The cabin of Ye Kingdom's flagship anchored in the fjord was dark and damp below the deck. Because it had been soaked in sea water for many years, a large amount of dried and hardened sea salt stained the wooden boards, forming patches of grayish-white color.
At the moment, although there was a blazing sun outside the cabin, it was still difficult to get rid of the pungent musty smell inside the cabin. Suddenly, the cabin door above the head slowly opened, and under the light beam with dancing dust, the soldiers pushed and lifted the belt.
Qi Ziyin and others stumbled down in shackles and handcuffs.
The warship was not equipped with an iron cage. It was obvious that Zhuo Xiukuo also felt that the group of people could not escape at all, so he just threw them into the cabin and ignored them. As soon as the door above his head was closed, Leng Jiayun pressed his hands on the young man's shoulders.
Shake the opponent's body vigorously:
"Zi Yin, are you stupid? If you don't run away, you will expose your identity in public. Do you know that now Zhuo Xiukuo wants to take you back to Ye Kingdom to plead guilty to the unfounded crime?"
She was hoarse with her accusations, and then she started crying, "Baili spent his own life to save you! If you fall into Qi Shouyu's hands again, who can save you now?"
?!"
"But General Baili saved me, not to let me live an ignoble existence and hide in hiding for the rest of my life. Sooner or later, I will have to face what I should face..."
Qi Ziyin's eyes did not dodge, he just looked at the woman in front of him quietly.
"Now that we have become prisoners of others, what else do you want to face? To be pushed to the execution ground again?! If so, when the poisonous poison broke out in Qingwan, we might as well have died together!"
Leng Jiayun's emotions were out of control, and the boy in white had to hold her tightly with his hands: "Sister Jia, please believe me, I have my own plan!"
"What's the plan?"
The Dongli woman was startled and immediately wanted to continue questioning. However, the young man opposite refused to say any more and handed Leng Jiayun to Fan Zhen and others to take care of. He walked to the corner of the cabin and leaned on the thick
He sat down on the wooden board and just stared at his toes in a daze. There was a sense of indifference in his amber eyes that he had already seen through life and death.
At the same time, the Ye Kingdom soldiers on the deck shouted loudly and raised the falcon flag on the mainmast that had not been used for many years. The black flag was now slightly grayish.
Under the command of Zhuo Xiukuo, the fleet set off in a big way, exited the fjord in a mighty manner, and headed straight towards the coast of Ye State in the far south.
The people who were now locked in the cabin could only roughly judge the passage of time based on the sunlight leaking through the gaps in the deck. Half a month passed by, the sky was dark that day, and a thunderstorm seemed to be about to break out at sea, but there was something on the deck.
There was no order to lower the anchor, lower the sails, or stop the ship to take shelter from the wind. The soldiers just gathered on the side of the ship, seeming to be working together to pull a few people who had just been rescued from the sea onto the ship.
Qi Ziyin and his companions looked at each other, immediately stood up and ran to the cabin door, listening intently.
The rescued people spoke with Wanzhou accents. As soon as they were rescued, they knelt on the deck and kept kowtowing: "Thank you, Master, thank you, Master!"
"Look at you dressed like fishermen, are you from Ye country?" A captain on duty stepped forward and asked.
"The military master clearly noticed that we are indeed from the Ye State, and our ancestors have been farming on the west bank of Qinmeng Ze for generations. However, due to the large-scale invasion of the Cheng State and the destruction of our homes, we had no place to live, so we fled all the way to Xiyin, and then went to the capital.
We stayed in Mulu to escape the disaster of the war. We never thought that hundreds of thousands of refugees would pour into the city. When we arrived, we could only see the closed city gates, and even the gruel for disaster relief could not be distributed. The common people and a few
Although the water quality of a fellow villager is not very good, he still scraped together some money and finally bought a fishing boat a few days ago, hoping to go out to sea to catch some large and small fish and shrimps in exchange for some food. Unexpectedly, he hit a reef not long after he went out to sea.
