(5)
The battle on the front line is urgent, and a quick horse reported that Huang Yixiao, with tens of thousands of troops, had successfully joined forces with Zhao Kuo who was stationed in Huaihuang and Rouxuan towns. However, everyone under Heba's command was good at fighting and brave, and they were by no means just ordinary people. , so the war dragged on for half a month but still made no progress.
Soldiers and baggage are constantly being sent to Yuyi Town, which is a huge drain every day for the wealthy gentry and nobles in the town who have been supporting them.
In front of such a group of out-and-out warmongers, the safety of Yuyi Town is not worth mentioning compared to one's own property and life. Now they are still willing to support Yuyi Town, but only because Zhao Wei, the head of the Zhao family, has promised that as long as their bets are in the right place, everyone's net worth will be able to increase several times when the war is over.
However, due to the current tense situation, the imperial barbarian army and the coalition forces have been facing off for a long time. More and more wealthy gentry and nobles have shown their distrust. They have formed a clique for personal gain, secretly reduced military supplies and military expenditures, and at the same time, they have been going to the Zhao family for several days to seek solutions that can satisfy them. The answer is, if the promise is not tempting enough, some people will start moving their families and fleeing.
No one among them wanted to watch the wealth they had accumulated over the years go to waste in a protracted war.
As a result, these wealthy gentry and nobles began to surround the Zhao family and the Zhao mansion every day. It seemed that they were giving loyal advice, but in fact they were coercing Zhao Wei into agreeing to their unreasonable demands. If they could not win as soon as possible, they would not hesitate. Leave Yuyi Town.
Faced with the constant intimidation of these rats, Zhao Wei, who is seriously ill, gradually begins to seem powerless. Now he has few talented confidants around him, and his daughter Zhao Xiaomei cannot take charge of her own role...
"We can only rely on him." Zhao Wei muttered silently in his heart.
One day, after entertaining today's guests, Zhao Wei found his little sister and asked her to do something.
"Little sister, you secretly hand this order into the hands of the master of Yuyi Academy, and say it is an urgent military order, without any delay!"
The younger sister silently accepted the order and rushed to Yuyi Academy overnight to submit the letter and warrant.
When Bai Feng heard that her little sister had arrived, she naturally went out to greet her. The two met in front of the school ground. We haven’t seen each other for many days. Even though there are thousands of words to express in our hearts, we are still speechless after seeing each other.
"Mr. Bai, this is an urgent military order!" The little girl lifted off the hood of her red cloak so that the other party could see her appearance clearly.
Bai Feng took the order and quickly opened it. After pondering for a while, he replied: "May I ask Miss Zhao, how is Mr. Zhao's health lately?"
"Why are you asking these things? Tell me quickly, what was written in the letter?" The little girl blushed and said angrily: "There is no time for you to tease me now!"
Bai Feng looked livid and explained: "No, that's not what I meant... Please read this letter first..." The younger sister borrowed it for a look and exclaimed: "Why are there no words?"
This is just an ordinary piece of letter paper, with no ink marks at all.
"Little sister, tell me the truth." Bai Feng's voice suddenly became low and sad, and said, "Mr. Zhao, is he..."
"Daddy, he hasn't been sleeping well every day in recent days, and he does seem to be getting weaker." The younger sister said.
"According to my guess, this 'wordless letter' is Mr. Zhao's intention to summon me, because he was afraid that the contents of the letter would be seen by someone who was interested, so he came up with this strategy." After Bai Feng said this, the younger sister was relieved. Looking at the letter as if he knew it, he suddenly asked: "What is in the letter?"
"If I'm not wrong, it should be Mr. Zhao's last words..." Bai Feng cupped his hands and apologized slightly for his outspokenness, and said respectfully: "Mr. Zhao just wants to tell you and me such important things. Please hurry up, Miss Zhao." Come back to Zhao Mansion with me!"
"Okay!" The little girl's sad voice couldn't stop sobbing, but she quickly gritted her teeth and got through it.
The two of them took a carriage back to Zhao Mansion and went straight to Zhao Wei's bedroom. Sure enough, he was still awake at this time, waiting for news about his daughter Xiaomei and Bai Feng.
"You guys are finally here." He wanted to raise his hand to greet the other party, but it was difficult to do so, so he could only make a slight movement that only the little sister and the people who took care of him day and night could detect it.
"Dad!" The little sister threw herself on Zhao Wei, tears filling her chest unconsciously.
Zhao Wei stroked his daughter's back and comforted her, "I believe you both know the purpose of my midnight summons, right?"
"Mr. Zhao, please make it clear..." Bai Feng bowed his hands in respect.
"I want you to come today to tell me what you will do after I die." Zhao Wei sneered and said, "Before that, I want to tell Mr. Bai a story. This story is about my little sister. And Nangzhi and their mother."
"Our Zhao family was originally a large family in a corner of the Central Plains. Just because our predecessors offended the pilgrims, we were arbitrarily accused and reduced to the point of being exiled to the fortress. However, how can our Zhao family succumb so easily? We rely on As we traveled around doing business, we slowly found a place to live on the fortress. Of course, at first we always had to move around to avoid unnecessary troubles. It wasn’t until someone appeared that our Zhao family ended our wandering life.”
Zhao Wei paused for a moment, breathed a long sigh of relief, and continued: "That person is Xiaomei and Nangzhi's mother."
"Mother?" The little girl opened her eyes wide with tears, and there was countless curiosity in her heart.
Zhao Wei said: "Bai Feng, do you remember what I mentioned about the Holy Land before? Don't you want to know why I met and became friends with Dugu Qi?"
Bai Feng said: "I would like to hear the details."
"Actually, when I was on my business trip, I rescued not only Youqi... but also her sister, Dugu Chao. The two sisters looked exactly the same." Zhao Wei wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes and said: "Originally, Dugu Chao, the eldest daughter, was supposed to go back and take over the throne of the saint. However, she actually fell in love with me during the journey... She didn't want to go back, and I didn't want her to leave. Qi, it's here At that time, I stood up and chose to return to the Holy Land with my clan members on behalf of my sister..."
"From then on, in order to allow my wife to live a stable life, I came to the easternmost town of Yuyi and settled down. This place is far away from both the Holy Land and the Central Plains." Zhao Wei suddenly smiled secretly and said: " I still remember that my father often taught me when I was a child, telling me that one day I must return to the Central Plains to revive my family! Now think about it, what a ridiculous fantasy is this? Hahaha..."
"Zhongyuan, I no longer miss you. This is my home." Zhao Wei looked at Bai Feng thoughtfully. Although his face was pale, his eyes still retained the look of the past: "Master Bai should understand this feeling deeply. Right? Yuyi Academy was founded by you, Mr. Bai, don’t you want to see with your own eyes the disciples of the Academy and become teachers? "
Bai Feng replied without hesitation: "Of course I want to!"
"Although you have only been here not long ago, you understand the meaning of Yuyi Town better than those aristocratic right-wingers who only think about themselves." Zhao Wei said, "That's why I am willing to believe you!"
After finishing speaking, Zhao Wei took out a blank letter from the secret letter. In the last period of his life, he treated his younger sister and Bai Feng as devoutly as worshiping Buddha, confiding his true feelings, writing his will, and finally stamped and separated them. The two halves are carried separately by the two persons delivering it.
"Let's go, I want to rest. You guys, please retreat first."
The little sister reluctantly walked out of the house. She seemed to have expected that when she closed the door, she might never see her father again, so she sat outside the house and waited all night.
Early the next morning, the younger sister wanted to go into the house to serve her father, but found that the head of the Zhao family had passed away peacefully while resting on the couch.
