Chapter 409 Right Prime Minister and Li Xuanjing
Huaizhou.
Daxia's 800,000-strong army was stationed in Huaizhou and several neighboring states to resist the invasion of Wei.
Outside Huaizhou City, 300,000 elite troops of Wei State began to gather again.
The difficulty of attacking a city is always greater than defending it. The army of the Xia Kingdom defended the city, and the military force covered the entire city. To break through the city, at least five times the number of soldiers of the defenders were needed. The army of the Wei Kingdom was originally larger than that of the Xia Kingdom, and the number of top-level warriors was more than twice that of the Xia Kingdom. Although the battle line was advancing slowly, it was also making steady progress...
Who would have thought that while the army was fighting on the front line, the home in the rear was being robbed.
After losing more than a dozen states in succession, the Wei court could no longer sit still and had to transfer part of the troops from the front line to defend the city. Although it stabilized the rear, it also greatly reduced the speed of siege on the front line. Huaizhou alone had been attacked for half a month and had not yet been captured.
In Huaizhou City.
Sensing that the Wei army outside the city was showing signs of gathering again, the two half-saints of the Wang family gave the order to fight, and their figures slowly rose into the air.
Compared to half a month ago, they are under much less pressure now.
Before, in every battle, the two of them had to hold back the three semi-saints of Wei.
Fortunately, the two brothers have been practicing together since they were young, and over the past hundred years, they have developed a set of tacit combined attack techniques. Even if they are two against three, they can still not be at a disadvantage.
Half a month ago, a semi-saint from the enemy side was transferred away, and their pressure was suddenly reduced.
In the past half month, the enemy troops outside the city have been gathering their forces every day. They have become accustomed to it. As long as they can hold back the two semi-saints and prevent them from interfering, the defenders in the city will be more than capable of defending.
They have formed a kind of tacit understanding with the two semi-saints of Wei State.
For them, the daily battle is more like a competition.
Which semi-saint has not practiced for more than a hundred years? Unless it is absolutely necessary, no one is willing to fight for his life with someone of the same level.
However, today, when the two flew out of the city and were about to have their routine sparring with the two semi-saints of Wei, their expressions changed slightly.
There appeared another figure in front of the two semi-saints of Wei State.
The two men stood half a body length behind him, with respectful looks on their faces.
When they saw the figure's face clearly, the two half-saints of the Wang family changed their expressions drastically and exclaimed in unison: "Emperor Wei!"
…
Jiangzhou.
The stalemate between the revolutionary army and the Wei army continued. In terms of military strength, the Wei army was stronger, but the power of the revolutionary army should not be underestimated. If a forced attack was launched, at least half of the 400,000-strong army would be consumed.
Both parties are waiting.
Once the victory or defeat of the army on the front line is decided, we will be able to free up our hands to break the balance here.
Inside the state government office, Li Nuo withdrew his fingers from Huang Yuan's wrist and shook his head, saying, "There's nothing wrong with your body."
Huang Yuan was unsure: "Really?"
Li Nuo nodded and said, "At least, with my ability, I didn't find any disease."
Huang Yuan asked, "What about the poison?"
Li Nuo said: "Neither do I."
Huang Yuan had great confidence in Li Nuo's medical skills. There should be no one on the mainland with better medical skills than him, but he still had no idea...
Since that person dared to threaten him with this, what he asked him to swallow must be nothing ordinary.
At this time, Li Nuo asked: "What did you eat?"
Huang Yuan recalled and described it as: "A black pill."
Li Nuo asked, "What does it smell like?"
Huang Yuan said: "It tastes sweet and sour, and it's pretty good..."
Doctors' pills are usually bitter, and rarely have a sour-sweet taste. If they are poison pills, they are even less likely to taste sweet. The only pill that fits his description is hawthorn pills.
Hawthorn Pills have long been available in the court's medical clinics. They are mainly used to treat loss of appetite, indigestion, and abdominal distension caused by food stagnation. They are extremely cheap, suitable for people of all ages, and are very popular among the people.
Huang Yuan was puzzled and asked: "What kind of poison is Hawthorn Pill?"
Li Nuo shook his head and said, "It's not poison."
Huang Yuan was slightly stunned and asked, "What do you do?"
Li Nuo said: "It strengthens the spleen and stimulates appetite, eliminates stagnation and resolves stagnation..."
Huang Yuan: “…”
Just when Huang Yuan was at a loss, Bai Yu hurried in and said to Li Nuo with a serious face: "Master Li, the battle report from the front line, four semi-saints from the Wang family, Cui family, and Pei family have fallen..."
Li Nuo looked at the urgent report he handed over, without much surprise on his face.
When the portraits of the two semi-saints of Wei State appeared on the code, his martial arts skills soared to the fourth level, and his life span increased by sixty years, he knew that Wei State would definitely take targeted revenge.
But what he didn't expect was that there were only seven semi-saints in the six major families, and four of them were lost within two days.
The Wang family, the number one family in Daxia with two semi-saints, also lost both of their semi-saints.
