Chapter 121: A Defeat of Sihu’s Lamentation

“Many people have long ago advised what should be advised, so there’s no need to say anything more.” Fan Xian smiled and patted Ye Ling’er’s shoulder, the two of them had always been unconcerned about anything between them.

Ye Ling’er didn’t raise an eyebrow out of habit, instead, her face was a little bleak as she said, “There are always arguments at home that get into my ears …… although I don’t really want to hear about them, but those things in the north, father is very angry.” She looked at Fan Xian, wanting to speak, and after a long time said seriously, “After all, you and I are Qing people.”

Fan Xian nodded and didn’t say anything, but his smile was somewhat bitter. After the Qi Nian team members sent to Dong Yi City met up with Mu Feng’er, they passed on his will to make the unrest in Xiao Liang Kingdom burn anew, thus finding a way to resist the court’s decree so that the Grand Prince could stay in Dong Yi City.

However, the reaction of Northern Qi was really out of Fan Xian’s expectation, because counting the time, Wang Qinian should have just arrived at the Upper Capital not too long ago, and in the message that he himself had asked him to bring over, there was no intention for Northern Qi to send out troops in a big way, but only to ask that little emperor to look at the love between the two of them, and to help out Dongyi City a little bit.

There were many ways to help, and a practice like what Bei Qi was doing today was undoubtedly the brightest and most honorable, and the kind that made Fan Xian’s situation the most awkward. He shook himself out of his contemplation, chucking silver coals on one side and softly gossiping with Ye Ling’er on the other, trying to find out from just a few words in the Ye Mansion whether there was any movement on the part of the Privy Council or not.

Because that His Majesty the Emperor in the palace had reacted too indifferently to the war in the north, so indifferently that Fan Xian smelled a hint of danger, yet he didn’t know exactly where this smell, exactly, had landed.

A few days after the winter solstice, the Fan family held another family banquet, this time the family banquet was not like the Prince of Harmony’s residence, the young generation of the imperial family were invited in, it was purely a family banquet, in addition to the master of the house, the guests were only the four sons of the Fan family.

Yang Wanli was sentenced to prison from the Ministry of Public Works position, suffered a heavy sentence in prison, that day after the Da Lisi sentencing, was Fan Xian received back to the residence to recuperate, to date there are still some mobility problems, face resentment expression but has long been light, just quietly sitting on the lower hand side of the position.

Fan’s four sons climbed the fastest is Cheng Jialin, he has done Suzhou governor, but now by Fan Xian implicated, but also very miserable collapse. The palace gave him to the two Chuan Ap prostitutes invasion of mausoleum big crime, is a bit too heavy, was forced to take back to the capital. In this month, Fan Xian for him to run back and forth, boiling God effort, finally saved his life, but also lost the matter. Seeing that there was no future for him, Cheng Jialin sat down below Yang Wanli and sighed long and short.

There were two tables in the flower hall, the ladies were at the table behind the screen, and only Fan Xian and Yang Cheng were seated at the table outside, and they did not make a move, but were waiting for someone. Outside the flower hall, snowflakes sprinkled in the garden of the Fan Mansion, waiting for those who had returned.

Not waiting for long, a man entered the flower hall under the guidance of a servant, braving the wind and snow. It was Shi Yanli, who had left Nanqing all these years and had followed Fan Xian’s will to unify the great business of green houses in the whole world.

Shi Yanli entered the hall. Not sooner than dusting off the snowflakes on his body, he first made a deep bow to Fan Xian on the main seat, and then paid his respects to the master-mother on the table inside through the screen, before turning around, looking at Yang Wanli and Cheng Jialin with a bitter smile, and going forward to hug these two friends he hadn’t seen for a long time.

Now he and Sang Wen co-chairing the moon building, naturally clear most of the news under the sky, but also know these two friends in the months of miserable encounter, everything in the unsaid, just a hug, will have described all the feelings of separation and comfort.

