Chapter 108: Yang's Counterattack Second Shot

  When Fu Bo sent Zhu Houxi and He Qizhen to the gate of the Jin Yiwei Nanzhengfu government office, Zhang Yong was drinking tea with Jiang Xia at the gate.

  Seeing Fu Bo carrying Zhu Hou Xi and He Qi Tong getting off the carriage, Jiang Xia picked up the teapot and poured a cup of tea for Zhang Yong, saying: "I bet that within an hour someone will bring these two people back. You, Zhang Gonggong, bet two hours. Now it seems you lost, your Flying Phoenix Warm Jade is mine!"

  Zhang Yong chuckled and his voice inevitably carried a hint of eunuch's sharpness, he nodded and said: "Brother Jiang, you are indeed clever and resourceful, I admire you."

  Zhang Yong stood up and walked to Fu Bo's front, as if he had just seen Fu Bo now, covering his mouth with his right hand: "Wow, isn't this the Fu Gonggong of the Imperial Censorate back then? What a fortunate encounter!"

  Fu Bo glanced at Zhang Yong, then his gaze jumped over Zhang Yong's body and looked at Jiang Xia again.

  He snorted coldly, then threw Zhu Houxi and He Qizhen to the ground together and turned to leave. When Fu Bo got on the carriage, Zhang Yong called out: "Come, take these two into the Heavenly Prison and keep a close eye on them!"

  "Yes!" Several Jin Yiwei came out from the gate of the Zhenfu Temple and took He Qizong and Zhu Houxie together into custody.

  Watching Fu Bo's carriage disappear at the street corner, Zhang Yong walked up to Jiang Xia and asked: "Brother Jiang, what's next?"

  Jiang Xia put down his teacup and asked Zhang Yong, "Zhang brother, who has the highest kung fu skills in the Tianji Association?"

  Zhang Yong shook his head and said, "I'm not really sure about this. I'll have to ask He Qiyan. However, I've heard some people in the jianghu mention that the Tianji Society has thirteen Flying Hawks, each with exceptional martial arts skills."

  Jiang Xia nodded slightly after hearing this, and said: "Then let's find Liu Gonggong to get all thirteen Flying Hawks, and then join forces with He Qiutu to release them."

  "Let him go again? This time he won't escape, will he?" Zhang Yong asked in surprise.

  Jiang Xia smiled and said, "No, they can't escape."

  In the Yun Ge Inn, Zhu Youxiao sat in his newly changed room drinking cup after cup of wine. After Fu Bo entered the house, he only said one sentence to Zhu Youxiao: "The person has been sent back."

  Zhu Youxiao put down his wine cup and picked up the wine jug to refill it, then opened his mouth and said: "Do you understand why I let you send them back?"

  Fu Bo nodded and said: "At first, I didn't understand, but when I saw Jiang Xia and Zhang Yong waiting for me at the gate of Nanzhen Fu's government office to send someone over, I started to understand a bit."

  "Jiang Xia and his men deliberately released He Qi Tuo and Shi Zi to find Wang Ye, with two purposes. One is that Wang Ye shelters them and does not send them back, so they have evidence to prove that Wang Ye and Tian Ji are colluding, and thus Zhu Hou Zhao has ironclad evidence to convict Wang Ye and even the entire Xing Xian Wang Fu of a crime. Two is that Wang Ye sends them back, so they will drive a wedge between Wang Ye's relationship with He Qi Tuo and Shi Zi. Who knows, He Qi Tuo might take this opportunity to bite back at Wang Ye and reveal your relationship with him. Both moves are fatal, truly a ruthless tactic."

  Fu Bo sighed and said, now he finally began to understand Zhu Youxiao's difficulties.

  Zhu Youhao also let out a soft sigh, shaking his head: "He Qizong will definitely reveal the relationship between me and the Tianji Society, but it doesn't matter. He doesn't have strong evidence to prove this point. Moreover, He Qizong was sent over by my people, so his testimony is useless against me. Because no matter what he says that's unfavorable to me, it can be seen as a frame-up for revenge."

  "This time it's indeed Jiang Xia's move, this is an opponent who can't be underestimated. It seems we need to get our spirits up, he's just made his first move, the next one will likely be even more ruthless, if we're not careful, we'll lose this game."

  "Your Highness, otherwise I'll go kill him and be done with it," Fu Bo said in a cold voice.

  Zhu Youxiao let out a bitter laugh and shook his head, saying: "He's probably hoping you'll go kill him, then the trap he set up will catch you off guard. With our close relationship, your appearance would mean I'm also implicated, which would be exactly what Zhu Houzhao wants."

  Fu Bo suddenly stopped speaking. Although he was a person from the palace, he had not seen few conspiracies and intrigues. However, the cunning tricks used in the palace were all sinister and dark, and in terms of strategy and intelligence, they could not be compared to Zhu Youxiao's and Jiang Xia's current moves.

  Fu Bo even felt that the two of them exchanging blows was like a battle between top-notch masters, and he was just an ordinary person, who had to stand far away to watch, otherwise, if he wasn't careful, the residual waves could shake him to death.

  The next day, the sun rises.

  It's almost July, and the weather is a bit cooler than before. Jiang Xia sighed again at the beauty of the Ming Dynasty, because in later generations, Beijing in July was no different from a furnace.

