After a while, Qiu Yizhi got used to the drastic changes in light, squinted his eyes and looked into the door, and sure enough, he saw a thin figure standing inside the door, only to see that the owner of this figure had a shriveled face full of wrinkles, a pair of triangular eyes soaked with exhaustion and fatigue, and even his hair was half white—sure enough, it was Qiu Yizhi's teacher and the minister of the imperial court, Zhong Likuang.

Qiu Yizhi saw that the teacher was old like this, and Fang Cai's emotion instantly turned into sadness, and two tears finally flowed from his eyes involuntarily, and he hurriedly took two steps forward, choked up and said, "Master, you ...... You...... Hello......" he said, kneeling down and saluting.

When Zhongli Kuang saw it, he didn't help it, but said coldly: "Don't do this false courtesy, it's important for us to run an errand." Hurry up and bring in the cart loaded with the King of Lingnan. ”

In fact, when Zhong Li Kuang saw Qiu Yizhi's proud disciple, how could he not be very excited, but he had always been known for his strictness and coldness, and now he had an important mission, so he tried to suppress the surging tide and first focused all his energy on this first priority in the world.

Qiu Yizhi listened to the teacher's words, hurriedly wiped away his tears, made a gesture and returned to the team, unloaded the horse in front of the car of Lingnan King Zhenggui, asked Wei Chi Lianghong and Wei Chi Jiming to protect the carriage left and right, and ordered the elite soldiers under his command to follow closely behind the car and push and pull it with manpower, which slowly pushed the carriage into the city.

When I entered the capital, I saw that the gate was already full of soldiers standing up and down.

Qiu Yizhi looked carefully, but saw that these soldiers were wearing officer uniforms, starting from Zhonglang General, to the captain, to the inspector, and the youngest was also a thousand generals; Looking at their faces again, they were all very familiar, and at least a quarter of them could be named—all of them were officers trained from the old Youyan Dao.

Qiu Yizhi suddenly realized that the reason why Zhong Likuang wanted to wait for five hours in the city by himself was to mobilize these officers he could trust to escort Zhenggui, the king of Lingnan.

With these people's guards, Qiu Yizhi's mood relaxed slightly, but he immediately tensed up, and asked Zhong Li Kuang, "Master, what should I do next?" ”

Zhong Li Kuang pointed forward: "Don't talk, follow me." With that, he walked slowly forward.

Qiu Yizhi didn't dare to slack off, waved his hand back, and ordered the driver to follow him, moving forward equally slowly.

The gate is very close to the imperial city, and although the carriage carrying the king of Lingnan is pushed by people, the speed is not fast, and it does not take long to come to a section of high wall and outside the gate.

Qiu Yizhi had never been here, but when he saw the bright yellow wall and the red lacquered gate inlaid with copper nails, he knew that he had come to the foot of the imperial city, the core of the world.

This is not a place where you can be presumptuous at will, even a bold person like Qiu Yizhi couldn't help but be a little nervous, and stopped in a cramped and uneasy manner, looking at his master Zhong Likuang, waiting for his next instructions.

Zhong Li Kuang didn't speak, walked quickly to the front of the door, lifted the knocker and patted the wooden door a few times, and said to the door: "Open the door, I'm Zhong Li Kuang." ”

Qiu Yizhi was a few steps away, and he couldn't hear what he had promised in the door, so he saw that the door that had been opened last time and didn't know when it was finally slowly opened, and two teams of soldiers lined up on both sides of the wooden door came out neatly.

