Zhu Nao

Beijing.

Early in the morning, Yan pushed open the door, only to smell a disgusting rancid smell coming from the street.However, she has long been used to the smell, she only wrinkled her nose, and went to the well to fetch water with a bucket.

Rusty red mottled spots can be seen everywhere on the stone road outside the door and on the wall, with different shades of color.These are all human bloodstains. The reason why the color is different is because some were left more than a year ago, and some were left half a month ago.

More than a year ago, the rebels led by Guo Jinli and Li Cui had just invaded the capital and looted the capital.All the people who resisted were killed, and their bodies lay all over the ground, bleeding for hundreds of miles.Counting the refugees who fled in a hurry, the capital is almost empty.

And half a month ago, the Jiangling army led by Huang Dongxuan attacked the capital at night, broke into the imperial city, and caused great chaos in the capital.The common people in central Beijing thought that King Qin's army, which had been on the outskirts for more than a month, was finally going to make a difference, so they rose up one after another, planning to cooperate internally and externally to resist the oppression of the rebel army.At that time, the rebels also thought that the situation was not good, and there was a lot of turmoil in Beijing. Unfortunately, a few days later, the rebels found that King Qin's army still had no plans to enter Beijing, and even began to retreat one after another.So the rebels immediately began to suppress the people, and carried out a new round of massacres and looting of the people.

Nowadays, it is very rare to see adult men who are not soldiers in Beijing.

Yan came to the well, filled a small bucket of water, and took the bucket out of the well with great effort.She rested by the well for a while, picked up the bucket and walked back.

She hasn't eaten much for several days. Compared with last year, she has lost nearly half her size this year.Sometimes when she looked at her arms, she didn't expect her own skeleton to be so slender, indistinguishable from the branches on the treetops.

If you are hungry and thin, your strength will naturally disappear.Carrying such a small half bucket of water, she stopped and rested every few steps before continuing.But this is not all a bad thing. After losing weight, she saves a lot of fabric for her clothes. She cuts her old clothes and makes a new one for her youngest son, which is also a saving of money.

Before Ms. Yan came home, suddenly a neighbor came to her in a hurry and shouted: "Miss Yan, someone found your husband's body in the ditch of the West Lane, go and have a look."

Yan Shi was taken aback for a moment.

Half a month ago, when the rebels started another round of massacres and arrests on the grounds that the Jiangling army might plant eyeliners in the city after they entered the city, Yan's Xiangzheng happened to be away because of something, and then never came back.Yan thought that he might have been killed, or he might have escaped by himself.It now appears to be the former.

So she hurriedly put down the bucket, and followed the neighbor who informed her to the West Lane.

Entering the west alley, the smell of corpses became stronger, and there were indeed several corpses lying in the ditch.Since many days had passed, most of the corpses had rotted and turned black, and the original appearance could not be seen for a long time, but Yan still recognized her husband at a glance - the corpse was wearing the clothes her husband wore when he went out that day.

The neighbor patted Yan's shoulder: "My condolences. You can collect the body for him."

Yan Shi thought for a while and said, "I can't pick it up. I'll find some people to help me tomorrow." Now she can't even lift a bucket of water, so naturally she can't carry a corpse back.

The neighbor said: "Okay. Let's talk about it tomorrow."

So Yan turned around and went back.

Seeing her husband's dead body, she felt nothing in her heart.Maybe it was because she had seen many dead people in the past two years, and she was used to it; maybe she had already guessed that her husband would not escape, so she was prepared; My tears have been shed, so there is nothing to be sad about.

At the moment, all she can think about is the edible grass roots she dug up yesterday. As for her husband's death... Anyway, people are going to die sooner or later.

……

Yan returned home with water, boiled the water, and threw the grass roots she had dug yesterday into the water.

She was busy in the kitchen when she suddenly heard a voice behind her: "Mother."

She turned her head and saw that it was her eight-year-old son, Asheng, who had come over.Now there is only this last child left with her.

