Go to Qingqiu together

As Xia Qi's mind returned to normal, coupled with the current situation, all sensible people chose to take refuge in Xia Qi.

So the Zhezi who asked Li Xiaqi to be the prince were presented to the imperial court by the officials.

A month later, under pressure, the Empress Dowager finally made Xia Chen issue an imperial decree, Li Xia prayed to be the crown prince.

After officially becoming the prince, more people chose to support Xia Qi.

But Xia Qi knew that the Empress Dowager made him the crown prince just to stabilize the expediency of the courtiers, and then the Empress Dowager would start to find a way to get rid of him.

Only if you really sit on the throne.

Now he just needs a reason to force the Queen Mother to abdicate.

A few days later, in a small town not far from the capital, a rebel army rose from the ground, went all the way south, and directly attacked the capital. The people affected by the war were all destitute.

They rebelled in the name of the Qing emperor. The power of their relatives has been growing for a long time, and the country is unstable. What they want is for the Queen Mother to abdicate.

And the leader of the rebel army was Xia Qi's subordinates, so Xia Qi and Shen Xubai planned this incident together.

The Empress Dowager sent several waves of soldiers to suppress it, but the effect was insignificant, and she did not dare to dispatch all the troops in the capital, after all, Shen Xubai was still eyeing the capital.

Afterwards, the Queen Mother wanted to send local troops there, but the surrounding troops were procrastinating for some reason and did not send troops for a long time. The Queen Mother knew that they were all from Shen Xubai, so they could not be dispatched at all.

What's more, those armies also hoped that the Queen Mother would abdicate.

The courtiers went up one after another, asking the Queen Mother to abdicate for the safety of the people and the country, and return the Xia family a stable country.

But the queen mother has held power for so many years, she is not willing to let it go easily, so she is still stubbornly resisting.

A few days later, Xia Qi directly sent troops to surround the entire imperial city.

The reason he gave was very simple. If the influence of foreign relatives is not removed, the country will not be safe. Even if this wave of rebels is suppressed, there will be another wave.

Xia Qi is now the crown prince, he is a legitimate prince, and no one in the court would dare to say that he is rebelling against his actions.

In the 12th year of Taihe, three days after Xia Qi besieged the city, the queen mother committed suicide in the imperial city under pressure.

And now Xia Chen, who is still the emperor, still stays in the palace. He knows that Xia Qi's soldiers have not withdrawn, and he knows Xia Qi's ambitions. If he continues to stay in the palace, he will definitely be forced by Xia Qi to abdicate. .

Now that the queen mother has been removed, it is the best time for him to regain power, and Xia Qi must not let Xia Qi drive him to death.

So Xia Chen led his troops to break through that night, broke out of the palace, and fled all the way to a city in the south. This is Xia Chen's territory and it is very safe for him.

Although Xia Chen has been controlled by the Queen Mother all these years, he has always wanted to resist. Naturally, it is impossible not to leave any behind, he will not be a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.

After Xia Chen escaped from the palace, Shen Xubai asked Xia Qi to stay in the palace, while he personally led the troops to pursue and kill him.

And Xu Qingjian was worried about Shen Xubai's safety, so he insisted on following him. Shen Xubai couldn't refuse him, so he had to agree. In addition, Xu Qingjian's skills are very good, even if he comes, as long as he doesn't mess around, there won't be any Danger.

The place where Xia Chen was hiding was just a small city, and there were not many troops and food stores. Shen Xubai sent people to surround the city and did not attack. Now he only needs to consume until they run out of food and grass, and then go out of the city and surrender.

The next day, Xia Chen sent someone to deliver a letter and a red rope to Shen Xubai.

The red rope was worn by Niannian, Xu Qingjian wove it for him, he could tell it at a glance.

"Nian Nian, this is Nian Nian's thing!" Xu Qingjian tightly grasped the red rope, his tone extremely flustered.

Shen Xubai's expression was also very ugly: "Niannian is in Xia Chen's hands?"

Xu Qingjian opened his mouth, but couldn't speak for a while, he only felt that his eyes went dark, and he almost fainted.

"Qingjian, don't worry." Shen Xubai hurriedly supported Xu Qingjian.

"Letter... let me read that letter." Xu Qingjian said panting.

Shen Xubai opened the letter with trembling fingers.

The letter was written by Xia Chen, and the general meaning of the letter is that Nian Nian is in their hands now, and he asked Xu Qingjian to be exchanged as a hostage tomorrow, otherwise the next time it will not be a red string, it may be a finger or an ear. kind of stuff.

Before reading this letter, Xu Qingjian still held some hope, thinking that maybe Xia Chen just got what Nian Nian had, but didn't really catch Nian Nian, but since Xia Chen asked him to exchange hostages tomorrow, then It means that Nian Nian is really in his hands.

"There are traitors... There are traitors in the house." Xu Qingjian slammed the letter in his hand on the table and said through gritted teeth, "I'm going to kill him, I'm going to kill him!"

"Don't worry, don't worry." Shen Xubai quickly supported Xu Qingjian's body, for fear that he would fall down in the next moment.

"I'm going to kill him..." Xu Qingjian panted heavily, breathing very rapidly.

