After capturing Maoren, Feng Ye did not give Qianzhou a chance to dispatch troops for help. After a brief reorganization, he let Yuan Nanyu lead his troops to besiege Qianzhou.

With the addition of the 10,000 troops that Yu Shenglang brought from Datong, Qianzhou City now has less than 20,000 soldiers, and the food supply has been cut off. However, Qianzhou also has its advantages. First, the terrain is high and thick. If Fengye wants to fight, he will have to fight with his head raised, which is very disadvantageous. Second, there is enough surplus food, which can support it for a year at most, so it can be consumed slowly. As long as Qianzhou defends itself in a dangerous place and refuses to fight, Fengye will be helpless.

The strategy of deploying troops is to surround them if there are ten of them, attack them if there are five of them, and divide them if there are twice as many. Now Feng Ye has integrated the three counties of Qianzhou and the Feng family army, with a force of nearly 80,000, which is four times that of Qianzhou. They can barely attack, but no matter whether they can break the city, the damage will be heavy. The siege will last for a year and the consumption will be too great.

Now it seems that the best strategy is to lure Qianzhou out of the city for a battle, and the best strategy is to defeat Qianzhou from the inside, which is exactly what Yan Sikong had prepared in advance.

Just a few days after Qianzhou was besieged, news came from Datong that Chahar had surrendered to the court, but it was too late. Even if Xue Ronggui led his troops to help and rushed from Datong to Qianzhou, his troops would be exhausted and their foothold would be unstable. Fengye would not even give them a chance to set up camp. They would certainly take advantage of the situation and destroy them in one fell swoop. Everyone knew that Xue Ronggui would not dare to come here to die.

After a few days of stalemate, Qianzhou sent another envoy to negotiate. Fengye treated them to fine wine and delicious food, but they were sent back without even seeing Feng Ye.

Qianzhou had no idea what Feng Ye was thinking, and hearing that Yan Sikong was under house arrest, he dared not act rashly and just planned to hold on.

Feng Ye neither persuaded the enemy to surrender nor provoked them. He sent people to train the troops outside Qianzhou city every day to show them the bravery and bellicosity of the Feng family army. He seemed to have no intention of attacking for the time being, but the more he did so, the more frightening he became. After all, he had just launched a surprise attack on Maoren at night. Now people could not help but suspect that he was deliberately putting on a show to paralyze Qianzhou, causing the Qianzhou defenders to be even more cautious.

Feng Ye and Yan Sikong's plan was to leave Qianzhou out for a while, showing that Feng Ye intended to lay siege to the city for a long time and was not in a hurry to fight. This would make Qianzhou even more worried. Then they would send Yan Sikong back to Qianzhou to secretly instigate a rebellion against Yu Shenglang, and take the city without bloodshed.

But just as winter began, the envoy from Qianzhou came again. Feng Ye was secretly happy, thinking that Qianzhou would not be able to sit still. However, he did not expect that the envoy came to deliver a letter, and it was a letter to Yan Sikong. He wanted to take the opportunity to meet Yan Sikong.

Feng Ye asked his men to accept the letter, entertain the envoy, and then send him back. However, this time he brought a message asking Emperor Zhaowu to grant him Hetao as his fiefdom, and he would agree to the amnesty.

Holding Yan Sikong's letter, Feng Ye returned to the inn and pushed open Yan Sikong's door. The guards all retreated politely.

Only Feng Ye could drive straight in like this. Yan Sikong did not raise his head, but stared at the book in his hand and said calmly, "I have seen the Wolf King."

Feng Ye threw the things on the table.

Yan Sikong took a look and asked: "What is this?"

"Your letter from home, sent from Qianzhou."

Yan Sikong was startled, and immediately guessed the contents of the letter. He subconsciously put down the scroll and just covered the letter, and deliberately changed the subject: "What did the envoy say? What was his attitude, and how did you respond to him?"

Feng Ye propped up the table with both hands and looked down at Yan Sikong: "Don't you want to read the letter?"

"No, I don't think it's a big deal."

Feng Ye pulled out the letter, raised his eyebrows and said, "It's nothing serious? In that case, let me help you read it." Then he tore open the letter.

"Feng Ye!" Yan Sikong stood up and wanted to grab it.

Feng Ye opened his hand, shook out the letter, and read the ink on it quickly. The more he read, the gloomier his face became.

Yan Sikong lowered his eyes.

Feng Ye clenched his five fingers and crumpled the thin letter into a ball. He said in a cold voice: "Congratulations, Prince Consort Yan. Congratulations, Prince Consort Yan. Princess Wanyang has given birth to a little princess for you."

Yan Sikong took a deep breath, not daring to look directly into Feng Ye's eyes. He and She Zhun had already discussed beforehand that She Zhun would buy a child from the countryside when Wan Yang was about to give birth, and it had to be a girl. If it was a boy, he would be left alone in Beijing and might be used to blackmail someone in the future. Calculating the date, it was indeed time for the baby to be born, but he was so full of power schemes that he forgot for a moment.

Although he had some resentment towards Feng Ye in his heart, he did not dare to provoke Feng Ye at this time, and only said: "I understand."

Feng Ye threw the letter at Yan Sikong's face, his eyes cold and filled with hidden pain: "Xi'er is waiting for you to name her."

