Holding the talisman stolen by Ah Dong's lady, Zu Qing left the Zhang family mansion very smoothly. Of course, this is also because the situation of the city defense is becoming more and more severe, and the Zhang family, father and son, and important clansmen are not here, even if they are wary of Zuqing, this matter will not be publicized by everyone.

Zhang's house is also in the Huguo Temple, not long after Zu Qing left here, a few figures rushed out of a nearby building, which was the general who went to the banquet arranged by Zu Qing a few days ago.

"Zhang Thief is finally willing to release Ah Lang? If Ah Lang doesn't come out again, I'm already planning to rush in to rescue him......"

Several families will see that Zu Qing has finally escaped, and they are excited one by one.

After Zu Qing heard this, his mind flashed the timid and resolute shadow of his own lady, and then quickly collected his emotions and led his family to return to his house from a remote place, and began to ask him about the various things that had happened in the Xindu City in the past few days when he was trapped in Zhang's house, and how he ordered the family to carry out affairs.

The current situation in Xindu is even worse than Zu Qing imagined. This can be seen from the tense atmosphere in the Huguo Temple, although Zu Qing and they tried to choose a remote path all the way forward, but there were still many patrol soldiers, and the defense in the Huguo Temple was several times higher than before.

All this is naturally because of the amazing combat effectiveness of the Jin army outside the city, according to the information that the ancestral family general has recently explored, on the first night alone, Zhang Jackal personally led the crowd out of the city to attack the Jin camp at night, and invested nearly 10,000 troops before and after, and occupied an absolute advantage in terms of troops, but in the end he still failed to suppress the Jin army on the battlefield, but was killed by the Jin army of nearly 2,000 people.

After this battle, it can be said that the defending army has completely lost the ability and confidence to continue to organize field battles out of the city. After several tentative attacks, the Jin army outside the city is now taking the northeast corner of Xindu City as the direction of the main attack, which is a loophole in the Xindu city defense, which was originally turned into a forbidden garden building, but the fortification stopped halfway through, because it was out of touch with the entire city defense system.

Earlier, Yan Wang Shibin secretly sent back to Xindu, which was to choose to enter the city from this direction, also because this place leads directly to the Forbidden Garden. It was only natural for the Jin army to launch an offensive from this.

"The Wang Division is still increasing its troops, but few people in the city know the specific number of troops."

Naturally, the generals of the Zu family will not be included in the first sequence of city defense operations, because there is no way to know that Wang Shi is detailed. But in fact, even those soldiers of the Jin army who directly fought against the Jin army on the city wall did not have a comprehensive understanding of this.

The defeat of the first night raid brought great pressure to the Jin army, and they did not dare to send scout forces to fully spy on the strength of the Jin army. Although a few scouts left the city, they were either chased and killed by the Jin army around the city scouts, or simply went away and never returned. Up to now, Zhang Jackal simply ordered to completely block the gates of the city and prohibit all people from entering and leaving, hoping to strengthen the belief that the people defending the city will die with the city.

But in fact, such a means, the effect is also very little, although the current Jin army only attacked the northeast corner of the city, but other aspects of the city defense situation is still extremely grim, that is, many city guards have taken advantage of the ministry, privately through hanging baskets, slings and the like to let people out of the city to flee for their lives.

This has even become a lucrative business in the city of Shinto, and many people who have completely lost faith in the kingdom would rather endure the exploitation of the soldiers and sacrifice their wealth just to be able to leave the city and survive.

Zhang Jackal is not ignorant of this, but he does not dare to strictly investigate it at all, because no one knows how many soldiers are involved in it, and what kind of backers and organizations are behind it. Once it is strictly investigated, it is very likely to cause direct mutiny and internal strife among the defenders of the city. Because it can only be supplemented by constantly adjusting the defense and requisitioning the troops in the city to supplement the strength of the defenders, can barely reap the effect of suppression, but it is only a symptom but not a cure.

Recently, there have been more powerful households in the country in the Huguo Temple, which is the increasingly severe city defense situation and Zhang Jackal's continuous pressure to levy them, these powerful families have to put their private songs into the city defense battle, and their families are included in the Huguo Temple, half protection, half quality.

"The path out of the city has been prepared. Yamen General Gao Ba is guarding the southwest Mingde Gate, and has formed a secret agreement with the servants, and is willing to go out of Nantou with my family......"

A general stepped forward and whispered in his ear, the current city defense seems to be tight, but in fact, there is a leak everywhere, and there is still no shortage of people they want to choose partners.

