Chapter 223 The Battle for the Right to Inherit the Throne

The prince and the third prince were also confused when faced with this sudden change. It was okay for the prince, after all, he was the orthodox first heir, and one more fifth prince could not shake his position.

The third prince was different. Before, he only had to deal with the prince. If the fifth prince also showed up, the competitive pressure he would face would be even greater.

What made the third prince even more alarmed was that Emperor Wen pushed the fifth prince out, indicating that he was already afraid of him.

For a prince, being suspected by the emperor would undoubtedly be fatal. Originally, the third prince planned to give the fifth prince a stumbling block, but after he figured out the stakes, he had no choice but to give up.

Even so, when the fifth prince, who had always had little presence in the court, received this task, he felt like a dog biting a hedgehog, unable to bite it.

Just when the fifth prince was troubled, someone suddenly announced that the eldest son of the second eldest son of the Lou family wanted to see him.

"Lou Ben? What is he doing here?" The fifth prince remembered that the Lou family were loyal supporters of the prince.

Soon Lou Ben was taken to the front hall.

"Meet the fifth prince." Lou Ben saluted respectfully after entering the door.

This made the fifth prince have a good impression of him. As a prince with no sense of existence, it was common for him to be despised. Even he himself was used to it. Occasionally being respected by others, the feeling was completely different.

"Mr. Lou, no courtesy, please take a seat."

"Thank you, Your Highness."

After sitting down, the fifth prince asked, "Mr. Lou, what advice does your highness have when you come here?"

A trace of anger flashed in Lou Ben's eyes. Due to Taifu Lou's suppression, outsiders only knew the Lou family's main house, and his personal will seemed to represent the position of the entire Lou family.

"Your Highness, Lou Ben is here to represent not the first room of the Lou family, but the second room of the Lou family." Lou Ben stood up and saluted again.

A flash of joy flashed in the fifth prince's eyes, and then disappeared: "In this case, I'm afraid Mr. Lou will be disappointed. My qualifications are dull, I am just an idle prince, and I am not interested in government affairs."

Years of forbearance had made the fifth prince habitually hide himself. He knew very well that once he showed his intention to seize the heir, he would inevitably be suppressed by the crown prince and the third prince.

Lou Ben said with a serious face: "It's all done by Your Majesty, so why should Your Highness belittle yourself? Since Your Majesty has entrusted such important matters as coinage reform to Your Highness, how do you know that Your Majesty has no intention of supporting His Highness?"

The fifth prince said in an impatient tone: "If this is what Mr. Lou wants to say when you come here this time, please come back."

Lou Ben did not try to persuade him any more, but took out a bamboo slip from his sleeve and held it in front of the fifth prince.

The fifth prince hesitated for a moment and then took it.

After a long time, the fifth prince closed the bamboo slip and asked doubtfully: "Sir, you are so talented, why don't you offer this plan to your majesty?"

Lou Ben replied 1510: "Taifu Lou is a villain uncle. He has always suppressed the second brother. There has been an unwritten rule in the court that members of the same clan cannot serve as important ministers together in the court. The second brother of the Qin family If the young master is so amazing and talented, wouldn’t he just go to Taiyuan University to become a doctor?”

The fifth prince nodded secretly, not because he believed Lou Ben's words, but because he knew the weight of the bamboo slip in his hand very well. If Lou Ben was really the prince or the third prince, he would never give him such a piece. A generous gift.

"Sir, would you like to help me?" The fifth prince helped Lou Ben up.

Lou Ben bowed and said, "I have my wish, but I don't dare to ask my ears."

"Haha." While the fifth prince laughed, there was a flash of fear in his eyes. The throne that seemed extremely far away from him seemed to be closer.

Lou Ben saw the actions of the fifth prince in his eyes. Human ambition is like a weed. Once it is given a chance to survive, it will grow wantonly and get out of control.

Next, Lou Ben chatted with the fifth prince until the evening, before the fifth prince drove him back to Lou Ben's house in his own car. During this period, they talked about some details of the coinage reform.

During this process, the fifth prince had a deeper understanding of Lou Ben's abilities, and was secretly happy that he could use such a powerful force from the sky. Lou Ben also discovered that the fifth prince's previous playfulness and absurdity were all fake, and thought to himself No wonder Qin Hao chose the fifth prince.

