Chapter 656

"This strategy is not bad..."

Prince Tai's eyes lit up: "Could it be that tonight the Crown Prince is like a dog jumping over a wall in desperation? Then I would really laugh to death..."

He almost didn't hesitate and wanted to choose the middle strategy: "We will not move first. Also... immediately send people out to inquire about news; palace news is also needed, at all costs!"

"Yes!"

Mr. Wu sighed in his heart and was about to go out when he heard Prince Tai ask: "What about the lower strategy?"

"The lower strategy, naturally, is to raise all the mansion troops, ambush at the palace gate, surround and kill the Crown Prince, and then take advantage of the situation to force the palace..."

Mr. Wu sighed.

Prince Tai shook his head like a rattle: "My mansion troops are even fewer than the Donggong Guard. Besides, they might not dare to surround and attack the Crown Prince... Even if we kill the Crown Prince, we absolutely wouldn't dare to attack the imperial palace... In the end, it would only benefit Prince Kang and the others..."

'If His Majesty were still here, with the majesty of the founding Emperor, naturally whoever rebelled would die... But if he has already passed away, attacking the imperial palace, with the help of the Imperial Concubine, there is still a glimmer of hope.'

Mr. Wu added in his heart, but didn't say much more, looked deeply at Prince Tai, bowed, and left.

Imperial Palace.

Shenwu Gate.

This gate was several zhang high, towering and tall, and there were Imperial Guards stationed above the city gate.

For attacking a city, ten surround one; with several thousand defending the city, even tens of thousands might not be able to take it.

Fang Xing observed silently and knew that with his light-body technique, he could barely flip over, but apart from himself, no one else could.

'Mainly stationing here, scattering some in the other gates of the palace will do; they can't stop me...'

He stopped the ceremonial guard and let Eunuch Su go to call the gate.

Such core palace gate guards were certainly the Emperor's confidants among confidants and would not be loyal to anyone else, especially the Crown Prince or the various princes!

In normal times, even with ten thousand people, it would be difficult to take it.

Not to mention, where would ten thousand soldiers be hidden in the capital?

I fear that before half a day had passed, the Forbidden Army stationed in the suburbs would have come to suppress the rebellion.

Fang Xing was here to follow the regular procedures, so he appeared very calm and let Eunuch Su go to negotiate.

The Shenwu Gate guard, named 'Kou Feng', was a great general, deeply favored by the Emperor, and even regretted that it was not a chaotic world, otherwise he would certainly be a famous commander.

He was naturally loyal to the Emperor, but now that he roughly knew what had happened in the imperial palace, he could only be loyal to whoever was in the Emperor's position.

Eunuch Su came over with the Empress Dowager's edict and the golden talisman arrow; he didn't hesitate for long and immediately ordered: "Open the gate!"

Clatter!

The sound of scale armor dragging on the ground rang out, and two hundred Donggong Guards, surrounding the Crown Prince, entered the Shenwu Gate.

"Zhao Hu, you take two squads and remain to guard this gate."

Fang Xing walked into the Shenwu Gate and directly gave the order.

"This..."

Kou Feng's eyes suddenly deepened.

"Yes!"

Zhao Hu responded loudly and urged the Donggong Guards one by one to go up to the Shenwu Gate to station.

"Eunuch Su, let's go!"

Fang Xing looked at Eunuch Su.

"Yes, Your Highness, please."

Eunuch Su's waist bent a few more inches. Even if the Crown Prince guessed something, he actually dared to directly intervene in the palace defense; this move was truly accurate, fast, ruthless, and poisonous.

The key is... indeed no one could stop him.

Even after tonight passed, it would be the general trend.

'Not forgetting to guard against a move even at this time, truly cautious.'

Kou Feng was convinced, looking towards the inner palace, his tiger eyes filled with tears, and he said to himself: "Your Majesty... there is a successor."

The nine-layered palace opened one after another.

Fang Xing left some guards at every gate as usual. By the time he reached the Emperor's sleeping palace, besides a few eunuchs and palace maids, there was not a single armored soldier around him.

