The fox minister in the late Tang Dynasty

Chapter 125 Overcast clouds gradually rise, and the rain is heavy

No matter which dynasty or generation, a woman who sleeps with the emperor, even a court lady, can be regarded as trespassing, and will be disliked by the current emperor. If it is serious, she will not be able to strip off her official robes and go to prison, and she will be executed as a queen.

Cui Jiao is also a prudent person. He was more cautious when dealing with political opponents. He sent away the servant named Liu Zi, and asked the steward to go outside to find Jianghu people who were better at inquiring about news.

Among the rebels, there was no shortage of people from the rivers and lakes. After King Huang entered the city, there were people from the rivers and lakes fighting and making troubles in Chang'an from time to time.

Right now he found a chivalrous man who is very good at inquiring about news, and after telling him the address, he went up and down as usual, went to the yamen to deal with official documents, or read books at leisure in the mansion, and wrote some beautiful calligraphy and paintings.

One afternoon two days after arriving, the knight who inquired about the news finally came back and confirmed the news to him.

"There are more than 20 women in it. Their demeanor, appearance, and gestures should be from rich and powerful families. Among them, there is one year old, about forty years old, and the charm is still there. It is faintly the head of this group of women. According to Cui Xiang's instructions According to the portrait, that woman is undoubtedly Princess Li Huan of Guangde."

Ha ha!

Cui Yan nodded with a chuckle, and asked the steward to give the knight some silver taels. After the study door was closed, he excitedly got up from behind the desk, and took a few steps back and forth rubbing his palms.

'If you're not a fellow traveler, you can't be a minister in the same temple. It's good to be one with the truth, and you have to fight against it! '

Attacking political opponents seems to be an instinct carved in his bones. Cui Yan made up his mind, thought about the wording, and ordered the stewards of the mansion to prepare the carriage, and drove all the way to the imperial city. Even though he was demoted, he was quite respected. The guards and eunuchs in the palace saw him from afar and bowed to salute him.

Cui Qi didn't pay much attention to it, so he stopped an eunuch and asked where His Majesty was, and went straight to find him.

Yuexi Building is an attic in the southeast of Taiji Palace. Cui Qi, who passed through the flower garden and rockery path, was led down by the guards to the moon gate in front of the attic to wait for summons. Looking at the guards who entered the attic, he thought of meeting His Majesty in the future, and saw The angry look on Huang Chao's face, and what happened to Geng Qing afterwards, couldn't help curling the corners of his lips, wanting to laugh.

Not long after, the guard who informed him came back, and he hurried forward to ask what was going on.

"Your Majesty can see me?"

The guard nodded, walked to the side first, and made a gesture of invitation: "Your Majesty is watching the dance inside, please, Mrs. Cui."

Ha ha
Cui Qi chuckled twice, stroked his short beard and walked up to the stone steps of the attic. Ji waved her long sleeves and performed a graceful dance to the rhythm of the vocal music.

Huang Chao was now dressed lightly, leaning on the wooden couch and closing his eyes to rest. He was tired after dealing with the government affairs. He came here every day to watch a little dance, listen to a little vocal music, and rest his mind. He heard the sound of footsteps coming from the door. The sound came from outside, slowly opened his eyes, raised his hand and waved casually.

"Cui Sang, find a seat by yourself."

Cui Yan, who came in, bowed his hands in thanks, and found a seat near the wooden couch, and sat down with slightly raised robes, quietly accompanying the emperor who was resting with his eyes closed, his eyes fell on those maikos, and he opened his mouth suddenly.

"Your Majesty, there are only dances and vocal music, why is there no concubine to wait on you?"

Others wouldn't dare to say these words. Now that Cui Qiu is the prime minister, the emperor wouldn't get angry with him with such a word, and Huang Chao didn't open his eyes, just lying on his side, snorting softly: "I don't know what that is. Did Emperor Tang take those concubines away? After I entered the palace, I didn’t see any of them except the old woman from the laundry department. These were all recruited by me separately, so there are no concubines.”

"Your Majesty, it's wrong to say that. The back garden is so vast, how can we not enrich the palace, but some officials have wives and concubines in groups, comparable to your majesty's harem."

With such bold words, Cui Qi was willing to go all out. Sure enough, after the words were finished, the old man lying on his side on the wooden couch opened his eyes and narrowed them. look straight at.

Cui Qiu got up quickly, bowing his hands with a flustered expression.

"Your Majesty, the minister has made a slip of the tongue in a hurry, please punish him."

Over there, Huang Chao didn't answer the words, and looked straight at Cui Jiao who was bowing and buried his head, and sat up, his words were a little cold.

"Oh? Who is the courtier you speak of?"

The voice suddenly resounded in the building. The musicians and maikos stopped one by one. They didn't dare to look over here, but just stood there with their heads down. The old man sat upright, looked at Cui Jiao, waved his hand, and shouted: "Keep playing the music, keep dancing!"

The old man is eccentric, he failed the provincial examination more than 30 years ago, and has held grudges because of the powerful family and bureaucrats. Now he hears Cui Jiao say this metaphor that the emperor is not as good as his courtiers, and he starts to feel upset again.

"Say, who has so many wives and concubines? After killing so many powerful families, the officials below me start thinking about the next batch of powerful families?"

The corner of Cui Yan's mouth curled up faintly, and he calmed down quickly, and said in a low voice, "It's Geng Geng Shilang."

