Jianmen, an important place for soldiers since ancient times, is the only important pass that can provide hundreds of thousands of troops to enter and exit the southwest.

In the early morning, the first rays of sunlight shine through the countless majestic peaks on the long plank road. On the side of the plank road, the waterfall is like a practice, falling straight into the valley, and the torrent hits the craggy mountain rocks, making a deafening sound.

From the bottom of the valley upwards, the clouds are steaming, like a fairyland on earth.

It's a pity that this unparalleled beauty has been destroyed by the tragic battlefield, and there are countless corpses on the long plank road, and the seriously injured and undead occasionally let out painful moans, like abandoned and miserable lonely geese.

However, their suffering would soon come to an end, and the southwestern soldiers in charge of clearing the boardwalk brutally threw all the bodies out of the valley and rushed into the unknown distance with the torrent at the bottom of the valley.

As the sky became brighter and brighter, the cold fog flowing from the mountain stream gradually faded, and groups of southwest soldiers gathered in front of the sword gate through the plank road. Dozens of zhang towers towered between the two mountains, like a huge floodgate, blocking the surging torrent of black armor.

In front of the military formation, Huo Qing, who was dressed in iron armor, looked up at the majestic sword gate, as if he could see the panic, restlessness and uneasiness of every defender on the pass.

A mocking smile appeared at the corner of Huo Qing's mouth, and the smile gradually spread, and finally turned into an extremely happy long laugh, which reverberated among the mountains and lasted for a long time.

He still vividly remembered that not long ago, he had fled from here to the southwest like a lost dog, but was blocked outside the city of Yabu. If it weren't for Cao Qiu's refusal to spend more troops, he wouldn't have survived the moment when the miracle happened.

......

Five days ago, the embattled Huo Qing knew that only a miracle could save him.

He sent his last cronies to secretly enter Tamu City, hoping to convince the family elders to help him, and open the gates of Yabu City to gain control of the southwest center.

As it turned out, he couldn't do miracles, and the only ones who could do miracles were gods he never really believed in.

This time, the clansmen were more resolute than ever, and the envoy sent by Huo Qing was not able to come back at all, and his head was hung on the gate of Yabu City early in the morning, and his head with a hollow mouth and a shaky head deeply pierced his eyes.

He was in utter despair!

Huo Qing understood that he had been abandoned by the entire family. Those short-sighted clan elders were afraid of the military might of the Central Army, and they all surrendered to the man who was far away in the imperial capital. Therefore, all the elders of the clan chose to support the concubine Huo Fan, a puppet who was raised by Ye Chong, hoping to gain a glimmer of life.

Guarding the southwest for decades, Huo Qing, who has been in the southwest all his life, has never been so helpless and hesitant. Although there are still more than 100,000 soldiers and horses in name, as the commander of the army, Huo Qing knows very well that as long as there is a battle, most of these people will abandon their weapons and surrender.

The desertion reports sent by the military judge were piled up on his desk, and from the initial defection of a few or dozens of soldiers, to the departure of the entire contingent of 1,000 men later into formation, the morale of the army had collapsed to the extreme.

In the end, even the loyal military judges showed signs of instability. At the end of the road, the collapse of the Southwestern Army is imminent.

Even at this point, the Central Army still besieged but did not attack. Huo Qing was very clear about Cao Qiu's old dog's thoughts: the other party planned to use his failure to achieve immortal deeds.

Since ancient times, "the army that surrenders without a fight" is a more prominent glory than "even a million troops, attack must be taken, and the battle must be won", Cao Qiu is waiting for the southwest army to be defeated without a fight, waiting for him Huo Qing to surrender from the camp with his hands tied.

For this reason, Cao Qiu sent people over one after another to persuade him to surrender, and even promised in front of the officers and soldiers of the three armies that as long as Huo Qing could lead the army to surrender, the Southwest Army would not be blamed for all the crimes in the past, from the commander to the soldiers.

In this regard, Huo Qing scoffed and directly cut off the head of the messenger. No one understands better than him what it means to surrender. If he does surrender, there is only one end - that is, to be dragged to the imperial capital square and become a sacrifice for the victor to ascend to the throne, and his blood will only attract the cheers of the ignorant people.

In the final analysis, Cao Qiu and him are not the same kind of people, if Ye Zhong personally leads the army, he will definitely not waste saliva to persuade him to surrender. Because Ye Zhong knew very well that the things they wanted were the same, and they could never be shared.

Can you allow others to snore on the side of the couch?

The battle of imperial power has proved that Ye Chong will never allow the existence of a country within a country, even if Huo Qing does not oppose it, with the strength of the southwest domain, there is only one way to fall.

The Southeast Qiu Clan is the best proof that the Southeast Army has not been able to maintain the power and glory of the Qiu clan at the cost of hundreds of thousands of deaths, and the Qiu Barbarian, who is the head of the family and the commander of the Southeast Army, will not die well.

It's a pity that too many people can't understand such a simple truth, or they simply don't have the courage to understand it. Huo Qing didn't hate the betrayal of his clansmen, only their stupidity.

After the defeat of the Southwest Army this time, it will not take too long for the Southwest Huo Clan to become a historical symbol - the Southwest Huo Clan for eight hundred years, if it cannot be uprooted, the person on the throne will not sleep peacefully.

The situation has eroded to this point, and he has no power to return to the sky!

Huo Qing's decision to end his life with dignity is also the end of the 800-year political life of the Huo family in the southwest - the oath to rest with the country 800 years ago has finally become a joke. It never matters who is right and who is wrong!

Huo Qing aimed his sword at his heart - and then, a miracle really happened!

