Chapter 31 Assassination in the middle of the night
After Li Xian left Xiu Shanfang, he actually did not return directly to his palace. Instead, he went straight to a house not far from the south side of the palace. This house also belonged to Li Xian, but it was Li Xian's.
It was purchased privately under the pseudonym Li Qilang (that is, Li Qilang). Not only did Li Jingye not know about it, but also people like Li Zhan and Lin Cheng didn't know about it. Even Ni Lai and others in the business group didn't know about it. It can be said that Li Jingye didn't know about it.
The first secret is revealed.
Of course, Zhang Wuchen, who was Li Xian's absolute confidant, was naturally not concealed. It was precisely because of this that Zhang Wuchen was loyal to Li Xian. Although he was quietly wooed by Lin Cheng several times, he did not
He did not waver in his loyalty to Li Xian at all, but instead told Li Xian all the details of how he was roped in.
After Li Xian conducted an investigation using the palace's spy, it didn't take much effort to confirm that Lin Cheng was actually the spy sent to him by Empress Wu. However, in order to avoid Empress Wu's suspicion, Li Xian did not touch Lin Cheng.
Instead, he acted more sincerely, and at the same time asked Zhang Wuchen not to refuse the other party's solicitation, and to truthfully tell the truth about some of his major actions. Of course, some that were too secretive would naturally have to be covered up or modified.
When Li Xian brought a group of newly purchased Kunlun slaves and Silla maids to the south side of the house, he ordered the Kunlun slaves to gather together and ordered Zhang Wuchen to secretly teach boxing and kicking, nominally to train sumo wrestlers and nursing home slaves.
In fact, they are secretly cultivating power in order to prepare for the use of extraordinary means to exclude political opponents in the future.
Of course, these Kunlun slaves are already old, and it is difficult for them to learn internal skills and light skills, so their teachings are mainly focused on actual combat.
But one of them is an exception. There is Leopard Head. I don’t know whether this person is gifted or has a basic foundation. Anyway, he can learn internal skills in one go. Although his progress is far from being comparable to that of geniuses like Li Xian, he can’t even compete with others.
Li Xian's junior disciple was far behind in terms of enlightenment, but this man was born with supernatural power, and supplemented by internal strength, his combat effectiveness doubled, and he became the number one master under Li Xian besides Zhang Wuchen.
The eight Silla maids were only about ten years old, and they had not yet grown up. It was the best time to establish loyalty. According to the experience of Li Xian's two generations, the loyalty established at this time could often make them loyal to Li Xian for the rest of their lives.
They were determined to do so. Therefore, Li Xian naturally would not neglect them and paid enough attention to them. He personally taught them Qinggong, hidden weapons, and various assassination techniques. The purpose was naturally very clear, that is, to train them into the most personal female guards.
Li Xian gave his female guards a very elegant name: "Rose".
Roses are beautiful when they are beautiful, but they cannot be touched when they are eager, otherwise they will be pricked by the thorns on the branches.
After that, Li Xian continued to expand the number of people. Through careful selection, he expanded the number of Rose Guards to thirty people in three years. He also used his connections to change their household registrations and sent ten of them to the palace one after another.
Among them, they were placed in some inconspicuous places, such as Yeting Palace, and secretly presented money and silk to strengthen their loyalty.
Of course, in order to ensure safety, except for Li Xian, no one else knew who the Rose Guards were in the palace. Even the members of the guards did not know who else was lurking in the palace except themselves.
This is not because Li Xian does not trust his people, but because he is aware of Empress Wu's methods and has the purpose of not affecting others if anyone is exposed.
While Li Xian was secretly developing his own strength, a major event occurred in the court, that is, Zuowuwei General Zheng Rentai and Zuowuwei General Xue Rengui, who were ordered to conquer Tiele, were conquering Tiele.
Something went wrong.
The first was Zheng Rentai. After the initial victory in suppressing the rebellion and Tie's surrender, he led his army to loot and loot, which aroused dissatisfaction among Tie's tribes, so the leaders of each tribe rebelled again. However, in view of the strong combat effectiveness of the Tang army, they led their troops to flee. Zheng Rentai
After hearing the news, he was furious and ordered General Yang Zhi to pursue him, but was defeated by Tiele. Zheng Rentai furiously killed Yang Zhi and personally led 14,000 cavalry in pursuit. Unexpectedly, he encountered a blizzard and was trapped for several months.
, after the food was exhausted, they ate horses, and after the horses were eaten, they ate people. When they returned, only 800 people remained. The minister said, "Since the founding of the Holy Dynasty, there have never been as many losers as today."
But Xue Rengui was different this time. Although Xue Rengui "fixed the Tianshan Mountains with three arrows" with bravery, and later captured three Ye Hu from Tiele tribe and returned, he was afraid of killing soldiers, accepting bribes, and robbing local women.
The minister of the impeachment said: "Benevolence is more important than those who are in prison. He is greedy and lustful. Although he is careful about his gains, he does not make up for the loss."
The minister who participated in the impeachment was Yang Deyi, the doctor of Si Xian who had secretly taken refuge with Empress Wu.
Emperor Gaozong was so angry that he was shaking with anger when he saw the memorial. He originally had high hopes for Zheng Rentai and Xue Rengui, hoping that these two people could win him face. However, he did not expect to be slapped in the face by Empress Wu, so he had no choice but to accept it.
