In April, countless people starved to death in Bianliang City, and the stench of corpses filled the city.

Tang Ke sat in a sedan chair and passed through Bianliang City and returned home from the imperial city.

The sedan chair shook slightly, from outside the swaying sedan curtain, there was a slight smell and crying, and on the side of the road outside, there were dead corpses, and the Bianliang people who were as thin as corpses, and only the last breath remained.

There are not many pedestrians on the streets.

The old man in the sedan chair was neatly dressed, his face was dull but a little indifferent, he looked at the curtain in front of him, and there was no movement.

As one of the highest-ranking officials who maintain the court of the Wu Dynasty today, he not only has the house slave who carries the sedan chair, but also the guards around the sedan chair who accompany him to protect him. This is so that he will not be assassinated by gangsters on the way up and down the court. However, in recent days, there have been fewer and fewer gangsters who want to assassinate him, and there have even begun to be things in the capital that Yi Zi eats, and those who are hungry to this extent and want to assassinate for the sake of morality have starved to death after all.

This is already a drained city, where a million people lived a year ago, and it is hard to imagine that it will have a bleak day. But it is precisely because of the gathering of millions of people that he has become a foreign enemy, and the scene he shows is becoming more and more bleak.

Half a year ago, when the Jurchen soldiers came to the city, the court on the one hand used Tang Ke, Wu Min and other lords and factions in danger, hoping that after they compromised, they could minimize their losses, and on the other hand, they hoped that the generals would be able to resist the Jurchens. Tang Ke was the biggest pessimist during this period, and this time the Jurchens had not yet besieged the city, so he sent advice to the emperor to take refuge in the south. This time, however, his opinion was still rejected, and Emperor Jingping decided that the king would die shortly after. He reused the Heavenly Master Guo Jing.

The court's use of Tang Ke and others means that they hope that they can talk before the fight, and it is best to talk about it after the fight. But the facts of the past few months have proved that there is no point in compromising those who have no power. After the farce of the Liujia Divine Soldiers, even if Bianliang City faced no matter how rude it was, it was no longer qualified to say half a word.

For months. People who were once regarded as the Son of Heaven are now being treated as pigs and dogs in the Jurchen camp outside the city, and the wives and daughters of the former Supreme Ninety-Five are wantonly humiliated and killed in the camp. At the same time, the Jurchen army continued to make various demands to the court of the Wu Dynasty, and the only choice for Tang Ke and the others was to agree to such a request, or to send away their wives and daughters, or to send their own gold and silver, and help the other party to drain the entire city step by step.

Not so long ago. The Jurchens, who had already begun to prepare to leave, put forward another request, Emperor Jingping of the Wu Dynasty, they were not ready to put it back, but someone had to take care of the foundation of the Wu Dynasty. So he ordered Dazai Zhang Bangchang to inherit the emperor's throne, change the Yuan Dachu, and guard Tiannan for the Jurchens. Forever a vassal vassal.

At this time, almost all the royal families surnamed Zhou in Bianliang City had been taken away or killed by the Jurchens. Zhang Bangchang, Tang Ke and others tried to refuse the matter, but the Jurchens also made a warning. Within seven days, if Zhang Bangchang did not ascend the throne, he would kill all the ministers of the court and wash the city of Bianliang with blood.

This day is already the last day of the deadline.

In the court, led by Song Qiyu, Zhang Bangchang was elected as the emperor, and half an hour ago, Tang Ke, Wu Min, Geng Nanzhong and others signed their names on the edict.

Zhang Bangchang ascended the throne with an expression of taking arsenic.

When the sedan chair left the court. Tang Ke sat inside, remembering many things over the years. The once high-spirited Wu Dynasty thought that it had seized the opportunity and wanted the appearance of the Northern Expedition, and the appearance of the main battle faction such as Qin Siyuan. The Black Water Alliance, even if Qin Siyuan has gone down, he is still full of confidence in the Northern Expedition.

Since then, Bianliang, singing and dancing have risen to level, and the world of great prosperity.

