Prince of Song Dynasty

Chapter 353 Full of expectations

While looking at the information about Hangzhou in his hand, Ye Chen thought about learning some news about Hangzhou from later generations, and his heart was filled with various expectations.

After leaving Zhenjiang, Ye Chen and his party boarded the first ship among the three imperial envoy ships without disturbing anyone.After paying homage to Princess Yongqing and being held back by the latter to complain for a while, he called Zhang Qingming, the deputy envoy of Honglu Temple, and gave the latter some instructions.Then they waited for the three large ships to pass through the territory of the Southern Tang Dynasty and enter the Wuyue Kingdom.

Everything was within Ye Chen's expectations, and Nan Tang didn't dare to show any disrespect to the imperial ship of Song Dynasty with Princess Yongqing on it.Even the Maitreya Sect wanted to kill Princess Yongqing and Ye Chen, but they didn't dare to do it within their own borders.Otherwise, when Emperor Song got angry, the army would immediately overwhelm the country.

Therefore, since entering the Southern Tang territory, not only did the three imperial ships not encounter any troubles or dangers, they were even escorted by the Southern Tang Navy and the government along the way.

Standing on the bow of the boat, Ye Chen was holding a letter he received not long ago, with a wry smile on his face, and muttered to himself: "This matter involves thousands of lives in Jianzhuang, Bai Zixuan It is reasonable to act so cautiously, and it is a safe and wise move. I was thinking too simply on this matter. With the means of Maitreya Sect, how could there be no Maitreya Sect members left in Jianzhuang, even if Bai Zixuan used the means Well, it’s like turning Jianzhuang into an iron barrel, but there must be someone in Yangzhou City watching Jianzhuang’s every move.”

As the top force in Jianghu, Jianzhuang has a profound background, and Bai Zixuan is resourceful and has a very high prestige.Therefore, although the relationship between Jianzhuang and Ye Chen has been spread all over the world, the Maitreya Sect did not act rashly to deal with Jianzhuang. Small, coupled with the fact that Bai Zixuan does have great wisdom, Jianzhuang has been acting very low-key this year, so he was able to maintain a temporary calm.

However, with Ye Chen's current status, if he visits Jianzhuang suddenly, he will only force the Maitreya Sect, or even Li Yu, the leader of the Southern Tang Dynasty, or some bigwigs in the court to attack Jianzhuang.

Ye Chen naturally thought of this a long time ago, and had already made arrangements.In fact, the change of ship on the way was also for the purpose of secretly going to Jianzhuang, not for the Dajiang Gang.

However, Ye Chen did not expect that Bai Zixuan was much more cautious than him. After Ye Chen finished dealing with the affairs of the Dajiang Gang, the person Ye Chen secretly sent to contact Jianzhuang had brought the secret message sent by Bai Zixuan. letter.

The content of the secret letter is very simple, even two sentences, one of which is: "If you come to Yangzhou, I can only move to Dasong with more than 1000 people from the whole village afterwards."

This sentence is very unique in two aspects, one is that Ye Chen did not say that Ye Chen came to Jianzhuang, but Yangzhou; the other is that no matter what happens, Bai Zixuan will move Jianzhuang to Song Dynasty.

Let's not talk about the impact of Jianzhuang being forced to leave the old lair that he had run for many years and move to Song Dynasty on the strength of Jianzhuang.If Jianzhuang really moved to Song Dynasty, Ye Chen would lose the meaning of going to Jianzhuang at this time.

At the same time, Ye Chen also saw from this sentence that Jianzhuang is not as safe as it seems on the surface.Then he remembered that when he left Kaifeng, Bai Zixuan sent people to Kaifeng to send Bai Canghai's two concubines, Sun Xueying and Xiaomo, who were both pregnant, without Bai Canghai's consent.

Ye Chen suddenly guessed that the Maitreya Sect was probably ready to attack Jianzhuang at any time.

Thinking of this, Ye Chen's face was serious, and he said: "The next port will send an order to the Intelligence Department to send a large number of people to Yangzhou to keep an eye on the Maitreya Sect's every move in Yangzhou. In addition, let Bai Canghai lead people to Yangzhou secretly."

Feng Zhiyuan, the envoy of the intelligence analysis department who had been paying attention to Ye Chen's every move at the last five steps from the right, immediately bowed and said yes.Five steps back from the left, Zhang Dawei, the head of the special investigation department, glanced at Feng Zhiyuan out of the corner of his eye, his eyes flickering slightly.

Just said Bai Zixuan's letter and said two sentences, in addition to the complaining sentence above, there is also a sentence worth pondering and vigilance, to be precise, it is only six words: "Be careful of Wuyue Sword Emperor."

"Who is the Sword Emperor?"

"To be called the sword emperor... he should be the most top person in the world, but Bai Canghai's master is only called the sword master."

"It's just such a person, why haven't I heard of it. Why doesn't Huaxia Weifu have any news about this person."

Ye Chen muttered to himself, his doubts became more and more serious, but he also became more vigilant.Ye Chen knew that Bai Zixuan was far-sighted and extremely intelligent. Even though Jianzhuang deeply offended the Maitreya Sect last year, he still kept Jianzhuang safe and sound this year. From this incident alone, we can see how extraordinary Bai Zixuan is.This is also the reason why Ye Chen wanted him to be the envoy of the Southern Palace of Huaxia Weifu at the very beginning.

Thinking of this, Ye Chen said again: "Send someone to Hu Sanguang at the next pier to find out who the 'Jianhuang' is. The more detailed the information, the better."

Feng Zhiyuan was stunned for a moment, and asked cautiously: "Which... sword emperor are you talking about?"

