On the eighth day of the sixth month of the 12th year of Zhaohong, Emperor Dayue became ill due to internal and external troubles. He was frightened by fire in the palace and died in the harem at the age of 48 and was posthumously named "Ling".

Empress Ling died early and did not give birth to a legitimate son. She left a will to be passed down by the eldest son of the emperor. The eldest son of the emperor was young and could not handle political affairs. She specially ordered Prime Minister Xiao Chuyang to be the emperor's teacher and assist the new king. Dayue wars broke out everywhere, and the four kings chaotic the Central Plains. In order to prevent Chang'an from making any mistakes, Xiao Chuyang gave the order to serve the king and summoned King Su Xu You to Chang'an to serve the king.

In midsummer of June, this news came out at an astonishing speed, and the whole world was in chaos.

First, the Dayue court sent an edict to the four kings of the eastern region on the day the new king ascended the throne. The four kings of the eastern region impeached Song Ji for four major crimes and demanded that Song Ji abdicate and give up the wise. Now the new king has succeeded, and the four kings have no name to leave the army, so they naturally forced him to stop his troops and bow to the new emperor to surrender.

At the same time, there was also a change in the northern border. The first time the commander of the Guanzhong Army, Guo Xianzhong, received the news, first led his troops back to Guanzhong. After walking less than half a day, he returned to his original position and continued to guard the north of the Yellow River.

Wang Chenghai, the commander of the Western Liao Army, without informing the court, withdrew his troops from Youzhou and Yunzhou and retreated to Qingzhou, south of the Yellow River. Half of the troops headed south to support the Four Kings.

This move directly sent the entire Youzhou to Northern Qi. The court angrily accused Wang Chenghai of being a traitor in the country, while Wang Chenghai directly called Xiao Chuyang a "traitorous prime minister" and colluded with King Su's lineage to plan for the country.

The Jiang family of Northern Qi naturally felt that "God helped me" and quickly sent troops to occupy Youzhou. While attacking Dayue, they did not forget to support the four kings in the east. The king of Northern Qi also issued a special edict to denounce the Xu family of King Su's Xu for being unfaithful and unrighteous, "using the emperor to command the princes", and expressed doubts about the cause of the death of Emperor Song Ji, who wanted to split the east and west.

The four Song vassal kings in the eastern region were naturally furious when they heard the news.

In mid-June, Luzhou.

As the place where the three kings gathered in the eastern part of the world, after half a year of war, the entire Luzhou has turned into a huge military camp. Chaohu is full of ships loaded with food, grass and weapons. The soldiers and horses inside and outside the city are full of armor. Every moment, soldiers gather from all over the place and set out to head towards the front line of Chu.

A summer resort manor was built on the island in the center of Chaohu. At this time, the manor was well-defended inside and outside, and officers and soldiers wearing armor from various vassal kings were guarding the important roads everywhere.

The gate of the manor's convention hall was closed, and the four of them sat in it. The leader was King of Wei, Song Shaoying.

Song Shaoying was over forty years old and was alone in Nanyue. He had the most powerful troops and had a very high prestige and had a very good personal relationship with the King of Wu. Now the four kings coalition is also in charge.

The king of Wei, Song Shaoying, was King of Wu, Song Siming, King of Yu, Song Ding'an, and King of Chu, Song Zhengping.

King Song Siming of Wu wanted to destroy Song Ji's lineage because of his new hatred and old grudges, but he pulled Song Ji down and supported King Wei as the new king. That was the Song brothers who fought for family property. Nowadays, a man from another surname came to his family to seize family property. Song Siming was naturally angry and slapped the table and said angrily:

"...Xu You's child is a wolfish ambition. What's the 'overwork and death in the harem'? Xu Buling just returned to Chang'an and Song Ji died. How could such a coincidence be? It must be Xu Buling's tyrannical plot to murder Song Ji..."

The other three kings had similar ideas, but it was useless to know. The Xiliang army had occupied Chang'an, and the eldest son of the emperor succeeded to the throne was in accordance with the etiquette. No matter how cruel they scolded him without any evidence, King Su could not retreat in guilt, and the new king could not give up the throne.

King Song Shaoying of Wei raised his hand: "The emperor is healthy and can't die suddenly. A few days ago, Wang Chenghai, the chief governor of the Liaoxi Protectorate, sent me a secret letter. He said that the emperor had expected that the Xu family would make a mistake and issued a secret edict to him. If there is any change in Guanzhong, he can abandon Youyun and lead troops south to assist me..."

When King Song Zhengping of Chu heard this, he frowned:

"Song Shaoying, everyone in the Song family is behind closed doors. Don't speak vernacularly. Song Ji is narrow-minded and regards the throne as more than his own life. How could he issue a secret edict to ask Wang Chenghai to assist you as the new monarch?"

Song Shaoying was not surprised at all about the words of King Chu. After all, if this is true, he would become the successor of Dayue's orthodox, directly cutting off Song Zhengping's idea of ​​fighting for the grand throne.

Song Ji issued a secret edict to Wang Chenghai in advance, and it was impossible to depose himself directly, and pointed out Song Shaoying as the new king of Ming Dynasty. The secret edict only said that there was a change in Guanzhong, and he could abandon Youyun's land to assist the King of Wei, leaving a way out for himself.

