A few days after Gu Huan and Gao Changgong left Jiankang, the emperor of Chen issued an order to remove Han Zigao from other positions, leaving only the post of a free cavalry attendant and a right general, and ordered him to move to Xin'an Temple. Han Zigao naturally complied with the order. He knew that he was too powerful in the army and was very uneasy, so he wrote a letter asking for release so that he could leave Jiankang, but Chen Zuo, the king of Ancheng, did not allow it.

Soon, Liu Shizhi, Zhi Zhongju, Yin Buyu, Wang Xian and others conspired to expel Chen Zuo from Shangshu Province in order to weaken his power, but when the matter came, everyone hesitated, and no one dared to make trouble first. went to Zhongju to find Han Zigao several times, trying to persuade him to stand up and attack first, but Han Zigao refused without hesitation.

Yin Buyu was a member of the East Palace, and he thought he was the emperor's confidant, so he went to Shangshu Province to falsely deliver the holy decree: "There is nothing to do in the Quartet today, and Wang Ke will also manage the state affairs of the East Mansion." ”

Chen Zuo didn't really care if he was in Shangshu Province or not, anyway, the power was in his hands, so he took the order. Just as he was about to leave Shangshu Province, his staff Mao Xi rushed to stop him, thinking that this was definitely not the intention of the Queen Mother. The days when Chen Guo owned the world were very short, the first emperor was newly mourned, internal and external troubles were increasing day by day, and Chen Zuo was needed to sit in the center and deal with state affairs, how could he let him leave?

Chen Zuo suddenly woke up and immediately sent Mao Xi to discuss with his henchman Wu Mingche. Wu Mingche said clearly: "Today, during the period of mourning, the state affairs are heavy, His Royal Highness and the emperor are close relatives, just like the ancient Zhou Gong and Zhao Gong, when he assisted the emperor and Ansheji, he should stay in Shangshu Province now, and there is no need to hesitate." ”

As soon as Chen Zuo heard this, he made up his mind and immediately began to formulate a plan. He claimed that he was sick and was afraid that he would not be able to take care of official business, so he summoned Liu Shizhi to come and explain. When Liu Shizhi heard this, he happily went.

Chen Zuo was arguing with him and delaying time, but he sent Mao Xi to report to the Queen Mother immediately. The Queen Mother made it clear that the emperor was young, and all political affairs were entrusted to Chen Zuo, and Yin Buyu's words were not what she meant at all. Mao Xi went to see the little emperor again, and the cowardly Chen Bozong pushed it cleanly, saying that he didn't know the behavior of Liu Shizhi and others at all.

Mao Xi quickly rushed back and reported to Chen Zuo. Chen Zuo immediately arrested Liu Shizhi, and then entered the palace to meet the Queen Mother and the emperor, bitterly recounted their crimes, and then drafted an edict on his own, and executed Liu Shizhi that night, and at the same time arrested Yin Buyu and Wang Xian together, and convicted them of rebellion. Soon, Wang Xian was executed, Yin Buyu was deposed as a concubine, and Zhongju was demoted to Doctor Jin Ziguanglu.

Since then, Chen Zuo has dominated the dynasty and has been in power all over the world.

However, there is another person who worries him very much, and that is Han Zigao, who has a heavy army and refuses to belong to him. However, Chen Qian has just died, and the border is not peaceful, whether in the government or the opposition, the officials and the people regard Han Zigao as a strong protector in their hearts, and if he is rashly moved, it is likely to cause a catastrophe and even provoke a popular uprising. Therefore, Chen Zuo has always used a soft policy towards Han Zigao, constantly sending him soldiers and war horses to expand his army, and also giving him a large amount of iron and charcoal to build and repair weapons, so as to appease him and his generals and wait for the right time to do so.

During this time, it was difficult for Zhongju to sleep and eat, and he sent his son to Yu several times to pretend to be a woman to find Han Zigao, trying to persuade him to raise troops in the name of "Qingjun's side" in order to get rid of Chen Zuo. Han Zigao knew that Chen Guo was weak, and in the face of the powerful Zhou State and Qi State, he was already a little stormy, and he couldn't withstand the civil strife at all, so he politely declined.

However, Yu Qiao's sneaky behavior of going to the Han Mansion in disguise has been detected by the secret agents sent by Chen Zuo, and at the same time, someone has reported Yu Moumou, which makes Chen Zuo feel that the matter is urgent and urgent, so he decided to strike first.

