Chapter 155: Does loyalty to the emperor necessarily mean death?
"Pah, shameless!" The older woman spat out a mouthful of saliva, but unfortunately it was too far away to reach Xu Guanshan.
Hu Yuntian was also tied up, and the meat skewer team suddenly gained another person.
In order to protect his family, Hu Yuntian had no choice but to reveal the grain he had hidden, which relieved Xu Guanshan's grain shortage for a while.
Xu Guanshan dared not go north, for it would be a greater loss if he were to clash with the barbarians. He could only head south to find a city to rely on.
However, Hu Yuntian did not intend to surrender so easily. On a dark and windy night, he actually used his teeth to bite open the ropes binding the men.
"Shh!" Hu Yuntian gestured, signaling the whole family to flee north.
They were already living a life of hardship, and no one wanted to stay up all night guarding the Hu family. Besides, they had only been given a little food to keep them alive along the way, so they didn't believe the Hu family would have the strength to cause any trouble.
The escape went very smoothly, and the group only stopped when they could no longer see the camp behind them.
The older woman looked worried. "What about the soldiers who followed you? Aren't we going to take care of them?"
Hu Yuntian shook his head. "Those loyal to the royal family have already been killed by Xu Guanshan. The remaining people who are willing to surrender to him are all weak-willed. Even if we take them with us tonight, they might turn against us when Xu Guanshan catches up."
The older woman stopped insisting and changed the subject, asking, "Where are we going now? Can we still go to the border region?"
"Even if General Huo dies, the border army has not been wiped out. Although the capital is in chaos now, as long as we deal with those rebels, the aristocratic families will be free to manage the border war. As long as we hold on, evade the troops sent by the court to hunt us down, and then live in seclusion in the border region, raise the young prince to adulthood, and then unite the forces of the border region and Huzhou to take back Shengjing in one fell swoop."
Hu Yuntian's idea was good and feasible. While the powerful families in the capital were dealing with the rebels, he could retreat to a remote area, preserve his strength, lie low, and wait for the right opportunity.
The older woman sighed again, "I wonder if Ya Xian has reached the border region? Are she and Hua'er alright? And how is the little prince? We were scattered along the way, which made us easier targets, but we were completely defenseless in the face of danger. Xu Guanshan... he, he's a beast!"
After being captured for so many days, Hu Yuntian learned about his nephew's fate. Such a bright and brilliant young man did not die for his country or his army during the chaos and destruction of the nation. Instead, he died on his own father's path to seizing power, and even after his death, his body was dismembered and eaten.
"What's done is done. It's all our fault for misjudging people and letting a wolf into our house," Hu Yuntian said with a pained expression.
The group was all feeling terrible, but there was no time to dwell on their sadness. If Xu Guanshan discovered that they had escaped, the consequences would be unimaginable.
The six people supported each other and walked north without daring to stop for a moment.
As dawn broke, a touch of green finally appeared on the barren ground.
Several people knew that they were almost at Yangcheng.
"What should we do? Xu Guanshan took me to knock on the door before, but the Yangcheng garrison was completely unyielding and wouldn't let any outsiders into the city," the older woman said worriedly.
Hu Yuntian shook his head, which was dizzy from hunger, and said calmly, "That's because Xu Guanshan has no profit to offer. When we left Shengjing, we divided our troops into several small teams and fled in different directions. Only a small portion of them were captured by Xu Guanshan. We can use the rest of our troops to trade with Hu Wen. As long as he is willing to protect us, I can gather these troops to help him guard Yangcheng. Yangcheng dares to stand up to Xu Guanshan, but it doesn't dare to confront the imperial army."
However, before Hu Yuntian could lead them to the foot of Yangcheng, Xu Guanshan arrived with his troops.
Having integrated Hu Yuntian's surrendered troops, Xu Guanshan now had over a thousand men at his disposal, easily surrounding them.
Xu Guanshan rode forward and sneered, "Why do you keep going against me? If you hadn't encouraged Ya Xian to take that newborn prince out of the palace, would I have been forced to flee like a stray dog?"
The day the rebels besieged the city was completely unexpected. At that time, Xu Guanshan's wife, Hu Yaxian, was attending a banquet in the palace. The empress was so frightened by the news of the rebel siege that she suddenly went into labor and gave birth prematurely.
Later, Song Anbang opened the gates of the capital, and the rebel army entered, burning, killing, and looting. The powerful families of the court, for their own interests, held the emperor hostage and negotiated with the rebels.
Hu Yuntian, the commander of the Imperial Guards, made a decisive move and ordered his sister, who was staying in the palace, to secretly take the little prince out and prepare to escape with them in the chaos.
The Hu brothers, who controlled the palace guards, easily evaded detection and brought the person out.
As Hu Yaxian left the palace, she ran into a maid from General Huo's household who had come to inquire about the situation. She handed the young prince over to her and then went home to find her still young son.
At that time, Xu Guanshan was leading troops to resist the rebel army in the city when he suddenly received news that his two maternal uncles had rebelled and were fleeing out of the capital with the palace guards. He immediately called on his confidants to charge out as well.
"If you hadn't gone back without a word, I wouldn't be in such a passive position. With so few men, how could I possibly contend with the assassins raised by the powerful families? And those rebels, they're all a bunch of bloodthirsty lunatics. The powerful families turned around and shifted the blame onto us, the fleeing people, causing this constant pursuit!" Xu Guanshan's eyes were bloodshot as he hysterically berated them.
Even though he was physically weak, Hu Yuntian still glared angrily, "But none of these are reasons for you to have rebellious intentions!"
Xu Guanshan, as if he had heard a joke, pointed to himself and then to the soldiers following behind him.
“I ask you, don’t our lives matter? When the rebels attacked the city, didn’t we fight bravely? Didn’t we remain loyal to the emperor? Didn’t we protect the people? But when Song Anbang opened the gates of the capital, everything was over! The emperor was doomed, so must we die with them just because we are loyal to the emperor? Why can the powerful families remain unscathed and even stand up to negotiate with the rebels when the city falls? What about us? In wartime, we were the ones who fomented the rebels’ swords, and afterwards, we were used as targets by the powerful families. Do you know that if it weren’t for your interference, I would have already made contact with the powerful families, and they could have saved the lives of both our families! Now you blame me for having rebellious thoughts, but what good would it have done if I hadn’t rebelled? I just wanted to find a safe place to live a good life, to live a good life with my wife and children. What did I do wrong? I can’t even protect myself, so how can I talk about protecting others?”
As he finished speaking, tears welled up in Xu Guanshan's eyes.
The older woman looked at her with disdain, "No matter how eloquent you are, you can't change the fact that you killed and dismembered your own child!"
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