Chapter 117: Water

The Daming Palace, with its towering red phoenix and majestic buildings. Shangguan Wan'er walked quickly into the palace and saluted the figure behind the curtain: "Your Majesty, the stampede in Shanhefang has been brought under control. Except for a commoner who was burned to death, there are no other casualties."

Behind the curtain, two men were kneeling on the ground, leaning softly on the lap of the woman in the middle, but they looked much stronger than the old woman. The golden light and the flickering candlelight illuminated their faces, and they looked very similar, with high nose bridges, fair complexions, and good looks like gentlemen, but the seductiveness in the corners of their eyes and eyebrows destroyed this temperament.

Shangguan Wan'er lowered her eyes, her expression unmoved. An old female voice came slowly from behind the curtain: "How did you control it?"

Shangguan Wan'er bowed her head and whispered, "Ming Huazhang, the Junior Yin of Jingzhao Prefecture, happened to be nearby to see the lanterns. After the incident, he immediately mobilized the Jinwu Guards to calm the people."

Ming Huazhang? The Queen said slowly, "It's him again. I keep hearing his name lately."

Shangguan Wan'er was unsure of the empress's attitude, so she lowered her eyes and dared not answer. Zhang Changzong glanced at the empress's face and said with a smile, "As expected of a Jinshi selected by His Majesty, he is truly loyal."

The empress did not respond, her face remained calm. Zhang Yizhi pressed his brother's hand from behind and said softly, "It is because of your great fortune, destiny, and the protection of gods and Buddhas that Chang'an has avoided crisis after crisis."

Zhang Changzong understood immediately after receiving a hint from his brother, and said with honey that the empress was a deity descended from heaven and flattered the will of heaven.

The empress listened to her little male pet for a while, then said calmly, "Alright, since everything is fine, go down. Let Jingzhao Prefecture handle the casualties. Chang'an is the capital of the dragon head, but there have been too many strange things in Chang'an in the past two years. I let them be the parents of the capital, not for the sake of appearance."

Shangguan Wan'er leaned forward to answer, then quietly retreated and respectfully closed the palace door. After everyone left, the empress leaned back on the couch and closed her eyes with some fatigue.

Zhang Yizhi knelt down and gently massaged the empress' temples. Zhang Changzong guessed the empress's expression and said, "Your Majesty, you work hard for state affairs all day long, and you should take care of yourself. Now that the East Palace has been established, you might as well assign some government affairs to the prince. With the support of the prime ministers, nothing will go wrong."

The empress had her eyes closed and could not see their expressions, so Zhang Yizhi stared at his brother directly, his eyes full of disapproval.

He was too hasty in saying this. The Queen's temper was becoming more and more unpredictable. If he angered her, the consequences would be disastrous.

Zhang Changzong was unwilling to miss such a good opportunity, and still acted innocently, saying: "Now the prince is the one that everyone hopes to see. Tonight, I went outside the palace to watch the lanterns, and I saw that some people set up a perpetual lantern for the prince, celebrating his return to Chang'an, wishing him a long and healthy life. If Your Majesty teaches the prince to handle government affairs, you will certainly support it."

The Queen still closed her eyes and sighed in her heart. Although Zhang Changzong was beautiful, he was really stupid. His provocations were superficial. The Queen could guess what he was thinking without even looking at him.

However, it was precisely because of this stupidity that the Queen believed that he had indeed seen the people among the people standing up for the prince, and that the people were truly happy that the Li family had returned to Chang'an.

The word "return" is very intriguing. It seems that everyone believes that the Zhou Wu Dynasty was a mess, an accident, and the ridiculous ambition of a widow. When she dies, the world will eventually return to the hands of the Li family.

Li Tang was the emperor that the civil and military officials of the Manchu dynasty kept in secret. She had been from Zhaoyi to Empress, and then Empress Dowager, and finally became the emperor despite all odds, fighting every day. She was not convinced that women were born shorter than men, that noble families were born noble and poor families were born poor, and that she could only be in a lower position even though her husband and son were far superior in strategy and ability. Giving her the power to govern was the virtue of her husband and son, and if it was taken back, she should be grateful.

