Chapter 519: Crying will open the city gates
The rebellion of King Fanyang was like an insignificant spark that suddenly exploded, igniting a huge fire in this late autumn.
The fire spread and burned in everyone's heart. Some people felt as if they were in a sea of fire, while others were ignited with burning ambitions.
Ten days before King Fan Yang raised his army, there was a sudden movement in the northern border. The Northern Di cavalry invaded again. With 30,000 Northern Di troops approaching the border, Cui Jing led his troops to fight.
Previously, when the Mohe invaded the border and Kangdingshan rebelled, Cui Jing led his troops to support them and camped in the Youzhou area. The fief of King Fanyang was in Youzhou.
Therefore, looking back at the rebellion of King Fan Yang at this moment, it is not difficult to find that they were wary of Cui Jing and Xuan Ce's army. In order to avoid becoming the second Kangding Mountain, they chose the moment when changes occurred in the northern border and Cui Jing had no time to split himself, and quickly launched this mutiny.
From this we can also see that King Fan Yang and Duan Shiang had already planned this and were just waiting for a suitable opportunity to take action.
At this point, regarding the court's call to summon the kings to the capital, King Fanyang Li Fu was the first person to give a clear rejection through action.
And it is foreseeable that he will not be the last.
Duan Shiang already had great prestige in the Fanyang army. This time, he took advantage of the chaos to poison the indecisive Fanyang Jiedushi, and then he quickly took control of the Fanyang army with his own vicious and decisive methods, as well as his status as a royal family member of the King of Fanyang.
Afterwards, Duan Shiang quickly marched south, commanding his troops with great force and unstoppable force.
While Duan Shiang was charging and attacking in the front, Fanyang King Li Fu took a step back, sorting out the situation and winning the hearts of the people in the rear, recruiting and expanding the military force, and quickly accumulating strength.
The sudden rebellion of the Fanyang army was almost unexpected to everyone. In addition, Duan Shiang acted extremely quickly. By the time he captured the second city, Jizhou, the news had barely reached the capital.
Below Jizhou is Xingzhou.
The governor of Xingzhou responded quickly and asked for help from Weizhou and Xiangzhou, and only then was the situation managed to be managed.
Duan Shiang failed to capture Xingzhou twice within five days, and then encountered a heavy rain, so the army temporarily stayed in Jizhou to rest.
The Cui family's ancestral home located in Qinghe County, Xingzhou, is now shrouded in this autumn rain. The ancient and deep house has blurred its original outline in the wind and rain, and all sounds are drowned in the noisy rain.
In the inner hall, members of the Cui clan were discussing matters anxiously.
The noble families that have stood for hundreds of years, when faced with the opportunity of survival, never try to look at the situation with a lucky eye.
As for the current situation in Xingzhou, they were not optimistic: "The Fanyang army is coming fiercely, Xingzhou may not be able to resist for long..."
In this way, they would have to prepare for the situation after the Fanyang army captured Xingzhou.
Once Xingzhou is broken, Qinghe will be in danger.
The old clansman had a solemn expression, but there was no fear in his eyes: "...There is a minister in the Ministry of Palace Affairs in the court who is a member of my Cui clan. The Cui family still has its roots in the capital. If the King of Fanyang wants to accomplish great things legitimately, he will not dare to start a war with my Cui clan's ancestral roots!"
"But even so, it is only a temporary stability... If King Fanyang does not kill us, he will definitely take the opportunity to make my Cui family serve him..."
"If we are reluctant to express our opinions, how can we know how patient Li Fu will be?"
"That's right... And if we fall into the hands of King Fanyang, what will the clansmen and family heads in the capital do?"
Everyone fell into deep thought for a while.
The threats they faced now came not only from King Fan Yang, but also from the surrounding bandits and rioters who were waiting for an opportunity to cause chaos because of King Fan Yang's rebellion.
Those bandits and rioters wanted to emulate Bian Chunliang in massacring and looting the nobles, and they had gathered together to attack the Cui family more than once in recent days.
But the Cui family was not an ordinary aristocratic family. Not only did they store up a large amount of food, ancestral property, and books, they also had a considerable number of slaves. Together with the servants on various farms, there were more than 5,000 people.
This does not include the thousands of elite soldiers and warriors who were secretly kept in Qinghe.
Therefore, those rioters and bandits never gained any benefit at all.
But this is not a long-term solution. The situation will only become more chaotic, and there will be more rioters... No matter how strong a tree is, it cannot withstand the constant gnawing of insects and ants day and night.