Huo Qing didn't die, it was his son who died, and the veteran Cao Qiu, who forced him to have no way to go to the sky and no way to enter the earth.

......

On January 12, 799 in the Guangming calendar, when the whole world thought that there was no suspense about the war situation in the southwest of the empire, a major event occurred here that was enough to change the future direction of the empire.

On the morning of the 12th, most of the rebels in the southwest were dispersed, and the rest announced their unconditional surrender, and Huo Qing, the leader of the rebels and the former governor of the southwest, was detained in Yabu City.

At noon on the 12th, the first section of the Central Army entered Yabu City and took over the city. General Cao Qiu entered the former Southwest Governor's Mansion and met with Huo Fan, the new commander of the Southwest Army, to discuss matters such as the handling of the rebels, the post-war reconstruction of the Southwest, and the transfer of bandit leaders.

On the afternoon of the 12th, a fire broke out in the Governor's Palace in the southwest, and it spread to the whole city at a very fast speed.

Soon after, there was news of a rebel rebellion in the city, and the Central Army stationed outside the city immediately divided their troops to rescue after receiving the news, but the situation was too chaotic, and there were people fleeing everywhere, and the Central Army entering the city could not carry out action at all.

The leading generals had to use thunderous means to forcibly control the chaos, but they were rumored by people with intentions, saying that the Central Army began to slaughter the city, and Yabu City was finally completely out of control.

The central army outside the city had no choice but to continuously increase its troops, but it sank into the sea, and the riots intensified.

After the chaos lasted for two hours, the southwestern rebels, who had already broken down in the early morning, suddenly appeared and attacked the central army camp outside the city, and the battle soon entered a white-hot stage.

At dusk, the heads of General Cao Qiu and several generals of the Central Army suddenly appeared in front of the two armies, and the morale of the Central Army was greatly weakened.

On the evening of the 12th, the southwest Huo's blood flowed like a river, and two-thirds of the clansmen were killed.

When the only remaining Huo clan elder pointed at Huo Qing and scolded him, saying that he had ruined the Huo family's foundation for hundreds of years, Huo Qing just replied lightly: "From today on, my Huo family's foundation is not in the southwest, nor in Yabu City, but in the imperial capital-"

What else did those clan elders want to say, Huo Qing then sneered: "If the lives of the people of a city can't shut you up, I don't mind adding a few more heads......

As he spoke, his palm was gently caressing Huo Fan's face that refused to bare at him, and the green tendons on the back of his palm were protruding.

No one dared to say anything more......

From that moment on, there was only one voice in the entire southwest, and that was his Huo Qing's voice.

......

Of course, Huo Qing didn't think he was arbitrary, because he occasionally asked for the opinions of others, especially the one who saved the Southwest Army and got him up from a desperate situation.

Thinking of this, Huo Qing's gaze slowly moved away from the sword gate and fell on a young man beside him. Vaguely, he saw another shadow between the man's eyebrows, a figure that had long since disappeared, but was still terrifying when he recalled it occasionally.

If it is said that in the past ten years of the Guangming Dynasty, it will not be someone else who finds the most feared and disgusting official, but the former head of the Inspectorate - Dai Chen.

Ruthless, reversible, femme fatale, greedy and shameless, none of these words can describe the bad character of the other party.

Speaking of which, he still has a lot of grudges with Dai Chen. If it weren't for Dai Chen, his daughter Huo Yu wouldn't have died in humiliation at all, and if it weren't for Dai Chen, he might not have been so passive in the battle for imperial power.

However, who would have thought that when he was in a desperate situation, he created a miracle to save the Southwest Army, and the person who saved him would be Dai Luo, Dai Chen's only half-brother.

In fact, he had long forgotten the other party's name, and since Dai Luo sent Huo Yu's frozen body back, he hadn't really paid attention to this obviously cowardly young man.

Now it seems that he did underestimate the other party. During the period when he led his army into the hinterland of the empire to participate in the battle for imperial power, Dai Luo secretly controlled the gendarmerie troops in Yabu City.

It was such a force that changed the tide of war in the southwest and rewrote the history of the empire.

Although he didn't understand how Dai Luo used to make Huo Fan obey him, this unknown secret turned things around.

If he commits suicide that day, he will become a joke of the whole world. But now, he has made everyone in the world a joke, and the biggest joke is the man who has just been crowned in the imperial capital.

Thinking of this, Huo Qing was extremely happy in his heart.

Huo Qing looked at Dai Luo and said slowly: "Although the Sword Gate is dangerous, the morale of the defenders is insufficient, and it is the time for a drum to fall!

Dai Luo glanced at the wolf-headed banner at the head of the city and said, "The Northern Frontier Army is not an enemy!"

Huo Qing: "Whoever stands in my way is the enemy!"

Dai Luo said expressionlessly: "They will leave!"

Huo Qing frowned.

Dai Luo rode his horse lightly and slowly walked towards the sword gate.

Huo Qing couldn't help but say, "Who are you?"

Dai Luolema stopped: "Adults should be able to guess!"

Huo Qing was silent for a moment, and said slowly: "That's right, I should have guessed, it's just...... It's unbelievable!" The shadow of a young man appeared in front of his eyes, he had never seen that young man, but he seemed to be able to sketch every outline of the other party in his mind.

For some reason, he had the illusion that in this world, the real protagonist had appeared. No matter how much he did, he only made a wedding dress for the boy.

He, Huo Qing, the king of the southwest, was also destined to be overshadowed in front of that young man.

Huo Qing suddenly laughed at himself, the new campaign had just begun, he actually had such weak thoughts, maybe he was really old!