Land and water merchants from the south and north gather here, confident literati and writers gather here, and warriors from all over the world seek fame here. The members of the court can decide the affairs of the world with one word, and every word and step in the court will involve the rise and fall of thousands of families. The high-ranking officials kept debating and intriguing in the court, thinking that success or failure stemmed from this. He has also argued with countless people, including Qin Siyuan, who has always had a good relationship.

He was a pessimist in the truest sense of the word, but he was only cautious. In many cases, he even thought that if someone like Qin Siyuan was really given some opportunities, maybe the Wu Dynasty would be able to grasp an opportunity. In the end, however, he hated himself for seeing the obstacles in the path too clearly.

His pessimism never played any role, people didn't like pessimism, and in most political ecologies, radicals were always more popular. The main battle, people can easily lead the battle, but few people are sober and self-reliant. People have replaced self-improvement itself with the main war, blindly thinking that as long as they are willing to fight, as long as they are fanatical, they are not cowardly, but few people are willing to believe that this piece of heaven and earth is not humane, heaven and earth only talk about reason, strong and weak, victory and defeat, is the truth.

So he actually knew in his heart that in his life, he might not be able to stand on the high place of the court, and if he stood up, he couldn't do anything. But in the end, he did his best.

He at least helped the Jurchens abolish Bianliang City. It's like facing an opponent who is too strong, he chops off his own hands, chops off his feet, bites off his tongue, and only hopes that the other party can leave something for Wu Chao, and he even gave away his granddaughter. If he can't fight, he can only surrender, surrender is not enough, he can give his wealth, only giving wealth is not enough, he can still give his dignity, give dignity, he hopes that at least he can protect the national Zuo of the Wu Dynasty, he can't keep the national Zuo, he also hopes that at least he can save the lives of these people who have nothing in the city......

He also knows exactly what future generations will say about him.

These days, he has thought about many things, some of which can be said and some of which cannot be said. He occasionally remembered that picture, a few months ago, on the last day of the Jinghan Dynasty, the situation in the Jinluan Palace. Qin Siyuan was dead, as in the end of every previous political dispute, people went to court as usual, glad that they had been saved, and then the emperor was thrown into blood, and the young man sat down with a knife on the golden steps, and slapped the emperor on the head with the back of the knife.

In this life, the old man has seen many big names, Cai Jing, Tong Guan, Qin Siyuan, and even every powerful court member who traces back to the past, or is arrogant and high-spirited, or steady and deep, and has a connotation like the sea, but he has never seen such a scene. He also met with the emperor countless times. I have never found that the emperor has this time, like an ordinary person.

Everyone in the court was scolding, at that time, Li Gang's hair was all open, Cai Jing was dumbfounded, Qin Hui was scolding like thunder, Yan Zheng was screaming in horror, and countless people either cursed or swore or quoted scriptures. stated the other party's behavior of the great rebellion, and the world was intolerable, and he also rushed forward. But the young man just indifferently pressed the head of the emperor who was screaming in pain with his steel knife, and from beginning to end, he only said one sentence, which was only heard by some people in front of him.

These days, some people may recall that great rebellion, but no one has ever mentioned this sentence. The moment he wrote his name today, Tang Ke suddenly wanted to say this sentence to the ministers of the Manchu Dynasty: "......"

In the court that day, the young man faced the scolding and angry reprimand of the Manchu dynasty. Without the slightest reaction, he just swept his gaze over everyone's heads and said, "...... A bunch of waste. ”

For everyone, this is probably a slap in the face heavier than killing the emperor, and no one can talk about it.

Of course, the old man did not say this. He left Miyagi, and the palanquin crossed the streets and returned to Fuchu. The entire Tang Mansion was also lifeless at this time, and his main room had already passed away. Most of the daughters, granddaughters, and concubines in the family were sent out to the Jurchen military camp. The rest of them were afraid of Tang Ke's prestige that his six relatives did not recognize recently, and most of them did not dare to approach the Tang Mansion after living a full and hungry life. Only an old concubine who had been with him for many years came over, took away his clothes for him, and brought him a basin of water for him to wash his face, Tang Ke washed his face meticulously as usual.

