The prince was silent for a long time, and finally sighed: "Sanlang, sometimes I really envy you! Although I was born in an emperor's family, I can't choose which path to take, unlike you -"
"Yes!" Wang Wenzuo nodded: "When I was in Baekje, I could indeed choose which way to die was more beautiful!"
Li Hong, who was interrupted, was stunned. After a few minutes, he couldn't help laughing: "Sanlang, you are really good at joking. I remember Jin Inwen said that you won every battle in Baekje without losing a single defeat! "
"When Brother Renshou met me, I had already survived the most dangerous period in Baekje!" Wang Wenzuo shrugged: "I remember telling you that the first time I fought against the Baekje rebels was when we were besieged! "
"Yes, yes! I remembered it!" Li Hong patted his thigh gently: "You said you made a temporary crossbow to repel the siege of the Baekje people!"
"But Your Highness, I have one more thing I haven't told you! I have a man named Han Changlue. He is very good at riding and is good at using a spear. He is three or four years older than me. Half of his hair is already bald! As a result, as soon as we fought, he A flying stone from Baekje broke this place!" Wang Wenzuo pointed to his right temple: "Blood and brain matter splashed all over my face. If that pebble was half a foot away, I wouldn't be able to stand here and talk to you. Got it!"
Li Hong took a breath and was speechless for a moment. Wang Wenzuo whispered: "Your Highness, this is how I walked out. On the battlefield, life and death are only at your fingertips. I and Your Highness, you are just saying this to tell Your Highness: No matter who you are, you must take the step forward." That step! If you hesitate, you will only harm yourself!"
"I understand!" The prince's eyes became firm: "Then when will we start!"
"Wait until after the first update!" Wang Wenzuo stood up and looked at the sky outside: "Look at the weather, I hope it won't rain tonight!"
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Daming Palace, Qinghui Pavilion.
Compared with Hanyuan Hall, Qinghui Pavilion is much smaller, with a width of no more than 70 steps and a depth of no more than 20 steps. It is located on a hillock more than 30 steps away from Taiye Pond. However, although the sparrow is small, it has all the necessary internal organs, including the main hall, side halls, terraces, and gardens. Because it is close to Taiye Pool, even in summer, the temperature here is two to three degrees lower than other parts of Daming Palace, and the scenery is also very good. Therefore, Li Zhi and his wife like this place very much and often use it as a place to spend summer and cool down. ideas.
"Your Majesty the Queen!" Xu Xuwen recounted what he saw and heard when he visited the prince, and finally said: "This is probably the situation!"
"So, Hong'er is really sick?" Wu asked.
"Yes, I was standing next to the couch at that time, only an arm's length away from His Highness the Crown Prince, and I could see it very clearly!" Xu Xuwen said: "Your Highness the Crown Prince's face is pale, with beads of sweat on his face. He is definitely sick, but I don't know. What kind of illness is it? By the way, His Highness also said that he can only come to Daming Palace to visit His Majesty in two days. This is really pure filial piety!"
"Yes!" Mrs. Wu nodded. Xu Xuwen's answer swept away the doubts in her mind. The child Li Hong's health was not very good to begin with. He had been frail and sick since he was a child. He has gradually recovered in the past few years. Well, it's not surprising that you might get sick if you go hunting on a hot day.
"What about Wang Wenzuo?"
"General Wang?" Xu Xuwen was stunned for a moment and replied, "As usual, I will be by the prince's side as usual!"
"It's a shame he's like this!" Wu sneered: "But the prince didn't treat him badly either. He's already in the third rank before he's even fifty!"
"Your Majesty is right!" The Queen's words deeply touched Xu Xuwen's heart. According to the political rules of the Tang Dynasty, officials of third rank and above are honorary titles, either from the clan, or from those who are senior and virtuous. Shao's heroes, like Wang Wenzuo, who came up from the army in their forties, were only among those who founded the country.
"Forget it, let him be happy for a few days! Considering that he has made a lot of contributions in the past!" The queen sneered, as if she felt that she had made a mistake. She glanced at Xu Xuwen, and he quickly lowered his head and asked He is more like a lifeless clay statue.
It got dark, and just as Wang Wenzuo expected, it started to rain. The East Palace is like a sleeping beast that finally wakes up. The prince put on a crimson wool cloak over his armor and looked a little nervous. Wang Wenzuo cast an encouraging gaze, patted the other party's shoulder gently, and whispered: "It's time!"
