Chapter 147
The Second Prince’s Mansion.
"Big brother left, and we didn't go to see him off."
"It's not necessary, is it?" said the Fifth Prince. "Congratulations, second brother."
The second prince admired the quiet green bamboo outside the window.
"Don't worry, Xiaowu, now that I've dealt with my issues, it's time to deal with yours."
The fifth prince smiled and said, "Okay. I believe in my second brother."
The second prince narrowed his eyes slightly and said, "Xiaowu, you trust me so much, aren't you afraid that I will abandon you one day?"
The fifth prince placed an empty cup in front of him, picked up the teapot, and poured him a cup himself.
The second prince raised his eyebrows slightly.
"I am not afraid of being abandoned," the fifth prince said calmly, "I have revealed everything to my second brother. He already knows my character. I will sacrifice my life for the desired result."
The Second Prince: "Just kidding, I will need your help in many other places in the future."
After some small talk, the fifth prince left.
The second prince sat quietly for a long time.
He was thinking about his seventh brother.
To be honest, although his seventh brother made him feel threatened and unhappy, his Seventh Prince's Mansion did not recruit any staff at all, only sorcerers who could calculate.
He also had no intention of managing his team carefully in the court.
To win over? To remove?
The second prince slowly poured the cup of tea that the fifth prince had poured for him onto the ground.
-
After the Fifth Prince returned to his own residence, the smile he had on his face when he was with the Second Prince instantly disappeared.
He pressed the mechanism in the bedroom, and a narrow passage appeared under the bookshelf.
The passage is narrow and has two forks.
The left fork is a small rest room, and the right fork is a pile of documents and books.
The second brother didn't know how many things that were disadvantageous to him he had secretly caught, and he didn't know all of the second brother's plans.
His second brother didn't believe him, and he didn't believe his second brother, but they were connected by interests.
They are entangled like vines, and if you try to separate them by force, they will just break.
-
After the eldest prince left, the capital gradually returned to peace.
The fifth prince absorbed many forces left by the eldest prince and helped the sixth prince's party grow stronger.
Qu Dubian attended court every few days, and after court he went to the Ministry of War to report for duty, and then spent the rest of the time in the government office and the Ministry of Works.
He is waiting for a message.
-
In just three days, the situation changed suddenly.
Northern Xinjiang.
Jizhigla failed to destroy the Second Royal Court in one fell swoop, but the remaining scattered remnants had fled to the east.
The pro-war faction won a great victory. After two years of adjustment in the northern border, the resentment that the new king had when he first took the throne had gradually disappeared.
After the fall of the Second Royal Court, it took only a short while for the Northern Frontier to be unified.
Agumud was shot in the back by a poisonous arrow during his retreat and there was no way he could have survived.
Jizhigla shouted excitedly: "Send out a team to continue the pursuit! The rest return to the royal court!"
"yes!"
Before he arrived at the royal court, the news had already been passed back.
"Agumuto is dead! The king has returned!"
"Agumuduo is dead! God bless the Northern Frontier Royal Court!"
The war factions were so excited that they almost jumped up. They all knew the meaning of signing an alliance with the Great Zhou at that time.
Originally, it would only take more than a year to prepare before sending troops to the Great Zhou, but the Second Royal Court ended up messing things up for so long.
"Fight! Fight! Fight!"
"Fight! Fight!"
The powerful voice resounded throughout the royal court.
The trusted warriors of the royal court had received instructions from Jirigela in advance that the moment the Second Royal Court was destroyed, they were to capture and tie up the Princess of Da Zhou, and then kill the princess as a sacrifice when the Northern Frontier army set out.
At this time, there were about dozens of people from Northern Frontier surrounding Queen Zhiyi's tent.
The hundred guards she brought with her had already drawn their swords and shouted, "Who are you pointing your swords and guns at?! Get back now!"
Zhiyi quickly changed into a neat outfit, took off all the complicated headdresses on her head, and put all the things she needed to carry into the small bag she was carrying.
Northern Frontier Confidant: "Do you still think you are the queen?"
"Brothers, kill them and have a taste of the queen!"
“Who dares!”
The battle is about to begin!
"It's on fire!"
"It's on fire!"
Not long after, many tents in the royal court caught fire. The fire spread rapidly, and the sheepfold also caught fire. The sheep inside were driven out by the panicked shepherd slaves.
