old grace

With the stability of Yue'an, Xiangzhou's strategic focus shifted to the eastern front, and Chen Qi placed the command of the Chinese army in Puyang.

In such troubled times, Lao Tzu usually doesn't have much time to raise his son. When he is older and able to take care of himself and ride a horse, he can put it by his side for training and recuperation. If he is too young, he can only be placed in his hometown's base camp for strict protection.

Chen Qi generously entrusted Chen Xiu's three sons with important responsibilities. Facts have proved that Chen Ze is not afraid of being a general when he is in danger, while Chen Shi is completely unsuitable for military service. Chen Qiu is still young, so he doesn't see much.Knowing that Chen is not suitable to serve in the army, Chen Qi still promoted him by force. Every time he praised his subordinates, he said: "For a general, you have five virtues, wisdom, trust, benevolence, courage and strictness. You have got the fourth, why is it not suitable for a general to lead soldiers?"

For the five virtues, wisdom is the first.Without the wisdom to fight, the remaining trust, benevolence, bravery and strictness are farts!

It's not that Chen is unintelligent, he just doesn't know how to fight, and he lacks the string of winning by nature, so he can't command his subordinates to fight against the enemy.For a person like this, it would be great to do some logistical work such as writing and calculating, but it would be very painful to be caught in the army.

The people below are too lazy to argue with Chen Qi.Anyway, Chen Shi is young, so he only takes care of a small piece during the war, and the harm is not great.

And next year.

Chen Qi mobilized his troops in Puyang and attacked Shuzhou again.

This is a tough battle, fought quite hard.Chen Qi led [-] troops to attack Shuzhou head-on, Shan Xugang led his troops to sneak attack on Minyang, and Han Channu led his troops to harass Chenguan to help defend the eastern front.The plan was well done, but if it really got into a fight, it would be a mess.

Li Hui in Minyang is very loyal, and when he received the news that Miwan in Shuzhou was besieged, he led his troops to help. Shan Xugang rushed to Minyang to be lonely. The city is basically empty?According to the thinking of normal people, it is time to take the opportunity to occupy Min Yang, the more territory the better, isn't it?

Shan Xugang's brain circuit is epoch-making, he doesn't care about gains and losses at all.

After discovering that the city of Minyang was empty, Shan Xugang led people into the city, killed the two thousand young men who stayed behind in Minyang, and then took away all the food that could be brought in the city, and distributed the food that could not be brought to the city. The common people didn't stay behind, and drove them directly to Shuzhou.

Chen Qi on the frontal battlefield in Shuzhou is fighting hard.

He didn't expect that Li Hui's head was so hard, and he came out to rescue Shuzhou.

Holy crap, don't you want a home?Since Mi Wan is your own father, she wouldn't be so anxious to come to rescue her, right?

Originally, the siege battle was not easy to fight, that is to say, Mi Wan had an old grudge with him, and both sides couldn't help but want to fight, so Chen Qi was able to lure Mi Wan's soldiers and horses out.When the fight was tangled and anxious, Li Hui's reinforcements arrived. Chen Qi managed to hold his ground thanks to the large number of veterans and skilled tactics, but at this time he couldn't fight and couldn't retreat. Became a meat grinder.

How many people died every day is impossible to count. Chen Qi's leadership of soldiers can be called loving soldiers like sons. At this time, he had to send out a supervising team, and rows of hackers barely stabilized the battle.

At this moment, Shan Xugang rushed over.

With Shan Xugang's soldiers and horses encircling Li Hui's troops from behind, Chen Qi's already desperate soldiers were also refreshed.

No matter it is the Li Hui Department in Minyang or the Mi Wan Department in Shuzhou, the soldiers are not as well-trained as Chen Qi's soldiers and horses. Applying numbing ointment, he gritted his teeth and went back to the battlefield: "Fuck his grandpa, do it!"

Under the city of Shuzhou, corpses are scattered all over the field.