A Sheng said: "Mother, I heard from outsiders that King Qin's army has withdrawn and the emperor has been killed? Are the rebels going to be the emperor?" There have been rumors of the emperor's death in the city, but it has been like this for more than a year. This is not the first time that the rumors of this incident have appeared, and the people do not know whether it is true or not.

Yan's face changed drastically: "You went out?! Didn't I tell you that you are not allowed to go out?"

After the capital was occupied by the rebels, Yan hid her only surviving child at home and forbade him to go out, lest this child also be murdered.

Ah Sheng shrank his neck and said in a low voice, "I'm so hungry, I want to go out and find something to eat."

Yan stared at him angrily, the child was also skinny, she couldn't yell at him.

A Sheng said again: "Mother, people outside said that King Qin's army has already withdrawn, General Tianshen will be the emperor, and no one will take care of us in the future."

Yan frowned and said sternly: "Don't listen to those people's nonsense. How could King Qin's army ignore us? They will definitely come in!"

A Sheng said: "But people outside say so."

Yan raised her voice even more: "They are talking nonsense! Didn't they say that King Qin's army has tens of thousands of people? How could they just withdraw? This is the capital! The capital!"

Asheng was stunned for a moment, but he was also unexpectedly stubborn: "But the people outside said that if King Qin's army was willing to suppress the bandits, they would have come in and driven them away. It's already spring, so they all went back to farm... ..."

An unknown fire rose up in Yan's stomach.Impulsively, he picked up the pot that was cooking grass roots in front of him and smashed it to the ground.Fortunately, she didn't have the strength to lift the pot now, and the grass roots in the pot were hard to come by, so she suppressed the impulse back.

If it is true that no one will come to King Qin to suppress the bandits, and if the capital will be like this from now on, then why is she spending so much effort digging up these grassroots?It's better to throw the young son into the well together, and it will be easier from now on.

Yan took out the boiled grass roots, chewed a piece himself, and gave the rest to his young son.

"It will come." She murmured with blank eyes, "The army from outside will come in soon. Maybe tomorrow, maybe the day after tomorrow..."

But, will anyone really come to rescue them?

=====

in the imperial city.

Guo Jinli, Li Cui and several of their capable men were sitting in the palace, discussing matters.

Li Cui said: "I think we should take a group of people back to Taiyuan Mansion, leave the mess here, we can't clean it up."

Some people agree, some are against, and some are frowning.

That day when the Jiangling army invaded the imperial city, Guo Jinli accidentally killed the little emperor. Although the Wang army did not take any follow-up actions after the incident, and even the troops from various prefectures began to withdraw from the Central Plains one by one, Huang Dongxuan's unexpected move was still a surprise to Guo Jinli and Li Cui. Leaves a small shadow.

Before that, they hadn't actually fought any serious battles at all.Perhaps the night of the Jiangling army's sneak attack was not considered a serious battle, but it was enough to make them realize that they had tens of thousands of troops, but they were actually so vulnerable.

To be honest, even without the sneak attack of the Jiangling Army, they had already realized that something was wrong with them, but they could deceive themselves and others before, but the appearance of the Jiangling Army helped them discover how serious their problems were.

It should be known that Guo Jinli was born as a slave laborer and could not read a few words. If he was not lucky, he would still be doing hard labor in the mine.How does he know how to lead troops to govern the country?Although Li Cui has experience in running the army, he only led a thousand people before forming the rebel army.And the rebel army expanded rapidly, and it swelled to more than 3 people in just a few months. With his ability, how could he control it?

For more than a year, various problems have emerged in an endless stream.

One is that their subordinates have formed their own factions, and there are many factions, and some forces have developed to the point where they can't control them; the second is that with the reduction of supplies in Beijing, the soldiers began to gradually become restless.But when they first came to Beijing, they only wanted to indulge in pleasure and had no long-term plans, so there was neither restraint nor military orders in the army.This led to the fact that the soldiers were not loyal at all and had no combat effectiveness at all.

