Outside the East Patrol Team, on the cliffs on both sides of the Xixiang Valley Road, Zhang Liang, dressed in a Confucian blue shirt, stood with his hands behind his back, quietly looking at the turmoil in the valley road.
The flames of the motorcade illuminated the sky and were reflected in Zhang Liang's eyes.
In the dim firelight, a figure slowly approached him from behind.
Zhang Liang said without looking back, "Brother Wei Zhuang came very quickly."
As he finished speaking, the dim figure approaching behind him gradually became clear in the firelight. It was Wei Zhuang who had been intercepting Zhang Han before.
He walked to Zhang Liang carrying the shark tooth, and also cast his gaze on the chaotic East Patrol convoy, and replied in a deep voice, "I have delayed enough time. If the Mo family still can't succeed, there will be no chance tonight.
"
"Assassinating the emperor is not a trivial matter after all. Brother Wei Zhuang should also be considerate of the brothers of the Mo family." Zhang Liang replied with a smile after hearing this.
Wei Zhuang glanced at him sideways, "It seems like something really happened."
Zhang Liang sighed softly and nodded, "Ying Zheng has been transferred."
Wei Zhuang frowned when he heard this, "This doesn't seem like that emperor's character, nor does it seem like what Zhao Gao would do."
In fact, taking advantage of the chaos to transfer is a good choice.
No matter who initiates this assassination, it will not last too long. The safest way to ensure the safety of Yingzheng is to delay time, and direct transfer under strict confidentiality is the best way to delay time.
Of course, there are risks.
In order to ensure sufficient confidentiality, too many personnel cannot be used for protection, which will reduce the defense force around Ying Zheng to a minimum.
But this kind of thing is like two evils, and covert transfer is the more suitable one no matter what.
However, whether it was Zhang Liang's prediction, the Mohist's judgment, or Gai Nie's opinion, they all agreed that Ying Zheng would not do this, so they planned the assassination with confidence.
"People's hearts are fickle. No matter how tough the emperor's character is, whether he will give in when facing danger can only happen in a matter of seconds." Zhang Liang shrugged and replied with a smile, "He is afraid of death after all."
"As for Zhao Gao...of course he won't be troublesome at this time, but this incident has nothing to do with him."
"It was Dianqing who moved Ying Zheng."
"Dianqing..." Wei Zhuang frowned slightly. After thinking for a moment, he realized who was interfering, "Fusu sent him here..."
"Then you're not leaving yet?" Wei Zhuang, who understood the situation, immediately asked Zhang Liangdao.
Since Ying Zheng went into hiding beyond expectation, the assassination can be declared a failure.
Except for forcing the odds, the people of the Mo family had no chance of re-locking Ying Zheng's position in a short period of time.
As for the possibility of success in betting on probability...it can be ignored.
Upon hearing this, Zhang Liang replied calmly, "The play hasn't finished yet, so why bother leaving the stage."
"Have you intervened?" Hearing Zhang Liang's reply, Wei Zhuang immediately understood his hidden meaning.
"Tianming and Shaoyu should have arrived at Ying Zheng's current hiding place by now." Zhang Liang did not say what he had done, but directly stated the result.
"You..." Wei Zhuang pondered for a while, probably thinking of what Zhang Liang had done, "You used the information from Quicksand?"
Since Ying Zheng was taken away and hidden by Dianqing, there is no way from the empire to find out their current location, whether it is within the imperial court or within the network.
But the reality is that Zhang Liang learned of Ying Zheng's latest whereabouts very quickly.
The only way to obtain information is to start from the ceremony, that is, from inside the quicksand.
"Although this is most likely not Brother Gu's intention,... Liusha intervened after all." Zhang Liang explained nonchalantly, "Since he intervened, Mr. Fusu can call him, and so can I."
Having said this, Zhang Liang couldn't help but laugh, "It was also a fluke. I have been paying attention to the movements inside Quicksand, so I was able to learn about the celebration early and made arrangements in advance."
"Otherwise, I'm afraid the performance tonight won't be performed well."
"It seems that you believe in the strength of those two boys." Wei Zhuang replied quietly after seeing this.
"Brother Wei Zhuang, you know the strength of Dianqing." Zhang Liang raised his eyebrows when he heard this, and replied with an obvious smile on his eyebrows, "The target he protects is difficult for even a master like Gai Nie to succeed.
"
"On the contrary, it's dawn, maybe it can create a miracle."
"Really..." Wei Zhuang was noncommittal.
………………
The core of the Eastern Patrol Team, where the Emperor's carriage is located.
Facing the reality of the broken carriage wreckage lying on the ground but not half of a human being visible, Gao Jianli and others immediately understood everything.
Ying Zheng had already left here at an unknown time.
