On the morning of the Double Ninth Festival in September, the sun was shining, the autumn was crisp and crisp, and there was a breeze from time to time. Murong Xue stood by the tower window of the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, watching a wisp of black smoke rise from the west of the city, through the dots of white floating clouds, straight into the sky, so shocking. At this time, Aunt Lan stood silently beside her, her eyes loving. "Aunt Lan, the grass thief is doing evil again." She said in a cold tone.

"A grass thief is a grass thief after all, and even if Huang Chao wears an imperial robe, he is just a monkey." Aunt Lan's beautiful face couldn't help but reveal gritted teeth and hatred. "Look at Chang'an, the home of a million, the capital that was so prosperous in the past, but now, the inner library is burned to splendid ashes, and the heavenly street is full of public bones! Millions of Chang'an, but now it has become a ghost prison! ”

Murong Xue and Aunt Lan were captured after failing to assassinate Li Keyong that day, and were imprisoned in Yanmen for several months. After Li Jing learned about it, he told Li Keyong that he wanted to redeem the two. The two sides negotiated several times, but Li Keyong kept dragging it. It was not until after the defeat of Shatuo Yizhou and Junduguan that Li Jing made a large-scale attack on Yanmen Town, forcing Li Keyong to be forced to negotiate again, and Li Keyong proposed to exchange Murong Xue and Aunt Lan for Shi Jingsi and Guo Chongtao, Li Cunxin, and Liu Rengong, and let Li Jing return the captured Shatuo soldiers, and the two sides signed an armistice agreement.

After a long negotiation between the two parties, Li Jing agreed that the two sides would strike each other and cease fighting, and at the same time, Li Jing exchanged Li Cunxin and more than 1,000 Shatuo prisoners for Murong Xue and Aunt Lan. Although Li Keyong was dissatisfied, Li Jing was resolute, and finally the two sides reached an agreement to exchange prisoners with each other.

After Murong Xue was freed, she did not go to Yanjing, but asked the envoy of the Qin army to help her bring a letter to Li Jing, and then left with Aunt Lan.

In a letter to Li Jing. Murong Xue only wrote one sentence of Zhuangzi's words. Help each other in time of need with what little we have. It's better to forget about each other.

The original text of Zhuangzi's sentence is Zhuangziyun: the spring is dry, the fish are on the land, the water is wet, and the foam is wet, so it is better to forget each other in the rivers and lakes. It means that the spring has dried up and the fish are trapped on land, blowing blisters on each other's cheeks and splashing each other with the remaining spring water. However, this kind of life is not normal, but precisely the most helpless. Ideally, for the fish, the sea is finally flooding. The two fish are finally going to return to their own world, and in the end, they forget about each other. I returned to my most suitable place and lived happily, forgetting each other and forgetting that painful life.

Murong Xue did have feelings for Li Jing, and even now she still loves Li Jing, but for a female assassin, there is too much distance between her and Li Jing, and even Aunt Lan once assassinated Li Jing. Aunt Lan is half teacher and half mother, and Li Jing is a lover. In the end, Murong Xue chose to be with Aunt Lan.

However, although I did not go to meet with Li Jing. But Murong Xue did not return to the grassland, but set off again and went to Chang'an, Guanzhong.

Chang'an, the capital of the Tang Dynasty, has now become the capital of the Qi State.

It's just that after a few years, I returned to Chang'an again, and it has completely changed here, the original family of millions, but now most of the people of Chang'an are less, and the families of those soldiers who entered the customs of the Qi army are more than 400,000.

Huang Chao was still good when he first entered Chang'an, at least in the two days when he first entered Chang'an, Huang Chao was still thinking about trying to implement the order and military orders he had in Luoyang. When he was first welcomed into Chang'an by the civil and military officials left behind in Chang'an, Huang Chao was very happy, so he was also very generous. He not only ordered the maintenance of military discipline and did not commit any offense with the people, but also took out a lot of money and food to help the poor people who had no money to live in the chaotic and disorderly Chang'an City after the withdrawal of the Tang Army, like a real army of benevolent and righteous kings.

Everything is so perfect, so harmonious, so sweet, like a beautiful soap bubble in the bright light.

However, what is fake is fake after all.

Huangchao's 300,000 soldiers who entered the customs only maintained poverty relief and order for two days, and it was only on the third day that the soldiers of the Qi army began to can't help but do their old jobs and rob the rich with ease.

Only three days later, the order in Chang'an City, which had finally stabilized temporarily due to the entry of the Yellow Nest, was broken again. The soldiers of the Qi army began to burn and loot in groups, and this time, even the Yellow Nest could not be controlled, and the magnificent and prosperous capital of the Tang Empire was once again overwhelmed by fear and fanaticism.

At the beginning, among the 300,000 Qi troops, only some generals took their own soldiers to seize the mansions left behind by the emperor's relatives, high-ranking officials and dignitaries in Chang'an City after they fled. Soon, the lieutenants of the Qi military academy also began to seize the mansions of the rich gentry and businessmen. Immediately after this storm became more and more intense, a fanatical atmosphere permeated the entire Chang'an, and more ordinary Qi soldiers began to rush out of the camp in groups, pouring into the streets of Chang'an, and robbing the shops and markets.

