On the second day of the first lunar month of the eighteenth year of Hongwei, there was amazing news from the front line, and the king of Wuling was really as Xu Rui expected, he shook a shot, made a big circle on the north and south lines, and then killed the Northern Qi again.

The kings and dignitaries who had been trembling in the capital finally breathed a sigh of relief, but the Northern Qi was close to the Great Wei, and the envoys who asked for help came to Changxing as soon as possible, knelt in front of the palace gate and cried for three days and three nights.

Although the Great Wei did not send troops, Emperor Hongwei did not dare to take it lightly, and ordered the border army on the eastern front to closely monitor the battle situation in the Northern Qi Dynasty, and the main force of the 12 guards of the Beijing Division was mobilized and ready to be prepared at any time in case of accidents.

Three days later, Tianqiwei officially set off, guarding Princess Fengyi from the northern suburbs of Changxing City quietly westward, leaving without a banner, without any momentum.

This is the only time in the past hundred years that the Great Wei Liguo Tree has made a princess and kiss, and Emperor Hongwei was ashamed to speak out about this matter, and only said that the Apocalypse Guard went out to the border, and no one sent it to the civil and military officials.

However, the battle of Tianqiwei's trip was not small, not only more than 4,000 carts were filled with all kinds of supplies, but more than ten caravans of the Galaxy Group followed closely.

For this "marriage", Xu Rui won a loan of 30 million taels from Emperor Hongwei in the name of the Ministry of War, and all the expenses were raised by the thriving Imperial Central Bank.

In addition to buying a large amount of ammunition, this money was also used to purchase grain and grass from the state capitals along the way, and Emperor Hongwei issued an order in advance to allow the provinces to sell the grain stored in the official warehouses to the Apocalypse at the market price.

In an instant, Tianqiwei suddenly became a fragrant glutton, and all provinces were looking forward to taking a sip of soup from this feast, and before they left the city, just the letters sent to Xu Rui by the political envoys of the provinces were already thick, all of which asked Xu Rui to cross the border for various reasons.

Xu Rui didn't get tired of replying one by one, saying that as long as time allowed, he would never disappoint the state capital of the world.

In this way, Xu Rui carried a huge amount of silver tickets and began a long journey of defeat.

On the second day of departure, Xu Rui was half-lying in the broken army slowly moving westward, playing with a small brown glass bottle in his hand, but the expression on his face was extremely solemn.

"What did the young master see?"

Seeing that Xu Rui's face was wrong, the shadow maid asked suspiciously.

Xu Rui put the brown glass bottle on the table and sneered: "You can't be wrong, this thing is the Hubu Door Destruction Case and the accomplice who framed An Ge, I call it ether, you have made another great contribution this time!" ”

"Oh, this thing is so powerful?"

The shadow maid looked at the small glass bottle in disbelief.

Xu Rui shook his head: "Ether itself is actually not a great thing, but it is very difficult to manufacture, even if I can't produce it in large quantities under such conditions."

In addition, Galaxy has never produced brown glass, which means that the vial of ether has another source, and even before us, these two things make me very uneasy......"

As he spoke, Xu Rui leaned forward slightly, looked at the shadow maid seriously, and said, "Tell me where this thing came from." ”

The shadow maid nodded: "On that day, Yang Huaizhen deceived Qian Zhuang to Tianbao Pavilion to ask for accounts, and the young master noticed that something was wrong, so he ordered the slave maid to investigate, and the slave maid found that Yang Huaizhen's gambling house was different, and it seemed that the head of the gambling house and the gamblers conspired to deceive Yang Huaizhen, so that he lost more than 70,000 taels of silver in one day.

And afterwards, the head of the gambling house and the conspirators all disappeared inexplicably, which made the slave and maid sure that this matter was not simple, so after several investigations, they finally found the head of the gambling house and the three conspirators who were hiding.

It's a pity that the slaves and maids were a step late, and when they found them, several of them had already been killed, but fortunately, the murderer was too anxious, leaving some clues.

The slave followed the clues all the way and found a suspicious stronghold in a temple in the west of Changxing City. ”

"Wait......"

Xu Rui interrupted the shadow maid's words, frowned, and said, "You said you were in a temple?" ”

The shadow maid said: "The Lone Leaf Temple in the west of the city. ”

Xu Rui rubbed his chin, squinted his eyes and said, "Do you remember Yang Huaiye, the second son of the Yang family, who was the first to jump out to sue me this time?" ”

Shadow Maiden nodded.

