Ma Cheng listened to Ma Xi's idiot shouting loudly, and scolded angrily in a low voice: "Third child, you drank too much, what nonsense are you talking about?" ”

This is the imperial palace, and you want to live in the emperor's house to talk about the new empress?

Ma Xi looked at Ma Cheng like this, and laughed: "Second brother is too cautious, how far away the emperor is, these brocade guards and eunuchs don't dare to talk nonsense if they give them a hundred dares, what are you afraid of, second brother?" ”

Ma Cheng saw that Ma Xi was still talking nonsense, looked at the surrounding Jinyi guards, and found that no one paid attention to Ma Xi's nonsense, and he was relieved. But Ma Cheng paid attention to this and found a problem, these Han generals of the brocade guards were completely different from the previous clothes racks, from the posture of walking to holding a knife, they looked like veterans of a hundred battles.

If these Jinyi guards are Ma Cheng's subordinates, or the soldiers and horses in the inner city, this cannot attract Ma Cheng's attention, because whether it is Ma Cheng's subordinates or Lu Siye's subordinates, they all experienced bloody battles during the defense of Nanjing, and some veterans of a hundred battles can be said, but the general of Jinyi Wei in the palace is not like this.

There are two kinds of guards in the palace, one is the Jinyi guard led by Mei Chun, the commander of the imperial city, the number of people is about 3,000, and these guys still have some combat effectiveness. There is also a Han general standing guard at the gates of Qianqing Palace and Fengtian Palace.

These Han generals were under the supervision of the celebrity, numbering 1,500 in total, and they were responsible for ceremonial occasions such as court meetings, the emperor's patrols, and attendants. Because they are the face of the emperor, combat effectiveness is not the first choice when picking people, and appearance and figure are the first priority. So since the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, these Han generals have picked some good families to fill them, in Ma Cheng's words, they are full of clothes racks.

A total of six people followed Ma Cheng, the two little eunuchs in front of them led the way, the two Han generals of the Jinyi Guard supported Ma Shiying and walked in front, and finally two Han generals followed behind.

Ma Cheng looked at the one beside him and asked, "Why does this brother look familiar?" Have you seen it somewhere? ”

The Jinyi Wei Han general was stunned for a moment, and said in Zhiwu for a long time: "Back to Hou Ye, the villain's status is low, where can Hou Ye see the villain!" ”

Ma Cheng listened to this guy's flickering words, and immediately knew that he was lying. Ma Cheng just deceived him just now, according to Ma Cheng's identity, plus more than 100,000 soldiers of the Ming Army in the defense of Nanjing, where can Ma Cheng remember an ordinary soldier?

But this guy stumbled his answer just now, and when he heard it, it was fake, and Ma Cheng had doubts in his heart at this time, did the emperor want to deal with him?

Ma Cheng thought of this and suddenly found that many things were related to each other when he returned to Beijing this time, Ruan Dacheng just let himself return to Beijing as soon as he died, and promoted himself to duke, and at the same time, the emperor easily agreed to the cabinet candidates during the dinner just now, you must know that Ma Shiying wasted all his strength for this matter, how could Zhu Lunkui finally agree so easily?

However, although Ma Cheng was a little skeptical, he was not sure that the emperor was going to clean himself up. Ma Cheng has been back in Beijing for a month, there is nothing unusual about the news from the Military Intelligence Department, the army in the city has not been mobilized, and Lu Siye still eats, drinks, prostitutes, and gambles every day, so Ma Cheng does not dare to guarantee that the emperor is going to deal with himself.

Ma Cheng's mind turned rapidly, and he arrived in front of the palace gate in a while

。 Ma Cheng had something on his mind just now, and he didn't look at the detailed path, and when he got to the front, he found out how to get to Xihuamen.

Just now, Ma Shiying's father and son entered the palace from Fengtianmen, and Ma Cheng's personal guards were waiting in Fengtianmen, why did they come here now?

"Several, how did you get to Xihuamen? Our sedan chair is still in Fengtianmen! ”

A eunuch in front of him bowed down and said: "Master Hou, the distance from Xihua Gate is closer, please rest assured, the slave maid has already sent someone to Fengtianmen to deliver the message, so that the sedan chair will wait in front of the gate of Xi'an, and it will not delay Lord Hou's rest!" ”

What the eunuch said was reasonable, it was necessary to go around a big circle from Fengtianmen to Nancheng, but it was much closer to go out from Xihua Gate and pass through Xi'an Gate.

Ma Cheng followed the eunuch who led the way to the Xihua Gate, and there was a brocade guard who kept vigil to check the waist card, and then opened the palace gate to let a few people out of the palace city.

The Ming Dynasty Nanjing Forbidden City is divided into two layers, the outermost layer is called the Imperial City, the innermost is called the Palace City, between the Imperial City and the Palace City is a large warehouse, here is the location of the Inner Palace Library, the early Ming Dynasty Royal Powder Storehouse, the weapons storehouse, the granary are in this place. However, with the relocation of Yongle to the capital, the imperial city of Nanjing became increasingly deserted, and the three major halls in the middle of the Ming Dynasty were burned down, not to mention the warehouses between the imperial city and the palace city.

The Xihua Gate of the palace city is separated by 500 meters from the Xi'an Gate of the imperial city, and there is a red palace wall on the side, but the palace wall is in disrepair and damaged for a long time, and you can see a large number of abandoned warehouses inside.

Ma Cheng followed these eunuchs and Jinyi guards forward, and when he was two hundred meters away from Xi'an Gate, he found that the lights were bright in front of Xi'an Gate, and a large group of people were waiting in front of Xi'an Gate. Ma Cheng didn't care at first, thinking that he was a palace guard patrolling the night, but when he traveled more than 100 meters, he found that the leader on the opposite side was his sworn enemy Lu Siye.

