Jinghong Tower

At this time, He Shuting had not yet realized that the place pointed out by He Zongqun was only more than 30 miles away from the Beidaying where the Chang'an army was stationed.

And that place belongs to Longxi County!
He Zongqun looked angry and said, "The Dark Lord is slapping us in the face!"

Only then did He Shuting realize the seriousness of the matter. Even if the person abducted was not Empress Xiao, even if it was just a peddler, as long as that place belonged to Longxi County, it was a provocation from the Dark Lord to Longxi County!
People in other places may not know who the Dark Lord is, but He Shuting in Longxi County knows.

The Dark Lord's men are not a motley crowd; they were all once the imperial army.

"How many people does the Dark Lord have?" He Shuting asked.

He Zongqun had obviously done a detailed investigation. He said, "Although the Dark Lord's own army only has more than 70,000 people, these 70,000 people are all elite. Not only that, the Flame Army, Desert Old Nine, and Wang Layue, these three forces have now joined the Dark Lord. When all is taken into account, they should be comparable to the Chang'an Army."

The Chang'an army originally had 100,000 soldiers. After the destruction of Xixiao, the dead and wounded soldiers were replaced by prisoners of war from the Xixiao army. Now there are about 200,000 soldiers.

In other words, the current Dark Lord is capable of competing with the Chang'an army.

He Shuting was surprised. She thought that after destroying Xi Xiao, she would be able to rest easy, at least until He Ran conquered Later Zhou.

Moreover, she underestimated the Dark Lord. She thought that the Dark Lord would be satisfied by robbing caravans on the Silk Road, but she didn't expect that the Dark Lord's appetite was no longer limited to those passing merchants. What he wanted now was the endless mountains and land from Longxi to Longnan!

He Shuting looked at He Zongqun with tears in her eyes: "Brother, you must think of a way. Everyone wants to bully us orphans and widows. These people are all rotten at heart."

He Zongqun's face was gloomy: "Don't worry, I will never let Xing Dashan take advantage of you."

It was the Chinese New Year, and friends and relatives were visiting each other, so the news spread quickly. In less than three days, everyone knew that the Dark Lord wanted to occupy Longxi County.

At the same time, news also spread about the tyranny of the Dark Lord Xing Dashan.

"I heard that Xing Dashan likes to eat human flesh, especially the flesh of babies."

"Xing Dashan is also fond of women, and he likes to give the women he has abused to his subordinates as rewards, even to the soldiers."

"The Dark Lord's men are not only horse bandits, they are also soldiers. Xing Dashan lets them rape, kill and rob. They even compete in killing. The winner can get a generous reward from Xing Dashan."

"Have you heard of the ghost town? Yes, the ghost town used to be called Dark Cloud City. After the Dark Lord entered the city, he ordered a massacre. There were more than 8,000 people in Dark Cloud City, and they were all killed. From then on, Dark Cloud City became a ghost town. At night, all the ghosts wandering in the city are wronged."

The rumors became more and more exciting. At night, the baby kept crying. The woman said, "Don't cry anymore. If the Dark Lord hears you, he will come and take you away."

On the fifth day of the first lunar month, shops in the city open for business. In the new year, everything looks new, business is booming, and money is coming in.

But on the fifth day of the first lunar month this year, all the shops were deserted and there was not a single customer to be seen for half a day.

It wasn't just the shops that were deserted; the streets of the counties in Longxi County were also empty.

Every household closed its doors, and some wealthy families had already packed up their belongings and prepared to take shelter with relatives in other places.

The ruthless Dark Lord is about to attack, and Longxi County will never have peace again.

He Shuting was extremely anxious. This kind of foreseeable danger was far more frightening than the sudden one. Even the little Wu Guochang stopped crying out of grievance under the secret intimidation of his wet nurse.

Fear, no matter men or women, young or old, high or low, everyone is afraid.

Finally, the fear of the women in the harem affected the men in their own family, and the generals came to He Zongqun one after another and volunteered to go into battle.

He Zongjun shook his head, looking embarrassed: "The prince is too young, the princess just wants to live in peace."

The generals were disdainful. Peace? Bullshit peace, is that woman still asleep? The Dark Lord has entered the palace, who can be safe?
The news that Empress Xiao had been abducted was no longer a secret. Some curious people had gone to see it. The clearly visible horse hoof prints and wheel ruts, and even the scraps of silk hanging on the bushes, all told the world that a fight had taken place here and a woman in luxurious clothes had been abducted.

"Today she is Empress Xiao, and tomorrow she will be the wives, sisters, and daughters of all of you present here!"