"Yes!" The prince nodded and strode out of the palace gate. The square below was already filled with soldiers in uniform. He opened his mouth to say something, but for a moment he didn't know what to say. In the end he just Can you hold back the words: "Let's go!"
"Follow the order!" Wang Wenzuo took a step forward, pulled out his saber and slashed downwards with force: "Each team has its title, let's go!"
Everyone put the pieces of wood into their mouths and bit them tightly, and all the animals also wore bits. They marched north along the inner side of the east palace wall of the East Palace, then went out from the north gate of the East Palace and entered the north of Chang'an City. In the forbidden garden. The so-called forbidden garden is the royal playground and hunting ground. There are no villages for dozens of miles around, just patches of trees. The group crossed the low wall surrounding the forbidden garden and entered the wilderness. No one made a sound, only the sound of footsteps, horse hooves and the creak of vehicles.
This special silence made the prince feel a little scared. He looked around and saw darkness, only patches of woods and silent soldiers.
"You don't need to worry, everything is going according to plan!" Wang Wenzuo came over.
"Really?" The prince swallowed: "How long do we have to go!"
"It won't take long!" Wang Wenzuo stretched out his right hand and pointed toward the northeast: "Look, do you see that bright spot? That is our goal. We should be there in two-quarters of an hour at most!"
The prince looked in the direction of Wang Wenzuo's finger and saw a bright spot. He took a deep breath and said, "Sanlang, can you tell me how to climb over the wall of Daming Palace now?"
"Of course!" Wang Wenzuo smiled and pointed behind him: "Your Highness, have you seen the carriages behind us? With just one spark, the things above can lift the city wall to the sky!"
"What?" The prince was surprised: "Really or not? I thought you had dug a tunnel in advance!"
"Your Highness, there are nearly a thousand people here. With so many people, the tunnel is too small to be walked all the way. When the tunnel is too long, it was discovered by the soldiers guarding the palace before it was finished digging. Don't you think they are patrolling every day? Are you messing around?"
The prince let out a long breath: "If this were the case, wouldn't everyone have discovered it?"
"So we have to choose night!" Wang Wenzuo said with a smile: "Even if Nanya's soldiers and horses find out, they will not be able to enter the palace!"
"What about the soldiers from Beiya?"
"Same? Who dares to open the palace door in the middle of the night and let outsiders in? They will only send people to find the source of the sound. By the time they figure it out, the situation has been decided!" Wang Wenzuo said with a smile: "Don't worry, No one would have thought we could do this!”
"What about Aye and Aniang? Will they hide when they hear the sound?" the prince asked.
"No!" Wang Wenzuo said with a smile: "The first reaction of the queen and the saint when they were awakened was not to hide, but to send people to investigate and find out what happened? After all, in their opinion, the palace is the most dangerous place in the palace. It’s safe, but running around at night is more dangerous!”
"That's true!" The prince nodded: "I hope everything goes well!"
Wang Wenzuo said nothing. He patted the prince on the shoulder: "Victory always belongs to the brave!"
Soon, Wang Wenzuo and the prince arrived at their destination. The towering Daming Palace wall was right in front of them. It was said to be a palace wall, but in fact it was a city wall. The six-foot-high palace wall and the ten-foot-long earth cliff blocked the way. In front of everyone, it's like a hill, crushing people so hard that they can't breathe.
"Prince, Master!" Sancho panted and knelt in front of Wang Wenzuo: "Everything is ready, please check!"
Wang Wenzuo nodded. He jumped off the horse and helped His Royal Highness to dismount. The two of them were led by Sanqiu to the palace wall. They saw that three deep holes had been dug at the bottom of the earth cliff. It was so dark that it was difficult to see the depth. Wang Wenzuo walked to the entrance of the cave, jumped in one by one, picked up the torch and fumbled around for a while, and finally climbed up and nodded with satisfaction: "Sancho, good job!"
"Thank you, Master. I did everything according to your instructions. I measured every hole with my own hands!" Sancho was so happy when he heard Wang Wenzuo's compliment that his teeth were all exposed. They looked white in the night. Very penetrating.
"Okay, you have people move the barrels in the carriage and pull out the fuse. Be careful, put the torch farther away and don't light it!"
