Fan Xiuniang lowered her head and said nothing, but turned around and went out. Suddenly, she brought a basin of hot water and a face towel, lowered her head and wrung them, preparing to wipe her father's face and neck.
Fan Qiong sighed as he watched his daughter's white forehead and clean temples flash past him when she leaned forward. He thought back to the day in the north when he saw the official Zhao looking for laundry maids everywhere, and he felt disdain in his heart. But a few days ago when the official showed his old ways in Nanyang, he had already felt that a disaster was coming and he had thought about sending his daughter over to save her life, but he hesitated for a moment and ruined his last chance in vain.
"Daddy?" After a pause, Fan Xiuniang, still holding a hot towel, carefully broke the silence.
Fan Qiong came back to her senses again, took the hot towel and started to wipe herself, sighing as she wiped.
"Daddy." Fan Xiuniang looked at her father and couldn't help but repeat the question that was destined to have the same answer. "The government wants Daddy to die, so what should we do?"
"You won't die!" Fan Qiong wiped his face, threw the gray face towel into the basin, and repeated the answer he had said countless times. "As long as you can hold on for half a year, the Jin people will send a large army to Nanyang, and then your father will be able to turn bad times into good times!"
While Fan Xiuniang was wringing out the hot towel again, she looked hesitant and seemed to be hesitant to speak.
"What do you want to say?" Fan Qiong held his sword, his eyes narrowed slightly. "Could it be that those girls in the backyard are instigating you to persuade me to plead guilty again? Have you forgotten how the last person died?!"
Hearing the last sentence, Fan Xiuniang was also shocked by the scene a few days ago, and then her face turned pale. She quickly grabbed the face towel and shook her head repeatedly: "What Madam Zhang said is right, but she didn't ask me to persuade Dad to surrender in Nanyang. I heard from her that this official is lustful, and Dad wanted to offer his daughter to him a few days ago... I want to say that I am willing to share Dad's worries."
Fan Qiong's expression eased, but he shook his head again: "Too late!"
After saying this, this man who was once a loyal minister of the Song Dynasty, and now had no idea what he had become, stood up with his sword in his hand, and walked out without even looking at his daughter.
And without mentioning how worried Fan Xiuniang was about her father, it was only said that when Fan Qiong left the back house and turned into the front yard along the corridor, he was greeted by several trusted soldiers who were waiting there.
"What's the matter?" Fan Qiong came to the steps and no longer tried to be polite as she did in front of her daughter, but instead spoke sternly.
In the rain, the leading general knelt down and reported: "General, let me tell you, the city wall is too wide, and we have too few people. What we encountered today was a captain from the left army who escaped with a whole team, but we only had time to capture seven or eight people!"
"waste!"
Fan Qiong was so angry that he started to curse and even wanted to draw his sword to chop. But as soon as he got angry, he found that a sore had appeared in his mouth. It was fine because he had spoken softly to his daughter before, but the curse he brought out now tore the wound, causing unbearable pain.
However, since he didn't touch the knife, he held his cheek and continued to scold: "Han Li, the commander of the left army, is a waste. He actually made the whole team disloyal. I think he has changed his mind too! And you are also useless. How come you only captured seven or eight people? Are you also wavering?!"
The guards were helpless and could only look at each other, then kneel down in the rain and bow their heads to each other.
Fan Qiong cursed for a while, and felt a severe pain in his mouth. Finally, he could only sit in the corridor with his cheek in his hand. It took him a long time to recover his strength. But at this time, he was filled with fear, terror, anger, and violence in his heart, which were difficult to calm down and even became more intense.
"Were they all captured alive?" After a pause, Fan Baochen, who seemed to have calmed down, suddenly spoke.
"Of course." Jiang Jian, who was drenched by the rain, responded carefully.
"Then send an order, have all the officers above the rank of commander in chief, and all the officers above the rank of general under my direct command, come to the hall of the prefecture!" Fan Qiong's eyes were red, but his tone was surprisingly gentle. "As always, I will execute the sentence in a formal manner, and have them all come to watch!"
The guards looked at each other, without saying anything, and quickly fled in the rain.
Soon, in the city of Xiangyang, which had already been squeezed into a large military camp, Fan Qiong's most core 10,000 troops, including Han Li's troops under the left army commander, Wang Jun's troops under the right army commander, and all the troops directly under the central army, received the news...but they were all used to it, because this kind of thing had been going on for three days.
The only thing to say is that Han Li, the commander of the left army, will inevitably be more worried this time.
Relatively speaking, Wang Jun, the commander of the right army and a close confidant of Fan Qiong, who had two front teeth shot out by the Jin people during the Jing Kang Campaign, was naturally a little more casual.
After receiving the order, the famous commander with a gap mouth, as usual, had his guards stuffed with silver and wine, and then took a few of his personal soldiers to the backyard of his residence to change clothes... According to Fan Qiong's rules in the past few days, everyone who went to the provincial government to see him could bring guards, but except for his personal soldiers, no one was allowed to wear armor.
"Mr. Lin!"
Entering a well-guarded and brightly lit back house, the gap-toothed Wang Jun immediately knelt down and kowtowed to the ground. "Mr. Lin, I dare to ask you to change into coarse cloth and follow me to the state capital..."
The person who was reading by candlelight on the couch was naturally the indomitable scholar Xiaolin who was determined to do something for the government. Upon hearing this, he glanced at the ground casually and frowned:
"General Wang, the imperial edict was only received six days ago, but five days ago you asked your concubine's father to find Lord Li outside the city and ask him to find someone from Nanyang Prefecture. I am a scholar of the Imperial Academy, a trusted official and a minister of internal affairs. I took the risk to come and see you because I saw that you are one of the best generals under Fan Qiong. But you have been making excuses for three days in a row. Do you think Fan Qiong still has a chance to survive? Can you really be so indecisive?"
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