Although their forces were more than enough to deal with the rioters temporarily, once they really faced the fierce and huge Fanyang Army, it would be like hitting a rock with an egg...
Therefore, it was almost obvious that they would be controlled by King Fan Yang next.
When all the tribesmen in the hall were discussing solemnly, a young man with lotus-pink skin came out of the rain and strode into the hall.
Yihu closed the umbrella behind the young man in pink.
Everyone in the hall subconsciously looked at the young man who walked in.
The handsome young man opened his mouth and said, "... Uncles and uncles, what are we waiting for now? Just run!"
Run? This word, which was not at all prudent, made the people in the hall change color. The oldest old man frowned and said, "Liu Lang! If you want to discuss this matter with me, sit down and listen!"
"Uncle, once the rain stops, the Fanyang Army will attack the city again. How can we have time to listen and talk?" Cui Lang was not afraid of the old man's majesty at all, and continued to say: "The situation is so unfavorable. If we don't run away, are we stupid enough to stay here and wait for the Fanyang Army to come to us?"
The old man turned pale with anger when he heard this.
Another middle-aged clan member looked at Cui Lang with a look of anger at him for not fighting back: "Liu Lang... This is Qinghe, the ancestral home of our Cui family. If we run away like this, how can we face our ancestors in the future?"
"You are the eldest son of the Cui family, but you only know how to escape when things go wrong. How can you manage the Cui family in the future if you are so irresponsible? How can you convince everyone?"
Ever since Cui Jing was expelled from the clan, Cui Lang has been regarded by the clan as a potential future head of the family.
But this seedling is really worrying.
Facing those disappointed looks and accusations, Cui Lang did not feel ashamed at all - were they kidding? Ever since he could remember, he had grown up surrounded by such disappointed looks. Would he be afraid of this? Instead, his voice became even louder: "If the King of Fanyang, Li Fu, had some shamelessness, he might still deal with us for a while!"
"But if he is shameless and crazy at heart, and imitates Bian Chunliang and kills us all when he gets angry, what can we do?"
"Either the hundreds of people in our ancestral home will be controlled by King Fanyang, and we will become hostages, leaving our grandfather and father in the capital with their hands and feet tied; or we will all become unjustly dead ghosts and go to the underworld to meet the ancestors of the Cui family. When we meet in the underworld, will you uncles feel proud?"
“You…” The old man’s lips trembled with anger, and he pointed at Cui Lang: “Kick him out!”
This playboy was sent back to Qinghe from the capital by the master of the family and handed over to him for care. At first he was full of confidence, believing that there was no playboy in the Cui family that he could not discipline. But day by day he felt... this playboy was really beyond teachability!
He even began to doubt, is it possible that the Cui family is really doomed? Otherwise, how could the eldest branch of the Cui family produce so many rebellious people! "No need for you to attack me, I will leave by myself!"
As Cui Lang turned around and walked out angrily, the hall was filled with helpless sighs.
However, the next moment, Cui Lang, who had reached the threshold, paused, then suddenly turned around and strode back.
“……?” Everyone in the Cui family looked at him inexplicably.
"...I won't leave. I haven't finished talking yet!" Cui Lang stood in the hall, his expression more determined than before, looking at the elder sitting at the top: "Uncle, do you know what the Cui family relied on to get started?"
The old man pursed his lips tightly, suppressed his anger, and said firmly: "In this case, you can tell me, what is your basis?"
Cui Lang: "I don't know what it is based on."
The anger that the elder had just suppressed was about to rise again, and the young man continued, "But I know that it must not be the so-called stubborn character that my uncle is unwilling to give up at this time!"
"The character of the Cui family is the result of hundreds of years of splendid literature and literature! This is something acquired, like a piece of gorgeous clothing, but it should not become a shackle on us!"
"I believe that true character and responsibility are never about stubbornness and inflexibility, but about the determination and courage to advance when it is time to advance, retreat when it is time to retreat, and not fear death when it is time to die!"
"What the Cui family wants to pass down is not this cold old house, nor the rich ancestral property here, but us, the descendants of the Cui family!"
"If we live, the Qinghe Cui family lives. If we die, the Qinghe Cui family dies!"
As the young man spoke in a powerful voice, the hall became quieter than it was at the beginning.
In the silence, the young man dropped his robe and knelt down.
"Uncle, after the fall of the Zheng family, the Cui family still exists, but it is no longer the unshakable Cui family it once was. And the world is no longer the orderly and controllable world it once was—"
The voice of this sentence was no longer as loud as before, but it made the old man at the top of the table lose consciousness for a moment.
