Because the Great Internal Forbidden Army had changed people, Xiao Maozi took some trouble to persuade the defenders of the Shanpu Camp and took him to meet the officials of the Internal Affairs Office before he was released into the palace. This night he has been chasing like a nightmare, until this time, his heart is not easy at all: there are more than 1,000 eunuchs in the palace, and more than 300 people are in the meeting, and more than 50 eunuchs in the middle have also received "red hats". This alone is terrifying!

"Slave little hairy son respectfully invites St. Ann!"

Kangxi was reading the chapter under the lamp of the Palace of Nourishing Heart, listening to the bell ringing eleven times, it was the beginning of the child, and he was about to get up and stretch his muscles, when he saw Xiao Maozi suddenly kneeling in front of him, he was really surprised and happy: "It's you back!" Get up, sit over there - what's going on, not coming back for so long? What's wrong with you, your face is so ugly? ”

"The slave is nothing," Xiao Maozi smiled strangely, "Is this all an errand within the division, long live the slave for a few days off, the slave's mother has kowtowed at home, thanks to the master's blessing, her body is already well." ”

Kangxi stared at Xiao Maozi intently, wondering what he meant by his cloudy words. Xiao Maozi was afraid that he would ask again. got up and went over to hold a white fox fur, and said with a smile: "If you don't come back for a few days, the rules in the palace have changed, there is no light even in the Qianqing Palace, and Lord Wei and they are not waiting here." It's such a cold day outside, Long Live Lord goes to Chuxiu Palace, and he has to put on this. Kangxi thought about it, and couldn't help but laugh dumbly: "What are you afraid of!" I'm not stupid! Look here......" he said, and smiled at a person behind the curtain: "Little Weizi! Xiao Maozi misses you, come out and see you. ”

As soon as the words fell, the curtain had been opened, and there were five first-class guards sitting side by side, Wei Dongting, Tu Hai, Wolf Eye, Mu Zixu, and the donkey, one by one, dressed neatly, hanging their swords, and sitting dangerously. There is also a literary Zhou Peigong, whose eyes under the eight-character eyebrows are dark and deep, shining with a crystal gaze. Except for Tuhai and Zhou Peigong, they were all looking at Xiao Maozi and smiling.

"My mother!" Xiao Maozi let go in one breath, his legs were weak, and he sat on the ground with a buttocks, his chest was sweet, and he spit out a mouthful of blood. Kangxi hurriedly helped him up with a donkey, and asked in surprise: "What's wrong with you?" Xiao Maozi said: "The things in the palace are very scary, if it weren't for the fact that the lord's escort generals are here, Xiao Maozi would have to dare to go to the mother to dare to say it!" As long as there is something over there, the whole palace will immediately make a big fuss! Then, he intermittently and weakly explained Fang Cai's encounter and Yang Qilong's arrangement in detail.

"Long live the moment!" Zhou Peigong just finished listening, and hurriedly knelt down and said, "The matter is urgent!" ”

Kangxi also felt that the situation was serious. Xiao Maozi ran away, and Yang Qilong was very likely to start an accident immediately. The Eight Banners, Green Camps, and Ruijian Camps near Gyeonggi have been ordered to go to Taiyuan, Shaanzhou, Luoyang, and other places. There are only 5,000 military horses under Wei Dongting and Tu Hai in the capital, scattered inside and outside the city. If 20,000 red hats are really gathered, it will be difficult to deal with.

"Tuhai!" Kangxi suddenly shouted.

"The minions are here!"

"Those who are good at attacking people hide their opportunities, and the dagger will come out with a calm look!" Kangxi gritted his teeth, with a cold and vicious light in his eyes, "The thirteen locations of the incident and the envoys to arrest Wu Yingxiong and Yang Qilong will be handled by you and Zhou Peigong!" ”

"Wow!"

"Unleash your means!"

"Wow!" The two responded in unison.

When they went out, Kangxi turned his face and instructed Wei Dongting: "You go to the north of Longzongmen, Xiong Cixu, Suo Etu, Ji Bilong, as well as Mi Sihan and Mingzhu, they are all on night duty there, and they are all unarmed scholars, the palace has changed, and one is injured, but you ask!" ”

"Wow - just long live this side ......"

