The palace has always been a place where people want to see.
In the book, they boasted especially about the imperial palace, such as the Qionglou Yuyu, the double-eaved golden hall, and everywhere you can see women in palace costumes wearing pearls and jades and wearing colorful silks, holding incense burners and jade plates, and serving the delicacy of the world.
Actually the palace is not like that.
Inside the ochre-red palace walls, the double-eaved palaces are indeed majestic, but they are far from the Heavenly Palace Wonderland. The house is a house, it will not bring its own clouds and mist, and it is not built of jade and white jade.
The beautiful women in high-bun palace dresses were even less visible. The servants wore robes of crow blue and brown, and the maids wore sapphire and indigo clothes, none of which was conspicuous. They stand on the palace wall or in the corner of the palace, almost blending with the furnishings.
Now that there is martial law everywhere in the palace, even these people walking with their heads buried in them can't be seen.
The Guards patrolled everywhere, and every palace gate was tightly closed, and there was no movement inside.
The ink carp took a few glances.
He found that Meng Qi took him with him to track the few servants who had dug holes to hide things and dug out the underground water veins.
"What happened to these people?"
"It's nothing, it's just that they happen to be in the same direction as we are going. I think they know how to take a trail to avoid the guards, so they take advantage of it." Meng Qi is no stranger to the internal structure of the imperial city. Although several dynasties have been changed, the general orientation of the building has not changed.
As Meng Qi walked, he said, "Prince will usually live in a place closer to the previous dynasty, with the imperial garden as the boundary, and the residence of the concubines and concubines in the back."
His footsteps suddenly stopped, his expression hesitant.
"Something's wrong."
Mo Li looked up and saw that a nearby palace was in disrepair for a long time, showing a bit of dilapidation. Although there were no weeds, it did not look like it was inhabited.
Meng Qi frowned and said, "Ahead is the East Palace, which should be the residence of other princes. This Chunhua Palace is the largest, divided into seven halls. During the Chu Dynasty, it was the place where the prince's clan lived and studied. Qi Chao was abandoned?"
He just said that he knew where the second prince lived, and was quickly slapped by the fact.
There are imperial guards coming and going in this Chunhua Palace. Seeing that they have no scruples, let alone care, it is obviously an vacant palace. The search for martial law is only to prevent rebels hiding in it.
Mo Li looked at the mottled ochre-red palace wall outside Chunhua Palace, and suddenly said, "Sixteen years ago, Lu Zhang led his army to invade the imperial city and massacred the Chu clan?"
Meng Qi pursed her lips and woke up.
"You mean..."
Because so many people died in Chunhua Palace, not long after the founding of the Qi Dynasty, everything in the palace needed repairs, and money was needed for repairs, so an "unlucky" place like Chunhua Palace was naturally abandoned.
"Actually, people have died in all palaces, many people, not just Chunhua Palace."
It seems unreasonable to only taboo this place, but this is the usual logic of people.
When the royal family was alive, their status was prominent, and even if they died, they seemed to be more powerful than others.
As long as people feel that something is unlucky, they can always find thousands of reasons.
"I didn't expect this." Meng Qi said unexpectedly, "I thought Lu Zhang wouldn't care about this. The Qi Dynasty called the king of the previous dynasty unreasonable, so he replaced it. Could it be that Lu Zhang was also afraid of the will of the Chu Dynasty? Not yet?"
"The palace is so big, where are you going to find the second prince?"
Mo Li found a hidden eaves, which was covered by a pear tree. He looked around and found that many of the guards were heading towards the palace where the water column had just been sprayed.
"If the second prince has been captured, in addition to being imprisoned in the residence, he may be sent to other places under house arrest." Meng Qi pondered, "Where the defense was originally tight, we would go wherever we could. Find Lu Zhang. But this kind of place may also be a trap... Those who tried to rebel or assassinate went there and could only see an empty hall and heavy ambush."