The boat was in pieces, and we could only hold the wood and float in the sea. Last night, there was another person who disappeared after waking up due to lack of physical strength..."
One of the older fishermen recounted his experience with sincerity. When he talked about the sad and sad parts, he burst into tears and burst into tears.
Most of the Yeguo sergeants on the deck came from poor families, and they all sighed when they heard this. Some of them suddenly pushed away the crowd and came forward, and actually recognized the fisherman in distress:
"Uncle Sheng, are my parents okay now?"
"Who are you--"
The fisherman cried so hard that his eyes were blurred, and for a moment he could not recognize who the armored man in front of him was. The sergeant on the other side became anxious and threw the armor and helmet on his head with a clang at his feet, revealing his true face.
The fisherman finally recognized his face and recalled the soldier's nickname, but he cried even harder: "Badger Man, Badger Man! Your parents, they - they have already died under the iron hooves of Chengjun."
, now I am afraid that even the bones have been set on fire along with the house..."
"Sheng Bo is joking. You used to like to scare us children. You must be deliberately deceiving me, right or wrong?!"
The sergeant's expression suddenly changed, but he still shook his head vigorously with a glimmer of hope. However, seeing the fisherman in front of him fall into silence, the smile on his face gradually became stiff and bitter, "It's impossible - our village is really
That’s it—gone?”
"I only blame the incompetent monarch for sending a large army to stop the Cheng army from going north. After repeated defeats, he actually ordered to give up resistance, sealed the city gates and trapped a twilight city, without caring about the life and death of the people outside the city! The Cheng army marched straight in, not knowing how to kill them.
How many people are there!"
The fisherman finally had a chance to express the complaints he had been holding in his chest for a long time. He couldn't stop talking for a while. However, while he was speaking, he suddenly heard an angry voice behind him. Zhuo Xiukuo, who was leading his soldiers, boarded the deck at some unknown time.
, and kicked him to the ground with one kick:
"You dare to speak ill of the king in private, are you all going to die? Drive these unruly people off the boat quickly!"
"General! There is a vast sea all around now, and there is going to be a storm soon. How are you going to let them survive?!"
The sergeant named Badger Lang couldn't help it when he saw this, and raised his voice to complain about his old acquaintance. But Zhuo Xiukuo didn't give him a chance to be accommodating. Instead, he pulled out his own gun with a "swish" sound.
Saber comes:
"Why, do you want to disobey the general's order? I can't control how they live, but I still have to think about the future of thousands of brothers in the fleet! Don't forget, we are here to pay homage to the lord of the country.
The old man who is asking for credit must not make any mistakes. Although these people are acquainted with you, they cannot be guaranteed to be a trap set by pirates to rescue their accomplices. There is no room for strangers on this general's ship. If you care so much about these things
If they are unruly people, just go with them and take a dip in the sea water!"
"Sir, please let Badger go, let him go! We said the wrong thing, so we can just leave!"
When the fisherman saw that Zhuo Xiukuo actually used the knife, he immediately slapped himself several times, then turned around with the few people who had just been rescued on the boat, and jumped back into the sea again without hesitation.
Zhuo Xiukuo pursed his lips proudly, punched the Badger Lang back in front of him, and shouted sternly: "Listen up, no matter what shit you have in your heart, you have to give it all to me these days.
General, hold it in! If you delay important events, you will be punished according to military law!"
Although all the sergeants on the ship looked sullen, they were afraid of the general's intimidation and did not dare to say any more. They dispersed in silence. At the same time, Leng Jiayun and others who were locked up under the cabin began to discuss with indignation.
:
"Shameless thing! Since the founding of the army, Ye Guo Zhou Division has taken protecting the country and the people as its own responsibility. Unexpectedly, it has turned into what it is now! Most of these soldiers were brought out by Baili himself, and
How could you allow such a villain to yell at you and do so many unscrupulous things!"
"Miss Leng is right! This hatch is not very strong. I will knock it open and kill him right away. Even if I risk my life, I can't let that bastard named Zhuo continue to run free!"
