King Linzi was poisoned and fell to the ground. He died almost instantly. When everyone was shocked and had not recovered, they heard a "wow" sound. They followed the sound and saw a mouthful of blood spurting out from Shitang. The color of blood was It turned black, and the whole person fell forward to the ground. He only struggled twice and died.
In an instant, two lives were lost, one was the prince of Dong Qi, and the other was a general under the prince's command. Everyone was stunned.
The prince's eyes widened, his face twitched, he rushed forward, hugged King Linzi, and hissed: "Third child, third child...!" He had always been quite calm, but at this moment, his brothers were dying in front of him. , but he was extremely excited, and his voice was hoarse and sad.
Qining watched helplessly as King Linzi and Shitang fell to the ground one after another. He was shocked and knew that something was wrong. At this moment, Xuzhou Governor Fang Xingzhai came to his senses and shouted: "There are assassins, everyone is waiting for you." You are not allowed to move where you are."
Fang Xingzhai shouted, and Su Lun, another general under the prince's command, also came to his senses and said in a deep voice: "Surround this place. No one can move without His Highness's order." He had already drawn his saber, and everyone except the prince himself was nearby. The soldiers, as well as the prince's guards in fine clothes, heard Su Lun's voice, and there was a loud "choking, choking, choking" sound for a while. They all drew their swords. The surrounding soldiers immediately formed a circle, holding broadswords and spears. , the surrounding is airtight.
Wu Dalin also knew that something was wrong. He brought more than ten soldiers over. Including the guards of the Hou Mansion beside Qining, there were only more than twenty people. At this time, they were surrounded in the middle. The situation was urgent. Wu Dalin pressed his hand on the handle of the knife. On the way, he still remained calm and said in a deep voice: "Don't move rashly, don't draw your sword!"
He knew very well that this was a tense moment. King Linzi and Shitang both drank and were poisoned to death. Everyone knew that the poisoned wine was donated by the Chu State envoy. The other party would definitely target the envoy. As long as Bian draws his sword and makes the other party think that he is resisting, a fight will probably result.
Sure enough, Situ Mingyue looked at Qining and said angrily: "Jin Yihou, what is going on?"
Qining looked solemn and said, "I also want to know what's going on."
Fang Xingzhai pointed at Qining and said: "You... you, the Chu State, were so cruel that you poisoned the King of Linzi. Qining, do you know your guilt?"
"My country, Chu, has sent a mission specially to repair the harmonious relationship between the two countries. I don't know what the crime is?"
Fang Xingzhai said angrily: "You still claim that you are not guilty? Do you think everyone is blind?" Pointing to the jar of wine, he said: "Let me ask you, is this jar of wine offered by your mission?"
"Not bad." Qining nodded.
Fang Xingzhai sneered: "You just admit it, but you still dare to say that you are not guilty?"
Qi Ning said calmly: "This jar of wine is indeed dedicated to the prince by me, but the person who delivers the wine may not be the one who poisoned it."
"Are you still quibbling?" Fang Xingzhai clenched his fist and said, "Qining, although you are a Marquis of Jinyi of Chu State, you must pay with your life for killing our King Linzi of Qi."
Su Lun had already said in a deep voice: "We've taken them all!"
The surrounding Dong Qi soldiers rushed towards them like wolves and tigers. Wu Dalin said sternly: "Who dares to take action?" He knew that if he didn't resist at this time, he would be captured without mercy. Although the opponent was outnumbered and powerful, no one in Chu State showed any fear. Wu Dalin He was the first to draw his sword and rush to Qi Ning's side. The others also rushed forward to protect Qi Ning.
The Prince of Dong Qi was holding the body of King Linzi next to him, feeling extremely sad. In fact, once Qi Ning took action at this time, he could completely control the Prince of Dong Qi. As long as the Prince was in his hands, the officers and soldiers of Dong Qi would not dare to act rashly, and they could even Get out of trouble this way.
But Qining knew that once he took action, there would be no turning back.
The moment King Linzi fell to the ground, Qining knew that he was in serious trouble. King Linzi was not an ordinary person, but a dignified prince of Dong Qi. If this matter could not be explained clearly, the entire Chu State delegation might not be able to leave Dong Qi.
But once he takes the crown prince of Dong Qi hostage, no matter what he says next, the people of Dong Qi will not believe it.
The soldiers of Dong Qi brandished their swords and were about to kill them, but they heard a voice shouting: "Stop!" It was the prince of Dong Qi who stood up and shouted loudly.
The prince shouted to stop. Naturally, no one dared to move, but Qining and the others were still surrounded.
The prince turned around, looked at Qining, and said, "Marquis Jinyi, I would like to hear your explanation."
Qi Ning sighed and said: "Your Highness is wise, killing requires a motive. If we poisoned the wine and killed King Linzi, what is the motive?"
"You are not trying to kill King Linzi." Situ Mingyue said with a stern face, "You are offering these two jars of wine to His Highness. His Highness did not know that the wine was poisonous, so he gave it to Shitang. No one knew in advance that King Linzi would drink. , so your goal is not King Linzi, let alone Shitang, but His Highness."
Qi Ning stared at Situ Mingyue and asked: "Situ Changshi, I still have the same question, what is our motive for harming His Highness? Anyone who does something has a motive, let alone murdering His Highness. Waiting for something important?" He glanced at the prince and said, "One of the prince and I are in Chu State, and the other is in Qi State. We have never met each other before, nor have we had any dealings. Even you and I have not had much contact before. , let alone hatred, why should I harm the prince?"
