Attack Fengjing
Chapter 89: Invasion of Fengjing
Chu Huaibei went all the way south, and the prefectures and counties were confused after receiving the order from the King of Zhenbei.
Aren't we at war with Mongolia? Why is the Prince of Zhenbei here? If they don't let us pass, there are roughly 50,000 or 60,000 troops, and forcing a breakthrough will only take half a day.
With no communication between the two sides, Chu Huaibei made his way to Jingzhou Prefecture, took a short rest, and started cooking.
The journey was so smooth that Xue Zhan and Qin Feng were greatly impressed.
With this level of skill, if the Mongolian army attacks, there will be no way to stop it. It will not be an exaggeration to say that it will be a purgatory.
Their Zhenbei Army protected the imperial court so well that the officials of Daxia became so incompetent.
Chu Huaibei knew a little about this matter. Generally speaking, it was an institutional problem that had existed for hundreds of years.
The founding emperor of Daxia and the first King of Zhenbei conquered the world together.
The two were in a master-servant relationship. Back then, the old dynasty encountered a drought that was rare in a century. The fields were barren and an unprecedented riot broke out.
The ancestor of the Chu family was almost starving to death, but was picked up by the founding emperor and taken home, where he was secretly fed a meal, which allowed him to survive.
At that time, they were still children under the age of ten.
Afterwards, he rose up in rebellion, fought wars everywhere, and finally conquered the vast territory of Daxia.
In order to drive out the foreigners who often harassed the northern border, there were more than a dozen small tribes living on the grasslands. They often rode in to rob people. They didn't rob much, but their horsemanship was superb and they couldn't catch up at all, which was very annoying.
The founding emperor named the ancestor of the Chu family the King of Zhenbei, and stationed him in the northern border to build fortifications to prevent foreigners from coming to plunder.
The other generals who had fought with the emperor to conquer the world later resigned from their military power, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, and returned home to retire.
Only the Chu family has always had military power in their hands.
The trust between the emperor and the Chu family is incomparable to others. For at least three generations, they have maintained a fairly high level of trust.
But as the imperial power changes, the feelings will always fade. The Chu family has always adhered to the ancient teachings of their ancestors and has been loyal to the emperor. After all, without the emperor, the Chu family would not exist.
In Daxia's military, the northern border relies on the King of Zhenbei, and the southern border relies on the Marquis of Zhennan. There is basically no military power in the country, and a prefecture or state has at most a hundred or so garrisons.
The five or six nearby prefectures and states combined could not even muster a team of a thousand people.
After resting, Chu Huaibei set off immediately, deciding to continue on his journey and directly raid Fengjing.
-
"Your Majesty, why does it seem to me that something is not right with Fengjing City?"
Xue Zhan looked at the messy city gate. The people looked panicked, and there was no gatekeeper on duty.
The 50,000-strong army stopped quietly at the city gate. The people who had already seen the army fled in panic.
Chu Huaibei didn't want to attack the people, so he ordered people to hang up the python flag of King Zhenbei.
He waved his hand to signal the army to enter the city.
When the panicked people saw that it was the banner of the King of Zhenbei, they stopped fleeing and looked at the neatly arranged army in surprise and doubt.
The brave ones started to talk to the people they knew around them.
"What's going on? Didn't they say the Mongol vanguard was coming? Why is it the Prince of Zhenbei?"
"Yes, I heard that the Mongolian army is coming!"
"Me too. This news was passed on by my cousin's sister-in-law's cousin from Master Shang's house. As you know, Master Shang just took in a twelfth concubine, and that cousin is her!"
"This Mr. Shang packed up early and has already left with His Majesty!"
"Oh, yes, it happened the night before yesterday. If I hadn't been on my way to the toilet at night and happened to see it, I wouldn't have known that all the officials in the court had left in the middle of the night!"
"What's going on now?"
"I don't know. Let's see. It's said that the King of Zhenbei loves his people like his own children. I don't think he will take action against the people."
"Go, go, go, go home quickly, the Mongols won't come!"
The people who had gathered together at that moment scattered in all directions. Why were they running? It wasn't the Mongols coming.
A few people with good hearing also heard a few words sporadically, and after piecing them together, they figured out that someone had mistaken them for the Mongol vanguard, and then the emperor took his men and fled the night before yesterday...
Chu Huaibei led his army and stopped directly at the south gate of the imperial city.
"Go, open the main door."
After taking a glance at the east door that he had entered and exited before, Chu Huaibei asked someone to open the door.
He waved his hand to signal everyone to enter the palace.
There were still many palace maids and eunuchs left in the palace, and they were stunned when they saw the python flag of King Zhenbei.
However, no one dared to approach and speak, and they simply tried to hide to the side. This imposing presence of thousands of troops did not look like they were coming to pay their respects to the emperor.
"Interesting, I was struck by someone."
