Chapter 211 Chapter 211 is the only genuine version...
The wheels of the carriage began to move.
Gu Zhizhuo opened the curtains and took a look outside.
"These people belong to Naoesuke, right?"
As Gu Zhizhuo left the city, he noticed that the soldiers guarding the city gates were no longer Imperial Guards, but rather garrison soldiers. The garrison soldiers' standard armor was similar to that of the Imperial Guards, with some subtle differences, such as their waistbands.
"Zhijiangwei was one of the garrisons at the border of Qingzhou and Yizhou. I remember there were Zhijiangwei, Zuozhiwei, and Fengjiangwei."
Gu Zhizhuo crossed his arms and said with a smile, "Thank you for your hard work, Governor."
Shen Xu said unhappily, “It’s just icing on the cake.”
"Even if I don't make it back in time, it won't be a big deal. It's just a matter of being a little early or a little late."
Xie Yingchen specially sent someone to deliver a token, asking him to mobilize troops from the Qingzhou garrison and arrive in the capital before noon on October 15th.
When he got the token, Shen Xu almost thought Xie Yingchen was crazy.
He had the nerve to hand over not only Qingzhou's political power but also its military power to me! Did he truly believe I would stand by him? If I turned against him, the three garrisons he had personally entrusted to me would be enough to completely destroy me.
Haha, I don’t know whether to say he is cautious or carefree.
Chen Xu didn't like to rush, so after taking a detour to visit three guard posts, he could only ride his horse as fast as he could all the way back.
"No, no." Gu Zhizhuo shook his finger and said with a smile, "If you hadn't helped me, I would have been kidnapped by Duoleng. Didn't you see how dangerous it was just now~"
Full of lies! Chen Xu's eyes twitched when he heard it: "Sweet talk."
Gu Zhizhuo chuckled, sat down, and said seriously, "Thank you, Lord Governor, for bringing the troops back to support us and holding the Imperial Guard hostage."
Chen Xu curled his lips imperceptibly: "It's good that you know."
There was silence in the carriage for a moment.
"you……"
Chen Xu wanted to say a few more words to tease her, but suddenly he looked up and saw her leaning against the wall of the carriage with her eyes closed. The person who was just talking had actually fallen asleep.
Tsk.
Shen Xu stared at her with disdain.
She was covered in mud and blood, which was really unpleasant to the eyes, especially the smell of kerosene and smoke on her body, which even incense could not suppress.
Shen Xu had the urge to kick her out of "his" carriage.
"What a hassle."
He picked up a cloak beside him, raised his hand, and covered her with it steadily. But she was still not awake, breathing steadily.
Trust yourself so much?
Inexplicable! Both of them.
"Me?"
Chen Xu made a silencing gesture to the cat and touched its head.
Shen Mao was an easily satisfied cat. He narrowed his eyes following the movement of the palm and let out a pleasant purr from his throat.
The carriage moved forward steadily, leaving only the slight sound of the wheels rolling over the ground.
Shen Xu's carriage was specially made and there were almost no bumps along the way. Under the escort of the soldiers, they soon arrived in the capital.
Also enter the city from the nearest north city.
"The Governor is back!"
The Jinyiwei on the city wall saw the carriage from afar and were instantly delighted. Soon, the tightly closed city gates opened. Just as Gu Zhizhuo had guessed, there were no imperial guards. The entire capital's defenses had fallen into Shen Xu's hands an hour ago.
"master."
Sheng Jiang was standing at the front. When he saw the black carriage coming, he immediately ran up to greet it.
The carriage did not stop for him, which was not important. Sheng Jiang jumped onto the carriage skillfully. He did not dare to enter the carriage before receiving instructions. He just sat on the carriage until a feminine voice said "Come in". Sheng Jiang bent down and got into the carriage.
It was already a bit cold in the capital in October. The incense in the corner exuded a familiar scent, making Sheng Jiang feel comfortable all over.
He wiped his tears and said, "Master, you are finally back."
Hey, wait, why is there a smell of blood?
Chen Xu: "Don't make noise."
Sheng Jiang was stunned, and it took him a beat longer to notice Gu Zhizhuo who was sleeping against the carriage.
