On the west bank of the moat outside the Guang'an Gate in the west of the capital, outside the mountain gate of Tianning Temple, it was already midnight at this time, and there was silence inside and outside Tianning Temple. More than 100 men in red suits are guarding the mountain gate with torches, and not far away, there are also more than 100 men in black suits lined up here, and the two sides are facing each other across the square in front of the mountain gate, and the atmosphere is very solemn.

The two old locust trees in front of the mountain gate are still vigorous, and the man who leads the way among the men in black power suits touches the trunk of one of the old locust trees, and his heart is full of emotion. This man is the most powerful prince of the Qing court today, who is only twenty years old, and he is already a dignitary of the elite soldiers and horses in the handkerchief capital. But tonight, he personally brought more than 100 elite guards to guard outside this Tianning Temple, and he was confronted by the sworn enemy of the Qing court, the long-haired of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

Yi Yi didn't know that this trip would be against Long Hair, he just obeyed orders, two hours ago, Yi Yi was secretly summoned into the palace, the current Qing court's actual ruler Empress Dowager Xi asked him to order a hundred henchmen to accompany her out of the palace, and the guards were also arranged to wear only black suits. At first, Yi Yi also said that the Queen Mother was homesick, and went out of the palace overnight to go home to see, Yi Yi married the Queen Mother's own sister, and was naturally close to the Queen Mother's mother's family. Sure enough, the Queen Mother's Luan drive did not have much pomp, just a warm sedan chair, and the Queen Mother only brought Li Lianying to accompany her.

Unexpectedly, the Queen Mother's warm sedan chair went farther and farther after leaving the Forbidden City, and went out of Guang'anmen. On the way, Yiyi asked several times, but the Queen Mother only said that she just had to go, and Yiyi had to obey the instructions to move forward.

Because he married the queen mother's sister-in-law, Yi Hui is the prince of the clan who is closer to the queen mother than Prince Gong in the eyes of outsiders, and sometimes people even think that Yi Hui is more trusted by the Queen Mother than Prince Gong. Yi Yi thinks so too. At the age of 20, he was able to control most of the military power in the capital. In particular, the elite new army is under his control, which is given by the Queen Mother. Otherwise. Although Yiyi is the seventh son of Daoguang, it is not his turn to hold so much power in terms of seniority. So Yiyi cherishes this trust very much, and he has been firmly tied to the ship of the Queen Mother, if the ship capsizes, he will be the first unlucky, because he has always obeyed the Queen Mother.

After arriving at the mountain gate of Tianning Temple, the Queen Mother ordered Yi Hui to take people to wait in place, and at this time, there were more than 100 men in red power suits on the opposite side.

For a while, the atmosphere was tense. The Taiping army besieged the capital on three sides, although only the west did not set up a camp, but from time to time the Taiping army came to sentry to investigate, so there was some danger outside the west gate, and at this time saw that the long hair really appeared, Yiyi and a group of guards inevitably became nervous.

But the Queen Mother was still not in a hurry, she just lightly ordered to stay where she was, if the other party did not take the initiative to provoke, she should not conflict with it. After speaking, the Queen Mother only took Li Lianying into Tianning Temple alone. Yiyi's heart was full of question marks, and the Queen Mother glanced at him before leaving, and said, "I will tell you in detail when I come back." After speaking, the Queen Mother walked into Tianning Temple.

So, Yiyi waited here for more than an hour, for more than an hour. Yi Yi thought about it carefully, the Queen Mother most likely met with some important person of the Taiping Army in Tianning Temple, and the only long-haired character who could match the Queen Mother to meet in person seemed to be the famous Long-haired West King. In the beginning. Yiyi had the urge to order someone to go back and summon a large team of people and horses to capture the important people with long hair in the temple in one fell swoop. But Yiyi saw that the group of red-dressed men on the opposite side were also looking at this side, presumably as long as there was any rash action on his side. They will also call in their horses. Thinking of this, Yi Yi couldn't help but be a little worried, the moat had been crossed here, but Chang Mao didn't know how many soldiers and horses had been arranged outside the West City Gate, if the soldiers and horses were really summoned from both sides to fight to the death, the Queen Mother and himself would be in danger, and then Yi Yi dispelled this idea.

Seeing that the two parties did not dare to act rashly against each other, Yi Hui simply stopped to calculate anything, he stopped under the old locust tree, caressing the trunk, this Tianning Temple remembered that he came when he was a child, and the rest of the time was mostly passing by, and at this time it was already a matter of people, Yi Yi sighed a lot for a while.

Two hours later, the gate of Tianning Temple opened, and a big man in a red suit laughed and walked out alone, Yiyi was slightly startled, only to see this person striding down the mountain gate, but he didn't look at himself when he walked past him. Seeing that this person's face was full of meat, and there were several hideous scars on his face, he looked very vicious, and Yiyi couldn't help but be startled. I saw that the man walked straight to the group of men in red clothes, turned over on a tall horse, and shouted with a wave of his big hand: "Go back!" With that, the group of men in red clothes surrounded the man and turned around and left, and in an instant they were all gone, without saying a word of superfluity.

Yi Yi saw people walking away, only then came back to his senses, this big man is so vicious, there are only the queen mother and Li Lianying's eunuch in the temple, I am afraid that something will happen to the two, and I hurriedly greeted at the moment, several henchmen followed behind him, and several people walked quickly into the temple. Kankan came to the front yard of the temple, only to see Li Lianying supporting the Queen Mother and walking out slowly, Yiyi was relieved to see it, but under the firelight, he saw that the Queen Mother's cheeks were slightly pale, and her face was very gloomy, but she just ordered to go back to the palace first, and then talk about what she said.

