twin moon

Chapter 173 No.20 Act Three: Return of the Prince III

In the first year of Zhaoxi, October [-]th.After nightfall, in the Chengguo camp, the lights were dim, and the people and horses were all silent.In the distance, the mountain stream rushing from Feiyun Gorge to Huaihe River roared.In the woods under the moonlight, there were occasional low cries of night owls, but it was frightening to hear.

After the First Battle of Ye State, Cheng's army lost more than half of its strength, and its vitality was severely injured.In addition, the Wei Liang in the north was staring at them. Since Yin Qujian ordered the withdrawal of troops, the famous Qingyong Iron Cavalry had lost their helmets and armor, and they had already been defeated.

As the saying goes, everyone pushes the wall down.After the defeat of Chengguo, Nanhua and other countries that had previously occupied a large area of ​​land by it also waited for an opportunity to counterattack, which became a huge hidden danger lingering in Yin Qujian's mind.Just half a month ago, the coalition forces formed by Nanhua and Dunguo even directly captured the Hejian Corridor, known as the Throat of Simen, and completely cut off the last supply line that Chengguo had been relying on.

Now, the once sharp-fanged ruler of Chengguo has no choice but to incorporate some of the old troops that retreated from Yuguhu to Huaiyou.Because of Wei Liang's siege and interception, after crossing Feiyun Gorge to the east, he temporarily ordered his troops to stay in the mountains along the Minxi River.

Due to the extreme shortage of manpower, in recent days, even the guards on duty outside Yin Qujian's tent have been withdrawn, and even the servants who were originally in charge of serving the king's sleep and food have been incorporated into the team on duty around the camp.

At this time, Yin Qujian is like an old mountain eagle whose feathers have been pulled out, completely losing its former prestige.Later generations commented on his defeat this time: "It is not due to exhaustion of courage, but to gamble on the fate of the country because of one's own heart. When the luck is exhausted, the spirit is exhausted."

After this battle, this powerful Marquis that had risen from the east coast of the mainland in just a few decades fell into a slump, and it actually came to the point where it was almost subjugated step by step.

But now Yin Qujian still has a glimmer of hope for a comeback in the future.He ordered that no one should enter or leave within a radius of fifty paces from his large tent, and the lights in the tent were kept burning until midnight before being extinguished.However, under the solitude, there was a black shadow avoiding the patrolling guards, and came in silently.

Although all the lights in Cheng Guogong's tent have been turned off, the person is not in a deep sleep.Dimly, he vaguely felt the wind blowing on his face from outside the tent.As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw a black figure standing a few steps away from him!
Yin Qujian was immediately shocked into a cold sweat.By the moonlight, he saw that the other party was wearing the linen clothes of the servants in the camp, so he gathered himself together and reprimanded him sharply:

"I don't know if the widow has already gone to bed?!"

If it was normal, Cheng Guogong, who has a bad temper, would have drawn his sword and beheaded the future people on the spot.However, at this time, he couldn't bear any unnecessary casualties, and he just held the saber in his hand, and didn't step forward to attack.

The servant's face was also full of horror, he knelt down on the ground with a plop, and kept begging:

"My lord, forgive me, my lord, forgive my sin! The little one didn't break into the account on purpose, but he was ordered to bring hot water cloth towel—"

"When did the widow give such an order?"

Yin Qujian was taken aback for a moment, only to see that the other party was indeed carrying a copper pot in his hand, and he was indeed ready to serve him to wash, so he couldn't help frowning.

In fact, these days, Cheng Guogong, who has suffered a defeat, is not working until late at night because of military secrets, but is anxious and worried about whether he can get out of this deep mountain and old forest alive.Today, not only would he feel jittery and panicked, but even his spirit became a little trance because of days of insomnia.

"Could it be that the lord doesn't remember? This evening, the lord specifically told the villain that a wild flower that can calm the mind and help sleep grows on the nearby mountain. When the candles in the tent go out, I will wait for you to freshen up to see if it is effective."

As the servant on the opposite side spoke, he took out a copper basin from a corner of the tent, and poured some water out of the copper kettle.Sure enough, the steam was churning, and it was indeed just boiled.There are still some petals the size of fingernails floating in the pot, exuding a faint fragrance.The steam that evaporated hits his face, making him drowsy.

"The widow—these days are indeed too tiring, and I don't even remember what I said. Please, relax for the widow!"

Till now, Yin Qujian still couldn't remember when he made such an order.It can be seen that the other party has a nose and eyes in what he said, and even brought the water to boil, so he no longer doubted it.

