Towards the end of June, it has been raining in Henan. The sky, the earth, and the people are all wrapped in a layer of moisture that cannot be broken away. The originally scheduled auspicious day for the crown prince's canonization has also been delayed. As an alternative, Chen Chong could only invite the elderly and others to the palace and hold a relatively small ceremony. The whole process was very simple. It was nothing more than bringing the prince into the palace from Pingyang Palace, being awarded the seal by Chen Chong in public, and then worshiping his ancestors on the altar.
Speaking of which, Prince Liu Yi was only a four-year-old child, and he showed no signs of precociousness. It was basically Chen Chong who led him through the whole journey. At the end of the ceremony, the prince secretly pulled Chen Chong's feet and complained softly that his feet hurt. Chen Chong stuffed him with a candied fruit and asked the prince to hold it in his mouth. The prince suddenly smiled and then the ceremony was over. Looking at the young and easy-to-satisfy smile of the prince, Chen Chong felt a little melancholy in his chest. He didn't know whether it was the right choice for him to bring a child into this kind of fame and fortune fair. But he has no other choice, and at the same time he has to make more and more choices.
As July approaches, the signs of war in Liaodong become more and more obvious. The vanguard of the Liao people has frequently been in the mountains and forests of Yanshan in western Liaoning, and there are also reports of ships gathering in eastern Liaoning. This makes Chen Chong read the maps of western Liaoning and Yuyang under the lamp every night. He sent a message to Jiang Ji saying that all the county troops in Youzhou could be gathered in Lulongsai to confront the Liao company without any intention of going to war. The Liao people have many soldiers but little food, so they can only fight quickly. If they are disadvantageous, they will inevitably retreat. Therefore, not fighting him is the best countermeasure. Compared with the actions of the Liao people, Chen Chong was more worried about the tribes in Yunbei: In this case, the annexation of the grasslands that was originally contained can no longer be stopped. Who will unite with the Liao people? Who will start the war? These are all bad things to say.
On the night of Bingyin in July, it cleared up after the rain, but the weather was still unbearably hot and humid. After Chen Chong fell asleep, he had a dream. This time he fell into a dream, which was different from before. He realized that he was dreaming. So I was very calm and wandering in my dream. In the place where he dreamed, there was a wide river with unlimited water, but Chen Chong knew that it was not the Yangtze River, but the Han River, because he saw a city on both sides of the river, and the two cities faced each other across the river. He immediately understood that this was Xiangyang. The sky was dark, thick clouds covered the ground, and it was not clear whether it was day or night. Chen Chong saw the flags stretching on both sides of the bank, but the two armies seemed to be in peace. The people on the south bank were still repairing the newly acquired Xiangyang City, while the soldiers on the north bank were practicing martial arts formations on the plain behind the city, which made the Han River quiet. Chen Chong thought to himself, it seems that Wu Jun's offensive will stop here.
In such a quiet atmosphere, Chen Chong began to walk on the river. He saw a huge ship moored on Yuliang Island, so he wanted to get closer and take a closer look. As a result, while walking, for some unknown reason, he suddenly had a premonition that prompted him to walk towards the north bank. Passing through the vast sea of reeds, reed flowers were fluttering in the wind like snowflakes. When Chen Chong was feeling confused, he heard a rustling sound, followed by a low cry.
Chen Chong looked over and realized it was a white deer. Different from the white deer seen in Guanzhong, Hanzhong, this white deer is much smaller, only about half a person tall. Standing in the reed swamp, it looks like a bunch of accumulated reed flowers. The white deer seemed to be able to see Chen Chong. It tilted its head curiously and cautiously approached, but missed. This frustrated the little white deer, but it didn't care and just wandered among the reeds as it pleased. Chen Chong also found it interesting, so he followed the white deer to see what it would bring to him.
But suddenly, he heard a familiar voice in his ears. He looked up and saw about twenty knights riding their horses slowly beside the reed marsh. Seeing this, Chen Chong forgot to follow Bai Lu for a moment, but leaned towards the group of people. But the strange thing is that no matter how much he wants to get closer, there seems to be a thick barrier between him and this team of people, which can never be crossed. There was no other way, so Chen Chong could only watch from a distance. He was curious in his heart, could something very important be about to happen to this team? They were not in the camp, so why were they heading towards Yuliangzhou?
While he was thinking this, he saw the person at the back taking off his iron armor and looking around impatiently. Chen Chong recognized it immediately. Wasn't that Guan Feng who he sent out? With this impression, he looked at the rest of the troops and recognized Sun Lang, Hu Yanping, and Lian Yu. The knight surrounded by them was obviously Chen Zhang.
At this time, Chen Zhang was talking to someone beside him, pointing at the Wu ships in the distance, and seemed to be looking at the terrain in the north and south of Yuliang Continent. He was obviously planning something. When they reached a meander in the river, the group dismounted and stopped, tied the horses to a bush, then dived into the reeds and continued to lean in. Chen Chong could tell that they wanted to conduct a reconnaissance on Wu Jun's navy. Could it be that the Han army had some arrangement? But he recalled it and couldn't remember the relevant part from the military report.
Just when Chen Chong was wondering, the sound of insects gradually sounded in his ears. Chen Chong secretly screamed, maybe he was about to wake up? He still hasn't figured out what happened. In a hurry, he jumped up and unexpectedly jumped into the air, looking down at the changes in the reeds from the air. I wanted to move again, but my whole body felt nothing. It was just as soft as a cloud, and I couldn't move my hands and feet.
