Jinghong Tower

Xiao Ying won three battles in succession and asked Xiao Wenyuan for a total of 70,000 taels of silver!

The Chang'an army finally retreated to Longxi County. Xiao Wenyuan breathed a sigh of relief. He hoped that the Chang'an army would not cause trouble for the time being. He wanted to free up his hands to deal with Xiao Ying, the rebellious son.

Xiao Wenyuan held a grand celebration banquet in the palace, and Xiao Ying was in high spirits and high spirits.

Even his mother seemed ten years younger and full of energy.

Xiao Ying was surrounded by flatterers. In their opinion, Xiao Ying's position as crown prince was already secured.

Xiao Wenyuan watched all this silently and sneered in his heart.

He married his first wife when he was still an unknown minor flag officer. His wife came from a family of military commanders, and at that time he was still an unknown minor flag officer.

Although he came from a prominent family, his parents died when he was young and all the family property was seized by his uncle, so he had to live under the care of his uncle. When he was fourteen, he went to the clan and demanded the property left by his father. His uncle had no choice but to find him a military post as a flag officer. He happily went to the military camp, but within three days, he was transferred to Daba Mountain with the army, and he stayed there for three full years. He could never go back in his life.

It was not until then that he realized that he had been deceived. His uncle had sent him away so that he would never get back the inheritance left to him by his father.

So he used the military merits he had accumulated over the past three years to ask for leave from his superior, saying that he wanted to return to his hometown to get married, and the superior gladly agreed.

He returned to his hometown and killed his uncle's entire family, even his uncle's infant grandson.

After killing the man, he returned to Daba Mountain, but as soon as he returned, the arrest warrant was delivered to him.

The superior found him and said that he could help him. After all, the army had certain privileges in front of the local government, and he also knew that if the superior said he could help him, then he would definitely be able to.

He was about to kneel down and kowtow to his superior, but the superior stopped him.

The chief put forward a condition, which was that he should marry his daughter.

He was stunned at the time. The daughter of an official? He had seen her before. She was a very beautiful lady from an official family.

How could such a good thing become a condition of exchange?
But he agreed immediately.

He married his superior's daughter soon, and on their wedding night, he felt something was wrong with his wife.

In the second month of their marriage, his wife shyly told him that she was pregnant.

He pretended to be happy and secretly bribed the doctor who treated his wife. The doctor told the truth: his wife was four months pregnant.

He remained calm and said to his wife happily, "Our son will definitely be a big boy in the future. Look, you just got pregnant and your belly is bigger than others."

The superior also fulfilled his promise and not only supported him but also provided him with evidence. In the end, the case of his uncle's family was dropped.

Soon, he was transferred to Longnan with his wife, and he was promoted to the rank of centurion.

Soon, Xiao Ying was born. People in Longnan only knew that he had just gotten married, but they didn't know the specific day of his marriage. Therefore, no one knew that Xiao Ying was born seven months after they got married.

Longnan was indeed his blessed land. He made many achievements in suppressing bandits and became a victorious general. He also rose from a hundred households to a thousand households, and later became a general of a place.

He was also very versatile in official circles, and even Wu Dongming, who was far away in Yulin, came to win him over.

You should know that in the northwest, Wu Dongming is a god-like existence, but he did not become Wu Dongming's lackey like Meng Zhong. He has always been ambiguous towards Wu Dongming. As a result, Wu Dongming wants to recruit him for his own purposes and even takes the initiative to marry him.

Over the years, he has been smooth sailing and got whatever he wanted. The Wu family fell, the Meng brothers died, but he is still standing.

Looking back on his half life, the greatest shame was that bastard Xiao Ying.

His wife later gave birth to two daughters. Although he knew that these two daughters were definitely his own, Xiao Wenyuan didn't like either of them. Whenever he saw them, he would think of the woman who had cheated on him.

Fortunately, the two daughters are both useful and they are far more useful than Xiao Ying.

So what is the use of Xiao Ying?
He does have some talent in military affairs, but his heart is not right. A bastard is a bastard, and he cannot be kept even if he is a general.

Maybe the praises were too pleasant to his ears, or maybe the money he earned from his father was too much and too tempting, Xiao Ying got drunk.

Xiao Wenyuan felt sorry for his son and did not send him back home, but let him stay in the palace.

To go to the palace where he was staying as a guest, he had to cross the garden. Xiao Ying was impatient to be supported by others, so he shook off the two palace maids and walked forward drunkenly.

Suddenly, he saw a beautiful woman standing under the flower tree in front of him, and she was waving at him with a charming smile.

