Survival countdown

Before dawn, Zhao Baiyu went to the pawnshop to redeem the Book of Songs that Zheng You had stored there.

As soon as the front foot went out, some people from Zheng You rushed into the pawnshop on the back foot, but ran out after a while to look for Zhao Baiyu.

Zhao Baiyu brought the Book of Songs back to the mansion, but he didn't see any problem after turning it over and over again.

Yan Bing: "You didn't come back all night, and you took this Book of Songs and read it for a long time when you came back. Can you see the money?"

Zhao Baiyu: "Maybe you can really see the money."

Hearing this, Yan Bing became interested, picked it up, looked left and right, trembling three times, confused: "Wulang, are you kidding me again?"

Zhao Baiyu: "Zheng You said that this book is worth his head. If I hadn't been drunk and gambled on it, I wouldn't have gotten a bargain. It must be something more important than Zheng You's wealth and life. Let's put it away for now. It might save lives at critical times.”

Wei Bo entered the room at this time, and told them the news he had inquired in the morning, that the princelings launched an attack in the early court, and the Qin royal party was dragged into the water, and His Majesty ordered Dali Temple to investigate the case within five days.

"As expected. Now the key person who can save the teacher is the crown prince's nanny, but both the prince and the King of Qin want her to die. One wants to die in the East Palace, and the other wants to die outside the East Palace. Whether the nanny is dead or alive, they will threaten both of them." Fang's forces, no one can afford to offend, it depends on what Huo Jingtang thinks."

"Isn't the Prince of Lin'an making it clear?"

"Your Majesty put him on the fire, and he can't stay out of it."

In the original book, there is also the matter of building a prison, but looking at the history of the previous life, unless it involves a lot and has a great influence, it is difficult to raise a prison, and the prison is mainly in the Qing Dynasty where the imperial power is concentrated at the top.On the other hand, in this era, the imperial examination system has been established for less than 200 years, and there are still aristocratic vassals who control a certain degree of discourse power. Feudal centralization cannot reach the level of the Qing Dynasty, so there must be a sufficient reason for the establishment of the Great Prison.

A reason that made Emperor Yuanshou furious.

The people under the crown prince participated in the fraud, and they probably didn't know that it was the people under the prince who did it privately.

What about King Qin?Does he know that cronies use imperial examinations to cheat for profit?

Zhao Baiyu had a headache thinking about it, he knew too little information, it was useless to think too much, and it was useless to know too much, as soon as he was a small official of the sixth rank, he could be killed by dropping a stone in the capital a lot.

"As long as the crown prince's nanny is in our hands, we can ask her for her confession of framing my teacher, and we don't care about anything else." Zhao Baiyu looked firmly in the direction of the imperial city, "I want to enter the East Palace!"

The Eastern Palace is in the imperial palace, and tooth cards are required to enter and exit the palace. The management of dental cards is strict, and if one piece is missing, you will lose your head. It cannot be copied outside the palace.Even if you were lucky enough to sneak into the East Palace, there were patrolling troops, countless masters, and strict defenses, and if you were not careful, you would lose your head.

Zhao Baiyu: "I can't help it, I have to go if I don't go. It happens that I have a tooth card dropped by the prince's nanny in my hand. Zhao Yuzheng will be killed in the suburbs tomorrow. The king of Qin and the prince will definitely go to accompany him. The defense of the East Palace will be relaxed."

Wei Bo disagreed: "You are not familiar with the terrain of the palace, and you don't know how to fight. The crown prince's nanny is an important witness, and there must be someone guarding her. Even if you sneak in, you won't be able to bring anyone out."

Zhao Baiyu: "Bet my luck to bring him out safely."

The confidence comes from the fact that it is not yet the plot point where the vicious male supporting role dies.

Wei Bo took the tooth card: "I'll go."

Zhao Baiyu disagreed. Wei Bo didn't have a supporting role, so who knows if something will happen.

Wei Bo didn't give him a chance to refuse: "Believe me, if someone has to enter the palace, it can only be me."

His gaze was so firm that Zhao Baiyu couldn't refuse.

Wei Bo was bought from a group of merchants when he was seven or eight years old. He has high martial arts skills and extraordinary insight. Zhao Baiyu is sure that he is not an ordinary person, but he doesn't mention the past.

