The land of Shu is surrounded by highlands, and the cold current that blows water into ice cannot blow in. The climate is warm all year round. The heavy snowfall last year was a rare sight in more than ten years. After the New Year, Shu people are the first to feel the warmth of spring.
Warm scent.
It was quiet late at night, and Guanzhuang outside the south gate of the capital of Shu was shrouded in a steady drizzle.
Outside Guanzhuang are two sentry towers for the Shu army to monitor the Chu envoys. Several Shu soldiers guarded the sentry towers and looked at the several angry wind lanterns hanging high in Guanzhuang. Only two groups of soldiers were seen wearing raincoats and standing in the rain.
Inspecting the camp, everything was as usual, and there was no change because Han Qian, the bride-welcoming envoy, stayed overnight in Guanzhuang.
Now that the two countries have officially formed an alliance, the wedding envoy will escort Princess Qingyang back to Chu in a few days to get married. The Shu soldiers responsible for guarding the Chu envoy's camp also feel bored, but they don't know that inside the house, there are more than 700 Chu soldiers.
Holding the troops and donning the armor, don't dare to slack off even a little bit.
Several fast horses trampled the slightly waterlogged galloping road, breaking the silent night, awakening the Shu soldiers on the guard tower outside Guanzhuang, and also alarmed the Chu soldiers who were secretly waiting inside the gate of Guanzhuang.
"The deputy envoy, Mr. Guo Rongguo, is here. Can Mr. Han be in the camp?"
Guo Rong reined in his horse, and a young eunuch behind him shouted in a high-pitched voice into the closed shaft door.
"My lord is in the camp. It's already dark at this time. What errands does Lord Guo have?" Xi Fa'er borrowed the wooden ladder and stuck his head out from above the camp door. He held the saber at his waist tightly and tried his best to suppress the anger in his hand.
Maybe you should deal with Guo Rong and these dead eunuchs who are colluding with Anning Palace in a calm tone.
"Mr. Han has not returned for two days, but what happened? Mr. Guo was worried and came over to say hello." The young eunuch replied to Xi Fa'er in a sharp voice.
"It's nothing. My lord just wants to leave Sichuan soon and spend some time outside the city. My lord has already gone to bed. Please feel free to go back, Sir Guo." Xi Fa'er suppressed the urge to kill in his heart and said.
.
"I am Guo Rong, Xi Fa'er. Please open the camp gate and let me in to see Han Qian." Guo Rong was so easily dismissed by Xi Fa'er with a few words. He drove his horse to the camp gate and asked the people inside to shine a light on his face.
, insisted that Xi Faer open the camp gate and let him into the camp to see Han Qian.
After spending so many days in Shu, Han Qian would go out of the city from time to time, but to avoid the suspicion of the Shu people, he would always come and go in the same day and would never stay overnight outside the city. This time he left the city, and Han Qian did not return for two nights in a row, nor did he show up.
, just sent one person back to the city to report to him and the officials of Honglu Temple in Shu Kingdom. How could he believe that Han Qian was just staying outside the city to relax?
"Master Guo, you know that my master has a bad temper. He won't want to see anyone disturbing him after sleeping. Please don't make things difficult for us, Master Guo." Xi Fa'er refused.
Guo Rong's face was uncertain as he stared at the faces exposed above the closed camp door. Through the light, he could see that the people around Han Qian had unkind expressions on their faces. Some even pointed their unloaded crossbow arrows at him, as if they were trying their best to
He restrained himself from firing the crossbow arrow.
Was Han Qian assassinated or suffering from some sudden illness?
Guo Rong did not think that the assassins of Anning Palace would risk their lives and sneak to Shu to assassinate Han Qian. But if not, why did Han Qian's men look at him so unkindly?
Could it be that Empress Xu had launched a palace coup in Jinling and even detained Han Daoxun who had gone to Beijing to serve as Jing Zhaoyin, and at this moment Han Qian had already received the news through his intelligence network?
This was the only possibility that Guo Rong could think of. Although he was far from the truth, he never thought that Han Daoxun had been tortured by splitting a chariot and quartered to death by five horses in Jinling...
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The large house surrounded by other buildings in Guanzhuang is full of soldiers and horses, and the atmosphere is gloomy. There are soldiers guarding the front and back of the corridor to prevent all idle people from approaching.
Xi Rong walked into the courtyard and watched the lights and shadows leaking through the doors and windows. From time to time, there was a dull sound of tables and chairs being split. She opened the door and saw Han Qian with disheveled hair holding a fine steel straightener with numerous cracks in it.
Chi Dao, standing in front of a long case that had been chopped into pieces.
In just two days, Han Qian's eye sockets were sunken, and he stood in the room with disheveled hair like a mad dog. His eyes were red, and he wanted to split, chop, and tear everything in front of him into pieces.
Xi Rong walked over and wanted to take the knife from Han Qian's hand. However, the knife was like a knife made of iron. Han Qian held it firmly in his hand and did not move at all. She urged:
"If you continue to embarrass yourself like this, I'm afraid your body won't be able to bear it before you return to Chu Di. How will you avenge the old man?"
"I hate this world in my heart. Why is my father treated so unfairly? I hate myself for being so incompetent that I allowed him to die miserably by being quartered on five horses on his fiftieth birthday. I can't get rid of the hatred in my heart!"
Han Qian roared madly, stretched out his hand and stabbed the knife straight.
Seeing the straight spine piercing directly into the wall, Xi Rong was also secretly shocked. She thought about how fierce the hatred in Han Qian's heart was, so that he could stab the knife so hard and fast into the rammed earth.
The wall did not break before entering the wall?
"My lord met with Wen Muqiao under the imperial edict, and I have known for a long time that I will have a narrow escape from death. I am also determined to fight for a chance of survival for the people. This revenge must be avenged, but my lord will never want to see you ruin yourself like this."
