Long live Emperor Wu!

Chapter 51 Artificial?
The emperor took a deep breath, nodded and said:
"you're right."

He thought for a while, seemed to finally make up his mind, and said to the eunuch beside him:
"Go and send the prince over, saying that I have something to tell him."

When the eunuch went to the East Palace, King Jin withdrew and went to Princess Jinyang's bedroom.

The three of them sat together and didn't speak for a long time.After a while, Princess Jinyang asked:

"Brother, is the prince brother okay?"

King Jin smiled and said softly:

"It's alright, don't worry."

Princess Jinyang lowered her head in silence, her expression clearly unbelieving, and the atmosphere became increasingly heavy.

Sitting next to Princess Wurou Jinyang, she was overwhelmed by such an atmosphere and finally spoke:
"His Royal Highness..."

She pursed her lips. She didn't say what she said clearly. Just a pause would make people feel regretful. Then she continued:
"But what's the use of deceiving yourself and others like this? His Royal Highness, Prince Jin, is just like this. I didn't expect His Majesty to be like this..."

Her voice was as sweet as an oriole's, and she spoke these words calmly and quietly, even so sweetly that it made people sleep.

However, King Jin suddenly felt a sense of hatred. His clear eyes suddenly glared over, and his refreshing voice became much deeper, and he said slowly:

"What do you know?!"

Wu Rou's heart skipped a beat. She didn't expect that the usually peaceful King Jin would show such a frightening expression.

But upon closer inspection, he found that his heartache was greater than hating others, so his fear turned into heartache again.

Wu Rou gained courage, imitated his gentle tone, and said:

"I know that in addition to the prince, there are two other princes, and the fourth concubine has an outstanding son.

I also know that since the prince's foot illness became serious, letters from the harem have become more frequent. They are all letters from princes from all over the vassal inquiring about the harem.

His Majesty's birthday is coming soon, but all the princes will return to Chang'an to celebrate his birthday... No one is blind, and everyone will compare in their hearts.

Even if His Majesty is partial to the prince, everyone will think in their hearts, it’s not like there is no healthy prince, so why bother? "

Prince Jin looked directly at her, and the moment she finished speaking, he immediately said:

"My father has issued a decree to cancel this year's birthday and not allow them to return to Chang'an."

There were stubborn tears flashing in his eyes, and he said:

"In your eyes, he may be a healthy prince who looks decent enough to be the crown prince of the Tang Dynasty, but in reality he is extremely ridiculous.

You have also seen the articles about my homework. It was so hard for the prince to do it twice as hard as me, and he has been doing it for more than ten years.Can what he has learned be replaced by any prince? "

King Jin didn't wait for Wu Rou to speak and said firmly:

"No. If you don't care about the foundation of the Tang Dynasty, you can choose anyone at will. But my father must be the emperor back then, not only for power, but also for his ambition to benefit the people and create a prosperous age. This requires the efforts of several generations. It cannot be accomplished by his generation of wise kings.”

Prince Jin slowed down, withdrew his gaze, calmed down his emotions as much as possible, and said as if talking to himself:
“You can be a good emperor and anyone can do that?

He told me that when he was young, he was only good at martial arts, could not even write well, read few books, and had no ambitions but no understanding of anything.At first, my mother taught him how to read. Later, he listened to the debates and quarrels among the talented people gathered together, and his knowledge gradually increased.

Even after he became emperor, he kept reading and listening to other people's opinions, and never slacked off.

He said that as a son of a nobleman, he had never farmed, had never been a county official, and had never even been hungry. How could he know where to start in managing people's livelihood?Isn’t it all knowledge gained from listening to people everywhere, reading more books, and accumulating over time? "

Wu Rou listened silently, knowing in her heart that this was true.

In my impression, whenever the emperor had free time, he spent most of his time reading and talking to people.

People say that he loves to be lively, but he does not hold many banquets throughout the year, but the scale is larger each time to keep in touch with close courtiers.

Then I heard King Jin continue to say:

"After my father established the crown prince, he never considered other princes. Even my fourth brother, he didn't have much contact with political affairs.

The reason why I was able to follow the upper court and listen to politics was because my father knew that I had no ambition for power and wanted to train me to be the prince's helper.

You may say that he is partial or has no foresight, but the experience, knowledge and reputation that the prince has accumulated from following his father in handling government affairs for so many years cannot be matched by any prince. "

He raised his chin slightly, his clear brows showing disgust:

"Only those with evil intentions will feel that their opportunity has come. The ministers in the court will not think that anyone is qualified to replace my eldest brother."

His tone was very firm, but his eyes flickered uncertainly, and he added:
"As long as he remains the same as before...there are so many healthy people in the world, what's the big deal?"

The room was quiet for a while. Princess Jinyang looked at the two of them, then lowered her head, also feeling sad.

