Wu Chengsi decided to go to the imperial city to see King Langya. Princess Taiping was anxious to tell Li Zhiying what happened in Linde Hall and to say goodbye to him.
When they arrived at the Tianlao, Li Chong, who was wearing a brocade robe just now, had changed into a prison uniform and was sitting against the wall with a very calm expression.
"If you come to ask me if there is anyone else behind me, my answer is no, please go back." Li Chong said calmly.
Wu Chengsi sighed: "I knew you would answer this. He was completely out of your plan this time, and I can't find any evidence."
"Now that you know, what are you doing here? Are you here to make fun of me?" King Langya raised his eyebrows.
Wu Chengsi said slowly: "To be honest, I admire you very much. You let Li Yunxian approach me deliberately in the first place just so that I could recommend him to attend the royal banquet."
"Yes."
"If the mission succeeds, the prince can be eliminated. If it fails, the blame will be placed on me."
King Langya said: "It's a pity that you are too vigilant."
"So you chose the prince directly later on. This was actually better. Li Yunxian was recommended by the prince, and others would not believe that he would harm the prince."
"Yes, at first we thought it would take a lot of trouble, but we didn't expect that the prince was even stupider than we thought."
Wu Chengsi sighed: "You were afraid that others would be suspicious of King Pei if the incident failed, so you deliberately reprimanded King Pei in front of me at Daxiangguo Temple, and then later defected to the prince. You really took great pains."
King Langya was silent for a long time and said slowly: "You are very smart, but it is a pity that we are destined not to be friends."
Wu Chengsi's heart moved. From this sentence, it can be seen that Li Chong has regarded the Wu family as his enemy. He is the son of the King of Yue, which shows that the King of Yue and even the other kings of the Li family have similar ideas to him.
Wu Chengsi had never understood why Li Chongwei chose to assist Li Xian instead of Prince Li Hong.
Now there is an explanation, that is because Li Xian is not Wu Mei's son, for the kings of the Li family, he is the best candidate for the crown prince!
"There is something I would like to ask the prince for advice." Wu Chengsi asked after a long silence.
"you say."
"Li Yunxian predicted the first death outside Liyuan. I know that the deceased was a believer of the Fire Phoenix Society, but the carriage driver, I don't think he was lying."
Li Chong nodded and said, "He is indeed not from the Fire Phoenix Society."
"Then how do you control the time when a horse is in heat?"
Li Chong said calmly: "We sold that horse to the coachman. We lied to him and said that the horse was injured and would go into heat from time to time. In fact, it was not in heat at all, but smelled a special spice."
"We prepared a small amount of spices in advance and let the horse smell it when the mare passed by. The horse was immediately frightened, and the coachman thought it was in heat. On the planned day, we prepared several times the amount of spices before, and the horse immediately became frightened.
He got mad and knocked people down."
Wu Chengsi frowned and said, "If there is spice, why didn't the mare who crossed that horse smell it?"
"That mare was also controlled by our people. They blocked the mare's nose in advance." Li Chong said calmly.
Wu Chengsi took a long breath and said: "So that's it, I finally understand everything."
Li Chong stared at Wu Chengsi for a while and said slowly: "Master Wu, you are a smart man. You should know that since ancient times, relatives who have exclusive power will not end well. Why don't you persuade the queen to give you
Will the Wu family leave a way out?"
Wu Chengsi thought to himself: "You only know the history, but I know the future." He said calmly: "The opponent of King Pei is the prince, right? Why do you mention the queen?"
Li Chong said: "I am a dying person, so I will not talk around you. The prince cannot defeat King Pei. Although you have exposed my plan today, your majesty and the ministers have also seen the weakness of the prince. Sooner or later, King Pei will
If you can replace him, Queen Wu will be King Pei's biggest obstacle in the future."
Wu Chengsi snorted: "You are wrong. Although the ministers saw the prince's weakness today, they also saw the gloominess of King Pei. I am more optimistic about the prince."
Li Chong said angrily: "You are a military general. If he doesn't dare to fight with other countries after becoming emperor, what good will it do to you?"
Wu Chengsi smiled and said: "It doesn't matter if you can't fight. It's better than being abandoned as an outcast."
Li Chong was stunned for a moment, then gritted his teeth and said, "I don't understand what you are talking about."
Wu Chengsi shook his head, turned around and said: "Although you and I have different positions, you are a respectable opponent, so do it well, His Highness King Langya." The figure gradually disappeared in the corridor.
Wu Chengsi returned to the mansion and began to celebrate the new year of his family. On this night, he set up several tables of wine and food in the backyard of the mansion for everyone in the mansion to have a reunion dinner together.
