The Beacon of Kyushu

Chapter 141 Duke Ruan Raises an Army to Suppress Traitors

Five days later, Ancient Luo City.

A group of children were chasing and playing in the street, their faces were filled with joyful smiles, and they kept singing loudly, "One king and one king dominate the industry, the first minister is here to usurp the country!"

In their hearts, these are just two incomprehensible nursery rhymes. As long as they repeat them enough times, they will sooner or later be like the children in Hoa Lu, enjoying free drinks. As for the deep meaning behind them, is completely irrelevant to them.

The immature voice and the nursery rhymes full of meaning drifted away with the cool wind of early winter.Floating through the long streets, high walls, thick wooden doors, and into the ears of Ruan Bao, who is worried about state affairs in the study.

In front of Ruan Geng was a somewhat yellowed map, but the markings on it were still clear, and the current situation in the world could be discerned at a glance.His hand gently stroked Guluo City, then slowly moved southward, and finally stopped on Hualu City between his fingers.

"Li Huan, ten generals under one man and over ten thousand people are not enough, and you tricked the young master into making you the deputy king. Are you sure you want to take that last step now? If you didn't take this step, you I am still a subject of Qu Yue, and I can bear everything. But if you take this step, you are a rebellious courtier who killed the king, and you and I can only talk with swords!"

Ruan Gen and Li Huan have known each other for a long time. In Ruan Gen's eyes, Li Huan was a shrewd and capable subordinate, and the two were also heart-to-heart friends.But the world is unpredictable, Ruan Peng 20 years ago, no matter what, he would never have imagined that there would be today.

Even though Ruan Geng didn't want to believe it, everything was a foregone conclusion. He had only two choices now, one was to stay out of the matter and let Li Huan replace Ding as the leader of Quyue, or the other was to initiate a righteous act and lead troops to serve the king.If he chooses the former, he will surely betray the trust of the Ding clan and become Qu Yue's sinner forever. If he chooses the latter, although he will be famous forever, his life will inevitably be in danger.

Loyalty is what Ruan Peng desires, and life is also what Ruan Gong desires. The two cannot be combined. Ruan Gong doesn't know whether to give up loyalty for life or give up life for loyalty.After all, loyalty is to others, but life is to oneself. How can there be anyone in the world who is not greedy for life and not afraid of death?
When Ruan Peng was undecided, there was a sudden knock on the door, he thought it was someone from the mansion who came to ask him for instructions, and said coldly, "Come in."

Following his words, the door was pushed open from the outside, and a middle-aged man in black walked in.Ruan Peng glanced at this person out of the corner of his eye, then raised his head in surprise, stared at the middle-aged man in black in disbelief, and said, "Master Ding, why are you here?"

The middle-aged man in black sighed, pointed out the window and said, "Mr. Ding, you must have heard the nursery rhymes outside, right? One horizontal and one vertical is a cross, and the first walking together is a word for Dao, ten dao, ten dao , isn’t it referring to Li Huan? Even my Quyue children are exposing Li Huan’s wolf ambitions, may I ask the Duke why you can still sit in the room!”

Ruan Ben nodded slightly, pointed to a chair next to him, and said, "Master Ding, sit down first, let's talk slowly if we have something to do."

The middle-aged man in black sat down angrily, "Dingguo Gong, although I, Ding Dian, is only a distant relative of the late emperor, I still want to defend the Ding family to the death. As the most trusted general of the late emperor, you are willing to treat Li Huan bowed his head and followed his ears, guarding Guluo City for him?"

Ruan Peng shook his head and said: "Lord Ding, you don't know, the reason why I followed Li Huan's order to guard Guluo City is not because I am afraid of him, nor because I intend to serve him as the master, but because I want to control the situation. Soldiers and horses, in the future, it is good to send troops to Hualu, and the emperor of the Qing Dynasty. It's just that the new emperor..."

Ding Dian was puzzled and said: "Since Dingguo is determined to eradicate traitors for the country, what are you waiting for? Why don't you send troops to Hualu immediately, but hesitate here? You have experienced hundreds of battles, and you have been a soldier all your life. Are you afraid of mere one? Li Huan?"

Ruan Peng said: "Lord Ding, when the new king saw the ministers on the first day, you were sick and did not go to court. You don't know how much the officials trust Li Huan. Not only did he follow Li Huan's words, he made him the deputy king and took charge of the country's political affairs. , and even said in front of all the officials that the entire court would be handed over to Li Huan. If I did not have sufficient evidence to send troops to Hualu without authorization, Li Huan would only be accused of disloyalty and injustice, and I would never What's the use of killing Li Huan even if you become Qu Yue's public enemy?"

Ding Dian said: "Mr. Dingguo, I was indeed ill and did not go to the early court that day, but I was there from the beginning to the end of the banquet on the day when the late emperor was killed. First, the monster brought by the prince of Dali went crazy, and then the late emperor and the eldest prince suddenly went mad. When he was killed, all the officials were so flustered that day that they all believed that Du Shi was a secret agent of another country, and killed the first emperor and prince in order to cause civil strife in Quyue. But I have been paying attention to Li Huan's every move that day. Shen Rushui is extremely inconsistent with his usual temperament, obviously trying to cover up. Therefore, the lower officials believe that the death of the first emperor was not as simple as it appeared on the surface, and it must have been a situation set up by Li Huan in collusion with Du Shi. Li Huan was afraid of taking the notoriety of killing the king. , so he killed the first emperor with the help of Du Shi, and then killed Du Shi with the help of you, duke, and in the end he was a good fisherman."

Ruan Geng smiled wryly, "Master Ding, I have already seen this matter. I just regretted killing Du Shi in a fit of anger. Before Du Shi died, Li Huan denied it in public. Now Everything is dead and there is no proof. Now that he is in power, he must hide it in every possible way. If we only rely on subjective inferences, it will be difficult to come up with conclusive evidence."

Ding Dian was very annoyed by Ruan Gen's attitude, so he got up suddenly, clenched his right hand into a fist, slammed the table in front of Ruan Gen, and then said angrily: "Ding Guogong, I always think you are a You are a loyal minister with strong bones and daring to act, so I took the risk to come to you. Unexpectedly, you are worse than those turtles in Hualu City. At least they have not been treated as favorably by the Ding clan like you. If everyone is afraid of wolves and tigers, then I have no choice but to mobilize five hundred old and weak soldiers under my command to fight Li Huan to the end alone!"

Ding Dian's words pierced Ruan Geng's heart, he couldn't help feeling a little guilty, so he stomped his feet and said: "Forget it, I will join the army with Master Ding and swear to destroy Li Huan! I will never let the king's hegemony be overthrown, and the first minister will go away!" Come to usurp the country, these two nursery rhymes will become a prophecy!"

Hearing this, Ding Dian grabbed Ruan Gen's hand excitedly, then his knees softened, and he knelt down in front of Ruan Gen, "Duke Ding, are you serious? If you, Duke Ding, are willing to send troops to serve the king, I, Qu Yue, will be saved." , my Ding clan has also been saved, and on behalf of the officials, I thank you for your great kindness!"

Ruan Geng quickly stood up and helped Ding Dian up, "Master Ding, get up quickly. The traitor is in power, and I, the officials of Quyue, are all responsible for punishing him. As long as you and I work together, we will definitely destroy Li Huan in one fell swoop and protect him forever." Ding family!"

(End of this chapter)