Nine dragons fight for the throne, I don't want to sit on this throne

The ambergris in the Weiyang Palace was so strong that it was choking. Zou Huaian knelt down at the nine jade steps, listening to his heartbeat and the dripping sound of the copper clock gradually overlapping.

In the shadow cast by the gilded coiled dragon pillar, one could see the gold-embroidered Chiwen on Liu Che's black dragon robe with its bloody mouth wide open.

"What a loyal and courageous Minister of Rites!"

Liu Che suddenly grabbed the green jade paperweight on the table and smashed it down, breaking it three inches in front of Zou Huaian's knee. The flying jade fragments scratched his cheek, leaving a streak of blood.

"I asked you to delay for three days, but you couldn't even hold on for twelve hours!"

Zou Huaian touched the ground with his forehead, cold sweat soaking his peacock patch: "I deserve to die! It's really that Gu Siyuan..."

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of Deng Hongwen standing in the shadow of the corner of the hall, the patterns of river cliffs and sea water on his python robe undulating in the breeze.

"The quack doctor was caught by the Chu people with irrefutable evidence of corruption, and he actually revealed the whole story of Your Majesty pretending to be sick..."

"What a great way to tell it all!"

Liu Che laughed in anger, and when he stood up, the jade belt around his waist hit the imperial desk with a bang.

He suddenly remembered the fawning look of Gu Siyuan holding the ginseng soup in the martial arts arena three days ago. Why did he believe this money-hungry rubbish at that time?

Deng Hongwen took a half step forward at the right time, and the jade scepter turned a beautiful arc in his palm: "Your Majesty, I am Deng Hongwen, your majesty, and I wish you good health."

He deliberately emphasized the words "Saint Ann" and when he raised his eyes he met Liu Che's sinister gaze.

Liu Che stared at this Chu minister and suddenly remembered the white-browed tiger he encountered during the autumn hunt last year.

The beast's front paws were on the ground in a submissive manner, but its tail was stretched like an iron rod in the grass - just like Deng Hongwen's drooping eyebrows at this moment, with poisonous fangs hidden under his warm skin.

"If you have something to say, just say it."

Liu Che sat down again, tapping the armrests of the dragon throne with his fingertips from time to time. The muffled sound of the golden nanmu wood sounded like the beat of a drum urging people to fight.

"Wei State Sima Yi has annexed the seven counties of Yanzhou, and his cavalry is only 300 miles away from the Yanmen Pass of the Han Dynasty."

Deng Hongwen pulled out a sheepskin map from his sleeve: "This is the defense map I just drew last month. Your Majesty, please take a look..."

"Little Chu Ning is quite good at calculating."

Liu Che suddenly interrupted with a sneer: "You and the Empress of Zhou are flirting with each other to resist Qin, but you are afraid that I will help Qin to cut off your retreat, so you are anxious to let me deal with Sima Yi - do you think I am a pawn of you Chu people?"

The candlelight in the hall flickered suddenly. Deng Hongwen's smile remained unchanged, but the knuckles holding the jade scepter had turned white.

He could hear the sound of the armor of the Yulin Guards colliding outside the palace, which was very similar to the ambush that the Chu army encountered in the valley of Wei State that day. The Han army should have surrounded them at noon, but did not arrive until sunset.

"Why were your Chu army three hours late for the meeting in Qingzhou last year?"

Liu Che suddenly leaned forward, his wide black sleeves sweeping off the memorial on the desk: "Because you have been secretly colluding with Sima Yi! Using the lives of tens of thousands of my soldiers in exchange for the entire county of Yanzhou, what a good deal!"

Deng Hongwen took a deep breath, and the bronze crane lamps on the four corners of the Zichen Hall emitted wisps of green smoke, which flickered on Liu Che's ferocious face.

He suddenly noticed a jade-carved chariot on the left side of the imperial desk, with cinnabar on the wheel hub - it was a symbol that Liu Che smashed with his own hands on the day the Han army was defeated.

"Chu is willing to return Yanzhou."

Deng Hongwen suddenly spoke. He saw Zou Huaian suddenly look up, and Liu Che's fingertips that were tapping the armrest also stopped in mid-air.

In the dead silence, the iron horses on the eaves made a clanging sound.