Zhong Li Kuang glanced at the soldiers on both sides, and saw that they were in good spirits and in order, so he nodded reassuringly, and said to Qiu Yizhi: "Yizhi, your subordinates have made meritorious contributions in escorting the King of Lingnan into Beijing, and I will sign up for rewards for meritorious deeds." However, the royal guards have their own customizations, and the soldiers and horses outside cannot enter the palace, so you can follow me under the escort of this group of royal forest soldiers and enter the palace with the king of Lingnan. ”

Qiu Yizhi thought for a while and said, "Master, I don't think this is appropriate, my soldiers will also enter the palace to guard them." Before entering the palace, the safety of the King of Lingnan is, of course, the responsibility of the students to be fully responsible. After entering the palace, the student should also be half responsible. Students may wish to say bluntly, the teacher can't trust these soldiers under me, and I may not be able to trust these royal guards. ”

Zhong Likuang was stunned for a moment, and his eyes widened as he looked at his open-mouthed student.

But he was immediately relieved - when Wei Chi Lianghong was ordered to come to report, he said that he should be careful of the meticulous work of the Lingnan Royal Mansion and the Tianzun Cult. And that day, the sect leader Wen Honghui actually hid by the emperor's side, and also served as the messenger of the decree, such sensational things have happened, so what is strange about a few spies mixed in the Royal Forest Army?

So Zhongli Kuang pondered for a long time, and finally made up his mind and said, "That's good. I remember that you have more than a dozen bandits who have descended from Funiu Mountain, most of these people I know, and they can be regarded as old people from Youyan Dao, I think they can accompany them into the palace. There are also Wei Chi Lianghong's father and daughter, who can also come together. As for the others, let's stay outside the palace gate. ”

Qiu Yizhi pondered for a while, although he did not have the whole army to escort him, but Zhao Chengxiao, Yu Chi Lianghong, and Yu Chi Jiming followed them into the palace, which was enough for him to rest assured, so he nodded and agreed.

So Zhang Long, Lin Shuhan and others and two hundred village warriors stayed outside the palace gate to wait, while the rest of the people escorted the Lingnan King Zheng Gui, an incomparably honorable captive, into the imperial city, the core of the world's rule.

The palace was more tightly guarded, and countless soldiers of the Imperial Forest Army lit countless torches in their hands as if they were going to exhaust all the torches stored in the palace, illuminating a road leading to the depths of the imperial city, as if they wanted to make all the corners and corners of the palace inside and outside transparent.

Such a serious and tense atmosphere was so heavy that almost all the people who entered the imperial city were overwhelmed, and even the bandit soldiers under Qiu Yizhi's men who had to rise three feet of waves without wind became silent, and while bowing their heads and walking forward silently, their hands subconsciously clenched the weapons in their hands.

Prime Minister Zhong Likuang personally led the way, and after many turns in the winding and narrow palace, he finally came to a courtyard.

Although this courtyard is also quite grand, the shape of the house is not the high-rise buildings and red walls and tiles of the palace, but the thatched hut and humble room like an ordinary peasant house - this is in the solemn palace city, the shabby and somewhat abrupt courtyard, which is the "Shuli Palace" used by the emperor for daily office work.

This "Shuli Palace" was built by the decree of Emperor Gao of the Han Dynasty, and decreed that future generations must deal with government affairs here, one is to let the descendants of the Zheng family realize the difficulty of Taizu starting a business, and the other is to make the emperor who is in the ninth level not forget the suffering of the people.

Qiu Yizhi has been here more than once, and he saw a faint light in the palace window, knowing that Emperor Zheng Rong must be waiting for him and his younger brother Lingnan King Zheng Gui who was captured. Therefore, he couldn't help but get nervous, subconsciously stroked the wrinkles on his clothes, and looked at the carriage escorting Zheng Gui, then bowed down and stood aside, waiting for Zhong Li Kuang's instructions.

Seeing that Qiu Yi's actions were not rude, Zhongli Kuang nodded with satisfaction, took half a step forward, raised his voice and said, "Minister, Zhongli Kuang is back to life." ”

I don't know if Emperor Zheng Rong's answer came from the "Shuli Palace", but I saw that the door of the palace opened a gap that could only allow one person to enter and exit, and a person appeared through the crack in the door, slowly walking towards Qiu Yizhi.

