The results of the battle of Lingbi spread to Beiping, causing jubilation. The rest of the people in the palace may just see it as the same victory as before, but others realize that after this battle, it seems to be completely different. King Yan has the initiative in the war, although he has always tried to take the initiative before this, but in the battle situation, in fact, he has always been rushing left and right, passive defense.

They seemed to be aware of this unusualness, but it was very interesting that the masters of the Ji Shan Institute gathered around Gao Chi more and more, and Gao Chi seemed to be more and more silent, Zhang Zhaohua knew what he was thinking, King Yan had won the military campaign, and the final result would lead to a great change in the political situation. This kind of great change, Dao Yan once said, is called "the rebellion of the universe, the rudeness of the monarch and the minister", Gao Chi never thought about what the outcome of the Battle of Jingyan would be, and from now on, he had to think.

In the south, King Yan's army continued to advance southward, reaching Sizhou on the seventh day of the fifth month. Sizhou is within the boundaries of Fengyang Prefecture, 210 miles north of the east of the mansion, and is the hometown of the Zhu family. As soon as King Yan entered the territory of Sizhou, he had mixed feelings.

He stood on the shore of Hongze Lake and remembered the years spent in his hometown with all the brothers, remembered the scene of everyone carrying hoes together, planting rice with the old farmers, and remembering the scene of worshipping ancestors in the ancestral tombs and imperial tombs, and couldn't help but cry.

"Suffering from calamity, almost not alive, fortunately thanks to the blessing of the ancestral gods, today is not filial piety, you have to worship the mausoleum. King Yan knelt in front of the ancestral mausoleum hall, fell to the ground and cried: "The frost and dew have not been seen for a long time, and I feel very pale." The disaster is undecided, and he still prays for the blessing of the heroic souls of his ancestors, so that the unfilial son Di will be in great trouble and support the community. ”

After King Yan finished worshipping, the generals jumped up and kowtowed. King Yan stood in front of the mausoleum for a long time before leaving, and when he went out of the palace, he found that the fathers and villagers who lived around the ancestral tomb had actually come, and there were tens of thousands of people. At this time, the king of Yan had already been abolished, and in terms of identity, he was just a concubine, but these people remembered his identity as a dragon son and saluted him respectfully.

Several gray-haired old men greeted him with a jar of wine: "Your Highness is coming from afar, can you not taste the turbid wine of your hometown?"

Seeing King Yan pick up the wine bowl, the generals dissuaded one after another: "Your Highness, this wine - let the last general taste it first!"

King Yan waved them back, "Hometown fathers, will it harm me? Since Zhu Di started the army, he has a clear conscience, and the gods of heaven and earth and the heroic spirits of his ancestors have learned from my heart. ”

He said that he took a sip of the turbid wine in the sea bowl, he knew that these people would not take such a risk to harm him - the Yan army soldiers pressed the border, but Sizhou was a peaceful scene, because this place is where the ancestral tomb is located, no one will use the sword soldiers here, and the people here come to see him, it is really not to welcome him or support him, more precisely, they are just a third party, sitting on the mountain and watching the tiger fight, anyway, the disaster will not be added to them, so in the end, whoever wins the world will be happy to see it.

The king of Yan gave them oxen wine and money, and gave them condolences, and then ordered them to be sent away.

After worshipping the ancestral tomb, the growing sense of urgency in King Yan made him sleepless no matter how many nights he had, but he was also full of energy. And the generals who followed King Yan across the Huai River also became more and more courageous, and there was an indescribable excitement in everyone's hearts - it seemed to be the dawn before darkness, but everyone had seen hope.

There are three routes to march to Beijing, one is to go to Fengyang, the second is to go to Huai'an, and the third is to go straight to Yangzhou. Some people advocated taking Fengyang first, cutting off the road of official reinforcements, sending large troops to attack Chuzhou and Hezhou, gathering ships to cross the river, and then sending an army to attack Luzhou to the west and seize Anqing, so that the Yangtze River could be controlled. Some people also say that Huai'an should be taken as the foundation first, and then attack Gaoyou, and go straight to Yizhen and Yangzhou, so that they can cross the river without worry.

But there are difficulties in both routes, in order to intercept the Yan army from going south, the imperial court has arranged heavy troops in Fengyang, Huai'an and other places, overhauled the war defense equipment, and even demolished the temples in the city, made warships from its wood, and stepped up drills, so that the Loulu and Gejia are all in formation. And guarding Huai'an is Mei Yin, the commander of the Ning State, who is a close relative of the royal family, and the king of Yan naturally wants to go south from Huai'an, but he sent a letter to ask for a way but failed, and was sternly rejected by Mei Yinyi, and he even ordered someone to cut off the ear and nose of the envoy, leaving only a mouth for the king of Yan to talk about the righteousness of the monarch and the minister.

Then the Yan army went south, from Sizhou only to break through the Huai River straight to Yangzhou a way is desirable, the facts have proved that the choice left by God to the Yan King is right, on May 19, Yangzhou changed, the city surrendered, followed by Tongzhou, Taizhou surrendered one after another. On the 20th, the Yan army went west to Liuhe and defeated the garrison army. At this point, the gateway to the south of the Yangtze River has been completely opened, and the Yan army has stepped up the preparation of boat divisions to cross the river.

Just when King Yan was garrisoning the counties of Jiangbei and planning to cross the river, an unexpected person was ushered in in front of his tent.

As soon as King Yan saw her, he couldn't help but cry, the two of them wept for a long time, and they couldn't say a word for a long time, thanks to Ma He and Ma Yun, who helped the two of them to the chair, and then quietly retreated, and ordered the officers to stay away from the camp of King Yan.