The old man who was sitting up straight took a sip of the tea, his brows were furrowed, and then he placed the teacup heavily on the small table in front of the couch with a bang, and his tall body stood up and walked out.

The Prime Minister Cui Qi over there hurriedly followed.

"If Your Majesty doesn't believe it, I can take you to have a look, and what my subordinates saw, there are other discoveries."

After going down the stone steps, the old man still didn't speak, but the meaning was to let him continue talking, and Cui Jiao followed step by step down the stone steps. He had followed Huang Wang for two or three years, and he had already figured out his temper.

"I found out that Princess Guangde Li Huan was also there, and the gestures of those women were not like ordinary people. It just so happened that there was no woman in the back garden of Li Xuan when His Majesty entered the palace."

The old man who was walking stopped, how could he fail to understand what Cui Jiao said so far?After entering the palace that day, there wasn't a single concubine or maid, and an old woman was brought over under his command, and she blurted out a word of "make do", which made him feel ashamed.

Huang Chao raised his face and looked at the magnificent and stretching eaves and domes of the palace. Birds passed by his sight. After a while, he gave an order to lead a group of people to Yong'an Square to find Geng Qing. The door went straight to Guangdefang.

The imperial chariots and horse teams marched through the market, and the people passing by along the way were driven to the side of the street by the soldiers with knives, and they arrived at the gate of the mansion with the plaque of "Geng's Mansion" unimpeded. Looking out through the crack of the door, a long team of soldiers and horses lay across the street outside, with banners, swords and spears lined up everywhere, his legs became weak from fright, he turned around and ran out under the eaves, and stopped one who was watering the potted plants sisters.

"There are rebel soldiers and horses outside, hurry up and call Princess Guangde!"

The next moment, there was a knock on the door outside.

The woman hurriedly called her sister away, and while hesitating, the knock on the door became louder. She took a deep breath, mustered enough breath, walked to the door with trembling feet, swallowed, and then pulled the door latch. Open, and then, the courtyard door was pushed aside with a bang.

A tall general leaned against the door leaf, and next to him was an old man in a black-and-white cloud-patterned robe with gold threads wrapped around his collar. He had a gray beard and hair, and the timid woman with her hands behind her back just glanced at her and stepped forward. Come in.

"Who are you, why did you break into my house?!"

The woman boldly yelled at the old man, but her voice trembled so that Huang Chao chuckled. He walked to the eaves of the porter's room and looked into the room.

"It's amazing. The gatekeepers are all such beautiful women. Geng Shilang is really rich, even more extravagant than those I have killed."

The word "zhen" frightened the woman so that her legs trembled even more fiercely. If it was not covered by her dress, she would have been seen by others. people.

"Tell me, who are you?"

Huang Chao strolled down with his hands behind his back, and walked to the Fengshui Wall, the woman didn't dare to move, but was hit with the head of a knife by the soldier, and followed behind staggeringly.

After hesitating for a moment, the woman stammered and said, "This house belongs to the concubine's husband."

"I didn't ask you who owns the house, so you just said it? You must have thought about it beforehand." Huang Chao turned around, raised his hand and pinched the woman's chin, lifted her small face, and saw her eyes Here, tears are spinning in fright, adding a feeling of pity.

Hearing the sound of footsteps, the old man let go of the woman, turned his gaze to the side of the feng shui wall, and saw a woman in ordinary clothes leading a group of women in different costumes.

Huang Chao squinted his eyes at the leading woman, smiled and nodded.

"really not bad."

Wing On Square.

Geng Qing opened the drawer, took out some papers, all of which were written in pinyin, stained with ink, gradually ticked the characters under the pinyin, and handed two of them to Jiuyu and Qin Huaimian.

"Do you know why I entered the Criminal Department in the first place? Among the four, only the Criminal Department has many warriors and is easy to win over. You act according to the plan on the paper. Tu Shifei, Wang Feiying, and Yang Huaixiong, who wields the sword, are all It is a righteous man of Nian Tang, and there are more than [-] people under his command, you go to integrate them. And Jiuyu, continue to return to the palace, and when everything is ready, first occupy the imperial city."

"Ready? How do you know it's ready?"

Geng Qing glanced at the half-opened window lattice, and there were soldiers coming from the street outside, "Those concubines are the introduction. Once it started, they couldn't stop. Huang Chao didn't trust me from the beginning. If this matter gets muddled, it will definitely come to an end." Excuse me to kill me, but considering my merits of surrendering and Conglong for the rebel army, I will not do it in the city, it should be outside the city, let me go outside the city, I guess the only way is to fight."

"You are a servant of the Ministry of Punishment, and I want you to go to war." Qin Huaimian couldn't help laughing when he mentioned Geng Qing's official position, "That excuse is not convincing."

"Isn't it enough to add a servant of the Ministry of War?"

Geng Qing was too lazy to continue explaining, not to mention that he didn't have time at this time, so he went down to the attic after speaking.

Sure enough, the soldiers who came from afar knocked on the courtyard door, saying that His Majesty invited him, even if Wang Jinqiu, Qiaoniang, and Dachun's family had never seen the world, they could still see the danger, and everyone was nervous He looked at Geng Qing.

"Don't be nervous, no matter what relationship I have with His Majesty, I will stay in the courtyard well."

Geng Qing waved at them, especially Qin Huaimian and Jiuyu, blinked at them, turned around with a relaxed expression and left with the soldiers outside.

(End of this chapter)