sinking into sand

When the blood light gradually faded away from the autumn colors at the foot of the mountain, it was dusk again in Fengcheng hundreds of miles away.

Zhai Su stood by the window, watching the setting sun like blood outside the window, silently like a statue.

He waited for a long time before a soldier in light armor arrived, and when he saw Zhai Su, he knelt down, without saying a word, and presented a document in his hand.

Zhai Su looked at the memorial, pursed his lips tightly, and didn't say a word.Seeing this, the staff next to him dimmed their expressions and said, "Why, what does the imperial court mean, or not to send troops?"

The soldier did not dare to answer, but lowered his head even lower.

The staff member looked worried, turned to look at Zhai Su, and said, "General, with what Prime Minister Zhai is doing, is it true that he wants to negotiate peace with the refugee army?"

Zhai Su said nothing, just closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, his eyes were red.

He strode forward, grabbed the document handed over by the soldier, and threw it on the ground without looking at it.

Zhai Su said with red eyes: "Xu Shan, I have led the army for ten years, and I have never had a bandit around, but I couldn't send troops."

Xu Shan was also physically and mentally exhausted by the documents issued by the court in the past few days, so he could only persuade him: "General, King Guan's iron cavalry is now in Liao Dingguan. Maybe the court still values ​​King Guan more."

"How is Guan Jingyue?" Zhai Su said in a low voice, "King Guan is stationed at the border, and he has never hurt my people in Daji in his life. The refugee army has been a disaster for the world for many years, and now we want to join them!"

"General, be careful!" Xu Shan said in a deep voice, "General, think about it. A few days ago, Vice General Lin was preparing to set up camp to help Daocheng, but he was stopped by the imperial court at the gate of the city. It is conceivable that Fengcheng is everywhere. It's Dingzhou's eyeliner. Be careful what you say!"

Hearing this, Zhai Su closed his eyes, as if he couldn't bear to look at this messed world again.

Seeing this, Xu Shan sighed, waved his hand, and let the sergeant who came to report go down first.

When the surroundings became quiet again, Xu Shan said to Zhai Su in a low voice: "General, no matter what, the crown prince is still in Beijing now, and it's really not time to turn against Prime Minister Zhai."

When he mentioned Xie Jingrong, Zhai Su's face showed a trace of exhaustion: "Ask people in Beijing to pick up Jingrong, so there is still no news?"

Xu Shan shook his head slowly, and said: "Our people, and some hired Jianghu knights, the closest thing is to touch the threshold of Jingyang Palace. Prime Minister Zhai is too careful, if he wants to pick up the prince , I’m afraid we still have to wait until we return to Beijing to discuss slowly.”

Zhai Su felt a fishy sweetness in his throat, and after a while, he asked, "Xu Shan, I am so timid, am I not worthy of the title of general?"

Hearing the words, Xu Shan felt uneasy, so he could only comfort him and said: "Why did you say that, General? If it is the Holy One... His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is the next emperor. The General is concerned about his safety. This is a righteous thing, why should you be so demanding of yourself?"

Zhai Su was persuaded by him a few words, but instead became more irritable, waved his hand, and said, "I'm tired, you go down first. You can come with Lin Si when he comes to report the battle situation at night."

Seeing his complexion, Xu Shan knew that he couldn't persuade him anymore, so he saluted respectfully and went down.

Xu Shan was on his way back to his mansion. Now that the war was imminent, Fengcheng was under martial law and a curfew was imposed on the whole city as early as the day Zhai Su entered the city.At the end of Youshi, there were no people on the street, only the people from the barracks were still walking around.

Looking at the bleak street, he was also very anxious.Zhai Su was worried about dispatching troops, and they were even more worried about trivial matters.One is worrying about food and wages, and the other is that I don’t know how many meticulous operations there are in this city. It is really hard to guard against outsiders and Dingzhou at the same time.

He was thinking about these things, thinking that before he went to see Zhai Su tonight, he would go to various parts of the military camp to find someone to order the logistics rations again. He was walking into the gatehouse of his yard in a hurry, but he was stopped by someone as soon as he took a step. down.

"Master." His family's housekeeper approached him and whispered, "Second Master has a letter."

Xu Shan glanced at the butler, who nodded slowly.Xu Shanshan didn't say much, he turned his footsteps, beckoned the doorman to follow, and went straight into the study.

Xu Shan and the housekeeper entered the room, asked the housekeeper to close the door, and made sure there was no one around, then they approached and asked in a low voice, "Is it a letter from Ziyuan?"

The housekeeper nodded slightly, took out an envelope from his arms, and handed it to Xu Shan.

Xu Shan took the letter and checked the paper and handwriting first.He took it and sat down at the desk, opened it and read it.

After a while, he memorized all the information on the paper in his mind, raised his head and asked his housekeeper, "Did you have anything else to say when delivering the letter?"

The butler lowered his head a little and said, "No, the letter was placed on the counter of our post station, and I didn't see the person who delivered it."

Hearing this, Xu Shan frowned at the letter and pondered for a long time.The housekeeper saw that he had a different expression, and asked, "What? It's... What difficulties did the second master encounter in Mu Fengshan?"

"No." Xu Shan said solemnly: "It's not a difficulty, but an opportunity."

