46. One difficult step leads to another.
"Does the employer not care whether we live or die?"
Shen Suqin did not return to the city that day.
The city gates of the capital city of Daliang were made of black iron, 110 feet high and 36 feet thick, and required dozens of people to push them open.
Standing beneath the city gate, even the tallest person would appear as insignificant as an ant.
At 1:45 PM, the evening drum sounded on time, and Shen Suqin, along with several thousand ragged refugees, watched as the city gates closed.
The sky was overcast, and the snow started falling again.
Uncle Chang stood beside Shen Suqin and murmured, "You are a noble person, a golden branch and jade leaf, you shouldn't be freezing with us."
Shen Suqin shook her head. "We're all human, no one is inferior to anyone else. I asked the Su family of Jiaozhou for a batch of coarse cloth. I told you to buy it at a low price before, but you don't need to buy it now. Just arrange for someone to pick it up."
"Let's build a few more bonfires tonight, and I'll go into town tomorrow to get some more food."
"I can't do anything about those who have been captured in the city, but I'll try my best to save your lives."
Uncle Chang knelt down with a thud. "You have helped us so much in the past, and now you are risking your life... How can we ever repay your kindness?"
Upon hearing this, the refugees around them also knelt down, weeping and wailing as they surrounded Shen Suqin.
The snow was still falling, the cold wind was still blowing, and the fluttering snowflakes were flying everywhere in the dark night sky.
Shen Suqin neither dodged nor yielded, her gaze sweeping calmly over the group, and said, "It's not too late to thank me after I've truly saved your lives."
After saying that, she paused for a moment, then continued, "If I fail, please remember to refrain from criticizing me."
In the latter half of the night, Shen Suqin sat by the campfire with her eyes open until dawn.
At the quarter-hour of Chou (1-3 AM), the morning bell rang and the city gates opened.
Shen Suqin breathed a sigh of relief, stood up and instructed Xu Youcai to send someone into the city to find Manager Qian to procure grain.
But soon, the man who was sent returned and said, "Martial law has been declared in the capital. No one is allowed to leave or enter."
“But the city gates are open, aren’t they?” Shen Suqin asked.
The man said, "It's open, but I noticed there are a lot more guards now. I'm afraid it's just to intimidate everyone."
Shen Suqin frowned and led Xu Youcai closer to take a look. Sure enough, the city wall was densely packed with people holding swords and bows, each one exuding murderous intent.
"Feng Sanhe!" Shen Suqin shouted, "Come out and see me."
"Feng Sanhe!"
Before long, Feng Sanhe appeared on the city wall, still half asleep. The two of them, one above the other, looked at each other from a distance.
The distance was too great for the two to see each other's facial expressions clearly.
"Feng Sanhe, do you want tens of thousands of people outside the city to die?" Shen Suqin asked.
Her voice was strong and resonant, carrying far.
Upon hearing this, the refugees around gradually gathered around, and soon a large group of ragged people had assembled under the bows and arrows at the city gate.
Feng Sanhe frowned as he looked at the refugees. “The refugees are up to no good. I am ordered to guard the capital, so naturally I must keep the lawless people out of the city.”
"You should be glad that I did not order you all to be killed."
Shen Suqin was cold and austere.
She realized she had made a serious mistake: underestimating the ruthlessness of powerful families and overestimating the power of the crown prince.
Originally, she wanted to use the words of the poor scholar to create a breach in the centralized power of the aristocratic families. As for the crown prince, if he was powerful enough, he could naturally take the opportunity to seek benefits.
Unexpectedly, the powerful clans were so aggressive that they wanted to kill the crown prince and install a new crown prince who was easy to control.
She originally thought that things had come to this point and there was no way to turn back.
Unexpectedly, the peasant rebellion gave her another opportunity.
Right now, she wants to take advantage of the refugees' presence to enter the palace, bring the Crown Prince and Xiao Pingchuan back from Mingde Hall, and then plan other things.
But they were stopped outside the city.
It's true that every step is difficult once you take it.
“General Feng can certainly kill us all, but you must understand that there are no fewer than a million refugees in the entire Great Liang. Can you kill all the refugees in the capital, or all the refugees in the world?” Shen Suqin said. “Aren’t you afraid that if you strike, all the refugees in the world will rebel?”
Feng Sanhe was startled; he had actually overlooked this detail.
