Pei Xiao had just been released from the Ministry of Justice. He changed his clothes but had no time to wash. His hair was messy and his beard had grown. He no longer looked like the gentle young man he used to be.
He bypassed the people sent by Emperor Zhou to follow him and led the few remaining soldiers all the way north. He finally caught up with them five days later.
It was evening, and the afterglow of the setting sun shrouded the top of the mountain. There were no trees on the mountain, only strange rocks and yellow earth. The dazzling sunlight shone through without any obstruction, forcing Pei Xiao to raise his arm to cover his eyes.
He squinted his eyes and vaguely saw a man and a horse standing on the top of the mountain, as if they were coated with a layer of golden light.
Pei Xiao recognized who the man was at a glance, drew his sword angrily, and shouted: "Pei Yuan! You are so brave, are you waiting for me here!"
A long whistle came from the opposite side, as if responding to him.
Wu Min realized that the situation was not good. Pei Yuan was not a reckless person. He was waiting alone, so arrogant, there must be an ambush. He wanted to remind Pei Xiao to act cautiously and not impulsive, but Pei Xiao was already furious at such perfunctory humiliation. Without waiting for Wu Min to speak, Pei Xiao clamped his legs around the horse's belly, shouted "Drive!", and ran over with a sword.
Pei Yuan drew out a long knife from his back and waited quietly. When they were only three feet away, he also shouted and rushed out.
Pei Xiao's sword came down head-on, and Pei Yuan blocked it with his sword horizontally. The friction between the iron made a harsh sound. Pei Yuan suddenly laughed and said in a teasing tone: "Third brother, you have been rushing for such a long time, I am afraid you haven't washed your face?"
Pei Xiao's eyes widened and he roared: "How dare you!" He exerted force on his arms, and the long sword went up along the blade, and suddenly turned and hit Pei Yuan in the face. Pei Yuan bent backwards to avoid it. Pei Xiao's eyes flashed, and he turned around to hit the head of the warhorse under Pei Yuan's seat. Saifeng was startled, and his hooves neighed. Pei Yuan quickly controlled the horse and moved away. Pei Xiao's sword cut the horse's tail, cutting off a tuft of hair.
Pei Yuan sighed and shook his head, "Third brother has a really dirty heart."
"I'm not arguing with you!" Pei Xiao was annoyed by his tone. The more calm Pei Yuan was, the more humiliated he felt in his heart, as if he was being played around by someone. This was a feeling he had never experienced in his life, and it made him feel depressed and almost crazy.
Pei Xiao pointed his sword at Pei Yuan's nose and said coldly, "I don't know why you are trying so hard to take my son away, but you can't succeed! I'm giving you two choices now. Either you return the dumplings to me obediently, and we'll write off the previous account and each of us will do our own thing in the future. Otherwise, I'll kidnap you and use you as a hostage in exchange for my son, but whether you still have face by then will have nothing to do with me!"
"You keep calling me your son, your son. You are so shameless." Pei Yuan replied with a faint smile. He rested his left hand on the horse's back, raised his right leg and placed it on his left knee. He raised his chin and whistled at Pei Xiao, "I have never seen a man like you. You are so happy to have raised a son for five years. You are so selfless and loving, and you are worthy of your status as a prince. When your third brother's birthday comes this year, I will personally make a green coat and a green hat for you to show my respect. I'm sure you will like it."
Pei Xiao's face changed again and again, and finally he shouted, "Come on, capture this shameless thief for me!"
The soldiers behind him obeyed the order and immediately rode forward. For a while, dust flew everywhere and there were loud shouts of killing.
Pei Yuan's face straightened.
He was waiting for this moment.
"There are thieves trying to break through the pass!" Pei Yuan raised his knife-holding hand high and shouted, "Where are the soldiers of Yangmagang? Come on, capture them!"
In an instant, there was a sound of thunder, and three thousand iron hooves rushed like a dark cloud, and dust filled the sky wherever they passed. Pei Xiao looked around and was horrified. The enemy was obviously well prepared and attacked with a siege, surrounding them like a copper wall and an iron wall. He couldn't get out at all!
His adjutant Wu Min was almost dumbfounded and asked loudly: "Your Highness, what should we do?"
