The sky was still dark, but the east in the distance was slightly white, and the two carriages drove past at a gallop, leaving a few car marks on the official road.

"It's okay, I finally rushed out." Bao Qing breathed a sigh of relief.

"Brother Bao, I see the situation just now, it seems that you discussed it with that Hongba?" Cao Yun was a little curious.

"Why, how can I have a chance to meet him."

"Then, just now, Brother Bao seems to have calculated that Hong Ba will help me?" Cao Yun was a little unconvinced, and when she was about to despair, Bao Qing actually said that someone would come to the rescue. At that time, how could there be rescuers. What happened later was really unexpected.

"That's not right! Master Bao, why did you say that you wanted to help us get out of trouble, and then this Hongba told the Nine Princes? Isn't that inconsistent? Zhang Long was also confused.

"Hey!" Bao Qing sighed and said, "This Hongba can be regarded as painstaking. He arranged it all. Do you know how dangerous it was just now? ”

Cao Yun nodded when she heard this, and said, "Yes, if it weren't for Hongba, none of us might be able to escape." ”

"I'm not talking about this! At that time, if I really took refuge in the Nine Princes, the Nine Princes would not kill us. I'm talking about Hongba. At that time, if I had promised the Nine Princes, I was afraid that we would have been killed by the archers who had been ambushed by Hong Ba on the tower of the city gate. Therefore, I directly reprimanded the Nine Princes, of course, the most important thing is that I don't want to rebel with him, and I have no future at all! ”

"Brother Bao, I'm a little confused. Didn't Hongba save us? Cao Yun asked.

"Let's put it this way, Hongba is actually testing us. Do you remember a letter we asked Li Qing to bring to him? ”

"Of course I remember, I still wrote it, didn't I just let Li Qing take over the two reinforcements? Didn't you succeed later? After I and Brother Bao were broken up by the Liao people that day, we went all the way to the west. In the end, I actually ran into the scouts sent by Li Qing, and they happened to know me, so they took me to see Li Qing. You know what happened next. ”

"Yes, at that time, we still said in our hearts that the thirteen princes and princesses and Hong Ba's son are all in our hands, right?"

Cao Yun nodded.

"Maybe Li Qing didn't tell you that this letter shouldn't have helped Li Qing take over the two reinforcements at that time, and what really worked was the dragon birthday jade pendant, Li Qing must have taken out the jade pendant and showed it to Hong Ba. But I remember that the Thirteenth Prince once told me that he had agreed with Hong Ba that when Hong Ba saw the Dragon Birthday Jade Pendant worn by the Thirteenth Prince, it meant that the Thirteenth Prince had been killed, and the person holding the jade pendant was likely to be the murderer, so the agreement at that time was that the person holding the jade pendant would be killed immediately. ”

"What? How can this be? But no, Li Qing is still fine, and he went with me to save my father. Cao Yun didn't understand.

"So, that's the surprise! After thinking about it, I came to this conclusion. Before that, Hong Ba should have obtained some information, that is, we have contacted Li Qing, so as to know that there is a relationship between me and Li Qing. Therefore, with Hongba's understanding of me, I generally don't kill easily, maybe he thinks I'm too cunning, and it's very likely that I cheated the jade pendant from the Thirteen Princes. ”

Cao Yun nodded and said, "It's possible!" ”

So he wanted to know if the Thirteenth Prince was still alive. And his method is to test whether we will surrender. Let's think about it, if we take refuge in the Nine Princes, it means that we have chosen to take refuge between returning to Bianjing and taking refuge in the Nine Princes. A discerning person can understand at a glance that it is obviously not a wise move to take refuge in the Nine Princes. If we choose to take refuge, it means that something has forced us to give up and return to Bianjing, and if we return to Bianjing, we may encounter greater danger. And the biggest one is that the Thirteen Princes were killed by us. Maybe that makes sense. ”

