choke element

Chapter 964: Trapped Beast (Part )

"Don't panic. These first two matches were all arranged. Some people have to kill people to win the right to continue the game, and some people have to be killed in exchange for the lives of their wives and children. How can we not do this?"

Doctor Ding answered leisurely, then pulled Chen Zixin's arm and asked him to look at a place surrounded by tents not far from the stadium.

"... Turn around, turn around, that place is blocked by smoke and dust, look here! I don't know who in this family has offended Prime Minister Cui and must be killed now. I think it is someone from a small branch of the family. If the person who deserves to die dies, the others will have a chance to live. Look carefully at the expressions of these people. Except for a few close relatives who are crying, are the others relieved?"

Chen Zixin squinted his eyes for a long while and sighed: "Even so, there are too many dead."

"How many?" Doctor Ding was stunned after hearing this: "This is just the beginning! Hundreds of people died on the polo field today! Why do you think we went out a few nights and saw so many nobles sharpening their knives?"

"Why... why is it so? Aren't those people Cui Zhongxian's subordinates? They also want to..." Chen Zixin gestured to the dozens of corpses surrounded by the tent behind him: "They also want to kill as many people as possible?"

"Cui Zhongxian is already dying, and he will die in the next few days! He has always suppressed his eldest son and cultivated the power of his second son and many of his cronies. At this time, there are at least seven or eight important officials who are qualified and willing to fight for power; there are more than twenty families who are inevitably involved in the fight. Do you think these dozens of noble families will wait patiently until Cui Zhongxian dies, and then divide the power step by step, or will they seize the best opportunity to gather military forces and kill him?"

Chen Zixin is a smart man who understands everything at once: "If we take action at the polo tournament, Cui Zhongxian might be unhappy and might be severely punished. But Cui Zhongxian is dying, and his deterrent power is already decreasing. If the ambitious people from all walks of life hesitate, they will be preempted by the person who takes action, and they will be in danger of death and annihilation in the polo court. So, whether they are willing or not, they have to kill people at this time!"

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but shudder. Before Cui Zhongxian died, he could still watch his men with ulterior motives fighting each other and dying. How terrible would it be if he was still alive and kicking?
Scholars like Chen Zixin, who were born in the Song Dynasty, often felt that the world's outstanding people gathered in Jiangzuo, and even the Central Plains was dominated by warriors, not to mention a small country like Goryeo. Now it seems that those who can rule over 3,000 miles of land for decades can't be ordinary people.

At the same time, on the high platform in the north of the court, the Goryeo king, surrounded by dozens of attendants, sighed helplessly. He lowered his brows, and a trace of sadness appeared on his handsome face.

The current Goryeo king was named Wang Yeo. His grandfather and father, the three kings of Goryeo, were puppets of Goryeo's military officials. When he was young, he lived on Ganghwa Island, where Goryeo exiled prisoners, and lived a poor life for fourteen years. When his father Wang Yeo was recalled to Kaesong by Cui Zhongxian and became king, he was semi-forced to be imprisoned in a separate palace until Wang Yeo died of illness. He succeeded him as the Goryeo king, and the two never met again.

In the ten years since he ascended the throne, Wang Chao has been more respectful to Cui Zhongxian than any other Goryeo king. His father Wang Jing called Cui Zhongxian "the Prime Minister of Enmen" and regarded Cui Zhongxian as his teacher as a student. Wang Chao went a step further. A few years ago, he instructed his ministers to give Cui Zhongxian the surname Wang and treat him as a senior member of the royal family.

When Cui Zhongxian was canonized as the King of Goryeo by Guo Ning, a powerful official of the Jin Dynasty, Wang Zhao even suggested that it seemed disrespectful to give Prime Minister Cui the surname Wang, so it would be better for Prime Minister Cui to give the king the surname Cui. From now on, I am willing to be a junior of the Cui clan.

This shocking proposal was only stopped after many royal family members and nobles persuaded him. Even so, Wang Zhao still insisted on granting Cui Zhongxian the right to enter and leave the palace in casual clothes and umbrellas, and bowed to him when he saw his umbrella.

From this point of view, Wang Yu was the least power-hungry of all the Goryeo kings, and the one who was most obedient to Choi Sang's control. Wang Yu himself also felt that Choi Sang should be at ease with him.

But now he understood that Cui Xiang was not confident in him, it was just that his little tricks were not taken seriously by Cui Xiang.

Once Prime Minister Cui took some action... No, Prime Minister Cui did nothing at all, he just let go of his many mad dogs. The situation Wang Zhao faced immediately became irreversible.

