Ding Huai left the Cold Palace and returned to his residence. Lying on the bed, Ding Huai tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep. Empress Song's words rang in his ears again."I didn't expect him to do such a risky thing for me. Young Master Ding, if he fails one day, please save his life on the basis of Ning 'er's engagement with you. In this way, I will die without regrets.”
"How can Your Majesty be so determined to live and die?" Ding Huai asked in alarm.”Song Qing laughed bitterly." I'm a walking corpse now. What's the difference between me and death? I might as well die. It saves me the pain of missing each day." Since aijia has already entrusted her wish to young master Ding, aijia can rest assured.”
"Now this widow has already thought it through. Since the Great Han has already reached the end of the road, it will be overthrown sooner or later. Rather than letting others do it, it is better to let young master Ding do it. I have a younger sister who is married to the richest man in Wan City, Zou Peng. She has a daughter named Zou Jia, who is about the same age as Young Master Ding. In the future, Young Master Ding can take this widow's token to marry Zou Jia. With the financial backing of the Zou family, it will be extremely helpful to Young Master Ding's great matters.”
Ding Huai didn't know what words to use to comfort Song Qing. From his words just now, he could tell that Song Qing already had the will to die. Rather than suffering in the Cold Palace, it was better to die. It seemed that his arrival today had brought forward the time of Empress Song's death. This was something that he had not considered.
Ding Huai didn't try to persuade Song Qing anymore. This was the inevitable development of history. Unless Song Qing could be rescued from the Cold Palace, no one could stop it. It was just that he couldn't do it. If he failed, not only would his life be in danger, but he would also implicate the lives of his family.
Ding Huai's eyes were filled with tears as he watched Empress Song hang herself before his eyes. At that moment, Ding Huai felt how insignificant his strength was and how helpless he felt. In order to create an illusion, Ding Huai was ruthless and hung Sui Yu on the beam with a white silk. Since Song Qing was dead, how could the Spirit Monarch let Sui Yu go? She would die sooner or later. She could only blame herself for not serving the Empress. This was fate.
The next day, when the Spirit Monarch received the news, he was furious. He locked all the guards on duty in the palace that night in prison and interrogated all the other concubines and maids in the Cold Palace, hoping to get some clues. However, in the end, he only heard a cat's meow that night and there was no other news.
Seeing that he could not get any valuable clues, the Spirit Monarch gave up on this clue. However, the Spirit Monarch would never believe that Empress Song had hanged herself because she had been banished to the Cold Palace for more than a day or two. If she wanted to commit suicide, she would not have waited until now. Someone must have infiltrated the Cold Palace to kill Empress Song.
After the Spirit Monarch calmed down and analyzed it carefully, he felt that there were only two possibilities. One was that this was done by Zhang Rang and the others to silence them. Ever since the Song Clan's case, the Empress was the only one left in the Song Clan. Furthermore, after killing the entire Song Clan, the Spirit Monarch felt a little regretful and began to suspect this matter. He even sent people to investigate secretly. He had not expected that the Cold Palace would be burned down and the Empress would disappear just as he had some clues. It seemed that Zhang Rang and the others might have found out that he was investigating this matter and acted in advance, killing Empress Song. The second possibility was that the impatient concubine had done it, wanting to become the empress as soon as possible.
The Spirit Monarch had once suspected Ding Huai. After all, this incident had only happened because of Ding Huai's arrival. However, the Spirit Monarch really could not think of a reason why Ding Huai had killed Empress Song. He could only explain it as coincidence. Therefore, after careful analysis, the Spirit Monarch still believed that those two possibilities were more likely.
The next day, the Spirit Monarch ordered his men to search the palace in secret. However, they returned empty-handed. Either the assassin had escaped the palace or he was hidden by someone in the palace. This made the Spirit Monarch even more convinced of his two guesses, especially the second one. However, even so, there was nothing he could do to Zhang Rang and the others. Moreover, there was no evidence for this matter. Once it was made clear, Zhang Rang and the others would definitely deny it. Moreover, if this matter was blown up, it would damage the dignity of the royal family. It seemed that he could only let Empress Song down.
