Auspicious eight years, December.

In the days when the water was dripping into ice, the coalition forces accepted the surrender of Tengcheng.

The horses stepped on the frozen ground into the silent city, and their wary eyes surveyed the army through the cracks in the doors and windows. After the army entered the city, they only did two things, one was to announce that the streets and alleys still belonged to the Great Zhou; One was to write to the imperial capital and send new officials to take over Tengcheng - the original officials were all killed by Wu Guang.

"When I was twelve years old, I once sneaked to Jiangnan to visit my master."

Chu Shixia walked on the street that was slowly regaining its vitality, and the people around him were repairing their houses one after another, and the sound of tinkling was endless. Chu Zhixia held the long reins, his peacock blue robe was washed white, and his armor was not draped, like a swordsman wandering the world.

"But my master's whereabouts are uncertain, so I rushed to the address where he sent my brother's letter, but I was in vain. In the end, I ran out of money, and lived alone on a boat on the bank of the Jiangnan River for more than ten days, making a living by dancing swords on the streets. At that time, I was lying on the bow of the boat, looking at the heavy galaxy that seemed to be pressed down on my head, the river was rushing, and I only felt that life was the most comfortable. ”

Bai Ziche walked beside her, dressed in a capable riding suit. Chu Zhixia wanted to teach him to ride a horse, and not long after the two of them came back from outside the city, Bai Ziche was so tired that his cheeks were crimson, and there was a thin layer of sweat behind him.

"And how did you get back later?" Bai Ziche asked curiously.

Chu Shixia sighed and said, "My brother has been sending people to follow me, and he deliberately didn't show up just to make me suffer. Later, the boat I was staying in leaked and I caught a cold, so my brother's men took me home with the shipwreck. ”

Bai Ziche smiled when he heard this.

Chu Zhixia has always had twists and turns in the past ten years, and she always talks about these things easily, without superfluous rhetoric, but it is so vivid that people unconsciously smile. Bai Ziche slowly carved out another appearance of Chu Zhixia from the things she casually mentioned, no longer a gloomy strategist who was scheming and calculating three steps, but a free and bright eldest lady carefully cared for by the Chu family - so bright that people couldn't bear to touch it.

But Chu Zhixia doesn't seem to miss or pity himself in that memory.

"I have already written to Wu Guang for peace talks." Chu Shixia suddenly said, "Not only him, but everyone under him who has a head and a face will know my conditions." ”

"On what terms?" Bai Ziche asked casually.

"Regain the entire territory of Gyeongju, and Wu Guang and others surrender." Chu Zhixia said.

Bai Ziche frowned slightly, "Your Majesty will not be satisfied with this condition, Wu Guang made him lose face, he wanted Wu Guang's life." ”

"Wu Guang won't agree either." Chu Shixia said, "But his subordinates won't want to fight me, and they won't trust him anymore." ”

Bai Ziche was about to ask again, but was suddenly alarmed by the noise on the street. Chu Zhixia subconsciously stopped Bai Ziche behind him, and heard a woman's sharp cry coming from a house on the side of the street. Two or three ruffians swore and withdrew from behind the door, lifting their trousers as they retreated.

Chu Zhixia's face changed, and he stepped forward and asked, "What are you doing?" ”

A fair-skinned young man glanced at Chu Zhixia contemptuously and scolded: "Don't be nosy, get out!" ”

Chu Zhixia saw a disheveled woman kneeling on the ground from the gap between the three of them, holding a man with a bleeding head in his arms. The woman cried while covering the blood on the man's head, and the child on the bed couched cried.

Chu Zhixia grabbed the young man who walked past her, pinched the back of his neck and threw him to the ground. The young man, dressed in heavy armor, was caught off guard by her pinching and pulling, and staggered and rolled down to the wall. The other two people wanted to help him while scolding Chu Zhixia, but they saw the sword blade of the drinking stream snow hanging above his throat.

"Bold! Do you know who he is? The minions were stunned, and pointed at Chu Zhixia Dao with raised eyebrows.

"Do you know who I am?" Chu Zhixia asked compassionately.

——

"General, calm your anger, General!" The lord of Yangzhou stumbled into the gate, eager to die in front of Chu Zhixia's table, "Xiao Song, he is just young and ignorant, and he didn't intentionally disobey the military order, so you can spare him this time!" ”

The three troublemakers were tied up with five flowers, and Yu Linwei knelt in the corner of the study with a sackcloth in his mouth. As soon as the leader saw the Yangzhou general, he struggled hard, his mouth whined, and Yu Linwei slapped him in the face before he became honest.

Chu Zhixia flipped through a page of the dossier lightly, raised his eyelids and stared at the chief general of Yangzhou, his expression was dark and uncertain, "When I bumped into him robbing the people's daughters and disregarding people's lives, he was still asking me if I knew who he was. Forgive me for being clumsy, I really don't recognize him, so I came back to find his file. ”

The lord of Yangzhou had dark eyes, knelt in front of the table, and did not dare to raise his head.

"It turned out to be the brother-in-law of Yangzhou Thorn Shi - oh, it's not a brother-in-law, it's the younger brother of Lord Thorn Shi's concubine." Chu Zhixia said unhurriedly, "With the momentum of Lord Assassin Shi, come to my command to be a powerful man?" ”

This kind of thing is actually not uncommon, in the Great Zhou, if you have no ink on your chest but want to get involved in your career, you will trust the relationship, spend money to hang a rank in the army, mix a resume and then slowly rise up. Naturally, these people don't have to go to a war-torn place like Yanbei, and they can get a good position by entrusting someone to take care of them.

"The child is still young, and Lord Assassin Shi just wants him to experience the experience...... "The main general of Yangzhou was sweating profusely and argued.

