The three of them were dumbfounded when they saw it, could this be the "person" released by the prince? Li Dayong hurriedly pounced, lifted the white cloth and looked, his lady was indeed lying on the stretcher, her hair bun was completely messy, her clothes were messy, her face was like white paper, and her eyes were closed. No matter how Li Dayong shook and shouted, she didn't react at all. Obviously, the lady has already died of anger.

Li Dayong hugged the woman's body and cried bitterly. Liang Hulang stood there, his face was pale, his teeth were clenched, and his two fists were clenched tightly. Hao Ying was helpless, so he could only shake his head and sigh.

After a while, Hao Ying bowed his hand to Liang Hulang and said, "General Liang, the lower official has to go back to restore his life, and he has taken his leave." However, Liang Hulang didn't react at all as if he hadn't heard it. Hao Ying let out a long sigh, turned around and walked away.

Hao Ying returned to the palace and came to the inner hall. As soon as he reached the door, he heard a violent cough coming from inside the house. His steps slowed a little, but he eventually walked in.

Xue Ju was sitting on the throne caressing his chest and coughing, and when he saw Hao Ying coming in, he quickly stopped coughing, gasped and asked, "How is it?" Did the people put it? Hao Ying hesitated, but still told the truth: "The person was released, but it was just a corpse." ”

What? Xue Ju's eyes widened, and he just wanted to say something, but his mouth was open, and he coughed violently. Immediately after, with a "wow", he spat out a large mouthful of blood. When Hao Ying saw it, he was immediately frightened, and hurriedly shouted: "Someone, quickly pass on the imperial doctor!" ……”

Xue Ju was already terminally ill, and he was so angry with his son that he vomited blood and died. Soon, Xue Rengao ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor in Zhesha City, and posthumously called his father Xue Ju as Emperor Wu.

After Li Zhiyun and the others left the small mountain village, they trekked all the way through mountains and rivers, crossed mountains and mountains, and came to Jingzhou City seven or eight days later.

Li Zhiyun looked from afar, only to see flags planted all over the city of Jingzhou, one of which was a large white banner waving in the wind, with a big "Tang" character written on it. Li Zhiyun breathed a sigh of relief, fortunately, Jingzhou City did not fall, and it was still in the hands of Datang.

Li Zhiyun asked Zhang Zheng to pay the guide and sent him back. Then, the team came to the city of Jingzhou, only to see that the city gate was closed, and there were soldiers standing guard on the city tower. Several guards at the front of the line shouted loudly for the soldiers in the city to open the door. A sentry poked his head out and shouted, "Who are you?" One of the guards replied, "We are from the Tang Dynasty, and the kings of Qin and Chu are with us." ”

Li Zhiyun stood in the middle of the team, looked up at the city tower, and saw a tall, dark-skinned, bearded general walking over and asking the sentry, "What's the matter?" ”

"Report to the general, a group of people have come below, saying that they are from the Tang Dynasty, let's open the city gate." The sentry replied.

The general turned his head to look down. The second brother was next to Li Zhiyun, sitting on the big green mule, and was also looking towards the city tower. After he saw the general clearly, he said loudly: "Liu Gan, General Liu Gan." When the general heard someone calling him, he followed the sound and found the second brother, and was surprised: "Your Royal Highness the King of Qin, it turned out to be you!" Then he commanded the soldiers who were gathered around: "Quick, open the gates!" ”

After a while, the city gate opened, and Liu Gan took the lead to greet him. He walked quickly to the front of the big green mule, hugged his fists and said: "Hussar general, Jingzhou Thorn Shi Liu Gan see the prince!" ”

The second brother stepped down from the mule with the help of the guards, pointed at Li Zhiyun and said, "General Liu, this is the King of Chu." When Liu Gan heard this, he turned to Li Zhiyun and hugged his fists and said, "The last general will see the King of Chu!" Li Zhiyun hurriedly returned the salute. The second brother smiled and said, "General Liu, you are quite comfortable here, Xue Ju didn't come to attack you?" ”

"Nope." Liu Gan said, "The scout came back the day before yesterday to report that Xue Ju was dead. ”

"Oh?" When the second brother heard this, he unexpectedly, "How did you die?" ”

"I heard that he was angry with his son."

Really? When the second brother heard this, he laughed. Liu Gan said: "King Qin, King Chu, please enter the city quickly." The second brother nodded and said loudly, "Okay, I'm finally home." Fifth brother, let's go into the city. ”

After Li Zhiyun and his second brother entered the city, they were arranged by Liu Gan to live in the barracks. The barracks is a large courtyard surrounded by barracks, with a large open space in the middle, which serves as a playground for soldiers to parade and train. There is a small courtyard next to the barracks, which is connected to the barracks by a gate. There are several bungalows in the small courtyard, and Li Zhiyun and his family live in this small courtyard.

Everyone entered Jingzhou City and finally settled down. Under Dr. Jia's careful care, after more than half a month, the second brother's body also fully recovered. On this morning, Li Zhiyun and his second brother were sitting in the courtyard basking in the sun, Liu Gan hurriedly walked over, hugged his fists and said: "Two princes, it's not good, Xue Rengao led the army to attack Jingzhou City, and it has surrounded us." ”

When the second brother heard this, he was taken aback, and quickly stood up, and Li Zhiyun also stood up. The second brother said: "How many people do they have?" ”

"About 20,000 people."

