Chapter 143 - Leaving 2
"Master Zhao, where are we going now?" Yang Shi said.
"Looks like it's impossible for us to enter the army camp!" Mr. Yang, who do you think this General Yue is? " Zhao Ding said.
"I don't know!" I never heard of a General with the surname Yue in Middle Han Area! " Yang Shi shook his head and said.
"As far as I know, there's a guard surnamed Yue Fei in Emperor Xuanwu! That day, outside the Xiangzhou City, it was this Yue Fei who took Emperor Xuanwu to Tongguan! Afterwards, Zhe Keqiu was in charge of government, acting tyrannically, and he chased all the people around Emperor Xuanwu over to the enemies outside, and this Yue Fei was bestowed the title of Henan Recruitment Scholar! I think this General Yue is that Yue Fei! " Zhao Ding said.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" How could this Yue Fei return to the Middle Han Area? Isn't he in Henan? " Yang Shi said in disbelief.
"This is very strange!" I originally thought that the Jingyuan Army was the one who entered the trial on a large scale to kill Zhe Keqiu, but now it seems that it might not be so! The little Emperor's trusted aides had actually served as the general of the Imperial Guard, and the little Emperor had also stayed here for a long time. Looking at the soldiers, it seemed that they were all loyal to the little Emperor. This was really too strange. Could it be that the little emperor had already taken control of this army? How was this possible? How is that possible? " Zhao Ding frowned and said.
"This is impossible! Lord Zhao was overthinking it! The little emperor was extremely decadent. All his life, he had been a puppet, and he would never be able to control an army! I think this General Yue is definitely one of the generals, and definitely not Yue Fei! " Yang Shi said in disdain from the side.
"Let's hope so!" Zhao Ding still frowned and said.
"It is already late today, let's rest here for the night, then we will continue our journey south to the Chuan Shu, to see if the Curved End commands their troops to take back the Chuan Shu!" Yang Shi said.
"Alright!" Zhao Ding nodded and agreed!
That night, Yang Shi and Zhao Ding rested in an inn in Southern Zheng.
As the two of them headed south, the south was actually completely calm without any signs of war, and the two became more and more surprised!
When they arrived at the entrance of the Dao of Shu, the two of them knew that the thirty thousand Home Breaker s had surrendered to the Jingyuan Army, and the commander of the Jingyuan Army was Liu Qi!
"Liu Qi, this man can be considered the right-hand man of Curved End! With Liu Qi here, the Curved End will definitely be here as well! " Yang Shi secretly thought.
"Looks like they are indeed the people from the Pei-Yuan army!" I was overthinking things previously! " Zhao Ding heaved a huge sigh of relief.
"Lord Zhao is afraid that the little Emperor will take control of the army?" Yang Shi said.
"Of course! I hope that the Middle Han Area and the Chuan Shu are the same as before, that they are still under the command of powerful officials, and that their hearts are unsteady. If the little emperor can arrange for his trusted aides to control the army quickly after the chaos, that can only prove one thing! " Zhao Ding said.
"What is it?" Yang Shi said.
"To prove that the little emperor was pretending before, that he was lying to Zhe Keqiu, that he was lying to the whole world! He was not a fainting monarch at all. He had been patiently waiting for an opportunity! If that's the case, then it will be terrible! " Thinking about that, Zhao Ding suddenly felt a chill in his body!
"This... He was only 10 years old when he first left Kaifeng. How could he have had such a scheme? Lord Zhao is really worrying about nothing! " Yang Shi said.
"NO!" I might not be worrying about something! The little emperor said that the Curved End did not enter the Middle Han Area, and that there was a high possibility that it was true! It was very possible that some of the Jingyuan Army's generals had sided with the little Emperor just for the sake of greater power and influence! The little emperor used this part of the Jingyuan Army to kill Zhe Keqiu and his son, and then allowed his trusted aides to take control of the Home Breaker! No, no, it can't be that way... "Hopefully, I am just imagining things …" Zhao Ding muttered to himself.
Master Zhao, stop thinking too much. Let's go to Jingyuan Army and ask around. Yang Shi said.
Zhao Ding nodded, and said: "Alright!"
When they arrived, they saw that the soldiers of Jingyuan Army had a solemn and high morale. They were indeed very different from the Home Breaker, hence they were both extremely vigilant and respectful!
After the two of them stated their purpose for coming here, they had actually met Liu Qi!
"General Liu, I've heard a lot about you!" In the camp, Yang Shi and Zhao Ding sat down as they spoke.
