Traveling through Tianlong: Starting from the Zhenlong chess game

Chapter 581 Zhezong teases Huizong

When Zhezong heard that Zhao Mu had captured Jingzhao Prefecture and was heading straight for Luoyang, the Western Capital, he could not help but feel delighted.

Zhezong felt that his previous arrangements were not in vain. The only regret of Zhezong was that the tiger seal was not sent out. If the tiger seal and the jade seal were in Zhao Mu's hands, Zhao Mu might have been able to capture more than just Chang'an.

Zhezong also knew something about Zhao Mu's situation. When he heard that Zhao Mu had proclaimed himself emperor and changed the reign title to "Kaiyuan", he was overjoyed. He knew that the end of Empress Dowager Xiang and Prince Duan's party was coming.

Now Zhezong is holding on to his health, waiting for Zhao Mu to come back. He hopes he can see him again.

Therefore, during this period, Zhezong did not bother Queen Dowager Xiang and others. He just ate and slept all day long, and occasionally went to the garden to walk and bask in the sun.

Regarding his previous arrangement of escape from Longwei, Zhezong, in order to protect himself, pushed all the responsibility onto Zhao Mu and Fang Shisan.

He told Empress Dowager Xiang and others that everything was Zhao Mu's "conspiracy". Fang La and Eunuch Cui were both undercover agents planted by Zhao Mu beside him. As the emperor, he was "completely unaware" of the theft of the imperial seal.

So when Huizong and Empress Dowager Xiang forced him to make Prince Duan the regent and crown prince and abdicate, Zhezong was very cooperative and did whatever they asked him to do. In the end, he abdicated the throne to Huizong.

Anyway, the imperial seal had already been given away, and without the imperial seal, the edict of succession would have no effect. On the one hand, Zhezong wanted to protect himself, and on the other hand, he was too lazy to argue with them, so he just let them do whatever they wanted.

Now that Huizong is so eager to see me, it must be that there is no one else available in the court and I am not in the right position, so he comes to me for help.

Although Zhezong was secretly happy in his heart, his face remained expressionless and he still looked like he was about to die.

Although Zhezong was very determined, Empress Meng was frightened. Every time Huizong came, she was terrified, fearing that he would murder Zhezong. After all, there were many precedents in history for "brothers being friendly and respectful to each other", and the Song Dynasty was not without precedents.

Although the story of the candlelight and the sound of the axe was false, a lie will become true if it is repeated ten thousand times. As a result, the descendants of the royal family began to suspect whether the incident was deliberately covered up by Emperor Taizong. After all, Emperor Taizong did not return the throne to his nephew, but to his own son.

Zhezong pretended to be weak and said, "What! There is such a thing. These traitors have already colluded with King Qi!"

Hearing what Zhezong said, Queen Meng thought, "Isn't it you, Your Majesty, who has the greatest connection with Prince Qi?"

Queen Meng knew that Zhezong passed the throne to Zhao Mu. Although Queen Meng did not agree with it, she could do nothing about it. After all, for the Song Dynasty, Zhao Mu was the best candidate to succeed him. Moreover, she had seen Zhao Mu's loyalty before. Even if Zhao Mu ascended the throne in the future, Queen Meng believed that Zhao Mu would treat her well.

Zhezong then asked weakly, "I just don't know what my brother wants me to do when he comes here?"

Huizong then told Zhezong all the three strategies proposed by Zhang Dun: the best, the middle and the worst.

After hearing this, Zhezong suppressed his smile and deliberately asked, "So which one do you want to follow, my brother? Do you want to return power to me, or do you want to move the capital?"

Huizong replied in front of Zhezong's bed: "My dear brother, the advice of all officials is to follow the best policy. So I came here today to ask you to issue an imperial decree to recruit the king. Let the prince of Qi stop fighting. I will rule the east and the west with him."

Zhezong did not reject Huizong.

On the one hand, it was to protect himself and avoid angering him, and on the other hand, he also wanted to play a trick on him.

Zhezong then deliberately coughed a few times. After coughing, he panted and pretended to be out of breath and said, "Is that so? My royal brother, look at my current condition. I can't even get up. I'm afraid I can't hold a pen. My royal brother has always liked calligraphy and painting, so his handwriting is naturally better than mine. Why don't you just dictate to me and I will draft an edict for him?" Although Huizong was reluctant, he couldn't help but shook his head when he saw that Zhezong was half breath away.

Huizong had no choice but to walk to the dragon desk and pick up the imperial brush. He looked at Zhezong and said, "Brother, please speak."

Then Zhezong spoke one sentence at a time, and Huizong wrote one stroke at a time.

But it took Huizong an hour to write this imperial edict.

This was because Cheoljong deliberately made trouble for him.

Every time Cheoljong spoke, he would cough for a while. When he coughed, Queen Meng and the others brought water and passed ginseng soup. After Cheoljong recovered a little, he continued to speak.

But when Zhezong was halfway through writing, he rolled his eyes and lay down. Queen Meng and others hurriedly called for the imperial physician.

The doctors came forward to check his pulse and confirmed that he was still alive. Zhezong took the opportunity to close his eyes and pretend to be unconscious, taking a nap.

It was for this reason that Huizong spent an hour writing Zhezong's edict. This made Huizong physically and mentally exhausted. Fortunately, the edict was finally issued. Although it was not written by Zhezong himself, it was written in his tone.

Afterwards, Huizong stamped his seal and ordered the officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to open the palace treasury and select some gifts to send to Zhao Mu.

Chai Wen, who was "convicted", had already arrived in Huizong's imperial study awaiting his orders.

Chai Wen accepted Huizong's "life-urging" mission and left the capital reluctantly. He sighed after leaving the palace.

Not only him, but even the escorting guards and the supervising deputy envoy had worried looks on their faces.

They all had no confidence in this imperial edict of amnesty. After all, Zhao Mu's sword was already hanging over Bian Jing's head, and the troops under his command were more than those on Bian Jing's side. Unless Zhao Mu was crazy, he would not accept the "amnesty" now and withdraw his troops.

Failure to accomplish the task was not their biggest concern. What they were most worried about right now was their personal safety. After all, Zhao Mu's elder brother, Zhao Yong, the King of Zhongshan, had never returned. Not to mention them.

The most anxious person was Chai Wen. Although he and Zhao Mu had always kept their distance from each other as a brother-in-law, his wife, Zhao Mu's elder sister, had always been at odds with Zhao Mu.

If Chai Wenxiu had not been adopted by the Shang Wangfu Zong family, Zhao Mu would have become Chai Wenxiu's brother-in-law. He would never have had any contact with Zhao Mu again in his life.

Now Chai Wen only prayed in his heart that Zhao Mu was a broad-minded person, not a petty and narrow-minded person. Otherwise, he might never come back.

Although Chai Wen had already set out for negotiations, Prince Consort Wang did not stop his little tricks.

After Prince Consort Wang returned home from court, he immediately went to see someone.

This person was none other than the Liao princess, Yelu Yanxiu.

(End of this chapter)