Tibet

Li Xuan walked into the inner room of the elegant room and saw a middle-aged female Taoist priest sitting inside. She should be wearing a mask, her face was cold and expressionless.

"Sit down!"

The female Taoist priest pointed at the small stool opposite, and Li Qi was immediately furious. Sitting on this small stool, she felt as if she was being interrogated from a high position.

The female Taoist priest quietly placed a golden lock on the table. Li Xuan recognized it at a glance as the longevity lock under her son's neck.

The anger in his heart suddenly disappeared. He sat down slumped, grabbed the longevity lock and asked: "Who are you? Why are you arresting my son? Return my son quickly, otherwise"

"Otherwise what?"

The middle-aged female Taoist priest sneered, "Your life is in my hands now. I want to kill you like a dog."

After saying that, the middle-aged female Taoist priest flicked her fingers, and a cold light flashed through, hitting the back of the chair next to Li Xuan's arm. Li Xuan was startled, and quickly turned her head to take a closer look. It turned out to be an embroidery needle, which had been deeply inserted. Remove the wood, leaving only a needle tail outside.

"Do you know how Feng Zhengqin died? Ten steps away, I shot his heart with an embroidery needle. There was only a thin needle hole left on his skin, but his heart exploded. You can't detect it. .”

Li Xuan's face changed drastically, "It turns out it's you!"

The middle-aged Taoist nun said coldly: "Originally, the needle was intended to shoot your eldest son, but considering that your eldest son did not do many evil things, unlike Feng Zhengqin who had many evil deeds, I decided to kill Feng Zhengqin's chicken to show you. If you dare to go your own way again, you will definitely be the next to die. You have also seen that it would be easy for me to kill you."

Li Xuan's face turned red and white. After a while, he sighed and said, "Just tell me clearly! What conditions do you want before you are willing to let my son go?"

"I want you to submit a memorial tomorrow and fully support the emperor in moving the capital to Luoyang."

"ah!"

Li Xuan opened his mouth, extremely shocked, kidnapping his son was actually for this matter.

"Are you from the emperor?" Li Xuan suddenly realized.

The middle-aged female Taoist nun said calmly: "It doesn't matter who we are. What's important is that you must do what I say. Taking away your son is just a warning to you. If you still object, then we will attack you directly. You will die just as Feng Zhengqin died. If you don't believe me, you can give it a try."

Li Xuan sighed and said, "So what if I give up my opposition to moving the capital? So many people are against it!"

The middle-aged female Taoist priest said coldly: "If the warning is useless, then only the dead will shut up completely. Prince Xue, if you don't want to die, or don't want your son to die, then do what you should do and file a public letter tomorrow morning Support relocating the capital.”

"If I write a letter in support of moving the capital, when will my son come back?"

"Your son will meet you again in Luoyang. That's all I've said. Just take care of yourself!"

Li Xuan returned to his mansion in despair and sat in his room for a whole afternoon. He finally sighed, spread out the paper and wrote a memorial, "On the necessity of moving the eastern capital to consolidate the rule of the Tang Dynasty." We took a stand and declared our support for moving the capital.

The next morning, he publicly submitted a memorial at the morning court, which caused an uproar in the court. Li Xuan was ashamed to express his stance. He previously opposed moving the capital out of personal interests rather than the interests of the court. Now he has figured out that he must take the big picture into account. Considering the interests of the Tang Dynasty, only by moving the capital to Luoyang can the spread of feudal separatism be more effectively suppressed. Only by moving the capital to Luoyang can the financial dilemma of the imperial court be fundamentally solved.

Emperor Li Heng was surprised and delighted by Li Xuan's statement. He immediately issued an order to renegotiate the matter of moving the capital to Luoyang.

Without Li Xuan taking the lead, the clan's opposition to moving the capital to the east has obviously become weaker. Most people have chosen to remain silent. Although there are still a handful of people who still oppose it, it has no bearing on the overall situation. The political hall unanimously agreed to move the capital to Luoyang. Officials gradually reached a consensus that moving the capital to Luoyang would help solve the imperial court's financial difficulties, and moving the capital to Luoyang would help eliminate the cancer of the vassal town attached to the Tang Dynasty.

