My wife has a secret

Chapter 83 Secret Passage
The Dali Temple Minister was ecstatic at Xu Qing's arrival.

He was imprisoned in the back room of the Ministry of Justice with officials and the young emperor, and was guarded by many personal soldiers.

However, because he talked a few more words about the faults of the Prince of Dongwan in the house, he was dragged out by the patrolling guards and taken outside to be educated.

As the chief judge of the Da Qi Dynasty who reviews serious criminal cases in various places, when has the Dali Temple Minister ever suffered such injustice?
When Xu Qing saw the other person's figure, he went forward with the knife in hand without saying a word.

Before the Dali Temple Chief Justice could react, Xu Qing stabbed him twice in the thigh.

How could the Dali Temple Minister, who had been living a life of luxury for many years, be a match for Xu Qing after his training?
When the first knife stabbed in, the Dali Temple Chief Justice could not help but wail loudly and looked at the young man with incredible eyes.

"You... you dare to attack an official appointed by the imperial court..."

When the second knife came down, the Dali Temple Chief Justice had already fallen to the ground, covering the wound that was gushing with blood, groaning in pain, and unable to utter another word.

Xu Qing was just worrying about where to vent his anger from the court, when he ran into these two idiots rushing towards him.

At this point, who would care what rank he is or how powerful he is?
Stab this guy until he is disabled, so that he can help me block the door.

The others had no interest in the Dali Temple Chief Justice, but some prisoners who had been interrogated by him remembered his official uniform and kicked him a few times.

Xu Qing led a group of people out of the gate of the Ministry of Justice and instructed everyone to flee in all directions, disappearing into the darkness under the cover of night.

When the screams of the Dali Temple Minister rang out, Xu Qing and Shui Haozi had already sneaked into the residential area along a street.

Residents in the city heard the commotion in the city and the curfew order and dared not light the lights in their homes.

The rows of houses were completely shrouded in the pitch-black darkness without a single light on.

"Boss, I thought you were just a rich boy, not very useful... I didn't expect you to be so cruel and ruthless. You kill people at the command of a third-rank official, and you are more decisive than anyone else in the martial arts world."

The crisis was not resolved yet, and the two ran wildly in the alley.

The area of ​​the capital city is completely different from that of Suzhou. Even if they ran from beginning to end, they had not yet run out of the market town where the Ministry of Justice was located.

The capital of Da Qi was divided into more than a hundred markets by crisscrossing roads. Hundreds of civilian households lived in each market, and each market was like a small city.

Xu Qing, who was following behind Shui Haozi, corrected him, "Don't talk nonsense. The death of the Dali Temple Minister at the hands of the Dongwan County Prince's personal army has nothing to do with me."

Seeing Xu Qing's confident look, Shui Haozi chuckled twice and praised: "Your decision when running away just now was also amazing. Master Xu has done a lot of stealing, right?"

Xu Qing asked everyone to flee in different directions, naturally in order to disperse the attention of the pursuing soldiers and make the enemy not know which direction to chase them from.

There are not many personal soldiers guarding the Ministry of Justice, and with the shortage of manpower, the other party may not pursue further.

But what puzzled Xu Qing was that the Ministry of Justice was not an important place. Why would the Prince of Dongwan send a group of personal soldiers to suppress the Ministry of Justice?

When he led this group of prisoners to escape from prison, most of the personal guards remained in the inner courtyard and watched without taking any action, which led to the plan going more smoothly than he had imagined.

It seems that there is a very important person in the Ministry of Justice...

Xu Qing thought for a moment and gave up his guess.

Who the people in the Ministry of Justice are has nothing to do with him. The most important thing now is to sneak into the palace and rescue his aunt.

"What is my status in Suzhou? Do I need to steal? Whoever bride I like, I will send her to the bed of the Xu family on the wedding night..."

After spending a long time with Shui Haozi, coupled with the joy of escaping death, Xu Qing also picked up the other person's speaking habits.

Besides, this is the capital city. After they part tonight, they will never meet again in this life.

Xu Qing just got inspired and started bragging in front of Shui Haozi.

"That's awesome, big brother!"

When Shui Haozi heard this, his eyes lit up and he rubbed his hands.

When he thought about how he could follow Xu Qing and bully people and rob women, he felt that his job was not too unfair.

In the entire Great Qi Dynasty, only people like Xu Qing can ignore the laws and do whatever they want.

"Heh, these are just trivial things... Wait, there's something wrong with the movement at the gate."

When Xu Qing and Shui Haozi fled to the gate of the city, they noticed something different about this place.

