Chapitre 43: City Broken
When Zhou Yi, who was standing outside the White Jade Mountain Pass, received the secret edict from the Emperor, the Guard General Duan Zong had already led his troops into Fengzhou to pacify the traitors for more than half a month.
Zhou Yi had no way of understanding the war in Fengzhou. He could only obey the orders of the Emperor, hand over the army outside to the Great marshal, Yang Rui.
Among the eight thousand elites that Zhou Yi had brought along, Shangguan Yong was one of them. He received Zhou Yi's command to lead the vanguard battalion.
"Fengzhou and the capital are adjacent to each other." Before entering, Zhou Yi specifically talked to Shangguan Yong to explain, "After the chaos with the messenger king is over, you can return to the capital to take a look. By this time, your son should be almost a year old. It's time to go back and take a look."
Ever since he received the letters from An Jinxiu and Shangguan Rui, Shangguan Yong had not received any more letters from his family in the capital. This made Shangguan Yong experience what it was like to have your family letters be worth 10,000 gold every day. It had been over a year since Shangguan Yong left the capital on the second day of his wedding.
Sometimes, he missed An Jinxiu, but he felt that the image of his little wife in his mind was a little blurry. And their child, Shangguan Yong did not know if it was his son or his daughter. Shangguan Yong had never thought of being a deserter, but the taste of that longing was not pleasant. No matter what purpose Zhou Yi had brought him to defuse the rebellion, Shangguan Yong was grateful to Zhou Yi for these words that had been considerate of him.
It had been half a month since the long journey from the northern border to Fengzhou was completed. At this time, Duan's army had already swept through all of Phoenix Prefecture.
Besides the outside of the Xiang An city where the Residence of messenger King, Xin, resided, there were no longer any rebel army in Phoenix Prefecture causing trouble. Because of this, Duan didn't welcome the arrival of Zhou Yi at all. The reason why he came at this time was undoubtedly to compete with Zhou Yi for his achievements.
Just when Duan wanted to argue with Zhou Yi about who would take over the city first, an imperial edict from the Emperor was brought over by the Duke of Le An, Xiang Hou. Zhou Yi was ordered to attack the city, while Duan was ordered to retreat 300 miles away from the border.
The imperial edict was placed there. No matter how much grievances there were within Duan's heart, he didn't dare to voice it out. On the day of receiving the imperial edict, he retreated with his army.
As Zhou Yi ordered his men to set up camp outside the city, he asked the Duke of Le An, "Marquis Le An, how does His Majesty want to deal with the king?"
The duke of Le An's expression was wooden. "As long as the great general can take down Xiang An city, it's fine. I will personally deal with the messenger King, Xin.."
Zhou Yi said, "But Marquis Le'an, if my soldiers attack the city, what will they do?"
"I don't think the Almighty himself will take the field," the duke of Le An said. "General, you should think carefully about how to take down the city."
"What the hell?" When the generals under Zhou Yi heard Marquis Le An's indifferent words, their hearts were filled with rage. How could this person be big enough in front of their general?
"Does he think this is his military camp?"
"Will this kid fight?" Do you know what war is? "
"If you don't see what kind of lord he is, I'll kill him right now!"
… ….
"Cut the crap," an old man in the military immediately whispered to a group of military men when he saw that they were about to start a fight. "Who do you think the Marquis of Le An is?"
Shangguan Yong then asked: "Who is he?"
"His surname is Xiang. How many dukes with the surname of Xiang can there be in the court?" Marquis of Le An is the empress' brother, "the old military official said softly." Why else would our general be so polite to him? Say less, all of you, don't cause trouble for the general. "
Only then did the group of martial artists stop. No matter how high their martial arts skills were, they could not afford to offend the royal family.
After Zhou Yi exchanged a few more pleasantries with the Marquis of Le An, he no longer wanted to bother with this man, who always relied on the Empress and the Crown Prince for his authority in the imperial court. He ordered some people to call Shangguan Yong over to the tent.
"Will he attack the city?" Marquis Le An saw that Zhou Yi had ordered Shangguan Yong to lead the attack, so he worriedly asked, "You all must not let Bai Yongxin escape."
"Go gather the army." Zhou Yi gave Shangguan Yong an arrow and told him to step down.
"Why did you let him go?" Seeing that Zhou Yi didn't give him a chance to speak with Shangguan Yong, the Marquis of Le An immediately said in dissatisfaction.
"He's the Grand Preceptor's second son-in-law," Zhou Yi said. "I think that even if the marquis doesn't believe in others, you can still believe in Shangguan Yong."
Duke Le An's expression stiffened before he replied, "So he was the Grand Preceptor's son-in-law that the Grand Preceptor recruited to repay his debt of gratitude."
Zhou Yi didn't continue to respond to Marquis Le An's words. He concealed the loathing he had towards this Imperial ofificial in his heart.
After nightfall, Shangguan Yong brought the vanguard battalion to attack the north gate of Xiang An city. He originally thought that it would be a fierce battle, but he didn't expect that after they had rushed for a while, they didn't spend the slightest bit of effort to climb up the ladder and attack the city walls.
The soldiers who had attacked the city walls first opened the city gates, and after putting down the drawbridge, Shangguan Yong was even a little hesitant, afraid that this was the messenger king's plan to lure the enemies in.
At this time, Shangguan Yong showed his caution and sent out a team of troops to probe the city. After confirming that there weren't many soldiers and horses in the city and that he had no intention of resisting, Shangguan Yong brought the remaining soldiers and horses from the vanguard camp and rushed into the Xiang An city.
