The day before the expedition, Xiyue went to the East Palace to say goodbye to Yan Min. It was freezing cold, but I saw that he was only wearing a single coat and lifting a stone lock in the courtyard. Yan Min was very happy to see her coming, and while taking the handkerchief handed by the palace people to wipe her sweat, she said, "You are here, so just in time, I planned to go over to look for you in the afternoon." ”

The two walked inside as they spoke, and Xiyue asked, "Why did you lift the stone lock?" ”

Yan Min smiled, just sweating, the original green face was rarely flushed, "I've been practicing for a while, morning, noon and evening for a while, take a look, are you stronger?" ”

He rolled up his sleeves as he spoke, showing her muscles, she squinted and looked, he was born less than a month, his physique has always been weak, how can he practice a good physique by lifting a stone lock for a few days, but she is not good at hitting him, encouraged: "Yo, look at it is really different from before." It is a good thing to be healthy, but you must persevere, if you have this mind, then stick to it, don't fish for three days and dry your nets for two days. ”

A look of pride appeared on his face, "That's nature, you say I'm joking?" In addition to lifting stone locks, I also practice boxing every day, Zishuo said, when I am in good health, he will teach me the method of practicing qi, and when I have internal strength, I will teach me the art of swords. ”

She was surprised: "Zishuo asked you to practice?" ”

The two had already entered the palace, and the palace people who were waiting did not dare to slack off, so they put on a mink coat for Yan Min, and presented hot ginger soup to warm him up. Yan Min took two sips of tea impatiently, and a small waiter wanted to present the hand stove, but he glared at him angrily and scolded "Get out", and the little waiter was so frightened that he shrunk his neck and retreated.

"Zishuo is right, if a manly man has no power to restrain the chicken, let alone others, even he will look down on himself."

Xiyue sneered, "You are the crown prince, the son of the heavenly family, who dares to look down on you?" He is a martial artist, why do you need to take his words seriously? ”

Yan Min shook his head and said, "That's not what you said, do you remember the last time Xiaoshan hunted?" If Zishuo hadn't made a timely move, I'd have been stabbed in the stomach by the fangs of that wild boar. ”

"I naturally remember that he was not well guarded, and you were almost tired and injured, but you were generous, not only did not punish him, but also continued to let him be arrogant."

Yan Min smiled, "How can you blame him?" It's because I don't know how thick the sky is. At that time, he insisted on hunting the wild boar by himself, and the other guards were against it, only Zishuo supported him, "He has good intentions, let me know how weak I really are." In the past, when hunting, the guards beat the prey half to death, and then drove the prey to me, but I thought how great I was, but in fact...... Don't talk about others, Xiyue, I can't even compare to you. Just because I'm the crown prince, it's not that others don't look down on me, they just don't dare to look down on me. ”

He is the crown prince, except that the emperor will scold him, everyone will disobey him, and say good things and compliments, but Zishuo is different from those people, he sues him, and others compliment him because they are afraid of him, and they are afraid of him, not because of how great he is, but because he is the crown prince.

Xiyue pursed her lips and disagreed, "I don't look down on you." Besides, it is a fact that you are the crown prince, and when you ascend the throne in the future, life and death are all in your thoughts, and others should be afraid of you. ”

Yan Min's expression darkened, "But my father looks down on me and thinks I'm a waste." ”

Now Chongwu is always dissatisfied with this naturally weak son, and he can't find the shadow of his youth in him, but he only has such a son.

"Zishuo is right, a manly man, I can't rely on others alone, if I want to hunt wild boars, I have to have this ability, and I can't just expect others to help me in a crisis. My father gave me the dragon chair, and I had to walk on my own in the future. ”

Xiyue saw that his face was sad, and sighed, "Aren't you talking about strengthening your body, how did you get to this point?" I'm still the same, you can listen to Zishuo's words, just forget it, he asked you to lift the stone lock to practice qi, which is good for your body, this is a good thing, it doesn't hurt if you do it, but no matter more, you have to be careful. ”

Yan Min came back to his senses and said with a smile: "I know." By the way, you will go out with the army tomorrow, I really envy you, and you will come back to tell me the interesting story of this march and battle. ”

He said and asked someone to present a box, opened it himself and handed it to her, "Although Yan Xu is taking care of you, you yourself must be careful in everything, this is what I have improved with my own hands, and I will send you for self-defense." ”

She took it in surprise, but saw that it was a delicately crafted sleeve arrow, the shaft of the arrow was light and short, about seven inches long, and it could be hidden in the sleeve. Yan Min demonstrated to her, "This is a plum blossom arrow, which can fire six arrows at a time, and it is difficult for the enemy within thirty steps to escape." ”

Xiyue was overjoyed, and praised repeatedly, "The prince is really amazing, he just said that he has no ability, what is this not ability?" It's the best gift I've ever received. ”

Yan Min was rarely praised, and his immature face was a little surprised, "This is not an idea I came up with, I originally wanted to give you a bow, but Zishuo said that the bow you used was very good, and you are used to it, and it is not suitable to change to a new bow rashly, it is better to send a hidden weapon that can defend yourself." He also picked out this plum sleeve arrow, but I improved it to make it longer. ”

It's Zishuo again...... Xiyue's original joy suddenly faded a lot, "Let you bother, in fact, I'll go with you, it's just to serve Yan Xu's living, and I don't have to rush to the peak, and I don't know if I need it, so you should keep it yourself." ”