No matter how angry and upset everyone is, the reality is that everyone is gone and their actions can stop here.
Without any unnecessary communication, Gai Nie and others simultaneously shook off their opponents and ran away on the spot.
Zhao Gao looked at their fleeing figures with a gloomy expression on his face and had no intention of pursuing them.
Although in a sense, they can be regarded as collaborators in tonight's assassination, Zhao Gao obviously will not be lenient to Genie and the others.
The reason for not pursuing it is simple, because there is no point in pursuing it.
The most uncomfortable thing about top martial arts masters like Gai Nie is that even the imperial court has a hard time actually killing them.
Back then, Chen Sheng transformed into a black swordsman and traveled across the seven kingdoms. Almost every time he was imprisoned, he was caught by a master of martial arts like him. For example, the Qin State sent Gai Nie.
They may not have the strength to defeat thousands of troops, but they have the ability to run away from thousands of troops, and it's very good.
Although there are significantly more people on Zhao Gao's side, it would be difficult to gain anything if he really sent them to chase them.
What's more, at this juncture, Zhao Gao's most important responsibility must be to protect the emperor, not to hunt down the assassin.
He sent his people out to hunt down the assassins. If something happened to Ying Zheng who was hiding, he would be in big trouble.
………………
"Huh...huh..."
Tianming turned over and landed on the ground. At the same time, he waved his black eyebrows in his hand, and the ink and water sword energy stirred and intertwined, scattering the sword energy that was attacking him head-on.
Immediately afterwards, Shao Yu was also knocked back by Dian Qing with a knife. He slid for a long distance with the formation-breaking Overlord Spear and plowed a ravine on the ground before being caught by Tian Ming and stopped beside him.
Tianming panted heavily, grinned and looked at the ceremony with muscles all over his body, and couldn't help complaining to Shao Yu:
"What the hell is this!"
"I won't take any harm, just hit me with a hammer!"
Shao Yu smiled bitterly and joked to himself, "He is more difficult to deal with than a hammer. At least the hammer can still hit."
It’s no wonder that they both have broken defenses.
The two teamed up and fought fiercely with Dianqing for dozens of rounds, dealing tons of damage. In the end, Dianqing was unscathed except for the broken-down piece of whiteboard equipment he was wearing.
If the ceremony doesn't break the defense, then naturally it's up to the two of them to break the defense.
Dianqing was also more reserved with the two of them and did not pursue them too much. At this time, he also tried to persuade them:
"You don't have much time, leave."
"Joke!" For Tian Ming, any persuasion from the enemy to retreat is tantamount to provocation. He waved his hand and said forcefully, "I will not give up halfway!"
Shao Yu was not inspired, but he was not willing to give up this unique opportunity.
But he also knew how difficult it was to deal with the ‘bronze head and iron arms’ of the ceremony, so he chose to speak out:
"Senior Dianqing, back then the Armored Sect was the last pillar of the Wei army and the last continuation of the invincible Wei soldiers. How could you choose to side with the tyrannical and unjust Qin today?"
"You must know that the culprit for the destruction of the Armored Sect was also the Qin State!"
Regarding Shaoyu's sowing discord, the ceremony had a mediocre response.
He is a person who attaches great importance to essence and despises appearance.
He didn't care whether the Armored Gate sign was destroyed or not. As long as all his junior brothers and sisters were fine, he was satisfied.
As for the feud between Wei and Qin, it was too grand for the ceremony.
He is neither the king of Wei nor the leader of the army, so national hatred is meaningless to him.
Seeing that rhetoric was useless, Shao Yu could only try to increase his efforts:
"Senior Jianqing, now is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. As long as we kill Ying Zheng, everything can be undone!"
"It's not too late for you to abandon the darkness and embrace the light!"
After all, Shao Yu is still immature and does not understand the essence of talking nonsense, nor does he know enough about the ceremony.
The last two sentences, which he thought were very tempting, were still meaningless to the celebration.
He didn't have a good impression of the Qin State, but he didn't have any nostalgia for the Wei State - back then, he had always been in trouble between the Wei State court and his junior brothers and sisters, and he had long wanted to break up.
Now it's nice to be a careless guard who doesn't have to worry about anything. There's nothing he wants to redeem himself from.
Seeing that the ceremony was always silent, even Tianming felt embarrassed for his good brother, so he quickly interrupted to put aside the quarrel:
"If you can't talk sense to this kind of person, it's better for you to see the real deal."
After saying that, Tianming raised his sword and charged forward again.
Shao Yu grinned and shook his head, but he could only follow helplessly.
We have reached this point, and we can't retreat anyway. We can only continue to pester and see if we can seize the opportunity to bypass the ceremony.
………………
At the core of the convoy, the gloomy-looking Zhao Gao was about to issue the latest order to his subordinate killers and direct their next move when Zhang Han finally arrived late.