They found that the soldiers in the army could not be mobilized, so they wanted to arrest people from the people to serve in the army, but found that because they had indulged their subordinates in looting for a long time, the common people in the capital were almost killed, and even the people who served in the army could not be caught.

Thanks to Qin Wangjun's suspicion of each other, he dared not use troops against them.Otherwise, if any army came, they would not have the confidence to defend the capital.Now that the little emperor is dead again, they don't even have the bargaining chip to threaten them. No matter how they think about it, the prospects are bleak.

Everyone couldn't hold their opinions, and turned their attention to Guo Jinli, waiting for his decision.

A group of officers of the rebel army have begun to feel worried. Unexpectedly, Guo Jinli's thoughts are completely different from theirs.The imperial city is too prosperous, you can eat whatever you want, and there are so many beauties in the harem, Guo Jinli has no intention of leaving here and returning to Taiyuan.

——Huang Dongxuan rushed to him that day, and instead of chasing him, he led his troops to retreat.Now Qin Wang's army has also withdrawn, and the crisis is over.This further proves that his fate is predestined.That being the case, what is there to worry about?Perhaps, he accidentally killed the little emperor, but it was God who reminded him...

So under the eager eyes of everyone, Guo Jinli said slowly: "Choose an auspicious day for me. It's been more than a year, and I should be emperor too."

Everyone: "...!!!"

=====

A long supply team of charcoal trucks and grain trucks came to the foot of the capital.

Although King Qin's army did not attack the capital earlier, they surrounded the capital for a long time and cut off the city's supplies.One winter passed, and all the charcoal in the city had been burned.The city gate has been closed for many days, and now because of the withdrawal of King Qin's army, a small gate has finally been reopened for people to pass through.

The supply team was stopped by the soldiers guarding the city gate. The soldiers first checked the team's letter, and then opened the lids of the baskets on the car to check one by one. After confirming that there was nothing else in it, the soldiers waved and let them go.

Vehicles entered the city one after another, and the team pushing the carts walked towards the imperial city.

The soldiers guarding the city didn't see it. When the sun shone on the carts, the corners of some carts glowed with metal—many weapons were hidden under the panels of these carts.However, the soldiers who inspected just now only briefly checked the baskets on the vehicle board, and did not check under the vehicle body.

The leader of the convoy looked up at the sundial on the city tower.

It's the hour of the hour.

After half an hour, something big will happen in the city.

——A major event that is about to shake the world.

=====

Liu Song stood on the high ground, Xie Wuchen stood beside him, and below the high ground was an army of thousands of people.They saw an army of hundreds or thousands approaching them not far away.

Liu Song's eyes were not very good, he squinted his eyes for a while and still couldn't see clearly, but he heard Xie Wuchen at the side say: "It's Fengxiang Army."

"Oh..." Liu Song thought silently in his heart, and said, "It's almost here."

Now entrenched on the high ground are troops from various prefectures from all corners of the country.

——Not long ago, the armies of various governments had indeed retreated.However, when everyone had just withdrawn or hadn't withdrawn, the Jiangning Army suddenly sent envoys to report to the armies of the various prefectures, informing them that the Yanzhou Army was secretly planning, and they wanted to wait for all the armies to leave. The emperor controls the court and orders the world.

It has to be said that Xie Wuchen and Liu Jingfeng did guess exactly what Xie Wuji was thinking.

And this news also shocked the princes from all walks of life.

As far as the princes are concerned, they certainly hope to save the emperor and the court from the rebels—at least they did think so when they first sent troops to the Central Plains.However, during the long consumption, the princes' ideas have changed.

People gradually realized that it might be difficult for them to get any benefits from the battle of King Qin.So the current situation is not so bad - since you can't benefit yourself, just don't let others benefit.If the imperial court exists in name only, it can separate one side by itself.This is not necessarily a bad thing.Because of this, in the later period of Qinwanghuimeng, except for the Guangjin Mansion and Henan Mansion, which were deeply troubled by the rebellion, most people had already lost their interest in suppressing bandits.