"How can there be a house that is all the opposite?" Kangxi said calmly, "I can handle it here, there are only more than 300 of them, what's the big deal?" As he spoke, he said to the wolf: "Decree the Empress of Chuxiu Palace and the noble concubine Niu Hulu, and ask Concubine Hui to take the prince and immediately go to Cining Palace to accompany the Empress Dowager Cijia, detain all the eunuchs of Cining Palace, and order the rest of the palace chiefs and eunuchs to seal the palace door, and no one is allowed to enter or leave." You and I are the credit for guarding the Cining Palace! ”

After listening to Kangxi's will, he hurriedly kowtowed and agreed: "Yes!" - Brother Mu, Brother Jiang (donkey's real name is Jiang Lizi), you have to take care of it more! Mu Zixu nodded solemnly. The donkey rubbed his hands and smiled: "You can do your errand quickly!" Don't be like Brother Wei, babbling about your mother-in-law and mother-in-law's mother-we can save it! ”

"You're tired." Kangxi waited for everything to be arranged, so he came over to comfort Xiao Maozi, "Let's go first and rest later, I will give you half a year off when it's over, so that you can recuperate - come here, help Xiao Maozi to the back, and light ten more candles!" ”

"Back to the words of the Long Live Lord," Hou Wen, the deputy steward of the Yang Xin Palace, came over and knelt down and said, "Since the fifteenth thousand years of the lunar month, the lights have been strictly controlled, and the candles in each palace and hall are all counted and given, and we have nothing to spare." If you add ten more, after two hours, the Heart Cultivation Hall will be dark. ”

"Fart!" Kangxi roared and was furious, "Strictly control the lights because I am afraid of fire, why do I even manage it?" Send someone to get it now! ”

Hou Wen hurriedly knelt down in a panic: "How dare the slave bully the master!" It's just that Liu Peng from the candle oil depot is not in the palace tonight, so it's not easy to find him. ”

Kangxi was so angry that he had nothing to say, waved his hand and said, "Get out!" Bring all the wax from the eunuchs in each room of the Heart Cultivation Palace—get more tomorrow! After speaking, he sat down again, read a few lines of music, and felt that his heart was in turmoil, so he simply leaned on the big pillow and closed his eyes to recuperate. Mu Zixu and the donkey guarded Kangxi with Tiger Biaobiao's eyes open.

At the end of the ugly moment, the fire broke out. First, an explosion sounded in the northeast of the city, shaking the sleeping city of Beijing in the winter night. Then there was another fireball to the west, and it exploded like thunder. Kangxi in the blindfold opened his eyes, strode out of the hall, and stood under the Danqi to watch the fire - only to see the direction of the Reclining Buddha Temple, thick smoke rose into the sky, and the fire was red. Before Kangxi could think about it, the southwest drum tower also caught fire, and this time the sound was louder and the fire was brighter. Then I heard the sound of gongs everywhere outside the palace, and the big drums of Shuntian Mansion, the Yamen of the Military Department, the Shanpu Camp, and the Nine Gate Admiral's Mansion sounded loudly, and the sound of trumpets came and went. The sound of horses' hooves pounding on the hard frozen ground and stone pavements of the royal street outside the palace, and the frightened cries, screams, and curses of women and children plunged the city into a terrifying and unsettling chaos.

Kangxi calculated, it was time for the two sides to start. Tuhai: It's good that they can maintain six or seven places. Seeing that there were only three fires, Kangxi couldn't help but nodded, and said happily to Mu Zixu: "Tuhai has taken Zhou Peigong into a lot of progress, if he can hold the thief's head, then it can-" Before the words fell, the candle oil depot in the palace was also on fire.

All of a sudden, Ouchi was in turmoil. The palace is full of people, ghosts crying wolves. The courtyard of the Heart Cultivation Hall was also like a sudden explosion of the camp, the eunuchs were shouting and shouting without a head, scurrying around, all the lights and candles were suddenly extinguished together, and it was dark and chaotic.

"Hou Wen's palm lamp, palm lamp!" Mu Zixu shouted, drew his sword in his hand at the same time as the donkey, and coerced Kangxi to the Liuli Zhaobi of the Yangxin Palace to stand against the wall.

Hou Wen trembled all over and came over with more than 20 candles, so panicked that he couldn't even turn on the fire. Mu Zixu was so anxious that he pushed him to his back and faced the sky, and when he shook the fire and looked at it, he couldn't help but be stunned: it turned out that all the candle wicks had been pumped. The donkey was furious, went up and stepped on Hou Wen, and asked with a cruel smile: "You are the person who is the third prince of Zhu!" ”

"No, no...... Don't ......" Hou Wen was so frightened that he couldn't even speak clearly.

