Outside the noon gate, the two entered a hut not far away, where they waited for the execution.

Someone has already prepared the food and drink, and they will have some free time. In normal times, the relatives of the sufferer would come to them during this time. In the same way, if the executioner is not skilled or deliberately does it, the sufferer does not kill him, so he will not be killed by another knife, which will make the prisoner suffer twice, so they will send some money so that the executioner can be happy. Xuanyuan has worked hard for so many years and has never missed, but he has never refused this kind of money.

It's just that the traitor Li Chuntie, who was executed today, has no elders, no heirs, and no henchmen of his own in the capital, only a junior brother who has been raised since childhood, so no one comes to make a relationship.

Xuanyuan handed over a glass of wine and said with a smile, "It is inevitable that you will be a little nervous for the first time, so drink a glass of wine first to strengthen your courage." Ling Chi three days, today I will cut 3,000 knives, I have to prepare first, lest I lose too much blood and cannot complete the task. ”

Xiao Jinyan took the wine, watched Xuanyuan rush around with a knife, put the prepared fish scale nets, tourniquets, and hemostatic powder on the table, and checked the various knives used in the execution to ensure that they were in good condition, he was very serious in his work, and had a sense of ceremony, it seems that this butcher who killed pigs still has something to offer in some aspects.

......

Dragon's birthday is also the birthday festival.

After Zhao Lanjiang got up, under Yang Xiaoxiao's service, he changed into a dress sent by the Ministry of Rites, and after everything was ready, Yang Xiaoxiao smiled, "The husband is dressed like this, and he looks like a general in the play." ”

Zhao Lanjiang is used to wearing loose clothes on weekdays, and this set of dresses is a little restrained, but it is not as comfortable as the battle robe. He took the golden sword and hung it around his waist. Back then, Zhu Liye gave the King of Yinyang and brought a golden knife into the palace, and today his good friend Xiao Jinyan wanted to rob the Dharma field, so he deliberately brought it, just in case.

A white horse said, "City Lord, the horse is ready." ”

The celebration will be held an hour later, when His Majesty the Emperor will be in the Taiji Hall to accept the congratulations of the ministers, Fanbang to present the table, and then drive the newly built Wanshou Palace, for the "Wannian Hou" who just entered the city a few days ago, and finally climb the Wanshou Palace Tower, feast with the ministers, and watch Li Chuntie Ling Chi outside the noon gate.

According to the custom, on the day of Wanshou Day, slaughter is forbidden and amnesty is granted to the world, but today is different, His Majesty decided to impose capital punishment on Li Chuntie in front of the civil and military officials, the people of the capital, and the envoys of Fanbang, first, to deter the group, second, to show his eternal imperial heart, and third, to prove to Li Chuntie that he is the real winner.

Bai Ma Yi led the horse out of the Anguo Mansion.

From this side to the capital, but three or four streets, but at this moment, the long street is full of people, along the street lanterns, colorful buildings are lined up, and the floats presented by the eighteen road states are also across the road. These floats, often several zhang, the officials from all over the country dig out their minds, dig three feet into the ground to search for the people's fat and people's ointment, and when the time comes, they will drive under the Wanshou Palace City in turn, accept the emperor's review, and Emperor Bo smiled.

The king of Yinyang traveled, according to the etiquette, there were three cars and five public opinions, and another thirty-six personal soldiers escorted, Zhao Lanjiang did not want to move the people, only brought a white horse Yicong, two horseback, one in front of the other, to the palace. When passing by Dong'anmen, Zhao Lanjiang saw Dongfang Nuannuan, holding two piccolos in his hands, mixed in the crowd, when he saw him, he deliberately shook his hand with her, and was scattered by the crowd.

It seems that the defense of the capital is not very good.

Zhao Lanjiang thought to himself.

Dongfang Nuannuan, an extremely dangerous person, infiltrated the capital, intending to plot against the emperor, Jinyi Wei and the Red Cavalry Army should have gotten the intelligence news as soon as possible, but in the past few days, in addition to arresting a few spies from the Northern Zhou Dynasty and Western Chu, and destroying a certain cult that defrauded believers of incense money

, and there was no big news coming out.

