The daily life of the concubine of the Prime Minister

"Tell me who asked you to steal the will?" Zhou Zheng threw the fake will in front of the little palace maid and asked sternly.

The little palace maid lying in a pool of blood looked up at him, then looked away and looked at Prince Duan.

Prince Duan's heart tightened, thinking to himself, this is not good, could it be that this matter is blamed on him?

He said viciously, his eyes carrying a warning: "What are you looking at me for? Just answer whatever the Prime Minister asks you."

The little palace maid shrank her neck, as if frightened by Prince Duan's threat. She quickly shook her head:

"No one instructed me to do this. This was my own idea. Please understand, Prime Minister."

This statement seemed to be a cover-up, and everyone looked at Prince Duan.

"Uncle Prince Duan, was it you who ordered this little palace maid to do this?" Prince Rui asked suspiciously.

Prince Duan jumped up and said, "Prince Rui, don't slander me. Don't think that I dare not touch you."

"You are not the one who ordered this little girl. Why did she only look at you when there were so many of us? It's no use for you to quibble." Prince Pu bowed to Zhou Zheng and picked up the fake will beside the little palace maid: "Please open this fake will and see who is written on it. Then we will know who ordered this."

Prince Duan was so angry at being slandered that if there weren't so many people present, he would have wanted to beat the palace maid to death.

Hearing the words of Prince Jin, his eyes lit up and he quickly agreed, "Brother Prince Duan is right. Hurry up and open the will. I want to see which of you is so bold as to slander me. I will tear him into pieces."

He gave King Jin another grateful look.

Prince Jin curled his lips slightly and complained in his heart, "Idiot! He is so stupid and yet he still wants to fight for the throne. He is simply courting death."

King Jin and Zhou Zheng looked at each other.

Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, Zhou Zheng opened the fake will that he had snatched from the palace maid and deliberately read it out word by word:

"In the seventh year of Ren'an in the Great Jin Dynasty, on the twenty-ninth day of the third month of spring, I was dying of an illness. I could not defy the will of Heaven. I was thinking about the fate of the country and was worried about the people. Prince..." Zhou Zheng's voice stopped abruptly at this point.

The King of Jin was puzzled, because Zhou Zheng did not want to offend the King of Duan, so he said loudly:

"Master Prime Minister, just read it out. This is in front of all the civil and military officials in the Wenxuan Hall. No one dares to embarrass you."

My younger brother Li Lu has a gentle temperament, is talented and virtuous, and can inherit the throne and carry on my will. I hereby decree that he be made the Crown Prince, and that he ascend the throne today, and change the year to Heqing. "

Li? Isn't he the King of Jin?

Everyone suddenly looked at Prince Jin, who was shouting the loudest among the people present.

Receiving everyone's gaze, King Jin reacted.

The little eyes were bigger than copper bells, and the hand that was pointing at the edict in Zhou Zheng's hand began to tremble, with horrifying fear in his eyes.

And disbelief.

He asked, "Just now, who were you talking about? Whose name is written on this fake will?"

Just last night, Prince Jin was drinking wine in his mansion when he suddenly heard the doorman come to report that Zhou Zheng was looking for him. Without thinking much, he asked someone to welcome Zhou Zheng into the study.

When Zhou Zheng saw him, he asked him if he was interested in that position.

Of course he had intentions, and he admitted it in front of Zhou Zheng without any hesitation, but he also knew that this was impossible.

But Zhou Zheng told him that there was a way to help him keep the position, so the two of them made a plan and had the palace maid replace the real edict with the fake one, and put Prince Duan's name on it, so that Prince Duan would take the blame and attract everyone's attention.

If there is another eunuch behind, he will take them away when no one is paying attention. The real will in the Wenxuan Hall has Prince Jing's name rewritten on it.

In this way, Prince Jin quietly became the real crown prince, and could also take this opportunity to get rid of his archenemy.

If this plan succeeds, it will kill three birds with one stone.

Unfortunately, unexpectedly, a mistake occurred in the first round.

The name written on this fake will was actually his, the King of Jin.

What is this? He wanted to frame someone, but he didn't know who had set him up.

Prince Jin still didn't believe it. He stood up suddenly and snatched the edict from Zhou Zheng.

When he found out that it was indeed his name, he looked at Zhou Zheng and asked, "Why is my name on it?"

Zhou Zheng rubbed his brows.

He didn't know why this happened. His eyes swept across everyone and finally stopped on Mr. Chen Sanye.

At that time, Mr. Chen San was also looking at him, with regret in his eyes, and an apology so faint that it could not be seen if one did not look carefully.

With just one glance, Zhou Zheng figured it out.

His mentor was treated as a mantis by his student Chen Zhihe, and Chen Zhihe was treated as a oriole.

