Jiaohua

Chapter 1620 Zhao Ning did this for her

What Xia Zhaoyi wanted to teach the junior official was how to arrange the hidden compartments in the next two moves.

The first time, she asked the clerk to significantly advance the date of Yan Qinglin's funeral.

The second time, she instructed a minor official to lure Song Zhiyi to the former Emperor's eldest princess's residence on Tianqi Street.

Two eunuchs and two female officials, fearing the clerk might not remember, helped him remember as well.

The next morning, the minor official went to see the Grand Astrologer, saying that he had observed the stars the night before and saw that the Purple Palace Enclosure had shifted and the Heavenly Market Enclosure had shown unusual signs. These were ominous omens, and the funeral rites, calendar, and the emperor's behavior needed to be adjusted immediately. He wanted to enter the Hall of Seeking Opportunities to preside over the astronomical calculations.

Meanwhile, Consort Cao sent others to mediate and exert pressure, and the Grand Astrologer had no choice but to agree.

Under the watchful eyes of a group of officials from the Imperial Observatory, the minor official actually succeeded in predicting the fate of heaven. He ordered people to activate the corresponding hidden compartments according to the calculated sequence number, and the final list of constellations matched perfectly with the "Azure Dragon Bearing Sorrow" phenomenon recorded in the "Xuanji Yuheng Jing".

Everyone present was greatly surprised; some looked at the stars, while others looked at the minor official.

The Grand Historian was not a narrow-minded person. Upon seeing this, he was overjoyed and publicly praised the minor official, admitting his inferiority. He then had it recorded and personally presented it to Song Zhiyi.

As a result, Yan Qinglin's funeral date was moved forward to June 23.

For the remaining days, Xia Zhaoyi hardly went out; she had many letters to read and reply to.

War strategy, resource allocation, and changes in the situation on all sides.

Seeing Nie Huimo kill three hundred heads of Yun Bozhong's generals and personal guards in front of Yun Bozhong at Muye, Xia Zhaoyi knew that the battle at Muye would never end.

Looking at Cao Yijun, after he was completely placed under house arrest by Jin Hongkang, the Cao family of Dingtao County tried to exchange him for grain and meat. Jin Hongkang accepted the grain and meat, but still refused to release him.

This incident has caused dissatisfaction among many people.

Especially after learning that Cao Yijun resigned because of Song Zhiyi's inaction towards Mubu Yifan, this discontent reached its peak, and the people of Songzhou, Anjiang, and Xiongchi were cursing every day.

After reading the letter, Xia Zhaoyi immediately picked up her pen and wrote a letter to Wang Fengnian.

She needs to have Wang Fengnian inform the scholars who left behind after their scholarly pursuits that they should write something.

Song Zhiyi's ascension to the throne was illegitimate, and he had a million refugees clear the way for him before he entered the capital.

Although Song Zhiyi doesn't have many days left to live, Jin Hongkang, who commands a large army, is a formidable enemy and more difficult to deal with than the incompetent Zhuang Mengyao.

Having read all the letters, there is still no news from Tongdu.

Not long after, another letter arrived.

One of the letters was from Wang Yitai, which said that Nangong Qiuming went to a place the day before yesterday and has not come out since; it was a house in the back alley of the former Jian'an Prince's Mansion.

That house once belonged to the Jian'an Prince's Mansion. After Song Zhiyi took control of the capital, he divided up many former nobles' mansions in the capital. The Jian'an Prince's Mansion was divided into five parts and given to five civil officials.

The houses in the back alley were empty; they had been bought the previous year by a wealthy merchant from Jiangnan who had come to Daping to seek refuge.

The letter also said that no one except Nangong Qiuming had entered or left in the past few days, so there might be a secret passage below.

Xia Zhaoyi became interested, and since she had been staying at home for a few days, she decided to go and take a look.

As night fell and she prepared to leave, Wang Yitai sent another urgent letter, saying that his men who had been sent to spy on the house had all been murdered and their bodies had been secretly disposed of.

The letter also emphasized that his men were all highly skilled.

The opponent either has a highly skilled player or a large number of players.

And, Xia Zhaoyi should be wary of that "Ling'er".

The name "Ling'er" was asked by Wu Renhao from the mouth of a "tough nut to crack".

She was a bodyguard beside Nangong Qiuming, with excellent skills. She had half silver hair and half black hair, and looked both old and young, but no one knew how old she was.

She was ruthless to everyone, but loyal only to Nangong Qiuming.

After Xia Zhaoyi finished reading the letter, she handed it to the female soldier next to her.

The female soldier immediately took it and burned it.

It turns out that this door is not easy to get out of.

