Before leaving, Su Chuanfang specially taught Zhang Xiyang a lot of rules, and at this moment, Zhang Xiyang recalled the key points in his mind, followed behind Chen Zhong's buttocks, and followed step by step, his eyes always pressed against Chen Zhong's heels, all the way through the corridor.

Perhaps sensing the hurried and unnatural footsteps behind him, Chen Zhong turned his head and asked: "Team Zhang doesn't need to be nervous, the emperor's call is just to ask about the front-line war, and when the time comes, just answer the truth, don't lie, lying is a bully." ”

Hearing this, Zhang Xiyang hurriedly thanked him and said, "Thank you for your humble position, Manager Chen." ”

"Haha, Team Zhang is really interesting, I don't want to talk about despicability in my Da Zheng." Chen Zhong quipped.

"The last general will lose his word, and please forgive the chief."

Chen Zhong felt that it was extremely interesting, after all, he was still a child: "That's it, come with our family, the emperor is afraid that he is in a hurry in the imperial garden, wait for the prince and all the emperors and grandchildren, and maybe the princess and the county lord by his side, so you can't lose your courtesy at that time." ”

"The last general understands, Mr. Xie Chen mentioned." Suddenly, Zhang Xiyang remembered the guidance he had given to him from the original team, and hurriedly took out a piece of silver ingot, quietly handed it over, and lowered his voice and said in a sly voice: "Manager Chen, it's a little meaning, please take it to drink tea." By the way, squeeze out a smirk that is embarrassing and helpless in acting.

Chen Zhong stopped, looked at the five taels of silver handed over and couldn't help but smile, "Xiao Zhang, our family thinks you are getting more and more cute, presumably it must be one of your superiors who taught you the sophistication." ”

Chen Zhong's joke made Zhang Xiyang blush, and several little yellow doors and palace maids next to him also covered their mouths and snickered.

"Okay, okay, don't laugh at you", and said to Zhang Xiyang, "You are also a reward from the bloody battle, put it away with peace of mind, don't do these careful thoughts, understand?" ”

Zhang Xiyang didn't accept it or didn't know how, so he hugged his fists stupidly and said yes.

Zhengguo's Forbidden City is divided into two palaces in the north and south, the south palace is the emperor's upper court, the yamen, and the bureaus of the inner court, accounting for two-thirds of the entire imperial city, and the north palace is the residence of the emperor, the queen, the concubines, the prince, the underage prince and the princess, and the palace maid Huangmen, and the imperial garden is also in the north palace.

When Chen Zhong arrived with Zhang Xiyang, Emperor Cao Ju was already talking to the empress, concubines, princes, and several princesses, county lords, and granddaughters, and there were a few laughs from time to time.

The crown prince Cao Yin is in his forties this year, he is Cao Ju's eldest son, how many years Cao Ju has been the emperor, how many years has he been the prince, he has been cautious, but he still makes Cao Ju quite unhappy, but the eldest grandson of the emperor has been named the king of Zhao Cao Ke is twenty-one years old this year, and his handsome fortitude won Cao Ju's heart, and at this time it was also Cao Ke's eyes that saw Chen Zhong and Zhang Xiyang first.

"Grandpa Huang, presumably that is Zhang Xiyang, who shot the enemy commander with one arrow in the army."

Cao Ju turned his head, and Chen Zhong had stepped forward to resume his life.

"Zhang Xiyang, come forward."

Zhang Xiyang was a little uneasy, dozens or hundreds of pairs of eyes stared at the audience, which made Zhang Xiyang, who was like a fish in water on the battlefield, feel extremely awkward, especially when he saw many good-looking little girls, a few eyes full of boldness made Zhang Xiyang feel that his little face was hot, and his breathing was a little shorter.

"Weichen Zhang Xiyang see Your Majesty, see the Queen Mother, see His Royal Highness the Prince, see..."

"Okay, okay," Cao Ju interrupted impatiently: "There is not so much red tape, I asked you to come here to tell the emperors and grandchildren about the war in the southeast, so that they can know that the stability of the dynasty depends on the soldiers and the blood of the tiger with their lives, and it is the million-strong son of the 21st state guard of the 6th army of my Dazheng 4th Battalion, not anything else." You talk well, provoke the tragic talk, I don't do anything today and listen to it, just listen, if you don't speak well, I will punish you. ”

"Wechen obeys."