The death of one semi-saint might be just an accident, but the death of four semi-saints at the same time was extremely unusual. With the forces deployed by Wei State on the southwestern border, it was impossible to deal with the seven semi-saints of Daxia. Four were killed and three were seriously injured.
unless……
Huang Yuan looked at Li Nuo and said with certainty: "It must be His Majesty who took action!"
The difference in strength between ordinary semi-saints is not that big. Zhenren Taixu is at the peak of semi-saint. Under normal circumstances, he may not be able to kill a semi-saint who has just entered the country, unless he himself is determined to die and fights with the other party to the death.
The fact that the four semi-saints didn't even have a chance to escape must have been the intervention of someone with overwhelming strength.
It couldn't be anyone else except the Emperor of Wei.
Unexpectedly, as the emperor of the Five Dynasties, he dared to leave the capital, go deep into the front line, and take action personally...
If he made any mistake, Wei would soon be removed from the list of the five dynasties.
The emperors of the five dynasties cannot be killed. Once he dies as an emperor, the destiny of the Wei Kingdom will be taken away. Even if the court supports a new emperor, he will not inherit any of his achievements.
For this reason, since ancient times, very few emperors have personally gone into battle.
On the border between the two countries, their strength is less than half of that of the capital.
If they were besieged by several semi-saints, even they would be at great risk of perishing.
The Emperor of Wei is gambling on the fate of his country.
And he won the bet.
The number of semi-saints in Daxia is originally less than that in Wei. The semi-saints of the six major families are dead or injured, and there is no one to defend the front line. If Li Nuo transfers Taixu Zhenren and his master and uncle to support, the front line that has been advanced in Wei and Chu in recent days will be pushed back...
Could it be that Daxia will really be the first of the five dynasties to be destroyed?
Chang'an.
Four semi-saints from the Wang, Cui, and Pei families died, and three semi-saints from the Zheng, Du, and Lu families escaped with serious injuries. The southwest front was completely lost. When this news reached Chang'an, the people of Chang'an were devastated...
The semi-saints of the six great families are the top fighting force of Daxia.
Of the seven semi-saints, four have fallen and three are unable to fight again. How long can the army on the front line resist the State of Wei?
Could it be that Your Majesty is asked to lead the army in person?
Daxia is going to die...
Secretariat.
On the left prime minister's desk, there was a heavy letter from the country.
It is said to be a letter of state, but in fact it is a letter of war.
This is a declaration of war from the Emperor of Wei to His Majesty the Great Xia.
After the entire southwestern front was lost, the army could only retreat continuously. After the Wei State captured more than a dozen cities, it did not continue the attack, but submitted a letter to Daxia.
The Emperor of Wei wants to fight with His Majesty the Great Xia.
Although this letter did not say much, Your Majesty is already the last pillar of Daxia. If Your Majesty, who is responsible for the destiny of Daxia, fails, Daxia will only be crushed by Wei.
It actually doesn't matter whether you accept this declaration of war or not.
If you don't accept it, Your Majesty can only retreat to Chang'an. As Wei swallows up more and more of Daxia's territory, Your Majesty's cultivation will continue to decline. When the Wei army reaches Chang'an, Your Majesty will no longer have any cultivation.
But even if Your Majesty accepts it, it cannot change the outcome.
The power of an emperor is closely related to the national strength of his country. Daxia is not as strong as Wei, so Your Majesty cannot win.
The reasons stated in the Wei State's letter are very legitimate.
The Emperor of Wei did not want any more casualties among the soldiers and civilians of the two countries. If the two armies continued fighting, only the people of Daxia would suffer. He was willing to have a fair fight with the Emperor of Daxia. The battle between the two emperors would decide the outcome of the national war.
Of course he was willing to do so. In this way, Wei could minimize casualties and would not be taken advantage of by Chu and Qi.
Not only did they deliver the letter to the court, they also publicized it in all the states of Daxia. I'm afraid it won't be long before everyone knows about it. Wei, as an invader, stood on the moral high ground, under the banner of doing good for the people of Daxia, and forced His Majesty and the court into a dead end...
Zuo Xiang looked up at the sky outside the window.
The sky was clear blue and everything was within his sight, but he could not see the future of Daxia clearly.
Is Daxia about to be destroyed?
The Secretariat.
The right prime minister looked at the files on the table with a look of deep confusion in his eyes.
The entire southwest border was defeated. Four of the seven semi-saints from the six great families died and three were seriously injured. The power of their families also suffered a huge blow in the defeat of the Great Xia army. Countless children in their families were killed or injured. They would not be able to recover for at least a hundred years...
This is exactly what I want.
Several aristocratic families occupied Daxia, sucking the blood of the people. Countless Confucian disciples came one after another, wanting to overthrow them, and shed their heads and blood on this road with no end in sight...
At the moment when many of his disciples died and his wife and children perished, he finally woke up.
It is impossible to overthrow those families by relying solely on the power within Daxia. We must rely on more powerful external forces...
By then, even if Daxia lost some land, it might not be a bad thing for the people on this land if they could get rid of the constraints of the aristocratic families.
The worst case scenario is the demise of Daxia.
