Chapter 324 Letter of Persuasion

The emperor is gone, and foreign enemies are marching southwards towards Chang'an.

The city of Chang'an fell into unprecedented panic.

In recent days, some families have left Chang'an City and returned to their hometowns.

Just when people were in such a panic, He Tingfang actually sent someone to deliver a letter to Chang'an.

Not only Heishan Prefecture received the letter, but all the officials, noble families, and wealthy businessmen in the capital also received it.

The letter was nailed to the door panels of each house, but there was no sign of the messenger.

I have to say, this way of delivering letters is a bit like the style of Black Bandit Mountain.

The envelope was clearly written with "Letter to Chang'an" and "Respectfully submitted by He Tingfang".

Families in the capital were busy unfolding the letter while cursing He Tingfang, the traitor who collaborated with the enemy.

The letter read:

[The dynasty you serve has been ignorant for a long time!]

The current emperor is suspicious by nature and slaughters his meritorious officials; members of the royal family kill each other and blood is splattered in the palace.

In the cases of Pei and Xue prefectures in the past, I did block their reinforcements and fabricate evidence, but it was actually instructed by the current emperor.

The late emperor's sudden death and the murder of Crown Prince Minghuai were both secretly orchestrated by the current emperor and the empress dowager. Now, I hear that they have perished in the palace one after another. This is the clear manifestation of Heaven's will, retribution without fail.

How can we trust a court that kills the king and relatives and persecutes loyal officials?

Everyone in Chang'an was stunned after reading the first page.

The Pei family case has been reversed again and again. Who is telling the truth?

In Heishan Mansion, Hao Ren and others were also quite surprised when they read it.

They had originally planned to announce Murong Yu's crimes to the world later, but He Tingfang actually did it first.

He Tingfang really doesn't care about his reputation at all.

He did not take this opportunity to protest his innocence and shift all the blame, but directly admitted that he had forged evidence and obstructed reinforcements going to the northwest.

Such straightforwardness actually makes what he said in the letter more credible.

Some people in the capital were shocked that Murong Yu could be so stupid and deserved to be put to death.

When Song Ping's family read this, they had already started cursing the dog emperor.

Look at the next page of letter paper:

[Today, Tiele Khan is sent by heaven to punish the criminals, and his cavalry is approaching the city. Considering the innocence of your people, I hereby issue this decree:

All those who surrendered, whether officials, civilians, or merchants, were allowed to keep their lives and live and work in peace. Those who wished to serve as officials could continue to do so; those who wished to engage in business could continue to do so.

If you insist on resisting or abandon the city and flee, you will be at the mercy of the swords and arrows and it will be too late to regret.

If they open the city and surrender within three days, they will be treated with courtesy; if they resist stubbornly, they will be killed without mercy when the city is captured.

Life and death, disaster and happiness, all depend on your thoughts, so don't make mistakes.

After the letter was read, many people tore it up and continued to curse, then packed up their things and ran away.

They didn't want to surrender, but they didn't want to die either.

That bastard He Tingfang said they would arrive in three days, and if we didn't run away now it would be too late.

Master Zhang, who was recuperating at home, lay in bed, listening to his grandchildren read letters to him.

After hearing the last part, Zhang Taifu burst into tears and lamented:

"Dayu's life is coming to an end."

Tutor Zhang lay on the bed crying, refusing to get up and unable to get up.

He said he didn't want to run away and wanted to live and die with Chang'an.

Old Madam Zhang didn't listen to him. She asked her family to pack up their things quickly and wait until Master Zhang fainted from crying. Then she carried him to the carriage and left.

Their family was already considered late.

The Yan family who lived in the same neighborhood had long since left.

When Old Lady Yan and Miss Yan San heard that Tiele Khan had reneged on the peace talks, they had already packed up their things and left the capital.

They also took Mrs. Yuan and Yuan Caiwei away.

In Heishan Mansion, after everyone finished reading the letter together, they only spent half a cup of tea to discuss and decide to leave.

Chang'an's existing military strength is definitely no match for Tiele Khan.

Once Tiele Khan enters the capital, He Tingfang will definitely use Tiele Khan's power to take revenge on Hao Ren. He will certainly not forget the hatred of Hao Ren forging evidence.

Hao Ren is smart, good at planning and understanding people's hearts.

But this does not mean that he can calculate everything in the future.

He was not a fortune teller and could not predict that Tiele Khan would suddenly send troops and then suddenly change his mind.

It was unpredictable that the Crown Prince would be provoked to fall down prematurely by Ning An, it was unpredictable that the palace coup would happen early, and it was unpredictable that the Black Mountain Army would be blocked by summer floods.

What he can do is to try to make favorable decisions when the situation suddenly changes.

Hao Ren: "We have to retreat at this time. I'm sorry to trouble you all."

