Hong Guangli opened the conversation box and told a past incident that happened 20 years ago.

"At that time, the battle for the succession entered a white heat, although the current saint is the crown prince, but the strength of the noble group at that time was too weak, and only me and Prince Bao have been on the side of the saint.

At that time, Prince Bao was just an ordinary prince, and although Xiao Lao'er was a martial saint, he only controlled the military power of the two guards on the left and right of the Chinese army, and his status and authority were far different from now.

Compared with other princes who have already dominated the court situation and have the support of the ministers, the situation of the saint is precarious, and he is even forced step by step, and he will be squeezed out of the position of prince if he is not careful.

Seeing that the emperor's body was getting worse day by day, and the situation of the saint was becoming more and more worrisome, in order to stabilize the situation and make the saint turn defeat into victory, Prince Bao proposed to let the saint personally lead the troops to the expedition and win a big victory.

It just so happened that the Southern Dynasties had not yet risen, and the Northern Qi had not yet been attacked by the alternating powers of the north and the south.

So the saint took this opportunity to persuade the emperor to let him lead the army to the battle, completely crushing the ambitions of the Northern Qi people.

Unlike now, the six ministries at that time were divided between the princes, and the household department and the military department responsible for logistics and supply were not under the control of the saint, and no one knew how long the emperor's body could be delayed, so this expedition was extremely risky.

As early as before the expedition, the princes obstructed in every way, but it was only the emperor's undying enthusiasm for dominating the world that he was finally persuaded by the saint.

The saint concluded that after the army set out, the princes would use logistics supplies to drag the army back, so he decided on a strategy of quick victory.

In that big battle, the saint sat in the middle army, Xiao Lao'er led the left and right guards of the Chinese army as the forward, and Prince Bao was responsible for breaking the rear.

We first marched all the way to break through the blockade at the foot of Liuqing Mountain before the Northern Qi people were ready, and then left the outer defenders of the Northern Qi behind us and went straight to the hinterland of the Northern Qi.

Hou Ye is also the one who leads the troops, so he should know the risk of this move! ”

Hearing this, Xu Rui nodded solemnly and said: "This is like a thin needle piercing into the flesh, although the advance is fast, if the attack is blocked, it will immediately be surrounded by the enemy, and finally lead to the annihilation of the entire army." ”

Hong Guangli nodded and said: "By the way, the situation at that time was so dangerous, the saint was desperate, there was no possibility of retreating, let alone retreating, as long as the army was dragged by a certain city along the way, the army that lost foreign aid and supplies was in danger of capsizing."

However, fortunately, the people of the Northern Qi did not expect the Holy Shang to be so resolute, and several important towns along the way did not have time to prepare, so they were taken by our army in one fell swoop, and in just seven days, our army fought all the way to the Tianqian City, which was less than three hundred miles away from the capital of the Northern Qi Dynasty.

The city is the only way to enter the capital of the Northern Qi Dynasty, the city is as its name suggests, built under the steep mountain cliffs, like the moat is easy to defend and difficult to attack.

In addition, our army overcame all the way, which made the Northern Qi court very frightened, and hurriedly mobilized an army of famous generals to deal with it, making it even more difficult to gnaw on the city.

At the beginning, our army was not ready to fight a tough battle, thinking that Tianqian City would fight like several previous military towns, but I didn't expect that there would be such hardships after the real fight.

The siege battle on the first day was particularly tragic, and the other side also made a bloody investment, fighting to the death with our army, and the casualties on both sides were very heavy, and our army encountered the first head-on attack since entering the Northern Qi Dynasty.

In the following six days, our army intensified its siege of the city, but it continued to decline and exhaust in three times, and there was no real progress at all, except for the increasing number of casualties. ”

Xu Rui said: "This is the traditional siege war, the war has entered a stalemate, everyone is enduring terrible casualties, and they begin to compete with the will of both sides, which side can't hold on first, which side will lose." ”

Hong Guangli nodded: "That's what it means."

It was only at that time that our army knew that the defender of the city was originally the famous general Ning Guangde of the Northern Qi Dynasty, who was not only known as the first general of the Northern Qi Dynasty, but also good at holding the city, but also he had a good son! ”

"Ning Qian?!"

Xu Rui frowned, solemn.

Hong Guangli nodded: "At that time, Ning Qian was young and promising, amazingly talented, and sharp, and there were already faint signs of advanced martial arts, and his father was the famous Ning Guangde, who was regarded as hope by the entire Northern Qi Dynasty.