It was these two advantages that finally led the court to reach a consensus on moving the capital. Three days later, Emperor Li Heng issued an order that in mid-March the court would move the capital to the east, and at the same time change the reign name to Dongxing.

There is a very important concept here. This is not a capital move. Luoyang was originally the Eastern Capital, but the imperial court moved to the Eastern Capital.

In the evening of this day, Li Yu, the king of Hanzhong County, came to visit Li Xuan, the king of Xue. Li Xuan invited him to the guest hall. The two of them sat down separately, and Li Xuan asked the maid to serve tea.

After a moment of silence, Li Yu said with a smile: "My brother was strongly opposed to moving the capital to Luoyang before. Why did he suddenly change his mind?"

Li Xuan looked at Li Yu in surprise for a moment and asked, "Did the emperor ask you to ask?"

Li Yu nodded, "The emperor is very curious, what was the reason that made my brother change his mind?"

Li Xuan's eyes narrowed, and he felt it. He was not pretending to be stupid. The emperor really didn't know, which meant that the person who kidnapped his son was not the emperor.

"Why, isn't it easy for me to tell you, brother?"

Li Xuan said for a while: "There is nothing hard to say. Those who oppose the relocation are afraid of losing the interests of Guanzhong. Those who support the relocation are all for the benefit of Luoyang. Both support and opposition are for the sake of profit. It's that simple."

Li Yu smiled and said: "I understand, the hustle and bustle is beneficial."

Li Xuan also smiled, but his eyes were full of sadness. He had already guessed that the only person with the ability to threaten him and forcefully push the emperor to move the capital was Li Ye of Longyou.

No matter the three major vassal towns in Hebei, Li Zhengyi of Ziqing, Li Xilie, Liang Chongyi and others do not want the imperial court to move their capital. Moving the capital to Luoyang would be too great a threat to them.

The only beneficiary was Li Ye of Longyou. Once the imperial court moved the capital, his sphere of influence immediately extended to Guanzhong, and he would unknowingly completely control Guanzhong.

Therefore, he opposed moving the capital to Luoyang, violated Li Ye's vital interests, killed his uncle Feng Zhengqin, and kidnapped his son Li You. This could only be done by Li Ye.

Thinking of this, Li Xuan felt scared. This time he only opposed the relocation of the capital, so he received a death threat from Li Ye.

If Li Ye wanted to ascend the throne as Emperor of the Tang Dynasty and he opposed it, his whole family would be massacred without hesitation.

As the middle-aged Taoist nun said, killing yourself is like killing a dog.

At this moment, Li Xuan deeply felt the ruthlessness and cruelty of political struggle.

In Dugu Mansion, the three Dugu brothers are also considering moving the capital.

Dugu Lie said slowly: "I have thought about it for several days. I think our generation should go to Luoyang and leave the next generation in Chang'an."

Dugu Ming also nodded and said: "Brother is right. Aye is not building a new court, but replacing the current emperor. We still have to follow the center of power to play our role. I have also decided to go to Luoyang."

The two brothers looked at Dugujun together, and Dugujun smiled bitterly and said: "You may not know yet, but the emperor has talked to me and hopes that I will return to Beiting."

"Are you going to be the governor of Beiting?"

Dugujun shook his head, "He is still the director of Beiting Jiedu Mansion."

Dugu Lie was very surprised that the imperial court did not care about Beiting and Anxi at all. Since the Anxi Army and Beiting Army were sent to the Central Plains, the imperial court had basically forgotten Anxi and Beiting and had not mentioned them for a long time.

Now, Dugujun is suddenly asked to go to Beiting to be a long history officer. What does this mean?

Dugu Ming said thoughtfully: "Could it be that the emperor wants to use Beiting and Anxi as bargaining chips in exchange for Aye not to touch Guanzhong?"