Martial Arts: Start with 100,000 Xiliang Cavalry

Chapter 144 Death of the Emperor (24)

East Gate of Beijing.

Some wealthy families dragged their families here, but when they wanted to pass through, they were stopped by the Silver Armored Army.

"What are you doing?" A middle-aged man asked anxiously, "We belong to the Zheng family. The master and the Minister of the Ministry of War are good friends. How dare you stop us?"

"There is an order from the Holy Spirit that no one is allowed to enter or leave through the East City Gate."

"What? This..."

"Master." The woman on the side winked at the man and pinched his arm.

The man suddenly came to his senses, took out a full amount of big ingot, and stuffed it in the hands of the silver armored soldier: "Please be accommodating!"

"Sorry, I can't accommodate you."

The silver armored soldier said, but did not return the ingot, but stuffed it into his arms.

This almost pissed off the middle-aged man, and said angrily, "You—"

He gestured and raised his hand, and a group of silver armored soldiers immediately drew out their weapons and stared at him covetously.

This frightened many Zheng's family members, and hurriedly pulled the man back.

Seeing this, the discerning person said: "Look at the silver armor these soldiers are wearing. They are forbidden soldiers in the palace. They only obey the emperor's orders, so they can't make way for us!"

"What do you mean, my lord? Didn't the west city gate have already been breached by the Bei'an army... If you don't go by boat at this time, do you just sit and wait for death?"

"...You hear the shouts of killing, you probably are still fighting. Maybe the defenders can win..."

"I see Xuan, then—"

Before the speaker finished speaking, he suddenly heard a movement.

On the wall of the east city, the soldiers also saw that there was an army rushing from the direction of the ferry.

"It's reinforcements! Reinforcements from the sea have arrived!"

……

Ten eight-ox crossbows aimed at Emperor Qingxiang in the crowd.

He was holding his long sword high, and his mouth was open, as if roaring.But his voice was too low, it was completely covered by the shouts of the crowd, and no one could hear it.

"Report, ready!"

The soldier in charge of turning the shaft reported to Su Yuan.

"Launch directly!"

"Yes!"

Empty!
Ten long spears shot out of the air and shot straight at Emperor Qingxiang who was behind the enemy army!
They are fast and accurate, and ten of them are all aimed at the same person. Let alone Qing Xiang is an old man, even if he is young and strong with quick reflexes, it is difficult for him to avoid these ten life-seeking guns.

done?

Su Yuan seemed to have seen the scene where Emperor Qingxiang was pierced to death in public. He saw the exclamation from the crowd of enemy soldiers, someone had already seen these crossbow spears.

However, just before the hit, a figure appeared in front of Qingxiang.

It was a man covered in armor. Su Yuan saw a yellow light coming out of this man's whole body, and then all ten crossbows hit him, and they snapped!
"Damn..."

Su Yuan gritted his teeth.

Is this the master of the Dragon Guardian Clan?

Su Yuan originally thought that this crossbow spear was extremely fast, even if there were experts around, it might not be able to defend in time.Unexpectedly, he still underestimated the dragon guards.

Emperor Qingxiang was not stabbed to death, but he was so frightened that he staggered backwards. Fortunately, the imperial guards supported him, otherwise he would have fallen to the ground.

"Your Majesty, are you alright?!"

Li Gui was not far from Qingxiang at this time, and asked loudly.

After Qingxiang stood firm, she clutched her forehead, a little dizzy: "Is that shot from a ballista? On my city wall??"

"...I'm afraid so."

Li Gui thought of the soldiers who suddenly appeared in the city earlier, and then thought of the ballista on the city wall.

What did he realize.

How could such a heavy thing as a bed crossbow be transported to the city wall so quickly?Totally impossible.

unless……

A terrifying idea popped up in Li Gui's mind, even he himself was frightened by this idea.

Unless that Su Yuan possesses the sorcery that can move objects!

Once this idea appeared, it spread uncontrollably.Li Gui is not young anymore, but he is not static like some old stubborn ones.But even if the idea was true, he didn't know how to deal with it.

"Go and destroy those damn bed crossbows!" Emperor Qingxiang was still yelling at his guards, but the latter turned a deaf ear, as if they didn't care about anything except his safety.

Soon, the next round of crossbow attack came.

This time Su Yuan didn't let anyone target Qingxiang again, it's meaningless to do so with the masters of the Dragon Guardian clan around.It's better to kill some ordinary enemy soldiers to cause fear to the enemy and lower morale.

Morale is not a static thing, even if the emperor appears on the battlefield, it will improve morale.But this increase is only temporary, and as time goes by, unless an advantage is gained on the battlefield, it will fall back.

Once you fall down again, it will be extremely difficult to rise up again.