Almost all the people of the Northern Qi Dynasty hoped that after he advanced to the martial saint, his son would inherit his father's business and lead the Northern Qi to attack the city and plunder the land, so that the entire country would reach a higher level and become a first-class power that could truly sit on an equal footing with the Great Wei.

To be honest, if there was no big war, maybe the fate of Ning Qian and the entire Northern Qi would be different, but unfortunately this battle made Ning Qian completely escape into the side gate, and he was no longer willing to enter the court as a general.

In addition, soon after that, King Wuling was born, and stood on the top of the world with the attitude of sweeping all the heroes in the world, beating the Northern Qi to hug the head of the rat, and the national strength fell greatly, so that he could only survive for a long time, and there was no ambition to fight, which made people gradually forget their expectations for Ning Qian. ”

"What happened in that big war that had such a profound impact?"

Xu Rui asked puzzled.

Hong Guangli said: "Actually, Ning Qian was not in Tianqian City at that time. ”

"He's not in Trench City?"

Xu Rui was even more confused when he heard this.

Hong Guangli said: "After six consecutive days of unsuccessful siege of the city, our army was counter-surrounded by the Northern Qi army that came later, and the situation was precarious.

However, once our army passes through the moat city, it will go straight to the capital of the Northern Qi Dynasty, and the city defense of the capital of the Northern Qi Dynasty is very different from the city of the moat, if the city of the moat cannot be held, then the capital will not be able to hold it nine times out of ten, so the people of the Northern Qi Dynasty almost poured the strength of the whole country into vowing to defend the moat city.

The battle that followed was even more difficult, and Prince Sheng and Prince Bao led a large army to block reinforcements from all parts of the Northern Qi Dynasty, and handed over the besieging people to me.

And if I can't break it smoothly, the Holy Lord, Prince Bao and the 300,000 army will be completely buried in Northern Qi.

Our army can be said to be in ruins, living to the death, and launching round after round of crazy attacks on Tianqian City with the will to die.

On the tenth day of the siege, the army was deprived of food and grass, and had to kill horses for food, and even by attacking the enemy's grain routes, as well as digging wild vegetables and picking bark for food during the gaps in battle.

The 300,000-strong army held out for seventeen days with amazing will and unprecedented unity, and our army finally broke through the walls of the Heavenly Trench City.

However, the people of the Northern Qi Dynasty still resisted stubbornly under the leadership of Ning Guangde, treating every street and alley as a battlefield, and our army had to pay countless lives for every step forward.

At that time, the Shengshang and Prince Bao, who were responsible for resisting the reinforcements from all walks of life in the Northern Qi Dynasty, had reached their limit, and the army could collapse at any time, but the Northern Qi reinforcements were still converging towards the Heavenly Trench City.

To make matters worse, the henchmen left behind in Changxing City risked their lives to break through the obstacles and spread another piece of bad news.

The emperor's physical condition suddenly deteriorated, and I am afraid that he will not last long before he leaves.

If the Holy Lord can't win before the death of the former emperor and rush back to the capital, then I am afraid that he will miss the throne, and even if he does win in the end, it will be meaningless.

At this time of extreme crisis, the Holy Lord had no choice but to make a cruel decision, that is, to slaughter the city and hit the confidence of the Northern Qi people with the most heinous means.

Xiao Lao'er has also fought a lifetime of battles, and he knows that you must not be merciful at the moment of life and death, so although he was unwilling, he still immediately implemented the decision of the saint.

Regardless of men, women, children, soldiers, bandits, officials and people, as long as they are still in the city, they will all be killed, and then use sharpened wooden stakes to stick people's heads outside the city to intimidate the Northern Qi.

For a while, the corpses outside the Northern Qi City were piled up into a mountain, and the wooden stakes with human heads were like forests, and the entire Tianqian City was like Shura Hell, which was extremely terrifying.

This trick really worked, the Northern Qi people were already on the verge of collapse, and after seeing such cruel methods, they finally lost the will to resist completely, Ning Guangde was killed by the frightened deputy general, and the war ended.

After this, the Holy Shang immediately threatened that if the Northern Qi did not surrender, the Northern Qi capital would also be slaughtered, and the weak Northern Qi court was frightened by the tragic situation of the Heavenly Trench City, so it had to immediately sign an alliance with the Holy Shang.

At this point, the great battle launched by the saint was finally in danger, so that he could rush back to Changxing City in time with the great achievements he had made in the Northern Qi Dynasty, completely reversed the situation of seizing the heir, and became the saint today.

