Half an hour later, Zhang Huan rushed to Yuan Zai's mansion under the heavy escort of nearly 500 personal guards, his face was extremely ugly, Yuan Zai was stabbed and undoubtedly disrupted his deployment, if Yuan Zai died, it would cause Shuo Fang and the military department to be two blanks, so that he could not take care of one and the other, the military department could not give up, and it would affect the layout of Xiangyang and Changsha.

Shuo Fang can not give up, it is related to the safety of Longyou and Hexi, it is not as good as Shuzhong, Shuzhong is blocked, as long as he masters the army, he can control the entire region, and Shuofang is connected to Guanzhong in the south and Hedong in the east.

Zhang Huan was anxious for a while, the soldiers came to report, Yuan Zai was a poisonous arrow, and there was still a trace of breath, Zhang Huan hurriedly stepped into the door of the house, only to see the cavalry guarding Yuan Zai was kneeling on the ground, waiting for the drop, and there was Li Dingfang, the captain of the pro-soldiers, standing next to him.

When Li Dingfang saw Zhang Huan coming in, he immediately stepped forward to report: "Report to the governor, seven brothers were killed and fifteen were wounded in the ambush, and we killed twenty-one enemies and captured twenty-nine, but due to the team's negligence, they did not search the big tree, resulting in the success of the assassins hiding in the big tree. ”

He pointed to the team kneeling on the ground and said, "Please send the governor!" ”

Zhang Huan glanced at the team, and when he saw that he lowered his head and said nothing, he said: "As soon as the hundred secrets are sparse, the credit will become the guilt, push it down, and the staff will be fifty military sticks!" ”

"Xie Dudu's grace not to kill!" As the team was narrowly escaping death, he kowtowed excitedly and followed a few of the executioners down.

Zhang Huan glanced at everyone again: "Details determine success or failure." I hope everyone will take this matter as a warning, and if there is a next time, I will never spare it! “

Everyone was awe-struck and agreed with their fists together. After dealing with the crime of dereliction of duty, Zhang Huan strode towards the inner house under the guidance of Yuan Zaifu's family, and Li Dingfang followed closely behind.

"Governor, I have found out that the people who were caught were all the personal guards of Li Chenghong, the king of Guangwu, please ask the governor. What should I do about it? ”

Zhang Huan stopped, pondered for a moment and said: "This is blocking the news in advance, if someone asks, it will say that Yuan Shilang is sick, and his injuries must not be leaked, including the doctors who have treated him, they can't be let go, understand?" ”

"Yes!" Li Dingfang gave a salute and arranged to go. At this time, Yuan Zai's eldest son came out with a doctor, he looked up and saw Zhang Huan, hurriedly stepped forward to salute, his eyes were red, and he said in a trembling voice: "My father is critically injured, please Shangshu is the master of my Yuan family." ”

"This matter is my responsibility, and I will definitely give you an explanation."

Zhang Huan sighed apologetically. He asked the doctor again, "How is Yuan Shilang's injury now?" ”

"Qi Qi Zhang Envoy Jun, the arrow wound is fine, but the poison on the arrow is very fierce, and the villain can't crack it, so he can only temporarily stabilize the poison Speaking of this, the doctor sighed and shook his head

"And how long can he last?" Zhang Huan restrained the anxiety in his heart and asked in a deep voice.

The doctor glanced at Yuan Zhili. "Three hours at most!" ”

"Three hours?" Zhang Huan's heart sank into the abyss suddenly, the beads of sweat on his forehead had oozed out, he turned to one side and walked into the ward quickly, Yuan Zhili couldn't shout, and hurriedly followed.

There was a strong stench in the ward, and two family members were covering their noses to clean up the blood on the floor. Saw someone come in. Frightened, the two of them went out with a basin of water in a panic.

Zhang Huan walked to the front of the tent and opened half of the curtain. I saw that Yuan Zai's face was gray, faintly shrouded in a layer of black mist, and his breath was short and weak, although he didn't know medicine, but after all, he had seen a lot in Lin Delong's medicine hall since he was a child, and just looking at this situation, he knew that Yuan Zai really couldn't support it for long.

"This poison is very terrible, it usually can't survive a stick of incense and die, thanks to the soldier who took out the wound of the arrow on the spot, it greatly alleviates its toxicity, but if he doesn't think of a way early, he will definitely not survive the dawn."

