Golden Stage

In the summer of the 26th year of Yuantai, the rebels broke through the capital.

Emperor Yuantai hunted west in a hurry, and some civil and military officials, his family members, and common people in the capital followed Emperor Yuantai to the west and entered Shu, while the other part fled southward to Jingchu and Huainan with their families.

The Beiyan iron cavalry shrunk the line of defense, broke out from the western front, and encountered the Ningzhou army head-on on the way. The angry Beiyan army defeated the Ningzhou rebels. Fu Shen drew the bow with his own hands and shot the rebels to death The leader, two Beiyan soldiers touched the head of Ningzhou City, and while the moon was dark and the wind was high, they hung the head high on the city gate.

After the first battle, Beiyan's iron cavalry remained ferocious, and no one dared to beat him directly wherever he passed.At the beginning of July, the Northern Yan Army and the Ganzhou Army joined forces in Wuwei. Fu Shen collected remnants from all over the Northwest and reorganized the army. At the same time, he used Ganzhou as a base to reclaim wasteland and farmland to recuperate, waiting for a counterattack.

The northern line of defense has been broken, and the three tribes of Tartar, Zhe, and Bohai have no more obstacles, and they have driven straight into the hinterland of the Central Plains. Half of the country has fallen into the hands of foreign enemies, and the imperial court has ceased to exist.In this situation, Huainan Jiedu envoy Yue Changfeng took the lead in raising troops to resist the bandits, resisting the Bohai Navy from north of the Huai River, and blocking the barbarians from going south.Immediately afterwards, Duan Guihong, the king of Xiping County, said that "self-protection is the most important thing in the Southwest", and only accepted the refugees from the north, and no longer sent troops to serve the king.With these two precedents before them, the Jiedu envoys from all over the country followed suit one after another, limited to the area under their jurisdiction, formed a whole, each governed independently, and agreed not to invade each other except for resisting foreign enemies.

Seeing that the Great Zhou Dynasty was about to be torn apart and the country was not guaranteed, in the autumn of the same year, Sun Yunduan, the king of Qi, established himself as emperor in Jinling, respected Emperor Yuantai as the Supreme Emperor, changed the name of the country to Zhou, changed the name of the year to "Changzhi", and set the capital in Jinling. world.

The new dynasty was composed of old officials exiled from the north and well-known sages from the south of the Yangtze River. Emperor Changzhi did not set up a prime minister.

On the day of enthronement, the Jiangnan Jiedu Envoy, Jingchu Jiedu Envoy, Lingnan Jiedu Envoy, Fujian Jiedu Envoy and Donghai Division all entered the congratulatory table to support the new emperor.Yan Xiaohan followed the King of Qi from Jingchu to the south of the Yangtze River, first stopped him from returning to the capital, and later mediated with the Jiedu envoys from all over the country, put all his heart and soul into setting up the airs of a new dynasty, single-handedly supported the king of Qi to ascend the throne and proclaim himself emperor. He can be granted the title of Marquis and Prime Minister, but he would rather be a hero who hides behind the scenes on the grounds that he has been criticized for his actions in the past. Therefore, Emperor Changzhi still ordered him to command the Imperial Army, and he was granted permission to enter the Yanying Hall to discuss matters.

The old ministers who once scolded Yan Xiaohan openly and secretly have opened their eyes. They have stood firm for two dynasties and have not fallen. It is also quite amazing!

After going through all these turmoil, Yan Xiaohan's image became closer to the "scheming minister of power", the corners of his mouth that used to smile are now rarely raised, his aura is restrained and majestic, moody and unpredictable, but there is always a trace of it Ruowu's gloom makes people even more afraid to move forward.

The old courtiers had always had rifts with him, and the upstarts were not familiar with him. In this way, Yan Xiaohan seemed to have returned to the Yuantai Dynasty and was once again isolated by everyone.

Master Yan, who is deeply trusted, has no sense of his colleagues' pointing and sideways glances. Anyway, he is used to it, and gossip is like a breeze in his ears.He planned painstakingly for Emperor Changzhi and spared no effort to promote the new dynasty, but it was not for the sake of making a career in this troubled world.It's just that the situation is so compelling.If Emperor Changzhi still couldn't find a place to stand, a wandering prince would either be used as a puppet emperor in the future, or simply killed, and his entourage was of little importance, so naturally there would be no good end.

Yan Xiaohan didn't want to be controlled by others, let alone throw his life in Jiangnan.

