Song Zheng saw that Qi Er was still hesitant, so he said: "Don't worry, after this period of contact, you also know what kind of person I am, your affairs can be out of your mouth and into my ears, and I won't tell anyone." Besides, I'm the only person you should trust in this situation. Although my grandfather was implicated in your death, our opponents are the same people. Now we should fight against the same enemy, tide over the difficulties together, and in the future, when we are strong, we will find an opportunity to take revenge. ”

Qi'er was silent for a while, and said, "Okay, I'll tell you, you must swear not to let the third person know." ”

Song Zheng said impatiently: "I swear it." If I tell anyone else about you, I will die a good death. Okay, let's talk about it. For people like Song Zheng from later generations, this kind of oath is like a dream, and there is no binding force at all.

Qi Er glanced at Song Zheng, she had never seen such an immodest swear, so she just said it casually. Song Zheng glared at Qi Er coldly, Qi Er was afraid that Song Zheng would be mad again, so she had no choice but to tell the story of her and Old Man Gao, this time, it was Song Zheng's turn to be stunned.

The story told by Zi'er began more than forty years ago. The old man of Song joined the army of the Great Qi Dynasty shortly after Taizong destroyed the king of Lu. Because of his bravery and loyalty, the general Han Zhong especially liked this Shandong soldier and chose him as his own soldier (Song Zheng knew that when the senior generals of the later generations of troops selected guards, they liked to choose Shandong soldiers and Henan soldiers, mainly because they were hard-working and not afraid of death in battle). Han Zhong is strong in martial arts and quite resourceful. He selected eight from his own soldiers, respectively, to give knives, halberds, axes, guns, maces, sickles, hammers, swords, sticks eight kinds of weapons, and taught them martial arts, these eight people are called the eight iron guards, and the old man Song is one of the stick guards.

At that time, Qiu Ling, which is now Dr. Gao, was Han Zhong's secretary (that is, secretary, equivalent to a clerk), and he was particularly good with Old Man Song. Later, the Jin soldiers invaded Tokyo, and Taizong and Han Zhong led their troops to fight a bloody battle with them. Due to the large strength of Jin's army, the situation was quite tight, and even Taizong fell into crisis several times. Before the First World War, Taizong heard that the Western Xia army also took the opportunity to attack Luoyang, Xijing, and approached Bishui Pass. Due to the small number of soldiers, Taizong and Han Zhong were besieged and faced the danger of annihilation. At the time of crisis, Han Zhong ordered Qiu Ling to pretend to be Taizong, and Taizong himself turned into Han Zhong's personal soldiers, and then divided his troops to break through. After a bloody battle, Han Zhong and Taizong broke through, and the hills that turned into Taizong were captured by the Jin soldiers.

After Taizong and Han Zhong fled to Taikang, they regrouped their forces. At this time, Li Qianshun, the emperor of Chongzong Dade of Western Xia, fell ill and died, and Western Xia had to withdraw his troops. The Great Qi army that resisted Western Xia returned to the division and attacked the Jin soldiers with Taizong. At that time, in order to confuse Jin Bing, Taizong did not show up, but pretended to let his young eldest son Chun succeed to the throne. Under the banner of rescuing Taizong, the Great Qi Dynasty attacked the Jin soldiers with the strength of mourning soldiers and drove them back to the north of the Yellow River. At that time, Jin Bing thought that he had captured Taizong, and he had no intention of fighting. After the Jin soldiers retreated to the north of the Yellow River, the real Taizong officially appeared in front of the Great Qi army.

Since Taizong had already stabilized the defensive line, the strength of the Shangjin soldiers had been lost, and they were unable to cross the Yellow River into the Central Plains. Annoyed, Jin Bing castrated the fake Taizong, that is, the hills, and sent them back to humiliate the Great Qi Dynasty.