The doctor's words suddenly gave Zhang Huan a glimmer of hope, and he turned back sharply and asked, "Listen to what Mr. means, is he still saved?" ”

The doctor smiled bitterly and said: "There is an antidote to any poison, but I can't do anything about it. ”

Zhang Huan understood what he meant, he turned around and walked out without thinking, and he ordered loudly: "Order the brothers to assemble immediately!" There must be no delay. ”

When he walked to the gate, more than 500 personal soldiers had been assembled, Zhang Huan turned over his horse, and waved his whip and shouted: "Go to the Ten Princes' Mansion, Guangwu Palace!" The cavalry urged the horses, the hooves of the horses were flying, the dust was billowing into the air, dozens of monks who had returned from their fate were so frightened that they dodged one after another, and the cavalry team was like a black dragon, galloping away in the dark night.

Ten kings' house is the name of the place, located in the east of Daming Palace, originally Tang Xuanzong Li Longji ascended the throne after repairing to a few brothers to live, in order to concentrate on surveillance, and later his sons also moved in, expanded into sixteen kings' houses, to the Tianbao years, the descendants multiplied, then built a hundred grandchildren's courtyard, and finally formed the most concentrated royal settlement in Chang'an.

Guangwu King Li Chenghong is the grandson of Li Xian, the son of Gaozong Li Zhi and Wu Zetian, he is Li Chengye's brother, this year just passed his seventieth birthday, in the Chang'an royal family, he is the oldest one with the qualifications, but although he is old, he is a spineless person, all day long behind Li Li's ass, shouting for him, for the tiger, this ambush Yuan Zai, is Li Li ordered him to do, although he saddened the death of his brother, but to ask him to avenge his brother, but it is impossible, he is only seventy years old, and wants to live another thirty years! If he wants to sacrifice his life and risk, won't it cost him his old life?

Li Chenghong's palace is located on Tianbao Street, on this street, the mansions of various princes and county kings are connected one after another, each more luxurious than the other, and one more magnificent.

Although the power of the Tang royal family has been lost, their economic strength is still very strong, especially the land, more than sixty percent of the anointed land in Guanzhong is occupied by the royal family, and they collect rent and money, and raise slaves. One huge manor after another on the Guanzhong Plain seems to tell the story of their past glory.

In his backyard, he followed Li Longji's example and planted a large pear orchard, where he played and sang, rehearsed songs and dances. He is lying in the shade of the land left by his ancestors and enjoying his life to the fullest, whether the Tang Dynasty is prosperous or declining, what does it have to do with him?

It was getting late at the moment, and he was enjoying the mellow wine in the company of dozens of beautiful pear garden dancers, and the candlelight was so bright that his sallow face was covered with a layer of oil, and he squinted. In a field of warblers, swallows, swallows, and swallows, they look comfortable and comfortable.

Suddenly, he faintly heard a dull thunderous sound, at first inadvertently, but the sound grew closer and louder, and a candle fell from the candlestick, breaking into three sections.

Li Chenghong stood up in surprise, holding his wine glass and wondering what was happening, just then, his butler stumbled in. Frightened, he shouted, "Lord Wang, go and see!" Outside, a large group of cavalry came to the door, blocking the front and back doors, and smashing the door! ”

"What!"

His heart trembled, and as soon as his hand was loosened, bang! There was a crisp sound on the ground, the wine glass fell to the ground and shattered, dozens of women were stunned together, and there was no trace of blood on their faces that were already covered with white faces. The first thought that came to their minds: raiding their homes.

"What are you afraid of!" Li Chenghong shouted timidly: "I am the King of Guangwu, who dares to be presumptuous in my house, take me to investigate." ”

The women looked at the prince with pity, and the veteran of the treasure knife who was originally alive and well on the bed suddenly turned into a trembling, half-dead man on the verge of rotting wood, and no one gave an order, and the dancers sneaked away one by one tacitly.

Li Chenghong almost came to the front yard with the support of two family members, one left and one right. The situation has changed dramatically, the soldiers have smashed open the door, and there are soldiers with knives in front of and behind Li Chenghong, his face is pale, his eyes are frightened, and no one tells him what happened?

All the way to the front yard, he seemed to have fallen into the abyss at once. The courtyard is bright. Hundreds of soldiers, armed with torches in one hand and knives in the other, formed a large circle. In the middle of the circle, dozens of men, old and small, all his sons and grandsons, stood in trepidation.

Li Chenghong saw a man on a horse at a glance, his eyes were cold, it was Zhang Huan, the secretary of the military department and the envoy of Longyoujiedu, he suddenly understood that Li Li had borrowed his own hundred warriors, and now something happened.

"Zhang Shangshu, what do you mean?" A trembling voice came from the darkness, and then an old man with white hair appeared, supported by two family members left and right, and seemed to be too old to even walk.

Lee Seung-hong. Zhang Huan saw him a few years ago, an arrogant and rude old prince, he made a look, and more than a dozen personal soldiers rushed up, without caring about the prince's face, and forcibly dragged him into ***.