Hua Erniang laughed: "How can this be called an injustice? It's common for people in the martial arts world to chase each other and escape."

Everyone says that running for your life is not shameful!

Bai Xun didn't say anything polite and asked directly:

"When are we leaving? Where are we going?"

"We'll leave in an hour. As for where to go—"

Hao Ren looked at Master Mingdeng who was sitting quietly in the corner.

"I wonder if the master still has a place to stay outside the capital?"

Mingdeng's eyebrows twitched.

Of course he does.

In addition to Mount Tzu-Kuang, he also had a secret residence for his future seclusion.

He didn't intend to let Hao Ren know, so he shook his head:

"No."

Hao Ren smiled, "Monks should not tell lies. The master just told me that in the future I will only practice Buddhism devoutly and be a responsible monk."

"Could it be that what the master just said is not credible?"

The fat on Mingdeng's face trembled:

"……have."

Hao Ren nodded: "Then I'll have to trouble you, Master."

Mingdeng quickly said "Amitabha" and almost wanted to commit bad karma again.

Pei Lingyun, this fox, took his mountain of gold and manpower, and even lived in his house!

After all these years, he finally had to admit that even if he didn't give Pei Lingyun three stones in chess, he still couldn't win...

Heishan Mansion packed up its things in a hurry.

Su Zhizhi took a big package and stuffed all the small things in her room and her mother's belongings into it.

When she loaded her package into the car, she found that her package was actually the smallest one.

The villagers of Heishan Prefecture packed up everything in a flash.

Qiu Jinyu even brought a pot of chicken from the kitchen.

Su Zhizhi looked at the many carriages behind:

"What's in the back?"

The villagers said, "It's filled with food and cloth, which are important things. If a war breaks out, even gold and silver can't buy them."

Su Zhizhi was puzzled:

"Have we stockpiled so much food? When did we have so many carriages?"

Old Xu said: "Yes, yes, yes, hurry up and get in the car and go——"

Mingdeng and his group of monks didn't bring anything with them and got into the carriage directly.

The capital of Dayu is very large, with a population of nearly 800,000 living in its 108 districts.

Excluding those who decided to stay and surrender or resist, there were still hundreds of thousands of people leaving Beijing.

Because there were too many people trying to escape at once, huge crowds gathered at the city gates and the lines out of the city were very long.

No one was willing to give way to anyone else, and everyone was pushing forward.

The imperial guards guarding the city gate had long been dispersed by the flow of people and were unable to stop them at all.

The advantage of Heishan Prefecture being close to the city gate became apparent at this time.

After a few steps, they arrived at the city gate. After waiting in line for a while, they were able to leave the city smoothly.

Although many people rushed out, some people in Chang'an City also wanted to stay.

Most of these people had colluded with He Tingfang before. They felt that the fact that He Tingfang could write such a letter to represent the attitude of the Tiele Khanate showed that He Tingfang's words carried a lot of weight.

They might be able to use He Tingfang's connections to get close to Tiele Khan's power and get benefits, and perhaps even live a better life than they do now.

Rather than giving up everything that he had painstakingly built up over the years in Beijing, he might as well take a gamble with He Tingfang.

This is the case with the Minister of Revenue Fu Qian.

It was not easy for him to get the position of Minister of Revenue, and he was unwilling to give up the high position and generous salary.

Even if Dayu died, so what? In this world, no matter if one's surname is Murong or any other, there must be an official appointed by the court.

Murong was gone, but he still wanted to continue to be the superior man.

In addition, he had a lot of collusion with He Tingfang in the past, so why not cooperate with He Tingfang now?

Fu Qian decided to stay and take advantage of the chaos to make money from the national treasury.

Some people in Beijing decided to leave, some decided to stay, and a few families had internal disagreements.

Prince Gong's Mansion.

The imperial guards outside finally withdrew.

Because the capital city did not have enough troops to defend against foreign enemies, there was no time to surround the palace.

What's more, Murong Yu, who gave the order, is no longer here.

The front yard of Prince Gong's Mansion was in chaos, with many horse-drawn carriages and donkey carts parked there.

The housekeeper directed the servants to carry boxes of things onto the car.

Murong Xun ordered the housekeeper to pack up everything today and leave the city before evening.

He was immersed in grief and shock for the past two days, but when he heard that Tiele Khan's troops would arrive in the capital in three days, he was so frightened that he ignored his grief and was busy escaping.

Officials in the court and ordinary people may still be able to choose whether to stay.

But he was a legitimate prince and a member of the royal family. After Tiele Khan entered the capital, the first group of people he would probably kill were Dayu's royal relatives.

"Your Highness, the warehouse... was robbed and some things are missing." The butler counted three times and told Murong Xun anxiously.