Shi Dakai and Li Xiucheng couldn't convince Lin Fengxiang, so they turned to convince other princes. The war with the Guangfu Army did give everyone a great shock, Lin Fengxiang was righteous enough, and he didn't directly debunk the greasy things in it, and let Shi Dakai and Li Xiucheng do their own work.

The kings who didn't know the inside story were shocked when they heard the news, although everyone thought that it would not work like this, but they didn't expect the situation to change to such a sudden point. These people don't even think of passing the buck, or panic, or they feel like they just get up and fight. At least at the top, those who think they have to fight are not at an absolute disadvantage.

After lobbying like this for three days, Shi Dakai and Li Xiucheng finally mastered the attitude of the prince and important ministers who are now in Chang'an. When they are ready to formally propose the future plan at the court meeting, and let the current Heavenly King Hong Tianfu pass. This Heavenly King, who only Shi Dakai would think of when he needed it, disappeared, and along with the Heavenly King Hong Tianfugui, Zhang Yingchen, the leader of the Imperial Forest Army, and Zhang Yingchen's real hundreds of hardcore troops.

Zhang Yingchen will put eyeliner in other princes' troops, and other princes will not be worse than Zhang Yingchen. But Zhang Yingchen left with his hardcore troops, and when those people found out that something was wrong, they only found a dozen or so eyeliners who were tied up and couldn't break free. Zhang Yingchen disappeared from Chang'an City like this, and he couldn't even tell which gate Zhang Yingchen left from. Because several city gates have records of Zhang Yingchen leaving.

"Chase Tongguan!" Shi Dakai immediately gave an order. Regardless of whether Zhang Yingchen and the disappearance of the Heavenly King Hong Tianfugui are connected or not, no matter what their disappearance is. The first thing Shi Dakai wanted to avoid was the possibility of the Heavenly King Hongtian Fugui falling into the hands of the Guangfu Army. This was the greatest result of the Taiping army's destruction, and once Hong Tianfu fell into the hands of the Guangfu army, the last legal system of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom would be wiped out. The chaos will explode immediately.

Of course, in addition to the direction of Tongguan, the Taiping army also sent pursuit troops in the direction where traces could be found. Shi Dakai didn't have the heart to negotiate with other princes and important ministers at this time, what else is there to talk about in this situation? How did the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom collapse?

Hong Tianfugui actually escaped earlier than Shi Dakai imagined, as early as the early morning of the first day, Hong Tianfugui left the Tianwang Mansion with the help of Zhang Yingchen, changed into the clothes of the ordinary Taiping Army and embarked on the way to escape. After determining the identities of Li Peiyuan and Zhou Guben, the two intelligence officers of the Guangfu Army, Zhang Yingchen ordered them to mobilize the intelligence system of the Guangfu Army and escort the Heavenly King Hong Tianfugui to flee to the territory of the Guangfu Army.

Li Peiyuan and Zhou Guben originally thought that Zhang Yingchen was joking, but after Zhang Yingchen brought them into the Tianwang Mansion and saw Hong Tianfugui, the two knew that Zhang Yingchen was going to play big.

"King Yong, why don't you go along?" After the two came out, they asked Zhang Yingchen.

"When I leave, won't Tianjing City immediately know that something is wrong? They don't care about the king, but they care about me! Zhang Yingchen said calmly.

Li Peiyuan and Zhou Guben really didn't know how to evaluate Zhang Yingchen's attitude, and after a while, Li Peiyuan said: "King Yong, you are worthy of being a cadre who has followed the governor for so many years. Those people in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom are indeed inferior to you. ”

These words are indeed compliments, but they also really hurt the scars in Zhang Yingchen's heart. Zhang Yingchen said: "Don't play lip service, I don't have any intention of being sorry for the Heavenly King, you must send the Heavenly King safely to the Liberation Army." If someone stops him on the road, the life of the king is not guaranteed. If something like this happens, I, Zhang Yingchen, will never spare you! ”

"Please rest assured, King Yong, we will definitely keep the King safe." Li Peiyuan and Zhou Guben replied with confidence.

