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Chapter 1106: The Assassination of the Right Wise King

"what?"

Chu Suiliang also became anxious, although they had been hoping that something would happen to the Right Wise King. But in fact, in the more than ten years since the Right Wise King took charge of the grassland, the Tang Dynasty had not suffered a large-scale invasion from the south from the grassland, which was almost impossible in the Jie Li era.

Although no one said it, everyone knew that the Right Wise King was thinking of the relationship between the two because they were of the same lineage.

In recent years, because of the Right Wise King, the Tang Dynasty and the Turks have lived in peace, and border trade has been very prosperous. As a result, the Tang Dynasty has taken great advantage in the Western Regions and acquired a large amount of territory almost without bloodshed.

The Right Wise King is greedy for money, but some things cannot be bought with money.

During the peaceful years of the Zhenguan period, the expansion of Liaodong, the Snowland, and the Western Regions, no one in the Tang Dynasty thought highly of the Right Wise King. But everyone knows that this was inseparable from the secret care of the Right Wise King. The fear of the Right Wise King was ultimately a fear of the Turkic Khanate.

Even if we take a step back, the Right Wise King can die, but he cannot die at this time.

During the reign of Tian Khan, even Li Shimin wanted to send assassins to kill the Right Wise King and thus break up the Turkic Khanate. But that was after making all the preparations, and with Tian Khan in charge, the Tang Dynasty was fully capable of dealing with the chaos after the Right Wise King's accident.

In everyone's subconscious, the Tang Dynasty had two pillars, one was Li Shimin, and the other was the Right Wise King who was in charge of the Turks.

As long as one of these two people is around, there is no need to worry about the northern barbarians invading from the south.

Now, the Tang Dynasty is at a critical moment of transition from the old to the new. The Heavenly Khan has fallen, and the new emperor has just come to the throne, but has not yet grown up. Is the Right Wise King also going to fall?
It doesn't matter if something happens to him earlier or later, but it shouldn't happen at this critical moment. Isn't that unreasonable?
If the Right Wise King died at this moment, it would definitely not be a good thing for the Tang Dynasty, right?

Li Yan glanced at Chu Suiliang who looked flustered, and secretly curled his lips. After all, he did not build this empire by himself, and he still lacked confidence and courage. When faced with sudden accidents, he would unconsciously hesitate.

He shook his head secretly, and then asked slowly: "Xuan Ce, can you tell me the details? What happened?"

At this time, Wang Xuance was also very confused.

In recent years, trade between the Turks and the Tang Dynasty was frequent, and a busy trade route was formed between the Irtysh River royal court and Chang'an, the two core cities of the empire, with carriages and horses rushing on the road day and night.

The Jinyiwei had infiltrated the Irtysh River Valley very deeply, and several assassination attempts on Li Shimin in previous years were inseparable from the secret cooperation of the Jinyiwei.

The Jinyiwei headquarters sent information from the grassland to Chang'an every day, but the journey was too long and the details they learned were only half a month ago.

But in this era, it was already very timely for the Tang Dynasty to be able to grasp the situation of the enemy's capital thousands of miles away at any time.

At the beginning, Wang Xuance always thought that the Right Wise King was Li Chengqian. In addition to his previous speculations, during the time when Li Chengqian returned to Chang'an, the Right Wise King rumored on the grassland never showed up, which indirectly confirmed Wang Xuance's judgment.

It was not until two months ago that the Right Wise King suddenly appeared in the royal court.

Wang Xuance, who received the news, was caught off guard and could not believe it. He repeatedly asked his subordinates to confirm it. For this reason, the Honglu Temple sent a team of envoys to the grassland to inform the royal court of the ascension of the new emperor of the Tang Dynasty. He also specially let his trusted men mix in with the envoys.

He also personally dispatched officials who had met the Right Wise King many times in the past in the name of the Junior Secretary of the Honglu Department to make sure to find out whether this person was the Right Wise King himself.

As a man who has been engaging in conspiracies and intrigues for many years, he naturally guessed that the prince might have returned to the capital and found a puppet to support the situation.

Unexpectedly, both the officials of the Honglu Temple and his own confidants were warmly received by the Right Wise King, and had a long period of communication and exchanges with him. These people repeatedly confirmed that the man was undoubtedly the Right Wise King.

This made Wang Xuance completely dumbfounded. So, the Right Wise King was not the emperor?
All previous inferences and arrangements based on these inferences were completely overturned, and Wang Xuance was somewhat panicked. If the Right Wise King was Li Chengqian, then the task of their Jinyiwei would be much easier. After all, they were all one of their own.

If not, then the Turkic Khanate and the Tang Dynasty are enemies, and the Jinyiwei, as a weapon against the Turks, naturally cannot be careless.

Wang Xuance quickly summoned the senior members of the Embroidered Uniform Guard and worked for half a month to redeploy arrangements against the Turks.

Wang Xuance was terrified when he thought about how he had secretly guessed the true identity of the Right Wise King, neglected his duties, and relaxed his vigilance against the Turks. He prayed secretly that nothing serious would happen to the Turks again.

Even if something happens, don't let it happen during this period. Give yourself some buffer time.

But things did not go as planned. Just when he had taken a breath, news of a shocking change came from the Turks, which made him feel that the situation was somewhat out of control.