"You know what the intentions are." Fang Xingzhai said aggressively, "You don't have to make excuses here. King Linzi was killed by you. No matter how you make excuses, you have no reason to survive."
Qi Ning smiled faintly and asked: "Master Fang, what do you think our intentions are? Even if Mo wants to punish us, we must make it clear. What do you think is our purpose of harming His Highness?"
Fang Xingzhai said in a deep voice: "Your Highness is the Crown Prince of Da Qi. Harming His Highness will naturally cause turmoil in our Da Qi. How can you, the Chu State, take advantage of this?"
Qi Ning sneered and said unceremoniously: "Master Fang, are you stupid, or am I stupid? We want to cause turmoil in Qi State, and we take advantage of it. What's the point? Do you think our Chu State is going to send troops to Qi State? ? You might as well ask yourself, if our Chu State attacks Qi State, will it be of any benefit to our great Chu state? Although I am not smart, I am definitely not stupid. Poisoning wine, such a cheap trick, is not asking for death. Road? There are nearly 300 people in my mission, how could they come to the funeral even though they knew they were going to die?"
The prince remained silent until he finally said, "The wine is poisonous. What's the explanation?"
"I really don't know the reason for this." Qi Ning frowned and said, "Your Highness, those who are clean will be clean. I ask myself that I have no motive to harm Your Highness, let alone the intention to harm Your Highness."
The prince pondered for a moment and then asked: "Jin Yihou, I also believe that you have no intention of harming anyone, but... before you offered the poisoned wine, did you check that the wine was poisonous?"
Qi Ning was startled, thinking that if I found out that it was poisonous, could I still give it to you? Suddenly I thought, could it be that these imperial wines had been manipulated beforehand and I became the scapegoat? He frowned and said: "Your Highness, this has indeed not been inspected. This is a gift prepared by the imperial court. It is a fine wine from the past year. If you want to inspect it, you have to open the seal, which is naturally impossible."
The prince said: "I can believe that you have no intention of harming me, but have you ever thought that this matter is not directed at me, but at you?" After a pause, he said: "Are you here? There is an enemy in the court, and before you set out, was the wine tampered with?"
Qin Ning thought that it was not impossible, and thought to himself that if this was the case, the trouble would be big. No matter who poisoned him, he sent the poisoned wine himself. Now that King Linzi has been poisoned and died, the people of Dongqi will naturally not If he gives up, he will most likely not be able to leave Dong Qi.
"Your Highness, it is actually easy to verify whether the truth is true." Qining said: "There is still one jar of the two jars of wine given to His Highness last night. Your Highness can also open the other jar to see if it is poisonous. . I also sent someone to immediately bring the other jars of wine over and test them in front of everyone. If the jars of wine in my motorcade are all poisonous, then I will be responsible for this and I will definitely apologize to His Highness."
Fang Xingzhai sneered: "Even if the wine you have is not poisonous, it still can't prove that it was not poisoned by you? You...!" Before he could finish speaking, the prince had already raised his hand, stopped Fang Xingzhai's words, and said: "Just press It will be done as Jin Yihou wishes."
Qi Ning told Qi Feng to go back and get the wine, and the prince also sent Situ Mingyue to get another jar of wine, and also ordered people to place the bodies of King Linzi and Shitang first.
After the bodies of King Linzi and Shitang were carried down, not long after, Situ Mingyue also took another jar of wine and placed it on the table. Situ Mingyue ordered someone to pat open the sealing mud, but Qi Ning stopped him and said, "Check first. For a moment." He came closer, and the prince also came closer. Qi Ning took a closer look, and suddenly pointed to a place and said: "Your Highness, please look here."
The prince lowered his head and looked at it, and suddenly found that there was an extremely small hole on the top of the wine jar. It was so fine that if you didn't have good eyesight or didn't look carefully, it would be impossible to find it. Qining said: "Your Highness, if I guess correctly, this jar of wine has been poisoned, and the poison seeped in through these pores."
The prince ordered: "Come here, open the altar and test for poison!"
Someone immediately came forward, patted open the sealing mud, took a silverware and dipped it in it. After taking it out, he quickly saw that the silverware turned black under the sunlight. Fang Xingzhai sneered and said: "It is indeed poisonous. "
At this time, Qi Feng had already led people to bring over all the remaining eight jars of wine from the mission. The prince said: "It's not necessary to test them all for poison. Just pick three jars from them."
Situ Mingyue casually brought three jars of wine over and tested them for poison one by one. Qining felt tense at this moment. If these wines were poisonous, things would be more complicated, and his situation would be more dangerous. The poison that poisoned the King of Linzi You can't escape the guilt no matter what.
Everyone stared closely and saw that the silverware was inserted into the three jars of wine one after another. There was no change in the silverware. The person who tested the poison had already said to the prince: "Your Highness, none of the three jars of wine are poisonous!"
Qi Ning and others were slightly relieved, but they suddenly thought that the two jars of wine given to the prince must have been poisoned by someone after the prince accepted them. This was obviously someone close to the prince, but they did not know who wanted to put the prince in harm's way. As for the place of death, if King Linzi and Shitang hadn't been scapegoats today, it might have been the Crown Prince of Dong Qi who died.