Xu Shan read the letter several times before finally writing a reply letter, folded it and handed it to the housekeeper, and said in a concentrated voice: "I still need to discuss this matter with the general. Nowadays, there are many eyeliners in Fengcheng. I believe you will put it away for now, if something happens to me, don't delay and send it to Mu Fengshan immediately."

The butler was shocked when he heard it, and asked, "Master, why did something happen?"

Xu Shan didn't want to say more, shook his head, and waved his hands to let him go down first.

After finishing this, he walked around the barracks as usual, counted the remaining food and grass, and waited until nightfall before he went to find Lin Si, and together they went to Zhai Su.

It's just that the timing wasn't right.

When they arrived, Zhai Su's residence was being visited by someone else.Now Fengcheng is full of turmoil, but this man still looks like he is walking in the garden, wearing a satin palace gown, stepping on soft-soled shoes made of brocade, sitting in Zhai Su's lobby drinking tea.

Seeing this man, Xu Shan and Lin Si looked at each other, and after saluting Zhai Su, they saluted this man again and said hello, "I've seen Mrs. Hu."

"Well, no courtesy." Hu Gonggong called Hu Yulu, sipped a sip of tea, and said leisurely: "This tea is not good, it is not as good as the one in Beijing. General Zhai is really suffering here."

He was here, Xu Shan and Lin Si couldn't say anything to Zhai Su, and were about to resign, but Zhai Su signaled him to stay.

Zhai Su looked at Hu Yulu and said, "Eunuch, it's getting late. My subordinates and I still have important matters to discuss. Could you please go back to rest first?"

"Yo, General Zhai is driving our family away." Hu Yulu smiled, and directly brushed Zhai Su's face: "Our family is the supervisor of Zhai's blind date, what can we not listen to? Just this reply Bar."

He was so arrogant, and before Zhai Su could speak, Lin Si, under Zhai Su's command, couldn't stand this behavior anymore, and contradicted him: "Eunuch Hu, there are some things that must be avoided in front of others because of important military affairs. Eunuch Hu still wants to delay Is it military?"

As soon as Lin Si spoke, Xu Shan knew that things were going to be bad. As expected, Hu Yulu seemed to be waiting for him to contradict him. Shi Shiran put down his teacup, without looking at Lin Si, and spoke to Zhai Su.

"General Zhai, if you are all generals who don't understand military regulations like this, our family doesn't mind disciplining you for a while. You don't need to thank them. They are all officials in the same dynasty."

Seeing this, Lin Si became short of breath and opened his mouth to scold: "You...!"

Zhai Su: "Lin Si!"

Zhai Su stopped Lin Si's words, looked at Hu Yulu again, and said, "Vice General Lin is rude, I will punish him according to military regulations, and I don't need Mr. Hu to worry about it."

"Punishment?" Hu Yulu sneered, as if he had heard some big joke: "I'm afraid it's a cover-up!"

Hearing this, Xu Shan could no longer stand on the sidelines. He took a step forward, saluted Hu Yulu, and said, "Lin Si's words and deeds are insignificant, but because of the emergency of the military situation, he lost his sense for a while. I hope that Eunuch Hu will tolerate it."

He spoke very politely, causing Hu Yulu to look at him a few more times, and smiled: "Hey, who is this again?"

"Bingzhou, Xu Shan, General Zhai's staff." Xu Shan replied.

Hu Yulu narrowed his eyes and said, "There is still one person in your tent who can talk. If everyone was like this, there would not be such a big joke at the gate of the city that day."

Hearing that he mentioned Lin Si's departure from camp a few days ago, the expressions of the three people in the hall changed slightly.That day when Lin Si came to get the military newspaper from the Southwest, he knew that the refugee army and a group of Huns were burning, killing and looting Daocheng, and they also had a vague intention to spread to the north.After reporting Zhai Su, he planned to send 2000 people to the south to help.This was not a big deal, but who would have thought that Hu Yulu would stop him at the gate of the city with an imperial order.

As soon as he mentioned this matter, Lin Si was full of anxiety and anger.The armored army has been fighting bandits for many years, and they know their style of robbing houses.I know that if I let it go, I will suffer disaster no matter Daocheng or the surrounding places.I didn't expect such a thing that didn't need to be thought about, but it would be stopped.

He was about to argue, but Xu Shan took a step forward and stopped him.Xu Shan said to Hu Yulu: "This matter is an imperial decree not to let the Iron Armored Army send troops. Since it has been clearly distinguished at the gate of the city a few days ago. I don't know why Eunuch Hu mentioned this matter."

Hu Yulu raised his eyelids to take a look at them all, and sipped a cup of tea carefully.

"Originally, the matter is over." Hu Yulu said pretendingly: "But I didn't think about it. I asked in the barracks these two days and said that I didn't know there was a war in the southwest. There is another matter. Listen. Creepy."

Hu Yulu held off for a while, and said to Lin Si: "It is said that this son of the northern border is uniting with various villages in the southwest to revolt. This...isn't this person missing? Why did he go to the southwest? This makes people think deeply." Ah... But the most important thing is that there is no war in the southwest, but there is Guan Jingyue's only son, so General Lin Silin led two thousand elite soldiers to the south, is this... to suppress the bandits? Or... to join the enemy?"