Man Tang Huacai

Chapter 207 A little test

The musicians practiced sad music, and Xue Bai took a rest in the Taiyue Department.

In his daze, someone pushed him gently and called in a gentle and clear voice: "Xue Lang, wake up."

Xue Bai thought it was a pearl that came again. He turned over and hugged the quilt and rubbed it. He felt that Yang Yuyao was not in his arms, so he opened his eyes. But I saw Xie Aman standing there. The little lady who is good at dancing has a temperament and even her neck is beautiful.

"Ok?"

"Well," Xie Aman said blankly, "Now that the rehearsal has been completed, it's time for you, Tai Le Cheng, to take the musicians to Prince Si Xu's Mansion."

"I thought being Tai Lecheng would just be rehearsing plays for the imperial concubine."

"Even so." Xie Aman had no choice but to coax him softly and said: "Occasionally, if something small happens, just worry about your official duties."

Seeing that she was still wearing the soap robe of an official, Xue Bai asked, "Why don't you change your clothes?"

"If I don't go, I won't be able to perform the sad music. When I come to Taiyue Department, I only need to take care of things."

"Let's go." Xue Bai turned over.

Xie Aman stopped him again, picked up two pastries from the table, and said, "Go after you are full."

"Makes sense."

Then, she looked at him carefully, shook her head and said, "No, you are too energetic. Sit down, I have to make you look more haggard."

……

When Xue Bai left the public room, his hair was messy and there were tears hanging from the corners of his eyes, looking very sad.

He led the musicians from Tai Le Cheng to line up and joined the team from Taichang Temple together with the instrumentalists from the Propaganda Department. At the front of the team, Zhang Bian had red eyes and a sad look on his face, arranging for people to wear hemp clothes.

Perhaps standing a little bored, Zhang Bian waved to Xue Bai to come forward and chat, saying: "Taileling is sick, please be more considerate."

However, Xue Bai knew that Liu Kui was editing books in the Secretariat Department. Because he had to pay tuition fees every day, he had not come to Taile Office for two or three days.

"Don't worry, Lord Temple."

"Let's go, you and me together."

While they were talking, the officials from the Liyuan finally came out. They all looked solemn and arrogant. Even Zhang Bian, the Taichang Qing, had to wait for them.

Chatting on the road, Xue Bai asked some questions. Zhang Bian knew a lot and was willing to tell him everything he could.

"The heir, King Li Guan, has a younger brother. He is Li Qiu, the king of Baoxin County in Shangzhu Kingdom, and he is appointed as Zong Zhengqing and the eunuch of the palace."

"When brothers Li Guan and Li Qiu were young, their uncles and brothers had been killed to pieces by Empress Wu. When the saint rectified the demonic trend, Li Guan became king, and Li Qiu succeeded him as king Size."

"Ze King Li Shangjin originally had seven sons who were exiled to Xianzhou. It is said that they all died. But one of them, Li Yixun, knew that there would be no way to survive after being exiled, so he concealed his name, disguised himself as a slave, and escaped."

"When Emperor Zhongzong was on the throne, he wanted to return the official title of King Ze. Brothers Li Guan and Li Qiu falsely accused Li Yixun of impersonating an imperial relative and exiled him to Lingnan. They wanted to send people to kill him. However, Li Yixun found Princess Yuzhen to protect him and escaped again. After a catastrophe, the saint came to the throne, found out the truth, and restored Li Yixun's official title."

Hearing this, Xue Bai couldn't help but ask: "How to find out the truth?"

Zhang Bian said: "The royal jade certificate was seen by many people when Li Yixun was young. When he grew up, he also looked like King Ze."

"What if Li Yixun is true?"

"I have seen the saint and Princess Yuzhen since childhood. It cannot be faked."

"I see."

Zhang Bian smiled and said: "The saints treated the clan with generosity, and Li Guan and Li Guan persecuted their cousins ​​without being severely punished. Li Guan is still the heir to the throne, and although Li Guan was deprived of the throne, he was also given the title of commendation. king."

"The King of Praise...isn't satisfied?"

"That's him." Zhang Bian sneered slightly: "Now that Li Guan has passed away, the person who is eyeing the heir apparent to him is his brother Li Guan, the king of praise and trust."

"Li Guan has a son."

"Li Qiu secretly told the saint that Li Guan's son was not of Li's blood."

Xue Bai pondered and asked a question that concerned him very much: "Who decides whether it is true or false?"

