long friend

Xiao Qichen never told anyone about meeting Xiao Qiyu by chance.He still ate and waited to die in Chenglan Palace all day long, and occasionally went to the Imperial College. Zeng Xu was sorting out ancient books on ritual and music recently, and Xiao Qichen happened to help.

Everything is in order. When the war in the north came, these gentry ministers seemed to be able to deal with it calmly.The reason for their calm was nothing more than the belief that Daliang's elite soldiers had the ability to keep the barbarians out of the Great Wall, and no matter how great the front line sacrifices were, they would not be able to go to court in style.

Xiao Qiyu didn't know how to stay in Jinling, and even went to court.He was different from those peacemakers, Xiao Yan was impressed by his tough attitude, but he remained calm and perfectly concealed his emotions.

The war was not enough to attract attention, but another incident that happened at this time shocked the ruling and opposition parties even more.

The elder Xie Ke, the elder of the three dynasties, fell when he was going out. It was nothing, but the elder is already in his seventies, so this fall can be called earth-shattering.Xie Ke got up right after the fall, as if nothing serious happened, but unexpectedly he couldn't get out of bed the next day, and when Xie Hui hurried away, Master Xie couldn't even speak.

The people in Xie's mansion were notoriously short-lived, all the elder's sons were sent away by white-haired people, now Xie Ke's illness, the director's job fell to Xie Hui.Xie Hui made the decision, first he went to the memorial to ask his grandfather to resign as prime minister, and then he himself did not go to court for several days on the grounds that his grandfather was seriously ill.

No one took the position of prime minister. Xie Ke was the prime minister of the three dynasties, and no one seemed to think that he would get sick or even die.

Xiao Yan urgently promoted Guangluqing. Only a few days after Mr. Chen came to power, someone went to Ting Wei to complain, saying that this person had secretly given and received a lot of money when Guangluqing was still in office.In his life, Xiao Yan first hated forming cliques for personal gain, and secondly hated corrupt officials. He immediately sent Tingwei to investigate, and finally copied half of the treasury from Mr. Chen's mansion.

When Guang Luqing fell, he pulled out a radish and took out the mud to offer a bunch of respectable nobles. Xiao Yan was shocked to find that the Daliang court, which he thought was impenetrable, had already rotted from the inside——

No wonder so much money is spent on foreign troops and cavalry guards every year, Su Zhi always yells that there is no military salary or food!

Xiao Yan was furious, and immediately sent all the money copied from Mr. Chen's house to the north.Xiao Qiwei was caught off guard by a large amount of military pay, and Shen Chengjun almost wept with joy holding this windfall.

The imperial court's official positions were reshuffled, Xiao Qichen watched coldly, only feeling that what he had been worried about back then was gradually coming true.

Since the founding of Nanliang, it has relied on the support of several famous families.When Xiao Yongxing raised his troops, they gave them financial and military support, so that after Xiao Yongxing annexed several princes and successfully ascended to the throne of God, these ministers or wealthy businessmen had many privileges without hesitation.

Since then, the title of title was hereditary, and later it almost became a hereditary official position. There was little fresh blood in the Nanliang court.For example, the prime minister's surname is Xie, so Xie, who has been surnamed for decades, and the commander of the imperial army is surnamed Wang. After a long time, it is impossible to imagine that someone else will be this official.Students from poor families can't get ahead, so if they want to get a seat, they have to join the army, and joining the army is too risky, and more people are full of underappreciated talents, and then choose other paths.

The corruption exposed by Guangluqing's case is just the tip of the iceberg. If you really want to make up your mind to rectify it, it will definitely affect the interests of all parties and even the emperor himself... Xiao Yan can't do it.

This tough battle in the north, Xiao Qichen thought, might not be able to win.

The summer passed in a frenzy of ups and downs in Jinling, and during the Mid-Autumn Festival, Xiao Yan held a banquet for his officials in Hualin Garden.

It is different from the happy and harmonious atmosphere in previous years. The adults who were invited this time were afraid that His Majesty would suddenly attack. Having a meal and watching a song and dance also frightened themselves into wars. They secretly pondered the holy will. vocalize.

