The secret guard knew that Concubine Hui was going to attack Xiao Yan, and immediately chased after the team heading to Jiangnan non-stop, but after he caught up with the team, he knew that Xiao Yan had left the team and rushed to Jiangnan in advance, and it had been two days since they left.

There was no way, the team could only speed up their march, hoping to catch up with Xiao Yan before he had an accident.

On the other side, Xiao Yan and Feng Yu didn't know that Hui Guifei sent someone to intercept and kill them, because they were worried about Feng Yi's safety, they didn't rest much along the way, and finally arrived at the post station in Jiangnan two days later.

"Princess, let's rest at the post station in front of us, and then let's go into the city."

Feng Yu also knew that there was no urgency to save Feng Yi, not to mention that they had been on the road for two days, and they also needed to take a rest, after all, no one knew what would happen when they entered the city.

"Okay, I'll listen to you."

The two led the horses into the inn, handed the horses to the servant, and then went into the house and found a place by the window to sit down.

"What are you going to eat?"

"What do you want to eat?" Xiao Yan looked at Feng Yu Dao, and when she shook her head, she ordered a few side dishes that she loved to eat.

While the two of them were waiting for the food to be served, they kept observing the people entering and leaving the inn, and their whereabouts might also be exposed, so they had to be careful at all times.

"It's getting harder and harder these days."

The shopkeeper standing at the counter at the door fiddled with the abacus, sighing from time to time, his face full of helplessness.

"Shopkeeper, it's not appropriate for you to say this, right? There is an endless stream of merchants coming and going to the south of the Yangtze River, look at your post house, you should be able to make a lot of money a year. ”

The guest next to him joked with a smile, and the shopkeeper looked up at him, shook his head helplessly, and said, "Although I make a lot of money, I keep a pitiful amount in my pocket." ”

"Shopkeeper, what do you mean by that? The money you earned isn't yours, right? ”

The shopkeeper threw away the abacus in his hand, walked out of the counter, walked to the table of guests, bent down and whispered, "Don't you know?" The state government raised taxes last year, and each household paid more than double the amount it had before.

"In a place like mine, the tax added is more. What's the use of making more money, but in the end it's not in the pockets of the people in the state capital. ”

The man in gray next to him also leaned over and asked, "Isn't the money handed over as a state treasury?" How can it be said that it went into the pockets of the state capital? ”

The shopkeeper looked at the man dressed in gray, and when he saw that his face was raw, he stopped talking. On the contrary, the guest who spoke at the beginning, afraid that he had drunk some wine, became bolder, and said without thinking about it: "That's all fake." Half of the money of our people and the amount handed over every year goes to the people of the state capital to eat and drink for fun. ”

"No one cares about such a big thing?" The man in gray was surprised.

The shopkeeper sighed and said helplessly: "It's not a matter of a year or two for the state capital to embezzle money, do you think who has been in charge of it so far?" ”

"Could it be that the adults above don't know about it?"

"Huh." The shopkeeper laughed dryly twice and said, "How can you not know that if these officials want to stay in this official position for a long time, only the officials will protect each other. ”

"That's it." The guests who drank nodded again and again and said, "Who else did I hear about two days ago...... Whoever came, anyway, someone took the silver and went to the state capital to buy an official office. ”

The shopkeeper shook his head and sighed twice, and said: "Look at those scholars, they have studied hard for ten years, and they can't become officials when they take the silver and send it to the door." ”

"Yes, as long as you have money, you can be an official, where do you need to study and take the imperial examination."

"The bitterness lies in those who have real talent and learning, but are born in a poor family, who are obviously talented, but they are squeezed out by these rich people."

The conversations of the few people next to them all came into the ears of Feng Yu and Xiao Yan, and the two glanced at each other and were silent.

After eating and resting for a while, the two prepared to enter the city, discussing what they had heard at the inn on the way.

Soon arrived at the gate of the city, the two dismounted and entered the city, there were many merchants coming and going in the south of the Yangtze River, and they belonged to a prosperous place.

Feng Yu had never been to Jiangnan, and she felt a little curious when she saw something new, and she was occasionally attracted to attention, so Xiao Yan followed her and watched her to prevent her from getting lost.

Suddenly, there was a noisy sound in front of her, and then she heard the sound of horses' hooves getting closer and closer, and Feng Yu straightened her head to look ahead.

I saw a man riding a horse on the street not far ahead, and the people on the road were so frightened that they fled in all directions, and many stalls on the street were knocked over.

Seeing that the man was about to rush over on a horse, Xiao Yan hurriedly blocked Feng Yu behind him, and Feng Yu saw that many people fell to the ground on the road, so he used a hidden weapon when the horse passed by.

The hidden weapon hit the horse's leg, and the person on the horse was thrown out in pain, Fengyu looked at the person who fell to the ground, 'oops, oops', and screamed, and the whole person was very happy.

Not having time to pay attention to the man, Feng Yu turned around to help the vendor owner clean up the things on the ground, and the people who were injured because of the fright.

