Soon it was late autumn, and rumors began to spread in the city that the prince had been having bad luck recently. Not only did he fall down in the mansion on a rainy day and break the back of his head, he also said the wrong things in front of the emperor several times, and it seemed that he was not as smart as before.
The news of the death of the prince's adviser Jin Yu also spread, and many people realized that the prince's brain was dead. No wonder he was not as steady and thorough as before in his recent work.
On the contrary, the second prince has been very aggressive recently. After the house arrest was over, he went to the palace to plead guilty and stopped arguing with the crown prince. He even went to the crown prince's mansion with generous gifts to apologize to the crown prince. He also helped the emperor solve his problems everywhere. The emperor was so happy that he named him the King of Changxing in front of all the civil and military officials.
He is a prince, which is enough to show how much the emperor values the second prince.
As one thing goes down, the other will rise. The prince was burning with jealousy. Without Jin Yu, he was like a toothless tiger. Also, because he had relied too much on Jin Yu in the past and did not prepare more counselors for himself, he drove out all those who gave bad advice in the mansion. Now he can only rely on his Yue family and the Zhang family.
As a result, the Crown Princess, who had already been restless, became even more outrageous, and even humiliated Princess Changxing at a palace banquet. Princess Changxing retreated to advance, remained submissive, and allowed herself to be bullied by the Crown Princess, and then turned around and spread the matter to everyone. The Queen was almost mad at her, but now her son had to rely on the Zhang family, so she could only say a few words indifferently.
Fortune is a very mysterious thing. When a person goes downhill, he will find that all the people and things around him are against him. If he does not have a cool head and the ability to turn the tide, failure is only a matter of time.
That's what the prince is like.
As the saying goes, "strike while you are weak"; although the Second Prince did not appear to be competitive, he did not slack off in private, especially with the help from Tang Gang and his son, which made many things much easier for him.
Tang Mo had already arrived in Jingzhao Prefecture and learned more things, and he still had connections with the Beiya Army. As long as he wanted to know many things, Liao Zhi would make it easy for him, so he indirectly stood in the camp of the Second Prince.
The first-hand information was passed to Tang Gang, who then sent his people to investigate in detail, sorted out the information and passed it to the Second Prince, in coordination with further actions. The prince didn't even know where he was defeated.
Time passed like this, spring turned into autumn, and the Emperor's three-year mourning period for the Empress Dowager had long since expired. Each family held banquets, as if to make up for what they had lost. The old lady in the Marquis's Mansion had aged a little in the past two years, but she had her niece's granddaughter from her mother's side to accompany her, and her great-grandchildren were making a fuss every day, so she didn't want to go anywhere.
Wang didn't like attending banquets. Xin An was busy in the past two years, and she had to take care of her two grandchildren most of the time. Now that her grandchildren were at their most mischievous, she couldn't bear to go out. She left all the outings to Xin An, and she stayed at home to take care of her grandchildren peacefully.
"Hey, don't run so fast, grandma can't catch up."
"Hahahaha~~~"
The two brothers ran madly in the yard. After running for a while, they looked back at Wang, then ran away again. When Tang Mo came back, he heard the brothers' cheerful voices and walked quickly into the yard. When the brothers saw him, they opened their arms and rushed towards him, "Daddy~"
"Daddy~"
This was the scene Tang Mo had imagined countless times. He smiled, bent down, opened his arms, and picked up one of them in each hand. "Why are you sweating so much?"
The two children's eyebrows and eyes are like him, and their temperament is like Xin An. He likes them no matter how he looks at them.
Wang was panting with exhaustion. "It's enough that you just come back. Your wife has gone to a banquet. These two guys are killing me. Take them back and watch them for yourself for a while."
No matter how cute your grandchildren are, your life is more important.
Tang Mo happily carried his two sons back. He put the brothers down halfway and said he wanted to compete with them to see who could run faster. The three of them laughed all the way. Chunlang and Nuer were playing in the garden. When they heard the laughter, they led the way to Qiushi Courtyard. They walked in as if they were familiar with the place and wanted to play with the brothers.
The two boys come almost every day and are very careful when playing with the brothers. Nuer, as the eldest brother, takes good care of his younger brothers, while Chunlang would want Tang Mo to hug him while the brothers are sleeping.
No idea how Aunt Yue and Aunt Yu taught him, but whenever they had the chance, these two would get close to Tang Mo, calling him second uncle and hugging his thighs. Tang Mo disliked these two very much, especially Chun Lang. He told Xin An that this kid wanted to seize him and didn't have the sense of propriety as a slave.
Children always like to be surrounded by people, especially the little ones who always like the big ones. The twins like Nuer very much and pull Nuer to play with their newly acquired rocking horse. Tang Mo cannot act like a bad guy in front of the children, so he can only indulge them while being on guard.
Just as he was about to change his clothes, Lailai came over quickly and said, "Sir, General Xu wants you to go to Changxing Palace immediately."
"Do you know what's going on?"
Lai Lai shook his head, "The person who came is very anxious, so let the prince go now."
Tang Mo did not delay and told the people in the yard to look after the children before he hurried out. Up to now, he seldom went to Changxing Palace, especially during the day.
At this moment, many people were standing in front of the King of Changxing. They were all his supporters. When they saw Tang Mo coming in, they were a little surprised, but then they felt that they had a better chance of winning. When they got to General Xu, they spoke up, "The Emperor suddenly fell ill, and the Empress took control of the bedroom and did not allow anyone to visit. The Crown Prince is planning to force the Emperor to abdicate."
The incident happened very suddenly, and this news exposed a chess piece that had been buried beside the prince for ten years.
Everyone was shocked and speculated about the strangeness of the emperor's illness. Since the queen was the prince's biological mother, she was afraid that she would force the emperor to write an edict of succession.
Tang Mo frowned, he didn't expect that the one who wanted to force the emperor to abdicate in this life would be the crown prince. It seemed that he was forced into a desperate situation by the second prince. At this point, it didn't matter whether the crown prince wanted to abdicate or not. He had to force him even if he didn't want to.
The sound of hurried footsteps came, "My Lord, the princess has been left behind by the Queen."
Princess Changxing entered the palace to take care of the emperor, but the empress did not allow her to see the emperor, nor did she allow her to leave the palace. It was obvious that she was being held hostage.
The people in the room looked solemn. Some suggested using military tactics to rescue the emperor from the palace, some were worried about the princess' safety, and more believed that the opportunity could not be missed. Prince Changxing and the princess had a very good relationship, so naturally they wanted to rescue the person first.
Tang Mo spoke up, "Since the Queen can control the Emperor's bedroom, it means that the palace is also under her control. It is too difficult to enter the palace and bring the princess out safely now."
"There are Commander Liao and General Zhang and other people who are loyal to the emperor outside the palace. I think Your Highness can prepare first but keep the troops in place and do everything he can to urge the Crown Prince to take action. As long as the Crown Prince takes action, he will be guilty of treason. Then those people will do it for Your Highness."
"If something unexpected happens, we can let General Xu take action to ensure everything goes well."