So at this time, most of the princes from all walks of life were disgusted when they learned that Xie Wuji wanted to serve as queen alone.Xie Wuji is certainly capable, but most people look down on him.One must know that if Xie Wuchen or other members of the Xie family were to control the imperial court, some princes might still consider it. At least the Xie family has a lot of power and friendship everywhere, and they can become relatives with as many nobles as possible.But Xie Wuji had already rebelled against Xie's family, in the eyes of the dignitaries, he was not much different from Zhu Nao, Huang Dongxuan and even Guo Jinli.No one is happy to see such a person in power.

As for whether Xie Wuji is really capable of taking the capital, people have no doubts.When they were asked to attack the rebels by themselves, they were always worried about how powerful the rebels would be and how much damage they would cause to themselves; but when Xie Wuji was asked to fight, everyone thought calmly from the perspective of bystanders, and felt that the rebels Vulnerable, he must not be Xie Wuji's opponent.

As a result, the princes from all walks of life were unwilling to let the Yanzhou Army succeed in serving as king—of course, even if Xie Wuji really occupied the court, they might not listen to Xie Wuji's orders.But Xie Wuji earned the reputation of being lonely and brave, and let Xie Wuji take possession of his reputation, so there will inevitably be many unnecessary troubles in the future.

That being the case, why not prevent trouble before it happens?

So throughout the winter, the armies of the various prefectures reached a rare agreement—except for a few armies who did not want to participate in the dispute and took all the horses to leave completely, the other armies followed Xie Wuchen's suggestion, and the army withdrew home to go to spring plowing, but secretly stayed behind. The next elite army of 800 men will block Yanzhou Army King Qin.Or to put it in a more grandiose way, they want to stay to stop Xie Thief's plot to hold the emperor hostage.

Really let Xie Wuchen know for sure, Xie Wuji led his troops to retreat pretendingly, but in fact he only retreated for more than a hundred miles and then stopped and hibernated near a mountain forest, and did not return to Guanzhong at all.

They didn't know Xie Wuji's specific plan, but after many days of tracking, they got the news that the Yanzhou Army began to divide its troops and move their camps to march.

In other words, the Yanzhou Army's operation has begun!

So Xie Wuchen, who got the news, immediately reported to the various armies, and the people from all walks of life who got the news reacted very quickly, and immediately came to intercept Xie Wuji on the road that Xie Wuji must pass through!

The small groups of troops gradually gathered and merged, and finally they pulled out a rather imposing army.

Liu Song stroked his beard and said: "Then thank you thief..." He was going to scold Xie Wuji, but as soon as the words came out, he realized that it was not appropriate to say such words in front of Xie Wuchen, so he quickly stopped talking.

Xie Wuchen didn't argue with him, and said coldly: "The thief has evil intentions and plans for evil, and he must not let the emperor fall into his hands."

Liu Song nodded again and again: "Yes, that's right. There is also Zhu Nao from the Chengdu Mansion, who is also a thief who usurped power. He is so close to the Yanzhou Army, they are all the same!"

Previously, he was cheated of a large amount of money by Shu merchants, and he failed to get the result he expected in King Qin, so he was so angry that he wanted to wait for an opportunity to take revenge.

Xie Wuchen laughed.

After the troops from all the prefectures gathered, the officers gathered together and were about to discuss countermeasures when they heard someone rushing to report——

"Yanzhou Army is here!!"

"What?!" Everyone exclaimed in surprise, "Here you come so soon??"

……

the other end.

Xie Wuji divided the army into several groups, and he personally led [-] elite soldiers as the vanguard, and galloped towards the capital.Zhu Nao and Cheng Jingzhe also selected a small group of elites from the Shu army to accompany them.

The army was on their way quickly, and the spies they sent to explore the way ahead came back with panicked expressions.

"General, something is wrong!" the spy said, "There is an army of thousands of people ahead!"

"What?" Xie Wuji immediately frowned.He had sent people to investigate for a long time. It is said that he would not encounter rebels on the road he chose. How could it be...

The spy said: "It's a mixed team from various government armies! They must know our plan!"