"Hurry up, hurry up, don't burn the sheep."
A shepherd slave rushed to the queen's tent with about a hundred sheep with their tails on fire.
He shouted in panic: "Gentlemen, the sheep! The sheep is on fire! Stop it quickly!"
"Damn it! How did the sheep from the sheepfold get here?"
The two groups of people who were fighting fiercely just now were instantly separated by the crazy flock of sheep.
Wherever these burning sheep ran to, they would cause new fires and also frighten the horses.
A woman dressed in the clothes of an ordinary northern border girl sneaked out of the queen's tent while no one was paying attention. After she slipped out about twenty meters, someone grabbed her wrist.
Zhiyi slapped him hard with her backhand, broke free, turned around and ran five meters, but was caught again.
She cursed inwardly, turned around and bit it, and smelled a strong smell of sheep.
"Princess, it's me."
Zhiyi: “?”
She relaxed and looked up, and Xie Lishan's face suddenly appeared in front of her.
He is the man from the second branch of the Xie family. If she hadn’t married off, this man would have been her husband-in-law.
In Zhiyi's impression, Xie Lishan was elegant and steady. Now his hair was messy and dirty, he was darker and thinner, and the slap mark on his face was very obvious.
She was surprised and asked, "You...?"
Xie Lishan pulled her and ran in another direction.
"Go this way. Jizhigla is on the way. The main force of the royal court will be back soon. The chaos will not last long. I will explain it to you later."
Zhiyi kept silent, grabbed two handfuls of mud from the ground, and quickly smeared them on her face, barely covering her features.
-
A fire destroyed the queen's tent and other surrounding tents.
All the burned dead were piled together, both men and women.
When Jizhigla came back and heard the news, his face was terribly gloomy, "After being burned like this, who can tell which one is the princess of Da Zhou?!"
The group of his trusted followers lowered their heads and were also injured.
"The fire frightened the sheep, the sheep burned the horses, we couldn't control it..."
All the elite troops under the king's command in the royal court were taken to strangle the second royal court. There were not many people left to begin with, and it took a quarter of an hour for the people from the surrounding tribes to arrive, and chaos had already broken out.
Jizhigla: "What about the guards around her? Did they run away or die?"
"Some ran away, and some died. But your majesty, the hundred guards around Princess Da Zhou are different from the guards around the previous Princess Xiang. They are very powerful."
Their every move was more like those of the soldiers from the border of Great Zhou who were fighting against them.
Jizhigla: "It is also possible that there is no princess of Da Zhou among these corpses. She ran away after hearing the news." He glanced around with a sinister look, "Block all the routes leading to the border of Da Zhou. If you find any suspicious people, arrest them immediately!"
"yes!"
After a while, someone asked, "Then the Great Duke of Zhou is in here?"
Jizhigla picked up the body of a Da Zhou guard.
"Then pick a woman's charred corpse at random, cut off her head and shave her flesh along with these corpses, and hang it on the flag of my Northern Frontier Army."
-
Border city.
Xu Jin came out of the mud house coughing.
Lang Qing quickly supported him and said, "My Lord, you should go in and rest. It's cold outside." Although the grass in the northern border in February had sprouted, it was still cold.
Xu Jin was not injured. He was just frozen by the cold wind when he got up early to patrol the city last time. He thought that drinking some ginger soup would make him better, but his cough became more and more serious. Xia Fuyang and Lang Qing forced him to rest for a few days.
Fifteen years have passed since I last returned to Beijing to hand over military power and support my grandson.
He has fought on the battlefield for decades, and no matter how unwilling he is, he has to admit that his body is not as strong as before.
The kid from Xia Hong's family helped him with a lot of things.
Xu Jin: "I suddenly couldn't sleep."
He sniffed the wind in the air and smelled a hint of coldness that was different from usual.
“It feels like war is about to start again.”
Lang Qing: "My Lord, General Xia can handle minor frictions."
"No," Xu Jin put his hands behind his back, his old hands were deeply wrinkled, and he frowned, "I think this time is different from usual."
The last time this intuition appeared was several decades ago, when the Northern Frontier conquered the twelve cities of the Great Zhou.
Xu Jin is now recuperating in Zhongcheng, which is opposite the first city in the northern border and is currently guarded by Xia Fuyang.
