Record of ups and downs in troubled times

"You're finally back."

Fu Qizhen turned around abruptly, her back slammed against the door, her eyes widened.Her two hands dug into the deep and shallow patterns on the door, and she trembled slightly involuntarily.

In front of her, behind the beautiful lady's embroidered screen, an old man with a bloody face circled around. Looking closely, it turned out to be Zhou Zheng, the old servant who was supposed to deal with the enemy in the front hall.The old man's face had a few deep knife marks, judging by the extent of the tear, a large piece of skin was even peeled off under the corner of the eye, which shows the dire situation at that time.

"Chang Shi is not in Jingren Palace...how come here?"

When Fu Qizhen spoke, her voice was almost trembling.

It's not that she has never seen dead people - on her way out of the palace a few days ago, she saw corpses everywhere outside the palace, including civilians and soldiers, some died on the street, and some were dragged Pulled to the edge of the wall, there is still a breath in the throat.But in any case, perhaps out of deliberate avoidance, or perhaps by accident, Fu Qizhen has never seen the faces of these people who died unexpectedly. She has never seen their faces, maybe she has never dared to see whether their faces are fear or grief.

But she saw it today, even though her eyes couldn't help being evasive all the time, she saw Zhou Zheng's face with her own eyes: it was full of knife marks and blood splattered.She also noticed Zhou Zheng's forehead, where a few protruding veins twitched, clearly revealing the pain that the master intended to hide.

"Always attend to your face..."

"It's all just meeting a few little soldiers." The old waiter panted, probably in pain, and let out a suppressed □□□.He wiped the blood on his face, staggered a few steps, held onto a tall table at hand, and said in a hurried voice: "Your Majesty, if you have nothing to do, go to the Three Treasures Palace. I am an old man who will die soon. There is only one thing. It is about His Majesty, and must be entrusted to you!"

Fu Qizhen looked at his slightly trembling knees and said in a low voice, "The late emperor has returned to heaven."

"I'm an old man half buried in the soil. Why do you bother to lie to me?" Zhou Zheng tremblingly took out something from the skirt of his clothes, held it out tremblingly, and begged in a low voice: "If there is someone in the future When your majesty returns to the palace, I hope that your majesty will hand over this item to your majesty. Majesty's kindness, if there is an afterlife, the servant will definitely be your cow and horse, and will not hesitate to do so."

What Fu Qizhen held in front of her was a thousand-ply brocade brocade bag of tender yellow spring willow.

She stretched out her hand subconsciously to pick it up, but was suddenly overwhelmed by the blood stained on the belt of the kit, so she quickly withdrew her hand and pressed her chest tightly, wanting to cry out for some reason.

"Is Your Majesty happy?" Zhou Zheng suddenly smiled slightly when he saw her like this, with a sly gleam in his old eyes, "Let me just say that Fu Zongzheng is not someone who can abandon his sons and daughters to protect the country."

Zhou Zheng supported a silk-inlaid wooden leg of Gao An, leaned over with difficulty to put down the brocade bag, glanced at Fu Qizhen again, and walked around behind the screen.

There is a large window facing the wind that is as low as the flowers on the ground, and he must have climbed into the temple from there.

I don't know how long after that, a maidservant hurriedly ran over on the corridor outside the door, the jewels in her hair collided with each other, and all the way they jingled on the door Fu Qizhen was close to, and shouted: "Your Majesty is not well!" , Someone called in! He said he was looking for someone, but he couldn't stop him!"

Fu Qizhen hurried forward two steps, stuffed the brocade bag into her sleeve, calmed herself down and comforted the servant girl, "Don't panic...whose family is here?"

She said don't panic, but she never realized that her tone was a little vain.

The maid was about to cry, and said in a messed up manner: "They didn't say anything, they just kept coming to the palace to find someone. They said that even the queen's palace was searched. Can our palace be compared to the Jiaofang Palace? ? Xiao Wenzi went up to stop him, but was kicked and broke a leg!"

"Oh, don't be in a hurry." Fu Qizhen felt relieved when she heard that the soldiers had mentioned the word queen, and asked in a low voice, "Are these people wearing black clothes and decorated with golden turtles?"

