Chapter 211 Evenly matched opponents
If there really are so-called historical nodes in this world, the history before and after this node will take a sharp turn and go towards completely different historical branches.
Then this node must be a coup.
Liu Teng escorted the little emperor to the Taiji Hall in the central palace and asked the little emperor for the imperial edict announcing that Prince Qinghe was plotting treason.
But at this step, I got stuck again.
The young emperor Yuan Xu hesitated again.
Perhaps it was the group of tough emperors in the early Northern Wei Dynasty who used up all the martial virtues of the Tuoba clan. From Emperor Xuanwu to the young Emperor Yuanxu, they were all emperors who were easily influenced by others.
Now the entire Northern Wei royal family and important officials are corrupt and abusive, which is largely related to the indulgence of Emperor Xuanwu.
The little emperor was only eleven years old. After arriving at Taiji Hall, he remembered that Qinghe Prince Shu Yuanyi had an excellent reputation and began to doubt Liu Teng's words.
The young emperor was unwilling to issue an edict, and the emperor's seals were kept in the hands of Empress Dowager Hu, so Liu Teng could not forge an edict.
He repeatedly persuaded Yuan Xu, but Yuan Xu still said, "Please confront Uncle Qinghe in front of the palace."
Naturally, Liu Teng would not agree with this approach. He was the one who falsely accused Prince Qinghe of treason. Once they confronted each other in front of the palace, wouldn't everything be exposed?
However, he did not dare to force the young emperor to issue an edict to kill King Qinghe. After repeated persuasion failed, Liu Teng left Taiji Hall.
At this time, Jiangyang King Yuanyi, who was guarding the gate of Taiji Hall, came to greet them.
"Has His Majesty issued an edict?"
Liu Teng shook his head. Yuan Yi paced back and forth anxiously, like an ant on a hot pot:
"What should we do? Your Majesty refuses to issue an edict. How should we deal with the Prince of Qinghe?"
Liu Teng said with a fierce look on his face:
"Without the imperial edict, isn't there still the Ministry of Personnel?"
Yuan Yi looked at Liu Teng, and Liu Teng crossed his arms and said:
"Please ask the king to go to the Ministry of Personnel and let the prime ministers discuss the crime of the King of Qinghe."
Yuan Yi said hesitantly, "What if the prime ministers disagree?"
Liu Teng was speechless. He looked at Yuan Yi and said bluntly, "Then let the prime ministers agree! Prince Qinghe will enter the palace as soon as he hears the news. If you let him take the queen mother out of the North Palace, you and I will be finished!"
Yuan Yi's whole body trembled. Liu Teng said, "Your servants can seal off the North Palace first. Your Majesty, arrest the King of Qinghe as soon as possible and let the Ministry of Personnel convict and kill the King of Qinghe!"
Even at this point, Yuan Yi still had no idea what was going on and asked, "Prince Qinghe has controlled the Menxia Province for many years, and many of the prime ministers have cronies. I'm afraid..."
Liu Teng said murderously: "Then kill the King of Qinghe first and then convict him! Do you need me to teach you this?"
Liu Teng was also speechless. Couldn’t King Jiangyang even understand a coup?
Did I choose the wrong partner?
Forget it. I don’t have many years left to live anyway. As long as I can control the little emperor, imprison the empress dowager, and manage the government, I won’t have to worry about anything after I die.
The bond between Liu Teng and King Jiangyang was too deep, and King Qinghe's party also realized this, and launched an attack on Liu Teng in the palace a while ago.
If King Jiangyang Yuan Yi had been appointed to a post outside the capital, he might have had a chance to survive by surrendering to Southern Liang. However, a palace servant like Liu Teng would be doomed once he lost his power.
Even death is a relatively good outcome. There are many ways in the palace that can make people live a life worse than death.
Liu Teng has served as the Grand Chamberlain in the palace for many years and has made countless enemies. If he wants to have a good end, he must fight hard.
