Slave to Queen: One Night Bride

Chapter 352 Provoking Discord
Yue Pengju and Hua Rong knelt on the mound, tears streaming down like rain.Yue Pengju said sadly: "The war was difficult, and the remains of the soldiers could not be returned to their hometowns for burial. It was because of Yue Pengju's incompetence!"

Hua Rong was also very sad, but seeing that her husband had been working hard in the war these days, and his formerly heroic husband was getting more and more haggard, so she forcibly restrained her grief, and silently helped him up.

It took them ten days to arrive at Xingshui, and the soldiers rested for two days, so they decided to march on the fourteenth. This time, the route of march was Zhuxian Town.The goal is to completely expel the Jin army who retreated to Kaifeng with poor donkey skills.For this Northern Expedition, Kaifeng is already the final goal. As long as the Jin people are driven away from here, Lianghe will be truly recovered, and the disgrace of the Zhao clan's mausoleum can only be rewarded.The whole army is full of enthusiasm, eagerly looking forward to the arrival of this moment.

The continuous battles exhausted everyone's physical strength and energy to the maximum, and Yue Pengju and his wife had rest for two consecutive days apart from their normal business trips.On the third day, Yue Pengju woke up for morning exercises and saw that his wife had prepared some porridge. This was the first meal she had cooked herself since the start of the war.

Looking at his wife's increasingly haggard face, he said softly, "Sister Seventeen, you have worked very hard these days, so you don't need to work so hard anymore."

Hua Rong smiled sweetly, gently took his hand and sat down at the table: "Pengju, I am happy to do these things. You will have energy if you eat more."

Yue Pengju sat down and drank three bowls of porridge in a row. He had to admit that the meals cooked by his wife were indeed more to his liking than the meals in the army.

He was about to say a few sweet words to his wife, but he heard the noise outside, and the soldiers couldn't stop him. He saw two women rushing in, knelt down and wailed loudly: "Yue Xianggong, you want to be the master of the slave family .”

It turned out that these two were Wang Gui's wife and her cousin.Wang Gui's wife and Han Qing's wife are cousins, and they came to Xingshui with a small number of military members recently.Wang's hair is disheveled and her face is bruised and purple. Naturally, she is for Wang Guixin's concubine. Because she is pampered by Wang Gui, she becomes more and more arrogant.She cried to her cousin, who naturally felt wronged for her, so the two of them came together to sue Yue Pengju.

Although Yue Pengju is the coach, how can he deal with the general's housework?He was helpless, looked at his wife, but saw Hua Rong smiled and walked over to help Mrs. Wang, and said softly, "Get up first, you have something to say..."

Hua Rong naturally recalled Wang's cry on the eve of Yue Pengju's "concubine" last year, and secretly lamented the pain of being a woman. When a husband takes a concubine, he cannot interfere or be jealous; his status in the family depends entirely on his husband's preferences. and bias.How can a husband and wife be truly impartial?From the perspective of outsiders, three wives and four concubines are happy as a family, but who knows the turmoil in it?Fortunately, I have to meet my beloved, monogamous, loving and harmonious.However, how many men like this are there in the world?

However, in other people's private affairs, no matter what, outsiders can only persuade them, and have no right to really interfere.Hua Rong could only call Wang Gui's wives and concubines together to persuade them, temporarily suppressing the turmoil.

On this day, Wang Gui, Zhang Xian and other generals came to discuss the military affairs. After the military affairs were over, Yue Pengju left him alone and said, "I have been fighting with Wang Taiwei for more than ten years, and we love each other like brothers. So I don't hesitate to say a few words today." A word of consolation. When a man is alive, the most sad thing is the hurdles of wine, sex and wealth. The famous general Wu Xianggong in Sichuan and Shanxi is such a hero, but he fell in love with the beauties in Chengdu in his middle age. So much so that he died young when he was only in his forties; just like Han Xianggong, who was also a first-class hero, but because he invaded the wife of the fierce general Hu Yantong, Hu Yantong committed suicide, and he had no more generals who could fight. A wretched wife cannot be discarded..."