The Fangmen is the gate tower separating two Fangs. Because of the walls built between the Fangs, one must pass through these Fangmen to reach the next Fang market.

Now, the gate and the surrounding walls are filled with soldiers holding torches.

Shui Haozi whispered, "The clothes these soldiers are wearing are from the Five Cities Military Department. They are responsible for the security of the city and patrolling the streets. Isn't this a strange thing?"

"It's different. The Ministry of Justice is not far from here. Such a big incident happened there, but the nearby Fangmen is so peaceful. This doesn't make sense."

Judging from the duties of the Wucheng Bingmasi, there should be people from the Bingmasi patrolling the area and night watchmen sent out to manage the curfew.

If there is trouble in the Ministry of Justice, they will send some soldiers to check the situation, seal the gate and report to the office.

But Xu Qing and Shui Haozi ran all the way and didn't see any person at all.

"And if I were the Prince of Dongwan who was raising an army to rebel, I would definitely not miss these gates... The people from the Five Cities Military Department would probably join forces with the Prince of Dongwan to rebel, and help him maintain order in the city and stop the outside reinforcements."

Xu Qing sorted out the information he had seen, pulled Shui Haozi to the corner of the alley, and asked, "Do you have any solution?"

Shui Haozi advised quietly, "Boss, stop joking. Outside the gate is a cross street, which is fifty feet wide. We can't get too far if we sneak out. Why don't we hide in this market for a day, and then follow the people in the city out when daybreak?"

When Xu Qing saw Shui Haozi's innocent expression, he knew that this guy was hiding his abilities and trying to deceive him into giving up the idea of ​​sneaking into the palace.

The rebels took control of the Five Cities Military Division, which meant the situation in the palace was critical and there was a high possibility that the palace would change hands.

"You don't have to go to the palace. Either you stab me to death, or I stab you to death."

When Shui Haozi saw Xu Qing pull out the bloody knife again, he was so frightened that his eyes became dazed and he took a step back.

He has been in the business for many years and is considered a well-known figure in the industry.

But Xu Qing didn't even want to risk his life, so Shui Haozi was afraid of this master and had to lead the way and turn to the corner of the alley.

"You are my uncle."

Shui Haozi led the way and said in a calm voice: "In this capital city, people who have committed evil deeds are often assigned to be detective and arrest officials. They are called bad people or bad officials."

"interesting."

Xu Qing had heard of the name of the Bad People, but he didn't expect that this name would also appear in Da Qi.

Shui Haozi continued, "This group of people are under the unified management of the Dali Temple, but because of their hidden nature, they will be imprisoned underground by the Dali Temple and are not allowed to go out except during special periods."

"Why not lock them up in the Dali Temple prison?" "These people can barely be considered officials, and some of them have accumulated enough merits. They just need to wait for the new emperor to ascend the throne and grant amnesty to the world, so that they can step out of the underground and live a normal life."

Shui Haozi knew the origins of the bad guys very well, as if he had dealt with this group of people before.

"The bad guys have their own tunnels. Although they are under the management of the Dali Temple, they also built tunnels connecting the Ministry of Justice and the market town of the Censorate for their work of investigation and arrest."

Shui Haozi brought Xu Qing to a wasteland covered with weeds and came to a pit.

After the thick dead grass was moved away, a tunnel as tall as a person was revealed.

"We can use this tunnel to get to the palace."

"So simple?"

Xu Qing originally thought that the palace was heavily guarded and ordinary methods would not work.

But within the impregnable inner courtyard of the Imperial Palace, there is an underground tunnel leading to the deep palace... Doesn't that mean that all the bad guys can enter the Imperial Palace through this underground tunnel?
"It's not that simple. The tunnel we're going to take is... different from the one the Bad Guys took. Let's talk about it after we get inside."

After Shui Haozi led Xu Qing in, he covered the entrance of the cave again.

After confirming that everything was correct, the two bent over and walked forward in the dark tunnel.

Because there was no fire stick for lighting, Xu Qing could only judge the direction he should go based on the position of the water rat.

The water rats, who have been crawling in the tunnels for years, are very familiar with the underground environment and have the leisure to chat while walking.

"The imperial palace is huge. The outermost imperial city alone is the size of seven or eight market towns."

Xu Qing had never been to the palace, and he was secretly amazed when he heard Shui Haozi's introduction.

The market town where the Ministry of Justice is located is already incredibly large, so how big must the interior of the entire imperial palace be?
He had previously thought that the expanded Xu Mansion would be comparable to the imperial palace.