Sheng Jiang:!
This Miss Gu is still so bold!
Sheng Jiang didn't dare to cry anymore. He knelt down as close to the car door with a wronged look on his face and reported the current situation in Beijing one by one.
The Imperial Guards were ordered to seal the city gates and ignore any disturbances in the capital. Later, when the Liang army was defeated, the Imperial Guards fell into disarray, their soldiers acting like headless flies. Sheng Jiang seized the opportunity to forge an imperial decree, claiming that the Shangzhi Guards and other garrisons were ordered to come to the emperor's aid, thus coaxing the Imperial Guards into opening the city gates.
"I will have the Jinyiwei cooperate with the outside forces to take down the city defenses."
"Well done."
Chen Xu leaned back on the pillow with the arrogance of a superior.
His peach blossom eyes were half-closed, and the cinnabar mole at the corner of his eye made his skin look like jade.
Sheng Jiang was so delighted by the praise that his voice rose a little, "Thank you for the compliment, Master."
"Don't make noise."
Sheng Jiang covered his mouth.
He ordered coldly, "Enter the palace."
Sheng Jiang glanced at Gu Zhizhuo hesitantly, and when he heard the word "tell", he reported everything that had happened since Chen Xu left Beijing.
Shen Xu had been away for only a month or so, and he received letters every few days. He probably knew that the capital was still under his control, and Xie Yingchen had not taken advantage of his absence to seize his power.
The carriage passed through the Meridian Gate. Most of the students who usually gathered here went to the Taimiao, making the Meridian Gate unusually empty.
Gu Zhizhuo was half asleep and half awake when she felt the carriage suddenly shake. She opened her eyes in startle, lifted the curtain and looked outside.
Red walls and golden tiles.
It’s the palace!
They have already entered the palace.
Gu Zhizhuo immediately jumped up and shouted, "Master, I'll go first."
Without waiting for the carriage to stop, Gu Zhizhuo jumped off the carriage lightly, pulled the reins of the jade lion, jumped on the horse, and galloped forward.
Sheng Jiang silently gave a thumbs up to Miss Gu in his heart. She was definitely the first one in history who dared to gallop on horseback in the palace.
Chen Xu stroked the small jade token on his wrist and said, "Let Wu Shang take the others to follow."
The sound gradually faded in the wind.
The jade lion galloped on all fours, and the sound of horse hooves fell like raindrops.
The emperor's intention was not to massacre everyone in the capital. After all, to the emperor, he was the great king of the Qi Dynasty, a wise ruler of a prosperous era. He was punishing the treacherous and corrupt officials and upholding the imperial power.
He ordered the imperial guards to blockade the capital, waiting for him to return victorious from the Taimiao and be welcomed by the people.
Therefore, Xie Yingchen took away the Zhenbei Army and the most easily mobilized Jinwu Guards, Luanyi Guards, and the other twenty-six guards. Gu Zhizhuo only had the 1,000 Qianji Battalion in the city.
What she needed to guard against was not the emperor, nor the hundreds of thousands of imperial guards who had no leader and "could not move without orders", but only the people of Liang.
This is the confidence that Gu Zhizhuo has in controlling the capital.
Gu Zhizhuo is not afraid of many edges.
Her only worry was that she was too far away to protect her aunt in the palace.
“Whoa!”
The jade lion ran straight to Chonghua Palace. Seeing the palace gate wide open, Gu Zhizhuo felt a little nervous. She kicked the horse's belly, and the jade lion leaped up with all four limbs. This leap, it landed steadily in the courtyard of Chonghua Palace.
The familiar eunuchs and palace maids were lying on the ground in a mess. Gu Zhizhuo's breathing stopped for a moment. She gripped the reins tightly and quickly jumped off the horse.
"Big girl."
Yunhua, the head maid of Chonghua Palace, pulled at her military boots with difficulty and said weakly, "Miss, our queen, she..."
"In the main hall."
Gu Zhizhuo nodded to her and rushed towards the main hall.
Cough cough.
"Empress..." Yunhua coughed a few times with difficulty. She struggled to stand up, revealing the bloody back of her head.