Xiao Ying staggered over and held the beauty in his arms.

The two palace maids who were left behind suddenly heard a woman's scream. They ran over and saw Xianglan struggling to break free from Xiao Ying's arms and running past them crying.

They turned around and saw Xiao Wenyuan walking towards them with a few people.

Xianglan threw herself into Xiao Wenyuan's arms and cried bitterly.

Xiao Wenyuan asked someone to send Xianglan back. He took a deep look at Xiao Ying who was vomiting under the flower tree and said nothing.

That night, Xiao Ying abused a palace maid, but was killed by the maid who counterattacked. The maid then hit her head against a pillar and died.

Upon hearing the news, Xiao Wenyuan rushed over and threw himself on Xiao Ying's body, wailing loudly. His most heroic son died so tragically. How could he not be sad to see his young son die before his father?

Xiao Ying's mother and uncles could not believe that the strong and powerful Xiao Ying would die at the hands of a palace maid. However, the palace maids who served Xiao Ying that night could testify that Xiao Ying was indeed killed by that palace maid.

In the end, Xiao Ying's mother had no choice but to kill all the palace maids that night to vent her anger.

Before Xiao Ying's body was cold, the Chang'an army made a comeback. Xiao Wenyuan sent out his general Zhen Ze. The battle lasted for more than half a month and almost razed a small county to the ground.

The battle reports from the northwest were sent to the capital every now and then. He Ran looked at Zhong Yi and asked, "How is Xiao Ying?"

Zhong Yi said: "He is arrogant, but he is indeed a talented general."

He Ran sighed: "I've heard that Xiao Wenyuan is ruthless and heartless, but I didn't expect that he could be so cruel to his own son."

Zhong Yi: "I haven't investigated it carefully, but I suspect Xiao Ying is not Xiao Wenyuan's biological child."

He Ran smiled: "No wonder."

It has to be said that Zhong Yi's guess was correct. Xiao Ying was indeed not Xiao Wenyuan's biological child. However, this is no longer important now. What is important is that the Chang'an Army wants to gnaw on Xiao Wenyuan, a big bone with meat on it.

He Ran said to Xiao Li, "Tell He Dali to help the Chang'an Army if necessary."

Queen Mother Man wanted He Shuting and Xiao Wenyuan to check and balance each other, but He Ran did the exact opposite. She wanted the two sides to fight each other, until either one of them died or both suffered losses.

He Ran still has a lot to do. The most urgent task is to deal with the small Later Zhou court. The northwest is vast, the terrain is complex, and there is infiltration from the Tatars. In addition to Xiao Wenyuan and the Chang'an Army, there are more than a dozen forces of all sizes. It will take at least ten years to wipe them all out.

Therefore, it is far better to let them fight each other than to let them form an alliance.

There were constant battles in the northwest, and in the capital, He Ran finally drank Zong Qi's wedding wine. Zong Qi and Lu Chang got married, and from then on, He Ran had a sister-in-law.

Now that she and Zong Qi are nominal cousins, she can openly call Lu Chang sister-in-law.

She was very happy that day. After returning to Laomofang Hutong, she wrote a letter to Zhou Cangyue.

She told Zhou Cangyue that her brother was married and she had a sister-in-law.

As I wrote, tears blurred my eyes. My brother finally got married, but my parents, grandfather and great-grandfather couldn't see it.

Never see it again.

He Ran could not remember the last time she cried, maybe ten or eight years ago, or even in her previous life.

She sat down in front of the easel and started painting.

This time, she painted a handsome man and a beautiful woman. They were wearing bright red wedding dresses and had happy smiles on their faces.

She wrote a line of small words under the painting: Congratulations on the wedding of He Peng and Lu Chang, written by He Ran.

The ancients attached great importance to burial objects. With her status, she would definitely have a lot of burial objects after her death.

She will take this painting underground. When it is excavated by archaeologists in the future, it will definitely cause a sensation. If all this is a parallel universe, then modern parents will notice the names He Peng and He Ran.

After the painting was framed, she put it in a metal box.

When Zhou Cangyue received this letter, he was already in Yunnan in the southwest.

He received two letters at the same time. In addition to this one, there was another one which was a reply letter from He Ran during the Chinese New Year, along with the painting that He Ran gave him.

There was no other way, as he had been on the march until then, so it took four months for the letter and the painting to reach him.

After reading the letter, Zhou Cangyue smiled foolishly at the painting.

Sister Ran still remembers what he looked like when he was a child, and there was a grandfather in the painting.

He hasn't seen his grandfather for many, many years. He misses him, but he can't even dream about him.