Soon, Chen Zuo convened hundreds of officials to Shangshu Province to discuss the establishment of the crown prince. As soon as Han Zigao and Zhi Zhongju entered Shangshu Province, they were caught by the officers and soldiers who were in ambush, and escorted to Tingwei together with Zhi Yu. Chen Zuo did not even want to be tried, so he asked the emperor to issue an edict that they should be put to death in prison.

Gu Huan jumped up in shock: "What about now?" How's my big brother? ”

Gao Ming took a breath and hurriedly said: "We have discussed with Fu Bo, he and Gao Liang will take the money up and down, and strive to delay it for a few days, and I will hurry back to report the news." ”

"Okay." Gu Huan's heart settled for a moment, and he turned his head to look at Gao Changgong. "I'll go to Jiankang right away, and I must rescue my eldest brother."

Gao Changgong also stood up: "I'll go with you." ”

The two had already cooperated tacitly, and there was no need to discuss, Gu Huan rushed back to the house to prepare things, and Gao Changgong summoned Wei Xiangyuan and the staff to give careful instructions, saying that he had urgent matters to go out for a few days, and the military affairs were handled by the Wei Xiangyuan, and the government affairs were handled by the staff at their discretion, and major affairs would be discussed when he came back.

Wei Xiangyuan and those staff members agreed, and Gao Changgong hurried back to the house.

Gu Huan had already packed up his weapons and some simple clothes and supplies and waited in the mansion.

Gao Changgong called the housekeeper, admonished him, and together with Gu Huan, he took the eighteen horsemen of Lanling and rushed out of Yidu City.

Each of them brought an extra horse, and rode it alternately on the road, resting and resting, day and night, all the way south.

It only took three days for them to rush to the Yangtze River, Gao Ming had already hired a big boat, and waited in Jiangbei, as soon as they arrived, they even took people and horses to get on the boat, but they did not dare to go straight to Jiankang City, so they ordered the boat boss to dock at a small wharf more than five miles away from Jiankang.

They gave a lot of silver, although the people were strong and strong, Gu Huan and Gao Changgong were handsome, and the boss of the boat did not suspect anything, but only moored here as he said, ready to sail at any time. Gu Huan promised that once he returned to Jiangbei, he would thank him heavily. The honest and simple boat boss was so happy that he couldn't keep his mouth shut, and agreed repeatedly.

Gao Changgong left twelve people to live in the village outside Jiankang City with extra horses, and he and Gu Huan only brought five people into the city. They put on a little makeup, pretended to be from the Southern Dynasty, stayed in the inn, and then sent someone to leave a specific mark outside the Han Mansion.

After entering the room, Gao Changgong and Gu Huan sat down and drank a few large cups of tea, which could be regarded as a sigh of relief. They went on and on the way, and said little other than to discuss the route of travel. Both of them were worried, afraid that before they arrived in Jiankang, Han Zigao would have suffered an accident. At this time, although they didn't know the exact news, they had already arrived at the place, and their hearts settled down a little.

Soon, Gao Liang arrived.

He knew what his master wanted to know most, so he came in and immediately said, "General Han is still alive," without waiting for them to ask. ”

Gu Huan let out a sigh of relief, and then asked eagerly, "Where is he locked up now?" Did you suffer in it? What's going on? ”

Gao Liang calmly reported them one by one.

As soon as Han Zigao was arrested, Han Fu, the head of the Han Mansion, discussed a rescue plan with Gao Ming and Gao Liang. Gao Ming immediately went to move the rescue soldiers, here Han Fu was in the Ming and Gao Liang was in the dark, and they investigated separately, and then Han Fu went to the court and the prison to deal with it, stuffing a lot of silver, and he didn't spare money at all.

There are also a lot of people in the court who want to protect Han Zigao, and some of them are proposed in the court, and they are tortured without teaching, since they want to kill, they must always be tried for the crime, and they can only be convinced by evidence, otherwise why block the mouth of the people in the world? In this way, it was inconvenient for Chen Zuo to kill people immediately, so he sent Tingwei to the prison for interrogation.

Zhi Yu's attempt to rebel was reported by a general he contacted in the army, and it was evidenced and irrefutable, and Zhi Zhongju naturally could not escape the crime of the mastermind. Their father and son have been poisoned and killed in prison, and now only Han Zigao is still alive, but his life is also in danger.

Chen Zuo said in the emperor's edict drafted by himself: "Han Zi is tall and frivolous, pushes his heart to fight, conspires and troubles, and decides to build a Xiao wall, and the Yuan Prime Minister can't bear to punish more, but except for the king's side, he ......."