At the same time, both of them were suppressed because of their birth, and a feeling of sympathy and sympathy arose during the conversation.

But just at the door of Lou's mansion, Taifu Lou warned Lou Ben again, asking him not to take part in the prince's heir apparent, so as not to bring disaster to the Lou family.

Lou Ben unconsciously clenched his fists and made up his mind to help the fifth prince ascend the throne. When the time comes, he will also let the big family member of the Lou family taste what it feels like to be stepped on!

Many people in the court were waiting to see the fifth prince's joke. After all, the fifth prince's reputation was not very good. If such a playboy was allowed to implement such a major reform, there would be big trouble if trouble occurred.

However, to everyone's surprise, the fifth prince quickly came up with a "feasibility plan", the content of which naturally came from Qin Hao's bamboo slips.

Generally speaking, there are actually two measures. One measure is to increase the proportion of copper in the five-baht coins, so that those bad coins have nowhere to hide. The other measure is to cancel the "clay model method" when minting coins and use "Sand casting method".

The so-called "clay mold method" is also the current mainstream coinage method. It is to first make a template on a clay pottery, then pour it into it, and finally break the clay mold and take out the copper coins inside.

The main problem with this coinage method is that it is too slow and takes a long time to make one, which also leads to high coinage costs.

The "sand casting method" first makes the "mother money", and then pours the molten metal into a sand box made of sand. In the sand box is a template printed by the "mother money", and waits for the metal solution to cool. , you can get the money.

The advantage of the "sand casting method" is that there is no need to fire clay pottery, and the "sand box" can be used repeatedly, which greatly improves the efficiency of coinage and saves costs.

After reading the memorial of the fifth prince, Emperor Wen felt very surprised. He even asked someone to try out the actual effect of this method, and found that it was indeed much less troublesome than the current casting method.

"Haha, I didn't expect that you gave me a surprise." Emperor Wen gave a rare compliment to the fifth prince.

The fifth prince still had a harmless smile: "Actually, this method was not thought up by my son, but by Lou Ben, the eldest son of the second eldest son of the Lou family."

Emperor Wen was even more satisfied with his humility: "Well, this Lou Ben seems to be a talent. It's a pity. You have to make good use of him for me, and don't let the talent be buried."

"promise."

With Emperor Wen's protection, the fifth prince's coinage reform went very smoothly, and the fifth prince also relied on this matter to create a sense of presence in the court.

Of course, due to his background, not many people came to serve him. The fifth prince didn't take it seriously. He knew very well that now was not the time to show off.

During this time, Qin Hao was preparing for his son's first birthday party. The little boy was finally turning one year old and could call him daddy and grandma. Of course, he was even more naughty.

Although walking is still very strenuous, he can already crawl around. Ever since he unlocked this skill, the little guy has been restless. He has rubbed all the floors at home until they were shiny, giving Cheng Shaoshang a headache. He has to do it every day. Have the servants mop the floor spotless.

As the direct grandson of the Qin family, this first-year banquet was held very grandly. Not only relatives from all the Qin family came, but also some aristocratic families sent congratulatory gifts.

Ling Buyi also sent someone to send a congratulatory gift, and Cheng Shaoshang had someone throw it away in the utility room. She still remembered what happened that day.

The crown prince and his concubine came to congratulate each other in person, which was the climax of the first-year banquet. To outsiders, the Qin family seemed to be full of flowers, but the atmosphere soon became strange due to the arrival of the third prince.

The third prince acted as if nothing was wrong and said words of congratulations.

However, Qin Hao didn't even have the slightest smile on his face. He just said perfunctorily: "Third Prince, please come in. There are too many guests today, so we didn't greet them well."

The guard next to the third prince was about to scold him, but Qin Hao stared at him coldly, then turned around to greet other guests with disdain.

"Third Prince, how dare this person be so rude."

The third prince glanced at him, looked at Qin Hao's back and sneered: "We'll see!"

In the middle of the banquet, when the prince and the third prince were about to leave, Qin Hao suddenly said: "Your Highness, can you take a moment to speak?"

As he said that, he glanced at the third prince specifically.

The third prince tightened his hands and stared at Qin Hao deeply for a while before leaving.

Although the prince was a little confused, he still followed Qin Hao to the backyard.

Qin Hao got straight to the point: "Your Highness, you must be on guard against others, especially those whom you trust so much."

"What do you mean by Zihan's words?" The prince was a little confused by the meaningless words.

