Xiao Ding led 18,000 soldiers to protect Song Yinzi and the Ninth Princess back to Beijing, and at the same time did not forget to bring Gao Jinnei with him.

Although the injuries on Gao Xunei's body have not yet healed, Xiao Ding is afraid that after leaving this scourge, he will break out of some disasters and affect the war between the two armies, so it will be too late to regret it, so it is more reassuring to take him with him and watch.

Returning from Jiangzhou to Zhongzhou, the road is also relatively long, with a gap between Jiaozhou, and Jiangzhou is mostly a mountain road, and the army marches without being as convenient as a single horse.

Therefore, it is estimated that it will take at least ten and a half days to return to Zhongzhou City.

Before they arrived in Zhongzhou City, Xiao Ding and Song Yinzi received a battle report from the Han Qi brothers on the front line.

It turned out that as soon as Xiao Ding and his side left, the Han Qi brothers organized generals and soldiers to launch an attack on Jiangzhou City.

Under the powerful power of the Lianzhu crossbow, Jiangzhou City is vulnerable, not to mention the Jiangzhou soldiers under the King of Jiaozhou, far less heartfelt than the Jiangzhou soldiers to the King of Jiaozhou.

Therefore, the attack on Jiangzhou City was very smooth, and in the chaos of the army, Wu Gui and Wang Ba, the generals under the king of Jiaozhou, died in the chaos.

The king of Jiaozhou and his family fled from the back gate with more than 1,000 people. According to the Tanma Detective Report, the king of Jiaozhou had fled to the border, and it seemed that he had fled into the territory of the Great Tubo Kingdom.

The generals Wu Gui and Wang Ba were left by the king of Jiaozhou to help break off, and the task was to let the two of them stop the army of the Han brothers, so that he could take the opportunity to escape. As a result, these two generals were also unlucky, Wu Gui's injuries had just improved recently, and the two were left behind by the king of Jiaozhou, and they almost became outcasts. was killed by the Han brothers with a burst of troops, and in the chaos of the army, Wu Gui and Wang Ba faced Lu Changping and Di Wanjun, as well as two recently surrendered border generals, several generals besieged and killed Wu Gui and Wang Ba on the spot.

There were only about 10,000 defenders in Jiangzhou City before, but about 1,000 were taken away by the king of Jiaozhou, about 4,000 surrendered, and the rest were all killed and wounded in the chaos.

The former local civil officials such as Jiangzhou Zhizhou and Jiaozhou Zhizhou also fled to the Great Tubo Kingdom with their families and their families.

Accompanying the Han brothers to attack Jiangzhou City, there were also four or five thousand people from the rivers and lakes.

As soon as Jiangzhou City was broken, these Jianghu sects immediately rushed to the dens of Tianluomen and Disha Valley in the city. Destroy these dens directly.

And the military advisor Youyangzi who was once sealed by the king of Jiaozhou, was in the den of the Disha Valley at the time, and was blocked by Hongyu Zhenren, the head of the Misty Cloud Sect, as soon as he saw it, Hongyu Zhenren had already recognized it, this guy with the Taoist name Youyangzi was the outcast Gou Liangcai who was expelled from the door by him back then.

However, it is a pity that Youyangzi saw that the situation was not good, and immediately chose to escape. Escaped directly from the city and hid in the mountains.

These Jianghu sects just killed some disciples of Tianluo Sect and Disha Valley. but they did not see their head.

Immediately afterwards, the various factions in the rivers and lakes discussed, and left Jiangzhou City again, went to the lair of Diqing Mountain and Disha Valley, and gave the rudder of Disha Valley to a nest.

Because the Imperial Spirit Sect and the Ten Thousand Poison Sect did not participate in the action of the Heavenly Sect and the Earth Demon Valley to destroy the other Jianghu sects, they only colluded with the King of Jiaozhou, so the various factions in the rivers and lakes did not go to the lair of the Imperial Spirit Sect and the Ten Thousand Poison Sect to eliminate their general rudder.

After the Han brothers occupied Jiangzhou City, they immediately sent a battle report to Xiao Ding's side, and at the same time, they also sent the previous generals to the border pass to continue to carry out the task of guarding the border.

Although the border troops have been greatly reduced at this time, at least there are people guarding the border passes!

After Xiao Ding received the good news from the Han brothers, he immediately wrote a letter to reply, asking them to arrange the border troops and then return to Kyoto, and at the same time let the former Yuezhou soldiers and horses command the Di Wan army, still return to Yuezhou, in charge of the Yuezhou troops, and let the former Zhongzhou soldiers and horses command Lu Changping also return to Zhongzhou and return to his post. The command of Jiangzhou's soldiers and horses was still given to the commander of Jiangzhou's soldiers and horses surnamed Shen.