He returned to his study. Tidy up the bookshelves that have been messed up these days, and tidy up the paper and pen on the desk. The cold of winter has gradually passed, and the sun is lazily shining in through the window, and it is already the sun in late spring and early summer. There is nothing left in Bianliang City, and it is time for the Jurchens to go. He thought.

Soon after, when the old concubine came over, Tang Ke and Tang Qinsu had already taken the poison, sat on a chair in the study, and died quietly.

**************

The overthrow of the imperial dynasty was like a firework that exploded and flew away, and in the collision between the Jin Dynasty and the Wu Dynasty, the aftermath rushed to the surroundings, and since the Jurchens went south for half a year, the situation on the entire land has been violently turbulent and changing.

North of the Yellow River, the Jurchen escort of the captives to the north was like a long dragon, passing through the mountains and mountains, and no one dared to stop them. Tian Hu, the former tiger king, carefully expanded and consolidated his power in places that the Jurchens had not taken care of. In the east and north, the teams that had risen in the name of King Qin's resistance to Jin began to demarcate their own spheres of influence, waiting for the development of things. Many of the great clans in the north are also in such a situation, looking for their own way out in fear.

In the northwest, this land of fierce folk customs, the Western Xia people have swept in again, and the territory of the seed army has almost been wiped out. After a bitter battle with Yan Chang in the south, the nephew of the seed master Dao, the nephew of the seed master Dao, led the seed family army to fight with Yan Chang in the south, fled to the north, and was defeated in the northwest after the battle with the kidnapping horse, and the seed family army that could still gather at this time was less than 5,000 people.

The folded family has already returned to the division, but it is also powerless to rescue the breeder, so he has to retreat in Fuzhou, a corner of peace. After the destruction of Qingjian City, Yanzhou and other big cities, countless refugees fled to Fuzhou and other places, and the remnants of the family were gathered, expanding their strength and deterring Li Qianshun, and because of this, Fuzhou was not greatly impacted.

It used to be regarded as the rebellious team that fell into the eyes of everyone, in such a vast tide of the times, the temporary calm and shrinkage, in the time when everyone was too busy to take care of themselves, there were very few people who could take into account their movements, and some people even reported that they had been swept away by the Western Xia army in the cold winter season, and there was no more of it.

To the south, an equally fierce upheaval is brewing, and the middle strata of society, who can receive the message, are fierce and excited. But for the army, the previous hard regret with the Jurchens proved the fact that the army could not fight, and the high-level rulers suppressed the last of the troops, consolidated the defense line south of the Yangtze River, and suppressed the spread of news. It is also because of this that many people have spent the winter and the spring of recovery in the still prosperous atmosphere, although they are worried about the safety of Bianliang City, but the real atmosphere is no different from when the Jurchens first attacked Yanmen Pass and Taiyuan.

Jiangning, King Kang's Mansion.

The young prince hummed a little song and trotted across the corridor in the house, and when he rushed back to his room, the sun was shining. In the little prince's study. All kinds of strange drawings and books are placed in half of the room. He went to the table, took a book from his sleeve and looked at it excitedly, and took out a few drawings from the table and compared them with each other. From time to time, clench your fist and knock on the top of the desk.

A figure appeared at the door at some point, and the little prince looked up to see that it was his sister Zhou Pei. He's in a good mood. smiled over there: "Sister, how is it, the old lady of the Wang family and those sisters, have you seen it?" is really a scholarly family, the old man Wang Qisong was loyal to the martyrs, and his family members were all respectable and admirable. ”

Zhou Pei's eyes were a little cold, narrowed slightly, and walked in: "I've been to see them." Although the Wang family is loyal and martyrdom, and the widow of the Wang family is also admirable, but after all, they were involved in that incident, did you secretly move and take them over, did you want to put yourself on the fire and roast them? You know how unwise this is! ”

"They're babies." Zhou Junwu was in a very good mood, and said in a mysterious voice. Then looking outside the door, Zhou Pei also tilted his head. Let the attendants go down. When there were only two sisters and brothers, Jun Wu jumped up with the book on the table, "Sister, I found the key, I found it, do you know what it is?" ”

