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

Chapter 1639: King Peng is forcing the Queen to kill the Emperor
"You shouldn't have come." Pei Yan looked at Cheng Wuting with a hint of pain in his eyes.

"My husband, the Queen Mother said that once the matter of King Peng is settled, she will let you return to the court to perform your duties." Cheng Wuting, dressed in a black suit, stood up and poured a glass of wine for Pei Yan.

There was a table full of food and wine, but there were only the two of them in the small hall, and the atmosphere was chilly.

The entire hall and the entire mansion were equally cold and quiet.

Pei Yan stared at Cheng Wuting for a long time before he said, "Ping En, don't come here again."

Cheng Wuting was stunned and asked quickly, "Why?"

"No reason, I just don't want to see you again." Pei Yan looked at Cheng Wuting and said through gritted teeth, "If you come again, not only your family will be in danger, but mine will be in danger too. For the sake of my family's lives, Ping En, don't come again in the future."

Cheng Wuting looked at Pei Yan in disbelief, with a trace of sadness on his face. Then, he was distracted and grabbed Pei Yan's arm, gritting his teeth and said, "Husband, is it possible that the Queen doesn't intend to let you go?"

Cheng Wuting is a very smart man, otherwise he would not have become one of the top generals in the Tang Dynasty.

Pei Yan's words sounded like he wanted to break up with Cheng Wuting, but in fact, he was trying to save Cheng Wuting's life.

But his little tricks couldn't fool Cheng Wuting at all, or perhaps Cheng Wuting knew his current situation too well.

Pei Yan looked at the wine glass, drank it all, and said bitterly: "The Queen Mother wanted to kill me, not because of Pei Xingjian and King Peng. The only reason she wanted to kill me was because I was the regent selected by the late emperor. Although she is in charge of the government now, I only need to say one word and the whole world will rebel against her."

Cheng Wuting's expression changed slightly, and his look suddenly became extremely ugly.

He originally thought that as long as he helped the Queen Mother to pacify Jiangnan and then get rid of King Peng, he would be able to help Pei Yan escape. However, he did not expect that the Queen Mother had never intended to let Pei Yan go, or rather, the Queen Mother had never intended to let him go.

Pei Yan’s position is too critical.

He was not only the regent left by the previous emperor to Li Xian, but also the regent appointed by Empress Wu after Li Dan ascended the throne.

Therefore, Pei Yan had a heavy say in the emperor's succession to the throne.

If there was no problem with Li Dan's succession to the throne, then Empress Wu naturally had nothing to worry about.

But unfortunately, Li Xian’s death caused too many problems.

Not only that, there are even bigger thoughts hidden in Empress Wu's heart.

At that time, Pei Yan would be an even greater threat.

Therefore, Pei Yan must die.

Since Pei Yan must die, what about him?
……

Pei Yan looked at Cheng Wuting, stroking his wine glass, and said softly: "You don't have to worry about me. Although the Queen will not let me go, as long as you are here, she will not kill me easily."

Cheng Wuting immediately looked up and stared straight at Pei Yan.

“Don’t give up your military power, and don’t return to the court.” Pei Yan grabbed Cheng Wuting’s wrist and said seriously, “After defeating King Peng, don’t let him die. In the end, you will force him step by step to retreat from Hangu Pass to Chang’an, and then retreat from Chang’an to Fanzhou, and wander in the Western Regions from Fanzhou. In the future, you must defend Fanzhou, suppress the Western Regions, and never return to the court.”

Cheng Wuting clenched his fists tightly.

Cheng Wu understood the meaning of Pei Yan's words.

He nurtured the enemy to protect himself, and then never returned to the court, keeping control of the army forever.

Only in this way can Cheng Wuting's life be saved, and Pei Yan's life can also be saved.

It was impossible for Pei Yan to return to the court and take power, but being imprisoned for life at least gave him a way to survive.

Cheng Wuting gritted his teeth and looked at Pei Yan, saying, "What if we contact King Peng?"