Before dinner, Wu Chengsi asked about the whereabouts of Gao Junhui. Gao Junhui had helped a lot in this matter, and Wu Chengsi wanted to take him for his own use.
Han Cheng replied: "My lord, Brother Gao has left. He asked me to tell you that he escorted you all the way back to Chang'an in order to repay your kindness. He is a man of the world and prefers the life of Xianyun Yehe."
Wu Chengsi sighed, admiring Gao Junhui's free and easy attitude, but also a little regretful that he could not keep him.
After the meal, according to the custom of the Tang Dynasty, a ceremony was held on New Year's Eve to drive away the plague.
Although Wu Chengsi didn't care, he didn't want to be too independent at this time, so he asked Wen Rong to arrange a ceremony to drive away the plague.
This ritual is no different from a cult. The boys are asked to wear masks with teeth and claws, put on red and black clothes and then dance with drums.
There will be twenty "accompanying dancers" behind the boy. They dance with the boy, which means to drive away evil spirits and achieve the purpose of praying for blessings.
After the ceremony, Wu Chengsi went to the ancestral hall to worship his ancestors, and then stayed in the hall with everyone around the brazier to keep the New Year's Eve.
After not waiting for long, he fell asleep in the lobby because he was too sleepy.
…
Early the next morning, Emperor Li Zhi received envoys from various countries in the Hanyuan Hall. Wu Chengsi was also in the hall and witnessed with his own eyes the grand ceremony of tribute from all nations.
Among the nearly 100 countries that came to attend the pilgrimage, there were more than 30 vassal states of the Tang Dynasty. Each vassal state paid tribute to the court, and the court would reward them in return.
The Tang Dynasty relied on military force to establish the country, and most of the tribute paid by various countries were horses.
This is a tradition left over from the time of Taizong Li Shimin. Only those who presented horses would be rewarded by the Tang Dynasty. For those who offered precious jewels and precious jewels, the court would often give very little in return. Over time, all countries would select fine horses as gifts.
During the entire tribute process, Li Zhi was not in a good mood, and was obviously affected by yesterday's incident, because he rarely spoke, and Wu Mei spoke on his behalf on many occasions.
However, from the long-term relationship between Wu Chengsi and Wu Mei, it can be seen that Wu Mei's mood is also very bad, but she can control it very well.
After the tribute was over, Wu Chengsi was summoned and came to the Zichen Palace. Wu Mei no longer concealed her bad mood, her face was ashen.
"Everyone, get out." She waved her hand, and soon only the aunt and nephew were left in the hall.
Wu Chengsi walked to Wu Mei and saw a lot of crumpled paper on the desk. When he opened it, he saw the word "Lingbao" written on each piece of paper.
Wu Chengsi was slightly surprised when he suddenly heard Wu Mei say: "Chengsi, the person behind what happened last night was King Pei, right?"
Wu Chengsi nodded.
Wu Mei stared at him with burning eyes: "Do you have any evidence?"
"No."
Wu Mei sighed softly: "It is consistent with my conjecture. King Pei asked King Langya to implement the plan without interfering himself, in order to clean himself up if the plan failed."
"It's not like he wasn't completely involved."
Wu Meifeng raised her eyebrows: "How do you say this?"
"Does Aunt know that Li Yunxian predicted the death time of three people in Liyuan?"
"heard about it."
Wu Chengsi said in a deep voice: "This is an indispensable step in the plan. It was because of this incident that Li Yunxian became famous in Chang'an. At the same time, he was appreciated by the prince and was invited by the prince to attend the royal banquet."
Wu Mei leaned on the dragon chair, resting her chin on her elbows, frowning and said: "You mean, King Pei got involved in this matter?"
"Yes, the incident in Li Yuan was caused by the bet between Chen Zi'ang of Prince Pei's palace and his cousin. Moreover, Prince Pei specially invited Li Qingfeng to host the third competition, just to make Li Yunxian famous."
Wu Mei thought for a moment, shook her head and said: "This alone can't explain anything at all. He can completely excuse it and say it is a coincidence."
Wu Chengsi sighed: "Yes, it is precisely because of the lack of key evidence that my nephew did not mention King Pei last night."
Wu Mei closed her eyes, gently rubbed her forehead, and said: "Chengsi, I had a quarrel with His Majesty last night. He knew clearly that King Pei had done such a thing, but he had no intention of punishing him."
"Could it be that Your Majesty wants to make King Pei the crown prince?" Wu Chengsi was slightly surprised.