People in the early Tang Dynasty: I compete with Wu Zhao for the throne

Chapter 1488: I Resign from the Post of Supervisor of Fengshan

A quiet Buddhist temple room in the night.

There were three men lying on the long kang, their eyes slightly closed, but they were not asleep.

Suddenly, the doors and windows shattered.

Before the three men could react, three ropes flew in from outside and were instantly wrapped around the necks of the three men, and they were dragged out fiercely.

With a "bang", countless figures fell to the ground, and a cold knife was already placed on their necks.

"Kill!" A strong man rushed out from a house and rushed towards the Qianniu Guards opposite without any hesitation.

"Swish, swish, swish!" Under countless crossbow arrows, the man was immediately shot into a sieve.

At this moment, the roof of the innermost room suddenly broke open, and the next moment, a figure rushed directly towards the side yard.

The side courtyard was originally where the temple grew vegetables, but now in winter, only yellow soil is left.

But on the east side of the courtyard, right next to the city wall.

Faintly, one can seem to see a few barely detectable shallow pits on the city wall.

For experts, those shallow pits are enough for them to leverage their strength to climb up the city wall and then jump out.

Just as the figure was about to rush over the courtyard wall, at this moment, two long swords rushed out from the corner of the wall at the same time, and instantly cut towards the figure's lower abdomen.

The speed of the sword light was astonishingly fast. The figure in the air was shocked and angry. He swung the long sword in his hand downward fiercely, and one blow directly hit the two long swords.

With a "bang", the figure flew backwards instantly.

Zheng Xuanguo, with completely white hair and a cold face, looked at the two people in front of him in disbelief: "King Peng, He Ji!"

"County Lord." Li Xuan raised his head slightly, looked at Zheng Xuanguo with regret and said, "County Lord, no need to say more, just do it."

A determined killing intent rushed directly towards Zheng Xuanguo. His expression changed slightly, and he gritted his teeth and said, "You know it."

Li Xuan sighed and said, "Please go ahead, Lord..."

Before he finished speaking, Li Xuan rushed forward with a sword in hand, while He Yi took half a step back at this moment.

Zheng Xuanguo immediately understood that He Ji was preventing him from escaping.

But at this moment, there was no one chasing after him.

They don't want their death to be seen by others.

Zheng Xuanguo's face suddenly became extremely ugly. He sneered, and the next moment, he thrust his long sword forward and chopped straight towards Li Xuan's neck.

Under the moonlight, a figure was seen rushing towards Li Xuan close to the ground.

The ground beneath Li Xuan's feet exploded at the same time, bringing out countless phantoms and rushing towards Zheng Xuanguo.

……

The cold knife light and the icy sword blade.

At the moment of intersection, two black eyes were reflected on the back of the blade at the same time, and countless mountains of corpses and seas of blood were also reflected in the depths of the two black eyes.

But in an instant, the sea of ​​blood and corpses in front of one of the eyes collapsed instantly.

The next moment, the long sword had silently passed over the hilt and gently passed across the neck.

In just a moment, a head with a face full of unwillingness soared into the sky and finally fell heavily to the ground.

Li Xuan stopped in an instant and swung his sword backwards. The next moment, a sword energy rushed out and Zheng Xuanguo's head was completely shattered.

After doing all this, Li Xuan gently closed his eyes and said, "Brother He, please dispose of the body!"

"Yes!" He Ji retracted the sword at his waist and bowed solemnly to Li Xuan.

Li Xuan sighed and said, "He is also a good fighter, but unfortunately, his mind is too complicated."

He Yi nodded slightly. Losing a daughter and a mother was a pain that not everyone could endure.

Facing an opponent bent on killing, he had no choice but to die.

It was not difficult for Li Xuan and He Qi to guess the root cause of some things.

The fact that Zheng Xuanguo was so persistent in seeking revenge could only mean that the deaths of his mother and daughter were not normal.

The only thing that everyone knew about this was that Zheng Qinnan had a cold.

Now, anyone who knows Zheng Xuanguo’s movements can immediately tell that Zheng Qinnan’s cold is not a real cold.