Lu Ningjin rushed over, overjoyed: "Ali, Madam Zhao is amazing! She actually made so many plans in Yong'an!"

Xia Zhaoyi asked, "What happened?"

"She had previously sent Miss Pei and that group of assassins to disrupt half of Yong'an. Taking advantage of the fact that the Jingzhao Prefecture's attention was diverted, she secretly bribed people in the Jingzhao Prefecture and opened many rice shops in Yong'an. This time, with the city gates closed, most of the rice and vegetables in the city were sold through her shops."

Xia Zhaoyi chuckled: "I thought she made Miss Pei do those things just to provoke Yan Qinglin to come back from Pingyuan Temple."

“Yes, I didn’t expect her to have such a trick up her sleeve. If she hadn’t done this, the capital would probably have been in chaos these past few days because of the soaring grain prices! Everyone says that Madam Zhao is profit-driven and only cares about money, but I think she has a kind heart.” Xia Zhaoyi said, “Don’t flatter her, she doesn’t like it.”

After saying that, Xia Zhaoyi suddenly smiled and said, "Perhaps she did all this for me."

Zhao Ning was not the type to repay evil with good. Since the world had wronged him, it was impossible for him to show any "benevolence" towards the world.

Zhao Ning did this most likely for her sake.

Zhao Ning knew that she was going to take action against Yong'an, so she made arrangements in advance to prevent Yong'an from suffering as much as it had in the past and being plunged into a fiery inferno.

Lu Ningjin asked, puzzled, "For you?"

Xia Zhaoyi smiled and said, "Zhao Ning didn't want me to bear the burden of karma or the infamy in history books. She was afraid that I would blame myself and that I would be cursed by the world like Song Zhiyi. This rice was probably prepared for the future after Song Zhiyi's downfall, but I killed Yan Qinglin, which was outside her plan, so this rice was spent ahead of schedule."

Lu Ningjin was surprised. After a long while, she said softly, "I always knew that Madam Zhao was good to you, but I never thought she could do so much for you. I had this worry before, fearing that the people would suffer, but it seems that I was overthinking it... With you here, how can the people suffer?"

“No,” Xia Zhaoyi said, “and don’t flatter me.”

It was getting late, so Xia Zhaoyi didn't chat with Lu Ningjin any longer. After a few more brief words, she left.

The Jian'an Prince's Mansion is easy to find; it was Li Xiao's home back then.

Li Xiao was very clever. Before Li Ju abandoned the capital, in order to protect himself, he packed up as quickly as possible and fled to the fiefdom of the Prince of Jian'an, Guihe.

His elder brother, Li Xun, had a completely opposite personality to him.

The last time I heard news of Li Xun was when he led 100,000 troops to reclaim the land that had been taken by the Northern Yuan.

He fought a very tough battle, winning several battles by narrowly outnumbering the enemy, and Li Qian's troops suffered far more casualties than the enemy.

Even worse, as the fighting progressed, Li Ju abandoned the capital, and when Li Xun at the front turned around, all the food and supplies behind him were gone.

Fortunately, he left his troops in the Northwest and gave them to Ouyang Jun. He himself led a personal guard and, after many hardships, returned directly to He.

After that, there was no more news of Li Xun.

That was also Li Qian's last large-scale military expedition to the Northwest.

Xia Zhaoyi felt a pang of sadness.

She had arrived at the back alley of the Jian'an Prince's Mansion and looked up at the buildings in the darkness.

It was completely quiet; there wasn't a sound.

The surrounding houses at least had a few lights on, but this large house in front of us didn't have a single light.

Just as she was about to reach the top of the wall, her ears suddenly caught a slight noise.

Xia Zhaoyi immediately hid herself.

Two figures emerged from the back door of the former site of the Jian'an Prince's Mansion.

One of them said, "Sir, it's dark, please be careful."

Another person said, "Keep your voice down!"

The two hurried toward the wealthy merchant's house in the back alley.

The knocking was rhythmic, three fast knocks followed by three slow knocks.

Soon, the side door of the wealthy merchant's house was opened.

Two figures quickly stepped in.

Xia Zhaoyi watched as the side door closed. She emerged from the corner and looked at the mansion in front of her.

These were all distributed to the civil officials of the court after Song Zhiyi divided them up.

It is written in Wang Yitai's booklet that this was written by Liu Renshu, the current Minister of Rites of the Taiping Dynasty.

What a coincidence, it's the Minister of Rites again.

Xia Zhaoyi withdrew her gaze, intending to be on the safe side. She walked along the corner of the wall to the very back and found a high wall that was almost impossible to climb over.

That's it.

Her cautious decision was indeed useful.

The ground beneath the inner wall, right where she was about to climb over, had been completely hollowed out.