"Prime Minister, the Queen has summoned you to the palace. Please stop here."
"Bang--"
The Changchun Palace was shrouded in a tense and oppressive atmosphere at night. He Huaiyuan ignored Xiao Fuzi's obstruction and let someone kick open the heavy palace door.
"Prime Minister! Prime Minister! You are so disrespectful!"
Seeing this, Xiao Fuzi hurriedly stood in front of He Huaiyuan, but was stabbed in the heart by the imperial guard.
The gates of the Changchun Palace were opened.
Thousands of imperial guards armed with long swords immediately rushed in following He Huaiyuan and Yang Fei.
The remaining two thousand people surrounded the Changchun Palace like an iron barrel.
"He Huaiyuan! You lunatic! How dare you kill my people for no reason!"
The Queen Mother's angry voice came from a distance.
She wore a phoenix crown and a bright yellow satin skirt with colorful golden phoenixes. She stood on a thousand steps and looked down at the approaching He Huaiyuan and the thousand forbidden troops.
She looked imposing on the surface, but her slightly trembling voice revealed her panic at the moment.
"How dare you bring people into Changchun Palace in the middle of the night! Do you want to force me to abdicate and leave a bad name for me for all eternity?!"
He Huaiyuan sneered.
"What did you say, Madam? We are loyal to the royal family of Southern Qi. We came here today because we heard that you have been sick due to worry, and we want to escort you to the palace in the city to rest for a while."
"You're talking nonsense! When did I become sick with worry?!"
"No? It will be there soon."
He Huaiyuan's voice fell coldly, and the door of Changchun Palace was slammed shut.
In an instant, the sound of swords clashing and wailing could be heard from within the huge courtyard wall!
Since Yang Fei, the former deputy commander of the Imperial Guards, defected to He Huaiyuan, he reported his superior with his help and replaced him as the commander of the Imperial Guards.
Now all the imperial guards were under the control of one person. When Yang Fei followed He Huaiyuan into the palace, he ordered all the palace gates to be closed and no servants were allowed to stay.
The servants in the nearby palaces were so frightened that they closed their doors and windows and dared not peek. I could vaguely hear the terrifying noises in Changchun Palace, which continued until the second half of the night and then gradually died down.
It is said that on the next day, the Changchun Palace was filled with corpses and the palace walls were filled with scarlet blood.
The palace servants cleaned for several days and finally got rid of the bloody smell.
Of course, these palace ladies were also seen later for various reasons.
No one knew what happened in Changchun Palace that day. People knew that the Empress Dowager issued an imperial decree early the next morning, saying that she was ill and temporarily stayed in the palace in the city to recuperate.
As the young emperor was also seriously ill and was bedridden most of the time, domestic affairs were temporarily decided by Prime Minister He and several other ministers in the inner cabinet.
Of course, many decrees on official matters still needed to be signed with the seals of the empress dowager and the little emperor.
From then on, the queen and the little emperor never appeared in public again.
It is unknown whether the seals on the imperial edicts concerning people's livelihood were really from the hands of the two men, or were stolen and then stamped on.
…
The Changchun Palace coup triggered a new round of political reshuffle, but it did not have much impact on Baili's exile team for the time being.
After the exile team traveled north, they arrived at Wannian County, the border between Liuyun County and Yaoguang County.
The supplies the officers had brought were running out, so Li Feihu asked the exile team to stop at the Wannian County Post Station to give them time to go into the city and buy some things.
Fortunately, there are still a few empty rooms in the station today. Li Feihu and his companions have been getting along better and better with the Sheng family and the Liu and Li families.
놙 accepted a symbolic amount of silver as a tribute, and then let 놛 go directly to the servants to ask for a room to rest.
However, several counties near Yaoguang County were important hubs for Southern Qi trade. The economy was prosperous and prices were higher than in other places.
Even if the officials didn't charge a difference, a six-person shop with slightly better conditions would cost seven hundred copper coins, not to mention the better rooms.
Although the Sheng family could afford the house, they chose a six-person room because they thought it would be safer for their family to live together.
The first branch of the Sheng family and the Chen and Song families were not treated as well as we are.
These family members have a passive and lazy attitude towards everything they do, and they hide behind others when they encounter danger.
Li Feihu and others were also accustomed to their behavior, so they handled everything with them in a fair and impartial manner.
The price quoted to these families was seven hundred copper coins for a single-person shop!
Even so, families with a little money all paid to live in a shop or a worse firewood shed.
There was no reason. Ever since the 庶 family left Linyang County, the team seemed to be haunted, with people disappearing and dying one after another.
Either they slipped and fell off a cliff, or they caught a cold and became ill, or they accidentally fell into a toilet and drowned...
In short, the ways of death are bizarre, but people can find evidence.
Now the whole team is in a panic, and everyone is acting cautiously at all times, fearing that they and their families will be the next to suffer.
Of course, Sheng Nanxi knew that these little tricks were actually done by Lin Shaoxuan's son and Sheng Yichen.
When the wife of the Sheng family was abducted, Lin Shaoxuan secretly took note of the suspicious people.
