Mrs. Wu was marching to Yizhou in a hurry, and Wu Yaer was marching to Linzhou in a hurry. The family letters between the husband and wife were much less.
So far Mrs. Wu has only received two short letters from her side.
One letter was to report that it was safe on the way, saying that it was going well. Ankangshan, his son and other rebels who followed him were mainly in the northeast and southeast, and the northwest was relatively safe.
The second letter arrived at Linzhou, which was besieged by rebels.
Linzhou City is brightly lit at night, and the summer wind carries cries and shouts flying everywhere. There is no prosperity of the city at all, and it looks like a ghost town in the wilderness.
Walking in the wilderness, my feet creaked, and there were gravels, branches, and bones...
Cui Zheng looked down and saw that the torch was shining on a bone of an unknown animal, or perhaps a human bone...
Cui Zheng's shoes were worn out, and the bones in his feet hurt. He didn't know whether it was blisters or unscarred wounds.
This kind of pain is so much that it has become numb, unlike when they left the capital, the carriage broke down, the horse became sick and died, and the army in front waited for no one. They had to catch up on foot, wearing thick official boots and often walking on the smooth and smooth stone road.
My feet were soon worn out, and they were all so painful that I couldn't sleep and couldn't walk even an inch.
But there is no way, the soldiers and horses wait for no one, they can either grit their teeth and follow, or stay where they are.
The crowds of people who followed them from the capital dispersed like this all the way. The journey was too hard, and they were wading through mountains and rivers with uncertain food and drink. Many people either fell ill and were unable to follow, or voluntarily gave up following, even though they faced the loneliness and hardship of being homeless in a foreign land.
Rebels and bandits are raging and threatening.
The number of civilians, dignitaries, rich men, and even palace maids and eunuchs was constantly decreasing, and the number of officials in the court was gradually outnumbered. But Cui Zheng never stopped. Anyone could escape, but he could not and would never do so.
His feet passed over the bones and landed on the ground. He raised his head and looked forward. The torch shone on his thin and yellow face, and his chapped lips trembled: "Really not?"
An official stood in front of him, with a haggard face and panicked eyes: "The soldiers and horses have searched the whole city, and there is no trace of His Royal Highness King Lu."
Cui Zheng's mouth trembled as he wanted to say something, but he didn't say it.
The hardships along the way were due to the hardships of traveling. There were no rebels, but half a month ago we received the news that Linzhou was under siege.
Wu Ya'er led his troops on a rapid march and fought for three days and three nights, finally defeating the rebels. However, he could not find King Lu after entering the city.
Did King Lu die like King Zhao?
Thinking of this result, Cui Zheng felt that the ground under his feet was no longer as hard as a knife, but as soft as clouds, with one foot deep and one foot shallow, and the other floating.
The officials behind him were talking about the messy news they had received.
"...When the Ankang Mountain Rebellion first started, His Royal Highness King Lu was ready to fight it."
"...I have hoarded troops, horses, food and grass, and I want to personally lead the troops to the capital to protect His Majesty, but the officials in Linzhou stopped me."
"...After the rebellion, in addition to mobilizing soldiers and horses from all over Linzhou to guard, the palace also trained troops every day..."
"...People from all over Linzhou came over in panic, and the prince and his concubine personally gave porridge to the refugees."
"...So when Ankangshan General Cui You led his troops across Hedong to raid Linzhou, the soldiers and people of Linzhou were already prepared to fight."
"...There were many soldiers and civilians in Linzhou, and they worked together to defend the city fiercely for a month. They invaded the city several times. In the end, the soldiers and civilians forced them out of the city. This is how they persist until now."
"...Otherwise we would not see Linzhou City like this at this time."
As they talked, Cui Zheng and his party finally arrived in front of Linzhou City. The city displayed in the bright light of the fire made the voices stop for an instant.
The original Linzhou City was not like this...
The dilapidated city was burning everywhere, and there were cries everywhere. The ditch outside the city gate was filled with corpses. The corpses on top were still bleeding, and the corpses on the bottom were rotten and white.
There were fires and cries in the city gate, but not many living people could be seen.
A month ago, hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians gathered in Linzhou City, and almost half of them were buried in this city.