However, there is another important link in controlling Beigong, and that is the Langwei who guards Beigong.
Liu Teng asked, "Where is Xi Kangsheng, the Right Guard General?"
The General of the Left Guard was Jiangyang King Yuan Yi, but his control over the Beigong was not strong. The person who was truly in charge of the Beigong guards was the General of the Right Guard Xi Kangsheng.
Yuan Yi said:
"Xi Kangsheng does not want to harm Your Majesty and the Queen Mother, but he owes me a favor and will not harm our affairs. Now he has imprisoned himself in the mansion, and I have sent people to keep him under guard."
Liu Teng narrowed his eyes and said, "Won't the king kill him?"
Yuan Yi said: "Xi Kangsheng has already been watching from the sidelines, so why should we harm him? He also hates the Prince of Qinghe, so he will not interfere in our affairs."
"We don't intend to harm your majesty and the queen mother. When this is over, the worst that can happen is that we demote him."
Liu Teng coughed violently again. He was really angry at Yuan Yi's IQ.
Even in such a major event as a coup, he was still so careless. After revealing his intention to launch a coup, Xi Kangsheng was unwilling to take sides. Yuan Yi did not kill him but only imprisoned him in his mansion.
He even said that he would re-employ Xi Kangsheng after the coup was over?
Liu Teng could only sigh that it was fortunate that King Jiangyang was born in this dynasty. If he were born in another dynasty, he would have been executed long ago.
But I can only cooperate with this stupid teammate!
However, the Langwei system headed by Xi Kangsheng was willing to stand aside and watch, so the eunuchs secretly trained by Liu Teng could seal off the Beigong Palace.
The imperial guards were also controlled by Prince Jiangyang. As long as Prince Qinghe was killed, the coup would be a success.
Liu Teng said, "Then the affairs of the Central Palace will depend on the king. I will go to the Northern Palace to deal with the affairs around the Queen Mother. No scoundrels can be allowed to get close to the Queen Mother."
-
Beigong, Jiafu Hall.
At this time, Empress Dowager Hu was listening to Monk Bian Ji explaining scriptures in the Buddhist hall in the side hall.
Su Ze, who was far away in Longxi, had already learned the news of the coup in the palace through the "Xuanguang Hall Coup Report" submitted by Su Shun.
This historic coup still happened.
Come to think of it, the conflict between Prince Qinghe and Prince Jiangyang is irreconcilable, so this coup is almost inevitable.
In Su Ze's opinion, this coup can be described as a fight between weaklings.
But in fact, many coups in history were like this. Even in modern times, many coups were like child's play. For example, the main reason for the success of the coup under the excellent African region matching mechanism was that the opponent was too weak.
The main reason why Yuan Yi and Liu Teng's coup was successful was that their opponents, Empress Dowager Hu and Prince Qinghe, were too weak.
Empress Dowager Hu had no checks and balances and allowed Liu Teng and Yuan Yi to control the entire palace and even the guards in Luoyang, which was tantamount to handing a knife to her opponents.
However, her friendship with the young emperor was too shallow, which led to the young emperor's natural hostility towards Prince Qinghe.
You must know that the source of power for Empress Dowager Hu, the regent, is the little emperor, and the source of power for Prince Qinghe's regent is also the imperial power.
Despite such an important source of power, the two did not control the emperor like Wu Zetian and Cixi did, nor did they win him over with family ties like Empress Dowager Liu of the Northern Song Dynasty. Instead, they only cared about their own enjoyment.
This can be said to be the result of Empress Dowager Hu and Prince Qinghe's suicide. For Su Ze, he was the one who benefited from this coup.
He has the support of Jiangyang Prince Yuan Yi. One good thing about this prince of Wei is that he really does things when he is paid!
I can only say that these weird princes of the Northern Wei Dynasty, I don’t know if they were all reincarnated as poor people in their previous lives, why do they have such a strong desire for wealth in this life.