"It is the saint and the clan." Zhang Bian said: "There are many disputes like this in the clan. If there is any yamen that usually handles them, it is Zongzheng Temple. But Li Qiu is Zong Zhengqing."

As he spoke, he looked back behind him, and then said: "There is also the ceremonial courtyard behind us."

~~

Prince Xu's Mansion has already started to hold funeral arrangements.

The people in Taichang Temple are called "Sheng'er" because they line up to sing songs on every occasion like this.

Xue Bai took the musicians to the back of the mourning hall to play mourning music, and saw the survivors already kneeling in a row.

Li Guan's princess Xu was a step-mother. She looked about thirty years old and was very beautiful.

"Zhang Prince Consort, you know what A Lang is thinking." Mrs. Xu was sobbing incessantly. She knelt down and turned around and cried: "It is only natural that a father dies and his son succeeds him. Before A Lang's body was even cold, some people were bullying us orphans and widows. Please help us, Prince Consort."

Zhang Bian has his own opinion on how to act. If helping others does not cause much harm to him, he is willing to do so. But for offending the saint's cousin and Zong Zhengqing for something unrelated, there was nothing he could do about it.

He then sighed and said in a low voice: "Princess, take care of yourself and protect your children. The funeral is now, let's talk about other things later."

This is a very meaningful reminder - the orphans and widowers are still young, so they can probably kill Li Qiu first.

Mrs. Xu probably thought that once Wang Jue was lost, she would never come back. She cried and refused to give up. She knelt forward and wanted to continue begging.

If people started gossiping, it would be fatal to Zhang Bian, so he avoided it for fear of it. He gave Xue Bai a look that said, "It's not a good place to stay here for a long time." He quickly left the mourning hall and headed for the gate.

However, Xue Bai had to stay behind to handle official duties. Fortunately, he was young and tender-faced, so Mrs. Xu didn't ask for help from him.

Taking this opportunity, he observed Li Guan's two sons, Li Jie and Li Xu. They both had pretty good-looking faces. They did look more like Xu. As for whether they looked like Li Guan or not... the old man and Li Xu... Compared to a child, he really couldn't see it.

"Brother!"

Suddenly, a cry of mourning rang out from the mourning hall, the voice was old and extremely sad.

"You and I, brothers, have been through hardships since we were young... We have finally survived to this prosperous age of heaven and earth, but it's hard to forget the New Year, brother!"

This must be Li Qiu, the king of Baoxin County. It is said that he fainted from crying several times and continued to cry when he woke up.

Behind Li Qiu stood several young people, all of them wearing sackcloth and mourning, with grief-stricken expressions on their faces, and they were helping him one after another.

"Grandpa, you have to take care of yourself... Uncle, how could you be willing to do this?!"

One nephew cried, several nephews burst into tears, and the scene couldn't help but become chaotic.

Xue Bai was standing there watching, when someone suddenly pulled him and whispered: "But Tai Lecheng? Something happened here, please come with me."

~~

In the courtyard behind the mourning hall, a Taoist priest was doing something.

After bypassing the altar and walking through the long corridor to the door of a veranda, Xue Bai recognized the figure in linen clothes outside the door as Li Cong.

He immediately stopped and turned to leave.

As Zhang Bian said, if he avoids these people, he will be able to avoid a lot of fatal troubles in his official career, and he will be able to be a minister safely without any accident.

Unless you want more than that...

Xue Bai quickly glanced around and followed the visitor towards Li Cong.

"Who asked Prince Qing to find me to seek the position of secretary-supervisor?"

"A eunuch beside me."

"Check him."

Li Cong was stunned for a moment and said in a low voice: "Princess Tang Chang is in a better situation now. You let the Secretary regain power, but are you paving the way for something big?"

Xue Bai realized that his communication with Li Cong was indeed too little, resulting in misplaced news and ideas.

"Well, Prince Qing, don't do anything. Don't send anyone to contact him again. Just wait."

"Secretary Supervisor..."

"The secretary and supervisor are no longer available." Xue Bai couldn't help but said, and then asked after a moment: "Who wants to assassinate Wei Qing?"

"Many." Li Cong said: "As far as I know, there are Si Qi King Li Zhen, Si Xue King Li Xuan, and Guangwu King Li Chenghong."

"Stop all movements and don't fight." Xue Bai solemnly reminded again...

~~

Then he turned back to the mourning hall and saw Zhang Bian.

"There was a conflict just now, why didn't you stop it?"

Xue Bai responded: "King Qing called me over and said a few words."