Cui Zheng and others were shocked to the point of suffocating when watching this scene, and some couldn't help but vomited at the bloody smell and hellish scene.
Although we knew that wars were raging, and although we had a hard journey from the capital to Linzhou, this was the first time we saw the results of a real deadly battle between attacking and defending the city.
It's hard to imagine, but everyone can't help but imagine that if they hadn't left the capital, it would have been like this after the battle between the capital and Ankang Mountain's hundreds of thousands of troops.
Cui Zheng's eyes were a little blurry and he didn't know how he walked in. Under the firelight, the city was stained red with blood. There were soldiers and horses galloping around, searching for the living and putting out the fire. More people gathered towards the palace.
Most of the royal guards and eunuchs who went to defend the city were killed, leaving only the female family members and King Lu's children. Because they did not know and did not believe the soldiers and horses that rushed in, they all hid in a main hall.
They still couldn't believe that they were caught by the soldiers and horses, and they huddled together. Cui Zheng led the officials to step forward to identify themselves.
"Where has the prince gone?" Cui Zheng asked, "Why isn't he with you?"
The princess in her forties looked as old as eighty years old. She could not stand up with the support of four palace maids: "Since the prince heard that His Majesty passed away, he has been praying for Daxia in the palace. He said that he must be pious for seventy-seventy-nine days.
, we dare not disturb."
It wasn't until the Zhenwu Army defeated the rebels and rushed into the city that they didn't dare to disturb anything. They opened the palace door and found that there was no one inside.
"Perhaps they have been captured by the rebels." The princess cried, unable to hold on and about to faint.
The rebels rushed into the city once, and the soldiers and civilians in the city drove them out with their own flesh and blood.
Cui Zheng still asked, with heavy and chaotic footsteps behind him, accompanied by Wu Ya'er's voice: "No need to look for it, the prince has already run away."
Cui Zheng stiffened and turned around angrily: "General Wudu, what do you mean by this?" He squeezed out an angry explanation through his teeth, "Be careful before you find out more."
Wu Ya'er said: "I found out clearly that there is a secret passage in the palace that leads directly to the outside of the city. I have just entered and exited it. The traces of the entrance of the cave were left a month ago."
What does this mean? In other words, when the rebels came and the entire city defended the city and fought back, King Lu, who claimed to protect everyone, had already left quietly.
Cui Zheng was trembling all over, and the princess kept rolling her eyes and saying, "Oh my God, please stop talking nonsense."
"General Wudu, do you know what you mean by saying this?" Cui Zheng stood in front of Wu Ya'er and gritted his teeth.
Wu Ya'er seemed a little puzzled by his words: "Shouldn't I ask His Highness King Lu what this means?"
What does His Highness King Lu mean? Cui Zheng neither dares nor wants to think about it. He can't remember King Lu clearly and doesn't have much impression. His Majesty is a suave man and the children he gives birth to are all golden boys and girls regardless of their qualifications. But King Lu
This golden boy was born with slanted eyes. Although it is not serious, he cares about it very much, so he always lowers his eyes when in front of others, and only looks at people quietly, always a bit sneaky...
Cui Zheng took a deep breath to suppress his turbulent breath: "In short, now that there are no people alive and no corpses after death, General Wudu should not make rash arguments."
But the argument came quickly. When the sky was bright, a team of scouts brought over a thin man wearing civilian clothes.
"He said he was a personal soldier of His Royal Highness King Lu, spying outside Linzhou City."
Cui Zheng didn't recognize King Lu's man, so he asked the princess to identify him. The princess recognized him at a glance and called him Ah Huang.
King Lu loved to raise dogs, and this Ah Huang was his personal guard who walked the dogs for King Lu.
"Oh my god, I thought you died in the battle." The princess shouted, "You were not the first group to volunteer to go out of the city to face the enemy."
As soon as he went out, he never came back. The rebels dragged the dead body and ran around outside the city for several times, thinking that he was among them.
Cui Zheng was not interested in resurrection from the dead, so he asked the dog-walker directly: "Do you know where the prince is?"
Ah Huang knelt down and threw himself on the ground, crying: "Go and save the prince, he is in danger."