cabinet first lady

Chapter 53 Common Enemy

The guards in the palace appeared and fought fiercely with the assassin.

The sound of the swords colliding was mixed with the palace people's exclamation and pleas for help. The ministers and ministers' wives above the fifth rank present also ignored their appearance at this moment, and fled in all directions, in a state of chaos.

The dizzy Yin Ji subconsciously wanted to stand in front of Ruan Muyang almost without thinking, but Zhang Anyi moved faster than him, pulling Ruan Muyang behind him one step ahead.

Zhang Anyi naturally saw his outstretched hand.Such a critical moment and such details are enough to make a cold light flash in his eyes.The action of pulling Ruan Muyang behind him was not only protection, but also a declaration of possession.

Yin Ji only felt a sudden chill all over his body, and he woke up.

"Master Zhang, Mrs. Zhang, please be careful." Yin Ji glanced at Ruan Muyang, who was almost completely protected by Zhang Anyi and could only see the hem of his clothes, and ran towards a more chaotic place.

Ruan Muyang originally wanted to stop him, but seeing that he was heading towards the prince, he didn't make a sound.

Suddenly a wounded and knocked assassin fell on the table in front of them, Ruan Muyang screamed.Zhang Anyi quickly put his arms around her and stepped back a few steps.

One of the assassin's arms had been cut off, and the wound was bloody and bloody.

The bloody smell rushed straight into the nostrils, making people sick.

Zhang Anyi led Ruan Muyang sideways, blocking her sight. "Don't be afraid."

His gentle voice and the scent of sandalwood on his body instantly broke through the strong smell of blood and surrounded Ruan Muyang, reassuring her.Obviously he is just a civil servant and doesn't know how to fight, but being protected by him like this, she feels extra safe.

"Sikong, are you injured?"

Hearing Zhang Anyi's question, Ruan Muyang remembered that Shen Wei's location was not far from them.As a woman, she felt a little pity in her heart.

Just now when the assassin fell down, it affected Shen Wei. At this time, her official uniform was stained with blood, but it was not her own.

Shen Wei's already pale face became even paler, and he pretended to be calm, with a flash of loneliness in his eyes: "It's nothing."

With blood all over her eyes, she stood alone in the mess.

But this was the path she chose at the beginning. From the moment she put on men's clothes, she was a man, she could not be as delicate as a woman, she could not be a dodder to cling to a man, and she could only rely on herself when encountering any difficulties.Her wish is to be rehabilitated, even if she is doomed to live alone.

It might not be easy for an assassin to sneak in during the palace banquet.

Soon, another group of guards came to support.

"Master Zhang, are you okay?" One of them seemed to be familiar with Zhang Anyi, so he was very nervous.

Ruan Muyang was held in Zhang Anyi's arms, and he only heard him say: "It's nothing, hurry up and protect the Holy One."

As if he was dying, the assassin rushed straight at Lingdi without hesitation.The guards in the palace also tried their best to protect Emperor Ling and the empress and prince from evacuating.

After all, there were so many guards in the palace, more than half of the assassins fell down, slowly losing the wind.

Just when everyone was about to relax and wait for the guards to take down the last few assassins, suddenly an assassin found a gap, picked up his sword and stabbed towards Lingdi. "Emperor Dog, die!"

The guards were caught off guard. Seeing that Emperor Ling would be injured even if he didn't die, Xie Zhao stood in front of him. After his arm was stabbed by the sword in the assassin's hand, he kicked the assassin away.

There was no danger, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

The last two remaining assassins were also subdued.

"Your Majesty, there are 11 assassins in total. They all hid poison under their tongues. After their failures, they all committed suicide, leaving no one alive."

"Brother Huang, was he ever injured?" Xie Zhao asked while clutching his arm.

Lingdi was already so frightened that he was paralyzed and his face was pale.

When the first emperor was alive, both of them were the last ones who could ascend to the throne. Although the result has already been reached, under this situation, one was so scared that his eyes were empty, and the other was very calm even though he was injured. Compared with the two, Distinguish between superior and inferior, and everyone watched silently.

"Your majesty? Your majesty?" The queen's face was also pale, but she did not lose her demeanor as the mother of a country.

"Father?"

Lingdi still didn't seem to have returned to his soul.

Ruan Muyang watched with emotion in his heart, even the little crown prince Xie Shen did not lose the majesty of the royal family, and Emperor Ling really was not as good as a child.

Finally, Lingdi moved, first let out an exclamation, and then fell straight down, as if fainted from fright.

It was chaos again.

The queen sat down and said to Gao Yan, the eunuch with the handprint of the supervisor of ceremonies: "Help the emperor back to the palace, and announce the imperial physician."

