Chapter 509: Life and Death Game (Part 2)
Huo Gannian's funeral was quickly arranged.
At present, the mistress Zhi Luo of the Huo Mansion has disappeared inexplicably.
The whole mansion was deserted, with only Lu Liang in charge.
Fortunately, many people came to pay their respects. Civil and military officials and dignitaries in Kyoto came in waves to burn incense and pay their respects. Each family sent servants to help with the funeral ceremony.
Looking at the entire Huo Mansion covered with layers of white gauze, white banners standing by the wall, and white chrysanthemums piled inside and outside the mourning hall, people finally felt it truly:
Huo Gannian is dead.
He also began to feel fear clearly: the Black Scale Cavalry had slaughtered the Beijing Army led by Su Zhengyang, and was rushing towards Kyoto, and would arrive in three days.
Is the Nan Kingdom really going to be torn apart and eaten? Is it at the end of its rope, about to perish?
Even though Nanlijun is stupid and hateful, the country will not be destroyed as long as she is around.
It is better for her to be a foolish and willful king than for the vast country to fall into the hands of the enemy and be harmed by the Black Scale Cavalry, right?
People couldn't help but focus their eyes on Yun Chen.
Recalling the days when she and Huo Gannian were the brave men guarding the national border, and the glory of "Cloud Tiger" who was the bravest among the three armies and intimidated powerful enemies from all directions.
If there is still a little hope to save this country, it is probably only Yun Chen.
But no one had the heart to bring it up.
Especially when Huo Gannian had just died in battle and Yun Chen was completely disheartened and collapsed.
He also didn't dare to confront Yan Shijiu and ask him to release Yun Chen from the secluded Yan Mansion and return the "Cloud Tiger" to the battlefield.
People hope that someone like Yun Chen can come out to take charge of the situation, but they also know that even with Yun Chen, nothing can be saved now.
There were only 20,000 imperial guards left in Kyoto.
Even if we ignore the rebellion in the southeast and mobilize all the border defense troops, they will not be able to catch up and resist the incoming Black Scale Cavalry.
What can Yun Chen do alone?
A feeling of despair spread throughout Kyoto.
This was the result Yan Shijiu wanted, but he couldn't be happy at all.
He stayed in his study day and night, and began to sort out everything from scratch.
He carefully looked through all the records about Huo Gannian, and even asked Zhuang Ji for all the accounts since he took over the Huo Gang's property.
Which year should we start looking at?
Let’s start from the year Yun Chen joined the Huo Gang.
Because Huo Gannian admired, trusted, and later fell in love with Yun Chen, all kinds of records have been particularly detailed since Yun Chen joined the Huo Gang.
There's no need to do it any sooner.
Yan Shijiu believed that no matter what Huo Gannian planned, it would not be possible to do it earlier than that time.
Otherwise, this person's cunning and stubborn character are really outrageous and terrifying.
Yan Shijiu carefully read the story starting from the year Yun Chen joined the Huo Gang, the Huo Gang formed an alliance with Nan Lijun, Huo Yu fought against each other, Yu Yangji died, the Huo Gang was dragged into the national war, Huo Gannian and Yun Chen fought side by side...
Yan Shijiu looked at them one by one, day and night, until he felt dizzy and his eyes could hardly see clearly. Finally, he discovered a few small things that seemed a little wrong.
Something was wrong, but so insignificant that it wasn't worth mentioning.
Yan Shijiu didn't even know whether it was worthwhile to study these things.
The first thing is that in all the accounts of the Huo Gang, there is a huge amount of expenses every year whose whereabouts are unknown. When the accounts are collected, there is only a "Black Sparrow" mark.
What was Black Sparrow's job? A secret guard? Like the secret guards Yan Shijiu had secretly trained for years on Guangyulan Island?
If it is true, judging from the expenditure of money, the top secret guards secretly trained by Huo Gannian are actually comparable in number and strength to the secret guards on Guangyulanzhou.
He had always found it strange. Although training secret guards was extremely time-consuming, labor-intensive and costly, it was not a difficult task given the strength of the Huo Gang. There shouldn't have been only a few secret guards like Bu Yan in those years.
So, Huo Gannian might have secretly trained a large number of secret guards?
But after that, there were no accounts about Black Sparrow.
Perhaps Huo Gannian was using the public treasury for his own personal use? This wasn't surprising, after all, the entire Huo Gang belonged to him.
The second thing was that during the triumphal ceremony last year, Huo Gannian dug a small canal in preparation for his wedding with Yun Chen and invited the people to witness the wedding ceremony.
The people jokingly called this river the "Wedding River". Its construction was interrupted before it was completed because of Huo Gan's attempt to kill King Xiyan, and it has been shelved since then.
But when Yan Shijiu was looking through the information, he suddenly found that the direction of the "Yingqin River" was not right.
If Huo Gannian wanted to marry Yun Chen, according to the geographical direction, the canal should be east-west, but in reality it is more north-south, and deliberately bends to connect with the Luozi River.