Before entering the palace, he glanced at the place of execution.

Coincidentally, Xiao Jinyan was also standing at the door, the two looked at each other for a moment, Zhao Lanjiang saw that his eyes were firm, and he immediately nodded and entered the palace. The emperor attended the early dynasty for the first time today, and now it is over, and he is returning to the Qianyuan Palace to change clothes. Zhao Lanjiang was a foreign minister and did not need to participate in the early dynasty, so he came to the Wuying Hall and waited with the rest of the courtiers.

Zhao Lanjiang noticed that the martial law level in the palace today was extraordinary. Outside the Wuying Hall alone, there are five masters of the Elephant Realm, either bright or dark, protecting hundreds of officials, three steps and one post in the palace, ten steps and one sentry, and three thousand forbidden troops in the palace, stationed in various places, patrolling people can be seen everywhere.

This kind of vigilance, not to mention the assassins, even the birds have wings and are difficult to fly.

Several military attachés, seeing him coming, came over to greet him, of course, such as Xue Huai, the head of the military department, went to a separate room in the inner room, and Zhao Lanjiang did not see him. While greetings, Mr. Ping passed by with a team of tiger guards and suddenly stopped.

An official of the Ministry of War introduced, "This is Mr. Ping, one of His Majesty's most trusted internal guards. Mr. Ping, this is Yinyang City, Zhao Lanjiang Zhao Wangye. ”

Although Mr. Ping has no official position, he has a high status in the palace, he looked Zhao Lanjiang up and down with his eyes, but he thought of the night in Dengwen Courtyard not long ago, overnight, killing dozens of tiger guards and taking away the masked man at the head of Vancouver. This case has not been solved until now, and it is still an unsolved case.

Although the masked man's appearance was not clear, his body shape and the momentum emanating from his body could not be faked.

He squinted his eyes and asked, "Lord Zhao is so familiar." ”

Zhao Lanjiang knew that he might recognize him, and he knew that he would be slaughtered with a knife that day. However, he is the lord of a city, the prince of the emperor's own title, there is no evidence, even if he recognizes it, he can veto it, as for the future, I will talk about it later. Thinking of this, he smiled and said, "This is the first time this king has seen Mr. Ping, Mr. has this feeling, this king is very pleased, when you have leisure, you might as well get closer to him." ”

If it was before, Zhao Lanjiang would not care about such bird affairs, but now he has been in the position of the city lord for a long time, and his ability to talk about people and ghosts has long been perfected.

Mr. Ping was unrelenting, "Has the prince ever been to Dengwen Academy?"

Zhao Lanjiang said, "I heard that there was a murder in that place not long ago, and it has become a ghost house, this king has always been afraid of causing trouble, so he can't avoid it, so how can he do the things under the melon fields and plums?"

Mr. Ping added, "That's strange. I heard that you and Xiao Jinyan, the junior brother of Li Chuntie, a traitor in Dengwen Academy, are good friends, and now he is a prisoner in the imperial court, and he just killed someone and escaped from prison not long ago, I don't know if you have seen it?"

Zhao Lanjiang's face sank, "Why did Mr. Ping say this?"

"The duty is just to ask more. ”

Zhao Lanjiang took a step forward and came to Mr. Ping, he was burly, more than a head taller than Mr. Ping, from top to bottom, his eyes were cold, he looked at him and said, "If Mr. Ping suspects this king, just go to His Majesty to ask for an order, Zhao should cooperate with the investigation, your words like this today, yin and yang are weird, don't blame this king for being polite." ”

Mr. Ping usually relies on His Majesty's favor and trust, strong martial arts, and is used to being domineering in Beijing, but he didn't expect that Zhao Lanjiang would be angry with him in front of hundreds of officials, and he did not hesitate to use martial arts cultivation to oppress himself. Because, that night, Xiao Jinyan did not go to Dengwen Academy, but was arrested in the palace.

But he had no evidence, and in the face of Zhao Lanjiang's momentum, Mr. Ping stepped back

step, said forcefully, "This official is just loyal to the country, just ask." ”

Zhao Lanjiang didn't speak, but he heard a cold snort from the side room next to him.

