The generals of the Yunzhong army, who had less than 300 cavalry left, found that the bridgehead crossing the river in front of them had been occupied by a large number of Wei cavalry, and they all looked nervous.

Zhu Xiuzhi stopped his horse and raised his hand, and the cavalry behind him also stopped, and he stepped forward and walked between the two armies.

Zhao Junsheng instructed Li Bao, Bai Jinguang, Chang Kun and other generals: "Without my order, you are not allowed to act rashly!" After speaking, he walked towards Zhu Xiuzhi.

Zhao Junsheng stopped in front of Zhu Xiuzhi and asked, "Brother Zhu, where are you going?" ”

Zhu Xiuzhi's face was calm, he smiled slightly and clenched his fists and said, "Zhu wants to take the brothers to Liaodong for a walk, and ask Brother Zhao to make it convenient!" ”

Zhao Junsheng shook his head: "If Zhao is to make it convenient for Brother Zhu, it is not very convenient for me, I can't sacrifice myself to fulfill others, my morality has not yet reached this realm, please forgive Brother Zhu!" No matter what Brother Zhu did before, if Brother Zhu is willing to go back with Zhao, everything is easy to say; If Brother Zhu wants to force his way through, I'm afraid that the big gun in my hand and the thousands of brothers behind me will not agree! ”

A general behind Zhu Xiuzhi shouted: "General, we can't delay any longer, what nonsense are you talking about him?" If you kill them directly, the brothers have already come here, and won't they be sent to death when they go back? ”

"Shut up! Without the order of the general, no one is allowed to speak, no rash action is allowed, and those who violate the order - kill! ”

The generals behind him were quiet, and no one dared to say anything anymore.

Zhu Xiuzhi hugged his fist at Zhao Junsheng and said: "Brother Zhao, I Zhu Xiuzhi has never begged anyone in my life, today I beg with a cheeky face, for the sake of you and I have known each other, please let these soldiers behind me cross the bridge, I will stay and go back with you, what do you think?" ”

Zhao Junsheng shook his head: "Brother Zhu, you know this is impossible!" ”

At this time, there were a large number of horses' hooves and shouts faintly from the north, Zhu Xiuzhi turned his head to look, and a fire dragon was rushing towards this side, he knew that this must be the pursuers catching up, and he was very anxious, and suddenly remembered that when he set off from Pingcheng, someone handed him a letter.

He hurriedly took out the letter from under his belt and said, "Brother Zhao, someone asked me to hand over this letter to you, I think you will know after reading this letter!" ”

Zhao Junsheng stabbed the spear forward with a suspicious expression, and the letter in Zhu Xiuzhi's hand was picked by the spear, he took the letter from the tip of the spear, inserted the spear into the victory hook, tore open the letter and pulled out the letterhead, and shouted: "Torch!" ”

Behind him, Li Bao galloped on horseback, holding a torch not far away to illuminate the surroundings.

Zhao Junsheng unfolded the letter and saw that there were three pages on the letter, but each page was blank without a single word.

He was annoyed and was about to say, "Are you playing with me?" Suddenly I remembered something, and swallowed back the words that came to my mouth.

He removed the cowhide water bag hanging from the side of the horse's belly, and spilled some of the water from the water bag on the letterhead, which soon revealed handwriting.

After reading the letter, Zhao Junsheng looked at Zhu Xiuzhi quietly, at this time, the sound of horses' hooves in the north was getting closer and closer, indicating that the pursuers were getting closer and closer, and the expressions of Zhu Xiuzhi and the soldiers behind him were getting more and more anxious.

Zhao Junsheng raised his hand and waved, and Bai Jinguang ordered loudly after seeing it: "General order, get out of the way!" ”

The cavalry of the Youzhou Army blocking the bridgehead quickly moved out of the way on both sides, and a passage to the bridgehead appeared and gradually extended to the bridgehead.

