Dingjiangshan

It took about seven days to travel from Nanyang Mansion to Huoshan County, but Linglong only made it half way.

Most of the mountain roads from Nanyang Prefecture to Huoshan County are rainy in summer, and the mountain roads are slippery and difficult to walk. The exquisite carriage accidentally slipped off the small road when passing Erling Mountain, and even the car and the horse fell into the abyss.

At that time, the attendants with the car only had time to rescue the "Eldest Prince" from the car, but they didn't have time to pull Linglong out. When they went down the mountain to look for it afterwards, there was already no bones left.

The accompanying personal guards searched down the mountain for a full five days, but found nothing but a few pieces of wreckage of the carriage, so they had to return without success.

When the news came back to Huoshan County, the emperor was very sad. When he took over the prince's baby, his eyes were red several times. Finally, he named the prince "Jing", and ordered people to set up a tomb for Linglong in the local area, and people worshiped her. .

At that time, Prince Gong Ning Huaijin had already gone to the front line, and no one in Huoshan County dared to touch His Majesty at this pass. In the end, Second Miss Jiang knocked on His Majesty's door and went to persuade and appease him.

"It's been rumored outside that you must be very concerned about Linglong seeing you feel so uncomfortable." Jiang Ling held Ning Jing in his arms and played with him with a rattle. "There are still people who want to go to Uncle Xiaoyuan to inquire about your situation."

Ning Yan, who was rumored to be "distressed" by the outside world, had a rosy complexion and a relaxed expression, and was leaning on the couch to read a script.Wen Yan raised his eyelids lazily, and asked, "What are you asking?"

"Let's inquire about your health." Jiang Ling said: "People in small places are not as polite as those in Beijing, so of course they want to take this opportunity to sell themselves in front of you—I heard that there are still people who are inquiring about Linglong. What does it look like, I guess I want to plug you in."

"The county magistrate in Huoshan County has mediocre achievements, so he will use his brains on these things." Ning Yan snorted softly, flipped through a page of the book, and said, "Anyway, I won't show up, let them do the rest .”

"But having said that, there are also rumors outside, saying that you only talked about a grand burial, but you didn't say that you would give a name or anything. Isn't it a bit cold?" Jiang Ling stuffed the rattle into Ning Jing's hand and asked : "Brother Yan, the gossip outside is not good, why don't you find two servants who spread lies to scare the chickens and monkeys."

"Someone asked you?" Ning Yan asked.

"That's not true." Jiang Ling said.

"Then don't worry about it, and I will rest when they pass it on." Ning Yan said: "I don't plan to give Linglong a name, it's just a target, and I can just make the best use of everything——I don't want to give Linglong a name." Put a woman's tablet in the royal tomb."

Jiang Ling curled his lips, thinking that you think far enough.

"Don't pay any attention to the rumors outside, just let them go. After a while, you can ask Dr. Cheng to come over at night, just say that the prince is frightened, and ask him to come and take a look." Ning Yan said.

Jiang Ling: "..."

Jiang Ling lowered his head and looked at Ning Jing who was stuffing the rattle into his mouth. He really didn't know how to associate the word "scared" with him.

"As for someone outside inquiring about the health of Zhen and Ah Jing, just tell the truth, don't say too good, and don't say too bad." Ning Yan instructed: "The emperor and the others have already taken down the hut. It will be a matter of time before Anqing is taken down in the state capital, and during this period of time, the government should be strictly controlled, so that no one can fish in troubled waters."

Ning Yan's words were not without wind and waves. The military report came from the front yesterday, saying that Luzhou City had been broken, and Xie Jue and Ning Huaijin had already led the army into the city.

Under Ning Huaijin's intentional indulgence, Ning Zheng led the army to retreat, and his whereabouts are unknown now. It is not clear whether he returned to Anqing Mansion, or diverted to some other place on the way.

Ning Zheng withdrew too quickly, the two armies on the left and right hadn't come back together, so Ning Zheng took advantage of the loophole and disappeared from their sight for a short time.

Ning Yan didn't care much about this, if Ning Zheng had the ability to go around his own army and come back and assassinate him, it would prove that he was exhausted, and if God wanted to kill him, it would be useless to struggle.

On the contrary, Ning Huaijin felt as if he was facing a formidable enemy, and stayed up for two nights without daring to sleep, sending out several waves of spies to find Ning Zheng's trace.

"He can't run far." Xie Jue opened the curtain and walked in, handed a bowl of hot soup to Ning Huaijin, and said casually, "Where can he go, but It’s a grasshopper after autumn, what are you afraid of.”

"Not afraid of [-], just in case." Ning Huaijin took a sip from the porcelain bowl, her eyes still on the sand table: "A desperate desperado can do anything."

Xie Jue knew that he was scared out of his mind by the incident of Ning Yan's capture, so he shook his head helplessly, and didn't try to persuade him any more, but casually brought up another topic.

"I heard that Linglong died on the way to Huoshan County?" Xie Jue asked.

Ning Huaijin hummed, her expression not surprised.He had already vaguely guessed that Ning Yan would not keep Linglong back to the capital, and the way he handled it now could be regarded as giving Linglong a good reputation.

"This news should be passed back to the capital, but I don't know what the empress dowager thinks." Xie Jue has never liked Ning Zheng's family, and he didn't hide the gloating in his words: "I'm afraid those fools in the capital must have something in their hearts." counted."

"The court has to be tidied up. Looking at His Majesty's actions, it seems that he wants to attack the Shu family." Ning Huaijin said.