Xu Rui said: "He has now been controlled by Xiaohu, and according to his confession, the place where he first met the people behind the scenes was this Lonely Leaf Temple." ”

The shadow maid said: "It seems that the Lonely Leaf Temple is their stronghold. ”

Xu Rui shook his head: "It's not that simple, that King Qi who seems to have no quarrel with the world, but is actually two-faced and three-faced, usually stays in the Lone Leaf Temple to chant and chant Buddha......"

The shadow maid was stunned: "Does the young master think that King Qi may be the mastermind behind the scenes?" ”

Xu Rui hesitated and said: "At present, the camp of seizing the heir is becoming clearer and clearer, the prince tree has deep roots, King Yu and King Su are in the same breath, King Liao and King Han are advancing and retreating together, and His Royal Highness King Qi is in his own right."

The Hubu extermination case involves the King of Liao and the crown prince, and it is King Yu who is responsible for the thorough investigation of this case, so it seems that if this case is not for me to suddenly intervene, it will be the most beneficial to King Qi anyway, will it be a coincidence? ”

The shadow maid said: "Even if that case is a coincidence, is it also the Lonely Leaf Temple?" I think that this King of Qi is the mastermind behind the scenes, at least one of them. ”

Xu Rui shook his head: "The enemy is too cunning, and he can't make a conclusion yet, so you can continue." ”

The shadow maid nodded and continued: "The Lone Leaf Temple looks like an ordinary temple, but in fact, there is a whole set of strict division of labor inside, and from the small novice to the high-level are all members of a mysterious organization.

In addition, there are many dark rooms inside the temple, and the ether mentioned by the young master was found by the slave maid in one of the dark rooms, and there are quite a few of them.

Also, Gu Slave and Maid observed that these people used a lot of code words, which reminded Slave and Maid of a group of people. ”

"Who?"

Xu Rui asked in a deep voice.

"Dark chess!"

The shadow maid arrived word by word.

Xu Rui frowned: "The mastermind behind the scenes has a lot of magical powers, if it is really dark chess, then everything can be explained, but last time the saint wantonly searched for dark chess, and eight or nine out of ten of them have been wiped out, as the so-called digging out radish and bringing out the mud, if they are really dark chess, they must be more or less involved, why do they seem to be unharmed?" ”

The shadow maid shook her head: "The slave maid also has the same doubts, and although their style of action is very similar to the dark chess, the organizational form is completely different, so the slave and the maid say that they are similar, but they can't be concluded that they are the dark chess." ”

Xu Ruimo rubbed his chin and muttered, "Could it be that the organization of dark chess has two completely different structures? ”

The shadow maid nodded: "It's not impossible, it seems that these people in the Lone Leaf Temple have very different goals from other dark chess. ”

Hearing this, Xu Rui was stunned for a moment: "The goals are different...... By the way, these people and the Guigu Gate are fighting against each other, and the Guigu Gate has only one goal, could it be that in addition to helping King Wuling spy on intelligence, Dark Chess is also looking for the so-called ruins? ”

As he spoke, Xu Rui gradually narrowed his eyes: "Or is the meaning of the existence of dark chess itself to find relics, and it is convenient to spy on intelligence, or simply King Wuling is looking for the so-called ruins!"

Xiao Hu called King Wuling a traitor, indicating that he must have the secret of the Guigu Gate, and it is not surprising that he knows about the existence of the ruins.

And judging from the Great War of the North and the strange actions of sending troops to Northern Qi this time, could it be that there is really something related to the relics in Northern Qi that will make King Wuling run to Northern Qi at any cost? ”

The shadow maid was stunned for a moment, and exclaimed: "It is indeed very possible!" Do you want the slave to go to Northern Qi to figure things out? ”

Xu Rui shook his head: "We don't have to worry about the ruins, the top priority is to solve the wolf on the grassland, this edict incident shows that those people have murderous intentions against me, they will definitely come again if they can't make a plan, just take advantage of this westward trip to solve the trouble!" ”

A flash of worry flashed on the shadow maid's face: "Wouldn't it be very dangerous for the young master to do this?" ”

Xu Rui sneered and said, "I'm afraid they won't dare to come!" This westward journey was originally intended to kill, and whoever dared to stand in front of my knife would be the first to die! ”

Hearing this, the shadow maid was shocked, and a chill inexplicably rose in her heart.

(End of Volume 5)