He didn't want to mention it, and Zhao Baiyu didn't ask.

Zhao Baiyu also wanted Wei Bo to teach him martial arts, but Wei Bo said that he was too weak to practice martial arts, so he gave up.

"Okay, but you must put your own safety first. It doesn't matter if you can't bring the prince nanny, I can always find other ways to save the benefactor."

Weber nodded.

***

Qin Wangfu.

A harem eunuch dressed in plain clothes entered Qin Wang's mansion, met Qin Wang, and said to him: "The manpower is ready, and the imperial concubine will definitely be killed in the East Palace!"

The King of Qin heaved a sigh of relief when he heard the words, took out the banknote and stuffed it into the eunuch's hand, "Please excuse me, father-in-law."

The eunuch smiled and accepted.

As soon as the people left, King Qin immediately felt refreshed: "Come on, change clothes and go out."

***

East Palace.

When the crown prince got on his horse, Yin Yin told Zhao Changfeng: "I'll leave everything to you, people must die outside the East Palace! Also, it's best to keep a few alive."

Zhao Changfeng: "The final general will live up to the prince's entrustment!"

***

Lin'an County Prince's Mansion.

The adjutant said: "I figured it out! We can't afford to offend either the princelings or the Qin royal party, so it's best for the witnesses to die in the East Palace. It's none of our business."

Huo Jingtang was carving a piece of purple wood, and said without raising his head when he heard the words: "The key witness is dead, and the case has become an unsolved one. Neither the crown prince nor the king of Qin can clear up the suspicion. Find key witnesses to prove the innocence of the crown prince or King Qin in the next few days?"

The adjutant was dumbfounded, "It would be good if the case ended with Wang Shangshu and Chen Shilang, oh yes, there is another Zheng You, both the crown prince and the king of Qin, each playing a large role, anyway, if the king of Qin and the crown prince were really involved, your majesty also It will only be a small punishment and a big commandment, and the charge of lax governance will be lightly exposed, and the blame will be passed on to the people below, it is absolutely impossible to really kill my own son."

As the saying goes, the Tian family is ruthless, and there are many examples of former emperors killing their fathers and sons, but it will not happen to Emperor Yuanshou.Because he experienced jealousy and hatred between father and son and brothers in his youth, Emperor Yuanshou paid special attention to filial piety and brotherhood between father and son. He once severely reprimanded the prince for such trivial matters as not caring enough for his sick brother.

This is the tricky part of the case. At the end of the investigation, the mastermind will not be convicted, but the people who investigate the case are not people.

Huo Jingtang: "If my son doesn't let me go, the others won't know for sure."

After carving the last stroke on the head and blowing on the wood chips, Huo Jingtang put down the pen knife and took the wet towel handed by the servant to wipe his hands: "Do you think the Holy One really knows nothing about the things below?"

Adjutant: "How?"

Huo Jingtang: "As early as the moment when the King of Qin and his minister joined the crown prince, His Majesty's patience has reached its limit."

The adjutant was still puzzled and looked at Huo Jingtang in a daze, only to receive the master's cold gaze and a warning of 'read more'.

***

Zhao House.

Sanlang Zhao Yuqing and Silang Zhao Yuzheng got on their horses under Xie's earnest instructions, bid farewell to Xie's, and rushed to the kowtowing arena on the outskirts of the city.

As soon as they left, Zhao Baiyu led an old horse out and met Mrs. Xie face to face.

It has been two and a half months since the Xie family forced him to replace Zhao Yuzheng to marry Lin'an County King.The last time we met, I thought Mrs. Xie was the aunt, but this time, I knew that she was my biological mother in this life, Zhao Baiyu couldn't help feeling complicated.

He looked at Xie's face carefully, only to find that his eyes were very similar to Xie's, they were harmless, somewhat round almond eyes, not like Zhao Boyong's Ruifeng eyes, nor the sharp and charming ones of Princess Changping fox eyes.

The eye shapes of the first three sons of the Zhao family are all similar to Zhao Boyong, and Zhao Yuzheng's eyes also look like Ruifeng eyes at first glance, but if you look closely and compare carefully, you will find that they are more like fox eyes.

It turns out that he and Xie have a unique similarity, which is their blood bond.