He knew very well that Shen Suqin was right. He could kill ten thousand, twenty thousand, or even fifty thousand or a hundred thousand refugees, but he could not kill all the people in the world.
Moreover, he dared not risk disrupting the world.
"So what do you want to do?" he asked.
“I was sent by the Crown Prince to appease the refugees. The Crown Prince said that the refugees’ rebellion had a reason and should not be easily blamed. He also said that he would give the refugees an explanation and a way to survive.”
Shen Suqin said this to both Feng Sanhe and the refugees around him: "Therefore, I must ask the Crown Prince to step forward and fulfill the promise made that day."
Feng Sanhe knew that the Crown Prince was currently trapped in the Mingde Hall and there was absolutely no way he could get out, otherwise they would all die.
"His Highness is currently being punished by His Majesty and is confined to the Mingde Hall to reflect on his mistakes; it is impossible for him to come out."
“Then let’s go in and find him.”
"Impossible. That's the imperial palace, a place of utmost importance. Do you think just any Tom, Dick, or Harry can get in?"
"Then we'll have to trouble the general to inform them that there are thousands of refugees outside the city seeking an audience with His Highness the Crown Prince. If His Highness refuses to see them, we'll have no choice but to force our way in."
"You try it."
"You think I wouldn't dare?" Shen Suqin said.
Feng Sanhe raised his hand, signaling the archers to prepare.
Xu Youcai also raised his hand, signaling his men to prepare, while simultaneously pushing the refugees back, out of the range of the arrows.
Then the two sides reached a stalemate.
This stalemate lasted for an entire morning.
The refugees had been hungry all morning, and with no rice or water to eat by noon, they began to get restless.
Uncle Chang initially scolded a few people, but then things quieted down for a while.
But soon, some people started to get restless again.
"What are we waiting for? To die?" someone shouted.
"Charge! Charging in might mean certain death, but it's better than waiting to die here."
"That's right, the city gates are open, if we don't charge now, when will we?"
As they spoke, the refugees began to charge at the guards.
Uncle Chang squeezed through the crowd to ask Shen Suqin for her opinion, hoping she could step in and stop it again.
But this time Shen Suqin didn't say anything.
Uncle Chang knew that she wanted to go to the city.
"Does the master not care whether we live or die?" Uncle Chang asked in a trembling voice.
He only knew that Shen Suqin was acquainted with the owner of Xingyuan Restaurant, but he did not know that she had already married the General of the Cavalry and was the General's wife.
Shen Suqin looked at him quietly for a long time before saying, "The Crown Prince has been imprisoned by His Majesty for pleading for you. That man," she pointed at Feng Sanhe with her chin, "colluded with Prime Minister Pei to kill the Crown Prince. Once the Crown Prince dies, you and I will have no one to protect us. So I have to go into the city to rescue the Crown Prince; it's our only way to survive."
Her words were a mix of truth and falsehood, but they were generally correct.
If the Crown Prince were truly dead, she and Xiao Pingchuan would naturally have no way out.
Therefore, she could not stop the refugees from entering the city.
Uncle Chang clearly took it to heart; he looked at the people who had begun to charge the barricades with a look of despair.
They were ragged, emaciated, and their arms were as thick as wooden stakes used for barricades.
Despite their haggard appearance, their eyes were filled with a desperate will to survive, a will that burned like flames in the icy snow, seemingly never to be extinguished.
Uncle Chang bent down, trembling, to pick up the wooden stick from the ground. He shouted and rushed into the chaotic crowd.
Feng Sanhe ordered the arrows to be fired, and the arrows rained down relentlessly.
Xu Youcai organized his men to surround Shen Suqin and some others, blocking all the arrows that were shot at them.
The refugees who were not protected lay scattered on the ground.
Shen Suqin watched coldly as the bright red blood flowed to her feet, staining her shoes.
Soon, the arrows were all shot out, and Feng Sanhe came down from the city wall and ordered the guards below to draw their swords and kill people.
In an instant, the two sides were locked in a fierce battle.
Although the refugees were too weak from hunger, they were still fierce at heart.
In contrast, these old-fashioned soldiers in the central army had never been on the battlefield before, and their hands trembled as they held their swords at the sight of this scene. Only the elite troops under Feng Sanhe could kill people with a single blow.
"You don't need to protect me, go and capture Feng Sanhe," Shen Suqin instructed Xu Youcai.
Xu Youcai glanced over there, then at Shen Suqin, but didn't move.
