The sea wind and waves were still roaring, and broken pieces of wood and broken boards kept washing up on the shore.
Wei Zheng raised his hand and wiped his tears with the cuffs of his prison uniform. He was careful not to injure his cheeks and eyes with the iron shackles on his wrists, and then said to the surviving sergeant: "After the bombardment, did you send out the navy to pursue us?"
"His Majesty sent three main fleets of the navy to pursue them all the way south. One fleet never returned, and the other two fleets failed to catch up, so they did not dare to pursue them further. They withdrew after reaching the halfway point."
The sergeant still lowered his head and replied: "Now there are no islands under the control of our court in the Minghai Sea. It will be dangerous to pursue them further."
"Yeah." Wei Zheng thought for a moment and said no more.
"Brother Xuancheng, now that the matter is over, we should seize the time to discuss the details of going to sea. What guards to bring? And how to deal with the problems of Jiuyou Kingdom at the negotiation table." At this time, Lu Zhidao on the side thought for a moment and said
: "I think this time we go to Shuoyue Island with the Talisman Festival as they asked, and we won't end up being captured again.".
"It won't happen if you are captured, but the money and materials claimed will definitely be doubled." After sighing, Wei Zheng let out a helpless sigh.
Wei Zheng sighed and lifted the iron chain between the handcuffs with his hands. With the help of the ghost soldiers, he mounted his beast soul again and followed Lu Zhidao and the other ghosts back to the pass.
"The navy will arrive shortly. We only need to bring the navy with us, and we don't need many ships. Jiuyou Kingdom will not kidnap us again this time, but we need to bring some nine-headed ghost chariot birds that can send messages.
, so that our Majesty, who is far away in Fengdu, can
Keep abreast of everything so that you can give us instructions." As Wei Zheng rode the beast forward and walked side by side with Lu Zhidao, he also said thoughtfully: "It's better to bring a few quick-thinking ghost officials with us.
Give us some advice."
"That's what I think too." Lu Zhidao chinned his head slightly and sighed with a sad face.
Before coming, he still had hope, thinking that with the power of the Northern Yin Dynasty and the orthodox throne of Emperor Fengdu, he could intimidate the Jiuyou Kingdom.
Now that he has seen the miserable situation in Baoduguan, Lu Zhidao's hope has been shattered.
This time, Beiyin Dynasty cannot avoid being blackmailed by Jiuyou Kingdom.
This kind of helplessness in which people are cut off from each other and others are treated as fish and meat not only makes Lu Zhidao feel uncomfortable, but Wei Zheng also feels the same...
Directly north of Xuanyanzhou, in Muxi City, Linhai, in a small courtyard covered by dense locust trees in the south city, stands Xiao Shizhu's shrine.
This is a stronghold of Xuanjiao in the city, and it is also where Wu Qiuyuan currently works and lives.
This quiet courtyard, far away from the downtown area, is tightly covered by the canopy of locust trees. It is difficult to see the light of the sun during the day, and a dark shadow envelopes it.
It was raining continuously today, and there was not a drop of water falling under the canopy of the trees. All the rainwater was blocked by the dense canopy of branches and leaves of the locust tree, blocking the sky above the courtyard.
Xiao Shizhu arrived in the city one day ago and quietly came to this small courtyard. The ghost mother also arrived here the day before Xiao Shizhu and was waiting in the courtyard.
Xiao Shizhu was not in a hurry to go back and simply stayed in the courtyard. While the shrine was in the courtyard, he took his wife to live in the shrine and left the surrounding houses to the accompanying guards.
After waking up today, Xiao Shizhu held a tea cup and stood beside the bed in the inner room of the shrine, opened the window and looked out the window.
Not far from the window, there are rows of wooden doors connected together, which also form a wall of this small courtyard. When the shrine needs to go in and out, you can get out by removing the wooden doors.
"The locust tree outside the courtyard is really tall." After Xiao Shizhu looked at it for a long time, he said to the ghost mother who was packing his luggage not far behind him: "Back then, I played chess with an old ghost under this tree.