Yiyi nodded, and immediately ordered someone to escort the Queen Mother back to the city immediately, he was also worried that after the group of long hairs left first, he suddenly had a bad heart and mobilized a large number of people to round up. Fortunately, everyone soon returned to the city, and the guards defending the city were all deployed by Yiyi, so naturally they didn't dare to ask anything.

After sending the Queen Mother back to the Qianqing Palace, it was almost four watches, and the sky was already cloudy, Yiyi gathered more than 100 guards who followed him out of the city, and strictly ordered them not to leak any news about tonight's events, and then ordered them to go back to rest.

All the guards are Yiyi's henchmen, and they also know what to say and what not to say, so they went back immediately, Yiyi changed into a prince's python robe, and then hurried to the Qianqing Palace.

Outside the Qianqing Palace, Li Lianying waited here early in the morning, and without much thought, Li Lianying said: "Please come in, the queen mother is waiting for you." Yi Yi bowed slightly, straightened his clothes, and walked in quickly.

When I arrived in the Dongnuan Pavilion, I saw a bowl of white fungus pear porridge in front of the Queen Mother, and a silver spoon kept stirring in the bowl, but people were in a daze. Yiyi stepped forward and saluted: "Queen Mother, my brother is here." ”

The Queen Mother came back to her senses, sighed, pointed to a pestle next to her and said, "Sit down and talk." ”

Yiyi sat down next to the pestle, and before Yiyi could speak, the Queen Mother said: "Tonight, the palace is going to see the King of Taipingxi!" ”

Although Yi Yi had vaguely guessed a few points before, but at this time, listening to the Queen Mother say it herself, it was inevitable that he was still a little shocked, and his words were not answered, only to hear the Tai follow-up said: "You must be very strange why this palace wants to secretly go to see this long-haired West King, in fact, this palace has been in contact with the long-haired West King before." ”

When Yi Yi heard this, he only felt very incredible, and his face was full of horror, but the Queen Mother continued very calmly: "Seventh Master, to tell the truth, do you think that according to the current situation, what chance do we have of winning if the Qing Dynasty and the Long-haired Taiping Army continue to fight?" ”

Yiyi shook his head slowly, and said honestly: "The long-haired soldiers are fierce, and now they have come to the capital, and the younger brother thinks that the chances of winning in the future are less than thirty percent." ”

The Queen Mother smiled slightly: "Thirty percent of the chance, you still overestimate a little, in the eyes of this palace, if there is no time to turn around, it is one percent." Speaking of this, Yi Yi was silent, and the Queen Mother then sighed lightly and said: "The burden handed over by the first emperor is too heavy and too heavy, with long hair inside and foreign Yi outside. You don't have to be surprised, the previous contact between Rong Lu and Long Mao in the main palace was to see if we could negotiate with Long Mao, let's row the river and rule, so that we can have a few years of time to ease up, but unfortunately Rong Lu for his own selfish desires, repeatedly bad things, it was the palace that sent him. ”

Yiyi suddenly realized that Rong Lu has many doorways in the south, this is an undeclared secret, the long-haired forces in the south are rampant, if Ronglu does not have dealings with long-haired people, this is not normal. And what the Queen Mother said, Yihui also believed, indeed according to the current situation, it is already very good to be able to rule the river with Changmao, as long as the Qing Dynasty can rest the army for a few years, do foreign affairs, change the new law, and work hard for a few years, maybe you can continue to compete with Changmao, it is not surprising that the Queen Mother has this thought, sometimes Yiyi herself also has the idea of peace talks, but there are too many people in the court who clamored that they would never negotiate with Changmao, so they didn't dare to mention it. At this time, Yiyi also somewhat understood why the Queen Mother wanted to secretly contact Changmao without people, there were many people who opposed it in the court, if the court took the initiative to propose peace talks, and Changmao refused, it would be bad to lose the face of the court.

The long-term trust in the Queen Mother and the fact that he also had such thoughts made Yiyi ignore a question, that is, is the relationship between the Queen Mother and Changmao really a peace negotiation for the purpose of drawing the river? Rong Lu is not in the capital, and it is impossible for Yiyi to go to him for verification.

So Yiyi believed the Queen Mother's words, and the Queen Mother continued: "Now that the long-haired soldiers are coming to the city, the long-haired West King has come to meet again, and he has to go out of the palace to meet in person. If it weren't for Ronglu's bad deeds, our peace talks would have been completed long ago. ”

The charge was detained on the head of Rong Lu, who was far away from the capital, Yi Hui did not suspect it at all, and after scolding the dog slave twice, Yi Yi asked: "Sister-in-law, then go tonight, what did the long-haired West King say?" ”

When the Queen Mother heard this, her face turned slightly red, and then turned white, her face was slightly lost, and finally sighed lightly: "The long-haired West King hopes to join forces with us to fight against Yangyi......"

Yi Yi was very stunned, and then lowered her head and began to think about the shocking construction proposed by the King of the West, thinking about what benefits it would be for the Qing Dynasty, but she didn't want the Queen Mother on the other side to be dull, and her mind recalled the scene when Shi Cai was in Tianning Temple, and she met that person...... (To be continued......)