I have to say that the individual combat capability of the Chu people is still above the armies of other countries. The remnants of the soldiers inside rushed to kill from the inside out, and the desperate efforts outside rescued the lord, and after killing for an hour, the Zhou soldiers gradually fell behind.

Zhao Bohu watched nervously at everything at the foot of the mountain on the top of the mountain, suddenly raised his hand and ordered: "Mingjin retreats!" ”

Fortunately, Ling Yin's army did not have a stable foothold, and only thought about saving the father and son of the King of Chu, and did not have much energy to pursue. The two sides collected their own troops, and the Chu army camped twenty miles south of Tonglu Mountain, and the two sides entered into a stalemate for a while.

In the ancient battlefield after the war, the wolf smoke has not yet dispersed, and there is blood everywhere, and the remnants of the sun are like blood. There were corpses of men and horses everywhere, most of them incomplete, and a few steps could be taken to step on a stump or a broken leg of a horse. There was a deathly silence, with occasional death-threatening moans or two.

Zhao Bohu's shoes had been soaked with blood on the ground, and his toes were sticky, which was very uncomfortable. Ji Hu's small hand tugged at one of his sleeves tightly, and his eyes were full of fear and panic.

Zhao Bohu shook off his hand vigorously and shouted in a low voice, "Are you scared?" ”

Ji Hu looked into his eyes in confusion, nodded, and suddenly shook his head again.

"You are the crown prince, the future lord of the people, protecting the world and guarding the Quartet, and I don't know how many tough battles there are to fight? If you are scared like this, what can you do? Zhao Bohu's tone was very harsh.

Ji Hu wiped the corners of his eyes and raised his head stubbornly: "I ------ I will never be like this again." ”

"He's still a kid and he's going to be scared. Your brother is too strict, I can't stand it! Ji Duoyou saw this little turmoil from a distance, and slowly walked in to hug the grievances.

"Brother Hu is good!" He touched Ji Hu's head and soothed: "When I was as old as him, I cried for a while when I saw the sheep being slaughtered at home!" ”

Zhao Bohu also accepted it when he saw it: "My Zhao man has been taught since he was a child and has taken on the heavy responsibility of the society, so he is more strict with him!" ”

"That's for you, sister-in-law, right? He is a concubine, and he will have a place to live in the future, so why should he be so demanding? ”

"That's that!" Zhao Bohu and Ji Hu glanced at each other, and quickly diverted the topic: "What about the army losses?" ”

Ji Duoyou sighed: "Hurt the enemy by a thousand, and self-inflicted damage by eight hundred." After counting the numbers, the casualties were nearly 10,000, and half of the military vehicles were lost, and now there are less than 200. It's good to be able to barely maintain the status quo, don't expect to take the initiative to attack Chu Ying. ”

He angrily whipped the horsewhip in his hand to the ground, and said angrily: "I could have shot the king of Chu to death, but I was wasted by Shenhou's gentle words, but I was caught up by the reinforcements of the Chu State, and I wasted such a good fighter in vain!" You say, did he do it on purpose? ”

After getting along with Zhao Bohu for many days, the relationship between the two has become closer and closer, and they are gradually not shy of suspicion when they talk. Zhao Bohu just smiled faintly: "You and I are both people from afar, and we will go back after the battle." But Shenhou is different, he still has to thrive in the Jianghan area, and he has to share the water and soil with the Chu people. Even if he kills the king of Chu, as long as the state of Chu is not destroyed, he will become a feud of the Chu people. ”

"So, he really did it on purpose?" Ji Tayu's eyes widened.

"Look at the country! In those years, he followed King Zhao's southern expedition, was a pioneer, and was hated by the Chu people to the marrow, but now the country is ruined, and the Marquis of Ehou is hanging his head in public. Jiang Han Zhuji, which one is not scared? Speaking of which, my Zhou Dynasty does not have the strength to destroy Chu now, at most it can only hurt it and stop for a few years! Zhao Bohu's words were desolate and full of helplessness.

Speechless for a moment, fell silent. At the end, Zhao Bohu looked at the sunset in the west from afar, and muttered to himself: "The princes have their own calculations, who can share the wind and rain with my Zhou Dynasty?" ”

Outside the Autumn Palace, Fan Ji held the hand of the deer sheep, followed by the palace maid Ji Sang holding a tray and following suit. Her face was solemn, her eyes were worried that could not be concealed, and her steps were hurried, as if she was in a hurry.

"Queen Niangniang, the king has orders, and no one will see them." The chamberlain outside the palace gate stretched out his hand to stop her, but was slapped in the face by the badger sheep, and was so frightened that he knelt down and begged for mercy: "Niangniang's forgiveness is really the king's order, and the villain is also acting on orders." ”

"Blind you slave dog eyes, the queen is the master of the harem, where can you not enter this palace?" The badger sheep was still waiting to be scolded, and he was in a state of distress, so he shouted: "That's it, hurry up and find the king!" ”

"No!"

In the inner dormitory, Ji Jiang was half-leaning on the couch, his abdomen was bulging, and it seemed that the delivery period was approaching. King Zhou Yi was sitting in front of her, coaxing her to eat a piece of melon.

"Cousin, I don't want to eat! If you eat it, you might vomit again! Ji Jiang's voice was so delicate that it could drip water.

King Zhou Yi comforted softly: "If you vomit, you have to eat!" Even if you don't eat it, the child in your belly will have to eat it too! It's freshly picked, crispy and sweet, so you love it. ”

"Then ------ cousin, you feed me?"

"Good, good!" Ji Xie was picking up a piece of melon and was about to send it to Ji Jiang's mouth, but Fan Ji only felt panicked in his heart and cleared his throat.