Empress Wu suggested that General Qibi Heli, the right-wing Xiaowei general, should be appointed as the pacifier of Tieledao, and General Jiang Ke of the left could serve as his deputy, to re-pacify the nine Tiele tribes, and at the same time punish Zheng Rentai and Xue Rengui.
However, after all, Emperor Gaozong still took into account the merits of these two men and did not adopt Empress Wu's suggestion of having Zheng Rentai executed and Xue Rengui demoted.
However, this Yang Deyi did not have any good results. In less than a month, Emperor Gaozong used Xu Yushi's son Xu Ziziran to be exiled to Tingzhou (today's Xinjiang) because of the case of hunting and killing Yang Deyi for selfish reasons.
It can be seen that the power struggle between Emperor Gaozong and Empress Wu was already intensifying at this time.
When Gaozong and Empress Wu were fighting for power, Li Xian habitually did not make any attempt to favor either side. The old fox Li Ji also said nothing, imitating Xu Shu who entered Cao's camp, and behaved completely like he had nothing to do with himself.
Hanging posture.
However, for Li Xian, he still had to abide by the rules of morning and evening. Therefore, as long as Emperor Gaozong and Empress Wu were in Luoyang, Li Xian would go to the palace to kowtow to An in the morning and evening, and occasionally tease the nurse who kept him in the palace.
Li Xulun, the eighth brother of the palace.
This day was already November 25th, and the next day was Li Xian's birthday, so Empress Wu kept him in the palace for a while longer, discussing how to celebrate Li Xian's birthday.
Li Xian attached great importance to such an opportunity to claim credit and win over people's hearts. He discussed with Empress Wu for a long time, and finally said goodbye tiredly to Empress Wu.
But as soon as Li Xian walked out of the palace door, he heard a strong wind rushing towards him. He couldn't help but feel a chill in his heart, and hurriedly stepped aside. However, the moment the opponent rushed into the palace, he immediately turned back and shouted at Wu Zetian.
Said: "Mother, dodge quickly, there is an assassin."
"Ah?" Empress Wu was frightened when she heard Li Xian shouting like this. Fortunately, she had always been calm, so she didn't get confused. She was just slightly panicked, then calmed down, and hurriedly evaded to the side, while
He dodged while shouting for the guards outside the palace to escort him.
But the assassin seemed to know that the success of today's matter only depended on this moment. If he waited for a moment, there would be no chance after the guards outside the palace arrived, so he came very quickly and arrived at Empress Wu in just an instant.
In front of her, the long sword whipped up a strong wind and struck directly at Empress Wu's face.
Seeing that the assassin's sword was about to stab him, even though Empress Wu was always calm, the assassin couldn't help but turn pale and pale, and even forgot to dodge in his panic.
At this moment, there was only a gust of wind, followed by a "dang" sound of gold and iron, and then Li Xian's voice was heard: "Mother, get out of the way quickly."
Then she felt herself being pushed aside by Li Xian, and before she could react, she heard a slight sound of a sword entering flesh, and then heard Li Xian shouting: "If you want to kill my mother, first
Kill me."
"Xian'er!" Empress Wu had extraordinary hearing and immediately heard that Li Xian's voice was a little weak. She looked at Li Xian and saw that Li Xian's chest was red. She couldn't help but change her face and shouted urgently.
Li Xian's face turned pale and his teeth chattered, but he pretended to be calm and said with a smile: "The child is fine, mother, there is no need to worry, mother leave quickly, just delay for a moment, and the soldiers outside the palace will arrive.
Kill this assassin on the spot."
At this moment, I heard the palace door being knocked open, and then a group of guards rushed in. First, two people went over to protect Empress Wu.
"I'm fine, I'm just a little frightened. Hurry, hurry up, protect my son. The others will come forward immediately and capture the assassin. I will definitely find out the person behind the scenes." Empress Wu saw the guards coming,
He glanced at Li Xian with concern again and saw that Li Xian was protected by a guard and another guard was trying to stop the bleeding. He immediately felt at ease and then returned to his cold and stern nature and ordered the guards to come forward and capture the assassin.
Although the assassin was very capable, how could he defeat the armored and armed warriors? Even though the assassin knew that tonight's assassination was completely hopeless, he tried to escape, but was blocked by the soldiers.
The assassin fought forcefully with the soldier, but was injured in an instant.
"Hey, you want to escape? Why do you think I, the general of the Tang Dynasty, are so useless?" Qiu Shenji, the leading general, stared at the assassin, sneered, drew out his horizontal sword, and struck at the assassin first.
The assassin had seen Qiu Shenji's power and knew that his own strength was not as good as his opponent's. In addition, since he was injured now, he would definitely not be able to withstand this blow. But his enemy was not dead, so how could he be willing to die like this?
The assassin had no choice but to continue to retreat. After taking a few steps back and dodging the general's attack, his eyes suddenly saw the injured Li Xian on the side. He immediately had an idea. Instead of retreating, he advanced and charged at the general for a while.
He stabbed randomly, and when the general was dodging to avoid it, he suddenly floated to Li Xian's side, lifted Li Xian up smoothly, then put his sword on Li Xian's neck, and shouted in a deep voice: "Don't come over, or I will kill this person."