Wang Gui's face turned red and white, and naturally he knew what the coach meant.Although he didn't dare to refute, he didn't take it seriously in his heart. A man is alive, so he naturally loves beautiful women and wealth. Otherwise, what's the fun in going through life and death and fighting to seal his wife's shade?He didn't agree with the coach's monogamy and simple life, and he was even more disgusted after hearing Yue Pengju's words.

Yue Pengju knew what he was thinking, everyone has his own ambitions, and family affairs cannot be discussed on the table, so he stopped talking, sighed secretly, and ordered Wang Gui to step down.

In the evening of that day, Li Ruoxu rushed back to the army.

He took out Zhao Deji's edict, but it was still ambiguous, he mentioned two things, one is that the troops must be withdrawn before [-] days, and the other is that Yue Pengju will return to Lin'an for an audience.

Zhu Fu, Yu Peng, Zhang Jiefu and other staff members had already read the imperial edict. Although everyone had already guessed this result, they were deeply disappointed.It is now [-] days away, but only a few days, how can we win Kaifeng?
Seeing the disappointment on the faces of the crowd, Li Ruoxu said with emotion: "The achievements of the Northern Expedition should not be ruined overnight, and the lower officials voluntarily bear the crime of false edict."

Yue Pengju was very grateful and touched, and bowed deeply: "Since this is the case, the Yue family army will set off immediately, and we can celebrate this great achievement only after beheading the fourth prince's head."

With an order, the Yue family army set off immediately and marched towards Zhuxian Town.

Along the way, Yue Pengju saw that his wife was preoccupied, but he had no time to ask her. The couple had no time to talk until they camped at night.Hua Rong served her husband to eat and went to bed. Yue Pengju asked her, "Sister Seventeen, why are you so worried all day long?"

Hua Rong said in a low voice: "The emperor has been suspicious for a long time. Now that Qin Hui is in power, I don't know how much slander has been introduced. Although Li Ruoxu voluntarily bears the crime of coercion this time, but the emperor will pursue it in the future, how should he deal with it?"

Yue Pengju had already made up his mind to break the boat, so he said: "The morale is invincible. We have the conditions and confidence to win the victory against the fourth prince this time. Therefore, even if it is a coercion, we must expel the captives. Moreover, I have decided, After recovering Kaifeng, he resigned and went back to seclusion."

Hua Rong also has nothing to say, just thinking, the emperor's jealousy is nothing more than a general with great achievements and a big tail. If Pengju has no soldiers and becomes a farmer, he should let go of his jealous butcher knife, right?
But my heart was still uneasy, and I couldn't sleep all night after tossing and turning.

Besides, Jin Wushu retreated to Kaifeng, but still returned to Longde Palace.After several consecutive days of rainy days, he was extremely depressed, and he got drunk every day, feeling deeply frustrated.

On this day, he sobered up, got up early, and called Tuhesu, Saili, Zhang Tonggu, Li Qiong and others to discuss.Everyone was at a loss about military issues and said nothing.Jin Wushu said angrily: "Quickly offer advice, whoever has a good idea will be rewarded heavily by the Crown Prince."

Zhang Tonggu said slowly: "I heard that the court of the Nine Kings has always been at odds with each other. The Nine Kings are fatuous and lustful, and Qin Hui is in power. If the fourth prince writes again, he wants Qin Hui to make peace and relax the terms of the peace talks, but Song Fang will definitely kill him." Yue Pengju."

Jin Wushu recalled that he had given Qin Hui secret letters in the past, and never had official documents, so why not change his strategy today and issue an order with a formal Dajin order, which would probably be able to intimidate Zhao Deji even more, so he nodded: "Okay, let's do it this way." count."

Immediately, Zhang Tonggu wrote the pen, and Jin Wushu dictated, "Dajin Taibao, Marshal Du, King Yue to the Nine Kings of Jiangnan" - he still called Song State "Jiangnan" and the Emperor of Song Dynasty "Nine Kings" , Between the lines, the arrogance of the heavenly kingdom is fully displayed, and then, this letter sent Zhang Tonggu as an envoy, and officially sent it to Lin'an.

