Chapter 82
Inside the tent, Xie Zheng looked at the chicken blood on his collar and cloak and frowned, "Is there too much blood?"
Gongsun Yin instructed Xie Qi to take the freshly slaughtered pheasant to Huotouying to make soup, while he said, "It's not like you haven't been to the Injured Camp before. The wounded soldiers are missing limbs and all covered in blood. Miss Fan has seen a lot while helping out in the Injured Camp. If you don't get some more, what if you can't scare her?"
As he was speaking, he noticed a strand of pheasant's struggling feather on the edge of his cloak, which had not been cleaned up yet, so he quickly plucked it off.
I noticed that although Xie Zheng's face was pale and there was a slight dark blue under his eyes, he didn't look like he had a high fever. I couldn't help but ask, "You were exposed to cold wind all night last night and washed your hair with cold water. How come you still don't have any signs of fever?"
Xie Zheng: “…”
Gongsun Yin was desperate and said, "Forget it, forget it. This is enough of a self-torture trick."
Xie Wu's voice rang out from outside the tent: "It's right inside!"
Gongsun Yin quickly stepped back and sat on a stool nearby with a sad look on his face.
After Fan Changyu followed the military doctor into the tent, he saw Xie Zheng lying on the bed, looking pale and weak, with a large pool of blood on his clothes that was eye-catching.
Her heart tensed up, and she stepped forward quickly: "Yan Zheng!"
Xie Zheng's eyes were tightly shut, his lips were cracked, his face was as pale as snow, his hair was messily scattered in front of his forehead, and there was a pale blue color under his eyes. He looked haggard and wolfish.
Fan Changyu felt as if her chest was being gripped by a pair of large hands, and the dark bloodstain on her cloak made her eyes tingle with sadness.
It was just one night. How could someone who was fine yesterday suddenly become like this?
The remaining rationality supported her to step aside and turned to the military doctor and said, "Please take his pulse!"
The military doctor was also frightened by the situation, fearing that something might happen to Xie Zheng, so he quickly put his hand on Xie Zheng's wrist to feel his pulse. When he felt the pulse under his finger, something strange appeared on his face, but when he looked up, he saw Gongsun Yintung opposite him giving him a look.
The military doctor quickly groaned, then continued to take the patient's pulse with a serious expression, which made Fan Changyu's heart beat fast.
After a while, the military doctor withdrew his hand and said, "Miss Fan, your husband's illness is very serious!"
Fan Changyu hurriedly said: "Military doctor, please save him!"
The military doctor stroked his goat beard and said in embarrassment: "He is coughing up blood so much. I think the previous injury must have caused a lot of blood stasis in his lungs. He must nourish his yin and moisten his lungs. In addition, he has lost too much blood and has liver fire, so he must nourish his blood and stop the bleeding. I will first boil a few medicines for him to take, but it is best to have someone watching him at all times in the future, so that he doesn't cough up blood in a coma and die of choking blood."
Fan Changyu was now filled with fear and said hurriedly, "I will stay with him and watch him closely."
The military doctor went downstairs to prepare medicine. Looking at Xie Zheng lying in a pool of blood, Fan Changyu felt a sour sensation in his nose and inevitably began to blame himself.
Yan Zheng was seriously injured and had not yet recovered. Why did I get so angry yesterday? Why did I say I would never come here again?
If anything bad happened to Yan Zheng, she would probably feel guilty for the rest of her life.
As soon as Gongsun Yin saw Fan Changyu's expression, he knew that the self-torture trick had worked, and he spoke to comfort her at the right time: "Miss Fan, don't worry too much. Brother Yan will definitely be blessed by heaven."
As soon as Fan Changyu entered the tent, all his attention was on Xie Zheng. Only then did he realize that Gongsun Yin was also there, and he asked, "Mr. Gongsun is here too?"
Gongsun Yin lied without blushing or panting: "Little Brother Yan suddenly coughed up blood, Xiao Wu was panicked for a moment, and I happened to be patrolling the camp nearby, so I asked him to go find a military doctor first, and I took care of Little Brother Yan for a while."