"This..."

Eunuch Su was stunned when he saw this scene.

If one says this person is open and aboveboard, why bother setting up guards along the way, but when arriving here, why disregard his own safety?

'Father and son not doubting each other, difficult... but the Crown Prince is truly purely filial.'

Eunuch Su brought Fang Xing into the Emperor's sleeping palace and saw many imperial physicians kneeling on the ground.

Beside them was an old woman with silver hair, naturally the Empress Dowager.

"Imperial Grandmother."

Fang Xing stepped forward and called out softly.

This Imperial Grandmother seemed to have just cried, her eye sockets were red. Seeing Fang Xing, her voice was dry: "Crown Prince... your Father Emperor suddenly had a heart attack tonight and has already passed away. The ministers of the Cabinet are all on their way. You must have a sense of proportion in your heart now."

"Father Emperor?!"

Fang Xing walked into the hall and immediately wept.

The reason he didn't bring armored soldiers was naturally because he had absolute confidence in his own strength.

Furthermore, breaking into the Emperor's sleeping palace with armored soldiers didn't sound good either.

Now that he was already the winner, naturally he had to be graceful and consider the influence.

Not long after, the ministers of the Cabinet arrived, all weeping.

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty..."

The Prime Minister of the Cabinet was named Yuan Zhao, who was the chief strategist when the Emperor first raised his army. Seeing the Emperor pass away, tears immediately streamed down his face.

At this moment, regardless of how they doubted in their hearts, at least on the surface, they were all weeping. Next were the Second Minister Gao Yang, Minister of Personnel Sun Qiming, and others.

"You are all important ministers of the imperial court. My heart is now torn like a knife, so I won't say much. My son suddenly had a sudden illness and passed away. Now the major affairs of the country are in your hands. Yuan Zhao, what do you say?"

The Empress Dowager looked at the Prime Minister.

The Great Zheng Qian established a Cabinet to divide the power of the Prime Minister of the previous dynasty, but the Prime Minister was still in a high and powerful position.

Yuan Zhao had the bearing of a great minister and was already sixty-seven years old. His turbid old eyes swept across the main hall, and he saw the Crown Prince's face full of grief, while a noble woman beside the Empress Dowager had a nervous expression.

He sighed in his heart, knowing that the overall situation must be the priority at this moment, otherwise the common people would suffer: "Does His Majesty have a last edict?"

"None."

The Imperial Concubine beside the Empress Dowager struggled slightly in her heart, but there was nothing she could do.

It's not that just writing an imperial edict is called a last edict. A real edict has requirements for format, paper, and the scribe.

After writing, it must be stamped, then two copies made, and filed...

It is very difficult to forge, unless it is a blood letter or a sash edict written by the Emperor himself, but the Emperor fell too quickly and there was no time.

!

At this time, wanting to forge one is just seeking death.

Unless the Emperor had issued a last edict before to change the Crown Prince, otherwise, with the Crown Prince succeeding to the throne, no one could stop it.

Even if there were a last edict before, now that the Crown Prince had not been deposed, it might be the beginning of the empire's division and civil war.

Yuan Zhao heard this, relaxed in his heart, and bowed to Fang Xing again: "Since this is the case, I ask the Crown Prince to succeed to the throne before the spirit, inheriting the Great Zheng Qian's mountains and rivers..."

"I... sigh, my heart is in chaos now..."

Fang Xing declined a few more times, and under the persuasion of the Empress Dowager and the ministers, he barely accepted the ministers' worship.

It was late at night, so Fang Xing first asked the Empress Dowager to rest and summoned a few important ministers himself.

"Prime Minister, Second Minister, ministers... you are all the pillars of my Great Zheng Qian. Now for this major matter, we need to decide on the procedures first..."

Fang Xing spoke and then looked at Yuan Zhao.