Duke Cheng lowered his head, only to realize that he hadn't taken off his armor for nearly half a month, and there was already a faint sour smell from his body.He laughed a little self-deprecatingly, finally let go of his guard, nodded and allowed the servant on the opposite side to stand up, bathe and change clothes for himself.

However, he did not expect that that person was actually the Liusha Camp assassin who was ordered by Qi Shouyu to carry out the assassination!

As early as a few days ago, when Yin Qujian was reorganizing the remnants of the defeated soldiers he met on the road, this man sneaked into the camp with the help of an army uniform stripped from the corpses.After lurking in the camp for many days, he not only found out the location of the guard posts, but also found out the daily routine of Cheng Guogong.

Seeing Yin Qujian sitting on the side of the couch, unbuttoning his armor, raising his head and closing his eyes, the assassin couldn't help but show a smile that was sure of winning, and then splashed a basin full of boiling water on the opponent's body at lightning speed. Sprinkle it!
The sudden severe pain made Cheng Guogong jump up immediately, and let out a heart-piercing scream.But because he had previously ordered that no one should disturb his rest, his call failed to attract the attention of the guards, and he thought it was like every night before, it was some kind of nightmare from the king.

Yin Qujian wanted to call for help again, but the assassin on the opposite side didn't give him another chance, he drew a short knife from his waist and rushed forward.He immediately reached out to touch his saber on the couch, but in a panic, he only touched the jade pillow that was used to sleep under his neck!
Duke Cheng had no choice but to throw the jade pillow at the assassin.The opponent only blocked it for a while, and the jade pillow deviated from the direction, fell to the ground and fell to pieces.Taking advantage of this opportunity, Yin Qujian, who bought a little time, finally held the saber in his hands.

However, it wasn't until this moment that he realized that his vision was rapidly becoming blurred at a noticeable speed.The tent was already very dark, no matter how hard he tried to open his eyes wide at this moment, his whole body seemed to be surrounded by a ball of ink, and even the assassin who was close at hand turned into a blurry black shadow.

Cheng Guogong instinctively rubbed his hot cheeks with his hands, but unexpectedly heard a slight sound like something cracked.It turned out that after being scalded by boiling water, a large blister had already formed on his right cheek and eyelid.After rubbing it, the blister burst with a sound, and a whole piece of bloody human skin was brought up, which fell off from his face!

As a result, Yin Qujian's right eye was also completely blind.With his left eye, which was slightly injured, he could only wave the saber back and forth in front of his body indiscriminately, and kept shouting: "Help, help!"

However, the knife in the assassin's hand stabbed at him like a storm, and he shouted fiercely in an obviously disguised voice: "The dying struggle is futile. By the time those trash under your hand arrive, I will have already succeeded!"

"Who exactly sent you here?"

"It's dead anyway, why ask so clearly!"

In just a few words, Yin Qujian's arm holding the sword had several new wounds with deep bone visible.He had never seen such a fierce sword technique before, knowing that he was definitely not an opponent, he immediately wanted to flee out of the tent.

However, in the darkness, he could only see vaguely, but he couldn't tell where the entrance to the big tent was, and it was even more difficult to use the long sword in his hand inside the tent.Panicked and frightened, he felt that his feet suddenly stepped on a few writing brushes that fell to the ground, and he couldn't stand upright immediately, and fell heavily towards the desk beside him!
The book case was cracked by Cheng Guogong and fell to the ground.The scrolls of books on it also fell down, entangled his limbs, and completely lost the ability to continue to resist.

The assassin stepped forward, as if teasing his prey, and cut off the ropes on the opponent's breastplate one by one with a knife, revealing the slightly yellowed underclothes underneath.Yin Qujian, whose face was covered in blood, closed his eyes tightly, as if he couldn't believe it, and didn't dare to face the imminent death.

The assassin raised the knife and stabbed it into his left chest without hesitation.Cheng Guogong, who fell on the ground, groaned in his throat, his hands and feet trembled twice, and then there was no more movement.

Perhaps because he was afraid that the blood spurting from his heart would splash on his body, the assassin didn't pull out the dagger, but poked the opponent a few times with his feet.But he never thought that when he got up and was about to leave, Yin Qujian who fell on the ground swung the long sword in his hand again without any warning, and cut off the assassin's legs at the knees on the spot!

An expression of disbelief appeared on the assassin's face.However, it was too late.Hearing the lord's call for help, Cheng Guo's soldiers finally realized that the situation was wrong, and rushed in from outside the tent with torches, and surrounded the two of them tightly.Two fists are no match for four hands, even if the assassin's legs are not broken at this time, he will no longer be able to retreat completely.

