Embrace the snow pass.

A layer of vast snow hastily buried the corpses outside the gate, and only the battle flag planted in the pile of corpses fluttered, and finally it was covered to only a tip.

Chu Shixia opened the tent of the wounded barracks, and a foul smell mixed with a fishy smell came to his face. The wounded soldiers even moaned in a low voice, and the medical officer was silent and scorched the wound with a red-hot knife to stop the bleeding.

From time to time, a few high-pitched screams broke the silence, but the wounded soldiers were used to it.

"General, if there is no medicine, the wounded soldiers will have to wait for death." The medical officer lowered his voice and whispered in her ear, "It's better to be winter now, but if it's summer, I'm afraid the epidemic will spread." Tell me, is there any medicine? ”

"There will be medicine." Chu Zhixia heard herself whisper, her voice was so cold and hard that it didn't look like herself, "Before the medicine comes, you only govern." ”

The medical officer looked at Chu Zhixia with suspicious eyes.

It's not that the Chu family hasn't produced a female general. Now that the king of Zhenbei has passed away, he is supported by Chu Zhixia alone up and down the snow pass, inside and outside the clouds. Such a thin little girl has been rooted in Yongxueguan and fought with the Beidi people for several years.

But Yongxue Pass has been out of food and medicine for a long time, and the spies only reported to Chu Zhixia alone, and the people in Yongxue Pass didn't know what was happening in the clouds at all.

Chu Zhixia didn't explain, just turned around and left.

She walked alone in the snow for a long time, pacing slowly along the roots of the snow-covered wall, her fingertips brushing over the scarred wall, like a cat that could not find its way.

An old coat was draped over Chu Zhixia's shoulders, and she turned her head to look at the sinking boat behind her.

Shen Zhou's expression was so familiar that she was in a trance, as if she was still a teenager, in the clouds, the sky and the earth were big, and she could go wherever she wanted.

Ten years since the auspicious charm, the new emperor ascended the throne, and the sky has changed in the clouds. The imperial capital came to make a decree to remove the title of the Chu family, and ordered Chu to know Xia to enter the imperial capital to be punished. The crime is "great disrespect", but the evidence is a joke she didn't remember when she was a child.

The people in the imperial capital couldn't wait to uproot the Chu family, but they didn't dare to come hard, so they had to cut off the supply of Yongxue Pass and force her to comply.

But Chu Zhixia couldn't go.

With such heavy snowfall, the horses of the Beidi people could not eat grass, and their determination to go south became stronger and stronger. As soon as Chu Zhixia left, the dragons of the Xueguan Pass were leaderless, the light was mutiny, the city was broken, and the Beidi people and horses stepped in the clouds.

Chu Zhixia knew that she couldn't win, she couldn't be a general who abandoned the city and fled, and ignored the countless people in the clouds behind her; She can't be a rebel and a thief, so that future generations will point at her brother's backbone and scold her.

She just wanted to die here.

Died in the city that her brother had guarded all his life.

"Shen Zhou, you go out and ask for help." Chu Zhixia's lips cracked, oozing a trace of blood.

Shen Zhou was a little hesitant, at such a difficult time, he didn't want to leave Chu Shixia.

"Please," Chu Zhixia held one hand in his face and landed a kiss on his lips as light as catkins, "I'm tired." I can't hold on anymore. ”

——

Shen Zhou woke up in a violent heart palpitation, and the soft and cold touch on his lips did not seem to have completely dissipated. He pushed open the door and saw the moonlight dripping in the courtyard. Chu Zhixia sat in the courtyard wearing a cyan robe, her long hair was scattered, and the moonlight on the ground flowed like water under her feet.

"Why did you wake up," Chu Zhixia raised his hand to beckon him without looking back, "Did you have a nightmare?" ”

Shen Zhou often had nightmares when he first arrived at the Zhenbei Palace, but he didn't make noise when he woke up, just crept to hide himself. When the maid found out that he was gone, she made a fuss that the whole palace was looking for him.

And Chu Zhixia is always the one who finds him the fastest.

Chu Shixia found Shen Zhou countless times in the box containing clothes, in the well with buckets, and in the leafy begonia tree, and then took him by the hand and took him back to the room.

Shen Zhou sat down quietly opposite Chu Shixia, Chu Shixia held his chin and laughed at him, "Shen Zhou, do you still have nightmares when you are so old?" ”

Shen Zhou lifted his eyelids to look at her, his pale skin was as transparent as white jade in the moonlight.

Chu Zhixia inexplicably felt that his eyes were wet and heavy.

"It's the scariest dream I've ever had in my life." The sunken boat rowed.

Chu Zhixia was just teasing him, but he couldn't help but be stunned when he heard this, "Is it so terrifying?" She reached out and touched Shen Zhou's head, "Snoring, snoring, not scared." ”

"What do you mean?"

"The slang of the imperial capital to coax children." Chu Zhixia said.

Shen Zhou's heart was slightly wider, and then he saw the chessboard that Chu Zhixia had put out.

The black and white sons are lonely, and the situation is not yet clear.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm thinking about what will happen if the person who comes to the imperial capital is the second brother." Chu Zhixia pinched a sunspot and knocked on the chessboard, "I've figured it out." ”

"What will happen?" Shen Zhou wasn't curious, just asked casually.

"Military power." Chu Zhixia said with a smile.

——

Imperial Capital has a narrow and crowded alley called "Chess Alley".

There were many chessboards placed against the wall, and behind them sat either white-washed scholars or old men with long goatees. Gambling on chess is the only livelihood here, and every chess loss is a copper coin.

