Chapter 8 three

As soon as Timur and Yunna's wedding is over, Hu Xin returns to his fief.Before leaving, he reminded Timur to treat his sister kindly, and Timur agreed. The day of first marriage can be regarded as satisfactory.Although Timur doesn't like Yunna very much, but there are no other women around him, so he always maintains the respect he should have for Yunna.In the second year after marriage, Yunna gave birth to a son. Timur was very happy and named his son Jihanjar.When his son was full moon, he held a grand banquet in Jieshi City. All the dignitaries and his friends attended the banquet. The only thing that surprised and honored Timur was that Sraz Khan heard about it from nowhere. He even sent someone to send a congratulatory gift.

After the banquet, Timur sent Yun Na back to her natal family to visit her relatives.Soon, Hazhan promoted Timur to general, and Timur took power.Previously, Timur served as Hazhan's chief guard and led the army many times. Every time, he took the lead and never failed. His bravery won him prestige in the army.After becoming a general, Harzhan assured him to be alone, and he spent more time on training the army and suppressing the rebellion. His organizational and military skills gradually became known to the government and the public. As his position and reputation rose, Timur's ambition and natural recklessness began to rear its head again.On the one hand, he was active, donated money, and won people's hearts in the army. On the other hand, he spread rumors that were unfavorable to Hazhan, and called on people to rise up against Hazhan's tyranny in the name of Sharaz Khan.He worked hard for it, because replacing Yun Na's grandfather was his next goal.

In the middle of the night, he was awakened from his sleep by his uncle Haji.Haji told him not to speak, and then led him out the back door to a place.He felt that this place seemed familiar, like the orchard behind the Khan Palace, in front of the gate, there were six strong men waiting for them like wolves and tigers. Timur was a little surprised and wanted to ask Haji something, but Haji pulled his arm and shook his head at him.He understood and had no choice but to say nothing.The strong man blindfolded Timur and Haji and led them for a while. Later, they stopped somewhere. Timur's eyes couldn't see, but his ears tried to discern what he heard.The strong man who led the way for them might have sent some signal. After a while, he heard a few "squeaks" of the door, which gave people a feeling of special effort. Obviously, the door that was just opened was made of very heavy materials. built.

Timur's heart skipped a beat. The strong men surrounded Timur and Haji, first took away all the weapons they carried, and then searched them carefully before letting them enter the door.After entering the door and walking for more than ten steps, they came to another door. A strong man stepped forward and skillfully opened a small door with a mechanism in the center. The rest of the people then removed the blindfolds of Timur and Haji. Before entering the small gate, Timur looked back at the way he had come.In the dim light, he vaguely saw that the first door looked like a stone door, so—if his judgment was correct—this place must be a carefully constructed secret cave.

The six strong men winked at each other and separated automatically, two in front and four in the back, all holding torches in their hands, leading the two uncles and nephews down the narrow and long steps that could barely accommodate two people side by side. . Possibly affected by psychological effects, in this narrow, unfamiliar space where life and death are uncertain, in addition to step by step, Timur felt that he could hear Haji's tense heartbeat and heavy breathing in addition to the clear and recognizable footsteps.It took him a while to realize that it was actually his own heartbeat coming from his chest, and the tension made his breathing heavy and uneven.

After walking for an unknown amount of time, at the same time as the steps disappeared, another hole appeared in front of them.A strong man fumbled open the door, and they entered a wide, level room.This should be a cave built underground. Judging from the structure of the cave, it looks like a large storage room. Of course, this large storage room is quite different from the storage rooms used by ordinary families. It is not only empty objects, and many doors were opened on the wall.In addition to the three doors on the wall where they came in, there were also three identical doors on the other three walls, so that there were twelve doors in the entire room.If the door that comes in is closed, once a person stays in such an environment for a long time, he will lose his bearings.

This is probably the real purpose of building such a room. Not allowing Timur to think too much, the strong men extinguished the torches in their hands together, and the eyes of Timur and Haji suddenly became dark. A strong man told his uncle and nephew to stand still.After a while, there was a slight sound in Timur's ear, and then his arms were held up by two people, who led him around the room quickly.I don't know how many times I turned around, when Timur started to feel dizzy and even felt nauseous and wanted to vomit, a door suddenly opened, and the dazzling light shone on his eyes.Before he could take a look around, he was pushed through the door.