Yan Min was dissatisfied: "This is what I did for you, how can you not want it?" Besides, even if you don't have to rush to the peak, this is a long way to go, and it's good for you to keep your defense. ”

Xiyue couldn't bear to brush his kindness, smiled and put away the sleeve arrow, and suddenly remembered that he had mentioned Zishuo many times today, but Zishuo was missing, and couldn't help asking, "Why don't you see Zishuo today?" ”

Yan Min's expression was a little unnatural, and he lowered his eyes and said, "He went out of the palace to do something for me." ”

The flame envoy was originally doing secret things for the people of the emperor's family, and Xiyue didn't care about it, and when he saw that he didn't mention it, he didn't ask anymore, and changed the topic and said, "Have you heard about King Rui?" I don't know what your majesty thinks? ”

The Queen Mother's birthday has passed, Yan Xu is also going to go on the expedition tomorrow, originally King Rui was going to wait for the army to set off and then set off back to Shuo'an, but yesterday there was news that King Rui would stay in Yicheng today, and the external saying is that the Queen Mother misses this son very much, and wants to keep him in Yicheng for more time to accompany him. Now that the dragon body is in violation, Yan Xu led the army to go out, and left King Rui in Yicheng during this sensitive period, obviously not worrying about Yan Xu, and wanted to detain King Rui as a hostage.

Yan Min scratched his head, his face was a little scornful, "The old man has always been suspicious, and now he is sick and crooked, who knows what he thinks in his head, he even guards against me, and he doesn't want to think about it, he is just a son like me, until he stretches his feet, this piece of country has to be given to me." ”

He babbled a lot, but Xiyue couldn't ask anything, so he sat down for a while and left.

Wei is located in the south of the Great Jin Dynasty, the materials are abundant, the summer is long and the winter is short, which is also the reason why Yan Xu is not afraid of the cold winter and resolutely sent troops, sure enough, the army went all the way south for half a month, the temperature gradually warmed up, and the soldiers no longer need to wear the heavy warm clothes, and the foot journey is much faster after the light clothing is light.

Deputy General Yan Luo pointed to the map hanging on the tent and said to Yan Xu: "At this speed, you will be able to reach Mochizuki Pass in less than ten days." Seeing that Yan Xu's cold eyes only swept the map and did not ask questions, Yan Luo sweated slightly on his forehead, this young coach was careful and meticulous, and he had always been silent, but if he didn't ask, it didn't mean that he didn't have ideas in his heart.

He thought for a moment, and then said: "The scouts reported that the Wei people had stationed heavy troops in Wangyue Gorge last month, with about 50,000 people, and it seemed that they were planning to meet hard. ”

50,000 soldiers and horses, almost half of the small Wei State, before the three vassal states at the same time, the Jin army attacked which country, the other two countries sent troops to help, really let the Jin army headache, now Zheng, Liang has recovered, only one Wei is left. Although Wei is the smallest of the three kingdoms in terms of national strength and region, it is blessed with a natural barrier, Mochizuki Gorge.

The Moon Gorge is about five miles long, the cliffs on both sides of the canyon stand in a forest, the terrain is extremely dangerous, although it is not the only passage for the Jin State to enter the Wei land, but it is the nearest road, if it is near and far, through the Qiongzhou detour, the Jin army will have to take more of the road to accompany it, and it will take half a month more. And this time, the 30,000 elites led by Yan Xu went straight to Mochizuki Gorge.

Yan Xu was silent for a moment, and finally spoke: "How is the news spreading?" ”

He was willing to ask, even if he was not dissatisfied with the previous report, Yan Luo secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and his voice became more and more respectful, "Yiqiē has been ordered by Yun Shuai, according to the secret report of the spies in Wei Land, the Wei army really thinks that our main force is this one led by you Yun Shuai personally. ”

As the commander of this expedition, Emperor Jin personally gave Yan Xu the name Yunshuai, and the commander's banner was also embroidered with the auspicious cloud logo. The elite division that went to Mochizuki Gorge was actually only 30,000, but it was pretended to be 50,000 to the outside world.

Yan Xu got up, "In this case, there will be General Lao Yan from tomorrow." ”

Yan Luo hurriedly bowed down and sent him off, "Don't dare, Yun Shuai is clever, Yan is waiting for Yun Shuai's good news in Wangyue Gorge." ”

Yan Xu returned to his tent, Yunzhu and Yunshan were guarding outside the tent, and when they saw him coming back, they hurriedly lifted the curtain and invited him in. There was a charcoal fire in the tent, and as soon as he entered, the warmth came to his face, and he breathed a sigh of relief, and reached out to unbutton the collar. At this time, Xiyue would rush out of the inner tent quickly, take off his coat and armor for him with a smile, rub his hands and ask him if he was cold, and then hold a hot veil and hot soup, but this time there was no, the tent was quiet, except for the brazier still burning charcoal, I couldn't see that there was anyone else.

He was slightly surprised, Yun Zhu was obviously guarding outside the tent, and Xiyue should be in the tent. He hung up the big coat, and before he could take off his heavy armor, he walked inside. lifted the curtain, but saw the slender body lying on the low table sleeping soundly. There was only a wax lit on the low table, the candle flame was faint, and under her closed eyes, her long eyelashes trembled slightly, casting a graceful arc in the candlelight, which made people can't bear to wake her up.