This Yamen general Gao Ba, a person from Bohai, was forced to bring his troops to Xindu the year before last when he levied manpower from various counties, and he entered the city earlier because of his involvement in the night of the Huguo Temple, and as a result, he fell into this situation, and there was no lack of chagrin in his heart. Previously, Zu Qingshang had met with him a few times when he was still in power, and then instructed his family to continue contact, and now it has finally worked.

As they spoke, everyone returned to the ancestral family's house. Although Zu Qing was placed under house arrest by Zhang's father and son, there are not many people who know after all, and now the city defense war is in full swing, and many guards only say that Zu Qing was also left at the city wall by his father-in-law Zhang Jackal, because he did not dare to embarrass his family without authorization.

After returning home, Zu Qing found that his family had already finished packing up, which saved a lot of time. In order to prevent Zhang Chang from learning the news of his departure and coming to besiege him, this house cannot stay. Because it was Zu Qing who immediately gathered his family members and instructed them to retreat.

The old man who originally followed the ancestral family in Beitou has now withered more than half. However, Zu Qing has also cultivated a group of henchmen in the country over the years, all of whom have been assembled, with more than 200 people. Zu Qing divided the two hundred or so people into two groups, one of which was responsible for escorting his cousin Zu Daozhong and a group of elderly and handicapped family members immediately left Huguo Temple and temporarily hid in the city, preparing to evacuate Xindu tonight.

As for the other group of family members, Zu Qing stayed by his side and continued to stay here, ready to wait for an opportunity to make trouble.

Hearing that Zu Qing was reluctant to evacuate, the generals of the family gave advice one after another, and they naturally understood that every additional moment of staying here would increase countless dangers, and there might not be a chance to escape later.

But Zu Qing had made up his mind, and he didn't listen to everyone's advice, but said: "Zhang Thief is treacherous, everything has been wasted before, if I flee here, I am really unwilling." Besides, my family ...... Alas, even if you have been following me for a long time, no matter what your family reputation is, how can I bear to let you be looked down upon even more by people after you return to the south! There is no need to hesitate in this matter, I just ask you to escort my brother back to the south safely, and Qing Ze is here to leave a legacy ......"

Some elderly family members were also in tears at this time, grabbing Zu Qing's robe and crying: "I hate the old body, and I can't help Ah Lang anymore." But in the old years, he dared to cross the river from his grandfather, and now he is afraid of death! Ah Lang Zhuang is unyielding, dare to sacrifice his life for the family, even if we can't help when we are old, we don't dare to be dragged down because of greed! Ah Lang go quickly, I will stay here for myself, and I can cover up a little......"

After years of dependence, the love has been deep in the bone marrow, and Zu Qing also understands that he is really lonely, and it is reluctant to seek anything, and it is even more difficult to cover everything. These old people are really helpless after sacrificing their lives.

He bowed goodbye to his family members who volunteered to stay behind and shed tears. At this time, it was still early, and a group of hundreds of people walked in the Huguo Temple was still quite eye-catching. But Zu Qing is not a lonely and unknown person in Xindu, and with Zhang Jackal's talisman on his body, ordinary soldiers dare not make things difficult.

Of course, Zu Qing did not dare to go to heavily guarded places, such as Dongtai, which was not far from the house. The contradiction between him and Zhang Jackal has not yet been made public, but the Dongtai guards were taken away from him by Zhang Jackal before, and there must be some generals who know the inside story and will guard against him. If Zu Qing dares to break in, it is tantamount to throwing himself into a net.

The number of residents of Huguo Temple has increased, and there has been a lot of crowding and chaos, and the number of patrols seems to have increased, but in fact, the entire command system has become complicated, which also provides convenience for Zu Qing and his party. He sent Zu Daozhong and others to the side gate where the remote monk's house was located, and the monks and nuns who originally lived there had already escaped more than half, and from there, they could go straight to the inner city.

As long as you leave Huguo Temple, the Zu family has also prepared a lot of warrants, ordinary people are in the city at the moment or it is difficult to move an inch, but Zu Qing is naturally not a vulgar stream, until now, he is still Zhang Jackal's son-in-law, the upstart of the country, even if those patrolling the city found his family wandering, most of them did not dare to stay in trouble, and they could calmly lurk down, waiting for night to fall.

After the group separated, Zu Qing led dozens of henchmen and family members to infiltrate the Huguo Temple again. The Buddha of the main stone tiger is a Buddha, because this temple is a grand size, not inferior to a small city.

