In the north of Liangzhou City, in the backyard of Jinzhai.
Sitting in the back hall, Zhou Jun looked at the girl laughing and playing in the courtyard, and asked Golden Phoenix beside him: "Have you chosen a name?"
Golden Phoenix said in a low voice: "Yes, my bestie's nickname is Chao Mu."
Zhou Jun looked at Jin Fengniang and was stunned for a moment, then asked: "Counting the days, it's almost one year old, right?"
Goldilocks: "Well, there's still one month left."
The two of them were speechless.
After a while, light rain gradually fell from the sky.
Goldfeng Niang shouted to the courtyard: "Xiu Niang, take Chao Mu to the room, don't get wet."
A beautiful twelve-year-old girl responded and said, "I understand, sister."
Zhou Jun watched Xiu Niang pick up Chao Mu, and then walked out of the backyard with several maids, and asked: "Xiu Niang? But the sister you mentioned before?"
Jin Fengniang: "Yes, there are four children in the Jin family. The eldest brother is a Taoist, but has not been seen for many years; the second brother is uneducated and only makes trouble; the younger sister is the embroiderer, and she just wears a gold hairpin."
Zhou Jun was silent for a while after hearing this.
Finally he asked: "Why did you do that in the first place?"
Golden Feng Niang just smiled bitterly: "Er Lang has a bright future, but Feng Niang knows that there is no hope. It is better to leave him with a thought than to forget each other without words."
Zhou Jun turned to look at Jin Fengniang, hesitated for a moment, and said, "After I finish handling the affairs in Liangzhou, I will ask for leave from Shangguan and take you back to Chang'an."
Jin Fengniang was startled and asked quickly: "Why are you going back to Chang'an?"
Zhou Jun: "Of course you should inform the Zhou family about your affairs, as well as the day and night."
Golden Phoenix: "Famous status? That's something that little ladies only think about. I live in Liangzhou, so I don't care about that."
Zhou Jun heard this and said angrily: "If I don't go to Chang'an, if I ask him who my biological father is? Where is my father's family? How will you answer him?"
Jin Fengniang was silent at first, then lifted her black hair from her temples and said to Zhou Jun, "Erlang, take a look."
Zhou Jun leaned over and took a look, and saw that Goldfeng Niang's dark hair was already mixed with silver threads.
Jin Fengniang: "I am getting old. If I follow you back to Chang'an, how will the Zhou family and the neighbors think of me? I'm afraid I won't be able to escape because of my stigma, so why should I bother myself?"
"As for Chao Mu... Feng Niang is the head of the Jin family, and she will naturally inherit the Jin family's business in the future. Erlang, let's think about it, which way is better for Chao Mu, staying in Liangzhou or returning to Chang'an."
Zhou Jun paused. According to Zhou Dinghai's temperament, Golden Fengniang and Chao Mu would definitely be looked down upon when they returned to the Zhou family. Perhaps if they stayed in Liangzhou, they would be less angry.
Seeing that Zhou Jun's expression had softened, Golden Feng Niang leaned on the latter's body and said softly: "Although you and I are not married, we are still husband and wife. I will treat my husband like a husband, and I will call him my father day and night. From now on.
, No matter whether Erlang marries a wife or takes a concubine, or wherever he goes to become an official, there is always a home here in Liangzhou, waiting for you to come back."
Zhou Jun stood up, paced back and forth in the hall, and asked: "Liangzhou is a place of war, and the situation in the city is complicated. You, a woman, are alone and weak, and you are carrying the morning and evening with you, and you are unwilling to go back.
Chang'an, how can I rest assured?"
Golden Feng Niang hesitated for a moment, then waved to Zhou Jun and said, "Erlang, come with Feng Niang, I will take you to see something."
Zhou Jun followed Jin Fengniang through the back corridor and came to the ancestral hall in the innermost part of Jin's house.
As soon as Zhou Jun stepped into the door of the ancestral hall, he was stunned by the scene in front of him.
I saw that the huge ancestral hall was filled with tablets.
Looking carefully, the name recorded on the tablet is not the surname of the Jin family.
