Qiu Yizi saw that there were four chairs in total, but six people were squeezed in. In addition to Yuchi Jiming standing on one side, there was still a chair missing, so he pretended to sit on the edge of the bed casually and let Zhao Chengxiao sit on the empty seat. He said: "Mr. Lin is indeed a great talent. If it weren't for his counselor, let alone being able to capture the Prince of Lingnan alive, even my life might have been lost several times."
Lin Shuhan was rarely humble and said, "I am just a scholar. When it comes to saving Mr. Qiu, it was this little sister Yuchi who helped several times, and I also benefited from it."
When Yuchi Lianghong heard people praising his daughter—especially the famous writer Lin Shuhan—he felt proud, but he had to be modest: "No, no. My daughter is naturally active. She didn't learn needlework, but she learned martial arts. Unfortunately, her skills are just mediocre. I'm sorry to make you laugh..."
Qiu Yizi seized the opportunity and said quickly: "Brother, you are too modest. Since Jiming came to help me, few people can last more than a few rounds under her. She has also made great contributions in killing enemies in the battlefield. It is true that a tiger father has a dog daughter. The only difficult person to deal with is the old lady from the Yuchi family..."
Yuchi Lianghong trembled when Qiu Yizi brought up the topic, and he saluted and said, "My dear brother, although this senior of our family is temporarily working for the cult leader, she has been away from home for a long time and has lost contact with our Yuchi family. Maybe she has other difficulties. My dear brother is someone who can speak in front of the emperor, so please don't accuse my Yuchi family of colluding with foreign enemies because of this."
Ever since Yuchi Lianghong reluctantly took on the role of chief instructor of the imperial guards, the Yuchi family, the foremost family in the martial arts world, has had inextricable ties with the imperial court. The lives of everyone in the family, as well as the rise and fall of the family, are all decided by the emperor's words. No wonder Yuchi Lianghong is very nervous about this matter.
Qiu Yizi is also deeply involved with the royal family, the imperial court, and the government, and wants to get out of it but cannot, so he empathizes with Yuchi Lianghong's thoughts: "Brother, please rest assured that the current emperor is a wise and wise ruler, and he must have known what was going on. But if this old lady really finds a way to snatch the Prince of Lingnan from us and causes huge trouble, then I'm afraid my little face may not be of any use..."
This was a very thorough statement. Yuchi Lianghong nodded his head after hearing it: "My dear brother, what you said makes sense. It makes sense. The most urgent task now is to send the King of Lingnan to the capital safely. If this is done, everything will be easy. My dear brother is a resourceful man. With Mr. Lin's support, my father and I will also help. As long as we are 120% cautious, this matter will not be difficult to handle, right?"
Yuchi Lianghong is indeed the leader of the martial arts world. There are so many strange heroes in the world. Although it cannot be said that everyone is convinced by him, they always give him some face. His words are indeed quite insightful, and he said everything that Qiu Yizi wanted to say, so he could only smile and nod.
But Lin Shuhan said, "This matter is both simple and difficult. Now that Lord Qiu has soldiers and generals under his command, as long as we plan properly, it is quite certain."
Qiu Yizhi knew that Lin Shuhan loved to keep people in suspense, so he straightened his body while sitting on the bed, bowed his hands and asked, "How do you say this? I'd like to ask you, sir."
Lin Shuhan raised the folding fan on the table, unfolded it, fanned it twice, and then closed it again. He then said slowly, "The difficulty is that we are in the open while our opponents are in the dark. The senior from the Yuchi family is very skilled in martial arts and her actions are very secretive. We don't know when she will strike and catch us off guard, so we have no way to defend ourselves. That's why I say it's difficult. The difficulty lies in the fact that we are like blind men touching an elephant and can't come up with any specific defense strategy."
He paused for a moment, and then heard the people in the room nodding in unison: "Mr. Lin is right, that makes sense!"
Lin Shuhan was very proud after hearing this. He took a sip of the warm water in the cup and continued, "It's easy because our goals are different from ours. Our enemies want the King of Lingnan alive and want to find a way to transport him alive to the south of the Yangtze River. But we want him dead or alive. If we fall into someone else's trap, we can just kill the King of Lingnan. That's not unacceptable. What do you think?"
As soon as he asked this question, the room became quiet.
You have to know that although Lingnan King Zheng Gui is now the top rebel, he is the emperor's younger brother after all, and his status is extremely respected. If he is really killed, if the emperor remembers the "fraternal love" and puts the crime of killing his brother on the heads of these officials, then these people will be immediately crushed to pieces - the so-called "living with the emperor is like living with a tiger" is about this truth.
After a long silence, Qiu Yizi spoke up again: "Sir, your analysis is reasonable, but our first choice is to send Prince Lingnan safely to the capital and hand him over to the emperor. Even if the prince is kidnapped by the enemy, we must find another way to get him back. Only when it is absolutely necessary can we consider killing the Prince Lingnan. Everyone, don't you think this makes sense?"
After hearing this, everyone in the room was convinced and nodded in agreement.
Although Lin Shuhan was not convinced, he knew that Qiu Yizi's decision was made after comprehensive consideration of the interests of many parties. Compared with his, his countermeasures were indeed too extreme.
Now that the plan had been decided, everyone expressed their opinions and considered over and over again the plan of escorting, or rather escorting the King of Lingnan to the capital.
By the time everyone had finally figured out what was going on, it was already evening.
For fear that someone might poison the food, Qiu Yi and his entourage brought all the rice, flour, vegetables, fish and meat with them. They also sent their own cooks in the army to work with Wu Ruofei and other female relatives to prepare more than 200 servings of food for everyone.