After that, we can guess a little about the death of Lady Cui of Tongan.

But what does it matter if they guessed it? No one would let him go out of sympathy for him.

If the Zheng family intervenes in the fight for the throne and fails, they will immediately die and their entire family will be wiped out.

Now that only he died, it was already a mercy from the emperor.

The emperor did not need to completely exterminate the Zheng family, as that would involve too many consequences.

However, the governors and chief secretaries of the Zheng family who were close to Zheng Xuanguo would probably be dismissed from their posts by various local authorities under certain pretexts.

The entire Zheng family will suffer a huge blow from this incident.

They will also hate the person who caused all this more.

Emperor, Empress Wu.

No, it’s Li Xuan.

Once the fact that Li Xuan killed Zheng Xuanguo with his own hands is revealed to the Zheng family, the Zheng family will inevitably take crazy revenge on Li Xuan.

Even though he knew this would be the consequence, Li Xuan still resolutely killed Zheng Xuanguo.

Because the emperor wanted him to kill someone. The emperor wanted him to kill Zheng Xuanguo with his own hands.

The imperial edict appointed him as the Fengshan Supervisory Commissioner, commanding the Left and Right Jinwu Guards, the Left and Right Qianniu Guards, the Dali Temple, the Ministry of Justice, Luozhou Prefecture, Luoyang and Henan counties, and in charge of all public security within the territory. In fact, he was required to use this identity to kill Zheng Xuanguo.

Li Xuan had no choice, but he actually didn't need to choose.

Because this person deserves to die.

……

Walking into the side courtyard, the entire Buddhist temple was quiet except for this courtyard.

There was a hint of sneer on Li Xuan's lips.

At this moment, a burst of hurried footsteps was heard from the deepest wing, and then a Qianniu guard walked out quickly, his face solemn, and at the same time suppressed his excitement and said: "Reporting to the prince, I have found something."

"Oh?" Li Xuan raised his eyebrows, turned around and walked quickly towards the wing room.

The entire room had been searched to pieces, but in the secret chamber under the kang, a palm-sized willow wooden box was found.

The box had been opened, but no one dared to touch the things inside.

A silver token with the words "Right Jinwu Guard led by Hu Qian, Team A 46" written on it.

Li Xuan hesitated for a moment, then spoke directly: "Go check the current situation of the Right Jinwu Guards A-46 Team. Is there anything that needs special attention?"

"Your Highness, there is no need to investigate. I know what is going on." A Qianniu team leader walked out solemnly, then bowed solemnly and said, "Right Jinwu Guard Armor Team 46 will be on duty at the Temple of Heaven in Songshan during the first month of the lunar year."

"Your Majesty, are you going to hold a Fengshan ceremony at the Temple of Heaven?" Li Xuan turned around abruptly and looked at the Qianniu Guard in disbelief.

Qianniuwei nodded solemnly and said, "I have checked the positions of the various guards during the Fengshan ceremony. The 46th Team of the Right Jinwu Guard will be deployed on the top of Songshan Mountain in advance."

"So this is his real plan." Su Liangsi's voice came from behind.

Li Xuan turned around and nodded slightly to Su Liangsi, saying, "This explains a lot of things. It turns out that everything that happened tonight was just a trick he used to divert attention. If we don't find him tonight, he will be on duty at the Temple of Heaven at New Year's Day..."

Su Liangsi clenched his fists. He didn't expect Zheng Xuanguo's plan to be like this.

"Yes!" Su Liangsi nodded heavily.

Li Xuan closed the willow box, looked at Su Liangsi solemnly and said, "Brother Su, I'll leave everything here to you. I will go to the palace immediately and report to His Majesty what happened tonight."

"Here!" Su Liangsi handed over his hand seriously.

Li Xuan looked towards the direction of the Dafuxian Temple's Buddhist hall and said softly, "Also, in this Fuxian Temple, anyone who knows the identity of this thief should be killed."

"Yes!" Su Liangsi bowed solemnly again, but his eyes fell on all the bandits who had been captured in the yard.

……

Li Xuan rode his horse quickly to Tianjin Bridge alone. A team of Jinwu Guards was on duty at the bridgehead. After the palace gates were closed, they intercepted all those passing through.