"King Jin should not ask this old minister, but yourself."

Of course Zhou Zheng's sleeping at this time has nothing to do with Prince Jin. Not only will he fail to save Prince Jing, but he will also be implicated.

I hope this King of Jin has some brains.

But the King of Jin is not a smart man.

He couldn't hear it at all, thinking that Zhou Zheng was trying to put all the blame on him! In his opinion, wasn't this forcing him to die?

If Zhou Zheng had hesitated for a moment, he wouldn't have been so angry.

He immediately got furious, pointing at Zhou Zheng and cursing:

"Zhou Zhen, you are the governor of a dynasty, how can you be so selfish? You are as cowardly as a mouse. It was you who usurped my throne and stole the imperial edict. Now you are pushing all the responsibility onto me. You want to stay out of it? You are dreaming!"

Everyone: "..."

There's no need to review this, it's just a dog-eat-dog situation.

Zhou Zheng was speechless and sighed once again that the Li family was truly hopeless.

One or two of them are so stupid.

Don't you know how to make excuses? She's just a palace maid. It's easy to control her.

As long as you strike the right balance, you might be able to clear yourself of suspicion and even make the fake become real.

But he is just a fool who can't afford it.

It seems that he can be saved by confessing himself, but he is still involved and will die anyway.

Even Zhou Zheng, who was able to keep his composure, had a face as dark as the bottom of a pot, and said gloomily:

"Please be careful with your words, Your Majesty. I don't know what you are talking about. Even if you are a prince, you will be severely punished for slandering important officials in the court."

"I'm f**king dying. I'm afraid he'll punish me severely. You said I slandered you. Without you, would I have thought of something so complicated?

I tell you, this is what you thought of for me, so you must solve it for me, otherwise even if I die, I will drag your Zhou family to be buried with me."

Everyone looked at each other,

Is this something they can listen to?

Once again, I sighed, no matter what you do, you must find good teammates? A bad teammate is much more terrible than a strong opponent.

"I'm seriously ill." Zhou Zheng was very angry: "Bad luck."

He has been in the center of power all his life, and this is the first time he has met someone who is stupid but unaware of it and still thinks he is awesome.

The most important thing is that he chose it himself.

He lifted his robe and knelt in front of the eldest prince, begging: "Please look into this matter, eldest prince. I didn't know anything about what happened to His Royal Highness the Prince of Jin! Please give Old Chen justice!" As he spoke, he wiped away his tears, as if he was really wronged.

Before he finished speaking, a team of imperial guards hurried out of the room, holding a young eunuch in their hands.

"My Lord, just as Chen Cifu expected, someone has attempted to replace the will again."

Everyone was confused.

What's going on? Before I could finish one thing, I saw another.

Last time it was King Jin, so who is it this time?

"Could it be that this is another person arranged by Prince Jin and Prime Minister Zhou?" some ministers began to discuss.

"That's impossible. What's the point of sending them twice in a row? And it looks like they've obviously fallen out."

"Even if there was, they should have secretly notified and cancelled it just now!"

No one could figure out who had done this and why they had arranged to change the will when they knew something had happened.

Everyone looked at each other, hoping someone would give an answer.

At this time, the eldest prince walked up to Master Chen San and saluted him.

"Chen Cifu, please give us an answer."

Zhou Zheng's face became even darker, and he stared at Mr. Chen San.

Master Chen San smiled indifferently in response. He walked to the eldest prince and said, "Give me my will!"

The commander of the Imperial Guards immediately handed the real will in his hand to Master Chen San.

Master Chen San took it, but did not open it immediately. Instead, he looked at the young eunuch being escorted by the Imperial Guards and asked:

"Are you here to change the will or to tamper with it?"

"My little one..." The young eunuch trembled, too frightened to tell the truth.

Upon seeing this, the commander of the Imperial Guards immediately took out a box of cinnabar and a bottle of potion from his pocket and handed them over: "My Lords, this was found on the young eunuch."

The eldest prince took it and handed it to Master Chen San.

Master Chen San put some on his finger, put it under his nose and smelled it, then smiled at Zhou Zheng:

"This is cinnabar specially made for the will."

In order to prevent someone from forging a will, cinnabar is specially made.

Suddenly, everyone started arguing, and their eyes were once again focused on Prince Jin.

Prince Duan was the first to attack:

"Prince Jin, this is also your work! You are really thoughtful, but you could never have imagined that while the mantis stalks the cicada, the oriole is behind it!

You really deserve it if you want me to be your scapegoat. " He said as he took a bite.

Some people gloat over others’ misfortune:

"Prince Jin, if you want to fight for the throne, go ahead. Why do you want to drag Prince Duan down with you? Even if we want to drag Prince Duan down with us, it's difficult for us to give him to you..."

