According to Lu Mian's order, the old man and the young children, as well as the frail men and women, all became outcasts.

They were sent out of the city in droves and separated from their families on the pretext that they had been evacuated from the city to a safe place.

Life and death are not enough to describe this miserable situation, some people want to stop it, but they are very powerless, they are quite powerless in the face of steel knives and bows.

They have never had the freedom to choose, and the best outcome is to become tool people, whether under Guo Peng's jurisdiction or under the jurisdiction of other warlords, they are all the same tool people, they have no independent consciousness, and there is no way to have independent consciousness.

Illiterate, without a future, without understanding what the future is, only knowing how to eat, farm, pay taxes and rebel, this is the toiling masses of this era.

After Lu barely cleaned up these people, Shouchun City was turned into a complete war fortress by Lu Mian.

Lu Mian has done his best to do everything he can and implement his loyalty to Yuan Shu, although Yuan Shu is still in a coma, but what Lu Mian has done is indeed speechless.

After Yuan Shu came back from the battlefield, he was in a coma for a long time, during which he woke up two or three times by chance, and before Lu Mian arrived, he fell into a coma again, and now it is close to ten days, and he is still not awake.

Empress Feng has always been by Yuan Shu's side, and the other nobles have been hiding in the palace all day long, shivering, and panicking.

Just experienced the honor of being the emperor for only a few months, not even half a year, everything is like a mirror, like a dream, before they reach their heyday, they are facing destruction, and they, the emperor's women, have not had time to enjoy it, they are going to face death.

No one can stand it.

The only person in charge of the palace is the crown prince Yuan Yao.

But Yuan Yao is not a talent, but a soft egg, without any opinions, he panicked when it came to the end, and he didn't know how to deal with a powerful enemy, so he could only rely on Lu Mian.

Lu Mian took Yuan Yao around, appeased people's hearts as the crown prince of Yuan Yao, gave some comfort to the defenders in the city, and more or less consolidated the city defense.

On the tenth day of December, Yuan Shu finally regained his senses.

Under the multiple blows of sadness, sadness, impatience and so on, Yuan Shu's hair turned a lot whiter in this period of coma, and the original black and shiny hair became gray and fell out a lot, and Yuan Shu suddenly became a member of the army of hair loss.

But he woke up in the end, as long as he woke up, it was a good thing.

For the stormy Chen Empire, as long as Yuan Shu, the emperor, is alive, then the symbol of the country is still there.

Yuan Shu's sobriety brought a glimmer of hope to many people, but it also brought more intense despair to many people.

Why don't you die?

If you die, the Chen Empire will be finished, and we will be able to take advantage of the chaos to escape!

But why don't you die?

Do you have to drag us to death together?!

Yuan Shu couldn't hear the desperate cries of these people from his heart, he woke up, regained his senses, and then asked about what had happened during this time.

Knowing everything Lu Mian had done from Feng and Yuan Yao's mouths, Yuan Shu was very moved, and asked Lu Mian in person to thank him.

"My family survives thanks to Lu Qing, and Lu Qing's credit is remembered in my heart."

As he spoke, Yuan Shu's face turned red and he gritted his teeth.

"I hate that Guo Zifeng, who was originally just a vicious dog raised by Lone, actually dared to bite back, and dared to attack Lonely! With such a great favor from the Yuan family, he didn't think about reciprocating, and he wanted to crusade against Lone! There is no more shameless traitor in the world than Guo Zifeng! ”

Yuan Shu took a deep breath, pulled Lu Mian's hand and said, "Lu Qing must work hard, and he must not let Guo Thief succeed!" Be sure to keep Shouchun! Definitely! ”

Lu Mian immediately said: "Now the weather is very cold, there are many people in the south of Guo Thief's army, the logistics pressure is extremely great, our army is dead to protect Shouchun, and the minister has the confidence to hold Shouchun for three months, then Guo Zifeng will inevitably not be able to hold on to the withdrawal of the army and leave, as long as Guo Zifeng withdraws the army and leaves, things will take a turn for the better." ”

Yuan Shu was overjoyed when he heard this, and praised Lu Mian again and again, and his face was full of sadness.