"What's the point of asking him? Ask me. I know you, Xiao Wu, right?" Pei Yuan leaned forward and said with a smile, "I'll show you a way. If you put down the knife now, kneel on the ground, and call me daddy, I may be able to spare you for the sake of father-son relationship."
"How dare you!" Pei Xiao yelled, "Even if I die here today, I will cut off one of your arms to avenge me!"
He roared and rushed towards Pei Yuan. Wu Min realized his intention, waved his hand, and led the guards behind him to rush towards Pei Yuan, shouting: "Capture him alive, we still have a chance to survive!"
But their number was only a hundred, and they were as vulnerable as ants in front of three thousand. Pei Yuan controlled his horse and slowly retreated. The soldiers behind him rushed up, deliberately letting Pei Xiao go, and only surrounded Wu Min and others. But after a few breaths, Pei Xiao's bodyguards fell to the ground screaming and were silent.
Pei Xiao's face was covered in blood. He looked at Pei Yuan with wide eyes. He shouted and was about to attack again, but suddenly an arrow shot from the side and hit the horse's buttocks.
The horse was already exhausted. After being hit by the arrow, it fled in fear. Pei Xiao was caught off guard and fell to the sand. Before he could stand up, Pei Yuan came forward and cut off his hair with a knife. Then someone grabbed Pei Xiao in a panic. Pei Xiao looked up in shock. His messy hair was scattered and only reached his shoulders.
Wei Meng put it down and laughed loudly. The soldiers also laughed.
Such humiliation is worse than beheading. Pei Xiao's teeth were chattering, but his hands and feet were trapped and he could not move. He could only endure Pei Yuan approaching and whispering in his ear: "I can't kill you today, but there will be a chance sooner or later, let's wait and see. This knife is to avenge the past, and also to tell you that your head is just in my hands. Also, wash your neck well and take care of your hair when you go back. After all, I will hang your head on the city gate for public display, and your neck is too dirty to look good. , the hair is too short, I can't tie it up."
Facing Pei Xiao's hateful eyes, Pei Yuan straightened up and said with a smile: "It turned out to be the Third Prince. I didn't recognize him just now and thought he was a thief who broke into the gate. That's why I gave the wrong order and accidentally killed the prince's guards. I'm really sorry. Now the misunderstanding has been resolved. Wei Meng, send the Third Prince back."
Wei Meng obeyed the order and asked someone to pull up Pei Xiao, who was swearing, and forcibly helped him to the prepared carriage. He also got on the carriage and went all the way south.
Watching the car disappear in the distance, Pei Yuan's smile fell.
He looked around at Pei Xiao's dead bodyguards and said in a calm voice: "Let's find a good place to bury them all."
...
Fearing that Pei Xiao would cause trouble again, Wei Meng accompanied Pei Xiao for half a month and sent him all the way back to the Bashu Army's garrison before saying goodbye with a smile.
Pei Xiao was about to lose his anger. Wei
Meng's shamelessness was the same as Pei Yuan's. Perhaps they were just like the ink that sticks with them. Pei Xiao had resisted and cursed along the way, and Wei Meng mostly just smiled and comforted him, but this Wei Meng was like an unpredictable firecracker. He would smile at you one moment, and then get impatient and curse the next moment.
Pei Xiao thought to himself with self-mockery that this man was just like Pei Xiao, without rules and disrespecting the law and elders. If it weren't for his status as a prince, and if it weren't for the Emperor Zhou's repeated instructions to spare his life, Wei Meng would have really chopped off his head immediately.
He was sent back to the central military camp like a prisoner.
All his personal guards were killed or wounded. The Bashu Army was originally led by Pei Che, and there were Pei Che's confidants everywhere, most of whom treated him coldly. Pei Xiao was like a lone boat on the sea, isolated and helpless.
In the dead of night, Pei Xiao sat in his tent with a cold face drinking. When his mind was churning, he suddenly heard the curtain moving.
Looking up, a tall blue-eyed man walked in and called him with a smile: "The third prince of the Han people, are you okay?"
"Chun Yu Luan?" Pei Xiao narrowed his eyes and said, "Why don't you stay in your royal court? Why did you come to me from thousands of miles away?"
"Of course I came to rescue you." Chun Yu Luan sat down opposite him naturally, raised his glass and drank, and said with a smile, "At this point, don't you still want to cooperate with me?"
