Mystery at Lanting Chapter 7

"General Li, please take a seat!" Inside the Liu Mansion, Edward Liu hurriedly asked Nathan Li to return to the living room of the small building.

Edward Liu had also heard of Nathan Li's name. He was a capable general under Jonathan Di, brave and resourceful. He had ventured into the tiger's den many times and helped Jonathan Di establish great achievements.

"Okay, Mr. Liu, tell me about the theft in your house." Nathan Li said seriously.

"This stolen treasure is indeed inextricably linked to the Lanting Preface, just as Di Gong said. After so many years and so many wars and turmoil, it has not been completely forgotten!"

Edward Liu sighed and continued, "General Li, you may know that in the later years of Emperor Taizong, a prophecy of a "female ruler Wu Wang" suddenly began to circulate outside the palace, saying that after three generations of the Tang Dynasty, there would be a female ruler Wu Wang who would rule the world.

This was originally a rumor among the people, but later it spread to the palace. Emperor Taizong felt very uncomfortable when he heard it.

He secretly summoned a historian named Simon Li to the palace and asked him if this was true.

The Grand Historian of the Tang Dynasty was in charge of astronomy and calendar, and was very proficient in reasoning and calculation. Simon Li said, "I observed the sky at night and found that Taibai was passing through the sky, which means that a female leader will rise."

He also said, after some calculations, I found that this woman is already in Your Majesty's palace and is Your Majesty's relative.

Within thirty years, she will replace Your Majesty, rule Your Majesty's great territory, and kill the descendants of the Li Tang royal family.

Emperor Taizong became very nervous after hearing this and asked what to do. Since the prophecy and the astronomical phenomena were consistent, let’s just do it. It would be better to kill three thousand people by mistake than to let one person escape.

I'm going to clean up the palace. We're going to kill everyone with the surname Wu or anyone related to the surname Wu.

Simon Li said, this is not good. There is a saying that a king never dies. Since God has sent such a person down, he will protect her. You may not be able to kill her easily, and it will harm many innocent people, and God will blame you.

To put it another way, even if you kill her, if God's will has not changed, he will send another person.

The person I just said is your Majesty's relative and is already in your Majesty's palace. He is an adult now, and will be an elderly person in thirty years.

Elderly people are more merciful and may leave some room for your descendants. If you kill her now, and God gives birth to a new person, then this person will be a young person in thirty years. Young people are cruel and will kill your descendants without mercy, so you'd better not kill her! Emperor Taizong had no choice but to give up, but he still felt a knot in his heart.

"I have heard of this legend!" Nathan Li took a sip of water from the teacup. Although the tea was cold, he didn't care: "Lord Di once mentioned in a casual conversation that the emperor's father was the governor of Lizhou at that time. Later, the imperial teacher Yuan Tiangang had read her fortune.

Yuan Tiangang once passed by Victoria Wu's house and met the Empress Dowager. When Yuan Tiangang saw her, he immediately said, "Madam, you are born with extraordinary bones. You will definitely have a son."

Which mother wouldn't be happy to hear this?

The Queen Mother immediately invited Yuan Tiangang to her home, wanting him to see which child was the noble one.

According to the custom at that time, the sons were looked at first. The two brothers of the emperor were pulled out, and Yuan Tiangang took a look and said, "These two young men are good-looking and will be the sons who protect the family in the future."

Then, he called out the eldest daughter. Yuan Tiangang took another look at her and said, "This girl is pretty and will definitely become a noble lady in the future. It's a pity that she is not good for her husband."
 
After she became rich and powerful, her husband was not well treated. Then, the nurse brought His Majesty out.

His Majesty was very young at the time, and he was wearing boy's clothes. We all know why, because his mother had given birth to three daughters and was looking forward to having a son.

But what should I do if I don't have a son? I'll dress this daughter as a boy first. When Yuan Tiangang saw the child, his face suddenly changed.

