Huang Qiong also nodded solemnly at this reminder from the commander in the capital. But after pondering for a while, he said: "Master Yu, you must tell the generals who lead the army down the waterway to protect King Jing's family after the city is broken. Remember, what I want is all the living family members, even the whole family." Not even a single concubine is allowed, and no sexual intercourse or abuse is allowed."
Hearing Huang Qiong's solemn tone when he said these words, the Lord knew that this request was probably not just the request of the British King, but the emperor was most likely behind it. Therefore, he did not dare to hesitate and nodded cautiously: "Please rest assured, Your Majesty, the general will do his best to protect Wang Jing's family."
Seeing him nod, Huang Qiong also knew that this commander in the capital should be the kind of person who keeps his word. So there is no need to warn me again. We are all smart people, and it would be bad if we talk too much. Moreover, he should know that this request was not only made by himself, but also by the emperor.
All that needed to be said had been said, and Huang Qiong did not linger any longer in the Xiaoqi camp. After a simple farewell, Huang Qiong took his personal bodyguards, as well as Fan Jian and Su Changshi, and galloped towards Hulao Pass under the escort of 500 cavalry allocated by the Xiaoqi Battalion.
Huang Qiong still knows the importance of Hulao Pass. Although I don’t know if Jiang Dutong will be bribed by King Jing. But Huang Qiong knew one thing. Whoever holds Hulao is directly related to the length of the counter-insurgency, and even the direction of the war between the two sides. If Hulao Pass is lost, the cost of getting it back may be extremely high.
Huang Qiong really doesn't know how his emperor employs people. If that Jiang Dutong was really as good as the commander in the capital said. I am afraid that Hulao Pass is now in danger. With the skill of his brothers, how could he not pay a large price to buy such an important official?
It is even possible that this Jiang Dutong himself was someone who took great pains to place him in Hulao Pass as Dutong. It was precisely because the gains and losses at Hulao Pass were so important that Huang Qiong did not dare to delay. There was another reason why Huang Qiong rushed to Hulao so quickly, that is, he wanted to solve the mysteries that he had not understood since he left the palace.
In Huang Qiong's view, the second king who chose the most inappropriate time to rebel may not really want to rebel. But who can have such great ability to force two princes to rebel at once? The two proclamations of the two kings' open rebellion were sent to the Xiaoqi Camp along with the emperor's imperial edict, and Huang Qiong had the honor to read them.
Those two messages, in Huang Qiong's opinion, were just to make the prince look bad and force the emperor to take the initiative to abolish the prince's position as heir apparent. Even the story of the prince raising an assassin and a male favorite is all true. But judging from the fact that the two kings and the prince had the upper hand most of the time in their fights, there was no need for the two kings to choose this least advantageous method.
This is enough to show that the rebellion of the two kings was definitely not their own will. Not to mention anything else, if you really want to kill the prince, you only need a secret twist. At that time, even if the emperor is doting on the prince, he will turn a blind eye to the fact that the prince is doting on his male favorite. But raising an assassin would be enough to ruin the prince's career as a heir apparent.
There is probably no emperor with real power in the world who turns a blind eye to his son raising a large number of assassins. You know, the prince and the emperor have always been contradictory in their identities. The princes were all appointed by the emperor. Except for a few emperors who had no heirs, most of them were the emperor's biological sons.
But on the other hand, father and son are still competitors in disguise, and can even be said to be mortal enemies. It is said that there are no two days in heaven and no two masters among the people. There is only one throne, but in addition to the reigning emperor, there is now a designated heir. And the emperor who was accustomed to telling the truth would never give up his power even until his death.
One couldn't bear to give up his power before death, and the other was afraid that his father would depose him as the crown prince, so he only wanted to take over as soon as possible. Therefore, even if the prince is the most favored son of the emperor, after he is established as the prince, the relationship between father and son may have changed a bit. The two people have a relationship of inheritance and a certain degree of hostility.
With this premise, even if the prince is raising an assassin, even a caring emperor will never tolerate this prince and continue to stay in the position of crown prince. Even because of some scruples, the prince's position as crown prince cannot be abolished for the time being. But he will gradually take back his power and even control the prince.
Therefore, the measures taken by the two kings can only be said to be the most inferior method and the most unnecessary method. This is not a method of killing one thousand enemies and inflicting eight hundred losses on oneself, but killing one thousand enemies and inflicting three thousand losses on oneself. Therefore, Huang Qiong always believed that there must be another reason for the two kings' rebellion.
It's just that he has never figured out what the reason is. Even Huang Qiong believed to a certain extent that the two kings were not forced to rebel this time, but were directly controlled by others. Only under certain people's control can we have to do the opposite. However, Huang Qiong couldn't tell who this person was and what he was capable of.
When thinking of the two messages, the two kings pointed out that among the sudden death of the three kings, the real culprit behind the death of the two kings was the prince. But he did not say that his assassination had something to do with the prince. This verified his original guess that the prince was definitely not the real culprit of his assassination.
And this person, either could not be detected due to the vast power of the two kings, or he is the person who controls the two kings. But Huang Qiong feels that the latter is more likely. But what exactly is this mystery can probably only be solved after meeting King Jing. Huang Qiong had a hunch that her first meeting with this second brother wouldn't be too far away.
