The sentry held a round shield larger than the pot lid in his hand, and walked fearfully towards the ground where the loud arrows were inserted. Unexpectedly, the Chu soldiers on the top of the city saw the Zheng Jun sentry tiptoeing over, and they were still there. Shooting arrows down, he suddenly stopped. He seemed to be watching quietly from the top of the city as the sentry of Zheng Jun went over to pluck the arrows stuck on the ground. The sentry reached the place where the arrows were inserted, stretched out his hand and plucked about four or five arrows. Then he turned around, held the shield in front of himself, and slowly stepped back.
Chen Xiaomu reached out and took the arrow from the sentry's hand. He looked at it carefully. It was no different from an ordinary arrow branch, except that a bamboo whistle-like thing made of a thin bamboo tube was tied to the middle of the branch. Because there was a hole dug in it, When flying in the air, the wind passes through the hole and makes a whining sound.
After looking at it for a long time, he didn't see anything special about the arrow in his hand. Chen Xiaomu snapped the arrow in his hand with a "click" and suddenly a small one fell out of the broken bamboo whistle. Chen Xiaomu was stunned for a moment, then he bent down and reached out to pick up the paper ball from the ground. When he unfolded it, he saw that the paper ball turned into a narrow strip of paper with a width of two fingers. On the lower strip, he wrote a line with a brush. In small regular script, the content is, "I feel sorry for the loss of life caused by the war. I would like to ask the general if you can turn the war into friendship. If you want to do it, you can plant a colorful flag in the open space in front of the city." There is no signature below, but the word "I" is used at the beginning. Chen Xiaomu I understood that this must be what Chu Emperor Xiong Ze meant.
Chen Xiaomu took the other arrows and broke the bamboo whistles tied to the arrow branches one by one. As a result, a small paper ball rolled out of each bamboo whistle. When he unfolded it, he found that the content on it was the same as the one that started to break. The content on the arrow's paper ball was exactly the same. Chen Xiaomu thought for a while and decided to ignore it for the time being. Although his food and grass could not last for a few days, he still had to be patient in order to raise the asking price in future negotiations.
Two days passed quickly. On this morning, Xiong Ze sat on the dragon throne and asked Shi Lei very anxiously, "Master Zaifu, do you think that Chen Xiaomu will neither attack the city nor accept our peace talks?" What does he mean?"
Shi Lei frowned and pondered for a moment, then walked out of the class train holding the wat board, bowed and said to Xiong Ze: "Your Majesty, I think Chen Xiaomu is playing hard to get, just to raise his price when negotiating peace with us in the future. Has!"
"Hmph, this idiot who doesn't know the heights of heaven and earth, does he still want my kingdom?" Xiong Ze said angrily, slapped the armrest of the dragon chair, and stood up from the dragon chair with a sudden sound.
"Your Majesty, instead of holding back and being trapped by his son in Ye City, it is better to gather all the troops in the city and fight to the death with him. I am willing to be the vanguard and lead my troops out of the city to fight!" Pan Yi, the Minister of War, was the first to step out of the train. Ask Xiong Ze for orders to fight.
"Your Majesty, I am willing to take the lead in leaving the city to fight." As soon as Pan Yi finished speaking, several generals walked out of the train to ask for orders from Xiong Ze.
Xiong Ze looked at the generals standing in front of him with sharp eyes. He was about to speak but was intercepted by Shi Lei.
Shi Lei waved his hands at the generals led by Pan Yi, "Everyone must not act recklessly, otherwise Chu's century-old history will be destroyed.
"Master Zaifu is so greedy for life and afraid of death, then just stay in the city and prepare to surrender. When we lead the troops to fight, it will be nothing more than the word death!" Pan Yi said to Shi Lei unceremoniously.
"Presumptuous" When Shi Lei heard that Pan Yi actually spoke to him like this, he immediately lowered his face, raised his finger and pointed at Pan Yi and said angrily: "You are just a warrior, what right do you have to ruin our country of Chu's century-old history? There were heavy casualties when we went out to the city to fight that day, Your Majesty I have done a favor by not holding you accountable for your poor command, but now you have no regrets and still instigate the emperor to risk going out of the city to engage in a battle, where we will all be destroyed, what are your intentions?"
