Jinghong Tower

Chapter 438 Closing the Net
At the last moment of his life, Mingming took out the wind, fire and thunder he carried with him, opened the core
The Fenghuolei was made by Dong Jinzhen himself. However, after it was made, he was unable to overcome the problem of explosion during transportation. Dong Jinzhen had to go to Zhenjiang to build ships, so he temporarily interrupted the subsequent research and development of the Fenghuolei.

Only ten wind, fire and thunder bombs were made, and all of them were collected by Zhong Yi into the Jinyiwei.

He clearly took one with him when he left the capital.

Ruyan ran wildly holding the head. There was a loud noise behind her, followed by the sound of crossbow arrows breaking through the air. She didn't dare to look back, let alone stop. Tears blurred her eyes, and her legs seemed to no longer belong to her. She ran forward by inertia.

I didn't know how long I ran. I could no longer hear any sound behind me. Everything around me was silent. Ruyan fell to the ground and let her tears burst out.

The next morning, the head of Regent Jing Chongguang was hung high on the tallest Hong'en Pagoda in Fuzhou City.

In the palace, the queen sneered and untied the fake belly tied inside her clothes. Her belly was slightly bulging, and if you didn't look closely, you couldn't tell that she was pregnant.

But the queen knew that if Jing Chongguang did not die, she would have to keep stuffing food into her fake belly until she was pregnant.

But it is no longer necessary now. Jing Chongguang is dead, and without the regent's official words, no one would believe that she was pregnant with a dragon seed.

What's more, although the four great families seem to be working together, that is only in other aspects. Once it comes to the royal heir, no one will give in.

She has a fake belly, and the same can be said for the Imperial Concubine, the Shu Concubine, and the Hui Concubine.

The difference is that her belly was recognized by Jing Chongguang, while the others were not.

The queen looked next door, which was her bedroom. It was there that she suffocated Jing Chongguang's son to death with her own hands last night.

When the killer showed up, she told the truth, but she left half of it unsaid.

The reason why she wanted to kill Prince Jing was not only because she wanted to repay her father's debt, but also because she didn't want anyone else to sit on that chair.

That dragon throne originally belonged to her husband and her son.

But they are all gone, so there is no one in the world who deserves that chair.

The fake son adopted from her mother's side is not worthy, and the children from the other three aristocratic families are even less worthy, and of course Jing Chongguang's son is not worthy either!

Yes, as soon as my father learned that Jing Chongguang sent the young master into the palace, he became worried.

My father was worried that Jing Chongguang allowed the queen to fake pregnancy just as a delaying tactic for the sake of the navy of the four major families.

Once the navy is under the control of Jing Chongguang, this fake pregnancy will lose its meaning.

After all, a child cannot be born just like that. Even if it is fake, it still takes ten months of pregnancy.

Ten months was enough time for Jing Chongguang to place people in the navy.

His father was even more worried that once Jing Chongguang's son entered the palace, he would not leave, and would be kept in the palace for one reason or another until the fake son of the queen ascended the throne.

My father would never believe that Jing Chongguang would have no selfish motives. After all, Emperor Yonghe was not Jing Chongguang's biological son. Now that Emperor Yonghe was gone and Jing Chongguang was in power, what reason was there not to change the dynasty?

So her father asked her to find an opportunity to kill Prince Jing.

When an assassin attacked last night, the queen knew her chance had come.

Regardless of whether the assassin can kill Jing Chongguang or not, Prince Jing must die.

An assassin wouldn't necessarily kill a three-year-old, but she would!
Fortunately, the assassin was not blinded by rage and only killed Jing Chongguang without attacking her.

After the assassin left, she closed her eyes and stabbed the knife into the child's chest.

In fact, the child is already dead.

She was terrified when she smothered the child to death. It was her first murder.

Now she was stabbing the corpse again, which was equivalent to killing someone for the second time, but this time, she was not afraid and did it with ease.

The queen heaved a long sigh of relief. She had now moved into the room with the secret passage. As for the room she had lived in before, she would never enter it again in her life.

"Someone, go to the Regent's Palace and report the death. Unfortunately, the Crown Prince was killed by an assassin."

In an inconspicuous house in Fuzhou city, Ruyan, Zihan, Zixuan and others, holding incense in their hands, knelt down in the direction of Jushui Gate.

Jing Chongguang's head was hung high, but the assassin was broken into pieces and his identity remained unknown.