Then she looked at Xie Zhao and said, "King Yong'an rescued the injured, and immediately sent someone back to the post for treatment."

"Assassins have infiltrated the palace, we must thoroughly investigate. Lord Luo, Lord Zhang, I will leave the matter of thoroughly investigating the assassins to the two adults." After finishing the order, the queen left with the prince.

The emperor, queen, and prince have all left, and everyone who is still in shock can also leave the palace separately.

Zhang Anyi looked at Ruan Muyang, who was much calmer than other women, and said in his eyes: "Madam, I'm afraid I won't be able to go back tonight, let Mo Wen take you back first."

Ruan Muyang nodded, and said with some concern: "Then the second master, be careful not to overwork yourself." His injury has not fully healed yet, she is really worried, but there is nothing she can do.

At this moment, an official came over and said, "Master Zhang, Lord Luo please go over."

Although Ruan Muyang didn't know him, he could tell from his flattering appearance that he was a member of the Luo family.

Zhang Anyi glanced in the direction of Luo Jie, and said: "Go and tell Master Luo that I will come back after I send my wife to the gate of the palace."

When Luo Jie looked over, Ruan Muyang happened to follow Zhang Anyi's gaze, met Luo Jie's gaze, his heart skipped a beat, and he looked away.

After personally sending Ruan Muyang to the carriage, Zhang Anyi turned back.

When he came back, the other five cabinet members had already gathered and all looked at him.

"Master Zhang sent his wife to the carriage?" Luo Jie asked.

Under the eyes of everyone, Zhang Anyi nodded with a calm look.

"Master Zhang really loves his wife very much." Luo Jie smiled meaningfully and said, "Renrou Township, Hero Tomb, Master Zhang must be careful, maybe one day you will be wronged and suffer."

There was something in his words that made Zhang Anyi's eyes flash with emotion: "Lord Lau Luo is not worried about this. It's really strange to think about the assassin who appeared tonight."

On the other side, Ruan Muyang was sitting in the carriage thinking about what happened tonight, repeating over and over in his mind the last incident of Xie Zhao saving Emperor Ling who was injured.

Xie Zhao stepped forward to rescue him tonight, I am afraid that when Emperor Ling woke up, his attitude towards him would be different.

What he got for this injury was Lingdi's trust, so it can be said that he earned it.

For some reason, she felt that Xie Zhao's injury was intentional.

When the first emperor was alive, he led troops to win several battles abroad, and he was very capable. Later, when he went to Xizhou, where there were many wars, he often led troops to resist the foreigners who invaded the border of Guanghua. He was able to survive among thousands of troops. It is rare to hear that he was injured. How could he be injured by an assassin so easily?
If he was really injured on purpose, can it be guessed that the assassin's assassination was also related to him?
The purpose is to let him act in this play and gain the trust of Emperor Wu?

But that's just her guess.

Xie Zhao has been away from the capital for so long, and the ministers who supported him back then were almost wiped out by the Luo Jie. How could he have the ability to arrange assassins to enter such a heavily guarded palace to assassinate?

After leaving the sandalwood scent on Zhang Anyi, the tip of his nose seemed to be able to smell the disgusting smell of blood again, so Ruan Muyang opened the car curtain to breathe.

After Emperor Ling was sent to the bedroom, the imperial doctor looked at it and said that he fainted due to his weakness and being overly frightened, and it was not a serious problem. Everyone was relieved.Otherwise, if Emperor Ling had completely fallen at this time, King Yong'an was in the capital, and the crown prince was still young, Guanghua might be in turmoil again.

After discussion, the cabinet recruited the Imperial Guards from the Ministry of Punishment, Dali Temple and the palace, and decided to conduct a thorough investigation of the palace and the entire capital to find out the source of the assassin.

It was already very late when he came out of the palace, Zhang Anyi did not go back to Chuanyun Courtyard after arriving at the Zhang family, but went out with Mo Jian.

In the post house, Xie Zhao stood in front of the window without sleepiness, looking into the distance.After all, it is a bustling capital city, never at night.

The wound on his arm has been bandaged.

The slight movement outside the door made him immediately alert, and asked sharply, "Who!"

There was a slight knock on the door.

Doubt flashed in his heart, and after he walked over and opened the door, a surprised expression appeared on his face: "It's you?" Afterwards, his face showed more obvious defense.

"I don't know how the lord's injury is, so I came here to visit you. Don't you ask me to come in and have a sit down?" There was a deep meaning in the gentle tone of the visitor.

It was none other than Zhang Anyi.

Feeling that there was something wrong with him coming to him in such a low-key way late at night, Xie Zhaochao let him in and closed the door behind him.

"I don't know why Master Zhang came to visit late at night."