He laughed and then started to cry.

He was afraid that his tears would mar the painting, so he put the painting aside, buried his face in his arms and began to cry.

It was not known how long had passed before the white dog patted his shoulder. Zhou Cangyue raised his head and saw that the white dog had red eyes.

"Why are you crying too?" Zhou Cangyue asked.

The white dog pointed at the painting and said, "I just realized that you were loved by someone when you were a child. Woohoo, I am the only one who has no one to love me."

"How do you know that someone loved me when I was a child?" Zhou Cangyue asked.

The white dog pointed at the old man in the painting and said, "Look, this is your grandfather, right? He looks at you with such loving eyes. No one has ever looked at me like this since I was a child. Woo woo woo."

Zhou Cangyue became even sadder. Yes, his grandfather looked at him so lovingly. Apart from his grandfather, no one else had ever looked at him like that, not even his adoptive father.

The two hugged each other and cried loudly.

The guards outside listened to the crying coming from the tent and looked at each other.

"What happened to the Marshal and the Second General?"

"Why are you crying like a loved one has died?"

"The Marshal's adoptive father was the old leader of the Beggars' Sect. Could it be that today is the old leader's death anniversary?"

The old leader of the Beggars' Sect did not have a death anniversary. According to the rules of the Beggars' Sect, when he felt that his time was up, he would pass the position of leader to the next person. After taking care of the affairs of the gang, he would find a place alone and die quietly.

Unless they die in front of their fellow gang members, most Beggars' Sect leaders do not have tombstones, let alone death anniversaries.

But Zhou Cangyue is the adopted son of the old gang leader. Others may not know the old gang leader’s death anniversary, but Zhou Cangyue may know it.

So the two guards secretly wrote down the date. They were also disciples of the Beggars' Sect and had received kindness from the old leader in the past.

So starting from this year, every year on this day, the two guards would secretly go to the crossroads to burn paper. When they were discovered, people learned that they were burning paper for the old gang leader, so the others followed suit.

After Zhou Cangyue knew about this, he was surprised how they knew his adoptive father's death anniversary, but since everyone else was burning paper on that day, of course he, as the godson, had to do the same.

Therefore, this day really became the old gang leader’s death anniversary.

In He Ran's second letter, she told Zhou Cangyue that her brother was married.

Zhou Cangyue is the only one in this time and space who knows He Peng. Others only know that Zong Qi is a businessman and the leader of the Cao Gang, but only He Ran and Zhou Cangyue know that he was once a great soldier.

If there is one person in this world who can share this joy with He Ran, that person must be Zhou Cangyue.

Zhou Cangyue looked at the letter and thought of the boy who was collectively admired by all the children in the compound. Who wouldn't envy He Ran for having such a powerful brother? Zhou Cangyue was also envious. Other children wanted to be He Peng's younger brother, but Zhou Cangyue was not. He wanted to be He Ran's younger brother even more, but He Peng was too far away from him, and he couldn't reach him even if he stretched his neck. But Sister Ran said she would protect him, so it was easier to be Sister Ran's younger brother.

Zhou Cangyue thought of these past events and wrote them down in a letter.

Zhou Cangyue felt an itch on his arm, but he endured it and finished writing the letter. His arm was already red and swollen.

He cursed. There were too many poisonous insects here. He gave most of the pills that Nong Liuniang gave him last time to He Ran. He thought the rest would last for a few years, but he didn't expect that they would be consumed faster and faster in the southwest. He couldn't bear to wear them on his body. Just yesterday, he took off the sachet containing the pills, and today he was bitten by a poisonous insect.

Once bitten by this poisonous insect, redness and swelling will occur. If you keep scratching it, it will become festering and it will take at least ten days to half a month for a scab to form.

"It's time for dinner, it's time for dinner. We have chicken today!" The white dog walked in happily holding a large tray.

They hadn't eaten meat for many days. Today, they finally got a few chickens and could finally eat some meat.

Zhou Cangyue was overjoyed. Eat chicken. There is no beggar who doesn’t like to eat chicken.

Compared with stewing the chicken, he prefers to smear mud on the chicken and roast it over the fire, which is an ancestral tradition of the Beggars' Gang.

"Hey, why are there still mushrooms?" Zhou Cangyue said.

"This is called mushroom." White Dog corrected.

"Aren't fungi just mushrooms? Oh, are these mushrooms fried? Will they kill people if eaten?" Zhou Cangyue asked.

White Dog: "It must be cooked. Don't worry. The locals all eat it. It won't kill you, so you can eat it without worry." (End of this chapter)