Zhang Yingchen snorted, "You don't have to worry that I want to use this method to dig out your intelligence network." At this time, digging out the intelligence network will be of no use to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. At most, I can breathe for a few more days. ”

Shi Dakai and others were concentrating on lobbying the kings at this time, and Hong Tianfugui was originally a façade in Shi Dakai's eyes. Now I don't have time to think about Hong Tian's wealth. At most, he asked to strengthen the monitoring of Zhang Yingchen to prevent Zhang Yingchen from colluding with Lin Fengxiang.

Zhang Yingchen did not contact Lin Fengxiang at all, at this time Zhang Yingchen was actually not afraid of Shi Dakai, what he was most afraid of was Lin Fengxiang, who was loyal to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. There are many things that Shi Dakai can't see through, but he can't hide from Lin Fengxiang at all. Shi Dakai's cleverness is to see through things on the surface, but Lin Fengxiang can see through many undercurrents under the surface of the water.

In the morning, Hong Tianfugui escaped from Tianjing City, and although Zhang Yingchen was in turmoil, he could still maintain the peace he deserved. At night, Zhang Yingchen arranged the disguise of escape, and then escaped from Chang'an City with his personal guards. What he felt at this time was not the freedom to escape, but the doubling of tension.

According to the calculation on the map, there are 300 miles of land that escaped from Chang'an City to the control area of the Guangfu Army, and there will be too many problems in these 300 miles. Zhang Yingchen was able to ride a horse for 300 miles in one day and one night. But can Hongtian be rich and rich? And are Li Peiyuan and Zhou Guben reliable?

But there was no turning back when he opened the bow, and Zhang Yingchen didn't even want his family. As long as he took this step, he really had no choice but to flee with his hardcore subordinates.

On August 19, Zhang Yingchen received the news of the defeat of the Wing King Shi Dakai's subordinates.

On August 20, Zhang Yingchen confirmed the identities of Li Peiyuan and Zhou Guben.

In the early morning of August 22, Hong Tianfu fled.

Late at night on August 22, Zhang Yingchen fled.

At around 12 a.m. on August 23, Shi Dakai's pursuing force was dispatched.

At 9 o'clock in the morning of August 24, Zhang Yingchen stopped in front of a group of cavalry of the Restoration Army with bloodshot eyes in an extremely anxious mood.

The cavalry commander led by him stared at Zhang Yingchen for a long time, he turned over and dismounted and ran in front of Zhang Yingchen, "Brigade Commander Zhang, do you remember me?" I'm Zhong Dajiang, and I'm finally seeing you again. ”

Who Zhong Dajiang is, Zhang Yingchen has long forgotten. However, since the other party recognizes himself, he wants to be Zhang Yingchen's subordinate before. Zhang Yingchen also turned over and dismounted, "Have you ever seen the Heavenly King?" ”

Zhong Dajiang stepped forward to hold Zhang Yingchen's hand, "Heavenly King Hong Tianfugui has arrived with us safely. Brigade Commander Zhang, don't say it, Hong Tianfugui has been talking about you, saying that you will come later. He won't have a good rest if he can't see you. ”

Zhang Yingchen was physically exhausted and psychologically tormented along the way. In order to suppress the anxiety in his heart, he tried to expend all his physical strength on the march. At this time, when he heard the news that Hong Tianfugui had arrived safely at the Liberation Army, he couldn't hold it anymore mentally. Zhang Yingchen only felt that his mind was suddenly blank, and then he didn't know anything.

I don't know how long it was, Zhang Yingchen woke up from his deep sleep, opened his eyes and looked outside, the sky was still quite bright, and he didn't know when. I was about to get up, but I felt like all my strength was drained. He tried hard to get up, but heard a joyful voice beside him, "Brother, you're finally awake!" ”

Turning his head with great effort, Zhang Yingchen saw Hong Tianfu sitting on the edge of the bed. The two reunited, and Zhang Yingchen's heart fell back into his stomach. Along the way, Zhang Yingchen regretted it more and more. He knew that what he did was necessary, and if he waited any longer, Chang'an City would definitely change a lot. At that time, I couldn't walk if I wanted to. But this operation is really hasty, and all kinds of unknown and uncontrollable events may occur, and once they happen, it will be a waste of previous efforts.