“You are not well, so don’t get up.” Shi Yanli consciously sat down below Cheng Jialin, and said to Yang Wanli, who made a gesture to get up to speak, although he is now one of the world’s most wealthy merchants, and is regarded as one of the great heroes in any place, however, the habit of reading the holy books in the early years has not changed, especially the regret in his heart, so that he naturally envied the journey of the three friends, Yang Wanli, Cheng Jialin, and Hou Jicheng, and always thought that the three friends had a good relationship with each other. friends’ journey, and also always thought that he, as a businessman, should sit at the bottom.

Yang Wanli and Chengjialin exchanged glances and bitter smiles, and did not bother to pay attention to this pedantic fellow, so they turned their heads to talk about some gossip, and no one went to talk about their own miserable encounters in these months, nor did anyone go to the court to criticize the court, because they did not want to let the door Fanxiao be anxious because of these things again.

After waiting for a while longer, but no one ever came back, the faces of several people at the table began to become somewhat embarrassed and ugly. Cheng Jialin looked at Fan Xian’s slightly frozen face and murmured, “Perhaps it was snowy and delayed on the way.”

Yang Wanli pursed his lips tightly and sighed, picking up the wine cup in front of him and drinking it all in one go. Shi Yanli glanced at Fan Xian with some confusion and said, “According to the news I got from my side, Ji Chang should have returned to the capital seven days ago, only that the imperial court didn’t convict him and just left him to cool his heels.”

Fan Xian raised an eyebrow, smiled, and said, “It’s near the end of the year, and officials and peers are having many exchanges and banquets, so it’s normal that they can’t make time for a while.”

Having said that, his mood was still inevitably a bit gloomy, Hou Jichang had returned to the capital for a few days, but did not come to the Fan Mansion to pay his respects, and the eyes of the court had caught wind of the fact that it seemed that the palace did not have any intention of punishing him, which had all been made very clear.

In such a country, it was not that there was no such thing as backstabbing one’s teacher, but when it came to his own body, Fan Xian’s heart was still a bit uncomfortable. His eyes slowly flicked past the faces of the three people on the table, and his heart was flooded with extremely complicated emotions. Shi Hanyanli was still in the Song capital, but this time he ventured back to the capital to see himself, Yang Wanli, needless to say, said Cheng Jialin, who had already become the governor of Suzhou, Fan Xian always thought that his temperament was a bit soft, and did not quite dare to trust, but did not think that this person would rather be taken away from the official position, but also refused to deviate from his own.

And Hou Jichang unexpectedly did not come.

“I heard that today, Dr. He is also hosting a banquet in his residence.” Shi Yanli’s face was a bit ugly as he said, “Back then, before you entered the capital, the two of them were known as the top of Kyoto’s talented people and had some personal relationships.”

Yang Wanli gritted his teeth and said angrily, “Good one Ji Chang, abandoning the dark and bright things to do fast, some other day when we meet, we must give a good praise.” This is naturally ironic, Cheng Jialin heard only a bitter smile, a long time later sighed quietly and said: “I want to think of the year in the Tongfu Inn, Ji Chang brother said to me and so on, the small Fan Sir is the time to walk, but also pay attention to do not umbrella on the rain water dripping into the vendor’s frying pan, and so on the love of the people, it is I and so on should be the object of the followers, but I do not expect that today he …… hey ……”

A sigh just, Fan Xian instead smiled, greeted the three began to eat food, said: “people have their own aspirations, besides now I can not do things in the dynasty, Ji Chang wants to do things for the people, and He Da Daoshi close to some, is also normal.”

The words were spoken calmly, and no one could see the chill in his heart. Fan Xian is actually also clear, Fan’s four sons, he originally most optimistic is Hou Jichang, but the world every more wonderful, I do not know is Fan Xian’s arrangements out of the leak, or the problem of luck, Fan’s four sons, Yang Wanli repair embankment has been a success, the reputation of the heavens, Cheng Jialin young will be sitting in the position of governor of suzhou, but also the day his majesty personally summoned to the palace of one of the seven monarchs of the new government, Shi Hanyan Li, although he did not enter the officialdom, but holding the identity of the proprietor of the Moon House, but also the new government. Although Shi Yanli did not enter the officialdom, but the identity of the proprietor of the Moon House, and how honorable.

Only Hou Jichang is still living in Jiaozhou, unable to show his ambition, and now that Fan Xian has lost his power, this Hou is afraid that he will be forced to look for other ways while being unwilling to do so. About this, Fan Xian did not not understand, but he was just not happy, especially with the university scholar He who was also having a banquet.