The maid sniffed and nodded.

Black-clothed golden tortoise, this is the attire of Cheng's soldiers.The person they were looking for was probably Zhou Zheng who had just escaped through the back window.But why did they arrest Zhou Zheng?Could it be because of this little kit in his sleeve?The bag was not as big as a palm, and it didn't feel like there was anything precious in it. It was about a page of paper. Why did the Cheng family go to the palace to get it?

Fu Qizhen lowered her eyebrows and shook her cuffs secretly.

In the evening, a group of cavalrymen in black entered the Prime Minister's Mansion carrying a large bag full of things.

Sitting upright in the hall, Cheng Nan looked at the black human-shaped package playfully, and signaled his men to open it.The guards on the side immediately stepped forward to break the rope and spread out the package.

Inside the package is a person.

The man's hands were cut back and bound indiscriminately with what looked like a torn ribbon.His two legs seemed to have been folded, and his knees were twisted forward in an extremely weird posture. Coupled with the blood-stained white hair, he looked more like a ghost than a person.

The tall, skinny man standing on one side rushed forward to look at the cloth bag when he saw it opened, but Qi Jingyang picked him back to his spot with a sword.Seeing that the two of them were glaring and almost fighting again, Cheng Nan rubbed his forehead helplessly and said, "Jingyang, let him watch."

After getting the order, Qi Jingyang had no choice but to dodge to the side reluctantly, staring at the skinny man who picked up the head of the person in the package with his foot, describing it as very disrespectful, then looked at the prime minister again, who was also very dissatisfied when he saw the prime minister.

Cheng Nan: "Although Zhou often served the tiger in Pingyang, he was once a member of the court of our country. Mr. Lu's behavior like this is too disrespectful. Isn't he afraid that after his death, he will be haunted by ghosts and ghosts?"

Hearing the words "wronged soul" and "lonely ghost", Mr. Lu didn't even bother to refute. He immediately knelt facing south, kowtowed three times, and muttered a long series of unknown words.Seeing his folded hands and pious face, he is probably praying.

Cheng Nan raised his eyebrows.

There was also a man in Tsing Yi who came with the thin man. Seeing the doubts on the faces of the other people present, he came out and said softly: "Mr. Lu believes in the longevity religion and respects life. What you just said is taboo in the longevity religion." things, so..."

When Cheng Nan heard the term "Longevity Religion", he couldn't help raising his eyebrows again.I don't know what kind of evil foreign teacher this is, but the behavior of this surnamed Lu is even more like a magic stick. If Liu Yu's subordinates are all such "talented people", it will be strange if they can stand up to him.It's just that there have been frequent turmoil in the frontier recently, and the barbarians tried to stir up trouble again and again. Even Cheng Nan couldn't call back the frontier army in vain. Otherwise, the defenders in the capital and the frontier army would cooperate with each other, and Liu Yu would have been tidied up and obeyed. Tie, regardless of his southern and northern borders, they are all my courts.

After praying, Mr. Lu stood up from the ground, pointed to the man in the package on the ground and said, "This man has been smeared by you. If you lie to me, I will suffer a lot."

"Oh, the god you knelt down just now didn't tell you the truth?" Cheng Nan disdained to spend too much time with Mr. Lu, so she sneered and asked the curled up old man on the ground: "Can you change your name and sit down?" If you don’t change your surname, you should tell him, are you Zhou Zheng?”

The old man clenched his teeth and refused to answer.

"Tsk, it doesn't look like it." Cheng Nan smiled to himself again: "It seems that I am a humble person, and I caught the wrong person. Mr. Lu, please go back, and accompany me to General Lu Guang by the way."

The skinny man wanted to challenge Cheng Nan, but he was outnumbered, so he had to swallow his breath, and then looked at the one lying on the ground, after all, he couldn't bear to give up the credit for his possible success.The old man surnamed Zhou was a celebrity around the emperor. If he got such a person, he might get a lot of things out of his mouth. How could he just walk away just because of a few unpleasant words from this white-faced thief?

"I dare not disbelieve the prime minister."