However, before that, Ning Qian heard the news that his father Ning Guangde was betrayed by his subordinates and killed by our army, and immediately rushed to Tianqian City alone.

At that time, the battle in Tianqian City had ended, and the Holy Lord was negotiating the results with the Northern Qi court, and Ning Qian saw Ning Guangde's head being inserted on a wooden stake outside the city.

At that moment, Ning Qian's heart was full of resentment, and he knelt under his father's head for three days and three nights, and actually entered the Tao with hatred, and crossed the threshold of the martial saint in one fell swoop, becoming the sixth martial saint in the world and the youngest martial saint.

After becoming a martial saint, Ning Qian immediately found the old man to take revenge, but he had just become a martial saint, his roots were basically not solid, and he was carried away by hatred, and he was easily defeated by Xiao Lao'er in a few moves.

In fact, when Xiao Lao'er traveled the world in his early years, he became familiar with Ning Guangde, and became a year-old friend, Ning Qian's birth, the full moon, and even the important moments of apprenticeship were present, and it is not an exaggeration to say that he watched Ning Qian grow up.

Perhaps this is also an important reason why Ning Qianhui hates me in particular.

That massacre of the city was a matter of family and country, and it was really their own master, and the little old man never regretted it, but I have always felt guilty in my heart.

Therefore, after defeating Ning Qian, Xiao Lao'er did not make a heavy hand, but let him go, and promised that one day if he seeks revenge on me, I will give him a chance to fight a fair battle.

So Ning Qian didn't say a word, and immediately left with his father's head, and never asked about the court again, and devoted himself to retreating and practicing martial arts, wanting to find the old man for revenge, which led to today's decisive battle. ”

After listening to Hong Guangli's story, Xu Rui was not very embarrassed in his heart, he didn't expect Ning Qian and Hong Guangli to have such a past, imagine how cruel and struggling it would be to insert his friend's head into a stake and stand outside the city gate for the sake of his family and country?

There is no need for Hong Guangli to say much about the rest of the matter, Xu Rui can guess it.

The slaughter of the city was not glorious, so when Emperor Hongwei ascended the throne, this notoriety could only be carried by Hong Guangli.

In exchange, people like Emperor Hongwei who couldn't rub sand in their eyes forcibly suppressed the idea of killing Ning Qian, and agreed to this duel between Hong Guangli and Ning Qian.

And although Hong Guangli said it easily, the fact that he had no choice but to kill his early friend Ning Guangde and countless living beings in Tianqian City was always a knot, so that he faded out of the Great Wei Dynasty from now on, waiting for the revenge battle that would come one day.

All the doubts were clear, but Xu Rui didn't find anything useful in it, and even the meaning of this decisive battle was still above his previous estimates.

If Ning Qian was just to win this duel, then it was possible to leave a life after Hong Guangli's defeat, but when this duel turned into a battle of revenge, if he didn't secretly intervene in the duel, then Hong Guangli would really die.

When Xu Rui was worried, Hong Guangli, who was the party concerned, was very indifferent, patted Xu Rui's shoulder gently, and comforted him in turn: "Life and death are fate, it is the saint who cares too much about the old minister, so it shouldn't be, Hou Ye doesn't have to be so embarrassed." ”

As he spoke, Hong Guangli changed his words and said: "What's more, everyone in the world thinks that Xiao Lao'er is quite old, but who said that Xiao Lao'er will definitely lose this duel?!" ”

Before the words fell, an astonishing momentum immediately revealed from Hong Guangli's body, like a sea of mountains rushing to his face, which immediately made Xu Rui take three steps back.

This momentum was not mixed with any qi, nor was it deliberately created, but the natural momentum cultivated by Hong Guangli's decades of martial saint respect and killing decision, which shocked Xu Rui.

Perhaps it was the impact of this momentum, and the person who was settled on the side suddenly woke up, and suddenly released another unparalleled momentum in his body, and the two momentum collided together, like two days of competition, and an indescribable energy erupted in an instant, and then returned to calm at the same time.

Xu Rui stood at the center of this storm, witnessed the collision of the momentum of the two, and was deeply shocked again.

After a long time, Xu Rui finally came back to his senses, only to see that he knelt down with a calm face, and kowtowed three times to Hong Guangli.

And the departure at this moment seems to be different from before, as if it has been reborn and reborn in Nirvana.

Xu Rui's heart moved, and he said in surprise: "If you want to leave, have you become a martial saint?!" ”