Wu Rou added:

"Even so, even if His Highness has no ambitions, it cannot stop others from having them. His Highness the Crown Prince used to be a perfect prince, but now he suddenly has such a big shortcoming that can be attacked, and people's hearts must be unstable. For this reason, maybe he will in the future Trapped in endless competition and chaos.

Your Highness is right, not everyone is qualified to be the crown prince, but instead of being stuck in the quagmire and struggling, it is better to choose someone again and train him from scratch.Your Majesty is in his prime, there is still time, right? "

Wu Rou spoke in an understatement, even without emotion.

Prince Jin tilted his chin up and looked at her from the corners of his eyes, or rather stared at her, and tears soon fell from his eyes.

He cried out in his heart:

Even if what you said is right, what about the prince brother? !

He suddenly became disabled and went from being a proud man to what he is now. Are you planning to kill him if you want to drive him down from the position of prince?
... He has done nothing wrong, why should he be treated like this? !

Prince Jin withdrew his gaze, and tears burst out in an instant. He quickly lowered his head and covered his face with his hands, and said no more.

Wu Rou was used to his gentle, restrained, distant and cold appearance.Now that he was like this, she unconsciously felt sad. She stretched out her hand to pat his back, but after raising her hand, she took it back again.

Fortunately, Princess Jinyang, who was sitting in the middle, spoke up, gently pulled his arm and whispered:
"Brother... don't be sad. Didn't you say it will be fine? Xizi also thinks it will be fine."

……

The emperor summoned the prince, and no one knew what the father and son said specifically. They only knew that the emperor hugged the prince, and the father and son cried bitterly.

Later, the emperor issued an order to make Wei Zheng the crown prince and grand master, and also appointed a large number of powerful civil and military ministers to join the East Palace to assist him.

Now everyone knew that even though the prince was ill and unable to walk, which was a disgrace to the royal family, the emperor was still prepared to support the prince and would never abolish the prince and establish a new crown prince.

On the surface, everything is calm, but in fact, there is still an undercurrent.

……

……

Li Zheng Hall is next door to Wude Hall. It used to be the palace where the queen lived. Later, after the queen passed away, the emperor lived there for a while and then moved out completely.It's usually sealed, but I'll check it out from time to time.

There is a small nest at the foot of the west wall of Lizheng Hall, which is the home of the black cat Lingdang.

From time to time, King Jin would put some food to feed it. If he was lucky enough to see it, he would give it a hug and ask the palace veterinarian to deworm it and give it a bath.

At this time, King Jin would watch quietly from the side.

Since she was ordered to take care of and accompany Princess Jinyang, she followed them to see the black cat bell several times.

Maybe it was because Wu Rou had caught it. Every time it saw Wu Rou, it would open its pink mouth and "meow", baring its fangs and stretching out its sharp claws to scratch her.

Especially when King Jin is here.

It was peaceful without King Jin, and would hide away from her when he saw it. Anyway, since the last time he used it as an excuse to see King Jin and caught it, she never had the chance to get close to it again.

Whenever Lingdang was "violent" towards Wu Rou, Wu Rou would smile awkwardly and try to hide it by saying that she didn't do anything.

Then Prince Jin would give her a cold look, his eyes clearly showed that he knew everything but was too lazy to say it.

On this day, King Jin came to Lizheng Hall to feed Ling Dang as usual, but found that the cat's bowl had not moved at all, and it had not even returned from its nest.

He immediately sent people to the palace to ask and search everywhere.

Cats are wild and often wander off to other places. It is common for cats to stay away from home for several days, and no one takes them seriously.

Until a young eunuch brought the dying bell to King Jin...

King Jin was dumbfounded. He looked at the hole that penetrated the black cat's back and couldn't calm down for a long time.

The hole was as thick as an arrow, and it passed right through the cat's back. Compared to its small body, it was as deep and terrifying as a tunnel, with red meat and bones exposed, but no blood.

Lingdang's belly was still moving with each breath. It squinted its eyes slightly and lay on a piece of blue cloth of eunuch's clothing, gasping in pain with its mouth open.

Suffering the torture quietly...

"How could this happen?" Wu Rou looked frightened, it was obvious that she would not survive.

The young eunuch who sent it glanced at Wu Rou and then at King Jin. He saw King Jin staring at the black cat, standing there as if he was stunned, showing no signs of joy or anger at all.

He quickly lowered his head and said:
"I don't know what happened specifically. I found it under the west wall of the East Palace. At that time, there was a branch as thick as my thumb beside it. It was sharpened at one end and stained with blood. I threw it aside. I brought the cat to His Highness Prince Jin."

When King Jin heard this, his pupils shrank and he looked suddenly at the young eunuch, but he quickly looked back, gritted his teeth and pursed his lips, raised his chin slightly, and said nothing.

"Man-made?...Who would do such a thing and have trouble with a cat?" Wu Rou asked.

She asked casually, not expecting to hear any answer, but who would have thought that the little eunuch answered the question...

(End of this chapter)