Chapter 209: The Moon Visits the Prison

In the secret room of Prince Qing’s Mansion, Yang Guozhong and Prince Qing Li Cong drank the Qinggong wine. What happened in the past two days made them very proud.

Yang Guozhong said with a smile: "Your Highness, please rest assured that the prince's deposed this time is a foregone conclusion. This afternoon, the emperor asked me to go to the imperial study room. Guess what happened, haha! He actually appointed me as the Minister of Personnel, and even Li Linfu's old foundation was dug up."

"Then I will congratulate Shangshu Yang, come! I'll give you a cup."

The two of them clinked a glass of wine and drank it all in one go. Li Cong said again: "Shangshu Yang, I wonder if Li Qingan can kill him in prison. I really hate this person."

"Your Highness, you can't touch him now."

“Why?”

Yang Guozhong sighed and said, "I don't know if it was the emperor who missed it or did it deliberately. Li Qing'an's almost all positions were removed from him. There was still a position as a censor. I guess the emperor is still undecided about him now."

Li Cong had no choice but to say hatefully: "It's just that he doesn't die, I can't swallow this tone."

"Your Highness, I hate him, but now I can't make trouble. We will take action after the prince is completely deposed. Otherwise, once the emperor notices it, I will be afraid of losing the big picture because of the small one!"

"Great! It's really high!" Li Cong gave a thumbs up and praised: "Shangshu Yang is worthy of having the heart of the prime minister. He can tolerate ordinary people but cannot. I admire him very much. Come on! I would like to salute the Secretary to a glass of wine. In the future, I hope the Secretary to support him when I enter the Eastern Palace."

"Absolutely! Absolutely!" Yang Guozhong drank the wine, squinted his eyes and smiled, "However, although we cannot kill Li Qing'an openly and let him die unknowingly, it is not impossible."

The next day, the situation in the court was still tense. The Censorate issued three impeachments in a row. Ma Zhili, the Shaoqing of the Honglu Temple, placed another housewife and was impeached and removed from office. Wei Huan, the prefect of Shaanxi Province, was suspected of taking stolen goods while serving as the prefect in Yizhou, and was dismissed and investigated. Xu Yunsheng, the prefect of Qingzhou, occupied the country and was dismissed on the spot.

This means that the Purge of Princess has developed in depth, and people from all over the court are in panic.

Early in the morning, Dugu Mingyue, accompanied by two family members, came to Dali Temple Prison with a basket. Dali Temple Prison is located in Dali Temple in the Imperial City. It is generally used to detain criminal officials and their families, while ordinary people are detained in Jingzhao Prison. Dali Temple was expanded several times during the Wuzhou period and gradually formed a large central prison. Although the official edict of Dugu Mingyue being named Princess Mingyue has not been released yet, she is the eldest daughter of the Dugu family, with a noble status and is the niece of Pei Min, the young minister of Dali Temple. The prison minister dared not neglect and quickly reported to Pei Shaoqing who was inspecting the prison.

Pei Min is the son of Pei Yaoqing, the nephew of Pei Kuan, who has always been famous. When he heard Mingyue came to visit the prison, he couldn't help but feel embarrassed. Although Mingyue was his niece, it was not easy to agree casually.

Dali Temple is not prohibited from visiting prisons, but it is generally limited to immediate relatives, such as wife visiting husbands, son visiting fathers, etc. Although everyone in Chang'an knows what Dugu Mingyue and Li Qing'an have a relationship, it seems a bit inappropriate to visit prisons with her current identity. In fact, with Pei Min's power, he can specially approve Mingyue to visit prisons, but at this tense moment, there is a person like Li Qing'an with a special identity, so he dare not make decisions without authorization.

At this time, the prison chief whispered: "Pei Shaoqing, this Li Qing'an has been arrested the night before yesterday and has not been in. If there are three longs and two shorts, we cannot explain it."

Pei Min was stunned, "Why don't you give him food?"

"What we gave was just that he refused to use it."

Pei Min thought about it and suddenly realized that Li Qing'an was afraid that people would make trouble in secret and refused to use food in prison. He asked without saying a word: "Is there any situation these two nights?"

The Prison Master looked at both sides and lowered his voice in his ears, "It was Luo Yucheng on duty last night. I heard that the Ji Envoy came at the first update last night. I stayed for a while and said something secretly to Luo Yucheng. I don't know what it said."

Pei Min lowered her head and thought for a while, and said, "Okay then! She is only allowed to come in and visit her, but it won't take too long."

After a moment, Dugu Mingyue, led by Niu Yucheng, walked into the Dali Temple Prison. The special cells that detained Li Qing'an and Lu Huan were located underground. They were made of large bluestones. There were eight such dungeons, guarding them from layers of gates. The guards were extremely strict. Mingyue's identity was special and no one dared to search for her. With Pei Shaoqing's special approval, the prison guards let her in.

