"It's me...has my tiger come back?"

On the couch in the inner hall of Ganlu Hall, Emperor Wei slowly opened his eyes and asked feebly.

Seeing this scene, Zhao Hongrun couldn't help but twitch the corner of his mouth a few times, and looked at his father on the couch with a blank expression, but didn't say anything.

Seeing that the atmosphere was a bit awkward, the eunuch Tong Xian who was standing next to the dragon bed quickly stood up to smooth things over: "Your Majesty, His Royal Highness Prince Su is back."

"Okay, okay, help me up."

Emperor Wei waved his hand and signaled Tong Xian to help him sit up so that he could lie back on the couch.

At this time, Emperor Wei turned to look at Zhao Hongrun, beckoning him to come forward: "Hongrun, how is the rebellion in the city...?"

Zhao Hongrun looked at his father with an expressionless face and said calmly: "Under my father's wise leadership, the thief's conspiracy has been stopped."

Listening to his son's somewhat suggestive words, Emperor Wei's brows twitched slightly, but he returned to normal in an instant, shook his head and said: "Hongrun, please don't put gold on my face...Thanks to me for this time

If not, I really don’t know how to explain to my ancestors.” After that, he sighed sadly, smiled bitterly and said to Tong Xian: “Tong Xian, am I really old?”

"..." Tong Xian glanced at Zhao Hongrun calmly, lowered his head and did not dare to reply.

However, Zhao Hongrun couldn't help but sneered and said with a hint of sarcasm: "Father, what are you talking about? I'm so happy to see my father... I just heard that there is a person who looks exactly like my father.

Carrying a sharp sword, I personally participated in the battle on the other side of the palace gate..."

When Emperor Wei heard this, he was calm and pretended to be thoughtful. He blinked and said, "Probably Li Zheng used my name and deliberately asked people to pretend to be me in order to boost the morale of the army and frighten the thieves."

Hearing this, Zhao Hongrun chuckled and said in a pretense of fuss: "Master Li Zheng is using the name of his father? This is the crime of perverting the imperial edict..."

"Ahem." Emperor Wei coughed and said with a hint of sarcasm: "If the matter is urgent, I will pardon him." After that, he was afraid that Zhao Hongrun would continue to entangle the matter, so he quickly changed the subject.

.

In fact, when it comes to this matter, Emperor Wei has long understood: the son in front of him has long been aware of the things he concealed.

But having said that, Emperor Wei refused to admit it, and Zhao Hongrun couldn't do anything about this rogue approach unless he could get Li Zheng and the guards of the Gongwei Division to testify. But when Li Zheng and the guards of the Gongwei Division confronted each other,

His father is loyal and will definitely not testify; secondly, it is not worth it to mobilize troops and mobilize a large number of people for such a small thing...

"...I got fooled by him again, you bastard old man."

Zhao Hongrun couldn't help but murmur secretly in his heart.

At this time, Emperor Wei had shifted the topic to the aftermath of the rebellion. He said to Zhao Hongrun: "Hongrun, although the rebellion has been put down, the people in the city must be in panic at this moment.

Someone needs to step in to stabilize the overall situation to avoid repeating the same situation as before

The disaster of the "Five Parties Crusade"..." After that, he sighed slightly, and then said seriously: "I know that my son has never liked this kind of trouble, but you have also seen that I am old, and now my heart is in trouble.

Powerless. Only you can take on this important responsibility right now..."

Hearing Emperor Wei's sincere words, Zhao Hongrun felt that if he had not seen through the entire game, he might have fallen into the trap again.

Thinking of this, he opened his mouth and said: "Isn't there still too..."

Just as he said this, his voice stopped suddenly.

He originally wanted to say, "Isn't there still a prince?", but for some reason, he couldn't say it.

I don’t know whether he was disappointed that Prince Hongyu’s temperament changed drastically, or because it was the former’s aggressive attitude towards Prince Hongxin that triggered the rebellion, or because Zhao Hongrun himself had already become dissatisfied with Prince Hongxin.

Disappointed.

At this moment, there was a noise outside Ganlu Palace, and someone could still be vaguely heard shouting: "I have something urgent to report to His Highness King Su, why do you stop me from entering?... Your Highness? Your Highness? Are you there?"

Inside?"

Seeing Zhao Hongrun's face showing some embarrassment, Tong Xian waved to a young eunuch and gave the latter a few instructions.

The little eunuch nodded and ran out of the palace.

After a while, he left and returned again, bringing with him several Shang Shui soldiers. The leader was none other than one of the mighty generals of the Shang Shui Army, especially the thousand-man general Xiang Li.

Seeing Xiang Li rushing into the palace in a hurry, Zhao Hongrun coughed and scolded: "This is the place where my father rests, so don't be arrogant!"

Xiang Li shrank his head and quickly saluted Emperor Wei with clasped fists and called him "Your Majesty" while he was lying on the couch.

Emperor Wei smiled and waved his hand, indicating that he would not blame him.

Seeing this, Zhao Hongrun asked: "What's the matter?"

Xiang Li clasped his fists and said seriously: "Your Highness, there is a palace on fire..."

Emperor Wei frowned when he heard this, and even Zhao Hongrun had a bad feeling. He frowned and asked, "That palace?"

"It seems to be called..." Xiang Li scratched his head and said hesitantly: "Jin...Jin what palace? Jinse Palace? No..."

Zhao Hongrun's eyes changed slightly when he heard this, he frowned and asked: "Splendid Palace?"

"Yes, yes!" Xiang Li nodded repeatedly and said: "This is the Jinxiu Palace. When the general and Ran Teng led the troops to that palace, the palace was already a sea of ​​fire. At that time, the general and Ran Teng wanted to put out the fire, but they couldn't.

