turmoil

In the end, Liu Yanzhao didn't do anything to Zhang Jingche, even in his own heart, no matter how much he wanted to tear Zhang into pieces, he still suppressed this impulse.

It may be because Liu Yanzhao subconsciously understood that what Zhang Jingche said was right. In the final analysis, the royal family owed their brothers and sisters.

It may also be because the scene of witnessing Zhang Jingche's "tragic death" five years ago was so impactful that day and night after that, that bloody face always haunted Liu Yanzhao uninvited, Let him never get a good night's sleep again.

Emperor Xinglong did not dare to have a second time.

But soon, Liu Yanzhao discovered that compared to five years ago, this kid's unruliness and sharpness were even worse.As he himself said, after Zhang Jingsu's death, he had no fear at all. There was nothing in the heaven and earth that was worth his attention. Naturally, he didn't have to swallow his anger and be humble like he did back then.

Liu Yanzhao settled Zhang Jingche in the Taiji Hall behind the Qinzheng Hall, and beat the palace guards who were serving in front of the imperial court one by one, ordering them to shut up.That night, Yuezhao called Zhang Jingche into the side hall of Qinzheng Hall. As soon as the curtain was lifted, hot steam rushed in, and he saw a hot brazier burning in the hall, and a pool of four-petal crabapple was dug out of the floor tiles, and the pool was full of warm water. In the hot bath water, two eunuchs surrounded Liu Yanzhao, one on the left and the other on the right, slowly removing the clothes.

Zhang Jingche only glanced at it before turning his head. He couldn't help but think of the rough and bitter cold of the Northwest Camp, and even a certain bastard who still jumped into the river to take a bath naked in the middle of winter.

"After abducting that kid, I have to make a similar bath soup," Zhang Jingche thought helplessly, "If he dares to drink raw water or take a cold bath again, I will break his legs and drag him into the bath." Lock it up in the little black room!"

The former Jinyiwei commander completely ignored the almost tragic comparison of combat power between himself and Dingbianhou, thinking about a bright future. At this time, he only listened to Liu Yanzhao's light order: "There is no need to serve here, you all go down."

The little eunuch answered "yes" and withdrew respectfully.

Liu Yanzhao turned to Zhang Jingche and picked it with his chin: "You come to serve me to take a bath."

Zhang Jingche came back to his senses and sneered, "You don't have long hands?"

Liu Yanzhao lowered his face: "Before you deceived the emperor, committed crimes, and abused lynching, I don't care about you anymore! I see that you have made great contributions to the court, and I have tolerated you again and again. Don't push yourself!"

Feeling his conscience, Zhang Jingche had to admit that Emperor Xinglong was indeed much more kind-hearted than his deceased father.If he was mean and ungrateful, he wouldn't care so much at all, and would have pushed out the root of Zhang's misfortune a long time ago.

However, this does not mean that Zhang Jingche will be moved by Emperor Xinglong's "magnanimity", maybe some people will, but Mr. Zhang does not have the problem of Stockholm.

To make him feel grateful, he must be full of ten points like Marquis Ding Bian, not even one point less.

"Even a seven-year-old child knows how to do things on his own. He is a majestic ninety-five-year-old, but he needs help for such a simple thing as taking a bath." Zhang Jingche snorted, with disdain and sarcasm, "What kind of emperor are you still? Go back to breastfeeding." Already!"

Liu Yanzhao was trembling with anger, he is the emperor, he has always responded to every call, has anyone ever been so disrespectful?It was the first time he had seen such harsh words from the market, and he felt that he had been hit by an unprecedented crit, and his blood was reduced to a thin layer: "You...you are really getting more and more lawless! Come on!"

Zhang Jingche sneered and said, "Why, do you want to play the royal prestige again? What do you think about it this time, throwing the staff into the prison, or simply dragging it out and beheading it to show the public? This trick of hiding the bird, crossing the river and demolishing the bridge is really a descendant of your royal family."

The guards outside the hall swarmed in, and before they crossed the threshold, they heard a shout from inside: "Stop, everyone!"

The guard hurriedly stopped and listened, only to hear the sound of water gurgling from the bath.The leading guard was a little worried, and tentatively asked: "Your Majesty... are you alright?"

There was a moment of silence in the side hall, and Liu Yanzhao's voice suppressed his anger: "It's okay, let's go back first!"

A group of imperial guards, Monk Zhanger, couldn't figure it out, and it was difficult to ask questions, so they had to retreat out without knowing why.

Zhang Jingche sat down on the chair, grabbed a handful of melon seeds, and ate them slowly.Liu Yanzhao looked at him viciously, and after a long while, his anger gradually subsided, revealing a bit of helpless exhaustion: "I know, you are very worried about what happened to Concubine Shu back then, and you blamed me for arresting you... The relationship between you and Concubine Shu Relationship, I really don't know about it, if I knew it earlier, it wouldn't be... She is dead, if she has a spirit in the sky, she doesn't want to see you become what you are now."

