On the 19th day of the first month, the officials of Ningxia Town, large and small, received the invitation card of Qingwangfu, and Zhu Ningxiao explained on the invitation that the 19th day of the first month was the thirteenth birthday of Zhu Taixun, the young king of Qingding, and if the officials of Ningxia Town gave their faces, they would come to congratulate them, and the gifts were exempt, and people must come, which was the face of Qingwangfu.

Many middle- and lower-level officials have no chance to make friends with the Qingwang Mansion on weekdays, and they are naturally flattered after receiving the invitation, and the military and political dignitaries in Ningxia Town needless to say, Qingding Wang's birthday, that is to go no matter what, no matter whether they have friendship or not, they always have to deal with the past.

As soon as the sky was dark, the streets near the left side of the Qingwang Mansion were lit up with lanterns, and the wind lanterns were also provoked on the walls, shining the streets around the palace as if it were day, and the officials of all sizes sat in sedan chairs and rode horses, and rushed to the palace to attend banquets from all over the city.

Zhu Ningxiao was dressed in a brocade robe, standing in front of the palace with a smile on his face to greet him personally, which flattered the officials who went to the banquet, the prince has never personally greeted anyone, it seems that this time he attaches great importance to the birthday of King Qingding, after all, it is an uncle and nephew, and the love of licking the calf is still sincere.

At the beginning of the shift, the main hall of the heart hall is full of people in Ningxia Town, but all those who have some status are seated in it, and there are many people who have not been together for a long time between each other, when the banquet is not opened, everyone asks each other to talk and laugh, and they are happy.

Jiang Han, the chief soldier, An Weixue, the governor of the town, Li Zeng, the eunuch of the town army, and Zhou Dong, the secretary of the Dali Temple, sat in the chief, surrounded by more than a dozen local officials who came to talk.

Judging from the number of people around several heads-up figures, it can be roughly seen that several people are popular in this town, Jiang Han is still old-fashioned, there are only a few people around him, everyone understands that Jiang Han is not very good, and this person is not very popular, so although he is a chief military officer, he is not welcomed; However, An Weixue and Li Zeng have the most people around them, one is the governor who has a close relationship with the prince, and the other is a lieutenant official in the inner court, who is also sleek and easier to make friends.

Li Zeng said this to the sycophants around him, but his eyes looked around, he found that there were two important people missing from the seat today, although he was afraid of seeing them, but it was a little strange not to see them on such an occasion.

"Why didn't Lord Song and Lord Yang Yiqing meet? Have you seen it? Li Zeng asked.

After being reminded by him, the surrounding officials suddenly realized that they had indeed not seen these two people, and one official whispered: "Why did they come?" After Song Nan killed Shi Lian with a cane, he married the prince, and at today's banquet, I am afraid that the prince did not even give him an invitation, but he did not dare to come. ”

"Yes, Yang Yiqing and Song Nan are angry with the same trouser leg, and he will definitely not come." Another official chimed in.

Li Zeng frowned, it sounds like these reasons are good, but Li Zeng doesn't think so, Song Nan dares to openly confront the prince, how can he be afraid to come here to the banquet, and what can King Anhua do to him in public? As for saying that King Anhua did not send invitations to Song Nan and Yang Yiqing, it is even more unreliable, how could King Anhua show his hostility to Song Nan lightly because of Shi Lian's matter; Is King Anhua such a scheming person?

"Governor An, you are a regular guest by the prince's side, you should know why Song Nan and Yang Yiqing have not arrived." Zhou Dong asked.

An Weixue's face flushed, he also knew that his close relationship with King Anhua was quite criticized, but he didn't care, he had his creed of being an official, and being an official in Ningxia Town was to have a good relationship with the palace, otherwise it would be difficult to move an inch, and it was precisely because of this insight that he did not hesitate to be spoken behind his back, and was willing to run errands for King Anhua's saddle before and after the horse, and even did not hesitate to almost turn his face with Song Nan for Shi Lian.

"I sent an invitation in the morning, but I don't know why these two people didn't arrive, and the prince probably has sent someone to urge him; These two people really don't know how to lift, the prince gives face like this, they are very troubled, in fact, it is okay not to come, so as not to embarrass everyone to meet. Gonggong Li, Lord Zhou, do you say yes? ”

Li Zeng said lightly: "What's so embarrassing, it's you Lord An, I heard that I almost made a move that day, Lord An was dismissed by Song Nan, and it was indeed a little embarrassing to meet." ”

An Weixue sneered: "Isn't Gonggong Li embarrassed? There are some things that you and I know well, and I don't need to point them out. ”

Li Zeng looked stunned, and was busy talking about him, thinking in his heart: It seems that the assassination of Song Nan that day was not impenetrable, An Weixue must have known the rumor, and after going back, he must have disposed of all the relevant people, so as not to leave trouble.

There was a commotion in the hall, but the atmosphere was tense in a secret room in the side hall of the heart hall, Zhu Ningtie sat on the chair with a blue face, and in front of him stood Sun Jingwen, Meng Bin, Zhou Ang, He Jin, Ding Guang and others, and eight palace guards stood silently behind him.

"Song Nan and Yang Yiqing are gone? How do you do this? How could a whole bunch of people disappear? Zhu Ningxiao asked sharply.