During these days in the south of the Yangtze River, he would sometimes wake up in the middle of the night with a cold quilt and a lonely pillow, cold and rainy autumn windows, his hands fell on the empty bed beside him, holding handfuls full of cold moisture.At this time, he felt as if he was addicted to drugs again, and his heart was full of unspeakable unbearable feelings, as if a bug was gnawing away at his heart bit by bit, leaving only a walking corpse like an empty shell.

Asking for nothing is more terrifying than simple pain, Yan Xiaohan dreamed of growing wings under his ribs and flying across thousands of mountains and rivers overnight.

But where is Fu Shen?

He knew that the capital had been broken, that Emperor Yuantai was hunting in the west, and that Beiyan's iron cavalry had successfully broken through, but he didn't know where Fu Shen had gone—did he stay in the southwest?Or did he return to Beiyan, and follow the Beiyan army to other places?

Without a single word, they lost contact as soon as Jing Chu said goodbye.

Yan Xiaohan asked many officials and soldiers who came from the south of the capital, and also tried to find news from the southwest, and even spent a lot of money to send people to the north from Shu to find the trace of Fu Shen, but so far he has not received any reply.

They are separated by the land of the Central Plains, which fell to foreign enemies, but it seems that they are separated by a whole world.

When Yan Xiaohan wakes up, he can't fall back asleep again, and usually keeps his eyes open until dawn, and then struggles to get up and go to the morning court.When he was really sad and couldn't bear it, he went to find an osmanthus candy in the candy box that was always on the table.

This method is actually useless, and there is very little psychological comfort, because the original bag of candy has been eaten long ago. Although the newly bought candy is delicate and sweet, and the sweet-scented osmanthus is fragrant, the taste is different from the original one.

That day outside the inn door, Fu Shen hurriedly handed him a pouch of sweet-scented osmanthus candy among the crowd. Since then, he has never been able to find a candy as sweet as it.

Outside Ganzhou City.

Northwest autumn is breezy, the sky is vast, and the blue sky is an endless field. Fu Shen and Yu Qiaoting are holding a bowl of steaming mutton soup. of.

Yu Qiaoting sighed and said: "Master Hou, we two are such big generals, it doesn't look good to squat here?"

Fu Shen sneered: "Do as the Romans do, and you will lose face."

"..." Yu Qiaoting, "You are a bit too vulgar..."

Fu Shen raised his eyelids and gave him a sideways look: "Isn't the mutton soup delicious?"

Yu Qiaoting: "It's delicious."

"It's delicious but can't stop your mouth?" Fu Shen said, "Don't nag, it's annoying."

Yu Qiaoting understood instantly, and asked with a malicious smile: "Do you still miss your family? Isn't there news from the south that the new emperor has ascended the throne, and he is a hero. What else is there to worry about?"

Fu Shen wanted to kick Yu Qiaoting's schadenfreude bastard off the ridge of the field, but there was really no one else around him to talk about, so he had to hold his nose and bear it: "One is in the south and the other is in the north. I don't know when we can meet again. , do you think I am worried?"

Yu Qiaoting smiled and said, "It's easy to handle, anyway, you plan to send troops next spring, and then go all the way to Jinling, won't you see me?"

"It's as if we can reach Jinling," Fu Shen said weakly, "The barbarians occupy the Central Plains north of the Huai River, and they are thousands of miles away from Jinling. Give me a try."

Yu Qiaoting said in a low voice: "I see the new emperor's establishment of a small court in the south of the Yangtze River, and it is very impressive. I am afraid that we will work hard in the north in the future, but we will not be in a hurry in the south."

After hearing this, Fu Shen became even more worried.In Wuwei, he reorganized the Ganzhou Army and the remnants of the Northwest into the Northern Yan Iron Cavalry. The military power was in his hands, which was not much worse than that of the Great Zhou Dynasty in the south of the Yangtze River. , Naturally take the restoration of the Central Plains as a matter of course.

However, they think so, which does not mean that the independent Jiedu envoys and the Jiangnan court also think so.

The capital sits on the three lines of defense of the Northern Yan Iron Cavalry, the Beijing Camp and the Forbidden Army, and even if it is beaten to death by the foreigners, how many years will it take for the Northern Yan Army to take the Central Plains back from the hands of the foreigners?Even if it is taken back, how will the north and the south be reunited as one?Who is orthodox?What position will the Northern Yan army be placed at that time?

Long-term worries and near-term worries piled up in his heart, and Fu Shen's mind was limited, and he was momentarily overwhelmed and breathless.He let out a long sigh, looked up at the sky, and happened to see a group of wild geese flying by in the sky.

Fu Shen squinted his eyes, estimated the distance, put the empty bowl into Yu Qiaoting's hand, got up and took off the longbow on his back, put on an arrow, and aimed at——

The arrow "swished" through the air, and a moment later there was a whine in the air, and a wild goose at the tail of the team fell straight from the sky and landed not far from them.