He brought a team of Shadow Guards with him, and almost everyone including himself was injured, and they looked very embarrassed.
Seeing the mess on the ground, Zhang Han's face turned even darker than Zhao Gao's. He didn't care about maintaining the superficial harmony with Zhao Gao, and asked in a cold voice, "Zhao Fu Ling, where is His Majesty the Emperor?"
Zhao Gao replied in the same unkind tone, "Should General Zhang Han ask me this? His Majesty the Emperor was taken away by your people!"
"Our people?" Zhang Han was stunned, "What our people?"
He didn't know anything about the ceremony, so he was naturally confused when faced with Zhao Gao's words.
Seeing Zhang Han's uninformed look, Zhao Gao felt relieved, but with a sneer on his face, he said, "It seems that General Zhang Han doesn't know about it."
"Master Fusu is concerned about His Majesty's safety and has specially transferred Mr. Dianqing to protect His Majesty the Emperor."
"The rebels were in rebellion before. Mr. Dianqing was worried that the losers under me could not protect them well, so he moved with His Majesty."
"I don't know where your Majesty is now."
After hearing Zhao Gao's answer, Zhang Han's face became even more ugly.
The fact that the emperor was taken away from the ceremony does not sound like bad news in itself.
As long as there are few insiders and the emperor's whereabouts are hidden enough, the emperor will be safe.
But the fact that the eldest son Fusu secretly sent Dianqing without telling him made it difficult for Zhang Han not to think more about it.
No matter how he thought about it, Zhang Han could not think of a reason for Fusu to hide it from him.
But the reality is that he knows nothing.
In officialdom, this situation can generally be regarded as Zhang Han being squeezed out by the faction, and it can even be further regarded as the eldest son Fusu, the faction leader, abandoning him.
No matter which outcome, it is not a good thing for Zhang Han.
This is also the reason why Zhao Gao looks like he is taking pleasure in others' misfortunes and has a weird look on his face.
Zhang Han was not interested in paying attention to Zhao Gao's sarcasm. He calmed down and responded coldly, "His Majesty the Emperor's safety is the most important thing. In this case, Zhang will not disturb Zhao's order."
After saying that, he took his people and left directly.
Zhao Gao didn't care about this. He just wanted to make the other party feel disgusted, and his goal had been achieved.
However, with Zhang Han's support, Zhao Gao's mood improved a lot, his face was not as dark as before, and he began to arrange tasks for his subordinates.
In fact, there is no mission. It boils down to three words - find the emperor.
This group of Tianzi killers basically know nothing but killing. Zhao Gao has to deal with the convoy himself, and it's not their turn.
All they can do is find someone.
………………
At the same time, outside the convoy, Gai Nie and others who had scattered and fled reunited.
They didn't really run away.
The reason is naturally that he doesn't want to give up.
Tonight's operation basically started smoothly, which resulted in the perfect opportunity. Naturally, not many people were happy to let them give up and fail.
But the problems they face are indeed difficult.
However, before they could start discussing the key issue of locking Ying Zheng's position, a voice interrupted everything.
"It seems that you are not ready to give up yet."
After the words fell, Wei Zhuang, dressed in a wide black robe, walked out of the darkness.
Seeing Wei Zhuang, Gao Jianli and Xue Nu were shocked, and the former asked directly:
"How could you..."
Wei Zhuang interrupted him, "My mission has been completed. What I do next has nothing to do with you, right?"
These words successfully blocked Gao Jianli's subsequent questioning.
Wei Zhuang's task is to try his best to delay Zhang Han, not to keep him delaying.
With so many Shadow Guards, even if only Zhang Han was targeted, Wei Zhuang would not be able to delay the attack for too long.
It was Gai Nie who knew his junior brother well and knew that Wei Zhuang must have something to say, otherwise he wouldn't have gone out of his way to find him.
There aren't many things that warrant Wei Zhuang coming to see them now.
"Do you know where Ying Zheng is?" Ge Nie asked bluntly.
"I don't know." Wei Zhuang smiled and gave a negative answer with his usual hint of sarcasm. This disappointed everyone, and then he gasped and added, "But someone knows, and he asked me to tell you.
"
"By the way, your tycoon and his friend have passed away."
"What!?"
This answer shocked Gao Jianli and others. Xue Nu quickly confirmed, "Going to find Ying Zheng tomorrow? With Shao Yu?"
Wei Zhuang did not answer, but shrugged his shoulders, expressing his affirmation.
When Gao Jianli saw this, he wanted to urge Wei Zhuang to take them there quickly, but Gao Nie was calm, and even if it involved Tianming, he still calmly asked first:
"Who is protecting Ying Zheng now?"
"If nothing else, there is only a ceremony." Wei Zhuang simply answered.