Zu Qing had also been a powerful Praetorian Guard general in the temple before, so he was naturally no stranger to the overall layout of the temple, and it was not difficult to lurk, unless the Zhang clan searched the Huguo Temple after noticing that he had left, there would be no danger of being exposed.

However, the Zhang family did not have such a chance at all, and not long after the afternoon, the urn city in the northeast of the city was suddenly broken by the Jin army, and even a part of the Jin army rushed directly to the main city wall. Zhang Jackal, who was supervising the battle on the front line, immediately ordered the defense line to be filled here, and the two sides launched a desperate battle between this urn city, and the dead bodies were piled up almost full!

The head of the city rushed to report to the Huguo Temple, and Zhang Chang, who stayed in the Huguo Temple, was also frightened, and was busy dispatching the guards in the temple to gather thousands of people under the west hall, ready to reinforce the city at any time.

With such a rapid deployment of troops, it is inevitable that there will be loopholes in defense. If it was an outsider, it might be difficult to take advantage of this chaotic opportunity, but this was not a problem for Zu Qing, taking advantage of the chaos when the soldiers from all sides were transferred and the military orders were chaotic, he boldly led the crowd into the area of the West Temple, and intercepted hundreds of guards to follow him halfway with his military talisman.

The chaos lasted for more than an hour, and at dusk, the crisis at the head of the city was temporarily lifted, but the thousands of troops gathered in front of the west hall did not disperse, and half of them were requisitioned to the head of the city to replenish the losses of the previous fierce battle.

Zhang Chang, who stayed in the Guardian Temple, was also anxious at the moment, even if there was no huge pressure from the Jin army outside the city to attack the city, there was chaos in the city and chaos alone, and he couldn't sort out a clue at all.

He had just sent off the guards who had reinforced the city's defenses, and when it was about to fall at night, he began to check the various orders in the city today, and then found that a high-ranking talisman directly from his father had been used many times today.

After perceiving this, Zhang Chang was suddenly shocked in his heart, although the orders in the city were chaotic, but the orders that really wanted to rise to a certain level were actually traceable. Especially the talisman that belongs to his father Zhang Jackal, how many are there, and how to use it, there is full communication between father and son, and there will never be such a level of chaos!

At this time, he remembered that his family was in a hurry in the afternoon, but he was busy mobilizing the guards to prepare for the city defense situation and did not have time to summon him, so he hurriedly ordered someone to bring in his family.

"Shaft, it's really a thief!"

Zhang Chang scolded secretly in his heart, first waved his pen to write the warrant, ordered the abolition of the talisman in various critical places, and then began to think about how to deal with this incident.

Although he made amends and invalidated the talisman, but if he wants to cover the whole city, it will take at least a few hours, and Zu Qing has already passed a day, and he himself is a well-known Praetorian Guard general in Xindu, and Zhang Jackal has not publicly dismissed him from his ministry, and now he has such a high-level talisman in his hand, what kind of changes will be caused, it is really difficult to estimate.

After a little silence, Zhang Chang sent a guard to attack the residence in the ancestral temple on the one hand, although Zhang Chang also understood that the chance of blocking Zu Qing and his family was very small, on the other hand, he led several henchmen to go out of the main hall of the west hall, and let people transfer the guards on duty along the way, until they reached an inconspicuous wing room on the side of the west hall.

Zu Qing was also extremely bold, occupying a corner of the West Hall, and summoning a considerable part of the Praetorian Guards along the way through the military talismans. Although his own chariot cavalry general seal order was taken away by Zhang Jackal, but when he was in power before, he naturally placed some generals into the Praetorian Guard as commanders of different levels, although these people no longer served in the Praetorian Guard, but there were also many military talismans that were consciously retained.

From the past year to the present, the Praetorian Guard of the Kingdom of Qian is the most frequently changing army, and now that the king is attacking the city, the Praetorian Guard has been frequently mobilized and supplemented, and the command system has long been chaotic. Because it is a talisman kept by the ancestral general, there is a great opportunity to fish in troubled waters.

Of course, if you follow the strict command system of the Praetorian Guards in normal times, if you want to exercise military orders and effectively dispatch the Praetorian Guards, in addition to the matching of military symbols, you must also have a warrant match. But this set has almost all been abolished at the moment, and the soldiers will only recognize the level of the talisman, as long as it is a command from the top, they must obey.

In the world, internal thieves are the most unguardable, not to mention that a general of Zu Qing's level intends to plot chaos. He is now in the middle of the West Temple, gathering hundreds of Praetorian guards on the left and right, and there is no doubt about the other Praetorian guards who have been ordered to enter the arch. As long as he didn't appear in public and swaggered in front of some Praetorian Guard generals who knew his identity well, it would be too difficult for the Zhang clan to search him out in a short period of time.