Xie Wuji couldn't help but tighten his grip on the rein.

The armies of various prefectures are actually mixed together? !

He did find out that after some troops withdrew, he left a small team in the Central Plains to continue to observe the changes in the situation in the Central Plains.However, he thought they just hadn't given up on Qin Wang Huimeng.And those troops also deliberately avoided his eyes and ears, carefully hiding and covering up, but they really didn't let him see the flaws.

It was only at this moment that he suddenly realized that those remaining teams were not going for the rebels in Beijing, but were coming for him!

However, his action has already been arranged, and it is too late to cancel or change it now.

Two thousand soldiers were still moving forward, and the mixed armies from various prefectures had already formed a phalanx in the middle of the road, but after a while, the two sides had already met face to face.

The Yanzhou Army stopped in front of the troops blocking the way, and the soldiers were bewildered and surprised.Xie Wuji immediately stepped forward and came to the front of the army.After a moment of delay, the Shu army in the rear had already followed, Zhu Nao and Cheng Jingzhe also followed on horseback.

I saw Liu Song, Xie Wuchen and other officers left by the army standing on the high ground, watching them condescendingly.And the troops lined up in front were wearing all kinds of military uniforms. Although there were no more than 6000 people before, there were still [-] to [-] people.

Among the various armies, Liu Song has the highest status, and he is the only governor who stays here.So he finally got his wish and temporarily became the leader of the allied army.

Seeing the arrival of the Yanzhou Army, he stood on the highest point and shouted impassionedly: "Where is Xie Wuji? Come out and answer!"

Xie Wuji stood in front of the army, looked at him coldly, and did not answer.

Liu Song had already seen him, and Xie Wuji didn't answer, which made him a little embarrassed.However, he continued to shout: "Xie Wuji! You are originally a courtier, and you should serve the country. But you have ulterior motives and hidden evil intentions! Earlier, the princes of the world gathered in the Central Plains to discuss plans for thieves, and you repeatedly perfunctory, evaded, As a result, the King Qin League collapsed! Now that all the armies are withdrawing, you are raising an unknown army to go to the capital alone. How can you be so cruel?!"

In words, the responsibility for the failure of the King Qin Huimeng was actually pushed onto Xie Wuji's head.

The Yanzhou Army was in an uproar.

Xie Wuji raised his eyes to look at him, and then stayed for a moment on Xie Wuchen who was not far away from him, and then swept to the other officers.

The sunlight was a bit dazzling, but he restrained the urge to squint and reflected the faces deeply into his eyes.

Then he looked at the army ahead.Before that, he had always believed that it was extremely difficult for more than three armies of different forces to stand side by side, but the facts proved that he had fought battles for so many years, and he had never really seen much.The phalanx of nearly ten different armies lined up in front of them looked very harmonious, which was really eye-opening.

What Liu Song said was so nonsensical, so nonsensical that Xie Wuji had the urge to laugh out loud, but he lacked the desire to justify.

So the two sides fell into a stalemate.

The soldiers of the Yanzhou Army had high morale from the beginning, but gradually fell into a dazed mood.

Wu Cong was behind Xie Wuji, obviously panicked, his voice trembling: "General, what should we do now?"

He has been fighting with Xie Wuji for so many years, and he has never encountered such a situation.The team in front of them should not be enemies or friends, but they are clearly blocking the way they must pass.This army does not seem to have the idea of ​​actively attacking them, but it is ready to fight, and if they want to pass, the two sides will fight.

With Xie Wuji's temper, he would not fight such an unprepared and meaningless battle.

But the surprise soldiers they sent had already sneaked into the capital, and when the time came, those people would attack inside the city and occupy the city gates so that their elite could enter the city smoothly.There is still a large army rushing to help in the rear, and everything has been arranged.The opportunity is very short, once missed, the rebels will regain control of the city gate, and the internal agents they sent will also fall into the hands of the rebels.

If you missed this time, will there be such an opportunity next time?When will we wait?

--Do not!wrong!