A general was furious. At this moment, he even hoped that it was Princess Chang'an who was abducted.

He serves the Prince of Chang'an as his master, he admires his military advisor He Zongqun, and he is proud to be a member of the Chang'an Army, but this does not mean that he is also loyal to the Princess of Chang'an.

He Shuting mistakenly thought that by becoming the Princess of Chang'an again, killing those generals who were calling for her death, and then letting He Zongqun come forward to rally the troops, win a few battles, and let the remaining generals make a small fortune, she would be able to make these people loyal to her. However, the facts proved that this was far from enough.

The demise of the Wu family was caused by He Shuting, but ultimately, it was all due to the Wu father and son.

The main reason for Wu Dongming's failure was the gap in the army. The old generals were old, and the young generals had not yet grown up. In addition, Wu Ji took away most of the elite troops, He Ran took advantage of the situation, and Fu Yansheng was experienced, so Wu Dongming was defeated.

Wu Ji's failure was due to several consecutive strategic mistakes. He was brave, but he lacked available advisers. Although He Dali was not as brave and good at fighting as him, He Dali had a strategic team assigned by He Ran. This strategic team studied Wu Ji and his army every day. How could he not be defeated when his lone bravery faced off against a strategic planner?

But the world ignored all this and blamed He Shuting for all the Wu family's failure.

Everyone believed that she was the culprit that led to the demise of the Wu family.

The predecessor of Chang'an Army was Meng's Army. Meng's Army had always regarded Wu Dongming as a god. Now Wu is gone, but there is still Wu Guochang. These generals gritted their teeth and bowed to He Shuting, but deep down in their hearts, they were gnashing their teeth towards He Shuting.

Unfortunately, He Shuting could not see the depths of their hearts. Because of her son's status as a mother, she thought she was able to be compared with He Ran and Queen Dowager Man.

Now the Dark Lord has come to their door, but He Shuting won't let them take action, and the generals are filled with indignation.

In desperation, He Zongqun invited He Shuting out. In front of He Shuting, these generals slammed the table and threw the benches, which scared Wu Guochang so much that he burst into tears. He Shuting shed tears silently. Finally, He Zongqun came out to mediate. He Shuting finally made the final decision and was determined to win the battle with the Dark Lord.

Five days later, the Chang'an army was ready and marched towards the Black Sand City where the Dark Lord was stationed.

When He Ran received the news, it was already many days later, and by that time, the Chang'an army was already fighting a fierce battle with the Dark Lord.

Not long after, He Ran received news from the Northwest again, and this time, she was shocked.

Wu Dongming's son Wu Ju is now the leader of the Long Snake Battalion under the Dark Lord.

And the abducted Empress Xiao is now Wu Ju's wife.

It was Wu Ju who led his troops to Longxi County to abduct Empress Xiao that day. He Ran didn't know what to say. Wu Ju had been engaged to Empress Xiao, a marriage between the aristocratic families in the northwest. He Ran had never thought that there would be love between the two.

The Long Snake Battalion is active in the depths of the desert. The warriors run hundreds of miles just for their beloved. What is this? This is love!

He Ran was not interested in their love, but there was one thing that puzzled her.

As everyone knows, Longxi County, and even the recently conquered Longnan, now all respect the Wu family, and the Wu family only has a child who can't even speak fully.

It is something that everyone knows, so Wu Ju could not have been unaware of it. Moreover, there must be some of Wu Dongming's old subordinates around Wu Ju.

What’s strange is that Wu Ju would rather follow the Dark Lord and become a horse bandit in the desert than come to Longxi County. Why?
Moreover, the last time, he was only thirty miles away from the Beidaying of the Chang'an Army, but he did not reveal his identity and simply kidnapped the person.

He Ran was puzzled, and He Zongqun obviously didn't understand what was going on either.

Wu Ju was far away in the depths of the desert, and the only information He Zongqun received was that he had been to Longxi County and kidnapped Empress Xiao.

He Ran called Zhong Yi over and asked, "Are there any of your men who are familiar with the desert?"

Zhong Yi thought about it and shook his head slowly: "No."

Both of them were lost in thought. Suddenly, Zhong Yi said, "There was a man named He Shaolin in Hejia Village. Does the boss remember him?"

He Ran certainly remembered that before she returned to Qingcang Mountain, the connection between Hejia Village and the outside world depended entirely on He Shaolin.

He Shaolin was away from home all year round. He brought the mountain products and cloth produced in Hejia Village out of the mountains and exchanged them for things the villagers needed. He also did some reselling business to make money for the village.