He seemed to see Haji, and then the door closed behind him. All happened and completed in a very short time.Many years later, as long as Timur recalled this horrifying experience, he would not be able to restrain his hatred of Sraz Khan, which even far surpassed his coveting and jealousy of Hazhan's power. He despises what the Great Khan has done, and if it wasn't for his own ulterior motives at the time, he would never have agreed to any request from Sraz Khan. After being pushed, Timur was already in another room or another cave.From darkness to light, Timur's eyes need to adjust to this change.He saw first the great black velvet curtain before him, and after that he saw Haji.

Haji's face was paler than his, but the look in his eyes was much calmer than his.Obviously, Haji had experienced the same thing before, he knew what he would see next, what he didn't adapt to was just being forced to turn countless times, which made him extremely uncomfortable like seasickness. Two of the six strong men guarded the door, and four stepped forward to open the first curtain. Behind the first curtain, a second red curtain appeared. At the moment when the red curtain was opened, Timur felt like The son was in the magnificent Khan Palace.Yes, let's call this cave the "Underground Khan Palace", because it is no less than the real Khan Palace.In fact, all the decorations of the underground Khan Palace are like the real Khan Palace. The reason why it can be recognized that it is not the Khan Palace is because it can smell the damp breath that the Khan Palace does not have.

Like the Khan Palace that Timur had seen before, the surrounding walls and top of the underground Khan Palace were also densely covered by red curtains, and beautiful tapestries were also hung in the center of both sides of the curtain.I remember that when he entered the Khan Palace for the first time, Timur was amazed at one of the tapestries showing hunting scenes.The emerald green tapestry is like an emerald green grassland, and the fleeing prey seem to be about to break through the wall. Timur stood dumbfounded.In front of him, sky blue, beige, fruit blue, and pink-green silk ribbons hang down from the red curtain at the top.The lower end of the silk sash is about one and a half adult height from the ground. When the person standing below speaks, its lower end seems to swing slightly with the voice.Later, Timur discovered that this was his illusion. In fact, there was air flowing in the underground Khan Palace, but he couldn't tell how the outside air entered this seemingly airtight space.

