Kang Cong, who had just been helped to sit up and was leaning against the head of the bed, raised his weak eyes to look. After his whole body tensed up for a moment, he suddenly turned his head to the side and began to retch violently.
"Quick, quick, take it away! Mu Sheng just woke up and can't stand the smell of meat!" Yue Shi said hurriedly.
The maid quickly took the plate of horse meat away from the bed.
Kang Cong was in a coma for several days and couldn't vomit anything. The violent convulsions made his body spasm and tremble for a long time. Yue Shi patted his back and cried.
Only Kang Cong knew that what made him unable to control his urge to vomit was not the "meat", but the huge fear and discomfort, as well as the anger that was so unfamiliar that even he himself was not aware of it.
It was with great difficulty that Yuezhi managed to feed him the medicine.
After handing the medicine bowl to the maid, Yue Shi dismissed another maid before asking anxiously, "Mu Sheng, tell me, what did you do wrong? Why did your father get so angry? You were seriously injured, but he had you confined and didn't allow anyone to visit you..."
"What mistake did I make..." Kang Cong leaned weakly against the headboard, staring at the ceiling, his eyes somewhat empty as he said, "My existence may be the biggest mistake."
This sentence was like a long needle, which hurt Yue Shi badly. She said helplessly: "It's my fault that I'm sorry for you..."
Yes, she was once a lowly slave, a dancer who made a living by pleasing powerful generals...So, no matter how she swore and promised, the envoy always had a trace of doubt in his heart about Mu Sheng's bloodline.
Later, she gave birth to a daughter for the envoy, but the rumors about Mu Sheng had not stopped, and the three of them, mother and son, lived their lives in such a way.
But before, they could at least make do with it, but ever since the envoy started the rebellion, those gentlemen and their mothers' families have been increasingly open about their oppression and harassment towards Mu Sheng and her...
"It was obviously not like this before... Although they looked down on us mother and son in the past, they never targeted us in this way..."
Yue Shi was helpless and panicked when a voice interrupted her: "Now that father wants to seize power, things are naturally different from before!"
"As their father's power expands, his sons' ambitions naturally grow as well. Who wouldn't want to stand out in the process and become the one valued and appreciated by their father? Isn't it the same for my brother? He is so eager to stand out, but he has no foundation. How can he not be a target?"
The one who strode in was a girl of about seventeen or eighteen years old. She was wearing a fox fur cloak, had a dark complexion and a round face. She had a rather naive look, but at this moment her deep eyes were sharp, her thick eyebrows were tightly furrowed, and she had an air of arrogance around her, which was rarely seen even among Hu women.
"Ani..." Seeing her daughter who only liked to play with sticks since she was young, and started riding horses and hunting when she was older, Yue Shi felt frightened for no reason and spoke in a weak voice: "Your brother just woke up, please speak softly..."
"Mother is not afraid of him causing such a big disaster, but is afraid that I will speak too loudly!" Kang Zhi walked to the bedside and glared at Kang Cong with her big eyes.
Kang Cong said nothing.
Yuezhi comforted her daughter: "Let your brother eat some food first, and when he has enough strength, we will..."
Kang Zhi: "What to eat? The last meal before execution?"
Yueshi was shocked: "Ani, what nonsense are you talking about..."
"I'm not talking nonsense!" Kang Zhi said, "Now people outside are saying that my brother betrayed father and killed Hong Chen! Father is so suspicious, how could he let us go so easily!"
“No matter how suspicious he is, I don’t think he would want to take our lives…” Yue Shi’s heart was in his throat, and he said with a pale face, “You and Mu Sheng are his own flesh and blood after all…”
Kang Zhi sneered: "Mother, don't you know how father got the position of Jiedushi of Pinglu?"
When the Holy Ce Emperor first ascended the throne, she had killed many vassal kings and border generals who were dissatisfied with her. The former governor of Pinglu was also suspected by the empress. It was Kang Dingshan, who was still a small general under the governor of Pinglu at that time, who forged evidence of treason and set up a trap to kill the former governor of Pinglu. Later, under the promotion of the empress, he gradually became the new governor of Pinglu.
Because of this past that many people are well aware of, Kangdingshan has always been regarded as the empress's trusted general in the eyes of the world.
He had always been very attentive and obedient, actively supporting and responding to all the orders issued by the empress, and always reporting to the capital on time on all matters concerning his jurisdiction.
In addition to being very competent in his official duties, he would often have people collect handsome men, send them to the capital, and present them to the empress.
No one expected that such a loyal and dedicated Kang Dingshan would be the first border general to rise up in arms and choose to collude with the foreign Mohe.
