Chapter 81 The Sacrificial Ceremony (1)
The old Gao, who was hanging in the poisonous sun, went straight to his head, and the person was stunned and unable to open his eyes. The pupils seemed to be covered with a layer of water vapor to blur the scenery in front of him. But there was an empty space and no shade. The fourth prince Su Ren covered his head with his arm and turned around and wanted to find someone to talk to, but he didn't see a familiar one.
At the end of the first lunar month, at the end of the Si lunar month, the Dacien Temple in Nanshan, Chang'an City. The sacrificial ceremony did not stop due to the chaos in the city last night. The light of light appeared, and the palace sent the invitations of the invited personnel from the sacrificial ceremony to the mansion one by one. Today, there were three areas in the open space in front of Dacien Temple. The right one was the Jinshi who had not yet been named for the title of the Golden List, with about 120 people; the center was the vassal kings and deployments in Chang'an; the left one was the prince and princess who led the civil and military officials in front, with the largest number of people, about 400.
Among the crowd, the little princes and princesses led by the female officials in the palace were the most conspicuous, jumping and chattering, and the female officials needed to maintain their efforts to make them a little calm. The concubines were not allowed to leave the palace. These female officials temporarily acted as guardians of the little prince and the little princess. They were really annoyed by these little ancestors, and Su Ren cursed, "Little boy!" Turning his head, the sixth prince Su Jian came forward with a harmonious smile on his face.
"The sun in May is even more poisonous than the one in the hot summer of June. Fourth brother, but I have ice to cool down? Sixth brother, I have some sweat towels soaked in ice water here. Do you want to wipe the sweat?" Su Jian wiped his head with a sweat towel. The smile on his face was very meaningful, or it made Su Ren feel uncomfortable.
Su Ren glanced at Su Jian with a slightly disdainful expression. Everyone knew that the Sixth Prince was a fool. His two evil wives in the family were quarrels and could not handle them all day long. He had little knowledge and was unintentional to court affairs. His deceased mother, Mrs. Ning, was just a maid from the Wood Queen. As the queen of the main palace, Su Ren naturally looked down on this sixth brother who was not qualified to be a king.
"Sixth brother, you are really prepared and relaxed." Although Su Ren looked down on Su Jian, he took the sweat towel he handed over. He wiped his head with a sweat towel soaked in ice water, and it turned out much more refreshing.
Su Ren let out a long sigh, thinking that he could take off his heavy official uniform and take a bath in cold water. However, the sacrificial ceremony had not yet begun, and it was about to end, and it was not until the sunset and the sun set. He felt a little unwavering.
Seeing that Su Jian was talking, he still smiled kindly and said, "Fourth Brother, look at the sacrificial ceremony today. He did not see his father and even the officials presided over by the Ministry of Rites did not show up, but he let us dry the sun here. I'm afraid something else happened."
When Su Ren heard this, he became angry and threw the sweat towel to the ground. He sneered in a slight tone: "The sixth brother doesn't have to bend around the bush. Look at the surroundings, not the Imperial Guards, but the soldiers of the Chang'an Foreign Defense Camp! Now everyone knows that the third brother is still carrying people to fight stubbornly in the schoolyard of the Neihuamen Defense Department. He has not been given a title for the time being. Who do you expect to see?"
In the team of the prince and the princess, there was no sign of the third prince Su Bi, nor the seventh prince Su Zhe. The fourth princess Su Bi, who went to the palace to protect the palace yesterday, was with the fourth prince Chai Jin, and the fourth prince consort, were a little anxious in their gorgeous clothes. Of course, there was one less person in the crowd, and no one cared about it on weekdays, so it was the ninth prince Su Yan.
Su Jian asked with a deep smile, "Why didn't you see Zhao Guohou?"
Before dawn came today, the palace summoned the late Queen Zhao's father, also the third prince Su Bi and the fourth prince Su Ren's grandfather, to the palace, and the elders of Zhao Shaoming, who had not yet been released. The emperor's intention was obvious. Now the third prince Su Bizheng was invading the emperor and causing trouble, leaving Su Bi's backer Zhao Shaoming in the palace to avoid venting with his grandson.
"Ask a question knowingly!" Su Ren snorted coldly.
Su Jian didn't care about Su Ren's coldness and smiled and said, "There is a saying that the sixth brother shouldn't have said it, but it's not good to not say it now. The sixth brother just heard a news that it was the mansion of the father-in-law who had been slashed by the Imperial Guardian and Jingzhao Mansion."
Su Ren was shocked and said, "Are you serious?"
Su Jian smiled and said, "The sixth brother is just hearing it out loud. The fourth brother might as well find someone to ask clearly."
Su Ren was a little panicked. If the third prince was just a rebellion, it would not affect his status in logic. But once the father-in-law was implicated, it would be equivalent to removing his backer. Even if he was still the king, his power in the court would be greatly reduced in the future. The accuracy of this news was very important to him, but no one sent out to find out the news at this time and could not verify the authenticity of the news.
It happened that the right prime minister Xu Han came over with Yang Yanqian, the censor of the Censorate. The ministers he met on the road saluted him one after another, but today Xu Han seemed to have taken guns and medicine, with a dark face and ignored others, and walked straight towards the officials.
Su Ren wanted to verify the credibility of the news from Xu Han, and called out "Xu Xiang!"
Because of Xu Rong's relationship, Xu Han is respectful and kind to Su Ren, but today Xu Han doesn't even buy Su Ren's face. Xu Han followed the voice and snorted coldly, continuing to listen to Yang Yanqian's report.