There are four huge stone pillars erected at the four corners of the underground Khan Palace. These stone pillars must be natural, because their surface is different in thickness, unevenness and color, and they look like weathered mountain stones.Although craftsmen made some decorations on them and carved simple patterns and ancient characters on each pillar, these stone pillars still maintained their original rough appearance. The ground of the underground Khan Palace is lined with strips of bluestone, facing the palace gate and close to the back wall, there is an imperial bed that is exactly the same as that in the Khan Palace, with a pure gold inlaid headboard, gemstone-studded bed feet and bed edges. The carefully hollowed-out patterns clearly reveal the identity of the owner. The bed was still covered with a thick, incomparable color and style of Nassau mattresses, and from the front of the bed to the door was a purple-blue carpet that could allow three people to kneel side by side.In fact, this long carpet is made up of several square carpets, but because the colors of each carpet are the same, and the patterns of mountains and rivers at the joints are seamless, it looks like a whole carpet. Under the imperial bed and on both sides of the carpet, there are six armchairs with high backs. These exquisitely crafted mahogany armchairs with silk cushions were purchased by Persian merchants from China and sold at high prices to the Khan Court. As well as the homes of princes and ministers, Timur also saw a few in Hazhan's mansion.Owning such a mahogany chair symbolizes wealth and status. It may be that Timur was too devoted to the observation of the underground Khan Palace and his mind was too focused. He didn't see anyone on the imperial bed at all, until a strong man whispered in his ear: "Don't kneel down yet", Only then did he suddenly see Sraz Khan half leaning comfortably on the pillow, looking at him with a funny expression. Shiraz Khan, who seemed to have fallen from the sky, really surprised Timur. Sharaz Khan is a fat young man of medium height. Due to years of drinking and sex, his complexion is dull and his eyes are dull. In addition, the skin on his face has become slack early, and the bags under his eyes have drooped down. Gives the impression that he is far older than his actual age. Timur had never had a good impression of this puppet Khan, but because of his status as a monarch and minister, he had to kneel down and salute this Khan. Seeing him kneeling, Haji also hurriedly kneeled. "How is my place?" Sraz Khan's voice was as hollow and powerless as his eyes. "what……" Seraz Khan leaned slightly from the pillow and looked into Timur's eyes: "Why don't you answer? Do you mean that this place is not good enough?" "No, no, you misunderstood. I don't know how to express it. I'm afraid I can only say that everything here surprised me so much." Timur was telling the truth. He was brought in front of Sraz Khan like a fool. From doubt, fear to eccentric transformation, everything he experienced couldn't help but amaze him. Sharaz Khan laughed triumphantly. The way he leaned back and forth showed that he was laughing out loud, but his laughter couldn't come out at all, as if something stuck in his throat, and finally he could only make a "rustling" sound. The sound of "rustling" echoed in the underground Khan Palace, like a long python crawling through the grass, Timur's scalp felt numb when he heard it.It suddenly occurred to him that in this heavenly hell, if he died, Shanai and the others might never find his body in their lifetime. Laughing enough, Sraz Khan said: "Get up." Timur and Haji thanked Sraz Khan and stood up together. Timur felt a little stiff and weak in his knees, he had never felt this way before, and he firmly believed that this was the sequela left by the intense discomfort just now. Seraz Khan motioned for Timur and Haji to sit down and talk. Timur took a step back and sat on the second mahogany armchair on the right, leaving the top seat to Haji. Sraz Khan has been paying attention to Timur's every move. In his red and swollen eyeballs, a pair of slender eyes unexpectedly shone with shrewd light. Timur occasionally saw the light in his eyes, and couldn't help but feel a slight shock in his heart. Could it be that he had been wrong all along, that there was actually a scheming side hidden behind the shriveled and depressed surface of Sarazi Khan, and the dejection and depression were just a disguise used by this sweat to protect himself?If his conjecture is correct, he must be vigilant. That is to say, not only should he not underestimate the Mongolian Khan, but he should also show due respect and obedience to him. Shiraz Khan cleared his throat and muttered something, but Timur couldn't hear it. Haji pushed Timur, and Timur came to his senses and replied vaguely: "Yes." "Do you like this place?" This time, Timur concentrated all his attention and finally heard Seraz Khan's hoarse question.Listening to Sraz Khan made him nervous, and he felt like he was going crazy.He could only answer "yes" to Sraz Khan's question, but he was thinking in his heart, I'd rather be hunted down on the grassland like a lion than be a mouse hiding in a dark corner. Sraz Khan sat up straight from the royal bed, and Timur raised his head, just in time to meet Sraz Khan's scrutinizing eyes. The ambiguity in those eyes made Timur's back feel chills.At this moment, Timur really had a feeling of regret. If he had known that Haji brought him to such a ghostly place, he would rather kill Haji and become a robber again than face the ghosts. Tested Sarazi Khan. The corner of Sraz Khan's mouth twitched, he shook his head, and said slowly, "You didn't mean what you said." Timur looked at Seraz Khan in surprise.What surprised him was not that Sraz Khan saw through his heart, but that Sraz Khan's voice suddenly changed.His clear voice is not hoarse and obscure, on the contrary, it can almost be described by the word "full of air". Sarazi Khan, the Sarazi Khan in front of him, this Khan who has been a puppet for many years, how many unknown secrets are hidden in him? "I think you must be very regretful at this moment. You must be asking yourself: Why did I come here? Why did I have to face Sharaz Khan? Your fear makes you dull, and you don't want to die in a daze. However, you have come, from the moment you stand in front of me, your fate is no longer in your own hands, you must do as I tell you. So, I ask you again, do you want to Throw away your fear, do you want to cheer up and listen to me carefully?" "Yes." Timur replied naturally. Yes.One thing his mind had correctly identified was that Sraz Khan was right, that he was lying, that he was terrified.So, since Sraz Khan has seen through his heart, why should he continue to hide himself?He was confident that he was not yet a coward, so