"You don't stand a chance." Pei Yan looked at Cheng Wuting with a trace of pity in his eyes. He shook his head and said, "There are too many people of the Queen of Heaven around you. Once people find out that you have any private contact with King Peng, you won't survive for more than three days."

Pei Yan sighed and said, "Your situation is different from that of King Peng. King Peng's subordinates are either his right guards who have been with him for a long time, or they are old soldiers he transferred from Jiangnan. The Queen Mother did not plant many people on his side, and it is possible that they have all been dealt with. But what about you? Where is your foundation?"

Cheng Wuting wanted to say something, but in the end he couldn't.

Cheng Wuting's foundation is in the Imperial Guard. Over the years, he was promoted from the Lieutenant General of the Imperial Guard to the General of the Imperial Guard. All the foundations he had accumulated in other places in his early years were transferred to the Imperial Guard.

Later, he was transferred to the Right Guard General with a lot of manpower, but he was suddenly transferred back to the center, and all those people were left in Changzhou.

Now it is obvious that it would be difficult for those people to survive at the hands of Li Xuan.

Afterwards, although Cheng Wuting also transferred a lot of guards into the Eastern Expedition Army, to be honest, Cheng Wuting was really not sure how many of them were loyal to him.

"So you still have to defeat King Peng." Pei Yan drank the wine in the glass, then looked at Cheng Wuting and said, "Defeat King Peng, but don't kill him. Force him to retreat to Chang'an, and then you can conquer Chang'an. In this way, as long as you don't return to Luoyang, at least your family will be fine, and I will most likely survive."

Cheng Wuting has his own army and is the one who gives Pei Yan the greatest chance of survival.

"Once King Peng is defeated, there will inevitably be unrest in Fanzhou. When the time comes, you will suppress Fanzhou, and even the Queen Mother will not dare to touch you easily, because you may become the next King Peng at any time." Pei Yan said with a smug smile on his face, then picked up the wine glass and poured himself a glass.

Cheng Wu nodded seriously, but suddenly, he smiled bitterly again: "Sir, although that's what you said, it's not easy to defeat King Peng. Today, Ping En wanted to propose to the court to march directly to Hangu Pass, but it was all rejected by the Queen Mother. I didn't even dare to say the rest."

"What's the next thing?" Pei Yan looked at Cheng Wuting curiously. "It's about Yangzhou." Cheng Wuting approached Pei Yan and whispered, "Ping En wanted to tell King Peng at Hangu Pass that the prince had died in Yangzhou."

"No." Pei Yan interrupted Cheng Wuting directly, waved his hand and said, "Absolutely not. Emperor Zhongzong died at the hands of the Queen Mother, and Prince Yong died at the hands of the Queen Mother. If the Crown Prince also died at the hands of the Queen Mother, then others would immediately suspect whether the late Emperor also died..."

Pei Yan was halfway through his words when he suddenly realized that something was wrong and told him to shut up.

At this time, Cheng Wuting looked straight at Pei Yan and asked seriously: "Husband, the late emperor..."

“I don’t know.” Pei Yan waved his hand and said, “You and I were both in the palace at that time. Before the late emperor died, he drove everyone out, even the Empress Dowager, so no one knows what happened at the last moment of the late emperor.”

"But after the death of the late emperor, it was the Empress Dowager who first entered the Zhenguan Hall." Cheng Wu looked straight at Pei Yan.

"So what? Isn't that how it should be?" Pei Yan calmly shook his head, then sighed and said, "You and I have nothing after all, so don't think too much. The best way now is to defeat King Peng."

"Yeah!" Cheng Wuting nodded, stood up and poured another glass of wine for Pei Yan, and then continued: "The Queen's intention today is to use Minister Ouyang to force King Peng to attack Shanzhou, and we will voluntarily give up Shanzhou and ambush him in the Xiaohan Mountain Road. It sounds like that, but King Peng is not the kind of person who will take the bait impulsively."

