Li Laiheng, Liu Fangliang, and Wu Ruyi finally arrived at the Queen Mother's palace with their respective troops.
At noon, the sun barely broke through the clouds, trying its best to dissolve the fog barrier into the blue sky. The palace was wrapped in gray-black smoke from the southeast to the front of the palace gate. The sun had already climbed above people's heads, but it
It seemed like a ghost without life, which only made Li Laiheng feel illusory and absurd.
The rebel soldiers knelt or prostrated, all crouched. In front of the prisoner, they suddenly lost their crazy and foolish courage. The moment everyone saw Li Guo, they regained their fear of military discipline and order.
feel.
Li Laiheng stared at Niu Quan, his eyes as sharp as arrows, piercing Niu Quan's back.
As a Yin of Kaifeng, Niu Quan could not escape his guilt no matter what.
Li Guo sighed and said, "This matter is beyond your ability to handle."
Then the palace door finally opened, and from the cracks in the door, bursts of smoke continued to come out. The smoke was all filled with ashes, and Li Laiheng felt that as long as he took a slight breath, he would inhale a large amount of sawdust and ash.
After coughing several times, he took a handkerchief from Liu Fangliang's hand and covered his mouth.
Li Laiheng pressed the handkerchief to his mouth and nose very hard. The veins on the back of his hand bulged, and the blood vessels on his forehead also bulged obviously, showing extraordinary anger.
"Master Liu...if something happens to Yan Qing, will you help me?"
Liu Fangliang looked at Li Laiheng calmly, then slowly pulled down the iron mask that he had previously lifted in front of Wu Ruyi, and said:
"If something happens to Yan Qing, I will kill the culprit."
squeak……
The palace door was completely opened. There were two groups of palace people, about a dozen people in total. Their clothes were wet with water. Many people's clothes, hands, and faces were covered with ashes, and they looked very embarrassed.
.
Empress Dowager Gao, supported by a palace servant, slowly walked to the highest point of the stage. She was wearing a light-colored long dress made of cotton and looked very simple. What made Li Laiheng relieved was that the Empress Dowager's
His face looked fine and his body was clean. It seemed that the fire had not spread to the interior of the palace.
Zhang Nai, Dang Shousu, Liu Fangliang, Wu Ruyi and others also dismounted and saluted Empress Dowager Gao. The Empress Dowager frowned, her eyes were always fixed on Zhang Nai, her mouth opened slightly, but she did not say anything.
Come.
Liu Fangliang took the lead and asked boldly: "Queen Mother, how is Princess Jin?"
Li Laiheng then asked in a deep voice: "The Queen Mother, is the princess disturbed?"
There was a strange sense of tension in the air, and Wu Ruyi felt that his palms were already filled with sweat. He was feeling crazy and panicking, and his eyes looked in the direction of Tian Jianxiu's Pingyang Palace from time to time, but he did not see Tian Jianxiu and Niu Jinxing Faction.
The way people come to respond.
How could things end up in such an awkward and unending situation!
The Queen Mother walked down the stage step by step. First, she walked to Li Guo. She took a cloak from the palace servant and put it on Li Guo. Then she walked to Li Laiheng, held Li Laiheng's hand, and comforted him.
Said:
"Yan Qing is fine. She is fine. She didn't know there was a fire outside."
Li Laiheng finally breathed a sigh of relief and forced a smile: "Thanks to the Queen Mother for taking care of me... During this time, it would be best not to let Yan Qing know what happened outside the palace."
There was some elusive and terrifying meaning hidden in Li Laiheng's words. Empress Dowager Gao's heart skipped a beat. She always felt that she had underestimated this famous military general whose military reputation had shocked the world.
Over there, Li Guo regained his serious expression and said to Zhang Nai in a rather cold tone:
"Yufeng was injured in Taiyuan, right?"
"……right."
"In the past few days, Yufeng asked you to take charge of Taiyuan's security on his behalf, right?"
Zhang Nai became a little anxious when asked by Li Guo. He quickly explained: "Guo, brother Guo, I am responsible for the security of Taiyuan... But, but, these people are all old brothers who broke into the camp, and many of them are still in Taiyuan.
Veterans who have fought hard...how can I, how can I deal with them!"
Li Guo's deputy general Ma Chongxi said coldly: "Shuangxi, didn't you say you don't know them?"
Zhang Nai immediately panicked and said in a panic: "This...this me, I don't know most of the people, but some of them look familiar."
Dang Shousu stood beside him and snorted. The rebel soldiers crouching in front of the palace gate also looked at Zhang Nai. Many of them showed surprise. There was a veteran who was injured and disabled in Taiyuan.