The thin man gritted his teeth and forced out a smile, beckoning his followers to go forward and fasten the package, planning to take them back to the camp first.Unexpectedly, before the fingertips of those people touched the cloth bag, Cheng Nan in the hall suddenly said "Stop" jokingly, and Qi Jingyang's sword in the hall immediately unsheathed, piercing like a piece of frost, almost missing Cut off the arms of those people.

"What does it mean?!"

Cheng Nan sneered: "If you have something to ask him, I also have something to ask. Anyway, what you and I want to ask is probably the same. Wouldn't it be better to just ask him here?"

"you!"

The thin man surnamed Lu was about to have a fit, when the man in Tsing Yi behind him suddenly stepped forward and agreed: "Since the prime minister said so, I'd rather be respectful than follow my orders." As he spoke, he walked up to Zhou Zheng in a neither humble nor overbearing manner, and bent down Come on, and ask softly: "Old Attendant, did the emperor really jump over the wall and die?"

Zhou Zheng closed his eyes and kept silent, like a stuffy jar.

The man in Tsing Yi was not in a hurry, smiled again, looked back at Cheng Nan as if he had no intention of doing so, and then asked, "Then let me ask you something out of the blue... Do you know where the Great Seal of the Chuan Kingdom is?"

Because the man in Tsing Yi was squatting beside Zhou Zheng, no one could see clearly the expressions on their faces.But I saw the man in Tsing Yi leaned over and turned his ear to the old man on the ground, straightened up in a moment, caressed his ear and smiled as usual: "Chang Shi is really loyal."

No one could help being curious about such a play.Sure enough, Cheng Nan immediately asked him what Zhou Zheng said, but the man in Tsing Yi just smiled and didn't say anything, and finally angered Qi Jingyang first, and before the prime minister gave an order, he turned his sharp sword towards the man, and cut off his collar first Go to the half fan.

"Swords have no eyes, be merciful!" The man in Tsing Yi stepped back half an inch, covered his neck and sighed: "I told you, Prime Minister, you wouldn't believe me, would you? What's more, he just spat blood into my ear ah."

The hand that caressed the ear was put down and spread out, and it really was a little bright red blood foam.

Everyone was speechless.

Although he answered Cheng Nan's question, Qi Jingyang's Xueliang sword was still on his neck, and he didn't intend to take it down at all.The man in Tsing Yi had no choice but to stretch out his hand to press the sword, while persuading him: "Since the Prime Minister of Labor has helped find someone, General Lu's thank you gift is naturally to be respected. General Qi, don't be anxious, please come in, Miss Chang Yun."

Hearing the man in Tsing Yi mention Qin Changyun, Qi Jingyang didn't know whether he was ashamed or annoyed, but the long sword in his hand forced him even more urgently.The young man's eyes were already red at this time, so he was just pretending to be calm. After a few soldiers mixed Qin Changyun into the hall, Qi Jingyang finally couldn't bear it anymore, abandoned his sword and took a few steps to embrace the girl in his arms Seeing her closing her eyes as if she had passed out, she immediately glared at the man in Tsing Yi and shouted: "What's wrong with her?!"

The man in Tsing Yi was about to answer, but something happened: everyone in the hall focused their eyes on this place, but Mr. Na Lu secretly pulled out the dagger he carried with him, and was about to stab the prime minister!

The situation is urgent, even Cheng Nan, who has always been calm and steady, can't help but widen his eyes, not to mention those stupid little generals, most of them are stunned for a while, but they are unarmed and holding Chang Yun in their arms. Qi Jingyang, the girl, was the first to come to his senses, and before he had time to pick up the sword, he turned around and blocked it in desperation!

The short knife sank into his chest, Qi Jingyang forced himself back a few steps, pulled out the blade from the flesh with his backhand, and nailed Mr. Lu, who was rushing forward, into the red sandalwood pillar on the side of the hall.

This knife was obviously more vicious than Mr. Lu's knife stabbing Qi Jingyang: the thin man surnamed Lu's eyes almost protruded, his lips trembled tremblingly for a while, and finally he bowed his head and remained silent.