Gu Zhizhuo ran up the stairs in two steps, leaned over and rushed towards the imperial guards guarding the door with his sword. He raised his sword and kicked open the closed door of the main hall.
Her breathing suddenly stopped, and Concubine Shu fell limply to the ground, a white silk scar around her neck, her face pale. Several maids were beside her, holding her arms tightly with ferocious expressions.
"Throw water and wake her up!"
"I want to see how long this stubbornness of hers can last..."
The Queen sat upright in the main seat, her eyes bloodshot and her chest heaving with anger. When she heard the door open, her gaze slashed over like a knife. The moment she saw Gu Zhizhuo, she slammed the coffee table fiercely: "Big..."
Before the word "courage" came out of his mouth, Gu Zhizhuo rushed over like an arrow.
The soles of her military boots were thick, and her movements were quick and decisive. With a kick and a sweep, the maids who were holding Concubine Shu hostage fell to the ground one after another with a few muffled groans, and their wailing filled the entire hall.
Gu Zhizhuo helped Concubine Shu up, and with trembling hands he tore off the white silk around her neck. The red marks left by the silk were deeply imprinted on Concubine Shu's fair skin, which was shocking.
Her heart was beating like a drum.
She had originally considered the worst possible outcome, which was that her aunt was held hostage in exchange.
That was fine, as long as her aunt was safe, she could decide to let them go. Besides, the young master wasn't a narrow-minded person, and he wouldn't kill all of these women in the harem.
Who would have thought...
"Aunt, aunt!"
Gu Zhizhuo half-knelt on the ground, hugged Concubine Shu, and placed his fingers on her neck pulse, feeling a weak tremor from his fingertips.
The Queen sat there, furious, pointing at her with a trembling finger: "You can just barge into this palace whenever you want these days?! Do you have any rules?"
"Of course I can."
Gu Zhizhuo applied several needles and said coldly without raising his head:
"Queen... No, I should call you Little Sun."
Xie Rong's first wife was also from the Sun family and was the empress's cousin.
This name made the Queen even angrier. She pointed at Gu Zhizhuo and said hatefully, "Come here, catch her and slap her in the face."
Gu Zhizhuo turned sharply, raised her crossbow, and aimed its arrows at them with a cold gleam. She didn't even need to make a single move; the maids all stopped in their tracks, their legs shaking with fear, and turned to look at the queen.
No matter how arrogant they are in their daily lives, they are just slaves in the harem and have never seen such a scene.
"You, you!" The Queen's voice trembled slightly, and the color on her face faded completely. "Gu Zhizhuo, you, you want to rebel!?"
She was answered by a sharp sound of breaking through the air. The iron arrow flew past her temple and accurately shot her phoenix hairpin to the ground.
The queen froze in place, her hair disheveled, her lips half-open, her hands tightly gripping the armrests of the chair, unable to conceal her inner panic.
"It's not a rebellion." Gu Zhizhuo said, "It's... restoring order."
Gu Zhizhuo listened to the footsteps coming from outside and said without turning his head: "Take them all."
"Ha, ha. Gu Zhizhuo, you are simply lawless..."
The queen's voice trembled, trying to cover up her panic with sarcasm.
The next moment, several eunuchs rushed in from outside the hall and pressed her shoulders without any explanation.
"What are you doing... bold."
The queen was shocked and angry, and struggled desperately, but she had been pampered for a long time, and her strength was no match for these eunuchs. Soon her pearl hairpins fell off and her hair was disheveled.
"You are committing treason! This is rebellion! Rebellion!"
She screamed hysterically, feeling only panic and helplessness.
She is the queen, she is the queen! Ever since she ascended the throne, she never thought that one day she would be pinned to the ground like a prisoner.
Gu Zhizhuo continued to give acupuncture, saying, "Take Xiao Sun to the cold palace to calm down. Everyone in the palace, from the Empress Dowager to the concubines and princesses, will be sent to the cold palace first. Let the palace maids from each palace take them with them."
"Don't get in the way."
yes.
Wu Shang gave a wink, and the eunuchs obeyed his order and dragged the noisy queen out.