The attitude Yang Shi had towards Liu Qi was completely different from the attitude he had towards the Curved End back then. The reason was simple. Liu Qi was also a soldier general of aristocratic family, Liu Qi's father, Liu Zhongwu had once served as the envoy of the silent army, the throttling of the Jingchuan Army. Liu Qi was a nobleman of the army, so Yang Shi believed that Liu Qi was barely equal to him. Although the status of the Curved End was high, he was born of a commoner. In Yang Shi's eyes, the status of a commoner was inferior to that of a commoner, so he looked down on the Curved End!
"I have heard of Mr. Yang's great name for a long time! "Master Zhao is the Minister of the Jiangnan Government Department. I have often heard of him!" Liu Qi smiled.
"General Liu, where is General Qu now?" Zhao Ding said.
"General Qu? "Of course he's in the Plains!" Liu Qi said.
"So you're saying, General Liu came to Middle Han Area with General Qu on his back?" Zhao Ding asked directly.
Liu Qi laughed, and did not directly answer, and only said: "I obtained Your Majesty's decree, so I came to Middle Han Area's side!"
Zhao Ding's heart immediately sank! He felt that his guess was correct! Zhao Chen, this "unconscious ruler", was indeed enduring it patiently before. He was indeed disguising it, making the people of the world believe that he was "unconscious ruler", but he had secretly recruited a few generals from the Jingyuan Army, and had some generals from the Jingyuan Army bring their troops to the pass to kill Zhe Keqiu! After Zhe Keqiu was killed, this so called "Dumb Monarch" would immediately arrange for his trusted aides to control the Home Breaker, and use them to balance the Jingyuan Army!
"What a profound scheme!" Is this the true face of the Emperor Xuanwu? If Emperor Xuanwu was really like that, he would be in danger! Jiang Nan did not have any guard against this Emperor Xuanwu, and everyone treated him as an unconscious king. Even I, Zhao Ding, was fooled! No, I need to immediately return to Jiangnan and report this to Emperor Jianyan! " A thread of anxious expression actually appeared on Zhao Ding's face!
Yang Shi felt that Liu Qi's bearing was extraordinary, and had the demeanor of a "Confucian general". He silently praised him in his heart, thinking that Liu Qi was indeed worthy of being a noble in the army, and was far superior to that fellow with a lowly origin in the Curved End. Yang Shi still wanted to stay here for a while longer, but not long later, Zhao Ding actually stood up and took his leave. Yang Shi was helpless, he could only follow Zhao Ding and leave!
"We can stay in the Jingyuan Army for a while longer, and find out more news about the Jingyuan Army!" said somewhat unhappily as he walked outside.
"No need to inquire any further! The number of people in Jingyuan Army would not exceed fifty thousand! As the throttling s and tactful envoy, he had managed the Jing Road s for more than ten years. Even if his generals betrayed him, it was still impossible for them to take all of the armies with them! On the other hand, Emperor Xuanwu was simply too terrifying! He was only 12 years old, and when he first left Kaifeng, he was only 10 years old. Just thinking about it makes my heart go cold! We need to return to Jiangnan quickly and let Emperor Jianyan be on guard against Emperor Xuanwu! " Zhao Ding said.
"That's right, this Dumb Monarch is really despicable to the extreme!" Yang Shi thought about it, and felt that Zhao Ding's guess was probably right, and said angrily.
"But I really want to know how Emperor Xuanwu will take down Chuan Shu! Chuan Shu still has Zhe Yanzhi and the sixty thousand Home Breaker. I wonder how Chuan Shu is doing right now? " Zhao Ding said.
"We'll know when we get there!" Yang Shi said.
Zhao Ding nodded!
The two of them brought their followers south along the path of Shu and arrived at the Sword Gate Pass.
Sword Gate Pass, the first trial of the southwest!
Since ancient times, this place had always been a place where every family had to fight for it!
Li Bai had Shiyun's "One man, one man, and ten thousand men," so he was talking about this Sword Gate Pass!
From the beginning of the Qin and Han dynasties, there had been countless wars going on. Countless generals had led their armies into the city to defend it!
However, after Yang Shi and Zhao Ding arrived here, they did not have the mood to sigh with emotion. They were only carefully observing the situation in the Sword Gate Pass!
In their eyes, the Sword Gate Pass was very different from before. When they came, the soldiers were very lazy, but now, they were extremely vigilant! The clothes of these soldiers were different from before. Previously, they were dressed in the standard Home Breaker attire, but now, they seemed to be made out of the uniform of the troll army! The reason why Wu Jie was training his soldiers in Yuzhou was mainly to protect the Yangtze River, so the soldiers under their command were made up of water army soldiers.
