When the general guarding the city saw that it was the old prince and Prince An, two little old men, he looked at their carriage and asked: "Prince, what are you doing?"
"Let's go fishing! Let us pass!" Prince An grabbed the reins with an impatient look on his face.
The commander of the city looked inside the carriage again. There were no curtains on the glass windows, so it was clear whether anyone was inside. He said with a smile, "Are you two the only ones going? You won't even bring your servants, guards, or maids?"
"Why bring them? They're in the way!" The old prince waved his hand impatiently.
The commander personally pulled their carriage out and casually said, "The city is under martial law now, making it difficult to enter but difficult to leave. Do you two want to stay at the farm or come back tonight?"
"If I come back in the middle of the night, will you open the city gate for me?" Prince An asked with a glare and puffed his beard.
The general defending the city laughed dryly and said, "I have my duties to do, please don't make things difficult for me."
The generals defending the city respectfully escorted the two old princes out of the city, but the people queuing behind them were not happy:
"Why can they leave the city?"
"We have to leave the city too!"
"Clinging to the rich and powerful! Disgusting!"
The generals defending the city ignored them completely. Once the swords were revealed, no one dared to shout.
The old prince and Prince An left the city and went directly to the imperial farm to fish. Both of them had good fishing skills and were equally good at fishing. The two of them were so angry that they had another big quarrel and left cursing.
After walking out of the imperial farm, the old prince, who had changed into farmer's clothes, looked at Prince An. Where was the anger he had just had?
The two looked at each other, and the old prince looked at Prince An's legs and feet: "You are so old, how can you still ride a horse?"
"I'm afraid you can't ride it." Prince An sneered, and the two of them jumped on their horses and galloped away.
Suburbs of Beijing.
Qin Bai got the news from outside Zheng Nan's mansion and rushed all the way to Jizhou City.
Jizhou City is only half a day's journey from the capital and is a must-pass place to enter the capital. Xie Qing and Qin Bai were looking for news about the Fourth Prince and investigating the conditions of various dams, fearing that the Fourth Prince might tamper with the dams and blow them up. They were running around Jizhou during this period.
No matter whether it is a town in the north or south of Jizhou Prefecture, it only takes half a day to reach the capital, so Jizhou City also bears the responsibility of protecting the capital.
The area around the capital also refers to the entire Jizhou Prefecture. People who come to Beijing from other places will basically say that once they arrive in Jizhou, they have arrived in the capital.
Xie Qing was in a private residence in Jizhou Prefecture. He looked at Qin Bai and asked, "What's going on outside?"
Qin Bai said with a sullen face, "There are rumors outside that the Crown Prince's mercenaries have rebelled and have held various cities hostage. His Majesty is seriously ill and the Fourth Prince is acting as regent. Crown Prince, you cannot show up now."
Xie Qing was still worried about Qin Wan: "I don't know how she's doing in the south."
Qin Bai said: "She has the military token given by His Majesty, and can mobilize troops from all over the country at any time. You don't have to worry about her. You should find a way to stabilize the situation in the court, otherwise Wanwan will have a hard time outside."
"Yes. Where is Mr. Yu?" Xie Qing asked. Whenever he left the palace, Mr. Yu would always be by his side.
Mr. Yu had just returned, and before he even entered the house, he heard the prince calling for him. He hurried in two or three steps and said, "Prince, I just got back. The city has posted an arrest warrant today."
Mr. Yu was holding a bundle in his hands, which he opened as he entered the room. "These are the two sets of clothes I just bought. You two should quickly disguise yourself and go to the capital. Fortunately, it's the Crown Princess who's out there now. As long as you, the Crown Princess, can stay in the capital, she'll be safe."
Xie Qing picked up his clothes and put them on: "There will definitely be martial law if we enter the city now. How are we going to get in?"
Mr. Yu didn't know, so he just said, "No matter what, we still have to go back to the suburbs of Beijing first. As for how to enter the city, we'll see. What if the capital is not under martial law? After all, the prince is currently on patrol in the south. If they put the whole city under martial law, wouldn't that make them feel guilty?"
Xie Qing thought about it and it made sense. He changed his clothes with Qin Bai, combed his hair, put on a bamboo hat, and dressed like an ordinary farmer. He wore his best clothes and came to the city to sell some of his family's products.
Mr. Yu stayed in Jizhou City to handle subsequent matters, while Xie Qing and Qin Bai rode their horses to the capital.
When they reached a fork in the road outside Beijing, they saw a carriage and two horses parked on the side of the road.
Qin Bai took a quick look and saw a familiar face flash by in the carriage.
“Whoa!”
Qin Bai tightened the reins, and Xie Qing also stopped quickly when he saw this.
The people in the car also noticed that someone had stopped. When they looked at each other, they were immediately overjoyed.
Prince An clapped his hands and said with a smile, "I finally waited for you!"
The old prince jumped off the carriage and said, "I knew I could wait for you here."
Madam Meng got out of the car with the help of her maid. Seeing Xie Qing, she breathed a sigh of relief: "When His Royal Highness arrives, my mission will be half completed."
Xie Qing looked at everyone: "You guys came all the way here to wait for me?"
Madam Meng looked at the two old princes and saw that they were silent, so she said, "My husband guessed that His Highness should be near the capital, so he asked me to find a way to contact His Highness."
The old prince looked around warily and urged them, "Hurry up and get in the car. Let's go to the temple to discuss first."
The old prince and Prince An each had a horse, while Xie Qing and Qin Bai followed Madam Meng into the carriage - in extraordinary times, the strict rules between men and women were ignored.
Their horses followed beside the carriage, and the group followed Madam Meng into the temple.
Half an hour later, Madam Meng led a group of people out of the temple and headed for the capital.
It was already afternoon, the sun was about to set, but the clouds of fire were already taking shape.
Normal entry and exit to the capital has resumed, but inspections are still strict.
The old prince and Prince An were driving a carriage, and behind their carriages was another heavy carriage.
The commander of the city defense saw the two men and approached them with a bow and a nod. "Why are you still driving the carriage by yourself? Are you tired? I'll take you back."
The old prince glanced at the criminal driving the carriage, who immediately gave up his place and said, "I'm tired now, so you can take us back."
While they were talking, several soldiers guarding the city came to the cart at the back and asked the eunuch driving the cart, "What's on the cart?"
The young eunuch said with a smile, "These are the fish that the two princes caught, and they asked me to return them.
There were quite a lot of fish, so they took not only three large bamboo baskets but also a large wooden barrel.
Several people looked at each other, took out their swords and stabbed into the bamboo basket.
The young eunuch immediately shouted, "What are you doing?! These are the prince's fish. Can you bear the consequences if they kill them?"
The old prince seemed to have just heard the quarrel. He turned his head and saw the long sword being pulled out of the bamboo basket, bringing out blood. He frowned and said, "If you want it, I'll give it to you. We won't eat this fish if it dies."
The young eunuch hurriedly asked someone to carry the inspected bamboo basket away.
The soldiers then looked at the other two bamboo baskets, which the young eunuchs were guarding tightly. "If you want to check, bring a bucket and I'll empty it out for you. Or I can get you a knife and skin the fish while I'm at it. Let's see if the person or thing you're looking for is inside the fish."
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