The Bamboo Horse Dressed as the Emperor

Song Jiao and Xie Chen stood on the tower, separated by the Yinma River, facing the city wall of the Qing Dynasty, a white cloth of hundreds of feet was hanging in the middle of the tower, fluttering in the wind.

Xie Chen sent someone to investigate the news, Song Jiao thought about it, and then turned around and ordered: "Go and get some supplements I prepared, and send them to Teacher Tai."

"Yes."

The sun gradually rose, and Song Jiao was still standing on the tower.

Soon, the gate of the city was opened, and two attendants, carrying supplements in a carriage, headed for the Qing Kingdom.

In the past few days, Song Jiao always sent people to deliver things to Gong Yixiu, and these two people often went to Qing Kingdom.

Xie Chen said: "I'm afraid the two of them won't be able to get in today."

Song Jiao looked at the front seriously: "Try it."

Sure enough, as Xie Chen said, these two people stopped in front of the Qingguo city gate, Qingguo did not open the gate for them, only a soldier poked his head on the city gate, and the two sides exchanged a few words, Song Jiao sent out The people came back like this.

They returned the same way and went up to the tower to report.

"Your Highness, Qing Guo said that something important happened in their city, and it is inconvenient to let us in now, so..."

Song Jiao had already understood, thought for a while, and then asked, "What else did they say?"

"They also said... Your Highness, please don't send things over in the future, as they won't be needed in the future."

I won't be able to use it anymore.

Such hints are almost explicit.

Song Jiao was in a daze, and took a few steps back, until she leaned against the city wall, before regaining her senses.

Xie Chen stopped him: "I'll send someone to investigate again, you must not go to the Qing Kingdom."

Song Jiao held his hand and cheered up again: "I know, Teacher Tai is probably fine, it must be Qing Guo who made alarmist remarks, I will find a few people, and then I will find some rice paper and bamboo strips."

The people Xie Chen sent to investigate did not come back so soon. It would take several days for the eagle to fly to Qingguo to deliver the letter. Song Jiao pinned all his hopes on the night.

Song Jiao never went down from the top of the city tower. As soon as night fell, he ran up to the highest point with a bunch of things in his arms.

Song Jiao squatted on the ground, shook off the sky lanterns pasted with bamboo strips and rice paper, lit them up one by one, and first pressed them down with stones. move away.

Song Jiao put up lamps here, and everywhere in the city wall also lit up lamps one by one.

Just after nightfall, the night wind suddenly picked up, and the sky lantern was shaken by the wind, but it did not change its upward floating path.

The dusk is heavy and the stars are bright.

This was the secret code that Song Jiao had agreed upon with Gong Yixiu before he left, to confirm the other party's safety.If Teacher Tai sees it, he will respond with firelight.

Song Jiao was standing on the tower, looking longingly at the tower of Qing Kingdom in front of him.

Throughout the day today, he led people to make hundreds of sky lanterns, and it was impossible for Qingguo to miss them.

But Song Jiao waited for a long time, but there was no light from the Qingguo City Tower opposite.

Song Jiao couldn't control a bad feeling in his heart. He pressed his palm on his heart, thinking that if he waited a little longer, there should be a reply.

Song Jiao stood motionless on the tower, with his hands propped on the battlements, staring at the front, for fear of missing any light from the fire.

After an unknown amount of time, a cloak fell on his shoulders.

Song Jiao just came back to his senses, blinked his sore eyes, and turned his head to look.

The sky lanterns he had prepared hadn't been put out yet, and they were still rising one after another.

Xie Chen stood beside him, stroking his head.

Song Jiao said, "I have to wait a little longer."

Xie Chen also only replied: "I know, I will accompany you."

The two stood side by side like this, looking at the tower of Qing Kingdom in the distance.

On the opposite side, in Qingguo City, Gongyi Xiuxiu was leaning on the couch, covered with a blanket, holding a medicine bowl in his hand.

He frowned, took a sip of the soup, and vaguely heard someone talking outside.

"What is Qi Guo doing?"

"Put so many sky lanterns."

Gongyixiu sensed something was wrong, put down the medicine bowl, stood up, leaned on the wall, moved out step by step, opened the door, and a faint scent of ink that only he could smell also wafted into the door.

Gongyixiu opened his mouth, held back his cough, and asked in a low voice: "Is Qi Guo putting up a sky lantern on the opposite side?"

Several attendants were taken aback by him, and they didn't answer his question, they just said: "Why did the envoy come out? Come in quickly, it's windy outside."

