On June 17, 368 of the Great Zhou calendar, 300,000 thieves broke through Houtu Fort, the last fortress leading to Gaoyang City, and the whole army attacked the main city......

There were less than 1,000 defenders in Gaoyang City, and all of them were old, weak, sick and disabled, and the rich nobles of the Shi clan in the city had all moved to the direction of Caizhou City before the Houtu Fort was broken, and when the civilians got the news of the invasion of the thieves, it was too late.

On June 18, the army of thieves stationed under the city of Gaoyang, because the defending generals had long abandoned the city and fled, hundreds of thousands of people and nearly 1,000 defenders panicked and fled outside the city, without any intention of resisting the enemy.

On 19 June, the thieves stormed the walls of Goyang Castle with great effort, and in the afternoon the main streets were occupied by the thieves. By the evening, this great city of Heyuan, which had been established for hundreds of years by the Great Zhou Dynasty, had completely fallen.

That night, hundreds of people's delicate wives and daughters were taken by the thieves to the city lord's mansion for the thieves' high-level lewd pleasure, and there were bursts of men's lewd laughter and women's cries from the city lord's mansion all night.

On 20 June, the thieves pursued a three-day policy of plundering the city, and many shops were robbed on the streets of Gaoyang, and the wives and daughters of the common people were even raped by the thieves in line up on the street......

"No, let go of my daughter, he's only 12 years old! Please! "In a house on the corner of the street, a woman grabbed her daughter's hand, and a thief kicked her away." Mother, I'm afraid, mother...... Bao'er is so scared...... Save me, mother......" A group of thieves hugged the crying girl, pressed on the table, pulled off her clothes and pants, the immature body, stimulated the hormones of this group of beasts, "Mother, Bao'er is so afraid, mother......" Regardless of the young girl and the woman's pleading, a thief in front of the table roughly parted the young girl's legs and pressed it hard! The young girl's heart-rending cry was heard.

"Brute! You brutes! Bao'er...... Mother, I'm sorry for you! I'm fighting with you! Seeing the misery of her daughter, the woman rushed forward to stop her in desperation, but as soon as she got up and was kicked down, several thieves pounced on her with a lewd smile......

"Uncle, please, this is the last ration of our family, you can't take it, we will starve to death if we take it!" An old man clung to a bag of wheat and refused to let go, and the thief dragged him from the house to the door, and he was really tired and angry: "Old thing, if you don't let go, I will cut you with a knife!" After that, he pulled out the knife holder and put it on the old man's neck, but the old man said that he wouldn't let go of anything: "Uncle please, it's okay!" Save half of it! "Old thing, look for death!" The thief wiped his neck with a knife, and a stream of blood stained the wheat bag red, and the old man died in front of his house, and the thief spat out his phlegm, picked up the grain bag and walked out into the street.

"Bao'er, how are you, speak, don't scare my mother!" The thieves successively vented on Bao'er's mother and daughter, and then put on their pants and left after searching all the available food in the house, and then left satisfied, and the woman crawled towards the daughter on the table with a piece of clothing on her body, only to see Bao'er's legs hanging on the edge of the table, her lower body was full of blood, and Chiguo's body was full of black and tooth marks, and her eyes were blurred and lost their lustre......

"Mother, Bao'er hurts, Bao'er hurts, ...... hurts" "My hard-working daughter......" Seeing her daughter's tragic appearance, the woman hugged her and cried......

The entire Gaoyang City is like the end of the world on this day, and tragedies are staged in every corner of the city......

In the year 368 of the Great Zhou calendar, the sixteenth day of the seventh month.

More than 1,000 miles away, the political and economic center of the Great Zhou Dynasty, the capital of the gods, has a permanent population of 3 million within the huge city walls.

The city is still bustling, with towering towers reaching into the clouds, and the streets are spacious, lined with shops and restaurants, and the shops and vendors are bustling with traders. The scenery on the bank of the White Horse River near the Luoshen Mansion is anthropomorphic, countless beautiful talents meet here and chant poems against each other, a trace of ripples, an incomparably luxurious sightseeing boat on the White Horse River slowly sails by, and there are some glamorous and elegant literati standing at the bow of the boat shaking the folding fan and pointing out the country with friends around them, as if a personable person, attracting the rich girl who stepped on the bridge to the green with a spring heart, reserved with a silk fan to fold half of the face and throw away a charming eye; In front of the archway of more than 10 meters in the distance, a burst of gongs and drums, firecrackers rang out, all kinds of musical instruments played the most popular and festive music suitable for this era, I don't know which family of the prince and son of the clan got married today, riding a snow-white high-headed horse attracted countless people to wait and see, revealing a look of envy and jealousy.