The polo competition was terrifyingly intense from the very beginning, and the three games that ended in just half an hour were lost by the three ministers Han Guangyan, Jin Qingsun and Park Xi who secretly surrendered to Wang Zhao.

Among them, Han Guangyan and Jin Qingsun were both military men with considerable military talent, and Park Xi had been in the central government for a long time, serving in important official positions such as the Ministry of Central Secretariat, the Ministry of Justice, and the Imperial Censorate. Wang Zhao had thought that if he could take advantage of Cui Zhongxian's death to regain power, he might as well use these three as his assistants.

But this idea is nothing more than a joke.

Han Guangyan and Jin Qingsun participated in the polo match in person, and were then hit to death by the clubs swung by their opponents on the field.

Wang Zhao had personally seen Han Guangyan's horsemanship, and it was no exaggeration to say that he could defeat a hundred people alone. But the one he faced was Jin Yunhou, a famous warrior under Cui Xiang. That guy led a group of ferocious Khitans and easily killed Han Guangyan.

As for Park Xi, he only brought a few servants to the court, pretending that he would not play in the game no matter what, and sat within Wang Zhao's sight. But just a moment ago, he suddenly vomited blood and fell to the ground and died. It was said that he had a heat stroke...

All the people Wang Xu could rely on were killed.

Behind the curtain hanging on the high platform, Wang Yu barely managed to maintain his sitting position and asked in panic, "How did someone die? Were the polo matches in previous years also this intense? Should I ask you, Your Excellency?"

"Your Excellency" was a special honorific used by the court to address Cui Zhongxian. When Wang Zhao said these two words, he slightly raised his eyes to look at the figure on the high platform to the side, and then immediately retracted his gaze. It seemed that he was afraid of being noticed even though he was so far away.

His panicked posture was as immature as a child, and he seemed to be acting a little too hard. Wang Zhao is already 30 years old this year, and he himself knows that his acting is not very good.

But he could not think of any other posture for a moment. He only remembered that when he was recalled from Ganghwa Island, he was so weak and panicked in front of the countless confidants of Prime Minister Choi. He only hoped that this appearance would be seen by Prime Minister Choi's people, and they would believe that the king would always be the helpless and harmless child he was back then.

Should have expected this!

It’s not that easy to seize power!
Over the past twenty years, the skinny figure who had been leaning on the couch for a long time was the real master of Goryeo. He defeated the overconfident rebels time and time again, crushed the political traditions of Goryeo, and trampled on the unshakable ethics between the monarch and his subjects. Such a person should have been condemned by thousands of people and chopped into pieces by thousands of people, but he never failed. Even at the moment of death, he could still watch his enemies die!

Han Guangyan, Jin Qingsun and Park Xi are dead. Who's next?

Could it be me? ?
Wang Xu curled up in fear, shivering in the hot sun.

"Your Majesty, don't be alarmed. The game is meant to demonstrate martial spirit, so this is inevitable." The attendant prostrated himself respectfully and answered loudly, then lowered his voice: "Your Majesty, wait a minute. The one who just killed someone will inevitably be killed by someone else."

"You mean..."

Could it be that there was some force in Kaesong that was hostile to Choi Sang that I didn't know about? Wang Yu was surprised and delighted, like a drowning man grabbing a sampan.

Then he heard the stadium, which had been quiet for a short while, roar again. The mighty Jin Yunhou, who had just killed Han Guangyan, led his team to the field for the second time.

Jin Yunhou was confident of his extraordinary bravery and strength, and he drove his good horse and shouted as he rushed towards the opposing cavalry. He was like a tiger entering a flock of sheep, and immediately drove away dozens of the enemy cavalry.

As the cavalry was galloping, a fist-sized polo ball was swung by someone and hit Jin Yunhou on the forehead. The polo ball was made of hardwood, and when it hit the forehead, it made a loud bang, just like a flying stone.

Jin Yunhou yelled and tilted his head outward, as if he was about to fall off the horse. He supported himself on the saddle with his hands and barely managed to hold on for two rounds, still seeing stars.

Xiao Nieli, who was mixed in the cavalry, looked back at the outside of the football field and saw Cui Yu nodded calmly, so he reached into his arms and took out a dagger.

Although the smoke and dust were rolling, it was noon after all, and the light reflected from the sharp blade flashed by, and anyone who was paying attention could see it clearly.

On the other side of the court, Chi Yunshen jumped up and said, "Watch carefully! It was Cui Yu's people who started it first!"

(End of this chapter)