.At that time, its crown was like a huge cover.”
"Is this the year when you and Changqin went south?" The ghost mother neatly folded Xiao Shizhu's robes and put them in the closet not far away.
"Yes, our Poria cocos hadn't even been born yet." Xiao Shizhu nodded and continued to look at the dense branches above the window.
"You have to give me another child." After a long time, Xiao Shizhu closed the window, turned around and said to the ghost mother with some embarrassment: "I also know that this is very painful, but some of what Yingzhao said is not unreasonable.
Knowing that the Qingqiu Fox Kingdom came prepared and planned to take the throne under my ass, at that time
But it’s not easy to refuse. In the current situation, Tu Yaoqing gave birth to a son, but you and Yue Yatou didn’t give me a son. I don’t care, but in the future, if some ghost officials use this as an excuse, they want me to establish that child.
If Xiao Fulei is my prince of the Ghost Kingdom, I won’t even be able to refute you.”
"Look at what you said, it seems that Xiao Fulei is not your child. I have seen that this child has mysterious power and ghost energy similar to yours. If he is not your child, then who does he belong to?" The ghost mother gave him a blank look.
, said: "No matter what the child's grandfather has in mind, he is your child after all. You still have to fulfill your father's responsibilities, and you should not put all your faults on this child."
A few words left Xiao Shizhu speechless.
He silently followed the ghost mother around the wooden frame deep in the room, which had a wide rhombus-shaped screen and a screen decorated with six-sided turtle back brocade, and sat down on the bed deeper inside.
Xiao Shizhu thought for a while and said: "I don't want to be dissatisfied with Xiao Fulei because of this. I wanted to make our Poria cocos the prince, but after several years, it still hasn't been possible. The ghosts in the country always think that the prince is
Those who want to inherit the throne must be male ghosts. Female ghosts are nothing more than water thrown out by married daughters. They cannot inherit the throne. They are really stubborn!".
After saying that, Xiao Shizhu snorted angrily and his face suddenly turned livid.
Green smoke curled up from the incense burner in front of the bed, and the soothing incense that was lit could not calm Xiao Shizhu's mood.
The ghost mother sighed softly, looking a little helpless.
At present, the best candidate for the crown prince of Jiuyou Kingdom is none other than Xiao Fuling. Xiao Shizhu, the eldest daughter, not only studied under a famous teacher, but she is also calm and calm, and she is becoming more and more skillful in handling things. She also has experience in commanding troops, and
The experience of supervising the country in handling state affairs makes him the best candidate for the prince.
It also has a certain foundation in the Jiuyou Kingdom.
It would be better if there was more discernment in calling, selecting and appointing talented people.
But the ghost officials and generals in the court were still unwilling to agree to let Xiao Fuling be his successor. Xiao Shizhu wanted to use these ghosts, so naturally he couldn't compete with them.
Therefore, when talking about these, Xiao Shizhu became very angry.
"Okay, there must be a road before the car reaches the mountain. How old is Poria cocos? You are so anxious about it. There is also the matter of giving birth, so we can only slow down." Seeing that he was still angry after a long time, the ghost mother interrupted.
Opened the topic: "By the way, I wanted to ask why you suddenly asked me to pick you up?".
"You don't miss me. Aren't you happy to ask you to come and pick me up?" Xiao Shizhu was still angry, and his words were full of lust.
The ghost mother was not anxious or angry, and nodded: "I think, I just don't know why you suddenly let me come out, and also arranged a secret line in the palace to monitor several palace people who have dealings with Qingqiu Fox Country?".
Hearing this, Xiao Shizhu put down the tea cup in his hand and lay down on the bed. He stretched out his hands and placed a big character on the bright red and extremely bright and soft quilt on the bed. He stared blankly at the gold medal above.
On the silk tent, embroidered flying birds: "Ah San gave me a situation. The smuggling of rare metals only started in the past year or so. There are not too many in the Northern Yin Dynasty, and most of them have already entered the Qing Dynasty.
