When Fang Zhiyi opened his eyes, he found himself riding a horse, followed by a disorganized group of people.
Xiao Hei then told the story.
This is the end of an imperial dynasty. Fang Zhiyi is a small captain of the Dragon Cavalry. The Dragon Cavalry pursued the enemy alone but was accidentally ambushed. The last elite force of the imperial dynasty came to an end.
The only ones who survived were Fang Zhiyi's team, which consisted of less than 80,000 people.
When he led his team to Jiayu Pass, they were greeted by countless rain of arrows.
It was only from the shouts of the defending general that he realized that their cavalry had become a "rebel army."
Fang Zhiyi didn't understand why he became a rebel after coming back from the battlefield with great difficulty. He certainly didn't understand the struggles in the court.
Fang Zhiyi had no choice but to start a long journey with his less than eighteen men. Along the way, he saw many human tragedies. He remembered listening to storytellers when he was a child, "There was a great famine, and people ate each other." He didn't understand what it meant, but when he saw it with his own eyes, he realized how terrifying these short words were.
They killed horses to satisfy their hunger and fought against the victims. They made their way forward with difficulty. After they entered Yongzhou, they were accepted by Chu Chaofeng, the lord of Ji County.
After a hearty meal of slaughtered cattle and sheep, he decided to join this loyal master. It was also on that day that he met Chu Chaofeng's daughter, Chu Zhaoning, a very unusual woman.
All the women he had met never left the house. They were either doing needlework or weaving silk. Some also learned musical instruments and dance, but they were a minority. Chu Zhaoning, on the other hand, was carefree and seemed to have a good relationship with everyone in the Chu family. She disdained to learn those survival skills, but instead told the servants things like "everyone is good at making money". Sometimes she would tinker with some small inventions, which were of no use, but everyone found them novel.
The world was in chaos, and Chu Chaofeng decided to take up arms. He gathered thousands of able-bodied men from his own clan and thousands of people with the surname Qi from Ji County. They rose up in rebellion, and soon swept through several surrounding counties. He also transformed himself from a county lord to the governor of Yongzhou.
With the land and the men, Chu Chaofeng's ambition expanded rapidly. He wanted to replace Dasheng and become the emperor himself. Although Fang Zhiyi didn't know what was in that position, since his master wanted it, he had to keep winning. As a pioneer, this was also his duty.
The brothers who had followed him before, who numbered less than eighty thousand, gradually died in the chaotic battle, and only Fang Zhiyi was still alive.
The world was somewhat more stable, as all the other powers, both large and small, had been swallowed up by the King of Wu, the King of Xiang, and Chu Chaofeng, forming a three-way balance of power. Chu Chaofeng, also feeling very proud, would occasionally pull him aside and point to the faint peaks in the distance: "Zhiyi, look, that's my kingdom."
Fang Zhiyi smiled along. Although he didn't think much, he knew that if the world was prosperous, the people would have food to eat.
The three-way balance of power remained unchanged for a long time, just like three mutually restraining species. No one dared to act rashly, so the world temporarily gained peace.
But everything did not develop as Fang Zhiyi had expected. Chu Chaofeng proclaimed himself King of Chu. He took in many concubines, some of whom were even abducted from the people. When Fang Zhiyi tried to stop him, he demoted Fang Zhiyi and sent him to a remote county to serve as a local official.
Originally, this was fine, Fang Zhiyi could at least take a break, but soon he heard the news that Chu Zhaoning was sent to King Xiang as a gift by Chu Chaofeng.
The reason was that she always spread nonsense about equality of all and scientific planting to the peasants in her own territory. Someone told Chu Chaofeng that his daughter was spreading rumors to confuse the people. After all, she was his daughter, and Chu Chaofeng was reluctant to kill her, so he simply gave her to King Xiang as a token of sincerity to form an alliance with King Xiang.
Fang Zhiyi had no idea what became of Chu Zhaoning later, because another round of famine had come and the harvest was poor. The population of the county where he lived had plummeted, with people either starving to death or fleeing from the famine. He heard that someone in the neighboring county had imitated the King of Chu and had already raised an army.
Although Fang Zhiyi had some free time, he was still thinking about waiting for the King of Chu's edict. He could still pick up a gun and serve as the vanguard for the King of Chu.
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