After ordering his men to search the entire palace, Chu Huaibei sneered.
According to Yang Sui's confession, she thought she could see the third prince or the second prince rebelling and forcing the emperor to abdicate.
The reality is that the third prince forged information and asked the emperor to move the capital overnight.
Either Yang Sui didn't tell the truth, or the Third Prince had a trick up his sleeve for his subordinates who had followed him for many years.
No matter what the situation was, she had only achieved half of her purpose of coming to Fengjing.
The third prince was not caught and the emperor also ran away.
The current situation has brought us back to the prologue of the original book.
Chu Huaibei asked people to gather the remaining palace people together. After counting the number of people, he found that there were quite a lot of people, more than 800 people!
The emperor's life was indeed quite easy, with only servants...
She was planning to seal up the palace, and these people needed a place to go.
Chu Huaibei let them choose whether to stay in Fengjing or follow the army to the northern border.
Those in Fengjing can find ways to make a living on their own, and those who go to the northern border will be given land to farm or work in the workshops of the royal palace. In short, they will not starve.
As for Chu Huaibei's kindness, it was also because he saw that the proportion of palace maids among them was larger.
She decided to issue an order after returning to the North, allowing women to set up their own households. Whether they chose to farm or work in workshops, it would help improve the status of women in the North.
The decision of whether to stay or go was made on the spot. Not a single blade of grass or tree in the palace was moved. The palace was directly sealed and a thousand people were left to guard it.
Seeing the chaos in Fengjing, Chu Huaibei was not sure whether his maternal grandparents had followed him to Jianye or moved somewhere else, so he immediately took people to his maternal grandparents' home.
When the old servant of the Feng family opened the door, the first thing he saw was Chu Huaibei holding a helmet and wearing armor.
"Your Majesty!"
"Uncle Wang, you're still here. Are my grandfather and the others still at home?"
"Your Highness, I'm here! Please come in!"
Chu Huaibei turned around and gave an order behind him.
"Xue Zhan and Qin Feng, come with me into the mansion. The others will wait outside the door for a while."
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
While Chu Huaibei was talking to his men, Uncle Wang called the servant over and asked him to go find the master quickly.
Then he led people to the main hall.
Before reaching the front yard, Uncle Feng almost ran towards the gate and met Chu Huaibei and the other two at the corner.
"Uncle!"
"Huaibei! Why are you in Fengjing? Are you here to pursue the Mongol vanguard?"
Uncle Feng asked as he led his men towards the main hall.
"This was done intentionally by someone. There was no Mongol vanguard army in the first place."
"Hmm? What do you mean?"
Uncle Feng first arranged the three of them to sit down, and then ordered someone to invite Uncle Feng, Uncle Er and several young masters in the family to the main hall.
Chu Huaibei first gave the confession he had with him to Uncle Feng for review.
In just a cup of tea, everyone from the Feng family came hurriedly, and even the old man's steps were very brisk.
"Grandfather! Second uncle, hello cousins."
"What's going on? Huaibei heard that you brought troops to Fengjing?"
Feng Jijiu was a little confused about the situation for a moment.
"Grandfather, please read the confession in my uncle's hand first. Huaibei will explain."
Uncle Feng had already quickly reviewed his confession, and veins on his forehead were throbbing with anger.
He handed the confession to his old father and said something extra.
"Father, please don't be too angry after reading this, lest you get sick from it. Huaibei is here, which means things are not that bad."
Feng Jijiu glared at his eldest son, not even giving him any face in front of so many people.
“Bang!”
"Collaborator and traitor!"
Feng Jijiu had only read three pages of paper when he slammed the lid of the teacup on the coffee table to his right.
The second master took the confession from his father's hand, flattened it and continued to read it. He passed a page to the younger generation sitting behind him as he read it, and finished reading it as soon as possible so that Huaibei could explain.
Chu Huaibei started to narrate only after he saw that everyone had passed it around and read it.
"In mid-November, the third Mongol prince, Chahan, led an army of 200,000 to attack the northern border. He first dispatched his fierce general, Na Hai, to lead 100,000 troops to raid Youzhou at midnight."
"Thankfully, the soldiers at the beacon tower reported the news in time, allowing the soldiers to quickly prepare and climb the city walls to resist the enemy."
"After a long siege without success, they retreated at nightfall the next day and set up camp five miles from the Youzhou city wall."
"That night at midnight, Chahan personally led his troops to attack Lizhou, while Nahai continued to attack Youzhou."
"That night someone shot an arrow from behind me, but my subordinates pushed it away in time, so I didn't get hurt."
"I chased after Yang Sui and captured him. I ordered him to be interrogated overnight."
"The next day, the two men failed to attack the city and retreated. At midnight, the two armies gathered to attack Youzhou. I finally killed Na Hai, but Chahan eventually fled back to the grasslands."