Zhang Xiyang straightened up slightly, took a deep breath, his expression gradually became solemn, as if he was reminiscing, closed his eyes, and the sound of fighting seemed to sound in his ears again, the wailing of the war horse, the roar of the robe and the rout of the enemy.

Cao Ju waved his hand, signaling Chen Zhong to stop and not urging, and dozens of the most noble people in the Great Zheng Empire waited quietly.

I don't know how long it took, maybe it was a few breaths or maybe it was a cup of tea, Zhang Xiyang didn't know, and slowly spoke: "At the beginning of April last year, Su Shuai was ordered to go on an expedition and arrived in Zizhou in May.

Zhang Xiyang's speed of speech is not fast, but his voice is full of emotion, and the robe that was still eating together in the morning and bragging turned into a cold corpse in the afternoon, many people did not even have a complete corpse, scattered limbs and intestines, and even many people could not even find fragments, only deformed armor and fragments of weapons could be found.

The soldiers fought to the death, and the generals shed blood.

Several timid girls have shrunk in the arms of their respective concubines, Cao Ju listened gloomily, and Cao Ke had secretly touched tears several times.

From the army's recovery of Quanfuzizhou to the confrontation and tug-of-war in Lingzhou, to the defeat of the army in Haizhou, to the regrouping of troops and horses to raid the enemy camp, and then to the victory in Mengshan to the final decisive battle of the Red River Beach.

For nearly three hours, the corners of Zhang Xiyang's mouth turned white, and he cried several times during the period, and finally talked about the command of the Zizhou Weidu so that Wu Quan saw that the offensive was in crisis, and personally got on his horse to charge, but finally died in battle, and also said that when the general soldier of the Pingwu Army, Kui Dayong, was seriously injured and died of blood, he was already crying.

Behind every word in the battle report may be the death of hundreds or even thousands of soldiers, the commander of the first guard, the general soldier of the first army, such a military position is already a proper senior general in Zheng State, but it has been killed one after another, and the tragedy of the soldiers can be imagined.

"It's all my Da Zheng's good sons, I'm ashamed!" Cao Ju closed his eyes, a few old tears slid down his face, and he was silent.

The people around him immediately knelt in a hula, and Zhang Xiyang also cried: "Your Majesty, you must not be like this, the surrounding countries covet my great Zheng Prosperous, and my heart will never die. Now fortunately, His Majesty has a candlelight, Su Shuai commands, all the armies are struggling, and when the sun is reappearing in the southeast, the generals can also look at it if they know it! ”

Cao Ju stood up and walked to the edge of the pond, where several carp jumped out of the water, reflecting a little light in the setting sun.

Cao Ju was silent, everyone naturally didn't dare to say much, the majesty of the emperor seemed to make the air stagnant at this moment, and the slight breeze blew the wicker and swayed slightly.

"Get up."

"When I get old, when I get old, I am easy to be sad, I am easy to be amorous, and I am easy to suffer from gains and losses"

"Emperor!"

Cao raised his head and waved his hand without looking back, and said, "Chen Daban, I know, but you let me say, I want to say it today, I want to say it today, I don't have much time." ”

Chen Zhong opened his mouth, but finally didn't say anything more, just secretly wiped away his tears.

"Chengkang's twenty-three years of army defeated Nanzhen, and when I went, there were more than 400,000 elite soldiers, and in less than half a year, I came back less than 200,000, and then I felt that I was awake. When you wake up, you naturally have to think about it. I think I am a big Zheng dominates the world, but a wild Nanzhen, the whole country is only 500,000 but the loss of more than 200,000 elites, I thought about it for a day and a night, I read it back and forth more than a dozen times, I was unwilling to find a veteran soldier who participated in the war to ask carefully, this result I don't want to believe but I have to believe it. ”

"Da Zheng is sick, too, he has been strong for more than 200 years, who cares about a little injustice, but these injustices, add up year by year, fission year by year, behind these injustices is the darkness that you will never believe. What do the people say, who of you knows? Prince, you say. ”

Cao Ju turned around and stared straight at the crown prince Cao Yin.

