of Murdan, the third prince of Beiming.
Murdan's birth mother was the daughter of the Mu family, a minor aristocratic family in the south. This family was nothing special, but what was special was that people from the Tanghua and Guihua tribes had come to the Mu family to look for someone, and what they were looking for was this daughter of the Mu family.
There aren't that many coincidences in the world.
Fu Mingyi had long suspected something, and now, after carefully considering the information he had gathered, he suddenly discovered an astonishing secret.
This secret might offer him some opportunities...
He needs to think about what to do next: remain silent or speak frankly? How can he achieve his expectations?
Meanwhile, the Prince of Lang seemed to have nothing to do. He neither mentioned returning to Langzhou nor made any other moves, spending his days with Prince Yan, and it is said that the two have become quite close.
The Imperial Physicians would visit Prince Lang every day to take his pulse and report his condition to Xiao Qing without fail. However, Xiao Qing himself no longer took the initiative to visit Prince Lang. He only held a family banquet on the night of the fifteenth of the first lunar month, chatted with Xiao Lang for a few words, and instructed Xiao Yan to treat him well. Everything seemed perfectly normal.
In the stillness of the night, Xiao Lang gently knocked on the bed board, and his attendant slowly entered.
Now that there are no more guards watching Xiao Lang and his group, they remain cautious.
The attendant approached the bedside and waited a while before saying, "Your Highness, although the dragon's aura has not been extinguished, judging from the atmosphere in this palace, it does not seem like two dragons coexisting. I'm afraid the other dragon is not in the palace."
Xiao Lang frowned. "Not in the palace? Then the dragon in the palace must be that brat?" He thought for a moment and then chuckled to himself. "I originally thought that Xiao Yan had some ambition for dominance, which was an allusion to the image of the two dragons. Since it was within his grasp, why push it? I didn't expect it to be a pair of dragons."
The attendant lowered his head. “Your Majesty, celestial phenomena are not certain. Back then, Your Highness decided to enter the game with your own body. No matter how much you planned, it was a dead end. However, Master Jueyin later calculated that there was still a glimmer of hope. It seems that the changes in the dragon's energy are somewhat related to Your Highness's glimmer of hope.”
He knelt by the bedside, and finally, after pondering for several days, he couldn't help but blurt out, "Your Highness, I observe that the current ruler appears quite kind and benevolent, and his words and actions suggest he is not a wicked or reckless person. Perhaps..."
Xiao Lang suddenly revealed a stern and hateful expression, his slanted eyes even turning slightly red. "Stop talking! He's that old man's bloodline, he deserves to die! He deserves to die! He deserves to die!" The veins on his arms bulged, and his eyes momentarily lost focus, his face turning deathly pale in the dark room.
The attendant was so frightened that he rushed forward and pressed several acupoints, saying urgently, "Okay, okay, I won't say anymore, Your Highness, please calm down. Whatever Your Highness wants to do, I will go through fire and water without hesitation. The whole of Langzhou shares this sentiment, and it will never change!"
Mentioning Langzhou softened Xiao Lang's expression somewhat. After his outburst, his arms were still trembling involuntarily, and his face was also out of control.
The attendant dared not provoke his master any further, and seeing that he had calmed down, he withdrew again.
After a long pause, Xiao Lang said expressionlessly, "I will personally keep an eye on the one in the palace; he won't escape. As for the one outside the palace, search again according to the clues I mentioned before. Also, keep an eye on Fu Mingyi; there might be new discoveries."
The attendant quickly agreed, though he sighed inwardly, knowing that his master was stubborn and would not easily change his mind.
Oh, Jueyin, Jueyin, you say the hope is here, but where exactly is the hope? If we continue down this path, although we are all fearless, our master has suffered so much these past years. Who can bear to see him die like this? Besides, the people of today are not untrustworthy to the world. Times have changed, and if we continue down the old path, even if we try our best... it won't work!
Xiao Lang sat quietly by the bed, his face growing increasingly grim. He felt the weakness throughout his body and knew his time was running out.
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