But on what basis? Why can only men sit on the throne and not women?

The empress fought for this unwillingness for half her life. She killed her second son, exiled her third son, imprisoned her fourth son, and took advantage of her eldest daughter's death to break up her second daughter's marriage. She did so much and finally became the emperor as she wished. However, when she was old, she watched with vain as both court officials and the people looked forward to the restoration of the previous dynasty.

We can't even call the Li Tang restoration. In the minds of people all over the world, that's how it should be.

So what has she achieved over the years?

The empress's face remained calm, and only her eyes could be seen moving slightly under her eyelids, revealing her restlessness. Zhang Yizhi felt that his brother was too aggressive and kept winking at him, but Zhang Changzong felt that he had grasped the empress's mind and refused to give up. He continued to press on and said, "Unlike the King of Wei, only you can teach him. Today, the King of Wei sent someone to greet Your Majesty. He is under house arrest and cannot enter the palace to greet Your Majesty. He can only send a candle and wish Your Majesty a long life and good health."

At the end of last year, Jingzhao Prefecture Shaoyin Ming Huazhang overturned the serial bone digging case and found out that the Chu Jun case was a copycat crime, and the murderer was the Wei Wang's staff. Although only the staff was convicted in the end, the Wei Wang withdrew from the case because he was unaware of the case, but not long after, the Wei Wang was confined by the Queen.

The Queen finally spoke up, and said solemnly, "He is indeed filial, but one blessing lamp is enough. If there are too many, it will be redundant."

Zhang Yizhi was so nervous that he almost pressed the wrong acupuncture point. Zhang Changzong's heart skipped a few beats, and he was not sure whether the empress was referring to him or the King of Wei when she said "too much".

Taking advantage of the empress's closed eyes, he carefully observed her expression and said with courage, "No matter how much the King of Wei does, his heart is only for you. He is just vying for your favor and wants you to love him more."

The Queen did not respond for a long time. Just when Zhang Yizhi was so anxious that he almost couldn't control himself and knelt down to apologize, the Queen slowly said, "I am tired. You all can go down."

Zhang Yizhi heaved a sigh of relief. He pinched his brother hard and signaled him to shut up. "As you command. Your Majesty, please have a good rest. We will take our leave."

After coming out, Zhang Changzong opened his sleeves and saw a bruise on his arm. He said angrily, "Fifth brother, why did you pinch me?"

"You still dare to complain?" Zhang Yizhi scolded, "Sixth Brother, you talked too much today. The King of Wei and the Crown Prince are the Queen's relatives no matter what. No matter how miserable they are, the Queen will never kill them. But who are you? Where do you get the courage to plead for the King of Wei? Have you forgotten what happened to Xue Huaiyi?"

Zhang Changzong had been treated like a star wherever he went in recent years. Even the prime minister greeted him politely. How could he bear this tone? Zhang Changzong also turned cold and said, "You are noble and you are independent, but the queen's health is getting worse and worse. How long can she support you? When she is gone, where will you go to show off your prestige as the Duke of Heng? I'm afraid that you will be stripped of your skin and bones."

How could Zhang Yizhi not know? The two brothers had risen to prominence because of serving the empress, but all this fame was rootless and floating. The more proud they were now, the worse they would fall after the empress died.

He also thought about retiring at the peak of his career, disbanding his family property, and living a normal life among the common people. However, once you are involved in the vortex of imperial power, can you just quit whenever you want?

From the day they entered the palace to perform for the empress, they were on a road of no return. Now, either they killed someone or someone else would kill them. The two Zhang brothers could only seek external help. Only by pleasing the next emperor could they save their lives.

However, the Li family was already a royal family, so why did they need their support? It was better to help someone in need than to add icing on the cake. In the end, they chose the Wu family, which also had no way out.

Among the kings of the Wu family, the King of Wei was the most ambitious and resourceful. They hit it off with the King of Wei, and they informed the Queen of the situation. The King of Wei helped the Zhang family escape unscathed in the future, which was a win-win situation for both sides.

