Prince of Song Dynasty

Chapter 817 The White Flag in Shangjing City

Generally speaking, people in Beijing can see from the news they know so far that Liao's foreign wars have been mixed.But these troops dispatched are basically the direct line troops loyal to the Empress Dowager Xiao, and because the Liao Kingdom has fought for more than four months since Yelu Hanye and Yelulu rebelled in August, in order to raise food, horses, The baggage, the Empress Dowager Xiao searched too hard from the major vassal states and tribes, everyone is having a hard time this winter, and they all have strong dissatisfaction with the Empress Dowager Xiao and the court in their hearts. Shocking the whole country, I am afraid that someone has jumped out to make trouble.But even so, the overall atmosphere in the Liao Kingdom is still a little tense.

Therefore, in the biting cold wind, the officers and soldiers guarding the city at the four city gates of Shangjing City held their sleeves and tried their best to carefully check the customs documents of people entering the capital.The Pishi army who stayed behind in the capital also increased their vigilance in the four camps, while the ten thousand palace guards guarding the palace stood on the high palace wall, looking suspiciously at everything under their feet.

The entire defense force of Shangjing City is controlled by these three parts of the army. In such a tense situation, if there is a slight carelessness, it may lead to chaos.

Therefore, the three parties did not dare to relax in the slightest. Headed by Xiao Chengtian, the core figure of the Empress Dowager Xiao's family, the King of the Northern Academy, Xiao Chengtian, strongly suppressed everyone's alienation and agitation.

Although the people in Shangjing were not as nervous as the officials and the army, most of them stayed at home to heat the kangs or surrounded the stove in such cold weather.Of course, no matter when, there will always be people in restaurants, tea houses, and brothels who will talk about what happened in the court recently, and talk about the bad things about the neighbors' parents.

The cold north wind rustled the trees outside the teahouse, just covering up the discussions of the troublemakers inside the teahouse.

Of course, what is being discussed is the recent battle with the three Xiangfu Kingdoms at the same time. The folks have their own news from the southwest, and in addition to the hostage exchange that was defeated by Xiangfu Kingdom more than half a year ago, it seems that they are also in the battle with Xiangfu Kingdom. did not gain the absolute upper hand.Liao Kingdom gradually discovered that this small country located in the northwest and just established for more than eleven months was even more difficult to deal with and not easy to provoke than the Song Dynasty in the Southern Dynasty.

However, few people dare to discuss these matters in public, but there are always people who dare to talk behind their backs, and then lead to discussions on the court.

Generally speaking, the people in Shangjing gave enough sympathy and comfort to the orphan and widow of Empress Dowager Xiao who lost her husband at a young age and now controls the entire country.Maybe it's because people always hope that the world will be more peaceful, and they don't want to cause too many turmoil due to the battle for the throne.In addition, the Yelu royal family, especially those princes, had not done anything good among the people in the past, and their reputation was extremely bad.On the contrary, although Empress Dowager Xiao was cruel and decisive to those who opposed her, she still paid more attention to the livelihood of the people than the generations of emperors of the Yelu royal family.

The common people all have their own steelyard in their hearts, so regarding the fact that the royal family was almost killed four months ago, the common people have a very happy idea in their hearts.

Suddenly, a strong wind blows from the wide streets of Kyoto without warning.Rise, pass, and pass between the densely populated houses!The wind came so suddenly that it almost blew off the hats of those street vendors with fruit stalls and sleepy hair.The muddy eyes were exposed, and the fruit peels were rolling all over the street.The green banner outside the blowing teahouse looked like it was about to break.

The tea drinkers sitting by the bars of the teahouse looked out curiously, feeling bored.It's almost the twelfth lunar month, is it finally going to be the first heavy snow this winter?

Then they saw that the blue sky was suddenly covered by layers of dark clouds coming from the southeast, above the entire capital.As if a huge cover had been added, the warmth of the sun disappeared quickly, and the colder air enveloped the city and the people in it.

The clouds kept twisting and rolling.Like countless giant dragons are arranging formations.Sometimes clouds are pulled out.It looked terrible.Such thick dark clouds naturally heralded the coming heavy snow.Looking at the cloud head, I'm afraid this heavy snow will be extremely fierce.

And those tea drinkers and common people were not surprised but happy.I thought to myself that if there is no more snow this winter, the fields will not produce much food in the coming year, and the price of food will inevitably be high, and everyone will not have a good life. No matter what industry people are, they still have to eat.

The snowflakes fell silently, getting bigger and bigger, and soon the streets, houses, and trees were covered in white, and the whole world turned white.Pedestrians on the street avoided one after another, and the tea drinkers upstairs squinted their eyes, admiring the heavy snow that had not been seen for a long time and the houses and trees that were covered with white snow.

"What's the matter?" Suddenly a person looked at the city gate and asked curiously.