"Oh, what Brother Bao means is that Hong Ba set up a bureau and sent someone to tell us that he could help us get out of the city, and then he went to tell the Ninth Prince, and told the Ninth Princes that it was Brother Bao who killed the Thirteenth Prince. He knew that the Ninth Prince must want to recruit Brother Bao. So at that moment, as long as you look at Brother Bao's choice, you can judge whether Brother Bao killed the thirteen princes. Once we choose to take refuge in the Nine Princes and contact the letter that Li Qing brought over, it means that we have really killed the Thirteen Princes as he said. He immediately shot us. On the other hand, if we choose to run away, what the letter says is very likely to be true, and then Hongba will immediately help us escape? ”

Bao Qing nodded and continued: "Of course, this is all speculation, and Hong Ba seems to think that I, Bao Qing, am very brave and not afraid of death, otherwise his design is completely invalid." If I am a person who is very greedy for life and afraid of death, I am afraid that when I see the situation just now, I will lie down and surrender early in the morning. ”

Although Bao Qing said this, he didn't think much in his heart, because when he saw Hong Ba's last loud shout, Bao Qing knew that Hong Ba really arranged it this way, and he had long known that he would die like this. And the princess and his only son are still alive, which is probably the biggest gift for Hong Ba before he dies.

Cao Yun saw Bao Qing's thoughts flying wildly and his expression was sad, so he leaned his body towards Bao Qing, and then asked, "Brother Bao, why didn't you send troops to continue chasing and killing us?" ”

……

"Chase? Do you think they can run away? At this time, the Nine Princes were looking gloomy, "This king has so many dogs, won't they bite people?" ”

"Lord Wang, is the Plum Blossom Gang reliable? They've messed up the mission over and over again. A guard dressed as a lieutenant beside him asked.

The Nine Princes were silent, the Plum Blossom Gang was originally a third-rate gang, and over the years, he had invested a lot of effort. Although things have always been done wrong recently, the officials who were not satisfied with the previous rectification have made a lot of efforts.

"Don't worry about this, this king has already laid a hidden pile at the intersection between Bazhou and other states, and this king has already taken precautions before this, once that Bao Qing escapes, there are plum blossom disciples outside the city to chase down, this king doesn't believe it, so many people can't catch them."

"The prince only sent out the document today, the court should not be ready, at this time, we should hurry up to contact the prince's old ministry and take the opportunity to expand our power."

And at this time, Renzong, who was in Bianjing, did not go to bed, and the Zichen Hall in the imperial city was brightly lit, and the two classes of civil and military ministers were standing like this. In this big battle, the culprit of the civil and military officials who couldn't sleep at night was Bao Qing's recital.

"Tell me, what should you do? Is what I say true? At this time, Renzong's heart was very troubled.

Lu Yijian was very uneasy in her heart, Bao Qing's recital had been delivered yesterday morning. But the recital was sent to the Privy Council, and the Privy Council scribe Pang Fei insisted on suppressing it in order to please Lu Yijian, and what Bao Qing said was a joke.

has been pressed this afternoon, Lu Yijian still heard about it from the Privy Council. Lu Yijian couldn't help but be furious, such a military event, he, the prime minister, didn't know, but the gatekeepers knew about it first. By the time the scribe Pang Fei handed Bao Qing's recital to Lu Yijian for inspection, it was already past the afternoon Shen hour.

Lu Yijian could see that the tone in the letter was very anxious, and with Lu Yijian's understanding of Bao Qing, no matter how obedient Bao Qing was, he would not make such a big joke, thinking of this, Lu Yijian gave Pang Fei a slap in the face, and hurriedly came to see Renzong.

"Your Majesty, the minister thinks that this Bao Qing must be talking nonsense, the Nine Princes are the important ministers of my Great Song Dynasty, known as the virtuous king, and when His Majesty ascended the throne, he made great efforts, and he was a minister of the dragon. Your Majesty, when Bao Qing returns to Beijing, he should be punished for the crime of slandering the minister. "Master Pang came out of the class to play.