"I don't think he's young, he's clearly talking to me as a fart." Chu Zhixia slapped the table, and the tea cup trembled.

"He would never dare to be disrespectful to the general!"

Chu Shixia sneered: "It doesn't matter if he is respectful or not. As I said, those who violate military orders will be punished on the spot. ”

The three people who were listening were shocked, and they were frightened and anxious to rub against the Yangzhou general. Yu Linwei was impatient and directly pressed the three of them to the ground.

"General, no!" The general of Yangzhou didn't expect Chu Zhixia to be so dead-eyed, except for shouting dryly, he couldn't spit out half a word.

"In these four-state alliances, you have the final say now?" Chu Zhixia stared at the chief general of Yangzhou, and his tone was not good.

The lord of Yangzhou was speechless, looked at the three people who were in tears, and then looked at the murderous Chu Zhixia, and compromised: "It's better to let Xiao Song personally apologize to people, if he humiliates the people's daughter, let him marry someone home, it can be regarded as a beautiful talk......"

Chu Zhixia couldn't bear it anymore, stood up suddenly, and said: "Even if he is a nobleman of Tianhuang, if he robs the people's daughters and asks for marriage, is it a gift, and people should be grateful?" Do you know that the woman is a mother, a family of three, and her husband died on the spot! ”

"Even in your eyes, their family is cheap. I can't tolerate a soldier who defy military orders. I want to take his life to wash my military flag today, so that everyone will think that I can be deceived in the future, and I will no longer have the face to lead the army. ”

Chu Zhixia was fierce and aggressive.

The Yangzhou lord was dumbfounded, knowing that there was no room for this matter to turn around.

Chu Zhixia said to Yu Linwei: "Drag people out and deal with them according to military orders!" ”

Yu Linwei dragged the dead pig to the school yard outside, and the soldiers who gradually gathered did not understand what was happening. Yu Linwei read out the charges of the three people aloud, and then dragged them to find an open place and knelt down with them.

Many people in the Yangzhou army were surrounded by the brother-in-law of this Yangzhou assassin, and they flocked to Chu Zhixia and begged her to open up. Chu Zhixia looked at these faces coldly, and Cheng Yuan guarded her vigilantly.

"What, are your Yangzhou troops going to mutiny today?"

As soon as the words were spoken, the crowd fell silent in horror.

Chu Zhixia pulled out the knife on Cheng Yuan's waist and strode in front of the three people who were about to be beheaded. The little white face surnamed Song did not have the arrogant appearance of before, and shook his head at her with tears in his eyes.

"You die today for three crimes."

Chu Zhixia condescendingly examined his collapsed expression, and said slowly: "First, you shouldn't bully others and ignore the king's law in vain; Second, you should not flout military orders and do whatever you want. Third, you shouldn't rely on your sister to be the concubine of Yangzhou Thorn History, so you think I don't dare to do anything to you. Heaven and humanity are above, and the laws of the country are below, and you deserve to die today. If there is any nonsense pestering you to intercede, it will be regarded as the same crime. ”

The bright blade fell, and blood gushed out.

Chu Zhixia threw the knife to Yu Linwei with an expressionless face, and ordered Yu Linwei to continue the execution. The air on the school field was extremely silent, and everyone dared not dare to look at the pool of blood spreading under Chu Zhixia's feet.

"The same applies to those who violate military orders."

The Yangzhou lord sat on the ground with weak legs.

——

Night.

"You're still going to drink tea so late at night?" Bai Ziche looked at the steaming teapot in front of him disapprovingly.

Chu Zhixia was wearing a blue-gray coat, dragging one cheek raiser, and said slowly: "I can't sleep on the left and right, what's the difference between drinking and not drinking?" If I fall asleep, I may not wake up, but I might as well be awake. ”

"The army must be governed strictly, Tengcheng is in a battle, and you will be executed today, your majesty can be regarded as standing." Bai Ziche Shejue accompanied the gentleman, picked up the teacup and took a sip, "During the day, you haven't finished speaking." "Why don't Wu Guang's people trust him anymore?

Chu Zhixia stretched out his hand and counted it to him one finger at a time, "Wu Guang rebelled, who are the people under his hands?" Some of his subordinates were peddlers and pawns in the township, some of them were petty officials who had long complained about the government, and some of them were bandits and bandits who had been subjugated by him. ”

"The first type of person may still have some affection, but what about the latter two?"

Chu Shixia said slowly: "They are all people who can't afford to be early, they all want to live, they don't want to die." Tengcheng was broken and surrendered without a fight, and Wu Guang had no way to take the coalition army, and he couldn't even send food in. The coalition army entered the city, did not kill, did not plunder, did not ask for crimes, which in itself was already a temptation. ”

"But Wu Guang is not stupid." Bai Ziche continued, "Most of the officials in Gyeongju died at his hands, and he also used this to buy the hearts of the people of Gyeongju. He dared to rebel, but he never thought that the court would let him go. If Wu Guang was not a naïve and stupid person, he should have known that we were not sincere in our desire for peace talks. ”

"But the others don't know." Chu Zhixia spread his hands, shrugged his shoulders and said, "In their eyes, Wu Guang's refusal to negotiate peace is to drag them to death together and use their bones to pave a broad road for Wu Guang." ”

Bai Ziche sighed: "Discord plan." ”

"The world is unpredictable, and there is nothing more unpredictable than people's hearts." Chu Zhixia took a sip of strong tea, shook the amber tea at the bottom of the cup, and sighed.

"I mentioned the addition before, I don't know what you have to suggest. Do you want to see the plot of the text, or the brothers and sisters in the clouds, or the memories of the little couple's past life?"