"that is…"

There was a fierce quarrel over there, while here Mr. Chen San and Zhou Zheng were looking at each other and walked into the Wenxuan Hall one after the other.

Zhou Zheng:

"Zhihe, how did you know that I had a back-up plan?" His voice calmed down, but it still carried the teacher's pride in his student's success.

"I don't know." Master Chen San answered truthfully, "But since the day I became your disciple, you have taught me a truth: the more impossible something is, the more likely it is; the more relaxed you are, the easier it is to accomplish something."

Zhou Zheng smiled, as if he was proud of the elder: "The teacher is very pleased. On the contrary, the teacher is getting older and older. He got anxious and made mistakes."

"Teacher, you chose the wrong person. If it wasn't Prince Qi, you wouldn't necessarily lose." Master Chen San hit the nail on the head and pointed out the key point.

"Ha ha ha ha……"

Zhou Zheng sat on the ground and laughed until tears came out of his eyes:

"Zhihe, you have also seen that, in addition to Prince Qi, there is another descendant of this family who can be of great use." His voice was full of helplessness, the helplessness of a dynasty's decline.

As a veteran of three dynasties, he had witnessed the heyday of the dynasty, but now in its last years, he had to watch the dynasty decline and was powerless to do anything. He felt helpless, powerless and even sad.

Mr. Chen San disagreed. He said:

"Although the eldest prince has no talent for saving the world, he is kind and honest, treats people with kindness, listens to others and employs people, so he should have no problem maintaining the status quo."

"I know what you said, and I admit that what you said is true, but you haven't seen it yet! In the past two years, there have been constant disasters, and the reputation has been everywhere. Taxes have increased every year, and corruption has continued every year. The five great talents in the court are available, and the barbarians are ready to make a move. This is the sign of the end of the dynasty." Zhou Zheng sighed: "And the eldest prince has less than ten years to live. Frequent changes in imperial power will only accelerate the demise of the Jin Dynasty."

Zhou Zheng’s words summed up the situation in the court.

Master Chen San was silent for a long time, so long that Zhou Zheng didn't know how to respond, so he heard a faint voice:

"In my lifetime, the Great Jin will not perish."

"What?" Zhou Zheng didn't hear clearly.

Mr. Chen San shook his head and didn't intend to answer.

At this time, a young eunuch came in from outside and reported:

"My Lord, the princes would like you to go out and announce my will."

At this point, the only thing left is to publish the will to determine which prince will inherit the throne? Only when the new emperor ascends the throne can he legitimately deal with the officials involved in the Jin Wang and Zhou Zhengyi party.

Master Chen San flicked the dust off his robe, stood up, and bowed to Zhou Zheng as a teacher and student:

"Please ask the teacher and students to go out together and read the will." He winked at the young eunuch.

"Okay." Zhou Zheng's eyes flashed. He did not refuse. With the help of the young eunuch, he stood up, followed Mr. Chen San, and walked out of the Wenxuan Hall.

In front of all the civil and military officials in the court, Master Chen San showed the sealed will in his hand to the princes and the eldest prince for inspection, and then handed it to Duke Zhou.

Prince Duan stopped him and said, "Master Chen, Zhou Zheng tampered with the will. Is it inappropriate to read it to him?"

Master Chen San raised his hand to stop Prince Duan from speaking:

"What happened before is what happened before. Now let's see if it's true or not. You have verified it. What's wrong with just reading it out through his mouth?" His attitude was very firm. He didn't give Prince Duan a chance to refute and said directly:

"Teacher, please read the will."

Zhou Zheng took the will from the King of Jin and stretched out his hand to open it.

The words of praise from the late emperor just before sounded like a fake imperial edict. Even when the prince's name was read, Zhou Zheng's eyes flinched.

Not hearing the name for a long time, everyone was confused, so they looked up at Zhou Zheng and asked in confusion: "Master Prime Minister, please read it quickly! Is the emperor the heir to the throne for the crown prince?"

Zhou Zheng turned a deaf ear to it, and when he came back to his senses from his shock, his eyes were filled with deep admiration.

He changed the name of the prince to Prince Qi at that time. It was because he received the news that Prince Qi was killed. A few days ago, he even lost face and postponed the reading of the will!

But, but…Now the word “emperor” written on the edict in his hand has once again become the eldest prince Li Zhao.

This student of his discovered his motive just after returning to Beijing, before anything happened, and had successfully endured until now, thus outwitting him.

He suddenly felt that it was not so difficult to accept his own arrest, and he also agreed with what Zhang Lianci had said to him before his death, that he would die at the hands of his own students.