Historically, after Yuan Yi came to power, his only goal was to make money.
This person has made selling official positions and titles so sophisticated that he can get things done as long as money is paid, and he will do anything.
The most outrageous thing was that after accepting bribes from Erzhu Rong, he sent Erzhu Rong's daughter into the palace to be the young emperor's concubine.
Although the Erzhu family had married into the royal family in their early years, they had already become a marginal clan when Emperor Xiaowen established surnames. Otherwise, they would not have been given even a Han surname and would have been treated like Yanchen, like a tribal chief.
The Erzhu family is just rich, but has nothing to do with the core of power.
In terms of reputation, his promotion is not as good as Li from Longxi. At most, he is a powerful person at the state level.
However, after accepting the generous gift from Erzhu Rong, Yuan Yi actually helped Erzhu Rong get things done.
As a result, Erzhu Rong became the emperor's father-in-law. Later, the young emperor gave Erzhu Rong, his "father-in-law", a secret decree, asking him to go to Luoyang to serve the emperor, which led to the Heyin Incident.
The rise of the Erzhu family is inseparable from Yuan Yi's tolerance and indulgence.
Isn't it just a gift?!
My sworn brother Erzhu Rong can send it, and I Su Ze can send it too!
Thinking that there would be a self-service wholesale machine for official positions in the court in the future, Su Ze felt that his life was becoming more and more promising.
But before the situation calmed down, Su Ze still reminded his followers who stayed in Luoyang through the system, told them the news of the coup, and asked them to keep a low profile and smoothly get through the coup storm.
Especially Princess Chenliu. Although her relationship with Prince Qinghe was average, no one knew whether such a storm as a coup would have any aftermath. If they were caught up in such aftermath, even the nobles would suffer.
However, when Su Ze opened the map of Luoyang, he found that Bian Ji's icon was in the North Palace. After checking the records, he learned that he had been summoned by Empress Dowager Hu to the palace to preach.
Su Ze quickly sent the news of the coup to Bian Ji and changed the commissioned task to "self-protection". For this useful purple follower, Su Ze could only pray to Buddha for protection and let him survive the coup.
After receiving the message from Su Ze, Bian Ji stopped preaching immediately.
He didn't expect that he would be so unlucky. Today, the Queen Mother summoned him to Jiafu Palace to give a lecture!
Is it because he does not observe the precepts on a daily basis that he was punished by the Buddha?
Bian Ji was not stupid. He certainly knew the cruelty of political struggle. Empress Dowager Hu might be able to save her life, but he, who had experienced the coup, would most likely be silenced.
Looking around, Empress Dowager Hu was only surrounded by palace maids and eunuchs, and Liu Teng was Empress Dowager Hu's Grand Chamberlain. These people were probably bribed by Liu Teng. It could be said that Empress Dowager Hu had no chance of winning this coup.
The master's task given to me is to save my life. How can I save my life in such a situation?
Hidden?
That definitely wouldn't work. Feeling the gazes on him, Liu Teng was probably already arranging palace servants to keep an eye on him.
Bian Ji’s mind raced. How could he survive?
After thinking about it, the only option is to play tricks.
Bian Ji suddenly put his hands together, tears fell from his eyes, and chanted "Amitabha".
Empress Dowager Hu was startled and asked, "Why is the master crying?"
Bian Ji said loudly: "When the country is in mourning, it is natural for a monk to shed tears."
Empress Dowager Hu asked, "I haven't heard of any important minister being seriously ill?"
Monk Bianji said again: "There is a change in the palace. Please ask the Queen Mother to stay in Jiafu Hall to avoid disaster."
Bian Ji was learning from Fotucheng, who had once warned Shi Le's son Shi Tao about a palace uprising, but Shi Tao was still killed by Shi Hu, who led a coup.