The princes have all arrived. Concubine Zhao said she was ill and did not accompany them. Concubine Chu gave birth to the little princess not long ago and she was still weak, so she did not come.It was rare for Xiao Qiyu and Xiao Qiping to share the same table calmly, which made Xiao Qichen at the bottom less obtrusive.

Xiao Qiyu said in a strange way: "I haven't congratulated the second brother yet, I heard that the little princess looks like you, and doesn't like to cry, and is much more sensible than those boys in my family."

He deliberately bit the "princess" and "boy" very hard. Everyone knew that Zhao Wang had two other sons besides the eldest son, and many ministers supported him as the heir.Concubine Chu's first child was a daughter. Although Xiao Qiping liked it very much, it would be unpleasant for those snobbish eyes to say it.

Hearing this, Xiao Qiping smiled instead of anger, his eyes were filled with deep black, deeper than ordinary people's.His eyelids drooped slightly, as if staring at the wine glass on the table, he said calmly: "I dare not compare with Brother Zhao Wang, but my nephews have done nothing wrong, so we have to stay in the fief with grievances, Jinling is very beautiful, as a younger brother I must feel sorry for them.”

"You..." Xiao Qiyu frowned suddenly, and his hand holding the wine glass tightened suddenly.

The two of them came and went, poking each other's sore feet with every sentence.Xiao Qichen coughed twice, drowned in the little tune sung by the singer, but it was just enough for the two people next to him to hear it.Xiao Qiyu knew that this was to remind him not to make mistakes, Xiao Yan was still wary of him, so he could only snort angrily, and forcibly suppressed that anger with fine wine.

Xiao Qiping smiled slightly, and when the topic turned to Xiao Qichen, his hostility obviously subsided a lot: "Qichen, I heard that you went to Fortress before, isn't it much more beautiful there than Jiangnan?"

"It's okay," Xiao Qichen said, "there is loess everywhere, and if you go further away, there will be places with rich water and grass. But that is not our land, and it is too risky to go rashly, so I stopped at Yanmen Pass. Wait for the future The northern border is peaceful, and if we go again, we can go further."

Xiao Qiping nodded straight after hearing this, and said helplessly after a while: "I can only yearn for it."

Xiao Qichen said: "Brother Ping, I heard from Ayan that he knows a famous doctor in Shanyin. I will go to him some other day and ask if your eyes can still be cured... What do you think?"

As soon as this remark came out, both Xiao Qiping and Xiao Qiyu were stunned by coincidence, the former was surprised, but the latter was furious.

Xiao Qichen lifted his eyelids, and met Xiao Qiyu's eyes that were about to burst into flames, the corners of his lips suddenly curled up, revealing a very subtle smile: "But this is a chronic illness for many years, and I don't understand medical knowledge and I know it won't be cured, so are you still willing to give it a try?" try?"

Just as Xiao Qiping was about to speak, an eunuch suddenly ran from outside the Grand View Ceremony.

The man was out of breath, and immediately fell to his knees at the foot of the steps, his voice almost broken: "Your Majesty! Your Majesty is not good——! The Yanmen Gate is lost! The commander of the Xiaoqiwei switched to meet the enemy, and now Guangwu City is gone. Already!"

The kabuki and dancers stopped suddenly, everyone was startled, Xiao Yan didn't hold the wine glass, the white jade glass fell to the ground and shattered crisply.

He said in disbelief: "What?! How dare he—!"

Xiao Qichen stood up suddenly, a surge of anger rushed to the top of his head and made his feet go limp, and he almost fell again: "Ayan won't do this, father! There must be something wrong!"

"No more retreat!" Su Yan wiped off the remaining blood on his face, and the flickering fire was reflected in his pupils, "Yanmen Pass is the last bottom line, even if they are led eastward, they must not be lost here—"

"Young Lord, the cowardly and fearful sheriff has already run away, maybe Chaozhong has misunderstood that we have lost Yanmen Pass." Yan Nandu said disdainfully, "If it wasn't for that man's order... Bingzhou's foreign troops would not throw away their helmets and armor so quickly! Usually they cower and hide behind, fleeing for their lives quickly..."

"Speak less!" Su Yan said with a headache.