!" Xi Rong advised with distress, seeing that Han Qian's temples had actually grown some gray hair in just two days.
Seeing Han Qian standing in front of the window without saying a word, Xi Rong signaled the guards to move out all the tables and chairs that had been chopped to pieces. Then she walked behind Han Qian and saw the blurred handwriting on the window sill.
A bunch of letters, seeing the candle tears remaining on the window sill, I don't know how long Han Qian had been staring at this letter with a bunch of handwriting in the past two days and two nights, and he hugged him tightly with his body in distress.
This is a letter Han Daoxun wrote to Han Qian in the back hall of the Yamen of Jingzhao Mansion before he went to see Wen Muqiao under the imperial edict.
It's just that Zhao Wuji and He Liufeng traveled hard all the way. Although they carefully wrapped the letter in oilcloth, they didn't know when they endured the severe cold and crossed the river. The river water penetrated into it, making the handwriting on the letter mushy and unrecognizable.
Just a few words.
This was the last letter Han Daoxun left to Han Qian before his death, but it was so that Han Qian didn't even know what his father's mood was when he accepted the imperial edict.
Xi Rong could understand Han Qian's mood of trying to identify one more word.
Zhao Wuji and the others were also extremely guilty, but it was difficult to recover; but others would not blame them. After all, he and He Liufeng had suffered too much along the way, so they rushed to spread the news to them before the Shu people knew about it.
middle.
"I had a dream five years ago. I dreamed that my father was aloof by nature and spent his whole life asking for help for the people. One day he would offend all the dignitaries of the dynasty and the Emperor God Blessed, and he would be killed by the Emperor Blessed Emperor's staff in front of the court. I would also suffer the consequences.
This dream was so real that in the past five years, I have been trying to escape the fate of the car being broken up. However, no matter how many calculations I made, I never thought that the fate of being torn apart by five horses would fall to me.
On my father’s head! You know I wake up from nightmares from time to time in the past few days. Do you know what kind of nightmares I have? In the past few days, I have been dreaming about my father being tortured and tortured in Beijing!"
Han Qian grabbed the window sill with exposed veins on the back of his hand. He wished he could crack the window lattice with knife marks. He couldn't help but shed tears down his cheeks.
"My father served as an official in Chuzhou, and there was not a single case of unjust imprisonment for several years. When my father came to Gaoyou, he was attacked by wars and looting, and there were also major disasters. Nine out of every ten households were hungry. The streets, alleys, rivers and harbors were full of hungry people waiting for food. Chu
State grain was passing through Gaoyou, and my father asked the grain collector to stop the ship and unload grain to help the hungry people. Everyone stopped him, saying it was a capital crime. My father said that it was okay to kill him and save hundreds of thousands of people alive! The grain collector refused.
, my father boarded the ship with a sword and bound him to eliminate the civil unrest. The imperial court transferred my father to Beijing to serve as a member of the Hongwen Palace, but he was just an idle official. King Xin kept him secretly as the governor of Chuzhou, but my father refused, saying that King Xin had a strong character.
Being strong is not the blessing of the imperial court. In order to conceal the plan to save tens of thousands of hungry people in Jinling, my father did not care about half his life to clean up the transcripts, and went before the court to exhort the hungry people. But this time, my father also guessed the crisis in Jinling and resolutely took office, just for a trace of
With the possibility of eliminating the scourge of war, he ran around and searched left and right. But the world is like a prison. He failed to break through the south wall. His heart was already extremely miserable. In the end, he was quartered on five horses and tortured. How can I not hate him!
"
Xi Rong felt sad. When she was with Han Qian in the past few years, she could only see the light of Han Qian's frequent schemes, so she felt that the boss's life in Xuzhou was somewhat bleak, but she did not think carefully about what Han Qian did.
It is so dangerous, just for example, luring tens of thousands of refugees into Xuzhou. If anything goes wrong, uncontrollable civil unrest will occur. If there were no bosses sitting in Xuzhou, working day and night to care for the people, this would not be possible.
It is absolutely impossible for Xuzhou to have such a solid foundation before cutting off the vassal state.
Han Qian closed his eyes and let the tears fall from his eye sockets, and then said: "I feel regretful in my heart. If I had not concealed it in Xuzhou and told my father about this fatal situation early, he would not have suffered such a tragic death."
!”
At this time, Zhou Chu walked in and saw that the house was in disarray and Han Qian's face looked like a ghost. He couldn't help but sigh, shook his head and walked towards the yard.
"What's wrong?" Xi Rong asked.
"Deputy envoy Guo Rong came out of the city and wanted to see your lord. He stayed outside the camp gate for a long time and laughed. Kong Xirong and the others blocked him from entering. I came over to ask your lord if he knew anything..." Zhou Chu said calmly.
Zhou was captured and surrendered when Wuling City was captured, and then he joined Han Qian to serve.
Although he also felt extremely unjust about Han Daoxun's death, he was not as sad and angry as Yang Qin, Xi Fa'er and others. At this time, he was even more worried that blocking Guo Rong from outside the camp gate might cause the Shu people to spy on something.
He just went to see Yang Qin, and when he saw that Yang Qin also wanted to take Guo Rong into the camp and kill him, he was shocked and hurried over to see the situation.
"Ah," Xi Rong was slightly startled, knowing that it was right for Zhou Chu to come over and let him know, and said bitterly, "It doesn't bother anyone, go and let Guo Rong in!"
As soon as Zhou Chu walked out, Xi Rong saw a ferocious look on Han Qian's face and thought that Kong Xirong and the others were full of grief, anger and resentment, and most likely would not be able to hear Zhou Chu's words, so she called him: "I will accompany you there..."