Shan Xugang rode a fast horse to find Chen Qi's military tent, the horse couldn't help but ran out, he flew to Chen Qi's side, bowed his knees and bowed down: "Brother! I'm late!"

Chen Qi helped him up and laughed loudly: "It's not too late, it's not too late, it's just in time! Second brother, this battle will be your first achievement!"

Seeing that Shan Xugang's hair was disheveled and he didn't even know where his helmet went, Chen Qi took off his helmet and put it on Shan Xugang's head, saying: "In the future, I will have the world, and my second brother can enjoy half of it! "

Shan Xugang didn't seem to understand the horror of these words, and then smiled and said: "That's unnecessary. Big brother rewarded me with ten thousand hectares of fertile land and three thousand beauties, and my wish is enough!" He touched the treasure he lost on the battlefield last year. Arm, said naively, "Without an arm, I'm afraid it will be difficult to marry a wife."

Chen Qi laughed so hard that he patted Shan Xugang on the shoulder and asked his servants to bring water to quench his thirst.

Shan Xugang drank water and ate cakes to satisfy his hunger, and didn't care about the battlefield where the fighting was still going on.

His subordinates were responsible for cleaning up the remnants of Li Hui's troops, and the attack on Shuzhou City was still dominated by the troops under the command of Chen Qi.

There are unwritten rules on the battlefield. The battle situation in Shuzhou City is too miserable, so there is no need to ask for instructions from below. In this situation, no prisoners will be kept, but all enemy troops that appear on the battlefield will be killed.It was precisely because the battlefield was fought so badly that the Shan Xugang tribe who came later would never take the initiative to "help" attack the city and take the credit of the Chen Qi tribe who killed the front for two days and one night.

Not long after, cheers sounded from the city wall.

Immediately, a small soldier came to report: "Report, General Zhuo Yong's command is the first to climb the Shuzhou City Tower!"

Chen Qi said with a smile: "Zhuo Yongbu remembers the first merit, and everyone will be rewarded! If the warrior who climbed the tower can come back alive, I want to see him in person!"

The chief general town gave rewards and promotions on the front line, and the motivating effect on the soldiers was immediate.The herald shouted from the bottom of the city tower, and all the soldiers who climbed the tower climbed up as if they had been beaten with chicken blood.The heads of the various ministries also have the right to reward the soldiers. One said that after the battle, they would eat meat tonight, another said that they would be given all the money after the battle, and the general laughed and said that the first to climb into the city would grab the women first.

The joy of victory was mixed with the fear and aggrievedness of days of hard work. None of the guards at the gate of Shuzhou survived, and they were all slaughtered by Chen Jun.

Chen Qi has a temper that doesn't like to suffer.

——He had his balls bitten off by an assassin and was unable to have another child. He also felt that he was being bullied by his only son, so he insisted on making things difficult for Chen Cong and humiliating him, to vent his anger on Chen Cong.

Li Hui and Mi Wan teamed up to mess up the battlefield he "planned" and caused him heavy casualties. Can he swallow this breath?

When the soldiers found Mi Wan, Mi Wan had committed suicide.

Mi Wan's wives, concubines, children, and relatives were all brought to Chen Qi, and Mi Wan's wife, Pei Shi, asked, "My husband and Chen Jun traveled together when we were young, and at the autumnal equinox in Shuangcheng, my concubine served Chen Jun with chrysanthemum wine. Has Chen Jun forgotten the past friendship?"

Chen Qi sneered and said: "A concubine gave birth to a concubine, how can he have the right to socialize with the concubine of a high family who crawled out of the belly of his wife's wife?"

This is the old grudge between Chen Qi and Mi Wan.

Chen Qi has been helping Chen Fu with military affairs since he was a child, he has all the ostentation that an ordinary concubine should have, and he has never been treated as a concubine who is not in power when he goes out to socialize.

Mi Wan thought highly of herself, and after meeting Chen Qi, she felt that Chen Qi was talented and knowledgeable in everything, so she happily made friends with Chen Qi.After getting along with each other deeply, it is inevitable that they will discuss all kinds of things in life. Chen Qi did not hide his identity as the concubine's son. Mi Wan was very surprised when he found out. The most bizarre thing is that he actually broke up with Chen Qi.

