After only resting for one night, Lijun's army set off again from Shoutong City, heading eastward and approaching Yicheng.
Earlier, before daybreak, five thousand Lijun Qingqi had already rushed out of Shouting. When it was getting dark, they were already drinking horses in the upper reaches of the Yishui River that flows through Yicheng.
Tens of thousands of elite troops camped a hundred miles west of Yicheng when night fell. Their marching speed was astonishing.
The army gathered across the tacitly agreed dividing line between Li County and Yongchang County. Naturally, the first people to be alarmed were the people in the places they passed. However, the Li Army did not disturb the people along the way just like the previous attack on Sancang.
The next ones who received the news were Xingcheng Yunbailou and the ancient city Yanzhuo, who were always paying attention to the movements of Shouting Lijun's army.
Finally, it was the turn of Meng Jiaoyang, the prefect of Yicheng who was targeted by Lijun's army.
At this time of night, Yicheng has reached a point where it cannot be called an undercurrent. The powerful families are contacting everywhere in order to open up the joints of the Yicheng garrison so that their core children can sneak out of the city.
As for wealthy people and those with some connections and means, they also took their most valuable things and went to remote corners of the city walls, where they put people in baskets and put them down little by little, or they simply found some people who had secret connections. , go down through some extremely weird entrances, crawl out of the dark holes, and when you see the stars and moonlight again, you are already in the ancient tombs of a deserted village several miles outside the city.
Only the most ordinary people are not so deeply panicked about the coming war. Some even have nothing, and they still pray every day for the chaos to come soon, which may give them some amazing opportunities. Thus reaching the sky in one step.
What was different from the past was that when the chaos came this time, no strict orders were issued from the Yicheng Summer Palace.
Even though the Grand Administrator is said to have lost most of his power, in the end, there is still heaven in Yicheng.
But neither the Summer Palace guards nor the Yicheng garrison did anything, so that the chaos reached its peak late at night.
A scene of chaos.
In the Summer Palace, there is a nine-story tower. The height of this tower is higher than that of Yicheng, and it can overlook the whole city. It is said that all the prefects will borrow the supreme magic circle on the top of this tower during the New Year. , looking down at his people, there is nothing unknowable.
This is of course impossible, but just such rumors are enough for the people to be in awe of it and call it the Tower of Heaven.
But one thing in the rumors is true. The successive governors of Yongchang County can indeed climb this tower only during the New Year, not to look down on the people, but to worship their ancestors.
In this tower, from top to bottom, there are a total of fifty ancestral tablets placed.
That night, the prefect Meng Jiaoyang climbed to the Heavenly Tower on a special occasion and personally placed a brand new tablet in the newest position on the second floor of the tower, with the back facing forward.
He was alone, holding a light that was not bright in his hand, walked forward, illuminated a tablet, saluted respectfully, then turned the tablet over, and used the dim light to read the small characters engraved on the back of the tablet, and then said to He walked forward, illuminated an earlier tablet, saluted, turned it over, and read the words, then the third floor, the fourth floor... When he reached the ninth floor, he saw the only huge altar table and tablet placed there. After that, I was already in tears and burst into tears.
He knelt on his knees, walked to the memorial tablet on the altar table, knocked his head heavily on the ground, and could not get up for a long time.
He knelt like this for a long time, until his knees were numb, and then he sat down with great effort, grinning, his legs hurting like needles, but he could do nothing, just like his mood at this time, desperate and helpless.
Fearful and confused about everything in the future.
But the decision has been made a long time ago. He was conflicted and struggling, and countless voices in his mind were shouting, capricious, but things that cannot be changed cannot be changed, just like the tablet he placed on the second floor. .
Thinking of this, his eyes found focus again. He was fierce and ferocious, beating his legs that were still a little painful, then picked up the dim lamp on the ground, staggered, and even turned around
He didn't even think about taking another look at the lonely tablet. He went downstairs step by step, turning his back on all the tablets on each floor, as if he was abandoning something he had insisted on for a long time. He was extremely decisive.
Walking out of the tower, Meng Jiaoyang had only a cold expression on his face. A slovenly-looking middle-aged man followed him at some point. After a while, Lao Gu and a group of palace waiters also trotted up and gathered together. I bent down deeply, the night wind blew by, and it was so quiet that I couldn't even hear the chirping of insects.
Meng Jiaoyang stood still without looking back. After a long moment, she waved her hand and said, "Move, move them all out."
All the palace waiters lowered their heads and looked at each other, no one dared to take the lead.
Meng Jiaoyang's eyes were cold, "Why, you dare to resist and disobey the order?!"
When the palace attendants heard this, they knelt down and begged for mercy.
"Okay!" Meng Jiaoyang was obviously very angry, "Get out of here, move out, move out!!"
Among the palace waiters, Lao Gu, the leader, lowered his head and asked tremblingly, "May I ask, Lord Prefect, where can I go after the slave general... will... move... please out?" .....Place it?"
Meng Jiaoyang's face was expressionless, "packing, haven't you done a lot of similar things in the past few days? Do you need me to teach you about packing in person?!"
"Don't dare, don't dare," Lao Gu bowed deeply, then turned around to urge the waiter behind him, and then he bowed and trotted into the tower.
Meng Jiaoyang was the only one left outside the tower and the slovenly-looking middle-aged man behind him. "Yilan," Meng Jiaoyang looked up at the sky. The stars in the sky surrounded the moon, just like when he was a child, he secretly Climbing to the roof of the side hall of the summer palace, I saw the same thing, "Thousands of years from now, who can remember a group of people like us?"
The slovenly middle-aged man glanced at Meng Jiaoyang's back, nodded and said, "Just like we won't remember those people and things from thousands of years ago, no one will remember us."
"Yes," Meng Jiaoyang seemed to sigh, and then seemed to exhale a long breath, "Now, everything is just a passing cloud."
The slovenly middle-aged man did not speak this time.
Meng Jiaoyang was silent for a long time and asked, "There is still no movement from the Wang family and Zhao family?"
The slovenly middle-aged man said, "Wang Quanhu thanked guests behind closed doors and only sent two messengers to the south. Zhao Nanpeng was very active. He met many people in the past few days and talked to many people. Those who met him People, more or less, always find ways to send some people outside the city, but no one from the Zhao family has been moved, and even those who stayed outside were recalled, and they all stayed in that square house. Going out."
Meng Jiaoyang narrowed his eyes slightly, "It's just a matter of confidence and waiting for the price." He saw a palace attendant passing by holding a tablet, his eyelids couldn't help but twitched, and then sneered, "Keep an eye on it, finally One day, Yicheng, you are not allowed to..."
Before he could finish his words, he saw a stream of black light that was barely visible in the night swishing into the hands of the sloppy middle-aged man behind him.
The middle-aged man glanced at the object in his hand, his eyes focused, and he quickly handed the object in his hand to Meng Jiaoyang.
Meng Jiaoyang lowered his head to look, and the fat on his face couldn't help but tremble, and then his voice was cold, "Okay, okay, what a Zhao Nanpeng," he looked to the west with a heavy face, and murmured to himself, "This. ..... Do you want me to be used as a sword in the end..."