The reason why Zu Qing chose the West Hall is because it is an important distribution center for the soldiers in the Huguo Temple, while the other key Dongtai is much more stable. If it weren't for the difficult situation, Zhang Jackal would definitely not easily mobilize the Praetorian Guards who stayed in Dongtai, after all, it was Shi Hu who was imprisoned there.

But the accident was uncontrollable, just when Zu Qing was waiting in the corner of the west hall in the middle of the night, suddenly two Zhang family members appeared and ordered their guards to evacuate here.

By the faint light of the lights, Zu Qing saw that the two Zhang family generals had come here, and his heartstrings were almost nervously broken, these two people were the most trusted generals of the Zhang family, and they were also familiar with Zu Qing, and suddenly walked to such a remote corner, which naturally made Zu Qing suspicious, thinking that his whereabouts had been exposed.

But the two generals were in a hurry, and after giving the order to drive away, they turned around and left, and without stopping to take a closer look, they missed the ancestral Qing who was hidden in the dark place under the corridor!

Zu Qing looked at the backs of the two Zhang families who were leaving, and his heart was suspicious. The reason why he chose to hide here was precisely because he knew that this was a very remote place in the West Temple, and it was the least easy to be exposed. Now that internal and external affairs are busy, the appearance of these two Zhang cronies here really makes people have to think about it.

While responding to the order, he followed the evacuation among the generals, and at the same time gave a glance to one of the generals and motioned for tracking to find out.

After a quarter of an hour, the family general who tracked him up returned the same way, and after finding Zu Qing, he whispered in his ear: "Zhang Chang walked into a side compartment on the left back, and his tracks were ghostly. There is a secret whistle of Zhang's near the left side of the chamber, and the servants dare not peep closely, Zhang Chang entered the room for a moment and went out, leaving ......"

After Zu Qing heard this, his brows furrowed tightly, and he didn't have a clue for a long time. At this time, the bell of the west hall rang, and when it was time for the guards to eat, the guards on this side had to go to a fixed place to eat in batches.

On the occasion of dining, going in and out, the flow of people is the most chaotic. Zu Qing's original plan was to take advantage of this time to bully to the position of the inner hall of the west hall, and then wait for the opportunity to launch suddenly, so that he could directly shake the defense of the inner hall, if he could take advantage of the chaos to kill Empress Liu or the prince, as long as any of them succeeded, the city would be in chaos, and he would have no regrets if he died.

But now that the Zhang family general suddenly appeared, they had been driven away from their original latent position, and the situation reported by the family general made Zu Qing's previous plan a little difficult to implement, and there was a faint guess in his heart.

After a little silence, Zu Qing took out the talisman that belonged to Zhang Jackal, asked the family general to hand it over to a Praetorian Guard commander, and ordered the soldier commander to go to the southeast of the West Hall to be on standby.

After these hundreds of soldiers left, Zu Qing gave the generals around him a look, and the group returned to their previous hiding location again, and the family general who had tracked them before led the way, and went straight to the chamber where Zhang Chang had entered.

At this time, the night was quiet, the high and low buildings cast a large shadow, and dozens of people from Zu Qing and his family walked through the palace pavilion, as if ghosts were haunting.

Suddenly, there was a sharp warning sound from the south side of the west hall, and the entire west hall suddenly made a riot. Hearing this, a sneer appeared at the corner of Zu Qing's mouth, Zhang Jackal's talisman has been stolen for such a long time, it must have been exposed, especially in this heavy defense area of the West Palace, it has already become a talisman from a talisman.

With that talisman exposed, all the guards in the front hall of the West Hall were alarmed, and they rushed towards the direction where the alarm sounded, which made Zu Qing and them march more smoothly.

"This is the place!"

In the darkness of the night, the ancestral family in charge of leading the way will go straight to one of the rows of chambers in front of them. Zu Qing raised his eyes and looked, only to see that there were many shades in front and back of the chamber, the west hall as the emperor's palace, it was originally forbidden to plant trees particularly dense and large trees, but here the pine and cypress are shady, it can be seen that it is deserted.

"Who?"

Under the shade of the trees in the night, a loud shout suddenly sounded, and several figures rushed out, each holding a strong bow and a sharp blade.

"Kill!"