"You, you" Pan Yi was speechless by Shi Lei's retort, his face suddenly turned red, his eyes widened, he glared at Shi Lei but couldn't open his mouth to speak.
"Hmph, you say I'm afraid of death. I'm afraid you won't be able to even make a fraction of the war I fought for the Chu Kingdom!" Shi Lei's anger remained unabated as he continued.
Xiong Ze held his forehead with his hands, sat back on the dragon chair, and asked Shi Lei helplessly, "Does Mr. Zaifu have any more foolproof strategies?"
Shi Lei turned around and held up the wat board, bowed to Xiong Ze and said: "I think that unless it is absolutely necessary, the emperor's body of millions of gold will never fight with Chen Xiaomu, an illegitimate son, to death!"
Xiong Ze was a little impatient. He sat on the dragon chair and waved his hand and said, "Master Zaifu, do you have any plans to protect the alliance?"
"Your Majesty, I think that since Xiaomu has raised the conditions for peace, we might as well listen to the price he wants before making a plan. If he really wants to sacrifice the country of Chu, we won't be able to fight him to the death by then. Late."
Xiong Ze was silent for a moment, nodded and said: "Okay, let's follow Lord Zaifu's plan first, but how to get in touch with them? Should we still rely on archery? What if they ignore me again? "
Shi Lei bowed and said: "This time I would like to accompany Princess Changxing and go straight out of the city to argue with Chen Xiaomu face to face!"
Xiong Ze sighed slightly, stood up from the dragon throne, said, "Retreat from the court," and then walked directly into the harem with the support of the prince Xiong Guang behind him.
Shi Lei was stunned for a moment, but based on his many years of experience with Xiong Ze, he knew that Xiong Ze acquiesced to his proposal.
Su Chengxuan has brought Su Muyang, Su Xingran, Su Xingyu, his brothers, Lu Jun, Wei Wen, Lu Qian and others to Xinjing for nearly five days. Today is the first morning of the morning, and he looks at the empty stands in the huge hall. Looking at the more than ten remaining civil and military ministers, Su Chengxuan's eyes were moist. It seemed that Zheng Guo still had a long way to go before he could regain his original strength. However, what troubled Su Chengxuan now was that the court had no money. , the state treasury has long been robbed by the Chu people, and even the annual salary of the few remaining ministers in the court is still owed, let alone the pensions of the civil and military ministers who died in the war and were killed by the Chu army. You thought They levied more taxes, but they were afraid that they would arouse public anger just after returning the capital to Xinjing.
Empress Lu drank the medicine that Chen Xiaomu made with the soul-returning grass before leaving. Her cough gradually stopped, and her body quickly returned to its original state. Due to the lack of money, life in the palace was extremely hard. Morning and evening, she had to order millet porridge. Pickles and some meat can only be eaten at noon. Wang Xi, who has been promoted to the eunuch manager, bought these things on credit outside. As ordinary people said, if you are poor, you can still find some clothes and gold and silver jewelry. You can go to the pawn shop outside to exchange for some silver. But now the palace was searched and looted by the Chu army who invaded the city, and it was as clean as water. Even Empress Lu herself could only wear linen clothes all day long, with her black hair tied high in a bun. There wasn't even a single piece of jewelry on the bun.
Today, Su Chengxuan hurriedly convened this morning meeting with only one topic, and that was to make money. It was really hard to live without money. After Su Chengxuan mentioned the topic, he first vetoed Wei Wen, who was the first to speak. The people in the palace started to look at the proposal to raise taxes. Apart from collecting taxes, there are other ways for the court to make money. Could it be that they are also fighting against those outside who are kings of the mountains? Is Yuebei Fenggao still left to grab it?
More than ten people looked at me in the empty hall, sometimes looking like they were thinking hard, sometimes scratching their heads. After about two or three hours like this, when it was time for lunch, Lu Jun The warrior came up with another idea, which was to go to some wealthy households to borrow money. As soon as he spoke, he was interrupted by Lu Qian. The reason was that the dignified court officials were looking for money from those rich people like they were begging for food. To live with money, firstly, you can't afford to lose that person, and secondly, if these old rich people commit crimes in the future, because they have a soft handle to lend money to the court, they may not be able to deal with it. Su Chengxuan thought about it. Feeling that what Wei Qian said was reasonable, Yu Li vetoed it again.