Even Xu Han was so cold to him. Su Ren felt a vague feeling. Su Jian, who was standing beside him, smiled and said, "Fourth brother, don't care. Old Prime Minister Xu's son was not found recently and was ordered by his father to stay in the door to think about his mistakes. He had a bad temper! If his son finds him, he will definitely come to the door to apologize for his guilt!"
Su Ren felt more and more that Su Jian was a little gloating and said coldly: "Sixth brother, you are so leisurely today. I think the third brother's throne is not guaranteed. My father will postpone this throne to you, right?"
Su Jian was stunned by Su Ren's blunt speech, and then smiled expectantly on his face and said, "If this is true... the fourth brother's auspicious words!"
Su Renxin thought that if Lao Liu, who was strictly controlled by this wife, was given the throne, there would definitely be many relatives in his territory in the future. However, at this time, he wanted to confirm that the father-in-law's mansion was investigated and went straight to the direction of the fourth princess Su Bi, the direct participant of the incident last night.
Chai Jin's broad back was blocking between Su Ren and Su Bi. Su Ren grabbed Chai Jin's arm and pulled him to one side, so he faced Su Bi head-on.
"Fourth sister, can you tell me the news from the father-in-law's house?"
Now Queen Mu's father, Mr. Mu, has already traveled to the immortal world, and the only one who can be called Mr. Zhao in the court is called Mr. Zhao.
Su Bi frowned, a little angry at Su Ren's rudeness, and stroked her husband's arm with heartache and said, "Fourth Prince, it is the father who summoned your grandfather to summon the father-in-law to the palace. You are angry and scattered to your father."
Su Bi speaks coldly to others on weekdays. Now that Su Ren has offended his husband, he will not be able to get a good face.
"I'm asking you, does your father order the father-in-law's mansion be searched?"
When Su Bi heard this, she smiled on her face, as if she was ridiculed and said, "Here, the person who was responsible for placing offenders in the government mansion last night has come. Did you know if you can search and ask them?"
Su Ren looked in the direction of Su Bi's mouth, and saw Xu Xuanzhu, the commander of the daughter army, and a familiar man, leading the daughter army guards and the Imperial Guards. The Jingzhao Government Office Office appeared behind the officials. Then the group of people bypassed the area established by the officials and walked towards the sacrificial platform.
Su Ren wanted to go forward to interrogate, but saw the emperor's imperial carriage appear. All officials knelt down to greet him. Even Su Ren had to lean down. After the imperial carriage, he tied a person with a rope. It was the ragged third prince Su Bi. The seventh prince Su Zhe was covered in blood and held a long sword to protect the imperial carriage. The figure made Su Ren very dislike. The strangest thing was that the ninth prince Su Yan, like a hunchbacked monkey, was holding on the other side of the imperial carriage, and walked forward with his head hanging down, listless.
"Why is Lao Jiu here too?"
Su Ren glanced at Su Bi and wanted to find the answer, but Su Bi just sneered and ignored it.
The lord stopped in front of the sacrificial platform. The old emperor walked down the lord under the help of Su Zhe and Su Yan, raised his arms and said, "All the Lords are flat!"
The princess, princesses, and civil and military officials all stood up. Several guards placed several wooden boxes in front of them. When they opened it, they all saw that they were all heads of the rebel leader yesterday. The little prince and princess in front immediately cried several times.
The female official quickly carried the crying little princes and little princesses behind to comfort her, while the third prince Su Bi was tied directly to the stone pillar in front of the sacrificial platform by the guards, allowing the sun to be exposed to the sun.
Everyone present felt the depressing atmosphere of today's sacrificial ceremony. Someone rebelled yesterday, but the third prince who was about to be crowned king was still the one who rebelled. The emperor was very suspicious on weekdays. It seemed that this time, he would be in trouble in Chang'an City.
The emperor walked up to the sacrificial platform, facing the civil and military officials in front of the sacrificial platform. The left head was the seventh prince Su Zhe and the ninth prince Su Yan, and the right head was the Minister of Rites. Xu Xuanzhu and Liu Yu stood under the sacrificial platform, and also faced the civil and military officials. Liu Zhao, the head of the military general, snorted coldly when he saw Liu Yu, and his expression was quite dissatisfied.
The old emperor sighed, "Today is the day to worship the heavens and write the text. However, from yesterday to this day, there have been many chaos in Chang'an, and I am very tired. Xu Xiang, I will read the text of telling the heavens today."
It is a great honor to be able to read the proclamation of sacrifice to heaven on behalf of the emperor. Xu Han walked up to the altar under the envious and jealous eyes of everyone, took the proclamation handed over by the Minister of Rites, opened it, and immediately read aloud: "Sir, I..."
Xu Han was about to read the statement according to the subject, and immediately found that the content of the notice was very different from the previous statements for sacrifice to heaven. He stopped immediately and looked at the statement in his hand and felt more familiar and more shocked.
The old emperor closed his eyes and asked, "Xu Aiqing, why don't you continue reading?"
"This...this..." Xu Han finally realized that what he was holding was not a confession to sacrifice to heaven, but a secret letter from the Turkic people who framed the left prime minister Li Zhongchun.
"I don't understand. This... is not a confession to the heavens. It's... the evidence of a rioter, Stone's country!" With Xu Han's sophistication, he naturally understood that there was no name on the above, and as long as he did not admit the emperor, he would not do anything to him. He had to rely on the charge to others.
"Is that true?" the old emperor sighed, "I thought Xu Aiqing would be familiar with the above content, and the person came to take the criminals up!"
Chapter completed!