At this moment, in the imperial city of the Song Dynasty, in the Zichen Hall.
"What? Li Xiuyuan was assassinated on the road and was seriously injured and dying. His life or death was uncertain? Han Shizhong led 20,000 cavalry and came to the imperial city?"
Zhao Jing, who had only been sitting on the Dragon Throne for ten days, heard the report from Six Doors, Yan Kuan, and Master Yan. He jumped up from the Dragon Throne in shock. His face suddenly changed, like a frightened child.
Not even the slightest bit of an imperial gesture.
Yan Kuan saluted and said, "I'd like to report to the official family that this is indeed the case."
"How could this happen? How could such a thing happen..."
After all, Zhao Jing had experienced so few things. When he heard about this, his face turned pale and he felt a little lost.
"On the way to Li Xiuyuan's assassination, Han Shizhong must have suspected that I was the one who ordered the assassin. According to the plan, Li Xiuyuan's 20,000 cavalry were supposed to defend the capital for me in case someone disobeyed me and ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor. Now Han Shizhong is dissatisfied with me and is suspicious of me.
These... these 20,000 cavalrymen are afraid that they can be used at any time, at any time.
It is possible to break into the imperial city at any time."
His lips moved slightly and he looked outside the palace with a look of horror.
This was Li Xiuyuan's back-up plan, in order to prevent himself from being harmed. Therefore, he sent 20,000 elite cavalry to the capital to prevent the imperial court.
Yan Kuan immediately said in a deep voice: "The top priority for the officials should be to issue an order to track down the murderer of Mr. Li, punish him severely, and give Han Shizhong an explanation outside the capital. At the same time, the officials should also issue an order to appease him to prevent a mutiny in the capital.
..... Mr. Li is the commander of an army. If something happens to him, what will happen to him?
It may lead to a catastrophic disaster, so please act quickly and solve the case as quickly as possible."
"Yes, yes, yes, what Aiqing said is absolutely true. I would like to ask Mr. Yang to prepare a decree quickly. The case will be entrusted to Aiqing. I hope Liumen will solve the case as quickly as possible this time." Zhao Jing said in a panic.
.
Mr. Yang on the side squinted his eyes and said: "Just solving the case is not enough to convince the arrogant soldiers under Mr. Li. Another imperial edict is needed to convince the people. I suggest that once the murderer is traced, he should be charged with treason."
When it comes to punishment... we should punish the nine tribes."
Kill the Nine Tribes?
Yan Kuan's eyelids twitched.
From the founding of the Song Dynasty to the present, an imperial edict to punish the nine tribes has never been issued, and the previous dynasty has issued such an edict.
Because the Nine Clans were so implicated, at least a few hundred or even a thousand people, young and old, would be killed as soon as the imperial edict was issued.
"Officials, the crime of punishing the Nine Tribes is really too big. The crime of assassinating the governor of a state is really not up to the level of punishing the Nine Tribes. I suggest that he should be punished appropriately." Yan Kuan said.
Mr. Yang said calmly: "If we don't kill the nine murderers, we can't express the indignation and sadness of the officials, nor can we quell the anger of Han Shizhong's 20,000 soldiers and horses outside the city. This is not an indiscriminate killing by the officials. It is really an extraordinary thing done at an emergency."
, if this imperial edict is not promulgated, if something goes wrong, I don’t know if Mr. Yan can
Be responsible.”
"This, this..." Yan Kuan hesitated, not knowing how to respond.
The other officials all looked at their noses with their eyes and their hearts with their noses, motionless like wooden figures.
The assassination of a human saint on the way, such a major event is enough to shock the three realms, but now that the ancestor is being executed, he and others are unable to protect themselves, how can they dare to do something about a human saint.
Finally, Zhao Jing gritted his teeth and said: "I decree, once the identity of the murderer is found out, his nine tribes will be executed immediately. There is no need to wait until the end of the autumn to ask for execution, and officials from all over the world will be executed immediately. Yan Aiqing, I will leave this matter to you. You
Cui Wei, my subordinate, is very good. I asked Xu Bao to also lead a forbidden army.
, we must find out the murderer within three days and give Mr. Li justice."
