After the whole family was swept away, I lay down flat

Chapter 419 The Emperor’s Intention

Everyone in the room was stunned when they heard this.

Hai Jiao asked hurriedly: "Grandpa Cao, what do you mean by this? Didn't Tu Tongzhi send someone to take the secret back to Beijing? Then why did my great-uncle say that?"

Cao Gengyun stretched out his index finger and shook it: "He sent his soldiers to ride out of the city on fast horses. In broad daylight, in full view of everyone. But most people didn't know that the soldiers came back shortly after crossing Ba Bridge. He changed his clothes, pretended to be a commoner, and returned to the city with his horse - less than an hour apart."

Everyone was stunned for a moment. What kind of drama is Tu Rong doing by making such a show? !

Haitang asked in a low voice: "Did he deliberately pretend to give away the secret discount to scare the third room of the Zhou family?"

"It's not just the third room of the Zhou family." Cao Gengyun curled his lips, "Tu Rong himself went to the Duke of Zhen that day and told him that he sent someone to send a secret to Beijing... but he didn't tell the secret. He wrote something, insinuating that the Duke of Guo should take care of his own people, and also said that the Zhou family is the closest relative of the emperor and the hero of Conglong. If he encounters any difficulties, the emperor will never sit back and do nothing... He said it in a weird way. He ran away with a lot of words, and it sounded like he had bad intentions! "

Cao Gengyun always hated this kind of betrayal, and he only found Tu Rong himself a bit disgusting.

Lu Bainian sighed when he heard this: "It seems... the emperor really doesn't intend to reconcile with the Zhou family. All the previous actions were just to place people in the northwest frontier army and divide the Zhou family's military power, and then deliberately showed goodwill. Now once After grasping the clues of the Zhou family, why is it necessary? The Zhou family has done nothing but help him ascend the throne, but refused to help him change the law for generations. In the border area, they did not intend to interfere with the government affairs, and they were just adhering to their duties as border generals. This was originally the loyalty of the Zhou family, and the royal family had never complained for generations. Instead, they wished that the Zhou family would not come to Beijing. How could it be his turn now? Are you holding a grudge?"

Hai Jiao pursed his lips: "Perhaps it's because the emperor knows that he can't survive for a few more years, so he wants to accomplish what he has been unable to accomplish for decades, so as to satisfy his long-cherished wish?!"

After hearing this, Lu Bainian couldn't help but want to slap his forehead: "Shut up!"

Haitang put forward a different view with some hesitation: "I think...the emperor may not necessarily mean this..."

If the emperor wanted to take advantage of the three brothers of the Zhou family collaborating with the enemy to bring down the entire Zhou family, or to completely take back the military power of the Zhou family, then he should use public opinion to spread the whole matter as much as possible to destroy the Zhou family's century-old reputation. , destroy the Zhou family's foundation among the people, so that we can take serious action against his family. But his confidant Tu Rong blocked the news and deliberately pretended to send someone to Beijing to deliver the message. In fact, he just acted a show and then went to the Duke of Zhen to hint for a long time. It was more like seducing the Duke of Zhen. , take the initiative to propose negotiations to yourself.

What do the emperor and Tu Rong want to negotiate with Duke Zhen?

The Duke of Zhen was accustomed to think that they had bad intentions, but did the Emperor and Tu Rong really need to fall out with the Zhou family?
What situation is the emperor facing now?

He himself had been ill for many years, and his control over the court was no longer what it used to be. He could not make the officials of the old Sun Pavilion obey him and follow his own arrangements in the selection of the prince.

He has only re-supported the Qingliu faction of the Wu clan in recent years. It is still in a weak position. It has been repeatedly suppressed by the Sun faction and has not been able to gain real power in the cabinet. Tao Yue, his close cousin who was just promoted, has only been promoted to the top. By one year, he was just a Minister of Household Affairs and had not even obtained a cabinet seat, far from being able to compete with Mr. Sun Ge. The good news is that Yingchuan Hou, who is in charge of the imperial army, has already had a rift with Mr. Sun Ge.

The bad news is that even with the support of the imperial army, the emperor still can't get the cabinet to nod and agree to make the eighth prince his crown prince.