Qiuhu Junior High School."
"Qingqiu Fox Country resells them secretly in private, so he wants to investigate whether the rare minerals flowing out to other places are also related to Qingqiu Fox Country." At this point, Xiao Shizhu sighed.
There was a little disappointment in his eyes.
He was extremely benevolent to the Qingqiu Fox Country, asking for troops and goods, and never treated their citizens as second-class citizens. If it was true that the Qingqiu Fox Country was cheating on others, he would never tolerate it, but he would inevitably be disappointed.
.
"Is there such a thing?" The ghost mother blurted out after being stunned for a moment.
"Well." Xiao Shizhu turned over and sat up again, looking forward: "Although most of the inside story is not known yet, it is probably related to the Qingqiu Fox Kingdom. Especially Hu Lan's son, who is the most active. He is already in the palace.
I have made friends with many palace officials and scribes, and communicate secretly, thinking that I don’t know!”.
Xiao Shizhu suddenly opened his eyes wide, his anger flashed and he snorted coldly.
"You just left Yuque City, and someone from the palace came to his house to report the news to Hu Qingyun." Then, Xiao Shizhu said: "After that, Hu Lan suddenly claimed to be ill and closed the door to thank the guests."
Over the years, the reason why Jiuyou Kingdom has been stable is that Xiao Shizhu has planted Xuanjiao believers in various places. These ghost slaves were born and the liberated Xuanjiao believers are loyal to Xiao Shizhu and hide in yamen in various places. It is no exaggeration.
, report everything you see truthfully so that Xiao Shizhu can understand everything as quickly as possible.
Only in this way can subversion and rebellion be nipped in the bud again and again.
And there is naturally Xiao Shizhu's spy in Hu Lan's house. No move can escape Xiao Shizhu's discernment.
"Hu Lan is a good ghost, scheming, but not very ambitious. But his son is different. He is always ambitious and always wants to achieve great things." Before the ghost mother could recover from her surprise, Xiao Shizhu said
Then he said: "In a word, I am very restless."
After saying that, he turned to look at the ghost mother: "Don't think I don't know, it's him who stirred up Tu Yaoqing's ambition."
The ghost mother suddenly felt a chill in her heart, and surprise appeared in her eyes. When she turned to look at her husband, she saw hatred in Xiao Shizhu's eyes, which was filled with anger. But soon, it turned into sadness again.
At a glance, the ghost mother knew that Xiao Shizhu knew about Xiao Fu's death.
She hadn't thought about how to tell Xiao Shizhu about this matter at first. Now it seemed that there was no need to say it.
"I know, Fu, Fu..." Xiao Shizhu suddenly bit his lower lip hard, clenched his hands into fists, and tears appeared in his eyes.
The ghost mother was shocked. She had rarely seen her husband so sad that her whole body was trembling slightly when tears appeared.
"Fu is gone." At this moment, Xiao Shizhu choked with sobs and squeezed out these words from between his teeth slightly weakly.
"Tu Yaoqing threw my daughter to death!" Immediately afterwards, he took out a secret message from his sleeve and handed it to the ghost mother. He closed his eyes and fell back, lying on the bed and crying silently.
With a sad face, the Ghost Mother took the secret letter but did not open it. She knew what was written on it and where it came from.
Even though she can block the news in the palace, the news outside the palace cannot be completely blocked. The Xuanjiao believers will eventually pass this matter on to Xiao Shizhu.
But the ghost mother didn't expect that before she could tell her husband the bad news, he would know it himself.
"When you suddenly recalled Poria cocos, I felt something was wrong. I asked the Xuanjiao believers to check it secretly, but I didn't expect it to be such a bad news." Xiao Shizhu, who was lying down, suddenly opened his eyes, with murderous intent, and gritted his teeth: "How dare they let this happen?
If they lose their children for no reason, I will cut them into pieces with thousands of knives and mince them into pieces!”.