After three rounds of drinking, a few people chatted about what they had done in their respective positions over the years, Yang Wanli told how the silver had been turned into boulders and earthworks on both sides of the river, Cheng Jialin told how he had protected the territory and secured the people during his tenure as governor, how he had managed to bring those salt merchants and royal merchants into line through the help of young Lord Fan, how he had helped his teacher’s mother raise the silver to enter Hangzhou, and how much he had helped the poor people, and Shi Hanyanli told with a smile about how he had seen the world and the world, and how he had been forced to look for a way out. Smiling about the world’s sights and sounds, as well as those miserable women in the greenhouse now a little better days, but also told an anecdote, it is said that in some of the back of the moon building in the pavilion, and now even enshrined a small Lord Fan’s statue of the gods, because the small Lord Fan blessed a lot of the girl’s life and safety ……

At these words, everyone except Shi Yanli himself spewed out their wine.

Although the three were all chatting about their own affairs, they were actually all related to Fan Xian, talking about some of the things that Fan Xian had done in his life that benefited the country and the people, Fan Xian was not a saint, just a mortal, and naturally, he was a bit happier. He looked at the three with a smile on his face, and after a long pause spoke, “Wanli has been living in the mansion these days, he doesn’t have a proper family home in Kyoto anyway, Jia Lin your family is still in Suzhou, why don’t you just move to the mansion as well.”

As soon as the Gate Master spoke, the three of them quieted down at the same time, putting down the chopsticks in their hands and looking at him.

“I have arrangements for my family in Suzhou, don’t worry.” Fan Xian looked at Cheng Jialin and said gently, “Just get through this period. I called out to you all today because I’m afraid that if you have resentment towards the court and resentment towards me, you’ll harm yourselves instead.”

He let out a bitter laugh and said, “Of course, nowadays it seems that there is no need for me to take care of Ji Chang’s side.”

“But you guys are well aware that I have always demanded nothing more from you than those eight words, so even if the imperial court wanted to catch my sins from you guys, that would be a no-brainer, and on Ji Chang’s side, he has his own considerations, but I don’t think that he would sell me out out out of thin air.” Fan Xian’s expression calmed down as he slowly said, “The four of you accompanied me as officials in the world, but that was a time of peace, so you were needed to contribute, while today the world is not peaceful, so you are needed to hold back. I know you guys want to help me, so you even went to some of your fellow friends in private, but don’t do that in the future, my matter is not a problem that can be solved by the officials in the court.”

Cheng Jialin smiled bitterly and responded, they all remembered clearly the eight words that Fan Xian had left for them back when they were out of the country – be a good person, be a good official.

“Nowadays, since you can’t be an official, you should honestly be a human being.” Fan Xian’s brow had some hidden pain, his majesty had knocked everyone around him into the dust, really making himself look left and right, a bit anxious, this hand was really too vicious.

After the family banquet, Yang Wanli and Chengjialin went to the back garden to rest, Fan Xian left Shi Yanli behind, he called Shi Yanli back to the capital, naturally, it was not for the sake of a simple meal. When only the two of them were left in the study, Shi Yanli no longer needed to hide anything and angrily scolded Hou Jichang.

Fan Xian shook his head and said, “After all, Jichang is only a scholar, an official, even if he has only now learned how to maneuver, how could he have known that he had made a big mistake.”

Shi Yanli’s heart chilled, he knew too many secrets of the Gate Master, naturally he knew that the Gate Master was not just a simple power official, the power of the Gate Master was even more outside of the power official position, Hou Jichang’s betrayal had actually angered a king in the darkness.

“Don’t worry about me killing him, I don’t have that kind of leisure.” Fan Xian slightly lowered his eyes and said, “How are things I asked you to look into coming along?”

“There is no difference between Dong Yi City or the north, and there is no conflict with the apparent war.” Shi Yanli first added a sentence, then seriously answered Fan Xian’s question, “The matter of the Gong Dian leaving the capital that you want to investigate is indeed a bit strange, the Privy Council sent a transfer order to the Southern Zhao side two months ago, but the confidentiality level was extremely high, and the building only probed the winds of it, and now, without the cooperation of the courtyard, a lot of news can only touch the surface.”

