Chapter 385: The Duke Is in a State of Trouble

In Jinling City, in the Duke's Mansion.

It was already late at night, and the study room of the Duke's Mansion was still brightly lit.

Looking in from outside the study, under the illumination of candlelight, a tall and majestic figure kept pacing back and forth in the study, looking a little anxious.

The tall figure reflected in the candlelight outside the study is none other than Chang Yuchun, Duke of Wei, the first of the six founding princes of the Tang Dynasty.

Originally, at this usual time, Wei Guogong Chang Yuchun was already lying on the bed to rest.

In fact, today is no exception.

However, an urgent military intelligence report from the soldiers on duty on the wall of Jinling City instantly woke up Wei Guogong Chang Yuchun from his sleep, and he suddenly lost all sleep.

Qianhu, who was on duty, came to report. At midnight, Zhongyi Hou Xiaopo, who had held the Jinwu Guards command token, personally escorted a group of people into Jinling City at night and went straight to the palace.

Although, the soldiers guarding the city gate were not sure whether Emperor Zhaowu Chen Huaian was among this group of people.

But isn’t this an obvious thing about lice on a bald man’s head?

Everyone in the court and outside the court knew that Xiao Po, the commander of the Jinwu Guards, was the emperor's personal bodyguard commander and was responsible for protecting the emperor's safety at all times.

Now that Xiao Podu has returned to Jinling City, how could the emperor not return to the capital?

The key point is that the emperor returned to Beijing quietly late this night, without even communicating with Chang Yuchun, Duke of Wei, who was acting as prime minister in governing the country, in advance and asking him to meet him outside the city.

The news that Chang Yuchun learned was that the emperor was inspecting matters related to moving the capital to Chang'an and building a new palace in Chang'an Mansion.

Even so, the reason why the Emperor rushed back to the capital non-stop during the starry night was because the Empress and the Imperial Concubine were about to give birth. It was not a difficult task to calm down with him and say hello to pick him up outside the city. The capital and the Chang'an Mansion, but there are eight hundred miles of urgent travel every day.

Therefore, in Chang Yuchun's view, it was a bit thought-provoking that the emperor returned to Beijing early but did not notify him to pick him up!

As the saying goes, being with a king is like being with a tiger. Every step you take is like walking on thin ice!

Therefore, when Chang Yuchun heard the news that the emperor had returned to Beijing late at night, he immediately got up from the bed without any drowsiness, threw on a coat and hurried to the study;

In an absolutely quiet environment, a person began to recall whether there was any violation of etiquette and law in the state affairs he had handled since the emperor left Beijing and took over as acting prime minister to govern the country.

After thinking about it, Chang Yuchun finally listed three major things that he thought might cause problems during the past six months when he was sitting in Jinling City as acting prime minister and governing the country.

First, in the "tea and horse smuggling case in four provinces and eight prefectures" headed by Wu Yibo and Liu Ziyu, because of his indecision, he gave Su Chen and Jiang Ning, the governors of Liangjiang and Lianghu, an opportunity to seize the opportunity in Suzhou Prefecture. Raise troops and cause chaos;

Of course, the rebellion of these two men was nipped in the cradle by Chang Yuchun, who had been prepared before it even started. It did not have any substantial impact on the rule of the Tang Dynasty;

Moreover, he immediately reported the matter to Emperor Zhaowu Chen Huaian during the Western Expedition. The latter also approved that according to the relevant provisions of the "Datang Code", Su Chen and Jiang Ning, the governors of the two rivers and two lakes, and their nine dependents would be severely punished according to the law. , including all those involved in the "tea and horse smuggling case", have been arrested in accordance with the law on the order of Chang Yuchun, and are being detained in the prison of the Ministry of Punishment, awaiting sentencing;

There should be nothing wrong with your handling of this matter, right?

In the study, Chang Yuchun looked solemnly through the files of the "Tea-Horse Smuggling Case", as well as his memorial to the emperor and his comments on it. He nodded to himself, and then shook his head.

The next moment, after closing the file, Chang Yuchun suddenly remembered that it was because there had been a lot of rumors in the government and the public recently that the emperor wanted to make the imperial concubine Yue Qiluo the Queen of the Western Regions, inheriting the legacy of his father, the heroic Khan Mo What about the title left by Yan Chui?

"It shouldn't be either!"

Chang Yuchun murmured to himself: "This matter is just a matter of speculation. Even though the emperor issued an edict in the Uighur Khanate, he named Yingwu Khan Mo Yanshu the Western King of the Tang Dynasty and allowed his descendants to Inherit the title;"

"However, after all, this matter was not brought up for discussion and conclusion in the name of the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty by the imperial court of the Tang Dynasty. Just relying on this gossip is probably not enough to make the emperor non-stop to rebel against Beijing late at night! "

"Besides, it's not like we didn't report this matter to the Emperor. No matter how much we deal with this matter, it's not our prince's turn!"

Eh——

As he said that, Chang Yuchun sighed and felt as if his head was about to explode!

If I had known this, I should not have taken the initiative to hand over the military power when the emperor ascended the throne, saying that he wanted to let Ma Nanshan go and be idle at home!

If he had not handed over military power at the beginning, then he should have been leading troops to conquer Goguryeo, or following the emperor and leading his troops to the north to quell the rebellion in Youyun. If not, he could have at least been working as a supervisor in Chang'an Mansion, right?

None of the above things is a bad job, and all of them are much easier than sitting in Jinling City and governing the country on behalf of the prime minister.

"Hey, you said there are so many capable people in this capital, why did the emperor just let a rough guy like me run the country on his behalf as prime minister!"

"I'm fine now. I don't know where I went wrong. I have a headache!"

Chang Yuchun "regretted it". Compared with governing the country, he, who was born as a military general, would rather fight on horseback and on the battlefield to make contributions for the emperor and the Tang Dynasty.

He was not a meticulous person, but he was asked to do the work of governing the country. Isn't this forcing Zhang Fei to embroider?

Chang Yuchun made himself a pot of hot tea. While drinking tea, he continued to look through the files in the room, hoping to find something useful.

It was not to prepare for "deceiving the emperor and offending the superiors", but to at least know something when the emperor asked.

As he turned the pages, Chang Yuchun's eyes suddenly stagnated, and his mind suddenly became clear, as if he remembered something.

This was a memorial submitted by the Ministry of Justice a few days ago, asking for his opinion on whether to severely punish the rebellious northern student Yu Siqian.

The opinion of the Ministry of Justice was that there was solid evidence that Yu Siqian had made treasonous remarks in his examination papers, and that he had criticized the emperor after getting drunk and spread the saying that the Tang Dynasty only controlled half of the country, and he should be executed according to the law.

Chang Yuchun did not reply to the Ministry of Justice immediately about this matter.

In his opinion, the emperor attached more importance to the first imperial examination of the new dynasty than to the suppression of the rebellion in the Western Regions.

Therefore, Chang Yuchun believed that this matter could not be handled arbitrarily.

Thinking of this, Chang Yuchun suddenly slapped his head, hurriedly opened the door of the study, and shouted to the outside: "Xiao Guo, prepare the horse, go to the prison of the Ministry of Justice!"