Hearing this, the lively crowd gathered around the fence of the teahouse and looked towards the gate of the city. Across layers of snowflakes, they couldn't tell what was going on there. They could only vaguely feel a commotion. The panic with those sergeants.The four gates of Shangjing are all guarded by soldiers and horses from the City Gate Division under the Privy Council.The military ban has always been strict.This situation rarely occurs.All tea drinkers are a little curious.

Naturally, there will not be an army coming to attack the city, first of all, no matter how absurd this imagination itself is.Even if an army really attacked the city of Kyoto, the Pishi army on the outskirts would be the first to meet the enemy, and the watchmen stationed in the turrets of the city gate division would sound the alarm immediately.

There was a sound of horseshoes, and the sound of stepping through the heavy snow on the long street was hurried.

The tea guests looked intently, only to see a steed galloping towards the gate of the city, and there was only one horse, and everyone knew that there must be an urgent message entering the city from somewhere, and they all felt relieved.

But seeing the white froth on the horse's mouth and the haggard look of the knight on the horse, no matter how nervous the crowd was, they thought to themselves, could it be that something went wrong in the battle with Xiangfu Kingdom?Or is it that the affiliated tribes such as Jurchen and Mongolia rebelled again?
The heavy snow kept falling, and the extremely exhausted steed pulled up its last strength and galloped desperately against the wind and snow.Ragged and solemn knights on horseback don't care about the life and death of their mounts.Fiercely waved the horsewhip in his hand.Urging the steed under him to maintain the fastest speed, he stepped across the long street under the teahouse, splashing snow all the way.Sprint towards the direction of the palace!
Fortunately, the heavy snow arrived first.Drive pedestrians and street vendors to the side of the street under the eaves.Otherwise, the knight ran desperately, and he didn't know how many people he would kill.

The tea drinkers watched the man disappear into the snow one by one.Disappeared at the end of the long street.Involuntarily let out a breath.After digesting the incomparably quiet tension before, they looked at each other in blank dismay.I don't know what happened to the court.

"There is a white flag on the back for the invasion of enemies from outside the border..." An older Khitan tea drinker suddenly said in a trembling voice.

The teahouse became even quieter. Although the people of Shangjing who were born later had not experienced the war season at the beginning of the founding of the Liao Kingdom, they had heard of it.During the worst times of the war, tens of thousands of people were killed and injured by the Liao army, and the knights flying thousands of miles to report the news... were also the white flags planted behind their backs!
"The knight who reported the news is..." Someone asked suspiciously: "Isn't the King of the South Court already about to occupy Yinzhou?"

"It's a fast horse in the army." The older tea guest was a Khitan, and it was obvious that he was also a soldier who often went to the battlefield.The voice was still trembling.With the white flag on the reporter's back, something big must have happened!
The discussion in the teahouse suddenly stopped, and everyone, no matter if they were Khitan or Han, even the waiter and shopkeeper fell into silence, and everyone stood quietly by the fence.Looking at the street in the snow.Secretly praying that nothing will happen to your country has nothing to do with whether you love your country or not, because no matter when, the people who are most affected by war are the people.

"Another one!"

In the teahouse, a young man shouted anxiously and helplessly.At this time, there was no restlessness at the city gate.Some places are just chilling and vigilant.However, the second rider came faster than the first rider, and flew past the tea house like a cloud of smoke.

The knight is without armor.It's just a dark black dress, holding the rein with one hand.Kick with both feet.His face was full of black water stains left by the melting snow on his face.

He also had a white flag on his back, but compared to the one white flag of the cavalry in front, he had two white flags.But the right hand held up a token-like thing, and rushed directly through the city gate.Stepping across the long street, he also galloped towards the palace.

Everyone in the teahouse looked expectantly.Looking at the former Khitan tea guest who knew the court's style well.Hope to hear some good news from his mouth.

The old tea guest was pale, and murmured: "From the appearance of the clothes, the former is a knight in the army, and the latter is a spy of the Eagle Eye Guard, and a flag may represent an emergency at the border. There is an invasion of foreign enemies, or it may be a Tens of thousands of people died in the defeat. The two flags generally refer to the loss of the city, or the disastrous defeat of the army, and the loss is extremely heavy."

After a while, the third Kuaiqi who sent a message from thousands of miles, once again forcibly broke through the city gate guarded by the city gate secretary, and stepped onto the street under the teahouse.This knight, like the previous two, was also in a state of distress. It seemed that he had traveled thousands of miles, changing horses without changing people, and reporting the news to the capital as quickly as possible was indeed a very hard work.

Immediately, the knights didn't find it hard. They only knew that if they couldn't report this shocking news to the palace as quickly as possible so that the queen mother could make a quick decision and find a way to dispatch troops to rescue them, they might lose their heads.

Large flakes of snow kept falling on the knight's face, and then melted, flowing into some of his blood-red eyes, but he couldn't stop his speed, the horse galloped across the long street, and galloped towards the palace.

There are three white flags on his back that make people feel horrified.

(End of this chapter)