Thinking of this, Qiu Yizhi sighed softly, and said to himself in a voice so low that even he couldn't hear clearly: "It seems that everything can only be done according to the emperor's will......"

Zhong Likuang didn't know if he heard Qiu Yizhi's words, got up and patted the dust and mud on his body, and said, "Okay, it's okay if you don't go to see it." Now that I've said that, you can do it yourself. In addition, I came to talk to you today as your teacher, and I don't need to teach you the confidential truth, right? ”

Zhong Likuang said to Qiu Yizhi tonight, not a single word was not the top secret of the imperial court, even if he leaked a few words, it was a disaster, and he hurriedly answered the word "yes".

He saw that Zhong Li Kuang was about to get up and leave, so he hurriedly got up to send him off, but because he was still a prisoner, it was inconvenient to go out to see him off, so he folded back when he sent it to the door, took off the robe he was wearing haphazardly, and lay on the bed in a daze.

Qiu Yizhi was not interested in going out of prison to observe the "Prisoner Sacrifice Ceremony", and Zhong Likuang naturally begged the emperor to release him from prison. However, this "Prisoner Sacrifice Ceremony" was a major event in the emperor's heart, so it was also held lively.

The person in charge of this matter is Shi Liangzhi, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites.

He was also a shrewd and capable bureaucrat, the emperor only approved a budget of 50,000 silver for him, but he was ingenious and chose the ceremonial venue in the "Wuding Gate" after a major battle, and assigned the officials and soldiers to demolish all the houses that had been damaged by the war and had become dilapidated.

He also ordered every household in Jinling City to put up lanterns and set up a case to burn incense, so as to participate in the grand event. In this way, I used the money of the people, and I didn't spend much, so I was stunned to dress up the huge Jinling City with joy.

However, the maintenance of the Jinling City Wall Gate, especially the Wuding Gate generation, was a siege that had to cost silver taels. This Jinling city wall was originally built after the joint venture donation of the merchants in the Jinling city of the previous dynasty, and the wood, stone, bricks and tiles used are the best materials, and even the brick joints are filled with thick porridge made of glutinous rice, which is better than the city wall of the capital Luoyang.

However, this section of the city wall has blocked the bombardment of explosives by the Lingnan King several times, and it has become full of holes and mottled pieces, and it is extremely troublesome and expensive to repair before the "Sacrifice of Prisoners". The 50,000 taels of silver that Zheng Rong gave to Shi Liangzhi would not be enough even if it was all filled into the big pit of repairing the city wall.

Therefore, after Shi Liangzhi asked for an order, he imitated the method used when the city wall was built, and encouraged merchants to donate money for the maintenance of the city wall.

At the moment when Emperor Zheng Rong is at the height of his prestige, who in the four seas doesn't want to curry favor? The first to bear the brunt of the two families were Zhou Cijing, a wealthy businessman, and Li Zhi, a sea merchant, who donated 100,000 taels of silver per person, and the rest of the merchants also donated thousands of taels of silver to pay tribute.

In this way, in just a few days, Shi Liangzhi's side had collected nearly one million taels of silver, which was enough for a quarter's income of the imperial court.

Prime Minister Zhong Likuang is in charge of the affairs of the imperial court, and of course this matter cannot be hidden from his eyes.

He knew that Shi Liangzhi had obtained so much silver, so in order to prevent him and other officials of the Ministry of Rites from sharing the ink privately, he did not take care of it personally, but set up another "Jinling City Defense Restoration Yamen", and let the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of Households, the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Industry and the Imperial History of the Metropolitan Procuratorate work together, but did not appoint the head of the office, only let them cooperate and discuss it, and use the money to repair the Jinling city wall.

With such a large sum of money, with so many pairs of eyes staring, and knowing that there was also the awe-inspiring Prime Minister above who was also taking care of this money, naturally no one dared to reach out, so he could only throw this money on the city wall without leaking a tael or two.

In this way, it will take time for the Jinling city wall to be restored to its original state, but the city walls around Wuding Gate and the left and right areas have been repaired in just ten days, and at this time, the emperor granted Shi Liangzhi 50,000 silver funds, and only spent a fraction.