“Nanzhao? What’s the problem there?” Fan Xian asked with a frown.

“Marshal Ye’s son is on the front line of Nanzhao, according to the court’s practice, Nanzhao is not at war now, the new lord has succeeded to the throne for three years, that roadside should be folded in half to return to the capital to report on the merits of the ……” Shi Hanyan Li glanced at him, and continued, “According to time Extrapolation, this time should have arrived in Kyoto ah, and then divided back to the camps, however, that a road side army has never arrived.”

“Do you mean to say …… that it is possible that they have gone to the west?” Fan Xian’s heart shook, suddenly thinking of an extremely frightening possibility, shaking his head and saying, “With such a large military mobilization, how could it be possible to conceal the world to go?”

“If we had focused on the south in the beginning, even the southern line of Weizhou, with the help of the Charming girls, we might have been able to find out the movements.” Shi Yanli blamed himself and said, “It’s just that Holding the Moon House has been paying attention to Kyoto, Eastern Barbarians, and Northern Qi in the past few months, and didn’t comb through the intelligence over there carefully enough.”

“It’s none of your business, it’s my point of gravity.” Fan Xian rubbed his temples with a bit of a headache and muttered to himself, “Ye Ling’er his brother …… this guy has been away from Kyoto for a long time, and I had forgotten that there was such a person. According to time, if the Southern Zhao border army really pulls back and crosses Kyoto without entering, if it really is going west …… wouldn’t it have already arrived in Dingzhou?”

Fan Xian raised his head and took a deep breath, his eyes filled with uneasiness and exhaustion, he knew that he had made a big mistake, except that he had been under house arrest in Kyoto all these months, and the Supervisory Academy was under the watchful eye of Yan Bingyun, and relying on the Moon Embracing House alone, he really couldn’t accurately grasp the military mobilization of the Kingdom of Qing.

“Gong Dian left the capital and went to Dingzhou to summon the world’s son Hongcheng back to the capital …… taking away ten thousand Kyoto guard divisions and two thousand forbidden troops.” Shi Yanli reminded, “This is something that was found out earlier.”

“That I know.” A wave of frustration arose in Fan Xian’s heart, and his palm gently slapped the desk as he sighed, “It’s just that it never occurred to me how His Majesty’s handiwork was so large that he actually deployed his troops from far to the south, crossing thousands of miles, and exchanging armies for a defense, is he not afraid of the world being in turmoil?”

Shi Hanyan Li heard and understood the words, his body chilled, forced calm and analyzed: “For the court, the new lord of Nanzhao is young, the domestic ministers of power are mostly interested in Daqing’s disciples, there is no need to beware of, stayed all the way half of the army in the south is enough. And Yanjing City and the northern camp to cope with the situation of Northern Qi and Dongyi City, although it looks like because of the subsequent impact of the rebellion of that year, the northern camp without the commander in chief some impact, but in fact there is no danger …… so for his majesty, as long as he can pacify Xiliang, the world is no longer chaotic cause, he will be able to fully prepare for the Northern Expedition thing. ”

“To pacify Western Liang is to deal with those people on the grasslands …… ” Fan Xian’s brow furrowed and he sighed softly, knowing that he was still being counted to death by the emperor’s old man, and that he hadn’t flipped over the other side’s palms after all, and an ineffable sense of exhaustion and disappointment overflowed his body, making him sit woodenly in his chair, unable to move.

He finally realized why His Majesty maintained such an indifferent attitude towards the war in the north, not the least bit angry and wary because of the possible collusion between Northern Qi and Fan Xian, so it turned out that His Majesty had long since sorted out the possible moves that this bastard son of his could make, and instead focused all his spirit, all his strength, on the west. His Imperial Majesty did not dance to Fan Xian’s layout at all, but instead took advantage of the situation and slammed his fist down hard on Dingzhou City.

“The World Son must be notified immediately.” Shi Yanli said with great alarm.

Fan Xian sat wearily in his chair and said after a long time, “It’s too late.”

