Qinghe Palace.
Prince Qinghe was wearing a long robe with wide sleeves made of dark blue cloud satin, with the cuffs and lapels rolled with silver thread. He leaned against the armchair, looking leisurely and a little lazy, looking at the man in front of him who was nearly forty years old.
"Tell me your conditions." He said calmly, "I have thought it through."
"Your Highness, the biggest obstacle to your ascension to the throne is not your emperor, but the Ye family army. Our General Mi Qin said he is willing to help you remove this biggest obstacle and do his utmost to help you ascend to the throne." The man had high brow bones and a straight nose. Even though he was wearing the clothes of the Song Dynasty, one could tell at a glance that he was a foreigner.
"How confident are you in getting rid of Ye Shiheng?" Prince Qinghe played with the jade ring on his thumb without raising his eyelids.
The man smiled and said, "That depends on your sincerity, Your Highness. The greater your sincerity, the greater our confidence."
Prince Qinghe asked bluntly, "What do you want?"
"Yumen Pass."
Hearing this, Prince Qinghe sat up straight and looked at the man, "You have quite a big appetite."
Yumen Pass is the first pass on the border between Song and Xia. It has been an extremely important military fortress since ancient times. After passing Yumen Pass is Ganzhou, which is the garrison of the Ye family army.
Xixia is indeed greedy!
"Your Highness, you can't say that. It's not that easy to help you ascend the throne, and it's even harder to take Ye Shiheng's life."
Prince Qinghe had no time to think, "It's just a Yumen Pass, I agree."
He spoke very straightforwardly, as if he had found a rare treasure in an antique market and bought it directly without any hesitation.
The man said, "The prince is indeed straightforward!"
King Qinghe said, "General Mi Qin helped me ascend the throne and solved the biggest obstacle for me. Naturally, I will not treat him unfairly. However, this matter is not trivial. There are some details that I would like to discuss with your contact. I wonder where your contact can meet me."
"We are at Fengji Tavern in Kanglefang. Lord Fengliang will be waiting for the prince's arrival tomorrow." said the Xixia man.
Prince Qinghe raised a faint smile, stood up and walked over, handing the Xixia man a piece of paper with the seal of Prince Qinghe. "This prince is looking forward to cooperating with General Mi Qin."
The Xixia man had a smile on his face as he took the letter with the large vermilion seal from Prince Qinghe's hand.
The next moment, his body was pierced by a dagger——
Bright red blood dripped down the tip of the knife.
The Xixia people's eyes were as round as two big copper bells, full of disbelief.
Prince Qinghe drew out his dagger, and the shiny blade was covered in blood.
The Xixia man fell to the ground, warm blood gurgling from the wound on his chest.
The smell of blood filled the air.
"you……"
Prince Qinghe said coldly, "Killing Ye Shiheng has thrown the Ye family army into disarray. The Western Xia have taken advantage of this opportunity to seize Yumen Pass and Ganzhou. The Western Xia army is now targeting Tongguan and Xijing. It's a brilliant plan to capture the Eastern Jin Dynasty! Do you really think I would sell out the foundation laid by my ancestors just to take that position?"
Ye Shiheng was the number one military general of the Song Dynasty. He was the backbone of the hundreds of thousands of Ye family soldiers and also their spiritual pillar. If Ye Shiheng died, the Ye family soldiers would have no one to take charge of the overall situation, and the morale of the army would surely be weakened. The Western Xia army would take the opportunity to invade, and the western border would be in danger.
Ye Zelin can die, Ye Yunlu can die, but Ye Shiheng cannot die!
The Ye family army is the biggest obstacle for him to sit firmly on the throne, but it is not absolute. He does not need to sell out the loyal ministers of the Song Dynasty to consolidate his interests.
Prince Qinghe looked at the fallen Xixia people, his eyes flashing with contempt, "You Xixia barbarians, don't even think about getting a single inch of my Song Dynasty land!"
The Song Dynasty's territory was conquered inch by inch by our ancestors. Ceding Yumen Pass would be tantamount to forgetting one's roots.
"Someone come!"
Not long after, a middle-aged man who looked like a manager walked into the room. He glanced at the corpse lying there and said calmly, "Your Highness, please give your instructions."
Prince Qinghe remained calm. "A Xixia barbarian attempted to steal imperial secrets, but I discovered him and killed him. Send out orders to search the entire city for Xixia spies and capture them all. Also, Bai Yanlang is in league with Xixia and has been lurking around me. His adopted son doesn't need to be spared."
The steward bowed and said, "Yes."
If Bai Yanlang knew that he would be accused of colluding with foreign countries and betraying the Song Dynasty after his death, I wonder if he would seek revenge on King Qinghe in his dreams at midnight.
…
A close subordinate of King Qinghe led a team of people to Fengji Tavern in Kanglefang, destroyed the Xixia's hideout in Tokyo, captured seven spies, and at the same time hunted for other Xixia spies in the city.
Prince Qinghe tortured the seven captured spies severely, and these seven spies gave away other intelligence bases and intelligence personnel of Western Xia in Tokyo.
Prince Qinghe could not have imagined that the Western Xia had deployed so many spies and secret agents in the Song Dynasty to gather intelligence, steal court secrets, stir up trouble, and even have spies from the Western Xia in the residences of some court officials.
He was extremely angry. Huaiqin Pavilion was an intelligence agency controlled by Zhao Zixu. There were so many Western Xia spies lurking in the capital, but Huaiqin Pavilion had not detected any of them.
Huaiqin Pavilion is useless, and the intelligence personnel of Huaiqin Pavilion are even more useless!
In order to capture the spies lurking in Western Xia as soon as possible, King Qinghe sent more people to capture them.
The arrest of spies in the Qinghe Palace also alarmed two other major agencies, the Tokyo Prefecture Government and the City Patrol.
Bao Changzhou learned that Prince Qinghe was searching for spies. As the prefect of Tokyo, he had the responsibility to maintain order in Tokyo and protect the Song Dynasty, so he sent people to assist Prince Qinghe's palace in capturing the spies.
The duty of the City Patrol Department is to maintain public order in the capital and crack down on illegal crimes. Arresting Xixia spies is also to maintain stability in the capital and is also within the scope of the City Patrol Department's responsibility. Qin Youran also sent people from the City Patrol Department to monitor the arrest trends.
The capital was in chaos and people were in panic.
With the cooperation of the Qinghe Palace, the Tokyo Government Office and the City Patrol Office, all the Western Xia spies were captured.
The Xixia spies hiding in the officials' homes were also arrested. Zhao Zixu fined the officials three months' salary on the grounds that the officials failed to discover the Xixia spies in time.
The capture of the Western Xia spies gradually came to an end, and the full moon banquet of Ye Weirui, the eldest daughter of General Ye’s mansion, also ended successfully.
The full moon banquet was hosted by Madam Ouyang, and Hua Fushu assisted Madam Ouyang in taking care of all matters related to the full moon banquet.
After a busy day of receiving guests and arranging various matters, Hua Fushu was so tired that her back and waist ached. She lay lazily on the couch at night and asked Sanqiao to massage her shoulders and legs.
"Qiao'er, use a little more force. This force is good, this force, continue, maintain it."
"Oh, it feels so good."
"I'm so tired today. I have to go to bed early tonight."
As they were talking, Ye Zelin came back after washing up.
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