I thought that there were a few people outside the Jinxiu Palace who stopped me... those people were the Zongwei who claimed to be the prince."

"..." Zhao Hongrun opened his mouth, not knowing what to say.

How could he not have guessed that most likely out of shame or resentment, Prince Hongyu did not want to meet him, so he simply committed suicide and set a fire in the Jinxiu Palace where his mother, Concubine Shi, lived during her lifetime.

Upon hearing this news, Emperor Wei felt sad in his heart.

To be fair, Prince Hongyu has done well in the past year. The only shortcoming is his tolerance - this tolerance does not mean that Prince Hongyu cannot tolerate others, but that he is too suspicious and lacks the ability to treat others.

of trust.

Let’s not mention Qing Wang Hongxin for the time being. The wise ministers in the court at that time were Xu Guan, the former Minister of the Ministry of War, and Li Liang, the former Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs. These were the pillars of the court. However, precisely because Prince Hongyu did not trust them, he simply dismissed those former ministers.

The important ministers of the imperial court were left idle and replaced by people he trusted - in a sense, this can also be said to be nepotism.

In the final analysis, it can only be said that Prince Hongyu lacks confidence in himself. In this regard, this Crown Prince is far inferior to Emperor Wei Zhao Yuanxi and Prince Su Zhao Hongrun.

Why did Emperor Wei dare to let Zhao Yuanzuo, the king of Nanliang, take over the military power? Because he thought that as long as he was around, Zhao Yuanzuo, the king of Nanliang, would not be able to do anything!

And why did Su Wang Zhao Hongrun dare to write a letter handing over the military power of the three armies of Yanling Army, Shangshui Army and Youma Army to Prince Hongyu? Because Zhao Hongrun was confident that even if he handed over military power to Prince Hongyu, as long as he escaped and said

After giving the order, these three armies will still not escape his control.

This is confidence! This is confidence!

But it is a pity that Prince Hongyu lacks self-confidence in this regard, otherwise, he would not have hurriedly tried to take back the power of his brothers before he was firmly on the throne.

Now that he had vaguely guessed that Prince Hongyu had committed suicide in the Jinxiu Palace, Emperor Wei was sighing in his heart.

Because in his opinion, although Prince Hongyu still lacks some of the magnanimity of a king, if he serves as the prime minister and assists a brother, it is more than enough. However, Emperor Wei also knows that based on Prince Hongyu's self-esteem,

This is simply impossible.

"The prince's move...is this to make way for Hongrun?"

Emperor Wei secretly sighed, and he couldn't help but regret that he had spoken too harshly when speaking to Prince Hongyu on the audience platform.

As the saying goes, a tiger's poison cannot eat its own children. Even though the Emperor of Wei thought that the crown prince's reputation was still lacking and was not enough to lead the Wei State, he hoped to take this opportunity to put his eighth son Zhao Hongrun on the throne, but he never thought of forcing him to death.

Prince Hongyu.

But it turned out that Prince Hongyu's self-esteem was stronger than he had guessed. After realizing that he was about to lose everything, he simply chose to end his life in a decent way while he was still the crown prince.

.

He even used his own death to complain to their father: Don’t you want Lao Ba to take over? Okay, I’ll give it to him, are you satisfied?!

Thinking deeply about it, Emperor Wei couldn't help but feel a little sad.

You must know that among the several sons, Prince Hongyu is the most similar to him. Regardless of the tactics and scheming, the only difference is that Emperor Wei trusted Zhao Yuandai, the king of Yu, as his right-hand man, while Prince Hongyu, even

There is some suspicion and fear towards Zhao Hongrun, let alone other brothers.

It is no exaggeration to say that without Zhao Hongrun, Emperor Wei would definitely choose Prince Hongyu as his successor. However, there is no so-called "if" in reality.

After thinking about it, Emperor Wei suddenly felt a little sleepy - if he was pretending to be tired just now to show Zhao Hongrun, then now, after learning that Prince Hongyu had committed suicide in Jinxiu Palace, he really felt tired.

.

Because in a sense, he indirectly forced Prince Hongyu, his talented son, to death. After all, when Prince Hongyu made mistakes, he did not come forward to remind or stop him. Instead, he took advantage of Prince Hongyu's mistakes.

As an inducement to achieve the goal in his mind.

Thinking of this, Emperor Wei sighed and said softly: "Hongrun, I'll leave the aftermath to you..."

Zhao Hongrun nodded silently.

In the next two days, Zhao Hongrun ordered the entire city to be cordoned off and searched for Xiao Luan. Unfortunately, trying to find a person in such a huge beam was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

During this period, anyone involved in the "King Qing's rebellion" was ordered to be arrested by Zhao Hongrun, such as Zhao Hongxin, King of Qing, Zhao Yuanzuo, King of Nanliang, Zhao Hongyin, King of Yi, and Wei Feng of the Wei family in Tianshui, etc.

After being deceived, King Huan Zhao Hongxuan and King Yan Zhao Hongjiang and Zhao Hongrun showed no mercy and asked the clan to take the two brothers away and let them go to the meditation room of the clan to calm down and think about it.

In addition, Zhao Hongrun temporarily took over the military power of the imperial guards, King Qing's army, anti-rebellion army, etc., and ordered the three to "stop their troops and reorganize."

As for the final verdict on this rebellion, the court has not yet made a decision.

Because before that, there is another more important matter, which is the candidate for the crown prince.

As the saying goes, a country cannot be without a king for a day, and the position of crown prince and crown prince cannot be left vacant. After all, as we all know, the physical condition of Emperor Wei is getting worse day by day, and God knows when he will pass away. Since the prince Hongyu is no longer here, then the court must

The new prince must be identified first, and then other matters can be dealt with in an orderly manner.
To be continued...