After Fang Yangxian was beheaded, there were no generals available in Yunzhou City, Li Shidao listened to Jia Zhiyan's persuasion and went to invite Yu Hualong out of the mountain, only to learn that Yu Hualong had left Yunzhou a month ago, and his whereabouts were unknown.

Li Shidao was shocked and angry, a dead tiger like Yu Hualong was guarded by the head of the copper tiger on weekdays, and every move had to be reported to him in time, what happened, everyone was missing for a month, and he was still in the dark

Li Shidao was anxious to find Yang Qingguo and Mao Xiong to ask, but the two of them didn't know where to go, Li Shidao was stunned for a long time, and suddenly a mouthful of blood arrow spurted out of his mouth, and his body fell straight up.

The army can betray him, the assassin and the county order can betray him, and the staff and servants can betray him, but the copper tiger head cannot, if even they abandon themselves, it is an out-and-out betrayal of relatives, what hope is there for the overall situation of this hard support

Li Shidao couldn't afford to be sick, and he didn't want to take care of things, his wife Mrs. Wei, his concubines Sister Pu, Jia An'an, etc., cried around him all day long, Li Shidao held their hands, just crying, but he couldn't spit out a word in his throat and eyes.

In the second half of the night, Huang Daxian, the director of the Military Medical Department, boiled the decoction and came in to serve, Li Shidao took his hand and asked tremblingly: "Yunzhou, is it broken?" ”

Huang Taixian was irritable in his heart, all the people in the city had run away, but he was the head of the bullshit military medical department, so that people couldn't get out, once the city was broken, wouldn't he and his family have to die without a place to be buried, and all of this was made by this half-dead person lying on the bed.

He had a resentment in his heart, and when he asked, the resentment became even stronger.

"No, if the city is broken, how can your old man have the luck to lie here and wait for someone to serve, or let people unload eight pieces early, hehe, look at my stinky mouth, come, it's time to drink medicine."

Wong Tai Sin said this with a smiling face, and such disobedient words, even if he said it at this time, still made his heart tremble. Li Shidao is defeated, and the Li family in Ziqing is a complete defeat, but it is just a matter of one sentence to kill a little shrimp like himself before he takes his last breath, so he must calm down and keep a low profile.

So he eased his tone and said: "I'm joking with you, no, although there are many troops outside the city, there are still 100,000 garrisons in the city, and they can't get in for a while." ”

"What about outside the city?"

Li Shidao's voice was hoarse, and the voice seemed to come out of the cracks in the ground, which was very harsh.

"Outside the city, it's good outside, except for Caozhou and Yanzhou, the others are still in our hands, no, there are reinforcements into the city this afternoon."

"Which way to reinforce the army, who is the general"

"Yes, it's Pei Renyong, Pei Renjing, and Pei Renqu, the three brothers, who heard that Yunzhou was besieged, and they recruited volunteers in their hometown and rushed to the rescue."

Hearing this, Li Shidao smiled with relief, it's all at this time, and there are still people who are willing to recruit rebels to save him, it seems that he is not exhausted.

Pei Renyong's three brothers entered the city in the afternoon, but they did not come to rescue him Li Shidao, the three of them gathered as bandits back then, and were later recruited by Li Mao, Pei Renyong was the county leader in Futang County, Mizhou, Pei Renjing was the master book in Huang County, Dengzhou, and Pei Renqu was the master book in Shouguang County, Qingzhou.

This time, the army of the eleven towns met left and right to discuss Ziqing, and the three of them felt that the opportunity had come, so they scattered their wealth and recruited a group of warriors, trained day and night, and sold at a price.

But he didn't want to occupy the land of twelve states and had 100,000 soldiers, but it was like a paper house, and Hula fell, and the three of them were anxious, if Li Shidao was defeated like this, his hard work would be in vain, and if he didn't get it, he would be detained from the hat of rebellion and gathering people to resist the official army, then it would be really a big disaster.