At present, only Jiaozhou lacks a commander of soldiers and horses. Because Gu Ziji, the former commander of the Jiaozhou soldiers and horses, was framed by Xiao Ding with a trick, and the king of Jiaozhou was imprisoned in Jiaozhou.

After Xiao Ding's troops captured Jiaozhou, Xiao Ding tried to persuade Gu Ziji to surrender, but Gu Ziji hated Xiao Ding for framing him and refused to surrender. Xiao Ding couldn't, so he continued to put him in prison.

At present, there are also many vacancies in the civil servants of Jiaozhou and Jiangzhou. The governors of the two states have fled with the king of Jiaozhou, and they are currently all lower-level staff members who are temporarily helping to deal with state affairs. Therefore, after returning to Zhongzhou, the political situation is stable, and the two states still need to arrange people to come over to fill the vacancy.

After writing a reply letter to the Han brothers, Xiao Ding led his troops to continue on his way.

When he arrived in Jiaozhou City, Xiao Ding interrogated Gu Ziji, the former commander of the Jiaozhou soldiers and horses who had been locked up in prison, after nearly two months of detention, Gu Ziji was much thinner than before, and it seems that the prison life these days is not so good.

This time, Xiao Ding only told him that the king of Jiaozhou had been completely wiped out and was now in exile.

Gu Ziji didn't say a word, and directly agreed to surrender.

However, Xiao Ding didn't treat him very well, he felt that this person was a bit cheap, and when he first beat Jiaozhou, he asked him to surrender, he didn't agree with anything, and after nearly two months of detaining, he suffered hardship, and he also heard that the king of Jiaozhou was completely defeated, so he nodded and agreed, isn't this cheap?

The position of commander of the Jiaozhou soldiers and horses will not be given to him anymore, let him be the commander of Jiaozhou City, and only command the soldiers and horses of Jiaozhou City is considered good to him.

After arranging the things here in Jiaozhou, Xiao Ding did not delay too much time, and continued to lead the army on the road.

After another seven or eight days, the army finally rushed back to the outside of Zhongzhou.

The army could not enter the city, and Song Yinzi planned to enter the city immediately and return to the palace to see the situation, but was stopped by Xiao Ding again.

"Why did Brother Tian stop me again?" Song Yinzi didn't understand Xiao Ding's intention to stop him.

Xiao Ding said unhurriedly: "King Mu, don't forget, the emperor sitting in the palace now is not your father, but your seventh brother." If you return to the palace alone, won't it be like a sheep in the mouth of a tiger, and when you reach his territory, it will be easy for him to kill you! ”

"This ......? Could it be that my seventh brother still wants to kill me? Song Yinzi doubted.

"I don't know if he wants to kill you, but if someone can threaten his throne, I guess he can do anything." Xiao Ding said calmly.

When Song Yinzi heard this, he immediately hesitated. After thinking about it for a long time, he said, "Then what should we do now?" ”

Xiao Ding also lowered his head and thought for a moment, and then said, "I guess your seventh brother must have already gotten the news by now, and he must have known about the return of our army." I guess if he is on guard against you, he will definitely send someone to take over your military power as soon as possible, and after taking your military power, he will no longer be afraid of you, and will definitely recruit you into the palace to test your attitude to see if you support him as emperor, if you don't, he will definitely find a way to get rid of you. ”

"Huh? Then I can't hand over the military power, can I? Song Yinzi said.

"Of course, no matter who your seventh brother sends over later, you don't have to hand over the military power, and later I will sneak into the city, go to King Gao's Mansion to meet Lord Gao, inquire about the specific situation in the city, and then make the next decision." Xiao Ding said.

The two were talking, when the generals of Yang, Yue, Gao, and Luo came to the two of them, and they all said that they wanted to ask for leave to go home into the city to see the situation.

When Xiao Ding saw it, it was a good opportunity, so he nodded and agreed, and told them to investigate the situation after they went back, especially the cause of the old emperor's death, how he died, who killed him, and so on.

Of course, Xiao Ding didn't completely count on the people of these big families, after all, the real cause of the death of the old emperor Song Yuanting would not be known to outsiders.

If you want to know about this, the breakthrough that Xiao Ding thought of was in the body of the seventh prince Song Yinding, in Xiao Ding's opinion, Song Yinding was the most suspicious of killing the old emperor, because now that he is the emperor, the biggest beneficiary of the old emperor after his death is the seventh prince Song Yinding.

However, it is not easy to get close to Song Yin, because there are not only nearly 10,000 imperial forest soldiers guarding the palace around him, but also hundreds of Ouchi masters guarding the emperor's side.

