Under the darkness of night, there were dots of firelight on the Gaoyang Plain, and vaguely, figures were moving.
On the edge of the southeastern hills of Gaoyangyuan, a figure wearing a brass mask stood there silently.
Looking from afar at the figures flashing in the firelight in the tents around the tomb, the figure's eyes became more and more filled with hatred.
The one who appears here at this time can only be the King of East China Sea.
The funeral of Princess Yin Zheng has ended, and everyone has returned to Chang'an, including Nanchang King Li Xuan, Zongzheng Temple Minister Pei Guangxiao, Huainan Grand Princess and others, all of whom have also returned to the palace to resume their duties.
Everything went by peacefully without any accidents, and almost all the eyes paying attention to this place have been withdrawn.
As long as the servants of the Shaofujian who stay here to guard the funeral stay here for ten days under the protection of the right guard, then everything will be completely over.
This was originally the easiest thing to do.
Two teams of right-guard soldiers guarded both sides of the mausoleum, setting up camps and tents, and patrolling day and night, making it impossible for ordinary people to approach.
In addition, there are two other groups of soldiers staying in the village a few miles south of the mausoleum.
Any unusual movement here would immediately alert the soldiers in the village. Once verified, they would immediately notify the guards on the distant Chang'an city wall.
Visible and invisible, overt and covert, there are countless guards guarding here.
The emperor will not allow any accidents to happen, lest Concubine Zheng be buried today, and her tomb will be silently stolen tomorrow.
If this kind of thing really happens, even if the news can be completely covered up, the royal family will not hesitate to be directly slapped in the face.
…
In the darkness, King Donghai just kept watching, without burning incense or bowing his head.
I don’t know how long it took, but King Donghai finally got tired of looking at it. When he turned around, he was already silently drifting towards the village to the south.
The footsteps landed on the ground, as if they were three inches off the ground, but their speed was astonishingly fast. It didn't take long for Donghai King to arrive outside the village.
The entire village has long been filled with people from the right guard inside and outside, guarding the distant goal together with the people in the village here.
Gaoyangyuan, this is where the mausoleums prepared for the dignitaries of the court were, and many people have already been buried here.
Those powerful families had already arranged for many people to keep vigil, sweep graves and pay homage.
Of course, the people placed here will not be important figures in the family, but the place here is too sensitive, and people like this are extremely difficult to mess with.
It's okay for the right guard to be a little more arrogant, but if they are really suspected of colliding with something, even their superiors will find it extremely difficult.
The King of East China Sea silently bypassed the guards in the village. Neither the elite right guard nor the existing guards noticed him.
Silently, King Donghai had carefully arrived at a small courtyard on the southeast side of the village.
This courtyard looks ordinary, but it is actually the courtyard closest to the mausoleum in the entire village.
Five miles.
The courtyard is exactly five miles away from the mausoleum of Prince Yin.
King Donghai entered silently. The owner in the courtyard seemed to have fallen asleep and found nothing.
The King of East China Sea plunged directly into the well.
In the darkness, King Donghai slid down to the surface of the well, then stretched out his hand to touch the right side. In the blink of an eye, a false wall had slid open silently.
A man in black stood at the inner door. When he saw the King of East China Sea arriving, he bowed solemnly.
King Donghai closed the false wall, and then said in a cold voice: "Stay here, don't let anyone cut off our way back."
"Subordinates obey your orders, Your Majesty, please be careful."
King Donghai nodded, then moved forward quickly, and in the blink of an eye he had completely disappeared into the dark and long underground passage.
The underground passage is very long, two meters high and down, no need to lower your head, and one and a half meters wide. There are wooden piles on both sides to support the top.
There is no sign of collapse in the long passage. This was definitely built by an expert.
Every fifty meters, there is a torch hanging on the wall, lighting up the passage ahead.
King Donghai kept moving forward, and the further he went, the further down the passage went.
But their descent was limited, because they had already dug into the rock formations below and then moved along the rock formations.
Five miles away, there is a straight line. Looking back, you can still faintly see the torch at the entrance.
In the deepest part of the cave, two dark rooms have been dug out on both sides, and twenty assassins of no life were sitting inside silently.
A short sword and a hand crossbow are placed on one side, ready to kill at any time.
…
King Donghai stood at the end of the passage, raising his head slightly. Three meters above him was the tomb of Prince Yin Li Jiancheng.
As long as you take action, you can open the passage to the tomb immediately.
"After waiting for a whole year, is this moment finally coming?" King Donghai raised his head and sighed softly.
A year ago, no one knew how much he had calculated to finally get to where he is today step by step.
The death of the filial emperor Li Hong, the turmoil of the Muzhou Tianyin Sect, and even the sudden attack of Silla in the winter were all designed to attract others' attention so that he could come here without anyone noticing.
And the purpose of his coming here has never been to tell others about his existence, but to take something from here.
Something in the hands of Crown Princess Zheng.
Zheng hid that thing very deeply.
The people in the palace were watching her every move almost all the time. Under normal circumstances, it would be impossible for that thing to be sent out, and the difficulty of sending it out without being discovered by the palace increased almost instantly. times.
But in the end, a method was figured out.
That is death.
Use death to give away the thing that is most important to the King of East China Sea.
The reason why we chose now is because Concubine Zheng's health is no longer good.
At the age of seventy-eight, her health was second to none. The key was that she had begun to have trouble remembering things.
Finally, word got in, and word got out.
As for why this news has not been discovered, it can only be said that it is a secret that only a few people know.
