Remembrance of Tianyin's Adventure

In the Empress Dowager's Palace, everyone was discussing the case, and an eunuch came to report: "Long live the report, the guards will see you!"

"Quick! Let him in!" Renzong said.

Zhan Zhao came in and was about to salute, when he heard the Queen Mother say, "No! Have you checked it out?"

Zhan Zhao cupped his hands and said, "Report to the Empress Dowager, the case is clear, but I still don't know where they are now."

The queen mother said eagerly: "You tell the Ai family first, how did Meiniang disappear?"

Zhan Zhao said: "I have something unclear, can I ask the Queen Mother first?"

"You ask!" the queen mother said.

Zhan Zhao asked, "Did the Empress Dowager sleep with Princess Anning in a different room?"

"That's right!" the Queen Mother said, "How do you know?"

Zhan Zhao said: "It's just that I reminded the minister of some details. May I ask why the Queen Mother didn't sleep in the original room?"

The Empress Dowager said: "This is actually a temporary decision. When leaving the palace, Ai's family did not bring any items from the palace with them in order to relive the past suffering life in the old residence, but Mei Niang said that she was not used to the past hardships. I had to bring a set of daily necessities in the palace. At that time, Aijia still blamed her for forgetting her roots, but who would have thought that after she laid out the bedding in her room that night, she insisted on going to sleep, saying that she was still used to suffering. Days." Sighed: "She brought that comfortable quilt to Ai's family specially! This child really worked hard to honor Ai's family!", puzzled: "But what does this have to do with Mei Niang's disappearance? "

Gongsun Ce said: "Could it be that Princess Anning is not missing, but was hijacked by someone, and the villain originally targeted the Empress Dowager?"

"Exactly!" Zhan Zhao said to the Empress Dowager: "I discovered that in the Empress Dowager's original house, there was a hole under the bed board, enough to hide a person. According to my deduction, the woman in red had already hid in the hole before the Empress Dowager came to her former residence. , originally wanted to sneak out late at night to assassinate the queen mother, but unexpectedly that night the house was actually Princess An Ning, who simply trapped the princess in the pit temporarily, and then went out of the window to look for the queen mother. The queen mother and Chunni were looking for Princess An Ning happened to meet her when she was going out. Because of her extraordinary speed and the short distance she traveled, it was difficult for the Ouchi guards who were guarding a hundred steps away to discover all of this."

"Why did she take Chunni away?" the queen mother asked.

Zhan Zhao said: "The woman in red wanted to assassinate the Empress Dowager, but unexpectedly she was blocked by Chunni. She saw many guards from the inner court rushing towards her. Although she killed several people in succession, she was surrounded by many people, and it was difficult to escape completely. , had no choice but to give up the assassination of the Empress Dowager and take Chunni as a hostage in order to escape."

The queen mother wept and said: "If it wasn't for saving Ai's family, Chunni would not..." Suddenly said: "But according to what you just said, the demon girl did not take Mei Niang away!"

Zhan Zhao sighed: "She was taken away after the Queen Mother Luanjia left. The assassin knew that the Queen Mother would return to the palace immediately after being assassinated, and there must not be many guards left behind, so she turned back again and took the princess away .”

"What?" The queen mother regretted even more after hearing this: "You mean that Mei Niang was still in the house until Ai's family returned to the palace, and Ai's family didn't notice it? This... this..."

Bao Zheng asked Zhan Zhao, "These are just inferences, or have you found evidence?"

Zhan Zhao said: "This subordinate has evidence." He took out a small purse from his sleeve and said, "I found this in the pothole under the bed, and it belonged to Princess An Ning."

Bao Zheng was puzzled and said, "How can you be sure that this belongs to the princess?"

"Submit it here for Ai's family to see!" Chen Lin hurriedly presented the purse to the Queen Mother.

The queen mother touched the plum blossoms embroidered on the purse and said: "Not bad! This is indeed Mei Niang's belongings. The Ai family saw that she wears it every day and never leaves her body. What a beautiful plum blossom, as beautiful as Mei Niang." Turning the purse over When he saw it, he was startled, and looked at Zhan Zhao meaningfully.

Zhan Zhao knew that the Queen Mother must have seen the huge embroidered que on the back of the purse, his face blushed, and he quickly lowered his head to avoid the Queen Mother's gaze.

The queen mother seemed to want to say something to him, but finally shook her head and sighed, and did not speak.

At this moment, an eunuch came to report: "Report to the emperor, the palace guard commander Ji Yan has something urgent to report."

Renzong said: "Xuan!"

Ji Yan had never seen Renzong before, and facing Longyan at this moment, he was very frightened, came in and knelt down and kowtowed: "Chen Jiyan kowtows to see Long live!"