‘Crash!’ The lock was opened, the large iron chain as thick as a bowl was removed, a large dark iron door opened, Mingyue walked down, and with a loud bang, the iron door closed again, and the eyes were dim, and a bottomless stone path led to the depths of the ground.

"Girl, please follow me!"

A jailer led Mingyue down the dim and damp passage. The stone walls on both sides were covered with smooth moss. Every ten steps, there was an oil lamp on the stone wall. The lights were like bean seedlings, shaking suddenly, illuminating the stone walls light and dark, making it look particularly dark. Mingyue held a basket and held the stone wall slowly down. Suddenly she felt something crawling on the stone wall, which scared her to suddenly retract her hand. She seemed to hear a slight rustling sound beside her. She felt something unknown crawling past her feet, which scared her to fear. At this time, they walked to the bottom of the stone prison, which was blocked by a thick iron door. The jailer knocked on the door with all his strength, and a small window opened. Under a little light, a ferocious face was revealed. This was a one-eyed old jailer with scars on his face. His voice was hoarse and low, "What's the matter?"

The jailer handed over a bronze medal and said, "Visit the prison!"

The prison guard turned around and said to Mingyue: "Girl, Pei Shaoqing has a special explanation. We dare not search you. I hope the girl can be faster and not make things difficult for us."

Mingyue nodded, and for a moment, the iron door opened in a harsh creaking sound, and a musty smell came to her face. Mingyue couldn't help but chill. She hesitated and walked into this underground cell that looked like an underworld.

After walking for more than a dozen steps, the one-eyed old jailer knocked on the iron fence as thick as a wrist with an iron chain, making a sound.

"On the 35th, someone visited the prison."

Mingyue could no longer suppress her inner excitement. She pounced on her, grabbed the fence, tremblingly shouted in a low voice, "Li Qing'an!"

The cell was dark and wet, with empty walls, only an old wooden couch, and a pile of tattered bedding was placed on the wooden couch. A man lay listlessly on the wooden couch. He heard Mingyue's shouting, and he sat up, and the dim light shone on his face. It was Li Qing'an, who was arrested in Xianyang.

"It's you!"

He was surprised in his heart, rushed to the fence a few steps, grabbed Mingyue's hand, "Why are you here?"

Mingyue saw that he was emitting his head, his face was covered with stains, and he was wearing only a white single shirt. Her heart was as if she was slashed out, and tears came out of her eyes.

"It's okay! It's okay!" Li Qing'an patted her hands and comforted her: "They dare not touch me, I'm still the Censor! Besides, I have three hundred personal guards outside, who dares to touch a hair of my hair unless he's tired of living."

He glanced at Mingyue holding a basket and smiled, "But you bring me food?"

"Yeah!" Mingyue quickly unveiled the cloth on the basket, which was a food box inside, and there was a bottle of wine next to it. The jailer opened the window for delivering food, and Mingyue handed the food box and wine in.

"This is a dish I made by myself, you can try it."

"Haha! Thank you, I'm really hungry."

Li Qing'an took the food box and asked again: "Have they checked?"

"I said I was a delivery person, so they didn't check it. They just opened the cloth and looked at it, and did not touch the food."

"That's good!"

Li Qing'an drank the wine in one go, took the chopsticks, ate it voraciously, and smiled vaguely, "Okay! This is the most delicious dish I have ever eaten."

Seeing that he was so hungry, Mingyue couldn't help but feel distressed: "I'll send it to you that night."

"Okay! Give me a roast chicken and two bottles of wine, so that they will never have any chance unless they kill me with one knife, haha!"

Mingyue was very worried. Seeing that the prison guard had left, she asked, "Do you need me to do anything?"

"Not yet!"

Speaking of this, Li Qingan glanced at her and smiled and said, "I am happy that Prince Gelu who wants to marry you is shot to death by me?"

Mingyue nodded and said softly: "Mingzhu has told me."

Mingyue's pretty face turned slightly red. She suddenly remembered something and hurriedly said, "Mingzhu..."

As soon as she said the word "Pearl", she suddenly saw Li Qingan wave to her and immediately woke up.

Li Qing'an nodded in approval. At this time, someone outside the cell door shouted: "Okay! The visit to the prison can be over."

"knew!"

After Li Qing'an finished his last bite of food, he sent out the bowls, chopsticks and food boxes. He took off another piece of jade and smiled and said, "This is something left by my ancestors. Now I'll give it to you. Come! I'll put it on for you."

Mingyue's eyes were flashing with a bright color, slowly approaching the fence, raised her head and looked at him excitedly, putting her hands on her chest, as if waiting for the happiest moment of her life to come. Li Qingan smiled, looking at her raised face like a bright and dazzling flower. He wore jade on her swan-like neck. They looked at each other without any words. Their eyes had passed on all their feelings to each other.

