Chapter Eighty-Five: Open the Door and Steal
Xu Hui said to King Luo Bin: "Brother Luo, you quickly took the treasures of the imperial court and left the ancient tomb, this tomb is full of organs, simply open the door to introduce these lackeys of the imperial court into the tomb, and let them accompany your eldest brother to bury!", after speaking, he asked his subordinates to open the entrance to the tomb.
King Luo Bing couldn't stop it, so he had to smile and say: "Brother Xu is the closest relative of the British duke, and he is a rare dragon and phoenix among people, if he can leave the ancient tomb smoothly, with his brother's skills, he will definitely be able to make a vigorous career, so he still let the little brother be trapped in the officers and soldiers, and Brother Xu quickly took the baby away." ”
Xu Hui said with a smile: "Don't hide it from Brother Luo, steal the palace secretary for my brother, just to make the British Duke reverse the defeat, who knows that this matter is not handled well, Brother Luo's appearance and whereabouts have been spied on by the eagle dogs of the imperial court, so it is for my brother to escape from this tomb by luck, the world is so big, I'm afraid there is no place for Xu!"
Seeing that Xu Hui had the belief that he would die, King Luo Bin thought that no matter how much he persuaded him, he would not be able to shake his decision, so he had to sigh: "Why is the eldest brother suffering? Even if he dies, the younger brother is willing to be righteous with the elder brother!"
Xu Hui shouted: "Now that the situation is urgent, the virtuous brother must listen to the advice of his brother, collect the strange books of the imperial court, and try to bring them out of the ancient tomb, so that it can see the light of day again! If he returns to my Tang Dynasty every day, and my brother can announce my brothers' feats today, the eldest brother will be blind even if he dies!"
At this time, several Ouchi masters had already broken into the inner room under the leadership of the traitor. Several sergeants around Xu Hui hurriedly blocked the entrance and fought with the officers and soldiers.
As soon as Xu Hui pushed King Luo Bin away, he was about to step forward to fight with the official army. King Luo Bin stopped him and asked, "You let the younger brother leave with the secretary, in case the younger brother can't escape, won't the secretary let the court take it back?"
Xu Hui felt that what Luo Bingwang said was reasonable, so he was stunned, and asked rhetorically: "Is this secretary taking away, and leaving it behind, then Brother Luo, how should I deal with this book?"
King Luo Bing replied; In my humble opinion, why don't you tear this book in half and leave pictures, proverbs and eulogies and take it away from your younger brother?" After speaking, he divided a fragment of a page in his hand into two.
Xu Hui snatched the half page fragment from King Luo Bin's hand, put it back in the cloth bag, and said with a smile: "No one can think of this half of the treasure." Brother Luo, the other half will be entrusted to you to collect, take care!", after speaking, a "Dapeng spread its wings" and rushed towards the officers and soldiers at the door, he raised his spear and stabbed several native soldiers.
King Luo Bin saw that Xu Hui was besieged by more and more officers and soldiers, so he had to follow the tunnel, all the way up, through the lookout, and saw that the good hands outside the ancient tomb had entered the ancient tomb, and there were only dozens of local villagers guarding it. King Luo Bin roared, like General Fei fell from the sky, frightened so that the soldiers were at a loss, King Luo Bin took advantage of the fact that the soldiers did not come to their senses, a "harrier turned over", and rolled into the bushes on the ancient tomb. Those native soldiers woke up like a dream, and they hurriedly shot arrows at him, where could they still find him.
Besides, Xu Hui in the tomb was hit by several arrows, and he saw that the righteous people around him also fell one after another, so he had to fight and retreat, and led the officers and soldiers to the mercury pool in the main tomb, and then jumped into the coffin in the middle of the pool, pressed the mechanism inside, put down the gold gate of the main tomb, and trapped all the officers and soldiers by the mercury pool, and he returned to the underground warehouse of the tomb from the secret passage in the inner layer of the coffin.
Xu Hui knew that his time was short, he tore off a few pieces of silk silk with great force, wrote his experience on the silk silk and sealed it in the cloth bag, and returned to the coffin of the main tomb again, seeing that those officers and soldiers were delirious, fainting by the mercury pool, looking very painful, he laughed a few times, raised his hand and threw the cloth bag full of gold leaf into the mercury pool, and sighed: "I hope that the destined people can get the secret in the cloth bag, and don't let our hard work in vain!"
Zhou Yuanzhi saw that Xu Zhi finished reading the secret on the silk, and said with a smile: "These righteous predecessors really took great pains to resist the imperial court, since there is a mechanism in the coffin to put down the door of the thousand-pound tomb, and there is a secret passage to the warehouse of musical instruments, there must be an exit from the ancient tomb!"
