In the middle of the night, the emperor Zhao Gou was awakened by the eunuch, "Your Majesty, Yan Dutong said there is an emergency that needs to be reported!"
Zhao Gou was so excited that he immediately woke up and quickly ordered: "Let him wait in the outer hall!"
Zhao Gou put on a robe and hurried to the outer hall. Yan Xin quickly stepped forward and saluted, "See your majesty!"
Zhao Gou waved his hand, "What's the emergency?"
"Reporting to your Majesty, twenty-five dignitaries gathered in the Xiang Mansion in the middle of the night to discuss important matters!"
"Is it now?"
"Exactly, they discussed it from night to midnight, and it just ended. The humble insider said that everyone signed and signed, which seems to have decided something important."
Zhao Gou also realized that the matter was serious. These bastards had already controlled the Wenzhou Army, and there were also troops under their control in Lin'an. Once they rebelled, the consequences would be disastrous.
He thought for a moment, then wrote a secret edict and handed it to Yan Xin, saying: "Immediately send someone to Zhenjiang Mansion and hand over my secret edict to Han Shizhong. Those powerful people will continue to monitor!"
"I obey the order!"
Zhong Huan nodded, "That's it. From tonight on, we will be on duty every night!"
Zou Shuan stood in awe, clasped his fists and said, "It turns out that you are the famous General Xiaozhong, whom I have admired for a long time!"
Before dawn, a dozen people from the Cao family left the house in three carriages and headed out of the city. This was the second group of people from the Cao family. The first group was family members, women and children, who had already gone by boat five days ago.
Xiaoshan County, after the second batch gathers, they will take a boat to Quanzhou.
This sense of crisis not only came from the emperor's neglect, but also from the escalation of the internal struggle in the Song Dynasty.
The situation became increasingly tense. Cao Ju returned to his mansion and immediately summoned his brothers and nephews.
"What do you think!"
"The problem is that all my men know each other. If five strangers suddenly appear, they will definitely inform."
"We have five people on duty every night, and I arrange them all. I can give one group of soldiers a holiday, and then General Souchong can pretend to be them, but the time cannot be too long, five or six days at most."
"You are very famous, at least in our Meihua Guard. You were on Sichuan Road and Jinghu South Road to clean up illegal salt, and you killed people like crazy. We, Yan Dutong, always used you as an example and scolded us for our incompetence in suppressing illegal salt. So
We all know General Souchong!"
Zhong Huan said: "Are you on duty at night?"
Cao Ju's youngest son, Cao Yidao, said: "Father, let me stay with you! There will be someone to take care of us when we escape together."
During this period, Prime Minister Qin Hui also began to suffer from insomnia. Ever since Wan Qixi was assassinated, Qin Hui clearly felt that the emperor had become indifferent to him. He was not the first to speak in discussions, and the emperor's final decision would not be his own opinion.
Zou Shuan thought for a while and said with a smile: "If you are on duty at night, it's really okay!"
Yan Xin bowed and left in a hurry.
Dong An smiled and said: "They arrived last night. We will take a boat to Xiaoshan County together later. The boat is ready. You are here just in time!"
Cao Mn asked again: "How many days will we stay in Xiaoshan County?"
"Brother, aren't you leaving?"
Wei Yanzong waved his hand and said: "Let's cut the story short and get straight to the point. General Xiao Zhong wants to bring four brothers into the palace as errands. Can you make arrangements?"
"Master, does anyone want to establish a new emperor and replace the current emperor?" Wang asked directly.
Zhong Huan gave a bitter smile, killing people like crazy, he actually had such a reputation.
"I may not have imagined Queen Mother Wei's attitude!"
"How do you know?" Qin Hui glanced at his wife in confusion.
In the morning, Zou Shuan finished his duty last night, came out of the palace, and went directly to the Tianxiang Teahouse near Jiangjun Bridge. This was the place where he and Wei Yanzong agreed to meet. During this time, the situation was tense, and Zou Shuan also felt that
arrived, so every time he came out on duty, he would come to the teahouse to sit and see if Wei Yanzong had anything to do with him.
