When Daxi heard Twelve say this, he was immediately shocked and said, "Assassinate the current emperor? This is a felony that punishes beheading......"

Twelve said: "We don't have to worry about him, don't spread the word, now they think I'm in league with them, if it is exposed, we will both die at their hands." ”

Twelve did not fall asleep until late at night, fearing that he would be killed for knowing the secrets of the two men, and wondering whether he should denounce the two traitors to the emperor, and he was conflicted.

Early the next morning, General Miao Qi woke them up and asked his soldiers to take them to the palace.

Walk to the gate of the palace, see that the palace is very majestic and magnificent, everywhere red walls and blue tiles, the entrance is a city tower, there are five vermilion gates in the city tower, and the gate in the middle is the main gate. There are two stone lions on both sides of the gate, a domineering royal family, twelve looked up and saw a huge plaque on the door screen, there are three words on the plaque, these three words are known by Twelve, the three words are "Taiji Gate", there are more than 1,000 candidates waiting outside the door, and many candidates are coming one after another. After waiting for about an hour, an adult in official uniform stood on the city tower, looked at the candidates downstairs and said, "Candidates for the literary examination, enter the palace from the side door for the examination." Candidates for the martial arts examination should take a horse-drawn carriage to the school for the field examination. ”

As soon as the words fell, the candidates for the literary examination entered the palace from the side gate of the Taiji Gate. Twelve got into the carriage and followed the candidates for the martial arts examination to the school in the carriage.

After a short while, the carriage stopped, and the candidates got out of the carriage one after another. I saw that the school field had arrived. On the stand next to the school yard were dozens of gold wire cushions, which were prepared for the invigilators, and after a while, eight invigilators went to the cushions to sit down, except for the middle one. There is a ring in the middle of the school field, and a couplet is hung on both sides of the ring, and the upper couplet reads: Knife cut the national beetle and rat; The next couplet reads: The sword stabs the people and the thief rebels against the cat. On the left side of the ring were twenty boulders evenly arranged, each weighing about forty catties, each five feet apart. There is a pre-marked track around the school grounds, which is used for running subjects.

At this time, in the stand of the invigilator, an elderly invigilator stood up and shouted to the candidates: "Candidates, the Eastern Empire Xuanyu Twenty-Year Imperial Examination and the Martial Arts Examination Field Examination will start now!" There are three subjects to be tested in the field of the martial arts test, the first subject is running, the second subject is stone cutting, and the third subject is knife dancing. Now let's take the test according to the name, whoever calls the name will take the test, and if you are not called, wait next to you. As soon as he finished speaking, surrounded by the guards, an invigilator who seemed to be of a high status came, and the examiners next to him stood up and saluted him. He walked over to the cushion and sat down on the empty cushion in the middle.

Suddenly, a candidate slapped him on the back of Twelve, and Twelve turned around and saw that it was Gu Jicong, Gu Jicong lowered his voice and said to Twelve: "He is Emperor Xuanyu, when will the twelve brothers start?" ”

Twelve looked at the emperor, thinking that yesterday in order to save money for wine, he lied to Gu Jicong that he wanted to kill the emperor like him, but now he didn't know how to end it, so he said to Gu Jicong: "There are too many guards around him, it seems that it is not easy to get it today." ”

Gu Jicong said: "Did the brother bring a weapon?" ”

Twelve wondered, "Weapons? I didn't bring it. ”

Gu Jicong said: "If you don't bring a weapon, what method will the brother use to kill him?" Listening to the tone of his voice, Twelve knew that he definitely wanted to kill the emperor with a weapon, but what weapon would he use?

Twelve hurriedly asked, "What weapon did Brother Gu Ji Cong bring?" ”

Gu Jicong said in a low voice: "I will stab the emperor to death with a dart when I am dancing the knife." ”

Twelve was shocked again, but could only pretend that nothing happened, and at this moment, the examiner shouted: "Banchi, Twelve, Six, ......" read twenty names, and then shouted: "You twenty candidates will take the race test first." ”

Twelve pairs of Gu Ji Cong said: "I'll take the test first, and I'll see the opportunity to act later." With that, he walked to the runway.

Twelve has been practicing running for a whole month, and it is not difficult to run a lap on the school field. It was quickly finished, and then the stone was lifted, and the stone was lifted and completed smoothly.

After a long time, Twelve began to test the dance knife, and one of the examiners shouted: "Twelve, Zhiwei, Shengdao, Gujicong, the four of you go to the ring to test the dance knife together." Twelve couldn't help but be a little frightened when he heard that he was actually taking the sword dance test with Gu Ji Cong, because he knew that when he could dance the knife, Gu Ji Cong would kill the emperor with a dart. For Twelve, the dancing knife was something he had never practiced, and he had never even held a knife. He saw the emperor sitting on the cushion and watching them, thinking that the emperor's life would be in danger, and he couldn't help but worry about the emperor again.

Twelve had a knife, but he didn't know how to play with it. At this time, Gu Ji Cong next to him glanced at him, and then saw Gu Ji Cong preparing to take a dart in his sleeve, Twelve hurriedly shouted: "Brother Gu Ji Cong!" ”

When Gu Jicong heard it, he hurriedly stopped and said in a low voice: "What's wrong?" ”

Twelve: "It's okay, let's ...... Should...... Dancing knives. ”

Twelve was about to dance around with his knife, but heard a guard next to the school yard shouting, "There are assassins, there are assassins!" ”

I saw that the guards were covering the emperor, and an examiner next to him had been shot in the chest by an arrow that flew and died on the spot, and before he could come to his senses, another arrow was shot at a guard. Seeing this, the guards hurriedly covered the emperor's departure, and an elderly examiner said in a panic: "There are assassins who have assassinated, and it is now decided to suspend today's exam, and candidates who have not completed the exam will take the exam again tomorrow." After saying that, he left in a hurry. Immediately afterwards, nearly a hundred guards arrived, looking for the assassin who shot the dark arrow. However, at this time, the candidates were in a mess after hearing that the exam was suspended, and they heard that there were assassins, and they ran away for fear of danger.

