Yandi, Youzhou.
In the palace of King Yan, there are many white flags. The guards of King Yan all wear white scarves on their heads and coarse linen clothes. They hold swords, guns, swords and halberds, and they guard the palace tightly.
In the side hall of the palace, a dozen women and children gathered together. Some of the women were still young, their faces were full of tears, and they were crying and wearing mourning clothes, but they had a different style.
As for the other elderly women and children who do not understand secular things, some are pale, while others are holding rosary beads and praying to the Buddha and chanting sutras. Mixed with the cries of young children, it seemed very chaotic.
The guards guarding the palace with swords did not interfere and just allowed them to make noise.
Not long after, a thin man in plain clothes strode over. This man had a very gentle appearance, with a scholarly air all over his body, and he looked like a teacher.
But when the guards of King Yan in the corridor outside the palace saw this person, they all raised their chests and raised their heads, and then bowed in salute.
"Master Shi..."
The strong man surrounded by several generals just nodded and strode outside the palace.
All the women who were still crying in the hall immediately stopped talking after seeing this person, and even the crying children had their mouths covered.
The man's eyes swept over the huddled crowd, his serious expression finally softened, and he bowed his hands.
"Shi Jingtang has met all the ladies..."
The women pushed and pushed, and finally a middle-aged woman who had been chanting sutras with her eyes closed finally came out.
She calmed down slightly, used her body to protect a teenage boy behind her, and said, "Master Shi, are you here to take my life?"
Shi Jingtang chuckled lightly and cupped his hands: "Madam, why did you say this? Before the death of King Yan, I thought that I would stay in Youzhou to assist His Royal Highness Zuo Shizi... King Yan had many support during his lifetime, how could I dare to do such an ungrateful act?"
The middle-aged woman's expression softened a little, and she glanced at the eager generals beside Shi Jingtang: "I wonder what Master Shi wants to do by trapping us, women and children here?"
"Of course it is to protect the safety of His Highness the Crown Prince! Now that King Yan has passed away, people in the city are panicking. If there are evil people harming the Crown Prince, how can I, who is left behind in Youzhou, dare to meet King Yan in the future!"
The middle-aged woman pursed her lips a few times, but she didn't know how to ask any more questions. But at this moment, the ten-year-old boy behind her suddenly broke away from her protection, squeezed out of the crowd, and pointed with indignation. Zhu Shi Jingtang said loudly:
"You're talking nonsense! You were the one who killed my father! You also want to kill all of us!"
The middle-aged woman's face instantly turned pale, and she hurriedly pulled the boy back into her arms, yelling and scolding: "Nonsense! Who taught you to talk about Master Shi like that!"
Then he kept apologizing to Shi Jingtang: "Master Shi, please don't blame me. The child is still young and is talking nonsense..."
There were faint sounds of crying from the other women behind her, but everyone only dared to cover their mouths and did not dare to make any big noise.
Shi Jingtang laughed and took a few steps forward, only to see the young man's eyes staring at him with hatred.
The atmosphere in the palace was suffocating for an instant, and Shi Jingtang's face gradually darkened, and then he said sadly: "It seems that the prince has misunderstood me, and there must be a servant in the house who is causing trouble. Madam, why don't you leave the prince to me, and I will take care of you?" Go back and assist His Highness Zuo well."
As he said that, he already reached out to pull the young man over.
The middle-aged woman's lips turned white, but she just hugged the boy tightly in her arms and cried: "Master Shi, why do you need to kill them all? He is just a child..."
Shi Jingtang's face became darker and darker, and he said solemnly: "Let go!"
The middle-aged woman shook her head vigorously, but the girls behind her just huddled together, holding back their cries and not daring to come forward.
But Prince Yan, who was in her arms, suddenly exerted force and bit the back of Shi Jingtang's hand hard. Shi Jingtang was so painful that he immediately let go.
"Bah! Traitor and traitor!"
Shi Jingtang felt pain on the back of his hand and took a few steps back, his face extremely angry.
The two generals who had been guarding him had drawn out their long knives, stepped forward, and instantly kicked the middle-aged woman down. Then they slashed her neck with the knife, causing blood to suddenly spurt out, splashing everywhere. It was all over the floor.
At the same time, he roughly pulled the frightened Crown Prince Yan over and lifted him to Shi Jingtang's side.
The corpse of the middle-aged woman was still staring, and blood gurgled out from her neck, dyeing half of her clothes red.
The remaining women and children couldn't bear it any longer and cried loudly. Some were so frightened that they collapsed and knelt on the ground, kowtowing hard at Shi Jingtang.
"I don't know what's wrong!"
Shi Jingtang's face was full of cruelty, and the scholarly aura on his body was gone. Looking at Prince Yan with a little blood on his face, he pinched his face and sneered.
"How could your father sit on the throne of King Yan without me?"
He was a little angry. The image he originally wanted to build could no longer be maintained. Seeing a room full of people crying and shouting, he had no choice but to walk out of the hall.
】
The two generals followed behind with the young man who was already stunned. He stopped again and turned his head to give instructions.
"Pick out an obedient one, deal with the rest, and let Taiyuan know."
The general lowered his head to obey the order, dragged the child back in his hand, and chopped off his head with a knife.
Shi Jingtang didn't want to look at what happened after that. He rubbed the blue bite marks on the back of his hand. An angry look flashed on his face, but he immediately returned to normal.
"Prepare your horses and go to Juyongguan."
————
Further north from Youzhou is Mobei.
As an important pass to resist the Mobei Hu people, Juyongguan itself is an important hub of the Great Wall. It is surrounded by mountains on both sides and there is a city wall above the mountains. As long as we station troops here, we can beat the barbarians coming south until they cry for their fathers and mothers.
But when a batch of huge black lines appeared on the distant skyline, there was no warning smoke from the beacon tower on the high mountain of the Great Wall.
Countless people from Mobei rode southward on horseback, but the gates of Juyongguan were wide open, without even the slightest resistance.
Most of the people in Mobei exude an aura of poverty. In addition to being equipped with war horses, all kinds of armor and stomachs on their bodies are uneven. Leather armor has not yet been fully popularized, let alone iron armor.
The weapons are also different. Most of them are mainly long poles and bones, and are equipped with multiple long bows.
If someone hadn't restrained them, there would still be some military discipline. Otherwise, it would look like a bandit crossing the border.
At a glance, one can imagine what disasters these Mobei armies will cause after entering the Central Plains.
…
"Shi Jingtang, you are a traitor and a treacherous traitor! You will die a good death sooner or later!"
In the Guan Nei school grounds, several figures with their armor and stomachs stripped off were tied up and pushed to the ground, and some of them were still spitting curses.
Shi Jingtang, who was sitting on the execution platform, smiled indifferently and threw out a token.
"Behead him."
As his head fell to the ground, the scolding on the school ground stopped instantly. Only the north wind howled, rolling up countless flags.
In early March of the second year of Zhongxing, Shi Jingtang, the former Youzhou defender, allowed 50,000 Mobei cavalry to pass through Youyun.
