At the beginning of the rising sun, the unique pale yellow rock of the Yongdu City Palace exudes a faint halo under the sun, and from a distance, the entire palace seems to be covered in a thin layer of yellow clouds. In the past, when Chen Xiufeng looked at this glorious building from a distance, he always had a feeling of throwing himself to the ground in his heart, the court was sacred in his eyes, and the emperor was noble in his heart, he would not make mistakes, and he was like a god's mansion.

But now, that feeling has faded without a trace.

He used to be too far away, but now, he's too close.

Failure after failure has completely lost the majesty of the imperial court, and one after another generals have died or rebelled, and the fig leaf has been peeled off layer by layer. When Chen Xiufeng stood in front of the emperor for the first time, what he saw was no longer the tall feeling he had when he looked at the flowers in the fog in the past, but a tired, helpless, and decadent old man.

Now, or maybe add self-defeating. The emperor he was loyal to didn't even have the courage to fight. This made Chen Xiufeng very disappointed.

Doesn't the emperor see the end of the current situation? No, Chen Xiufeng was sure that the emperor must know better than anyone else, but the emperor would rather bury his head in the sand, satisfied with the current situation and not look at the ups and downs of the future at all.

Be a monk for a day and hit the clock for a day, and then talk about it when you can't do it. This is the truest portrayal of the emperor's current state of mind, or he will still pray for a miracle from heaven in the palace.

For Chen Xiufeng, the only chance of life is to fight. Do your best to fight with the Ming army, win, at least you can fight for a year or more, defeat, of course, there is nothing.

Or maybe it's self-defeating, but it's better than doing nothing and suffocating to death!

Yesterday's battle has once again proved his opinion. Guarding is not guarding. The Ming army launched an attack on all sides, and it was very strong on all sides, and it was impossible to see that there was a feint attack and a real attack there.

Or maybe the Ming army didn't pay attention at all now, because they were so strong that they could turn a feint attack on any aspect into a real attack at any time.

Any place can become a breakthrough point for the Ming people.

He entered the palace again today to ask to see the emperor, trying to persuade the emperor to agree to his plan, and fought to the death.

"His Royal Highness the Crown Prince!" Before he stepped into the palace gate, Chen Xiufeng saw the prince Ma Chao walking out of the palace with a gloomy face, so he hurried over to pay his respects.

Chen Xiufeng is a subordinate of Prince Ma Chao. The emperor's cronies and generals have been completely lost in the battles again and again, and now the backbone military forces in Yongdu City are basically the Shaozhuang faction, and they are all the cronies and subordinates of the crown prince Ma Chao.

Ma Chao stopped and looked at Chen Xiufeng. This is the general he insisted on promoting, under the situation that the generals of Great Qin have lost everything, Chen Xiufeng is considered to be outstanding among the remaining generals, or, he is even stronger than those veterans, in the past, he was just unable to get a high position because of some problems such as seniority.

In the past Qin State, the position of important military generals was either grasped by the Deng family or taken away by the Bian family, and the slightly cleaner Thunder Army was also held in the hands of his father, and there were too few positions he could grasp. Therefore, he can only work the middle-level generals. Now he has complete control over the army, but this is by no means what he wants. Because the Qin State has reached the moment of life and death, it may fall into the abyss at any time.

For Chen Xiufeng, he is still quite satisfied, since he became a general, things have been done without words. The young and strong in the city slowly formed a certain combat effectiveness, and the passion of the army was also tempered by Chen Xiufeng, although it could not be said that they regarded death as home, but at least they all had the idea of protecting their families and defending the country.

"Yesterday's battle was good." A smile squeezed out of his gloomy face, and Ma Chao looked at Chen Xiufengdao. "Ruthlessly gave the Ming army a lesson, if you want to take Yongdu City, then let them fill it with their lives. Let's see if they don't have the courage. ”

Chen Xiufeng didn't want to give His Royal Highness the Crown Prince an illusion, yesterday's battle was not won at all, it was just a tentative attack, and the other party didn't think about taking the city in one fell swoop yesterday. But it was this tentative attack that made him more aware of the balance of forces between the two sides.

"Your Highness, we actually lost yesterday's battle!" He looked at Ma Chao bluntly and said.

The smile on Ma Chao's face disappeared, and he looked at the guards, attendants, and officials around the palace gate, all of whom were listening with their ears pricked up!

Picked up Chen Xiufeng and walked into the carriage he parked on the side, "What the hell is going on?" ”

"Your Highness, we did repel the attack of the Ming people, but it was only a tentative attack, and our casualties were much greater than those of the Ming army." Chen Xiufeng said coldly.

"How is that possible? We're on the defensive! Ma Chao said in shock.

