first minister

Chapter 340 The World Shakes
"drive!"

"drive!"

The moonlight revealed several fast-moving shadows, which were six or seven horses galloping under the moonlight.

They silently urged their horses, and in the hazy light and shadow under the moon, they even ran at a speed comparable to that of the day.

One of the horses accidentally stepped on the air, and both the man and the horse fell to the ground, letting out a shrill scream.

But the rest of the people didn't care and just rushed past.

The sergeant whose leg was crushed didn't complain at all. He climbed out with difficulty, climbed to the side of the road and leaned against a big tree to wait.

Because they all have to race against time. The result of this race is not only related to the victory tonight, but also related to the overall situation of Longshou State, and may even be related to the general trend of the entire world.

Half of the night has passed.

The late autumn wind has become a bit chilly under the influence of night.

The hands of the riders on the horses were already a little red from the cold, but they felt nothing. They just stared at the road ahead, showing off their skillful horse control skills.

When the horses rushed into the camp behind the earth wall, the sentries who were waiting for them came out with guns.

The leader took off his helmet, revealed his face, and threw out a token at the same time, "Take me quickly to see Mr. Bai!"

The sentry on duty glanced at the token and immediately separated one person, "Dismount and follow me!"

In the camp, Bai Yunbian and Su Yuanshang were both awake, nervously waiting for news from everywhere.

"Sir! Master Zhao has succeeded, and the whole Gaocheng County is under the control of our army!"

The messenger's first words made the two of them overjoyed.

But the second sentence left the two of them stunned.

"After taking over Gaocheng County, the owner of the village, Zhao, learned about the flattering official reputation of the governor of Gaocheng County. He wanted to take advantage of the plan. He went a step further and pretended to be reinforcements, pretending to open the gate of the state city, and then cooperated with the inside and outside to break the city. Therefore. Send me to wait for the starry night to send a message, and I want your Lord's headquarters to send three thousand elites to lurk in the night outside the west gate of the city. When they successfully enter the city, they will take the opportunity to rush in."

After saying that, he handed over a handwritten letter from Mr. Zhao.

The first reaction of both of them after hearing this plan was to shake their heads decisively, because this plan was too risky.

There were thousands of elite troops in the Longshou Army in the city. They attacked rashly and lost all their elites. If someone like Mr. Zhao, the village leader, also died in the rebel army, it would be a huge loss to the overall situation in the future.

But when I turned around and thought about it, this was probably a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

The defending army took the initiative to ask for reinforcements. When the reinforcements arrived, they would definitely open the city and put them in. If they could take the opportunity to occupy the city gate and the army rushed directly, it would be much easier than attacking a heavily guarded city in the future.

Moreover, the words of Xia Jingyun that Su Yuanshang conveyed before were essentially a strategy to open up ideas for everyone after it was extremely uneconomical to attack the city. However, conquering this seemingly impossible city was still a difficult task. The most direct and powerful way.

Although this plan is indeed risky, once it succeeds, the rewards will be extremely huge.

"Where is Mr. Zhao now?"

"We have taken the city's governor hostage and led his troops to the city."

Bai Yunbian and Su Yuanshang looked at each other. It seemed that the arrow was ready and had to be fired.

Bai Yunbian slapped the table, "It's a gamble! They say that the older you get, the more cowardly you become. Old man Zhao is so old that he has lost all his teeth and still has the guts to take a gamble. What are we afraid of!"

Su Yuanshang's mouth twitched. Your mouth will be sewn shut sooner or later.

"Immediately summon the generals from centurion and above in the camp to discuss matters! No noise!"

"Yes!"

The night was getting dark, and on the city wall of the state city, the soldiers guarding the city yawned out of boredom.

The lights in the State Shepherd's Mansion were brightly lit at the moment.

"Mr. Ma, a total of nine couriers have been dispatched. It is expected that reinforcements will arrive before dawn."

"Mr. Ma's strategy is better. Find more cities and ask for fewer people in each city. This will not have a big impact on the defense of each city, and we can gather enough soldiers."