Zhang Jingche sneered and said, "You're not her, how do you know? Have you met her before, or asked her personally?"

Liu Yanzhao was speechless, speechless.

Zhang Jingche pressed on step by step: "What qualifications do you have to replace her? Since she married you, you only treat her like a cat or dog, go and have a look when you think of it, and put it aside if you don't—you treat her Have you ever had a husband who was warm and considerate to his wife? Have you ever chatted with her like an ordinary couple? You don't even know who she is, so you suspect her loyalty for no reason... You are not even worthy of being a man!"

Liu Yanzhao's face was livid, his chest heaved violently, but he couldn't speak.When he called Zhang Jingche in today, he originally wanted to have a frank and honest talk with him, so as to resolve the knots and misunderstandings in his heart.Unexpectedly, after so many years, that misunderstanding has long since become a thorny thorn. Everything that Liu Yanzhao deliberately ignored was ground into a sharp weapon that could kill him with one blow, and he stabbed into his heart in a different way.

Liu Yanzhao endured it again and again, but in the end he couldn't hold back, and asked with a sullen face: "Then what do you do? Kill Zhen and avenge Concubine Shu!"

Liu Yanzhao was talking casually, but Zhang Jingche turned to stare at him, the three-point sneer on his face was restrained, and his eyes were almost serious.

For no reason, Liu Yanzhao had the urge to retreat and run away. At that moment, he inexplicably felt: This person is really murderous!

However, Zhang Jingche sat there without moving, and only heard him say coldly and depressedly: "If you kill you, Jing Su can be brought back to life, and the people of the Central Plains can live a peaceful life...I won't let you live for a moment longer!"

Liu Yanzhao stared at him in disbelief, after all, he is the emperor who is aloof, even if he wants to deal with the aristocratic family, in front of people, whether it is elders or relatives, who is not respectful and dare not speak out?Who dares to show his sharpness like Zhang Jingche, who blatantly writes disdain and hatred on his face?

That's no longer unruly, he didn't pay attention to the Ninth Five-Year Supreme at all!

"How could he... how dare he!" Liu Yanzhao thought incredulously, "I am the emperor, and the emperor was furious, and the land would go a long way...Why does he think he can challenge the ninety-five supreme beings!"

He stared at Zhang Jingche, his eyes gradually lost their warmth, and words came out from between his teeth: "You... are not afraid that I will kill you!"

He took a step forward, trying to subdue Zhang Jingche with the majesty of the emperor, and let him know that no one can make waves in the palm of the royal family.However, Zhang Jingche's expression and body language were still very relaxed. He tilted his head, his eyes showed pity and mockery, as if Liu Yanzhao was the frog sitting in a well and watching the sky: "When the emperor is angry, the land will be thousands of miles away, and the common people will be angry. Your Majesty the Emperor, would you like to try, when the butcher knife falls, which one of us will die first?"

He called "Your Majesty" by mouth, but the words were full of sarcasm. Liu Yanzhao's fingers clenched and then loosened, nervously back and forth several times, and finally loosened slowly.

"You...you get out of here!" He gritted his teeth, "You don't have me in your eyes... I don't care about your service either!"

Zhang Jingche didn't know how to play flower guns, Liu Yanzhao told him to get out, he really went back and forth happily, and even forgot the etiquette of saying goodbye.

Of course Emperor Xinglong could see that this kid didn't play hard to get, he really didn't care about himself as the true dragon emperor, he wished to hide far away, out of sight.

Liu Yanzhao was suddenly depressed, he couldn't tell whether it was desolation or self-deprecating—he was the emperor of the dynasty, he seemed to be the king of the dynasty, and he had a good word, but he couldn't even grasp a person's heart.All the tossing and turning, worrying about gains and losses in front of me, turned into self-indulgence in the end...

How ridiculous!

That night, Liu Yanzhao did not visit any of the concubines, so he rested in the Palace of Qinzheng.Yuezhao stayed outside the hall, listening to Emperor Xinglong toss and turn all night, barely closing his eyes.In contrast, Zhang Jingche slept well, and the Tai Chi Hall was lit with tranquilizing incense. He was not used to being served by others, so he shunned all the eunuchs and court ladies he had arranged for.After the hall was silent, Zhang Jingche sat alone under the moon-hole window, dipped his finger in the tea, and wrote stroke by stroke on the desk.

What he wrote were names of people, carefully identified, they were all close relatives and eunuchs around Liu Yanzhao.These people came out of the East Palace with Emperor Xinglong, and served him as children, needless to say they were loyal and capable.It's just that their status is humble, no one cares about Jin Yiwei or the princes of the court.

But Zhang Jingche knew that no one should underestimate eunuchs. They served the emperor all year round and were the closest to the court.They keep their eyes wide open, seeing the changes in the court bit by bit. Occasionally, they can turn thousands of miles of rivers and mountains upside down with an occasional wave.

