Cangzhou beacon fire

Chapter 23
Where there is light there is darkness, and when you face the light, the shadows are behind you.

Anping calendar year July, Jinxi.

The road to Jinxi, where corpses are strewn all over the field, is nothing more than purgatory.

A gust of cold wind passed by, bringing up pieces of dead leaves, and only vultures were carnivally quacking on the icy corpses.

A few vultures were greedily pecking at a pile of corpses, and even pecked each other for food.

At this time, a hand suddenly stretched out from the pile of corpses, frightening the vultures pecking at it and flying away.

It was an immature hand, struggling feebly, but the pile of corpses did not move at all, such a heavy pressure could not be shaken by this small hand.

The boy in the pile of corpses tried many times, but he still couldn't push his father's corpse away, because the other corpses beside him were pressing him down.

When the horse bandit came, his father protected him with his last ounce of strength, but the original protective umbrella has now become his deadly capstone.

He clearly remembered that when he moved, his father said that the motherland would welcome them, but what greeted them were looting thieves and horse bandits who would kill anyone they saw.

With the last sliver of hope, he stretched out his immature little hand, shaking it, begging for someone to find out.

"Is there anyone? Help me..."

On the empty Jinxi Road, the only response to him was the horrific cries of vultures. Waiting is the most tormenting, especially waiting without hope.

"Who will help..."

After an unknown amount of time, just when the boy was desperately about to give up, a strong and warm hand held him tightly, and then the corpse around him began to loosen, as if someone was turning over the corpse above.

Before the boy could react, the hand that was holding him was suddenly lifted up, and his whole body was dragged out of the pile of corpses by that force.

When the hand that gripped him was loosened, the boy fell heavily on the pile of corpses.

He blinked to adjust to the rare daylight, and then looked ahead carefully, trying to see who saved him.

In front of the boy were two people, an old man in his 70s with a serious face and a young man in white clothes who was about [-] or [-] years old with a smile on his face. It was obviously the old man who pulled him out.

I saw the young man in white bent down, looking at the sallow and thin boy with great interest: "Poor baby, your family is dead, and your country has also abandoned you, so lonely."

The slumped boy didn't know whether the two men were horse bandits, so he backed up a few steps in panic.

The old man was condescending, staring at the boy with cold eyes that seemed to be flashing like lightning: "Now there are two ways for you to choose. One, be my man. Two, stay here and wait for death."

The boy didn't know how to choose, he opened his big eyes and looked at the two in horror, his shriveled lips trembling in fear.

The young man in white approached the boy again, and said with a smile: "Your parents died at the hands of horse bandits, but your country is indifferent. Do you like such a country?"

The boy gritted his teeth and hesitated for a while, then shook his head.

"Then are you willing to be eaten by vultures in this wilderness?" The young man in white said while pointing to the vicinity.

The boy's eyes followed the young man's fingers, and a few vultures were pecking at a corpse. The boy let out a cry of fright, then shook his head harder, and tears flowed down his face.

"That's fine, come with us, at least, you can survive." The young man in white straightened up after speaking, stretched out a hand in front of the boy, and motioned to pull him up.

The boy looked at the young man in white, then at his white hand, hesitated for a moment before reaching out to hold it.

After the boy stood up, he realized that it was not just the two of them who had come. Not far behind the old man and the young man in white, there were about a hundred people, all in rags, and behind the hundred survivors was a procession. The neat army, the three-letter flag is fluttering in the wind.

"Give them a test, and those who can pass will stay in training for two months, and then send them back to Yue Kingdom." The old man watched the boy slowly join the refugee group, and turned to the young man in white.

The young man in white responded, "What about the ones that didn't pass?"

"If you don't pass, there's no need to keep it."

The young man in white sneered with emotion: "Master, Luo Wang sent people to pretend to be horse bandits in order to increase our hatred between Sanyuan and Yue, but he unexpectedly provided us with a good opportunity to infiltrate Yue Kingdom."

"Bai Chuan, remember, although Luo Guo is our ally, that was in the past. Now that he has won the world, the consideration is no longer as simple as friend and foe."

