The queen of the last days became a maid and just wanted to lie down

The young emperor stared at Marquis Pingxi in silence.

Pingxi Hou had some understanding of the emperor's temperament. The young emperor was arrogant, ambitious, and had desires, much like the Queen Mother.

But he was more merciful than the Queen Mother, and was not as decisive and ruthless as the Queen Mother in attacking his enemies.

Therefore, Marquis Pingxi knew when to be gentle and show weakness.

Sure enough, when the young emperor heard what Pingxi Hou said, his heart softened a little.

"Master Jia concealed this matter, perhaps because he didn't want Queen Mother Wang to return."

Pingxi Hou originally thought that the emperor knew about this, after all, Jia Sheng took the person away with the imperial edict.

Who knows that the emperor didn't know this, so don't blame him for taking the opportunity to add fuel to the fire and say this.

The emperor naturally knew what he was going to do, but he did not rush to agree. Instead, he asked Pingxi Hou: "The assassin wants to rescue the Duke of Zhenguo. Are you sure that you can hand over the person and rescue my mother safely?"

Marquis Pingxi was stunned at first, then looked at the emperor in disbelief.

Your Majesty, are you hinting at him?

He was a little nervous and didn't know how to respond. He seemed to have underestimated the young emperor. He thought that he was not as ignorant and naive as he thought, nor did he not understand Master Jia's ambition.

The emperor smiled and helped Pingxi Hou up. "My dear, I have a secret order for you. You can go and bring the person out. But you must know that if the queen mother doesn't come back, neither you nor I will be well."

Pingxi Hou seemed to understand something and told the emperor that he would bring the empress dowager back safely.

He took the emperor's edict and went to find Master Jia first, asking for the Duke of Zhenguo to be brought out for exchange.

However, Master Jia was not in a hurry to hand the person over to him. Instead, he met with him and had a detailed discussion. No one knew what they talked about. In the end, Marquis Pingxi left the Jia Mansion alone.

There were fewer and fewer people on the streets, but there were more and more soldiers on patrol. The city gates could not be opened until now, so people outside could not come in and people inside could not go out.

Businessmen are the most alert. Zhuang Mu had long felt that something was wrong, but he wanted Xu Yao and the others at this time and could not contact them, so he could only worry.

Liu Tong wanted to go out and look for someone, but he had no idea where to start, so he could only wait for Xu Yao to send them a message.

Two days later, Pingxi Hou received another letter asking them to exchange hostages at the South Gate.

Zheng Chi looked at the letter in silence. Pingxi Hou asked his son what he thought.

"They are so determined to stay at the South City Gate. Could it be that they have already arranged personnel there to ensure their safe escape?"

The South Gate is accessed by land. After passing through the South Gate, there is an outer city. The outer city is very large, so it is easy to hide people there. However, if they continue to stay in the city, they will definitely be found.

It would be a waste of effort to go through so much trouble but fail to escape.

Liang Hongwen felt that the people of the Pei family would not be so stupid.

Maybe this is just a trick.

"What does General Zheng think?"

Pingxi Hou asked Zheng Chi again. Zheng Chi held the letter and thought for a long time before saying, "Let's follow their plan first. We may need to split our troops into two groups. One group will go to the South Gate, and the other group will go to the North City to keep an eye on the dock."

"pier?"

"It's easiest to get caught by land. Only by taking the water route, once the boat is out on the river, it won't be easy for our people to chase after them."

He took out a map and pointed to the location on the map: "If I were Pei Shuo and the others, I would take the opportunity to board a ship and take the water route, making a detour and arriving in Dingnan in a few days. This route is much safer and more effective than taking the land route. All we need is a reliable enough ship."

The father and son looked at each other and agreed.

Therefore, the exchange of hostages at the South Gate was most likely a cover-up, and the most likely possibility was that they would take action along the way and kidnap the Duke of Zhenguo.

As for the Queen Mother, the three of them thought about it and decided that they would not murder her.

Who knows, there might be other ways to release the Queen Mother.

But even if the Queen Mother came back, they would lose the Duke of Zhenguo in order to ensure her safety. This would also be a sin, and they did not want to bear it.

In Liang Hongwen's heart, of course, he could not forget Pei Yi.

Reason told him that she was just a woman and he shouldn't let his mind get distracted.

But his emotions told him that it was just a woman, why couldn’t he get her?

If we catch all these people in one fell swoop and capture their siblings, it would not be impossible to keep Pei Yi.

The three people had different thoughts, but they quickly came up with a plan.

Unknowingly, there were more spies on the dock outside the north city gate.

They disguised themselves as coolies and boatmen, watching the dock day and night.

All ships entering and leaving, especially large ships, must be reviewed and approved by the government.

Outside the South City Gate, many guards were openly added.

On the day of the transaction, an airtight prison van wrapped in black cloth appeared on the street.

The guards around were wearing armor and had cold eyes. Strangers did not dare to approach and kept avoiding them.

Not long after we walked, many beggars suddenly appeared, as if two gangs of beggars were fighting and the road was blocked.

This scene immediately made Zheng Chi alert. This was a familiar routine. He snorted coldly and was about to order the beggars to be killed, but the beggars ran away one after another.

Zheng Chi was puzzled, but found a sack in the middle of the road after the beggar ran away.

He asked someone to open the sack, revealing a woman in elegant clothes and a phoenix hairpin. When Zheng Chi saw him, he immediately dismounted and ran forward in panic, "Please forgive me, Queen Mother. I am sorry for being late to save you."

The Queen Mother was tied up and gagged, looking miserable. Zheng Chi was about to reach out to untie her when an arrow suddenly struck her, piercing her throat and spraying blood on Zheng Chi's face. Zheng Chi was stunned on the spot, and then fear spread all over his body, and he immediately ordered people to chase the assassin.

For a moment, no one paid attention to the prison van.

Zheng Chi thought that Zhao Xi had the audacity to assassinate the Queen Mother in front of him, and that he must be trying to lure the tiger away from the mountain, leading others to chase the assassin, and taking the opportunity to rescue the Duke of Zhenguo.

Who knew that after waiting for a while, Zhao Xi did not show up.

Zheng Chi was in a panic, having never imagined such a situation.

The remaining people were also afraid and didn't know what to do. Zheng Chi quickly took a black cloth to cover the empress dowager, and found a carriage to put the empress dowager's body on the carriage.

Now that the person was dead, he naturally could not just leave the Queen Mother's body on the street. He had to bring the Queen Mother back.

But the murderer must be pursued. His men took the Queen Mother's body back, and Zheng Chi followed the direction of the assassin.

The city of Panjing was in chaos and the people were in panic.

Merchants quickly closed their shops, fearing that they would be affected.

The news of the empress dowager's assassination soon reached Master Jia's ears. He could not hide his excitement and immediately ordered his men to go. He hurried into the palace and ran to the emperor to cry, "Your Majesty, something terrible has happened. The empress dowager has been murdered."