The scene of a peaceful and prosperous world seems to be two different worlds with the human tragedy in Gaoyang City thousands of miles away, and it has nothing to do with it.

In an unusually majestic red high wall, the political center of the Great Zhou Dynasty - Taiji Palace, at this time, the court of the military officials dressed in various grades of official uniforms, separated on both sides, waiting for the ruler of the Great Zhou Dynasty - Wei Zhi to sit on the golden dragon head throne to speak, to start the day's court discussion.

Wei Zhen, who was sitting on the dragon chair, was dressed in a golden dragon robe, and the five-clawed golden dragon embroidered with precious silk thread on the robe was lifelike, and he would be forty years old in another month, and since he ascended the throne at the age of eighteen, it was a smooth journey, and he soon mastered the military power of the forbidden army, and through the marriage with the Jiang family and the Li family and the exchange of rights with some scholars, he stabilized his position in the divine capital and had the absolute right to speak. At this time, Wei Zhen's eyes were slightly open, looking down at the court officials, and his heart revealed a spontaneous sense of satisfaction.

"What is the situation in the Far East?" Wei Zhi spoke slowly, and there was an inviolable majesty in his words, although he said this to the civil and military officials, everyone understood that he was asking Prime Minister Jiang Yan.

Because everyone knows that the three provinces in the south of the Yangtze River and the six provinces in the Far East are within the scope of the Jiang Yan family. Since the founding of the Great Zhou Dynasty, the Jiang family has always been an indispensable scholar force in the court, and its family power is all over the world, especially the six provinces of the Far East and the three provinces in the south of the Yangtze River, which have been the main sources of important strategic materials and taxes and grains in the Great Zhou, accounting for nearly fifty percent of the financial revenue, and the Jiang family is also a rich and invincible country, but in recent years, the rise of the Mengluo Empire has reduced the prestige of the Jiang family a lot, especially fifteen years ago, an important military horse production area in the Far East - Jizhou Province, after being occupied by the Mengluo Empire, the power has been greatly inferior to before, In addition, the Hulan cavalry detained the customs year after year, which greatly frustrated the Jiang family's strength in the Far East, and they could only acquiesce to some families stationed in the Far East to get a piece of the pie, but the Jiang family's power in the Far East was still indestructible.

"Back to the emperor, according to the report from the governor of Dingzhou, the Hulan people have 160,000 troops and the border, and it is predicted that they will knock on the south in late August, and the ministers will ask the provincial governments to take precautions." Jiang Yan replied respectfully, just saying that the 60,000 Hulan cavalry was 160,000, so that Wei Zhi could understand that the pressure he was facing was very huge, of course, he thought that he was still very disciplined, and it was much more "pragmatic" than those fellow warriors who said that thousands of enemy troops were hundreds of thousands.

"It's good that Aiqing has this heart, now that the country is in crisis, the top priority is to settle the people, resist the enemy together, and don't make a mess in Jingtai and Heyuan." In his opinion, the chaos in the Far East is beneficial to his own situation, and the more chaotic the Far East, the Jiang family's forces will be hit, and the threat to himself will gradually become smaller.

And the Heyuan Jingtai chaos has developed to this point today is not what he is happy to see, more than ten years of peace of chaos to now a muddy water can not be washed clean, Wei Zhi is happy to see the power of the Shi clan weakened, but can not tolerate the thieves continue to sit big, threatening the control of these two provinces (governments), which is related to the royal prestige.

Wei Zhen's idea was that Heyuan Jingtai could insert his royal forces into the chaos, so Zhao Yuanji asked for help, and immediately sent 200,000 people of the Thunder Central Army to invest tens of millions of military salaries in the two provinces every year, and the original plan was to pacify the thieves in three years at most, and then extend the sphere of influence of the royal family into the two provinces to further weaken the influence of the Zhao and Lin families, but the current plan is completely different from the original plan.

Heyuan Jingtai has become a huge quagmire, and has to jump in, not only to jump, but also to jump very actively, jumping with a smile, at this time if you withdraw, then the royal face will be completely swept away, and the gate lords who covet themselves will be ready to move, threatening their authority.

"Weichen is guilty, please punish Your Majesty!" Zhao Yourong and Lin Zizhong hurriedly came out of the queue and knelt on the ground and kowtowed desperately, trembling all over, the prestige of the two of them is now much worse than before in the court, and it can be said that they are people with their tails between their legs.

"Okay, Aiqing, let's be even, I don't mean to blame you, there is no need to do this." Seeing Zhao and Lin's pretentiousness, Wei Zhen's psychology was greatly satisfied.

"I received a secret report and heard that Gaoyang City has fallen, I wonder if this matter can be taken seriously?" Wei Zhi changed his words and asked Zhao Yourong, Zhao Yourong was shocked, but he still couldn't hide it.