After Zhang Tonggu left, he was still restless, and Kaifeng was now the last stronghold of the southern invasion.He led an army of 12 troops from the Kingdom of Jin to march south. Although almost all the political enemies in the DPRK and China have been eliminated, for the sake of future political careers, if this time they are completely defeated, what will it be like to go back?
He was inherently strong and self-respecting, and he couldn't bear to be driven back to the Song Dynasty by Yue Pengju in disgrace, so he ordered the deployment to discuss the strategy of defeating the enemy day and night, no matter what, he had to fight back.

Zhang Tonggu rushed to Lin'an day and night, but was attacked by an army thirty miles outside Lin'an city. It turned out that Han Zhongliang from Huaixi was ordered to go to the palace to report on his duties. He sent someone to intercept and kill him.Han Zhongliang was stationed in Huaixi and had outstanding military exploits, so he was naturally unwilling to negotiate a peace. He hoped that after entering Beijing, he could persuade the emperor to raise troops together with Yue Pengju to completely expel the captives.The soldiers he sent rushed into the post house and were about to capture Zhang Tonggu, but were stopped by the Song army sent by the prime minister. After a lot of fighting, Han Zhongliang did not dare to openly confront the court, so he could only fall short.

Zhang Tonggu narrowly escaped death, was grateful to Qin Hui, and immediately followed him to see Zhao Deji.

Zhao Deji was overjoyed when he saw this letter written by the fourth prince himself, and he didn't care about the contempt for himself. What really pleased him was that Jin Wushu agreed to three conditions in the letter: return Song Huizong Zigong, return Wei Xianfei, return two The river also relieved the Song Dynasty's annual tribute and Nabi.

The first two conditions are commonplace, but the third condition is tantamount to pie in the sky. Zhao Deji was overjoyed, but half-believed: "Since the fourth prince wants to return Lianghe, why not take it?"

Qin Hui immediately said: "The fourth prince is fierce but has no plans. Yue Peng raised [-] troops and was able to defeat him, which shows that the power of the Jin Kingdom has declined, and there is no longer enough power to pose a major threat to our Great Song Dynasty. He is now being forced to Retreating to Kaifeng, the two rivers will naturally be unable to defend. After Wang Shi's successive victories, it is better to show benevolence and generosity. This can shake the hearts of the captives. Since ancient times, the fate of the country has not been in war, but in peace. Now, Yue Peng is arrogant , actually violated the order to send troops..."

With the successive victories in Shunchang, Yancheng, Xingshui and other places, Zhao Deji was convinced that half of his country was already safe.Accompanied by this, he became even more angry and fearful of Yue Pengju's disobedience of dispatching troops: "This guy Li Ruoxu actually bears the crime of pretending to be an imperial edict, and has fulfilled my entrustment..."

"Yue Pengju has always shown his innocence to others, and made friends with scribes. The collusion between warriors and scribes is bound to be a disaster."

Qin Hui had spoken very blatantly at this time, but it was in Zhao Deji's arms. Even a famous "loyal man" like Li Ruoxu was willing to issue a corrective order on Yue Peng's behalf and bear the crime himself.And I still can't openly punish him, otherwise, how can I stop the mouth of the world?Li Ruoshui's martyrdom is still there!

His anger towards Yue Pengju deepened, and he asked Qin Hui, "If you want to prevent Yue Pengju from retreating, what should you do?"

At this time, Qin Hui had fully grasped the emperor's intentions, and said: "If you want him to retreat, you should cut off his food and grass first."

Zhao Deji said: "Food and grass can be slowed down, but the Yue family's army has won many battles, and they can't let other troops stop their food."

Qin Hui was overjoyed, of course he would not say that he had already intercepted the food and grass of the Yue family army without permission, but he had justifiably got rid of the crime of coercion.

(End of this chapter)