"Father, Ruan Jingzhen has just returned from the Ming Kingdom and brought back news that the Ming Kingdom refuses to let Chen Tianping come to Annan to succeed the monarch now." Hu Huan trotted all the way to Hu Jichen's palace, panting and waiting for all the eunuchs and palace maids in the palace to go out, and then said to Hu Jichen.

"Sit down, speak slowly, be detailed. Although this matter is in a hurry, it is not in a hurry. Hu Jichen said to him.

After Hu Huan sat down and took a breath to return to normal, Hu Jichen asked, "Is Ming Guo not allowing him to return to China, or is he unwilling to return to China?" ”

"It's Ming Guo who doesn't allow it." Hu You said a little dazedly: "Father, Ruan Jingzhen went to the capital of the Ming Kingdom and handed over his father's documents to Chen Di, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites. Chen Di entered the palace on the second day to meet His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Kingdom, and after he returned, he told Ruan Jingzhen that His Majesty would not allow Chen Tianping to return to China to succeed to the throne now. Ruan Jingzhen wanted to see the emperor of the Ming Kingdom, but was also refused. He rushed back at once. ”

When Hu Jichen heard this, the expression on his face did not change at all, and he sat on his seat and pondered for a moment before saying, "Since this is the case, this is the only way to go." ”

"Hu You, you call Li Duan over and use all our people in Guangxi to assassinate Chen Tianping. If it still fails, we can only suspend the reform, but we will not stop the war against the city, and Chen Tianping will drag it out to see who will be dragged down in the end. ”

"Yes, father." After listening to Hu Jichen's words, Hu Huan was no longer at a loss, and understood that there was only one way at this time, so he could only try it.

However, he paused and asked again: "Father, use all the people to assassinate Chen Tianping, if the assassination is successful, it will be regarded as a well-deserved death; But if the assassination fails, we won't be able to find out what he did in Guangxi in the future, isn't it too costly? ”

"If it doesn't work out this time, then the assassination can't be successful in the future. In that case, what are they left to do? It was useless to find out what Chen Tianping had done all day. ”

"Besides, the lion still needs to do his best, not to mention our assassination that doesn't have much chance of winning, if we keep our strength, I'm afraid it will be even more impossible to succeed." Hu Jichen said.

Hu Xuan nodded, didn't ask any more questions, and got up to call Li Duan over. But at this moment, Hu Jichen's cronies and eunuchs came in and said, "King Taishang, Your Majesty, Lord Li Duan has asked for an audience." ”

"It's really Cao Cao, Cao Cao is here." Hu Jichen laughed and said loudly: "Let him in." ”

Li Duan immediately walked in, just bent down a little and saluted the two of them and said excitedly: "King Taishang, Wang, I just found out the news, Chen Tianping has already left Nanning Mansion City yesterday and is heading to Jiangzhou, and it is even possible to go to Longzhou or even Pingxiang Prefecture in the future. It is said that because these places are closer to the border, they can meet people who have passed by us one step earlier. ”

"King Taishang, King, walking on the road is different from being in Nanning Fucheng, even if the garrison is tight, there is always an opportunity. Even if it is too late to arrange an assassination in Jiangzhou, it is still possible to assassinate him in Jiangzhou. After all, Jiangzhou is not as good as Nanning Mansion. ”

According to what the minister saw, it was very unlikely that Ming Guo would promise to let Chen Tianping come to Annan at this time, for the sake of Da Yu, don't wait for the news from the capital of Ming Guo any longer, and immediately order someone to assassinate Chen Tianping. There are a few dead soldiers under the minister, no matter whether the assassination can be successful or not, they will not reveal the slightest secret, and promise not to let the people of the Ming Kingdom know that we sent someone to assassinate him. ”

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, don't hesitate any longer." Li Duan finally knelt down and said.

"You get up, you don't have to be like this." Hu Jichen said as he motioned for Hu Huan to help him up. Li Duan saw that Hu Huan wanted to help him, but he didn't dare to stand up, so he could only stand up again.

After standing up, Li Duan was just about to continue to ask Hu Jichen to make a decision, when he heard him say: "You don't have to ask this king, this king has already decided to assassinate Chen Tianping." ”

"Ruan Jingzhen has just returned to Xijing, and the emperor of the Ming State does not let Chen Tianping return to the position of successor to the throne now. We have no other way but to try to assassinate Chen Tianping. ”

"The Supreme King is wise." Li Duan said immediately.