However, because Shi Hu heard that Fotucheng had predicted his coup, he believed that Fotucheng was a real Taoist, so he still respected Fotucheng very much, and made Fotucheng quite favored during Shi Hu's reign.
Now Bian Ji could only continue to learn from Fotucheng. After he predicted to Empress Dowager Hu that a coup would take place in the palace, he clasped his hands together, closed his eyes and chanted scriptures. No matter how Empress Dowager Hu asked him questions, he refused to answer.
After an incense stick of time, one of the empress dowager's maids came hurriedly to report that Jiafu Palace was surrounded by soldiers.
It was then that Empress Dowager Hu realized something was wrong. She asked in a panic, "Where is Liu Teng? Where is Liu Changqiu?"
But after shouting for a long time, there was still no sign of anyone. Empress Dowager Hu became even more uneasy. She wanted to leave Jiafu Hall, but then she remembered what Bian Ji said, and she sat down again after just standing up.
After another stick of incense had passed, the gate of Jiafu Palace opened, and Empress Dowager Hu saw Liu Teng, whom she had been looking for.
All she saw was a row of armored eunuchs standing behind Liu Teng. No matter how dumb Empress Dowager Hu was, she understood something.
At this time, several eunuchs around Empress Dowager Hu walked up to Liu Teng and whispered a few words to him. Liu Teng's eyes swept over Empress Dowager Hu and fell on Bian Ji, who was sitting cross-legged on a cushion and chanting scriptures.
Bian Ji's heart was already in his throat, but he still pretended to be an enlightened monk, chanting Buddhist scriptures with his eyes closed.
Liu Teng's eyes swept over Bian Ji. He himself believed in Buddhism and had heard about Bian Ji's several displays of supernatural powers.
Launching a coup was a very confidential matter, even the Empress Dowager Hu kept it secret. Yet this monk actually knew about it. It seems he really has supernatural powers.
Liu Teng himself had an illness and was even more afraid of retribution after death, so he did not dare to harm Bian Ji.
However, in order not to harm Bian Ji, Empress Dowager Hu still had to control him, especially the eunuchs and palace maids around her, who must be kept under control.
Liu Teng crossed his hands and said, "Queen Dowager, Prince Qinghe is plotting a rebellion and has bribed the eunuchs in the main food department to poison Your Majesty. Your Majesty has now been taken to the Taiji Palace for protection. Please, Queen Dowager, issue an edict to execute Prince Qinghe!"
Empress Dowager Hu’s first reaction was, could the national mourning that Bian Ji was talking about be the death of Prince Qinghe?
But Empress Dowager Hu was still the Empress Dowager who ruled the country, so she mustered up her courage and said, "Eunuch! Are you going to rebel?"
Liu Teng had no expectations for Empress Dowager Hu, and what he said just now was just a formality. He waved his hand, and the soldiers behind him stepped forward. Liu Teng said:
"The Queen Mother has been bewitched by a traitor, and I can only purge her from her side."
After saying that, the soldiers stepped forward and quickly captured the few remaining eunuchs and palace maids behind Empress Dowager Hu. These palace maids and eunuchs struggled. They were Empress Dowager Hu's most die-hard supporters, but now they were all captured by Liu Teng's soldiers.
Hemp rope balls were stuffed into these people's mouths and they were dragged to the side of Jiafu Palace by the soldiers. Then Empress Dowager Hu heard the sound of swords being drawn.
Empress Dowager Hu's face turned pale. Even if she had no political acumen, she knew what was happening.
Liu Teng coughed again and said to Queen Mother Hu, "The Queen Mother is not feeling well. You should stay in the North Palace to recuperate. The affairs of state will be handled by the wise king to assist Your Majesty."
After saying this, several eunuchs hurried out of Jiafu Hall. They knelt in front of Liu Teng and said:
"Grand Chamberlain, I have searched the Jiafu Palace but have not found the seals of the Empress Dowager and His Majesty."
(End of this chapter)