It's already late at night, Li Ding is packing up, tomorrow is the second day of the Lunar New Year, and he shouldn't have gone out, but the one in the palace came with a secret letter, asking him to leave for Jiangnan tomorrow morning. Li Ding didn't dare to slack off, he knew that he was still alive at this moment, it was entirely because he still had such a little use, he knew too many secrets, and it was not unusual for him to be silenced.

Li Ding never dreamed that the Queen Mother of the Qing Dynasty would write a letter to the King of the West, but what was even more unexpected was that the King of the West would also write back to the Queen Mother of the Qing Dynasty. Bai Zetang of the Taiping Army had already regarded him as a traitor, although they knew that Li Ding was delivering a letter to a certain big man on the Manchu side, but they definitely didn't know that this big man would be the empress dowager of the Qing Dynasty. Tong Qiangsheng had used his words, but Li Ding was tight-lipped, he knew that if he wanted to live longer, this secret had to be kept.

After sending letters back and forth a few times, Li Ding got more and more preferential treatment in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, he had his own courtyard to live in, brocade clothes and beautiful clothes, Chinese food and heavy money, nothing was missing, from time to time Cheng Lingxiu could still go out of the palace to visit him, Li Ding felt that he had not lived in vain in his life.

So he cherishes the opportunity to send a letter, and at the same time he is quietly saving money, he plans to take a large amount of silver to take Cheng Lingxiu away one day.

The secret letter was sealed with fire paint, Li Ding sewed it into his trouser leg, and when he was about to stop, Cheng Lingxiu suddenly came, and brought his favorite white fungus pear paste.

Li Ding was overjoyed, took Cheng Lingxiu's hand and sat down, and after eating a few bites of the white fungus pear paste that Cheng Lingxiu brought in front of him, he smiled and said, "Ah Xiu, your craftsmanship is getting better and better." ”

Li Ding smiled and spoke. found that Cheng Lingxiu's brows were deeply locked, so he asked, "Is there something wrong?" ”

Cheng Lingxiu lowered his head and said in a low voice, "Brother Li." I feel like we're getting deeper and deeper, and sometimes I'm so scared. Today, Father-in-law An passed away from his injuries, and the Queen Mother asked me alone how the stroke could be induced. ”

Li Ding was shocked, and said in a low voice: "Last time, you said that the Queen Mother and Queen Mother had a precursor to stroke, and today the Queen Mother of the West asked you how to induce stroke, does the Queen Mother of the West want to murder her?" ”

Cheng Lingxiu bowed slightly, and Li Ding was silent for a moment and said, "This matter is too dangerous. Why don't you come with me, and the two of us will disguise ourselves and go out of the city and go south to Shanghai. Then take a boat to the United States. I've saved a sum of money, which should be enough for us to live. ”

Cheng Lingxiu shook his head and said, "The Queen Mother has sent a lot of spies to keep an eye on you, and we can't escape." ”

The two of them looked at each other silently, and they both knew that leaving at the moment was just a luxury. They're already in it. How can I walk? Even if they arrived in Shanghai, Bai Zetang would not let them go.

After a while, Li Ding sighed lightly and said: "Then I'll go and finish this errand first, as for what the Queen Mother wants you to do, you can refuse, I want the Queen Mother to trust you, and it won't be difficult for you for this little thing." ”

Cheng Lingxiu hummed and said: "The doctor saves people rather than harms them, I don't help her harm people, and I am not the only one in the world who understands medical skills." She paused and said, "Brother Li, you must be careful this time." I always feel that something is wrong lately, both inside and outside the palace there is a smell of killing. You travel alone, take care. ”

Li Ding nodded in response, and after the two talked for a while, Cheng Lingxiu left. Li Ding couldn't sleep this night, and only fell asleep in a daze when it was dawn, and got up early in the morning and rode on his horse after breakfast.

After leaving the capital, Li Ding rushed to Tianjin, where he wanted to take a merchant ship south, this merchant ship was a merchant ship of a firm in the south, after the British and French fleet withdrew from the Bohai Sea, Prince Gong in order to show his sincerity, authorized some foreign merchant ships to dock to exchange goods, and this merchant ship had a close relationship with the Taiping Army, and there were also Bai Zetang's people to respond.

After arriving in Tianjin and getting on the ship, the person from Bai Zetang who was connected to the ship had a code, Li Ding used Tong Qiangsheng's code specially customized for him, and the name of the person was Jiang Mao, knowing that it was important information, so he arranged him in a small cabin at the stern.

The boat went out to sea along the Haihe River, left Tanggu, and sailed to the Bohai Sea, Li Ding breathed a sigh of relief, he didn't sleep well last night, so he slept with his clothes and fell asleep again.

I don't know how long it took, there was a sudden noise outside the cabin, Li Ding immediately woke up, took out a short gun and dagger from his bag and secretly guarded himself, only to hear Jiang Mao outside the cabin door said eagerly: "Brother Li, there is a Qing Demon Sailor warship coming, saying that you want to go on the ship for inspection, and I will send you to another place to hide!" ”

Li Ding opened the hatch and said strangely: "Doesn't this ship have a trade license from the Qing court?" Why did the Qing Demon still come to check? ”

Jiang Mao hurriedly said: "The Qing Demon Sailor raised the flag to let us stop the ship, and I don't know what happened, just in case, I will take you to the captain to take refuge." ”

Hearing this, Li Ding had to follow Jiang Mao to the captain's room, the captain was an Englishman, forty or fifty years old, his hair was all white, and he had a lovely smile. ”

But the development of events was beyond the expectations of the British captain, and as soon as the Qing army sailors came aboard, they detained all the Chinese on board, including the Chinese comprador of the British captain and several crew members, and searched every cabin. The British on the ship were angry and ready to draw their guns to defend themselves, but the officers and men of the sailors on board the Qing army were all fully armed and extremely numerous, and soon the British crew members were forced to unarm.