The meaning is obvious, Chen Zuo added these trumped-up charges to Han Zigao, that is, he wanted to put him to death, but in order to block the mouth of the world, he pretended to be generous, and did not investigate Han Zigao's brothers, nephews and other relatives, and even kept his mansion for the time being, and then sealed it after he was killed.

Han Fu was clever, and when Chen Zuo didn't make a move for a while, he transferred all the belongings that could be carried in the mansion, so that he had the ability to find a reliable person to help delay the execution of Han Zigao.

After listening to Gao Liang, Gu Huan looked at Gao Changgong and said calmly and firmly: "There is no other way now, Chen Zuo will not give us time to arrange." For now, there is only one way to rob the prison, you see? ”

"yes, I think so too." Gao Changgong nodded. "The fire burns the eyebrows, so I can only make a decision immediately."

Gu Huan let out a sigh of relief, got up and paced around, his mind was very confused, and he couldn't figure it out for a while.

Gao Changgong was relatively calm. He sat there and asked Gao Liang, "You sit down, have a cup of tea, and tell me about the situation in the prison." ”

Gao Liang sat down at the table and drank a cup of coffee table, and his tired expression faded a little.

Gu Huan also calmed down, walked over and sat down, and looked at him intently.

Gao Liang lifted the teapot and poured himself a cup of tea, but instead of drinking it, he dipped his fingers in the tea and drew a diagram of the structure of the prison on the table.

Han Fu bribed a small boss in the prison with a lot of money, and when he was leading the team on duty, he went in to visit the prison twice, and Gao Liang naturally accompanied him as a subordinate, and observed all kinds of situations very carefully. After introducing the terrain outside the gate, the structure inside, and the distribution of guards, he hesitated for a moment before whispering: "They used torture to force General Han to confess, General Han is a tough guy, and he would rather die than admit it, so he was seriously injured and inconvenient to walk, so he could only carry him out." ”

In prison, it is conceivable to be tortured, Gu Huan and Gao Changgong are both distressed and angry, but they are helpless, now all they can do is to seize the time to deploy and rescue Han Zigao as soon as possible.

Gu Huan pondered for a while, then raised his head and asked Gao Liang: "My eldest brother has been operating in Jiankang for so many years, and his soldiers and horses are the most prosperous. He has always been kind and caring for his subordinates, and now that he has been falsely imprisoned, are there any generals who are unhappy about this? ”

"Yes." Gao Liang nodded immediately. "But we don't know who is reliable, so we don't dare to trust anyone. Several generals who followed General Han in the past have been transferred to foreign posts, and they are not allowed to return to Jiankang unless they are edicted, otherwise they will be punished as treason, even if they are angry, they will not be able to rush back for a while. At present, it seems that only Xiangzhou Assassin Shi Huajiao can be trusted, and after he learned that General Han was imprisoned, he had sent his henchmen to come and contact Fu Bo. They quietly brought a thousand people, half of them sailors, to facilitate the response. ”

Gu Huan was a little moved: "Hua Jiao didn't care about anything for Han Zigao, and dared to rebel against the court." ”

"yes." Gao Changgong groaned. "This man is indeed a good man who stresses righteousness, and he is brave and strategic, and he can fight well on water and land, and he is a rare general. Huan'er, I have an idea, we'd better not involve him in this operation, in case he can be of great use in the future. ”

"Okay, I agree." Gu Huan was a little excited. "I think that since the eldest brother was arrested, no one has done anything, and Chen Zuo will also think that everything is under his control, and most of them will not expect someone to rob the prison. We pretended to be a prisoner, robbed the people, and hurried straight to the river, and then got on the boat and left, but they would definitely not be able to catch up. As long as you go ashore in Jiangbei, you will be basically safe. ”

"Yes." Gao Changgong nodded, thought carefully for a while, and said. "Gao Liang, you go back to find Fu Bo, let him go and take care of the guards in the prison, and we will go to visit the prison tomorrow night in the form of the eldest brother's family. In addition, you must inquire today which part of the soldiers who will guard the gates tomorrow night were once the sons of the eldest brother, and we will leave the city from there. ”

Gao Liang immediately replied "yes" and got up to leave.

Gao Changgong looked at Gu Huan and said in a deep voice: "You must do it tomorrow night." Huan'er, let's go deep into the tiger's den, you must be careful. ”

"I understand." Gu Huan nodded solemnly. "You too, stay safe."

Gao Changgong stretched out his hand, held her hand tightly, and said firmly: "Don't worry, we will definitely rescue the eldest brother safely." ”