Is Chen Qi so easy to bully?He even wanted to take revenge on his innocent own son, so how could he let Mi Wan go?

Without waiting for Mrs. Pei to say anything about old love, Chen Qi personally stabbed Mi Wan's five sons to death with his long sword, including the eight-month-old baby who was still in his infancy.A bunch of terrified female relatives remained, and Chen Qi did not show mercy, and ordered: "All the women should be rewarded to the siege soldiers. All the males should be beheaded."

After Mi Wan's relatives were dragged away, Chen Qi walked on the battlefield strewn with corpses, helping his soldiers put together the corpses from time to time.

Shan Xugang finished eating the pancake in his hand and helped him clean it up.

Chen Qi would occasionally sigh, point to the immature corpse, and say, "You're still a child. How did you get to be in the front line at such a young age?"

Shan Xugang came over to take a look, and explained: "Maybe I followed my father and brother, and wanted to find someone to take care of me. The first-tier food is more, and the second-tier food is less, just greedy for a few bites of meat."

Chen Qi was silent for a moment, and said: "Yue'an is stable, and there will be a bumper harvest of rice and wheat this autumn. It's not enough."

Shan Xugang smiled and said: "Clean up this battle, I'll go and take down Gaozhou. It is said that Gaozhou is rich, chickens, ducks and wheat are everywhere, the grain stored in Gao's granary is so much that it leaks from the door, and the mice are as big as cats." It's..." He said seriously, "Brother, don't worry, you'll be full."

Chen Qi became happy again, and said with a smile: "You know again that I want to fight Gaozhou."

Shan Xugang laughed and said, "Who wouldn't want that?" That's the granary of the Central Plains!

At this moment, Zhan Xuanji rode a horse and kicked over. He was not used to riding a horse, and the horse didn't run fast, but he was in a hurry and looked a little funny.Seeing Zhan Xuanji get off his horse, Chen Qi stepped forward to give him a hand: "Sir, be careful."

Zhan Xuanji stood firm and hurriedly saluted, and said: "Master Lang, Yuexi has been flattened, and Puyang has fallen. At this time, we must not slaughter the city again!"

Chen Qi made a haha, and didn't really want to talk to him.

Chen Qi did not give the order to massacre the city, but since Shuzhou was broken, he also did not give the order to reorganize the army.

Chen Qi deliberately allowed the soldiers to fight and plunder in the city.The reason is simple. The previous two days and one night had been fought too hard. The unprecedented battle damage and casualties, fear, anger, and hatred were all accumulated in the hearts of the soldiers. Chaos ensued in the months that followed.

The soldiers felt hatred in their hearts, and Chen Qi also had a temperament of vengeance, and he was also full of anger, and he had to massacre the city to vent.

Zhan Xuanji saw Chen Qi turned his back and turned around, and was annoyed by Chen Qi's sloppy behavior: "Since the Lord has the ambition to rule the world, he should treat the people like children and love the people like brothers and sisters. If you slaughter the city today, you will murder him again in the future." Where, who dares to open the city and surrender? Lord Lang, don’t forget what happened before the old Patriarch intercepted and killed merchants. Today he only wants to enjoy himself for a while, and he will regret it in the future!"

Seeing that Chen Qi turned his back and refused to speak, Shan Xugang stepped forward and said: "Mr. Zhan's words, I think it is unfair. Man said that the Lord did not order the massacre of the city, so I think that the Lord should have ordered the massacre of the city today .”

Zhan Xuanji said angrily: "You are fanning the flames again!"

Shan Xugang interrupted his anger and said: "Mr. Zhan only said that the city was massacred today, and the defenders of the city would not surrender in the future. I thought Mr. Zhan's words were very boring. Since Shuzhou has never surrendered from the city today, The city is a tragic victory filled with flesh and blood by the children under his command. Before sir came here, the master was still picking up the bones of the soldiers who died. Sir, if you forgive the people of the state, don't you feel sorry for your own soldiers?"