whatever the fate awaited him, he would rather face it clearly with Sraz Khan as he was doing now. Sharaz Khan nodded and lay back on the imperial bed.When Timur met Sraz Khan for the first time, he lay down and talked to Hazhan, him, and the officials in the same way. I remember that he was thinking at that time that Sraz Khan’s laziness must be the main reason for his obesity. . Sraz Khan didn't change his tone, he asked bluntly: "I heard that you have always been dissatisfied with Hazhan?" "Yes." Timur answered briefly without hesitation. He didn't need to go around in circles with Sraz Khan. Since Sraz Khan knew everything, it was meaningless for him to go around in circles. "why?" "I can't say, maybe, it's just because I can't understand his arrogance and bullying. In fact, there are not a few people in the army who oppose him." "He's your wife's grandfather." "I haven't forgotten this. Sometimes, family affection can't represent everything. Otherwise, there wouldn't be so many tragic changes in human relations in the courts of the past dynasties. I don't know if I have such ability, but I will Work on that and put everything back in place.” "The return to the right position you said, is it to let me, the great Khan, regain power?" Timur bowed: "Yes." "It's true that you are agitating like this among the soldiers. However, I understand what you really think in your heart. You are an ambitious young man, and you hope that one day you can replace Harzhan." "You are right in thinking, just as I am in my own thinking." "In this case, it seems that I can rely on you." "Rely on me?" "yes." "Maybe... I don't quite understand what you mean." "You should understand. What you do coincides with me, how can you not understand?" "Of course, I understand." "When I regain power, you and Haji will be my heroes. I will use you two uncles and nephews again. Don't worry about this, you and Haji." Timur glanced at Uncle Haji, his eyes flashed with surprise. "Haji is my man." Sarazi Khan said lightly. "I got it." "Now, can I also regard you as my person?" "I think, yes." "I have heard more than once that you are brave in battle, have a good strategy, and have a high prestige among the soldiers. This is what makes me most gratified, and it is also the capital of our success. If I ask you to make some preparations, what do you think? How long will it take you to feel confident about taking action?" Timur pondered for a moment. "Is one month enough time?" "Ten days is enough. The longer it takes, the worse it will be for us." "How do you get it?" "I have already contacted many soldiers who oppose Harzhan. When an incident arises, it is Hazhan's trusted generals and army that need to be resolved first." "Could your actions have been detected by Hazhan?" "I try to be as secretive as possible, but I can't guarantee that the people around me don't have Hazhan's eyeliner. In addition, if you want to make a big deal, you can't be too timid and too cautious." "Very well, your idea is exactly what I want. For a long time, I have been lacking a young man who is as courageous as you and willing to work for me. Haji took on the mission to secretly find someone for me. He took you Recommended to me, it proves that he is not only thoughtful, but also has a unique vision. On the day of success, I will give your uncles and nephews the right to be kings, and you, as my right-hand man and confidant, I will give you the ability to be independent and give full play. The chance of ingenuity will ensure that you enjoy the glory and wealth. I believe that as long as our monarchs and ministers work together, we will be able to regain the power stolen by Harzhan." "Sure." This was the only sentence Haji said after entering the underground Khan Palace. Sharaz Khan waved his hand: "Let's end today's conversation. You leave while it is dark, and no one will find your whereabouts. I will wait for your good news in ten days." "yes." Timur and Haji got up at the same time, saluted and left.It was the six strong men who brought them here before that rushed forward and opened the curtain. Just now, when Timur, Haji and Seraz Khan were talking, the six strong men stayed quietly in the corner like a pack of wolves waiting for their prey to come out, watching every move of their uncle and nephew. Timur could feel the eyes of a tiger shooting down his spine. Although he was not afraid, he was deeply disgusted. The moment the heavy curtain was about to close behind Timur, he looked back at Sraz Khan. However, Sraz Khan's head was sunk in the soft pillow, and he could no longer see Sraz Khan's face. He wiped the sweat from the palm of his hand, and secretly thought that this puppet was sweating profusely, and it really wasn't as simple as Hazhan or as he imagined. Timur and Haji were brought out of the underground Khan through another maze-like tunnel, and when they came to the surface along the stone steps, the strong men re-blindfolded their eyes until they were escorted to the street , and then unfastened the blindfolds for the two of them.The six strong men exchanged winks, left them, and hurried away. Timur looked at Haji, Haji's face was gloomy, and he didn't know what he was thinking. "What do you think?" After a while, Haji asked, looking around. "I'll listen to you." "Let's make preparations first, even if it's not for the sweat..." Haji didn't finish his sentence, and Timur didn't ask. He knew what Haji was going to say without asking. Haji's goal was to overthrow Hazhan. On this point, Timur is willing to cooperate with him. As for whether the uncle and nephew will become rivals in the future, it depends on God's will. Timur asked his uncle, "Do you want to go directly to Jieshi?" Haji replied: "Yes, let's go right away. Separate here, no one will see us. Let's prepare separately. I will contact you when the time comes." Timur nodded. Haji stared at Timur meaningfully, and Timur met his gaze frankly.Under the watery moonlight, the two uncles and nephews who looked at each other had somewhat similar moods.For a moment, Haji smiled, patted Timur on the shoulder, and hurriedly disappeared into the deep night. Timur also walked in the other direction.Unlike Haji's flustered footsteps, he appeared leisurely and calm, just like walking on the street, without any intention of speeding up. The whole street was silent, and he breathed in the clear air to his heart's content, trying to get rid of the dizzy memories left by the underground Khan Palace.Besides, there are some things that he still needs to think about. In fact, he also had to calm down and think about everything clearly. It's not that he doesn't know that everything he does next will be a gamble with honor and life as the bet. Once he loses the bet, he may fall into the abyss of eternal doom, and there will be no chance of turning over. So, should we do it? Do you want it?