It can be said that the appearance of the emperor, to the soldiers, is like a dose of adrenaline injected into a dying person.During the time it works, it is still effective to rescue it in time.If it fails to improve the body until it fails, it will die extremely thoroughly.

Now the defenders of the capital are going through this process.

The emperor came, and so did the Janissaries, but they still couldn't gain an advantage.

Under the fierce offensive of the Bei'an Army, they withstood for a while before continuing to retreat.Especially when crossbows start firing into the crowd, causing casualties, and skeletons crawling out of the corpses, the retreat becomes quicker.

Su Yuan didn't want to kill them all. The best result was to make the enemy surrender. If the emperor hadn't arrived, perhaps this ending had already been reached.

"Fight back!" Qing Xiang was still yelling at the top of his voice, "Soldiers of the Great Zhou Dynasty, don't retreat!"

No matter how loud he yelled, it couldn't affect the development of the situation to his disadvantage.

Even if reinforcements continued to join the guards, the servants, regiment trainers, guards, and retainers of the princes and nobles all arrived one after another and went into battle.There are also some Jianghu sects who want to keep the capital out of fear of Su Yuan.

This war has become more intense than before. Every second, several people will fall under swords and guns. The formerly prosperous central long street in the capital has become a meat grinder, and the smell of blood permeates the entire city.

"Go away!"

Li Yuanba roared furiously, and with two hammers, he sent an enemy general in front of him flying, knocking over 30 people.

In this kind of melee, his characteristics of infinite strength are released most perfectly.

Su Yuan has also asked the priest to bless him with the light of agility, which created a "monster" with high strength and high speed.

Li Yuanba had previously marched head-to-head with Zhao Yun, but soon charged into the middle of the enemy formation by himself, firing bows left and right, and hammering wildly.

The enemy was completely helpless against him. Seven or eight generals tried to kill him, but they were all killed with a single blow.This caused the soldiers to want to stay away from him, but there were people all over the front, back, left, and right, and there was nowhere to escape. In the end, they were almost pushed to Li Yuanba's hammer.

Even Qing Xiang could see that the fight would undoubtedly lead to defeat. He forced all the masters in the imperial guards to attack Li Yuanba. However, many people in the absolutely loyal imperial guards also hesitated and ignored orders. .

Praetorian guards are human beings, and human beings are terrified.Even though they possessed superior force than ordinary people, they were not as decisive as any summoned soldier in Su Yuan's army in terms of decisiveness in executing orders.

"Bastard! Are you going to disobey?!"

"Father!" Zhou Chong grabbed Qingxiang's arm and begged, "The capital is about to lose its hold, let's run away!"

Emperor Qingxiang almost fainted from the anger, and slapped Zhou Chong's face with his backhand: "What are you talking about?!"

Zhou Chong covered his face, crying in his voice: "I can't keep it..."

"you you……"

If someone else said that, Qingxiang might only be angry, but it was his own son who said this, and he was also the son who wanted to be the crown prince.This made him more disappointed with Zhou Chong and disappointed with his blindness and ignorance besides his anger.

If the throne is really handed over to Zhou Chong, then Da Zhou must perish in his hands!

The violent emotional shock finally made Qingxiang's already exhausted body unable to bear it. He coughed up a mouthful of blood and passed out.

"Your Majesty! Quickly, send Your Majesty back to the palace!"

The Guards didn't want to fight this war for a long time. Seeing Qing Xiang like this, they immediately played their "duty", lifted the man, and quickly evacuated.

Seeing this, Li Gui felt a burst of sadness in his heart.

But what he didn't expect was that there was another reinforcement army coming from the east at this time, the leader was the eldest prince Zhou Cheng, and the army behind him was the Haizhou Army who came by boat.

Su Yuan on the city wall saw it and cursed: "Here he goes again!"

But scolding, he knows that this will not affect the situation of the battle, but will only make the war stalemate for a while.

……

After Emperor Qingxiang woke up, a circle of imperial doctors surrounded him.

The expressions on their faces were very heavy, Qing Xiang wanted to ask, but found that his voice was unbearably hoarse, and his voice was as weak as a mosquito.

"I……"

"Your Majesty..." the Chief Imperial Physician said sadly, "Your Majesty is probably running out of time, please leave your last words."

Qingxiang's expression darkened, and he could probably guess that the fact that he was so energetic before, and that he was wearing a golden armor to fight in person, was not because his body suddenly improved, but a kind of flashback.

Under the powerful thoughts of unwillingness and anger, the flashes of light disappeared, but when this thought wavered, and when he found that his son was not up to date, the flashes of light disappeared, and the price was his life that was about to come to an end.

"Xuan, Prime Minister Xuanhe..."

"Your Majesty, here I am!"

He Zhongping was waiting in the room at the moment, when he heard that Qing Xiang wanted to find him, he hurried to the window and knelt down with tears in his eyes.