"I'll send someone to investigate tonight." Shen Xubai said.

Xu Qingjian was speechless, so he could only nod his head with difficulty.

Soon, Xu Qingjian adjusted her mood, and said to Shen Xubai: "I have to exchange Nian Nian back."

Shen Xubai was silent and did not speak.

One is his son, and the other is his true love. Whoever takes the hostage is stabbing him in the heart.

But he has no choice, Xia Chen can't communicate at all, and Nian Nian is only over three years old, how could Shen Xubai let him stay in such a dangerous place as the enemy camp.

It is also impossible to attack by force, now that Nian Nian is in Xia Chen's hands, he can attack Nian Nian at any time.

The only way now is to ask Xu Qingjian to exchange hostages.

Seeing Shen Xubai's expression, Xu Qingjian knew that he was worried about him, so he quickly reached out to hold his hand.

Feeling Xu Qingjian's cold fingers covering him, Shen Xubai quickly raised his eyes to look at him.

"Don't worry about me, nothing will happen to me." Xu Qingjian said to Shen Xubai.

"That's the enemy camp, there's no one who can take care of you." Shen Xubai's voice sounded extremely hoarse.

Xu Qingjian took a deep breath, stretched out his arms to hug Shen Xubai, and Shen Xubai also stretched out his arms to hug Xu Qingjian.

"I will definitely come back alive." Xu Qingjian said softly.

"Okay." Shen Xubai lowered his head and gently kissed Xu Qingjian's forehead: "I believe in you."

"Tomorrow morning, I will accompany you there." Shen Xubai said.

Xu Qingjian nodded quickly.

This morning, Xu Qingjian and Shen Xubai stayed up all night. They discussed many plans overnight and worked out various methods to deal with all possible situations.

The next day, at dawn, Xu Qingjian and Shen Xubai set off on horseback, accompanied by several brave and powerful soldiers, and then they escorted Niannian back.

Xia Chen seemed to know that they would come early, and had already been waiting on the city wall.

"You are here." Xia Chen stood on the city wall, looking down at them.

Xu Qingjian tightened the reins in his hand, steered the horse forward a few steps, and said in a deep voice, "Let me see Niannian."

Regarding Xu Qingjian's request, Xia Chen just smiled lightly, and then gave an order to the people around him.

Soon, a person climbed up the city wall with a child in his arms, and the child was naturally Nian Nian.

Nian Nian's eyes were red, obviously from crying for a long time.

Xia Chen took Nian Nian and hugged him in his arms, and said to him softly, "Nian Nian, look at who is below?"

Hearing his words, Nian Nian glanced down.

After seeing both Shen Xubai and Xu Qingjian, Niannian couldn't help crying: "Daddy, Daddy...Niannian wants to go home."

"Don't be afraid, Daddy is here." Xu Qingjian hurriedly said to Niannian.

Said he was going to drive into the city.

Shen Xubai stopped Xu Qingjian, and then said loudly to Xia Chen: "I'll be your hostage, you let the two of them go back."

"No, I want Xu Qingjian." Xia Chen's tone was very firm.

Shen Xubai gritted his teeth, stared at him fiercely, wishing he could be hacked into pieces.

"Abai, don't worry." Xu Qingjian shook Shen Xubai's hand vigorously.

Shen Xubai looked at Xu Qingjian, took a deep breath, then nodded, and said, "You have to be careful."

"Okay." Xu Qingjian replied, and then entered the city gate with two soldiers.

Shen Xubai waited outside the city gate for a while, and soon the two soldiers came out again, one of them was still holding Nian Nian in his arms.

Only Xu Qingjian was left inside.

Shen Xubai took Nian Nian from the soldier's hand, hugged her tightly in her arms, then raised her eyes to glance at the city wall not far away.

He gritted his teeth hard, and finally said in a deep voice, "Go back."

After all, he pulled the rein hard and drove the horse back to the camp first, and the others followed quickly.

Nian Nian huddled in Shen Xubai's arms, crying hard, choked up constantly: "Father...the bad guy, the bad guy won't let Daddy go..."

"Don't be afraid, father will rescue daddy." Shen Xubai slowed down his tone and said softly.

"Really, really?" Nian Nian cried.

"Daddy is very powerful, he will be fine, do you trust Daddy?"

Nian Nian nodded vigorously: "Nian Nian believes."

Shen Xubai bowed his head and kissed Niannian's hair, and quickly brought him back to the camp.

The first thing after setting up Niannian, Shen Xubai asked him a crucial question: "How did you get caught by the bad guys?"

"Butler Liu took me out to play, he gave me a piece of candy, and then I don't remember it." Nian Nian said while crying.

When hearing this sentence, Shen Xubai was stunned.

"It's Butler Liu?" Shen Xubai asked tremblingly.

Liu Butler has followed him for so many years, he never thought that this traitor would be Liu Butler.

But in fact, if you think about it carefully, no one except Steward Liu has this ability.

He has placed so many hidden guards around Nian Nian to protect him, only Steward Liu has the right to send them away.

"Well, it's Steward Liu." Niannian wiped away her tears with her little hands, and nodded crying.