At first, there was one person who was more suitable to pretend to be Taizong than Qiu Ling, and that person was Han Lin, the son of Han Zhong's brother. Han Lin and Taizong are similar in appearance and similar in stature, while Qiu Ling is also similar in appearance to Taizong, but it is shorter. However, Han Zhong's brother also died for the Great Qi campaign, and Han Zhong only had one daughter at that time, so there was only one descendant left in the Han family. Qiu Ling couldn't bear to be the queen of the Han family, so he offered to pretend to be Taizong and raise his boots to make himself more similar to Taizong. Since the situation was really tense, Han Zhong didn't have time to think about it, so he agreed to Qiuling's request. Because of this incident, Song Xiang, who was on good terms with the hills, was quite disappointed in Han Zhong.

After the castrated hills were sent back by the Jin soldiers, Han Zhong ordered him to enter the palace and continue to serve Taizong. Song Xiang was even more disgusted with Han Zhong, thinking that Han Zhong did not sympathize with his subordinates, so he resolutely asked to quit the army and go home to farm. Han Zhong stayed in vain, so he had to let Song Xiang return to his hometown.

After several years of conquest, the Great Qi Dynasty stabilized the frontier with Jin in the north, Western Xia in the northwest, and Shu in the southwest, which is now the territory of Great Qi.

After the hills entered the palace, they were deeply valued by Taizong. Later, Taizong's eldest son, Xiao Chun, died of illness, and the second son, Xiao Zi, became the crown prince. After the death of Taizong, Xiao Zi succeeded to the throne for Gaozong. Qiu Ling continued to assist Gaozong and became the chief eunuch.

Taizong had a total of three sons, namely Xiao Chun, Xiao Zi, and Xiao Jun. After Tsubaki's death, Tsubaki took good care of his only younger brother, Tsubaki. However, when he went out hunting, he was assassinated by someone else and was shot in the lower abdomen by an arrow. At that time, there was only one daughter, so this assassination made Xiao Hui a dead end. Suffering from this misfortune, Xiao Zi took more care of Xiao Juni. After Xiao Zi succeeded to the throne, he not only made his younger brother the leader of the forbidden army, but also appointed him as the commander of the Imperial City Division. Not only that, but also passed on the second son Xiao Ying to Xiao Hui. Who knew that Xiao Hui was not only ungrateful, but also thought that the assassination he suffered at the beginning was done by Gaozong, so as not to compete for the throne himself, so he held a grudge against Gaozong.

At the turn of the autumn and winter of the fourteenth year of Dading, Gaozong suddenly fell ill and had muscle pain all over his body. At this time, Xiao Hui collected a kind of thing called "Diyejia" (the ancient name of opium) from Hu Shang, boiled it into water, and presented it to Taizong. After Taizong took it, the pain was reduced. After more than half a year, Xiao Hui continued to send Diyejia, and Taizong's dosage became larger and larger. Later, Taizong found that although the pain in his body was reduced, his limbs and body became numb day by day, so that he could not speak and his whole body was stiff. In the first two months, Qiu Ling, who knew a little about medical skills, had already discovered that Gaozong was wrong, and tried to persuade Gaozong not to take it, but Gaozong didn't care. When Gao Zong's mouth was speechless, Qiu Ling realized that something big was going to happen.

Gaozong had two sons and two daughters. The eldest daughter Xiao Sun, the second son Xiao Yan, the third son Xiao Ying, the fourth daughter Xiao Yun, the first two were born to the queen, Xiao Yun was born to a concubine, and Xiao Ying was born from Huang Jiao, the mother of the West Palace. The queen died after giving birth to Huang Yan, because Gaozong and the queen had a very close relationship, so the queen did not establish a new queen after her death, which led to Huang Jiao's dissatisfaction. Although Huang Jiao commands the harem, there are always some unjustifiable names. At that time, Huang Jiao's father, Huang Yuandugui, was the deputy prime minister, and he was quite powerful in the DPRK, and he did not agree with old ministers such as Taiwei Han Zhong. Huang Yuandu used his daughter Huang Jiao to collude with Xiao Hui. Xiao Ying is both the stepson of Xiao Hui and the grandson of Huang Yuandu, and the two begin to conspire to kill the crown prince Xiao Yan. Due to Gaozong's loss of mobility, under the joint suppression of Huang Jiao and Xiao Hui, the hills were also elevated. Although Qiu Ling had wanted to contact Han Zhong and other court elders, he was prepared to interfere with the unexpected. But Xiao Jun and Huang Jiao controlled the court, and Qiu Ling was also powerless, so he could only secretly find a way.