Feng Yu helped the old woman who fell to the ground up, and said angrily: "It's so hateful, actually riding a horse in the city, aren't you afraid of stepping on people?" ”

The old woman looked at Feng Yu and asked, "The girl and the son are from out of town, right?" ”

"yes."

"It's not surprising that the girl doesn't know." The vendor owner said while packing up his things: "The person who rode the horse just now is a person who just became an official a few days ago, named Zhao Xu. ”

"This person has always been arrogant and domineering, and his family is rich and powerful, how can he care about the life and death of ordinary people like us."

"A person like this is not worthy of being an official." Feng Yu said with a look of resentment, "Hmph, I don't know how he got his official position?" ”

Hearing Fengyu's words, the vendor owner sighed helplessly, "His official position was bought with money, where can he take the test." ”

Feng Yu was stunned for a moment, turned her head to look at the person who got up from the ground and cursed, frowning, it turned out that he was the one who spent money to buy and was an official.

"Thank you, son, thank you, girl."

The owner of the stall thanked him again and again, and the people who were helped next to him also thanked Fengyu and Xiao Yan one by one, but no one blamed the rider.

Seeing that Zhao Xu was about to leave after scolding, Feng Yu looked at him angrily and said, "A person like this should be put in prison and let him eat in prison for the rest of his life." ”

Saying that, Feng Yu wanted to step forward to stop Zhao Xu, but as soon as she took a step forward, she was grabbed by Xiao Yan.

Feng Yu looked back at him and frowned, "What are you pulling me for?" ”

"Princess, please come with me." Xiao Yan pulled Fengyu aside to a place where no one was, and then said: "Princess, I know you are very angry, but it is not too late for us to punish this person in the future, the most important thing at the moment is to find the eldest prince first." ”

After a while, Feng Yu calmed down, if her and Xiao Yan's identities were exposed, once the black hand behind her knew, it would only put Feng Yi in greater danger.

"You're right, it's true that I'm too impulsive." Feng Yu looked up at Xiao Yan and sighed, "Fortunately, you are here." ”

Xiao Yan smiled and said, "The princess is already kind-hearted and straightforward, and it is normal for her to feel angry when she sees such a thing happening. ”

Glancing around, Feng Yu was a little worried: "But Jiangnan is so big, where should we go to find the imperial brother." ”

Just when Feng Yu was full of sadness, the spy who had inquired about the news before suddenly appeared in front of him, Feng Yu looked at him with some surprise, but Xiao Yan next to him seemed to have known for a long time, and the expression on his face did not change.

"General, my subordinates found the inn where the eldest prince lived, and found blood stains near the inn."

Bloodstain? Feng Yu looked at Xiao Yan worriedly, and Xiao Yan hurriedly comforted: "Don't worry, he's fine." ”

After finishing speaking, Xiao Yan looked at the spy and said, "Take us quickly." ”

"Yes."

Feng Yu followed closely beside Xiao Yan, feeling a little uneasy, she was worried about whether Feng Yi would have ......

The three of them quickly rushed to the inn, asked about the house where Feng Yi lived, and immediately rushed in, but there was no one inside.

Xiao Yan checked the things on the bed, in addition to clothes, there were silver taels and purses.

"It seems that the eldest prince was in a hurry when he left."

He had seen this purse on Feng Yi's body, it was Feng Yi's personal belonging, if he hadn't left in a hurry, he wouldn't have left such an important thing.

Taking the purse in Xiao Yan's hand, Feng Yu took a closer look, this is indeed Feng Yi's thing, she will not admit it.

Xiao Yan packed up his things, turned to look at Feng Yu, and said softly: "Let's go, let's go down and ask the people in the inn, maybe they know something." ”

"Hmm."

The two came downstairs and asked the shopkeeper, who said he didn't know, and then they found the shopkeeper and asked him about Fengyi.

"You're talking about the guests staying in the second room upstairs?"

"Yes, that's him." Fengyu nodded and asked, "Do you know something?" ”

"Who are you two of those guests?"

Feng Yu was stunned for a moment, and Xiao Yan next to him immediately replied: "We are his friends, and we originally made an appointment to meet in Jiangnan, but who knew that we arrived but found that the other person was gone." ”

The shopkeeper looked at them a few times, and then said, "After the guest moved in, he stayed in the house all day and did not go out, and the food was also brought upstairs to eat, and it was like this for two days in a row. ”

"And then?" Xiao Yan said in a deep voice.

The shopkeeper shook his head and sighed: "There are too many guests coming in and out every day, and I can't remember clearly." ”

Feng Yu walked up to him and said anxiously: "Think about it, there must be something you can remember, as long as it is related to him, anything is fine." ”

Maybe it was because of Fengyu's eagerness, the shopkeeper really raised his head and thought about it carefully, and after a while, he suddenly clapped his hands and said happily: "I remember." ”

"On the day that boy left, a lot of people dressed in black appeared around the inn, and I thought it was strange when I saw it, and I thought something big was going to happen."

Feng Yu and Xiao Yan glanced at each other, it seemed that Feng Yi should have noticed that something was wrong, so he left the inn in a hurry.