"Your Majesty, September and October are the months when the Turks hold their annual Qiumuda gathering, which is similar to the New Year's Day and Spring Festival in the Tang Dynasty. Since the eleventh year of the Zhenguan reign, when the Right Wise King built the royal court in the Irtysh River Valley, the Qiumuda has been held here every year. This is the ninth time now."

Since the emperor was not the Right Wise King, Wang Xuance could only introduce the background of the incident based on the fact that the emperor had traveled in the West for more than ten years and did not know much about the Turks. He then said, "At the end of September and the beginning of October, the royal court is where the various tribes on the grassland hold grand ceremonies." "The grand ceremonies usually last for seven days, and this year is no exception."

"The first six days were all normal. The various tribes on the grasslands sang and danced, drank, rode horses, shot arrows, wrestled, had bonfires, and held various competitions. Of course, our Tang envoys and some caravans that happened to be there were also invited to participate."

"Until the last day, the warriors selected by each tribe will compete in the final competition under the auspices of the Right Wise King to select the best batch."

Li Yan nodded silently when he heard this. He was very familiar with these things and naturally knew the deep meaning behind them. This kind of grand event in the grassland is similar to the imperial examination in the Central Plains. It is a means of selecting talents and trapping ambitious people.

The final winner will be awarded the title of the most courageous warrior on the grassland by the Right Wise King if he can catch the Right Wise King's eye.

These people can be directly selected into the king's tent and serve as the Right Wise King's close confidants, soaring to the sky from then on, and the entire tribe will benefit from it. This is also a channel for the Turkic tribes to seek advancement, and it is also a way for the Turkic upper class to rule the tribes.

Seeing that the emperor did not speak, Wang Xuance continued, "Unexpectedly, on the last day, an accident happened. Wanyan Hulihan, a selected Jurchen warrior, was being received by the Right Wise King. When the two were in close contact, he suddenly jumped up and assassinated the Right Wise King."

Chu Suiliang looked anxious and interrupted to ask, "Is the Right Wise King injured?"

"Should it be?"

Wang Xuance frowned and said, "According to the information sent by the messenger, there was chaos on the stage at that time, and the guards of the Right Wise King quickly stepped forward and killed the assassin. The Right Wise King himself was also seriously injured and was carried away. He has never been seen since then."

"It wasn't long before the royal court began to be on high alert."

"A large number of cavalrymen drew their swords and strung their bows, and they guarded the royal court tightly. Not even a fly could fly out. Fortunately, our people passed the information out as soon as possible, otherwise we would not know it now."

Li Yan and Chu Suiliang looked at each other, both with stern expressions, but Li Yan was just pretending, while Chu Suiliang was really anxious.

Any incident to the leader of the Turkic tribes in northern Mobei would inevitably be accompanied by a drastic upheaval in the situation.

The so-called marquis who stole the country and dared to assassinate the overlord of the grassland would probably not be a small force. The grassland might fall into turmoil next, and the stability of the grassland would directly affect the stability of the Tang Dynasty.

Unexpectedly, just after the Tang Dynasty had just experienced the ascension of a new emperor and finally stabilized the situation, a shocking change occurred on the grassland. It is still unknown whether this is a blessing or a curse for the Tang Dynasty. Chu Suiliang, the assistant minister, also fell into deep worry.

Now that the storm has begun to brew, there is no reason for it to stop. Li Yan was also excited, but compared with these ministers, he was more happy than worried.

"Xuan Ce, the Royal Guards must mobilize in full force and intensify their investigation of the Turkic royal court."

Li Yan ordered decisively: "Any situation with the Turks must be reported to us immediately. Unfortunately, the distance is still too far. The information we have now is from half a month ago. Who knows how many things will happen in this half month?"

"Your Majesty, if you start using carrier pigeons, the efficiency of information transmission can be increased by more than double. In just eight days, we can know the latest situation of the royal court."

Wang Xuance hesitated for a moment and said, "However, the mountains in the north are so high that there are too many natural enemies of pigeons, such as hawks and various birds. In addition, the people in the north are fierce and often have warriors shooting them. Usually only one out of ten is captured, so it is very unreliable."

"If the court can issue an order prohibiting the shooting of pigeons, the efficiency can be improved a little, but it will not exceed half."

Li Yan heard this and waved his hand: "Forget it, the court's laws are not a joke, and hunting is mostly done in the wilderness, so it's difficult to enforce. You Jinyiwei can use this method to try it out, but it still depends on manpower to spread it."

By the way, using carrier pigeons was the method proposed by Li Yan.

Before the Qin Dynasty, the northwest was still a dense forest, with towering trees everywhere, and the mountains were covered with thick vegetation. Later, during the Han Dynasty, in order to consolidate their rule, a large number of Han people in the south moved north.

The court's large-scale development of arable land resulted in a decreasing forest coverage rate in the north.

After the Han Dynasty, there were hundreds of years of war. A large number of trees were cut down to build cities, or used for sieges, burning fires for heating, etc. People at that time did not have the awareness of destroying and building at the same time, and they did not appreciate this natural resource that was born and raised by the earth.

There is only asking for things, but no special care.

By the Sui and Tang dynasties, the Guanzhong Plain and the entire northern area had begun to show the embryonic form of the barren Loess Plateau of later generations.

(End of this chapter)