Fan Changyu thanked Gongsun Yin on behalf of Xie Zheng. Gongsun Yin smiled and said, "They are all good men of our Dayin who fought in the battlefield. Only by keeping their lives can we continue to protect our Dayin territory. What is there to thank you for? Since Miss Fan is here to guard us, I will not stay any longer."
After seeing Gongsun Yin off, Fan Changyu brought a small stool and sat beside Xie Zheng's bed, saying gloomily, "You must be well."
Perhaps because he was too close, Fan Changyu smelled the blood on the cloak and suddenly sniffed hard.
She often kills pigs and is very sensitive to the smell of pig blood. She has also been on the edge of a knife these days and is no stranger to the smell of human blood. The blood on the bedding not only has a strong fishy smell, but also a faint smell of chicken feathers.
She moved closer and was about to take a closer look when Xie Zheng, who had been "unconscious for a long time", suddenly fluttered his eyelashes and opened his eyes weakly.
Fan Changyu instantly forgot everything and said in surprise: "Yan Zheng, you're awake?"
Xie Zheng looked at her for a while before saying, "You're here."
His voice was broken and hoarse, as if he had coughed too hard and hurt his throat.
Just these words made Fan Changyu feel uncomfortable. She tucked the corner of the quilt for him and said, "The military doctor said that your coughing up blood is due to internal injuries. You need to be treated well. I will stay here from now on. You just rest assured and recuperate."
Xie Zheng's pale lips were stained with blood, and he looked even weaker. He said slowly, "I heard about what happened to you in Jizhou."
Fan Changyu didn't know what he meant by saying this, so she didn't say anything for a while. She only heard him continue with some difficulty: "After going through so much, you are no longer the ordinary woman in Lin'an Town who only knew how to kill pigs and buy meat. After you came back, I kept blaming you. It was my fault."
Hearing him apologize again for the harsh words he said yesterday, Fan Changyu felt even more ashamed. He lowered his eyes and said in a muffled voice, "You were right in teaching me that the soldiers and I who came down the mountain were able to escape unscathed because of good luck. If it weren't for Brother Qi who brought reinforcements in time, I and the soldiers who went to rob the enemy camp might have been trampled to death under the horses' hooves of the rebels."
She prepared herself mentally, and finally had the courage to look up at Xie Zheng and said, "I was angry with you for no reason after you taught me a lesson. I am narrow-minded. I will change."
At this moment, she was filled with guilt. Seeing that there was still a lot of blood on Xie Zheng's lips, she went out to get hot water to clean it.
Xie Zheng looked at her leaving back, frowning slightly.
How did it get to the point of being narrow-minded?
When Xie Wu brought the boiled medicine, Fan Changyu took it and fed it to Xie Zheng one spoonful at a time.
Xie Zheng used the thick cloak taken back from the anti-bandit tent as a blanket. Now it was stained with blood. Fan Changyu knew that he was a clean person, so she went back to her own place and got the cloak that she and Changning covered themselves with at night. She covered Xie Zheng with it first and prepared to wash the bloodstained cloak and the bloody shirt on Xie Zheng's body.
Xie Wu was afraid that Fan Changyu would discover something while washing these, so he rushed to wash them.
At night, Fan Changyu had to look after Xie Zheng, and was worried about Changning being alone in the tent. Seeing that there were extra beds in the tent, he took Changning over and let her sleep here with him.
As she re-made the beds, she said in confusion, "There are already a lot of people crowded in the tents of the wounded soldiers, why are there so many empty beds here and no one is sent over?"
Several military doctors were too busy avoiding Xie Zheng to dare to leave the wounded soldiers in the military camp.
Both lamp oil and candles were precious in the mountains, and at night, almost all the military tents were lit with braziers.
Flames licked the night sky, and half of Xie Zheng's face was coated with a layer of warm yellow flames. His elegant eyebrows and eyes seemed to be drawn with ink, and his facial contours were clear. He tilted his head slightly, looked at Fan Changyu who was making the bed, and said nonsense in a serious manner: "I don't know, maybe the military doctors have their own arrangements."
Fan Changyu didn't know much about the management of the military camp, so he didn't think about it any further. After making the bed for Changning, who was dozing off, he said to Xie Zheng, "If you want to drink water or get up at night, just call me."
When Xie Zheng heard the words "get up at night", the tip of his ear felt hot and he looked at Fan Changyu in confusion.