In this way, if Xu Bu Ling directly rebels and attacks Guanzhong and kills the Song Ji lineage, the King of Wei will naturally become the orthodox successor, and can use a secret edict to order all princes to establish themselves and continue the Song imperial rule.

But if Xu Buling did not dare to rebel directly, he chose to undermine Song Ji's "using the emperor to command the princes". After receiving the secret edict, the King of Wei took the Liaoxi Army and then took the Liaoxi Army, he would naturally counterattack the Guanzhong Dao. After destroying the Xu family, if the situation changes, with Song Ji's remaining power and the emperor's status, he will have the opportunity to turn the tables and get back the imperial power.

However, Xu Buling directly killed Song Ji and appointed a new king to order the princes. The new king was only nine years old and had no foundation. It was obvious that the Song Ji lineage could not turn the tables.

After seeing Song Ji's death, the dead soldier Bing, who was waiting in the dark, hurriedly brought the throne edict and the imperial seal to the King of Wei. Unfortunately, this throne edict was intercepted by Xu Buling.

Therefore, King Song Shaoying of Wei had only an ambiguous secret edict in his hand. Although it did not affect his power, it would definitely be arguing when he took it out in front of other vassal kings.

In order to prevent other vassal kings from coming to rob the imperial throne after pacifying the situation, Song Shaoying naturally said seriously:

"Since the door is closed, everyone is a brother of the same surname, and they don't say those stupid words.

Although the emperor is very happy about merit and governance, there is something wrong with everyone's strategy and skills. If we are not afraid of the emperor, we would not have to impeach the emperor and force him to abdicate.

It is true that the emperor wants to reduce the vassal states and monopolize the power, but he always thinks about the foundation of the Song family Qianqiu. Don’t you deny this, right?"

King Song Zhengping of Chu hesitated for a moment and did not speak, while the kings of Wu and Yu nodded.

Although Song Ji caused resentment from heaven and people and offended everyone, the only reason for the consequences now was that it exposed the intention of reducing the vassal states, which made the kings feel chilled.

But from the perspective of the Song family, Song Ji did nothing wrong. If he didn't cut them down, he would sooner or later raise an army to seize the imperial throne like this time. Perhaps after one of them inherited the throne, even the government orders set by Song Ji would not overturn, but would continue to follow Song Ji's path.

Seeing that the kings had no objection, Song Shaoying continued:

"The Master may be too domineering, but he is definitely not a foolish monarch. He just made a mistake in his layout. He made mistakes in one step and was unable to turn the world back in the end. With the Master's character, he must have regarded the Song family's foundation as more important than the imperial rule. It is reasonable to issue a secret edict to let me restore the Song family. If it were not for this, Wang Chenghai, who was the Protectorate of the Western Liao Dynasty, was loyal to the emperor. Without the Master's approval, he must have listened to the order of the eldest son. How could he come to surrender to me with the infamy of being a "traitor"?"

This is reasonable and well-founded. The other two kings originally supported the King of Wei, so they naturally nodded. King Song Zhengping of Chu did not believe it:

"The four-way vassal king in the east, you are in the south, and Song Ji and you have no friendship. Why do you want Wang Chenghai to assist you? Could it be that the three of us can't be seen by the emperor?"

Song Shaoying was silent for a moment, shook his head and sighed:

"Although the words are a bit hurtful, it is true. The emperor has always looked at us and looked down on the four of us at all. It is not that I can issue a secret edict to restore the Song family. I am not so outstanding, I am just a tall person from the short man."

“…”

King Song Zhengping of Chu slapped the table, but didn't say anything.

King Song Siming of Wu and King Wei were wearing pairs of pants. At this time, he shook his head and said, "Zhengping, your army of more than 100,000 people are sitting in the important military places such as Mashankou, Nanyang, and Xiangyang. In total, Xu Buling guarded for less than a day. Qin Jing was nicknamed "Qin Paopuo" by the court. How can you give the emperor the important task of restoring the Song clan to you?"

When Song Zhengping heard this, he became angry and said angrily: "Don't you know how I fought? If I could defend it, how could I retreat step by step? If I was fighting in front, you would stand by and watch behind me, and then I would have the shame to say that I would not do my best?"

Song Shaoying raised his hand and said, "Don't argue. In any case, the world cannot change its surname. The most urgent task now is to expel the Xu family. King Su occupied the narrow emperor of Guanzhong to order the princes. Dayue had no leader in various forces, so he could only listen to the order of the new king. From my perspective, he could only follow the secret decree of the emperor and pointed out that the new king was the puppet emperor of the Xu family, and I would inherit the throne and order all the princes to attack the Xu family."

Song Zhengping was naturally unhappy with this:

"Now, we should be gathering troops and entering Guanzhong to serve Wang Qing, how can we say that we can be independent?"

Song Shaoying did not receive Song Ji's abdication edict. Now he should be the king and the king. However, he used the banner of "responsible for the king and the king and the king and really defeated Guanzhong. He asked his nephew to abdicate the throne to bully the young because he was not etiquette.

"This is the case with the secret decree of the emperor. I am also thinking about the overall situation. "Clearing the king's side" means to recognize the new emperor's rule, which is helping the Xu family. If you have to enter Chang'an to serve the king, just lead your own troops."

"you……"
Chapter completed!