Lu Siye is in charge of the security in Nanjing, he can't enter the imperial city, why is this guy waiting at Xi'an Gate with so many people now? Ma Cheng knows that this guy is here to deal with him!

At this time, Ma Cheng didn't know where the emperor was going to clean himself up, Ma Cheng looked at the brocade guard beside him in a hurry, and saw the embroidered spring knife on his waist, Ma Cheng stepped forward with a smile and asked, "Do you want to be an errand under this governor?" ”

Ma Cheng was sloppy, and at the same time stepped forward to pull out the embroidered spring knife of the brocade guard, and stabbed him in the stomach without saying a word. The brocade guard was still thinking about how to answer Ma Cheng's question, but he didn't expect Ma Cheng to make the first move, and he was not prepared to be stabbed to death by Ma Cheng.

Ma Cheng stabbed this unlucky guy to death, which made Ma Xi and another Jinyi Wei stupid, that Jinyi Wei knew that the matter was revealed tonight, and was just about to draw a knife to fight Ma Cheng, but Ma Cheng had been trained in the Battle of Nanjing, and he had extremely rich fighting experience, and before that Jinyi Wei could react, a knife killed him.

The screams from behind alarmed the two brocade guards who were supporting Ma Shiying in front, and they turned their heads to see Ma Cheng killing his two colleagues, so they hurriedly threw Ma Shiying aside, drew their knives and stepped forward to fight.

Ma Cheng threw the embroidered spring knife of the dead brocade guard to Ma Xi and shouted: "Third brother, the emperor wants to kill us, but you still don't do it?" ”

Ma Xi was scared half to death by Ma Cheng's actions just now, killing Jinyi Wei in the palace is a big crime of beheading, Ma Xi's wine at this time has already woken up, and he was just about to ask Ma Cheng what the hell is

Something else. But at this time, the two brocade guards in front had already killed them, and Ma Xi had no choice, so he had to fight with them with a knife in order to save his life.

Although these brocade guards are veterans of a hundred battles, where can their fighting qualities compare to Ma Cheng who crawled out of the pile of dead people? What's more, Ma Cheng is famous for being a murderer, and the brocade guard who worked with him was careful to prevent being killed by Ma Cheng. Originally, this guy was not as good as Ma Cheng, and he had a burden in his heart, and he was kicked in the calf by Ma Cheng in a few clicks, and Ma Cheng took this opportunity to step forward and kill him.

Now there is only one Jinyi guard left to fight with Ma Xi, and seeing that his partner was killed, this guy didn't dare to fight, and rushed towards Xi'an Gate, shouting as he ran: "Lu Junmen, the matter is revealed!" ”

Lu Siye originally waited here at Xi'an Gate with his subordinates, wanting to wait for Ma Cheng to arrive, and then grabbed Ma Cheng and escorted him to Xi'an Gate, and killed him with a knife, so he knew that Ma Cheng had not yet gone out of the city gate and found his own arrangement, so angry that Lu Siye scolded: "Your mother, come here, His Majesty the Emperor personally decreed, Ma Shiying, Ma Cheng and his son intended to rebel, and now they are correcting the law on the spot!" After speaking, Lu Siye left Xi'an Gate with more than 100 subordinates, and chased after Ma Cheng.

In fact, Emperor Zhu Lunkui had already killed Ma Cheng, but Ma Cheng had a heavy army in his hands before, and Ma Shiying was very powerful in the middle of the court, if Zhu Lunkui killed Ma Shiying's father and son, then his throne would be unstable.

However, after Ma Cheng eliminated the Luwang Group, the balance of strength reversed. The Donglin Party under King Lu has defected to Zhu Lunkui, so that Zhu Lunkui has the strength to be with Ma Shiying in the court. At this time, Ruan Dacheng died, and without Ruan Dacheng's control, the strength of the Donglin Party was already above Ma Shiying, so Zhu Lunkui, under the persuasion of Qian Qianyi and Huang Daozhou, decided to eradicate Ma Shiying's family and truly grasp the supreme imperial power.

In order to avoid leaking the news, only a few people knew the detailed plan, and even the emperor's father-in-law, Qian Qianyi, did not know the specific steps and time.

Zhu Lunkui handed over this task to his close confidant eunuch Lu Jiude, who had led troops in Fengyang and had 200 henchmen under his command, all of whom were brave men. Lu Jiude placed these people under his nephew Lu Siye, and prepared to wait for the emperor's wedding.

But Zhu Lunkui didn't want his wedding celebration to be stained with blood, after all, this time the bride was Qian Qianyi's daughter, and after Ma Shiying's death, Zhu Lunkui was ready to use Qian Qianyi to control the situation. So after careful consideration, Zhu Lunkui ordered Lu Siye to wait for the Ma family father and son to go out of Xi'anmen to do it.

Because Lu Jiude was well prepared, there were very few people who knew about this matter, so although Ma Cheng's military intelligence department had his hands and eyes in the sky, he still didn't get any news. However, it is precisely because Lu Jiude can't believe anyone that he exposes his horse's feet on Jinyiwei's body, and Ma Cheng is also a general who has led soldiers, so he can find out at a glance whether he is a real soldier or not.

Lu Siye saw that his uncle's flawless plan had gone wrong, and Lu Siye was so angry that he didn't care about the emperor's order not to do anything in the palace, and led people to step forward and hack Ma's father and son to death in Xi'an Gate.

Lu Siye had already shouted out, Ma Cheng knew that this matter must not be good today, Ma Cheng didn't distinguish it, looked around, and found that there was a gap in the palace wall next to him, revealing the ruins behind him, Ma Cheng didn't care about this, and shouted: "Big brother, third brother, don't run away with your father quickly!" ”