A few people wanted to come forward to help him, but Gong Yixiu said in a more serious tone: "Is it because the Qi State is setting up a sky lantern on the opposite side?"

The attendants responded casually: "Yes, I don't know what Qi is doing, so the envoys should go back and rest."

Gong Yixiu was held up by several people and sent back to the room.

The attendants helped him to bed, covered him with a blanket, fed him medicine, told him to go to bed early, and went out together.

"Wait a minute, I want..." Gong Yixiu didn't even have time to make a request for a sky lantern, and they left.

They went out together, but bumped into someone head-on.

Everyone stopped and shouted: "His... Your Highness..."

Chen Su nodded, accepting it calmly: "Yes."

This was an agreement between Li Xu and him. Li Xu was greedy for life and afraid of death. He was afraid that some of his brothers who preferred the throne would send someone to assassinate him. Chen Su encouraged him to appear in front of people as the Seventh Prince of Qing.

The Seventh Prince accidentally sprained his foot, which made it difficult for him to walk, so he was always sitting in a wheelchair for a while.

And in the past few days, the Seventh Prince also changed his habit of staying in the room, and often appeared in front of people, and the attendants all recognized the Seventh Prince.

Chen Su turned his head and glanced at the sky full of Kongming lanterns: "Is it from Qi Guo?"

Everyone nodded: "Yes."

Chen Su asked again: "Is the envoy asleep?"

"Yes."

Chen Su nodded with his finger on the armrest of the wheelchair, and he also nodded: "Okay."

The sky was getting late and there was no sound, the sky lanterns had already floated away, Song Jiao and Xie Chen were still on the tower.

Song Jiao sat cross-legged on the battlements, while Xie Chen was still standing beside him.

Song Jiao didn't say he was going back, and Xie Chen didn't mention it either, just stood with him like this.

Of course Song Jiao refused to go back, he made up his mind to stay here overnight, if the teacher sent him a message, he couldn't miss it; if the teacher really...

That would be regarded as his vigil for the teacher.

After an unknown amount of time, Xie Chen stretched out his hand and put it into Song Jiao's.

Song Jiao came back to his senses, turned to look at him, and said in a low voice, "I didn't fall asleep, it's just a little..."

Xie Chen held his hand tightly, saying nothing was better than saying everything.

In the opposite city, there was no one around, Gong Yixiu supported his sick body and sat up with the help of the bedpost.

Just such a movement took too much energy from him. He propped up the bed with his hands and sat for a while, before he skillfully put on his shoes and clothes in the dark.

He leaned on the wall and moved forward, walking on the ground in the dark, and found the candlestick and fire pocket on the table.

He and Song Jiao had agreed to use sky lanterns, but he couldn't find them now, and no one took an old man's request to heart.

In order to spread the news to Song Jiao quickly, he could only pull out the biggest candle, put it in his arms with Huo Zhezi, and then staggered out the door.

He took a step over the threshold when someone held his arm: "Envoy."

It wasn't the servants who served him, Gong Yixiu recognized their voices, and they wouldn't keep watch outside the door at night.

Gongyixiu paused, and asked, "Excuse me, Your Excellency?"

Sitting in a wheelchair, Chen Su smiled, "It's just a night watchman."

Gong Yixiu didn't speak, and Chen Su asked again: "It's so late, where is the envoy going?"

"It's a bit boring to lie in the room, and I want to go out for a walk."

"Then I'll help the envoy out." Chen Su supported the armrest of the wheelchair, propped himself up, and supported him, "Please, envoy."

Chen Su tried his best to keep his body steady, and helped Gong Yixiu out of the yard and then out of the mansion where they stayed.

He said: "The envoy can go wherever he wants, and I will help the envoy to go. I am very strict with my mouth and will not tell other people."

Of course Gongyixiu didn't believe him. Although he couldn't see clearly, his nose and ears still worked.

He had a little impression of this person, as if he had been ill for the past few days, this person came to visit him, and others called him the Seventh Prince.

The seventh prince, but he clearly remembered that the seventh prince was not like this.

Li Xu had a bitter smell on his body, and his voice was high-pitched and thin. This person is obviously not the Seventh Prince.

Speaking of which, he only met the Seventh Prince once, and he was still in Qi State, and it was also when he fell ill.

Later, the Seventh Prince stayed behind closed doors. He knew that the Seventh Prince was probably afraid of being assassinated.

But this man...

