Chapter 148 Secret Chamber
Sharp arrows whizzed out from the towering gate tower of Xuande Gate, ruthlessly cutting through the air and pointing directly at the people outside the gate. Lin Yunting dodged the arrows by leaning to the side. He looked back in disbelief. The arrows were all shot at him, with no intention of avoiding the family of Prince Yong. He even saw an arrow hit Prince Yong's youngest son. The people in the prison car, who were originally panic-stricken and frightened, gradually became filled with despair...
Yang Huaide While blocking the sharp arrows shot at him, he ordered a retreat. He looked into the imperial city. The towering palace was still standing there, but every brick reflected a ruthless coldness. Yang Huaide sneered, "Prince Yong is really cruel enough to abandon his own flesh and blood." Prince Yong
sat in the Funing Palace and waited quietly. A burst of hurried footsteps accompanied by the urgent report of the soldiers broke the silence: "Your Majesty, the imperial army has been repelled!"
"Okay!" Prince Yong stood up again and looked at the emperor again, "Your Majesty, there will be no reinforcements to save you, so you'd better write the edict of abdication quickly, so as not to add a few more innocent souls to this palace!"
The emperor said nothing, staring at him angrily. Prince Yong laughed even more crazily and suddenly shouted outside the palace, "Kill!"
Then, several miserable screams broke through the sky, followed by the dull sound of heavy objects falling to the ground, and the subsequent cries of fear and despair. The hot blood outside the Funing Palace flowed like a stream, slowly flowing, dyeing the bluestone tiles red.
Prince Yong smiled with satisfaction. He looked at the emperor again, his tone full of teasing and provocation: "Your Majesty is reluctant to write. Are you waiting for Prince Yan to come to your rescue? I forgot to tell you that the first soul killed by my sword is Prince Yan! Hahahaha..."
The emperor stared at the nearly crazy Prince Yong in front of him, and his heart became more and more determined. He must not let such a cruel man usurp the throne, otherwise there will be no peace in the world. He prayed silently in his heart, hoping that Zhao Zongquan would lead his troops to rescue him as soon as possible.
At this time, Zhao Zongquan had led his army to attack the East City Gate. Gu Tingye led an army to form a vanguard, and they broke through the East City Gate and headed straight for the Imperial City.
When they arrived outside the Imperial City, they joined forces with Yang Huaide. The two armies were in high spirits and captured the Xuande Gate in one go.
In the Funing Hall where Prince Yong was, the atmosphere had dropped to freezing point. When another soldier stumbled in and tried to convey the great changes outside the city, a sharp arrow silently cut through the air and pierced his chest accurately, and also pierced the last bit of luck in Prince Yong's heart. A loud shout came from outside the palace, "Reinforcements have arrived, the rebels are doomed! Lay down your weapons and I will spare your life, otherwise I will kill you without mercy!"
Prince Yong's face was pale, his eyes were full of disbelief and despair, how could the situation turn around in just a few breaths. He knew that he was doomed and had no way out. Hearing the shouts of killing getting closer and closer outside, Prince Yong could no longer care about anything else. He rushed towards the emperor with a knife, trying to hold him for his own life. Just as he was about to touch the emperor, another sharp arrow broke through the sky, like the judgment of the god of death, accurately piercing his chest, ending his arrogant and short-lived dream of being an emperor.
"The rebel leader has been captured! You won't be killed unless you surrender your weapons! You won't be killed unless you surrender your weapons!"
A loud shout came from outside the palace again. The situation was completely controlled by the reinforcements.
Gu Tingye and others escorted Zhao Zongquan to Funing Palace, and they all knelt down with Zhao Zongquan.
"Your ministers are late in coming to rescue the emperor!"
The emperor and the empress looked at each other and breathed a sigh of relief at the same time. The empress helped the emperor down from the top position, walked to Zhao Zongquan, and the emperor personally helped Zhao Zongquan up.
"Prince, you have made great contributions to rescuing the emperor. Please stand up quickly!"
...
Minglan followed the army back to Bianjing and met Lin Yunting outside the imperial city. Lin Yunting described the current situation in the city to Minglan in detail.
"Are you saying that Prince Yong's eldest and third sons are neither in the palace nor in the rebel army?" Minglan asked Lin Yunting.
"That's right. There has been no trace of these two people." Lin Yunting answered affirmatively.
Minglan remembered Mingxi's theory of the secret passage. "Since Prince Yong could leave Prince Yong's palace without anyone noticing, could there be a secret passage leading to the outside world? Prince Yong has always been a cunning man, he must have hidden this son so that he could preserve his bloodline after the defeat, so he could cruelly shoot his other children." Minglan told Lin Yunting her guess.
"I have the same idea."
Hearing Lin Yunting say this, Minglan smiled cunningly, "How about we go to Prince Yong's Mansion to check it out? This time you have rescued the prince and you must have been promoted to a higher rank. If you capture Prince Yong's second son, can you be promoted to another rank? Then, you can go to my house to ask the eldest lady to marry my fifth sister. Wouldn't the eldest lady be happy to agree immediately!"
Lin Yunting was helpless, "You don't have to provoke me, I will go with you, but you are not allowed to make fun of your fifth sister anymore."
The two of them hit it off and were about to lead the team to Prince Yong's Mansion, but were stopped by a hand, "I want to go too, take me with you!"
It was Yun Jinyan, the girl Minglan almost bumped into in Yuzhou. She also followed the army to Bianjing, and because they were both women, she had been with Minglan.
Seeing that the two were looking at her suspiciously, Yun Jinyan swung the whip in her hand and pretended to be powerful, "I also learned martial arts from my mother since I was a child. My whip is very powerful. Just take me with you!" At the end, she felt a little guilty. She was afraid that the two would not be willing to take her with them. She went up and grabbed Minglan's sleeve and acted coquettishly.
"Okay then! You have to follow us closely. If there is any danger, you must hide first." Minglan couldn't refuse and reminded her to pay attention to safety.
The three led the team to the Prince Yong's Mansion. According to Minglan's speculation, the secret passage should be in the Prince Yong's yard. After some exploration, they finally found the secret passage in the room next to the Prince Yong's study.
"I'll go down to explore the way first. You can follow me when there is no danger!" Lin Yunting instructed the two.
The two nodded in agreement. Lin Yunting entered the secret passage. He lit a torch, but found that it was not a secret passage, but a secret room, because there was no other exit.
Lin Yunting told Minglan and the others what he had observed. Knowing that there was no danger below, Minglan and Yun Jinyan also went down to the secret passage.
This so-called secret passage actually concealed a secluded and square space, which was spacious enough to accommodate more than 20 people. Emergency dry food was quietly piled up inside, but there was no other exit. Yun Jinyan searched around the cold stone wall, her fingertips lightly touching every inch of the place where the mechanism might be hidden, but she found nothing. She couldn't help but mutter to herself, "Could it be that I'm looking in the wrong place? This is just a secret room?"