Qin Hao just bowed his hands to him and left.

After the prince returned to the East Palace, the more he thought about it, the more he felt something was wrong. In the past, he had always felt that Qin Hao was closer to the third prince, but recently Qin Hao seemed to have become more distant from the third prince. Especially today, the third prince actually got involved. Can't get off stage.

"Is the Qin family planning to turn to me?" The prince was secretly happy.

"Is it the Lou family? Or who?" The prince began to think about who among the people around him was most likely to betray him, but he did not think about Ling Buji. After all, he had "life-saving grace" for Ling Buji back then.

However, the prince did not know that his "life-saving grace" from Ling Buyi was just a misunderstanding. Ling Buyi had just learned to enter the water and was practicing holding his breath. The prince mistakenly thought that Ling Buyi was drowning and dragged him up. Instead, three The prince was a real life-saving benefactor to Ling Buyi.

Turning around, Mrs. Lou came to see the prince. He found that the prince looked at him in a strange way, which made him take care of his appearance several times, but he didn't find anything wrong.

The prince did not tell Taifu Lou what Qin Hao said, he just fooled him casually. Although he had a gentle personality and soft ears, he was not a fool.

The prince was suspicious, but he didn't suspect the key point, but the third prince had already started to take action.

The prince actually has a confidante named Qu Lingjun, who only married the prince because he had to abide by his marriage contract with the prince.

Qu Lingjun, on the other hand, married into the Liang family, the natal family of Yuan Shen's mother.

The princess always sent people to the Liang family to give some things belonging to the prince, which made Qu Lingjun's husband suspect that he was a cuckold and often violently abused Qu Lingjun.

Suddenly one day, the Liang family reported a crime, saying that Qu Lingjun murdered her husband. Yuan Shen was working in Tingwei Mansion at that time, and it happened to be his turn to take charge of the case, so he took someone to bring Qu Lingjun back to Tingwei Mansion for interrogation. .

However, Liang's mother refused to let him go, and kept saying that she wanted Qu Lingjun to pay for his life. Liang Wuji, the adopted son of the Liang family, advocated keeping the matter quiet. After all, it was about the prince, and for fear of angering the whole family, Yuan Shen wanted Qu Lingjun to tell the truth. Unexpectedly, Qu Lingjun admitted that he was the murderer and was willing to pay for her husband's life.

In order to clear Qu Lingjun's suspicion, the prince knelt down and begged Emperor Wen to send someone to find out the truth. Emperor Wen was furious and scolded the prince. As a prince, his conduct should be a model for the world, but he almost ruined his reputation because of his children's affair. , and even the royal reputation was put into shame.

The third prince on the side lowered his head, and the smile on his lips could no longer be restrained. Regardless of whether Liang Shang's murder case could be verified or not, the prince's image in Emperor Wen's heart of being motivated and regardless of the overall situation was firmly established.

In the end, this case was investigated by Ling Buyi, and it turned out that it was not Qu Lengjun, but Liang Shang's younger brother Liang Xia. The purpose was to compete for the position of the head of the family. In the end, Liang Xia was also silenced by Liang Wuji, and no one Knowing this was the result of the Third Prince's efforts behind the scenes.

After this incident, the attitude of the ministers in the court also changed. They no longer sided with the prince one-sidedly, and the number of supporters of the third prince gradually increased.

The fifth prince also benefited. Although the people who came to seek refuge with him were all from small families or from depressed and aristocratic families like Xianglou Ben, he finally had a certain amount of capital.

On the other side, Ling Buyi also learned from Peng Kun the story of the massacre of the Huo family. However, before Peng Kun had time to sign, he was silenced and pretended to be suffering from an old asthma attack. Ling Buyi It is suspected that the final certification has been lost.

Ling Buyi knew very well that without evidence, Ling Yi could not be punished as he deserved. He came to Xinghua Villa in despair, only to find that his mother Huo Junhua was terminally ill.

Before he died, Huo Junhua repeatedly told Ling Buyi not to forget to take revenge. It wasn't until he heard Ling Buyi's promise that Huo Junhua slumped back on the couch and passed away.

Under the double blow, Ling Buyi decided to use his own method to avenge the entire Huo family.

At night, Ling Buyi took the East Palace Seal and mobilized soldiers and horses to surround the Chengyang Marquis Mansion, and then bloodbathed the Chengyang Marquis Mansion. Before Ling Yi died, Ling Buyi told him a secret.