On the nameless island three hundred miles away, a guard came running over: "Commander, the pigeons have arrived!"

Zong Qi took the pigeon and took the secret letter from the pigeon's leg. There were only a few short words on it, but it made Zong Qi's heart surge.

"All ships stand by, ready for battle!"

In the capital, He Mingyue's letter finally arrived in the capital. She had sent He Shaolin and others into the desert, and they had a safe journey.

At the end of the letter, He Mingyue wrote: When he returns victorious one day, can you let me set up a few tables in Qinghuan Tower?
Zhong Yi smiled and shook his head. They had returned triumphantly, and it was probably not his turn to host the banquet. Boss He would book the entire Qinghuan Tower, and maybe even set up the banquet on the street outside Qinghuan Tower, so that the people of the capital could drink the victory wine together.

Zhong Yi's smile gradually disappeared. He still remembered that he had made an appointment with someone.
"Fu Xing, Gao Ce!"

Two Jinyiwei came in upon hearing the voice, and Zhong Yi said sternly: "Let's go, follow this commander to meet the Ding family."

The Jinyiwei has never stopped monitoring the Ding family, and now it is finally time to close the net.

Zeng Ziqi's right eye has been twitching since yesterday morning.

The left eye twitching means good fortune, the right eye twitching means disaster. Although Zeng Ziqi didn't believe it, the twitching eyelids still made him uneasy.

But everything around him was normal. The two beautiful maids were as charming as before. Although the four students were not smart, they were not naughty either. Mr. Ding was very polite to him. Just last night, Mr. Ding invited him over, settled the money for copying books with him, and even gave him twice as much.

Yes, in addition to a very generous stipend from the Ding family, Zeng Ziqi also received an even more generous salary for copying books.

Interestingly, once the news of his success in the imperial examination spread, countless people came to visit the inn every day, including prominent families, wealthy businessmen, and literati.

Once, when he came back from outside, the innkeeper handed him a letter saying that a scholar came to visit and left a letter after waiting for a long time.

He opened the letter. The scholar said his surname was Ding. He admired his talent and sent a book he wrote to him, asking him to appreciate it. He also said that he had put the book in a flower pot in the corridor. These days, countless people brought poems written by themselves or their children to him for guidance. Some sensible people would put a silver note in the poem.

Zeng Ziqi shook the envelope and found nothing in it except the letter. That is to say, Scholar Ding wrote a letter and put a tattered book in a flowerpot, asking him to take it himself, but did not even give him one or two taels of silver.

Zeng Ziqi tore the letter into pieces in a few seconds. He thought that Mr. Ding must have lost his mind.

He simply forgot about the book in the flowerpot.

It was not until that day when Master Ding mentioned that he had visited him that Zeng Ziqi realized that the scholar Ding was Master Ding.

Although only a few days passed, Zeng Ziqi's situation was completely different.

When he received the letter from Master Ding, he was still full of energy and ambition, ready to see all the flowers in Chang'an in one day. But now, he has become a laughing stock in the capital. Not only was he captured by the Embroidered Uniform Guards, but he was also the only Jinshi who was not accepted. He did not even have the qualifications for an internship. He was discarded like a worn-out shoe.

Mr. Ding is no longer the ignorant scholar Ding, but his boss and his financial backer.

Zeng Ziqi returned to the inn, and fortunately he found the book.

Master Ding was a tolerant person and did not argue with him, but he asked him to help copy a book, which was "Records of Zhushan Prefecture".

The author of "Records of Zhushan Prefecture" is named Mr. Banyan. According to Mr. Ding, he is this Mr. Banyan.

However, Zeng Ziqi did not believe it. He was a scholar, and this gentleman under the banyan tree was very talented in writing. With Mr. Ding's conversation, he would never be able to write this book.

Moreover, this "Zhushanfuji" is not an original manuscript but a copy. Although Zeng Ziqi's family was not poor, they were not rich either. When he was in Hangzhou, he often copied books to supplement his family income.

He could tell at a glance whether it was an original manuscript or a copy.

But Zeng Ziqi was a smart man. Since Master Ding said that he wrote the book, then it was written by Master Ding. Master Ding paid him to copy the book, so he had no reason to refuse.

During this period, Zeng Ziqi copied more than a dozen copies of "Zhushan Prefecture Records" and, following the instructions of Master Ding, sent these books to the homes of more than a dozen powerful officials in the court.