"Brother," the county lord of Qingcheng touched King Yan's face and howled: "I almost don't recognize you! My eyes are broken, and I see people one by one, they say that you lost the battle and were dragged to death by a horse, I don't know if this is a lie, I cried for a month, and my eyes were broken!"

The two have not seen each other since the twenty-fourth year of Hongwu, and when they meet again, they all look old, especially Zhu Di, who has been sleeping in the open for several years, sometimes for more than ten days, his body is not disarmed, his face is frosty and tired, and his face seems to be much thinner, but this silhouette is even more Emperor Xiaogao, this is Zhu Di in the eyes of Qingcheng- And Qingcheng in Zhu Di's eyes has almost become a hunched old woman, not the tall man he remembered at all, with black hair parted from the middle, a pair of bright big eyes embedded in his ruddy face, sitting under the locust tree and peeling walnuts for their brothers, even in front of Prince Yiwen's spirit, he saw not such an old Qingcheng.

King Yan couldn't help but mourn, he buried his head in Qingcheng's lap, "Brother Butu is better today, to be able to meet the eldest sister, it's really like the next life!"

"The land of the Imperial Tomb has not been dried, and my brothers have been destroyed one after another," King Yan is exactly like when he was a child, when he was wronged and cried to his eldest sister: "Yun Wei's heart, is it made of stone? Why is it so cruel? He listened to the slanderous words of the traitorous ministers, but he completely ignored the words of his closest relatives! I poured out my heart to him, and I hated to vomit blood and write, but I couldn't respond half of it, like water pouring stones." If I hadn't been forced to have no room at all, I wouldn't have done anything more!

King Yan said and cried bitterly, what he said was the truth was good, it was his original intention, when he decided to raise troops, his idea was that he didn't want to be captured, even if he died in front of the battle, it was better than dying in the high wall. It's just that the sky is endless, he not only fought 120,000 elite soldiers, but also played his own territory, and even killed the army into Jiangbei in one fell swoop to complete the counter-killing of the imperial court.

At this time, King Yan is still struggling to die, seeking a lifetime?

The county lord of Qingcheng is not a person who interferes in political affairs, she naturally only thinks about how King Yan is tormented and persecuted, and she can't help crying again. Finally holding back his tears, Yan Wang asked, "Big sister, how did you come to me?"

"It was Yun Wei who asked me to come," Qingcheng was immersed in joy and sorrow, and finally remembered his business, and said, "Even if he doesn't send me, I will come to see you." ”

The county lord of Qingcheng is now the oldest in the royal family, and the dispute between her uncle and nephew now depends on her to mediate. As a woman, she was not allowed to participate in state affairs, but this time the Yan soldiers went south, which was actually cannibalism within the clan, which was both a state affair and a family affair. Can the problems that cannot be solved on the battlefield be emotionally touched by flesh and blood? She crossed the mighty river and landed on the north bank, hoping only that she could persuade the uncle and nephew not to hurt their feelings anymore.

"This time, I also asked my younger brothers and sisters to entrust me," Qingcheng took King Yan's hand and said earnestly: "In the past three or four years, every year, the soldiers and horses have been mobilized, the people who transported grain, and the soldiers who fought have died so much. It's all a family affair, but it doesn't make them have a good life...... Yun Wei told me, don't cross the river with your military horses, he promised you to the north of the Yangtze River, build your own festival, and draw half of the country and you, you just go back, otherwise it will be difficult to say that the world will be peaceful in the future......"

A little smile appeared on the corner of King Yan's mouth, which was both sarcastic and sad: "Big sister, Brother Zhou and Brother Qi are here now?"

"Circled in the high-walled courtyard of the horse washing workshop. "The county lord of Qingcheng mentioned his two younger brothers, and he was going to cry again.

"Big sister knows," Yan Wang said, "If I don't get up and fight, big sister wants to see me today, and I should be in the horse washing workshop." ”

He withdrew his hand and said, "When I can beat me, how many men I have sent to ask for mercy, but they will not pay any attention to me, and they will want to kill me; Shouldn't I just follow his example and ignore him?"

Qingcheng looked at him blankly, and listened to him: "I was enshrined in the imperial examination, for many years, trembling, never a little wrong, when cutting the domain, I handed over the guards, and retreated into the palace, just to save my life and save my family, I just wished for it, and Yun Wei didn't give it." ”

"I am Emperor Gao and Empress Gao," King Yan said, "but I was forced to fall into the market and compete with dogs for food!"

"He persecuted me like this, but he didn't allow me to resist, why?" King Yan said: "Since I raised my army, in the past four years, I have sent troops from all over the world to Beiping to kill me, and there has been no stop. If it weren't for the spirits of the ancestors of heaven and earth, I would have died a long time ago! Now that I have hit the riverside, I can catch the evil and pay tribute to my father and the emperor, why does my eldest sister persuade me to go back?"

"My father gave me a place in Beiping back then," King Yan said: "After I kill the traitorous ministers and pay tribute to the filial piety tomb, the eldest sister can rest assured, I will definitely disarm and return to the domain. ”

The county lord of Qingcheng couldn't say a word, and she felt that the person in front of her seemed to have become unfamiliar.

"Big sister," King Yan grabbed her sleeve and said slowly: "After you go back, you will spread the word to my brothers and sisters, I haven't seen each other for a long time, and my eldest brother wants to talk about the joy of family, I don't know if I can get my wish." Thankfully self-love. ”