Liu Che's Adam's apple rolled as he thought of the profits from Yanzhou's salt and iron, and of the Han men who had died in battle at the border town of Wei.

Yanzhou was Sima Yi's retreat route. If the Han army could capture this state, Sima Yi would be sandwiched in the middle.

By concentrating our forces in the future, we can capture the three states occupied by Sima Yi in one fell swoop.

By then, the Han army will occupy most of Wei.

It seems that Chu Ning is really willing to spend money to deal with the State of Qin this time.

However, these alone were not enough to impress him.

He wants to make Chu Ning feel pain!

But he quickly suppressed the fluctuations in his eyes and picked up the jade chariot to play with it: "Add another 500 hundred-forged steel crossbows and 3 million dan of military rations."

"You're kidding." Deng Hongwen's fingertips dug into his palms: "Hundred-fold steelmaking is a secret technique of the Chu State..."

"Then take your map and get out of Chang'an!"

Liu Che suddenly jumped up, and the jade chariot flew past Deng Hongwen's ear and smashed into pieces on the Panlong Pillar.

Amidst the flying jade chips, he saw Chu Chen's expression finally changed.

Deng Hongwen slowly squatted down and picked up a piece of broken jade. The jade was stained with cinnabar, which looked like solidified blood.

"The outside minister needs to consult His Royal Highness the Crown Prince."

He put the broken jade into his sleeve, and when he raised his eyes, he had regained his composure: "But Your Majesty, do you know that Sima Yi got a batch of fine horses from the Western Regions last month?"

Liu Che's pupils suddenly shrank.

Of course, he knew about those Ferghana horses that could travel eight hundred miles a day, and he knew what it meant to have the Wei cavalry equipped with such divine horses.

The hands under the imperial desk clenched into fists, but a sneer appeared on his face: "Are you threatening me?"

"Foreign ministers don't dare."

Deng Hongwen bowed and retreated to the palace gate, then suddenly turned around and said, "I just remembered that your majesty once gave his beloved Zhao Yebai to the Wei Kingdom as a hostage in order to seize the throne..."

"roll!"

Liu Che's roar caused the dust on the beam to fall off. It was not until Chu Chen's dragon robe disappeared at the end of the palace road that he realized that his palm had been pierced by the jade carving fragments and was bleeding.

After Deng Hongwen left, Liu Che turned around and looked at the Minister of Rites who was hunched over and dared not speak.

"Lord Zou, you've ruined my good plan!"

The cold voice, with a hint of murderous intent, echoed in the hall.

Zou Huaian's heart trembled, and he knelt on the ground again, begging: "Your Majesty, it is not that I am incompetent, it is really that Deng Hongwen is too difficult to deal with.

In addition, the imperial physician Gu Siyuan was caught with evidence, which forced me to agree to introduce Deng Hongwen."

"is it?"

Liu Che looked down at him and said as he walked towards him, "Since Deng Hongwen can find out that the imperial physician was corrupt, can he also find out that you, Lord Zou, were corrupt?"

This sentence was like thunder, frightening Zou Huaian so much that he kept kowtowed and shouted: "Your Majesty, I have never done anything to let down the Han Dynasty. Your Majesty, please understand!"

Liu Che said nothing, but stared at him with eyes that became increasingly cold.

Finally, he raised his sleeves and said with a cold voice: "Come here, confiscate the property of the imperial physician Gu Siyuan and exterminate his clan!"

"As for you, Lord Zou, keep him for now. If Chu Ning agrees to my request, it will be fine. Otherwise, your fate will not be any better than Gu Siyuan's."

Zou Huaian was shocked and fell down in the hall, limp as mud.

……

At midnight in the inn, Deng Hongwen looked at the broken jade in the candlelight.

The blood thread in the jade was like a pass on a map. He suddenly dipped the ink in cinnabar and wrote on the letter paper:

"The Han Emperor has taken the bait, but his demands are huge. He is only allowed 300 steel crossbows and a maximum of 1 million dan of grain and fodder.

Another: Liu Che has some old things from the Wei Kingdom, and he is suspected to have some connection with Sima Yi...”

Suddenly, a night owl cried outside the window. He blew out the candle and ordered someone to deliver the letter to Chu Ning immediately.

Chu Ning, who was far away in the capital city of Chu State, would not know that this seemingly humiliating night was the first crack that would change the situation in the world.