"Let's go up to the city and have a look."

The second brother and Li Zhiyun took a few guards, followed Liu Gan out of the barracks, and climbed the east city wall. The enemy soldiers were like dense ants, and there were countless of them. They were arranged in a neat phalanx, and the armor on their bodies and the weapons in their hands shimmered dazzlingly in the sunlight, looking magnificent.

It turned out that when Xue Rengao was the crown prince, he had conflicts with most of the generals. After he became emperor, many people were suspicious and uneasy. After Xue Ju's death, Hao Ying became overly sad and fell ill, and soon died, and the power of the Qin State gradually declined. In order to boost his morale, Xue Rengao decided to personally lead a large army to attack Jingzhou City and pull out the nail of Datang.

Li Zhiyun and his second brother inspected the city for a while. The second brother frowned, and said to himself: "The enemy is outnumbered, and the situation is not optimistic!" When Liu Gan heard this, he hugged his fists and said: "Please rest assured, the Jingzhou city wall is tall and strong, easy to defend and difficult to attack." We will definitely be able to repel the enemy's attack and hold the city of Jingzhou! The second brother looked at Liu Gan, nodded, and said, "General Liu, this king believes in you!" ”

In the afternoon, the enemy army began to attack the city. Although Li Zhiyun and his second brother stayed in the barracks, they could still hear the earth-shattering shouts outside the city. The second brother was not at ease, so he asked Li Zhiyun to accompany him to the city to have a look. The two took Zhang Zheng, Cai Hu and a few guards to the top of the city again. The drums outside the city shook the sky, and countless enemy soldiers rushed to the city with shouts and climbed up the ladder. The soldiers defending the city threw stones and logs down. Some of the ladders were directly pushed away by the soldiers with wooden supports, and the enemy soldiers on the ladders fell down along with the ladders. The battle was fierce, and some of the enemies had already climbed to the top of the city, but they were all wiped out by the soldiers defending the city, and finally the gap was blocked.

The north wind was howling in the city, and the second brother couldn't help coughing. Li Zhiyun worriedly: "Second brother, your illness is just right, your body is still very weak, and you can't withstand the wind and cold, let's hurry up." However, the second brother was reluctant to leave and wanted to watch it for a while. Later, he coughed more and more, and under Li Zhiyun's repeated urging, he had no choice but to leave the city.

The battle to defend the city of Jingzhou lasted for more than a month, and Liu Gan mobilized the young and middle-aged people of the whole city to assist in defending the city, while the enemy army used all kinds of siege equipment, sometimes day and night, frantically attacking the city. The battle was brutal, with both sides exerting all their might. The city was on the verge of falling several times, but was eventually held.

However, the worst came - the city ran out of food. At the beginning, everyone ate two meals a day, half miscellaneous quinoa, and gradually they could only rely on grain bran and wild vegetables to satisfy their hunger, and later they didn't even have grain bran and wild vegetables, only gnawing bark and eating leaves.

Li Zhiyun's stomach rumbled all day long, and then stopped screaming. He didn't feel hungry either, but he was limp and didn't have any strength at all. At noon that day, Li Zhiyun sat in the courtyard with his second brother basking in the sun. There is no food in the stomach, maybe only by basking in the sun, will I feel a little strength.

Li Zhiyun's face was solemn, and his heart was full of melancholy. How many days will they be able to survive without food? The second brother sitting on the side was also frowning, and it could be seen that he had no idea.

At this time, I saw Liu Gan walking over with two coarse porcelain bowls in his hands, and smiled: "Two princes, come and eat meat and drink soup." With that, he handed over the porcelain bowl. Li Zhiyun took it and took a look, and sure enough, there was hot soup in the bowl, and a large piece of meat, which was exuding an attractive fragrance. He was surprised: "General Liu, where did you get the meat?" Liu Gan smiled and said, "Don't hide it from the prince, the last general will kill my horse." The second brother held a bowl in his hand, and said with some doubts: "Liu Gan, are only the two princes of us having horse meat to eat?" ”

"No, no, everyone else has it, they have it!"

As soon as Liu Gan's words fell, I saw several soldiers carrying a large iron pot into the courtyard. They placed the iron pot in the middle of the courtyard and beckoned everyone to come and serve the broth. As soon as Liu Gan saw that the arrangements were made, he turned around and left.

Li Zhiyun was relieved to see that everyone had horse meat to eat. He didn't know how long he hadn't known the taste of meat, so where could he wait? In three bites, he swallowed the horse meat and swallowed the dates, and even drank not a drop of the soup.

After eating a bowl of meat, Li Zhiyun felt much more comfortable, and he also had a little strength in his body. As soon as he looked up, he found that the second brother was holding the bowl, but he didn't move the chopsticks, and hurriedly said strangely: "Second brother, why don't you eat?" ”

The second brother put the bowl on a stone bench next to him, stood up and said, "Fifth brother, you come with me." Although Li Zhiyun didn't know what the second brother was going to do, he still followed the second brother out of the small courtyard and came to the barracks.