  The Jin Yiwei Southern Patrol and Pacification Office's great prison was set up in an underground room, dark and damp without mentioning the key point that it didn't see daylight. He Qiutu woke up in his cell feeling that there were several people surrounding him. In his heart, he cursed Zhu Youxiao and Fu Bo, then slowly sat up. At this time, someone suddenly called out: "Head of the Gang, you're awake."

  He Qizhen was shocked, this voice he was more familiar with than anyone else's. "Yingying? How did you end up here?"

  "Helmsman, we're here too." At this time, the other three people surrounding He Qiyan also spoke up.

  He Qizui slightly furrowed his brow, and after identifying them one by one, he called out: "Tu Ying, Xue Ying, Yun Ying, you're all here? Why are you in this place?"

  "I don't know either, last night two teams of Imperial Guards came to the Eastern Depot and took us out, then we were locked in this prison cell. When we entered the cell, we found you here too, injured and unconscious, so the four of us took turns channeling our inner energy to heal your wounds." said Yingying.

  After listening to the eagle's words, He Qiyan quietly operated his internal energy and felt that the internal injury caused by Fu Bo had indeed healed seven or eight tenths. That Fu Qing was indeed worthy of being a master of the three great Tripods, and his own strength as one of the Tripods hadn't even lasted three moves in his hands.

  "Helmsman, who exactly injured you? I've examined you and found that it's an internal injury, and it was done by a skilled hand." Blood Eagle asked.

  He Qizhen took a slight breath, gritted his teeth and said: "It was Fu Qing. Last night I had already escaped, but who knew he knocked me out and sent me back again."

  "What? Why does Fuqing have to do this?" asked the bald eagle in anger.

  "It was the prince's order." He Qiyan said this sentence, and his eyes suddenly flashed a cold light, which was very obvious even in the dark night.

  "Prince Wang?" "Why? We go through thick and thin for him, why does he treat you like this?" "It's too much, what does he take us for?"

  "Dogs. A pack of them will rush out and bite people at the sound of one, but if they bite someone with a deep background, they can easily be discarded." As he spoke, a young man dressed in white, holding a folding fan, walked out with an elegant demeanor. No need to guess, this person was indeed Jiang Xia.

  Following Jiang Xia were Zhong Bin and about a dozen Jin Yiwei guards holding torches.

  "Jiang Xia." He Qiyan gazed at him coldly. He was very clear that his downfall was all thanks to the person in front of him.

  Jiang Xia smiled slightly and nodded: "Indeed it is me, I didn't expect that General He would still have heard of my name, it's truly delightful for me."

  Jiang Xia swept a glance at the eagle and others, saying lightly: "Now that the emperor has handed your case over to me, I've specially sent your several good brothers in to keep you company. Are you feeling grateful to me?"

  Unfortunately, when I brought people to the East Factory, nine of the thirteen Flying Eagles had already been crippled. Three were dead, and the remaining six were either missing hands or feet, basically becoming useless people. If I had gone a little later, I'm afraid your four brothers would have been gone too."

  "Hypocritical and self-righteous, say what you want to say." He Qitian said coldly.

  Jiang Xia's face was written all over with "not interested", he shook his head and said: "Can't you pretend to thank me? Can't you satisfy my wish to do good deeds without leaving a name?"

  He let out a sigh, and Jiang Xia said: "Actually, I wanted to remind you that the person you should hate is not me. I didn't provoke you in the first place, it was you who came to provoke me. Ending up like this is just a matter of winning or losing.

  "But Zhu Youxiao is different, you went through life and death for him, yet he treated you like this. You had already escaped, but he still sent you back. If I were you, I would definitely hate him."

  "I'd like to eat his flesh and drink his blood!" He Qizhen said gritting her teeth.

  Jiang Xia nodded and smiled, saying: "It's fine like this." He took out a small porcelain bottle from his bosom and handed it to He Qiutu, saying: "There are five pills in this bottle. After you eat them, the poison will only take effect after twelve hours. As long as you eat these pills, I can let you go find Zhu Youxiao and have some fun."

  He Qiying stared at the porcelain bottle for a long time, and after a while, he nodded and said, "Alright, give me the medicine."

  Jiang Xia threw the porcelain bottle to him, and He Qi Chui caught it and directly poured out a pellet and threw it into his mouth. Then Xue Ying, Yu Feng, and two others also each poured out a pellet from the porcelain bottle and put it in their mouths.

  Jiang Xia watched them swallow the medicine pill, then smiled and said: "Someone come, prepare a table of good wine and dishes for them. After they finish eating, let them go out."

  "Yes!" someone in the Imperial Guard responded.

  At noon, Zhu Youxiao sat on the second floor of the Yunlou Inn, drinking wine and looking at the scenery outside the window.

  Actually, Zhu Youxiao was not looking at the scenery, but at the people walking back and forth on the street. Zhu Youxiao let out a soft sigh and said: "If I wasn't born into an imperial family, wouldn't I be able to live carefree like them, only worrying about having enough food and clothing?"

  Suddenly, Zhu Youxiao looked at Fu Bo and said: "Fu Bo, bring the Four Treasures of the Study, I want to write a letter to Hou Xiu."

  "Yes." Fu Bo immediately went to borrow pen, ink, paper and inkstone.

  When Zhu Youxiao was writing a letter, Fu Bo couldn't help but say: "Actually, the second prince is more like you, young and talented in both literature and martial arts."

  Zhu Youxiao rarely smiled and nodded: "To be honest with you, Fu Bo, Xi Er is actually one of my hopes."