"I hate not listening to Lu Qing's opinion as soon as possible, if I listen to it as soon as possible, why would I have today? If Lone can hold on to Shouchun with a large army, how can Guo Thief be so arrogant in front of Lone? It's all Lone's fault, it's all Lone's fault! ”

Hearing that Yuan Shu finally admitted his mistake, Lu Mian didn't know whether he should be happy or sad.

This sentiment is very mixed.

Is it too late to wake up when the catastrophe comes, and to admit your mistake until the end of death?

Lu Mian didn't know, he only knew that he had to do what he had to do.

Yuan Shu fell ill after being greatly stimulated, his physical fitness plummeted, and he was very weak and could not wake up for a long time.

The imperial doctor asked Yuan Shu to rest more, eat more nourishing food, and slowly recuperate his body, so that he could get better, and he must not be greatly stimulated, nor can he get angry.

So Yuan Shu could only take a back seat and hand over the first-line position to Lu Mian and his son Yuan Yao.

"Wu'er needs to listen to General Lu's words and not make his own decisions, understand?"

In order to show his greatest trust in Lu Mian, Yuan Shu told Yuan Yao in front of him to do what Lu Mian said, which was regarded as giving Lu Mian the greatest trust and support, Lu Mian expressed his gratitude and said that he would definitely sacrifice everything for Yuan Shu.

So with the support of Yuan Shu, Lu Mian took full power, and everything in Shouchun was Lu Mian's final say.

On the same day that Yuan Shu woke up, on the tenth day of the first month of December, Xiahou Yuan sent people to survey the waterway of the Huai River, and then began to build a pontoon bridge.

The soldiers on the south bank of the Huai River, under the leadership of the former general Qiao Rui, tried to stop them, fired arrows to block the construction of the pontoon bridge, and sent people to drive boats to try to storm the pontoon bridge, but Xiahou Yuan sent a trebuchet to bombard them, bombarding them and ensuring the safety of the army that built the pontoon bridge.

On December 12, Xiahou Yuan overcame all difficulties and led his army to build three pontoon bridges successfully, but the soldiers of Chen who tried to block the south bank of the Huai River were difficult to stop.

In the face of the vanguard army of Xiahou Yuan's department, which crossed the river first, the defenders of the Chen army led by Qiao Rui were directly defeated, and the Huai River defense line was lost without much persistence.

On December 14, Guo Peng ordered the army to follow the pace of Xiahou Yuan's vanguard army and start crossing the river and march towards Shouchun City.

There was no longer any obstacle on the south bank of the Huai River to stop Guo Peng's army from crossing the river, and the countdown to the fall of the Chen Empire began.

Lu Mian was slightly surprised when he learned the news that Guo Peng's army crossed the river easily, but he was not completely surprised, because he didn't use many soldiers and horses to defend the Huaihe defense line at all, he knew that he couldn't hold it, so he just sent people to interfere slightly.

The real line of defense is still Shouchun City.

After being heightened and reinforced, Shouchun City is very strong and can be called a war fortress, and this is the last stronghold of Yuan Shu.

The defenders are 40,000, and the grain and grass are relatively sufficient, which is definitely not something that Guo Peng can easily capture.

Lu Mian believed that even if Guo Peng had that trebuchet as a big killing weapon, it would definitely be impossible to easily climb such a high city wall.

The condescending advantage is so great that it is definitely not something that can be reversed with a single instrument.

Therefore, Lu Mian continued to shrink his forces and defense line, and in the end, he directly abandoned all the defense lines outside the defense system of Shouchun City, relying on the tall and strong Shouchun City to resist Guo Peng's attack.

The vanguard led Xiahou Yuan to the city of Shouchun, and was a little surprised to see the tall Shouchun city wall and the very dense defense facilities.

He didn't expect Shouchun to be so prepared in a short period of time.

Realizing that it was impossible for him to take Shouchun City easily, Xiahou Yuan led his army back for several miles, cut down trees and set up camp, prepared barracks for the follow-up large army, and then waited for further instructions from Guo Peng.