Renzong said: "Get up and answer!" He asked, "What's the matter?"

Ji Yan replied: "Just now, the ministers were guarding the palace gate, when suddenly something flew in and stuck on the palace gate. The ministers waited and watched, but there was no one at all. The ministers thought it was a cold arrow flying, but they didn't expect It turned out to be a chopped bone, and there was a letter inserted in it, and on it was written in blood, 'It is a matter of the life and death of the two princesses, and the emperor personally entrusted it'!" Then, he handed the letter to the eunuch and presented it to Renzong .

Renzong read the letter without saying a word. The Empress Dowager took a look and saw that the paper was full of blood. Her heart ached and her tears almost fell again. She touched every word on it with trembling hands and said, "Mei Niang... Ni..."

Gongsun Ce asked Ji Yan, "Can you show me that thin bone?"

Ji Yan handed the thin bone to Gongsun Ce, Gongsun Ce looked at it carefully, and handed it to Zhan Zhao, saying, "The broken marks on the bone were caused by a sharp weapon?"

Zhan Zhao only glanced at it and said, "This is cracked by someone with high martial arts skills." Looking at the bone carefully, he said in surprise, "Sir, could this be..."

"Human bones!" Gongsun Ce asserted.

"What?" The Queen Mother said: "It's blood and human bones! Will they..."

"Queen!" Renzong couldn't bear the sadness of the queen mother, and comforted him: "Since the demon girl sent a letter to threaten her, she will definitely not hurt them until she gets a response."

Bao Zheng cupped his hands and said: "Long live what you said is true, the demon girl's actions are just to disturb the queen mother's mind, the queen mother must not fall into the trap!"

"Bao Qing is right!" Renzong said, "Mother, how do you think I should respond to the witch's condition?"

"Promise her!" The queen mother said without thinking.

Renzong said: "But the queen mother..."

The Empress Dowager said displeasedly: "Emperor! If Mei Niang hadn't been filial and slept with Ai's family, she would have been abducted by that demon girl; if Chunni hadn't been desperately escorting her, how could Ai's family have returned to the palace safely? Now the two of them They are all in the hands of a bloodthirsty witch, how can Aijia stand by and watch? Not to mention that witch just mentioned these conditions, even if she wants Aijia's life, Aijia will give it to her!"

"Mother!" Renzong said, "It's not that the emperor doesn't want to save the two imperial sisters. If I agree to the witch's condition, I really can't face the [-] soldiers who died in vain!"

Bao Zheng asked: "Long live, the condition of the demon girl is..."

Renzong said: "She not only wanted me to change the name of Guo Jiananping, a criminal minister who was treasonous before the battle, and posthumously named him "General", but also wanted me to build a "Loyalty Shrine" for him. The purpose is to punish General Lu who participated in Guo Jianan's collaborating with the enemy and treason that day!"

Bao Zheng said: "Long live, this matter must never happen! Guo Jian'an colluded with the enemy and treasoned the country, and turned his back on the battlefield, resulting in the innocent deaths of [-] soldiers in the Song Dynasty. How can Long Live reward such rebellious officials and thieves?"

Renzong nodded and said: "The Ministry of Military Affairs and the Ministry of Punishment have verified the case. It can be said that the evidence of the crime is conclusive. Guo Jian'an himself has confessed to it, and there is absolutely no grievance in it. Now, the witch only wants me to rectify his name, but she has not complained for him. It seems The witch also knows that Guo Jianan is not wronged."

The Empress Dowager said: "Then the meaning of the emperor is that he refuses to agree to the conditions of the witch?"

Although Renzong had made up his mind, he didn't dare to disobey the Queen Mother face to face, and said in a low voice: "The emperor just wants to hear the opinions of the Qing family."

The queen mother lowered her face and said: "Bao Qing! From what you just said, it seems that you don't want the emperor to agree to the witch?"

Bao Zheng said: "Qizou Empress Dowager, I thought that if Wan Sui was threatened by a demon girl, and ordered to rectify the name of the guilty minister and punish the loyal minister, in the eyes of the common people, it would be indistinguishable from loyalty to traitor, right from wrong..."

"Shut up!" the Queen Mother said angrily, "Do you think that the Ai family can't distinguish between loyalty and traitor, and don't know right from wrong? It's just an expedient measure to agree to the conditions of the demon girl. After Mei Niang and Chun Ni are rescued and the demon girl is punished, she can change her will." , why do you have to scare me?"

"Queen! You are not joking!" Bao Zheng said, "If Long Live's will is changed from day to day, how can the world be convinced?"

"You!" The queen mother suppressed her anger and said, "Okay, okay! The Ai family can't beat you." She asked Gongsun Ce, "What do you say?"