Li Ding secretly screamed in his heart, he faintly sensed that this group of Qing army sailors were looking for him, and in his eagerness, he took out the secret letter from his trouser leg, handed it to the British captain Martin and said: "Captain, please send this letter to the hands of the Western King of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, for God's sake, please!" ”

Li Ding took out all his belongings, and Captain Martin was a good man, and finally agreed. Just as Li Ding handed the letter to Martin, there was a burst of gunfire outside the door, followed by Jiang Mao's screams.

Li Ding's heart jumped suddenly, and Martin shouted loudly outside the hatch: "Don't shoot, we surrender!" I'm the captain, I'm British, you can't kill indiscriminately! ”

The hatch was violently kicked open, and a group of tigers and wolves seemed to rush in, and Li Ding was first pushed to the ground, and then Captain Martin was also punched several times. Under the absolute force, the British had no good way but to watch all the Chinese on the ship being taken away by the Qing army, and Captain Martin muttered curses to hell for this group of infidels with dark blue eyes, and vows that the Qing people will be punished as they deserve.

On the Qing army's naval warship, Li Ding was quickly taken to a secret room, where there were three people wearing palace guard uniforms, one of them looked at Li Ding and said, "You are Li Ding, where is the letter handed to you by the Queen Mother?" ”

Li Ding secretly said that it was not good, and sure enough, he came for the letter, and he pretended not to know at the moment. The guard was very impatient, so he ordered his men to beat Li Ding badly, and used some torture, and soon Li Ding, a strong man, was tortured to the point that he was not human.

After getting off the boat at Dagukou, Li Ding gritted his teeth and didn't say anything, last time he betrayed Bai Zetang because he was worried about Cheng Lingxiu, but now he knows that Cheng Lingxiu is safe, so he has been gritting his teeth and not saying anything, and in the end he is already dying and fainting.

A bucket of cold water woke Li Ding up, and he didn't know where he was, and the guard's hideous face appeared in front of him, "Good boy, I can't see that it's still a hard bone, I don't believe it, I don't have a mouth that I Dehui can't pry!" Come on, and then use the big punishment! ”

Before the words fell, a guard hurriedly came in and said loudly: "My lord, we are surrounded by the soldiers and horses of Monk Lingqin, and the leader is this kid Fuqing!" ”

Na Dehui's face changed and said: "It's not good, let's go, it must be the one in the west who knows that we have voted for someone else, everyone leave!" ”

"And what about this man?" Dehui said angrily: "It's over with a knife, do you still need to ask?" ”

The blade slashed across his throat, and Li Ding only felt that the strength of his whole body was rapidly draining out of the wound, and gradually he could no longer feel the pain, and his body fell into a dark dead silence.

A day later, Li Ding's body was sent back to the capital, still in the small courtyard, Li Lianying looked at Li Ding's corpse, and sighed lightly: "It's a pity, I didn't expect that they would go by sea to intercept it, and I didn't expect that there were also people who were bought by them by the Dagu saliva division guards." ”

On the side, the king monk of the Qing Dynasty iron hat said with a shameful face: "It was this king who didn't notice it for a while, but I didn't expect that Chen Donglin, this kid, also took refuge in others, and actually led three warships to intercept it." ”

Li Lianying hurriedly said humbly: "No wonder my lord, the Queen Mother set up this situation to attract more disloyal people, Dehui, a traitor in Shangyu's reserve office, learned about the route of this messenger brother early on, so he calculated everywhere, we are on the defensive, naturally it is impossible to cover everything." However, this trip found out Dehui, as well as the rebel generals in the Dagu Water Division, and the prince made a lot of contributions. ”

Monk Greenqin also humbly said: "Thanks to the Queen Mother's strategy, this trick to lure the snake out of the hole can be effective, and this trip also has a share of Gonggong Li." The two looked at each other and laughed.

While he was talking, another eunuch came and said: "Gonggong Li, the Queen Mother asked you to go back to the palace first, and the prince please go to Prince Gong's mansion, and Prince Gong will wait for you there." ”

Li Lianying responded, and after saying goodbye to Monk Greenqin, she went out of the courtyard, but saw Cheng Lingxiu dressed in white, got out of the carriage with tears in her eyes, and walked in in despair, and said to Cheng Lingxiu in a low voice after a sigh: "Miss Cheng mourns." ”

Cheng Lingxiu didn't seem to hear it, and walked straight inside, Li Lianying shook her head, sighed lightly and muttered, "It's also a poor person." ”

Seeing Li Ding's corpse, Cheng Lingxiu no longer knew where she was, and wanted to cry loudly, but choked in her throat, but tears quietly fell, and finally she slowly knelt beside Li Ding, took Li Ding's stiff hand and rubbed it on her cheek, and murmured in her mouth: "Brother Li, I'll go to Shanghai with you, I'll go with you, I'll go wherever you go......" (To be continued......