"Xiao Xianggong is really wise in arranging Mr. Ma to take charge of all affairs in the state. It is foreseeable that when the situation calms down, Mr. Ma will rise to the top and directly become the governor of Longshou Prefecture!"

Having achieved their goal, these generals did not hesitate to praise them.

It's just that compared to the civil servants and gentry, their compliments seemed a bit more straightforward and monotonous.

Ma Lirong listened without much enthusiasm and waved his hand, "There are still many variables in this. Are the governors from various places willing to mobilize reinforcements? How many can be mobilized? When will they arrive? Will the rebels really surround the site to mobilize reinforcements and set up an ambush? It is unknown how many people will be able to reach here in the end during the encirclement and suppression campaign. We can’t say anything until the dust settles!”

"A group of rebels can accomplish a lot. Maybe they are still sleeping soundly at this moment, dreaming of destroying the city in three days!"

"I really want to see their expressions when they wake up tomorrow and learn that we have added another three to four thousand soldiers! Haha!"

"I think these rebels are completely disorganized. They have been gathering troops under the city for so long. They don't even know how to besiege the city. They are just relying on the strength of their numbers. If we can contain them all in the city, we will definitely have a great impact on Yunmeng Prefecture. Over there, we can help the court in turn."

Seeing everyone's optimism, Ma Lirong sighed secretly and didn't bother to say more to everyone, "Let's wait and see. Tell the soldiers to hold on. When reinforcements arrive tomorrow, they can take a break."

Seeing that Ma Lirong was not interested, everyone said no more, nodded in agreement, and went back to work.

Ma Lirong stood in front of the table and looked at the map in front of him. One state, six counties and more than [-] counties were spread out in front of him, as if the weight of the entire Longshou State was pressing on him.

Could Bai Yunbian, who was able to subdue Xiong Baoquan immediately and seize the territory immediately after the change in the government, be a mediocre person who didn't understand anything?

The thousands of reinforcements coming from Yunmeng Prefecture are most likely the soldiers of the Su family led by the children of the Su family and the official troops recruited from Yunmeng Prefecture. Mr. Su was famous for his wisdom in the past, will he have any arrangements? ?

The earthen wall in the rebel camp was built in a strange way. Was it really just to block their siege equipment, so that they could catch themselves off guard?

Thoughts passed through Ma Lirong's mind one by one. He stared at the night in front of him, as if facing an unclear road ahead, and sighed quietly:
"Brother Xiu Yuan, I'm just a scholar. I don't know if I can bear this burden for you!"

"Sir! Mr. Ma!"

After a while, when the night was darkest, a deputy general walked into the mansion and started shouting, waking up Ma Lirong who was taking a nap on the table.

"Ah, General Wei is here, what happened?"

"Sir, the first support force has arrived."

Ma Lirong immediately stood up, followed the other party out of the mansion, and soon came to the city wall.

Outside the north city, an army was seen arriving quietly, and they lit up torches when they arrived at the city gate.

Everyone on the city wall took a look and saw that it was indeed a messenger sent out and a team wearing imperial military uniforms.

The leading general said solemnly: "I am under the command of Yuanliang County Wei Lu Pingfeng. On the order of the county magistrate, I will bring [-] county sergeants to help the city!"

"Sir, they are reinforcements from Yuanliang County."

Ma Lirong nodded, ordered someone to open the city gate, and let everyone in.

To be on the safe side, he also asked Vice General Wei and hundreds of sergeants to be on alert so that if something went wrong, he could take immediate action.

Fortunately, everything was stable. After the leader of the other party entered the city, he knelt down on one knee towards Ma Lirong and said, "Commander Yuanliang County Wei Lu Pingfeng, I have met Mr. Ma!"

Ma Lirong stretched out his hand to help him up, "It's really hard for Lu County Lieutenant to march at night. Ma will definitely report all this hard work to Prime Minister Xiao. After repelling the rebels, there will be a reward!"