When Fan Changyu met his gaze, he suddenly felt blessed and his face flushed. He turned around and said, "What are you thinking about? Call me, I'll ask the military officer patrolling nearby to help."
In order to take care of Xie Zheng more conveniently, the bed that Fan Changyu and Changning slept on was right next to Xie Zheng, with a distance of less than three feet between them.
She was so tired these days that she fell asleep almost as soon as she touched the bed.
After Xie Zheng listened to the sisters' heavy breathing, he turned his head to look at the bedside. There were still pieces of wood burning in the brazier. The weak flames flickered, and the firelight shone on Fan Changyu's face like ripples, making that tranquil face even more indescribably beautiful.
A throbbing began to sprout in his heart, and it was so strong that it felt like the bites of thousands of ants. Xie Zheng stared at Fan Changyu's lips for a long time, which were slightly pouting due to the pressure from lying on his side. The darkness in his eyes was thicker than the night, but he did nothing in the end. He looked away, turned to the other side, and closed his eyes heavily.
-
On the second day, a group of new wounded soldiers were transferred to the tent. Some had injured hands, some had injured feet. Anyway, not all of them were lying on military beds and unable to move, and they could take care of each other.
Fan Changyu took on the job of decocting medicine for these wounded soldiers, which also made it convenient for her to take care of Xie Zheng during the day. At night, she still slept in her tent with Changning, and Xie Zheng asked the newly arrived wounded soldiers to help take care of them.
The new wounded soldiers were all very easy to talk to and didn't make much noise on weekdays. Fan Changyu felt that they were different from the wounded soldiers he had taken care of before, but thinking that everyone is different, he didn't take it seriously.
Little did they know that these wounded soldiers were all the injured in Xie's personal guard transferred over by Gongsun Yin the night before the expedition after Xie heard Fan Changyu's questions.
In the blink of an eye, half a month had passed.
When Fan Changyu had free time after taking care of the wounded soldiers, she would take out several books from her bag and study. Coincidentally, Yan Zheng was right beside her, so she had a ready-made teacher, and she could ask him directly if she didn't understand something.
Xie Zheng saw that Fan Changyu was holding a copy of Mencius and asked, "Have you finished studying the Analects?"
Fan Changyu said truthfully: "I have finished learning."
The scene of her protecting Li Huaian when they first encountered the bandits came to mind. Xie Zheng raised his narrow eyes slightly and asked, "Did you learn it from books?"
Fan Changyu said: "The articles in it are exquisite. I still couldn't understand many parts after reading the annotations. When I was repairing the dam upstream of Jizhou, I met an old gentleman. The old gentleman had a cold face but a kind heart. He taught me to finish it."
Speaking of Old Man Tao, Fan Changyu showed a little more respect on his face: "You don't know, that old man is also a remarkable person. He later became a military staff member. He is old and has no children. His only student doesn't care about him. It's quite pitiful. When he and I were digging rocks in the mountains, he scolded his student every day!"
Xie Zheng felt relieved that he didn't learn this from Li Huaian. But when he heard Fan Changyu talk about how he was mistakenly taken as a detective and forced to dig stones to build a dam, he felt a little weird.
He was the one who came up with the plan, but the people in charge of repairing the dam were all from He Jingyuan's side. He was in Yanzhou at the time and had no idea where Fan Changyu was being held.
In the end, he only commented on what Fan Changyu had just said: "His student didn't respect his teacher. Now that he is in power, he should teach his student a lesson."
Fan Changyu glanced at Xie Zheng and said unhappily, "Although Mr. Tao may be harsh in words, he has a broad mind."
When Xie Zheng heard that the old man's last name was Tao, he paused for a moment while running his fingertips across the pages of the book and asked, "What's his name?"
Fan Changyu said: "I don't know, he just said his last name was Tao."
There are so many people with the surname Tao in the world. Xie Zheng thought about what Fan Changyu said about the old man scolding his ungrateful student every day. It can be said that this has nothing to do with Master Tao.
The teacher has been in seclusion for many years. If he were to come out, I would come to find him.
He paused for a second and said, "Since he has done you a favor, I will give him a promotion in the future."
As soon as he said this, he saw Fan Changyu staring at him with a strange expression.