Li Xiuyun also said: "Brother Xu, Miss Zhou's analysis is reasonable, why don't we go to the coffin and take a look?"
Xu Zhi was puzzled: "The coffin is empty, you can see the bottom at a glance, and there is no passage?"
Li Xiuyun said with a smile, "Brother Xu also has a time when he looks away, according to what I see, there must be a mezzanine at the bottom of the coffin, otherwise how could Xu Yishi say in the letter that the coffin can lead to the musical instrument room?"
Zhou Yuanzhi helped Xu Zhi out of the siege and said: "You can't blame Brother Xu for being careless, in the coffin with a blind light and a black light, who will pay attention to the mezzanine and the secret passage?"
Xu Zhi saw that Zhou and Li were arguing for themselves again, and hurriedly interrupted, "The two girls don't have to worry, let Xu go and investigate!", after saying that, a dragonfly dotted the water, and jumped into the coffin in the mercury pool, he carefully looked at the bottom of the coffin, and saw that it was indeed empty, and he carefully checked the inner wall of the coffin, which was smooth as jade, and there was no hidden button. Xu Zhi saw that there were no cracks in the bottom plate of the coffin, and thought to himself how did Xu Yishi open the bottom plate of the coffin?
Xu Zhi thought to himself: There must be a clever spring and a hinge at the bottom of this coffin, which can automatically turn the bottom plate, but he thought about it for a long time and didn't have any clue. Xu Zhi was troubled in his heart, stomped his foot suddenly, and with a squeak, the bottom plate of the coffin bounced up automatically, revealing a swarthy hole.
Xu Zhi saw it, and went into the tunnel alone, he saw that there were two tunnels, one was to the underground, and the other was to the top of the tomb, he walked along the secret road to the top of the tomb, walked nearly three hundred steps away, and finally saw a lookout. Xu Zhi saw the long-lost blue sky and sunshine through the lookout.
Xu Zhi was overjoyed, hurriedly returned to the tomb, told Zhou and Li the good news, and called back He Mengjiao, and the four of them passed through the secret passage at the bottom of the coffin in turn, passed the lookout on the top of the tomb, and returned to the ground.
Zhou Chen, Hui Feng, Ou Yangguang, Hongye and others who were waiting on the ground saw Li Xiuyun and He Mengjiao returning to the ground safe and sound, and they all gathered around to see the princess. Here, Pang Xun, Qiu Yue and others saw that Xu Zhi and Zhou Yuanzhi had come back safely, and they also hurriedly greeted them and asked this and that.
Suddenly, from a distance, there was a sound of horses' hooves, and a soldier in military uniform jumped off the horse with a book on his back, knelt down in front of Li Xiuyun, and announced: "Dengfeng, 100,000 urgent letters, please princess to read and decide!"
Li Xiuyun opened the letter and read it carefully, his face became more and more solemn, and he sighed: "This group of Shaolin monks is too hateful, no wonder General Yun sent troops to exterminate the chaotic party!"
Zhou Chen didn't know what was going on, he only knew that this matter must be related to the Shaolin Temple, and asked; Princess, what happened to Dengfeng? Shall we return to Dengfeng immediately?"
Li Xiuyun saw that Huifeng and Hongye also threw puzzled glances at her, and said hatefully: "According to General Yun's news: This group of Shaolin monks is really bold, and they actually teamed up with Xu Zhi to instigate the hungry people to rob the grain and grass of the imperial court in Orangutan Gorge!"
Xu Zhizheng told Pang Xun, Qiu Yue and others how to escape from the tomb, and suddenly heard Li Xiuyun say his name, he was taken aback, and looked back at Li Xiuyun.
Li Xiuyun saw Xu Zhi staring at her, and scolded: "Xu Zhi, look at the good things you did in Orangutan Gorge, now Yun Feiyang is going to lead troops to attack Shaolin Temple, see how you deal with it?"
Xu Zhi listened to Li Xiuyun's words and knew that he and the Shaolin monks had robbed the imperial court, and he didn't know what to do for a while. Zhou Yuanzhi was stunned when she saw Xu Zhi being asked by Li Xiuyun, afraid that he and Li Xiuyun had some old feelings unresolved, and asked, "Brother Xu, what do people ask you about? Why don't you answer? What did you and the little princess do in Orangutan Gorge?"
Qiu Yue hurriedly persuaded: "Princess, I don't think Gongzi Xu is the kind of ungrateful lover, besides, you and Gongzi Xu are reunited again after a lot of hardships, you must not listen to the instigation of the little princess in the court!"