This kind of ambush is good for Qingwu ancestors to enjoy, they don't have to go to learn.
"Further ahead is the East Palace."
"The Crown Prince of the East Palace is terminally ill, but someone hides something in a desolate courtyard. Do you think this has anything to do with treason?" Mo Li thought thoughtfully.
"It's hard to say, even if no one rebelled, there are always things in the palace that others don't want to know about."
Meng Qi finally finished his haircut, changing from an adult to a child, and then from a child to an adult. In addition to clothes, hair is also very troublesome.
When he and Mo Li came out of the secret passage, their hair was disheveled. No, it affects the appearance!
"It's not hard for the doctor to know... Look, they stopped."
The group of servants found that there were more imperial guards near the East Palace. Their clothes were stained with mud and water, and there was no way to fool them.
"How is this good!" The leading servant was restless.
He was still holding a box in his hand, and the servants followed and looked around, as if trying to find a place to hide things.
When Meng Qi and Mo Li came over, they saw that they had found a tree, climbed up, stuffed the box into the hole of the tree, covered it with branches and leaves, and then fled in all directions.
Meng Qi was used to this kind of secret sent to his eyes.
Gerbils always hear all kinds of secrets, and it is not surprising to encounter one more.
"The doctor might as well guess, what will be inside?"
"It will be buried, it shouldn't be a perishable item, neither bank notes nor documents and account books... The box is not too big, but it's not too small. If it is a small object like a jade pendant and a golden hairpin, you can wrap it in a handkerchief. If it is stuffed in a crevice somewhere, it is extremely concealed and there is no need to take risks. Since it is deliberately placed in a box and a pit has to be dug and buried, it means that the contents inside may be more valuable and cannot be damaged or even camouflaged. problem can be found.”
Mo Li analyzed each item one by one, and when he finished speaking, Meng Qi suddenly thought of a possibility.
"Could it be the Imperial Jade Seal?"
"what?"
Mo Li was very surprised. Qi Chao was looking for a jade seal that he could not find for a long time, but it was in the hands of the prince of Qi Chao. This seemed like a big joke.
Judging from the words of those servants, they were ordered to hide things, and if things were not well hidden, they would fail the prince.
"Whether it's a jade seal, just look at it and you'll know."
What others had hidden for a long time, Meng Qi took it as soon as he raised his hand.
Meng Qi touched all sides of the box and shook it again to confirm that there was no mechanism inside.
"This is a nine-eye Qiqiao lock. This lock alone is worth a hundred gold." Meng Qi fiddled with the lock hanging on the box.
Then he stretched out his hand and twisted the lock abruptly.
The box was opened, revealing something squarely wrapped in red silk.
Meng Qi was determined just by looking at the appearance, and he nodded at Mo Li.
When the red ribbon was untied, what appeared in front of him was indeed the jade seal engraved with "Ordered by the sky, longevity and prosperous".
The jade quality is lustrous and lustrous, the tentacles are cool and flawless. There are wavy lines on the bottom of the jade seal, and a squatting Chilong on the upper part.
"There were such amazing craftsmen in the Qin Dynasty?" Mo Li almost directly said that the jade seal was fake.
The jade carving style of 1,500 years ago is even less so.
"I don't know if this is the piece of He's jade that Emperor Qin got. But this is indeed the piece I've seen before, and it's also the piece of jade that I brought up from the bottom of the Qingjiang River and gave it to Emperor Chu Yuan."
Mo Li nodded and said in a deep voice, "Then this is indeed the Imperial Jade Seal, and things are getting more and more strange."
Sort out what happened these days and the rumors I heard: the prince was seriously ill and was about to die. Someone in the palace colluded with the Qingwu ancestor to prepare for a rebellion, but the emperor Lu Zhang discovered it in advance. The gate of Taijing was blocked, and the guards searched everywhere. Lu Zhang thought he had controlled the situation and began to eliminate the rebellion. At this time, the prince sent his cronies to secretly bury the jade seal...