Wei Yanzong saw his expression of embarrassment and said, "Don't you have twenty subordinates? How about pretending to be your subordinates?"
Zhong Huan smiled and said, "Am I so famous?"
Zhong Huan nodded, "Five or six days are enough."
Zou Shuan was shocked. Six people entered the palace as errands. How to arrange this?
Zhong Huan asked again: "Will you meet the emperor?"
Everyone also tried to persuade him, but Cao Meng finally agreed, "Okay! Lao Wu will stay, and the others must leave!"
"You are the second group to leave and go here early tomorrow morning!"
Qin Hui was shocked. Even Queen Mother Wei knew about it. He asked again: "What did Queen Mother Wei say?"
Half an hour later, they arrived at a large house by the Qiantang River. This was the temporary special envoy's residence. Behind it, close to the Qiantang River, was a private dock with four or five thousand-stone black sheds tied to it. They could make an emergency evacuation in case of danger.
Dong An shook his head, "I'll take the Wanshi ship to Quanzhou tonight."
Cao Ju shook his head, "The Cao Mansion has to keep one person. I just signed the covenant and he ran away. It's so unethical. Don't worry! I'll be fine. If the situation is not right, I will slip away through the secret passage.
"
Wei Yanzong asked with some worry: "Will they be discovered when they enter the palace on duty?"
Zhao Gou immediately wrote two more secret edicts, one of which was exactly the same as the one just now, and asked his close guards to rush to deliver it to Han Shizhong of Zhenjiang Prefecture and Liu Qi of Western Zhejiang Province, ordering them to lead their troops back to King Anqin immediately.
Cao Ju handed a note to his brother Cao Meng, "You go here tomorrow and Special Envoy Lu will arrange for you to leave."
Cao Meng also advised: "Brother, let Wulang stay! He is very skilled in martial arts, so we can rest assured that he will take care of you."
As expected, I met Wei Yanzong today, and this time there was another person beside him. Wei Yanzong smiled and introduced him: "This is your colleague, General Xiao Zhong, the internal guard commander of the Western Army!"
The reason why he wanted to write another secret edict to Han Shizhong was because he still didn't trust Yan Xin. Although Yan Xin was a confidant he had always trusted, who knew whether he would change? He was bribed with huge sums of money from powerful people.
"How to say?"
Zou Shuan smiled and said: "We are not guards, we are the supervisors of the inner palace. All the maids, eunuchs and guards hid far away when they saw us. We basically never met anyone. We were a little interested at first, but then we got tired of it.
, when on duty, I hide in my room, drink, gamble, or sleep, but there is a principle, you cannot touch the women in the palace, otherwise your head will fall off, as long as you grasp this principle, there will be no problem. "
"Usually we avoid it, but if we really want to meet it, we can meet it. Every day, the eunuchs give us the emperor's schedule, and then we supervise, mainly the guards, to prevent them from slacking off and not fulfilling their duties. Of course
, we are just going through the motions, everyone is just enjoying the meal, there is no need to be so serious."
Especially in recent days, the situation has been tense. The emperor always called Xu Xiantu for secret discussions instead of himself. This made Qin Hui really nervous and filled his heart with a sense of crisis.
"The Queen Mother told me when I entered the palace today."
Cao Meng and his party arrived at the mansion, and Dong An welcomed them in. Only then did they realize that it was not only them, but also the Huyan family and the Liu family, totaling fifty or sixty people.
Wang sneered and said: "Empress Dowager Wei scolded the officials for being stupid and greedy for money, especially for looting the Shi family. She was simply digging her own grave."
"She was not wrong in scolding, but she didn't know that this day would come sooner or later, ever since officials plundered merchants."
Wang shook her head, "I don't care about these big principles. I only care about whether a coup will break out and whether it will affect us."
Qin Hui sighed, "I don't know. If possible, we'd better prepare two more escape routes."