"Your Majesty, I obey the order." After the imperial edict was announced, Yan Kuan had nothing to say and immediately bowed his hands and saluted to accept the order.
At this moment, the Great Song Dynasty was doing things surprisingly fast.
Less than half an hour after the imperial edict left the capital, two groups of troops headed straight for the capital.
Cui Wei led the imperial edict to the army formation outside the city. When he saw the black cavalry outside the city, he couldn't help but take a breath of cold air.
Banners are like clouds, swords and spears are like forests, war horses are like dragons, murderous intent is rolling, 20,000 cavalry are stretched across the field in front of you, even the earth is covered. Such an army will make gods tremble when they see it. No one in the world can stop it.
I'm afraid this army no longer exists.
He hurriedly shouted: "Your Majesty has a decree. Mr. Li was assassinated on the road. Your Majesty was deeply saddened and angry. He specially ordered General Xu, a low-level official, to investigate the murderer strictly. Once found, he would be punished for treason and the nine tribes would be punished.
At the same time, His Majesty was worried about Mr. Li's safety, so he sent ten imperial doctors from his humble position.
Thirty boxes of precious medicinal materials..."
"The imperial edict of the official? Cui Wei, we are also old friends. Now that the eldest young master has been assassinated, this matter will definitely not let go." Han Shizhong came running with a group of soldiers on horseback. He looked a little haggard and said in a cold voice.
"Han Meng, you have to believe that this matter was not done by His Majesty. I will find out what happened today. Don't worry, I will give you a satisfactory answer within three days. So please don't act out of anger.
If Mr. Li is here, I don't want to see you use weapons again." Cui Wei shouted
: "Furthermore, Mr. Li has his own good fortune, so everything will be fine."
"Also, think about it carefully. If it is really your Majesty's fault, wouldn't the crime of killing the nine tribes be punished on His Majesty's head? I am going to investigate the case now. If you are worried, you can send someone to follow me. I will definitely
There will be no partiality.”
Han Shizhong's eyes moved slightly, and he shouted: "Mao Wu, please lead a team of people to follow Cui Wei to see if there is anything fishy here. The injury of the young master cannot be in vain. If it is really the fault of the imperial court, I will definitely
We must seek justice for the young master."
"yes."
Mao Wu responded with cupped fists and immediately ran out with a group of cavalry.
"Han Meng, don't act out of anger." Cui Wei warned again, and then he took six doors, General Yaksha Xu Bao, and a group of forbidden troops and rode towards the outside of the capital.
"Actually, we have already targeted the murderer, but the eldest young master said he would not kill her, so he let her go." Mao Wu said in a deep voice on the way: "If my prediction is correct, she should be from a certain county and will never leave the capital too far.
Far."
"Really? That's good, thank you very much." Cui Wei cupped his fists and cupped his hands.
And in a certain county.
Gu Sheng tossed and turned all night and did not fall asleep. He was worried about his wife's safety.
A daughter's family actually imitated Zhuan Chu's move and wanted to assassinate some corrupt official. You must know that no matter whether it succeeds or fails, it will bring death.
"That immortal shouldn't have given her that dagger, otherwise nothing like this would have happened. Having such an immortal treasure made her determined to avenge her father." Gu Changshang sighed.
, he heard the young child crying in the house, but he hurriedly went to comfort him.
Finally, feeling depressed, I spoke to my parents at home and took my young son for a walk around the town.
He bought some valuable money, incense and candles, and decided to worship his ancestors and pray for their protection, hoping that his wife would be safe.
Originally, he should pray to gods and worship Buddha for this matter, but he was a scholar and did not worship ghosts and gods, only ancestors, so he gave up this idea.
Holding hands with his young son, who had just learned to walk, Gu Sheng came to the ancestral graves not far outside the town.
Just as he was lighting the paper money and preparing the incense candles for worship.
Suddenly a strange wind blew up, forming a whirlpool in front of the ancestor's grave, rolling up paper money, blowing out the incense candles, and making a mess of the neatly arranged sacrifices.
"Why did the wind blow suddenly?" Gu Sheng covered his face with his sleeves to protect his youngest son, waiting for the strange wind to pass.
But just as the wind stopped, he suddenly felt a rumbling vibration under his feet.
