When Han Mo and Shen Laosan returned to the convoy, the three injured guys were lying beside him, humming in their mouths. Half of the more than ten stintsmen were still sleeping. The others sat up awake, holding weapons in their arms, and looked at Han Mo with a strange look. As for the guys in the trade shop, they all showed respect and gratitude.

Manager Song was carrying a barrel and a big wooden spoon in his hand, and was feeding Junma. When he saw Han Mo coming back, his face turned pale and he did it even more carefully and did not dare to neglect it.

"Everyone should rest!" Han Mo waved his hand: "I'll get up early tomorrow to rush my way!"

Everyone immediately leaned down to rest. The escorts were fine, but the guys who got the money were full of joy and couldn't sleep for a while, whispering.

Han Mo saw Hongxiu sitting alone under a tree. He was about to pass by, but suddenly he felt a sharp gaze staring at him. He couldn't help but turn his head, but saw Tie Kui also sitting under a tree, holding a big knife in his arms. His eyes were extremely sharp under the faint moonlight and were staring at him.

Han Mo also stared at him, and the two looked at each other in silence. Finally, Tie Kui nodded slightly, leaned against the tree with a big knife and closed his eyes. Han Mo frowned slightly, but didn't say much, but he felt that Tie Kui had a little smell in his heart.

There was nothing to say all night, and the next day it was just dawn, Tiekui summoned everyone to get up and clean up and continue to set off.

This time, Manager Song did not dare to go forward, but just followed Han Mo obediently. Although he gritted his teeth in his heart, he was cautious and did not dare to show any resentment.

The next two days, the journey went smoothly and the speed of traveling was fast. As Han Mo ordered, the work of feeding horses along the way was handed over to Manager Song. In addition to the horses pulling the cart, more than 40 horses were fed, which really allowed Manager Song to understand what hard work meant.

Han Mo went all the way to the south wind, but he didn't know that something earth-shaking happened in Yanjing at this time.

...

...

On the second day of the fifth month of the ninth year of Pingguang in Yanli, Han Mo had been away from Beijing for three days.

It was late at night, deep in the Dayan Palace, in Qianxin Palace, the emperor, who was covered in fatigue, was still reading at night, and it was still the book "Records of the Grand Historian" written by Sima Qian.

Although he was only in his forties, the emperor's spirit did not look like a middle-aged man who was young and powerful. He always felt a kind of fatigue that penetrated his bones and his heart was very tired!

But for the sake of the Cao family, he had to hold on. He wanted to find a real way to emperors and a way to control his subjects.

In recent years, the concubines in the palace have actually been very hard. For most concubines, they have not even been able to see their husbands for several months, let alone hear a few words of their own, and they are alone in the empty room. They are favored like Han Shufei, and can see the emperor in just three days. This family has no semicolon.

However, the emperor did not go to Changchun Palace tonight, but just read at Qianxin Palace at night.

The most troublesome issue to the emperor now is the negotiations.

Seeing the formation of three factions in the court, the Han family was working hard to restrain the Xiao Su family and achieved the goal of achieving the goal of provoking them from it, allowing the three major families to fight each other, and then slowly strengthen the power of the royal family. The overall strategy is already in his plan.

According to his calculations, as long as two or three years are spent, these three factions will definitely be exhausted, and the strength of the aristocratic family will definitely be greatly weakened. At that time, the strength of the royal family must not be the same as that of now.

All he does is to be patient and wait!

He also knew very well in his heart that even though the major families knew the intention of checking and balancing aristocratic families like the royal family, they had to fight openly and secretly. According to the old saying, the major families had no way out and could only move forward to the death.

Everything seems to be pretty good!

But the damn Wei people set up troops on the border and provoked war. The Xiao family keenly felt that this opportunity was rare and wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to start a war, divert domestic attention through the war, take the opportunity to suppress other aristocratic families, and restore the Xiao family's dominance!

Of course the emperor did not allow that situation to occur. The situation he managed to manage was of course not to be destroyed by this war.

In his heart, he had already made a choice between Wei and Qing.

But he also clearly realized that the Xiao family had many cliques in the court and had a great influence in the court. Not to mention the officials of the aristocratic families, the non-aristocratic officials who account for half of the court actually had awe of the Xiao family.

More importantly, Xiao Huaiyu's existence gave the Xiao family a strong military voice. From a certain perspective, the prestige of Fan Yunao, the Minister of War, could not match the influence of the Xiao family in the army.

The great general of Shenwu, Xiao Huaiyu, holds 100,000 border troops in his hand, which is not a joke.

What's more, there is a Su family with an unclear attitude, and who knows what the Su family is thinking?

The Han family firmly celebrated, which was what the emperor expected. As a powerful faction of the emerging aristocratic family, if the Han family wants to consolidate its own faction, they will definitely oppose sending troops.

Although the strategic goals of the royal family and the Han family are different, their choices are the same.

Now we can only wait for the Wei people to arrive, then start negotiations and make decisions. The secret security sent by today has been confirmed that the Wei delegation will arrive in Yanjing City tomorrow.

The Wei envoy arrived late, and the emperor knew the reason in his heart. It was not that the Wei people did not want to rob them early, but the Wei and Yan countries did not border, and the Nanyang County of Qing was crossed in the middle. The Guancheng of Nanyang County was sealed, and the Wei people could not pass. According to reliable information, the Wei envoy could only sneak in from Feng State.