"Fuck you!" The donkey slashed down with a sword, "It's not a thief, what are you doing with the wax core?" ”

In the midst of the chaos, the door of the hanging flower was slammed open like thunder. Suddenly, the courtyard of the Heart Cultivation Hall became even more chaotic, and the eunuchs howled and screamed, scurrying like headless flies: "Heavenly grandfather, grandmother - it's the other way around, it's the other way around!" A eunuch wielded a knife and shouted "Catch the thief" while pounced on the wall. Mu Zixu protected Kangxi motionlessly; With an arrow step, the donkey grabbed the eunuch with the knife, stabbed the sword obliquely, and the blood sprinkled Kangxi like a spring. Then there was another commotion by the door of the hanging flowers, and a group of people rushed in with five or six torches! The donkey roared: "Good thief! He was about to do it, but he was grabbed by Mu Zixu and hurriedly said, "It's Lafayette here!" ”

The person who came is really the Queen Mother! Kangxi was excited in his heart, and tears came out of his eyes. When looking at it fixedly, the Empress Hesheri and the noble concubine Niu Hulu were supporting the white-haired Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang on one side. The light of the torch shone on the wolf's eyes, and I saw him standing beside him with his sword in his eyes.

"Mo Ju, light a few more torches!" Empress Hesheri commanded in a loud voice. She is nearly nine months pregnant, and her Zhongqi is a little insufficient, but she seems calm and powerful, "Where is the donkey, come out and answer!" ”

The donkey was catching a eunuch and slapping him, when he heard the queen's greeting, he hurriedly jumped over, bowed down in the light of the torch and replied: "Master, Niangniang, the donkey is here!" ”

"I am the lord of the six palaces, the mother of the world!" Hesheri said sharply, "You changed your name to Wudan, and today I will allow you to kill in the palace!" As he was talking, a black shadow jumped out of the shadows, and Mo Ju, who was standing next to him, danced a torch to resist, and was already slashed in the calf by someone who came, and fell to the ground with a "bang", and even the queen was knocked to the ground.

Wu Dan was furious, he was originally born as a horse thief in the Kanto region, and his temperament was the most brutal, he followed Kangxi, and he was subject to a lot of constraints, and he couldn't kill people casually. Seeing that the rebel eunuch was so rampant, Wu Dan shouted: "The slave obeys the will of Niang Niangyi!" Flying over and grabbing the collar behind the man's neck, he only twisted it, turned it over, slashed it from the man's chest to the navel with a sword, and took out his heart and liver and threw it to Mo Ju who was **: "If you eat his heart, it won't hurt!" Seeing him so vicious, the queen was so frightened that she closed her eyes, and the queen mother, although she was well-informed, couldn't help but chant the Buddha together.

Seeing that Wolf Eye and Mu Zixu had already protected this master, Wu Danwei screamed and threw himself into the black field, and killed those with knives when he saw them - there was already a rule in the Hengzhi Palace that eunuchs were not allowed to hide their blades privately, so the one who was killed was not wronged - he killed five or six in a row, all of which were disemboweled. The eunuchs were so frightened that they didn't dare to run around. There were only about twenty left, about the ones who had drunk the burned talismans, holding the knife with red eyes, and chanting the incantation while screaming: "The Emperor of Heaven, the Emperor of the Earth, there is nowhere to hide ...... in the catastrophe" rushed to Kangxi's side.

Now the situation is clear. The wolf was delicate and calm, and when he saw the leader in the middle, he "swished" out of the shadow of the torch, dragged the man into the torch, and kicked him violently in the back leg socket, and the man fell to his knees with a thud. He turned back to the group of eunuchs and shouted, "Look at him! As he spoke, he swung his sword, and slashed it as quickly as he did a melon and a vegetable—the eunuch's arms and legs were cut off, and his waist was cut in three, and then his head was cut off—and in the blink of an eye it was already a big piece.

The eunuchs were frightened and stupid, and one by one their souls did not possess their bodies, and they threw their knives and lay on the ground and kowtowed like garlic and begged for mercy. It turned out that most of the eunuchs in the palace were left by the former Ming Dynasty.