"This young lady is really a good person," the old man in a tattered sheepskin coat smiled, and checked the money bag in his hand, "A good man has a safe life, and you will definitely be able to rise to prominence in the imperial capital in the future and marry a noble son-in-law." ”

Chu Zhixia was wearing a dark robe, leaning against the wall, listening to this bull's tou's praise of the horse's mouth, he just smiled, "I don't want any noble son-in-law, where can your son-in-law compare to gold and silver?" ”

The old man won her more than a dozen copper coins, and changed his words with kindness, "Miss will be able to go smoothly and make her wishes come true." ”

"Don't get cheap and sell well, I'm not good at learning, if my eldest brother is here, you can't find a place to cry if you cry." Chu Zhixia said half-seriously, "In the imperial capital, there is no other opponent. ”

The old man was also willing to tell her a few words of truth, "Do you know who has the best chess skills in the imperial capital?" ”

"You're not going to say it's you, are you?" Chu Shixia sneered.

"It's just a little old." The old man smiled, "Within the Imperial Capital, only the regent can have a few hands with me!" ”

"Do you know which way the door of the Regent's Mansion opens?" Chu Zhixia picked up a chess piece and threw it into the chess pot, and there was a sound of "dang".

Chu Zhixia turned to leave, but a carriage at the door of Chess Alley silently lifted the curtain, revealing a finely carved little face. Miss Chen Liu is not as arrogant and domineering as she was on the day of the palace banquet, but she is still arrogant, and her eyes seem to be over the top of people's heads when she looks at people.

"My father wants to see you," Miss Chen Liu said, "and you can also refuse." In this place, no one will know that the eldest lady of the Chu family got into the carriage of the Chen family. ”

"Why should I refuse? That's what I'm waiting for. Chu Zhixia smiled and boarded the carriage.

The regent is a folk nickname, and the officials only call it that way in private, and the court does not have this title.

The regent Chen Bang has many positions, and in recent years, he has been relieved one by one, and now only the post of Taishi is left, and there is also the name of a national uncle. He is both the uncle and the ruler of the country, and half of the government and the opposition are his minions. Although the Taishi is a false name, if he wants to do one thing in the court, he has to be constrained everywhere.

"The regent Chen Bang is accumulating, moody and angry, insidious and vicious." This is Chu Mingyan's commentary on him.

Such a person, even if he wants to kill you, will not do it himself.

The carriage stopped at the side gate of the Chen family, and Miss Chen Liu always kept her face tight, and she didn't look at Chu Zhixia for more than a glance.

"Miss Chen Liu," Chu Shixia said sincerely, "Am I so ruthless in offending you?" ”

"You can be arrogant," Miss Chen Liu said with half contempt and half pity, "Do you still think this is in the clouds?" ”

Chu Zhixia grinned, revealing two pointed tiger teeth, and then reached out to open the hem of his skirt. Under the layered skirt, a long sword wrapped in black sharkskin was revealed. Miss Chen Liu exclaimed in surprise, and her back was tightly pressed against the wall of the carriage.

"This is not in the clouds, you think I'm scared?" Chu Zhixia untied the sword and held it in his hand, and got out of the car directly.

The guard guarding the door was at a standoff with her for a moment, and someone inside came to tell her to let her in.

The Chen family is not as rumored, even the floor tiles are made of white jade. There are a few flowers and trees planted here and there in the yard, and they are also lonely, which has the appearance of the Zhenbei Wangfu. The subordinates you met along the way all bowed their heads and were silent.

The regent was waiting for her in a pavilion with a game of chess on the table. There is a plane tree next to the pavilion, and the pavilion is like a canopy.

The Lord Regent wasn't the hawk-eyed man she imagined. On the contrary, he was dressed in a white-washed gown, his expression was peaceful, and he even looked a little like a hard-working scholar.

"Here, the word your brother chose for you is Mo Xue, right?" As soon as the regent raised his hand, he motioned for her to sit opposite, "Mo Xue, you could have won that game of chess in the alley, why did you deliberately lose to him?" ”

Chu Zhixia swept her eyes, and the game of chess on the table was the chess game she played against the old man in sheepskin Qiu in the alley, and there was no deviation.

"Not why. In life, why bother to win everywhere? Chu Shixia said, "I have won too much in the past ten years, and it is nothing to lose a few times occasionally. ”

Most of the people in the chess alley make a living from gambling, and many scholars from poor families use it to earn money for reading, and some people just use it as a means of making a living. And Chu Zhixia is not short of money, and money is not the purpose of her going to Chess Alley.

"This is also what your eldest brother taught?" The regent rubbed his chin, "It's kind of interesting." However, in the imperial capital, one wrong step may be a catastrophe, and you can't afford to lose. ”

"All I know is that if you don't want to lose, don't sit at the chessboard in the first place. The Chu family has no interest in the imperial capital, we are just guarding the clouds, guarding the snow pass, that's all. ”

Whoever becomes emperor does not affect this fact.

From the day he woke up, Chu Zhixia had been thinking for a long time about why Chu Mingxiu died. What are the people in the imperial capital afraid of the Chu family?

Later, she finally figured out that it was the Chu family's fault that she held the military power. The people in the imperial capital couldn't sleep, and what they were most afraid of was waving troops south in the clouds and raising troops to serve the king. The one with the most motive to kill Chu Mingxiu was the regent.

Chu Zhixia raised his eyes and looked at him, his eyes were clear, like the snow light of the sword.

The regent suddenly stroked his palms and laughed, "Your brother taught you well, is this what your brother meant, or did you think of it yourself?" ”

"It doesn't matter, I'm in the imperial capital, and my words and deeds represent the Chu family. Don't you think so, too? ”

"You're a smart boy," the regent said, getting up and pressing her shoulder, "a smart man can live longer in the imperial capital." But you don't have to be afraid, as long as you are in the imperial capital, even if you want to turn the sky upside down, it depends on whether I agree or not. ”