At the beginning, the emperor really asked Princess Xiu to send a large number of officials from the East Flower Hall to investigate the movements of the Wei delegation, and even issued an order that once it was on other countries, an assassination plan could be implemented, so that the Wei people could not reach Yanjing City.

However, the Wei people were very cunning, and the black flag of Wei had strong anti-reconnaissance capabilities. The Donghua Hall dispatched a large number of troops to investigate the whereabouts of the Wei delegation, but there was no clue. When they received the news about the Wei delegation, the Wei people had already arrived on the land of Yan.

When they arrived at the land of Yan State, the people in Donghua Hall naturally could not take action.

...

The emperor was a little upset. The news that the Wei people were about to go to Beijing made him feel very bad. Although he tried his best to understand some truths in "Records of the Grand Historian" tonight, he was upset and held the book but did not read a single word.

He put down the book, picked up the awakening tea brewed beside him, and took a sip.

At this moment, Yi Kongting, the eunuch general manager of Qianxin Palace, floated in from outside the door like a ghost, hurried to the desk, bowed, and whispered: "Master, something happened!"

The emperor frowned. It was so late at night that Yi Kongting would never come to disturb him. It was no small matter to make Yi Kongting look so serious on his face.

As if he had a premonition, the emperor frowned even tighter, and his hand placed on the table clenched his fists, "What's the matter?"

Yi Kongting went forward and whispered: "Master, I just received the report and something happened at the Sitongguan... An Yuqing, deputy envoy of Qing State, is dead!"

The emperor looked shocked, "What did you... say?"

"The Minister of Rites from Qing Kingdom suddenly died in Sitongguan half an hour ago!" Yi Kongting looked serious: "It was the news sent by Princess Xiu. It was absolutely true and there would be no mistake!"

The emperor's pupils contracted and he sat blankly on the dragon throne, and he couldn't speak for a moment.

After a while, the emperor said angrily: "How did Xiu'er do things? Didn't she send someone to secretly protect the Sitongguan? How could someone succeed in assassination?"

Yi Kongting whispered: "Return to the emperor, according to the news, An Yuqing was not assassinated by someone... she died of poisoning!"

"Poisoned?" The emperor clenched his fists, his eyes with a fierce light, as if he was thinking about something, and he quickly said: "Su Xianshi is responsible for Sitongguan... Is he responsible for the food inside?"

Yi Kongting nodded and said, "The diet of Sitongguan is indeed under the responsibility of Honglu Temple, but... we have arranged people in Sitongguan before, and it is not easy to poison food. Moreover, the people of Qing are also prepared for themselves. Even if the food is poisonous, they are afraid that they can detect it. It is impossible to be injured by poison so easily!"

The emperor's eyes showed doubts, and he could no longer sit still. He stood up, carried his hands on his back, and began to walk back and forth in the hall.

He knew the importance of this matter.

He also knew that not all Qing people wanted to negotiate with Yan State. There were a group of very powerful forces above the Qing State court, and they wanted to disrupt the negotiation from beginning to end.

However, the Qing State was facing military disasters, and the people and the leading direction were all about to successfully negotiate with Yan State. Without any worries, they would fight against the people of Wei State with all their might. This was in line with the fundamental interests of Qing State, so those destructive forces did not dare to blatantly jump out.

But now that An Yuqing died, the destructive forces of Qing State will definitely jump out. The devastating deputy envoy of Qing State died in the Sitong Hall of Yan State. This will definitely become the killer weapon of Qing State's destructive forces. They will use this as an excuse to incite the Qing State court to become hostile to Yan State, thus making negotiations between the two countries unable to proceed.

In addition to the Qing State, the faction of the Taishi Xiao of Yan State will definitely take this as an opportunity to demand a war against Qing.

The emperor and the Han family advocated Lianqing's strategy and would fall into a full passive responsiveness due to An Yuqing's death.

The emperor really didn't expect that things would come so suddenly. He had secretly ordered Princess Xiu to send enough dark officials to protect Sitongguan, and even arranged personnel within Sitongguan, which was to do its best to ensure the safety of the Qingguo delegation.

But I never expected that such careful arrangements still had no effect. The deputy envoy of Qing State was poisoned to death in Sitongguan.

The emperor carried his hands on his back, and when he thought of the power, his face became increasingly ugly. His tolerance was originally excellent, but An Yuqing's death burned the emperor's anger to the extreme.

He kicked out suddenly and kicked a copper crane incense burner in the hall to the ground. The quiet Ganxin Hall suddenly made a crisp loud noise, spreading away.

The little eunuchs guarding outside the hall hurried in and bowed to the ground. The emperor waved his hand and said angrily: "Get out for me!"

After the little eunuchs went out tremblingly, the emperor stared at Yi Kongting and said angrily: "Is it because the Xiao family secretly attacked? Is it the old fox that was the one who made it?"

Yi Kongting seemed calm at this time and said softly: "Master, please take care of the dragon body. I have notified Dali Temple. Hu Xuexin is afraid that he has rushed to Sitong Hall. The old slave has already given instructions. Whenever there is any news, I will report it immediately!"

"Tell me my order and let Dali Temple thoroughly investigate this matter!" The emperor said coldly: "We must find out the real murderer..."

Both the Dali Temple and the Ministry of Justice are responsible for criminal cases, but the Ministry of Justice is now temporarily acting as the Minister of Justice by Xiao Wanchang, the nephew of Taishi Xiao, so the emperor naturally would not let the Ministry of Justice get involved.
Chapter completed!