Chapter 549; Doubts

The two then fell into silence for a long time.

Everyone poured and drank by themselves. When the jar of wine was bottomed out, Duke Zhen Guo slowly stood up.

"I will return to the capital in a few days."

"I'm afraid I won't be able to survive if I go back this time."

The King of Jin was silent. He was not surprised at all by what Duke Zhen Guo said.

Not to mention that Emperor Hongwen would not let him go, but he also had a grudge against Zhen Guo Gong for killing his father.

The reason why he came to see Duke Zhen today was simply because he wanted to know some things that he didn't know at the beginning.

King Jin also stood up slowly, without saying a word, turned around and walked out.

Just when he was about to go out, he heard the voice of Lord Zhen Guo behind him.

"Actually, the late emperor was not killed by me."

"Um?"

King Jin turned his head, frowned, and asked with a cold expression, "It's already this time, and you still want to deny it?"

He had known that the late emperor was killed by the Duke of Zhenguo since he was a child. Although he had not seen it with his own eyes, his subordinates all said so.

Moreover, when he grew up, he also investigated this matter in detail, and all the murderers pointed to Duke Zhen Guo.

"His Highness also said that at this point, I am already on the verge of death, so why should I deny it anymore?"

Duke Zhen Guo continued calmly, "His Royal Highness Prince Jin must have investigated what happened back then, and the results must all point to me."

"But there's one thing that His Highness, Prince Jin, I'm afraid he hasn't thought about carefully, right?"

"What's the matter?"

King Jin frowned again.

It is undeniable that he did conduct a detailed investigation into the events of that year, and he believed that he did not let go of any temptation. Now the Duke of Zhen actually said that he ignored one point.

"At that time, I was still the Marquis of Zhenbei."

As soon as these words came out, King Jin's eyes narrowed slightly, a flash of inspiration flashed in his mind, and he looked at Duke Zhen for a long time.

"Although it's not you, it could be Queen Wang."

The Duke of Zhen Guo continued without denying, "She was indeed involved, but she was not the mastermind. She was just pushing things along."

"Then who is the real murderer?"

"I don't know, but Your Highness can do a better job investigating it."

"For example, why do everything point to me?"

King Jin turned around silently and left the room, but his mind was still thinking about Duke Zhen Guo's words.

Especially the sentence that he is the Marquis of Zhenbei is indeed a key point that the King of Jin has always ignored.

He remembered that the late emperor was critically ill at the time, but the old enemy of Beichu did not miss this opportunity, and the army was always ready to move.

As the Marquis of Zhenbei, he had military power in the North and was sitting in the North. He was not in the capital at the time, although it is not ruled out that he arranged for someone to move.

But there are always some clues left here, and the most important point is that at that time, almost all the forces of Zhen Guogong were in the North.

There is only Queen Wang in the capital, and who is his opponent?

Those were the kings who fought fiercely in the capital at that time, and his royal brothers were very powerful in the capital.

Duke Zhen Guo wanted to remotely control and use the Queen's hands to deal with the late emperor. This was quite difficult, and he also underestimated his powerful royal brothers.

It seems that there are many secrets here that I don't know about.

Of course, although he was thinking this way, he still had doubts in his heart, for example, why did Lord Zhen Guo suddenly say this?

What's the purpose of this?

He didn't think that Duke Zhen Guo did this out of conscience.

A few days later, a decree came from the capital, asking the King of Jin to take care of the affairs in the north and then return to the capital in person with Duke Zhen to resume his duties.

At the same time, he also secretly gave him a letter, asking him to sort out everything that Duke Zhen Guo had done in the north.

The implication is that this time the Duke of Zhen is going to be completely driven into dust.

Regarding this, if it were in the past, King Jin would not hesitate to put Duke Zhen to death. However, after what happened before, King Jin suddenly had a plan in his heart to temporarily keep Duke Zhen.

There are some things that he hasn't figured out yet, and of course he won't let Duke Zhen off because of this.

In fact, the meat that Lord Zhen Guo has put on the chopping board will lead to death sooner or later. Just keeping it for a while will not change his ending.

However, he still sorted out all the things that Duke Zhen Guo had done, and planned to talk to Emperor Hongwen and fight for it when he returned to the capital.

Five days later, the King of Jin had already settled matters in the North and left his confidants to take charge of the North.

He took the 5,000 elite soldiers given by Emperor Hongwen and returned to the capital with Duke Zhen Guo to resume his duties.

Along the way, Duke Zhen Guo was very honest and did not talk nonsense to the King of Jin.

A few days later, a large group of troops appeared in the capital. Emperor Hongwen got the news immediately and sent General Huo Di to wait at the city gate early.

"His Majesty has ordered that the matter of Zhen Guo Gong is still under investigation, and he is temporarily under house arrest in Guo Gong's Mansion."

The King of Jin was speechless, and the Duke of Zhenguo was speechless.

In this way, Duke Zhen was taken away by Huo Di, while King Jin went straight to the palace.

"Hahaha, King Jin did a good job this time. The big trouble in my heart in Dongzhou has finally been eliminated."

Hearing this, King Jin also nodded with a smile and said, "Without the unstable factor of Duke Zhen, Dongzhou can have peace for a few years."

"However, this time during my trip to the Northland, I discovered something different."

"I have to ask the Emperor for something."

"What's the matter? There's no need to be so polite between us."

Although the two are brothers in name, they are actually sons-in-law.

"I have always had some doubts about what happened back then, so after I captured the Duke of Zhen that day, I went to inquire about it."

"He told me something, and I thought it made sense."

Later, he said what he said that day when he met the Duke of Zhen, but he didn't mention a word about his guess.

It has to be said that Duke Zhenguo's words planted a seed of doubt in his heart.

"I also know this. At that time, the Duke of Zhen was indeed in charge in the north, but I was in Jiangdong. Suddenly I received a secret letter from the queen, saying that the late emperor was critically ill and asked me to rush back as soon as possible."

King Jin nodded, he knew this, and it was also true that Emperor Hongwen was in Jiangdong.

"I remember that the late emperor passed away the next day after I returned to the capital, and then there were rumors about what the royal brothers had done secretly."

"At the same time, my father's imperial edict also appeared."

"To be honest, when I received the edict, I was in an unreal state. You know my situation very well. It was because I didn't want to fight and didn't dare to fight that I hid from the capital and went to Jiangdong."

"But in the end, the job fell to me out of nowhere."

Having said this, Emperor Hongwen was a little sad.

King Jin was speechless and kept paying attention to Emperor Hongwen's expression. He knew what happened at the beginning and it was exactly what Emperor Hongwen said.

But he couldn't figure it out. How could Duke Zhen Guo rely on the king and queen alone to get the late emperor to leave the imperial edict of passing the throne while all the kings were watching?
Chapter completed!