But now it seems that the imperial palace exceeds Xu's mansion in terms of area alone, not to mention its luxury.

"The palace is so large that it's not difficult to do something secretly without anyone noticing... And the tunnel I found was actually secretly built by the concubines in the palace."

"The concubines are also capable of digging tunnels?"

"When people are in danger, they can do anything. Moreover, every queen has many confidants under her."

When Shui Haozi said this, he grinned.

"Boss, even though the struggle for power in the court is fierce... if you compare it to the fighting in the harem, it's not as dangerous. The women in the palace are all very smart, and the queens who can stand firm in it are the best among them, and their minds are deeper than the sea."

Xu Qing listened to Shui Haozi talking about so many things in the harem, and asked curiously: "It sounds like you have dealt with people in the harem?"

Shui Haozi originally wanted to show off in front of Xu Qing, and when Xu Qing asked about this, he did not hide it and admitted it openly.

"Hehe, I haven't, but my master has come into contact with it... The Empress Zhaowu Shengtian of the previous generation once assigned my master to rob the ancestral tombs of other concubines and destroy their family's fortune, so that the princes of those concubines could not ascend to the throne."

Xu Qing despised the immoral act of digging up people's ancestral graves from the bottom of his heart.

Moreover, these things are all feudal superstitions, how can they be effective?
"You, the Faqiu clan, have relied on the Queen as your great power, but how could you have ended up like this today?"

Xu Qing mentioned Shui Haozi's sad story, and the latter said bitterly: "The Empress Zhaowu Shengtian was overthrown by Empress Dowager Xu, who issued a notice to hunt down our Fa Qiu lineage."

Xu Qing just mentioned it casually, but he didn't expect that when tracing the source of this matter, it was actually related to the Xu family.

He laughed twice to cover up the awkward atmosphere.

"Our lineage has an ancestral precept that forbids destroying ancestral graves or changing Feng Shui without permission. Master and his men have brought this upon themselves, and no one else can be blamed."

Shui Haozi was quite open-minded about this. He changed the subject and continued, "The purpose of those concubines digging the secret passage was probably to escape from the palace, but this secret passage was abandoned halfway through."

"What can we do with this abandoned tunnel?"

"Boss, what they don't know is that this abandoned tunnel has actually been dug to the vicinity of the Bad People's passageway, and it's almost as if it has been dug through."

Shui Haozi stopped and almost got hit on the forehead by Xu Qing who was following behind him.

He fumbled on the earth wall next to him for a while, and when he confirmed that this was the place he remembered, he took out the small dagger he had taken from the Ministry of Justice and pried it up along the corner.

Xu Qing also knocked on the earth wall and heard a very crisp sound.

"It's hollow."

"Don't worry, I, Water Rat, have been underground all my life, and no one is better than me at digging holes!"

When Shui Haozi said the last few words, he exerted force suddenly.

The wall, which originally seemed thick, was shattered by the impact of this force.

Dust was flying, and the loess dyed their clothes yellow.

"Cough cough..."

Xu Qing coughed twice, and suddenly thought of the existence of the Bad People. He hurriedly asked, "Such a big commotion, won't it attract the Bad People?"

Shui Haozi also coughed a few times, and when he breathed more easily, he replied, "No, they live at the very bottom, and no one dares to come out of there without a demotion from the Dali Temple."

After Xu Qing resolved his doubts, he was the first to walk into the new secret passage.

Compared with the tunnel used by the bad guys, the escape passage built by the concubines in the palace is more spacious and can even allow two people to walk side by side.

"That's awesome."

Water Ratzi didn't find it strange. As an expert in digging holes, he saw the clue at a glance.

"These concubines wanted to take all their valuables with them when they escaped, so they built this secret passage so wide... If they could let go of their belongings, they would have dug the secret passage long ago."

As the two of them walked in the secret passage, Xu Qing couldn't help but ask, "How far is this secret passage?"

"This secret passage leads directly to the inner courtyard of the imperial palace, but even so, it still takes a distance of one block to get there."

Hearing that the road ahead was long, Xu Qing had no choice but to move forward.

After walking for about a cup of tea, Shui Haozi stopped and took out a fire starter from a copper stand on the wall.

This bronze stand looked like a lampstand, and its location was extremely hidden. When Xu Qing passed by here, he didn't even see it.

Shui Haozi twisted the lid open and said with a smile, "This secret passage was discovered by many concubines and continued to be dug. Many treasures were left along the way... Every time I come here, I can get something."

(End of this chapter)