Lu Yijian shook his head, and hurriedly went out of class to play: "Not Your Majesty!" This thing is strange, and the minister thinks that he should take precautions as soon as possible. ”

Seeing this, Taishi Pang was a little dissatisfied, didn't this Lu Yijian always dislike that Bao Qing?

"If this Bao Qing really intends to slander, it will not be too late for him to return to Beijing to punish him. The minister is only afraid of ......," Lu Yijian continued.

"Lu Xiangye, what do you mean by this?" Master Pang asked, and all the ministers below whispered.

Seeing this, Renzong asked loudly, "What else do you think?" The following discussion suddenly disappeared, and everyone bowed their heads and remained silent.

At this time, one of the ministers walked out and said, "Your Majesty, what Bao Qing said must be true. The minister thought that for such a major matter, how could Bao Qing dare to speculate wildly, and he must have some evidence. ”

When Renzong saw Ouyang Xiu's play, he suddenly remembered Fan Zhongyan, if Fan Zhongyan was in the court, he would definitely dare to take the lead.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I really don't know what to do, first the thirteen princes plotted rebellion, and this has just sent troops to quell the rebellion. Now it is rumored that the Nine Princes are going to rebel again, and the Nine Princes are holding tens of thousands of forbidden troops in my hands! ”

This discussion came and went, and finally it was agreed to send someone to contact Xia Zhu, the squire of the military department who led the troops with the Nine Princes, and perhaps he knew the matter of the Nine Princes best. In addition, the imperial court reduced its forces and dispatched the Xiang army from the Jianghuai area to defend the flanks of the capital to prevent it from being attacked in a roundabout way.

Renzong also issued a holy decree to transfer Fan Zhongyan back to Jingshi.

……

Facing Cao Yun's question, Bao Qing smiled bitterly and said, "Why didn't the Nine Princes send someone to hunt us down?" How do you know that he didn't arrange it in advance, maybe if you ask like this, it will really attract the killer of the Nine Princes. ”

Bao Qing thought of Cao Cao's defeat of Huarong Dao's three smiles, attracting waves of ambushes.

"Haha, maybe the Nine Princes think that we are small fish and not worth doing this. If someone were chasing them, they would have ridden their horses, and we would have found out. ”

In fact, Bao Qing is most worried about the Plum Blossom Gang, and according to his own speculation, the real control of the entire Plum Blossom Gang is the Nine Princes themselves. And these nine princes are not incompetent, so it is impossible not to leave a move.

Two miles ahead is a fork leading to the Niuben Road and the Little Eagle Slope, which is a good ambush on both sides of the fork with gravel mounds.

"Zhang Long, stop for a moment, you all go to the Wang family's carriage! Zhang Long, you go to catch the car, and after a while, find a way to rush out of the intersection and take the bull road. I'm alone in a carriage, and in a situation, I'm going to lure them away! Bao Qing said.

Cao Yun's face was full of reluctance, Bao Qing patted her shoulder and comforted: "Maybe there is nothing ahead!" If the road ahead is blocked by stones, run back immediately, and if there is nothing, we will rush straight to see it! ”

If there are really stones blocking the road in front of the fork, it means that the Nine Princes have planned everything in advance to arrest him, if so, I am afraid that this time it will be difficult to escape. If there are no stones in the way, it means that there is still a chance to escape, and there may be no danger at all.

But unfortunately, Bao Qing guessed that the Nine Princes were not incompetent, where could they let themselves escape so easily.

Just as Bao Qing and their two carriages were traveling to the intersection of Niu Ben Road, the killers of the Nine Princes jumped out of the rock piles on both sides.

(Thank you Xiaojun for your reward and your continued support, there are indeed loopholes in the book, but Fengliu will continue to improve and work hard!) ）