As soon as the three of them were combined, they had to take immediate action to defect to the official army, Pei Du and Tu Chenghuang were not able to climb high, among the marshals of the eleven towns, they had something to do with Li Mao, so they decided to vote for Li Mao, but they unintentionally walked halfway but bumped into Li Quanzhong's soldiers and horses of the Yicheng Army.

Without saying a word, the soldiers of the Yicheng Army surrounded this group of people's troops, confiscated the equipment, and took the three to see Li Quanzhong, Li Quanzhong was too lazy to look at the three people, and ordered to be pushed out and beheaded. Li Quanzhong felt that this person was a little interesting, and called back to ask, Pei Renyong revealed his identity, offered a plan to Li Quanzhong, and invited himself to go into the city to be an undercover agent, and in the future, he should attack Yunzhou City together.

Yunzhou has been the capital of Ziqing for many years, and the Li father and son have been operating for three generations. Li Quanzhong's foundation is not deep, and he is eager to make meritorious contributions to stabilize his position as a festival envoy, and since he sent out the army, he has been determined to break Yunzhou City and achieve his reputation for loyalty and daring to fight. However, after seeing Yunzhou City, I didn't feel full of trouble. Soldiers and horses are the lifeblood of the domain commander, and without soldiers and horses in his hands, he is insignificant in the eyes of the imperial court, and he doesn't want to consume all the capital he has worked hard to accumulate under the city of Yunzhou. Pei Renyong's words were exactly what he wanted, so he released the three of them and sent them into the city to act as undercover agents.

The three of them are clean and clean, and they are the first people's army to come to the rescue after Yunzhou was besieged. After Li Shidao fell ill, Jia Zhiyan and Li Gongdu, who were in charge of government affairs, took a cautious attitude towards the righteous deeds of the three Pei brothers, on the one hand, warmly welcomed the Pei brothers into the city, and on the other hand, took measures to isolate the three brothers from the soldiers and horses they carried, so as to prevent falling into the enemy's tricks.

This was a very safe strategy, but it was smashed by an appointment and dismissal order of Li Shidao in his illness, Li Shidao regarded the Pei family brothers as a life-saving straw, and he needed the righteous deeds of the three to boost the morale that had been gone, so he was extremely dissatisfied with Jia Zhiyan and Li Gongdu's steady handling, he bypassed the shogunate, and behind Jia Zhiyan and Li Gongdu, he privately ordered the appointment of Pei Renyong as the Duzhi soldier and horse envoy of the Pinglu Army, Pei Renjing as the soldier and horse envoy of the Inner Courtyard Army, and Pei Renqu as the soldier and horse envoy of the Yangdao Army.

When Li Gongdu heard this appointment, he sighed and said bluntly to Jia: "A certain person has recently had a heartache attack, and it is difficult to support it, and the military affairs of Fuzhong will rely on Brother Yuen Long." After that, he left the shogunate and said that he was not sick.

Jia bluntly said that he couldn't keep it, he could only smile bitterly, he and Li Gongdu had been fighting in secret for so many years, and it was not until the last moment that the winner was decided, he won, but what is the point, the building is about to fall, he is the boss, but he can't keep the world.

For Li Shidao's arrangement, Jia bluntly said that he was powerless to object, but thinking about this arrangement is nothing, the higher the support, the easier it is to control, all know the soldiers and horses, the inner courtyard soldiers, and the swordsmen, which chair is easy to sit, the three of them are from humble backgrounds and have shallow qualifications, how can He De sit firmly Without the warrant of him, the left judge who is in charge of military and political affairs, he does not want to mobilize a soldier and a pawn.

It is also a wise man's thousand worries must be a mistake, at this time Ziqing has been different from the past, the chaos of the various armies has reached the peak, taking the most elite inner courtyard army in Ziqing as an example, since Huangfu Jian, Huangfu Yuan brothers were implicated by Han Qiyue and were dismissed, they fell into serious chaos, to Pei Renjing took over when it was already festering, the original generals felt cold because of the removal of the Huangfu brothers, and left one after another.