"I am willing to die for Prime Minister Xiao! But I have something to do, please give me your orders!"

"Okay, okay! The tents have been prepared in the city. Everyone, go and rest first. We will make unified arrangements tomorrow."

"As ordered!"

Not long after the 400 people at this end left, another person came from the city wall to report that they had seen the next supporting force from the north gate.

"Huanglong County Lieutenant Zheng Haocheng, on the order of the county magistrate, led [-] county sergeants to help Lord Ma!"

Six hundred!

Everyone was shocked. This Huanglong County Magistrate had emptied his family's fortune!

Ma Lirong also sighed. Although he didn't know the military, he understood the thoughts of these civil servants best. He had taken this into consideration when he didn't want to ask for help from neighboring counties. However, he didn't expect that the other party still didn't comply with what he had clearly ordered in his heart. , did such a flattering thing.

But then again, seeing so many people made him feel more secure, and it was indeed impossible to blame the county magistrate for this.

Following the same procedure as before, Ma Lirong ordered the people to be let in.

Amid the chilling precautions, a man knelt down on one knee and said, "Huanglong County Lieutenant Zheng Haocheng, pay your respects to Mr. Ma!"

Ma Lirong smiled and helped him up. After a few words of comfort, he ordered others to take him down to rest.

After finishing all this work, a lieutenant general said with a smile: "Now that there are a thousand more soldiers in the city, we can finally relax a little bit."

Everyone laughed, and there was relief in their laughter.

"Sir, general, reinforcements are coming from the west!"

"Oh?"

Ma Lirong led everyone to the west wall and saw a team sneaking up under the night and setting off torches under the city wall.

The leader held a torch. When he saw his face clearly, Ma Lirong couldn't help but twitch the corner of his mouth.

Hong Fangzheng, the governor of Gaocheng County, actually brought people here in person.

Good guy, others are moving their property here at most, are you planning to move your home here?
"Mr. Ma, I'm late!"

Seeing Hong Fangzheng's guilty look, Ma Lirong felt a chill and ordered: "Open the door!"

After saying that, he turned around and went down the tower. After all, he was still the governor of a county. Now that he was personally bringing troops to help, he still had to go and greet him personally and make a show of it.

A team of a thousand people walked into the long doorway and arrived in the outer city.

Ma Lirong and several lieutenants went out to greet him in person, "Master Hong, you are too polite!"

Hong Fangzheng smiled and said, "The city is the top priority, not to mention Mr. Ma, who has been entrusted by Prime Minister Xiao to preside over the overall situation of Longshou. If you fail, then I, Longshou Prefecture, will be leaderless. I will serve you sincerely." Work hard and don’t dare to hold anything back.”

Ma Lirong had nothing to do with the attentiveness of these officials. He had come all the way here, so he could only accept this sentiment, so he smiled and bent down to help Hong Fangzheng up. "Mr. Hong is loyal to the country and works tirelessly, Mr. Ma"

Just as he was speaking with a smile, a guard beside Hong Fangzheng suddenly jumped up, unsheathed his long sword, and like a tiger pouncing on food, caught everyone off guard and swung the knife in his hand towards Ma Lirong. .

"Rebel!"

"Dare you thief!"

The lieutenant beside Ma Lirong was horrified, drew his sword, roared, and charged forward.

Ma Lirong was also startled by this sudden change and subconsciously hid behind him.

But in the pupils, a sharp blade quickly enlarged in the light of the fire.

Then, Ma Lirong felt his eyes go dark, and he seemed to fly up, and saw a headless corpse in the air.

"Ma Lirong has been executed! The regicide lackey has been eliminated!"

The man shouted loudly and threw Hong Fangzheng down.

Above their heads, several lieutenants had already slashed at them with their swords.

Bang bang bang!
The sound of banging bowstrings sounded one after another, and in tacit cooperation, the lieutenants were all transformed into hedgehogs.

"Ma Lirong has been executed! Kill the regicide lackeys! Those who surrender will not be killed!"

