The King of Liang, the feudal lords outside the town, and the generals inside

The emperor had not gone through the secret passage in the imperial study for many days, and went to visit Nanny Feng.This day, he brought some of Nanny Feng's favorite snacks and sat beside her.

Although she lost her ten fingers, Nanny Feng has already adapted well. She held the pastry between her palms without any effort at all, with a joyful smile on her face, looking eagerly at the emperor.

The emperor watched her eat, but his eyes were blank, as if looking past Nanny Feng to look at something else.He said softly: "Lonely. Mother, I am lonely. Many things have happened these days. I have to send the King of Liang to the fief, have to confine the Queen, and have to let them target the Yan family. There are some things that I am not I don’t know, but I can’t help it, I am the emperor, but the emperor has also been deposed by his courtiers. In fact, it’s not that I don’t want to part with the throne, I just feel uncomfortable. I have given all my trust to people before, but now I find that it doesn’t seem to be the case.”

Listening to his words, Mother Feng's originally happy smile gradually disappeared.The emperor and Nanny Feng looked at each other for a moment, then shook their heads and said, "It's not King Liang, I'm not talking about him. It's not Yan Xun either."

The doubts in Nanny Feng's eyes deepened.But she could only be silent, had to be silent.Like when she was ordered to feed the eldest son of the emperor, she looked at the queen mother who was still in confinement but still graceful and exquisite, she didn't know when her own son was born, and she stared at him in disgust when she thought no one had noticed. cradle.

She could only be silent, silently facing the sudden illness and death of one after another maid serving the Empress Dowager, silently burning paper in front of Zhen Taifei's grave, silently lingering on her last breath in this dark place.

But even today she still doesn't feel lonely, she has not been abandoned by this world, there are still people who treat her well without asking for anything in return, and silently miss her.

Compared with this "lonely family" in front of her, who is happier?She doesn't know anymore.

The emperor took a rag to clean up the crumbs she dropped on the table, and the Ninth Five-Year Lord still looked calm and composed when he did this kind of thing, "Those ministers proposed various methods to calm King Liang's rebels, and they let me Send troops and ask me to call him back to Beijing before he raises troops. I didn't accept it, but sent an imperial envoy to persuade him. I know that Shen Fang is not an eloquent person, on the contrary, he is a bit dull. I chose him on purpose .I even hope that King Liang will enter the palace. This position is really meaningless. I believe that even if King Liang ascends the throne, he will not kill me. The throne belongs to him in the first place, and I don’t blame him.”

Mother Feng listened, her brows furrowed for a while, then relaxed for a while, and in the end she didn't seem to know what expression she should put on, and was just in a daze.

The emperor smiled and said, "Yes, I am not an ambitious emperor. I really don't know what they are fighting for. At the end of the fight, I can only tell you what is in my heart."

Before leaving, he said: "It's just that there are still many things I haven't done."

Two days later, Shen Fang returned to Beijing and brought back the result of Liang Wang's refusal to stop the army and make peace.After arguing fiercely throughout the morning court, Cen An still won.

Within three months, Yan Xun must end the war in the northwest and march south.If not, it is evidence of his collaboration with the enemy.

By now, it has been less than three months, if nothing unexpected.Under the circumstances, Yan Xun may be able to completely repel Xiao Qu and Nan Wu's army within a limited time.But this strange disease broke out in the army, so he had to temporarily truce and garrison, waiting for the military doctor to cure them.

The worse news is that Liang Wang's rebel army captured Jizhou, the only way for the imperial court to transport grain, and intercepted hundreds of thousands of grain and salaries supplied to the Northwest Army.

Chunyujing laughed back angrily, and said: "The general still thinks that King Liang has a conscience, this is good, we have no more rations, how can we fight this battle!"

Fu Cheng glanced at him, and said in a low voice: "Don't shout, be careful to let the general hear you."

"So what if I hear it? Am I afraid of being punished by the general? If killing me can win this battle, I'll die!" Chunyujing said more and more vigorously, "You don't know, when I was in Liangzhou, I think something is wrong with King Liang! He had a problem at that time, the general was blindfolded by emotion and didn’t want to believe it!”

Fucheng took a breath, stood a little further away from him, and pushed Lu Xing over.

Chun Yujing dragged Lu Xing to recount all the "wrong things" about Baiyu back then, and Lu Xing couldn't bear to be curious and wanted to hear it, but also afraid that Yan Xun would hear it, so he was entangled in fidgeting.

Yan Xun came late, the generals lined up on both sides below, bent down and cupped their hands, saying: "General."

Yan Xun looked as usual, sat down in the middle, and slowly glanced around the generals, Fang said: "I think everyone knows that the food provided by the imperial court was cut off by the rebel army halfway. The army has already been rampant with strange diseases. , No more food and pay, it would be worse."

All the generals looked a little strange, looking at each other in silence.

Just now Chunyujing's voice was not deliberately lowered at all, everyone could hear it clearly.No one didn't know the relationship between Yan Xun and Bai Yu, and under the shock, there was a layer of worry - did Yan Xun put the country first, or his personal relationship?