Fan Zhen couldn't hold back the anger in his heart, and he was ready to hit the door above his head. However, Qi Ziyin, who had never said a word beside him, suddenly stopped him, and then shook his head to signal his companions to calm down:
"The time has not come yet, so don't fight hard! When the ship sails into the territory of Ye Kingdom, there is no need for Brother Fan to take action, and Zhuo Xiukuo can no longer be arrogant. You believe me this time!"
In the blink of an eye, several days have passed, and the sea water has gradually changed from an inky blue to a turbid yellow. The rugged coast of Yeliang Plain has faintly appeared in front of it, and even the undulating Tongyan Mountains are gradually reflected.
The eyes of everyone on the ship.
At this moment, Qi Ziyin finally proposed that he wanted to go on the deck to get some air and see the mountains and rivers of his motherland.
Perhaps he felt that now that he had entered the waters of Ye State, he did not need to be as cautious as before. Or perhaps he wanted to humiliate the young man who claimed to be the young master of Ye State for the last time before arriving in the capital. Zhuo Xiukuo agreed for the first time.
In response to his request, he ordered the prisoners who had been sleeping under the cabin for a long time to be brought to the deck.
After not seeing the sun for a long time, Qi Ziyin had to close his eyes tightly. At this time, his face had become very pale, but he seemed to feel that he could not lose his momentum in front of Zhuo Xiukuo. After adapting to the strong sunshine, he
Then he raised his chest higher than ever and walked forward with his head held high.
However, the arrival of the young man in white did not seem to attract the attention of the soldiers on the ship. At this moment, all of them turned their attention to a peninsula that slowly appeared on the port side and protruded into the sea.
There are many fishing villages along the coast of Ye State. The prosperous villages are nestled on the pink and green coast. They used to be a unique and pleasing scenery for the ships of all sizes. However, now, all the people on the ship can see are only patches of dark brown.
scorched earth, and collapsed rubble that was burned beyond recognition.
Even though half a year has passed since the war between Cheng and Ye, in this war-torn land, even after being moistened by rains in spring and summer, it is still difficult to sprout a little bit of green from the scorched blackness.
Occasionally, you can still see some poorly clothed refugees on the shore, lowering their heads to pick up some smelly fish and rotten shrimps to eat. They saw a ship passing by in the distance, but instead of cheering to greet them as usual, they seemed to have seen a ghost.
Usually, they disappear immediately.
The devastated motherland has made the wind blowing on people's faces become desolate. Now among the soldiers on the ship, many people couldn't bear to look at it anymore and secretly turned their faces and sighed. Some even lowered their heads.
I actually cried secretly.
However, Zhuo Xiukuo seemed to be indifferent to everything in front of him, and was only thinking about how to send Qi Ziyin and others into the palace. At this time, he was sitting on the general platform at the stern of the ship, ordering the clerk to read
Revising the letter to be sent to King Ye's Palace:
"I am a humble minister, but by chance, I found a pirate lair in the vast ocean in the north. I fought hard for many years to capture this key criminal. I did not dare to deal with it without authorization, so I personally escorted him to the palace to await the fate of the king..."
"General, that child's face is completely ruined. Even if he claims that he is the young master of the Ye Kingdom, what should we do if the master of the country denies his identity? If this fails, we will commit the crime of deceiving the emperor!"
The clerk wrote down the draft of the letter according to the other party's dictation, and soon the entire paper was covered. However, looking at the words full of requests for credit, he felt a little scared in his heart, and he hung up his pen and asked.
"Then how do you want me, the general, to explain to the king that we disobeyed orders and wandered overseas for several years? Just write it like this!"
The document had no choice but to continue writing according to the other party's wishes. After the letter was completed, Zhuo Xiukuo laughed as if no one else was watching, and immediately waved his hand and ordered, "After all, these prisoners are going to the palace to meet the king.
Come with a few people and take them to freshen up and change into clean clothes."
The general's order must not be disobeyed, and the few sergeants beside him immediately accepted the order and wanted to come forward to take the person. However, Qi Ziyin could see the sadness and anger on their faces, and it hurt in his heart. He saw his eyes stern, and shouted to the general in a loud voice.