These were procedures, so Yuan Zhao naturally said: "This is as it should be. First is the morning court meeting tomorrow. We should ask the Empress Dowager to attend the court to announce the news of the Emperor's passing, and then the Crown Prince will accept the worship of the hundred officials to establish the name and status... According to filial piety, when a father dies, the son observes mourning for three years. The Son of Heaven can use days to replace years, or days to replace months..."

"What virtue and ability do I have to dare to use days to replace years like the ancient sage kings? Let's use days to replace months..."

Fang Xing waved his hand.

Yuan Zhao was stunned: "Since this is the case, then observe mourning for thirty-six days, and then formally ascend the throne as Emperor..."

"Hmm, leave these matters to you all."

Fang Xing thought for a moment and said: "Father Emperor was wise and heroic; he should be posthumously titled with the word 'Wu', as Taizu Wu Emperor... As for my reign title, let's call it 'Emperor Longchang'. No need to change it this year; wait until next year to change the reign title..."

After the chaos, the ministers walked out of the main hall, and the sky was already bright.

Yuan Zhao looked troubled and saw the Second Minister Gao Yang walking over.

The two looked and found that the guards were standing very far away, so they greeted each other.

"Prime Minister, you still need to take care of your health; there's morning court in half an hour..."

"Shou Kang..." Prime Minister Yuan Zhao called Gao Yang's courtesy name, hesitating to speak.

The two looked at each other and shook their heads implicitly.

After exchanging a few pieces of information, Gao Yang said goodbye and left.

Yuan Zhao, however, relaxed in his heart: 'The Crown Prince arrived only a moment earlier than us... And he doesn't have that strength, nor is it possible to bribe the entire Imperial Hospital. Looking at it this way, His Majesty... has his heavenly lifespan truly arrived?'

Thinking of this, two lines of clear tears flowed down again: 'Your Majesty... Your Majesty...'

Inside the side hall.

Fang Xing was eating a few pieces of pastry.

These meals were very exquisite and fragrant, but there were no soups or other things, obviously considered very carefully, allowing him to be full and energetic, without being embarrassed during his first appearance in the imperial court.

'The overall situation is settled.'

In Fang Xing's heart, he sighed silently.

'But what follows is the key!'

'Although what I took over is not a mess, there are hidden dangers...'

'The world has not been settled for long, the people are still unsettled, the dukes and nobles are holding together, the civil officials are growing...'

'In the inner palace, it's hard to say about the Empress Dowager, but those imperial concubines are none of them easy to deal with...'

Regardless of who the Empress Dowager supports, it does not hinder her own status. Summoning the Crown Prince is just to support the orthodoxy according to habit and stabilize the overall situation.

To say how close they are, it's not necessarily so. If the new Emperor offends the Empress Dowager's interests in the future, there will be more suffering.

'The most critical thing is, who is my friend? Oh, the Emperor has no friends...'

Fang Xing thought silently. The Emperor is the largest landlord in the country; his butt seems to be sitting at the landlord's table?

However, the Emperor is also equivalent to the largest slave owner in the world. All the people in the world are his slaves, so he needs to let the slaves be fed and clothed, and be able to live?

At the very least, slaves as the slave owner's property cannot be damaged too much.

'The most important thing is that I don't have the majesty of the founding Emperor, and I can't suppress the proud soldiers and fierce generals who came out of the sea of corpses and blood in the chaotic world, or the civil officials and poisonous strategists...'

'If one thinks that after becoming Emperor, one can kill whoever one wants and do whatever one wants, that is purely wishful thinking...'

'The tragic thing is, with the current literacy rate, my ruling foundation is that group of scholar-officials...'

'However, there is a good side. The dynasty has just been founded, too many people died in the world, and the cake is very big...'

'As long as taxes are light and corvee is light, large landlords are restricted, small landlords and self-cultivating farmers are supported, and the people are treated a bit more leniently, governing by doing nothing, the population and taxes will naturally grow. Perhaps I can even get an evaluation of "Emperor Longchang Prosperous Age" in future history books?'

Just as Fang Xing was thinking, a light voice sounded outside.

(End of chapter)