Cao Yin's head was two big and three swayed, cold sweat came out directly, and his slightly obese body trembled a little.

Cao Ju was a little disappointed, a little angry, and felt that the atmosphere was a little wrong, something should have gushed out but suddenly suffocated back because of this loser son.

"That's it, you are the prince of the deep palace after all. Cole, you say. ”

"Back to the emperor's grandfather, my grandson has heard of 'the county order that broke the family, the Taishou who destroyed the door, and the state pastor of the Yi people'"

Cao Ju closed his eyes and slowly suppressed his breath: "Yes, listen, the county order can make your family ruined, the Taishou can make you wipe out, and the state pastor can let you be punished, this is Da Zheng's parents and officials." ”

"I figured it out, if it doesn't change, it will die, Tianshun Tianshun, Shuntian people mean Yongchang, so I changed Yuan Tianshun, kill corrupt officials, kill corrupt officials, and kill bad officials."

"But this is destined to be a painful process, and some people even want me to die so that they will continue to be shameless and obscene forever, big rats, thieves of the country."

Cao Ju gasped, getting more and more frightened.

"Chen Daban."

"The old slave is here."

"You say, from the first year of Tianshun to the present, how many assassins have been discovered in Ouchi."

"Back to Your Majesty, three hundred and six in total."

"Do you hear? These people have no king, no father, no lawlessness. ”

"The prince has a gentle temperament, can he deal with it? They all say that I don't like him, but I am also a father, how can there be a father in the world who hates his son? If I don't kill it, what will I leave to the crown prince after a hundred years? ”

"Father!" Cao Yin cried and threw himself up and knelt on the ground.

Cao Ju gently patted his back with tears in his eyes, and his body, which had become thin, suddenly looked so tall again.

"I am the Son of Heaven, and the Son of Heaven is just a lonely man, hehe."

"As long as I do these things well, I can comfort my ancestors and ancestors, I originally wanted to give way after doing all this, and be the emperor with peace of mind, and tease my grandson, I am old, and I must do something that an old man should do."

"But in the tenth year of Tianshun, the northwest has changed dramatically, almost all the armies in the northwest have been wiped out, and two of the four states of Yongding Boyun have fallen, if it weren't for Zhang Duanwen's three thousand remnants desperately blocking the attack, I'm afraid that Fangzhou would not be protected, then it would not be as simple as losing the two states."

"The casualty figures on every single report are glaring to me. You can't pronounce their names, you can't remember their looks, their voices, their heights, their fatness, or their thinness, or what they like to eat, whether they had enough to eat before they died in battle, or who else is waiting for them to come home. ”

"I still remember that more than 40,000 people of Yongzhou Wei were annihilated, more than 30,000 people of Dingzhou Wei were wiped out, more than 30,000 people of Banzhou Wei were killed or wounded more than 16,000 people, 50,000 people of Yunzhou Wei were killed or wounded 37,000 people, 150,000 Ma Bu soldiers of the Northwest Battalion were killed, captured or missing, and 337,152 members of the Ma Bu Army of the Northwest Prefecture and the Northwest Battalion were lost of 300,000 in just a few months. When the soldiers are gone, how can the people be saved? ”

"What Xiyang said is right, how can the hearts of the countries be cut off."

"But we are too comfortable, we are also accustomed to comfort, at the beginning of the founding of the country, we were proud of serving in the army, over the years the royal family has been killed and injured in countless battles, take me as an example, I originally had eleven sons, in addition to the third and eighth old and eight died early, there are also nine."

"But now I only have one left."

The sobs around became louder and louder, the little girls were covered by their respective mothers, whimpering, children were crying, adults were also crying, the summer wind was hot, but everyone felt bleak and desolate in the verdant and lush imperial garden.

Cao Yin knelt on the ground, gritted his teeth, and the teardrops on the masonry ground in front of him gradually gathered together.

Cao Ke's eyes were red, his hands clenched into fists and released and clenched, his violently undulating chest was like a flame, swelling out of angry fierceness, but Cao Ke didn't understand this heroism.

Walking two steps and plopping, Cao Ke knelt in front of Cao Ju

"Minister, Cao Ke, King of Zhao, please Fangzhou, this heart is strong, fists are red, please approve !!"