Therefore, in order to cover up this matter, the Spirit Monarch secretly killed the three concubines, four palace maids, and the guards on duty that night. He did not even mention the fire to the public. He only announced that Empress Song had died of depression, and the matter was left unsettled. Half a year later, under the insistence of Zhang Rang and the others, Noble Consort He was made the Empress. This was a story for the future, so I won't mention it.
Half a month later, after Ding Huai had dealt with the numerous concubines and princesses, he used the excuse of missing his parents and requested permission from the Spirit Monarch to return to Bingzhou. The Spirit Monarch had not been in a good mood for the past half a month and did not meet Ding Huai again, so he allowed the request.
When they reached home, Ding Huai asked his father to send the betrothal gift to the Yingchuan Tang family again. This time, Tang Mao politely accepted the betrothal gift and agreed to send Tangyue to the Ding family for marriage four years later. After that, life seemed to have returned to normal. Ding Huai continued to study and practice martial arts every day, but he was preparing to take up his post in Hanzhong after a period of time.
On this day, Ding Huai went out hunting. Although he was no longer the same Ding Huai, hunting seemed to be so attractive to people from two different worlds. Ding Huai had never stopped hunting for the past two years. As long as he had free time, Ding Huai would go out hunting.
However, this time, Ding Huai saw many commoners from other provinces fleeing to Bingzhou. They brought the old and the young with them and begged for food along the way. It was very miserable. Ding Huai could not help but feel touched. Although the sky in the Great Han Dynasty was vast, it was already sunset. No one could stop the sun from setting.
Seeing that there were many youths who were about the same age as him among the fleeing crowd, Ding Huai could not help but have a thought. He recruited some homeless orphans and taught them martial arts, cultivating his own strength from now on.
At the thought of this, Ding Huai immediately returned home and asked his father to select some orphans aged 8 to 14 from the refugees to form a boy troop to accompany him in his studies. In the past two years, Ding Yuan had been overjoyed because of his son's sudden change. Regarding his son's small request, Ding Yuan naturally agreed without thinking.
In less than ten days, Ding Yuan had almost all the orphans aged 8 to 14 years old in Taiyuan and the surrounding counties gathered in the Provincial Governor's Office. There were about 1500 to 1600 of them, and Ding Huai could pick them.
Therefore, with the help of his master Zuo Ci, Ding Huai carefully selected 358 orphans with strong bones and suitable for martial arts. They formed the famous and terrifying number one trump card army of Ding Huai, the Whirlwind Cavalry. As for the rest of the people, Ding Huai organized them into a child troop and led them directly by himself.
After that, Ding Huai had people pick out five hundred children with parents, siblings, and quick-witted minds who were good at adapting to the situation. He was going to build his own intelligence system, and he would teach them how to obtain intelligence, how to transmit intelligence, how to hide himself in the enemy's territory, how to cooperate with his own actions, and so on.
They had also arranged for their parents and siblings to be well taken care of so that they would not have to worry about anything. Once they were about to be captured, they would bite the poison pills hidden in their mouths and not give the enemy any chance to obtain information.
Ding Huai implored Taoist Master Zuo Ci to teach these 358 people martial arts and formations, but he did not teach them the art of war. Ding Huai's intention was to train them into a group of loyal guards who were good at charging into battle and protecting themselves, not generals who led troops into battle. Why did he have to do this? Ding Huai thought this way. A personal guard only needed to be skilled in martial arts and loyal to protect their master. Even if they rebelled, they would not pose too much of a threat to him. After all, they were just martial artists.
However, once they were trained to be not only skilled in martial arts, but also capable of leading the army to war, the consequences of betraying one of them would be quite terrifying. Moreover, among the heroes of the Three Kingdoms, there were still many wise, loyal, and brave generals. Therefore, when Ding Huai was teaching them martial arts, he had also continuously instilled loyalty in them. Thus, even when Ding Huai unified China, no one from the Whirlwind Cavalry betrayed him even in the most difficult situation.
This book comes from：m.funovel.com。