Ji Xie was startled, looked up and saw Fanji, and blurted out, "Why is the queen here?" ”

Fan Ji suppressed the evil feeling in his heart, saluted King Zhou Yi, and said: "King, now you can't even stay in your main hall, and the concubine wants to see you, so she has to come to this Autumn Palace." ”

"What did the queen say?" Ji Xie put down the melon, and a trace of loneliness flashed in his eyes: "Wife, Qi Ye." If the queen wants to see Lonely, she can do so at any time! However, since this time, although Lone has not gone to the Middle Palace, he has not seen the king looking for Lonely. It can be seen that if there is nothing important, the queen can't think of being alone, right? ”

"The concubine does have something important, please move the king." Fanji heard King Zhou Yi's irony, but he didn't want to pick it up.

Ji Xie clapped his palms and comforted Ji Jiang in a low voice: "Cousin, come if you go alone, you lie down well!" ”

In the middle courtyard, the badger had already cleared all the palace maids, and he and Ji Sang were only waiting on the left and right twenty meters away.

Seeing King Zhou Yi approaching, Fanji picked up an arrow on the tray and said straight to the point: "King, Zhaozi Mu was assassinated in Tonglu Mountain, and someone shot a cold arrow at him. The arrows are here, please check them out! ”

Ji Xie was taken aback: "Zhao Gongzi is fine, right?" ”

"It was Hu Er who blocked this arrow with the short knife in his hand, otherwise, Zhaozi Mu would have returned to the West."

"Then Hu'er wasn't hurt, was he? Who exactly are the Assassins coming for? ”

Fanji shook his head: "Hu Er is not injured, although I don't know whether this assassin is aimed at the prince or Zhao Gongzi, but it can already be deduced who sent this assassin." The king might as well sniff this arrow, what is the difference? ”

Ji Xie put the arrow under his nose and sniffed carefully: "There seems to be a fishy smell that seems to be absent." ”

"Only Qi Di will boil bamboo arrows in brine to increase the flexibility of the arrows."

"What did you say?" Ji Xie's face was frightened: "Qi Di? Is it Qi Hou? Or is it a prince? Did they do this to stop our army from marching south? What's the intention? ”

This matter is not trivial, and King Zhou Yi understands it very well in his heart. The Western Sixth Division was pinned down by the Raccoon and trapped in this land of abundance and could not move; The concubines of Hanyang were disturbed by a Chu state. Now that the Qi State has different aspirations and is ready to move, the Central Plains will not be at peace. In the Great Zhou Dynasty, there are enemies on all sides, and social turmoil is inevitable.

He was so confused for a moment that he couldn't figure out what to do, and he didn't know what to do with the handle of the arrow. Or did Fanji sort out an idea for him: "King, how is the war situation in the south?" ”

Ji Xie froze: "Just received the battle report, Zhaozimu won a big battle, and almost didn't capture Xiong Qu's father and son alive. was only rushed by the follow-up reinforcements of the Chu State and rescued. Now the two armies are facing each other in Tonglu Mountain, and they have been without fighting or making peace for more than half a month. ”

Fanji heard that something was wrong: "Chu has backup, why don't we have it?" After receiving the letter from his brother's family, only Shen, Quan, Luo and the concubine's mother country Fanguo sent troops to help summon the son, why did Suiguo have no movement? Suihou has a noble bloodline and a respected status, and has always been the head of the Hanyang princesses. Why did you stay put? ”

"The queen was very worried, so Lone issued an edict to Suiguo, ordering them to send troops to Tonglu Mountain as soon as possible, and there should be no mistakes." He turned to leave, and suddenly remembered something: "Can you tell the kingdom about the prince's army in summoning the prince?" ”

Fan Ji smiled bitterly and said: "Zhao Gongzi was assassinated, I am afraid that this matter has already been leaked, if it is conducive to the battle situation, the king can inform the marquis." ”

In Tonglu Mountain, the two armies have been facing each other for more than a month. Seeing that the garrison was getting longer, Zhao Bohu began to prepare for a long-term standoff. He sent the cautious veteran Ji Zheng to the rear to supervise the transportation of grain and grass, which requires patience and is less dangerous, suitable for this veteran who always thinks about preserving his strength.

At this time, in the Chinese military tent, Zhao Bohu listened to the spies' statements with a straight face, one by one, all of them were bad news.

"Yes. The day before yesterday, several truckloads of copper cakes were transported from the direction of Echeng, and immediately several casting furnaces were rammed in the Chu camp, the flames were soaring to the sky, and the sound of weapons beating was endless, and it must be casting weapons. And the Chu soldiers practice archery every day, from morning to night, in shifts, and are very diligent------"

Zhao Bohu was a little irritable, and waved his hand to let the spies out. He knew that with Xiong Qu's character, how could he give up after suffering such a big defeat? The reason why he has been holding his troops still is because he has lingering fears about the Zhou army's chariot copper thorns, and once there is a way to crack it, it will definitely counterattack and get back to its old roots. Copper Green Mountain, it seems that he is bound to win.

Ji Duoyou couldn't bear it: "Zimu, what are you waiting for?" Wait any longer, the Chu people will also load their chariots with copper thorns, and all the copper arrows will be cast, and we will be the meat on his chopping board. Hurry up and take advantage of them not being fully ready, the preemptive strike is! ”

"Preemptive? We only have more than 20,000 horses and more than 200 military vehicles left, and our combat effectiveness is inferior to that of the Chu soldiers. Zhao Bohu took a few shots, and said hatefully: "It's hateful that the princesses of Hanyang are all sitting on the mountain watching the tiger fight, and no country has come to increase the army." ”