"Go check it out..."
Suddenly, a soldier ran in from outside with a serious face. He clasped his fists and said, "My Lord, the entire northern border is under martial law and the news is blocked. I don't know what happened in the royal court."
Xu Jin's eyes suddenly became sharp.
Lang Qing: "My Lord?"
Xu Jin: "Pass the order down, impose martial law along the entire border, and be on high alert."
Before he recovered from his illness, he put on his armor again and returned to Zhongyi City.
When Xia Fuyang heard that he was coming, he hurried out to greet him: "Lord Xu, you know now."
Xu Jin said without further ado: "I will stay here, you go to Dongyi City."
Xia Fuyang nodded quickly: "Okay, let's go to Xiyi City..."
"West City is being guarded by Ersen. Transport more explosives from Central and East City to make up for the defensive weakness."
"What's your illness?"
Xu Jin patted the armor on his body.
"I will never fall down while wearing this!"
Three days later.
The army from the northern border is approaching.
Twenty-three white skulls hang high on the flag of Northern Xinjiang.
Above the city wall of Dongyi City, Xia Fuyang had a bad premonition in his mind and slowly clenched his fists.
Zuo Xian Wang, a subordinate of Jizhigla, challenged Jizhigla in front of the battle formation, pointing at the skull and laughing.
"Use the blood of your Great Zhou princess and the Great Zhou guards to sacrifice to my Northern Frontier battle flag, and we will surely win the battle!"
Xia Fuyang's eyes suddenly became bloodshot, and he broke off a piece of stone from the city wall with his palm.
That's the weaving instrument...
Princess of the Great Zhou Dynasty.
Xiaoqi's elder sister.
He regained his composure amidst his rage.
“Fight!”
Boom!
The war drums sounded instantly.
Zhongyi City and Dongyi City blocked the charge of the Northern Frontier Army, but two cities were lost in succession on the west side.
The Northern Xinjiang, which was not good at manufacturing weapons and explosives, suddenly had a large amount of explosives. It used them without hesitation and used them extensively on catapults, catching the defenders on the west off guard.
Xia Fuyang checked the new weapons of the Northern Xinjiang soldiers picked up on the battlefield.
His expression was as cold as ice: "This is clearly the Nanning style!"
There is a natural barrier between Nanning and Northern Xinjiang. When will they join hands and cross the Great Zhou to support Northern Xinjiang?
-
“Report——!”
"Emergency military information!"
Two eunuchs ran into the palace one after the other, holding an urgent letter that had traveled eight hundred miles.
"Your Majesty, the northern frontier army is approaching and has captured two cities of the western garrison!"
"Your Majesty, there are unusual movements in Nanning, Zhennan Pass prepares for war!"
Beijiang tore up the marriage alliance, killed the princess of Dazhou, Zhiyi, beheaded her, removed her bones, hung a war flag high, and declared war on Dazhou. Nanning assisted Beijiang, provided weapons and explosives, and threatened Zhennan Pass.
In an instant, the atmosphere in the capital became terribly tense.
There are wolves in front and tigers behind, but the treasury of the Great Zhou is not full. The three counties with the largest grain production are still in the tax exemption period and will have to wait until next year to pay taxes and grain.
The moment Concubine Guo heard the news, she cried out "daughter" and fainted.
Concubine Xuan anxiously called the imperial physician and couldn't help but worry about Qu Dubian outside the palace.
-
The Seventh Prince’s Mansion.
Qu Dubian sat cross-legged on the roof, facing north.
He lowered his head and wiped a sword.
In February, buds sprouted from tree branches, and swallows returned to their nests. The scene was full of vitality, but no one had the heart to appreciate it even for a second.
A pigeon flew to him, and Qu Dubian took out the secret letter.
It was not until I finished reading the contents of the letter that the breath I had been holding in my heart slowly relaxed.
Now he is probably the only one in the capital who knows that his elder sister is fine. Although she is still in the northern border, her life is safe.
After a long time, he realized that his fingers were still trembling.
The distance is too far and too dangerous.
But he swore that this would be the last time.
Ye Xiaoyuan called him from below: "Your Highness, the things are ready."
Qu Dubian closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, all the surging emotions were suppressed.
He turned over and walked out with big strides.
"Enter the palace!"
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