"Yes!" Sancho responded, then led a dozen soldiers to the carriage, tipped the oak barrels down, rolled them into the hole, plugged in the leads one by one, and pulled them out. After Wang Wenzuo personally inspected it, he asked the soldiers to fill the hole again with soil, and asked everyone to retreat, and then asked Sancho to light the fuse.
"Light it!" Sancho lit the fuse and rushed over. Wang Wenzuo patted the slave on the shoulder and stared at the spark in the darkness. As the spark entered the soil, his breath It became more and more urgent, as if someone was holding his chest and blocking his neck, making it impossible to breathe. At this moment, a thought suddenly flashed through his mind: "What if the fuse goes out halfway? What if the gunpowder barrel explodes, but the city wall is not blown down? What if only one is exploded and the remaining ones are not exploded?" "The chaotic thoughts were like snowflakes, falling one after another. Wang Wenzuo shook his head and shook these chaotic thoughts out of his mind. Now he can only move forward, there is no way out.
With a muffled sound, Wang Wenzuo felt a vibration under his feet. Before he could react, there was a second and third blow, and he saw that the towering palace wall not far away seemed to jump upward, and then It shook twice and fell over.
"Explode, explode!" Wang Wenzuo licked his tongue and found that his voice was very small, even a little timid.
"Yes, it exploded! No, it should be said that it fell down! It's just like what you said, Sanlang, it fell down!" The prince jumped up and was about to run forward. Wang Wenzuo quickly grabbed him. This was what he had done today. The most important thing at night is that if you fall or get hit by a flying stone, everything will be over. He glanced at Sancho: "Sancho, go and see how the situation is!"
"Hey!" Sancho responded and ran over quickly. After a moment, he heard him shout loudly: "Great, the palace wall fell down seven or eight feet wide, and the fallen palace wall just filled the bottom. It’s flat and you can climb up easily!”
Wang Wenzuo walked to the palace wall. As Sancho said, the fallen palace wall had completely filled up the earth cliff and the trench in front, forming a slope of about thirty degrees. Even a woman and child could not move. I can easily overcome this obstacle.
"Tear apart the carriage and lay the planks on it!" Wang Wenzuo knew that time was running out. He pulled out his steel knife and shouted to the soldiers behind him: "There are treacherous ministers around the emperor who deceive Sheng Cong and make slanderous lies to frame His Royal Highness. Tonight I will When the prince comes to Qingjun's side, God will help me, and I will destroy the walls and fill up the trenches!"
"God help me!" Everyone was stunned by what they saw. They saw with their own eyes that the palace wall that was still standing strong just now suddenly collapsed and became a smooth road. They all thought that there was help from gods and men in heaven and earth, and their morale was high. Vibrate. The prince gritted his teeth, drew his sword and said, "Your Majesty is at Qinghui Pavilion. If you help me, you will be rewarded generously!"
"Long live!" The soldiers surrounded the prince and flew over the palace wall towards Qinghui Pavilion.
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Daming Palace, Qinghui Pavilion.
Li Zhi was awakened from his sleep. Since the onset of the disease, his sleep has been very light. However, he did not wake up his wife beside him. Instead, he propped up his body and whispered to the maid guarding outside the tent: "Go and ask Ask, what’s going on? It’s so noisy outside?”
"Yes!" The palace maid responded and walked out of the house silently. A moment later, the palace maid came back, accompanied by Xu Xuwen who was there that night. Xu Xuwen was seen kneeling to the ground with a face full of panic: "Your Majesty, your Majesty, the prince has rebelled. , has already led the army to surround this place!"
"The prince rebelled?" Li Zhi frowned. At this time, the queen beside him was also awakened. She woke up very quickly and shouted: "Quickly, send someone to summon Sergeant Yulin and enter the palace to capture the rebels!"
"Your Majesty the Queen, it's too late!" Xu Xuwen said anxiously: "You will know it just by looking at it. The prince's soldiers are everywhere outside, and they have completely surrounded Qinghui Palace. Our people can't get out at all. Besides, right now is the time. It's night, and the inner and outer palace gates are isolated, so how can the soldiers of the Yulin Army get there!"
The queen jumped out of bed, not caring about exposing her smooth skin, and rushed to the window. She saw a fire outside the window, and there were soldiers in iron armor everywhere she looked. The frightened shouts of the palace maids could be heard in her ears. Her face was already livid, and she murmured: "The traitor, the traitor!"