They are currently hiding in a tavern in Guangwu City. Jin Yi's spies reported that Huyantu had arrived outside Yanmen Pass half a month ago.Khan's personal conquest was no small matter, Su Yan acted decisively and evacuated the residents of Guangwu City first, turning the entire [-]-mile radius of Yanmen Pass into an empty city with no one except elite soldiers.

Huyantu's ambition was to capture Yanmen Pass this time, and the first day of the siege put tremendous pressure on Su Yan.

He forcibly blocked it for half a month. A few days ago, he had a flash of inspiration and thought of a plan.Su Yan asked Shen Chengjun to lead a detour from outside the city, and 5000 people stayed in the city, while the rest of the foreign army, led by Yan Nandu, lay in ambush outside Guangwu City.

The original plan was to pretend that the troops were out of support, open the entire Yanmen Gate and put in the enemy troops, and then outflank it from the outside, so that there were no innocent people in the left and right Guangwu City. Sina.This strategy got Shen Chengjun's response, but there was a problem in Yan Nandu's link.

Yan Nandu was led by the Bingzhou foreign army, they belonged to the frontier defense like the Youzhou foreign army, but because Yanmenguan had not seen such fierce fighting for many years, their hands and feet were rusted.After going to the battlefield, he ran faster than anyone else, and Yan Nandu personally killed two deserters, finally stopped the situation, but almost made this "pretend" come true.

The prefect and governor of Bingzhou had already run away, calling Su Yan to switch on the enemy all the way, and passed straight into Jinling City.

Su Yan suppressed his anger, thinking in his heart that if these two men dared to come back, he would have to skin them himself and hang their heads on the Su character flag of Xiaoqiwei as a warning to everyone else.

So a beautiful victory plan was extremely embarrassing because of this variable. Su Yan finally reunited with Shen Chengjun, and finally took advantage of the Turkic soldiers who were not familiar with the map in the street battle, and achieved the original goal with difficulty.

But at this moment, they didn't have time to rest, and they crowded together in the tavern—the school ground camp became a mess, and they were still waiting for Jin Yi to take care of the aftermath, but this person was injured and slumped aside feebly.

"Huyantu found out that someone on our side had withdrawn. He must know that there is civil strife. I'm afraid they will attack again before we have time to rest." Su Yan took a sip and continued, "Everyone don't sleep tonight, Uncle Jin, you Rest for a while, and retreat to defend Jinyang if the injury worsens. Brother Shen, please clean up the school grounds, Yannan, if those firearms you mentioned last time can be used, it is better to deploy them at the city gate."

Yan Nandu insulted him, "Didn't you mean to look down on those Jianghu people?"

Su Yan and Shen Chengjun looked unkind at the same time, Yan Nandu raised his hands in surrender and said, "I'll go right away."

He opened the door and left. Shen Chengjun was just about to breathe a sigh of relief when he suddenly remembered what Su Yan said just now, and the breath was choked in his throat. He raised his volume: "Ayan, what did you just say? Lead the barbarian to the east?"

"Yes," Su Yan nodded, "There is Ningwu to the east, and Youzhou to the east—I intended to lead west, so as to be far away from the barbarian king's court. They are tired from long-distance raids and battles, so naturally they can't call foreign troops closer than us." It was easy. But now that I have seen the scum in Bingzhou, the situation in Lingzhou may not be much better. Instead of pinning your hopes on others, it is better to go back to the base camp."

Xiaoqiwei has been guarding Yunmen Pass all year round, and he is so familiar with the terrain there that he can fight with his eyes closed.

Shen Chengjun rubbed the bridge of his nose fiercely. After a long time, he couldn't pick out the fault of this plan, so he had to compromise and said: "But Yanmen still needs someone to guard it. If the army leaves, what should we do if Huyantu's troops are divided into two groups? It's not like they didn't divide."

"I will guard the Yanmen Gate." Su Yan said, "3000 people are enough for me, and you lead the army to Yunmen Pass."

Shen Chengjun's voice changed: "Three thousand...?!"

Su Yan predicted things like a god, that night, all the Xiaoqiguards ambushed behind various bunkers in Guangwu City.Before three o'clock, the fire outside the pass was full of flames, and the catapults carried huge stones and threw them on the city wall one after another.