If there is a country that can achieve great unification, and there are no enemies, then this country will no longer have to engage in war, and all military expenses can be saved to open academies, build bridges and roads, and improve people's lives. It can create a harmonious society where all people on the mainland can have enough food to eat, can afford medical treatment, can have children grow up, the elderly have a place to live, and the widowed, lonely, and disabled can all be taken care of...
If this were really possible, then Daxia would be destroyed.
But what he saw was that after Wei captured Daxia, it forcibly took over the court's medical clinics. The medical and drug fees for the people increased dozens of times. The aristocratic families of Wei began to forcibly seize the land of local people, and the minimum wage decree that the court had just issued was also abolished by them...
On the contrary, in Yue State, in the prefectures and counties that Li Nuo had captured, one after another of the policies that the people of Daxia had never enjoyed were being steadily implemented. That was the country he wanted...
At this moment, he realized that he was wrong, very wrong.
If it weren't for him, Liang would not have sided with Wei, and Wei would not have invaded Daxia so quickly. If Li Nuo had been given a little more time, he might have been able to change Daxia from the root, but now, everything is too late...
After Wei annexed Daxia, it was easy to destroy those revolutionary armies.
He is a sinner, the eternal sinner of Daxia...
He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, then slowly stood up and left the Chancellery.
Inside Dali Temple.
Prince Chun no longer had the heart to play chess. Even though he did not care about state affairs on weekdays, Daxia was about to perish. As a member of the royal family of Daxia, if he still did not care at all, he would feel that it was a bit too much.
He scratched his hair, looked at Li Xuanjing opposite him, and asked, "Xuanjing, Daxia is not really going to be destroyed, right?"
After thinking it over, he couldn't think of how Daxia could get out of the predicament. He couldn't expect his father to kill Emperor Wei in the war. This was indeed a way to break the impasse, but did his father have the ability to do so?
Obviously not.
He wanted to say something else when a figure slowly walked in from outside.
Prince Chun looked at the right prime minister and swallowed back the words he was about to say.
At this time, Li Xuanjing said: "Today I suddenly feel like drinking Snow Amber Jade Dew Soup..."
Chun Wangteng stood up and said with a smile: "Then you wait here, I will go back and make it for you..."
After saying that, he turned and left in a hurry.
When he walked out of the Dali Temple and got on the carriage, he looked back again.
Did Xuan Jing have something to say to the Right Prime Minister? This was the first time he had found an excuse to get me out of the way. What was it that I couldn't listen to...
Dali Temple, right hand side opened the door of the yamen, casually moved a chair and placed it opposite Li Xuanjing's desk.
Sitting opposite the Chief Justice of the Dali Temple like this feels a bit like being on trial.
Neither of them spoke.
silence.
There was a long silence.
Finally, it was the Right Prime Minister who broke the silence and said, "I am guilty of treason."
Li Xuanjing picked up the teacup, moistened his lips, and asked, "What did the Right Prime Minister want to say? Did you plan the assassination of the Chu envoy in Sifangguan to provoke disputes between Xia and Chu, or did you plan the murder of the second prince of Liang in the embassy village, and then send envoys to Liang to destroy the relationship between Liang and Xia, push Liang to Wei, and thus provoke a war between Wei and Xia?"
The right prime minister stood up suddenly, with a look of shock on his face: "You know everything!"
Li Xuanjing did not comment. The Right Prime Minister had wanted to use his own body as a criminal to help Li Nuo ascend to the status of a sage. He was so shocked that he even forgot the purpose of his trip and asked, "Your Majesty also knows?"
Li Xuanjing shook his head and said, "Your Majesty doesn't know."
The right prime minister asked, "Then how did you know that?"
Li Xuanjing said, "More than 30 years ago, the son of Zhang Feng, the Minister of Personnel, who was executed by Your Majesty for treason, should have been executed, but was saved by the Right Prime Minister. You asked him to change his name to Chen Qi, go to the State of Chu under an assumed name, and become the guard of the Chu envoys... These things are not difficult for the Mirror Office to investigate."
He continued, "As for the strategist who killed the second prince of Liang, although he hid it a little deep, if you look closely, his teacher is your registered disciple. He has to call you Grandmaster... Am I right?"
The Right Prime Minister sat down slowly, and after a long silence, he spoke: "As expected of you, since you already knew these things, why didn't you tell His Majesty? I have been against you in all these years, and you can use this to overthrow me..."
Li Xuanjing shook his head slightly and said, "You just want to use the power of Wei to get rid of the troubles of the Great Xia family, so that the court will not be controlled by the family, and the people will be free from the oppression of the family... Am I right?"
The Right Prime Minister suddenly stood up again and looked straight at the person opposite him.
He never expected that over the years, his most hated enemy in the court was actually the person who understood him the most!
At this moment, even if he died, he would have no regrets.
Li Xuanjing stood up and walked to the right prime minister, holding his wrist, and said softly: "You have worked hard over the years..."
The right prime minister's body trembled slightly, and two lines of tears rolled down...
He did not shed a tear when his only son died.
He did not shed tears when his first wife died.
He did not shed a tear when several of his most valued disciples were wrongly accused of treason and executed.
But at this moment, he looked at the elegant man in front of him and couldn't stop crying...
(End of this chapter)
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