"The person who rebelled was indeed the second prince, not the prince?"
No matter how Mo Li thought about it, he felt that the prince was more suspicious.
Judging from the fact that Lu Zhang sent Jin Yiwei to track down Meng Qi's whereabouts, it is true that the Qi Dynasty did not pass on the imperial jade seal. How did the prince get it? How did you hide from the emperor? The prince is about to die, so what is the purpose of burying the jade seal? Who is he going to leave the jade seal to
The Imperial Guards served the emperor, and if they found the Chuan Guoyu Seal, they would not dare to hide it, but would still give it to the emperor.
So the prince was defending Lu Zhang.
"This prince is very wrong with the emperor." Meng Qi said to himself.
Although the dynasties and dynasties did not have a good prince, the relationship between the prince and the emperor was always delicate. They were called father and son, and there were many people who turned against each other and rebelled. But it is rare for the relationship to be so delicate.
This is not as simple as hiding the jade seal. The actions of the servants and the unfinished meaning in their words clearly prove that they are loyal to the prince and hostile to the emperor.
A prince who is about to die, how can he let these servants not be prosperous and rich, and hide the jade seal of the country at the cost of their own lives, instead of handing over the jade seal of the country
"If you don't understand, you can ask yourself." Meng Qi hinted.
"Looking for the prince? Where's Lu Zhang, don't you care?"
Meng Qi didn't answer, he just waved his hand casually, not knowing if he meant "in time" or "can't die".
The East Palace is close at hand, and the Imperial Guard is closely guarded. Compared with the second prince who does not know where he is being held, and the emperor Lu Zhang who does not know where he is hiding, the crown prince is indeed easier to find.
"Who?"
A janissary guard vaguely saw a shadow flash, and immediately shouted.
His companions all looked over, but there was no one there.
"Could it be a mistake?"
"No, the commander said that there may be a rebel with strong martial arts infiltrating the palace, search!"
The Imperial Guards immediately gathered around, and Meng Qi and Mo Li had already climbed over the palace wall, bent down slightly, climbed up the eaves lightly, and connected the two palaces at a very fast speed, and in a blink of an eye they arrived at the Prince's study. near the pavilion and the bedroom.
The glazed tiles used in the palace are slippery and untenable, and are very easy to be stepped on.
However, in front of the top experts, this is not a problem. After all, in addition to the tiles, there are sturdy wood and masonry as the main structure of the palace, and there are crouching beasts on the eaves to borrow.
If it wasn't during the day, but at night, Meng Qi's speed could be even faster.
Now I can only try to get as close to the bucket arch at the bottom of the eaves as possible, so as not to expose my figure.
However, the accident still happened.
Under the eaves of the bookstore, there was a tan cat with tawny fur squatting silently, and it happened to stop on the only way. Meng Qi didn't notice it at first, but when he got close, he was almost startled.
"Meow."
Tanuki slowly wiped his face with his paws.
Meng Qi: "..."
Ink carp: "… "
After staring at Meng Qi and Mo Li for a while, he could see that these two were not here to grab the territory, the civet cat jumped at random, jumped to the other side of Dougong, and gave way.
"… "
The mood of the two became more complicated.
"Meow?" The civet cats looked at them suspiciously, didn't they leave
At this time, there was a waiter in the yard who shouted anxiously and in a low voice: "Who saw His Highness's cat? Why did he run away without a shadow in a blink of an eye, what time is it, can you all have some refreshments! By the way, Tai doctor What about people, haven't you come yet?"
"Report to Director Chen, the imperial doctor was stopped outside."
"What? What do those janitors mean, His Highness will always be His Highness the Crown Prince if he lives for one day, and they are... really abominable!"
At this time, there was a noise from the direction of the bedroom.
A palace maid rushed over in a panic, and said with a weeping voice: "His Royal Highness coughed up blood again!"