The Empress Dowager and the Emperor Retired both noticed it and immediately asked, "Mr. Yuan, what do you think of our child?"

Yuan Tiangang shook his head and said, "It's not good. You have to let her walk a few steps." Victoria Wu took two steps and looked at Yuan Tiangang with her big eyes flashing.

Yuan Tiangang said, "Oh my, this is incredible. This young man has dragon eyes and a phoenix neck. He looks very lucky and noble. How could he be a boy?"

If it was a girl, she would definitely be the ruler of the world. Later, the current emperor was selected to serve the Emperor Taizong in the palace. At that time, the Emperor Taizong had always had a grudge against people with the surname Wu, and was very suspicious of a general with the surname Wu. That general had fought in the Turkic expedition and won victory after victory, protecting the northwest territory of Li Tang. The Emperor Taizong felt that it was difficult to contain him because of his outstanding military achievements, and because his surname was Wu, he wanted to kill him. When Your Majesty knew about it, you knelt in front of the Emperor Taizong and wept and advised him, and were willing to die in place of the general with your own surname Wu. This moved the Emperor Taizong and saved the life of the general, and was therefore appreciated by the Emperor Taizong. However, the Emperor Taizong was still deeply afraid of her but could not bear to kill her, so before he died, he hid a secret in the scroll of "Preface to the Lanting Collection" and passed it to the previous emperor. According to legend, there is a secret in it that allows the royal family of the surname Li to take back the artifact! "

"What?!" Nathan Li stood up from his chair and looked at Edward Liu in surprise: "How could such a thing happen?! Mr. Liu, who are you?"

"General Li, be quiet!" Edward Liu said, looking out the window with some concern.

Nathan Li felt a chill down his spine. Such a confidential matter would probably not end well for anyone who knew about it.

Edward Liu deliberately told me about this, and I'm afraid it's not just as simple as asking me for help.

As an experienced person in many major cases, he knew that secrets concerning the royal family could easily lead to killing, or even rebellion and war.

He knew even better that the current emperor never cared about killing a few more people. If this secret was known by Victoria Wu, then Edward Liu and himself would face endless "troubles".

Despite this, Nathan Li was able to calm down instantly thanks to his years of experience, waiting for Edward Liu to continue uncovering this shocking secret.

In fact, deep in Nathan Li's heart, the pursuit of knowledge and curiosity are often the source of his persistence. For this, he is even willing to take risks and even sacrifice his life.

"So what Lord Di said about Emperor Taizong not burying the Lanting with him but passing it on to Emperor Gaozong is actually true. However, the purpose was not because Emperor Gaozong loved calligraphy, but because there was an earth-shaking secret buried in the scroll!" Edward Liu said, staring at Nathan Li.

"Emperor Gaozong guarded the Lanting scroll, thinking that he could pass it on to the next emperor of the Tang Dynasty. However, Emperor Gaozong died young and the scroll was seized by the current emperor.

The prophecy of the queen seizing power and killing off the descendants of the Li family actually came true, but the secret of Lanting was passed down orally by successive emperors of the Li family and was not known to His Majesty today. "Edward Liu continued.

"Oh?" Nathan Li stared at Edward Liu with hawk-like eyes and asked, "Since it was all passed down orally by Emperor Li, how did you know? Does the current crown prince know about it? Is the original copy of Lanting that was stolen from your home?"

"Don't be anxious, General Li. Let me talk slowly." Edward Liu patted Nathan Li's shoulder gently and said, "Later, Emperor Gaozong wanted to depose Queen Wang and make Consort Wu the Queen in order to strike at the power of the elders such as Zhangsun Wuji. Zhangsun Wuji and other elders such as Chu Suiliang opposed this.

Li Yifu, Xu Jingzong and others, however, catered to the emperor's wishes and expressed their approval;

Veteran general Li Ji said in a memorial: "This is your Majesty's family affair. Why ask outsiders?" With the support of Li Yifu and others, Emperor Gaozong finally deposed Queen Wang and made Wu the queen in the sixth year of Yonghui.