At this moment, he discovered a horrifying scene below. Dozens of Wu people wearing black armor lined up on a hillock more than a hundred steps away, and Chen Zhang and his party moved straight towards the hillock as if someone was leading them. At this time, something strange happened. Suddenly someone in the Han army pulled out a knife and chopped off his comrades. The one who was hit by the knife was Guan Feng. He was completely unprepared. After receiving the blow, he immediately fell straight into the shallow water. . It caused a commotion all around. It turns out there is a traitor among our colleagues!
What followed was a larger-scale fight. The Han troops were divided into two groups, shouting and waving their weapons in the reeds. The Wu people not far away heard the noise and quickly surrounded them. When Chen Zhang and others saw this scene, how could they not know that they had been caught in a conspiracy, so they stepped into the water and retreated. The cold water splashed and soon became stained with blood. Just as promised to Chen Chong, Sun Lang and the others formed a small formation to resist enemies that were several times larger, giving the young master time to escape.
The Wu people who came to help also made a noise, sounded gongs, and then shot arrows at Sun Lang and the others. The random arrows were like heavy rain. Even if they were wearing armor, they were shot into pieces under the three rounds of arrow rain. Without a hedgehog, there is no physiology anymore. Only Chen Zhang and his entourage were left running away in the reeds. The people behind shouted: "Catch up, catch up quickly, that's Chen Chong's son!" They all tried their best to chase forward, fearing that this achievement would be in vain. Run away.
Chen Zhang originally wanted to go straight to the place where the horse had been hidden before, but he was chased so fast that he became dizzy and couldn't tell the direction at all. He could only move to the right or left according to his feelings, hoping to get rid of the pursuers behind him. But from the perspective of Chen Chong in the air, he actually did a lot of useless work, and instead the people behind him got closer and closer to him. At this time, Chen Chong saw the white deer in front of his son. It had already made a trail in the reeds, leading directly to the bushes where the horses were hidden.
Chen Zhang seemed to be stunned when he saw this, while Bai Lu was also startled and ran away as fast as he came. At this time, Chen Chong saw that the pursuers behind him were only ten steps away from Chen Zhang, and he could already vaguely see the cold light shining on the knife.
"Go find Bailu, follow Bailu!" After saying this, Chen Chong suddenly woke up.
The room was quiet as usual, nothing happened. "Shh!" Chen Chong let out a long breath.
The next few days continued to rain, but Chen Chong never dreamed the same dream again. He began to deal with official affairs in various states, but no longer paid attention to the war in Beiping County. Instead, he repeatedly asked if there was any urgent report from Xiangyang, but unfortunately, there was no reply. However, some miscellaneous cases occurred in the capital, some of which had a considerable impact. For example, one of his own clan members named Chen Jian raped a girl in Yanshi and accidentally killed her. This caused quite a stir in the capital, but Chen Chong's parents came to Chen Chong through Chen Qun to intercede, hoping to be sentenced to exile instead of death. But Chen Chong was merciless. With the evidence solid, he immediately sentenced Chen Jian to death and was publicly executed in Luoyang.
This incident once caused a cold war between the tribesmen and Chen Chong. Someone said: "You only know how to make profits for your own son, but you don't consider other people's love for their children. How can you be so unkind?" Chen Chong had no objection to this. .
On the third day of July, after the rain and the sky cleared up, Xiangyang finally sent the latest military report. When the letter arrived, Chen Chong was at the Chancellor's desk, and Pang Tong was the first to open it and read it. After Pang Tong finished reading the letter, his face was uncertain. He hesitated to speak to Chen Chong who was buried in the desk. He stood up for a long time, walked to Chen Chong's desk, handed the military newspaper with both hands and said: "Teacher, this is a letter from Xiangyang. !”
Chen Chong raised his head, said "Oh", opened it and held it in his hand. At this time, the surrounding people's voices were silent. Everyone could tell that something serious had happened, so they held their breath and watched the prime minister's expression.
The letter was very short, and Chen Chong read it quickly.
After reading it, Chen Chong showed no strange expression and handed the letter to Pang Tong and said, "I understand this matter. You can come up with a plan first. I will go out for a walk first. Don't report this matter to Your Majesty before coming back." ." After saying that, he waved his sleeves and quickly walked out of the chancery.
This scene surprised everyone. What happened? So everyone gathered around Pang Tong to watch. Seeing that the teacher had gone far away, Pang Tong was too lazy to circulate the information one by one, so he said in public: "Over in Xiangyang, Sima Zhongda invited Chen Hanzhen to Yuliangzhou on the pretext of spying on the enemy's situation. He set up an ambush and killed the master and servants, and then defected to Zhou Yu. Let’s go!” He paused and then said, “Zhou Yu took advantage of the situation and wanted to attack Fancheng, but fortunately Guo Huai was in charge of the overall situation and had already beaten Wu Gou back.”
But everyone no longer cared about listening to the rest of the words. When they heard the shocking news, they all looked at the stage gate, wondering when the prime minister would come back after going out for a walk. Unexpectedly, when the night watch came that day, Prime Minister Chen Chong neither appeared in Taige nor returned to the mansion.