...
Pei Yuan and his friends walked slowly and arrived in Feng County ten days later.
There are nine counties in Yanbei, among which three important towns are the most important, namely Gaishan Town, Feng County, and Dai County. Gashan Town is located in the middle, Feng County and Dai County are on the two wings, like a triangle. The advantage of this distribution is that no matter which town is attacked, the other two towns can quickly send troops to support. If the other six towns are attacked, these three counties can also quickly reinforce.
Qiu Mingshan has always stationed troops in Gashan Town, and the capital of Pei Yuan's fiefdom is in Feng County. The two cities are not far apart and can be reached by fast horse in three hours.
After Pei Yuan arrived in Feng County, he immediately sent a letter to Qiu Mingshan, wanting to meet him. However, such a simple meeting did not take place until a month later.
At the beginning, Qiu Mingshan was not in Gashan Town, but went to the border for inspection. Pei Yuan waited for him for three days. Finally, he came back, but a small group of Xiongnu attacked and robbed the herdsmen's food. Such a small matter could be solved by sending a general out, but Qiu Mingshan insisted on going there in person, so Pei Yuan waited for him for another five days.
When Qiu Mingshan finally came back, Pei Yuan did not wait for his reply and immediately set off for Gashan Town. But as soon as he entered the government office, he received news from his adjutant. He said that the capital had issued an urgent order, asking Qiu Mingshan to go to the old Chanyu in person to meet. Now the war in the south is tense. If the war breaks out in the north again, the military supplies may not be able to keep up, so it is best not to mobilize troops again and solve it peacefully. Pei Yuan waited for him for another ten days.
Ten days later, it was time to change guards.
According to the laws of the Zhou Dynasty, the same corps could not be stationed in one place for more than three years, in order to prevent the leaders of the army from having too close a relationship with the local officials, which would lead to bad intentions and be detrimental to the people and the court. Therefore, the corps would change their station frequently. In addition, the soldiers in the inland areas have always been pampered and have basically never seen a real enemy. Every three years, a group of soldiers from the inland areas will be transferred to the border army to hone their skills.
Changing guards is a tedious and lengthy process. Pei Yuan naturally did not have the energy to think about Qiu Mingshan's affairs. When everything was done, nearly a month had passed.
During this period, Qiu Mingshan wrote back to him several times, saying some bland words, but he did not invite him to a small gathering as eagerly as before. Pei Yuan finally understood that Qiu Mingshan was deliberately avoiding him!
Pei Yuan no longer waited, he was ready to go to Gashan Town in person, no matter if Qiu Mingshan was on patrol or in a meeting, he had to see him!
Early in the morning, Bao Ning took care of him to wash and dress. Pei Yuan was afraid that if he delayed time, something unexpected would happen, so he didn't even have breakfast. Bao Ning had to bring him a few fried cakes and steamed buns, and sent him out with Yuanzi.
While waiting for Chen Jia to lead the horse over, Pei Yuan said to Bao Ning, "I never knew it was so difficult to see him before, as if he was possessed by a demon. Don't make any mistakes this time."
Bao Ning put his palms together in front of his chest and whispered, "God bless you."
Chen Jia led Sai Feng over, Pei Yuan breathed a sigh of relief, waved goodbye to Bao Ning, and was about to get on the horse when he suddenly saw a clerk running over and saluted, "Your Highness, the new garrison commander of Dai County, Su Wei, is here and wants to see you!"
Pei Yuan had heard of this Su Wei a long time ago. He was a disciple of the left prime minister Dong Yushu. Dong Yushu and Pei Xiao were in a clique and had always been at odds with him openly and secretly. Pei Yuan cursed Su Wei in his heart when he heard that he was transferred here, and now he heard that he came to visit, his face became even darker.
Baoning watched him take his foot off the step and cursed in a low voice.
Yuanzi took out a candy and stuffed it into Baoning's hand. Baoning smiled and put it in his mouth and asked Pei Yuan: "Are you still going?"
Pei Yuan cursed: "Going to hell!"
"Then I'm going back to sleep." Baoning took Yuanzi's hand and walked back, discussing with him, "Yuanzi, after we wake up, let's go eat the chive dumplings sold at the stall on East Street. I want to add a lot of chili!"