After taking the merman's tears, King Xia Jie's recovery was obvious to the naked eye. He had been bed - ridden and seemed on the verge of death, but recently he was able to occasionally read memorials and listen to the reports of his ministers. The ministers were all happy and said that King Xia Jie was a lucky man with divine protection and would surely live a long life. However, Shen Qingfeng and Xia Chuli both knew that King Xia Jie was like a lamp about to run out of oil. Even though the merman's tears could temporarily reconnect the wick, the remaining lamp oil was almost exhausted.
It seemed that Xia Yonglin's failed "coup" made King Xia Jie start to re - evaluate this son. After his health began to improve, Xia Yonglin requested an audience several times, but King Xia Jie refused on the pretext of being ill. The relationship between the two became a bit tense for a while. Even Chen Qi didn't dare to secretly let Xia Yonglin see the king.
However, even so, the name written on King Xia Jie's imperial edict of succession was still Xia Yonglin's.
Xia Chuli told Shen Qingfeng about this one day after delivering medicine to King Xia Jie.
"So what if Xia Yonglin staged a coup? He is a native of Lixia, while in Father's eyes, I will always be an outsider."
As Xia Chuli said this, a flash of suppressed anger passed through his eyes. Then, like a deflated balloon, ignoring Shen Qingfeng's persuasion, he locked himself in the room and continued to review memorials.
He had saved his father, but still hadn't gained his recognition.
This incident seemed to hit Xia Chuli hard. He locked himself in the room for a long time and didn't even want to see Shen Qingfeng. After failing to persuade him, Shen Qingfeng had no choice but to attend to his own affairs.
In Shen Qingfeng's view, there was no need to pay too much attention to King Xia Jie's imperial edict. After all, when Lu Yan returned to Lige, military power would be the only truth. What he really needed to guard against now was to ensure that the imperial edict wouldn't be taken away by others, such as Xia Yonglin.
He didn't want to see Xia Yonglin suddenly return when Xia Chuli's throne was not yet stable, holding the imperial edict and claiming to be just.
So, while preparing for the next plan, Shen Qingfeng secretly bribed some eunuchs and maids, and also had the people from the Listening - Wind Pavilion keep watch overnight. Finally, they were sure that the imperial edict was placed in a secret compartment in King Xia Jie's room.
After King Xia Jie recovered, he never took out the imperial edict again.
Although King Xia Jie's attitude towards Xia Yonglin was vague, it was different when it came to Qi Shuhuan. He almost never summoned Qi Shuhuan to the palace to discuss state affairs again. Instead, he frequently summoned the prime minister Shen Shiqiu to the palace, and his attitude towards Shen Shiqiu had also changed greatly. He was no longer aggressive and ignoring as before, but really started to discuss state affairs with Shen Shiqiu.
Anyway, this was a good sign.
At the same time, Shen Qingfeng received a letter from Lu Yan.
The letter said that the Donghu army, which had been quiet for a long time, had started to move again recently. The scouts reported that Yu Wenqian led a small team of several people to Xirong again, seemingly for a second negotiation.
In this team, besides Yu Wenqian's guards, there was a man wrapped tightly all over. They didn't know who he was, only that Yu Wenqian was always very respectful to him and called him "military advisor".
Shen Qingfeng heard about Yu Wenqian having a military advisor for the first time.
After all, during the confrontation between the two armies in the previous life, the reports of the battles from Lu Yan to Lige City were too brief, and many details were not reported. Moreover, Lu Yan had controlled the situation well in the previous life, and most of Shen Qingfeng's energy was focused on helping Xia Chuli seize power. Besides, at this time in the previous life, King Xia Jie's health was not very bad, and Shen Qingfeng didn't know much about government - related matters. So it was reasonable that Shen Qingfeng didn't know about this military advisor.
Lu Yan wrote clearly in the letter that he had never seen this man before. He didn't know where he came from or what he looked like. Just from Yu Wenqian's attitude towards him, it could be inferred that this man was not simple, but his specific identity needed further investigation.
