Political disputes have always been common in the Dahua court, and there is always no shortage of royal relatives and powerful officials in each dynasty to win over their subordinates and form alliances of interests. Although emperors of all dynasties were aware of party strife and chaos in government, they were rarely able to curb it.
In such a general situation, if you don't have a good family background and are unwilling to rely on powerful officials and favored ministers, trying to stand on your own in the court is nothing more than a fool's dream. A clear-minded and self-disciplined person like Mei Siyuan has always considered himself a vassal of Prince Jia's palace, let alone others.
Therefore, the three kings have been fighting openly and secretly for more than ten years, and Emperor Yonghua has always turned a blind eye and not interfered too much.
Guo Zimu is a vassal of Prince Yi's Mansion, and his appointment as the resident general of this county was entirely due to Xia Muren's recommendation. Previously, Mei Siyuan and Xu Ding'an were trapped in Suzhou City. There was a reason why he delayed sending troops to rescue them. In fact, three days after Shatuo's army invaded Tianmen City, Guo Zimu received the urgent report, one day earlier than Mei Siyuan. He sent a letter to the capital Yiwang Mansion that night to inquire about Xia Muren's story. However, Xia Muren never responded. For this reason, he never dared to send troops.
Leading the troops out of Jinzhou to meet the enemy was the right thing to do, but it was beyond his duties. Guo Zimu did not dare to make any arbitrary decision.
After Xia Muchao detained the Guo family members, Guo Zimu hurriedly wrote a letter to Xia Muren, and only got a reply in eight characters: "I will do my best to help him get rid of the thieves."
When Mei Siyuan came to him and asked Jinzhou Qingqi to go to Tianmen City to find Xia Muchao, Guo Zimu didn't think much and immediately agreed.
Early the next morning, five thousand riders rushed from the Jinzhou Camp to the Stone Mountain of Tianmen City, traveling at starry night. Before Xia Muchao left, he had told Mei Siyuan that the place of negotiation between him and Shatuo was in Shishan.
On June 14, Xu Shi, five thousand people finally arrived at the strange stone forest on the outskirts of Tianmen City.
The terrain of Anxian is high in the west and low in the east. Tianmen City is the far west of Dahua. Although it is midsummer, it is already cool at night. The light of the stars and the moon shines on the earth, like a layer of silver.
"Lord Mei, this is Shishan. His Highness the King of Jaws should be nearby. It's late at night, so we have to light up the lamps. But within tens of miles of sight, is there any light at all?" Guo Zimu Shen Sheng called Mei Siyuan. These five thousand men were his soldiers. They had been traveling day and night for the past three days. The generals were already resentful. They should have rested at this time, but Mei Siyuan had no intention of stopping.
"My lord, where are you?" Mei Siyuan asked secretly in his heart, exhaling heavily without realizing it.
Seeing that he didn't answer, Guo Zimu became even more angry. He coughed and said, "Master Mei, these generals are made of flesh and blood. They can't withstand such a torment. Why don't we camp on the spot and rest?" Be considerate of these subordinate brothers.
Mei Siyuan looked at him sideways, still silent. Didn't he know that the people and horses were tired and the journey was difficult? However, Xia Muchao was not found for a while, and he could not feel at ease for a moment.
"Report~~~!" The voice of the scout came from the front.
"Come forward and report!" the general on the side shouted loudly.
The scouts rode horses from afar, got off their horses in front of Guo Zimu, knelt down and reported: "General, Lord Mei, there is something discovered about ten miles ahead."
"What did you find?" Guo Zimu asked with wide eyes.
I really don't dare to talk nonsense. "The scout replied with some submissiveness and some worry.
Mei Siyuan's mind sank and he shouted: "What on earth did you see? Just tell me! No one will blame you!"
The scout swallowed and said softly: "There is an indentation in the stone mountain ahead. There are traces of fighting on the ground. There is a new grave and a mass grave next to it."
"What? Is there a tablet on the grave?" Mei Siyuan replied in a trembling voice.
"The kid doesn't know much about literacy, and he can't see very clearly at night. He can only vaguely see a... word on the tombstone with a 'king' and a 'mu' character." The scouts are all literate, and he has recognized them all. "Jaw King Xia Muren", but he was afraid that something would go wrong and he dared not speak out, and the Shangguan would blame himself.
