Qin Zhen's army is already in Qinzhou. The world is in chaos now. Lu Ze is really worried about Lu Yun and orders his soldiers to look for Lu Yun in the surrounding areas.

When the funeral procession returned to the Huang Mansion, it was already the next morning. It had rained intermittently during the night, and the journey was not easy. If it were not for the urgent military situation, they would not have been in such a hurry to travel.

In the Huang Mansion, Qi Yuning bathed, changed his clothes, and went to the hall to eat.

When Chen Nian returned home, he was so tired and sick that he could not get up anymore, and he did not even have lunch.

Chen Qian toasted Qi Yu'an, Lu Ze and Qi Yuning with a glass of wine and said, "Thank you, Prince Qi, Prince Lu, and Princess Qi for helping my Chen Nian regain justice. This glass of wine is for you all."

Qi Yu'an raised his glass and said, "Mr. Shen, you are too polite. Shen Nian is also my former sister. This is what I should do."

Lu Ze and Qi Yuning both drank up the wine in their glasses.

Qi Yuning asked, "Qin Zhen's troops are almost at Longzhou. His sister and nephew are dead, so I'm afraid he will do his best to attack Longzhou City. Are you leaving for Shuofang today?"

Ning Wen nodded and said, "Wait for Nian'er to rest for a while. We will leave Longzhou and return to Lingzhou after 3 pm. If you have any difficulties, you can come to Lingzhou to find us."

Qi Yuning nodded and said, "Yes."

…

Shen Nian returned to her room and closed her eyes. Half asleep, she could only see every detail of her time with Huang Rui. "Husband!"

"I am here."

Shen Nian heard a man's voice and woke up in shock. Seeing Lu Yun coming in through the window, wet all over, she was terrified, "Lu Yun!"

Lu Yun was shivering, his face wet with rain. He stepped forward and cried, "My dear, someone drugged me and wanted to separate us. I would not leave you, so I ran back secretly. My dear, I have been here in the rain all night and waited for you for a whole day..."

Seeing Lu Yun's pitiful appearance, Shen Nian knew that if Lu Yun hadn't saved her that day, she would have died long ago.

Lu Yun is now insane. Thinking of the little Lu Yun who ran in from the dog hole when she was young, who would give her many new toys and help her to make her stepmother happy, seeing him now wet and helpless crying, Shen Nian also felt sympathy.

Shen Nian said to Lu Yun: “Ahem, I’m really not your wife, but you said you don’t recognize anyone now, I can let you stay with me, ahem, until you recover your memory.”

Lu Yun said: "Great, I can be with my wife!"

Shen Nian remembered Qi Yuning and Lu Ze's concerns about Lu Yun just now, so she forced herself to get up and took Lu Yun to meet Lu Ze and Qi Yuning.

Seeing Lu Yun, all wet, following Shen Nian'e, Lu Ze stepped forward and said, "Yun'er, why did you sneak away? Do you know how worried we are about you?!"

Lu Yun looked at Lu Ze unhappily and said, "You are not my biological brother. If you were my biological brother, why would you drug me?"

Shen Nian pulled Lu Yun’s sleeve: “He is your biological brother.”

Chen Nian said to Lu Ze again: "Ahem, Master Lu, Princess, I think that now that Prince Lu only recognizes me, we should not embarrass him. The world outside is in chaos, and it is dangerous for him to run around alone. Why don't I take him to Lingzhou first and ask a famous doctor to treat him in Lingzhou... What do you think?"

Qi Yuning and Lu Ze looked at each other. This was the only way they had now.

Lu Ze said: "This is too difficult for you."

Shen Nian said: "After all, he is my savior, so it's not difficult."

Lu Yun smiled at Shen Nian and said, “I won’t let my wife embarrass me!”

Seeing Lu Yun following Shen Nian, Lu Ze sighed softly, "Thank you for your help. If he does anything abrupt to you, just teach him a lesson. Don't be hindered by his identity."

Shen Nian nodded very weakly.

At 3 p.m., Qi Yuning and Lu Ze escorted Shen Qian, Ning Wen, and Shen Nian out of the city gate.

The young boy Shen Yuqi, who was riding on a big horse, walked up to Qi Yuning and said, "Sister Qi, when I grow up I want to join the Qi Family Army, is that okay?"

Qi Yuning touched Shen Yuqi's head and said, "Of course you can, but you have to practice martial arts well and read military books. When you grow up, the door of the Qi Family Army will be open for you."

After watching the Shen family leave, Qi Yuning looked at Lu Ze and said, "Do you want to write a letter to the princess to explain Lu Yun's amnesia?"

Lu Ze said, "Let's wait a little longer. The doctors in Lingzhou must be better than those in Longzhou City. If they can cure Yun'er, my mother won't have to worry in vain."

Qi Yuning said: "Well, Qin Zhen is coming with his troops, it will be a fierce battle. They can go all the way to Qinzhou, which means that in the future, Qinzhou, Qinzhou, Shanzhou, Chang'an, and Shangzhou will not be able to win without fighting like Liangzhou and Longzhou did."

After returning to the city, Qi Yuning and Lu Ze separated. Qi Yuning went to check on the military rations, while Lu Ze discussed the battle plan with Qi Yu'an.