"In the following days, I didn't receive any news from the court about increasing troops or food supplies. It was only after Yang Sui was interrogated that I finally understood."
"Today, I led my army into Fengjing with the intention of killing the Third Prince. I didn't expect him to have a trick up his sleeve, leaving me empty-handed."
"However, since the emperor has moved the capital to Jianye, I will definitely take over all the territory north of the Huai River!"
Chu Huaibei finished speaking in one breath and began to look at everyone in the Feng family one by one.
"Huaibei, you want to rebel? Are you worthy of the ancestors of the Chu family?"
Although Feng Jijiu was speaking in a counter-dialogue, his tone was not harsh.
"Grandfather, Huaibei certainly has a clear conscience!"
"Before I was born, my mother had been married for several years but hadn't gotten pregnant. You should all know this, right?"
"That's true, but conceiving an offspring can't be forced. Does it have anything to do with your rebellion?"
"Of course it's related! The emperor poisoned it! He put it in the dowry you gave to your mother!"
"If my father hadn't accidentally saved Uncle Deng later, my father and mother would have died long ago!"
“Bang!”
The teacup in Feng Jijiu's hand ultimately could not escape the fate of being shattered into pieces.
Feng Jijiu stood up suddenly, his face flushed red, his gray eyebrows and sparse beard trembling violently.
When Uncle Feng saw this, he immediately stood up and went forward to support him, so as not to make his father angry.
Feng Jijiu swept away his eldest son's hand.
"I'm fine, I don't need your help."
"How ridiculous! I've had very little contact with your mother to show my loyalty. It turns out the Emperor didn't even want the Zhenbei Palace to continue to exist!"
Chu Huaibei added.
"If none of the generals sent to the northern border were capable of doing their job, the Zhenbei Palace would have been secretly eliminated by the emperor long ago."
"Okay, okay, Huaibei, just go ahead and do it. Grandfather won't stop you anymore."
"Thank you, Grandfather. Huaibei has something important to ask of you right now."
“What can the Feng family do for you? It’s too awkward to be frank and ask for help.”
Uncle Feng spoke up.
"Then Huaibei will not be polite. I have already been to the imperial palace today, sealed it, and sent a thousand soldiers to guard it."
"I need to return to the northern border first to prevent the Mongols from launching a surprise attack upon hearing the news of the civil unrest. I will leave 30,000 troops and 500 personal soldiers with you. Please ensure that you control Fengjing."
"Most of the officials have left. I'd like to trouble Grandfather to select some reliable people to take over the government of Fengjing."
"If there are disobedient families, I will directly lead the troops to suppress them. There is no need to reason with them. My fist is the truth."
"Once I have settled the Northern Territory, I will rush to Fengjing immediately."
"Don't worry about the emperor coming back. He won't be able to come back with the third prince around."
"As for the charges against the Third Prince, I've written a document. Please take a look at it and help me revise it if it needs any polishing. I must make sure to spread the word about the Third Prince's crimes."
"Okay, no problem. Your grandfather still has many disciples left in Fengjing, and they're just what we need. Don't worry."
This was the first time that Uncle Feng took over so many soldiers, and he felt very complicated. Fengjing was now an empty city, so he was naturally confident that he could control it.
"Well, thank you for taking care of me, my uncle, my second uncle, and all my cousins. Huaibei wants to go see his grandmother."
"Don't be so polite. Go ahead. Your grandmother must be waiting for you."
"Xue Zhan and Qin Feng, wait here for me for a while. After meeting my grandmother, we will set off back to the northern border."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
-
"Grandma, Huaibei is here to see you!"
"Huaibei, come in and sit down! Let grandma take a good look at you."
The lady took Chu Huaibei's hand and looked him over from head to toe. She was relieved to see that he was not seriously injured.
"Huaibei, are you hurt?"
"Grandma, I'm not seriously injured. I'm fine."
"That's good. Did you repel the Mongolian army?"
"Grandmother, the Mongolian army never made it past Youzhou City. You can ask my uncle about this later. I just explained it to everyone in the main hall."
"I came to see you and reassure you that the North Territory is safe and sound, and my mother is doing well too. I'll show you your great-grandson next time I come to Fengjing."
"Okay, okay, grandma will wait for you. Are you leaving now?"
"Well, I'm going back to the North now. I'll go and settle the North first. I left 30,000 soldiers to my uncle. From now on, Feng Mansion will be my place to stay in Fengjing. Grandma, please don't mind my noise."
"Really? That would be great. It would be so lively with so many people around. I'd love for you to live in the Feng Mansion!"
Chu Huaibei's four nephews once again lamented their uncle's skill in coaxing people. He could even get the old lady to say, "It's so lively with so many people around," something she'd been waiting for!
In the Feng Mansion, apart from the sound of reading, anyone who laughed or played too loudly would be punished by copying books!
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