Gong Yixiu, who was ill, couldn't figure it out, maybe Li Xu had found someone to help him block the knife, or maybe he remembered it wrong.

He doesn't want to care about these things anymore, he just wants to go to the tower as soon as possible, to send news to Song Jiao, to report his safety, so that he doesn't worry, and don't get confused.

Gongyixiu asked Chen Su to stay under the city wall, and he walked up the tower step by step with candles and fire pockets in his arms.

He couldn't see, he was thinking of Song Jiao, and he couldn't hear or smell it.

Chen Su followed behind him, unhurriedly, with a distance of two or three steps.

On the tower of the Qi Kingdom, Xie Chen inadvertently raised his eyes, and suddenly saw the faint flames coming from the opposite tower.

Xie Chen said: "Maomao, ahead."

Across the turbulent river, a little spark is extinguished.

Song Jiao also saw it.

He stood up, took another look for confirmation, and touched his body, but he didn't find the fire pocket.

Xie Chen took a torch from nowhere and handed it to him.

So Song Jiao took the torch, stood on the city wall, and raised the torch.

The person on the opposite side also held up the candle, but the candle was quickly blown out by the wind, so Gong Yixiu lit it up again and again with the torch.

He couldn't see it, and he couldn't be sure if Song Jiao saw it, so he could only hold the candle as long as possible, and he didn't care if the candle tears rolled onto his hand.

In this way, the probability of Song Jiao being able to see it is higher.

Suddenly, someone took the candle from his hand and gave him something else instead.

"Torches," said the man.

Gong Yixiu vaguely saw a light, and stretched out his hand to touch it. Only when he touched a little heat, could he be sure it was a torch.

He held up the torch, and the night wind blew on his face, ruffling his gray hair.

Corresponding to him, Song Jiao was on the opposite tower, holding a torch high like him.

The wind filled the sleeves of the two of them, one old and one young, their hair may be gray or black, their faces may be old or immature, but they all have the same firm expression.

Four or five generations are separated by 50, 60, or 70 years. How lucky are the younger generations of literati to meet the elders who are about to cross a dynasty in reality, not in books.

On the city wall, it was like the sparks spread in a book, and the sparks were passed from Gong Yixiu's hands to Song Jiao's hands.

In troubled times, a roll of bright lights.

After confirming that Teacher Tai was safe and sound, Song Jiao was relieved.

And the white cloth hanging on the tower of Qingguo City was found to have been taken off at dawn the next morning.

It should be Qing Guo's plan.

Song Jiao obeyed the teacher's instructions when he left, and did not mess up or act rashly, so he escaped the catastrophe.

On the Qing side, of course, there was unrest.

Chen Su sat at the table, reviewing the memorial. The attendants brought in the food and put it on the table. He didn't even have eyesight, so he waved his hand and let them go down.

The servants left quietly and closed the door behind them.

After the door was closed, Li Xu came out from the room.

He sat down at the dinner table unceremoniously and began to eat.

Chen Su's finger on the table moved: "Your Highness, did you order the white cloth in front of the city gate?"

Li Xu picked up the dishes on the plate with his chopsticks, and said nonchalantly, "Yes."

Chen Su forced himself to be patient: "Your Highness, as I said before, you can't touch Song Jiao yet."

"I didn't move him, just scare him."

"Li Xu!"

Chen Su stood up abruptly and turned over the chairs. Li Xu paused, dropped his chopsticks, and stood up.

"How dare you talk to me like that? I wanted to kill him, but he didn't come here? What's the matter with you?"

Chen Su clenched his fists tightly, the veins on his forehead bulged, and after a few breaths, he recovered his calm.

But Li Xu was still chattering: "What on earth do you mean? Don't you forget who is the Seventh Prince? Are you protecting Song Jiao?"

Chen Su turned his head to look aside, and saw the long sword hanging on the wall.

After staring at him for a while, he turned his head and said calmly: "Because Song Jiao is my savior, I have already killed him twice, and I don't want to have a third time."

Li Xu sneered: "Forget it, you have already voted for the Qing Kingdom, why are you still pretending to be high-spirited here? If you go back now, will Song Jiao let you be His Highness? You have already voted for the 'enemy', so just do things well, don't think about it Some are gone, if you really listen to Song Jiao, you will cause the second wife of the Xie family to have a miscarriage? Don't pretend to be another one."

Chen Su tried his best to endure, and left with a flick of his sleeves.

Li Xu thought about it, walked to the table, grabbed a piece of paper, and wrote a few lines.