"Tell the Prudent Criminal Division to be imprisoned first, and then it will be released!" Kangxi saw that the ground was stained with blood and the corpses were in disarray, and he also felt disgusted, and he was afraid that he would frighten the palace family, so he ordered the guards to stop. As soon as he turned around and saw Wei Dongting walking over sweating, he asked, "Are you okay over there?" ”

"It's exactly the same as here, there are only two places in the whole palace!" Wei Dongting said, "The slave has already been disposed of, but I don't worry about the emperor's side, so I came to take a look." ”

The Empress Dowager had always appreciated Wei Dongting, and when she saw that he was not stained with blood, she asked in surprise: "You didn't kill anyone?" ”

"Slaves do not obey the holy orders and decrees, and dare not kill people." Wei Dongting hurriedly knelt down and replied, "I only picked a dozen people's hamstrings, and I'm afraid that cripples are inevitable." The Empress Dowager clasped her hands together and said, "Amitabha! I will reward you with one hundred taels of gold, and five taels for one person here! ”

Kangxi couldn't help laughing when he heard his grandmother deal with it like this.

Tu Hai and Zhou Peigong acted quickly, first sealing all the main roads of the Beijing Division, so that the rebels outside the city could not enter, and only sent a small number of sergeants to the ignition site to blow trumpets and shout from afar, and the red hats did not dare to act according to the plan. Most of the sergeants were led by the pipe band, and they arrested the prisoners along the road. Tu Hai took a hundred personal soldiers to be stationed on Chang'an Street, commanding the commander; Zhou Peigong led 300 people to the Red Orchard to arrest the first offender - once Yang Qilong entered the city, he must pass through here.

Yang Qilong originally planned to set fire to 13 places, but in 9 places, he broke up in a hurry, and only four places were set on fire. Later, when they heard the shouts of the Qing soldiers, they all hurriedly abandoned their red hats and fled, but they were grabbed by the patrolling team one by one and sent to the prison temple for investigation.

"It's really unexpected that things have failed so far!" Yang Qilong only took more than 200 people with him, and he cowered in the red orchard. Look at the dawn of the day, when the number of people is counted, most of them have fled, and even Wu Yingxiong and Lang Tingshu are like yellow cranes. Everyone sat silently in the grass under the trees, sweating and panting, and no one said a word. Yang Qilong felt depressed and couldn't cry; I wanted to laugh wildly, but I was afraid that people would hear it, so I pressed the knot in my heart and sighed: "I'll return to heaven here!" As he spoke, he drew his sword.

Li Zhu grabbed his shoulder and arm. He was trembling all over, and said sadly: "Young master, it's my incompetence as a military advisor that has harmed ...... You! However, you can't take your own life, the world will be without you, and the Ming Dynasty will never recover! At this point, the people who were letting off the wind outside ran in and said, "Young master, military advisor, a large group of people are coming!" ”

Everyone immediately stood up nervously, and when they listened carefully, there was a noise of footsteps in the distance.

"What now?" Jiao Shan asked anxiously, "This place is going to be surrounded!" Zhang Da said on the side: "Since the will of heaven does not allow us to succeed, what is the way for manpower?" Zhu Shangxian gritted his teeth and said fiercely: "It seems that the only way to disperse the people temporarily is to try to make a comeback in the future!" ”

Li Zhu couldn't help but be anxious when he heard this: "I can't discuss it anymore!" Although Brother Zhu's words are reasonable, the most important thing at the moment is how the third prince can get out! If you are afraid of death, I will say nothing, but stand here and kill yourself! My whole family was wiped out by the Qing soldiers, and I must not share a day with them! ”

"Who do you say is afraid of death?" Zhu Shangxian asked angrily, "Am I different from you?" ”

Indeed, there are 100 people here, and the situation is similar.

"If everyone is not afraid of death, I still have a way to die, and I can save the third prince!" Li Zhu wiped away his tears and gritted his teeth and said, "Let's go to Tuhai together!" ”

"You're crazy!" Zhang Da was taken aback and said, "That's not afraid of death, that's called death!" Li Zhu said: "You're right, let's go to death, and push a total of one person as the fake third prince, and the young master can escape from the capital by taking advantage of the chaos!" At this time, there were no footsteps outside the park. Obviously, Zhou Pei justly deployed people to enclose the garden.

The people around Huo Di all jumped up, held Li Zhu's hand and said, "Also...... We have to do it, we listen to you! Seeing that Zhang Da was silent, Zhu Shangxian asked gloomily: "Elder Zhang Ge, what about you?" ”

Zhang Da gritted his teeth, and said for a long time: "I see my father and mother marrying, and everyone takes care of their own ......" His second word "person" has not yet been exported, and the two long swords of Chen Jizhi and Shi Guobin have been straight to the chest from Zhang Dahou's heart at the same time!

"Brothers......" Yang Qilong was originally a fake third prince, and when he saw everyone protecting himself like this, he was first frightened, and then tears rained down, "You don't want this, don't do this...... Zhang Da's words are not wrong......"