Changsun Wuji and Chu Suiliang were both demoted. Soon, Changsun Wuji was forced to hang himself, and Chu Suiliang was exiled to the more distant Aizhou, where he eventually died.

"I understand!" Nathan Li finally came up with a clear conclusion in his mind: "When Emperor Gaozong was dying, he felt that the current emperor was about to seize power and he could no longer control the situation, so he simply endured the humiliation and made the current emperor the empress, and then pretended to demote Chu Suiliang, in fact, to let him take the secret of Lanting out of the palace.

When the time is right, return the token to the royal descendants of Li Tang, and let them use the secrets in the scroll to take back the artifact from the hands of the current emperor! "

"General Li, you are right, that's roughly it!" Edward Liu looked at Nathan Li with admiration, and then said: "But Chu Suiliang felt that protecting Lanting, especially the secrets in the scroll, was of great importance, so he left two tokens before leaving, one to Zhangsun Wuji's confidant, and one to Chu Suiliang's confidant. These two people have been secretly lurking in the court, and no one knows their relationship with Zhangsun Wuji and Chu Suiliang.

Several people agreed that after several years, when there is hope to restore the Li Tang artifact, the descendants of the two families will take these two tokens and go to Aizhou to find the descendants of Chu Suiliang, find out the secrets in the Lanting and the scroll, and give them to the prince to restore the Li Tang artifact! "

"And you must be the descendant of one of the two confidants!" Nathan Li said.

"That's right, my ancestor was Zhang Sun Wuji's confidant." Edward Liu nodded: "Before Zhang Sun Wuji was forced to commit suicide, he secretly called my grandfather to his house, told him this secret, and made him swear in front of him to keep this secret and help the descendants of the Li family to restore the Li Tang artifacts when the time is right!

After hearing my grandfather's oath, Changsun Wuji asked my ancestor to resign from office and retire immediately.

Because he knew that Victoria Wu would purge the descendants of the Li family and the ministers who supported the Li family, my ancestor immediately resigned from his post, hid his identity and fled to Yunzhou, used his previous savings to start a business, and never had anything to do with the government again. "
 
"Then how do you know that now is the time to help the prince restore the Li Tang dynasty?" Nathan Li couldn't help but ask.

"This was before the New Year. I received a strange letter in Yunzhou. The letter asked me to move my family to Luoyang, the capital of the gods, and wait in Luoyang. Something big will happen soon."

Edward Liu poured another cup of tea for Nathan Li and continued, "At the time, I didn't think too much about it. I just thought someone had sent the wrong letter. I was about to throw it away when I found another page of paper in the envelope!"

"What's written on the paper?" Nathan Li asked as he stood up.

"There is not a single word on the paper." Edward Liu stared at Nathan Li and said, "It is a painting. To be more precise, it is a rubbing."

"Rubbings?" Nathan Li asked curiously.

"Yes, it is a rubbing." Edward Liu nodded: "It has the same pattern as the keepsake I lost today."

"You mean to say that this is the rubbing sent to you by Chu Suiliang's descendants from Aizhou?!" Nathan Li was shocked.

"General Li, you should know that this matter is already a secret among secrets. Very few people know this secret. If you are not someone closely related to this secret, it is impossible to have a rubbing of this pattern!"

Edward Liu held the cup tightly: "So I felt my blood boiling at that time, and immediately moved my family to Luoyang, the capital of the gods. With the money I had accumulated from my previous business, I opened several stores, and Biyunxuan was one of them."

"But how do you know what will happen in the capital, and how will the Chu family contact you?" Nathan Li asked curiously.

"Because the descendants and confidants of the two families have sworn a solemn oath before, I believe they will not joke and will come to meet me at the right time." Edward Liu said firmly.

Nathan Li stopped talking and fell into deep thought.