"Your Majesty, Weichen also received the news a few days ago, and after receiving the news, he was also shocked and couldn't sleep at night, fearing that the emperor would be angry, so he didn't dare to tell His Majesty such bad news, but Your Majesty Shengming has long known everything, Weichen is incompetent, deceived Your Majesty, and deserves death, please punish Your Majesty." After speaking, Zhao Yourong burst into tears, and his head thumped.

When the court officials heard this, they couldn't help but secretly admire, this trick is really high to retreat, it is not a shameless century-old brand, first belittle themselves, and then secretly slapped the emperor's ass, this Zhao family can gain a foothold in the court, the power is on the one hand, this level of speaking, figuring out the holy will is also a model worthy of learning from my generation.

Wei Zhi looked at Zhao Yourong, who couldn't stop kowtowing, a subtle smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, and secretly said to the old fox, seeing that the fire was almost over, and then said: "Aiqing doesn't need to be like this, hurry up and calm down, I said that I won't blame you, but you have to supervise Zhao Yuanji, Wuliang Town must not have any more mistakes, and cooperate with Wei Yi (Thunder Army Commander) army to quell the thieves as soon as possible, recover Gaoyang City, and save the people and water and fire." ”

When the court officials heard this, they looked at each other, and it was completely expected that they would not cure Zhao Yourong's crime, but this statement simply completely covered up the defeat of the Central Army, and the responsibility was all because the strength of the Zhao family's local army and the Thunder Army were not on the same level.

Although everyone knows the extent of the rotten local army in Heyuan, but to say that the Thunder Army has no responsibility, it is really better than telling a story, it seems that the royal family is determined to meddle in Heyuan, but this black cauldron must be carried by the Zhao family, otherwise how to reflect the emperor's grace?

"Thank Your Majesty for not killing him, Weichen must strictly urge Zhao Yuanji, do his best to cooperate with the Thunder Army, pacify the thieves as soon as possible, and recover Gaoyang City." Although this black pot Zhao Yourong has carried it, but now that he has been given a step above, let's carry it for the time being, the Zhao family has been operating in Heyuan for more than 100 years, and has a deep foundation, how can you let your royal family play with it at will? I also underestimate myself.

"I heard that the Shi clan gate valve in Gaoyang City has safely withdrawn to Caizhou City, you have done a good job of this, Aiqing, and you should also reward the Wei Yi Department and Zhao Yuanji who participated in this matter, and I will do it!

Wei Yi dispatched properly, did not hurt the foundation of our country, rewarded 1,000 taels of gold, 30,000 taels of silver, 1,000 horses of silk, 10,000 stones of rice, a suburban garden mansion, 10,000 altars of fine wine for the soldiers under his command, and a million silver salaries; Zhao Yuanji, the governor of Heyuan, cooperated with the Thunder Army to fulfill his duties, rewarding 500 taels of gold, 15,000 taels of silver, 500 horses of silk, and 5,000 stones of rice. ”

This reward is to put Wei Zhen's intentions to maintain the Thunder Army on the table, no matter how stupid the court is, he understands what Wei Zhi means, not to mention that the personal reward is more than doubled, the Thunder Army has one million taels of silver, ten thousand altars of wine, and what about the local army? didn't say a word, it was obvious that he was telling the ministers: Zhao Yourong, your Zhao family is nothing without me, the royal central army.

"Your Majesty Shengming, long live Your Majesty, long live, long live." When the officials heard this, they immediately knelt down and kowtowed.

Looking at the kneeling officials, Wei Zhi glanced at the eunuch beside him, and after the eunuch and Wei Zhi looked at each other, they screamed in their throats: "Retreat!" ”

After finishing speaking, the hundred officials who were just about to get up knelt down again and kowtowed and shouted, "Long live, long live, long live." Wei Zhen's psychology was once again greatly satisfied, and in the kneeling of the hundred officials, he let the eunuch help him to walk down the dragon chair and go in the direction of the harem.

…………

Looking at the laughter of the concubines in the imperial garden, Wei Zhen's mind drifted to the Far East again......

"It seems that another weighty person must be inserted, but who can turn the tide of the war in the Far East to my advantage?" Wei Zhi sat in the imperial garden and drank the hot tribute tea that the maid had just brewed, and was brewing a candidate in his heart.

The situation in the Far East is not as good as Heyuan, the combat power of the Hu people should not be underestimated, and the forbidden army must not be sent again, otherwise it is equivalent to tearing the skin directly with the Jiang family, in case the forbidden army is defeated by the Hulan people, it is not good to have another annihilation of the whole army, the royal family is not just a matter of face, I am afraid that this court is not stable, and another suitable person must be selected......