After reuniting with Hong Tianfugui, Zhang Yingchen finally determined that his adventure had succeeded. He was out of danger, Zhang Yingchen suddenly remembered his family who was still in Chang'an City, he suddenly felt sad and couldn't help crying.

At this time, Weeser had also gotten the news. Although he hadn't seen him for more than ten years, Wei Ze still had an impression of that very clever subordinate. Zhang Yingchen, who only relied on his own cleverness, made Wei Ze feel a little pity. The characteristic of being clever is that you read a lot but don't know what it means, and you are good at imitating but not understanding it. If you can follow the general trend, you will be good at the beginning, but you will stagnate when you encounter difficulties. And once it is out of the general trend, it will be like a few drops of water from the desert, and it will dry up in the blink of an eye.

Zhang Yingchen's current actions can be regarded as returning to the right path, but Wei Ze can't help but feel that Zhang Yingchen is just smarter and more skilled, whether there is a qualitative change, but it is still worth investigating.

At this time, Wei Ze was receiving people, so he just asked the troops to send Zhang Yingchen and Heavenly King Hong Tianfugui to Luoyang for good protection. And you must first determine the identity of Hong Tianfugui. No matter how well the intelligence work of the Liberation Army is, it really can't get into the palace of the Heavenly King. More importantly, no one in the Guangfu Army could have imagined that the Heavenly King Hong Tianfu could take the initiative to surrender to the Guangfu Army.

After explaining the matter, Wei Ze went to see Zuo Zongtang, who was waiting. Zuo Zongtang is now the deputy director of the Guangdong Civil Affairs Bureau, and he is treated at the bureau level. Because of the good work of the vegetable basket project, it will not be long before he can be promoted to vice governor of Guangdong Province, and he has a great chance of becoming a member of the Standing Committee of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee. Wei Changrong arranged for Zuo Zongtang to come to report to Wei Ze, and a big reason was also to hope that Wei Ze would meet Zuo Zongtang and wash away Zuo Zongtang's general's color.

But Zuo Zongtang is really Zuo Zongtang, and he also dragged a former Qing official Shen Baozhen this time, wanting to recommend this person to Wei Ze. Wei Ze has a bit of an impression of the name, and Shen Baozhen has left a mark on China's shipbuilding industry. And after learning that Shen Baozhen was Lin Zexu's son-in-law, Wei Ze was finally willing to see this person once.

The person who can make Zuo Zongtang value is indeed different, after Shen Baozhen met Wei Ze, he actually began to intercede for the captured Manchu emperor.

Wei Ze thought it was quite interesting, and he couldn't help but ask Shen Baozhen, "I heard that you fought the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom with the Xiang army. I want to ask you a question, if Hong Xiuquan dies at that time, his son will succeed him. A teenage hairy kid who doesn't understand anything. What would you do with this child if it fell into your hands? ”

Zuo Zongtang never expected that Shen Baozhen would actually bring up the topic of pardoning the little Manchu emperor after seeing Wei Ze, and saw that Wei Ze asked Shen Baozhen such a question along this topic. Zuo Zongtang could only sigh in his heart and admit that he underestimated Shen Baozhen's character too much.

Shen Baozhen listened to Wei Ze's question, he lowered his head and thought for a while, then raised his head and said resolutely: "If such a situation is encountered, I will definitely put this person to death." ”

"Oh...... since you would have made such a decision, then why did you ask me to pardon the little emperor of the Manchu Dynasty?" Wei Ze said, and finally couldn't help but smile.

"Your Majesty, these two things are completely different." Shen Baozhen replied calmly.

"Oh? What's the difference? Looking at Shen Baozhen's serious expression, Wei Ze became a little interested.