Yin Qujian stood up with the support of his subordinates, raised his sword against the opponent's throat, and shouted sharply:

"You didn't expect that there are people in this world whose heart is born on the right side! I shouldn't die here, so tell me honestly, who ordered you to assassinate me!"

The assassin was covered in cold sweat and his face was as frosty, but he spat without fear: "Bah! Kill me now if you have the ability!"

"Do you think the widow dare not?!"

Under Yin Qujian's instruction, a soldier began to grope for the assassin.Not long after, he presented a dark black military iron card:
"My lord, this is the quicksand camp of Ye Kingdom!"

"Ye Country?"

A look of astonishment appeared on Yin Qujian's face, he immediately took the iron document and held it up to the firelight to examine it carefully.On the piece of black cast iron, there were eight large characters written in gold: "The flow is invisible, and the white sand has no trace". He is the mysterious assassin of Ye Kingdom who has always only heard his name but never seen his true face. Troops - Quicksand Battalion!

Yin Qujian was furious, regardless of the bleeding from the knife wound on his body, he stabbed the sword into the opponent's shoulder with all his strength, and then turned the hilt of the sword, torturing and extorting a confession:

"Qi Shouyu, a treacherous person, I should have thought it was him! At this time, it was the newly formed alliance that stabbed me in the back!"

"So what? The confrontation between the two countries is just about you coming and going, deceiving and using each other."

Seeing that the assassin didn't care about the exposure of his identity, Cheng Guogong became more and more annoyed.He swung his long sword, and cut off the opponent's arms on the spot, and cut the helpless prisoner into a human stick, cursing viciously:
"After the widow returns to the Cheng Kingdom to recuperate, I will definitely lead the iron cavalry to march westward, level every inch of the rivers and mountains in the Ye Kingdom, and kill all the living people in the Guangye Kingdom!"

"You think you still have a chance?" The assassin lying on the ground sneered.

"Why is there no chance? It is you who is about to die now, not the widow!"

"Do you think that Liusha Ying would carry such an important iron document with him when he was assassinated? The reason why you found that iron document is because the king wants you to know clearly before you die. At whose hands did I die?"

"Could it be that you still have the skills you haven't used to continue to assassinate the widow?!"

Yin Qujian hummed heavily, raised his sword again, and stabbed fiercely at the opponent's belly.But the assassin didn't seem to feel the pain at all, he just lay on the ground and laughed, and he was still talking vaguely.

The leader of Chengguo no longer has the strength to continue to entangle with the other party.With the support of the medical officer, he sat back on the couch again, while treating the wound, while staring at the angry assassin, he asked the people beside him:

"When death is imminent, what is he still talking about?!"

"My lord, he seems to be saying that the Quicksand Camp has never missed a murderer."

The school lieutenant who had found out the iron card from the assassin came forward with a look of contempt on his face, as if these words were just an extremely funny joke to him.However, before he finished speaking, his legs suddenly went limp, and he fell to his knees on the ground with a "plop".In the blink of an eye, he foamed at the mouth and died on the spot!
"This is—poison! That piece of iron is actually poisoned!"

Seeing that the captain's lips were purple, and his palms were swollen like radishes just dug out of the ground, Yin Qujian immediately reacted.He panicked and ran back to the assassin, trying to force out from his mouth what kind of poison was quenched on the iron scepter.However, the other party was seriously injured and had already swallowed his last breath.

Cheng Guogong straightened up suddenly, and then slowly collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath.There was a piercing pain from the knife wound on his chest, which made it hard to breathe.Soon, the numbness caused by the poisonous attack quickly spread to all the limbs from the fingertips that touched the iron seal!
"Quick—quickly—the widow, search for the antidote!"

Yin Qujian exhausted his last strength and ordered his men to look for the last hope of saving life on the assassin.However, when the soldiers frantically rummaged through the blood-soaked assassin's corpse, the poison on the iron slip had already flowed all over the king's body, and he could never be saved again.

This hero, who was only one step away from the realization of his grand ambition, just like this in the wilderness thousands of miles away from his homeland, his eyes widened in pain, blocked by the blood and vomit gushing from his mouth and nose Trachea, breathing broken.

Then, with the news of Cheng Guogong's sudden death in Wanzhou, the country soon fell into chaos.Even before the Dasheng Dynasty, which lasted for more than [-] years, officially came to an end, the land was almost completely divided up by the surrounding countries.

Since then, around the small countries of Wan, Si, Mian, and Yi, there has been less of a huge hidden danger.But soon, because of a greater threat from the north, they became increasingly sleepless and restless.

　The starting point is not the starting point, and the whole book is free.

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(End of this chapter)