Gu Jicong shouted towards Twelve: "It seems that there are still candidates who want to kill the emperor, they will do it before us, let's run." After speaking, he jumped out of the ring, blended into the group of candidates and fled.

Twelve got down from the ring and ran with a group of candidates, but saw that in the examination room, a weak woman fell to the ground and was almost trampled on by the fleeing candidates, and Twelve hurriedly helped the woman up. Seeing that the woman was wounded in the leg, he carried the woman on his back and ran away from the schoolyard. The twelve, who were agile and fast, fled for about half a mile only to find three tall and mighty soldiers chasing them behind them. He shouted to them, "Stop, stop!" ”

As soon as Twelve wanted to stop, the woman behind him said, "Don't stop, don't let them catch me, run!" ”

Twelve hurriedly quickened his pace, and asked as he ran, "Who are they, and why are they arresting you?" ”

"They want to kill me......" The woman behind Twelve replied in a weak voice due to her injuries.

After another mile of running, Twelve was exhausted. The three tall and mighty soldiers behind him, but still full of energy, caught up with them after a while, and before the twelve could resist, they were carried away directly by the three soldiers in two sacks.

After a long time, the three tall and mighty soldiers carried the sacks into a palace courtyard and sent them to the firewood room. One of the soldiers opened the mouths of the two sacks and tied their hands and feet with ropes. The Twelve shouted, "Who are you, and why are you arresting me?" The wounded woman who had just carried the twelfth back also shouted, "You are going to arrest me, let him go." But the soldier did not answer, threw them to the ground, closed the door of the wood room and left. Twelve was still there shouting, "Release me, let me go." ”

The injured woman said, "It seems that I have caused you trouble, you should not save me." ”

Twelve asked, "Who are they, why are they arresting you, and what is your identity?" ”

The wounded woman said, "I am a princess...... My name is Sangya. ”

Twelve was surprised: "You are a princess?" Then you are the daughter of the current emperor? So why should you go to school? ”

Sang Ya said: "In this martial arts examination, in addition to selecting the talents of the generals, my father will also select a colt for me among the outstanding candidates for the martial arts exam, I secretly went to the school alone, just to see who my father chose for me to be a colt......"

Twelve: "Then what are they doing?" ”

Sang Ya said: "I watched the candidates in the exam from the side of the school grounds, but I found that the three of them were next to me, holding bows and arrows, shooting at my father, I guessed that they were going to kill my father, because, two years ago, also during the martial arts test, my father was shot by an assassin with an arrow and almost lost his life." So, without much thought, I stepped forward to stop them. The first arrow, they missed, landed on one of the examiners. They caught me and shot a second arrow, and I broke free and ran out of the schoolyard, but I tripped and fell, and then you saved me. ”

Twelve: "Then do they know that you are a princess?" ”

Sanya said, "I want to ...... They should know. I know all three of them......"

Twelve: "Do you know those three assassins?" ”

Anya continued: "They were originally personal guards by my father's side, and they followed my father for many years, and their names were life, life, and life, and they were three brothers. Later, they were asked for by the Ten Thousand Words Horse from my father. ”

Twelve asked, "Ten thousand words?" Who is this Ten Thousand Words Pony? ”

Sang Ya said: "Wanyan Horse is my sister Princess Changxiang's concubine, and we may be in the Horse Mansion now." ”

Twelve asked, "You mean...... Is it a colt who wants to assassinate the emperor? ”

Sang Ya said: "I don't know, my father said that the people around him who want to kill him are all around him, and it may be a certain royal relative." ”

Twelve Dao: "What did the emperor do today, and why did so many people want to kill him?" ”

"My father said that the higher the power, the more danger there is, and the more enemies there will be." Then he asked Twelve, "By the way, what's your name?" ”

Twelve: "My name is easier to remember, my name is Twelve, and I came from Shizhu City to take the exam......"

While they were talking, two housekeepers entered the firewood room, and one of them said to the other: "I want to go out with more firewood today, the housekeeper has explained, there will be a few important guests in the house today, and I want to cook more dishes...... They suddenly saw Twelve and Sanya being tied up and lying on the ground, and one of them said: "Why are there two teenagers lying here, who are they?" Twelve hurriedly said, "Big brother, can you let us go." Another family member said, "Leave them alone, they were brought by their three brothers." Sangya said: "What kind of place is this, is it the Horse Mansion?" The housekeeper said while getting firewood: "It's the Horse Mansion, what, how did you offend our Horse Lord?" ”

Sanya did not speak after confirming that it was the Pony Mansion. The housekeeper said to another housekeeper: "Xuanwu, what is the dish you made yesterday called 'Jiuwei Fragrant Shrimp', the taste is too salty, don't put so much salt today." When Twelve heard his name Xuanwu, he thought of the Xuanwu among the four divine beasts Qinglong, the White Tiger, the Vermilion Bird, and the Xuanwu, and then remembered the "kitchen knife man" Xuanliu who had been to Shizhu City, Xuanliu said that his brother was Xuanwu, and all the people at that time believed that the Xuanwu he said was the Xuanwu among the four divine beasts. Twelve thought to himself: "A dead horse should be a live horse doctor, so I asked him if he knew Xuanliu." ”

The two family members got some firewood and held them in their arms and were just about to leave, when Twelve said to the family named Xuan Wu: "Xuan Wu, I know your brother. ”