After about another hour, Su Chengxuan refused to retreat. Everyone of the more than ten people was hungry. Wei Wen was a civil servant and was old, so he couldn't hold on any longer. He thought of a way out of desperation. Su Chengxuan raised his hand and said, "Your Majesty, most of us are old and frail, and our minds are not smart. Since this Xinjing was conquered by the Emperor's son-in-law Chenglong, Chen Xiaomu, the Emperor might as well ask him to find ways to raise some silver taels to help the imperial court cross the border." Get over the difficulties in front of you!”
Before Su Chengxuan could speak, Lu Jun was unhappy over there and shouted loudly towards Wei Wen: "I said Prime Minister Wei, what do you mean? Could it be that my niece's effort to lay down the new capital for the emperor was not only useless but also... Have you ever?"
When Wei Wen heard this, he quickly laughed and said: "General Lu, this is a huge misunderstanding. He is the most important contributor to our Zheng Kingdom who conquered the new capital. How could this happen? The truth is that he just wants our emperor to send people Just go and ask him for some advice. Since Fu Ma can easily capture the new capital with a weak army, he must have some ideas on how to raise money for the imperial court!"
"Can fighting be the same as raising money?" Lu Jun said to Wei Wen with wide eyes.
Wei Wen and Lu Jun were having a heated argument in the hall. Prince Su Muyang walked into the hall with a military newspaper sealed with fire paint and reported to Su Chengxuan, "Father, General Zhang Jian sent from Chu State The military report sent back." After saying that, he bowed and presented the general report to Su Chengxuan with both hands.
Su Chengxuan took the envelope containing the military report, tore off the paint seal, took out the military report, and unfolded it in front of his eyes. When they heard that Zhang Jian, who was fighting in the front, had returned the military report, Wei Wen and Lu Jun immediately He stopped arguing and stared intently at the military report that Su Chengxuan was reading.
"Hahahahaha" Su Chengxuan suddenly looked up to the sky and laughed, then slapped the military newspaper in his hand on the dragon table in front of him with a "bang" sound, jumped up from the dragon chair, and shouted: "It's really God is wise and has given me a good son-in-law. Now I am not satisfied with the retribution. Xiong Ze, you are a thief, I didn’t expect you to be like this. I want to make my son-in-law a king, yes, I will make him a king with one word!"
Seeing Su Chengxuan suddenly dancing with joy like crazy, more than a dozen civil and military ministers, including the Crown Prince Su Muyang, who were standing by His Highness, were stunned. Lu Jun blinked his eyes and stammered, "Your Majesty, If there is any great news, I will be happy to tell it to my ministers!"
Looking at the more than ten ministers who were standing there blankly, Su Chengxuan couldn't suppress a smile on his face, and announced loudly: "My son-in-law Chen Xiaomu led the Zhang Procuratorate and part of the rebel army from the Hubei region of Chu State. , broke through the Xinyang Pass and Wusheng Pass of the Chu State, swept through most of the Chu State, and besieged the Chu Emperor Xiong Ze in Yecheng, the capital of Chu, a few days ago!"
"Your Majesty, Zhang Jian's military report is not wrong, is it? With just their few troops, they can sweep through most of the Chu Kingdom and besiege Chu Emperor Xiong Ze in Yecheng, the capital of Chu?" Su Chengxuan just finished speaking, Lu Qian, the Secretary of the Ministry of War, was the first to stand up and question it. They were all battle-hardened soldiers. With Zhang Jian's more than 10,000 people, plus the so-called Hubei rebel army, there were only tens of thousands of people at best. They don't know how powerful the Chu State is. The land of more than 500 cities is more than ten times that of the Zheng State, and the population is also the same. Even if hundreds of thousands of elite soldiers and horses were lost in the Zheng State, this A skinny camel is bigger than a horse. It is not easy for Zheng Guo to survive for many years under his eyes. Now the meaning of this military report is that Zheng Guo's little ant is going to destroy Chu Guo's elephant. This Wouldn't it be a big joke if word got out?
After being reminded by Lu Qian and others, Su Chengxuan's frenzied mind calmed down. He also began to suspect that this was a military report by Zhang Jian falsely claiming military merit. Otherwise, why was there no military report sent back in the name of Chen Xiaomu?