The premise is that the next emperor must be the King of Wei. At the very least, he should have the surname Wu.

Zhang Yizhi was silent for a long time, with only the north wind blowing through the Danfeng Gate. Finally, Zhang Yizhi said, "But you are too hasty, I am afraid you will be exposed in front of the Queen."

Zhang Changzong sneered and said disdainfully: "Who is she? She controls the movements of all the civil and military officials in the court. Do you think we can hide it from her? What she needs is a puppet who is not malicious but simple and has no scheming."

The Queen favored Liu Lang more. Zhang Yizhi was far inferior to his brother in understanding the Queen's thoughts. Zhang Yizhi gave in and asked, "What do you want to do next?"

Zhang Changzong chuckled, turned around and looked at the towering, dazzling Daming Palace, and said, "The Queen is becoming more and more suspicious of the Li family. Report the news to the King of Wei. Whether he can seize the opportunity depends on himself."

·

Inside the Prince of Wei's palace, after reading the pigeon-delivered letter, the Prince of Wei threw the secret letter into the fire with an expressionless face, and it burned to ashes.

He stared at the candle wick motionlessly for so long that his eyes became blurry and the vague shadow of another person appeared in the open space.

He suddenly raised his voice and asked his confidant, "How is the search for Li Xian's orphan going?"

The confidant knelt outside the curtain and replied terrifiedly: "Your Highness, the Su family's daughter and the Ming family's twins are acting normally, and there is no clue."

The King of Wei sneered and completely lost his patience: "That's what you said last October."

The confidant couldn't help trembling, not daring to raise his head, and said hurriedly: "But I heard that someone has seen a man near the Su family many times, and he is suspected to be the Duke of Zhenguo."

The King of Wei narrowed his eyes slightly. Did the Duke of Zhenguo go to the Su family? That almost confirmed that the woman who was taken to the Su family was his biological daughter, and Li Xian's child was in the twins.

He was truly a loyal minister. For the sake of a dead prince, he sent his own daughter away as a sacrifice. He raised her in a peasant family for so many years, and even cut off all contact with her. She was obviously the daughter of a noble family, but he was determined to let her be a peasant girl for the rest of her life.

He is truly selfless and loyal.

The King of Wei stood up and put out the candle with force, saying, "There is no time to wait, so we might as well lure the snake out of its hole. Tell this news to the daughter of the Su family and have her go to the Duke of Zhen's mansion to stir up trouble. Only by stirring up the water can we see how many fish are hiding."

The King of Wei narrowed his eyes and said sinisterly, "I want to see where the descendants of Crown Prince Zhang Huai, who made me sacrifice my own daughter, are hiding. When my aunt finds out that Li Xian, the orthodox leader of the Tang Dynasty in my mind, has descendants, will she still be able to sit still?"

·

There was no curfew during the three days of the Lantern Festival, and it should have been a day of revelry for the whole city. However, because of the explosion, Chang'an was under martial law. Not only did the vacation of the imperial guards end, but Ming Huazhang was also urgently summoned to Jingzhao Prefecture to await the emperor's orders.

Although the explosion did not cause a stampede, the impact of this incident was extremely severe. During the Lantern Festival, there were not only millions of civilians in Chang'an, but also merchants and envoys from various countries. How could someone from the great Zhou Dynasty be killed in the street? If this news got out, how would it be considered a disgrace?

The eunuch who delivered the imperial edict scolded everyone in Jingzhao Prefecture as usual, and then conveyed the empress's order, asking them to tidy up the lights in the city and ensure that such things would not happen again.

Ming Huazhang was scolded early in the morning, and he was used to it. This was how it was in Jingzhao Prefecture. When it came to rewarding merits, it was not their turn, but when any incident happened in Chang'an, they were the first to bear the brunt.

The previous case had not yet been completely concluded, and another hot potato was thrown to him. The Jingzhao Yin was very furious. After the eunuch left, he got angry at his subordinates.