"Who's below?" A high-ranking officer at the top of the tightly shut gates of the Sword Gate Pass shouted.
"We are the emissaries sent by the Emperor Jianyan to celebrate the grand marriage of the Emperor Xuanwu! Now that we are leaving Middle Han Area and heading towards Jiangnan, passing by Sword Gate Pass, please open the door and let us pass! " One of Yang Shi's subordinates said.
The high-ranking officer was obviously taken aback. He immediately ordered people to open the city gates and check the identities of these people before allowing them to pass!
"My name is Wang Song!" The military officer looked to be in his thirties, and he was a bit short and fat.
"General Wang, where is General Zhe Yanzhi? We once paid a visit to General Zhe Yanzhi before we came, and now we wish to pay our respects to him again! " Zhao Ding said.
Wang Song's face revealed a smile that was not a smile, and shook his head: If you want to see him, I'm afraid you won't be able to!
Zhao Ding said: "Why not?"
Wang Song laughed out loud and said: "He has already gone underground. If you want to see him, you can only go underground.
Zhao Ding was shocked, and said: "Underground? The general meant that he had. "Dead?"
Wang Song sneered, and said: "That's right, he's already been dead for many days! If you guys want to see him, then hurry up. If you're late, he's going to be reincarnated! "
Yang Shi was furious, "What did you say?"
Zhao Ding anxiously pulled Yang Shi, he took out a silver and said: "General, it is extremely difficult in Shu, we have been here for a long time, so we are tired, and wish to rest in Sword Gate Pass for the night, is that possible?"
Wang Song frowned, he glanced at Yang Shi, Zhao Ding and the rest, in his eyes, these two were Wen Chen, they only had a few followers, and Sword Gate Pass had around five thousand soldiers, he was not afraid that they would pose any threat to Sword Gate Pass! Immediately, Wang Song nodded his head and received the silver without restraint, and said: "Sure, sure, I will arrange a place for you to stay!"
Yang Shi, Zhao Ding and the rest stayed at the Sword Gate Pass, while Yang Shi stayed at the house and asked everywhere for news!
When night fell, Zhao Ding returned to his room. He had not eaten even now, and was extremely hungry. He first ate with a big bowl of food, and when his stomach started to feel better, he said: "Mr. Yang, the Sword Gate Pass has already been occupied by Wu Jie!"
Yang Shi was startled, and said: "Wu Jie? It's that Yangtze River Defense Envoy Wu Jie? "
Zhao Ding nodded, and said: "That's right! It's this Wu Jie! Furthermore, not only the Sword Gate Pass, but even the entire Sichuan is occupied by Wu Jie! "
Zhao Ding said: "I received news that before the Emperor Xuanwu's wedding, Wu Jie had started to act. He plotted against Zhe Yanzhi on the way to Shu, and after that, he used Zhe Yanzhi to deceive the Sword Gate Pass, and took over the Sword Gate Pass! Afterwards, he left a few thousand people to defend the Sword Gate Pass, while he himself brought Zhe Yanzhi to Chengdu Mansion, afraid that he had to deal with the sixty thousand Home Breaker s! If nothing unexpected happened, the Chengdu Mansion would have already been taken down by him! Although Zhe Yanzhi was the son of Zhe Keqiu, he was bold and unwise. He was extremely useless, and he might not even be Wu Jie's match! This Wu Jie, we rarely hear about, seems like he belongs to the Little Emperor! This little emperor has really calculated a great deal! "
Zhao Ding was also extremely shocked, he had truly never paid attention to Wu Jie! Although Wu Jie had defeated Nvzhen, only a small portion of the people in Jingyuan Army knew of his achievements. Thus, no one in the world would pay attention to him! As for Jiang Nan, they knew very little about the Middle Han Area s, and even more so, didn't know anything about Wu Jie! Hearing that this unknown general had actually taken down Zhe Yanzhi, it was hard for Yang Shi and Zhao Ding not to be shocked!
After staying in Sword Gate Pass for an entire night, the two of them immediately headed towards there! When they reached the Chengdu Mansion, they received confirmed news that Zhe Yanzhi and Cao Rong had both been killed by Wu Jie! As for the sixty thousand Home Breaker s, they had indeed been taken in by Wu Jie! It was just that the two of them could not figure out the method to recruit them! All they knew was that Sichuan had changed! Furthermore, Wu Jie had just killed Zhe Yanzhi and Cao Rong, so he immediately took out the Emperor Xuanwu's imperial edict. That was the day of Zhao Chen's wedding!
