Meanwhile, Kangxi followed Consort Hui toward the so-called hot spring. The mountain path grew narrower and narrower until it could only accommodate two people walking side by side. Seeing that the path was becoming increasingly difficult, the Fourteenth Prince rode ahead of Kangxi and then led ten guards to protect Kangxi's imperial sedan chair.
The mountain path was quiet, with bursts of birdsong occasionally rising from the mountains.
The fifty guards were now on high alert. When they followed the Fourteenth Prince out, they had already realized that they had become bait along with the Emperor. Although they were nervous, the thought that even the Emperor had used them as bait made them feel no resentment. Each of them was on high alert, vigilantly watching their surroundings.
Meanwhile, Consort Hui extended her tortoiseshell and pure silver nail guards, lifted the sedan curtain, and peeked outside. Her dark eyebrows were now tightly furrowed, and if one looked closely, her forehead was covered with tiny beads of sweat. The closer she got to the place she had agreed to meet her father, the more nervous she became.
"Your Excellency, are you very hot?" Suoqiu, who was following the sedan chair, saw Consort Hui through a small gap in the doorway and asked curiously, noticing beads of sweat on her nose. It was early autumn, and although there was some dryness, it wasn't hot enough to cause so much sweating. Moreover, there were gentle breezes in the mountains, which relieved much of the heat. Suoqiu herself, who had been walking alongside the sedan chair bearers, only felt a little sweat on her back. How could Consort Hui, sitting inside the sedan chair, be sweating so much?
"Suoqiu, go and report to the Emperor that I have an urgent need to relieve myself. Tell them to stop and rest for a while." Consort Hui's hands, which were holding the silk handkerchief, had turned a little white.
Suoqiu agreed and quickly ran to Kangxi's sedan chair, grabbed Liang Jiugong's arm, and told him about Consort Hui's request.
Upon hearing this, Liang Jiugong told her to go back and serve Consort Hui first. He then walked to Kangxi's sedan chair and said through the curtain, "Your Majesty, we've been traveling for quite some time. Why don't we stop and rest?"
At that moment, Emperor Kangxi was sitting in his sedan chair with his eyes closed, resting. Upon hearing Liang Jiugong's words, he slowly opened his eyes and said, "Go and tell the Fourteenth Prince that it's time to make preparations."
Upon receiving Kangxi's instructions, Liang Jiugong bowed and immediately ran to the Fourteenth Prince's horse to relay Kangxi's words. The Fourteenth Prince nodded, turned around, and snapped his fingers, the sound echoing loudly in the secluded mountains.
Upon hearing the order, the fifty soldiers stopped, and the sedan chair bearers also stopped and lowered the sedan chair.
"Your Excellency, please come down. This servant will help you relieve yourself!" Suoqiu said to Consort Hui inside the curtain, but there was no response at all.
"My sir! My sir!" Suoqiu called out anxiously.
"Help me out." Consort Hui had just calmed down her tension and anxiety, and then suppressed the wild beating in her heart, trying her best to make her voice sound normal.
After the sedan bearers lifted the sedan chair slightly, Suoqiu quickly lifted the curtain with one hand, and then Consort Hui stepped out of the sedan chair, supported by the side.
"Come on, help me to that side." Consort Hui grabbed a handkerchief and wiped the sweat from her forehead, then said in a sweet voice, "I feel a little hot in this weather."
Suoqiu was about to say something when she saw Consort Hui wink at her, so she stopped talking and said, "Yes, this servant is also a little hot. Consort, this way."
The two women, mistress and servant, walked towards a patch of grass by the roadside. Once they had completely disappeared into the grass, the Fourteenth Prince waved to the soldiers, and immediately fifty men, like fifty chess pieces, surrounded Kangxi's sedan chair, forming an impenetrable barrier.
As for Consort Hui, as soon as she entered the bushes, she squatted down, took off her flowerpot-shaped shoes, and then took out a pair of soft shoes from her bosom to replace the flowerpot-shaped shoes.
"Your Excellency, what are you doing?" Suoqiu asked in a low voice as she saw Consort Hui doing these things so efficiently.
"Shut up and don't make a sound. If you want to live, don't ask any more questions, just come with me right now." Consort Hui no longer referred to herself as "this Consort," but as "I."
After watching Consort Hui finish doing these things, Suoqiu saw her bend over and walk to the other side, showing no intention of turning back.
Suoqiu had already committed the heinous act of wiping out nine generations of her family, so at this moment she had no choice but to stoop down and follow closely behind Consort Hui.
At the same time, Kangxi, having waited for a quarter of an hour, was about to send someone to search when he heard a burst of arrows flying from somewhere.
In an instant, the soldiers raised their swords and blocked the cold, unyielding iron arrows.
The Fourteenth Prince's horse was hit by an arrow and immediately reared up and neighed in pain. The Fourteenth Prince quickly dismounted and hid behind the horse. The sedan chair bearers were not so lucky. Three of the four sedan chair bearers next to Consort Hui's sedan chair were dead, and the other one lay on the ground trembling.
Because Liang Jiugong was prepared, upon hearing the words "arrows," he immediately knelt down beside Kangxi's sedan chair. The soldiers used their swords to deflect all the arrows aimed at the imperial sedan chair, except for one sedan chair bearer who was hit in the arm by an arrow.
"Your Majesty, are you alright? Quickly, kneel down." Liang Jiugong called out to Kangxi inside the sedan chair while covering his face and head.
"I'm fine!" came Kangxi's deep voice from inside the sedan chair.
"Protect the Emperor! Protect the Emperor!" Liang Jiugong shouted loudly to the soldiers around him as soon as he heard that Kangxi was unharmed.
Suddenly, a group of men in black rushed out of the dense forest. Each of them carried two swords and shouted, "Kill the Da Zi Emperor and restore our Great Ming Dynasty!"
Then another group of men in black rushed in from another direction. The two groups surrounded Kangxi and his entourage in the middle, while the other two sides were steep mountain paths, making it impossible for anyone to hide.
"Show me what you've been practicing! Today is your chance to prove yourselves!" Liang Jiugong suddenly shouted, standing up and blocking Kangxi's sedan chair.
The Fourteenth Prince was still young, and seeing himself surrounded by assassins of unknown origin, he was quite flustered. He hurriedly said, "Eunuch Liang is right. Now is the best time for you to take revenge on the court. Kill these remnants of Yu Ming and wipe out the traitors for the Emperor."
A rather elderly man dressed in black roared, "You Manchus are the traitors! You seized my land and slaughtered my people! Today is the day our dog emperor dies! Brothers, kill them all! Leave no one alive!"
After saying that, he took the lead and charged forward with his knife in hand, and the others followed suit.
"Don't you care about Cao Peining's life or death?" Suddenly, an extremely cold voice came from the sedan chair.
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