Li Duan immediately retreated and arranged for the assassination. Hu Jichen said to Hu Huan again: "The assassination may not be successful, if it fails, you can only win over the scholars and wait for change." You prepare first, and when the news of the assassination fails, you will summon the patriarchs of the various clans in the country to Xijing, and I will talk to them personally. ”

"Yes, father." Hu Xi agreed. But in his heart he prayed: 'In order not to let my father's hard work go to waste, the assassination must be successful.' ’

……

……

Jiangzhou is located in the southeast of Guangxi Province, 2,110 miles away from Guilin Prefecture, although it is directly under the jurisdiction of the political envoys, but it is only one of the 48 prefectures in Guangxi Province, the total population of the whole prefecture is only tens of thousands, and the population of any county in Jiangsu and Zhejiang is much larger than here. On weekdays, even merchants rarely come to such a place; But recently, because the only surviving person of the Chen dynasty clan in Annam is about to arrive, the small city is no longer peaceful, both on the surface and secretly.

"Chen Chongshan is a thousand households, and Nie Yi has seen Li Dudu's affairs." A middle-aged man knelt down respectfully and said to a man dressed in armor in front of him.

"Get up." The commander of the Guangxi Metropolitan Division waved his hand indifferently and asked him to get up.

Nie Yi was slightly dissatisfied in his heart: although he was a native of Guangxi, he had also seen Fu Youde and other generals back then, even though Fu Youde, Lan Yu and others were polite to ordinary Qianhu at that time, but now he, a commander of the three products of the capital of Guangxi, is so arrogant.

But now is not the time for the founding of the country. Although there are still occasional rebels everywhere, most of them are whirling and perishing, and a very small number of people fleeing into the deep mountains and old forests to survive without much impact. Even in the army, there is no longer the etiquette of the robe when the founding of the country was restored, and the upper and lower ranks are strict. Nie Yi didn't dare to say anything, and stood up respectfully.

"The future monarch of Annan is about to come to Jiangzhou, although most of the time there will be no danger, but you also have to arrange for someone to greet this prince of Annan, and send people to guard outside his place of residence day and night."

"Also, when Prince Chen enters the city, he must organize the people to greet him. Although the matter of greeting is handed over to the governor of Jiangzhou, you must also guard the order and not let them collide with Prince Chen. ”

"Besides,......" Li Yan babbled a lot.

Nie Yi was still listening carefully, but the more he listened, the more wrong he became: this Li Yishi's actions almost completely ignored the safety of Prince Chen, and focused on the scene of greeting and entertaining.

It would be fine if Jiangzhou was still unbodied, but as far as he knew, there were many outsiders in Jiangzhou City who had come recently, and although these people seemed to be barbarians from the nearby Tusi, Nie Yi could still feel the undercurrent surging.

Finally waiting for Li Yi to finish speaking, Nie Yi bowed and said to him cautiously: "Li Yishi, what you said just now is all about arranging etiquette, so how to ensure Prince Chen's safety?" ”

"What? Will anyone come to the detriment of Prince Chen? Li Baishi said: "Who will be unfavorable to Prince Chen?" To whom is it good to be bad for Prince Chen? ”

"Li Baishi, the Li father and son of Annam, will definitely not be willing to recruit people like Prince Chen who oppose him in Guangxi, and it is possible to send people to the disadvantage of Prince Chen." Nie Yi said his guess.

"Of course the Li family and his son don't want Prince Chen to be in Guangxi like this, but this is Guangxi, not Annan, how can he be unfavorable to Prince Chen!"

"If it's halfway through, it's just that, the barren mountains and mountains can be ambushed everywhere, Jiangzhou is a city anyway, and it's still a small city, the fresh face will be found immediately when it comes in, how can it be unfavorable to Prince Chen?" Li Baishi said.

Nie Yi wanted to say more, but at this moment, Li Yishi said to himself: "But that's right, strictly protecting Prince Chen can let the people above see how much I attach importance to this matter and work hard." ”

He then lowered his head and said to Nie Yi: "Then according to what you said, strictly ensure the safety of Prince Chen." This matter will be handed over to the two of you after the guards escorting Prince Chen over. ”

"Yes, Li Yanshi." Nie Yi heard that he meant to shirk responsibility: although Li Yanshi, as a responsible person, could not shirk all the responsibility, but it was a point that could be pushed out. But Nie Yi still had to agree. As the commander of the local guard, this is originally his business, and he can't shirk it.

Li Yishi said a few more words to him, and asked Nie Yi to retreat and make arrangements.