Xie Zheng knew he had said something wrong, but before he could correct it, he heard Fan Changyu frowning and saying, "Mr. Tao is already an aide to General Tang. What can you do to promote him? You are not a general. Don't say such nonsense. It would be bad if Mr. Tao knew about it."
Xie Zheng choked, then said: "I'm talking about the future."
Fan Changyu looked somewhat helpless: "Are you so sure that you can be a general?"
Xie Zheng's expression changed slightly, and he raised his eyes from the book: "What if I become an official higher than a general?"
Fan Changyu was confused: "What is a higher official than a general?"
Xie Zheng said casually, "Become a marquis and a prime minister."
Fan Changyu stopped reading and asked him, "Does the wound still hurt?"
Xie Zheng, who had been taken care of meticulously for many days, didn't know what Fan Changyu meant by asking this question, so he said carefully, "It's okay, but it hurts a lot when I exert a little effort."
In fact, it's almost healed now. As long as you don't use too much force, it won't hurt too much.
Fan Changyu handed over the bowl of cooling medicine and said, "Drink the medicine first. After you recover from your injury, you can think about being promoted to a marquis or a general."
Xie Zheng: “…”
-
Two days later, Xie Zheng's injury still showed no improvement. Gongsun Yin, who was troubled by a bunch of military affairs and memorials from the capital, went to visit him with dark eyes and murderous look.
Fan Changyu hadn't seen him for some time. He was shocked to see Gongsun Yin with dark eyes and lifeless eyes. "What happened to Mr. Gongsun?"
Gongsun Yin suppressed his murderous aura and forced himself to smile politely: "I was busy with some trivial matters."
Fan Changyu said: "Mr. Gongsun should pay more attention to his health."
Gongsun Yin smiled and agreed, then asked, "How is your husband's injury?"
Fan Changyu thought for a moment and said, "The military doctor said that his internal injuries are quite serious and he needs to recover slowly. His wounds are still painful."
Gongsun Yin maintained a smile on his face, but he gritted his teeth no matter how he looked at it: "Really? I'll go and take a look."
Fan Changyu had to go boil some medicine, so Gongsun Yin went back to the room as soon as he entered the tent. The guards, who had been lying in bed for half a month and whose wounds had begun to scab off, could only pretend to be sick with a bandage on their backs. They looked at Xie Zheng, who was taking a nap with a book on his face, and their back teeth were grinding. They snatched the book and roared, "If your wound doesn't heal, I'll die of exhaustion in that pile of documents!"
The harder he worked when he first came up with the plan, the more he regrets it now.
This guy really went to rest, but he was as tired as a donkey pulling a millstone.
No! Even a donkey has it easier!
What evil has he done! He dug a hole for himself to fall into!
Without the book to block the light, the glaring sky made Xie Zheng frown. When he opened his eyes lazily, he saw that the boy's face was so handsome that Gongsun Yin's eyes turned red and he wished he could strangle him and kill him. Perhaps because he had eaten well and slept well in the past few days, he had recovered his strength.
When was he the one with the air of a jade tree in the wind and the aura of an immortal floating in the air? When Xie Jiuheng hid here and pretended to be sick, Fan Changyu would inevitably notice it. From then on, he did not move his pen and ink. He even asked his personal guard who was also pretending to be sick to come and tell him what to do.
Gongsun Yin now closed his eyes, and the pile of documents that he had not yet reviewed on his desk was almost killing him!
Xie Zheng sat up, ignoring Gongsun Yin's madness. He glanced at the book that Gongsun Yin had crumpled, raised his eyes lazily, and his eyes seemed to be somewhat unhappy: "Give it to me."
Seeing him like this, Gongsun Yin couldn't help but glance at the cover and found the words "Mencius" written on it. He felt strange and said, "You learned the Four Books not long after you were enlightened. Why are you still carrying this book in the mountains?"
He asked suspiciously, "If you think so highly of it, it must be some frivolous book, right?"
Flipping through it casually, he found that every word and sentence was annotated in detail. Although the font was changed, Gongsun Yin still recognized it as Xie Zheng's handwriting at a glance.
Before I could read further, the book had been snatched back by Xie Zheng.