The next morning, Qiu Yizi counted all the soldiers several times, and checked the vehicles and horses used by the army. After ensuring that there was no problem, he set off for the capital Luoyang, led by Zhao Chengxiao and 17 personal soldiers, and followed by Yuchi Lianghong and his daughter.
Qiu Yi and his entourage did not choose the main roads or the small roads this time, and they also avoided the prosperous towns, but chose the roads with wide views. The reason for this was that even if there were spies sent by Lingnan Palace or Tianzun Sect to plot, they would not be at a loss in dealing with them without the cover of the crowd.
However, the measures deployed along the way did not work after all. The large group of people escorting Lingnan King Zheng Gui walked in fear all the way to Tongguan, but not a single person came to cause trouble.
When passing through the customs, Qiu Yizi asked Zhang Long to come forward and ordered the soldiers guarding the customs to disperse all the merchants and travelers who were queuing outside the gate to pass through, so as to make room for their own people to pass through.
Since Cui Nan was killed, the position of the Left General was vacant. Therefore, according to seniority, the Right General Wei Hu should have taken over the position of the Left General, and the vacant Right General must have been replaced by Zhang Long. Therefore, Zhang Long was very popular at that time, and the generals guarding the pass were too busy to curry favor with him, so how could they argue with him? After a brief discussion, they dispersed the crowd, and opened the city gate to let everyone in without even checking.
The security inside the pass is much tighter than outside the pass, but Qiu Yizi still didn't dare to relax. He moved forward carefully as before and finally arrived at the capital city of Luoyang.
Right now is a time of great chaos in the world. The capital is the core of the world and each city gate is guarded extremely tightly. This time even Zhang Long's face is useless.
Therefore, Qiu Yizhi asked Yuchi Lianghong to visit Prime Minister Zhongli Kuang and ask him to properly arrange for his entry into the city.
Yuchi Lianghong was in charge of the Ministry of Justice, and he got to know everyone from top to bottom. After a few twists and turns, he met Zhongli Kuang. Originally, the political affairs of the Han Dynasty were enough to keep Zhongli Kuang busy, and now the military affairs in the front were added. The prime minister was even more overwhelmed. He slept less than two hours a day, and he was always meeting the emperor, meeting people, and reviewing documents.
However, even a man like him who was busy with all kinds of affairs, when he heard who Qiu Yizi brought with him, he still put down everything at hand, persuaded all the people waiting for an audience outside the door to leave, and immediately took a sedan chair to enter the palace to meet the emperor. At the same time, he used the seal of the Prime Minister's Office to order the nine gates of Luoyang to be closed, all the officers and soldiers defending the city to be on duty, and implemented a curfew in advance, requiring all the citizens in the city to return home and not go out on the streets.
As for Yuchi Lianghong who came to report the news, Zhongli Kuang told him not to leave the city, but to stay in the prime minister's residence and wait for the emperor's order.
Yuchi Lianghong did not wait long before Zhongli Kuang came back and asked him to go back immediately to escort Qiu Yizi and others to bypass half of the capital city of Luoyang and enter the city from the Helu Gate, which was specially used for entering and exiting the imperial city, at midnight. Without stopping along the way, they drove the carriage carrying Lingnan King Zheng Gui straight to the imperial city.
When Yuchi Lianghong brought Qiu Yizi the news about Zhongli Kuang, it was just after noon and there were still five hours before they could enter the city.
Although Qiu Yizi felt that the time was dragging on too long, since it was his master Zhongli Kuang who gave the order personally, it must have been approved by the emperor, so he could only wait carefully outside the Helu Gate.
The Helu Gate is right next to the imperial palace. It was specially prepared to deal with any incidents in the imperial city. It is rarely opened and is guarded by special imperial guards. Therefore, there are few people outside the gate, and it looks very desolate and quiet. It is a perfect place to guard the King of Lingnan.
However, Qiu Yizi did not dare to take it lightly. In accordance with the situation of dealing with the enemy's superior force attack, he asked Zhao Chengxiao to command the troops to form a battle formation. They were not allowed to rest for a moment and even skipped lunch and dinner. They waited outside the Helu Gate, waiting for the city gate to open.
Just as the golden crow was setting, there was a faint knock on the door of Helu Gate.
Qiu Yizhi was startled when he heard this, and hurriedly put his ear close to the door, only to hear the knocks getting louder and louder, so he asked loudly through the crack of the door, "Who's knocking?"
As soon as he finished speaking, a sharp and hoarse reply came: "It's me, Zhongli Kuang. You lead the army to retreat thirty steps, the Helu Gate will be opened soon."
When Qiu Yi heard the voice of his long-lost master, tears almost fell from his eyes. He replied, "I will obey your orders..." Then he ordered his soldiers to follow Zhongli Kuang's instructions and move the entire tight formation backward thirty steps - not one step more, not one step less.
A gong sounded from inside the gate, and countless black figures suddenly appeared on the walls on both sides of the Helu Gate—all dressed as imperial guards. A painful and rough groan was heard from the door hinge, and the Helu Gate, which had been closed for who knows how long, was finally opened with a bang.
With mixed feelings, Qiu Yizi looked towards the open city gate, but found that it was pitch black inside and he could not see anything clearly.
He was about to take a few steps forward to take a closer look when he suddenly heard Zhong Li Kuang's voice from inside the doorway: "Light the lamp—"
Following this command, countless torches and pine torches were suddenly lit inside the door, illuminating the surroundings like daytime, making Qiu Yi, who had been in the dark for a long time, unable to open his eyes for a moment.