Li Xuan got off his horse, took out the imperial edict, and said in a deep voice: "I surrender my life as ordered."

The guards on both sides immediately retreated.

Li Xuan strode onto Tianjin Bridge alone and walked directly to the outside of Duanmen.

After presenting the imperial edict, Li Xuan stood at the door with a solemn expression, while constantly reviewing everything that had happened that day in his mind.

Zheng Xuanguo returned to Luoyang quietly. Although he knew it was a secret, he could not hide it from the secret guards.

After returning from Yizhou, not to mention the local military and political officials of Yizhou, just the secret guards, his absence for two or three days was enough to arouse suspicion.

It was a long journey from Yizhou to Luoyang, especially to Chang'an and Luoyang. No matter how cautious one was, the pass from Yizhou, against the background of the death of Madam Cui of Tong'an and Zheng Qinnan, was particularly noticeable.

So even Zheng Xuanguo himself knew that the emperor might have guessed his return to Luoyang.

Therefore, whether it was assassinating the Crown Prince, Prince of Xiang, or Princess Taiping, it was unrealistic, not to mention Empress Wu and the Emperor.

So he secretly contacted Cui Zhiwen and told him that he was going to burn down the Taoist temple in Songshan to avenge Wang Yinke...

"Because he knew Cui Qing would report this to me secretly, his real plan was to assassinate me in Songshan." The emperor sat on the imperial couch, and he laughed out of anger. He took a deep breath, then he looked calmly at Li Xuan who was standing in the Zhenguan Hall, and asked coldly, "Then what's the point of him assassinating Sansi?"

Li Xuan cupped his hands and said in a deep voice: "I have carefully thought about the attacks and assassinations at Songshan and Dingding Gate. Although they are dangerous enough, in fact, it is not something that a patriarch of a noble family can mobilize with all his strength, even if he no longer has the support of the entire family, so he must have other means."

"Think it over again." The emperor nodded slowly.

"Yes." Li Xuan bowed and said, "Only by assassinating the Duke of Dang, his performance will be complete."

"Kill Sansi by the way." Empress Wu's voice came from behind, full of sneers.

"Queen." Li Xuan turned around and bowed solemnly.

Empress Wu nodded, then walked to the emperor's side to rest, and then looked at Li Xuan and said, "Prince Peng did a good job this time."

"I was also lucky." Li Xuan cupped his hands and said seriously: "If he hadn't insisted on sending people to check the results of the assassination among the crowd, I would not have been able to track his whereabouts."

"Twenty-Seventh Brother has always liked this." The emperor smiled. He thought of the cases that Li Xuan had handled over the years. Many of them were because others wanted to see the results of the actions, but Li Xuan directly caught them by the tail and traced them down bit by bit until he found their lair.

Empress Wu sat aside with her eyes slightly lowered.

"Your Majesty, thank you for your praise." Li Xuan bowed and said cautiously, "Although this matter is going smoothly, I always feel that something is missing."

"What's missing?" The emperor was a little curious.

"If there is a substitute who dies for him and takes on everything for him, then his conspiracy will be more successful in the future." Li Xuan solemnly cupped his hands and said, "Although I am absolutely sure that the person who died is him, in order to prevent him from using himself to set up a conspiracy, I ask Your Majesty to send people to strictly investigate all the Jinwu Qianniu in Songshan, and all the people inside and outside."

"You use your own death to make me relax, and then someone else will assassinate me." Li Zhi nodded slowly and said, "This move is indeed difficult to defend against."

"You don't have to worry about this anymore." Empress Wu spoke calmly, looking at Li Xuan and said, "There may be other unexpected events in this matter, but there is no need to worry too much. As for the rest, Prince Peng is the supervisor of the Fengshan ceremony, so let Prince Peng be responsible for this matter."

Li Xuan took a deep breath, took a step forward, knelt down in the hall, and said in a deep voice: "Your Majesty, Peng Wang Xuan, resigns from the post of Fengshan Supervisor."

"Why?" The emperor's voice became low and his eyes were cold.

(End of this chapter)