When he was still in Huoshan County a few days ago, Ning Yan was not idle. He asked someone to ask about the situation in Beijing, and even asked someone to send back the backlog of papers, and picked up a few nearby ones to read.

Ning Yan's right hand is still not very movable, and it hurts to touch it.So in most cases, it was Ning Huaijin who wrote the reply for him, or sent the letter to Beijing.

Ning Yan sent a letter to Jiang Xiaohan three days ago, and secretly told him that if Ruan Yin wanted to go back to the palace again, don't stop her, just let her go, as long as she was optimistic about her and the Shu family, don't worry about anything else.

Although Ning Yan never explained the intention here, based on his understanding of him, Ning Huaijin still guessed it.

——He was going to finish this matter completely.

After all, after Ning Zheng was dealt with and returned to Beijing, it would be difficult for Ning Yan to go to the Imperial Temple to confront Ruan Yin again. At that time, if Ruan Yin used Ning Zheng as an excuse to avoid seeing him, she would have a reputation of being unfilial It must have been deducted, but it was easy to make Ning Yan unable to get off the stage.

"It doesn't matter if you take the sword from Shu's house, those old ministers in the province always boast that they have seniority, so they just tell His Majesty what to do." Xie Jue finished the hot soup in the bowl in three mouthfuls, put the bowl aside, and moved over to watch together Looking at the sand table, he said: "My lord, there is only this palm-sized area left, and you won't be able to see a flower even if you look at it."

"I'm not at ease in my heart." Ning Huaijin pinched the bridge of her nose and said wearily, "I'm always afraid that something will go wrong if the secret is lost."

Xie Jue understood his thinking. He was also like this when he first took charge of the army. He couldn't sleep well every night, and he became more nervous at the end.

It's useless to be persuaded by others about this kind of thing, you can only adjust it by yourself.

"Zheng Shaohui's left army has just sent a letter, saying that it has arrived at the predetermined location." Xie Jue said: "We have no time to take care of the Shunchang Mansion, but he was shot down by him. Zheng Shaohui didn't show up at first. The mountain is not dewy, but it seems that there is still a bit of talent for leading troops."

"Indeed." Ning Huaijin said: "When Zheng Shaohui first came out, he was a little hesitant. Now that it's been more than a year, he seems to be more comfortable leading the troops."

Xie Jue didn't mean to monopolize the generals, and he was very relieved to see other generals emerging.

At the beginning, the Xie family caused unprovoked disasters because they were too powerful and had no one to share them with. Now that Ning Yan has other generals in his hands, Xie Jue feels at ease.

"Let's not talk about this." Ning Huaijin held the soup bowl in his hand, took a last look at the sand table, then looked away, and asked, "Where does Zhaoming think Ning Zheng will escape?"

Xie Jue and Ning Huaijin looked at each other, fell silent for a moment, and said honestly: "If Ning Zheng still wants to survive, it's better to abandon the broken chess in his hand as soon as possible, and take his confidant to hide his name and go west by water, maybe there will be more a lifeline."

"But to be honest, I don't think he will choose this path." Xie Jue said.

"How to say?" Ning Huaijin said.

"I don't know him well—" Xie Jue paused, then sighed, "But if it were me, I wouldn't run away."

——I will go back to my fief, wait for His Majesty to come to my door, and then kill myself in front of him, which is to preserve the last bit of royal dignity.

But this "assumption" was too outrageous, Xie Jue didn't say it.

However, Ning Huaijin had already seen what he meant, and he slowly finished the remaining half bowl of hot soup, acquiescing to Xie Jue's opinion.

I don't know whether the two coaches know too much about the enemy's anti-king, or they, the royal children, value dignity more than life. In short, Ning Zheng, like those countless anti-kings in the history books, walked towards a road that was close to death. A predetermined tragic ending.

Three days later, the frontline spies reported that Ning Zheng had arrived at Anqing Mansion and went straight to the government office.

After Ning Zheng went back, the whole city of Anqing Mansion was under martial law. The military detectives obviously couldn't follow up Anqing Mansion to inquire about the news, but according to the news from Huaiyu's pawnshop, Ning Zheng didn't seem to prohibit civilians from leaving the city.

This is much more humane than Feng Yuan's way of defending the city. At least Ning Zheng gave the common people a way out. It took about ten years for him as the "King King", although most of the time was spent thinking about how to counterattack the capital. But also more or less developed a little affection for the group of people under the wings.

The siege of Anqing Mansion is a boring thing. The stalemate between the two seems to be endless, but it is also changing rapidly.As a result, Ning Huaijin could neither lead the army to attack the city, nor could he go back to see Ning Yan.

However, Ning Huaijin wrote a few letters to Ning Yan in his spare time. With the stalemate in the war, the correspondence between the two of them has become more casual. It is no longer mainly based on military newspapers, but more like small talk.

One day when Ning Huaijin came back from a tour of the camp, she inadvertently mentioned to Xie Jue the two prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River, and suddenly remembered something, and added a sentence when she wrote that night, "Fortunately, Ning Zheng's fief only ends at Anqing. A little further east, even if it occupies one of the Jiangnan prefectures, it's hard to say what the situation is like today."

Ning Yan's reply came very quickly, his right hand still couldn't move very much, and it was difficult to ask Jiang Ling to write it for him, so these days his reply was as concise as possible, with an outrageously few words.

However, he obviously cared more about this letter than the previous ones, and it was rare to write a few more words.

——"Fortunately, the late emperor favored me."