Seeing that Qiuyue dared to be disrespectful to the princess, Hongye also fought back: "You also think too highly of Xu Zhi, he is a robber and hooligan, he teamed up with Shaolin monks and hungry people in Orangutan Gorge, robbed the military rations of the imperial court, and was forced by our General Yun to run away, and even took Princess Xiuyun hostage!
Li Xiuyun was afraid that Hongye would say something that he didn't know the severity of his words, so his face was flushed with shame, and he hurriedly stopped: "Hongye, don't retreat yet!" General Hui, you stay in Songzhou first and assist Ouyang Jianjun in dealing with the aftermath, General Zhou, you hurry up and prepare your horses, and hurry back to Shaolin Temple with me to join General Yun!"
After a while, several soldiers brought a few good horses, Li Xiuyun touched the mane on the horse's head, glanced back at Xu Zhi, and led Zhou Chen, He Mengjiao, Hongye and others to turn over and get on the horse, and rushed straight to Shaolin Temple.
Ou Yangguang saw Li Xiuyun and the others walking away, and "hummed" at Huifeng, so he led the soldiers to leave the ancient tomb first and go back to Songzhou City.
After seeing Ou Yangguang leaving, Hui Feng saw that Zhou Yuanzhi was still angry with Xu Zhi, and hurriedly stepped forward to explain: "Miss Zhou, Sister Qiuyue, your eldest brother Hui was also in Orangutan Gorge at that time, and Brother Xu had no choice but to rob the imperial court of military rations in order to save the hungry people in the world and hundreds of trapped monks in Shaolin, as for the hijacking of Princess Xiuyun, it was also a last resort, otherwise tens of thousands of hungry people would be slaughtered by officers and soldiers!"
Zhou Yuanzhi listened to Huifeng's explanation, and her mood was slightly better, but she still didn't speak. Qiu Yue pouted and said: "Brother Hui, my young lady is not a narrow-minded person, and the priorities of things are naturally clear, this is the little princess of Xu Gongzi openly hugging the court in a hurry, this is not a bad defense for men and women who are not clear, not only ruining the reputation of Xu Gongzi, but also damaging my young lady!"
Hui Feng persuaded again: "At that time, the situation was also urgent, and the thief captured the king first, and Brother Xu couldn't care so much if he wanted to be foolproof." It was impossible for him to take the initiative against Xiuyun Gong, he also used his sword against Li Xiuyun's throat at that time, which is also what everyone saw with their own eyes!"
Zhou Yuanzhi was relieved when she heard Xu Zhi holding the sword against Li Xiuyun's throat, and said with a smile: "Holding the princess hostage with a sword is a capital crime! Brother Xu, his courage is really big!"
Qiu Yue was also embarrassed to say: "So that's the case! It's really wrong to blame Brother Xu!"
Xu Zhi saw that Zhou Yuanzhi had forgiven himself in his words, and hurriedly sighed: "Yuanzhi, Brother Xu is also reckless for a while, he can't take care of so much, he didn't mean to hide it from you, and please forgive me!"
Qiu Yue took Zhou Yuanzhi's hand and said: "Miss, Xu Gongzi has only you in his heart, no matter how beautiful the little princess in the court is, Xu Gongzi just regards her as a hostage, how can she compare with Miss You!"
Zhou Yuanzhi listened to everyone's persuasion before turning around and said with a smile: "Actually, I didn't pay attention to these little things, but I was just angry that Brother Xu deliberately concealed me and didn't tell me the truth! By the way, listening to Li Xiuyun's tone, the imperial court is going to send troops to attack Shaolin Temple and avenge the grain robbery! What should we do next?"
Pang Xun said with a smile: "Princess!
Xu Zhi smiled gratefully at Hui Feng and asked, "Senior Brother Hui, what do you think about this?"
Hui Feng said with a smile: "Don't hide it from the eldest brother, this time the imperial court and the Shaolin Temple are at odds, and the younger brother has limited knowledge! At the beginning, the imperial court besieged the Shaolin Temple but did not attack it, and the younger brother has always felt very puzzled! But this happened recently, and the younger brother finally understood the reason!"
Zhou Yuanzhi said: "The imperial court does not dare to act rashly against the Shaolin Temple, it must be because it does not know the truth in the temple, and it is afraid of the monks of its guardian courtyard! Brother Hui, do you say?"