This is how he communicated his orders to the outside world when he refused to show his face.

Chen Su didn't let him touch Song Jiao, but he wanted to.

The border of Qing Kingdom lifted the ban on the people sent by Song Jiao, and Song Jiao could send people to deliver supplements to Gongyixiu again, and he and Gongyixiu also resumed contact.

Two attendants travel between the two sides of the Yinma River.

After returning, he returned to Song Jiao.

"Returning to Your Highness, everything has been delivered. Mr. Gongyi has seen his energy improve a lot, and he thinks he is about to recover."

"That's good." Song Jiao smiled and asked them to go down to get the reward.

It was another evening, and Song Jiao suddenly remembered that among the things prepared in the morning, there was a medicine that he forgot to give to the teacher.

He was really worried, and after thinking about it, he decided to call the two messengers over and ask them to make another trip.

Xie Chen went out to patrol in the evening, but he acted shamelessly, lowered his head, and insisted on asking Song Jiao to put on a helmet for him before going out with a long halberd.

After he left, Song Jiao stayed alone, reading a book while waiting for someone to come back.

Xie Chen hadn't come back yet, the person he sent to deliver the things came back first.

It was already night at this time, Song Jiao lit up the candles and asked, "Why are you alone today?"

The attendant who sent the letter said: "Return to Your Highness, Xiao Liu has a stomachache in the evening, and His Highness summoned him urgently, so the younger one will go alone."

"Oh, good." Song Jiao asked again without any doubt, "Have the medicinal materials been delivered?"

"Go back to Your Highness, I have delivered everything, and passed on His Highness's words to the old Mr. Gongyi. It is the medicinal materials that fell in the morning, and the medicines need to be fried together to be effective."

"That's good." Song Jiao nodded, "Go down and collect the reward money."

The attendant refused to leave, and stood in front of Song Jiao, as if he still had something to say.

Song Jiao asked suspiciously, "What's the matter? Is there something else?"

"Young one, I went there just now, and felt that the old man's complexion was not very good. After asking, I found out that the old man is better in the morning, but he is not good in the evening. When His Highness sent us, it was always in the morning, so We saw that the old man was fine, so..."

Song Jiao straightened up: "How could this happen?"

"I don't even know the little one." The attendant raised his eyes and looked at his expression quietly, "I heard from the old man that he would be much better if he took the medicine sent by His Highness. If he took the medicine prescribed by the doctor from Qingguo Medicine, it will be uncomfortable all night."

Song Jiao opened his eyes wide with surprise.

Qingguo will never tolerate even a grand teacher, let alone the grand teacher just helped them bring Li Xu back...

By the way, Li Xu, that lunatic, ordinary people have no way of knowing his thoughts.

He has always hated himself, if because of himself, he can't tolerate the teacher...

Song Jiao's heart sank quickly. He wholeheartedly thought that he had harmed Gong Yixiu. He was worried about the condition of the teacher. It was too ostentatious to send people to deliver things these days.

He moved outside and was about to stay on the bed.

The attendant said again: "Your Highness, the old gentleman quietly gave me some medicine residue, and asked me to bring it to His Highness, so that His Highness can have a look."

As he spoke, he took out a paper bag from his pocket.

Song Jiao glanced at it, then said: "Okay, then I'll go to the doctor to come and have a look..."

As he said this, he was about to go out. He was about to call someone in, but he was suddenly held down from behind. The paper bag containing the medicine dregs was opened, but inside was powder. Song Jiao's face.

Before Song Jiao could hold his breath, he heard the attendant say: "Your Highness, I'm sorry."

Song Jiao wanted to shout, but he opened his mouth, but couldn't make a sound. He could only ask in a weak voice, "Li Xu. Money? Power?"

He knew that Li Xu bought this person, so he asked him whether it was money or power.

But it was obviously the first time for the attendant to do such a thing, and he was too nervous to hear him.

Trembling, he took out a dagger from his hand and pressed it against Song Jiao's heart.

Song Jiao completely lost consciousness at this moment.

There are many variables in the prefectures and counties that have just returned to Qi, and there are fears of spies. Xie Chen patrols every three days.

Xie Chen led his troops around the Yinma River and patrolled around the city wall.

It was evening when I came out. When the sun was setting and the western mountains were setting, the border line was long. After riding a horse and walking down, it was already dusk.

Xie Chen wore a helmet on his head, and the soldiers who followed him looked all the way, feeling strange, and asked, "Brother Shen, you..."