Zhang Bian was stunned for a moment and asked, "How did you reply?"

"I advised him to stop fighting for his son's secretaryship."

"That's right." Zhang Bian said: "When you are in the court, you should walk on thin ice. It is better not to get involved in such things that are harmful to the whole family and have nothing to do with you."

"Yes, as soon as the funeral is over, I will drive to Huaqing Palace."

"That's smart people."

Only then did Zhang Bian talk about the conflict that had just occurred in the mourning hall, but some officials and family members complained that Princess Li Guan, Princess Xu, was having an affair with someone, and Zhang Bian sent someone to invite her out.

That day, Xue Bai met so many members of the Li Tang clan that he had a headache just remembering their names.

Even so, he still tried his best to contact the other two heirs, Li Zhen and Li Xuan.

Li Zhen and Li Xuan are also brothers. Their father is Li Longye, King of Xue. Li Longye was the fifth brother of Li Longji and gave birth to more than ten sons. Among them, Li Xuan was the one with good appearance, talent and character, and had the most prestige, so he succeeded King Xue.

Li Zhen, because she looked exactly like Li Longji, was adopted by King Qi and succeeded him. Yinqi King Li Longfan originally had two sons, but he died of drunkenness and sex in his early years.

The two brothers were not too old and already had 5,000 households in the city, but they still had an enterprising spirit. They were eyeing the positions of Hongluqing, Weiweiqing, Zongzhengqing and so on.

Therefore, they criticized Li Qiu's actions, and when they met Zhang Bian, they couldn't help but make a few comments.     “Just a villain.”

"To say that Princess Si Xu is having an affair with someone, at least provide evidence." Li Xuan said: "Li Qiu's appearance is too ugly."

"This is not the first time he has done such a desperate thing." Li Zhen said, "Practice makes perfect."

"Li Guan has two sons. They are not a poor family. Unfortunately, they don't even look like saints."

"Li Yixun was not a poor man back then. Li Qiu was good at taking advantage of others."

Li Xuan sighed slightly and said: "Zhang Consort, if I remember correctly, Li Yixun's son, Si Zewang Li Wei, is the current Taichang Shaoqing, right?"

"Yes, he is in charge of the Taichang Temple Ceremony."

Li Xuan said: "If it weren't for Princess Yuzhen, Li Guan and his father would probably end up in the streets. Now it's up to him to give Li Guan a posthumous name, and the cycle of heaven will follow."

"It's a natural cycle."

The speaker was unintentional, but the listener was intentional. Xue Bai stood beside Zhang Bian and listened. He couldn't help but turn his head and glance at Li Tong, Taichang Shaoqing and the director of the Liyuan.

They talked for a while, and Li Zhen said hello to Xue Bai, appearing very close to him.

"I heard that Li Tan, Zhang Si and his wife had some minor issues with you?"

"I don't dare." Xue Bai responded: "We are joking."

"Li Tan is a loser, don't pay attention to him." Li Zhen said with a smile: "You and I are in love. We both like music and opera. We should get together more often when we have free time."

"Yes." Xue Bai said: "I also feel some intimacy with King Qi."

"Hahaha."

A funeral has become a gathering for nobles and nobles to bond with each other.

~~

Li Qiu was still crying in the mourning hall. When he was about to faint, a son stepped forward to help him and said something in his ear.

"All the kings feel that I am trying to usurp the throne of King Si Xu, and have been secretly communicating to stop this."

Li Qiu was startled. After being helped down, he immediately picked up his son and shouted, "Is what you just said true?"

"When I passed by there just now, I did hear what they were talking about, and they didn't shy away from it."

"say what?"

"'It's better to expose it to the saint together...' Grandpa's name is taboo, and the children dare not mention it."

Li Qiu frowned and walked around. He called the steward and said, "Go and find out who Xu is having an affair with... Do you understand?"

"clear."

~~

Xue Bai inadvertently glanced in the direction of the veranda and saw the steward next to Li Qiu coming out of it and heading towards the back house of Prince Xu's Mansion.

He then pulled Zhang Bian over and motioned for him to look over there.

"It's a fool's errand." Zhang Bian sneered and reminded in a low voice: "You are not too enthusiastic. The proposal you just made is inappropriate. After listening to them talking for a few words, do you really think they can get ahead?"

"I was careless."

~~

"Li Guan died at the wrong time."

Yang Yuyao was quite angry about Li Guan's death.

