The walls will gradually collapse, and heaven itself will be a cathedral in which St. Peter's Basilica in Rome is but a grain of sand on the beach; if so, why do we build churches and monasteries on earth? ; for we do not understand that the earth is a church, a monastery, the seat of faith and duty, of seclusion and freedom.
——Saramago "Chronicles of the Monastery"
At the beginning of winter in the seventh year of Guangde, Emperor Guangde arrived in Huguang. On the eighth day of winter, he drove to Nanzhang County. Liu Kan's palace was located at Fahua Temple near Ying'en Gate. The monks in the temple were forced to return to secular life during the abolition of Buddhism, leaving only a few flower monks to pray for money here. Emperor Guangde hated the monks and Taoists so much that he ordered the monks' heads to be cut off and used to sacrifice flags to the army.
Nanzhang, as the base camp of the Qi army in Jingxiang, has assembled more than 150,000 troops at this time. These troops will set off from here to besiege Xiangyang Fucheng. At the same time, the troops stationed in Henan had cut off the rebels' northward escape route. The rebels lost several cities in a row and were in a worrying situation.
Liu Kan was determined to win Xiangyang City, not because he valued this battleground for military strategists, but because his sister was still in the city at this time.
Rather than destroying this historic city, what the emperor wanted to do more at the moment was to kill her sister.
If possible, the eldest princess would be escorted back to Beijing, tied up and kneeled in front of the Taishang's mausoleum, and burned alive.
Fahua Temple.
Liu Kan looked at the three bloody human heads displayed on the table with an imperceptible smile on his face.
"I am not a murderous person, but these monks are a little too courageous."
While giving Emperor Guangde a pat on the back, the Chief Supervisor agreed, "Who says it's not true? A few flower monks eat meat and drink wine here on weekdays. I heard that they farm hundreds of acres and harm the yellow flower girls of the surrounding tenant families. It's really lawless. ! Even a benevolent king like Long Live Lord, who is rare in the ages, cannot tolerate these evil monks."
Liu Kandan smiled calmly: "The New Deal has been implemented for two years. The abolition of monkhood was an edict issued two years ago. I didn't expect that the thieves are still working against it now. How can I tolerate it?"
"Long Live Lord has worked hard for the New Deal, and his temples have turned gray in recent years... But this time we can finally completely eliminate the rebels and avoid future troubles forever."
Emperor Guangde shook his head. After losing several cities in succession, the rebels in Jingxiang retreated to the two big cities of Xiangyang and Junzhou, where they concentrated their forces and prepared for the final battle against the trapped beasts.
"I want to complete my work in one battle. While slaughtering Xiangyang, I also want to kill Liu Yufei, but."
Emperor Guangde stopped talking.
"I want to kill her, but I can't."
Li Juying, who had been spitting like a star just now, did not dare to talk casually at this moment. He was worried that he would be recognized by the emperor as Liu Yufei's accomplice.
"Do you know my difficulties?"
Liu Kan's sharp eyes seemed to tear Li Juying apart. Manager Li shuddered and said hesitantly: "Of course I know that my emperor is the most merciful. Of course he will not kill everyone, nor will he..."
Emperor Guangde waved his hand gently: "I am not a benevolent king. I have become more and more fond of killing people recently. However, I do not kill Liu Yufei because I am her and she is me. On the surface, we are incompatible with each other, but in fact we are two sides of the same coin. This way Let’s talk, together we are all our father.”
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【Beginning of Ming Dynasty from Saerhu】【】
Li Juying nodded as if she understood, but then shook her head: "Why do you say this, Long Live Lord? How can that traitor be compared with His Majesty!"
Liu Kan glanced at Li Juying slightly disappointedly.
The Liu siblings are the two sides of Liu Zhaosun, like two sides of a coin, one is kind and the other is cruel, one pursues world unity while the other maintains strict hierarchy.
"Every step my father took back then was like walking on thin ice. With such a large Qi, all the power was handed over to him, and he would be exhausted to death."
Liu Zhaosun's pursuit of world unity was too difficult. His life was like Sisyphus pushing the boulder up the mountain, moving forward step by step, never ending, and finally died of exhaustion on the mountainside.
"I will not be like my father, who seeks benefits for the people, only to be abandoned by the world in the end,"
"But I am destined not to become the father, and neither can Liu Yufei. My sister and my brother are just turtles and snakes under the feet of Emperor Zhenwu. They fight with each other, regardless of the outcome, and finally die of exhaustion."
Eunuch Li stood there dumbfounded, obviously not understanding what Emperor Guangde was saying. In order to make himself look less stupid in front of Long Live Lord, he didn't care whether he understood or not, and just kept nodding.
On the eleventh day of the winter lunar month, the offensive and defensive sides agreed to meet on the other side of the moat.
A huge umbrella cover was set up in the open space in front of the moat. Under the gaze of hundreds of thousands of soldiers, Emperor Guangde Liu Kan and the eldest princess Liu Yufei walked towards each other from east to west, and quickly walked under the umbrella cover.
All in all, Liu Kan and Liu Yufei have not seen each other for almost ten years.
But this didn't stop the two from quarreling endlessly as soon as they met.
"My father gave Da Qi to me, not to you, before he died. He said, don't take things that are not yours."
As soon as the giant snake appeared, it was hit by airship artillery, its whole body burned, and it sank into the Han River.
"Firearms and calibers are the mainstream today, and your pretense is out of date."
The airships that blocked the sky began to throw incendiary bombs towards the city.
Xiangyang City fell into a sea of fire, a few airships were shot down by artillery, and the warships anchored in the center of the river also began to bombard.
This is a turbulent era, and everyone is full of uncertainty about their future and fate. Liu Kan firmly believes that his new empire is about to be built, but it was the eldest princess Liu Yufei who ruined everything.
"If it hadn't been for you and your deliberate rebellion, the New Deal would have been completed long ago and Daqi would have become an immortal empire."
"My father said to go east, but you chose to go west. All my father's efforts have been ruined by you."
"Liu Yufei, you are the culprit. You let these cannon fodder kill you for your own benefit. As the emperor, I will at least give some power to the six departments of the cabinet. How can you not monopolize power like you? All the power in the world belongs to you. It belongs to one person, and now that this situation has arisen, you should be responsible for everything."
"Since you like to confuse right and wrong, what's the point of talking so much? We will see the truth on the battlefield, and only the last living people are qualified to talk about right and wrong."
Liu Kan sighed: "Well, since you are stubborn, don't blame me for not respecting the relationship between siblings. You and Xiangyang City will all turn into a sea of fire. When the city is destroyed, no chickens or dogs will be left!"
Both sides returned to their respective camps, and Lin Zhenyu's mother was taken to Yangchunmen.
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【Beginning of Ming Dynasty from Saerhu】【】
Lin Zhenyu watched with wide eyes as Chiyoko Fujiwara was tied up and pushed to the bank of the Han River. He was filled with grief and anger, and shouted loudly to rush out of the city.
"My condolences, general. The eldest princess has an order not to leave the city easily."
Xiangyang is easy to defend but difficult to attack. The airships brought by Emperor Guangde have been exhausted by the basaltic pythons. There are very few surviving airships. Even if they take off, they will soon be shot down by the artillery equipped on the city head. The artillery positions are also destroyed by the pythons. The damage is unsustainable.
The two sides returned to the state of infantry clashing and ants attacking the city.
As a result, the battlefield situation returned to twenty years ago.