"Students remember."

The old man turned around and looked at the group of people who had been rescued, there were old and young, and more importantly, they were real people, which were the best seedlings for careful cultivation.

Moving east that year, some people lost their lives, some survived, some went to the light, and some went to the darkness...

In September of the 11th year of the Anping calendar, Yue Kingdom returned triumphantly from an expedition to Jinxi.

In the Maofeng Mountain camp, Xiang Zheng and other soldiers did not train for the first time today, but squatted at the gate of the camp all the time, with nervous expressions, as if they were waiting for something.

"Brother Zheng, will the military name not be approved? I like the name Jin Yuqi very much." Lan Tian, ​​the second battalion commander, looked nervously at the first battalion commander Xiang Zheng and asked.

Xiang Zhengyi pouted and replied nonchalantly: "I don't know, Jin Yuqi was started by brother Yao, so I will be called Jin Yuqi, and I will not recognize other names."

When Zhong Yao, Bai Yecheng Fu Bo and others appeared at the gate of the camp, a group of soldiers rushed over frantically and surrounded them.

"Hey, don't push! Don't push! I remember you, your name is Xiang Zheng, right? Don't push me! Alas! Don't push!" Bai Yecheng was squeezed out of the crowd amidst the crowd's pushing.

"These bastards treat me like nothing..."

Bai Yecheng suddenly felt that his existence seemed a bit redundant, and when he felt wronged, he glanced at Fu Bo next to him, and his mind suddenly became more balanced.

In the crowd, Xiang Zheng looked at Zhong Yao and asked anxiously: "Brother Yao, how is it? Has the King of the Golden Feather Cavalry approved it?"

Zhong Yao looked at the packed crowd and waved his hands to calm everyone down.

After everyone stopped chattering, Zhong Yao coughed twice to adjust his status, and then solemnly announced: "Golden Feather Rider! It will be our military name from now on! Your Majesty approves it!"

The whole camp cheered and lifted Zhong Yao up and threw it into the sky. At this moment, they really had their own military name, Golden Feather Cavalry.

What they didn't know was that all the civil servants in the court in the morning were unanimously opposed to the name Jin Yuqi. They all believed that gold was a symbol of the royal family, and Zhong Yao's new army was not the king's personal soldiers, so they could not take this name.

Zhong Yao argued hard in the court, pointing out that businessmen, farmers and all walks of life had the naming and use of gold characters, but the voice of opposition still overshadowed him.

Zhong Lin, who was the general at the time, was inconvenient to speak because of his relationship with Zhong Yao, so he just said calmly: "Everything is decided by the king."

At this time, the old man who stood side by side with Zhong Lin in the hall stood up. The old man was in his sixties, tall and strong, with a bushy beard, and his majesty was even higher than that of Zhong Lin.

Yuebei Tiger - Lu Cui, commanding the northern border of Yue Kingdom Ze'an and Liangyin areas, is also one of the three king surnames of Yue Kingdom.

"The Lu family supports the name of the Golden Feather Cavalry. I don't know if everyone here still remembers the name of the most valiant army of my Lu family in the northern border?"

Those civil servants were instantly speechless after being asked this question. No one in the golden halberd and white clothes of the Lu family in the northern border knew anything.

What puzzled all the civil servants was that the Zhong family and the Lu family had always been at odds, and there were often disputes between the wolf and the tiger over many military issues. Why did the Yuebei tiger stand up to help the Nanyue wolf today? Son talk?

Seeing the silence in the hall, Zhao Yan, who was sitting on the throne, finally spoke.

"The Lu family's golden halberd and white clothes are the military name bestowed by the former king. In this way, today's king is the beauty of an adult, and he has approved the military name of Golden Feather Cavalry!"

Hearing this, Zhong Yao thought to himself: This extravagant king can be regarded as a human affairs.

Then he knelt down and thanked him.

After the court was over, Zhong Lin and Lu Tui, the northern and southern wolves, walked side by side, and Zhong Yao followed closely behind.