Zhuo Xiukuo, who was on the board, asked:
"Have you never thought that the person you are trying so hard to please, sitting in the main hall of Ye Kingdom, is actually the traitor who killed the king and usurped the throne?!"
As soon as these words came out, all the soldiers on the ship immediately raised eyebrows. They had been away from their homeland for too long, and they only heard about many things that happened during that period. However, everyone always wondered why Qi and Yin died after succeeding to the throne.
It was not his eldest son Qi Zixiu, but his short, fat minister brother who seemed to be mediocre and incompetent. They didn't understand even more why the king's most favored youngest son actually came to the meeting with the well-supported and fond of Tsing Yi's boat master.
Together, they have become traitors intent on rebellion!
"The ruler of the country is the ruler of the country, how can I allow you to slander me here?"
Zhuo Xiukuo quickly walked up to the young man, intending to slap him. But Qi Ziyin not only didn't hide, he didn't even blink:
"Master of the Kingdom? Yes, my father indeed deposed my brother Wang as the crown prince back then. But if my uncle Wang is really my father's appointed successor, why would I need to plan to kill all the Qi family members in the Liuying Tower?
Bloodline?"
"Don't tell lies, or believe it or not, I will gouge out your tongue right now!"
"I am the only bloodline of the late kings Qi and Yin still alive in the world, and I am also the only heir to the throne of Ye Kingdom today! If any of you dare to touch me, you will be an accomplice of the regicide and usurper!"
Qi Ziyin knew that the opportunity he had been waiting for was right in front of him, so he raised his voice and continued to refute righteously:
"Thousands of years ago, when Duke Dehuan was on his deathbed, he left a message to his descendants. He said that if the country is in danger and the people are in trouble, as the king of Ye State, he should take the lead in punishing evil and eradicating evil. Even if there are no generals to choose and no soldiers.
Even if you can, you must use your own flesh and blood to keep the enemy of ten thousand people away from the country! The kings of the past generations have taken this admonition as a warning, and no one dares to disobey it!"
Zhuo Xiukuo interrupted him loudly, but his raised hand could not fall down: "What's the use of talking nonsense? Who is sitting on the throne of the country now? The world wants to take you back.
Who are you? Only the power in your hands is real. What you said is worthless in the face of the supreme power!"
However, the boy in white took two steps forward and actually forced the other person to step back involuntarily:
"I think our country, Ye, has not had a war for more than a hundred years since the Shuodi Rebellion. The people are prosperous and live in peace. All of this was achieved because the successive leaders of the country worked hard to govern and the whole country was united and united! But Qi Shouyu did not
Because of their own selfish interests, they sought power and usurped the throne, and went their own way. As a result, the country's power was emptied, powerful enemies invaded, and the former homeland became what it is now! Seeing the mountains and rivers of our homeland in such a state, can you, as men of the Ye Kingdom, swallow your anger? "
"Can't! Can't! Can't!"
Qi Ziyin's words completely ignited the anger that had been buried in the chests of the soldiers on the ship for a long time. Many of them responded loudly at the top of their voices. Seeing this, Zhuo Xiukuo finally panicked:
"You, you are inciting a mutiny! Come on, quickly capture this person together with the ones you just applauded——"
Unexpectedly, after the order was given, not a single soldier on the deck made any move. More and more soldiers wearing black armor looked at the impassioned young man in white, and they were gradually infected by the courage of the same enemy in the eyes of their comrades.
.
Qi Ziyin's face was full of perseverance and courage. He threw away the stunned Zhuo Xiukuo and ran to the general stage. It seemed that at this moment, he, who was still shackled and handcuffed, was the commander in charge of the troops:
"Today, your parents, brothers, and sisters may still be suffering in that blood-soaked land. You have already failed them once when Chengguo invaded. Do you plan to fail them again now?"
?I am the young master of Ye State, I need you now, come back with me to capture Mulu City and take back our mountains and rivers homeland!"
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