Everyone lowered their eyebrows and listened. Jingzhao Yin was so angry that he covered his lips and started coughing in the middle of his scolding. The more he coughed, the more heart-wrenching it became. Everyone hurriedly said, "Jingzhao Yin, calm down. What's wrong with you? Go and get the doctor."

Jingzhao Yin waved his hand to stop the yamen runners from moving, saying, "No need. If we fail to complete the instructions of His Majesty, we will die sooner or later. Why bother with this?"

No one dared to respond, and they cautiously advised Jingzhao Yin to take care of himself. Jingzhao Yin glanced at Ming Huazhang and said with a half-smile, "I almost forgot that the great hero is still here. Ming Shaoyin just solved the bone digging case, and yesterday he also saved the riots. With such good luck, I think a mere explosion will not be a problem for Shaoyin, right?"

Ever since Ming Huazhang overturned Jingzhao Yin's decision, Jingzhao Yin never had a good face when he saw Ming Huazhang, and always made some sarcastic remarks. Ming Huazhang remained calm and said, "I dare not. I am not very knowledgeable and I dare not be arrogant. I hope Jingzhao Yin will give me instructions on what to do next."

Jingzhao Yin curled his lips with a fake smile and said, "Ming Shaoyin has his own ideas, how dare I interfere? Didn't His Majesty tell us to check the lights in the whole city? What are you doing? Why don't you go quickly?"

Ming Huazhang bowed his hands in response, and Jingzhao Yin glanced at Ming Huazhang and walked past him with a cold face. After Jingzhao Yin walked away, the yamen runners looked at Ming Huazhang with an embarrassed look on their faces: "Shao Yin..."

Ming Huazhang was very calm about this. He put down his hand quietly, as if he was not the one being bullied. He said calmly, "Go and do your work. Check the lanterns on the main streets and the lanterns in the shops, no matter how big or small they are."

The top leader and the second in command were arguing with each other, but no one dared to comment. They just clasped their fists and said, "Yes."

On a day when people should have been resting at home and celebrating the festival, the Jingzhao Prefecture had to go door to door in the cold wind to inspect. It was so unlucky. After Ming Huazhang arranged for everyone to be in charge of their areas, he rode his horse towards the Jinxiu Tower.

The shopkeeper of Jinxiulou had just had a son, and his business was booming. He couldn't possibly blow himself up. The gunpowder in the Hundred-Year-Old Lantern must have been secretly stuffed in by an outsider.

Chang'an is so big that passive inspections cannot prevent it. Only by finding out the person behind it can we prevent future troubles.

As soon as Ming Huazhang reached Shanhefang, he saw a familiar carriage. Feeling helpless, he reined in his horse and slowly walked to the front of the carriage: "Why are you here?"

The curtain was opened from the inside, revealing a lovely innocent face that knew it was wrong but refused to change. Ming Huashang blinked her almond-shaped eyes and looked at Ming Huazhang, as if her appearance here was just a coincidence, and said innocently: "Second brother, you are here. I wanted to go in and take a look, but the guards wouldn't let me in."

Ming Huazhang said unhappily, "They are right not to let you in. You are standing here, are you sure I will let you in?"

Ming Huachang's expression became more pitiful: "What else? It's so cold, do you have the heart to let me freeze outside?"

"You can go back home."

Ming Huachang stopped talking. She leaned against the car window and looked at him with pitiful eyes. Ming Huazhang knew that if he didn't let her have her way, she would really wait here for a whole day. She didn't know who she was threatening.

However, Ming Huazhang couldn't really freeze her, so he could only sigh and say, "Okay, let's go."

Ming Huashang got what she wanted. She followed Ming Huazhang into Jinxiu Tower and asked, "Second brother, the emperor summoned you to Jingzhao Prefecture. What did he say?"

"What can happen? Of course I will be scolded."

"Ah? But you clearly performed a great deed yesterday. If it weren't for you, the consequences would be disastrous."

"The explosion happened in Chang'an. It was the fault of Jingzhao Prefecture. I just redeemed myself from the blame. These false names are not important. Let's go find the person who changed the lamp first."

"Is the lady in charge feeling better? I want to go see her."