"Yuezhao, Chaoxing, Honglu...who could it be?" Zhang Jingche whispered to himself, "These people have entered the palace since childhood and have followed the present for many years...how could they collude with foreigners? Where did they come from? Chance?"

At this moment, there were footsteps behind him. Zhang Jingche paused, only to hear the man put down the tea tray, then put his fingers together, and tap seven times on the bottom of the tray, three long and four short, intermingled regularly.

Zhang Jingche closed his eyes slightly, and recognized that it was a signal from You Yunwei's internal confirmation...or in other words, it was a set of contact methods specially formulated by him after he left the capital.

He opened his eyes and asked without looking back, "Where did you come from?"

The man said: "Laugh when you come, and mourn when you leave. My family and country are going all the way to Taiwan."

Zhang Jingche finally turned his head, the guard at the corners of his eyes and brows relaxed slightly, and he saw standing in the hall was a young eunuch in his teens. He was born with delicate features and a thin body. At first glance, he was no different from the eunuchs who were full of palaces and lower eyebrows: " No one saw you when you came, did you?"

The little eunuch straightened his back, his tone of voice suddenly changed, his voice was thicker than that of an adult man, and there was a bit of sharpness in his resigned eyebrows and eyes: "This subordinate borrowed the identity of a little eunuch, this person This is an eunuch who is arranged to serve in the Tai Chi Hall, even if it is discovered, no one will pay attention."

Zhang Jingche heaved a sigh of relief, listened to the movement outside the hall, and said quickly, "You came just in time, I have something to tell you."

The man dressed as an eunuch bowed slightly: "Master, please tell me."

"The eunuchs around today, especially Yuezhao, Chaoxing, and Honglu who are used, where they are from, and who else is in the family, you must investigate clearly," Zhang Jingche said in a deep voice, "It doesn't matter if you slow down, but you can't If there is even the slightest omission, I will even know where I have been before entering the palace, and who I have been in close contact with after entering the palace!"

The man promised, and was about to step back, when he suddenly remembered something, took out a folding fan from his arms, and held it in front of Zhang Jingche with both hands: "This was sent by Yang Hou's subordinates. The bones of the fan have been modified. There are traps installed...for the master's self-defense."

Zhang Jingche took the folding fan and waved his hand to order him to step back.He didn't need to look carefully to know that thousands of hectares of pines and valleys were painted on the yellowed fan, with the inscription "Fang Ju blooms and Lin Yao, green pines crown rocks".

This was many years ago, when Zhang Jingche participated in the Qiu Wei, Wang Wenzhao, the chief examiner, wrote the inscription for him.In the next few years, this fan followed him through the wind and snow in the grassland and the wind and sand in the desert, and was once given to the Marquis of Dingbian by his hand, but after going around in circles, it finally fell back into his hands.

It was as if there was a thread in the dark, always holding Zhang Jingche's hand tightly holding the butcher's knife, and spared no effort to remind him that there was once an elder who loved and looked forward to him.

Zhang Jingche groped for a moment, and carefully put the folding fan into his arms.He felt another person's body temperature on the fleshy and moist bones of the fan. Holding the fan that night, he slept soundly and peacefully.

At the same time, in the northwest camp thousands of miles away, Yang Fan, who had been suppressed for many days, couldn't wait any longer.He handed over the general affairs to Zhuo Jiusi, and he ordered two hundred soldiers to pretend to be a caravan and hurry back to Beijing.

Vice General Zhuo was very helpless, and tried to dissuade him: "Commander, what can you do if you go back now? Since Mr. Zhang took the initiative to return to Beijing, he has a comprehensive plan, not to mention that he is in the palace, and you will not see him when you return to Beijing. Rumor has it, there is no guarantee that the old stubborn in the court will read a copy of 'Absent from Duty'..."

Yang Fan was expressionless: "I'm afraid they won't succeed?"

Zhuo Jiusi then fell silent.

Yang Fan closed his eyes and suppressed the burning anger in his chest. Of course, he knew that there was nothing he could do when he returned to Beijing—unless he made up his mind to rebel, moved the Northwest Camp back to the capital, and directly took over The palace, otherwise it would be beyond reach.

But he had to go back, he was fed up with being unable to do anything but wait in vain.

"Is this his purpose?" Yang Fan thought silently, "He asked Jiusi to tell me that waiting will not yield results, and you can only get and grab what you want..."

Yang Fan enfeoffs Marquis Dingbian, inheriting the title of title, inheriting the iron blood and loyalty of Dingbian's lineage, but this does not mean that he will sit and wait for death when the butcher knife falls, and it does not mean that he is willing to give away the treasure in his heart. .

"I'm going to bring him back!" Yang Fan said categorically, "The emperor is the emperor, my brother Yang Yuanzhou, I can guard the border for him for the rest of his life, but I also have a bottom line!"

He is weak because of Zhang Jingche, but also invincible because of Zhang Jingche