Before Fu Shen could pick it up by himself, the farmers over there had already sent the geese over for him.The injured wild goose was still alive, one wing was pierced by an arrow, and it kept flapping in Fu Shen's hands.Yu Qiaoting took a look and boasted, "Not bad, very fat."

"It's not for you to eat." Fu Shen held the bow in one hand and the goose in the other, turned and walked back, "Tell Du Leng to go to my place and bring the wound medicine."

"Ah?" Yu Qiaoting was confused, "What are you doing?"

Fu Shen said without turning his head: "Let Du Leng treat it. Isn't it going to fly south? It's just right."

Yu Qiaoting: "What?"

"Haven't you heard of the story of the fish and wild goose? It's a pity that I don't have the posture of sinking a fish and falling a wild goose, so I had to use force." After speaking, Fu Shen thought about it for a while, and felt that he wanted to ask for a goose, and even injured him. It was a bit unreasonable, so he raised his hand Holding the wild goose in his hand, he said sincerely to it, "Brother Yan, I'm sorry."

Dayan: "..."

Yu Qiaoting was left hanging on the spot with two bowls in his hand: "..."

Hou Jingning is going crazy, is he finally crazy?

During the winter solstice, Jinling.

Yan Xiaohan came out of the palace at dusk, today is the winter solstice, after the Yanying Hall discussion, His Majesty, according to the custom of the capital, specially gave mutton soup dumplings, and several veteran officials from the north held the bowls and burst into tears on the spot.Emperor Changzhi was so emotional that he couldn't help but shed a few tears. The emperor held his hands and cried, and the four scholars from the south of the Yangtze River pretended to comfort him.

Yan Xiaohan seemed to have been scalded by a mouthful of hot soup, walking on the wet and cold long street, he felt the pain and cold.He didn't want to go back to his house, so he wandered aimlessly in the street for a long time, and when he passed a market, he was suddenly bumped on the shoulder.

A man ran past him and shouted, "Let me see! Show me!"

Not far ahead was a group of people gathered around a booth to watch something lively. Yan Xiaohan's ears were sharp, and he could only hear a man's rough voice: "...I hunted this wild goose outside the city, but I didn't expect it There is also a piece of silk tied to the foot, which is not the old saying of "passing the book from the fish and the wild goose"!"

It was as if a string had been plucked in his mind, and Yan Xiaohan's heart moved, and he suddenly felt a little curious, and stepped forward to take a closer look.He is tall, and standing outside the crowd, he could see a dead goose lying on the chopping board. The man held a piece of silk cloth in his hand and showed it to everyone: "The geese from the north are flying south, maybe the people from the north specially use it to send messages." Woolen cloth?"

Someone shouted: "What's written on it? Take it out and show it to everyone!"

The man said: "No! No! This is a rare item..."

"How much is this goose?" Yan Xiaohan said suddenly, calmly, "I bought this piece of silk together."

The crowd of spectators immediately made way for him. Seeing that he was dressed luxuriously and had an extraordinary bearing, the man knew that he had been taken advantage of by a rich man, so he opened his mouth and said, "One penny!"

Yan Xiaohan casually took out a silver coin of about one and a half cents from his purse, and threw it into his hand, the man immediately smiled, and offered the silk with both hands.Yan Xiaohan took it, but didn't open it to look, and stuffed it into his sleeve casually.Seeing that he didn't intend to show off, the surrounding audience were very sorry, and they all dispersed with their mouths smashed.Yan Xiaohan turned around and left the booth, and a man behind him stepped forward to carry the goose away.

Holding the breath until he walked to the empty place, Yan Xiaohan repeatedly grabbed the piece of silk and let go, repeatedly telling himself not to harbor delusions, the homophony of "Northern Yan" and "Beiyan" was just a coincidence, and Hongyan's transmission of the book was even more important. It's an overused allusion, he's crazy to buy something that doesn't make any sense on the spur of the moment.

But he needs an old place and old thing too much to express his feelings.

—even if it was just a false image.

After he calmed down for a long time, his heartbeat gradually slowed down. Yan Xiaohan hesitated again and again, with the mentality of making mistakes and breaking the pot, finally pulled out the white silk from his sleeve, and opened it carefully along the creases.

From north to south, the wild goose had been flying for an unknown amount of time, and the white silk tied to its feet was already dirty, and the words had been wet, leaving a dry ink mark on the silk.

Even though it was blurry, he could still clearly make out the irregular handwriting, because there were only four characters on the silk script——

"Is my wife safe?"