Gongsun Yin suddenly became even more sad and angry: "I learned your handwriting and wrote official documents for you. My hands are almost broken. And you had nothing better to do than annotate a whole book of Mencius?"
Xie Zheng did not explain too much, only saying: "It is the only copy of the Seven Sages in my library. You can pick it up when you return."
Gongsun Yin stopped howling instantly, opened the folding fan in his hand, and waved it with a smile on his face like a panda, flattering: "It is the duty of a minister to share the worries of the Marquis."
Xie Zheng seemed to have known his character for a long time, and was not surprised at the change of face. He gave instructions: "Chongzhou is surrounded by the 20,000 Fuzhou troops led by Tang Zhaoyi. They can't send food and grass. The rebels at the foot of the mountain have been attacking the mountain for so many days. They have run out of food and grass and are already exhausted. It's time to catch them all in one fell swoop."
The Yanzhou troops on the mountain have been recuperating these days, but the Chongzhou troops at the foot of the mountain started digging up grass roots and hanging tree bark two days ago.
After the grain and straw were burned, the Chongzhou Army had three choices: one was to return to Chongzhou, the second was to destroy the Yanzhou Army on the mountain, and the third was to escape without fighting and preserve their strength.
The first option was to return to Chongzhou. There were 20,000 Jizhou troops guarding outside Chongzhou City. The rebels at the foot of the mountain could not enter Chongzhou City unless they were fully prepared. Even if they returned to Chongzhou, they would still be dead when the main forces of Yanzhou and Jizhou surrounded Chongzhou.
The Prince of Changxin was a man of great foresight. He only withdrew half of his troops that day, probably because he had anticipated the current situation. The half of the Chongzhou army at the foot of the mountain was the way he left for Chongzhou to survive.
Jizhou has been firmly defended, and He Jingyuan is transferring a large army to Chongzhou. If Chongzhou cannot be defended, the Chongzhou army under the first line of the gorge can fight its way out and find a stable city to settle down, and then they can make a comeback.
The commander of that army was none other than Shi Yue, the trusted general of Prince Changxin.
In order to burn the military rations of Chongzhou that day, Xie Zheng deliberately used Sui Yuanqing as bait, thus tying up most of the rebel forces. In the end, Shi Yue piled up the heads at the mountain pass. Although he rescued Sui Yuanqing, he also lost a lot of troops. In addition, the burning of rations was simply adding insult to injury.
Shi Yue thought that the Yanzhou army on the mountain had lost the hostage Sui Yuanqing and had been trapped for many days, so they had no will to fight. When he learned that the food and grass were burned, he was so angry that he ordered an attack on the mountain for half a month. However, the terrain of the First Line Canyon was dangerous and he lost a lot of troops.
The reinforcements from Yan and Ji states that were wandering at the foot of the mountain were cavalry. They had been wandering in the mountains and forests, like a dragon that could only be seen from the head but not the tail. They met the Chongzhou army on a narrow road. The cavalry fought if they could defeat them, and ran away if they couldn't. The two-legged infantry could not catch up with the four-legged cavalry, which made the Chongzhou generals very angry.
Now the food and grass at the foot of the mountain were running out, but the defense of the Yanzhou Army on the mountain was still as strong as an iron barrel. Shi Yue also realized that he could not trap Wu'an Hou to death on the mountain and achieve this extraordinary achievement. He quickly adjusted the battle plan, marched at night, and secretly withdrew part of the troops first.
The strong attack failed, so the best strategy now is to preserve our strength.
-
The mountain was suddenly plunged into a tense atmosphere of preparation for war. Fan Changyu heard all kinds of discussions about this battle in both the wounded camp and the fire camp.
The garrison troops were constantly being transferred to various mountain passes. Once outside the tent, one could see military flags fluttering all over the camp, and crowds of people surging under the flags rushing towards designated positions.
All wounded soldiers who can still hold a knife must return to their respective camps, including Xie Zheng.
Fan Changyu knew that this battle was extremely fierce just by looking at the battle formation, but the wounds on Yan Zheng's body hurt so much that he was afraid that he couldn't even hold a weapon. Wouldn't it be suicide if he went on the battlefield?
When she thought of the bloody hole on Yan Zheng's body, she felt anxious.
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This chapter also gives 100 red envelopes to the treasures~
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