So Shi Liangzhi spent half of it to buy tens of thousands of red cloths from the weaving workshops and dyeing villages in Jinling City, and sent people to hang them in the city wall, dyeing the entire city wall red, which looked both festive and solemn. The rest of the money was used to purchase new clothing, weapons, ritual instruments, musical instruments and other items for the officers and soldiers of the honor guard who participated in the "Prisoner Sacrifice Ceremony", and even the yellow cover of the emperor's crown was replaced with a new one.

After everything was ready, the "Prisoner Sacrifice Ceremony" finally chose the auspicious day of the zodiac and held it in Wuding Gate.

On that day, after the colorful flags were unfurled, the red satin was flying, and a solemn and loud royal music, Zheng Rong, the supreme emperor in the world, finally appeared in front of everyone. He is still not in good health, and today it is to show the orthodoxy of the court and the majesty of the royal family, which barely supported him to come to the scene of the "Prisoner Sacrifice Ceremony".

When everyone saw him coming, under the leadership of Zheng Hua, the king of Heluo, they knelt three times and bowed nine times, and the voice of "long live, long live, long live" shouted the tsunami, shaking the heavens and the earth.

Zheng Rong was of course happy when he saw such a scene, a slightly old and heroic face turned red, and he raised his hand and said: "Zhongqing is flat, and he will take the traitor King Zheng Gui!" ”

According to Shi Liangzhi's idea, it was originally necessary to choose a few Hanlin with outstanding literary talents, compose a beautiful essay that praises the saints, and then send someone with a loud voice to read it in public, and then escort the king of Lingnan up.

But Zhong Likuang knew that the Hanlin scribes all pointed to an article to get ahead, so most of the articles that came out of the Hanlin Academy were ornate and flashy, and they also exuded the sour and rotten atmosphere of vulgar literati, and they were endless as soon as they were read - this is the so-called "Hanlin flavor" of the article. Considering the emperor's physical condition, he couldn't delay the ceremony too long, so he simply skipped this link and escorted Zheng Gui, the king of Lingnan, directly.

The person in charge of escorting Zheng Gui was the bandit soldiers under Qiu Yizhi, including Zhao Chengxiao, a total of eighteen people - one of whom had recovered from his injuries and came to Jinling City, but he was not selected because he missed the opportunity.

These eighteen people were divided into three teams, and a team of six people escorted Zheng Gui, the king of Lingnan, Zheng Gui's eldest son Zheng Nuo, and his second son Zheng Yu respectively, and entered through the Wuding Gate and came to the high platform erected by Emperor Zheng Rong.

This group of people had fought enough with the Lingnan army, and they had long lost their reverence for the king of Lingnan, and one by one they looked fierce and vicious, like King Kong from the sky, and like Shura who emerged from the ground, and shouted in unison: "Kneel!" ”

Zheng Nuo and Zheng Yu were startled by this angry reprimand, and their legs immediately collapsed without obeying.

Lingnan King Zheng Gui was like water, and looked at the two uncompetitive sons beside him with a little disdain, his legs and feet were straighter, his mouth was grinning, and he said to Zheng Rong: "Second brother, the emperor!" Little brother, I've been locked up by you for a long time, this leg is broken, and I can't bend my knees. Why don't you send two samurai to push me down, or simply break my little brother's leg? ”

Zheng Rong had long thought that his most obedient little brother would be unconvinced, and after listening to his words, he was not surprised, and said calmly: "You are to blame!" The position of the king of Lingnan, you don't do it well, you want to rebel, you are the ancestors and ancestors of the Han Dynasty! ”

Zheng Gui sneered, raised his voice and retorted: "The emperor's words are conclusive and high-sounding, which is really admirable. But don't forget, brother Huang, isn't this dragon chair under your ass also a rebellion? ”

Zheng Gui felt proud of what he said, but he unexpectedly fell into the trap of the emperor.