Zhou Pei frowned. She was already dissatisfied with the kitsch lewd techniques that Zhou Junwu studied, and she was even more disgusted at this time. But seeing Jun Wu said excitedly: "Old ...... That person is really a genius, I originally thought that the key was on the cloth, but after looking for a long time and couldn't find a suitable one, every time the big Kong Ming lantern burned. Later, I carefully investigated what he had done in Bianliang during the last period. Only to find out that the key is in the pulp...... Haha, sister, you can't guess it, the key is in the pulp, if you want not to be burned, you have to apply the pulp! ”

"During that period of time in Bianliang City, the paper workshop has always been the help of the Wang family, and the Su family made cloth. Therefore, the Wang family is a baby, and it is also appropriate for me to save them. ”

Ning Yi was in Bianliang at the beginning, and he was friendly with everyone in Wang Shanyue's family, but when he rebelled out of the city, the Wang family was absolutely unwilling to follow. So Zhu Biao went to rob the girl of the Wang family, and even almost beat the old lady of the Wang family, and the two sides fell out. But the matter of killing the king, how can it be so simple to clear the suspicion, even if Wang Qisong once had some desirable relationships to stay in the capital, the situation of the Wang family was by no means easy, and the family was almost imprisoned. When the Jurchens went south, the little prince Jun Wucai contacted some forces in the capital and took these poor women over as much as possible.

If it weren't for this, the entire Wang family would probably have been sent to the Jurchen army in the catastrophe in Bianliang and died in humiliation.

In Beijing to contribute to this matter, is Qin Siyuan after the prison was ordered by Zhou Zhe to think in the temple of the monk Jueming, this Qin Mansion guest is the identity of the royal family, after Zhou Zhe's death, the situation in Beijing changes, many people are quite jealous of the Qin Mansion Keqing, but for Jueming, but do not want to offend, he can seep out some strength from the temple, for the poor widow of the Wang family, help some small favors. When the Jurchens besieged the city, the outside of the city had already been cleared, and the temple was also destroyed.

Zhou Pei was skeptical of Jun Wu's words: "I know that you admire him a little, I can't say anything about you, but at this time, the situation in the world is tense, and there are many people staring at us in King Kang's Mansion, so you'd better not mess around and bring big trouble to your family." ”

She pondered for a long time, and then said: "Do you know that the Jurchens ordered Zhang Bangchang to ascend the throne in Bianliang and changed the Yuan to Great Chu, and they were about to withdraw their troops to the north. The adults in Jiangning City don't know what to do...... When the Jurchens retreated north, they had taken away all the Zhou royal families in Bianliang City. If you really want to talk about it, the Wu Dynasty Guozuo is dead...... It's all on him......"

"Hmph." Jun Wu snorted coldly, but he raised his eyebrows and put down the notebook in his hand, "Sister Wang, you are a little self-deceiving if you press such a big thing as Wu Chao Guozuo on him." If you can't do things well, you will toss and turn people who can do things well, thinking that others can only bear what you do, anyway...... Hmph, anyway, the Wu Dynasty is dead, I'll just say, this country is ......"

"Shut up!" Zhou Pei's gaze sharpened, and she took two steps closer, "How can you say such a rebellious thing, you ......" She gritted her teeth, calmed down her mood, and said seriously, "Do you know that I rule the world with scholars, and the court is harmonious." How rare. With this incident, in the future, it will be difficult for the emperor and the ministers to be of the same heart, and they will be afraid of each other at that time, and the emperor will go to court and hundreds of guards will follow. We must always be on guard against assassinations, and what kind of system will it become...... He is now in the north, and he is also the lord of the rebels, the initiator, and you have no aftermath? ”