"Brother Zhao, don't thank you for your kindness, today's kindness, Rong Zhu will report it later!" After Zhu Xiuzhi finished speaking, he arched his hand, raised his hand and waved forward, shouting: "Let's go!" ”

The sound of horses' hooves sounded, Zhu Xiuzhi and the cavalry under his command were very fast and orderly, and there was no chaos when crossing the bridge, and there were not many people, so they quickly crossed the bridge.

Zhu Xiuzhi drove away with his people, and Hua Mulan chased after him with the soldiers and horses in the right wing, she stopped and asked, "Brother Junsheng, why are you here?" Can you see Zhu Xiuzhi and the cavalry he commanded? ”

Zhao Junsheng said: "They just crossed the river, what's wrong?" ”

"Just left? He led his troops to defect and kill the emperor and all the ministers accompanying the army, follow me to chase them! After Mulan said anxiously, she was about to hit her horse and rush to the bridge.

"What? You wait! Zhao Junsheng was shocked and hurriedly stopped Mulan, "Mulan, you make it clear, what is going on?" Zhao Junsheng asked.

As soon as he finished asking, there was a sound of wooden planks breaking from the other side of the bridge, and he saw that Zhu Xiuzhi's soldiers were destroying the wooden bridge.

Hua Mulan looked at it and hurriedly said: "You judged correctly, Zhu Xiuzhi's previous performances were all pretended, tonight he took advantage of the emptiness of the guards around the holy car, and suddenly launched a rebellion, the tiger army guarding the emperor was defeated, the emperor was killed by Zhu Xiuzhi, and the ministers of the army, let me chase after it!" ”

Zhao Junsheng calmly listened to Mulan's words, and then said, "Mulan, forget it, don't chase it, let them go!" ”

"Brother Junsheng, you ······" Hua Mulan looked at Zhao Junsheng in surprise.

Zhao Junsheng said: "That's right, I already guessed that it was him when the alarm bell rang, so after you left, I ordered the troops to come here to block his way across the river, but I still let him go!" ”

"Why?" Mulan asked in disbelief.

Zhao Junsheng said: "He is a loyal minister, although he is not loyal to the Wei State, not the Emperor of the Wei State, but he is always a loyal minister, I don't want to be a person who kills loyal ministers, and you can't do the same!" Otherwise, in the future, the history books will heavily record you and me, and we can't afford this crime! ”

Hua Mulan refuted: "But you are a courtier of Wei, and he killed the emperor of my Great Wei!" ”

"You're right, but the emperor has died, can arresting him back can resurrect the emperor?"

Hua Mulan was very anxious: "Brother Junsheng, if you let them go, others will think that you are suspected of collaborating with the enemy, you just can't tell it with eight mouths!" ”

Zhao Junsheng asked rhetorically: "As long as you don't say it, who will know?" What enemy do I understand? When I let him go, I didn't even know that he had killed the emperor and his ministers! The emperor is dead, the dead emperor is not the emperor, I have no obligation to be loyal to a dead emperor, why should I avenge a dead emperor? Only by avenging blood relatives can we gain moral support, and revenge for others is morally untenable! ”

"But Your Majesty is your emperor, Zhu Xiuzhi killed your emperor, shouldn't you, as a courtier, avenge the emperor?"

Zhao Junsheng took a deep breath and said to Mulan: "Mulan, you are mistaken!" First of all, I am a military man, I only act on orders, and now no one gives me orders, and no one is qualified to give me orders until the new emperor ascends the throne! Secondly, I am the general of Youzhou and Pingbei, and I am a courtier of Wei, this is just a job, it does not mean that my life is the emperor's, it does not mean that my life is the Tuoba family, I have no obligation to take the initiative to avenge him! Third, national events are not vendettas! Now what we have to think about is not to chase and kill Zhu Xiuzhi, but now that the dragons are leaderless, whether to continue to besiege Longcheng, or to return to the dynasty for this class, if we don't make a decision early, once the Yan army in Longcheng learns the news, they take advantage of our civil strife to kill out of the city, these tens of thousands of horses may all be buried under this Dragon City, do you understand? ”

Hua Mulan felt very confused after listening to Zhao Junsheng's words, what Zhao Junsheng said subverted her cognition, which was very different from the rights and wrongs in her heart, but after thinking about it carefully, she felt that it made some sense.