Zhong Yi said: "As far as I know, the farthest place He Shaolin has ever been to is the desert."

He Ran was delighted and asked Xiaoli to pass on the order to summon He Shaolin to Beijing.

After finishing the arrangements, seeing Zhong Yi still sitting there as steady as a rock, He Ran asked, "Do you have anything else to do?"

Zhong Yi said calmly: "When are you going to ascend the throne?"

He Ran was startled, and their eyes met in the air, but then separated in an instant.

"Wait a little longer. Not yet." Her answer consisted of less than ten words.

Zhong Yi looked at her deeply and changed the subject.

"Jing Chongguang, can you stay?"

He Ran: "We can use both methods at the same time, but it's not easy to kill Jing Chongguang."

Zhong Yi stood up: "But let's give it a try."

After Zhong Yi left, He Ran picked up yesterday's evening paper. In the corner there was an article the size of a tofu block. It described a strange story in a certain place: a peasant woman gave birth to a son. The son had ears that hung down to his shoulders and seven stars under his feet. A fortune teller said that the son had the appearance of an emperor.

Suddenly one day, the sky was covered with dark clouds, lightning and thunder. Someone saw a golden dragon breaking through the clouds and descending.

Everyone rushed out of their homes in the rain to look for the dragon.

The dragon's trace was nowhere to be found, so they had to ask a master for help. The master counted with his fingers and pointed to a place. Everyone went in the direction of the master's finger and finally found a village.

The rain stopped before we entered the village. We saw the ground was muddy and covered with paw prints. We followed the paw prints and found a thatched cottage. Inside the cottage was a man sitting with his ears hanging down to his shoulders and seven stars under his feet.

Everyone knelt on the ground and shouted "Long live this boy!" This boy was truly the Dragon Emperor.

This boy then ascended the throne and named the country Longteng.

After this boy ascended the throne, he began to recruit concubines to continue the family line. All unmarried women in this village and nearby villages had to be selected by Emperor Longteng. In less than three days, Emperor Longteng's harem was filled with a hundred people.

There was a girl who was already engaged, but she was still chosen by Emperor Longteng. When Emperor Longteng saw that she was beautiful and charming, he was very pleased and made her the queen.

The woman would rather die than obey, so she fled overnight to the county government office and reported the matter to the magistrate. It happened that bandits were lurking nearby and all the runners in the county government office had been sent to suppress the bandits. There were only three runners left in the entire county office. The magistrate had no choice but to send these three runners to the scene.

Two hours later, Emperor Longteng, along with the left and right prime ministers, the six ministers, and General Shenwei, a total of ten people, were escorted to the county government office by the three yamen runners, and the Longteng Dynasty was destroyed.

He Ran put down the newspaper. She could imagine that the people would laugh so hard after seeing this.

This incident was not fabricated, but a real event. It was He Ran who ordered the beheading of Emperor Longteng.

In fact, before this, He Ran had no intention of killing the emperor. After receiving the memorial from below, she just laughed it off. She originally planned to let the Emperor Longteng and his ministers go to the mine to suffer and stop having such wild ideas. But then, she received another memorial from the county magistrate, and she ordered that all the people be beheaded as a public display.

The reason she did this was that all the women who were taken into the harem by Emperor Longteng committed suicide after he was captured.

That’s right, a total of 102 young women, the oldest was 18 years old and the youngest was only 10 years old. Not a single one survived, all died.

Although their families insisted that they committed suicide voluntarily, no one would believe that these women were forced by their families or village elders. They had been in the harem of Emperor Longteng, and even if they were not favored, they were already unclean in the eyes of the world. Unclean women had no choice but to die.

This incident happened in a remote mountainous area. There was a war going on in Jiangnan at the time, so not many people knew about it. So when it is mentioned now, it is just a joke.

Behind this joke are 102 young lives, so it is not funny at all.

This is a tragedy caused by several delusional psychopaths, and the cause was the ascension to the throne. Coincidentally, Zhong Yi also mentioned the ascension to the throne today.

He Ran asked Xiaoli to call Zhang Jiahui over. She pointed at the tofu block in the evening paper and said, "Go to the Ministry of Justice to check the case file, write an article about the follow-up of this case, and send it to the newspaper office."

The next day, the entire case was published in the evening paper. For a time, the whole capital was talking about it. For the next few days, the newspapers were filled with debates about the case and commemorations of the 102 women.

At this time, He Shaolin came to Beijing. (End of this chapter)