A thousand elites were like tigers emerging from the cage, leaving only more than a hundred people to guard the gate of the outer city. Before the defenders in the city could react, they rushed towards the inner city.

"close the door!"

"Close the city gate!"

The defenders of the inner city hurriedly shouted and shouted to push the inner city gate that was usually wide open.

But the blades and arrows coming at extremely fast speeds rushed into the city gate amidst the harsh sound of the door shaft turning like a biting wind.

Behind them, there was a sudden loud shout of killing.

3000 people who were ambushing in the dark night outside the city, led by Su Yuanshang, rushed into Longshou Prefecture City.

And as the commotion here increased, in the rebel camp, all the remaining people gathered beside the white clouds, "Soldiers, the city has been destroyed, and the thieves have been killed! Make great achievements, tonight, charge with me!"

The screaming soldiers rushed towards the road of their dreams with eager steps.

When the dawn light reflected in the sky from the other side of the mountain, the battle had entered the final stage.

The Longshou Army, which originally had the strength to drive the "rebels" out of the city again, lost the integrity of their organization and the constraints of their orders because the leader Ma Lirong and several lieutenants were killed, and they were left to fight on their own.

Surrender, resist, or simply rob and plunder, and escape at night. What could have been a difficult see-saw turned into a one-sided massacre.

The old owner of the village, Zhao, stood outside the gate of the Zhou Mu Mansion, looking on with his hands behind his back.

Bai Yunbian walked up to him, "Are you afraid of going in for fear of an ambush?"

The corner of Mr. Zhao's mouth trembled, "Zhuang Dexiang, give me the knife."

Bai Yunbian ran away quickly, while Su Yuanshang and several guards laughed.

Laughter is the privilege of the winner.
-
In Zhongjing City, a carrier pigeon fell into the pigeon house of Heibingtai.

The Black Ice Platform spy on duty took off the small bamboo mailbox from its leg, pulled out the note, his expression suddenly changed, and he hurriedly handed it to the chief.

Soon, this note appeared on the desk of Xuanhu, the first black ice platform.

[Longshou Prefecture City fell, Gaocheng County fell, the leader of the rebels is suspected to be Zhao, the emperor in white]

Xuan Hu took the note, but did not stand up immediately. Instead, he sat silently in his position for a while, his expression uncertain.

After a while, he finally took a deep breath, stood up and walked out the door, heading straight for the palace.

In recent days, Dongfang Ming has been in a good mood.

There is nothing to worry about in the court.

There was no news in the market that would cause trouble for him.

The British father was calmed down by his uncle.

I also gained quite a lot from practicing the secret techniques of the room donated by Master Taiyi, and I was able to comfort Concubine Shu.

The only one who made some trouble was the queen, who actually went to Concubine Shu to argue with her that day. Fortunately, after being slapped by her, she became honest.

During these few days of free time, he walked through the Wanbao Tower, where the late emperor's lifelong thoughts were condensed, and saw those jaw-dropping rare treasures, as well as those so-called auspicious achievements that made people laugh and laugh;
He took over the late emperor's inner treasury and was overjoyed to see the several hundred thousand taels of unused silver in it;
He walked around the palace and finally sat in the deserted court again, overlooking the world from the dragon chair;

These are all his now!

The dormancy and forbearance of the past ten years, and that sword strike that night were all worth it.

"Your Majesty, Lord Xuanhu wants to see you."

Dongfang Ming was intoxicated with his current unrestrained freedom, when Dong Liang suddenly came to inform him.

He frowned slightly and nodded displeasedly, "Invite him in."

Soon, Xuanhu hurriedly walked in, "Your Majesty!"

"What's the matter?"

"Your Majesty, Heibingtai flew a letter to report urgently that the city of Longshou Prefecture has fallen, and most of the territory of Longshou Prefecture has fallen into the hands of the rebels!"

"what?"

Dongfang Mingdeng, who was originally calm and calm, suddenly changed his expression and looked at Dong Liang, "Go and invite uncle into the palace!"
-
In the Qin Mansion, the head of the Qin family sat with a sad look on his face.