If it is flood season, such as when the snow melts in March, the snow floods in the north can easily flow along the Luozi River into the Yingqin River and rush directly into the city of Kyoto.
It didn't flood the area, but it was close to the palace gate.
At that time, because Huo Gannian was so arrogant, no one paid attention to this matter.
Yan Shijiu now felt a little strange, but couldn't say anything.
There is also a third small matter, which has always been a knot in Yan Shijiu's heart.
Why did Duan Jie, Fu Lin, Rong Yi and others suddenly flee the military camp and become deserters?
It also happened to be on the eve of the Black Scale Cavalry's battle.
Yan Shijiu originally thought that they would definitely seek refuge with Huo Gannian after escaping, but according to the daily monitoring reports from Zhuang Fengtian and Guang Yulanzhou's secret guards, they did not.
Then where did it go?
He didn't care about his family members who stayed in Kyoto. Did he really run away?
These unsolvable little things made Yan Shijiu irritated.
He flipped through the latest military reports of the past two days and found that everything was normal in Dongyan.
The secret guards of Guangyu Lanzhou said that Concubine Zhao was safe, and Yan Lang had moved with the 300,000-strong East Yan army to the southern border of Nan State, and was on standby at the border with West Yan. They could enter Nan State at any time and reach Kyoto in six days.
On the northern border, the secret guards finally found out the reason why the Northern Expedition Army was annihilated. After Huo Gannian was killed in battle, the morale of the Northern Expedition Army was in chaos. When they were retreating, they passed a snowy mountain and triggered a huge avalanche, burying them all in an instant.
The imperial court sent special personnel to investigate seven or eight times. It was said that the snowfield was littered with corpses and armor piled densely together in the tens of thousands. They were all uniforms of the soldiers of the Southern Kingdom. The scene was horrific.
Seeing this, Yan Shijiu suddenly had a whimsical idea:
Could it be that Huo Gannian wasn't dead at all? Was Yun Chen just a pawn deliberately planted next to Yan Shijiu, specifically to identify the body and mislead everyone, making the whole world think Huo Gannian was really dead?
In fact, Huo Gannian had already hidden in the northern border with the Tianwei Army he took away, waiting for the opportunity to take a boat along the Luozi River Snow Flood to reach Yingqin River, and then go straight to Kyoto?
That would indeed make them much faster than the Dongyan army, and it would also be a move that the Black Scale Cavalry would be unable to resist.
But this is too impossible. How do we explain the hundreds of thousands of corpses buried under the avalanches in the north?
It's impossible that Huo Gannian, Duan Jie, Fu Lin, Rong Yi and the others, all of whom had their power stripped and their positions seized, were trapped in Kyoto all these days, and that there was someone outside helping Huo Gannian set up this scheme and create the avalanche to bury the bodies?
Who is that person? So capable, so loyal and able to endure hardship?
Thinking of this, Yan Shijiu felt that he was amazing.
How could someone come up with such a thorough, grand and terrifying plan?
Moreover, each link is interconnected. Just thinking about it is a brain-wracking task. I don’t know how difficult and dangerous it is to implement. It is almost like treating myself as a chess piece and fighting for my life.
So, how is it possible? Impossible!
After three days and three nights of confusion, Yan Shijiu decided to give up, stop looking at any records or information, and stop torturing himself.
He kept comforting him by saying, "Huo Gannian is already a corpse. This corpse has been personally confirmed by Yun Chen, who would never lie. He is not a god, and he will never cause any more trouble."
Yan Shijiu regained his confidence, adjusted his mood, and prepared to go to the palace to welcome the Black Scale Cavalry, so as to face the upcoming grand victory with the best attitude.
Before leaving Yan Mansion for the last time, Yan Shijiu went to see Yun Chen.
Ever since she saw Huo Gannian's body, she has been lying quietly on the couch, staring at the sky and crying.
The pillow beside my ears was soaked again and again.
She looked lifeless, dull and extremely fragile, as if she would turn into dust and fly away with the slightest touch.
Seeing her like this, Yan Shijiu no longer locked her up in an iron cage or used soft muscles to relax her.
Because Huo Gannian was dead, she no longer had any reason to elope or escape.
Even if she stood on the street right now and shouted, "Yan Shijiu is Yan Xing! Everything is his conspiracy!"
People will only be sad and crazy when she loses her beloved.
"Yun Chen, I have won this life-and-death game. When the Black Scale Cavalry enters the city tomorrow, and the Dongyan army arrives to reinforce, this drama will end. I will unify the Three Kingdoms and ascend the throne. Yun Chen, in seven days, I will send dragon and phoenix court robes and a golden phoenix sedan chair to pick you up. You will be the queen of my great kingdom, my eternal wife."
Yun Chen didn't say anything.
All that responded to Yan Shijiu was the boundless emptiness of the bedroom and the spring chill, which attacked his heart in waves.
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