Kang Zhi: "He first betrayed his old master, and now he's rebelling against the emperor. I'm afraid only mother thinks that father is a good man who would care about the so-called old relationship, right?"
Yueshi's palms were sweating. She subconsciously grabbed her son's hand and asked in a low, tense voice, "Musheng, think about it carefully. Is there someone deliberately framing you in this matter? If we find that person, maybe we can prove your innocence to your father!"
Her son, who was so eager to gain his father's approval, would never collude with foreign enemies!
Framed? Kang Cong's expression kept changing, and he murmured, "Hong Chen really wants me to die outside..."
When he was held hostage by Wei Shuyi, Hong Chen chose to abandon him. He only felt angry and humiliated at the time, but now that he thought about it, Hong Chen's calculations had probably already begun since he started negotiating with Wei Shuyi...
Hong Chen knew his character so well, but he repeatedly stopped him in front of outsiders. It might be that he was deliberately trying to provoke his rebelliousness and wanted to see him fall into Wei Shuyi's trap...
At this moment, Kang Cong hated others and himself. He was always so reckless, which was why he was always schemed against! Yue Shi was full of uneasiness: "Is it the Hong family... Is it Si Langjun?"
Kang Cong didn't know what he was thinking about. He didn't answer for a while, and his eyes were fluctuating.
Kang Zhi looked at him steadily: "The Hong family has bad intentions, and I can tell with my toes! But why didn't you say a word about the most crucial point, brother?"
She leaned forward and suddenly grabbed Kang Cong by the collar of his shirt, staring at him closely: "Brother, how did you get back? Don't say it was luck, luck also requires skills, and brother doesn't have this skill!"
She had already inquired carefully, and found out that among the reinforcements of the envoys, there was even Xuan Ce's army. How could they easily let go of her brother, a member of the Kang family?
The girl's voice was almost clenched: "Brother, how long are you going to keep it a secret?"
Kang Cong was held by her collar.
Kang Cong has a bad temper, but he has never been able to deal with his sister who is even more irritable than him.
Firstly, this seemed like a kind of blood suppression, and secondly, perhaps he knew in his heart that his sister's toughness was intended to protect him and his mother. In this huge Kang family, they were the only ones who were united.
Therefore, no matter how uneasy and frightened he was, he still chose to confess at this moment: "It was her. The one who really schemed against me was her..."
Kang Zhi frowned: "Who is she?"
"Speak!" The girl wanted to slap Kang Cong. She anxiously whispered, "I've asked Yin Gou and Tong Jian to guard outside. Just speak!"
Kang Cong gritted his teeth and said, "Chang... Chang Suining..."
Kang Zhi's expression froze: "That Jiangdu Governor?"
Seeing his sister suddenly lose her ferocious look, Kang Cong gritted his teeth even tighter: "Yes, it's the Jiangdu governor you admire the most!"
Over the years, everyone knew that he was a strong-willed person, but few people knew that his sister was a hundred times stronger than him, and the stronger the person, the more she liked him. So since last year, she had become obsessed with the famous Governor Chang!
"I now understand that she let me go on purpose just to make my father suspicious of me! She wanted to kill me!"
Kang Zhi let go and slapped her brother on the head - the force was just right to wake him up without hurting his brain.
"What nonsense are you talking about!" She said with disdain, "If Governor Chang wanted you dead, why didn't he just stab you to death right away? Why did he need to use my father's hand?"
The girl said confidently: "Governor Chang must have kept you here for another reason... another use!"
Considering the current situation and position, Kang Zhi swallowed the word "wonderful use" in time.
"Could it be a plot to sow discord..." Yue Shi said fearfully, "She wants to use you to deal with your father?"
But how did her son get this ability?
You know, the number of people that their family of three can mobilize in the Kang family... is not as many as the fingers of the three of them added together!
Could it be that Governor Chang had not conducted a background check and didn't know that the three of them, mother and son, were so shabby and incompetent?
Kang Zhi looked at her brother and asked, "Didn't Governor Chang tell you anything?"
"She said...if I want to seek a way out...I can ask her for help." Kang Cong was both afraid and hateful at the moment, but it was clearly her who blocked his way out! From letting him go to giving him a horse...she had already calculated the situation he would face after returning! "Help? How can I ask for help?" Kang Zhi asked hurriedly.
Kang Cong had a complicated expression: "She didn't say!"
Kang Zhi frowned in confusion. What did this mean?
"If you didn't say it, then don't say it... We'll just pretend we don't know about it!" Yue Zhi's face was already covered in cold sweat. Colluding with outsiders to betray the envoy? This was such a terrible thing that she was so scared that she fainted just thinking about it.
"Next, don't do anything and don't go anywhere..."
