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

Chapter 1565: Witchcraft: Yang Concubine Curses the Queen
On the Li Ri Terrace, Empress Wu lay peacefully on the couch, while the other concubines sat there quietly sipping tea.

Empress Wu raised her eyes and looked at the shore of Ningbi Lake.

Princess Taiping was running back and forth with Prince Ping'en Li Chongfu and Prince Yongping Li Chengqi, flying kites.

No one knew when the kite appeared, nor how it fell into Princess Taiping's hands.

It seemed that as soon as he raised his head, Princess Taiping was already playing with Prince Ping'en and Prince Yongping.

It happened that after the rain today, the sun rose into the sky, a breeze blew, and the thin kite flew up all of a sudden.

Princess Taiping, who had a childlike heart, had a lot of fun.

Li Chongfu and Li Chengqi were also very happy following behind.

Empress Wu then raised her eyes high up, and the butterfly kite in mid-air fluttered gently in the wind.

The height of the kite was not low, it was much higher than the palace wall.

Suddenly, the wind picked up.

Empress Wu sat up straight suddenly, and at that moment, there was a "snap" sound. In mid-air, the thin rope connected to the kite suddenly broke in the middle, making a loud noise.

All of a sudden, everyone's attention was drawn to it.

In full view of everyone, the kite suddenly flew towards the front yard with the northeast wind and quickly disappeared from everyone's sight.

That direction is exactly the direction of Jixian Palace.

The coincidence is amazing.

"Mother!" Princess Taiping couldn't help but shout while standing on the grass.

Empress Wu lay down again, waved her hand at Princess Taiping, and said sideways: "Qiu Huan, take the princess with you to find the kite."

"Yes!" Qiu Huan bowed solemnly.

Immediately afterwards, Qiu Huan called five or six eunuchs and quickly walked towards the front yard.

At this time, Princess Taiping also brought Prince Ping'en and Prince Yongping back to Li Ri Taichung.

Sitting down in her seat, Princess Taiping said unhappily, "It's really boring. We haven't played for long yet."

“Hahaha!” Empress Wu suddenly laughed a little, shook her head and said, “You, you already have children, why are you still so childish?”

"Mother, my daughter is still young." Princess Taiping could not help but stand up, walked to Empress Wu, grabbed her arm and sat down, then pouted and said, "My daughter wants to play for two more years."

"You!" Empress Wu gently tapped Princess Taiping's brow and said helplessly, "Okay, okay, I'll let you play for a while longer. After a few years, your husband will be away as an official. Even if you want to play, I'm afraid you won't be able to."

"No, mother, I don't want him to be an official outside." Princess Taiping quickly shook her head and looked at Empress Wu with pleading eyes.

"What man doesn't want to make achievements?" Empress Wu glanced at Princess Taiping with some displeasure, and then said, "At worst, let him be the governor of a nearby place, Huazhou, or Shanzhou, which is a little closer, but you will have to run back and forth."

"That's better. Thank you, mother." Princess Taiping smiled and grabbed Empress Wu's arm and shook her.

Just at this moment, heavy footsteps were heard.

Princess Taiping was slightly stunned, raised her head, and then saw Qiu Huan had returned from the direction of Zhenguan Hall.

Behind him, the eunuchs who had followed him before were no longer there, but instead there were a dozen more imperial guards.

The imperial guards were holding spears and had fierce looks.

Even the leader was Li Lingwen, the General of the Imperial Guard.

"Greetings to the Queen." Li Lingwen was the first to bow with a solemn expression.

"What's wrong?" Empress Wu did not look at Li Lingwen, but turned to look at Qiu Huan.

Qiu Huan bowed with a solemn expression, "Your Majesty, when I was looking for the kite, I found something in the Jixian Palace. I need to ask Yangpin to go back and talk to him."

"Me!" Yang Bin was sitting at the back, peeling a lychee in her hand, looking at Qiu Huan in astonishment.

Empress Wu's expression became slightly serious, and she frowned and asked, "What did you find? Do you need the Imperial Guards' assistance?"

Qiu Huan quickly walked to Empress Wu's side and whispered something in her ear. Empress Wu immediately looked up in surprise: "What?"

Then, Empress Wu glared at Concubine Yang fiercely, then took a deep breath and said, "Have you figured out what's going on?"

"It's not quite clear yet, but Concubine Yang needs to go over there." Qiu Huan looked at Concubine Yang with a serious expression.

Empress Wu took a deep breath and said, "This is a serious matter. Have you told the emperor?"

"General Li has already sent someone to report to His Majesty." Qiu Huan said, taking a step back.

Empress Wu slowly stood up, her expression becoming completely solemn. She looked up at Concubine Yang, then looked at everyone present and said, "Something that shouldn't have been found in Concubine Yang's palace was inevitably framed by someone else. You all should go with me to take a look."

"Yes!" All the concubines in Li Ri Tai stood up at the same time and bowed to receive the order.

Empress Wu was the first to walk out of Li Ri Terrace, followed by Li Lingwen, and a dozen imperial guards guarded both sides and cleared the way.

Empress Wu's eyes had become extremely cold at some point, and her fists were clenched tightly.

When they arrived in front of the Zhenguan Hall, they saw a group of people coming over, and Empress Wu's cold eyes softened a little.

But it is still solemn and murderous.

……

"Mother!" Li Xian walked quickly and solemnly to the side of Zhenguan Hall and bowed slightly to Empress Wu.

"Yes!" Empress Wu nodded, and Li Xian stood up.

"Your Majesty!" Many concubines behind him, including Princess Taiping, also saluted Li Xian.

Li Xian raised his head slightly and said, "Stand up!"