Nowadays, with an emperor and courtiers, a new court, new dignitaries and new officials, the Qin family is supposed to make a blood and profit concession to reconstruct a new interest pattern and win over these people.

However, due to the Qin family's deep collusion with De Fei's family behind their backs and their secret siding with each other, they did not do this.

Coupled with the raging war and the isolation of transportation, the Qin family's industry and business have almost suffered a cliff-like decline in the past two months.

If the future is bright, temporary setbacks can naturally be tolerated.

But the problem today is that the future is not bright and the current situation is tortuous enough.

Concubine De did indeed control the land of two states, but she was still far from being able to truly dominate the Central Plains and set the world.

Xia Jingyun is still hiding in the city. If he is caught one day, everything will be over.

The new emperor's reputation as a lecherous person has been spread. What will happen if Ali is allowed to enter the palace in the future?

Thinking of the lawsuit on his forehead, the head of the Qin family frowned. Even the sky-high price of his beloved tea in front of him felt bland and tasteless.

I really don’t know if this is the right step to take!
"Patriarch! Patriarch!"

"What are you yelling for!" He glared angrily. He was already in a bad mood. If he hears another bad news, he will die!
"Master! News just came from Longshou Prefecture. The rebels have captured the city of Longshou Prefecture. Most of Longshou Prefecture has fallen into the hands of the rebels!"

The head of the Qin family stood up and didn't even care that his beloved huanghuali chair was knocked to the ground. He said eagerly: "Can you say it again?"

After the steward repeated the story, the head of the Qin family hurried to the backyard with excitement on his face.

"Father!"

The old head of the family glanced lightly, "What are you doing in a panic?"

Just pretend, you will definitely be more excited than I was just now.
The head of the Qin family smiled in his heart and said: "Father, news just came from Longshou Prefecture. Bai Yunbian and the Cao Gang have captured the city of Longshou Prefecture. Most of Longshou Prefecture has been controlled by Bai Yunbian and others. !”

After saying that, he happily waited to see his old father overturn, but unexpectedly, the old master Qin just said lightly, "I know."

???

The head of the Qin family was stunned on the spot.

The old master turned to look at him, "Is there anything else?"

"No more, kid, please leave."

The head of the Qin family had no choice but to retreat angrily.

After a few breaths, the old patriarch suddenly stood up, stretched his neck and looked to confirm that his son was gone. He jumped up and waved his fists excitedly, his face full of suppressed joy.

"Ouch!"

Accidentally moving too much, the old patriarch held his waist and sat back in the chair, but the smile on his lips never stopped.
-
In the central courtyard, Xiao Fengshan was sorting out the various situations of this huge empire.

In the past, he only knew that the government was suffering from serious corruption and that the people were living in dire straits. But it was only after he came into contact with the core data as the actual helmsman of the empire that he realized how critical the situation in the entire country had become.

Land, population, taxation, official system, military system, and border warfare.
Almost every item is rotten to the core.

Let’s take a look at it slowly. He still has a few decades. In his treatment of Emperor Chongning, he has been unworthy of morality and human ethics. He hopes that in a few decades, he can use a rejuvenated world to atone for his sins. .

He rubbed his brows, took a sip of tea, and was about to get back to work when the guard on duty outside the door came in and said, "Sir, Eunuch Dong is here."

Dong Liang came in and said respectfully: "My lord, your majesty, please come to the imperial study as soon as possible."

Xiao Fengshan stood up with a frown, looked at the documents piled up on the table, and was silent for a moment, "Let's go."

Walking in the palace, Xiao Fengshan suddenly said: "Your Majesty summoned me, why did you summon me?"

Dong Liang was having a hard time following Xiao Fengshan who was striding forward. After hearing this, he was a little breathless and said: "Master Xuanhu entered the palace, saying that the city of Longshou Prefecture fell, and most of Longshou Prefecture fell into the hands of the rebels."

Xiao Fengshan suddenly stopped.

(End of this chapter)