What should be considered now is not whether they can break into the capital, but when the mixed armies of various governments stand here, Xie Wuji's whole plan is meaningless.

They worked as kings because they wanted to take control of the court in a legitimate way, and then restore the order of the world based on the emperor and the court.But now the representatives of most of the forces in the world have stood in his way, trying to destroy his reputation, and told him clearly: they will never surrender to him.

There is no reason to fight this battle anymore.

In the distance, curling green smoke rose.

That was the direction of the capital, and it was a signal that the Yanzhou army's surprise soldiers had successfully occupied the tower.

The world seems to have fallen into an eerie silence, only the snorting of war horses restless.

Suddenly, there was a slow sound of horse hooves, Xie Wuji turned his head to look, and saw Zhu Nao not far away riding a horse approaching him.

Xie Wuji already guessed what Zhu Nao wanted to say.During this time, he had heard Junao say many times that his plan would not work.

Junau was right, but he didn't want to hear it again.

The war horse under his crotch seemed to be aware of his emotions, and kicked the ground with its front hooves uneasily.

At this moment, a warm hand pressed his hand holding the rein.Only then did he realize that his froze hands were shaking uncontrollably.

"Thank you, General."

Xie Wuji turned his face sideways again.I saw Zhu Nao's eyes were crooked, even at this time, there was still a smile on his face.

Zhu Nao smiled, and said in a relaxed tone, "No matter what the consequences are, I will stay with General Xie."

Xie Wuji was stunned.

Wu Cong was taken aback, and cast his eyes on Zhu Nao: "Zhu Fu Yin??"

Is Zhu Nao trying to persuade Xie Wuji to continue playing?Is he crazy? ? ?

Jing Zhe was also stunned, and immediately put his hand on the saber, looking at the army in front of him.

Xie Wuji looked at Zhu Nao steadfastly, his eyes flickering.

After a long time, he finally spoke, his voice slightly hoarse: "Zhu Fu Yin..."

"Ok?"

He seemed to have a lot to say, but in the end he only asked one question: "Are you sure you can handle it?"

"Not sure." Jun Nao chuckled, "If you don't try, how will you know?"

Xie Wuji looked at him deeply, his eyes flickering more and more intensely.The emotion in his eyes was rarely as strong as this.

There are too many people in this world who hinder him and stop him.There are few people who help him.But this was the first time someone told him that they were willing to help him with the ride.Moreover, it is a person who is qualified to say this sentence.

It was a sentence that he never dared to think about, but actually felt sad about it.

After a long time, he finally withdrew his gaze from Zhu Nao's face: "Master Zhu, come to the back." He turned the rein of the horse and walked towards the rear of the army.Zhu Nao, Cheng Jingzhe and others followed.

Seeing Xie Wuji retreating, the mixed army of princes breathed a sigh of relief.Liu Song, Xie Wuchen and others also showed joy on their faces.The Yanzhou Army is about to withdraw!They did it!

However, Xie Wuji just retreated to the command position, and then calmly ordered to the messenger: "Accord with the original plan."

The messenger was stunned, not sure what order he heard, so he couldn't help but look at Xie Wuji with a look of proof.

Xie Wuji repeated his order loudly: "Strike!"

The messenger froze for a moment, and swallowed hard.Then he took a deep breath and blew the horn in his hand.

The sound of the high-spirited horn resounded throughout the world, and the soldiers of the Yanzhou Army were amazed at the first sound;

The second sound, the soldiers of the Yanzhou Army gradually cheered up;

At the third sound, the soldiers of the Yanzhou Army pulled out their weapons, shouted loudly, and rushed forward!

The officers of the princes' army turned pale with fright, and the soldiers of the princes' army quickly fell into a panic.Is Xie Wu insane? ?Is the Yanzhou Army crazy? ?how so? !

The ground shook in the charge of thousands of troops, Xie Wuji felt the blood in his body boiling.

He never seemed so clear about what he was going to do.But he never knew what he was doing.

Some things are completely out of control at this moment.