"Indeed." Pei Yan looked down at the wine glass, then said softly, "There is one thing you may not know. The day before yesterday, Wang Fangyi entered Hedong."

Cheng Wuting suddenly raised his head and looked at Pei Yan in surprise: "Sir, why is there no news about this matter in the court?"

"Because the court hasn't received the news yet." Pei Yan sighed lightly, took out a cowhide envelope from his sleeve and handed it over, saying, "There are four letters and a memorial in it. Some of these things were thrown into the courtyard from outside a long time ago, and some were thrown in last night."

Cheng Wuting looked surprised, but still opened the leather envelope.

The first letter contained the news that Wang Fangyi had invaded Hedong the day before.

"You know, the Queen is from Wenshui, Bingzhou. Wang Fangyi has entered Hedong and is not far from Wenshui." Pei Yan shook his head and said, "With the entire Taiyuan Wu family as a threat, the Queen will definitely not dare to kill Ouyang Tong."

Cheng Wuting nodded slightly. He knew that neither Li Xuan nor Empress Wu were the kind of ruthless people who would be easily threatened by others.

But when both sides have leverage over each other, what remains depends on the value of the chess piece.

"In other words, if we want to lure King Peng into the Qiaohan Mountain Road, we have to find another way." Cheng Wuting understood Pei Yan's meaning, and then opened the remaining three letters and a memorial. However, when he opened the top letter, Cheng Wuting was stunned, because there were only two words written on it: water attack.

Cheng Wuting quickly flipped through the remaining two letters and a memorial, looked at Pei Yan in disbelief and said, "Sir, these are..."

"These are the memorials submitted by Prince Peng to the Queen Mother, the letters sent to the Emperor, and the letters from the Crown Prince to the Emperor." Pei Yan nodded calmly.

"That is to say, did the Queen Mother have Shangguan Zhaoyi burn the letter from Prince Peng to the Emperor? And didn't the Queen Mother approve this memorial on the spot and send someone back to Hangu Pass on the spot?" Cheng Wuting looked up in disbelief and said, "How come these things are here?"

"It's very simple. Prince Peng sent them here." Pei Yan looked at Cheng Wuting, who was horrified, and waved his hands, saying, "Don't worry. Although these are taboos, I'm sure that countless people in the court have received these things. Everyone is too curious."

Cheng Wuting understood immediately.

After reading the memorial Li Xuan wrote to the Empress Dowager and the letter Li Xuan wrote to the Emperor, the Empress Dowager was almost angry to death.

The memorial was approved on the spot and sent back to Li Xuan.

The letter Li Xuan wrote to the emperor was burned on the spot.

The Queen would not have done this if she was not extremely angry.

But the more this happened, the more curious the court officials became about what Li Xuan had written.

Cheng Wuting was about to open the memorial and the envelope when Pei Yan placed one hand on them.

He said to Cheng Wuting seriously, "Before you read it, there is a question in your mind that you must keep in mind."

"Please speak, sir." Cheng Wu nodded seriously.

Pei Yan took a deep breath and said, "You have to remember that King Peng never does useless work or useless things. He sent these things to the Queen Mother, definitely not to anger her. It can even be confirmed that he has a very deep intention for each and every letter and each word of these things. Now it depends on what you can figure out."

"Yes!" Cheng Wuting nodded, then began to carefully look through the memorial and envelope.

"My humble servant said:..."

……

The candlelight flickered and the air was silent.

Cheng Wuting leaned back on the couch, carefully reading every word written by Li Xuan.

After a long time, Cheng Wuting raised his head with a heavy face, looked at Pei Yan and said: "My husband, these things of King Peng seem to be consoling the emperor, but in fact they are arousing the emperor's dissatisfaction with the queen. What's more, he is forcing the queen to kill the emperor!"

Pei Yan nodded calmly and said, "Everyone can see this, but who can save the emperor?"

Cheng Wuting fell completely silent.

Is there really no hope?

(End of this chapter)