"Lord Wang, the people who were sent to urge Song Nan and Yang Yiqing just now came back and said that the entire Guanxue Building was empty, and not even a single soldier was left, and the subordinates also felt strange, although in order not to startle the snake, we removed the secret post near the left in the past few days, but at noon, the old party in the Guanxue Building also sent a secret report saying that they didn't notice anything, and suddenly there was no shadow." Sun Jingwen smacked his lips and said.

"What about the old party? These dogs have made no achievements since Song Nan stayed in the Guanxue Building, and the last time Song Nan entered the palace for a few days, they were in the Guanxue Building but didn't know anything, it was really a waste. ”

"The old party and the seven servants are also gone, and I don't know where they have gone." Sun Jingwen said in a low voice.

"Waste, waste, a group of waste, Song Nan and their traces have been lost at this juncture, how will the king rely on you in the future? I'm mad at me! Zhu Ningxiao patted his thigh and scolded angrily.

Zhou Ang coughed and stepped forward and said: "Lord Wang, the three city gates have been closed, and there is already a curfew in the evening, and there is no report from Song Nan and others leaving the city at the city gate, obviously they are still in the city, but there are only hundreds of troops, why worry?" But the matter in front of us is the most important, after tonight's banquet, this town will be accused by us, and then slowly search for them, the prince does not need to be angry. ”

Zhu Ningxiao thought for a while and nodded: "Yes, as long as they don't leave the city, this king wants to capture Song Nan alive and kill him alive; Zhou Ang, Jinyi Guard Yamen is going to send troops and horses to stand by? There are also hundreds of brocade guards there, and they can't be allowed to play missing; The city gates are to be heavily guarded. ”

"The lowly post has already made arrangements, and as soon as it is launched here, my men and horses will wash the Jinyi Guard Yamen in blood."

"Okay, Jingwen, are you ready for the banquet?"

Sun Jingwen said: "Don't worry, the prince is ready." ”

"Baoxin, are you ready?"

"It's ready, listen to the prince's orders."

Zhu Ningxiao breathed a sigh of relief, stood up and dressed up and said: "Okay, tonight will be the most important day since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, and you will also be famous in history because of tonight. ”

……

In the courtyard of a large mansion in the south of Ningxia City, hundreds of heavily armed Jinyi guards stayed quietly in a few rooms, since yesterday afternoon, when the party housekeeper and seven servants of Guanxue Tower were arrested by Wang Yong in one fell swoop, Jinyi Wei began to act.

A few days ago, Jinyiwei carried out several sweeps of the surrounding secret agents, and caught more than a dozen spies who were watching, all of them were beaten to the flesh, but fortunately they did not confess the instigators behind. This also reminded the king of Anhua that he could not make extraneous branches in the joints, so he evacuated most of the manpower, leaving only a few shrewd people to watch from afar.

Like a few days ago, the patrol of the Jinyi Guards on the streets of Ningxia Town has become the norm, a small team of Jinyi Guards rode out to inspect and did not attract their attention, but they were completely uninteresting, this time the Jinyi Guards dispatched a little more in number of street patrol teams, fifteen or sixteen teams of Jinyi Guards cavalry sent out, and finally even Song Nan took a dozen people out to patrol the streets.

It was in this method that Song Nan forcibly broke the brocade guard into pieces, and more than 200 guards walked clean within an hour, and no one returned to the snow viewing building until it was dark in the evening.

Yang Yiqing went out early in the morning, and it was already the norm for him to go out of the city to measure the acres of grass and return late these days, but it was not suspicious, but this time it was different, and his big car was even taken out by Mrs. Yang and Yang Qian'er, and at this moment, I am afraid that he would have crossed the Yellow River and arrived at the boundary of Lingzhou.

Song Nan didn't want to leave, but his goal was too big, since the rebellion of King Anhua was imminent, he would definitely not let himself go out of the city lightly, it was unrealistic to break through, there were more than 1,000 officers and soldiers stationed at the head of each city, and the odds of winning by breaking through were not good, and it would force King Anhua to attack himself in advance, which was really unwise.

Qiu Yue's initiative to take refuge in King Anhua was the strategy put forward by Song Nan after meeting with Qiu Yue that day, since King Anhua's rebellion was inevitable, he could not catch the evidence of his rebellion, and he had no way to deal with him. I can't watch King Anhua here for the rest of my life; Moreover, the longer the time dragged on, the more fully prepared King Anhua would be, so Song Nan proposed a strategy to simply urge King Anhua to rebel earlier.

If it is not broken, once it is a fait accompli, there is no need for any evidence, after Yang Yiqing escapes, he will immediately strengthen the defense of the North Yellow River in Lingzhou, and the recital that he and Yang Yiqing have already jointly written will also be sent to the capital, and the holy decree of the imperial court to exterminate it will mobilize the army to encircle and suppress. Song Nan is not worried that things will become out of control, because with Qiu Yue as the internal response, things will be resolved easily. The only thing he worries about is how he survives the pursuit of King Anhua when the incident happened.

The mansion provided by Qiu Yue is located in the middle of nowhere, and it is a good place to hide temporarily, but it will definitely not last long, and by tomorrow morning at the latest, the whereabouts will be exposed under the search of the whole city, but at that time, there is another way to get out, and Song Nan is not worried.

At present, Song Nan is worried about the fate of the officials in Ningxia Town who went to the banquet tonight, tonight's banquet in the palace is undoubtedly a Hongmen banquet, but I don't know what these ignorant officials will do; In the face of righteousness and life, it is difficult for anyone to make the right choice.