Chapter 785 A Dream of Youth 317
He did indeed have hidden troops, but those weapons and armor had probably already been taken away by Xiao Chu's men.
Upon hearing this, Xie Qi immediately recalled the ambush they had suffered. Those armors were probably smuggled over by Hu Xin. Hu Xin hadn't smuggled all the armor at once, but had accumulated it little by little, and so far there were only a hundred sets.
He had long sensed the Northern Jin Emperor's dissatisfaction with him, not because he had framed the Empress and imprisoned and killed the Crown Prince, but because he had seized power and everyone in the court was watching his every move. Therefore, Hu Xin had prepared a way out for himself long ago.
That's why he was able to escape to the Great Zhou so quickly when the Northern Jin emperor turned against him.
He knew many secrets of the Northern Jin Dynasty, so he wanted to use them to exchange for status and power with the Great Zhou Dynasty. He revealed these secrets when he was being brutally beaten by Xiao Chu. After all, he had always been pampered and had never suffered such torture before.
When Xiao Chu learned of this, he planned to follow his plan to lure the Great Zhou army into a siege. The reason he spared his life was to leave him for the young prince to avenge.
Otherwise, his body would have been rotting by now.
Hu Xin felt only relief at that moment.
Now that they knew the real and fake Hu Xin, the fake Hu Xin and real Xiao Chu who were left in another courtyard to monitor them could no longer be trusted. However, General Xu still did not arrest anyone. Instead, he decided to play along and use a scheme to stalk the mantis and catch the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.
To prevent anyone from leaking information, with Luo Yueqian's help, Xiao Chu's other subordinates were imprisoned under the guise of protection.
To gain General Xu's trust, Xiao Chu had no choice but to swallow his anger.
But he was so clever that he naturally sensed something was wrong. Although he didn't know what had happened, he knew he still had value and that everything could only be planned after he left the city.
Rarely, thunder rumbled in the night. The general in the Northern Jin camp sat respectfully at the lower seat, while above him sat a boy of sixteen or seventeen, the young grandson of the Northern Jin emperor, the son of Empress Xiao, Gu Yan.
"Prince, the reinforcements from Shaanxi have been scattered. Xiao Chu has sent word from inside the city that the Zhou army has agreed to his encirclement plan. Once the Zhou army comes out, we can trap them like turtles in a jar..."
After the discussion was completed, Gu Yan put down his wine bowl and said to the generals, "Send another team to collect provisions."
If Bingzhou City cannot be captured immediately, then plunder the surrounding counties and towns first. Warfare mainly relies on sustaining the war through warfare. The army consumes a lot of food and fodder, and it cannot rely solely on its own supply lines.
After a pause, Gu Yan asked, "I wonder how things are on Yanshan Road."
"They've probably reached Sanhe by now. With Commander Zou's strength, taking Zhending will be as easy as taking candy from a baby."
Not to mention that Commander Zou also had two great generals under his command, one of whom was very good at planning. It was he who provided the strategy for attacking the Great Zhou.
Gu Yan smiled and agreed. He didn't need to come to the front line, but he needed military merit and power. Even though he was the emperor's grandson, he couldn't sit in that position without the strength, after all, he had quite a few uncles.
After the rain and snow last night, it was still snowing the next day. Xie Ning assessed her injuries and decided to set off in the snow. Snowball carried her, and she would occasionally get off and walk a part of the way. It would take about two days to reach the nearest town, Wenshui County.
The snow fell heavily, drifting and swirling, sometimes clearing and sometimes falling, sometimes stopping and sometimes falling. The mountains and forests were vast and there was no way out. Xie Ning, wearing a white fur coat, and the white wolf were hidden in the desolate silence.
As the sun rose again, the warm sunlight mingled with the snow, and Xie Ning finally saw a village. From above, there were probably only a dozen or so houses, their roofs whitened by snow, scattered among a cluster of snow-covered pines.
Xie Ning breathed a sigh of relief. It was good that there was a village; she could borrow a donkey cart from the village head to go to the city.
Before she even went down, Xie Ning sensed something was wrong. It should have been breakfast time, but the village was eerily quiet, without a trace of cooking fires or a single person in sight.
Xie Ning sensed something was wrong, but instead of rushing down to check, he walked down a little further and then sent Xueqiu down to see if anyone was there.
If there are people in the village, they will surely show themselves when they see wolves.
But no...
Xie Ning couldn't help but cough a few times, and quickly followed Xueqiu into the village. She had come out from the back of the mountain, so she entered the village from the end.
The terrain here is higher, and there is only one household. There are still some hunting tools left outside, so it must be a hunter.
Xie Ning's steps abruptly stopped at the doorway. The howling cold wind swept through the dilapidated wooden door, revealing dried bloodstains inside.
Taking a deep breath, Xie Ning walked down step by step. In the small village of a dozen households, there wasn't a single living person. What had happened?
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