Sure enough, as Xiao Ding expected, not long after Song Yinzi and the others' army had just settled down outside the city, Song Yinding, the seventh prince, ordered a military general in Zhongzhou City to bring a holy decree to the barracks, claiming that the emperor had sent him over to take over the army.

Moreover, the military general believed that he had a holy will, and he had to let Song Yinzi and Xiao Ding and others kneel down to receive the order.

After Song Yinzi and Xiao Ding glanced at each other, they directly snatched the holy decree from the general's hand, tore it to pieces, smashed the general's face, and then ordered someone to beat the general and the people who came with him out with a stick.

The military general ran back to Zhongzhou City in disgrace and went back to report to the Seventh Prince, Song Yinding.

In the afternoon, the three sisters and brothers of the Yang family, the two brothers of the Yue family, as well as Gao Hongxiu and Luo Sikou, all left the camp and went home to the city to find out the news. Entering the city with them was the puppet lady Gao Jinnei, who also wanted to go back to the Taiwei Mansion and want to tell his father everything that happened to him as soon as possible.

Xiao Ding also followed Gao Hongxiu and went to King Gao's Mansion together, he wanted to meet the old prince Gao and ask him about the situation in the city in person.

When he entered King Gao's mansion and saw Old Prince Gao, Xiao Ding found that this old man, who was full of energy in the past, now looks a lot more depressed and his face is a lot haggard.

After greeting each other, Xiao Ding and Gao Hongxiu gave a rough account of the situation on the front line. Then we talked about the death of the old emperor.

As soon as this matter was mentioned, the old prince Gao lamented again and again. He also questioned the cause of the old emperor's death, but without evidence, he didn't dare to talk nonsense.

As for the accession of the Seventh Prince to the throne, he was also helpless, at the beginning, led by him and the old princes of the other three royal palaces, there were also many people who opposed the Seventh Prince becoming the emperor. However, within a few days, several opposing officials had an accident in their homes.

Either the mansion was burned down by fire for no reason, and no one in the whole mansion survived, or it was poisoned for no reason, and even the people in the whole mansion could not escape.

After experiencing several such cases, many officials began to be afraid, so they had to turn their heads to support Zhao Shisun and Gao Geyu, and their faction of civil officials changed from their previous opposition to support.

On the military attaché's side, fortunately, the four major palaces are heavily guarded, and there are many masters raised in the palaces guarding the palaces, so the four palaces have not encountered any accidents.

"So, there are still Jianghu people under the Seventh Prince who are secretly helping him?" After hearing this, Xiao Ding asked suspiciously.

"Whether it's a Jianghu person or not, I can't be sure, because there are still many Ouchi masters around him who are secretly helping him, or it may be that he sent Ouchi masters out to commit the crime." Old Lord Gao said.

When Xiao Ding heard it, he felt that what Old Prince Gao said was not impossible. Then thinking of the fact that the king of Jiaozhou had proposed to the old emperor to support the seven princes as the crown prince, I couldn't help but think, could it be the seven princes supported by the king of Jiaozhou?

After all, when the old emperor died, and when he succeeded to the throne with the seventh prince, it was when his army was about to approach Jiangzhou, and it was impossible to say that the king of Jiaozhou saw that he couldn't stop his army in this area, so he attacked behind his back. Let the Seven Princes seize power, and then contain Song Yinzi to achieve the goal of blocking the army from attacking him.

It's a pity that the king of Jiaozhou may not have thought that his side would march so quickly, and he didn't pay attention to the holy decree passed down by the seven princes to let the troops go, and still drove him abroad.

Thinking that the Seventh Prince might have secretly colluded with the Jianghu people to help him, Xiao Ding immediately thought of Song Yinzi's safety. Now there is only one person who can threaten the throne of the Seventh Prince, Song Yinzi. There are more than a dozen of their brothers, most of whom have been secretly persecuted, except for Song Yinzi, there are only a few underage children left, who are imprisoned in the palace by the Seventh Prince, and they can't make any waves.

So, Xiao Ding immediately got up and said goodbye to the old prince Gao, saying that he was not worried about Song Yinzi's safety, and he must rush back to the barracks before dark today.

Although it is said that in the barracks, Song Yinzi is most likely relatively safe, because few people usually have the courage to commit crimes in the barracks.

In any case, a military camp is a military camp after all, if you fail to commit a crime and are besieged by the army, no matter how high your martial arts are, in the face of a large number of troops, as well as strong bows and crossbows, you may not be able to retreat with your whole body.

Old Prince Gao knew the importance of the matter, so he no longer kept Xiao Ding, and after sending Xiao Ding out of King Gao's mansion, he said goodbye to Xiao Ding.

Xiao Ding hurried all the way out of the city, and he didn't have time to go back to his general's mansion to take a look.