At nightfall, a large number of tigers and leopards from the Nanya Forbidden Army, led by spies from the Nilin Division of the North Yamen, walked out from the palace gate of the imperial city and headed straight for Chengenfang, which was not far away. In a moment, three thousand soldiers and horses rushed into the inner square and surrounded the Prince Consort's Mansion in a blink of an eye.
Thousands of torches illuminated the gate of the palace as if it were daytime. The captain who led the team came forward to call the door and told the steward of the Prince Consort's house his purpose: a major theft occurred in the palace, and the national treasure Seven Treasures Phoenix Hairpin was stolen.
According to eyewitness accounts, the criminal thief was chased in a panic and had now fled into the Prince Consort's Mansion with the stolen goods. In order to recover the treasure and protect the safety of Her Royal Highness, the imperial army was ordered by Fengyi Palace to enter the palace to protect it.
Of course, it's called a guard, but it's actually a search.
The housekeeper felt like a mirror, knowing that the other party had bad intentions, and he quickly shook his head like a rattle: Don't talk to me about these useless things. This is where Princess Fenyang's chariot is located, and it is also the residence of Lord Murong, the imperial general and the commander-in-chief of the Qinglong Army. If there are bad guys sneaking in, our soldiers will handle it themselves, without you having to provide protection.
As for hunting down thieves, please show the emperor's decree, otherwise you won't be able to enter.
The Forbidden Army represents the imperial power. Where have they been treated like this in the imperial capital? The captain immediately became furious and pushed the old housekeeper away, preparing to order his troops to rush into the mansion.
When Murong Xue's soldiers saw this, they immediately became angry. They showed their weapons to protect the butler and scolded him to stop, otherwise they would kill him without mercy.
Suddenly, soldiers from both sides were at war with each other, and there was an armed confrontation at the gate. A conflict was about to break out.
At this time, the seventh princess Li Xi, accompanied by her maid, walked out of the inner courtyard of the Prince Consort's Mansion. Faced with the tense situation in front of her, she first asked the soldiers to put away their weapons, and then asked the captain of the Forbidden Army: "Who are you? Tell me your name and position!"
The captain suppressed the fire, raised his hands and saluted: "The last general, Zhang Yangzeng, the captain of the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry Army, comes to see Her Royal Highness the Princess."
"Captain of the Dian Army?" Li Xi sneered: "Is this palace already so miserable now? Even a small fifth-grade servant dares to block the door and shout domineeringly?"
Zhang Yangzeng responded in a neither humble nor arrogant tone: "Princess, I forgive you. I meant no offense at all. I just acted in accordance with the emperor's orders."
Li Xi glared at him and asked, "Is there an imperial mandate? Where is the imperial edict? Let me show it to you!"
"The situation is urgent. The last general will be entrusted with the oral edict of Fengyi Palace." Zhang Yangzeng responded.
Zhang Yangzeng is telling the truth. Although Li Bing agreed to Cheng Wen's plan and allowed the imperial army to enter the Prince Consort's Mansion in the name of capturing Jiangyang's thieves, he still did not want to make an excuse to humiliate the imperial general in this matter. Therefore, at the end of the discussion, Li Bing decided not to come forward for the time being, but asked the queen to issue an edict ordering the imperial army to raid Chengenfang.
Hearing that the other party said that she came here on Cheng Wen's order, Li Xi couldn't help but laugh and said: "The queen is so majestic. Now she can command the imperial army. Aren't you afraid that others will talk about the harem's involvement in politics?"
Zhang Yangzeng retorted: "Princess, the Queen is not involved in politics. It is just because the stolen items are the national treasures of Fengyi Palace that she ordered the imperial army to come and search for them. Please be careful with your words and refrain from insulting the royal family."
"It's a shame that you still know the words "humiliate the royal family!" Li Xifeng's eyes widened: "Are you qualified to search my palace's mansion? Go and ask for the imperial edict! Otherwise, you can't even take a step into the Prince Consort's Mansion!"
Zhang Yangzeng couldn't help but frowned. He is from the Queen's line, a distant direct lineage of the traditional aristocracy. He was recommended by the Zhenguo Duke and promoted and cultivated, and that's how he got his current position.
Therefore, noble children like him only recognize Cheng Wen in their hearts and will not take Princess Fenyang seriously at all.
Zhang Yangzeng sneered: "The general doesn't understand what the princess said. The empress's decree is also the holy will. All the people of Shengtang will obey it. Anyone who violates it will be punished with treason. What? The princess is planning to resist the decree. ?"
Li Xi had never seen anything before, so how could he be frightened by a mere captain of the Forbidden Army? She smiled faintly: "Don't accuse me of anything. The prerequisite for resisting the edict is that you have an edict. If you want to do whatever you want here just based on oral instructions, do you really think that the Holy Tang Dynasty has no royal law? Feng Yige !”
"The humble position is here!"
"Listen to me. If someone breaks into the Prince Consort's house without following the orders, you, the captain of the personal soldiers, should go to the Prince Consort to accept death and apologize!"
"Please rest assured, Your Highness, Princess. Even if you commit suicide to apologize for your humble position, you will definitely kill all the rebels and traitors first!"
Following the words of the guard captain Feng Yige, hundreds of Qinglong Army guards roared in unison and raised their swords forward again, forcing the imperial army to take a few steps back.
Seeing this, Zhang Yangzeng sneered: "Your Royal Highness, you must make your intention clear. It is a trivial matter. The general only needs to send someone back to the palace. However, the general also wants to remind you of one thing. This Prince Consort's Mansion, Even the entire Chengenfang, as well as several surrounding streets and alleys, have been surrounded by us. Even if there is a secret passage in your house, the thief who stole things will never be able to escape. People are surrounded to death in the house. , the general will definitely be able to catch him today!"