In such a situation, what did the emperor most want to accomplish? Of course, it will not be to bring down the Zhou family, which has always been dissatisfied but has never rebelled, but to ensure that the candidate he is optimistic about as heir can smoothly ascend to the throne and inherit the throne smoothly.

In the last life that his brother Hai Jiao experienced, the emperor did not kill all the Zhou family. On the contrary, he fought openly and secretly with the Sun family for many years over the issue of the heir, and finally at the last moment of his life, he forced the elder Sun Ge to die. Kicked out of the cabinet and tried to ensure that the eighth prince succeeded to the throne.

Although the Zhou family had lost power before the emperor's death in the previous life, the descendants of the clan outside the Zhou eldest family still served in the northwest frontier army. But the Sun family's plan for the reserve troubled the emperor until his death. Even if the eighth prince succeeds in succeeding to the throne, the throne is still not secure. Tao Yue, the new cabinet minister, has to work hard for more than ten years to completely eradicate the Sun family and its members before the new king takes over.

In Haitang's view, the emperor's priority should be "containing the Sun family and ensuring the eighth prince's succession" rather than "overthrowing the Zhou family".

She couldn't say this in front of the two elders Cao and Lu, so she could only talk to her brother later. Now she could only come up with another inference: "If the emperor really wants to harm the Zhou family, he doesn't have to wait for the Zhenguo to speak publicly. Giving in, Tu Tongzhi now seems more like waiting for the Duke of Zhen to bow his head first, and then agree to the conditions proposed by the emperor... such as protecting the eighth prince and establishing him as the heir to the throne. What the Zhou family did to the emperor back then, the emperor now wants them to do it again. . If the emperor complained that the Zhou family helped him ascend the throne, he would no longer help him. Now he may be even more eager for the Zhou family to continue to adhere to their principles and retreat to the border to not interfere in the government affairs after trying to ensure that the eighth prince secures the throne? "

Elders Cao and Lu looked at Haitang in surprise, not expecting that she would raise such a point of view.

Hai Jiao was used to discussing business matters with his sister, so he asked: "Why does my little sister have such an idea? It's because the emperor has been unable to appoint the eighth prince as his heir. He thought that the eighth prince's biological mother, Concubine Xu Xian, was related to the Empress Dowager Zhou, so she might be able to get it. Is it because of the Zhou family's help? But even if he didn't say anything about this, the Zhou family would still help, right? Why send Tu Tongzhi to investigate the third room and accuse the Zhou family of being treason? beg for mercy?"

Haitang thought for a while: "The Zhou family may not be willing to help... After all, the Zhou family has already suffered a loss once."

The Zhou family has always adhered to the principle of not intervening in government affairs, but because of a moment of soft-heartedness, they helped the Queen Mother Zhou and supported the unrelated Emperor Deguang to succeed to the throne. As a result, Emperor Deguang turned his back and refused to recognize him, which caused the Zhou family and the Northwest Frontier Army to I suffered losses for many years. Nowadays, the eighth prince born to Concubine Xu Xian is also not related by blood to the Zhou family. Even if the Zhenguo government pays more attention to Concubine Xu Xian's "nephew" for the sake of Empress Dowager Zhou, it is more to do for the Sun family, the political enemy. Adding obstacles, rather than really supporting the eighth prince's succession. The Zhou family didn't want to suffer another loss and would rather stay far away. And without the support of the Zhou family, what help can the young eighth prince have behind him?
Apart from the emperor, Concubine Xu Xian and the Queen Mother Zhou, there was probably no one in the court who truly supported the eighth prince wholeheartedly. Those courtiers who do not collude with the Sun family may act in accordance with the imperial edict, but if the eighth prince has not officially established the throne, there is no legitimacy at all, and the courtiers have no reason to support a child and abandon an adult. Candidates for the throne were ignored. After all, the country depends on the king. Prince Ji is also a bloodline of the emperor. As long as the return ceremony is completed, the courtiers will definitely give priority to supporting him.

If the emperor didn't want Prince Ji to take the throne, he would have to find reliable help for the eighth prince. After going around in circles for more than thirty years, in the end, the most reliable help he could find was still the Zhou family.

However, he had been suspicious of the Zhou family for many years, and he probably didn't believe that the Zhou family would sincerely follow the imperial edict. In order to make the Zhou family obedient, wouldn't it be more reliable to first grasp a fatal handle on the Zhou family?

(End of this chapter)