Hui Feng shook his head and said: "Miss Zhou, I only know one and I don't know the other, you don't believe it, the imperial court has secret agents in the Shaolin Temple, so the imperial court knows everything in the Shaolin Temple, so there is no need to be so anxious, leaving Shaolin is a bigger conspiracy!"
When Xu Zhi heard this, he was also taken aback, and asked, "What kind of big conspiracy is it?"
Hui Feng said: "Brother Xu, junior brother can't be very sure, but from the current deployment of troops in the imperial court: leaving Shaolin Temple is a bait, just to lure the fish to the bait!"
The more Qiu Yue listened, the more she didn't understand, and asked, "Brother Hui, forgive Qiu Yue for being too talkative, who is the fish that the imperial court wants to catch after such a lot of trouble?"
Hui Feng glanced at Xu Zhi and said with a smile: "With Brother Xu's intelligence, you should be able to guess who it is?"
Xu Zhi replied: "The strong enemy that the imperial court is bent on getting rid of, who else is there besides the Yellow King in Jiangnan?"
Hui Feng nodded silently and stopped talking.
Zhou Yuanzhi saw that Xu and Hui were no longer talking, and asked: "If the imperial court wants to keep the Shaolin Temple and lead my father to take the bait, then why do you still lead troops to attack the Shaolin Temple?"
Hui Feng smiled: "That's what I don't understand!"
Xu Zhi said: "Since the Shaolin Temple is the bait of the imperial court, the fewer people who know about this matter, the better, I'm afraid that even Yun Feiyang doesn't know the intention, so as soon as he heard the secret report of the secret agent in the Shaolin Temple, he couldn't hold back the anger in his heart, and decided to attack the Shaolin Temple! If I guessed correctly! Li Xiuyun and Zhou Chen rushed back to Dengfeng, and they must not attack the Shaolin Temple, but to dissuade Yun Feiyang from giving up sending troops to Shaolin!"
Zhou Yuanzhi worried: "Not to mention whether Li Xiuyun can stop Yun Feiyang from sending troops to Shaolin Temple, the Shaolin monks once had the grace to save my father and the king, and they also had a sense of help to my righteous army, now Shaolin is in danger, how can we stand by and watch, we still rush to Shaolin, maybe we can help Shaolin?", Pang Xun, Qiuyue and others applauded repeatedly.
Xu Zhi took Hui Feng's hand and said, "Brother Hui, you can also go to Shaolin Temple with us!"
Hui Feng replied: "Brother Xu, Miss Zhou, you also saw it just now, the younger brother is now involuntarily, just now when the princess left let me stay in Songzhou, how can I go back to Dengfeng with you?
Zhou Yuanzhi was very relieved to see Cheng Yingying and Huifeng together, and said with a smile: "We patronized and talked, but we forgot my sister Yingying, how is she?"
Huifeng saw Zhou Yuanzhi talking about Cheng Yingying, and hurriedly replied: "Okay, okay, did she still remember Brother Xu and her Sister Zhou a few days ago?"
Zhou Yuanzhi said with a smile: "Brother Hui, we are one step ahead, when you return to Dengfeng, Big Brother Xu and I will visit again!"
Xu Zhi saw that Hui Feng was still a little reluctant, and persuaded: "Senior Brother Hui, no matter where you are, the eldest brother will never forget you, a brother who is connected with flesh and blood!
Hui Feng waved his hand and said, "Big brother, Miss Zhou take care all the way!"
Xu Zhi waved his hand at Huifeng, took Zhou Yuanzhi's hand, turned over on the horse, and left Songzhou with Pang Xun, Qiu Yue and others.
Besides, Xu Zhi, Zhou Yuanzhi and others rode fast horses, traveled day and night, and finally arrived at the foot of Shaomu Mountain in the evening of the next day. Pang Xun saw that the camps of the imperial court under the mountain were empty, and knew that the situation was not good, so he shouted: "Princess and concubine, we are still a step late, and the official army has already attacked the Shaolin Temple!"
Zhou Yuanzhi said: "Brother Pang, don't panic! According to my judgment, we came in time, let's go to Shaolin Temple quickly!"
Xu Zhi didn't speak, the prancing horse moved forward, galloping along the rugged mountain road, and Zhou and Pang didn't dare to lag behind, and followed closely. Xu Zhi walked through a pine and bamboo forest in front of the Shaolin Temple, and saw that the gate of the Shaolin Temple was closed, and there was no trace of fighting. Xu Zhi was deeply surprised: Could it be that Li Xiuyun rushed back to Dengfeng in time to stop Yun Feiyang's action, and the official army did not attack the Shaolin Temple? If so, then where did the official army under the mountain go?