The door opened, Xue Huai, the king of Dingbei, walked out of the door, and the rest of the generals hurriedly saluted, "I've seen the prince." ”

Xue Huai came to Mr. Ping and looked at him coldly, and Mr. Ping only felt chills all over his body. If you talk about martial arts, Xue Huai is not as good as him, and in terms of age, Xue Huai does not have an advantage, but this battle-hardened veteran, the fierce momentum exuded by his body is not comparable to ordinary people, Mr. Ping said, "See ...... I've seen the prince. ”

Xue Huai snorted coldly again, and said, "General Zhao killed the enemy in the western Xinjiang and made meritorious contributions, this is called loyalty to the country, you rely on a skin, rampant in the capital, which door is loyal to the country?

When Mr. Ping heard this, he quickly knelt on the ground, "The minister knows his mistake. ”

Xue Huai said angrily, "Get out." ”

When Mr. Ping heard this, he got up and left the Wuying Hall with everyone.

Outside the Yongding Gate that day, Xue Huai helped him out, today in the Wuying Palace, Xue Huai helped him again, Zhao Lanjiang was grateful, and even saluted Xue Huai, Xue Huaiwei turned to one side, and said, "The celebration still needs a while, come and sit in the inner room." In front of everyone's eyes, Zhao Lanjiang followed Xue Huai into the inner room.

The Wuying Hall is huge, and Xue Huai's office is also extremely luxurious.

After Zhao Lanjiang became the lord of the city, his vision has also improved a lot, and at a casual glance, he knows that these are rare treasures in the office, it seems that it is rumored that Xue Huai's life is extremely luxurious, and it is not a lie, but Xue Huai does not care about these things at all, and in front of his desk, there is a picture of the Ming Border Pass, which is densely painted with the defense of the Ming Border Pass. Zhao Lanjiang noticed that on the western Xinjiang side, even a five-person outpost was marked on the map, and there were also the names, origins, and biographical information of the guards of the outpost.

Xue Huai asked, "After coming to Beijing, why didn't you come to see me in the past half month?"

Zhao Lanjiang said respectfully, "I'm afraid that the old prince will be busy with official business, so I don't dare to disturb." ”

"I don't dare to bother. Xue Huai glanced at him meaningfully, "Are you afraid that the ministers in the court will talk about themselves?"

Zhao Lanjiang nodded, "Exactly." ”

Xue Huai laughed, "Yes, he is young and quite old-fashioned." When this king is as old as you, he is not as good as you. ”

Zhao Lanjiang said, "The prince is a veteran of the three dynasties, how dare Zhao Lanjiang be compared with the prince." ”

Xue Huai nodded and said, "You also know that this king is a patriarch of the Three Dynasties?"

Zhao Lanjiang didn't know how to answer this sentence, and he couldn't understand the meaning of Xue Huai's words, so he didn't know how to answer. Xue Huai waved his hand, summoned him to his side, and pointed to the Wanshou Palace not far away, "This Wanshou Palace, the construction took half a year, and it cost 11 million taels of silver. He also pointed to the "Wannian Hou" standing in front of the Wanshou Palace and almost ascending with the palace, "This stone, transported from the south of the Yangtze River to the capital, was installed here three days ago, and cost two million taels of silver." ”

Zhao Lanjiang listened quietly.

Xue Huai said, "Do you know how much silver was spent on the Dingbei Army stationed in the northern frontier and attacking the fairy ditch last year?"

Zhao Lanjiang shook his head, "I don't know." ”

"No more, no less, thirteen million taels!" Xue Huai said, "Hundreds of thousands of border soldiers, fighting for the country for a year, in the end, it is not as good as the cost of building a palace and transporting a stone." ”

Between the words, Xue Huai felt a little dissatisfied in his heart, Zhao Lanjiang didn't know if he was testing himself, or if he was revealing his true feelings, and he didn't dare to speak indiscriminately.

Xue Huai sighed and said, "Your Majesty, you're old." ”