After saying that, Zhang Yangzeng turned around and walked down the steps, and ordered his men to return to the palace to request the order.
Li Xi looked at his back thoughtfully, then turned to say a few words to the old housekeeper beside him. The housekeeper listened carefully, then nodded, turned around and walked out.
Since the Imperial Guards were ordered to search for suspicious persons in the Prince Consort's Mansion, not to search and arrest the Prince Consort's Mansion, they really had no reason to block people's entry and exit like the old housekeeper.
The housekeeper rode his horse out of Cheng'en Square and looked around. Sure enough, as Zhang Yangzeng said, there were forbidden troops holding torches everywhere outside the square gate. Even the exit of the secret passage was within his control, and no one could escape.
The old housekeeper knew that the matter was extremely urgent and did not dare to waste any more time. He quickly whipped his horse and went straight to Jingzhao Yin Mansion.
Jing Zhaoyin Li Xin is Li Xiuming's cousin and a member of the Princess Faction. The purpose of going to him at this time was not to move reinforcements to fight with the Imperial Guards, but to get the patrol battalion of Jingzhao Yin Mansion to issue night passage facilities so that another group of "rescue soldiers" could come to the Prince Consort's Mansion in time to help.
Those reinforcements were courtiers and members of the royal family.
In less than an hour, the soldiers of the patrol camp who were responsible for guarding the intersections of various important roads got out of the way one after another, and official sedans hurried past and went straight to Chengenfang.
Prince Li Maoxun of Hejian County, Prince Li Chengye of Yan, Prince Li Can of Song Dynasty, Prince Li Chongde of Prince Xiangping County, Chai Chen, Prince Consort of Jinyang, Liu Tianbao, Prince Consort of Liyang, Sun Yue, Duke of Jingguo, Chen Ziling, Duke of Fuxing, Huang Xuan, Marquis of Beiping, and Tong Zhongshu's disciples Pingzhangshi Li Xiuming and the Minister of War Dong Tianxing all rushed to the Prince Consort's Mansion.
Seeing the royal nobles and important officials of the imperial court appearing one after another, Zhang Yangzeng couldn't help but feel a little confused. He did not expect that the Seventh Princess Li Xi would call so many important figures with just one sentence, making the already complicated situation even more on the verge of getting out of control.
Zhang Yangzeng felt uneasy and quickly sent troops back to the palace to report the new situation here to Queen Cheng Wen. Then, he walked to the back of the team and whispered: "Master Tian, are you just going to hide like this? Even the princes and princes are here, I'm afraid the general won't be able to handle it."
Tian Mu shrank his head and looked outside, and said, "Tsk, what are you afraid of? The emperor and the empress are making the decisions for you, so the prince is just a bird? I am not hiding, I am here to capture Shen Lie and him It is inconvenient for my comrades to show up at this time, do you understand?"
He glanced at the gate again: "Once they know that I am here, they will immediately know that the so-called search for the thief who stole the Seven Treasures and Phoenix Hairpin is just an excuse. If the spies of the Zhenjiang Intelligence Department are alerted, it will be difficult to arrest them. .”
Zhang Yangzeng cursed secretly in his heart: It’s inconvenient for this bullshit to show up! You guys clearly don't want to offend the royal family and important ministers, so you deliberately stay back and watch the situation. It's a high-sounding statement, but you're a villain!
"Okay, if you don't show up, you won't show up," Zhang Yangzeng said angrily: "What should I do next? Please give me a strategy. Before departure, the empress explained that our imperial army is only cooperating with the Nilin Division's operations, and the rudder still needs to be used. Master Tian, please come."
Tian Mu thought for a moment and asked, "What did those people say?"
Zhang Yangzeng couldn't help but glance at the other side of the gate and snorted coldly: "These traitorous officials are so arrogant that they don't take the Queen seriously at all! Li Maoxun said that arresting bandits is the responsibility of the Ministry of Punishment and Jingzhao Mansion, even if Things have been lost in the palace, and there are no rules for the imperial army to break into the minister's residence overnight."
He paused briefly and continued: "Dong Tianxing from the Ministry of War said that the emperor must not know about this, otherwise he would never let people lead troops to search the home of Commander Murong. He took the lead in making noise, and the remaining princes, princes, and dukes also They all started making noises, accusing the Queen of arbitrarily mobilizing the imperial army and violating the ancestral system. That Li Xiuming even threatened to go to court tomorrow to ask the Emperor for justice."
"Damn, this is troublesome." Tian Mu frowned when he heard this: "Obviously it is very simple, how can it be so complicated? Oh, if I had known, you should have just led the troops to rush in, even if there was a fight No matter what."
Zhang Yangzeng said depressedly: "I'm not afraid of a fight. There are only a hundred or so Qinglong troops. I can suppress them all in the blink of an eye. But the question is whether I can find traces of Shen Lie as I wish."
Tian Mu raised his eyebrows: "Shen Lie must be inside! I was originally a little worried about this, but looking at Li Xi's behavior now, with so many royal nobles moving in to support her and blocking the door in the middle of the night, she must have panicked. , which means she will never dare to let us go in and search!"
Zhang Yangzeng nodded in agreement: "You are right. I also feel that Princess Fenyang has something evil in her heart, so she would rather break up her face than allow us to enter the house. Mr. Tian, why don't we give it a try and break through the door directly? How about it?"
"It's too late," Tian Mu sighed: "Before those big shots came, we just broke in, but now Li Maoxun and the others are here. Once a conflict breaks out and these guys are accidentally injured, even ten heads between us will not be enough. Cut."
"What should we do?"
"Wait for the decree! As long as the decree comes, especially the emperor's decree, no one can stop us!"
