Emperor Kangxi: The First Rule of the Palace

Chapter 20
Wei Dongting was still worried, followed Yujia secretly, passed through the Qianqing Gate, saw that Kangxi had entered Yongxiang safely, then turned out of the Meridian Gate, and galloped to Suo'etu Mansion on horseback.

Suo'etu hadn't come back yet, but the person at the door was holding a lamp, obviously waiting. Seeing Wei Dongting's visit at night, he was surprised.Geshha Zhao Fengchun, the leader at the door, rushed out to greet him and said with a smile: "Master Wei is so excited, he's still here at this time! My lord has gone out and hasn't come back yet." Wei Dongting laughed and said, "I'll wait if I don't come back." Then he went inside Walk.

Zhao Fengchun muttered: "Maybe my lord will not come back tonight." Wei Dongting secretly laughed inwardly, while taking off his oil coat and shaking the water, he said, "Maybe he won't come back, who are you waiting for?" He laughed and said, "Since you have to wait, please come to this room and change your wet clothes. Brothers will chat and prepare water and wine to pass the long night." Wei Dongting had to follow him into the west gate room.

As soon as he changed into dry clothes, he heard noises outside the gate. Zhao Fengchun saw him listening with his ears sideways, and said with a smile, "I'll be back there! Come, come, warm the wine!" Etu ordered the door: "I want to have a long talk with Mr. Xiong tonight, except for Wei Jun's gate, I will see you all!"

Wei Dongting smiled and said to Zhao Fengchun: "It's hard for you to cover up! Tonight's banquet in the back hall includes my name." Zhao Fengchun smiled embarrassedly: "I don't know, please forgive me."

Suo'etu, Xiong Cilu, and Wei Dongting sat in front of the sumptuous banquet, and started a secret discussion while eating wine casually.

Suo'etu pressed the door cup with his hand, and said in a low voice: "Oboi deceives the king with his meritorious deeds, kills the ministers, and has ulterior motives! The Holy One comforts him in every possible way, and hopes that he will change from evil to good and never repent. The important task of eradicating adultery." Xiong and Wei hurriedly replied in a low voice: "Only my lord's order is to obey!"

Wei Dongting took a sip of his wine and asked, "Why didn't your sage issue a decree to announce his unpardonable crimes and to punish him?" Xiong Cilu pondered, "It won't work. Oboi is powerful and powerful at this time. Internal and external confidantes are like a net, even the southern commanding officers and soldiers often have his protégés and old officials. If the edict is issued, if he refuses to obey the edict, causing troubles, the consequences will be unimaginable... what is even more worrying—"Here No words.Suo'etu hurriedly said: "Dong Yuan, since we are interested in military and national affairs, we should meet each other with sincerity, and we must not have any scruples."

Xiong Cilu stood up, dipped his finger into the wine, scratched the three characters "Wu, Geng, Shang" on the table, erased them with another wave, and asked, "Brother, I don't know if you agree with my humble opinion?"

Suo'etu nodded repeatedly, but Wei Dongting didn't take it seriously: "This concern seems too far away. You must know that although King Xiping and Oboi colluded with each other, they actually have different ambitions. To capture Oboi and go to a political enemy, I'm afraid it's just that he can't wait of it!"

Xiong Cilu thought silently, this is reasonable, but how can we get rid of Oboi without causing uneasiness in all parties?After thinking about it for a long time, he couldn't figure it out, so he said with a smile: "At that time, Guan Hanqing had a small order saying: "Crow Crow, Face Xia, if you kill Qu, you will be married as a dowry. The scale is all grown-up families, not under the matchmaker. You greet people with a clever smile, and Wen Tan answers. , It’s like a flower of Jieyu. If we win her, we’ll overturn the grape trellis...’” After speaking, the three of them laughed in unison, and the atmosphere suddenly became much more relaxed.

Suo'etu complained: "When is this, you still have the heart to make fun of it." Wei Dongting hurriedly said: "Although it is a joke, it is also the truth. We are just discussing how to 'get him' and not 'pour the grape trellis' .” A word made everyone fall into deep thought again.

After a long while, Wei Dongting got up and walked two steps: "In my humble opinion, there seems to be three strategies."

Suo'etu's eyes lit up, he leaned back on the chair and said, "I would like to hear the details."

"One," Wei Dongting said, "choose chivalrous martyrs, cover them up and kill them when they are unprepared, if the incident succeeds, the emperor will issue a decree to declare their crimes, and if the incident fails, I will be solely responsible. This is the best policy." Suo'etu shook his head and said: "Oboi possesses special skills, martial arts are superb, he has a entourage like a cloud, and he is heavily guarded. Moreover, it is difficult to recruit many warriors at the moment. If it fails, it will be even more difficult to succeed in rebirth. This is dangerous." Xiong Cilu said: "Please tell me the middle policy." "Master Suo bought wine and pretended to celebrate his mother's birthday, invited him into the mansion, and killed him with poisoned wine!"

Suo'etu frowned and said: "My brother has thought about this strategy. But Oboi has always been cunning and suspicious. My brother held his own birthday and did not invite him to the banquet twice. It would be good if he is willing to come." Xiong Cilu said with a smile: "Why don't you tell me the next plan?" Wei Dongting said, "Let the Holy Majesty choose a festival and have a banquet for all the ministers in the palace. When he enters the court for the banquet, he suddenly issues an edict, and the guards in front of the palace cover it up and carry it out—just Such a knife!" He used all his strength with his right hand, "Who dares to object if you don't believe me!"