Ming Huazhang also had this idea. The Jingzhao government officials were all men, so it was not convenient for them to visit the women. It would be best if Ming Huashang could do it. Ming Huazhang took Ming Huashang to the backyard, and when no one was around, Ming Huashang whispered to Ming Huazhang, "Second brother, I have an idea."

"Um?"

"The last time you were on a mission, you were ambushed. It shows that someone in Xuanxiaowei wants to harm you. But Tianzi level is obviously the highest level, and it doesn't pass through the Xuanxiaowei message point. How could the mission sent to you be intercepted? I thought about it, and the most likely explanation is that there is a problem with the Control Crane Monitoring. So I thought, can we deliberately send a false message to see who has passed through it, and check one by one, and then we can find the person who wants to harm you."

When Han Jie tricked Ming Huashang into joining, he praised Xuan Xiaowei as a magical organization, as if she could easily retire as long as she joined. Ming Huashang was overwhelmed by the organization and retirement plan at first, but after joining, she found that it was not that easy to survive in Xuan Xiaowei and earn retirement money.

This year she carried out several missions and slowly figured out the operating rules of this mechanism. Xuanxiaowei is an intelligence system hidden among the people. To put it bluntly, it is a combination of the notorious Tongji and cruel officials in the early years of Zhou Wu. It not only collects intelligence, but also carries out espionage, assassination, and surveillance tasks. However, it is scattered like sparks among various levels of the government and the public, and is no longer known to the public.

The Xuanxiao Guards have a strict hierarchy and many fortifications, and they keep strict secrets from each other. It is possible that two secret guards may not recognize each other when they pass by each other. The Xuanxiao Guards can be divided into four categories according to their levels: Tian, ​​Di, Xuan and Huang. Among them, Tian is the highest level and can directly meet the saints. He has a separate communication channel and can be said to have a smooth career. Only a very few lucky people can reach this level. Di is responsible for carrying out tasks and requires team members to cooperate with each other, so they are the rare secret guards among the four levels who know each other. Xuan and Huang are pure intelligence collectors. Xuan monitors the nobles and court officials, and Huang monitors the civilians. They are responsible for writing down everything that happens every day on paper and delivering it to the information point. Each level of information point is maintained by a dedicated person and finally summarized in the palace.

These four levels cooperated with each other to form a giant hand, which firmly controlled the government and the country in the hands of the queen. But new problems also followed one after another. With such a large team, the amount of information transmitted every day can be imagined. No matter how smart the queen is, she is still a mortal and cannot read all the news. Therefore, she set up an organization above the Xuanxiao Guard to specialize in processing information and sending and receiving intelligence, called the Control Crane Supervisor.

Yes, it was the Crane Controlling Supervisor who was rumored to be responsible for finding male concubines for the empress. When people heard about the Crane Controlling Supervisor, they thought of Xue Huaiyi, the two Zhang brothers, and the empress's romantic affairs. In fact, the actual function of the Crane Controlling Supervisor was far more than people thought.

If the Xuanxiao Guards are the Queen's eyes, ears, and feet, then the Konghe Supervisor is the Queen's deputy brain. The Konghe Supervisor is full of palace maids and eunuchs. These people have no reliable family and no descendants to rely on, so they can only rely on the Queen. Most of them are literate. The intelligence sent back by the Xuanxiao Guards every day is summarized to the Konghe Supervisor through various nodes. After these palace maids check it, they summarize the key points and pass it to the Queen for review. If the Queen wants to do something, they also draft orders and send them to the Xuanxiao Guard dark network outside the palace. After receiving the task, the corresponding ground-level Xuanxiao Guards go to execute it.

Although Ming Huashang is a rookie, she has a brother who is a top-notch official, so she can also get exclusive communication channels. If their information can be leaked, it means that the problem is not outside the palace, but inside the palace.

Someone in the Control Crane Prison sold out the "Twin Jades".

If it was just Ming Huashang, she would definitely choose to hide, as going out to attack was not her style. But Ming Huazhang was attacked, and Ming Huashang could not bear it.

She would never allow anyone to harm Ming Huazhang.