The afternoon sun is warm, so that the whistling north wind does not feel so cold.

Armored cavalry escorted the wagons along the official road paved with charcoal, the ruts of iron-clad clattering the road.

The carriage was covered with a flannel curtain to block the wind, Gu Junxun and Gu Yingsleeve sat next to each other, Gu Junxun said worriedly: "I heard that the Queen Mother is a very powerful person, I'm afraid it's not so easy to get along with, right?" ”

"Even if it's a tiger, it's about to lose its teeth," Gu Yingsleeve went to Hailing Palace's mansion to see Empress Dowager Liang before noon, and her impression was not deep, seeing Gu Junxun's anxiety, she smiled and said, "Princess Hailing is very gentle, she shouldn't be difficult to get along with, and the little girl in Yangxin City back then also looked slim." It's also a princess, I heard that I suffered a lot some time ago, and the entire Hailing Mansion was bullied by Changshi Gaoqiang, which is probably 'the dehaired phoenix is not as good as a chicken'...... You are now the wife of the dignified Pengcheng County Duke, but there is nothing to be afraid of. ”

Gu Junxun smiled, the few women living in the old city have the highest status respect for the women in the world, but their situation in Chongzhou is really not good. Gu Junxun is considered a hostess in Chongzhou, and for more than two years, she has never thought of going to the Queen Mother to ask for peace, and she really has nothing to be timid, she is worried about other things.

"The meaning in the photographic letter is that as long as Jiangning City does not mess up first, most of the rebels will not storm Jiangning; Huaidong really wants to send the Queen Mother and King Hailing to Jiangning City, isn't it to add a lot of chaos? Gu Junxun asked.

"When the time is not right, and it is harmful to take it by force; The time has come, and if you don't take it, no one will think that Huaidong is good, and it is even more harmful, "Gu Yingsleeve looks at the problem much more pragmatically than Gu Junxun, which is also due to the intrigue days in the Lin family, and said, "At present, all this is also taking advantage of the trend, and today is just to ask for peace in front of the Queen Mother, make some arrangements first, how to go next, and it depends on how the old seventeen is playing?" ”

"Didn't you mention the Su family's case?" Gu Junxun asked.

"Lao Seventeen didn't mention it, I think Su Mei and Xiaoman also know in their hearts that the time is not right, maybe they will find another excuse to rehabilitate the Su family in the future - Xiaoman has also just given birth, has lived in the house for too long, and is very sulky, so he wants to come out and join in the fun...... Gu Yingsleeve said.

The carriage and horses entered the old city of Chongzhou, Changshi Gaoqiang, the chamberlain Miao Shuo, Zuo Guitang and others greeted each other in front of the Hailing Palace, and Su Mei and Xiaoman also got down from another carriage and walked into the East Garden of the palace with Gu Yingsleeve and Gu Junxun.

Yuan Jianhai, the king of Hailing, showed his face and left, leaving the princess Tian and Princess Yuan Yan and the wife of Changshi Gaoqiang, Chen, to accompany the queen mother to meet Gu Junxun and others in the warm pavilion.

Empress Dowager Liang's eyes were much sharper than before, she accepted the greetings of Gu Junxun and others, gave her a seat, and looked at Su Mei and Xiaoman's eyes for a long time, and sighed: "Like, really like, it's been twenty years in a flash......

Su Mei and Xiaoman came over this time, they wanted to see what the Empress Dowager Liang looked like, but they didn't want to mention the old things, but they never expected that the Empress Dowager Liang would mention it first, and they were a little overwhelmed for a while.

"Don't mention the old things, an old woman of the mourning family is about to enter the ground, and the old people of the year are also withering, and few people are still alive," Empress Dowager Liang sighed and said, "Before the mourning family enters the ground, I will give an explanation to the ancestors of your family." ”

"The Queen Mother is serious, before the society and the country, personal grievances are as light as a feather, how dare Su Mei ask the Queen Mother to explain?" Su Mei said indifferently, just as Empress Dowager Liang said, the parties involved in the Sumen case have also passed away one after another, and they will have the opportunity to rehabilitate Sumen in the future, as for whether they are investigated or not, it is not very important.

Before saying goodbye, Gu Junxun mentioned the key thing and said: "The concubine sees that there are not many people in the garden to listen to the call, but I want to recommend a few slaves and maids who are used to calling to take care of the queen mother's daily life, and I hope that the queen mother will be ......kind."

