In the next few days, King Jingbei sent his confidants to take over the defense work of the capital, held a grand funeral for the late emperor, and then began to prepare for his enthronement ceremony.
Empress Dowager Li was even more disheartened by the changes in the palace. She stayed in the palace all day long, eating fast and chanting Buddha, and no longer interfered with worldly affairs. It wasn't until the day of the new emperor's coronation ceremony that she appeared again dressed up, but there was a hint of exhaustion and sadness in her eyes that could not be erased.
The new emperor was worried after seeing his mother. He knew that this great change had greatly stimulated her and it would take time for her to calm down.
For this reason, as soon as the enthronement ceremony was over, he and Queen Xuanyuan went to Shou'an Palace to visit his mother and sat with her for a while before returning to the newly renovated emperor's palace.
A few days later, when the new emperor was discussing with several cabinet ministers about rectifying the administration, he suddenly received an urgent secret message from General Fan, saying that Beiyi had formed a heavy cavalry and carried out multiple sneak attacks. , caused heavy damage to our soldiers, and asked the imperial court to send troops for reinforcements.
The new emperor hurriedly summoned all officials for discussion. However, to his disappointment, except for a few ministers he trusted, the other officials were all perfunctory and had their own agenda.
Seeing this, the new emperor also realized that he had just ascended the throne and had not yet established enough prestige to fully control these former emperor's old ministers.
Right now, he needs a chance to prove himself and shock these pedantic and stubborn veterans. The imperial commander personally conquered the Northern Yi, which may be a powerful proof.
There is basically no hope for the few veterans in the court. Some of these people are old and have too many worries; some have lived in peace for too long and become timid and afraid of taking risks on the battlefield.
The new emperor thought over and over again and decided to conquer the Northern Yi personally. Before leaving, he entrusted Su Qiqi and others to take care of and protect Queen Xuanyuan. Su Qiqi and others readily agreed and moved into the palace.
The new emperor was relieved and took the Xiao brothers and thousands of soldiers to the border gate day and night to meet up with General Fan and tens of thousands of soldiers who were already resisting the enemy on the front line.
When the new emperor led his army through the ancient pine forest road of Kunlongpo, he encountered a group of gangsters bribed by Zheng Shangshu, bringing together several notorious martial arts scum and evil gangs in the world. They seemed to only have a few hundred people, but their fighting power was not comparable to that of ordinary bandits.
The several leaders headed by them are even more powerful in martial arts, only slightly inferior to the Xiao brothers, and ordinary officers and soldiers cannot compete with them.
The two sides fought for about half an hour, and the new emperor lost hundreds of officers and soldiers. The new emperor hurriedly ordered the Xiao brothers to cut off the rear and cover the retreat of other officers and soldiers.
Xiao Jie and Xiao Kai tried their best to hold back the gangsters, but in the end they were unable to defeat the opponents because of their overwhelming numbers. They failed and could only rely on their willpower to hold on.
The robber leader saw the new emperor's intention, and while he ordered people to entangle the Xiao brothers, he freed up his manpower to continue chasing the new emperor and the remaining officers and soldiers.
At this extremely critical moment, Su Qiqi, Qin Chuan, Nangong Yu, and Nangong Yue rushed over. They learned about the crisis encountered by the new emperor through Xuanyuan Yin, and rushed to rescue him in time.
As a result, the situation of the battle changed greatly, and the group of robbers was immediately beaten to pieces. Several leaders were also wounded and fled.
In order to prevent the other party from cheating, Su Qiqi and others did not pursue him. They only stayed by the new emperor's side, protecting his safety while taking care of the injured Xiao brothers.
Along the way, the new emperor encountered no other ambushes. After a few days, everyone successfully arrived at the meeting point agreed with General Fan.
Su Qiqi suddenly felt a sense of trance when she saw General Fan who had lost a lot of weight and Qing Dai who was disguised as a man.
It's true that "a scholar should look at each other with admiration after seeing each other for three days." In her memory, the girl Qingdai, who was as delicate as water, became more determined and heroic after staying at the border for a few days, which made her admire her even more.
General Fan hosted a banquet for everyone and arranged for the new emperor and others to stay in the army. Then he reported the recent fighting between the two sides to the new emperor.
Everyone listened and felt frightened. Unexpectedly, Bei Yi secretly developed a heavy cavalry regiment, which defeated our army steadily.
After hearing General Fan's report, the new emperor's expression changed drastically. He was silent for a long time and said to Su Qiqi and others: "It seems that this time the other party is well prepared. Although we have the help of the Fire Dragon Banner, they are outnumbered. Everyone, when fighting, we may lose sight of one thing and lose another..."