Zhang Anyi turned a blind eye to Xie Zhao's indifference, and said: "My lord's rescue scene today, I have no choice but to applaud."

Xie Zhao's face changed drastically: "Zhang Er, what are you talking about!"

Zhang Anyi raised his lips, and the old god was smiling: "Your Highness, don't worry, I'm not the only one who can tell, but no one will doubt that His Highness really saved you."

"What do you want to say?" Ever since Xie Zhao made a big fuss on the day of Zhang Anyi's marriage, he has suffered a lot from Zhang Anyi's hands, all because of his gentle temperament, as if he was invulnerable, punching cotton superior.So he hated Zhang Anyi very much.

"My lord should know who the person who doesn't want to see you make a comeback the most—"

Naturally, it was Luo Jie.

Suddenly he understood something, Xie Zhao finally understood Zhang Anyi's reason for coming, and said with a sneer, "I heard that Mr. Zhang's assassination a few days ago was related to Luo Jie."

Zhang Anyi did not deny it: "Although the prince is in Xizhou, he is very well informed."

Xie Zhao looked at him, feeling weird besides being wary.

In the past, when Zhang Anyi was only the second grandson of Zhang Lao Shangshu, he laughed at him like other disciples in the capital.Unexpectedly, one day Zhang Er who was ridiculed by others not only married his wife and entered the cabinet, but also participated in a battle that made him completely defeated.

Of course, Xie Zhao didn't know at this time that when Emperor Wu passed away, the content of the most critical will that determined his victory was changed by him.

He even didn't expect that after going through all this, Zhang Er would dare to come to the post house late at night, implying in his words that he would cooperate with him.

Is this person a loyal minister or a traitor?
Xie Zhao's tone became more polite: "Zhang Er, I know that you are fighting Luo Jie to the point of life and death, so why should I help you?"

"It's not helping me, but helping yourself. For you and me, Luo Jie is the biggest enemy. Neither of us can fight against Luo Jie alone. Why don't we join forces and get rid of the biggest enemy first?" What?" He was talking about a game where the imperial court, the throne, and even the entire Guanghua country were at stake, but he spoke in a normal tone.This is what Zhang Anyi and Shen Wei said about "cooperating with others" and "seeking skins with tigers" in the carriage on the night of Shangyuan Festival.

The collaborator he was talking about was Xie Zhao.

When Shen Wei knew what he was thinking, he commented on him as - he is so wise that he is close to a monster, and so much benevolence is close to deceit.

Xie Zhao remained silent, thinking about what Zhang Anyi said.In fact, he was very shocked.Because before that, he never thought of cooperating with Zhang Anyi.

This is indeed the way to bring down Luo Jie at the moment.But he was worried about Zhang Anyi.

Zhang Anyi continued: "Luo Jie loves power, and what the prince wants is naturally the most supreme position, so you are destined to conflict. But I am different from you."

"How is it different?" Xie Zhao asked.

The old god Zhang Anyi was smiling: "The prince doesn't need to know. Let's work together to bring down Luo Jie first, and we'll talk about the rest later, how about it?"

One of them is in the court, one is in the field, one is a civil servant, and the other holds the military power. If they join forces, they are indeed capable of fighting Luo Jie.

"Okay." In just a few breaths, Xie Zhao made a decision.

Get rid of the most threatening Luo Jie first, and talk about the rest later.

In fact, both Zhang Anyi and Xie Zhao knew very well that this "we'll talk about it later" must be life and death.They have had grievances for a long time, and it is by no means that a few words and a few joint efforts can wipe out their grievances, especially when there is a woman between them.

He is a king, so a minister like him must not be tolerated.

He is a minister, and he certainly does not want to assist such a king.

After several days of searches by the cabinet, the Ministry of Criminal Justice, the Dali Temple, and the imperial guards, the assassination matter finally came to fruition.

After Emperor Ling succeeded to the throne, he did not have the thunderous methods of Emperor Wu, which made the remnants of the previous dynasty who had been resting and recuperating take advantage of the loopholes, and even sneaked into the palace to lie dormant at the feet of the emperor.After finally encountering such a large palace banquet, they had the opportunity to assassinate Emperor Ling while there were many people in chaos.

The Ministry of Criminal Justice tracked and searched the source of the assassins, found two strongholds in the capital of the remnants of the previous dynasty, and destroyed them in one fell swoop.

Emperor Ling was very satisfied with the result of tracking down the assassin.Ever since King Yong'an was rescued and injured, he was very touched, and his attitude towards King Yong'an also changed. He not only gave him many rewards, but also trusted him very much. Regardless of Luo Jie's objection, he was allowed to return to the capital every year during the Chinese New Year. He also specially set up the post of governor of Xizhou to supervise the borders of Xizhou and Guanghua.

(End of this chapter)