With Zeng Ziqi's reputation, he was not even qualified to step into the gates of these mansions, but it didn't matter if he couldn't get in. He could just send a visiting card and put the book and the visiting card into a box. When the door was opened and they saw that there were no valuable gifts inside, most people would accept it. As for whether the owner of the house would open it and take a look, that was none of his business.

Of course, there would be people who would find a handwritten book in the box and take it out and return it to him. Generally, when encountering such a situation, Zeng Ziqi would stuff a few taels of silver into the box and the book would be delivered.

However, there were some customers who, no matter how much he flattered them, still threw the book out of the box.

But these were only what happened when the books were first being delivered. As time went on, things went more smoothly, and even the books were delivered to He Ran's residence in Laomofang Hutong without any effort.

Zeng Ziqi didn't know why Master Ding asked him to deliver the books in person, and he didn't want to go at first.

He is not an ordinary man who knows nothing. He was able to pass the imperial examination, so he is certainly not an ordinary person.

However, whenever he didn't want to go, the two beautiful maids would always make him submit. He knew that he was addicted to the land of tenderness, but he couldn't change it. Every time, when he wanted to refuse cruelly, he fell again.

Later on, he sent out one book after another without any feedback. The dignitaries did not summon him because of the visiting card and the book, but they did not cause him any trouble either. He also gradually became at ease from his initial uneasiness.

Why would those powerful people summon a nobody like him? Just like when he rejected Mr. Ding who refused to give him money.

The visiting card and the book he sent were probably sent to the kitchen and burned.

He copied those books word by word, and it was a pity to use them to start a fire, but so what? He still accepted the money, and Master Ding did not vent his anger on him because he failed to curry favor with the rich and powerful. The beautiful maid was still in his bed, and he was earning more and more money.

Even now, his eyelids were twitching and his heart was not at peace. However, Zeng Ziqi did not doubt the books. If there was something wrong with the books, it would have happened long ago, and it would not have taken half a year for something to happen.

Zeng Ziqi suspected that something might have happened at home.

Could it be that my mother’s health is not good again?

In the past six months, he made a lot of money from the Ding family, but all the money was in his own hands and was not sent back to Hangzhou.

My mother's health has always been poor, and she is short of money, so she is reluctant to buy medicine.

Zeng Ziqi felt a little regretful. Even if he couldn't go back, he could ask the escort agency to bring the silver back to Hangzhou.

Zeng Ziqi couldn't sit still any longer. He couldn't wait until tomorrow, so he decided to go to the escort agency now.

He packed the banknotes and went out.

The Ding family's house has two doors, front and back. Zeng Ziqi didn't like to go through the front door because there were always neighborhood aunties sitting outside the front door chatting. Every time he passed by there, he would be pointed at by them. After a while, he simply went in and out through the back door.

Although the Ding family was not a wealthy family, they had all the necessary servants, and there were gates at both the front and back doors.

Zeng Ziqi chatted with Menzi for a few words before he went out. Seeing that it was getting late, he didn't talk much and walked into the back alley.

But just as he reached the entrance of the alley, he felt a darkness in front of his eyes, and a big bag fell from the sky and covered him.

Mr. Ding was not at home today. He took his four children out to watch a play. Only Mr. Ding and Mrs. Ding, along with Han Yuzhu and her children, were at home.

It was not until nightfall that Master Ding returned with the four young men. Like Zeng Ziqi, they all disliked going through the front door. No one wanted to be judged by a group of aunts and sisters, especially since they were country people. Those aunts and sisters all looked at them with contempt.

Even though it was already dark, they still didn't go through the main entrance.

It was still the same back alley, the difference was that Zeng Ziqi went out, while they came in, and the difference was that Zeng Ziqi was put in a pocket and was easily taken away, while the Jinyiwei had to work harder to deal with them.

All of them were good at martial arts, but fortunately the Jinyiwei had a large number of people and were able to capture them in one fell swoop.

At the same time, on the same night, the navy camp of the four great families was attacked. The battle came unexpectedly, and the soldiers on the watchtower suddenly saw ships approaching.

There were no lights on the boats, so the soldiers didn't notice them until they got close. However, at that time, these ships were less than five miles away from the navy camp!

It is not wartime now, and all the navy soldiers live in tents on land, with only a few soldiers on duty on the ship.

Suddenly, a horn sounded and the navy soldiers who were still sleeping ran out of the tents in panic. At this time, the ships were already very close to the navy camp.

Zong Qi stood at the bow: "Turn on the lights!"