The city had been built nearly a thousand years ago, and it was also a place where all the states in the north had to pass through to get to the capital city. Since ancient times, it had been a place filled with wealthy merchants, and most of the city's buildings were magnificent, not inferior to the capital city of the Qishun Empire.
After Shangguan Yong entered the city, he was not in the mood to take another look at the scenery of the Xiang An city, bringing his cavalry to the Residence of Duke Xin.
By the time Shangguan Yong had arrived at the Residence of Xin, the soldiers he had sent into the city earlier had surrounded the Residence of Xin tightly.
"The King of Messnger is within the estate?" Shangguan Yong sat on his horse and asked the general who had arrived first.
"Yes," the officer said, "Shangguan Big Brother, should we start fighting?"
"This …" Shangguan Yong looked at the Royal Mansion, its tall walls and deep courtyard, its black, lacquered gates. The two stone lions in front of the gates had their mouths wide open, their eyes wide and filled with anger, giving off the grandeur of royalty.
" Persuade them to surrender, "Shangguan Yong ordered his men. Although the Xin King Manor was huge, the surrounding streets were very narrow and did not allow the army to charge in. Shangguan Yong did not want to waste his brother's life here.
"Listen up, people inside, you guys …"
The soldiers who were shouting in the front row had only said a few words when the door of the mansion creaked open from the inside.
"Don't shoot," Shangguan Yong shouted.
A man who looked like a steward of the manor walked out from the door, glanced at the generals present, and walked straight to Shangguan Yong's horse. He cupped his hands and greeted, "General, are you the main official here?"
"Yes," Shangguan Yong said, "Is the messenger king about to surrender?"
The steward, who was in his sixties, turned to the side and said, "My prince is in the manor. General, please lead your troops into the manor."
Shangguan Yong rushed to his brother who was standing in the front row and said: "Take your men and go in first."
With a bloodstained saber in hand, Qing Nan was the first to rush into the Residence of Duke Xin. The surrounding soldiers quickly rushed into the mansion like a tide.
When Shangguan Yong dismounted and walked into the Residence of Duke Xin, he saw Qing Nan walk out from the front courtyard hall of the mansion, running to him and saying: "Big brother, everyone from the House of Duke Xin is in the hall, what should we do?"
At this time, the steward of the Duke Xin Palace said, "Aren't the military men going to search the mansion? "If they were to escape and commit a crime, I am afraid the military men will not be able to take on this crime."
Qing Nan looked at the butler and said in an evil tone: "What business do you have here?!"
"Bring some people to search him." Shangguan Yong waved his hand towards Qing Nan. What was there to argue about with an old man who looked to be in his sixties?
"General, please follow me," the butler whispered to Shangguan Yong after Qing Nan and her men had left.
Shangguan Yong said: "Where are you taking me?"
"General, all of us are prisoners now, so how can the general be afraid that this old man will harm the general?" The butler said to Shangguan Yong: "Someone wants to see the general, I hope the general can help."
Shangguan Yong wasn't afraid that this steward could injure him, "Lead the way." He wanted to see what tricks this steward of the House of Xin was up to.
The butler brought Shangguan Yong to the inner courtyard of the Xin Wang Manor. After passing through a few courtyards and a long corridor, the last two people entered a courtyard that was near the water.
"General, please." The butler pushed open the door to one of the rooms in the courtyard.
Shangguan Yong placed his hand on the sword hilt on his waist and walked into the room.
In an empty room, a haggard young man was sitting on an armchair with a baby in his arms.
"You are?" Shangguan Yong stood not far from the young man.
The young man looked at Shangguan Yong and said: "This King is Bai Yongxin."
Shangguan Yong's brow furrowed, "You are the King of Messenger?"
The young man said in amusement, "There is no longer such a title as' Messenger King 'in this world, is there?"
Shangguan Yong did not know much about the Imperial Court, so he asked the king: "Do you have something to tell me?"
"Do you believe me when I say that I did not rebel?" King Xin asked.
"What?" Shangguan Yong was shocked. "You didn't revolt, so how could His Majesty be mistaken about rebelling?"
"Duan's army has stormed into the Phoenix Province. Only then did I find out that I had rebelled. Isn't that ridiculous?"
Shangguan Yong saw that the messenger didn't look crazy, so he hesitated before saying, "I'll take you to the capital and you can tell His Majesty yourself."
"I won't be able to live in the capital."
"What?"
"Some people want me dead," the messenger king said. "My whole family won't be able to leave the manor alive."
Shangguan Yong asked unconsciously, "Who wanted you to die?"
The messenger took out an account-like book from his sleeve and handed it to Shangguan Yong: "Take a look at this."
Shangguan Yong opened the book, inside were a few names, and some red seals. Beneath the names, there were also some unknown numbers of names.
"Do you understand?" The king asked Shangguan Yong.
Shangguan Yong shook his head.
"It seems that your rank in the imperial court is not high, and you are not from an aristocratic family."
Shangguan Yong said: "What exactly do you want to tell me?"
At this time, the baby in the messenger's arms hummed a few times. The messenger king patted the baby's back and said tiredly to Shangguan Yong: "If I tell you next, I'll definitely hurt you. But I can't find a second person to send a message now, so I'm sorry."
"Tell me, I'm listening," Shangguan Yong said, "I'm loyal to the country, what's so scary about that?"
King Xin then said, "We are all loyal people. Take a look at what has happened to me. Alright, we don't have much time, let's cut to the chase. What you have is a register, and the people on it are all the people the empress and crown prince have bought and sold in the military, as well as the number of people in their private army.
Shangguan Yong's hand trembled, and he dropped the register on the ground.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone