[Three Kingdoms] Burning incense and sacrificial wine

Diao Chan was confused and told what she knew one by one.

It turned out that because of Zhong Yao's sudden visit yesterday and the curfew was approaching, she hurried back home before saying goodbye to Cui Song.

Early this morning, she went to the posthouse to look for Cui Song, but was told by the people in the posthouse that Cui Song hadn't returned last night, and his servants, guests, and Zhong Yao who came to meet him were all looking for him.

Diao Chan felt that this was wrong, and kept Cui Song's instructions in mind, not daring to expose herself easily, so she had to leave worriedly.

After she returned to Dong Zhuo's mansion, the more she thought about it, the more panicked she became.Based on what she knew about Cui Song, if he hadn't been unprepared, he would never have disappeared without a sound without leaving a single word.

After thinking about it, she couldn't find anyone to turn to for help except Xi Zhicai.

After hearing her self-report, Xi Zhicai hurried out, regardless of whether she was in Dong's mansion.

Diao Chan wanted to go with her, but was stopped by Xi Zhicai: "You are conspicuous enough to go in and out frequently these days, and wait for the news at the mansion."

He first went to the posthouse to inquire, but couldn't find any useful information. He suppressed the anxiety in his heart and quickly listed the possibilities in his mind.

Could it be that Cui Song's participation in the anti-Dong incident was exposed and was arrested by Dong Zhuo's people?He couldn't help but think of this bad result.But another voice in his heart told him: No, with Cui Song's ingenuity, Dong Zhuo would not be caught so easily.

He couldn't find any clues, and he was about to leave the post house to make another plan.Suddenly, he glanced at a corner of the lobby and couldn't help but pause.Where the eyes are concentrated, a post officer is drinking from a wine bottle.

Xi Zhicai's heart moved slightly.For some reason, he remembered a joke that Cui Song had said when he parted with Cui Song a year ago.

At that time, Cui Song, holding a wine cup and sitting by the moonlit window, looked up at the moon while having a drink with him and saying goodbye.

They are referring to the nonsense of a meeter.The face-to-face person made harsh comments to the two of them, and they were regarded by the two of them as a pretender.Probably a little drunk, after Cui Song finished the topic, he sighed suddenly: "The imperial court is slack, and the famine lasts for years. Who can enjoy the rest of the world?"

Xi Zhicai's brain was already drowsy from drinking.After Cui Song finished this sentence, Xi Zhicai could only see his best friend's lips opening and closing, but couldn't hear what he was saying.While half asleep and half awake, Xi Zhicai seemed to hear a sentence:

"Maybe one day, I will die at the hands of Liu Ziming."

He gave a jolt and was mostly sober.

But Cui Song was lying on the couch, already in a deep sleep, not knowing whether the previous words were his ramblings or his own hallucinations.

After waking up the next day, Xi Zhi asked Cui Song, but Cui Song was puzzled.

He didn't remember saying anything like that.

Xi Zhicai asked again if Cui Song knew who Liu Ziming was.

Cui Song didn't answer, but teased him for being serious: "How can you take drunken words seriously."

It's not "I don't know", but "How can it be taken seriously"... In other words, is there really someone like Liu Ziming?

Seeing that his friend had no intention of discussing it in detail, Xi Zhicai had no choice but to give up.

But he memorized the name firmly, after many inquiries, he finally found a person with the same surname.

Da Hong Lu Qing, Liu Yao.

He has never heard of any relationship between Liu Yao and Cui Song, and he is not sure whether Liu Yao is the Liu Ziming that Cui Song said.However, Liu Yao is now in Chang'an City, and under the premise that no other clues can be found for a while, Xi Zhicai decided to try his luck and go to Liu Yao's mansion to find out the truth.

He prepared for the worst, and instead of rushing to Da Hong Lu Qing's mansion, he took a long detour and asked a certain important person to go with him.

When Xi Zhicai and the big man went to Liu Yao's mansion to hand over the famous thorns and were invited into the hall, Cui Song and Liu Yao were sitting in the guest of honor in an orderly manner, having a drink each.

It seems that all is well.

Xi Zhicai felt relieved, but looking back at Cui Song, he was unavoidably surprised to see him coming.

Liu Yao, who was seated at the head seat, had already known the name of the visitor from the famous stab he handed over. He stood up and made a junior salute to the old man invited by Xi Zhicai: "Cai Zhonglang, don't come here without any problems."

Liu Yao was humble and polite on the face, but he hummed coldly in his heart.

He heard Jiang Zun mention this scholar with the surname of play, he thought he was just an unknown person, but he didn't expect to be able to invite Cai Yong to lead the battle... Invite Cai Yong, is it because he is afraid that he will eat Cui Zicong?

From the corner of his eye, Liu Yao took a look at Cui Song, who was drinking calmly, and said to himself, this person has deep plans, so why does he need others to save him?

Cui Song, who received the eye knife, followed the order of host and guest, and after Liu Yao finished his ceremony, Fang and Xi Zhicai exchanged etiquette.

At this time, he also thought that Xi Zhicai was probably here to save the scene, so he gained a little more confidence.

God knows how he managed to fool Liu Yao yesterday.It can only be said that people have unlimited potential in critical situations.He was able to quickly analyze the stakes at the opening of the Hongmen Banquet, and seized Liu Yao's fear of himself (formerly Cui Song) and forced him to pretend to be coercive, so that he would not dare to act rashly. Even he himself had to applaud himself passionately.

It is also thanks to the fact that the conflict of interests between Liu Yao and him has not reached an irreconcilable level, otherwise, no matter how many brain cells die, they can only wait for GG.

Yesterday, in the middle of the trial, after discovering that although Liu Yao had murderous intentions towards him, he was more interested in winning him over, Cui Song followed the pole and confirmed three things.

1. Gan Ji is indeed Liu Yao's person.It's actually not quite accurate to say that, to be precise - it should be that Liu Yao has mastered the crimes of Gan Ji's maternal ancestor's family, and used her to intimidate and lure her to be his eyeliner.As Cui Song's close servant, Gan Ji's family is under the control of the Cui clan, and she doesn't dare to blatantly betray, so she can only send some information to Liu Yao against her will...Of course, this alone is enough to make her terrified.

2. The assassins in Luoyang City are indeed Liu Yaoyang's dead soldiers.Relying on the map and patrol route provided by Gan Ji, he successfully avoided the guards and set up an ambush in his room.

3. The reason why Liu Yao had the intention to kill him was because Liu Yao slipped his words after being drunk once, and said something similar to Liu Hong (Han Lingdi) going to die and being replaced by him.This was just heard by the original Cui Song.Although "Cui Song" acted like he didn't remember anything afterwards, Liu Yao suspected that Cui Song was just pretending.Liu Yao was afraid that his disrespectful words and ambition to become emperor would be known, which would lead to death, so he decided to act first and silence "Cui Song".

But what Liu Yao didn't expect was that he only had time to send someone to test Cui Song's skills (he didn't really kill the killer), and within two days, Liu Hong (Han Lingdi) actually died.On the one hand, he was relieved that he didn't have to worry about being retaliated by Liu Hong, on the other hand, his long-suppressed ambition was just about to move.

At the same time, because of this incident, he feared and dreaded "Cui Song".Liu Hong is strong and strong. A few months ago, he claimed to be the supreme general and walked around the military parade. Why did "Cui Song" say "what's the difficulty if he (Hanling Emperor Liu Hong) dies?" really dead?This... Could it be that Liu Hong's death was the work of "Cui Song"?Liu Yao panicked all of a sudden, for fear that if "Cui Song" exerted all his strength, he would also die inexplicably.

Liu Yao didn't dare to attack Cui Song again, and was worried that Cui Song knew that he had sent someone to assassinate him (although there were many attempts, but they didn't succeed).

He really wanted to win over "Cui Song", but he was afraid that he would hold grudges, so he had to ask Gan Ji to pay close attention to her and test her a little bit, while he hid behind the scenes and pretended to be a transparent person.

Until these two days, there was a change in the court, his ambition reappeared, and the idea of ​​wooing Cui Song overwhelmed the fear of him.It happened that Gan Ji used Jiang Zun to convey the news that Cui Song was in Chang'an to him, so Liu Yao pretended to be courteous to Jiang Zun, warning Gan Ji, and at the same time sent his cronies to pick him up at the posthouse.

Poor Jiang Zun thought that he would use Cui Song's news in exchange for Liu Yao's protection, but he didn't know that he was completely taken advantage of.

Cui Song did not expect the truth of the matter to be like this. Of course, he did not believe that another Cui Song was "related to the death of Emperor Ling". When Emperor Han Ling died, "Cui Song" had already exchanged identities with him. Can you remotely control the life and death of an emperor?

After Cui Song summed up the information he had collected, a new question arose:

Since Liu Yao stopped after the death of Hanling Emperor... then who sent the assassin he met after he left Luoyang?

Cui Song left Liu Yao's mansion with this question, and received kind condolences from the great writer Cai Yong, who said that he could sit at his mansion and talk about literature when he had time.

Cui Song thanked him with a smile, but he knew that he probably wouldn't go, literature and so on were all his hard work.

After Cai Yong left, Cui Song and Xi Zhicai thanked him.The two friends haven't seen each other for a long time, and they should have a lot to talk about, but for some reason, Xi Zhicai seems rather indifferent, and has no intention of going back to the post house.He claimed that he had something important to do and needed to take a step first, so he turned and left.

Cui Song didn't know why Xi Zhicai had such a cold attitude after saving him, he couldn't help thinking, could it be that Xi Zhicai saw something and began to doubt his identity?

Cui Song hesitated.Why did he ever want to replace someone else's identity?What's more, Xi Zhicai has a sincere friendship with "Cui Song", he doesn't know whether he should take the initiative to confess and tell everything.

After only a short while, Xi Zhicai has gone far.

He walked like the wind, quickened his pace and walked into another alley. The moment he turned the corner, he slammed into the wall and coughed violently with his hands covering his lips.

After coughing almost heart-piercingly for a long time, Xi Zhi moved his hand away, quietly hid the bright red in his palm, made a fist, and put it in his sleeve.

He looked out through the messy bamboo boards to confirm that there was no one following him, and his expression was slightly relaxed.After resting on the spot for a long time, he straightened up when his hands were no longer trembling, and walked forward unsteadily.

outside the city.

The setting sun melted gold, and just as the city guards were about to pull up the city gate and seal the city, there was a rush of horseshoes approaching from far away.

"Everyone is on alert!"

Everyone raised their weapons and guarded the city gate, staring closely at the official road ahead.

Not long after, smoke and dust billowed on the official road, and a Qingqi rode out through the dust, rushing towards the city gate.

only one person?

There is only one person, so it should not be an enemy attack, but the city guards dare not slack off, shouting to the front:

"Whoever enters the city will be dismounted! Anyone who violates the law will be executed!"

The speed of coming is not slowing down.Just when the captain of the guard decided to give the order to shoot arrows, the man suddenly pulled the reins, got off his horse, and walked quickly to the city gate.

"Report your name!"

The visitor stopped a foot away from the city guard and took off his bamboo hat.

He was tall and tall, with a very good appearance, and his dark and bright eyes were unforgettable.

The evening wind was cold, he dropped the whip in his hand, and the heat from his breath blurred the tiredness in his eyes.

"Yingchuan County, Guo Jia."