Pei Renjing had no intention of rectifying military affairs, blindly winning people's hearts with interests, and even grabbed some military power in his hands, these soldiers and horses wantonly excluded dissidents in the name of defending Li Shidao to the death, and even put the iron bucket controlled by the Jiedu Embassy, and even Jia Zhiyan himself was also placed under their control, and life and death, honor and disgrace were just a matter of Pei Renjing's words.

Pei Renyong and Pei Renqu were not idle, using their new identities to contact the old in the city, recruiting dead soldiers, and actively preparing for a counterattack under the banner of fighting with the officials and soldiers to the end.

However, due to the collapse of the copper tiger head, the actions of the three brothers of the Pei family were not subject to any supervision and restraint, and Li Shidao and Jia Zhiyan were also kept in the dark.

Li Gongdu left the military palace in anger, and did not come out of the house, and the soldiers and a group of dead soldiers who raised him defended his house like an iron bucket, and the house was widely stocked with grain and grass, and his family was not allowed to go out unless ordered, as if he was facing a great enemy.

In the afternoon of this day, a mysterious merchant came from outside the door, claiming to be his fellow countryman, and handed in a letter of his name.

Li Gongdu hurriedly welcomed in, sat with him for a while, stayed for dinner, and the guests did not accept it, so he said goodbye and left. After the people left, Li Gongdu ordered the house slaves to block the courtyard door, moved out of the nest bow and crossbow to defend it tightly, but moved the native products brought by the guests to the inner study, and found a secret letter from it.

In the afternoon of this day, Li Shidao struggled to have a husband and wife ceremony with his favorite concubine Jia An'an, and afterwards handed over a bag of gold, silver and jewelry to Jia An'an's hands, and sighed: "You have a game with me, I can't give you a name, let's make up for these chats." ”

Jia Anan hugged his waist and didn't let him go, and said with tears streaming down his face: "The sky is falling, are we really cornered?"

Li Shidao hardened his heart: "Life and death are fate, wealth is in the sky, the Li family is exhausted, you can go." ”

According to Li Shidao's plan, Jia An'an will take his daughter Yunniang to leave Yunzhou for Dengzhou during the chaos, where she will board a ship across the sea to Japan.

Although Li Shidao didn't know the situation outside, his intuition told him that Dengzhou was no longer under his control, but Dengzhou was a mixed place, and he couldn't completely control it when he was at the height of his power, even if it fell into the hands of others, it would be impossible to control it for a while, and Jia Anan had a chance to get out.

Sister Pu had already taken the first step and arranged for Jia An'an, and Li Shidao sat in a daze, looking at the empty and dark house, and silently shed tears for a while.

Suddenly got up and came to Jia Zhiyan's duty room in the left wing room outside the middle hall, the house was crowded with people inside and outside, and the military and political affairs of Ziqing were now completely pressed on Jia Zhiyan's shoulders, it was really difficult for him.

Jia bluntly said that he was busy, and suddenly saw Li Shidao walk in and was startled.

Hurriedly got up to greet him, Li Shidao suddenly laughed and said: "The building is about to fall, and you can't go back to the sky, what are you still busy with?"

Jia Zhiyan was taken aback, and the officials and officials present were also taken aback, no one dared to believe that these words came from Li Shidao's mouth.

Li Shidao was relaxed, nodding and smiling at these lowly officials who he didn't bother to look at on weekdays, and his attitude was very kind.

Jia bluntly hurriedly blasted everyone out and led Li Shidao to sit down, because the festival was there, and the people outside surrounded him, but no one dared to disturb him. Later, the lowly officials were anxious one by one, and a lot of urgent matters were waiting for Judge Jia to make a decision.

Coming out of the house disheartened, he relayed what Li Shidao had just said to the latecomers, everyone was stunned for a while, and immediately thought about it, the overall situation in Yunzhou was rotten, and even the envoys felt powerless, and they were still busy

Frustration spread among the crowd, and everyone was discouraged for a while, and everyone dispersed.