It was precisely because of these things that Huang Qiong did not dare to delay. Apart from feeding and drinking water to the horses a few times along the way, they didn't make any stops. This is also thanks to his Qinghai Cong Divine Horse. If it had been replaced by the royal horses in the palace, I am afraid it would have been exhausted.
It's just that although the mount is a BMW horse, Huang Qiong is not a cavalry person. Although he has now learned to ride a horse, his riding skills are only average. Not to mention that the control of horses is not as comfortable as that of the old cavalry, even King Yong is far behind. Running nearly a hundred miles in one breath really made Huang Qiong feel exhausted.
When they arrived at a small mountain village near Hulao Pass to rest, Huang Qiong spent a lot of effort to get off the horse. At this moment, the insides of his legs were already stained with blood. Also suffering a lot was Fan Jian, who was born into a wealthy family, and barely learned how to ride a horse after going to the Xiaoqi Camp to study unexpectedly. As for Su Changshi, he was directly left in the Xiaoqi camp because he couldn't ride a horse.
After dismounting, he took the water bag handed over by Wang Dalong. After drinking most of the water in one breath, he sat on the big rock at the entrance of the village and rested for a while. Only then did Huang Qiong feel a little more energetic. After feeling that he had regained some strength, Huang Qiong found the captain assigned to him by the commander of the capital.
The captain named Zhao was a member of Hulao Pass. The first place for soldiers to eat food was at Hulao Pass. Later, as a private soldier, he followed the then commander-in-chief and was transferred to the border army before leaving Hulao Pass. It was precisely because he was not familiar with the situation here that the commander in the capital sent him to assist Huang Qiong.
After Captain Zhao was found by his bodyguard, Huang Qiong pointed to the Xiongguan Pass at the foot of the mountain and said, "Captain Zhao, I heard what Commander Yu Du said, are you familiar with Hulao Pass? See if you can, in Without alerting the garrison behind the gate, find a way to get into the gate to check the reality inside the gate?"
Seeing the King of England asking him what to say, Captain Zhao also said happily: "What I said to the prince, Mr. Yu is not wrong. The last general is a person near Hulao Pass, because his hometown was hit by a plague when he was fourteen years old. , except for the two sisters who got married, the rest of the family was gone. The then commander-in-chief, Mr. Zhang, saw that the general was pitiful, so he took the younger one to serve in the army and feed him. "
"Later, I followed Mr. Zhang and served as a full-time frontier army. I worked in the frontier army for several years and accumulated a little merit before being promoted to the position of captain. Last year, I was transferred from the frontier army to the Xiaoqi camp with the rotation of military attachés. I am very interested in the Hulao Pass area. , in our entire Xiaoqi battalion, no one is more familiar with him than the general. Many of the colleagues of the general when he joined the army are still serving in Hulao Pass. But?"
Huang Qiong, who was looking at the steep terrain of Hulao Pass at the foot of the mountain and secretly admired that the majestic pass and the long road were as real as iron, heard these two words in his mouth. He turned to look at the captain and said angrily: "Now that the military situation is so tense, why are you, a grown man, so hesitant? If you have anything to say, just say it."
Hearing some dissatisfaction in Huang Qiong's words, Captain Zhao hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, although we are rushing, we have taken small roads instead of official roads. But I don't know if you have noticed that the closer we get along the way. Hulao Pass, the population is becoming increasingly sparse. Especially the mountain village we are in now. I just inspected it at the end and found that there is no one there. "
"Although there have been changes in Zhengzhou, Hulao Pass, which is an important place in Gyeonggi Province, will definitely be closed. But there are no people in this village, which is a bit abnormal. The village we are in is within Hulao Pass, not Outside Hulao Pass. Even if there are changes in Guandong, the whole village should not be deserted in this pass."
"Although Hulao Pass is not a big city, there are still some ordinary people around it. There should also be many dependents of the troops stationed in the city living in this area. At the moment, the rebel army has not yet reached Hulao Pass. Even if the pass is closed , and it is impossible to relocate the surrounding residents so cleanly."
"Especially now it is the autumn harvest season. If nothing serious happened, no farmer would give up on the crops that are about to mature. My lord, you must know that one year's autumn harvest is related to the family's food rations for the next year and everything else. The money and food collected by the imperial court. The current situation is really strange. From the general’s perspective, should we retreat temporarily?”
When Captain Zhao said this, even though he had never experienced it before, Huang Qiong immediately felt that something was wrong. He came suddenly, and the people here would not know that he was coming in advance, and it would be impossible for them to go out and hide from the soldiers. Moreover, since he is a member of the imperial army, there is no need for the people here to hide out.
Moreover, when Captain Zhao reminded him, Huang Qiong also thought that after approaching Hulao Pass for fifty miles, he didn't see a single farmer along the way. The crops in the fields have only been half harvested, and some have not even been harvested yet. When we arrived at the village where we were now, it was even more deserted. This was definitely abnormal.
If this situation occurred outside Hulao Pass, it might be considered normal. Strengthening the wall and clearing the field can also be regarded as a tactic. Even though Hulao Pass is very close to Zhengzhou, there is no need to fortify the walls and clear the country. But this can be regarded as a reluctant and justifiable reason. But this is inside the customs, not outside the customs facing Zhengzhou, so this situation is abnormal.