Yan Xun knew what they were thinking, so he explained lazily, "It's impossible to get back the food and wages, Jizhou is too far away from here. We can't increase the income, we can only cut down the expenditure. From now on, the sick The sergeant no longer needs to be treated in the army, but send them to Cangliang and Liangzhou, where they will be handed over to the governor to take care of them properly. Afterwards, we will prepare the army and wipe out the barbarian coalition forces within a month."

Everyone was stunned, and Fu Cheng said first: "But, General, there are more than [-] sick sergeants, are they all gone? Then if there are more sergeants who get sick in the future, don't you care?" ?”

Yan Xundao: "The lesser of two evils. Continue to stand still, treat these strange diseases that are likely to be incurable, and then sit and wait for death; or burn the boat and end the war before the strange disease spreads to the entire army? You choose."

Chun Yujing said: "The general is right, we have no better solution. But after the war in the northwest is over, do we really want to go south to suppress the thieves?"

Yan Xun's eyes fell on him, "What do you mean?"

Chun Yujing stood up, "Can the general really be ruthless? If one day the general puts his knife on King Liang's neck, will the general kill the general or stand by?"

As soon as these words came out, it was like a thunderbolt exploding in the tent of the Chinese army, a layer of frost appeared on everyone's faces, the air was a bit stagnant, and it was so oppressive that people could hardly breathe.

Yan Xun raised his eyes and looked at Chun Yujing for a long time, instead of getting angry, he smiled, "You don't need to do it."

His answer like this was beyond Chunyujing's expectation. He was stunned for a while, but he didn't know what to say, until Fucheng got up and pulled him back to his seat.

The gate of Jizhou city was opened wide, Bai Yu rode his horse in, followed by a group of generals.The city was captured by Qin Ran, he rushed forward quickly, took Bai Yu's horse rope, and led him into the governor's mansion.

The original officials and guards here were all tied up and detained in the governor's mansion.Bai Yu untie the ropes for them with his own hands, the civil servants are still employed in their original positions, and the generals are recruited under the command of Mu Fengyi, Qin Ran and Yuchi Yuanhe respectively.

The more than [-] defenders of Jizhou also returned to Baiyu.The growth of soldiers and horses did not make Bai Yu very excited, all he cared about was the food and pay.

Qin Ran led him to check in the camp, and said: "Your Highness, the food and salaries we collected totaled 20 shi, not including some horses, ordnance, etc. They are all here."

Bai Yu was silent for a while, and said: "We have cut off Yan Xun's military rations, he must be even more difficult now."

Qin Ran pursed his lips and gave a soft "hmm".

"General Qin." Bai Yu turned to look at him, "Yan Xun has treated you well all these years, and he protected you like that in the past, don't you want to repay him?"

Qin Ran was taken aback for a moment, not understanding what Bai Yu meant.He thought for a while, and said: "The last general is not a wolf-hearted person, but since he is serving His Highness now, naturally he will not have two hearts."

Bai Yu shook her head, "That's not what I mean, I'm not doubting your loyalty. I just want to give you a chance to repay him, are you willing?"

Qin Ran was even more puzzled, "Your Highness means..."

Bai Yu said: "After repaying him this time, you don't owe him any more, and you will have no burden in doing things in the future."

Qin Ran was silent for a while, and finally said: "Your Highness, please give me instructions."

Bai Yu had already brought Ye Zhiyan with him to collect dozens of carts of medicinal herbs in the vast Sichuan and Shu, and brought them to Jizhou.He ordered all the doctors in Jizhou City to be summoned, and it took several days and nights to make a batch of medicinal powder, which was evenly mixed into each bag of rice.

Taking advantage of the darkness, Qin Ran led several thousand troops and escorted one hundred thousand shi of rations to the north.

"I kept the half of the salary to supplement our military supplies, which is not too much of a public benefit." Bai Yu smiled at Ye Zhiyan, "Thank you for your hard work, and collect medicines and make medicines with me."

Ye Zhiyan shook his head, "What should be done, there is no hard work."

Ye Zhiyan is particularly haggard these days, eats very little, doesn't sleep well, and is always in a trance during the day.Bai Yu asked several times, but he only said that he was out of breath and his spleen and stomach were not in harmony, and then continued to remain silent.

"What's on your mind?" Bai Yu asked.

Ye Zhiyan's breathing seemed to pause, he avoided Bai Yu's gaze, and had the urge to see his eyes turn sour.

Looking at his appearance, Bai Yu's heart tightened for no reason.

"Did you suffer some kind of grievance?" Bai Yu paused, then remembered something, "Yuchi Yuanhe? It's him..."

When Ye Zhiyan heard this name, his body trembled involuntarily, and his face turned paler.

"What happened?" Bai Yu asked.

Ye Zhiyan just shook his head tremblingly, "No, it wasn't him, he didn't do anything to me. Your Highness, I'm fine, really."

Bai Yu sighed and took his cold hand.