Su Qiqi nodded when he heard this and said: "Yes, the scope of the Fire Dragon Banner is limited. We must combine it with other tactics to better utilize its power..."
Xiao Kai frowned and thought for a while, then said to himself: "It would be great if there were a few fire dragon flags... I could kill all those Beiyi soldiers while talking and laughing..."
"A few more fire dragon flags..." Su Qiqi repeated Xiao Kai's words, then suddenly had an idea and whispered to Yan Ruoyu: "Does your master's ancient Bagua Mirror have the function of copying?"
Yan Ruoyu was stunned for a moment, then nodded happily and said: "Yes, it can come in handy this time..."
The two smiled at each other in tacit understanding, and then said to the new emperor: "We have come up with a way..."
Su Qiqi asked Yan Ruoyu to introduce in detail the idea of using the ancient Bagua mirror to imitate the fire dragon flag. Everyone was shocked and dumbfounded.
The new emperor even praised Su Qiqi and Yan Ruoyu and asked them to hurry up and prepare for the experiment.
Su Qiqi and Yan Ruoyu accepted the order and immediately took the Fire Dragon Banner and the Ancient Bagua Mirror to a relatively hidden military tent for testing.
Brother Nangong and Brother Xiao personally guarded outside the tent to prevent anyone from approaching and leaking the news.
Su Qiqi and Yan Ruoyu spent a night tinkering in the military tent, and finally succeeded in replicating three fire dragon flags. Together with the original ones, there were four fire dragon flags in total. Su Qiqi planned to arrange the array according to the directions to expand the radiation range of the fire dragon flags. Position to attack the enemy.
The next day, at dawn, Su Qiqi and Yan Ruoyu, with dark circles under their eyes, accompanied by Nangong Yu, Nangong Yue and the Xiao brothers, handed over the imitation "results" to the new emperor.
The new emperor finally breathed a sigh of relief and asked the Xiao brothers to collect several fire dragon flags. Then he went to the bookcase, spread out a sheepskin map on it, and briefly introduced the enemy and our troops to the formation. , also talked about his plan and asked everyone to make some additions.
Based on the new emperor's intentions, Su Qiqi and Nangong Yu made some adjustments to the new emperor's ideas to make the entire plan more thorough.
After everyone discussed major military matters, the new emperor invited everyone to stay in the tent to drink tea and chat, so as to ease the tense atmosphere before the war.
On the other side, Queen Xuanyuan was about to give birth, and Granny Cui also secretly entered the palace under Su Qiqi's arrangement, secretly protecting the Queen's safety with Xuanyuan Yin.
Grandma Cui lived in Kunning Palace as Wen Po. In addition to diagnosing the queen's pulse every day, she often chatted with the queen to relieve her boredom. Under her careful care, Queen Xuanyuan's anxiety about giving birth became less severe.
When the weather is nice, Queen Xuanyuan will take Granny Cui to the Imperial Garden for a walk and relax. Xuanyuan Yin shuttled nimbly among the flowers in the forest, always paying attention to the surrounding movements to protect the queen's safety.
Seeing that there were only a few days left before the due date, Xuanyuan suddenly suffered from vomiting and diarrhea. Granny Cui checked her pulse and found out that it was food poisoning!
Granny Cui asked Xuanyuan to recall the details of her meals in the past few days. Xuanyuan Yin endured the headache and thought hard for a long time, and finally remembered the bird's nest and snow pear soup he had eaten the night before.
After secret investigation, Queen Xuanyuan and Granny Cui discovered that the person who delivered bird's nest and snow pear soup to Xuanyuan that day was actually a maid from Concubine Zheng's palace.
Queen Xuanyuan asked the eunuch to summon Concubine Zheng. Concubine Zheng knew that the queen had found out about her, so she refused to do anything. Not only did she admit her crime of framing the queen, but she also deliberately abused the queen with vicious words, hoping to stimulate the queen and cause her to lose control and die of miscarriage.
But what she didn't expect was that the queen didn't accept her behavior at all. She only glanced at her coldly and gave her a faint order: "Drag this bitch who rushed into this palace and caused trouble for no reason. Twenty big boards..."
The queen's nun and several stout palace maids dragged Concubine Zheng away. Concubine Zheng panicked when she saw that she was in danger. She struggled and begged for mercy: "My queen, please spare my life. I was wrong..."
The queen glanced at her and turned around, indifferent.
Seeing that there was no hope of begging for mercy, Concubine Zheng suddenly screamed like crazy: "You bitch! Vicious woman! My brother will not let you go! You will all be buried with me!"