"Boom~!"
Suddenly, there was a loud noise, and the ancestral tomb in front of me suddenly shook violently, and then the whole ancestral tomb collapsed. The tomb seemed to have fallen into a mud pit below, and then the nearby soil fell, and the entire ancestral tomb was buried in the blink of an eye.
, even the tombstone fell to the ground and shattered into pieces
Countless pieces.
"This, this..." Gu Sheng was dumbfounded for a moment, but before he could react.
"Boom, boom~!"
However, other Gu family tombs in the nearby ancestral tombs collapsed rapidly in no particular order. Like the ancestral tomb in front of them, they were all submerged in soil and the tombstones were broken.
One, two, three... more than twenty ancestral tombs collapsed.
It is strange that there are other people's tombs near these collapsed ancestral tombs, not far away, but other people's ancestral tombs are intact, only the Gu family's ancestral tombs have all collapsed.
"How could this happen? How could this happen? The ancestors of my Gu family..."
Gu Sheng murmured to himself, feeling at a loss. His whole body was like a demon, and he was frozen in place. He just stared blankly at the sunken ancestral graves, feeling at a loss.
After a long time, he woke up with a start. He was also a scholar after all, and then he realized that this was a warning from God, a sign that something big was going to happen, and even the ancestral graves were affected.
"Hurry, go home quickly."
Gu Sheng took the young son in his arms and ran to the town.
But before entering the town, many people in the town were seen running out as if they were fleeing.
An old man on crutches grabbed Gu Sheng's lapel with grief and anger and said, "Gu Sheng, why are you still hurting us? Why are you trying to hurt us?"
"Uncle, what happened?" Gu Sheng said with a confused look on his face.
"Don't you know what you did? The officials in the capital issued an edict saying that the Gu family was rebellious. They have already issued an imperial edict to punish the nine members of the Gu family. My God, my Gu family is full of loyal people. How could we suffer such a disaster? How could we?
Suffering from such a disaster..." The old man looked up to the sky and cried bitterly.
Before Gu Sheng could get over his shock, he saw a group of soldiers and horses from the court running towards him behind him. Those soldiers showed no mercy to some of the Gu family members who tried to escape, slashing with knives and shooting with bows.
No mercy at all.
"Uncle, how are my parents doing at home?" Gu Sheng asked tremblingly.
"If you still care about your parents, something bad has happened to you a long time ago. Come on, walk as far as you can. I'm too old to walk. Maybe you can escape this disaster and take your child to the woods."
Run...If you have a chance, you must avenge our Gu family." The old man suddenly seemed to come back.
As if the light was shining back, he pushed Gu Sheng away hard, then turned around to meet the soldiers and horses of the court, delaying Gu Sheng's time.
Gu Sheng was in shock and at a loss, but after being pushed by his uncle, he subconsciously picked up the child, turned around and ran away.
Gu Sheng was a scholar, but he also burst out with a lot of strength at this time. He hugged his youngest son and ran all the way without feeling tired. He only felt the sound of several arrows flying through the air behind him, but it seemed that
He didn't shoot himself.
He ran like this all the way, and he didn't know how far he ran. It wasn't until he really ran out of energy that he unknowingly increased his speed.
It was already dusk now.
At this time, he saw a woman with disheveled hair, covered in mud, and a miserable state on the official road beside her suddenly shouted in shock: "Husband, why are you here?"
Gu Sheng was shocked by this shout and came to his senses. When he saw Jiang Rong's miserable state with blood stains on her body, everything suddenly became clear to him.
"Wow~!"
As soon as I woke up, I felt a pain in my chest. I looked down and saw that I had been hit by two arrows at some point. The arrows penetrated my chest and stabbed the young son in my arms.
At this moment, the youngest son's breath was gone and he was just a cold corpse.
He laughed miserably and fell down.
Jiang Rong, a woman who had practiced martial arts, hurriedly ran over to see her husband support him, and was shocked when she saw her husband's body covered in blood.
"Cough, cough, cough."
Gu Sheng lay on her body and gritted his teeth and said: "You, you must be hiding something from me, there must be... you are not going to assassinate corrupt officials, you are going to rebel. The officials have already issued an order,
They say that my Gu family is rebellious and they want to kill all nine of our Gu family. Haha, kill all the nine people. Do you know what killing the nine people means?