"Looks like everything was set up by the little emperor. This is certain!" We should return to Jiangnan immediately! Tell all of this to the Emperor Jianyan! " Zhao Ding secretly thought.
At this time, Zhao Ding finally saw Zhao Chen as a great enemy, and would no longer view him as an "unconscious king"! He was secretly anxious in his heart, Zhao Chen was the legitimate Crown Prince that ascended the throne, the person who held the Imperial Jade Seal in his hands was considered the true Son of Heaven by the people of the world! Now that Zhao Chen had such a method and had the advantage in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, Zhao Gou might not be his match!
It was already the 5th day of the 6th lunar month. The hottest time of the year had arrived!
In the northwest of Jingyuan City, the sandstorm that had raged for several days finally stopped! The sky was blue, the sun was blazing red, and he was sweating profusely as he walked through the empty area.
Curved End had just entered the house from the outside. His inner force was profound, and she couldn't feel the heat and cold, but for some reason, he felt that her heart had been burning up for the past few days! He immediately got someone to pour a bucket of cold water over her head. Only then did she feel much better!
"Is there still no news of Wang Shu, Zhao Zhe, Liu Qi and the others?" Curved End wiped the water off his head and face before asking.
"There is no news from the three generals!" I only know that they led an army to the east, and they seem to have gone all the way to the Dazhang Pass! " A deputy general said from below.
"Damn it!" Curved End scolded him ruthlessly.
Just at this time, a young man dressed in embroidered clothes walked into the room. This young man looked 80% similar to Curved End, but he looked a lot weaker. Seeing Curved End in his room, the young noble was shocked. He was about to turn around and leave when Curved End shouted from behind, "Stop right there!"
The young man looked unhappy as he stood there and asked, "Father, what's the matter?"
So it turned out that this young noble was the son of the Curved End, Qu Xiuwen, and also a famous hedonistic son of the Northwest! Back then, in order to win over the Curved End, Zhe Keqiu wanted to marry Zheyue Ru off to this young master!
"Humph!" You don't do proper business every day, I heard that you've harmed another girl a few days ago! That girl committed suicide while her parents brought her corpse to the yamen in the Plains of Peace. It took a lot of effort for Father to suppress this matter! You deserve to death! " The Curved End scolded.
"This..." Qu Xiuwen opened and closed his mouth, but eventually lowered his head and remained silent.
"When I was your age, I already worked in the army, fighting and assassinating Western Xia! Do you see what you do every day? From today onwards, you will obediently stay in my manor and will never be able to leave! " Curved End said.
"Father, won't we suffocate to death if we stay here?" Qu Xiuwen shouted.
"General, I think it would be better to let the little general join the army and train for a while. Maybe his character will turn for the better!" That Lieutenant General said.
"Good, tomorrow you will go to the army and train with those soldiers!" Curved End frowned and said.
"Father, you old man named me Xiuwen, I was born to study, how can I enter the army with those lowly soldiers?" Qu Xiuwen said in dissatisfaction.
"What lowly soldier?" Are you insulting your father? Your father, I, was an ordinary soldier! A rogue cultivator like Yang Shi looks down on me, and you actually look down on me! "See how I'll beat you up!" The Curved End was furious, he took a step forward and was about to smack his son into the ground!
On the other hand, the assistant general quickly pulled Curved End back, causing him to still be gasping for breath!
"Father will only vent his anger on me! I heard that Wang Shu, Zhao Zhe, Liu Qi and the rest have already brought half of Father's army away, so why didn't Father seek for the three of them to settle the score instead of seeking for the unconscious king to settle the score instead? " Qu Xiuwen curled his lips.
"I won't beat you to death today, I'm your son!" Curved End was furious, he pushed away the assistant general, grabbed Qu Xiuwen by the collar and slapped him!
Immediately, Qu Xiuwen's face swelled up and he started crying. Seeing his son like this, Curved End sighed, waved his hand and said: "Hurry and go, don't let me see you again for the next few days!"
Qu Xiuwen's heart was filled with terror. He hurriedly left the room, and the deputy general also took his leave!
"Wang Shu, Zhao Zhe, Liu Qi, did the three of you really betray me? How can this be! How can this be! " Curved End looked out at the scorching sun and muttered to herself.
He had an extremely bad feeling in his heart …