"Actually, my name is not Ling Buyi, my name is Huo, Wu, Shang!"

Back then, the Huo family and the Ling family gave birth to two boys at the same time. The two boys were similar in age and had similar genes, so they looked very similar. It happened to be the day when the entire Huo family was wiped out. Huo Wushang soiled his clothes because of his naughty, and was afraid of being punished. Ling Buyi suggested that the two of them exchange clothes.

It was as if Ling Yi had killed his own son, and Ling Yi was stabbed in the heart with endless regret.

Ling Buyi was also seriously injured and was taken back to the palace by Emperor Wen to recuperate, and told Emperor Wen his true identity. When Emperor Wen learned that he was a pure bloodline of the Huo family, the anger in his heart instantly dissipated.

However, the case of Marquis Chengyang's murder caused an uproar in the court. The impeachment memorial flew to Emperor Wen's desk like snowflakes, but Emperor Wen never expressed his position, let alone questioned Ling Buyi.

That night, Qin Fang called Qin Hao to the study to discuss countermeasures.

"The matter of Marquis Chengyang doesn't seem to be that simple. Why do I think this is for the prince?" Qin Fang looked worried.

Qin Hao couldn't help but secretly praise that Jiang was still very old, and even if he didn't know the inside story, he could still have such a keen political sense.

"Father, this matter must be a conspiracy between Ling Buyi and the third prince. Our Qin family will just wait and see what happens."

Having said that, Qin Hao would naturally not let the third prince's conspiracy succeed.

Suddenly, Qin Hao used Lou Ben to secretly meet with the fifth prince.

"I never expected that it was you behind Lou Ben!" When the fifth prince saw Qin Hao, after the initial surprise, he became even more excited.

Qin Hao represents not only the Qin family, but also the Yuan family, Cheng family, and Wan family. They have considerable influence in both the court and the army. If these resources can be used by him, it seems to be out of reach. The throne is already within reach.

Qin Hao said with a serious face: "Your Highness, if you are not careful on the way to seize the throne, you will be doomed. Are you really ready?"

The fifth prince bowed to Qin Hao and said: "Please Zihan give me a helping hand!"

Qin Hao nodded, helped him up, and then winked at Lou Ben, who brought someone out from the secret room.

"Liang Wuji?" The fifth prince looked at the visitor in shock and blurted out.

Liang Wuji bowed to the fifth prince and said, "Meet your Highness."

The fifth prince turned to look at Qin Hao: "I didn't expect Liang Wuji to be yours?"

Qin Hao shook his head lightly: "The Liang family and the Yuan family are in-laws. The Qin family and the Yuan family share weal and woe. We are just working together for the continuation of the family."

"So, it was the Third Emperor's brother who was responsible for slandering the prince?" the fifth prince asked Liang Wuji.

Liang Wuji nodded: "It was the Third Prince's work. Killing Liang Ya and silencing him was also the Third Prince's instruction."

"I will confess this matter in the court tomorrow, and I also ask the fifth prince not to forget this meager power when he ascends the throne."

The third prince wanted to overthrow the prince, but little did he know that the mantis was stalking the cicada and the oriole was behind him.

Once Emperor Wen learned that all this was done deliberately by the third prince, he would definitely be wary of such a scheming son.

The fifth prince quickly held Liang Wuji's hand and said, "Don't worry, Mr. Liang. If you pay today, you will be repaid tenfold and a hundredfold in the future."

In the morning of the next day, Liang Wuji took the lead in reporting that the third prince had hired a murderer, and he was the murderer. When the cause and effect came out, the whole court was shocked, and the third prince was even more frightened. He never thought that Liang Wuji would betray him and be beaten all of a sudden. Caught off guard.

Before this was over, several officials accused the third prince and Ling Buyi of colluding with each other to forge the prince's edict and undermine the country's foundation.

As soon as this statement came out, the prince's party came out one after another to accuse the third prince of being ambitious and doing whatever it took to gain the crown prince's position.

The third prince was speechless for a while.

Emperor Wen announced his resignation with an ugly face. After going to court, the third prince knelt in front of Emperor Wen's palace and begged to see him. However, Emperor Wen did not see the third prince for a whole day.

The originally clear battle for the throne suddenly became complicated and confusing.