The courtyard was silent. Just when Wang Jiyang thought that Chu Xuan had no way to deal with him, Chu Xuan suddenly laughed out loud.

"Wang Jiyang, I originally thought you were a smart man, but I didn't expect you to be so self-righteous. In this situation, you don't think that as long as you deny everything and push away those charges, you can survive, right?"

Chu Xuan laughed mockingly, and slowly approached Wang Jiyang step by step, and said word by word: "Do you think that I am here to investigate the case? Ridiculous, I am here to take your life!"

Wang Jiyang's face suddenly changed, and he stared at Chu in panic: "You...! How dare you murder an official appointed by the imperial court without any evidence! I am the prefect of Tongzhou appointed by His Majesty himself. Even you, the prince, cannot easily determine my life or death!"

"Really?" Chu Xuan lowered his head, rubbed his fingers with a playful look on his face, snorted defiantly, and before anyone could react, he made a quick move and stabbed Wang Jiyang's shoulder with a knife.

Then, as if nothing had happened, he leaned close to Wang Jiyang's face and whispered, "You forgot one thing. A general is not subject to military orders when he is away from home. Even the emperor can't control me. Who do you think you are?"

As soon as he finished speaking, before Wang Jiyang's screams stopped, the next knife stabbed into Wang Jiyang's other intact shoulder again, quickly and accurately.

"Ah!" Wang Jiyang wanted to roll on the ground in pain, but the soldiers on both sides held him tightly, held him in front of Chu Xuan, and let him do whatever he wanted.

Chu Chen, who was standing by, couldn't help but raise his hands and cover his eyes silently when he saw this. It was too scary. His brother was now like a killer god from hell, sinister and cruel, making people afraid of him.

But although his eyes could no longer see, his ears became extremely sensitive. Wang Jiyang's screams reached Chu Chen's ears, making him shiver uncontrollably.

"Sister-in-law." Chu Chen saw Lu Yanluo out of the corner of his eye and asked curiously, "Aren't you afraid of such a bloody scene? How can you still watch it? Otherwise...or else, let my elder brother take care of this, and we will go to the government office and wait first."

Chu Chen didn't want to admit that he was a coward, but he was really scared.

Lu Yanluo's originally irritable mood was dispersed by Chu Chen's frightened yet unbearable look.

"What's wrong with you? Are you scared?" Chu Xuan's arrival made her feel much more at ease, and for a moment she even felt like joking.

Chu Chen straightened his back immediately after hearing this, put his hands behind his back, held his head high and denied, "Of course not, there's nothing to be afraid of, only you women would be afraid."

What a joke! How could he, a grown man, show his cowardice in front of a woman? He had to hold on even if he was really scared!

Chu Chen looked at Wang Jiyang and Chu Xuan again, and almost vomited after just one glance.

Wang Jiyang was seen being held up by someone, with no flesh and blood left on his body. Chu Xuan had actually picked out Wang Jiyang's bones alive. The floor tiles had been stained red with blood, and the blood had spread along the cracks between the tiles for a long distance.

He was somewhat suspicious whether Wang Jiyang had died from blood loss.

"How is it? This punishment is not pleasant, right?" Chu Xuan remained calm, lowered his head and played with the dagger in his hand, and said coldly: "You know, the soldiers in Tianque Pass survived with difficulty by relying on this punishment."

"Sister-in-law, please pinch me. I... I was in a trance just now. What did my brother say? Cut... human flesh to eat?" Chu Chen's eyes were full of disbelief. He ignored the etiquette and grabbed Lu Yanluo's arm to confirm.

He must have heard it wrong.

But Lu Yanluo's expression answered her. Lu Yanluo's face was pale and her eyes were red.

She knew that Chu Xuan's days in Tianque Pass would never be easy, but she didn't know that they had actually reached this point.

How painful it must be to cut off your own flesh.

Chu Xuan slowly spoke about this dark period of life.

At first, everyone knew that food and grass were in short supply, so they started to save money and delay the time to wait for the aid from the capital. However, they waited for more than half a month, and when there was no food left in the granary, they realized that the food and grass from the capital could not be delivered.

In desperation, Chu Xuan had to ask Qingzhou and Tongzhou for grain, but unexpectedly, the two prefectures refused to provide grain as if they had agreed beforehand.

Outside the pass was an army of 300,000 strong from Tatuo, eyeing them covetously. Inside the pass, the soldiers were out of ammunition and food, so they tightened their belts and insisted on going up to the city walls to defend the city every day.

Chu Xuan originally wanted to lead his troops to Qingtong two states to rob food, but the eunuch who was accompanying the army refused. He would rather starve to death than allow Chu Xuan's army to turn around and head towards Tianji territory.

The eunuch always remembered the emperor's instructions to him before leaving the capital, to be on guard against the Night King's rebellion. At the critical moment, he killed the Night King at all costs.

In this way, Chu Xuan was unable to advance or retreat, and had no choice but to choose to fight to support the war. He secretly went out and attacked the grain transport trucks of Tatuo halfway.

This plan was really useful. Taking advantage of the Tatuo army's unpreparedness, Chu Xuan led his men to intercept four grain transport vehicles. The food they snatched back finally solved the urgent problem temporarily.

However, it was also this time that Chu Xuan discovered problems in the food he had snatched back.

When the box was opened, everyone present was stunned. Some people even thought vaguely that what they had just intercepted was Tatuo’s food supplies.

"Marshal, this..." Several confidants in the army looked at Chu Xuan with different expressions, waiting for him to make the decision.

Chu Xuan's face was cold as he stared at the sealed box in front of him. On it was written "Tianji Ministry of Revenue". Anyone who could read would recognize that this was Tianji's food and fodder.

"Start cooking, everyone, fill your stomachs first. I know what's going on in this matter, so let's go."

After the generals left, Chu Xuan called Shen He, gave him some instructions, and then ordered Shen He to return to the capital.

After all, the looted food and grass were limited. Not long after Shen He left, the food ran out. Chu Xuan tried to ambush Tatuo's grain transport team again, but unfortunately the Tatuo people changed their route, leaving Chu Xuan no chance to steal the food and grass.

A few days later, Tianque Pass ran out of food again, and the remaining rice was only enough for everyone to have porridge.

After a few more days, there was still no news from Shen He, and the soldiers began to have no food to eat.

Five days later, all the edible food in the pass had been eaten. The soldiers were hungry and struggled to go up to the city wall for patrol every day. Finally, they could not hold on any longer and fell off the wall and died.

Before dying, the soldier held his colleague's hand tightly and said silently: "Cut out my... my flesh..."

He died before he could finish his words. From that day on, a group of soldiers appeared inside the pass. They would reluctantly cut off a piece of their meat every day to provide food for those soldiers who were able to go into battle and kill the enemy.

At first, this method was expressly prohibited by Chu Xuan, but people were forced into a desperate situation and had to give in.

In the end, it was these soldiers who cut off a piece of their own flesh every day and waited for food using their own names.