Just as she was hesitating, a large number of soldiers and horses appeared in the rear.

I saw the leading general who caught up and shouted: "Tuoba Qi is here, who is leading the army in front?" ”

Zhao Junsheng and Hua Mulan responded loudly: "Zhao Junsheng, the assassin of Youzhou (the general of the right chamber Mulan) is here, please come forward and speak!" ”

Tuoba Qi came with his troops and horses, stopped in front of Zhao Junsheng and Hua Mulan and asked, "General Zhao, General Hua, can you see Zhu Xiuzhi?" ”

Zhao Junsheng said: "He escaped across the river!" ”

Tuoba Qi was furious and said, "Why don't you stop him? He rebelled and rushed into the palace to kill the king, and His Majesty died! The ministers of the army were also murdered by him, and they were slaughtered! ”

Zhao Junsheng was yelled at by Tuoba Qi like this, and was about to get angry, but Hua Mulan couldn't help but shout first: "How do you know that we didn't stop him?" We fought a bloody battle with him, and he broke out, and we led the troops to chase after him, and when we chased here, he cut the bridge again, did you let us swim across the river in the middle of the night to chase? If you have the ability, you can take someone to swim over and try it! ”

Tuoba Qi didn't want to get angry again after hearing Mulan's words, but just muttered vigorously: "It's over, it's all over, Your Majesty has died, and the ministers with the army are all finished······"

Zhao Junsheng said in a deep voice: "Let's go, let's go to the palace!" After speaking, he turned his head and waved to the Youzhou army behind him: "Everyone listen to the order and go to the palace with Ben General!" ”

Hua Mulan also immediately ordered the Right Wing Army to turn around and go to the palace.

Tuoba Qi yelled at Zhao Junsheng and Mulan: "Don't chase Zhu Xiuzhi anymore? ”

Zhao Junsheng responded without looking back: "The bridges have been cut off, how can you chase them?" The top priority now is to stabilize the situation, stabilize the morale of the army, and not give the Yan army in the city a chance! ”

Tuoba Qi opened his mouth and shouted helplessly to vent his temper, but he could only take the soldiers and generals to follow Zhao Junsheng and Hua Mulan back to the palace.

Halfway through, Zhao Junsheng sent a team of cavalry to the south city wall to keep an eye on the movements of the Yan army in the city, and immediately reported as soon as he found signs of the Yan army leaving the city.

Not long after, Zhao Junsheng, Hua Mulan and Tuoba Qi rushed to the palace with their troops, and the generals of the other armies had already rushed over with their troops.

When Zhao Junsheng dismounted, he called Li Bao over and whispered: "Immediately send someone to rush back to Youzhou overnight to tell the people of Zongai, and spread the news that Zhu Xiuzhi had fled to kill the king, the emperor had died, and the ministers of the army had been slaughtered!" ”

"Yes!" Li Bao said yes and turned to leave.

Separated from the generals gathered outside the palace, Zhao Junsheng, Hua Mulan and Tuoba Qi each walked into the palace hall with their own soldiers.

A large number of corpses were neatly placed on the ground of the main hall, and the corpse of Emperor Tuoba Jian was placed in the innermost, and the corpses of the other deceased were placed on the left and right in turn according to the official position and title.

Now the conditions are limited, and the corpse can only be covered with cloth for the time being, which is done by the soldiers and generals after the arrival of Daqian.

Zhao Junsheng noticed that Tuoba Jian's head had been cut off, and he was just piecing together the head and the corpse at the moment.

Lai Daqian looked at Zhao Junsheng, Hua Mulan and Tuoba Qi and asked in a deep voice, "Has the traitor Zhu Xiuzhi been caught?" ”