"Thank you, Your Majesty." Many concubines stood up and bowed. Li Xian looked at Empress Wu in confusion and said, "Mother, what's going on? How come my son heard that there was a..."

Empress Wu waved her hand, interrupting Li Xian's words. Her expression eased again and she said, "We haven't figured out what happened yet. Maybe someone else framed me. This is how things are in the palace. My mother went through the same thing back then."

Li Xian breathed a sigh of relief, turned around and looked at Concubine Yang with a little concern.

This kind of thing happened in the previous dynasty as well as in the Tang Dynasty.

Whenever something like this happens, it always ends in bloodshed, with countless people having their homes confiscated and their families exterminated.

Although there were many reasons behind Queen Wang's death, the most direct one was that Queen Wang was practicing witchcraft...

"Let's go." Empress Wu called Li Xian back, and then she took the lead and went towards the Jixian Palace.

Pei Yan stood on the other side, followed by the Palace Attendant Wang Dezhen, the Imperial Guard General Li Yi, and a team of imperial guards.

Li Yi personally reported this matter to Li Xian.

After hearing this, the emperor was extremely surprised, and immediately called Pei Yan and Wang Dezheng to come to the harem quickly.

Pei Yan didn't know exactly what happened, he just vaguely heard the word "witchcraft".

Along the way, Pei Yan had no time to say anything to the emperor.

It was one thing that the emperor was anxious to move forward, but it was another thing that Pei Yan couldn't think of what to say.

Things like "witchcraft" can cost lives if you come into contact with them.

Especially since this matter involved the palace, at the critical moment when the late emperor was about to return to Chang'an.

Pei Yan vaguely guessed that this matter was related to Empress Wu, but he couldn't figure out what exactly she was going to do.

Use the witchcraft incident to disrupt the emperor's harem and cut off the support of the concubines' maternal families for the emperor?

But what does it matter? As long as the emperor returns to Chang'an, Pei Yan will be confident enough to suppress the threat posed by Empress Wu.

After all, Chang'an is the base camp of the Longxi family. Even the Pei family has a huge influence in Chang'an and has been operating for many years.

Unless, Empress Wu wanted to use this incident to keep the emperor in Luoyang forever?
Pei Yan's nerves had become extremely alert, but he still hadn't figured out how to proceed with this matter.

While they were thinking, everyone had already arrived at the Jixian Palace.

Empress Wu stood in front of the outer palace door, looked sideways at Qiu Huan on the side, and asked, "Where did you find the things?"

"It's under the cabinet in the West Inner Hall, covered with a wooden basin." Qiu Huan bowed slightly.

Empress Wu glanced at Li Xian and frowned, "I asked you to find the kite, but how did you find it in the inner hall of the Jixian Palace?"

Li Xian was also confused. If he was looking for something, he could just look for it in the courtyard. How could he find it in the palace?
Qiu Huan bowed his hands with a bitter face and said, "Reporting to the Queen Mother, the kite fell on the roof. An eunuch went up to the roof to get the kite. Unexpectedly, he saw the feet of a rag doll through the open window. He told this old servant about it. I was surprised and went in to check. Only then did I find a half-covered rag doll under the wooden basin in the cabinet."

This is such a coincidence.

Empress Wu and Li Xian looked at each other at the same time, with the same confusion in their eyes.

Li Xian bowed slightly and said, "Mother, let's go in and take a look."

"Okay!" Empress Wu nodded, then took the lead to enter the Jixian Hall. Ten imperial guards lined up in two rows until they reached the door of the inner hall.

Queen Wu walked in calmly.

Li Xian turned aside and said, "The rest of you stay. Pei Yan and Wang Xiang, follow me in."

"Your Majesty!" Wei frowned slightly.

Li Xian shook his head and said, "You are pregnant, so stay outside. The Queen Mother is enough to take care of the affairs in the palace."

"Yes!" Wei bowed slightly.

Li Xian walked quickly into the hall, and Pei Yan and Wang Dezhen followed closely.

The two of them were prime ministers, one was the Minister of the Central Secretariat and the other was the Palace Attendant. No matter what happened in the future, they would both need to step in.

The Jixian Hall was bright with colorful lights and shadows. On the east side was Yangpin's inner chamber, from which a faint fragrance could be smelled. On the west side was the clothing room.

Concubine Yang's clothes and many other things were placed in the west side of the palace.

Li Xian walked in calmly, with a hint of indifference on his face.

A wooden tray was placed in front of the pearwood cabinet, and on the side of the wooden tray, in front of the cabinet, a strange rag doll wearing a black 翟衣 and a phoenix crown was lying flat on the ground.

There was a piece of paper stuck on the doll, with no words on it.

She looks a bit like the queen.

The moment he saw it clearly, Li Xian's face turned completely cold.

Empress Wu stood aside, looking at the voodoo puppet on the ground with a frown, a hint of confusion on her face.

"Mother, what's wrong?" Li Xian asked carefully.

"Something is wrong." Empress Wu frowned, looked at Li Xian and said, "The stitches on this doll are very fine and dense. As far as I know, Concubine Yang is not of this level."

"Yes." Li Xian reacted immediately, breathed a sigh of relief, then looked at Empress Wu and said, "I know Concubine Yang best. She is a spoiled person. She can even burn the porridge she cooks. If I didn't pity her for her hard work, I would never drink the porridge she cooks. But this thing is definitely not something she can make."

Empress Wu nodded and said, "Check the entire Jixian Palace and everyone one by one."

"Yes!" Li Xian nodded solemnly.

……

Pei Yan stood silently beside Li Xian, his brows tightly furrowed.

The Queen's attitude today was completely different from what he had originally expected!

(End of this chapter)