Zu Qing knew that there was not much time left for him, so he ordered with a shake of his tongue, and then his people rushed forward, and dozens of figures behind him rushed out, rushing straight forward like tigers and wolves. The two sides collided abruptly, and the bloody slaughter began. The people who stayed here were not only a few people who had appeared before, but more than 20 people rushed out before and after, all of them were extremely strong.

But the Zu family general is not a vegetarian, as a sneak attack party, there are many people, half an hour after the killing began, the Zhang family cronies who stayed here were all ambushed, and Zu Qingfang also killed and injured more than 30 people, in order to compete for time, they also paid a heavy price.

"In the search room, don't let go of anything suspicious!"

Zu Qing was hit by an arrow in the shoulder, but he had no time to deal with it at the moment, gritted his teeth and broke the shaft of the arrow, signaled his family to rush into the chamber together, took out the fire to illuminate the room, and then launched a quick and meticulous search.

"Ah Lang, there's something here!"

The area of the chamber is not large, and the furnishings are not complicated, and soon a family will follow the wooden ladder to the beam, and then find a tightly bandaged brocade box on the beam.

Zu Qing took the brocade box, cut open the cloth layer wrapped outside, and after opening the brocade box, he saw a seal placed in it. Gather under the lamp to take a closer look, only to see that the corner of this seal is inlaid with gold, the shoulder is engraved with "the seal of the Great Wei Dynasty by the Han Dynasty", and the side is "the Mandate of Heaven Shi", and the square seal is "ordered by the sky, both longevity and Yongchang"!

Sure enough, it's the seal of the country!

Looking at this seal, Zu Qing was already trembling with excitement. He knew that after the Huguo Temple incident at the beginning of the year, the seal of the country fell into the hands of Zhang Jackal, but whether Zhang Jackal was returned to Queen Liu, Zu Qing did not know. But according to his understanding of Zhang Jackal, how could he easily give up this heavy weapon. And now that Xindu Zhang Jackal is in power, even Empress Liu does not dare to tear her face and force the jade seal.

At present, Zhang Jackal is supervising the battle at the head of the city, and the situation is chaotic and dangerous, so he naturally does not dare to carry the national seal with him. In the Zhang family's house in Huguo Temple, there is only a group of family members left, and even Ah Dong's lady can easily steal Zhang Jackal's talisman, which shows that the defense is lax, and it is definitely not a place to hide seals. As for Zhang Chang, who stayed in the West Palace, he didn't dare to collect the seal of the country, this seal was originally taken by the Shi family from the hands of the Tu Liu family, if the news is leaked, the forces of the Janissaries will inevitably fight to the death.

And storing the jade seal in the secret place of the west hall seems dangerous, but it is actually very safe. If it weren't for Zu Qing hiding in a remote and dark place and accidentally detecting an omen, he would never have imagined that the Zhang family would hide the national seal here.

Zu Qing was already deeply involved in the Zhang family's affairs, and he couldn't even think of it, how could others expect it? And if there is no definite goal, even if the city is broken and the west hall is in chaos, the rebels will not storm this remote place, even if some scattered soldiers have no intention of wandering here, the more than 20 Zhang clan cronies who stayed here are enough to deal with it. It must be known that even the elite soldiers of the ancestral clan have to pay the price of more than 30 lives to rush into this, how can ordinary soldiers have such courage.

"Let's go! Out of the city, go south! ”

Accidentally getting this heavy weapon, Zu Qing's mood suddenly became happy and open-minded, he no longer needed to take the risk of assassinating the nobles of the inner temple, as long as he could successfully leave Xindu, a great achievement was already expected!

At the same time, the battle on the south side of the west hall ended. Zhang Changzheng was worried about Zu Qing's no-trace, and suddenly learned that the stolen talisman had appeared near the west hall, where the Huguo Temple was located. After receiving the report, Zhang Chang was overjoyed, and immediately ordered the guards of the West Hall to surround and kill the group of soldiers with orders.

Those hundreds of soldiers didn't know why they suffered this unwarranted disaster, but survival was instinctive, and they naturally resisted when they were surrounded and killed, but where could they withstand the constant supply of guards. Soon they were slaughtered, and several seriously injured and dying people were escorted to Zhang Chang, who ordered a search for the corpses of Zu Qing and asked them where they had obtained this talisman.

Halfway through the interrogation, Zhang Chang's face suddenly became ugly, and he quickly ordered: "Quickly block the Huguo Temple, and no one is allowed to enter or leave!" Those who violate the forbidden will be killed! ”

After giving the order, he led a group of Zhang's henchmen and rushed straight to the chamber he had just checked.