"King Guangwu, you sent someone to assassinate the ministers of the imperial court, the evidence is conclusive, in order to prevent you from escaping, this official is now taking your family to the military camp for detention, and then hand it over to the criminal department tomorrow, and kidnap them all for me!"

The soldiers began to move, like killing pigs and sheep, and in a moment they took over a large piece and began to tie up, shouting and crying suddenly, Li Chenghong was almost pinched off by the soldiers just now, and the pain has not disappeared, and now he heard that he is going to the barracks, of course he knows that he has to shed his skin if he goes there without dying, he doesn't care about face, and immediately shouted in a hurry: "Zhang Shangshu misunderstood, I didn't kill the minister of the court, it was Li Li who did it, and it has nothing to do with me!" ”

"Nothing to do with you?" Zhang Huan sneered, turned around and waved his hand, more than a dozen personal soldiers pulled the three captured men forward, Zhang Huan pointed at them and said coldly to Li Chenghong: "This is the assassin you sent, you don't have to say that you don't know about this." ”

Li Chenghong's face twitched violently, and he hated himself to the extreme, when Li Li borrowed someone from him the day before yesterday, he kept saying that he would never affect him, and let them take poison in advance, but now it seems that he was obviously fooled by Li Li, and Li Li just wanted to use himself to get rid of his involvement in this matter.

"Zhang Shangshu, these people are mine good, but they were borrowed by Li Li two days ago, what did they do, I really don't know!"

Zhang Huan had already understood that these captured assassins were just a cover for Li Li, and the two people on the tree were really people sent by Li Li, one was killed and the other committed suicide. There was no clue left, so that all the evidence pointed to Li Chenghong, in fact, this idiot really didn't know anything.

But Zhang Huan wants an antidote, even if Li Chenghong doesn't have an antidote. He is also an excellent medicine guide, and the more important thing is that he has no time, Zhang Huan secretly made a gesture behind his back, and the soldiers pushed the three assassins to the ground, and the three heads were cut off together, and a large amount of blood sprayed out of the neck cavity. Several Li Chenghong's sons who were close to them were sprayed all over their heads, several people screamed, and they fainted together, not only them, but the other children were well-dressed and pampered on weekdays, where had they seen such a terrifying picture, and seven or eight people were stunned in a row, and the rest of the people were so frightened that they closed their eyes. Shivering and afraid to look again.

Zhang Huan urged him to step forward, he snorted heavily, bent down, looked at Li Chenghong coldly and said: "I don't want to hear anything from you now, and when I am in the barracks later, maybe you will remember who ordered you to kill Yuan Shilang." “

He waved his hand and ordered sharply: "Tie me away!" ”

Three burly soldiers stepped forward. Pressed Li Chenghong to the ground like catching a chicken, the thick rope almost broke his bones, although Li Chenghong was a flattering person, he was not stupid, he had already understood what Zhang Huan meant, his face was pressed to the ground, just opposite him. With three headless necks, the blood is still bubbling outward, from the perspective of the ground, it is even more terrifying, Li Chenghong was so frightened that his soul flew away, and he hissed and begged with all his might: "Zhang Shangshu, Zhang Dudu, this is all the Queen Mother who instructed me to dry the ground." I'm willing to accuse her. Ask Zhang Dudu to spare his life! ”

Zhang Huan smiled, and his face immediately became extremely gentle. "Why didn't the prince say it earlier, I almost misunderstood, come on! Hurry up and untie the prince, and then rub the muscles and bones of the prince, so that the prince can write the paper. ”

The soldier loosened Li Chenghong's rope again and helped him to stand up, and Li Chenghong saw that although he was loose, his sons and grandchildren were still tied to the ground, and Xueliang's knife was on their necks.

He didn't dare to say a word, and obediently followed the soldier to the study to write a confession, and soon, the soldier stepped forward with three confessions, handed them to Zhang Huan and said, "Dudu, this is the confession you want, a total of three copies have been written." ”

Zhang Huan opened it and looked at it, and sure enough, it was written according to his meaning, and with a bright red fingerprint on the back, he accepted the confession, and pointed at Li Chenghong with a horsewhip: "I said ugly things in front, if you dare to retract your confession, I will give your whole family to the party as a slave!" ”

"Let's go!"

The team of people and horses left like a whirlwind with Zhang Huan, and in a moment, the people and horses were clean, and the front yard of the palace became pitch black, Li Chenghong was stunned and looked at his children and grandchildren who were groaning all over the ground, his legs were weak, and he sat down weakly, he tasted the cruelty of the power struggle for the first time in his life.