His words were like a bolt from the blue, shocking Mei Siyuan to the point of confusion, "Lead me quickly!"
... ...
The rumble of horse hooves broke the silence of the night, and the people in Beiye City who had fallen asleep were awakened by the sudden sound.
Waking up is the beginning of a nightmare.
There was no cry of killing, only cold swords and guns and blazing flames. Wherever the soldiers and horses passed, no humans or animals were left behind, and all life was extinguished.
"Kill!" This was the only word left in Xia Chengcan's mind. He led more than 20,000 cavalry and ran for more than 300 miles to get here just to kill people and kill the people of Jue.
He wanted to vent his anger. His father was framed and killed for no reason, and his heart was filled with anger and hatred. These anger and hatred made him only want to kill people, and kill people in the country. In his opinion, everyone from Jue country should be killed.
"Both Xia Muyan and the people of Jue deserve to die!" Xia Chengcan said in his heart thousands of times.
Are the people of Beiye City innocent? Naturally innocent! It's not like they killed Xia Muyang.
"Perhaps among the murderers who killed my father were people from Beiye City." This was the last word in Xia Chengcan's heart. It would be better to kill ten thousand by mistake than to teach one person to slip through the net.
Then kill him, he will kill anyone who has the slightest suspicion.
When he proposed to massacre the city in the tent camp, no one came to stop him. The generals in the camp were all Xia Muyang's subordinates for many years, and they were also filled with grief and indignation. Although they knew that what Xia Chengcan said was extremely irrational, they were all willing to share the notoriety of massacring the city with him.
I was born to live for you, so why not die in service?
The more than 20,000 horses are all strong and strong, and the more than 20,000 people are all sharp. Wherever the people and horses come, they kill people like chickens and dogs. The screams echoed across the sky from late night to dawn.
... ...
The tomb of Xia Muchao, Prince of Dahuaja.
There were only crosses, but every word was painful. Mei Siyuan's heart was like a knife, and she was in pain and wished she could live.
He still remembered that night outside the city of Zhou, where they drank to their heart's content and the two of them banged cans and sang loudly, singing about the aspirations of the clouds, the suffering in the world, and the long love between children:
"Siyuan, Great China has been suffering for a long time. Shatuo, the country of Jue, is eyeing the tiger. The country is in danger! You and I work together, first to cure internal troubles and get rid of family traitors, and then to go to the battlefield to defend against foreign enemies. It is not in vain to serve the country and the people in this life. !”
"Si Yuan, the difficulty of people's livelihood lies in injustice and inequality. Rich households and evil gentry occupy hundreds of hectares of land, have piles of granaries at home, and raise countless pigs in pens. They are arrogant and extravagant (*) inside, and run rampant outside. But ordinary people's homes , working all year round may not guarantee three meals a day, and in famine years, people are hungry and cold, suffering unspeakably. As for the poor tenant farmers, alas, what a plight..."
"I also like this kid Yuanchen very much. I didn't expect that he not only became very good friends with Chengxuan, but also developed feelings for Yiyi. If everything goes well, you and I will get married next month."
Mei Siyuan leaned on the tombstone and cried out in sorrow: "The sky has no eyes! You don't know the suffering of the world, and you took me by force. It's in vain! God, why don't you have mercy on me, Dahua..." The mourning was like that of a deceased heir, and the five thousand soldiers behind him all turned pale when they heard this.
... ...
It's dawn, but Beiye City seems to have stopped at last night.
Gone are the hawkers who get up early to go to work, the farmers who are busy in the fields in the morning, the dull "O'clock" clock in the yamen, the smoke rising from the roof...
Beiye City is still there, but the people in Beiye City are gone.
From the south of the city to the north, from the east to the west, even in the corners of the alleys, and even in the cellars of wealthy families... there are corpses everywhere, dead people everywhere: burned to death, hacked to death, stabbed to death, and beaten to death. Trampled to death... there were old people, young men, women and children.
Two hundred thousand people in Beiye City died in one night, how tragic is it? A single thought will bring disaster to the world!