The old man looked at the boy kneeling there.
The boy was naturally very young and lively, as beautiful and light as a colorful bird, with an air of soaring spirit that was not restrained by layers of rules.
Soon, behind the young man, more than a dozen young men as young as him knelt down.
They knelt there, as if to remind him, the clan elder, that he was really old - his body was old, his rules were old, and his knowledge was old.
During this brief moment of absent-mindedness, the old man thought of the head of the family who was far away in the capital.
How could the child personally selected by the head of the family and sent back to Qinghe for protection be really useless?
Just like at this moment, the young men kneeling behind this child...isn't this a reflection of the aspirations of this generation of Cui family members?
Perhaps, not only the strengths recognized by these old guys can be called strengths.
Or maybe the patriarch was attracted by the distinctness and flexibility of Liu Lang that was different from others...
The head of the family once said that the Cui family needs different heads to lead the way in different situations, because the world is never static.
The old man felt a little melancholy and a little enlightened. When he looked at Cui Lang again, the prejudice in his eyes had silently dissipated for the most part.
But when he spoke again, his tone was filled with indescribable complexity and powerlessness: "Qinghe is a thousand miles away from the capital... Under such circumstances, even if we leave, I'm afraid we won't be able to move an inch."
An old man like him grew up during the Cui family's glorious years, so he was even more reluctant to admit the current decline of the Cui family. Once he was directly mentioned that the Cui family was also powerless, the strong will that the old man had been holding on to also declined, and suddenly showed weakness.
"It's impossible to go to the capital." Cui Lang said with a sharp look in his eyes: "Uncle, let's go west, to Taiyuan!"
The clan elder was stunned when he heard this.
"...Taiyuan?" The other tribesmen also had complicated expressions: "Bingzhou..."
Taiyuan was under the jurisdiction of Bingzhou, and everyone knew that the Grand Commander of Bingzhou was Cui Jing, whose clan was exterminated by them.
"Bingzhou is only 300 miles away from Qinghe, and it is the safest choice at the moment." Cui Lang said: "And I think that Fanyang King Li Fu would not dare to attack Bingzhou easily!"
Cui clan members: "..."
The key point of this matter is whether Bingzhou is safe enough?
Everyone looked confused and no one said anything for a while.
In the end, one of Cui Lang's disciples whispered, "But...what if Taiyuan City refuses to let us in?"
As soon as such a straightforward and embarrassing question came out, the Cui clan members felt even more embarrassed. Just as they were about to reject the proposal, Cui Lang said, "What's the big deal? I'm here. I'll cry the gates of Taiyuan open!"
"..." The young man who asked the question opened his mouth in surprise.
I have to say, in times of crisis, I really envy such irresistible courage and such non-existent self-esteem... This kind of indomitable courage to survive really makes people feel safe.
But……
The young man glanced at the clansmen who were about to get angry, and asked in a low voice: "...Isn't this too damaging to the Cui family's integrity?"
Although he also agreed with Liu Lang's opinion that character is not the most important thing at such a critical juncture, but... he can't give up on it at all, right?
"To cry with the enemy is to be without character, but to cry in front of your elder brother is to be without character!"
While Cui Lang was talking, he stood up, took out a letter from his sleeve, and said with a smile: "There is no need for me to cry, I just received a letter from Dai Changshi, the governor of Bingzhou!"
"Chapter Dai said in the letter that as long as the Cui family is willing to flee to Taiyuan, he can lead his troops to meet them a hundred miles outside Taiyuan City!"
As the origin of the Dasheng Dragon Vein, Taiyuan’s location is extremely important and no mistakes can be made.
At this critical moment, Cui Jing was fighting against the Northern Di, so Taiyuan had to be more cautious in every move. If it failed to grasp the right measure, once it angered the Fanyang army and was attacked by the other side, even if Taiyuan had the strength to fight, it would definitely not be a good situation worth looking forward to.
Therefore, Dai Changshi's willingness to take the initiative to lead his troops a hundred miles out of the city to support the Cui clan members is the greatest sincerity that can be shown at the moment.
The Cui family members, who were very clear about the pros and cons of this, could also sense this sincerity and were surprised for a moment.
Bingzhou Dai Changshi will not help without reason...
"Chapter Dai said in the letter that this was the instruction of my eldest brother. My eldest brother had told them to pay more attention to and take care of the Qinghe Cui clan members."
After hearing Cui Lang's words, the hall fell into a complicated silence.
Cui Lang struck while the iron was hot and said, "Uncle, there is no time to lose. Let the clansmen prepare to leave!"
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