Zhan Xuanji looked at the corpses all over the floor and was speechless for a moment.He also knew that the battle was too fierce.

Shan Xugang also said: "Shuzhou's resistance is so fierce, and our army's battle damage is so serious, it is time to order the massacre of the city to intimidate the world! Anyone who dares to kill or wound our soldiers will have his family, soldiers, and people in the city!" Just now is the right way to protect our soldiers."

Zhan Xuanji said angrily: "Why are the common people innocent?"

Shan Xugang knew the situation inside the city even if he was not close to the city wall, and said: "The people are innocent? Are those who helped carry the arrows and weapons on the city wall the people in the city? Are the soldiers the common people in the city? Are the people who bandaged the wounds of the wounded Shuzhou defenders and delivered them food? Are the people in the city clamoring to give rewards and money to the soldiers defending the city, and marrying their daughters to the soldiers defending the city... again Not the people in the city?—Which one is innocent?"

Zhan Xuanji stopped Chen Qi from slaughtering the city because of political considerations to further rule the cities on the eastern front, while Shan Xugang considered it from military strategy, and the two ideas were completely different.Chen Qi's position was already biased towards Shan Xugang, no matter how earnestly Zhan Xuanji tried to persuade him to be kind, Chen Qi would either laugh at him or gossip about him, so angry that Zhan Xuanji grabbed his sleeve and said, "Master!"

"There is no need to discuss this matter again. There are many counselors in the account, but brother-in-law, who will persuade this matter? It can be seen that brother-in-law is unreasonable." Chen Qi's attitude was very persistent, and he refused to accept advice at all.One mouthful after another, brother-in-law held Zhan Xuanji down with an emotion card, and coaxed him gently and kindly, "The front line is a mess, there are dead people everywhere, brother-in-law, go back and rest..."

Zhan Xuanji knew that he would never be persuaded.He was angry, but also a little disappointed.

That night, Shuzhou City was full of flames.

Zhan Xuanji stood outside the military tent for a whole night, and the next day he resigned and wanted to return to Xiangzhou.

Surprisingly, Chen Qi did not keep him, but entrusted Xiangzhou's wife and children to him, saying: "Cong'er is getting old, and Anmin wrote to say that his wives praised him for being smart and eager to learn. The private messages from my house all said that he played truant every day. It's impossible to go on like this. Brother-in-law, you are the elder and his uncle, and I can rest assured that you can teach him how to improve. "

Zhan Xuanji was so disheartened that he never took a step into the bloody Shuzhou. He packed his luggage before the battle and returned to Xiangzhou.

■

Xie Qinghe and Fu Chuan in Xiangzhou City didn't know the news of Zhan Xuanji's return, and they were receiving the sudden Chang Chao.

"Uncle came suddenly, but what's the matter?" Fu Chuan asked directly without being polite.

Chang Chao's face was gloomy, full of depression, and he sat on the mat in the house for a while. Sugu brought food and snacks, and then quietly retreated. Fu Chuan sat down next to him worriedly, and asked again: "uncle?"

"Sister has temporarily moved to live in another courtyard in the north of the city." Chang Chao opened his mouth to spit out such a sentence, which immediately stunned Fu Chuan, "I know you will visit her every now and then, so you don't have to go home for now. You It’s probably because she doesn’t know the location of the other courtyard in the north of the city, if you want to visit her, just ask me and I’ll guide the way.”

"Why did my mother move to another courtyard in the north of the city?" Fu Chuan couldn't figure it out. He had the impression that Chen Ji and Mrs. Chang had a very good relationship.

Chang Chao obviously came to sue.Of course, Mrs. Chang ran away from home, and it was true that she couldn't hide it.Xie Qinghe would accompany Fu Chuan home to visit Mrs. Chang every few days, more frequently than when they both visited Mrs. Jiang in the back house.

Chang Chao wanted to sue, but also felt that it was not easy to talk about it, so he was quite hesitant.