Relying on the countless torches lit around him, Qiu Yizhi saw that this person was wearing a red Shu brocade python robe, his body was meticulously groomed, his figure was quite long, his face was very clear, although he was also around fifty years old, but there were only a few shallow and short wrinkles on his face, so he looked like he was just over thirty years old.

This person is also an acquaintance of Qiu Yizhi, but his identity is extremely noble - it is the younger brother of Emperor Zheng Rong and the elder brother of Zheng Gui, King of Lingnan - Zheng Hua, who was crowned King of Heluo.

Although Zheng Hua was the third son of the former emperor, he had already dispelled his ambition to compete for the throne, and never asked about government affairs, but mingled with some literati and scholars all day long, so no matter who the other three brothers ascended to the throne, they would not embarrass him.

It is also thanks to him that he has lived a peaceful and comfortable life for half his life, nourishing his body, moving his qi, and adding his natural royal nobility, raising Zheng Huarong, the king of Heluo, with a red face and high spirits.

I saw Zheng Hua walking in front of Qiu Yizhi, nodding at him with a smile, and asking, "Virtuous nephew, don't come to harm?" ”

One of Qiu Yi's robes was just about to bow down, but was held by Zheng Hua, and heard him say: "The virtuous nephew has made such a world-famous achievement today, where do I dare to accept your worship?" ”

Qiu Yi wanted to return to the countryside, how could he ever want to make such a so-called "world-beating achievement"? I had to smile bitterly: "Lord Wang, this is really torturing the younger generation." But since the prince is here late at night, could it be that the emperor sent the prince on an important errand? ”

Listening to Qiu Yizhi talking about business, Zheng Hua couldn't help but put on a straight face, and said, "Not bad." It was at the emperor's behest that this king came to investigate my fourth brother, Zheng Gui, the king of Lingnan. ”

Such an arrangement was made by Emperor Zheng Rong and Prime Minister Zhong Likuang after several discussions. Just because Zheng Gui is the son of the first emperor and the dignified prince of Lingnan, except for the emperor himself and Zheng Hua, the king of Heluo, there is no one in the court who is more respected than his identity - when he sees Zheng Gui, anyone has to kneel twice and bow six times.

Wouldn't it be too disgraceful to use such etiquette to meet an anti-king who failed and became a prisoner? If you don't use such etiquette, how can you reflect the majesty of the throne and the royal system?

Under such a trade-off, Emperor Zheng Rong had no choice but to send a decree to Zheng Hua, the king of Heluo, who was outside the mundane affairs of the court, and was also his third brother, the third brother of Zheng Gui, the king of Lingnan, to come out on an errand, using his identity to suppress Zheng Gui, so as to give his unruly fourth brother of the emperor a dismount.

Although Zheng Hua was reluctant, it was also the emperor's order, seeing Qiu Yizhi pointing to the carriage behind him, knowing that Zheng Gui was in the carriage, he slowly walked to the front of the carriage under the escort of two tall royal forest soldiers, personally raised the door curtain, and looked inside the carriage.

However, I saw that the carriage was very spacious, and although the interior looked a little simple, the floor was covered with quilts, giving people a rare feeling of warmth in the early spring night of the Central Plains, which was still a little cold.

I also saw a person in the middle of the carriage wearing a very simple cotton shirt and cotton pants, sitting cross-legged on the quilt, his eyes slightly closed, and he didn't know whether he was awake or asleep - sure enough, it was Lingnan Wang Zhenggui.

When Zheng Hua saw his fourth brother, who had been restless since childhood, he couldn't tell whether he was sorry or proud, and asked with a complicated feeling: "Fourth brother, do you still recognize me?" ”

Zheng Gui had already heard the conversation between Zheng Hua and Qiu Yizhi in the car, and glanced up at Zheng Hua who came in: "Oh, it turned out to be the third brother." I remember that you are the most stubborn person, and even when the eldest brother was in power, he couldn't send you...... How? Do you want to do something for your second brother today? ”