"Zhongping...I'm afraid the capital can't be defended anymore...you let go of Dongcheng...let all the officials escape by boat and go to Haizhou..."

Up to now, Qingxiang also understands that there is nothing to be done.

No matter how much he blocked the East City, he might not be able to block it.It would be better to open the gate of the east city and let the civil and military officials leave by boat while the Bei'an army is not coming.

If the remaining ships were destroyed in this way, Su Yuan would not be able to catch up without sea ships.

If the capital is lost, Xuzhou and Qinzhou may not be able to keep it.But that's just four states.

To the south of Xuzhou and Qinzhou is the mighty Qinjiang River.To the south of the Qinjiang River, there are eight states... Relying on the land of these eight states, it is enough to build the imperial court.As long as the new monarch works hard to govern and prepares his weapons and soldiers, it may not be impossible to regroup and attack the capital.

If all the officials stayed in the capital and were captured and killed by Su Yuan, that would cut off hope and cut off the future of Great Zhou.

He Zhongping knocked his head on the ground and said in a long voice, "Your Majesty, I understand..."

"Prince..." On his deathbed, Emperor Qingxiang did not forget the most important thing, "I made Cheng'er the crown prince, and passed it on to him... You must assist with your heart..."

In the end, he still chose the eldest prince Zhou Cheng. Zhou Chong's cowardice before the battle and his unclear relationship with Fu Chengyang made him break Li Zhou Chong's mind.And the country is in danger, and if the elders are abolished and the younger ones are abandoned, if Zhou Cheng refuses to accept it and brothers kill each other, it will aggravate the turmoil in Da Zhou.

"And, and..."

Emperor Qingxiang still had something to say, he gasped for breath, with a trace of determination and resentment in his eyes.

"Zhen, my capital... the capital of Great Zhou... will never be left to the traitor Su, Su Yuan... before the officials leave... set, set fire... burn the palace... houses..."

Everyone was shocked when they heard the words, He Zhongping raised his head in astonishment: "Your Majesty?"

"Do you dare to...resist...the decree?"

"I dare not!"

Only then did He Zhongping understand that Emperor Qingxiang's character had not changed until his death.Until his death, he was unwilling to admit his failure, and would rather destroy the capital than leave it to Su Yuan.

After Qing Xiang finished the last sentence, his eyes straightened, and the arms beside the bed hung down weakly, as if he had died.

In the 41st year of Qingxiang, on July [-]th, the emperor died.

"His Majesty!!!"

Everyone screamed in mourning, some of them were sincere, but it was hard to say.

He Zhongping shed a few tears, then immediately got up to carry out Qingxiang's last wishes.

Baiguan was called into the palace before, and now they are waiting in the main hall. Seeing He Zhongping come out, and hearing from him that Qing Xiang has passed away, they are all very sad.

But after hearing Qingxiang's last words, she was pleasantly surprised.In fact, Qing Xiang didn't need to specifically say that they would never stay in the capital to wait to die... Once the emperor died, the so-called imperial guards were no different from ordinary soldiers, and they had no right to block the east gate.

What they didn't expect was that Emperor Qingxiang actually asked them to set fire to the capital.

This is really...

"That's fine!" Lu Guang said, Minister of the Ministry of War, "If you don't burn it, it will be left to Su Yuan!"

"The century-old capital city was destroyed by fire, what a crime..." the scholar said with emotion.

Some officials disagreed: "If one day the eldest prince leads troops to fight back to the capital, wouldn't it be a waste of money?"

Someone sneered: "It's good to be able to rule across the river, call back, hum."

"You! What kind of rebellious words are you talking about!"

"I'm just telling the truth!"

"Okay, what are you still arguing about now?" He Zhongping said, "I'll send someone to inform the First Prince, and you all pack up and go to the East City Gate... before you leave, burn your mansion down!"

The expressions of all the officials were not happy, and anyone who wanted to burn down his own house would not be happy.But when he thought about not burning it, leaving it to Su Yuan, and even letting some lowly grassroots live in his home in the future, it would be even more unpleasant.

Everyone left in a hurry, He Zhongping took over the control of the imperial guards, and sent a team to take the eldest prince to the east city.The remaining people are responsible for completing the final oral order of Emperor Qingxiang.

"My lord prime minister!" Someone asked, "How will His Majesty's harem be dealt with?"

With so many concubines and servants, it is unrealistic to take them all away at this time.He Zhongping paused and said, "Just escort the Empress Chitose away."

After all, the empress is Zhou Cheng's mother, Zhou Cheng will be the new emperor of the Great Zhou in the future, and other concubines are fine, the empress can't have any accidents.

"Yes."

"My lord prime minister." Another squad leader asked, "The imperial palace was burnt down, what about the other houses in the inner city? There are also private houses..."

He Zhongping thought for a moment, and then he felt ruthless: "Burn them all!"

(End of this chapter)