Yan Sikong slowly picked up the letter, flattened it, and scanned it roughly. The baby girl had been given the title "Xi Wen" by Emperor Zhaowu, and her nickname was Duo'er. From now on, she was his...daughter. He thought that he would never have children in this life, but he didn't expect that he would have a child in the end. Although it was a daughter, he couldn't tell what he felt in his heart, but he was not happy anyway.

Feng Ye looked at his calm face, clenched and unclenched his fists, and said in a deep voice: "Are you unhappy?"

"I..." Yan Sikong raised his head and suddenly decided to tell Feng Ye the origin of the child. At this time, they were only one step away from Hetao. The overall situation was more important. At this juncture, he hoped to ease up with Feng Ye a little. However, deep in his heart, in a corner that he didn't want to peek into, he hid a little extravagant hope to clear up the misunderstanding with Feng Ye. He said solemnly: "Feng Ye, this child is not mine."

Feng Ye stared at him: "What do you mean?"

"The princess and I have never been husband and wife. This child was bought from the countryside by She Jun to make me closer to the emperor."

Feng Ye narrowed his eyes: "Do you know what you are saying? Do you expect me to believe this nonsense?"

Yan Sikong could not hide his disappointment: "It's true. Whether you believe it or not is up to you. I'm just telling you."

Feng Ye grabbed Yan Sikong's collar and said harshly, "If it's fake, you are still a thief and want to continue deceiving me. If it's true, you used all means and thought hard to marry my cousin, but let her, the great Princess of Dasheng, live a widow?!"

Yan Sikong was so angry that he gritted his teeth and said, "She hates me..."

"How did you treat Xi'er? She is so innocent!" Feng Ye took a few steps forward and pushed Yan Sikong against the wall. He shouted, "You are so unscrupulous that you treat everyone as pawns and use them at will. You even show no mercy to your wife. Do you have any conscience?"

Yan Sikong stared at Feng Ye with his clear eyes, and his chest ached. He never thought that Feng Ye would say such a thing, and he never thought that he really had such a "sinister heart" and wanted to explain to Feng Ye, even if it was just to clarify one thing, even if it was just to make Feng Ye think that he had done one less "wrong" thing...

He had been proud of his intelligence all his life, so why did he always do stupid things in front of Feng Ye? How many times did he have to humiliate himself before he would remember that in Feng Ye's heart, everything he did was wrong.

Feng Ye threw Yan Sikong to the ground fiercely and kicked the table over in anger. His fists were clenched and clattered, as if he was trying hard to suppress something. His handsome face was slightly distorted, and his eyes were filled with unspeakable anger and sadness. He said hoarsely, "Sometimes, I really want to kill you."

Having said this, he turned and strode away.

Yan Sikong slowly climbed up from the ground, his face as pale as paper. He stared at the void numbly and empty, then slowly and mockingly pulled the corners of his lips, revealing a miserable smile.

He straightened the table and chairs, picked up the letter from home and put it away carefully. He knew Feng Ye would be furious. It was unavoidable, so there was no reason for him to be upset.

In fact, sometimes he didn't know why he was living or for whom he was living. It seemed as if he was born with a mission, and he would never be able to escape it if he failed.

And Feng Ye was probably his doom.

——

Feng Ye had not shown up for several days, and Yan Sikong was confined to a small room. Apart from delivering meals, he hardly saw anyone, and he felt depressed all day long.

Feng Ye did not show up until the eve of the Spring Festival. He had drunk again, and although he was not drunk, he was not very sober either.

Yan Sikong couldn't help but think of Feng Ye's madness that night when he was drunk, and he was afraid. However, Feng Ye just put the wine pot on the table, stared at him, and asked, "Have you named the little princess?"

“…Not yet.”

"If Xi'er wasn't my cousin..." Feng Ye raised his head and took a sip of wine, then said to himself, "I would kill her."

Yan Sikong pursed his lips, not knowing how to answer.

Feng Ye glanced at Yan Sikong, his eyes showing three parts of drunkenness and seven parts of sharpness, "Do you know what I hate most about you?"

“…”

"I hate you the most..." Feng Ye stood up and walked slowly to Yan Sikong, "I hate you the most..."

Yan Sikong looked at Feng Ye deeply.

Feng Ye curled his lips into a smile, suddenly pinched Yan Sikong's chin, pointed the wine jug at his mouth and poured the wine into his mouth.

Yan Sikong's face turned red from the pungent wine. He struggled hard against Kaifeng Ye's grip, and the wine bottle fell to the ground and broke into pieces.

Feng Ye picked up Yan Sikong, threw him on the couch, and pressed down on him.

Yan Sikong pressed his chest: "Feng Ye!" He was really afraid that after getting drunk, Feng Ye would not restrain his bestiality at all.

Feng Ye grabbed his wrist, the light in his eyes flickered, and it was hard to tell whether he was drunk or sober. He whispered, "On New Year's Eve, go back to Qianzhou and do everything according to the plan."

Yan Sikong was stunned and forgot to resist for a moment.

Feng Ye sneered, "You really only care about this. If someone else could give you the world, would you be willing to 'serve' him like this?"

Yan Sikong gritted his teeth and said, "Feng Ye, if one day you regret how you treated me today, don't tell me."

Feng Ye leaned over and whispered, "I don't regret it." He tore open Yan Sikong's front...