Xie Chen turned around: "Huh?"

Only Mu Ying dared to say: "Brother Shen, your head looks very big today."

Xie Chen's expression froze, and then he said: "You don't know this, Mao Mao said, the helmet is cold and hard, it is very cold and hard, he is afraid that I will fall, so give it to me—"

He raised his hand and took off his helmet, revealing the rabbit ear hat underneath.

Everyone was at a loss for words, unwilling to speak again.

It turned out to be waiting for them here.

Xie Chen continued: "Maomao was afraid that I would fall ill, so he specially wore this for me. When I came here, I said no, but he insisted on wearing it for me."

In the end, it was Mu Ying who spoke: "Brother Shen, are you dreaming?"

The soldiers nodded: "We all saw it when we were waiting outside. Brother Shen, you acted like a baby and asked His Highness to wear it for you. His Highness also asked you, it is already spring, why are you wearing a hat?"

Xie Chen gritted his teeth: "...shut up, can you suffocate you if you don't talk?"

He put his helmet back on and raised the reins, ready to go back.

Xie Chen soon raised his wolf's tail again: "Go back to eat, Mao Mao must have been waiting for me to eat."

He looked back at the people behind him: "Did they leave a big pot of rice for you? Do you want to eat with me? But you have to ask Mao Mao first."

Everyone was speechless: "Brother, we dare not disturb, the big pot of rice smells delicious, and we love to eat big pot of rice, so don't talk about us, okay?"

Mu Ying said: "Brother Shen, if you say one more word, I will tell Maomao when I get back, tell him what you told us, Maomao will definitely let you sleep on your knees tonight."

Xie Chen hurriedly said: "Don't, brother, I'm just..."

As he approached the city gate, he caught a glimpse of some strange movement from the corner of his eye, and he immediately fell silent, holding his halberd tightly.

The soldiers quickly realized that they followed his gaze and looked towards the city wall.

A few sneaky Qing soldiers were squatting outside the city wall, as if they were waiting for something.

They looked up and saw Xie Chen and his party approaching, they panicked and turned around to run.

Seeing that they had discovered it, Xie Chen no longer concealed it. Holding the halberd, he threw it out, followed by an angry shout: "Stop!"

When others shout "stop", usually no one will listen.

But Xie Chen shouted "Stop", and those soldiers of the Qing Dynasty all stopped——

Because the halberd thrown by Xie Chen accurately passed through the chest of one of the soldiers and nailed him to the ground.

Accompanied by a scream, the thick blood slowly spread out in the night, and slid to his companion's feet, sticking to their fleeing footsteps.

Xie Chen led his people forward quickly and surrounded them.

Xie Chen rode on the horse and took back the halberd he had planted on the ground.

He asked coldly, "What are you doing here?"

The Qing soldiers were just trembling, unable to utter a word, so Xie Chen raised his hand, only to hear a "shua", another soldier was pierced through the chest by him.

After killing three in a row, only two remained, Xie Chen said again: "Both of you, whoever speaks first will live."

Before the words fell, the two opened their mouths at the same time.

"The little ones are waiting here under the order of the Seventh Prince..."

"The Seventh Prince arranged for someone to tie His Royal Highness Song Jiao, and the younger ones are here to help..."

Xie Chen heard these two sentences amidst a long series of chaotic begging for mercy.

He clenched his jaw and held the halberd tightly, only feeling the buzzing in his head.

Xie Chen turned around and turned back. Before he could give any orders, he drove the horse back.

The people inside didn't have time to open the city gate for him, so they only opened half of it, and the other half was chopped to pieces by him.

Xie Chen was riding on the horse, his eyes were fixed on the front, for a moment, he forgot to blink, and only knew to drive the horse forward.

His eyes were red because he forgot to blink.

On the road, he met a servant who came to report the news, but he ignored him and drove his horse past him.

Xie Chen rode his horse all the way into the residence, and the attendants in the residence should have noticed that Song Jiao was gone, it was in a mess, looking for someone everywhere, someone saw him and tried to stop him from the corridor.

"Your Highness, His Highness Song Jiao is missing..."

But he already knew it, and he couldn't hear it.

Xie Chen stepped directly from the corridor, took the shortest path, and arrived at the door of the room of the two of them.

He let go of the rein and nearly fell off his horse.

Pushing open the door, there was no one in the room, the candle was half burnt, the book Song Jiao was reading was still on the table, and he opened a page.

There is also the food box sent by the attendants, which is still on the table and has not been opened.