If it hadn't been for this, she would have taken Xue Bai to the Huaqing Palace to have sex with each other. However, in the past few days, Xue Bai had to take the musicians to play music at Prince Xu's Mansion.

After two or three days, she finally couldn't stay any longer and went to see Xue Bai in person.

"Ms. Yao shouldn't come over. After all, there is a funeral here."

"Come and see you."

Yang Yuyao pulled Xue Bai onto the carriage and reminded in a low voice: "Yuhuan told me that the saint probably wants to regret it. You and I should not stand up for King Qing."

"You know, I have already sternly rejected him."

"As expected, it's really annoying to ask for help everywhere."

Xue Bai said: "I shouldn't leave for too long. I'll have to go back after sending Yuyao to the street."

"I'll take you there."

"No need, someone is watching us." Xue Bai opened the car curtain and looked out, whispering: "It must be Ge Nu or Chen Xilie's people, they want to use us as an excuse to force me to hand over to the newspaper publishing house."

"I'll send someone to beat them up."

"Just pretend you don't know. When you get to the front, cover it up and let me go down."

……

Fengwei Building.

Du Jin almost no longer took care of the trivial matters in the restaurant, and only took care of various affairs hidden under the restaurant.

Few people know that there are secret cabinets behind the seats of many restaurants and teahouses in Chang'an, and some valuable information will be copied and sent to Du Jin.

That day, she was sorting out the news when she saw Qu Shui coming.

"Xue Lang is here."

"A time like this?"

Du Jin quickly greeted Xue Bai, with both joy and worry in his eyes.

"You're here now, but something urgent happened?"

"It is a trivial matter that has nothing to do with us, but if it is done well, it will have far-reaching consequences."

"Then speak quickly."

"It's about the clan, and the relationships between the characters are complicated. I'm afraid you have to figure it out slowly before you can understand it."

"It's okay, I'll listen." Du Jin smiled and said, "Just wait."

Xue Bai began to stroke slowly.

"To put it bluntly, it's just a matter of a group of relatives eating each other's throats. Li Qiu looks a little uglier when he eats them. Some of them can't stand it, but they don't dare to meddle in their own business?"

"almost."

"You want to take care of it?" Du Jin was a little confused, "This matter is a big trouble. Could it be that the beautiful widow Xu asked you to do it?"

"With my position, I can't interfere in this matter."

"But you came to me quietly, you must have some other ideas?"

"Not bad." Xue Bai said: "This is an opportunity to experiment. We can try it out in a small way."

"A small test?"

~~

A few days later, Li Guan's funeral was completed, and Li Longji ordered Gao Lishi to be ready to show off at the Huaqing Palace.

The city of Chang'an is getting hotter and hotter. It's not as comfortable as staying in the mountains.

However, there were still some clan matters that Li Linfu could not handle and had to be decided by the emperor himself, such as the official title left by Li Guan.

The first thing to be determined is the title of King Si Xu.

Li Longji then summoned Zhang Bian and spoke very directly.

"I think Li Guan's two sons are not worthy of their father. You go to Baoxin Prince's Mansion to choose a suitable candidate and adopt him into Li Guan's name."

"minister……"

Zhang Bian wanted to obey the order, but he hesitated a few times, but he said: "I ask the saint not to choose someone else."

"You are Taichang Qing, my son-in-law, and you have nothing to do with this matter. If you don't do it, who will?"

"I am guilty." Zhang Bian said with some bitterness on his face, "I am involved in this matter."

Li Longji glanced at Gao Lishi, who was also very confused.

"Go ahead."

"There are rumors...Li Guan's two sons are..."

Zhang Bian didn't say any more, he prostrated, kowtowed, and said with aggrieved expression: "The sage knows clearly, I am really unjust."

Li Longji smiled and scolded: "I am not a fool, can I still believe such market rumors?"

"I really have nothing to do with Princess Xu. It's just that someone slandered her at the funeral, so I asked them to leave."

"I understand, let's go down."

Zhang Bian grimaced, saluted again, and retreated.

Li Longji looked at it, the smile on his face turned cold, and he gradually became a little unhappy, and said: "General Gao, go check it out. Is this a rumor? If so, find out who is spreading the rumor."

"According to the decree." Gao Lishi received the decree, hesitated for a moment, and then asked: "What about the titles left by King Xu?"

"On hold for now."

Li Longji was very unhappy.

He wanted to see who was looking for trouble to delay his visit to Huaqing Palace in this hot summer...

　Chapter 2 will be later, don’t wait~~

　　

　

(End of this chapter)