"That's it, let's go to Xizhimen to surrender, people will come to see the excitement, you took advantage of the chaos to escape!" Li Zhu said decisively, "Don't forget to gather people and horses to avenge us!" As he spoke, he pushed Yang Qilong violently, and shouted outward with his hands in a trumpet shape: "Hey—listen to the people who are surrounding the garden outside!" The day is about to dawn, and we have no intention of escaping again, only our third prince is a person with status, and he can only surrender if he meets General Tuhai, otherwise we will commit suicide here together, and you won't be able to catch a living one! After a long time, Fang heard the answer from outside: "In this case, the blades are dropped, and the line is out of the west gate!" ”

People quietly left the red orchard. Yang Qilong crouched in the grass with thick frost and leaves, grabbed his suffocating chest with both hands, and cried in a low voice: "Kang Laosan, as long as I have a glimmer of life, I will not be a man!" Hearing a few soldiers digging through the grass and searching for it, he hurriedly lowered his body until the people were quiet, and then staggered out of this deserted garden.

It was already dawn, and the Xizhi Gate opened. Tuhai only opened this city gate as a precaution, and guarded it by himself. Lang Tingshu stood beside him, staring intently at the passers-by, and from time to time someone was captured by the wolf-like soldiers.

Suddenly, there was a sensation in the market, and more than a hundred people wearing red hats were escorted by Zhou Peigong's two lines of soldiers and marched slowly. The lively crowd immediately gathered around and formed two thick human walls. Li Zhu and the others were about a stone's throw away from the city gate, stopped, knelt on the long street one after another, and shouted: "Zhu Cijiong specially led the remnants to surrender to the Great Qing Tu Military Gate!" Now there were more people watching, and even the soldiers guarding the door kept looking over here, not caring about checking passers-by. Yang Qilong took the opportunity to slip out quietly.

Seeing Zhou Peigong escorting the prisoners over, Tu Hai felt a burst of joy in his heart, nodded slightly to Zhou Peigong, who was pressing everyone on the horse, and asked, "Who is Zhu Cijiong?" Come out! ”

No one agreed.

"Raise your heads, Lang Tingshu, you come to recognize!"

No one looked up.

"Fooled!" Zhou Peigong exclaimed in surprise, and shouted to the soldiers guarding the door: "Seal the door!" ”

At this moment, with a whistle, more than a hundred people got up at the same time, roaring and pounced, some captured Tuhai, some pounced on Lang Tingshu, Zhou Peigong's mount was frightened, and almost knocked him off the horse. When the soldiers saw that something had happened to the commander, they roared and rushed to the rescue with spears and knives. Tu Hai knocked down four or five people one after another before he had to get out, and Lang Tingshu was a weak scholar, and he had already been strangled to death in it.

"Hahahaha......" Li Zhu was tied like a rice dumpling, laughed loudly, and said in his mouth: "Aspen and green grass, what are the loess and green mountains?" Non-ancient song and dance field, hold the rain and bring the clouds to bury incense early! Don't leave Luan, stretch out your ears - the third prince has already gone away and flew high! ”

Tu Hai wiped the blood marks on the corner of his mouth and sneered: "If you leave the monk and can't walk the temple, don't you hear that 'life is three feet, and the world is difficult to hide'?" Don't be complacent, Wu Yingxiong has two arrows on his body, and he has a military department to investigate, so he still didn't escape! With a wave of his hand, the sergeants escorted Wu Yingxiong out and grabbed him into the captive team of the "Third Prince Zhu".

Kangxi met with Tu Hai in the Qianqing Palace, and listened to him play in detail the capture of Wu Yingxiong and Yang Qilong, and was speechless for a long time.

"The slave is not careful, he has no way to serve his duties, and he has gone to the head of the traitor, and he begs the emperor to punish him heavily!" Tu Hai bowed his head deeply.

"You and Zhou Pei are using this little person, what is the crime of quelling this chaos? What I was unhappy about was that Xiao Maozi was killed in the chaos last night. Kangxi ordered the sea to rise, and asked for a long time: "How much did you take last night?" ”

"Back to the words of the Long Live Lord, I took 2,400 people according to the night, and today I got 113, all of them are the culprits."

"Those who commit the night are released on bail and wait for the inquiry!" Kangxi said coldly, "The remaining more than 100 are all solid, except for Wu Yingxiong Jiao Dali Temple supervisor, the rest of them will all be cut down and abandoned after asking!" ”