In the dead of night, at the beginning of the fifth watch, King Donghai finally waved his hand, and the Wusheng Dao killers on both sides immediately began to carefully poke open the soil above.
The soil fell into the ground rustlingly, and then was quickly taken out and placed into the ear chambers on both sides.
Half an hour later, a hole leading to the tomb above had been completely opened.
Tomb robbers are always guarded against someone entering from above, but rarely from below.
The most that can be done is to lay a layer of stone slabs at the bottom of the tomb.
…
The stone slab was lifted, and the King of East China Sea finally appeared in the tomb of Prince Yin Li Jiancheng.
Although the air here is a bit turbid, it does not affect the hospitality of others. After all, someone has just opened the place during the day.
Two coffins, one new and one old, lay flat on the ground.
Li Jiancheng and Zheng Guanyin, the couple died nearly fifty years apart, but now they lie together in this simple grave.
King Donghai glanced at Li Jiancheng's coffin with cold eyes, and then looked directly at Zheng Guanyin's coffin on the other side.
It was this woman who allowed him to survive in the end. After Li Ji used his eldest daughter to switch contracts with him, he immediately sent him away, but never took care of him again, as if such a person had never existed.
King Donghai slowly walked towards Zheng Guanyin's coffin, turned his hand, and a sharp dagger appeared in King Donghai's hand.
With a slight "squeaking" sound, the coffin was opened...
After a while, the "squeaking" sound sounded again, and the coffin was closed again.
A piece of yellow cloth appeared in the hand of the King of the East China Sea. He wiped the contents of the yellow cloth vigorously. Finally, under the faint light of the passage below, a jade seal with a trace of bloodshot eyes appeared in the hand of the King of the East China Sea. .
The King of the East China Sea turned over his hand and found that the jade seal had been turned over, with a few words engraved on it: "Seal of Taizi of the Tang Dynasty."
Taizi is the prince.
There are two seals for the prince of the Tang Dynasty, one is the golden seal of turtle button, and the other is the jade seal of overturned button.
After Li Jiancheng's death, the jade seal of the turtle button that he carried with him disappeared, and only one gold seal of the turtle button was found in the Prince's Mansion.
Emperor Taizong didn't pay much attention, because although he killed his elder brother and younger brother, there was still a Supreme Emperor above him.
The established old ministry could hardly pose much of a threat to Emperor Taizong.
However, no one knew that this jade seal with a doubling button, which was supposed to be carried by Li Jiancheng, fell into the hands of Zheng Guanyin at some point.
How many years have passed, Zheng Guanyin has been secretly in charge of this jade seal, and finally, after her life ended, she passed on this jade seal.
Looking at the blood streaks on the jade seal, King Donghai didn't know how much pain his mother went through in order to pass on the jade seal.
Fortunately, it's finally over now.
King Donghai turned around, bowed deeply to Concubine Zheng's coffin, then turned around and immediately jumped into the cave.
Before the person landed, the voice of King Donghai had already sounded: "Seal the tomb immediately..."
As soon as his footsteps landed on the ground, King Donghai turned his hand and the jade seal in his hand had disappeared.
A short sword suddenly appeared in his hand, guarding it carefully in front of him.
A figure wearing black gold silk armor stood three meters in front of King Donghai, with blood dripping from the sword blade hanging on the ground in his hand.
On both sides of the figure, there were more than twenty corpses lying on the ground. All of them had been wiped across the throat by a sword, and they were too fast to react.
The King of Donghai raised his head and looked at his opponent across from him, with great surprise and disbelief deep in his eyes: "King of Nanchang, when did you discover this place?"
"Today." Li Xuan looked at Donghai King calmly and said softly: "I followed you all the way, but it's a pity that you didn't notice me."
"It seems that I was careless." King Donghai smiled softly. At the moment when he was about to achieve his goal, he was still careless. He was actually followed by Li Xuan until he reached the secret stronghold without him noticing.
The King of Donghai raised his head, his eyes fell on the assassins on the ground whose throats were sealed with a sword, and said with emotion: "I really didn't expect that, King Nanchang, your skills are much stronger than the rumors, and much better than I expected. It’s also much stronger.”
Li Xuan shook her head calmly and said: "It's not too strong. I just used some poison. Such a narrow space is really suitable for using poison."
"I forgot that the King of Nanchang is also an expert in medicine." King Donghai smiled, and threw a small black porcelain bottle out of his sleeve, and then said with emotion: "It seems that this little trick of mine is There is nothing we can do about the King of Nanchang."
Li Xuan looked calmly at the brass mask on the face of King Donghai, his expression majestic and slightly ferocious.
"Put down your things and tie your hands. I will give you a chance to face the saint." Li Xuan said softly, with a trace of pity deep in his eyes.
"Ha!" King Donghai smiled, looked at Li Xuan and sneered: "No need to act, King Nanchang is ruthless. As long as I restrain my hands, you will immediately cut off my head. Your character, I am too understood."
"Could it be that you are wrong?" Li Xuan still spoke calmly and said softly: "Perhaps I have always been a good person."
"Haha..." King Donghai laughed, and then suddenly became cold: "If you are a good person, what is the poison in the air? Don't bother, this thing can't do anything to me."
"It's a pity. I originally wanted to spare your life." Li Xuan took a step forward and her whole body was already floating forward.
Raising his right hand, the infinite sword shadow has already shrouded directly towards the King of East China Sea.
(End of chapter)