Fu Chuan was already in a hurry: "Uncle, what's the matter?! If you don't tell me, take me to see my mother now!"

"Your father raised two charming maids in the study. They were eight months pregnant and the child was about to be born. Yesterday your mother found out." Chang Chao said.

Fu Chuan was confused.Different from later generations, few people at this time really put maids and concubines in their eyes.For a noble lady like Mrs. Jiang, her relationship with maids and concubines is better than that of her husband with maids and concubines.The child born by the concubine, the hostess will praise her if she likes it—just like Mrs. Jiang treated Chen Cong.If the hostess doesn't like it, her status is not much higher than that of the servants.

Chen Ji has a relationship with the maid in the study, and the maid is pregnant, so Mrs. Chang is so angry?It's just... unreasonable.

It's not that Mrs. Chang has no son. Her son Chen Jun is deeply loved by the Lord of Xiangzhou. It is impossible for the maidservant's son to take away everything that belongs to Chen Juan, even the interests are gone. Mrs. Chang is so angry because she wants to monopolize it. Chen Ji? ——But if she has a monopoly, based on Fu Chuan's understanding of their relationship, she should tell Chen Ji clearly. Chen Ji loves her so much, why would he covet the maid's beauty?

"She found out that Father's maid was pregnant, so she moved to another courtyard in the north of the city?" Fu Chuan asked.

Chang Chao hesitated for a moment, then said, "She stabbed the pregnant maidservant to death."

Fu Chuan almost thought he had heard it wrong: "Stabbed to death?... Where is the child?"

I heard that Mrs. Chang pierced the maidservant's stomach with a sword, leaving one dead body and two lives. The scene was very miserable. Chang Chao didn't want to go into details, so he blurted it out: "If the mother is dead, the child will naturally not survive. Your father returned home After returning home, when she found out that the maidservant had died, she was furious with your mother, and she felt depressed, so she took the maidservants and moved to another courtyard."

For a moment, Fu Chuan didn't know what to say.

After a long while, he asked: "Uncle came to tell me this, what does he want me to do? Do you want to make peace for my father and mother?"

Chang Chao shook his head and said: "I came here to tell you the truth. In order to avoid rumors in the future that your mother was jealous and murdered, and even the eight-month-old child was not spared, you just listen to it. Without knowing the inside story, he hated and alienated her."

Fu Chuan was indeed shocked.

He would not comment on Mrs. Chang's actions in front of Chang Chao, but the killing of the pregnant woman had already crossed his bottom line.

"Brother Jun, come here." Xie Qinghe greeted.

Fu Chuan turned around and returned to Xie Qinghe, Xie Qinghe asked him to be next to him, held his hand, and said, "Listen to uncle."

"After discovering that you have Su Hui, your father wants another child. You should be aware of this matter?" Chang Chao asked.

Mrs. Chang tried very hard to isolate Chen Ji's emotions, so that her son would not feel his father's indifference, because Fu Chuan was too smart to hold back.

Fu Chuan knew that Chen Ji wanted a second child and a third child, and he didn't care what Chen Ji thought.Not to mention more children, more blessings. In this era where children often die young, having more children can ensure the continuity of the bloodline. A patriarch with many concubines is likely to have dozens of children under his knees.

"What you don't know is that your mother once asked me to collect sterilization decoction for her." Chang Chao said.

Chang Chao said that Mrs. Chang killed the pregnant maid, and everyone's first reaction was jealousy.If you want to monopolize your husband, don't allow your husband to touch other women, and don't allow other women to bear your husband's children, you don't hesitate to kill for this.

When Chang Chao revealed the inside story, Fu Chuan was completely shocked.

Mrs. Chang is not jealous of other women taking her husband away, but she does not allow other children to take away her son's father!

She hid her thoughts so deeply, and Fu Chuan lived with Xie Qinghe in the Chen Mansion, and never cared about Chen Ji's father's love at all, how could she notice such subtleties?Except for Chang Chao, who was entrusted by him to find the sterilization drug, no one knew what she was thinking.