Li Shidao sat down opposite Jia Zhiyan, he looked at this duty room, the area of the duty room is small, every corner is stuffed with documents, and there is no room to turn around, so he sighed: "This is so close to the middle hall, but it is the first time I have come here, I didn't expect the conditions to be so poor, I even treat each other indifferently, no matter whether I ask, it can be seen that I am completely mediocre, and I deserve today's defeat." ”

Jia sighed bluntly, wanting to comfort something, but felt that he had nothing to say.

"My Li family has been in Ziqing for 50 years, and today is the end, the fault is me alone, I have nothing to do with the public, I have no words to see my ancestors, I see my brother, I am ashamed of my fathers."

Jia bluntly said that he was already in tears, and the few lowly officials who were still in the courtyard couldn't help but cry.

"After the city is broken, Yuen Long will reluctantly deal with it for me, save the lives of the generals, and protect the people of the city. Please. ”

Jia said bluntly: "Sikong Jun's life, Jia bluntly said that he would not dare to forget until he died." ”

Li Shi said a matter of thought, his spirit lifted a little, and he said: "In the past, my brother was seriously ill, and he summoned me to the house before he died, and asked me if I might take on this responsibility, and I said that I couldn't bear it, I really couldn't bear it." He said that if you refuse to take responsibility, who among the descendants of the Li family can bear it, you should avoid it. I don't want to say anything, I do it from the heart, I thought about fighting in Mizhou, but after I arrived in Yunzhou, I changed my mind, I am a loose nature, indecisive person, I really can't do things to kill and decide, I'm too tired.

"But my brother didn't let me go, he said that the descendants of the Li family are still young except for me, and no one can take on this responsibility, and I have suppressed you all these years, in fact, for your own good, to let you know the sinister nature of this, and force you to take care of it. Alas, I have been fighting with my brother for so long, but I didn't expect him to say such things, what else do I have to say, he also said that we have a few thorns in Yunzhou, who doesn't need me to say that you also know, you can't deal with them, don't be afraid, I will help you get rid of the thorns in your hands, so that you can hold this whip that drives the twelve states. Yuen Long, it wasn't me who framed Li Changshan and Li Mao back then, it was really not me, it was my brother who was afraid that I would control them, and he designed to get rid of them on his deathbed. ”

Jia bluntly nodded: "The first prince is far-sighted, I believe they will not blame." ”

Li Shidao shook his head: "Li Changshan has died of illness, he will definitely not blame, as for Li Mao, it doesn't matter whether he blames him or not, the important thing is that I shouldn't have been able to do it in the first place, I should have bitten it to death and not be the envoy of this section." I am full of young talents and loyalty, no matter who the Li family does, there will be no defeat today. Li Changshan and Li Mao are all masterpieces of the moment, we can't use them, but we want to kill them, it's a pity, it's a pity. ”

Because Li Shigu was involved, Jia bluntly said that he didn't want to say much, but comforted: "Time is also fate, and luck is also, Sikong doesn't have to blame himself too much." ”

Li Shidao suddenly said lightly: "I don't blame myself, time is also fate, I have said everything that should be said, you tell Li Mao about this public case, in fact, if you don't say it, he must know it in his heart, you tell him that he is not sorry for Yunzhou, it is our brother who has failed him, I hope he can remember the old feelings, and if he has to spare others, he will spare others." ”

When Li Shidao came out of the duty room, the courtyard was deserted, and the only few lowly officials who were left did not know when they were gone, the sky was very blue, there were already stars and moons, and the sky in the west was burning with clouds, this was an ordinary dusk in late autumn in September, but in Li Shidao's view, it was meaningless, this was the last time he saw the blue sky, stars and fiery red clouds.

Jia Zhiyan, who was following him, saw him stand still, staring blankly at the sky, and was about to step forward to comfort him, but suddenly his eyes were empty, and Li Shidao collapsed without warning, fell to the ground, and never got up again.

...