Suo'etu patted the table and replied: "There are many of his cronies among the guards in front of the hall. If he turns against him, the Holy One will be in danger!" Xiong Cilu puffed out a puff of smoke and said, "This is also impossible."

None of the three strategies can be used, Wei Dongting felt very disappointed, sat down blankly, suddenly his heart moved, and said: "I can't help but the Holy Majesty issued an order, which of the two dares to throw the cup as an order, Wei Dongting is willing to risk his life to punish this country's traitor!"

"This is called Hongmen Banquet, which is interesting." Suo'etu smiled and said, "Brother is willing to be the one who throws the cup." As soon as the words fell, Xiong Cilu waved his hands again and again and said: "No way! This is called beheading without asking, Killing ministers without authorization, the courtiers will inevitably talk about the Holy Majesty, and they will also 'pour the grape trellis'."

Wei Dongting felt very useless, and asked coldly: "Then according to your opinion?"

Xiong Cilu picked up the shark's fin on the table and put it into his mouth, chewed it slowly, and said after a while, "Although Oboi has the heart of Sima Zhao, there are very few actual traces of his rebellion. , it will definitely mess up the imperial court, and there will be too much loss—we still have to find a way to work hard on the word "take", verify the facts, and declare to the world.

This is indeed an old man's words to seek the country, Suo Etu couldn't help nodding his head, thought for a while, and said to Wei Dongting: "Tiger Minister, the Holy Majesty wants to get rid of Oboi, this is a decision; what does Oboi think about the Holy Majesty now?" Knowing oneself but not knowing the enemy is not the way to complete victory!" Wei Dongting replied: "Oboi regards the Holy One as an ignorant child, and there must be a desire to usurp him."

Xiong Ci smiled and said, "Here! The second half of this sentence is nonsense, but the first half is very useful."

The two were surprised by one sentence, Suo'etu smiled and said: "Old Master, please clarify."

"Oboi thinks very highly of himself, this is his fatality." Xiong Cilu said, "He regards my lord as an ignorant child, why not use his tricks, pretending to show his ignorance, taking advantage of his unpreparedness, concealing it and sticking to it, pay Yousi Trial the crime and punish the crime with the law!"

Wei Dongting's eyes sparkled, and he asked, "How should we proceed?"

Xiong Cilu was about to answer, Suo'etu suddenly put his hands together excitedly and said: "Yes! Can the Huchen secretly select children to accompany the emperor to play children's games, such as playing in Buku, Oboi must not To be prepared, when he is alone, either on the road or in the palace—" He shook his hands violently, "Are you afraid that he will fly away?"

"This plan is very good." Xiong Cilu nodded and smiled, "However, there are a few things that need to be taken care of. First, the palace is full of personnel, so we must not make it public. The three of us must also swear together; Second, choose personnel carefully, rather Don’t overdo it; third, plan carefully, and once the time is right, catch it quickly with lightning speed. ——Once things change, the three of us will be killed together, and there will be no complaints.” He wriggled his fingers. After finishing one by one, he stared at Suo'etu and asked, "What do you think, my lord?"

After hearing this, Suo'etu was very excited, his eyes sparkled, he stood up suddenly, picked up three wooden chopsticks from the table, distributed one to each person, straightened his clothes, and knelt down.Seeing that he was so solemn, Xiong and Wei followed him and knelt behind him, but they heard Suo'etu swear: "The ministers respectfully follow the secret decree of the sage, discuss big plans together, wipe out traitors, and help the Qing Dynasty. This chopstick!"

After finishing speaking, he broke the chopsticks with a "click", dipped the broken chopsticks in candle oil and set them on fire.Wei and Xiong also made an oath in accordance with the law.The three of them stared blankly at the chopsticks on the ground burning to ashes before slowly standing up.

Namo left Kangxi that night, his heart still beating wildly.Wandering in the rain with his waist knife in his hand, he repeatedly recalled the scene at that time: Did Kangxi see when I pulled out the waist knife?

The cold rain drenched his whole body, his clothes stuck to his flesh, and he shivered when a gust of wind blew by, "What if he sees it and pretends not to see it?" He hurried towards Jingyunmen.Murima had been waiting for him, and when she saw him coming, she asked angrily, "Where did you go to lift up the corpse? What did you hear?" Namo only breathed a sigh of relief, shook his head and said, "It's raining too much, and there are Lei Sheng... seems to be saying that the kid surnamed Wei has made meritorious service and was promoted to a third-class guard."

Murima rolled her eyes and asked again, "Who is there?"

"I can't see clearly," Namo shook his head and said, "I saw two people, one is Mr. Xiong Cilu, and the other is hiding behind the shadow of the candle, in a daze." Murima said: "You just stay here Come on, if you don’t believe they don’t come here! I’ll go and report to Zhongtang.”

Namo promised "yes" in his mouth, and when Murima left, he took everyone to a few rooms in the east of Qianqingmen to hide from the rain.He is not tired, nor is he afraid of the cold, one is angry, and the other is that he is really afraid of seeing those two ministers just now—when he was about to assassinate Kangxi just now, he saw Xiong Cilu and Wei Dongting coming out, so he was quick to get wise. He took off the oil coat and put it on for Kangxi.Under the lightning, Wei Dongting's posture is still swaying in front of his eyes.He was really afraid to see them again.

(End of this chapter)