Huyantu was completely enraged by the outflanking two days ago. He bombarded Yanmen Pass indiscriminately. Seeing that the city gate was dying, he immediately led his cavalry to attack——

Then he was framed by the machine gun buried in the ground, and the Yanmen Pass exploded in an instant!

Su Yan was on the top floor of the tavern, squinting his eyes and looking at the fire not far away. After thinking about it, he went straight down from the roof and landed firmly on Jingfan's back. He pulled the rein and whistled.

The cavalrymen all around poked their heads out of the dark alley, and Shen Chengjun ignited a signal arrow in the distance, which disappeared in an instant.He led the army to Yunmen Pass, and could not give more support.

Su Yan suddenly laughed vigorously, but there was still dried rust red on the snow-white blade of the long sword in his hand.

He took out a feathered arrow from his quiver: "The battle is imminent, and I'll be the first to say something ugly. If there are still people who want to escape, they should follow Shen Chengjun quickly. Later, follow me to kill these overwhelmed barbarians." Those who want to run have such arrows!"

Then he broke the feathered arrow in two with one hand!

"The general is not here, so I am your commander-in-chief," Su Yan said in a rare clear-headed manner when the enemy army was in front of him, "I know what everyone is thinking. It is very important to know who you are fighting for on the battlefield. You are not fighting for me... …This flag embodies not only the painstaking efforts of several generations of the Su family, but also the beliefs of the bravest fighters in Daliang. I joined the army at the age of 14 and stayed everywhere. Normal—so I want you to put your backs on your comrades-in-arms, trust each other, the backbone has never been the leader, but you yourself!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Jing Fan rushed out in a well-trained manner. Several cavalrymen closest to Su Yan were stunned, and one of them suddenly shouted: "To kill the enemy for the country, I will swear allegiance to Daliang to the death!"

The sound of shouting and killing resounded through the sky, Yan Nandu sighed, patted his horse to catch up, and said in his heart: "This little general is still decent, and he can boost morale much better than the general."

That night of bloody fighting until dawn, the Liang army won a big victory, capturing two senior Turkic generals and hundreds of soldiers. Although Huyantu was allowed to escape, the strength of Nanliang was only lost by more than 100.

The Turks withdrew their troops and turned to attack Yunmen Pass, but Yunmen Pass had been prepared for a long time. Shen Chengjun arrived day and night, together with the defenders who were used to fighting against Turks there, did not let Huyantu take any advantage.

The good news spread to Jinling, and the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty were once again shocked by Su Yan's victory.Xiao Qichen really didn't stand still this time, and fell to the ground without grace, and let out a heavy breath.

Those people in the court who were clamoring to withdraw Su Yan's post and exile to Yizhou became mouthless gourds overnight, standing in a row in muffled voices, wishing they could take back those words that followed suit and questioned Su Yan.

Xiao Yan looked around, rolled his eyes secretly, and said to Xiao Qichen: "Get up, what does it look like sitting on the ground?"

Xiao Qichen climbed up like a stream of kindness, and he and Xiao Qiyu looked at each other silently.They strangely reached a consensus on the main battle and this issue. Putting aside the skirmish at the Mid-Autumn Festival banquet for the time being, they both felt that they were very insightful.

And Xiao Qiyu's eyes were even more naked. He came out and said calmly: "Father, my son has a suggestion."

"You said."

"It was also said in the battle report just now that the coach Su Yan was injured, and Shen Chengjun rushed to Yunmen again. He will be exhausted after a long journey. I think that now is a good time to take advantage of the great victory to consolidate the border defense. Once the rest is over, you can go out! The Turks have repeatedly invaded the border of our Liang Kingdom in the past two years, and it must not be too late, and now is a god-sent opportunity to invade the royal court and drive the Turks away!"

Da Sima raised his head abruptly, disbelief written in his eyes.

Xiao Qichen grabbed Xiao Qiyu's sleeve: "What? Su Yan is injured?"

Being pulled by him suddenly, Xiao Qiyu was stunned at first, and then he said strangely: "Sixth brother, didn't you listen carefully just now? Coach Su Yan was injured by Liu Shi during the battle to regain Guangwu City, and he lay in bed for several days before waking up."