"Then you found it for her? Feed it to her?" Fu Chuan asked with difficulty.

Chang Chao shook his head: "The medicine of tiger and wolf hurts the body, of course I don't want it."

Fu Chuan didn't know what to say.

He doesn't need Chen Ji as a father at all!Mrs. Chang killed a pregnant woman for him.What's all this?

Now that things have gotten to this point, Mrs. Chang just kills people and sneaks away, Chen Ji doesn't know how to get angry, and Fu Chuan doesn't know how the matter will end.

Sitting in the hall, Chang Chao didn't intend to say goodbye, as if he was waiting for his statement.

Fu Chuan hesitated for a long time, and then slowly said: "In troubled times, life is like grass. In the eyes of my mother and uncle, and in the eyes of everyone in this world, the life of a maidservant belongs to the master. If the master likes it, he will spoil it. If the master doesn't If you like it, you can kill it... Uncle, it's not like this with me."

"That maidservant is my father's servant. If my father wants her, she can't refuse. The pregnancy matter can't be controlled by her. My mother doesn't want my father to have other children. I... can understand her thoughts, I can barely accept her 'love', but she shouldn't kill the handmaid who has no choice but to refuse Father."

"Uncle wants to say that everything my mother does is for me."

Fu Chuan's eyes rested quietly on Chang Chao's face, and asked back: "I have Su Hui, and my mother knows about it. If she comes to ask me about this matter, I can understand, make a decision, and handle it. She Why don't you come to ask me before killing? Ask me if I need her to kill for me. "

This sentence was very blunt, and it was so critical that Chang Chao couldn't refute it at all.

If Fu Fax is a five-year-old child, and Mrs. Chang wants to protect him, of course there is no need to discuss it with him.

However, Fu Chuan is not.

Not only is he not an ignorant child, Mrs. Chang and Chang Chao both know that he is not an ignorant child.Even if Mrs. Chang thinks that he needs to be protected, this kind of protection should not be a unilateral decision-killing people, leaving home, such a big matter, why don't you ask your son?

Having said that, the situation became stalemate.

Xie Qinghe had been listening quietly, but at this moment he suddenly asked: "Did uncle see Madam Chang murder?"

Chang Chao was taken aback: "No."

"Did you see the maidservant's body?" Xie Qinghe asked again.

Chang Chao became suspicious when he asked him, so he stood up suddenly: "Never. Sister sent someone to call me this morning, and asked me to move her house to the north of the city for two days, so I didn't know what happened yesterday. She Said that he had killed him, my brother-in-law Lei Ting was furious, and didn’t tell me where the body was——I’ll go and find out right away!”

Chang Chao rushed out in a hurry.

Fu Chuanchuan didn't know what feeling he was feeling in his heart, and looked at Xie Qinghe with some expectation: "How does senior brother know that there is something else going on in this matter?"

Xie Qinghe hugged him in his arms, rubbed his ears, and said: "She is your mother in this life, and the horoscope of her birthday is in my hands, and I have to say seven or eight times if you don't know her background. How dare you ask her to hold her skirt? She has a kind temper. No matter how angry she is, she won't do anything to a pregnant woman who is eight months pregnant, just wait for news from Chang Jiuyang."

After hearing Xie Qinghe's words, Fu Chuan became nervous again: "Horoscopes are always inaccurate. I also know that she is not evil in nature, but she...she is really good to me. When a woman has a child, she It will be violent. I am afraid that she is doing this for me..."

Xie Qinghe comforted: "I don't feel uncomfortable, it should be fine."

Fu Chuan said with a bitter face: "I feel bad. I slipped when I got up and put on my shoes, and I almost choked when I ate bean porridge. Even if it is the lunar calendar today, everything is not inappropriate. Why is it that I am not going well? Maybe it is Something happened to Mom."

Xie Qinghe hugged him, kissed him on the forehead, and said: "Eldest senior brother is protecting you, everything is fine, and the evil spirits are gone."