The maids brought from Fengluan Palace trembled with fear, lowered their heads, and followed him out obediently.
"Go and call Chen Baishu."
Gu Zhizhuo gave an order, and a eunuch helped Yunhua in. She covered her lower abdomen and said, "Miss, Imperial Physician Chen is here, in the side hall. He came here early this morning."
Concubine Shu originally didn't want to involve Chen Baishu, and it would be safer for him to stay in the Imperial Hospital, but Chen Baishu came by himself and refused to leave.
"Call a few more doctors."
After Gu Zhizhuo finished a set of acupuncture, Concubine Shu coughed. Her breathing finally became stronger, no longer as weak as before, and the purple complexion gradually eased.
Gu Zhizhuo pulled out the needle and called softly, "Auntie..."
Shufei's eyes were confused for a moment, but she smiled the moment she saw her.
"Yaoyao."
"You scared me to death." Gu Zhizhuo threw himself into her arms in fear and rubbed against her coquettishly.
"My lady, young lady."
Chen Baishu ran in hurriedly, so fast that he almost tripped over the threshold.
He was hacked to pieces and then locked in a side hall.
Seeing him covered in blood, Gu Zhizhuo was also shocked.
"Miss, it's okay, it's okay, the bleeding has stopped." He blocked the blow with his hand, and the knife hit his right arm, deep enough to see the bone. No internal organs were injured, and now that the bleeding had stopped, it was all right.
Gu Zhizhuo quickly took his pulse and said, "Uncle Chen, please apply the medicine to my aunt. I'll go check on the others."
Gu Zhizhuo stood up and stepped aside to go see Yunhua first.
Her face was red and swollen, and there was a finger-long cut on the back of her head. It must have been caused by someone slapping her on the ground. The blurred blood and flesh had even stuck her hair to the wound, which was very horrifying.
Gu Zhizhuo used a silver needle to stop the bleeding, treated the wound simply, and went to see other people.
By the time the imperial physician arrived, Gu Zhizhuo had already taken measures to stop the bleeding and provide first aid to the injured, and had also prioritized the cases.
"The red bandage on the arm is the most serious, followed by purple and blue. The white bandage is just a superficial injury and can be ignored."
Gu Zhizhuo wiped his hands with a handkerchief and said, "I've saved my life, and I'll leave the rest to you."
“Yes, yes!”
This Miss Gu was incredibly imposing, especially with her demeanor, as if she were the host, treating the palace like her own. The imperial physicians, having been warned by the eunuchs, hunched their necks, repeatedly nodding their heads, and bustling about.
Gu Zhizhuo returned to the palace and took a look at Concubine Shu. Chen Baishu had applied medicine on her neck but did not bandage it.
Gu Zhizhuo felt her pulse and said, "Aunt, please rest for a while. I'll have someone take you back to the Wang family residence."
Shufei's eyes lit up: "Really?" Can she, can she go home?
“Yes. Home!”
Shufei's surname was Wang.
The second legitimate daughter of Wang family of Langya, her elder sister is Wang Ningzhao and her younger sister is Wang Ningsui.
Taken from "May your wish come true, and may peace prevail year after year." (Note)
The daughters of the Wang family never took concubines, but Wang Ningsui of this generation was an exception. She was proud to be a daughter of the Wang family, and every day after marrying into the Rong Prince's mansion was a torture for her, and her life would never be peaceful again.
For the Wang family, for my daughter, and for the pair of children left behind by my eldest sister.
She endured and endured...
Finally, I can go home.
"Big girl."
This time it was Qi Fu from the Thousand Machines Camp who ran into the main hall. "According to your orders, the net in the capital is closed."
Gu Zhizhuo stood up and said with a smile: "Aunt, I'm going to be busy. See you later."
All that remains is to clear the Imperial City! Then we can open the gates and await the return of the Young Master.
Wang Ningsui watched her leave with a smile.
Until she ran out of the hall lightly, like a ray of morning sun, tearing through the darkness.
"Baizhu, we can go home now."
"Second Miss." Chen Baishu said with relief, "We've finally arrived."
Wang Ningsui relaxed his shoulders with relief. Yes, he had waited for it.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com