"Even if the envoy is suspicious, it is just suspicion at the moment. Will he kill all three of us just for this suspicion without any evidence?"
"As long as we behave ourselves... in time, the envoys will be able to tell the real from the fake!"
Kang Zhi remained silent as she listened to her mother clinging to the word "luck".
Is it really as simple as my mother said?
Was Governor Chang's intention really limited to this? Was he just trying to drive a wedge between his father and his brother? At the same time, a small copper flagpole in Cui Jing's hand landed on a spot in the sand table, located between Yingzhou and Jizhou.
There is a place here called Tieshibao. It is located in a remote area and is blocked by mountains, so few people know about it.
The uprising in Kangding Mountain could not have been a sudden impulse.
The first thing to do before starting an army is to stockpile food, weapons and supplies. But the empress was not completely unprepared for him. He had her spies around him. In order to avoid them, everything had to be done secretly outside Yingzhou.
In order to take into account both secrecy and convenience in future uprisings, Kangdingshan chose Tieshibao, located to the north of Yingzhou and Jizhou, as the place for stockpiling.
After he occupied Jizhou, he did not move all the supplies. First, it was unreasonable to leave all the food and military supplies at the front line during the march, and regular transportation was more foolproof. Second, Jizhou at this moment belonged not only to Kangdingshan, but also to the Mohe people, and Kangdingshan was always wary of the Mohe.
Therefore, most of the food and military supplies in Kangding Mountain were always hidden in Tieshibao.
This is a top-notch military secret, and even the intelligence organization under Chang Suining cannot easily detect it.
Cui Jing was able to know the location of this place thanks to Hong Chen.
After Hong Chen was awakened by Doctor Cao's needle, he was interrogated as soon as he opened his eyes.
At the beginning, the counselor who was in charge of interrogating him asked some other questions first. The answers to these questions were mostly based on the information provided by Chang Suining.
At first, Hong Chen refused to tell the truth, but the price for each wrong answer he gave was a finger.
After having three fingers broken and being awakened from his coma again and again by Doctor Cao, Hong Chen completely collapsed - he didn't know how much information these people had, and how they could always tell the truth from lies in his words!
He began to lose track of what was a temptation and what was not. Under the dual torture of physical and mental pain, his will was also crumbling.
This is how Ironstone Castle came to exist.
At the same time, the counselor in charge of the interrogation was able to completely dispel his doubts during the interrogation process - the information provided by Governor Chang was indeed true and credible, and thank God, his commander-in-chief was indeed not a person who was blinded by emotion.
In the past few days, they have also received intelligence from the front, most of which are consistent with the intelligence of Governor Chang. And what Hong Chen said further confirmed the credibility of Governor Chang's intelligence.
Now that all doubts have been dispelled, it’s time to take action.
They decided to launch a surprise attack on Tieshibao first. Regarding this action, they also asked the governor Chang for his opinion, and got two words: [Feasible.]
In order to ensure secrecy, the number of soldiers responsible for guarding Tieshi Fort would not be too many, but it was definitely not too few. They learned from Hong Chen that the number was three thousand. In addition, there were patrol teams patrolling and checking the periphery.
Based on the information provided by Hong Chen, Cui Jing invited Chang Suining to work with his advisers to develop a detailed and highly targeted surprise attack plan.
This surprise attack was of vital importance, and Lieutenant General Yu and Yuan Xiang led two thousand elite light cavalry.
Two thousand people are not a lot, but if one wants to successfully avoid inspections along the way, it is impossible to do so in a big way.
Because they had the upper hand in intelligence, and the enemy was in the clear while they were in the dark, Yuan Xiang and his companions traveled safely along the way. On the second night, they took advantage of the darkness and quietly approached the rear of Tieshibao.
They still did not intend to engage in a head-on confrontation. Yuan Xiang and Deputy General Yu acted separately according to the plan, intending to sneak as deep as possible while alerting the least number of people, and then set fire to the warehouse.
Yuan Xiang and his men were about to quietly approach a granary when they suddenly heard a loud and powerful dog barking in front of them.
Yuan Xiang's face changed suddenly. He quickly came up with a clever idea. He hid his body behind a huge rock in the dark and uttered a cry with a pinched throat: "...Awoof!"
The subordinate beside him: "?"
How did he learn it so well? Yuan Xiang's barking was very particular. He had also learned ventriloquism from Xiao Duan and Xiao Wu for a while. It was said that there were many kinds of dog barks. In dog language, his barking was equivalent to conveying - [I'm so bored, come and play with me! ]
Sure enough, the big dog tilted its head in confusion in the dark, and walked curiously towards where Yuan Xiang and others were hiding. (End of this chapter)
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