A hundred steps away from the Nine Immortal Gate of Daming Palace, Zhang Huan was surrounded by more than a dozen personal guards, quietly waiting for Cui Xiaofu's reply, behind him, more than five hundred cavalry lined up, their murderous spirit was restrained, but there was a more oppressive sense of persecution, on the upper floor of the Nine Immortal Gate, nearly a hundred guards looked at Zhang Huan nervously, and a mile away, more than 2,000 Qianniuwei soldiers who rushed to hear the news monitored the situation from afar, and did not dare to act rashly.

There was still more than an hour of time, and the drums that closed the door in the distance had already begun to sound, but Zhang Huan still waited indifferently, unmoved, he knew that Cui Xiaofu would definitely give him an antidote.

In the Lin De Palace, Cui Xiaofu walked around with her hands on her face full of anger, and on her imperial case, there was Li Chenghong's confession that had not dried his ink, and the words were conclusive, and she insisted that it was her Cui Xiaofu who ordered the assassination of Yuan Zai in order to seize the military headquarters.

Not far away, Li Li stood with his hands down, his face was also angry and helpless, more than an hour ago, he had just entered the palace to express his merits to Cui Xiaofu, the assassination of Yuan Zai was successful, and the assassination mastermind was left to Li Chenghong, just when the two of them planned to seize the military department or Shuo Fang, Zhang Huan had already followed the shadow, but with his spear, attacking his shield, greatly surprised Li Li.

This is, the eunuch Feng Endao walked in quickly, he held a small porcelain vase, stepped forward and put it on top of the imperial case, and said in a low voice: "Queen Mother, the old slave has brought what you want from the prince's mansion." ”

Li Li looked at the small porcelain vase and said unwillingly: "Queen Mother, since Zhang Huan dares to give you the original confession, it means that he still has at least one copy in his hand. Yichen's idea, simply not give it to him, deny it, what can he Zhang Huan do? ”

"I'm afraid that by then, you will be the next to die." Cui Xiaofu sighed and said: "This matter is a mistake in my decision-making, fighting killing with killing, how can we defeat him?" If I'm not mistaken, Lee Seung-hong must have suffered a shock that he had never encountered in his life. ”

She turned and walked to the desk, picked up the porcelain bottle, and carefully examined the vial, which was only slightly larger than her thumb, crystal clear, extremely delicate, and shimmered with a faint blue light in the light.

"What kind of poison do you use in the ground? Is this vial of antidote enough? ”

Li Li shook his head and said: "I don't know if the amount is enough, I don't know, this is a Taoist priest who gave me ten years ago, a bottle of poison, a bottle of antidote, except for it, there is no medicine in the world to cure the poison." ”

Cui Xiaofu smiled, she stepped forward with a move from Lu Tai, who was standing next to her, and handed him the porcelain vase: "Give it to Zhang Huan, just say that I am very sorry for this matter!" ”

Lu Taiyi agreed, he stretched out his hand to take it, Cui Xiaofu suddenly thought of something, her hand retracted, she looked at the porcelain bottle, and then glanced at Lu Taiyi suspiciously, this thing is very important, and the world is the only one, if there is a little negligence, the consequences will be unimaginable, she has been in the palace for decades, she has long been as careful as a hair, after thinking about it, she still handed over the porcelain bottle to her most trusted eunuch Feng Endao.

Feng Endao took the porcelain bottle and walked quickly At this moment, the second drum of Chang'an City closed the Fangmen and rumbled, there was still an hour before the time of Yuan Zai's poison attack, Zhang Huan's face still did not have the slightest expression, and Li Dingfang behind him was also a little anxious, and said in a low voice: "Dudu, I'm worried that even if the antidote is taken out, the Fangmen has been closed, and we may not be able to catch up." ”

"What's on your hands?" Zhang Huan asked coldly.

Li Dingfang was stunned, what he was holding in his hand was a knife, he suddenly realized, immediately straightened his waist, and said nothing.

At this moment, the side door of the Nine Immortals Gate creaked open, and I saw the eunuch Feng Endao rushing out, he panted and saluted Zhang Huan, took out the porcelain vase from his arms, and respectfully offered it with both hands, "Zhang Shangshu, the Queen Mother asked me to give this thing to you, and I sincerely apologize to you." ”

Zhang Huan carefully put the porcelain vase in it, and handed the other two confessions to Feng Endao, there are some things that need not be said, he and Cui Xiaofu naturally understand in their hearts.

Zhang Huan urged the war horse, the war horse raised its four hooves, and hundreds of war horses turned around together, the hooves roared, and they galloped away quickly to the east like a rapid wind.

In the distance, more than 2,000 Niu Wei soldiers watched their backs go away vigilantly, and gradually, they also retreated, and the front of the Nine Immortals Gate was once again shrouded in a heavy black mist.