Speaking of that one, Zhou Pei was always emotional, and the two had a lot of arguments during this time. From the initial laziness to answer, to the final-for-tat. It can be regarded as exhausting Junwu's patience. He pursed his lips at this time: "What's the harm of hundreds of guards following?" Xun Ziyun, the water carries the boat, and the boat also capsizes, and the people who are the kings carry the lives of tens of millions of people, so they just want to be carried? If you can be more afraid of the risk of overturning, you can do things well, and worry a little more about the monarch, and tens of millions of Li people will be able to get more benefits. Tens of millions of Lebanese people have more benefits. Isn't it worth the trouble of hundreds of guards following? For the sake of decency? The benefits of tens of millions of Li people are not worth a system? ”

He thought of a rebuttal. Quite proud: "I am now in charge of hundreds of people, and I can't sleep at night, and I wonder all day long, have you neglected which master, which one is more capable." This is true of hundreds of people, and tens of millions of people. Don't even want to worry? If you mess things up, you will be scolded, and if you can't beat others, you will be beaten. Bianliang's current situation is clear, as long as the system is useless. I have not revitalized the Wu Dynasty, what is the reason, you go and tell the Jurchens! ”

Zhou Pei stared at him, and the room was quiet for a while. This conversation is very rebellious, but firstly, the emperor is far away, secondly, the imperial family of Bianliang is completely annihilated, and thirdly, it is also a young man who is high-spirited, so he will talk about it in private, but after all, it can't continue. Jun Wu was silent for a moment and raised his chin: "A few months ago, Li Qianshun in the northwest was defeated, and several cities in Qingjian and Yanzhou were broken. In those cracks, the Wurui battalion also sent people to have a few hard encounters with the Xixia people, and saved many refugees, which is what a real man did! ”

Zhou Pei furrowed his brows even more at this time, and turned his head to look at him: "Why do you know." ”

Jun Wu raised his head: "I have hundreds of people under me, I really have the heart to inquire about something, what's strange if I know." ”

Zhou Pei sighed, and the expressions of the two of them calmed down again at this time. After a while, Zhou Pei took out a few pieces of information from his clothes: "Bianliang's message, I originally just wanted to tell you, since this is the case, you can also take a look." ”

She turned around and walked to the door, and when she reached the door, she stopped again, tilted her head and said, "Do you know that he is in the northwest, and he has fought with the Tanguts a few times, and maybe the Tanguts can't help him for a while." But north of the Yellow River, the world is in turmoil, and now that the flood season has arrived, the northern displaced people are scattered, and it will not be long before people will starve to death on his side. He killed his father, and he is no longer with us, I ...... I just sometimes wonder if he hadn't been so impulsive at the time, but had come back to Jiangning, and now he ...... How nice it would be......"

After Zhou Pei returned from Bianliang, he was taught by Princess Chengguo to come into contact with all kinds of complicated things. The relationship between her and Junma is not smooth, and she devotes herself to these things, and sometimes it has become a little cold, Junwu doesn't like such a sister, sometimes-for-tat, but in general, the relationship between the sister and brother is still very good, every time he sees his sister leaving the back like this, he actually feels a little lonely.

He has been smart since he was a child, but at this time, he didn't think about his sister's words, and looked at the information of the tragedy in Bianliang City in his hand. This realization strengthened his eyes, and soon after, he threw the message aside and concentrated on the technology of getting the hot air balloon to take off.

The sparks of the old times are washed away. In the mountains to the northwest, the rebel army is also struggling in a muddy situation. (To be continued.) )

PS: Tell me something that interests you.

I got my license with my wife on the 16th, and I was still working that night, and I was still coding, and I went out on the 18th, and the last chapter was still on the train. She is 1.68 meters, usually under mental pressure, and she is only in her eighties. I made an appointment with her for half a year, and on the 16th, she took the candy to the office after receiving the certificate, and was allowed five days of annual leave, plus nine days before and after the weekend, and ran out to talk about business two days ago. So for the next few days, I focused on going on vacation and putting her at ease. I just came back yesterday and will be on duty for a few days.

Well, she's not my reader, she doesn't read my books, but I don't update them, and she's in a hurry, urging them all day long, well, you can rest assured.

I'm just getting married, and more responsibilities, more pressure, are all being felt. When you have more ideas, let's share them with you. After all, I only entered this state when I was thirty years old, so I shouldn't be considered dog abuse.

Well, that's it, I'm back.