The grassland in winter, there was a coldness all around, the wind came from the north, through the North Sea carried the slight wetness, has long been in the grassland northeast of the desert Gobi desert hair clean, a dry cold, the ground on the autumn grass has long disappeared, the only thing left is sandy soil, endless, hard to make the horse’s hooves feel uncomfortable tundra.

If the winter of previous years, birds from the sky overlooking, may be able to find in some of the lakes next to the attractive green color, but today, even these poor habitat, they can not find, because these hardy, not willing to go to the south of the winter of the birds of the eyes are all a blood red, frozen dry grass roots are blood red, round gravel is blood red, a pinch of broken sand! The field mice that burrowed out of their burrows seemed to be blood red.

Here is the red mountain pass, from the grassland into the territory of Daqing must pass through a place, the mountains and rocks are all red. However, today’s red is not a color bestowed by the heavens, but is dyed red by the Hu people on the grasslands, as well as the generals of Daqing.

Everywhere are corpses, everywhere are blood, earlier will field mice scared out of their burrows, will big birds scared up to the sky of the earth-shattering killing sound has gradually ceased, only in some barren hills, still in the brutal battle, some resistance of the Hu warriors, gathered into a few small circle, in the people dozens of times more than their own Qing generals in the siege, spilling the last of the blood.

A year ago, Li Hongcheng, the son of King Jing, the great general of Dingzhou, met the black riders and Fan Xian who fled from the grassland at the Red Mountain Pass, and at that time, he hoped to be able to fight a beautiful ambush here, but the hu people are not stupid, and never gave the Qing army such a chance.

If in previous years, in such a cold season, the countless tribes of the Western Hu, will follow the big flag of the king’s tent, slowly avoiding the cold air, towards the deeper grassland, all the way to the unclimbable mountains below, after surviving this year’s bitter cold, the next year’s early spring will be filled with the entire grassland again.

Western Hu will rarely choose to launch an attack on Qing’s Xilang Road in the thick of winter, and in previous years, unless those clans that lost power in the grassland internal fights would try to cross the border to loot the winter food of Qing’s soldiers and civilians, there has never been a major military operation.

But this year was different. I don’t know what happened, but Lord Hu Ge, who inherited most of King Zuo Xian’s cattle and sheep warriors, suddenly and brazenly led his tribe to migrate towards the east and bravely or recklessly launched an attack on Qing’s territory.

What puzzled the Xihu people even more was that that great Shan Yu, the far-sighted Shan Yu, after contemplating for a day and a night in the king’s tent, appreciated Hu Ge’s behavior and, braving the bitter cold, sent out the most elite steppe iron cavalry in an attempt to cross the Red Mountain Pass, bypassing Qing Zhou and attacking the inner hinterland of Xihliang directly.

No one could have imagined that in the wilderness near the Red Mountain Pass, there were actually 20,000 Qing iron cavalry and 70,000 Dingzhou soldiers in ambush! These Qing soldiers seem to have known the direction of the attack of the Hu people on the grassland, the number of people attacking, the time of the attack, in fact, the most frightening thing is that they expected the Western Hu this year will brave the cold to attack!

The attack of the Hu people is totally unreasonable, and the ambush of the Qing army is even more unreasonable, these unreasonable things come together in one place, and then accomplished this was recorded into the history books of the great victory of Qingzhou, this tens of thousands of people sacrificed their lives of the Cultivation of the field.

Beside a barren hill, already filled with corpses, blood flowing in the sand, this group of Hu warriors had fought to the last man, surrounded by the Qing army. From the previous battle, the colonel of the Qing army knew that this person must be a number of experts in the grassland, so he no longer urged his subordinates to go forward, but slowly raised his right hand, indifferently ready to fire arrows.

“To surrender or not to surrender?” The cold voice echoed in the cold air of the grassland, the heavily wounded Hu Ge breathed heavily, his eyes filled with scarlet, he glared at those cold soldiers of the Qing Kingdom, and suddenly screamed and stabbed into his own chest, so deep that there was no handle.

Hu Ge died, his eyes were still open, looking at the sky with resentment, even if he died, he would still turn into a resentful spirit, to ask the young man in Kyoto who caused all this senseless bloodshed, why? Why? Why is all this?