In the next few days, Nie Yi launched a vigorous search for 'ill-intentioned people' in the city, and severely searched the unfamiliar faces of the Han people in the city, and everyone had to be guaranteed that there was no problem; the barbarians could not determine their identities, so Nie Yi drove them all to a corner of the city, and did not allow them to haunt other places in the city; because of his actions, under the banner of thinking about Chen Tianping's safety, Zhizhou did not dare to say anything.

Nie Yi also asked the hooligans and bullies in the city to help investigate. Because Nie Yi is a thousand households in the vicinity, it is very easy to rectify them, so these people dare not disobey his words, and they do not do the work of the underworld, and do the same work of the National Security Bureau as a few Jinyi guards sent over, and strive to help identify suspicious people.

For a while, chickens and dogs jumped in Jiangzhou City, but Nie Yi's actions did cause a lot of trouble to the assassins sent by Li Duan.

……

……

"Wang Cheng, Wang Gong, don't go out these days. Nie Yi and his soldiers have been carefully probing in the city recently, and all new faces must be vouched for. I also came to Jiangzhou only three years ago, and there are a lot of you, and I will make myself suspicious if I give you a few guarantees, so you just stay in the courtyard, and if someone comes to investigate, you will hide in the second cellar. A man who looked to be twenty-five or sixteen years old said to the eight men and women, young and old, in front of him.

This person's name is Han Cang, of course, this is a pseudonym. His original surname was Ruan, because there were very few Han surnames Ruan, so he assumed the name Han Cang, and infiltrated into the Ming Dynasty three years ago as a merchant and came to Jiangzhou.

"Han Cang, it's really safe for us to hide in the courtyard and not go out, but how can we check the situation in the city, and how can we assassinate Chen Tianping when the time comes?" The man known as Wang Cheng said.

"I can only let Wang Ma and Han Wei out. Han Wei's pseudonymous surname is exactly the same as my pseudonym, you can pretend to be my cousin, and Wang Ma can pretend to be my cousin-in-law, they can take the road of Daming to walk around the city and explore the situation. Han Cang said.

"Can't we disguise ourselves as a caravan? It's not unusual for a caravan to have eight people. Wang Gong asked.

"It's certainly not unusual for a caravan to have eight people. But your guides are all from different places, how can an ordinary caravan be eight people and six places? Unless it's a big businessman from the capital. But how could such a businessman come to such a poor and remote place as Jiangzhou? ”

"Although Han Wei and Wang Ma's Lu Yin are not in the same county as me, they are also in the same prefecture, and it is not very unusual for a woman from a merchant family to marry into a foreign merchant's family, so you can still hide the past." Han Cang said.

Wang Gong was dumbfounded. He hadn't thought of the guides, and it was too late to change them to other places.

At this time, the oldest person present coughed and said, "Han Cang's arrangement is very proper, just do what he says." Wang Ma, you have learned to draw maps, so you remember everything you see, and when you come back, you draw them. Han Wei, you also take a good look at what is in the city, and when you come back to Wang Ma to paint, you remind him on the side to prevent Wang Ma from forgetting anything. ”

Wang Ma and Han Wei promised. Han Cang said with a little self-reproach: "If only I had drawn a map of Jiangzhou before." ”

"You don't have to blame yourself, it's not so easy to draw a map, and people who haven't learned it can't draw well. And who knew that an assassination would be carried out in Jiangzhou before? I sent you here just because I thought that if there was a war, you could find out how many troops were passing by here, so that the country would know how many Ming troops needed to deal with. The man, who goes by the pseudonym Cao Anmin and looks to be in his fifties, said.

After that, the few of them discussed some more things. Han Wei and Wang Ma went out to investigate, Han Cang covered for them, and several other people also arranged tasks in the courtyard. It wasn't until it was getting dark that they had finished their deliberations.

Han Cang touched his belly and said, "It's already this time, I'll cook for you." Fortunately, I have been quietly hoarding some food, otherwise I would have been suspicious of buying a lot of food now. ”

Soon, Han Cang steamed the rice, took out the vegetables and meat he bought in the past two days, copied a few dishes and brought them up, and said apologetically: "Although I have hoarded a lot of food on weekdays, I don't save much vegetables, vegetables and meat, so everyone can only eat them." ”

"As long as you can eat enough." Wang Gong said while eating: "It doesn't matter if you don't have vegetables or meat, as long as you can eat enough." I don't know that Chen Tianping will arrive in Jiangzhou City a few days later, and he will be hungry all the time. If you don't have much food in your cache, we can eat six or seven minutes a day. ”