Ye Chen smiled and said: "The sword of the sword is the emperor's emperor. Tell Hu Sanguang about this information and ask him to check it in Wuyue Kingdom."

Feng Zhiyuan respectfully said yes, and hurriedly wrote it down carefully.

Hangzhou City, like all Kyotos since ancient times, is divided into an inner city and an outer city.The inner city, that is, the imperial city, has a radius of nine miles and surrounds Fenghuang Mountain. There are many palaces and imperial gardens.The outer city spans Wushan Mountain in the south, intercepts Wulin Gate in the north, connects to the West Lake on the right, and leans on the Qiantang River on the left.There are as many as thirteen land gates and waterway gates, which is very conducive to the development of commerce and the convenience of the people, but it is not a good thing to consider from the perspective of city defense.However, the moat outside the city of Hangzhou is much wider and deeper than the moats of the capitals of the three great powers of Song, Khitan, and Southern Tang because of the developed and convenient water system.

The Wuyue Kingdom was governed by Qingming officials. Several generations of rulers have attached great importance to people's livelihood. Coupled with the prosperity of commerce and trade, the population of Hangzhou City has increased sharply in the past few decades.Up to now, the number of residents has increased to more than 70 (including the county).As far as Qiantang and Renhe counties, where the prefectural city of Hangzhou is located, have a population of more than 40, not much less than the populations of Kaifeng and Jinling.

At this time, Hangzhou City, Phoenix Mountain, and the apse of the Wuyue Kingdom Palace.

The ruler of Wuyue Kingdom, Qian Hongchu, was looking down at a memorial. He didn't know what he saw. His face gradually became gloomy, with deep pain and worry in his brows and eyes.Ever since the news of Qian Wu being beheaded in the street by the Huaxia Weifu of the Great Song Dynasty came, Qian Hongchu was shocked and grieved, and at the first moment, he suppressed the grief in his heart and saw clearly the key to this matter. Without even discussing with anyone, he decisively sent someone to propose marriage to Da Song.The reason for this was because he felt a little inappropriate and uneasy.

From a rational point of view, Qian Hongchu absolutely did not believe that Da Song would kill the envoys he sent, let alone his own brother.He didn't need to understand the specific process to know that this matter was a conspiracy.I also vaguely guessed that it was done by Nantang or Maitreya.Later news from Song Dynasty also verified this point.

However, although he was extremely sensible and did not want to break with the Song Dynasty, he also thought about avenging his younger brother.In particular, the Emperor Song didn't hand over the six Huaxia Weifu killers who killed his younger brother to him, and he didn't even impose any punishment. This incident made him very disappointed and very angry.

Although Ye Chen gave up the monstrous rewards for three great achievements for this, in his opinion, or from his point of view, it doesn't make any sense.Not only did it not make his anger lessen, but it made him even more angry.

Later, news came from Song Dynasty that Ye Chen would go to Wu Yue as an envoy and come to Hangzhou in person.Qian Hongchu knew that the emperor of the Song Dynasty sent Ye Chen to calm his anger, but he didn't care what Ye Chen would do, and he didn't care about some evidence Ye Chen provided, as well as the witnesses that might be caught in the legend.All he had was anger and humiliation.If Da Song did not punish the murderer, Ye Chen brought people to Wuyue Kingdom, that would be his biggest embarrassment, it would definitely make him in a dilemma, and it would seriously affect his prestige.

Therefore, after thinking hard, he quickly made an extremely difficult choice, and it was also the most intelligent reaction at this time - to propose marriage to Da Song.

Since ancient times, when a princess from a big country marries a princess from a small country, there are only two situations. One is to show weakness and exchange a woman for a short-lived peace.The second is to show goodwill, that is to say, it is an effective and practical measure for a big country to win over a small country, or to form an alliance with a small country.

However, Qian Hongchu took the initiative to propose marriage to Da Song this time, thus continuing to show the greatest sincerity of Wuyue Kingdom. It does not mean that Qian Hongchu gave up revenge for his brother, but has other plans.In the past few days, he has already had some ideas in his mind on how to avenge his brother.Just out of various scruples, he has not made up his mind.

In addition, these Chinese officials wrote letters to make friends with Nantang, and there were even many people who contacted Nantang privately.This incident made him extremely annoyed, and he also gradually realized that some things might be much more serious than he imagined.

Therefore, he decided to wait for Ye Chen to arrive, and listen to the latter's explanation first. To be precise, he first listened to the investigation results of the ins and outs of this matter by the world-famous Huaxia Weifu, and then finally decided how to avenge this incident.

Just when Qian Hongchu was frowning and thinking, a servant came in on tiptoe and whispered a few words in his ear. Qian Hongchu frowned, hesitated for a while, then sighed, and walked towards Fengqi Hall with his sleeves.

As soon as he entered the Fengqi Palace, a beautiful woman in a palace costume rushed in front of him, cried and bowed to the ground, and repeatedly pleaded: "Your Highness...Your Highness! You must avenge my concubine's lord. I heard that my lord He died so badly that his legs and feet were beheaded on the street by those thousand killers in the Huaxia Weifu of the Great Song Dynasty. The concubine was heartbroken and didn't want to live anymore. Your Highness, he is your own brother. You must do it, Your Highness. Avenge him!"

Qian Hongchu frowned tightly, tugged at the skirt of his robe, but was held tightly by the woman and couldn't break free, so he leaned over to help her, and comforted her: "Sister and sister, get up, get up, brother and sister, what's so decent about this? Wu'er is Gu's own younger brother, Guzi will avenge him, brothers and sisters don't need to worry."

(End of this chapter)