Chapter 310 Secret Passage Meeting

Shen Qingci turned her head sharply, her eyes lighting up immediately: "Yuanbao? A message? What's the news?"

"Commander Yuanbao reports that the others have already left the city and are outside the camp, requesting to enter."

Shen Qingci's lips curled slightly. "Yuanbao has left the city?"

Shouldn't he be by Chu Jichen's side?

How did he get out of the city?

A vague guess flashed through her mind, and she became increasingly excited: "Hurry up and invite them in!"

Yuanbao arrived quickly, rushing in like a gust of wind in less than a quarter of an hour: "Your Majesty! His Majesty has sent me to guide you."

lead the way!

Shen Qingci's eyes crinkled into a smile: "So, you came out through the secret passage, right? You know how to get to the secret passage from outside the city to the palace?"

Yuanbao nodded emphatically, his face beaming with excitement: "Your Majesty, rest assured, I understand! Your Majesty's forces have all been assembled?"

"Once the troops are assembled, they can immediately follow me into the city."

Shen Qingci immediately stood up: "We've already assembled. We can set off immediately at a moment's notice."

Yuanbao was overjoyed and was about to reply, "Okay, let's go!" when Shen Qingci suddenly raised her hand and pressed it down, her eyes darkening.

"The people have been assembled, but I feel that we can't just set off like this."

All eyes in the tent fell on Shen Qingci. Shen Qingci raised her head and glanced at everyone: "The troops we have gathered, our own troops, are definitely trustworthy."

"However, the soldiers that Qingming recruited who had previously served in the Shen family army may not be entirely trustworthy."

"Since we're going to use the secret passage, and since it was built by the royal family to facilitate the emperor's escape, there must be many traps and mechanisms inside."

"If someone harbors ulterior motives and suddenly presses the mechanism in the secret passage after we have all entered, then we will probably be completely finished."

Qingming nodded solemnly and said, "What Master is worried about is not without reason."

Yuanbao was getting anxious: "Then what does Your Majesty think we should do?"

"What should we do?" Shen Qingci ran her fingers along the embroidered pattern on her sleeve, her eyes dark and brooding. After a moment, she said decisively, "It's simple, we'll split into three groups."

"The first group, led by my secret guards and all the secret agents who had been by my side, went ahead with Yuanbao and entered the palace through the secret passage."

"The second route: after I leave the palace, Yuanbao will have to make a difficult trip back the way he came, taking Zhuque with him and all the intelligence personnel from the Shen family's intelligence network into the city. Remember, only enter the city, not the palace."

“The third route,” Shen Qingci looked at Qingming, “when Yuanbao returns for the third time, take you and the several thousand veteran soldiers of the Shen family army that you selected from the camp with you to enter the city together. Similarly, only enter the city, not the palace. When the time comes, you take your men and head straight to the outside of the palace.”

Shen Qingci raised her eyes and looked intently at Yuanbao: "This is the most appropriate solution I can think of right now, but it will require a lot of hard work from Yuanbao, as he will have to make three round trips between the city and the outside world."

Yuanbao patted his chest and said boldly, "It's alright, it's not tiring at all, I can do it!"

Shen Qingci nodded and added, "To avoid suspicion, for the last two round trips, we need to find someone with a similar build to me to disguise themselves as me and pretend that I'm with you when we enter the secret passage."

With the plan settled, everyone no longer hesitated.

Shen Qingci then started moving with Yuanbao.

Yuanbao, along with Shen Qingci and all the secret guards and secret agents, quietly left the camp and hurried on their way in the night.

After a while, when it was almost dawn, Yuanbao led them to stop in a desolate and gloomy place.

Shen Qingci looked around and realized that this was... a mass grave.

No wonder the entrance to this secret passage has remained undiscovered for so long.

It's likely that no one would have imagined that those high and mighty emperors would ultimately find their final refuge in mass graves.

Yuanbao walked to one of the large, obviously old tombs made of piled-up stones, pried open a huge rock on the ground, and quickly pressed his hand on several of the stones, revealing a hole that people could walk down into.

"Your Majesty, please."

Yuanbao went down first and lit the torches inside.

Shen Qingci followed behind Yuanbao. This secret passage looked to be quite old and very well constructed. Both sides of the passage were lined with neatly stacked stones, and there were some stone doors around it, resembling a secret chamber.

Shen Qingci had no interest in observing the scene inside the secret passage. She hurried forward, finally finding the mood and opportunity to ask Yuanbao, "How is the situation on His Majesty's side?"

Yuanbao's expression also turned somewhat grim, and his tone became grave: "The rebels have surrounded the palace."

"While Your Majesty and I were interrogating the late Emperor and Huo Yunting in the secret prison, we heard someone outside shouting that the rebels had surrounded the palace."

"His Majesty sent Ye Lan to investigate the situation. The rebels numbered about six or seven thousand. No one knew where they usually hid, but they all suddenly appeared."

"What's worse, they also had people they had planted in the palace, and they were quite skilled. As soon as the rebels besieged the palace, they immediately sprang into action and rushed straight to the Taiji Hall."

Fortunately, we were not in the Taiji Hall at the time.

"In this urgent situation, we received a message from the Empress that someone had left the city in the middle of the night to launch a surprise attack on the training camp."

"Your Majesty believes this is a scheme by the other side."

"But at that time, the Empress had already led her troops out of the city. His Majesty was worried that the Empress would be blocked outside the city and isolated without help, so he immediately sent people to inquire about the Empress's situation while working with us to speed up the interrogation."

Yuanbao kept walking and his voice was a little hurried: "Finally, we received news that the Empress was indeed stopped outside the city. His Majesty had no choice but to have the apothecary and Physician Li use some extreme measures, which finally made them reveal the location of the secret passage and draw a map of it."

"But fearing that the drawing they produced under those circumstances would still be fake, His Majesty had us walk through it tentatively to confirm that it was correct before he sent me to fetch the Empress."

Upon hearing this, Shen Qingci paused, a bold idea suddenly welling up in her mind.

If the other party is unaware that they have already discovered the location of the secret passage, could they possibly use it to do something?

For example, instead of entering the palace first, she had Chu Jichen lead everyone out of the palace to encircle them from behind.

If they had this secret passage, they would actually be in a favorable position.

Then there are actually many things they can do.

However, the most important thing right now is to see Chu Jichen first. After seeing Chu Jichen, she can have a proper discussion with him.

After winding through the secret passage for nearly an hour, a familiar figure finally appeared ahead.