These people are all exercises, so they can't be left here to cause trouble for themselves. These few people quietly cleaned up the exile team.
Although Prime Minister He issued many decrees prohibiting the people from slandering important officials of the current dynasty, he was still unable to prevent the vivid evidence of crimes from spreading quickly among the people.
In the past few days, Sheng Nanxi has obviously seen a lot more refugees fleeing famine on the streets, and the officers and soldiers all look worried, as if they are brewing some plan.
The Nanqi government was on the verge of collapse, and the officials were not as strict in checking the exiles as before. We were able to gain a lot of freedom.
As they traveled, their belongings grew. All the uneaten raw meat, various pheasants and rabbits, grains and vegetables were stored in the official's donkey cart.
The family discussed and decided to take the opportunity to go into town and buy a donkey cart.
Firstly, it was convenient for us to store our things, and we could take turns to rest in the donkey cart. The rest of the trip was not too tiring.
There is no precedent for a vagrant to use a donkey cart for transportation. Sheng Yuhan ran to Li Feihu and persuaded him with both reason and emotion. A Bao also pleaded for mercy.
After a long negotiation, the usually strict Li Feihu finally relented and allowed them to buy a donkey cart.
It just so happened that Abao was assigned by Li Feihu to go into the city to purchase supplies this time.
As soon as the young man saw Li Feihu nod, he shouted excitedly, and accompanied a few minor officials to the city with his master Sheng Yichen.
Looking at the posture, it seems that Sheng Yichen who is holding Sheng Nanxi is the boss, and those following him are all his little followers!
As soon as they entered the prosperous Wannian County, Sheng Nanxi's eyes began to roll around and she started to think of some tricks.
The little fat girl picked a shop farthest from us, raised her fat hand and pointed randomly:
"Brother! Xier is hungry! Xier wants Qi! She wants the meat wrapping paper from Qi's shop!!"
"And there's more! These little bunny candy paintings, Xi'er wants them too!!"
Sheng Yichen looked at the meat bun shop at the end of the street with a long line of people, and curled his lips. But he pretended to smile helplessly and discussed with his good apprentice:
"Bao'er~ You know, our Xi'er was kept in a secluded house before and has never seen the world. Today, she finally came out for a while. Can you please let me go buy her some delicious food and then meet up with you guys later?"
Sheng Nanxi couldn't help rolling her eyes, but she still tried her best to cooperate with her brother's words, pretending to be an ignorant little girl.
A string of saliva was just oozing out from the pink and tender lips!
Who knew that Abao didn't even think about it, and just smiled and said:
"Of course! Master, you can go shopping wherever you want, and we can meet at the city gate at noon!"
As he said this, he took out the key and unlocked Sheng Yichen's handcuffs and anklets.
Seeing this, a minor official nearby hurriedly stopped him: "A Bao, what are you doing?! It is an exception to allow prisoners to enter the city, and you even removed the shackles?!"
The man was slapped back by Abao:
"What do you know?! Once a teacher, always a teacher! The teacher's sister is my little aunt! What's wrong with my little aunt wanting to eat something?"
"Don't worry, I'll take full responsibility for whatever happens next!"
Seeing that Abao took all the responsibility on himself, the officer stopped trying to stop him.
Sheng Yichen also remembered Abao's kindness. He immediately patted 놛's shoulder and promised:
"When we get back, I'll teach you a more powerful move. One move will knock down a bunch of them!"
"Really?!" A Bao's eyes lit up. Seeing Sheng Yichen nod, he almost jumped up with excitement.
"Teacher, you guys can play for a while longer today! You can go back home in the evening!"
A small official at the side: "..."
As soon as Sheng Yichen and the others said goodbye to Abao, they hid in a dark alley, changed their clothes after a simple disguise, and dressed up as ordinary people.
Although there are many supplies in Sheng Nanxi's space, they are all used by the royal family. In order to conceal their tracks, they really have to buy some low-key supplies.
The two siblings discussed and decided to buy a donkey cart first, and then load the goods they bought onto the donkey cart and take them away.
Then they walked into a carriage and horse shop that looked very imposing in its decoration.
"Wow - Wannian County is ashamed to be the economic center of Southern Qi! The carriage and horse shop has all kinds of styles, and the scale of the shops is even larger than that of the shops in the capital!"
Sheng Yichen hadn't been shopping for a long time, and his eyes lit up when he saw such a large-scale carriage and horse business.
But suddenly, a shop assistant politely stopped him on his way.
"Hey! Welcome to our shop! The vehicles you see here are not that affordable. If you often use them to transport goods, you can buy a few cheaper ones over there."
The brother and sister were stunned. 꺳 realized that he was dressed too plainly and was looked down upon by others.
Just as he was about to say something, he saw the fat shopkeeper behind the counter rush over and knock the kid away. He shouted angrily:
"What are you talking about? Can you afford to offend a noble?"
Then he smiled at the two of them and said:
"Sir, you misunderstood! What I meant is that this place is simple and unworthy of you. Our carriage house has private rooms, I will have someone take you there now!"
Sheng Nanxi, Sheng Yichen: ???