What are you talking about, my Gu family will not only be wiped out, but also be in disgrace for thousands of years. Until the beginning of the Song Dynasty, there has been no imperial edict to kill the nine tribes... All of this is thanks to you."
"My family is unfortunate and I have an unworthy wife. Retribution, retribution, revenge for my father are all excuses. You are a madman, crazy woman. I was so blind that I married you. Now my father has been killed by you.
The child was killed by you, and everyone in the Gu family was killed by you."
"Husband, husband, how could this happen? How could this happen?"
When Jiang Rong heard the news, she felt like a bolt from the blue.
Gu Sheng's face turned pale and he said harshly: "Are you still lying to me now? Do you want me to be a fool even if I die? Tell me, what is all this going on?"
"I, I did go to assassinate Li Xiuyuan today, but, I didn't know that things would turn out like this... I, I just wanted to avenge my father." Jiang Rong cried loudly.
"Li Xiuyuan? Li Xiuyuan, the governor of Yangzhou, the man who quelled the rebellion of the Nine Mountain Kings? You actually want to assassinate such great heroes who helped quell the rebellion."
Hearing this, Gu Sheng looked up to the sky and laughed, crying bitterly: "It's not unfair, it's not unfair. My Gu family was exterminated and nine tribes were exterminated. It's not unfair. I was deceived by you. What about corrupt officials, what about confiscation of family property? Now I understand.
It was your father who collaborated with the enemy and betrayed the country. He surrendered in Kaicheng and was beheaded by Master Li. You are a traitor.
Daughter of a national thief, I thought you had good character and a good heart before, but all of this is a lie you made up."
"Your father Kaicheng surrendered. Not to mention Mr. Li, even if I were there, I would have killed your father. I am afraid that you can walk out of Jinling City alive because of Mr. Li's mercy. Otherwise, how could you escape with your mother on your back?"
come out."
"Collaborating with the enemy and betraying the country, being ungrateful and assassinating loyal ministers and good generals... Ahem, Jiang Rong, if there is an afterlife, I will definitely hate you for ten lifetimes."
Gu Sheng shouted angrily, and then his chest burst with blood. He screamed and fell to the ground without breathing.
"Husband..." Jiang Rong saw that her husband died tragically, and her youngest son had no breath at all.
Her husband and children both died in front of her eyes.
The Gu family was executed because of their involvement, and even the Jiang family was among the nine clans and would soon be exterminated.
All of this was because he assassinated Li Xiuyuan.
"Ah~!" Thinking of all this, Jiang Rong collapsed and yelled, then ran forward like crazy.
The only trace of reason left reminded her of what Li Xiuyuan said when he let her go: "I will bear the evil retribution for killing your father, but can you bear the evil retribution for killing me..."
The results are obvious.
She can't afford it.
Because he didn't think much about it when he assassinated Li Xiuyuan. It was just that the moment he saw the dagger, his heart was clouded by long-lost hatred, so he desperately avenged his father and assassinated Li Xiuyuan.
Your father deserves to die for collaborating with the enemy and betraying the country.
You are the daughter of a thief,
You repay kindness with hatred and assassinate loyal ministers and good generals.
I will hate you for ten lifetimes...
One sentence was like a sharp knife, piercing into the depths of her soul, making her feel miserable.
In the end, Jiang Rong only heard a series of horse hoofbeats behind her. Finally, she hit herself hard and fell to the ground, vomiting blood and looking at the sky with her eyes wide open.
Not sure if it was an illusion, but she saw an immortal standing on the white clouds in the sky. The immortal was the man in the market who claimed to be the immortal from the mountain.
At this moment, the old immortal looked at him with cold mockery in his eyes, then he laughed, turned around and drove away in Baiyun.
"Is this woman the murderer? Sir, what should I do?"
"Bring them back to the capital and kill them before Han Shizhong and his three armies to appease the public's anger." Cui Wei's voice sounded.
Soon, Jiang Rong was tied up with ropes. Before she passed out, she saw that today's sunset was particularly bright, like blood, extending from here, like a straight road across the sky...