Gongsun Ce cupped his hands and said, "I think it's not a bad idea to slow down the army to save the princess."

The Queen Mother nodded and said, "Well, go ahead!"

Gongsun Ce continued: "However, the witch's conditions are really against the court's guidelines and cannot be agreed. As for how to rescue the two princesses, we can only discuss in the long run."

"Think long-term!" The queen mother said: "The two of them are now in the hands of the witch, and they are at stake. How much time does the Ai family have to think long-term?" Looking at Zhan Zhao, he said, "Zhan Zhao, what about you?" Zhan Zhao followed Bao Zheng and took out the Kaifeng The upright posture of the mansion reminded him: "Don't forget, Chunni is your junior sister! And Mei Niang..." He raised the purse in his hand, turned the side embroidered with the giant que to Zhan Zhao and said: "Her Don't you understand?"

"Minister..." Zhan Zhao knew that based on his past achievements and his life-saving grace to the emperor, if he was willing to persevere with the empress dowager, the empress dowager might be able to persuade the emperor to agree to the conditions of the witch, so that Chunni and Meiniang could be saved. .But can he do it?

I remember that Master once asked him to assist Mr. Bao, and let him spend his whole life protecting the people and upholding justice. How can he be worthy of the people in the world by doing this now?How can he be worthy of the 5 soldiers who died in vain at the border and the loyal General Lu?But if he upholds justice, the price may be the lives of Chunni and Mei Niang!Master entrusted Chunni to him before he died. Not only did he fail to take good care of Chuni, he also let her die in vain. How could he be worthy of Master's spirit in heaven?As for Mei Niang, although she only had a few encounters with him five years ago because of the civet cat exchange for the prince, she still misses him so much. Even if he can't accept this infatuation, how can he remain indifferent?

"Zhan Zhao!" The queen mother urged: "The Ai family is waiting for your reply!"

Zhan Zhao took a deep breath and said, "Empress Dowager, I really hope that Long Live will agree to the witch's conditions, but... this is really unreasonable." While speaking, the hand holding Ju Que was already soaked.Only Bao Zheng and Gongsun Ce beside him could understand his struggling heart under his pale face.

"Unreasonable?" The queen mother said angrily: "What about love? Do you just have the heart to watch them die at the hands of the witch? Zhan Zhao, oh Zhan Zhao, how can you be so cruel? It's useless for them to treat you..." In front of the crowd , because of Chunni and Mei Niang's face, I didn't say any more.

"Queen mother, calm down!" Renzong said, "Zhan Huwei said this for the sake of the Song Dynasty. I think you don't want him to abolish the government for personal reasons!"

"That's all!" The queen mother got up angrily, and said with a serious face: "You are all right! It is the Ai family who should not interfere in the government!" Said to Zhan Zhao: "But you must remember the Ai family! If she cannot be rescued within three days Two people, Aijia wants your head!" After saying that, he walked away in a huff.

Bao Zheng's sedan chair had just landed in front of the Kaifeng government office, when Lu Bian led the four mice to approach, clasped their fists and said, "Master Bao! You are finally back home!"

Bao Zheng got off the sedan chair and said to the crowd: "The five righteous men heard about the robbery of the two princesses and came to help?"

"Exactly!" Lu Fang replied.

Bao Zheng said: "Everyone is righteous!" Zhan Zhao cupped his hands and said, "Zhan Zhao is very grateful!"

Bao Zheng invited the Five Rats into the Flower Hall and said, "As soon as the imperial list comes out tomorrow morning, the witch who kidnapped the princess will know that the emperor has rejected her terms, and the princess's safety will be even more worrying at that time. All righteous men come here now , really timely!"

Bai Yutang said: "What condition did the witch ask? Why can't you agree?"

Gongsun Ce said: "The demon girl wants the emperor to issue an order to commend the criminals and punish Zhongliang. If the emperor agrees, won't it be confusing black and white and turning right and wrong?"

"Right and wrong are important, but is it more important than the lives of Meiniang and Chunni?" Bai Yutang said to Zhan Zhao, "The emperor doesn't care about their lives, don't you? Why don't you persuade the emperor to agree to the conditions of the witch?"

Zhan Zhao said: "Brother Bai, these conditions are against the laws of the country, so we really can't agree to them."

"What?" When Bai Yutang heard this, he became impatient and shouted, "Zhan Zhao! Don't think that I can't turn against you because you saved my life!" He strode forward and pointed at Zhan Zhao with his scabbard. : "Let me tell you, you don't care about Chunni, I do! You don't like Mei Niang, but I do! If there is something wrong with them, I will never end with you!" She looked like she was talking to an enemy.