, obviously unable to accept Zhang Nai's statement, he actually stood up, pointed at Zhang Nai and wanted to say something, but was quickly stopped by other troublemaking soldiers beside him.
Li Guo closed his eyes again. He tried hard to control his emotions and wanted to calm down. But his hands and arms kept shaking slightly. Isn't the restraint and tolerance of Jianguo not enough?
Ma Chongxi could be regarded as an old friend of Zhang Nai. His eyes were full of regret, disappointment and a very strong sense of depression.
Empress Dowager Gao held Li Laiheng's hand tightly and whispered: "Li Guo will investigate clearly... Your adoptive father will definitely investigate clearly, don't be impulsive."
Liu Fangliang took down the weapon on the side of the saddle. He held the horse's shaft with both hands and took two steps forward to guard Li Laiheng. The armor made a clanging sound, which made everyone feel a sense of terror.
of chill.
Niu Quan stood up from the ground cautiously, wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and said: "Wei Chen... Wei Chen thought that he should punish the rebels as a warning to others..."
Zhang Nai seemed to get inspiration from this sentence, and rushed over and said: "Yes! These troublemaking soldiers should be dealt with... you..."
He looked at Li Laiheng with a mournful face, and said as if he was about to cry without tears: "Laiheng, you believe me! You have to believe Brother Shuangxi!"
After Li Laiheng gently patted Queen Mother Gao's hand, he opened her hand little by little. He walked out from behind Liu Fangliang and untied the triple iron armor he was wearing as he walked.
With a clang, first the outermost armor was untied by Li Laiheng, and the armor fell into the ashes, splashing a cloud of black smoke. Then came the cloth armor and chain armor inside, and Li Laiheng walked forward.
, while disarming all his weapons on the stage in front of the palace gate.
Under the triple iron armor was a sky-blue arrow jacket familiar to the Shun army soldiers.
Bang——
Li Laiheng took off his helmet and threw it in front of the rebels. Under the iron helmet, there was a iconic red-tasseled felt hat.
"you……"
Before Li Laiheng's skirt and armor were untied, he pointed at the rebel soldiers huddled on the ground and laughed.
"Are you going to tell Cao Ying alone?"
His laughter was full of sorrow and indignation, which made people feel surprised but also reasonable. Zhang Nai had a bitter look on his face and could only look at Li Laiheng quietly, while Dang Shousu and Wu Ruyi both looked down with interest.
head.
"Do you all think it was Gu who failed to suppress the rebellion? Or do you think Gu and Princess Jin condoned the rebels?"
There was silence in the square in front of the palace gate, and the rebels just looked at Li Laiheng quietly, and no one dared to speak out any more.
Li Laiheng turned around, knelt on one knee in front of Li Guo and Empress Dowager Gao, raised his hands and said:
"Father, Queen Mother! It's because of the incompetence of my sons and ministers and the inability to quell the rebellion in Guanzhong that the soldiers are resentful and the people are angry. Since Tian Pingyang and Master Niu returned to Bian, the dissatisfaction and resentment of the soldiers against my sons and ministers have become stronger than one every day.
Japan. Is this just because of the ineffective counterinsurgency? It is really the accumulated hatred of the enemy over time!
In order to quickly put an end to Yang Ji's rebellion and rescue the Dashun brothers who were trapped in the pass, Erchen could only disintegrate the rebels by killing the culprit alone. Now the brothers are dissatisfied with Erchen's handling, mutiniing and causing chaos every day, and vowing to do everything possible
Kill the old people from Cao Ying in the army.
That day in Chang'an, my ministers had promised not to kill those who had returned to their sincerity, so how could they break their promise to the world again? However, the resentment in the hearts of the brothers and soldiers was still hard to calm down, and it actually developed to the point where today they stormed the Queen Mother's palace and wanted to kill Princess Jin!"
Li Laiheng stood up before anyone else could speak. He threw the flower-horse sword in his hand and the blunderbuss on his waist to the ground, and shouted:
"Why don't you ask the prisoner to kill one of me today and use my head to calm the grievances of all the brothers!?"
"This, this...this is absolutely impossible!"
The first person to object turned out to be Niu Jinxing's son Niu Quan. He knelt on the ground again, kowtowed repeatedly, and begged: "This must not be done. King Jin must think twice before taking action! King Jin is a great minister of Dashun.
How can he be executed without guilt if he has meritorious service in defeating the Eastern Han Dynasty? To supervise the country, supervise the country, kill the Tatars, and conquer Yanjing, it must be the king of Jin!"