The sun was blazing, the sun was scorching, the cicadas on the trees were making annoying chirps, and the people gathered in twos and threes under the shade of the trees, speculating about the battle outside the city. Their emotions were very complicated, thinking that Li Xuanba would be able to defeat Li Zitong so that they could harvest rice with confidence, but also worried that Li Xuanba would be proud of his achievements and stir up Jiangdu even more turbulently.

Just after noon, several horsemen set out from the palace and rushed to the various gates, which closed almost simultaneously for about half an hour.

Before dusk came, the city gate was closed, and for a time the people were panicked and uneasy. Some people are worried that Li Zitong will lead a large army to attack Jiangdu, and some people speculate that Yang Tong is ready to abandon Li Xuanba outside the city and let Li Zitong remove him for him.

Li Zitong's army did not appear, and the imperial court did not send people to surround Zhongyong Mansion. On the contrary, Li Jing, Fang Xuanling and others walked out of Zhongyong Mansion with solemn faces, and then rode fast horses and went straight to Dongcheng. Then, 30,000 soldiers divided into more than a dozen roads and surrounded more than a dozen prosperous mansions.

In the eyes of many people, the actions of the imperial court seem a little inexplicable, the army did not deal with the rebels outside the city, but surrounded several important ministers of the court and several famous families, what did they want to do?

The nobles were intertwined, and those mansions had just been besieged, and some courtiers had rushed to the palace to try to meet Yang Dong, but they only saw Li Mian leading 3,000 soldiers in armor to wait solemnly. It is easy to enter the palace, but it is difficult to leave the palace, and in the face of the spear in the hands of the soldiers, they can only be taken to the main hall in fear, looking at the empty dragon chair and trembling.

"Lord Li, you led the army to besiege the palace of the imperial minister, do you want to rebel?" On the south side of Jiangdu Palace, Qi Sheng stood behind the soldiers, his eyes showed a cold light, and he said with a strong expression: "What did you do today." This official will definitely participate in the performance in front of His Majesty! ”

"Lord Qi, Li Jing is under the order of His Majesty, please enter the palace for questioning." Li Jing didn't care about Qi Sheng's words, and said with a slight mockery: "Your Majesty wants to ask your lordship, the night before yesterday, the people in your mansion went to Hailing overnight. Do you know about this? ”

"I don't know." Qi Sheng's face remained unchanged, and he shook his head and replied.

"Then please enter the palace and tell Your Majesty in person that the collusion with the traitor has nothing to do with you." Li Yuan arched his hand and smiled: "The nephew of the adult has been waiting in the palace for a long time, Lord Qi must not let him wait too long, otherwise, I am afraid that the adult will not even be able to see him for the last time." ”

On the west side of Jiangdu Palace, the Wei family, which has existed in Jiangdu for hundreds of years, occupies an entire street, on both sides of the street. They are all the mansions of distant relatives of the Wei family. On weekdays, this street is full of laughter and laughter, but today, the street has been stained red with blood, Qin Qiong looked at the corpses all over the street, and calmly ordered: "Carefully search all the mansions, if there is any resistance, kill them on the spot!" ”

Also on the west side of Gangdu Palace. Luo Shixin picked up the head of an old man, and hundreds of people knelt on the ground with pale faces. The cries of children, the sobs of women, and the begs of subordinates are intertwined, telling the mourning song of another century-old family.

The old man's eyes were not closed, and the look of pain on his face was obvious, and he did not know whether he had remorse before he died.

The same story happened in different mansions, where there were people who tried to resist and suffered heavy casualties. Some people tried to escape in disguise, but they were shot as hedgehogs at the city gate, and others wisely chose to surrender, and then were escorted into the palace, waiting for Yang Dong's mercy.

The imperial court moved quickly. It was also very sudden, before the ordinary people reacted, the people who should have been killed had been killed, and the people who should have been arrested had also been arrested, and the seemingly bloody process did not affect Baixin's life.

"For the safety of Jiangdu, Zhou Guogong left the army in the city, and only led 8,000 soldiers out of the city to meet the enemy, but what have you done!" Yang Tong was angry, and shouted at the dozens of people kneeling in the main hall: "The thief army has not yet attacked the city, you will send people to show goodwill, is this how your family has been inherited?" ”

"Your Majesty, what the clan brother did is indeed guilty of ten thousand deaths, but Weichen doesn't know what he did, so what is the crime?" Qi Sheng bowed to the ground and said: "Please also ask Your Majesty to send someone to investigate this matter thoroughly, and return the innocence of the minister." Qi Hao, who was dying in front of him, showed a bitter smile at the corner of his mouth, his eyes were sloppy, he looked at the top of the hall blankly, and then slowly closed his eyes.

At a critical juncture, someone will always be abandoned, Qi Hao has already thought of this, but unfortunately the clansmen don't know, he didn't say anything from beginning to end, maybe after his death, he didn't even have the opportunity to enter the ancestral hall, right?

"Since Lord Qi feels wronged, then the lower official wants to ask Lord Qi, where were you the night before Zhou Guogong led his army out of the city?" Fang Xuanling bowed to Yang Tong, and when Yang Tong nodded, he walked up to Qi Sheng and asked, "These people stay in the adult's mansion until late at night, could it be that the adult doesn't know about this matter?" ”

"The official was worried that Zhou Guogong would underestimate the enemy, so he invited them to the mansion to discuss countermeasures, and wanted to go to the Zhongyong Mansion together to persuade Zhou Guogong." Qi Sheng sighed and said: "It's a pity that Zhou Guogong is young and vigorous, and we know that we don't have a deep friendship with him, so we didn't make the trip." ”

Fang Xuanling smiled slightly and said, "The matter has come to this point, and the adults can still keep their composure, which is really admirable to the lower officials." After a pause, he continued: "Lord Qi, have you noticed that there are some people missing here?" ”

Qi Sheng frowned, and replied cautiously, "There are indeed a few people missing." ”

"For their own benefit, some people have revealed to your Majesty what you had conspired that night, so Your Majesty has pardoned their guilt." Fang Xuanling snorted coldly and said: "Collaborating with traitors is a capital crime, Your Majesty is benevolent, I was going to leave you with my life, but I didn't expect Lord Qi to get lost and never return, and Weichen asked Your Majesty to deal with Lord Qi according to national law." ”

"Your Majesty the Emperor, the grass people were coerced by Qi Sheng, but they didn't do anything to be sorry for the court, please let Your Majesty know it!" Before Qi Sheng could refute, the head of the Shi clan heard that his life could be saved, so he remembered that night and did not let go, so he hurriedly kowtowed.

The matter was revealed, the court already had the evidence, Qi Sheng was the first evil, and it was the people from Qi Sheng's mansion who went to Hailing, so Qi Sheng would definitely die, and he would naturally deny it, but they were different, they still had a chance to live.

"What did you discuss that night?" Yang Tong said majestically: "If it doesn't match the truth I know, don't blame me for not remembering your support!" ”

"Your Majesty, Lord Qi deceived you when you were young, and seeing that you and Zhou Guogong had a conflict, thinking that you could not hold Jiangdu, he curried favor with the traitor, and planned to wait for Li Zitong's troops to come to the city, so that I would gather the guards of the government to respond internally." Some people replied resignedly, and others heard it and echoed it.

Qi Sheng's face turned pale and fell to the ground like mud. (To be continued.) )