“My mission is to protect you. If anything happens to you, the general will tear me apart,” he said.
Shen Suqin remained silent. Her curved blade slid from her sleeve, unsheathed, and seized an unlucky victim. She slid sideways and, with a "swoosh," slit the victim's throat, splattering warm blood all over the ground.
Xu Youcai turned around in shock: "You!"
Shen Suqin blocked one person for him with a side kick, and said unhappily, "Concentrate."
Then, Xu Youcai saw her advance instead of retreat, rushing towards Feng Sanhe with graceful movements and swift techniques, leaving corpses in her wake.
This was the first time he had ever seen such agile skill, and also the first time he had ever seen such ruthless swordsmanship outside of the Black Flag Army.
Every strike is aimed directly at the vital points, leaving no room for retreat.
Shen Suqin knew that the refugees couldn't hold out for long, and she didn't want too many refugees to be killed or wounded, so she decided to capture the leader first.
Feng Sanhe, relying on his superior skills, didn't leave many men around him, which made things easier for Shen Suqin.
She silently slid behind him, her curved blade flashing horizontally, aimed straight at his heart.
"General, watch out behind you!" someone suddenly shouted a warning.
Feng Sanhe was shocked. Without even turning his head, he rolled away from the spot. When he looked back, he saw Shen Suqin, dressed in black, looking like a ghost, half of her body covered in blood, staring intently at him.
At that moment, the hairs on his body stood on end, and he gritted his teeth and stood up, "I never thought you would kill someone."
“There’s a lot you don’t know,” Shen Suqin said.
Feng Sanhe sneered, "You think you can kill me?"
“Who said I was going to kill you?” Shen Suqin laughed. “I’d like to ask the general to take me to the palace.”
"Dream on!" Feng Sanhe raised his hand. "Men, seize her."
Immediately afterwards, more than a dozen people rushed up and swallowed Shen Suqin up in the crowd.
Feng Sanhe stared intently in this direction, but kept retreating until he was behind the battle line.
Soon, one by one, the people surrounding Shen Suqin fell down, and Shen Suqin's beautiful face was slowly revealed. Blood clung to her eyelashes, making her cold eyes appear even darker.
Feng Sanhe shuddered slightly and took a few steps back.
By this time, noon had passed, and neither side showed any sign of stopping.
Shen Suqin was getting closer and closer to Feng Sanhe. Just as her scimitar was about to touch Feng Sanhe, the thunderous sound of iron hooves suddenly came from afar.
The Black Flag Army has arrived.
At the same time, the Mingde Hall was also in chaos.
It was probably because Marquis Anping heard the news that the refugees outside the city were about to be suppressed that he felt he would miss his chance if he didn't act now.
So he waved his hand, signaling the Jishe Battalion to take action.
After several volleys of arrows thoroughly pierced the Mingde Hall, he ordered his men to set it on fire, intending to burn the people inside to death.
Unexpectedly, before the torches could be lit, the palace doors opened by themselves from the inside.
Xiao Pingchuan appeared behind the door expressionlessly, without a single injury on his body.
He suddenly flashed forward, snatched the green-sheathed square-headed waist knife from the guard, untied his wrist strap, and then tied the hilt of the knife to his right hand, wrapping it around and around, finally bending down and tying a tight knot with his teeth.
At present, thousands of soldiers stood in formation before the palace, but none dared to make a move.
After everything was ready, he looked around, chuckled, and waved his hand, signaling Shi Ye to come out.
Shi Ye was wrapped in the black cloak that Xiao Pingchuan had worn when he arrived, with half of his face buried in it, only revealing a pair of cold, dark eyes.
Xiao Pingchuan held the knife horizontally in front of his chest, his left hand protecting him behind him, and stepped down the stairs one by one.
The black-armored soldiers swarmed in front of the two men like a tide, but none of them dared to step forward first, retreating step by step as the two men approached.
"Stop them!" Marquis Anping shouted. "If we can't stop them, we'll all die!"
No one dared to make a move. The heavy snow couldn't conceal the murderous aura emanating from Xiao Pingchuan. He was like a starving wolf, ready to tear the throat of anyone who dared to approach.
Seeing that the two were about to approach the palace gate, once they left the palace, Marquis Anping's plan to intercept and kill the Crown Prince would fail.
In his panic, he slammed the hand warmer in his hand into the courtyard, scattering crimson charcoal across the ground, which sizzled in the snow.
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