Use a substitute on your wedding night to scatter the ashes of your entire family

Ou Jianglin stood up hurriedly and apologized with great fear: "Your Majesty, your words are too harsh. It is because of my incompetence that His Highness the Ninth Prince has suffered for so many years, and was even poisoned by the secret guards. I will never deny my guilt even if I die."

After saying this, he actually knelt down and bowed deeply.

Gu Xingyan wanted to help, but Gu Xingcheng pulled him back and shook his head slightly at him.

Empress Dowager Shu sighed softly, walked over, and helped the man up herself: "You are still blaming me for my cruel rebuke to you back then."

"No, I didn't. It was indeed my fault. If I had..."

"Back then, Northern Jin was plagued by internal and external troubles. A traitor appeared among Daliang's secret agents in Northern Jin. Several secret agents got into trouble overnight. If you hadn't handled it properly, Xiao Jiu would have died long ago. Although he has suffered many hardships now, I finally got to see Xiao Jiu in my lifetime, and the three of us, mother and son, were reunited in this Forty-Nine City."

"Uncle Ou, you gave me a second life. How could my mother blame you?"

"Your Highness Ninth Prince..."

Gu Xingcheng pressed his hands: "Mother, Sir, please sit down."

Gu Xingyan stood up, helped Ou Jianglin sit down and said, "Uncle Ou, you are burdened too much psychologically. You always blame yourself for my problems. In fact, it has nothing to do with you. I can't thank you enough for finding me. Back then, the secret guards responsible for protecting us also contracted the plague. The village was sealed off and no news could be delivered. Liang Tianyou, Shu Wenbo and I were taken away before the plague broke out completely."

Gu Xingcheng was stunned: "Logically, a plague would only occur after a major disaster. But the flood in Northern Jin was not big, and it did not last long. How could there be a plague in that village?"

Gu Xingyan nodded: "Someone did it on purpose."

"Are you saying that someone deliberately created this plague?" Ou Jianglin said in astonishment. He had never heard the Ninth Prince talk about this.

It was after Gu Xingyan recovered his memories in his previous life that he ordered people to go to Beijin to investigate. Although it took ten years and some twists and turns, they finally found out the truth.

"There were 38 children who were sold to Linshan with us, all from that village. I suspect the traffickers took a fancy to us children, so they used the flood to bring the plague. They had a prescription to treat the plague, so the adults let them fend for themselves and took the children away to treat and train them as secret guards."

Whenever Gu Xingcheng thought of this, he was furious. At this moment, he slammed his palm on the table in anger: "The Ling family of Northern Jin is really crazy! Does the Emperor Jingzhang know about this?"

Ou Jianglin shook his head. "I have been in Northern Jin for 21 years. I do know that the Northern Jin royal family has a base for training secret guards. They also train from a young age, starting with boys around five or six years old. But those children are not bought from human traffickers. They are usually sent voluntarily by poor families. Ten taels of silver per child, and then all ties with the family are severed. Even their surnames and given names are all changed to code names."

Speaking of this, Ou Jianglin felt a trace of sadness in his heart. He glanced at Gu Xingyan and continued, "The royal family's training methods are not too cruel. At least they are not life-and-death fights between people, and they don't use wild beasts for training."

Hearing this again, Empress Dowager Shu still couldn't hide her heartache and gently held Gu Xingyan's hand. Gu Xingyan smiled at her faintly, indicating that she should be relieved and that everything was over.

Ou Jianglin also knew that his words had caused the Queen Mother heartache, and he felt guilty, but there were some things he had to say, so he had to choose simple ones.

"The Royal Guards usually hold a competition every six months. The strongest ones will be sent to the palaces of the princes and the eliminated ones, if they are still not selected by the age of 18, will be sent to the army. These people are highly skilled in martial arts and basically become the vanguards of the major military camps."

Gu Xingyan nodded slightly and took over Ou Jianglin's words: "Linshan is just the place where Ling Heng secretly trained his secret guards. Emperor Jingzhang didn't know about it, so the one who introduced the plague should be Xu Jianzhou, who is under Ling Heng and manages all his industries for him."

"This man deserves to be cut into pieces!" Gu Xingcheng said angrily.

Gu Xingyan patted Gu Xingcheng's hand soothingly: "Brother, don't be angry. Xiaojiu has asked Liang Tianyou to kill him. All the bones in his body were broken one by one by Liang Tianyou. He didn't die on the spot. Liang Tianyou also fed him laughing drugs. He was in excruciating pain all over his body, but he had to laugh. In the end, he died of pain while laughing."

Gu Xingcheng's face was bulging with veins, and he slammed his fist on the table: "He got it so easy!"

Empress Dowager Shu's face was also icy: "If I knew, I would definitely ask Jiang Lin to bring this man to Daliang, and I would deal with him."

"Okay, mother, brother, don't be angry."

"The culprit behind all this is Ling Heng. Cheng'er, you should immediately write a letter to Emperor Jingzhang and inform him that Ling Heng has been training secret guards without permission."

Gu Xingyan hurriedly stopped him, "Mother, you must not do that. Ling Heng is a very scheming person, and one of his subordinates, Si Pu, is also very capable and does things flawlessly."

He looked at the people in front of him who were looking at him with great concern: "Moreover, Ling Heng's mother, Concubine Lin, was born into a wealthy family, but after Ling Heng was born, she was able to conceal the truth and transfer all the industries under the nose of Emperor Jingzhang without being known by the Jinyiwei of Northern Jin."

Ou Jianglin also nodded. If it weren't for this, he would have immediately asked the Emperor to negotiate with the Northern Jin royal family shortly after finding the Ninth Prince.

"In Northern Jin, almost all the princes would sneer at Ling Heng, thinking that he is cowardly and incompetent, unsophisticated and incapable of taking on a great responsibility. In fact, he not only has a base for training secret guards, but also raises private soldiers. He is definitely not that easy to deal with. Queen Mother, we must be cautious about this matter."

Empress Dowager Shu also calmed down. She had sent little Jiuer to Northern Jin since she was a child. If Emperor Jingzhang knew about it, he would definitely be aware of the fact that Daliang had a secret agent in Northern Jin. A comprehensive search would inevitably be detrimental to other secret agents.

That's hundreds of lives. She can't let those brave warriors from Daliang who are far away from their homeland suffer for the sake of her son.

Besides, behind each of them, there is a family. He is the son of his mother, the husband of his wife, and the father of his children.

She can't be so selfish.

The intelligence structure of the Five Kingdoms now actually has secret agents in other countries, including Daliang, Northern Jin and its three countries. Otherwise, the news that Emperor Liang was killed and Empress Dowager Shu and Gu Xingcheng were trapped in the palace would not have reached Zhaoguo so quickly, and they would have immediately stationed 400,000 troops on the border.

In peacetime, these secret agents would at most do some business with each other, but in wartime, the role of secret agents is crucial.

Seeing his mother and brother's indignation, Gu Xingyan said, "I will personally avenge Ling Heng, but not now."