On the hottest day of June, accompanied by a thunderstorm, the largest civil war in Dasheng in nearly forty years broke out at Sanlipo outside Longzhou City.

Qi Yuning was in the medicine shed of the military camp. Seeing the Qi family soldiers coming in one after another and getting injured, he instructed the accompanying military doctor: "No matter what, every soldier must be treated with all our strength. Don't worry about whether the medicine is precious or not. We have enough medicine now."

The military doctors responded in unison.

This fierce battle with Qin Zhen's army lasted for a whole month, and the Qi army was approaching Shanzhou City.

The moment he stepped into Shanzhou City, Qi Yuning couldn't believe the scene before him. There were groups of skinny people eating tree bark, young and old. When they saw a mouse, they swarmed over and grabbed the mouse, wanting to eat its meat.

Even the swallows flying in the sky are eaten by some people.

Qi Yuning saw a few old men trying to pluck the swallows' feathers, so he stepped forward and said, "You can't eat them. The swallows are full of poison. If you eat them, you will die."

The Shanzhou people who were eating swallows ignored Qi Yuning. "Eating swallows will poison us. If we don't eat swallows, we won't be able to survive today. We haven't eaten for three days and three nights. In the past month, we have almost eaten all the tree bark."

Qi Yuning looked at Lu Ze beside him and asked, "Has Shanzhou encountered a disaster?"

Lu Ze shook his head and said, "No, after the disaster four years ago, Shanzhou City should have a lot of food reserves, so the people in the city would not have fallen into such a state."

"It's all because of you officials. You don't care about the lives of us ordinary people just for your own private words and for the sake of your high position!"

"It's so hard! Being a commoner is such a hard life!"

Qi Yuning asked repeatedly: "Since there was no disaster, why did it become like this?"

"When the soldiers passed by Shanzhou City, they first came to the people's homes and robbed them of all their food and silver. All the strong men in the families were taken to serve as soldiers, and the pretty daughters in the families were also raped by them. Now you want food but we don't have any, and you still ask us to eat swallows. Why?"

Qi Yuning was so angry that he clenched the reins and said, "Those Qin family beasts! Don't worry, there will be food! Don't eat the swallows and mice. Wait a minute, the Qi family army will be distributing porridge at the city gate in an hour."

Lu Ze looked at Qi Yuning and said, "Our military rations are not enough to provide porridge for the people in the city. After Shanzhou City, there are Chang'an and Shangzhou. Each city is more difficult to attack than the other. If the military rations are distributed to the people of Shanzhou, I'm afraid we won't be able to hold on until Chang'an is captured!"

Qi Yuning said: "We are raising an army for the people of the world. Do I have to watch the people of a city starve to death? We will have military supplies when we reach Chang'an. The people of Shanzhou City are more important."

Qi Yuning even went to find Zhong Ming, Zhu Feng, and Zhu Yang, and asked them to send soldiers with food to various villages in Shanzhou City and distribute rice porridge at the city gates in the southeast, northwest, and northeast of the city.

Qi Yuning and Lu Ze personally distributed white porridge to the people at the north gate of the city.

Qi Yu'an came over in armor and said, "Sister, Chang'an City is easy to defend but hard to attack. Now that the military rations have been given to the people, I'm afraid it will be very difficult for us."

Qi Yuning said, "We can't just watch the people of the city die because of the Qin family's evil deeds. Besides, I have already transferred military rations from the Zhou army. It should be in time. The lives of the people of the city are more important."

Qi Yu'an sighed softly.

Qi Yuning said: "The Qin family has committed many evil things, God will not let them off."

Just as Qi Yuanan said, Chang'an was originally the capital of a prosperous country, and it was extremely easy to defend but difficult to attack.

Chang'an can be considered as Qi Yuning's fiefdom, but it is a fiefdom in name only. The city of Chang'an is occupied by aristocratic families and has always been the place with the strongest military force of the imperial court. After a long time, the military rations are a little insufficient.

Near the end of July, Chang'an was still difficult to capture, but two good news came from the north city.

One was that the summer wheat harvest was great, and the North City had already sent all the military rations over. The other was that Ah Ping had given birth to a son, weighing six pounds and six ounces...

Qi Yu'an saw the letter written by A Ping and held it tightly in his hand. Qi Yuning didn't see his brother's joy and said, "Aren't you happy that my eldest nephew was born?"

Qi Yu'an said: "I'm happy, but I feel guilty that I couldn't be with her."

Qi Yuning said, "Princess Pingrou Lu Baozhu is with us. It is a great joy for Ah Ping to have a son. The Mid-Autumn Festival is coming soon. The military pay for this month will be doubled. What do you think?"

Qi Yu'an said: "Okay."

Upon learning that A Ping had given birth, Qi Yuning was much happier than Qi Yu'an. She also received Lingling's letter. Under Lu Baohua's guidance, Lingling's calligraphy had made great progress. After almost three months of not seeing her, Lingling's handwriting could already be clearly seen.

Lu Ze looked at Lingling's letter and thought about Lingling's little hands holding the pen and writing about her cousin. He smiled softly, "It's a pity that Lingling didn't know that he was her cousin, not her brother."

Qi Yuning said: "I miss Lingling, but it's a pity that I can't have her accompany me to celebrate my birthday and Mid-Autumn Festival..."

Lu Ze said: "Come to think of it, your birthday is coming soon."