Zhao Baiyu stepped back, clasped his hands together, and bowed deeply.

Mrs. Xie was a little stunned. She thought that since the last forced marriage, Zhao Baiyu should hate her so much, but unexpectedly respected her so much.

Xie's lips moved, thinking of Princess Changping, she passed Zhao Baiyu indifferently and entered the mansion.

Zhao Baiyu straightened his clothes and left calmly.

If someone asked him, why didn't he seek justice for himself after knowing his life experience?

He would definitely answer, because no one cared about him in the end, Xie, who hated Zhao Yuzheng for more than ten years because of the fact that Zhao Yuzheng was almost poisoned, was used to giving Zhao Yuzheng all his mother's love.

***

At noon, a group of plainclothes men and horses came and stopped in the middle of Yujie Street, facing the gate of the palace.The guard on the horse wore official boots, a Dali Temple waist badge and a military ring-shouldered sword. He was obviously a member of Dali Temple and a soldier at the same time. Those who met the dual status could only come from the Qiandi of the county king.

They were ordered to take away the witnesses, and blocked the gate of the palace, the sun was tilted, but there was no sign of the people from the East Palace for a long time.

Zhao Baiyu looked at them from a distance for a while, lowered his eyebrows and lowered his eyes, and drove the carriage into another street, and walked through several long streets to the entrance of another palace gate.

This is the Dongzhi Gate of the Imperial Palace, the closest to the Eastern Palace. Every day, there are water tankers with dragon flags flying in to transport the palace water, and they don't come out until noon.

At this time, a vermilion water truck came out, and the palace gate guards checked carefully as usual, and released the person only after confirming that there was no smuggling.Immediately afterwards, the second water truck came out, and Zhao Baiyu recognized that the driver was Wei Bo, and his heart couldn't help but hit his throat.

The guard checked the bottom of the water tanker, jumped up to open the bucket lid, and made sure it was empty. Then, he stared at Wei Bo's face and asked him to show the access sign. After checking everything, he released the person if there was no problem. .

While Zhao Baiyu breathed a sigh of relief, he thought that Wei Bo's operation had failed and he failed to bring out key witnesses.

Although disappointed, it is great luck that Wei Bo is safe and sound.

The water truck went around to the depths of the alley, and Wei Bo used a knife to insert it along the gap under the water truck, and pried it open, revealing a hidden compartment that could accommodate two people.

Zhao Baiyu was surprised: "This?"

Wei Bo carried the unconscious nanny into the carriage, changed her clothes and hairstyle, jumped into the carriage and said: "Sometimes in the cold palace, some escaped maids and abandoned concubines will be smuggled, or some things will be stolen and sold, so this kind of water cart is used. It is said that the former emperor wanted to smuggle prostitutes into the palace, but the eunuchs at the bottom came up with this stupid trick because they had no way to do it. Many people know it, and it is easy to lose their heads. It is a secret that few people in the palace know .”

I'm afraid it's not just as simple as 'little people know'. How did Wei Bo know about Xin Mi in the palace?

Zhao Baiyu didn't ask the secret, but asked: "You didn't get hurt?"

Because of Zhao Baiyu's concern, Wei Bo's face softened: "I didn't have a direct confrontation with them. Strictly speaking, I was lucky to miss it. At that time, a thief in black broke into the East Palace and took away the witnesses. Killed most of them, I followed behind them, and found that the imperial army didn't care about the witnesses, and only wanted to catch the assassin alive, so I took the opportunity to bring out the witnesses."

Zhao Baiyu: "Have you caught anyone alive?"

Weber: "Five were arrested, three committed suicide, and two were unshackled."

Zhao Baiyu was thoughtful: "Sure enough, the snake was lured into the cave, and King Qin was caught."

The king of Qin would not be brought down by cheating in the imperial examinations. Although the thirty cheating students were the nephews of hundreds of officials in the court, they would not be a reason for a big prison, unless the harem colluded with the former court.

The black-clothed thief who assassinated the East Palace must have come from Zheng Guogong's mansion, and the imperial concubine was in the palace to protect them. Entering the palace is like entering a no-man's land. No matter how kind the emperor is, he cannot bear the invasion of his couch.

At this time, another fuse is needed to detonate completely.

What will be the fuse?