Han people, Xianbei people, Turks, Shiwei people, Tongluo people... names of different races, but there are all kinds of people.
Zhou Jun couldn't help but ask: "Who are these people?"
Golden Phoenix didn't answer, but continued to move forward, reaching the deepest part of the ancestral hall.
There is a painting hanging on the wall there.
The painting shows a general wearing bright armor and holding a sword.
The tablet below reads - The spiritual place of Jin Qizhao, the general of the left guard Yamen who marched on Luosudao.
Zhou Jun said to himself: "Luosuo march? Luosuo is the capital of Tubo. Has there ever been such a Taoist march in the history of the Tang Dynasty?"
While he was thinking, the name of a battle suddenly flashed in Zhou Jun's mind - the Battle of Dafeichuan.
In the first year of Xianheng, Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty (670), Tubo invaded the Western Regions on a large scale and captured 18 Jixi prefectures including Baizhou in the Western Regions. They also joined forces with Khotan and captured the city of Kucha (now Aksu, Xinjiang).
All four important towns in the Western Regions fell into the hands of Tubo. Tang Dynasty was determined to send troops to attack Tubo Huanglong, so it named Luosuo, the capital of Tubo, as the starting point for the Taoist march.
The 100,000-strong army of the Tang Dynasty was led by Xue Rengui as the general manager of the march, Ashina Daozhen as the right-guard general, and Guo Daifeng as the left-guard general.
This battle lasted for half a year and ended in a disastrous defeat for the Tang Dynasty. It was also the biggest defeat in foreign wars since the founding of the Tang Dynasty.
There were many reasons for the defeat, such as altitude sickness, disparity in military strength, too long logistics, Tuyuhun rebellion, etc.
However, the biggest reason for the failure of the Battle of Dafeichuan was that the left-wing general Guo Daifeng refused to obey the control, acted without authorization, and was defeated and fled. As a result, all the army's food, grass and baggage were seized by the Tibetans, thus causing Xue Rengui's catastrophe in Dafeichuan.
defeat.
Thinking of this, Zhou Jun asked Jin Fengniang: "Is the person in the painting an ancestor of the Jin family?"
Jin Fengniang nodded and said: "When the ancestors of the Jin family were in Gaozong, they were originally deputy military envoys under the jurisdiction of Shanzhou. Later, as Zuowei Yamen general, they participated in the Battle of Dafeichuan in the Xianheng year."
"Guo Daifeng, the general of the Left Guard, disobeyed military orders and was ambushed by the enemy. He abandoned the army's grain, grass and baggage and fled to avoid fighting."
"The ancestor of the Jin family, Jin Qizhao, served as a yamen general, organized the remaining soldiers, and fought desperately against the enemy. However, because he was outnumbered, he was hit by several arrows and passed out."
"When my ancestor woke up, the war was already over. While struggling to survive in the mountain of corpses and sea of blood, he gathered the remaining troops and marched towards the Tang Dynasty. When this group of Tang troops came to the border after going through untold hardships, they heard that
Bad news has arrived.”
"Anyone who fled without fighting on the left guard led by Guo Daifeng was sentenced to desertion, and most of them were executed, while the rest of the Tang army was sentenced to death in battle."
"At that time, they had to make a choice between two paths. Either return to the Tang army and be executed on the spot for desertion; or they could hide incognito, leave their country, and never return to the Tang Dynasty."
When Zhou Jun heard this, he completely understood: "They chose the second option."
Jin Fengniang: "The remnants that Jin Zu gathered at that time were about 400 people. These people all swore to the gods and ghosts to serve the Jin family as the master and never rebel. The descendants of these remnants are also the most loyal subordinates of the Jin family."
"Erlang, now do you understand why I, a woman, can become the head of the Jin family and command a large number of tribes?"
Zhou Jun had seen the skills of the Jin family's guards before, but he had never thought that these people were all descendants of the Tang army.
Just as Zhou Jung was about to speak, an announcement suddenly came from the gate of the ancestral hall: "Master, Jin Erlang is back."
Feng Niang frowned and said to herself: "What is he doing when he comes back?"