"Then I have to worry about Lao Jian'an Junjun," Empress Dowager Liang said quietly, looked at Yuan Yan beside her, and said, "Yan girl is clumsy, looking at the sharp strength of the people in the forest family, I want to learn from her for a few days, so that I can serve the difficult old aunt of the mourning family." Do you want Jian'an Junjun to take her in for a few days? ”

Gu Junxun was stunned, Lin Jian wanted to take the Queen Mother and King Lu back to Jiangning, naturally they would not be allowed to get out of control, and trustworthy people must be placed inside and outside, which is also a condition that the Empress Dowager Liang and King Lu must accept, who would have thought that the Empress Dowager Liang would send Princess Yuan Yan out in turn?

It is also the duty of Yuan Yan to serve the queen mother before she gets married, but on the surface, she is the daughter adopted by the first emperor, the daughter of the king of Lu in the previous generation, and she can't be openly called a female official; Gu Junxun couldn't react for a while, and he didn't know how to respond.

Gu Yingsleeve smiled and continued: "What ability can a concubine have, the queen mother is a rare concubine to serve?" ”

Su Mei said: "Princess Xu is Yuanyan thinks that our side is more lively, so she wants to come over to join in the fun." What to take in or not, if Princess Yuan Yan is happy and wants to come and stay for a few days, we can't wait to be happy! ”

Empress Dowager Liang said with a smile: "It's that the mourning family can't speak, so I think there is an excuse to move around a lot, as if visiting relatives at the door, and don't ask for instructions back and forth at every turn......"

Xiao Manhu stared at Yuan Yan suspiciously several times, Yuan Yan felt aggrieved, but she couldn't speak, so she could only keep her head down and keep silent.

Gu Junxun replied suspiciously: "Then everything is under the orders of the Queen Mother...... and then left.

Back in the carriage, Xiao Man was also angry when he thought about it, and said, "I'm really afraid that we won't be lively enough there!" ”

Su Mei smiled slightly, but she could understand Empress Dowager Liang's behavior of not waiting to push Yuan Yan into the fire pit.

Lin Jian planned to use the Empress Dowager Liang and King Lu to suppress Emperor Yongxing, after all, Emperor Yongxing still had Chen Xiyan and a group of old ministers around him, and Empress Dowager Liang and King Lu were unwilling to completely become pawns in the hands of Huaidong, but they lacked the means to balance Huaidong.

Even after arriving in Jiangning, in addition to Huaidong, it is difficult for the Empress Dowager Liang and King Lu to get the support of other political forces - pushing Yuan Yan out is the next policy, which is very unruly, if something really happens, it will definitely cause a storm in the city, but the key is that in the hands of the Empress Dowager Liang and King Lu, in addition to Yuan Yan's next policy, there is no upper policy, middle policy or other next policy to choose.

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

There was heavy snow in Liyang, and it was snowing heavily for three consecutive days.

From Maoshan to the south, all the way to the banks of the Qianjiang River, thousands of miles away, all heavy snow.

The distant hills and valleys, as far as the eye can see, are all white and bright, all of them are snowfall, only in the near distance, the snow is sparsely trodden by the soldiers, mules and carriages, revealing the muddy black earth.

In the past, attacking the city in this kind of ghost weather, not to mention that ordinary soldiers would complain, even the generals were also dissatisfied, but at this moment, the heavy snow in the past few days blocked the road for Huaidong's soldiers and horses to go north, which meant that there was more time to attack Liyang City.

Since the 17th, the Zhejiang-Fujian army has surrounded Liyang City from the east, south, and west, and only letting go of the northern city is to weaken the will of the defenders and prompt them to break through and flee north.

In the past few days, 20,000 soldiers and horses of the Zhejiang-Fujian army were piled up under the city of Liyang, and through the pier road piled directly to the head of the city, about 8,000 soldiers and horses of the Hanghu army in the city continued to launch a fierce attack.

I don't know when this snow will stop, the Huaidong Army's vanguard troops and horses have already entered Changxing County, a hundred miles away, and the main force is four hundred miles away, and it will go north at any time, and there is not much time to carry out any plan calmly, that is, to use blood and fire to make the generals of the Hanghu Army submit, crush their will, and force them to flee from Beicheng......