At this time, the prison guard outside the door shouted anxiously again, "Miss, go quickly! It will be too late if you don't leave."

"I'm leaving, I'll see you again tonight."

Mingyue put on the basket and looked back at Li Qing'an reluctantly. Li Qing'an smiled and waved to her. Mingyue's pretty face flushed and followed the old prisoner out.

Walking out of the narrow and dark stone path, Mingyue's eyes suddenly lit up, and a fresh wind blew over her face. She turned around and looked at the dark corridor. The big iron gate was rumbling to close, and she felt like she was returning from the underworld to the world.

At this time, a team of soldiers rushed to the distance. She quickly flashed to the side and saw an official approaching and shouting loudly: "According to the order of the Ministry of Justice and the Censorate, Li Qing'an will be interrogated!"

"Girl, go!" her family reminded in a low voice.

Mingyue sighed and walked onto the carriage. She immediately looked at the token of love given to her by Li Qing'an. This was a piece of warm and delicate jade. The sun shone on the jade, and the jade was crystal clear. Mingyue's heart was filled with joy and said to the coachman: "Okay, let's go!"

The coachman swung his whip, turned around and drove out of Dali Temple quickly.

In Xingqing Palace, an eunuch led Dugu Mingzhu to walk quickly towards the deep palace. The Dugu family was a royal relative. In addition, Dugu Mingzhu had a very good voice, just like the sound of nature. She was loved by Yang Guifei, who was proficient in music, and often went to the palace to rehearse dance music with Yang Guifei.

Mingzhu was worried. She had been here once yesterday, but Yang Guifei was busy moving and had no time to take care of her and asked her to come again today. It has been a day and a night since Li Qing'an was arrested, and she and her sister have not slept all night. They discussed ways to save Li Qing'an and wanted to beg their father, but their father was also suspended and was in a very bad mood. After thinking about it, they could only come to ask the concubine to plead with her.

The two sisters acted separately, Mingyue went to visit the prison, and Mingzhu went to the palace to find Yang Guifei.

"It seems that Miss Mingzhu hasn't been here for a long time!"

"Yeah! I haven't been here for a few months."

She smiled reluctantly and said, "It has been three months since I entered the palace. I heard that the Empress has composed a new song and wants to come and sing it."

"Hey! The Empress is busy moving and may not have the heart to try the new song. Miss Mingzhu will follow me!"

The two walked through the long corridor and came to the agarwood Pavilion. They heard the sound of a piano from afar. This was Yang Guifei who used the sound of a piano to bid farewell to her favorite agarwood Pavilion.

The past two days, Yang Guifei was a little tired, and the troubles of moving and trivial matters were pestering her. In addition, she was about to leave Xingqing Palace, where she had just lived and returned to Daming Palace, and was in a bad mood.

After playing the last paragraph, she stopped the sound of the piano and sighed softly: ‘Oh!’

At this time, her personal maid stepped forward and said, "Empress, Miss Mingzhu is here, waiting outside."

"Let her come in!"

After a moment, the maid walked in with Mingzhu. Yang Yuhuan also liked Mingzhu's lively and cuteness. Seeing Mingzhu losing weight a lot and his eyes were worried, she smiled and said, "Is she worried that she can't find her lover, so she asked me to help?"

Mingzhu Yingying bowed and said, "Empress, I have something important to ask for it."

Seeing Mingzhu's expression was sad, Yang Yuhuan couldn't help but joking and asked, "What's the matter?"

Mingzhu looked at both sides, and Yang Yuhuan waved her hand and said, "You guys retreat!"

The eunuchs and the palace maids retreated, leaving only two Yang Yuhuan's personal maids. Mingzhu knelt down and said with tears in her eyes: "Please help Li Qing'an! He is going to be killed by the emperor."

Yang Yuhuan was stunned and hurriedly said, "Where is this? Didn't Li Qing'an make a meritorious service in the Battle of Sailing Ye? Was he highly rewarded by the emperor? How could he be killed?"

"Empress, Li Qing'an was indeed captured by the Yulin Army in Xianyang. I was there at that time. I also have a letter from him to the Empress."

As he said that, Mingzhu pulled out the letter rolled into a long strip from his hair bun, presented it with both hands, and the maid took it and handed it to Yang Yuhuan. Yang Yuhuan slowly unfolded the letter, but the letter read: "I have always been loyal to the emperor and loyal to the Tang Dynasty. I was implicated by the Eastern Palace and was suspicious by Your Majesty. Unfortunately, my life was lost. I beg the Empress to ask Your Majesty to plead for you for your Majesty's kindness. My Majesty will repay you with the Grace."

Yang Yuhuan was shocked, "Does the emperor want to kill General Li?"

"Empress, Brother Li is now imprisoned in the prison of Dali Temple. Even if the emperor does not kill him, he will be killed by his enemies. Empress, saving people is like putting out a fire!"
To be continued...