"Thank you, Mr. Lu, for your help today. Mr. Zhong thanked Mr. Lu on my son's behalf." After Zhong Lin finished speaking, he turned to Lu Tui and bowed.

Zhong Yao behind him also bowed and said, "Thank you, Lord Lu, for your help."

With his hands behind his back, Lu Cui continued to walk his own way, completely ignoring the father and son who stopped and bowed, and just responded calmly: "Although you and I have different political views, we are all for the sake of the country. The name of the army is just a trivial matter, and I just said Tell the truth, I still have something to do, so be it.”

After walking for a while, Lu Cui stopped again and turned around to look at Zhong Lin and Zhong Yao, who held hands that were about to be put down and bowed again.

"Next time, if the political views are different, I still won't show any sympathy." Lu Cuiyi spoke uprightly, and then left straight away, leaving Zhong's father and son in the wind.

Zhong Yao came to his father and said, "Father, Mr. Lu is a man." Although Zhong Yao often saw his father and Mr. Lu fighting in court, but for some reason, he always maintained a trace of respect for this old man.

Zhong Lin nodded: "Every time there are different political opinions, he will not make any concessions, but he just let the king's extravagance go unchecked."

Zhong Yao thought for a moment with his chin in his hands, and asked, "I heard that Lu Ye's three sons were all hit by dragons, would it be..."

As soon as these words came out, Zhong Lin's expression changed drastically, and he said sharply, "Shut up! Mr. Lu is sincere and will never disagree."

The three surnames of the three kings of Yue State, that is, Zhao Zhonglu, the so-called Wang surnames are the three major clans that led the people of Yue to the east to establish the country in the Dianzhou area. Church jointly recommended.

And since the Zhao family ascended to the top of the court hall for more than two hundred years, the inner hall is mostly occupied by members of the Zhao family, and the total number of people in the inner hall of the Zhong and Lu families is no more than half, and it has long been turned into a decoration.

With the passing of generations, the rule that the three surnames can be kings has long been forgotten by the people, and subtly believe that the Zhao family should be the king of the Yue Kingdom. Occasionally, an old folk storyteller mentioned it in a tavern, and everyone laughed. Laugh at it, don't take it seriously.

That night, in the royal palace of Dianzhou City.

An internal servant evaded sentries and patrolling guards in the dark, and came to a corner of the back garden of the palace. It was King Yue's most favored internal guard, whose fat body made it difficult for him to avoid it.

There was already a man in black waiting for him at the corner. Seeing Wei Yu's arrival, he first showed off his tattoo, and carefully identified the tattoo under the moonlight for a long time before he felt relieved.

"What's the purpose of asking me to come here late at night?" Wei Yu looked back from time to time, afraid that a patrolling guard would pass by, and then asked in a low voice.

"Master received the news that the eight cities acquired by Jinxi will be transferred to the Zhong family. Is it true?" The man in black also lowered his voice, so low that only Wei Yu could hear it clearly when he was very close.

Wei Yu nodded after hearing this: "But there is this matter. Your Majesty does not love the barren land in the west of Jinxi. A few days ago, he asked the court lawyer to draw up the royal decree, and it should be promulgated in the next two days."

The man in black nodded, then whispered: "Okay, master has a task for you."

"What mission is it? Do you want me to assassinate the king? That's absolutely impossible..."

"No, I want you to encourage King Yue to hold a farewell banquet before Zhong Lin leaves. It is best to hold it for several days in a row, so as to delay the departure of the Zhong family."

Wei Yu looked a little embarrassed, he hesitated and said: "I'm afraid that I, a little servant, won't be so convincing, and will this be harmful to General Zhong?"

The man in black took out a small note from his shirt: "How to say the word master has written on this note, you can just read it when the time comes, the master said it, and hearing these words, King Yue will definitely agree Host a farewell party."

Wei Yu took the note tremblingly, and nodded reluctantly: "Okay, then I'll go first, Yue Wang just rested, I can't leave for too long."

When Wei Yu left, the man in black looked at his leaving back and said to himself: "Some people's minds have been shaken...you have to inform the master immediately."

(End of this chapter)