In the winter of the 28th year of Chengqian, Emperor Ping, who had been on the throne for nearly 29 years at a young age, died. Prince Li Mao, born to the empress of Emperor Ping, succeeded to the throne. In the second year, the reign was changed to Tai'an.
At that time, the court of the Great Zhou Dynasty was controlled by the powerful minister Yan Ding. All the civil and military officials in the court only knew the Yan family and not the Li family. The Yan family was extremely powerful.
In the third year of Emperor Tai'an's reign, with the support of Empress Dowager Yan, Emperor Tai'an joined forces with the Empress Shen's family to launch a coup in an attempt to attack the Yan Party. However, due to the betrayal of a trusted eunuch, Yan Ding discovered the situation. In the end, Emperor Tai'an died, the Empress Dowager and Empress Shen were beheaded, and the entire Shen family was slaughtered.
After Emperor Tai'an's death, Yan Ding supported Emperor Tai'an's eight-month-old youngest son Li Huan to succeed to the throne and changed the reign title to Changshun.
In the first year of the Changshun reign, Empress Dowager Zhou, the empress of Emperor Tai'an, was hanged to death after Yan Ding discovered she had called him an "old dog" in the harem. That same year, Xiao Weiyong, the crown prince of the Northern Yan Kingdom, died suddenly in the palace. Rumors circulated that Xiao Weiyong was angry about Yan Ding's restrictions on his freedom of movement, and had offended him with his words, leading to his execution.
After Xiao Weiyong's death, the people of Yanbei were outraged. Officials of all ranks in Yanbei jointly wrote a letter to the Yanbei Palace asking the King of Yanbei to seek justice for the Crown Prince.
The King of Yanbei was deeply saddened by the death of his eldest grandson and fell seriously ill. After he recovered, he appointed his second son, Xiao Jingxi, as the Crown Prince of Yanbei and handed over all the affairs of Yanbei to the Crown Prince.
In the spring of the third year of Changshun, the four-year-old emperor Li Huan choked to death on a piece of cake. The palace people all said that the little emperor was poisoned by Prime Minister Yan, who wanted to exterminate the Li bloodline and make his own eldest grandson the emperor.
In the summer of the third year of Changshun, the Palace of Prince Bei of Yan and the Palace of Prince Zhong of He successively issued proclamations of war, and jointly sent troops south under the banner of "eliminating treacherous ministers and clearing the court of corrupt officials". The commander of the two armies was the Crown Prince of Prince Bei of Yan, Xiao Jingxi.
The Great Zhou army, long pampered, rivaled the Yanbei army in numbers, but the gap in strength was enormous. Led by Xiao Jingxi, the Yanbei army advanced southward with unstoppable force, forcing the imperial army back at every turn. Finally, the Yanbei army reached the capital, laying siege to the city walls.
The Yanbei Army was a strict military disciplined force, never disturbing the people as they marched south. At first, ordinary people would flee and hide when they saw the Yanbei Army, but after seeing that the Yanbei Army did not burn, kill, or loot, and even when they collected food and fodder along the way, they would give the people a reasonable price, the people gradually became less afraid. Some ordinary people who were confused about the situation saw that the Yanbei Army soldiers were all heroic and majestic. They even dragged their daughters to deliver water and food, hoping to find a good son-in-law.
Mu Hu, known as the Black General, had this trouble.
At that time, a middle-aged peasant woman hugged Mu Hu's big thick legs and rolled around, refusing to let him go.
"You took my daughter's purse, so you have to marry my daughter!"
Mu Hu glanced at the burly, darker-skinned girl standing beside him and almost fell to his knees. "Auntie, let go! I'll confiscate your daughter's purse! Don't talk nonsense!"
The old lady put one hand on her waist and pointed at the coarse cloth bag of dry food on Mu Hu's horse's back: "You are lying with your eyes open. What is this! Isn't this a purse embroidered by my daughter herself?"
Mu Hu's face twisted. His dry food bag was broken, so he picked up a gray cloth bag from the ground. Was it actually a purse? Is it really okay to hang this huge thing around your waist?
A group of people gathered around, laughing and watching the fun. Mu Hu glanced around and pointed at Xiao Shun who was not far away and said, "I'll give it back to you! I'll give it back to you! Look at how good he is, you can ask him to be your son-in-law. I'm already married and have three children."
The peasant woman glanced at Xiao Shun along Mu Hu's hand and frowned, "I want a son-in-law to do farm work. You're the right person for me." She patted Mu Hu's waist and abdomen heavily. She smiled complacently, "My family raises donkeys. I can tell for sure that someone like you will be easy to raise."
"Puff!" Laughter erupted from all around. Zhu Ruomei, who had come over to watch the fun, laughed wildly. Mu Hu, teased, blushed crimson, wishing he could find a hole to hide in.
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