Luxury Feihu stood with a knife, he asked for his life to put on armor for the pawn and charge into battle, Tian Chang couldn't really treat him as a dead soldier, and in the end it was Luxury Feihu who insisted on directly participating in the siege of the city, and Tian Chang handed over the matter of supervising the battle in the front to Luxury Feihu.

Over the years, we must carefully count the battles won by the Zhejiang and Fujian armies far more than the defeats, but the key battles with Huaidong that led to the decline of the luxury family were all folded in the hands of the luxury Feihu, and he was also depressed and hateful.

Although it has been unfavorable to compete with Huaidong over the years, I have learned some skills from Huaidong.

Different from the traditional siege methods, Huaidong siege mostly uses stone-throwing crossbows. Attacking Yongjia City and Jin'an City, the rubble crossbows used by the Huaidong Army at one time were more than 100. Dozens or even hundreds of pounds of stone bullets were thrown, not to mention the flesh of the soldiers, and when they hit the ground, there was a big pit on the ground; smashed on the city wall, the wall cracked and the stone broke; The shock to the defenders of the city is even more difficult to describe in words.

With the road to the city, take the soil and fill the pile of roads, compared to the ladder, the attack of the siege road continues and unfolds more troops, the slope is wide and the road is gentle, not only the armor can rush up in an array, and even directly let the armor cavalry rush to the city head to fight.

Use nest cars, well platforms, and cloud platforms, and multiple strong bows and crossbows, and use the rain of arrows to capture the city on their own side to suppress the defenders at the head of the city. The bed crossbow placed on top of the nest cart shoots huge spear-like arrows, which can easily shoot through a soldier wearing iron armor, and even break the battlement wall, far more terrifying than an ordinary arrow to kill a person.

When Huaidong attacked the city, it also used more fire oil clay pots, and the first pawn boarded the city, the fire oil tank was lit and thrown, and the sea of fire spread, and the guards could be forced back, and the power was much greater than that of fire oil.

After fighting with Huaidong for several years, he also realized that only stone-throwing crossbows could fight against stone-throwing crossbows, and there were many preparations in the Zhejiang-Fujian army.

Although it is not possible to put hundreds of planes like Huaidong in one hand, it is under the city of Liyang, in the south of Liyang City, there are more than 20 stone-throwing crossbows deployed in turn, specially equipped with nearly 1,000 soldiers to operate, from the left and right to collect stone mills, tombstones and other stones that can be collected, chiseled into dozens of catties or even hundreds of catties of stone bullets on the spot, and constantly thrown to the head of Liyang City.

Although the scale of the Zhejiang-Fujian army's use of stone-throwing crossbows cannot be compared with Huaidong, the Hanghu army that retreated to Liyang City was even more embarrassed. It was in a hurry to go north, leaving aside the baggage and light soldiers, and the supply depended on the place, not to mention the heavy weapons such as stone-throwing crossbows and bed crossbows, and defending the city for three days, even the arrows would be exhausted.

Meng Yishan stood on top of the watchtower, the snow was falling in the four fields, and the reinforcements were still invisible.

As soon as the rebels reached the southeast corner of the wall, they easily gave up their retreat and let them retake it. Lifeless corpses were carried down from the city, blood almost staining the walls red. Seeing that the heavy snow could prevent the Huaidong Army from moving north, in order to avoid brutal street battles in more complex terrain, the luxury family took advantage of the relatively open wall that was connected to the road, and through repeated battles, they continued to consume the brave soldiers and resistance of the Hanghu Army.

The city wall is less than a zhang high, far from being in danger, the rebels directly pile up the earth to fill the road to connect to the city head, five or six zhang of the nest car is high, pressing the city head to shoot arrows, not to mention that there are stone bullets on both sides that continue to bombard, and the defenders at the head of the city are at an absolute disadvantage.

Beicheng did not give a siege, and the rebels were mainly foot soldiers, if the city was abandoned at this time to break through to the north, the Hanghu army could still retain some strength, but it had just been sealed as a protector and an auxiliary general, and it was only a few days before he abandoned the city and fled, so how could Meng Yishan accept it? But if you don't break through at this time, the snow in northern Zhejiang will close the road, and the Huaidong army will come by stepping on the snow, and the speed of travel must be extremely slow, and the Hanghu army will be able to support it for ten days or even longer in the small city of Liyang?