"Your Majesty, if all the people defending the city are the Thunder Army, I can let the Ming people have more losses, but those young and strong people can't do it at all." Chen Xiufeng sighed and said: "But the problem is, I can't spread all the Thunder Army evenly on all the city walls to do defense, and the strength of the Thunder Army is not on defense, they are better at attacking." Your Majesty, 50,000 Thunder Army is a lot, but if it is spread out everywhere, there are not many people. ”

"You mean you still have to fight to the death?" Ma Chao stared at Chen Xiufeng and asked.

"Your Highness, this is our only chance." Chen Xiufeng nodded categorically: "In yesterday's battle, we all received the strength of the Ming army, attacking on all sides at the same time, but the intensity of the attack was similar, which made us unable to grasp the key point of the enemy's siege at all, and could not make the corresponding arrangements in advance, and in the end we would only be broken by the Ming army to find the weakness." ”

"Your Majesty has already sent someone to the Qi State, and the Qi State army in Changning County is also preparing to start a war with the Ming army. If the Mingqi War starts, our perseverance will be meaningful! Ma Chao said.

"Your Majesty, far water can't dissolve the near fire, besides, do you think Qi Guo will do his best to fight the Ming people now?" Chen Xiufeng was extremely pessimistic: "The Ming people have heavy troops in Zhaoguan, and the general Wu Ling is a famous fierce god, even if the Qi State and the Ming people start a war in Zhaoguan, we don't know if they can defeat the Ming army, even if they can defeat the Ming army, we don't know." And Your Highness, the Qi people themselves are also in a hurry now, the last time you told me that Zhou Jiyun's fiasco in Wanzhou is very likely to cause a shock in the domestic politics of the Qi State, at this time, will the Emperor of the Qi State go all out because of us? ”

Ma Chao was silent, he didn't understand these truths, but he always had the illusion of what happened, Chen Xiufeng's idea was indeed a glimmer of life, but it was only a glimmer of life, once they failed, they would lose even the last place of shelter in Yongdu City.

"Is there no other way?" He asked, a little desperately.

"Your Highness, as soon as the battle begins, the consumption of ordnance is staggering, and the consumption of food will also increase greatly, and the lack of medical treatment, wounded soldiers, and death will quickly reduce the morale of the city that has been hard to muster. The more time passes, the fewer opportunities we have. ”

"We can expel some more civilians." Ma Chao gritted his teeth and said.

"Your Highness, all those who should be expelled have been expelled. Now the rest of the city is either the family of officials or the families of soldiers, and almost every family has people in the army, and if these people are also driven out, I am afraid that we will not need to fight, and we ourselves will collapse first. Chen Xiufeng smiled bitterly.

"But my father didn't agree to this plan at all."

"Your Highness, the more time passes, the smaller our chances will be, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty will definitely come, he will inevitably bring more reinforcements, the greater the movement of the Qi army in Changning County, the more he wants to end the war with us quickly so that he can turn around and deal with the Qi country, if the emperor of the Ming Dynasty arrives, the smaller the chance of winning our decisive battle. Now, it's a great opportunity! The Ming army was bent on attacking the city, and they would never have imagined that we would give up the fortified city and fight them to the death. As long as we win this battle, in a short period of time, it is unlikely that the Ming army will gather a huge force to attack us, as long as we win, those Qin people who have lost land in the hands of the Ming army will have the courage to resist, and the Ming people will need more troops to suppress, we can win a respite, and then we can connect with the local and collude with the Qi country, and only by letting the Qi country see the value of our existence, they will spare no effort to do it with the Ming people. Otherwise, the Emperor of Qi would never be willing to pay too much price for a place that was about to end. Chen Xiufeng's voice became louder and louder.

"If you want to fight a decisive battle, you must concentrate all the Thunder Army, and once you can't win, you won't even have a chance to survive." Ma Chao's voice trembled a little.

"Your Highness, if you don't seize the opportunity now, we won't have it." Chen Xiufeng said unceremoniously: "If we fight for one more day, we will lose one more person, and our strength will be weakened by one point." ”

Ma Chao was completely silent, and after a while, he seemed to have finally decided something, and his face became resolute, "Okay, I'll go to see my father, even if my father doesn't want to, I will force him to agree." You're right, instead of watching yourself slowly die, it's better to fight vigorously, and maybe you can still get a chance of survival. ”

Chen Xiufeng took a deep breath: "Your Highness went to the palace to persuade His Majesty the Emperor to mobilize the Thunder Army. ”

Ma Chao's face turned pale, Chen Xiufeng mobilized the Thunder Army at this time, naturally not to do anything else, but to build momentum for him, to put it more bluntly, it was to force the palace and admonish the soldiers.