I only heard Emperor Zheng Rong sneer, and deliberately raised his voice and said: "You didn't take it seriously when you were a child, you only know a little and are specious!" Before me, the emperor's brother Emperor Muzong was so obsessed with government affairs that the society was in decline; The puppet emperor Zheng Yao was even more perverse and poisoned the living beings. I don't want the people of the world to suffer, so I reluctantly raise an army to fight against the rebels, for the sake of 'rebellion'. After the success, I originally wanted to make the descendants of the emperor's brother the emperor, and I was willing to achieve the cause of the Duke of Zhou. It's a pity that my nephews and nephews have been slaughtered by Zheng Yao, so I inherited the unification. It can be seen that the throne of my emperor was obtained from my father, Emperor Shenzong. I have the right position, there can be no doubt! ”

This is a statement that Zheng Rong has thought of a long time ago, although the logic is still quite flawed, but he said it with such confidence, so that others have no doubt.

"And what about you Zheng Gui? But he wanted to go against the destiny of heaven, send all the elite soldiers, and poison half of the Han Dynasty, but in the end he fell into such a fate. I can capture you alive under a seven-rank petty official, which shows that you are using the mantis arm as a car and a grasshopper shaking the tree! Zheng Rong's article did it here, and finally ended successfully, and he himself took a deep breath to calm his fast-pounding heartbeat.

The "seven-grade petty official" in Zheng Rong's mouth refers to Qiu Yizhi.

Although Qiu Yizhi is extraordinary, and he has the identity of the emperor's Yizi, the official position is indeed only a seven-rank county order. Zheng Gui's experience of being captured was rendered by Zheng Rong in this way, which would undoubtedly make this invincible Lingnan prince lose face, as if he had raised a rebellion of hundreds of thousands of troops, just like child's play.

But what Zheng Rong said was the truth, so that Zheng Gui couldn't refute a word, and even for a moment, even he himself believed that he really didn't have the help of heaven, and it was natural that he would be defeated.

Emperor Zheng Rong saw that Zheng Gui was a little discouraged for a while, so he hurriedly shouted: "Zheng Gui! You have committed a heinous crime, and you will be arrested if you don't tie my hands! ”

As soon as these words came out, countless Imperial Forest troops immediately lined up from both sides, all of them were tall, well-dressed, and with elite weapons, and surrounded Zheng Gui and wanted to arrest him. This is the originally predetermined agenda, just to make a show, these royal guards will naturally not be rude to the Lingnan king, who is a relative of the emperor, in public.

Lingnan King Zheng Gui was also very arrogant, straightened his chest and said: "This king can walk, so you don't need to catch him." ”

After that, Zheng Gui turned around in a very chic manner, then turned back and walked in the direction of the prisoner car, and when he walked to his two sons, he did not forget to advise: "Don't be afraid, you must die like you!" Otherwise, under the Nine Springs, I don't recognize you two unscrupulous sons! ”

When Zheng Nuo and Zheng Yu heard this, they quickly stood up tremblingly, and followed their father Zheng Gui forward.

In front of them were three newly built prisoner carts presided over by Shi Liangzhi, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, which of course would not be the crude prisoner carts made of stout logs used by ordinary government yamen, but were dismantled and transformed from three green sedan chairs.

Zheng Gui calmly boarded the prisoner car, but poked his head out and shouted at the imperial brother Zheng Rong: "Second brother, you won, I lost." Success or defeat, there's nothing to say, the little brother is waiting for you to kill! ”

The high-ranking emperor Zheng Rong didn't know if he had heard the last words of Zheng Gui, the king of Lingnan, who had become a prisoner, and ordered in a loud voice: "Escort me down and take care of it carefully!" With these words, Zheng Gui, the king of Lingnan, who had long been captured by Qiu Yizhi, nominally became captured by the emperor.

Therefore, before the emperor's words fell, the civil and military officials present shouted in unison: "Long live the emperor, long live, long live!" Then he fell on his knees and kept kowtowing.

This was also pre-predetermined, and everyone shouted and executed at the same time, not daring to make a mistake.

In the midst of the tsunami-like chanting of the mountains, the prisoner cart carrying Lingnan Wang Zhenggui was slowly pushed down, and a "prisoner sacrifice ceremony" that "added to the snake" but was "indispensable" finally came to an end in the cheers of everyone.