Qiu Ling has been in charge of the eunuchs for many years, and at the beginning of Huang Jiao's entry into the palace, he arranged a henchman eunuch by his side, but it has not been activated. When Hill felt that something was wrong, he wanted to contact the little eunuch, but learned that the little eunuch had just disappeared. Qiu Ling realized that the other party wanted to make a move, so he secretly came to the East Palace that night, wanting to take Xiao Yan out of the palace to Han Zhong to take refuge. After the death of the queen, Qiu Ling took great care of Xiao Sun and Xiao Yan, and had a deep affection, and the sisters and brothers also relied on Qiu Ling very much. Therefore, when Qiu Ling wanted to take the sister and brother away, the sister and brother naturally obeyed. However, before the three of them could walk out of the East Palace, someone began to set fires. Due to the large fire, Hill had to hide in the flower pond in the palace with the two of them. After the fire started, the palace collapsed, and a large log fell into the pool, hitting Xiao Yan's head, Xiao Yan died on the spot, and Qiu Ling and Xiao Sun escaped.

Taking advantage of the panic moment when the palace was busy fighting fires, Hill and Xiao Sun took advantage of the cover of the lotus flowers in the pond to go ashore from the other side of the flower pond, and under the cover of the night, groped to the palace wall, crawled out of a secret hole, and hid in a secret place in the forbidden city (Jiangning City is the capital, the center is the forbidden city, and the forbidden city is the palace city), which has a tunnel leading to the outside of the forbidden city. After the two escaped from the tunnel, they originally wanted to go to Han Zhong, but Han Zhong's house was secretly monitored, and the two had no chance. had no choice but to get out of Jiangning City and start the escape journey. During this period, he faced several dangers, but he survived safely under the arrangement of the hills. Qiu Ling turned into a tall doctor and became a countryman, while Xiao Sun changed his name to Qi'er and became an apprentice of Gao Dafu. After nearly half a year of fleeing, the two came to the remote Songjiazhuang and defected to Song Xiang. Since Song Xiang and Hill were old friends forty years ago, no one else knew about it, so the two settled down in Songjiazhuang.

On the night after Xiao Yan's death, Gaozong also died. Since Gaozong only has one son, Xiao Ying, although he has been succeeded to Xiao Jun, but after all, it is the bloodline of Gaozong, so Xiao Ying ascended the throne for Mingzong. Han Zhong and other old ministers, who were loyal to Daqi, were very suspicious of the death of Gaozong and the crown prince, but the matter had come to this point, and it was impossible to support someone else as the emperor, so they had to respect the new lord. Huang Yuandu and Xiao Hui joined forces to purge the court and the army. In the end, Han Zhong, the leading figure among the old ministers, was arrested and imprisoned, and died in prison a year later. Huang Yuandu became the prime minister, and Xiao Hui became the lieutenant and took charge of the Great Qi army.

After listening to the story told by Qi'er, Song Zheng's mind was confused. He really didn't expect the story to be so complicated, almost beyond all his imagination. Whether it is the bloody battle between Daqi and Dajin more than forty years ago, or the palace coup five years ago, these are all legends. He didn't expect to be associated with such a thing. Qi Er, who was like a beggar in front of her, was actually the eldest princess of Daqi, and she was beating and scolding her just now, what is this called! (Just collect)