The Donghu's second trip to Xirong was, in fact, for only one thing, which was to form an alliance. Bringing the military advisor might be to increase the probability of a successful negotiation. Lu Yan wrote his concerns in the letter and proposed to Shen Qingfeng that, to prevent the Donghu from taking action after he returned to Lige, he planned to reduce the number of people he was going to bring back and contact Gong Tan in advance to select some people loyal to the crown prince from the imperial guards to make up for the shortage.
The imperial guards were originally loyal to the king. Even if there were some people loyal to the crown prince, there couldn't be many. At present, Li Yanqing was under detention, and most of the soldiers of the military - master flag were imprisoned in the dungeon. As long as Lu Yan could lead his men into Lige City, the only obstacle in front of him would be the imperial guards.
Compared with Lu Yan's battle - experienced Lu family army, the imperial guards in Lige City were really inferior.
Shen Qingfeng thought about it carefully and agreed with Lu Yan's idea.
According to their previous plan, Lu Yan was going to lead his subordinates to disguise as a merchant caravan and enter Lige City. The goods of the caravan would be arranged by Shen Shiqiu and Shen Yu. Shen Qingfeng informed them of this matter, and Shen Yu began to prepare the goods according to the number of people Lu Yan mentioned. With the help of the Shen family's informants outside Lige City and some of Shen Shiqiu's connections, Lu Yan could lead his troops to stay in a town on the edge of Qimen and start to disguise as a merchant caravan there.
Now that Lu Yan's arrangements were in place, Shen Qingfeng was going to start setting the stage.
Two days later.
Prince Cheng Xia Yonglin finally couldn't stand King Xia Jie's repeated rejections. Under Shen Qingfeng's deliberate arrangement, he was provoked by the words of his servants and decided to hold a banquet in the Bian Palace to please King Xia Jie.
Of course, the reasons for the banquet were all high - sounding excuses such as the king's recovery from a serious illness, praying for the king, and praying for Lixia.
King Xia Jie, who had just recovered from a serious illness and almost died, fell for this. Coupled with Xia Yonglin's exaggerated descriptions of some Taoist priests from the Golden - Peak Temple and immortals from Huashan, which exactly hit King Xia Jie's weak point, he agreed to this without any suspicion.
The Prince Cheng's lineage, who thought they had fallen out of favor, suddenly saw a chance of a comeback. At Qi Shuhuan's instruction, they spared no expense to prepare for the banquet. They even went to Huashan specially to invite the so - called high - ranking monks and immortals.
Everything was progressing slowly according to Shen Qingfeng's plan.
Standing in the Eastern Palace, listening to the noisy sounds outside the wall, a slow smile curled up on Shen Qingfeng's lips.
Xia Chuli was studying a game of chess beside him. After King Xia Jie's health improved a bit, the mountain of memorials was taken back one by one. Now there were very few memorials for Xia Chuli to read, and they were all trivial matters such as road repairs and being late for court. Shen Qingfeng took care of all the things on his side. As a result, Xia Chuli had nothing to do. Just like now, he had been staring at this game of chess for almost an incense - burning time and still hadn't figured out how to make a move.
Yu Shuang walked in from the gate of the Eastern Palace and stood behind Shen Qingfeng, saying, "Young master, everything is ready."
Hearing this, Xia Chuli, who was studying the chess game, looked up. His eyes lingered on Yu Shuang and Shen Qingfeng for a while, showing a look of confusion.
"Good." Shen Qingfeng gathered his sleeves and said, "It's just past noon. Tell them to hide in the palace first. Wait until the evening banquet starts and act on my order."
Yu Shuang clasped his fists and said, "Yes."
Xia Chuli's eyes became more and more confused, and there was a bit of anger in them. "Qingfeng, what are you doing? Now that I don't have any memorials to review, are you still not going to tell me what you're up to?"
Shen Qingfeng sighed. He made a gesture to Yu Shuang, who understood and replied before disappearing in a few leaps.
Shen Qingfeng glanced at Xia Chuli, who was sitting at the table looking puffy, smiled, and sat down opposite him. "Do you still remember that Li Yanqing once gave Qi Shuhuan a robe embroidered with nine snakes? You even suggested that I should make a big deal out of it at that time."
Xia Chuli was stunned. "I remember... Is it too early to start now?"
"Not at all." Shen Qingfeng shook his head. "Lu Yan is already on his way to Lige City. Tonight, let your father completely give up on Xia Yonglin."