Later, the seizure of the house turned into the robbery of property, and then the robbery of women

Murong Xue didn't see this with her own eyes, when they entered Chang'an, it had almost become a hell city, full of panic, robbery, murder and adultery. After Huang Chao entered Chang'an, the collapse of the city was told to them by a former acquaintance mage in the temple where they settled. As for whether this is really the case, Murong Xue does not doubt it, as long as she takes a look at the current situation in Chang'an, she will know that those words of Master Lu Dao are not false. "Didn't Huang Chao perform well when he was in Luoyang, why did he make such a low-level mistake after arriving in Chang'an? In doing so, he is digging his own grave. ”

"Yes, Huang Chao is not a vulgar and stupid person, he is also a scholar who has read the books of sages and even participated in the imperial examination several times. Over the years, watching him fight in the world and never die, you can see that this is not an idle person. When he entered Luoyang, he was also extraordinary, with solemn military discipline, no offense with the people, good treatment of scholars and demotes, and he also won the support of many officials and tyrants, otherwise, it would not be possible to enter Chang'an so easily. Aunt Lan sighed, "Originally, many people were optimistic about Huangchao's entry into Chang'an, and even many people thought that the Tang Dynasty should be destroyed and the Great Qi should be established." But now it seems that Huang Chao is not the real son. This is now perverse in Chang'an City, and it is even more unbearable than the original Li family. ”

But why did Huang Chao do this, is Huang Chao really because after taking Chang'an, he began to be complacent? Murong Xue couldn't help but think secretly. Is Huang Chao really so confused? Although Huangchao accounted for two capitals. But actually. Li Tang Tianzi was still in Xichuan at this time, and even Guanzhong still had many Li Tang Domain Towns. And in the east, her lover Li Jing is the most powerful feudal in the world, holding a strong elite army that even Huang Chao would fear, and controlling a territory far beyond the Qi country. Why does Huang Chao do this? Why didn't he take advantage of the victory to pursue Li Tang Tianzi in Xichuan?

Coming down from the tower, Murong Xue and Aunt Lan came to the underground secret room in the Great Ci'en Temple. Da Ci'en Temple is one of the four major Buddhist temples in Chang'an, and was a royal temple and a national translation institute in the Tang Dynasty. It belongs to Jinchangfang in the south of Chang'an City.

But there is another secret in the Great Ci'en Temple, that is, it has long become a stronghold safe house secretly established by the Qin Domain. Even several high-ranking monks of the Great Ci'en Temple have become secret spies of the Qin Domain's Military Intelligence Department. Under the Great Mercy and Grace Temple, there is an extremely large and complex underground secret palace.

At present, the underground secret palace of Daci'en Temple is a secret branch of the Qin Army's Military Intelligence Department in Chang'an City, which hides hundreds of officials in Chang'an City who have been secretly transferred and protected by the Military Intelligence Department, including former Xiangguo Yu Cong and his wife Princess Guangde, as well as a large number of officials such as Song, Yu, and Cui, as well as their families. If it weren't for Li Jing's early rescue by the Military Intelligence Department, this large number of people would have fallen into the hands of Huang Chao. Among them, there are even a large number of princes, uncles, princesses, county lords and other royal relatives.

Shortly after Murong Xue arrived in Chang'an. went to assassinate Huang Chao, but was discovered, and when he escaped, he was helped by the Military Intelligence Department, and finally took refuge here.

The Great Ci'en Temple originally had an underground palace, but later the Military Intelligence Department continued to secretly expand here, and now the underground palace is extremely large, with many rooms and halls. As soon as Murong Xue came back, she happened to meet Princess Guangde, the wife of Xiangguo Yu Cong, and her daughter Yu Qinghui came over.

"Sister, you're so beautiful today." Yu Qinghui is only sixteen years old, which is the age of innocence. She is not the daughter of Princess Guangde, but the daughter of the concubine Yu Luozhen. Yu Luozhen was an extremely beautiful kabuki, and the princess promised her to Yu Cong as a concubine, and later Yu Cong loved Yu Luozhen too much, and the princess sent her away. When she left, she left behind a daughter, Yu Qinghui, who had been raised by the princess as her own daughter, and when she grew up, she was as beautiful as her mother.

"Xie Lu Xie, my sister's appearance is really embarrassing." After Murong Xue was rescued, only a few people knew their identities, and to the outside world, they all called themselves a singer of a song and dance troupe. However, the princess mother and daughter did not despise the two of them, and in this underground palace, they quickly became rare friends. Murong Xue is wearing the clothes given to them by the princess today, white palace clothes, a lilac shawl between her arms, and the jewelry on her head is also given by the princess. The palace dress was a wide robe with large sleeves, which just concealed a prismatic thorn and a short sword tied to her legs, and two sleeved arrows were always tied to her two arms. Even one of her hairpins is a special weapon, a poison hairpin with poison hidden in the inside, as a top assassin, she is full of weapons all over her body, and even the ruby ring on her hand is hollow inside, containing poison powder.

"What were you guys talking about?" The princess asked with a smile, although she was now forced to hide in the underground palace, Princess Guangde still maintained her graceful temperament, calm and atmospheric, and did not feel pessimistic, sad and panicked at all. She stretched out her hand, took Murong Xue's hand, held Yu Qingzheng with the other hand, and walked to the stone table on the side and sat down.

The princess heard Aunt Lan talk about Huang Chao's atrocities after entering Chang'an, and shook her head slightly: "Huang Chao may not want to do this, but he can't prevent these atrocities from happening, and he can't even acquiesce. ”

"For what?" Murong Xue was a little puzzled.

The princess said: "You may not know that Chang'an, a prosperous city with millions of families, has always had one biggest weakness, that is, insufficient food supply. Chang'an has always had the problem of insufficient supply. Chang'an consumes at least five million stone of grain every year, most of which is supplied by Guanzhong, then Hezhong and Henan, and then Bashu and Jianghuai. Over the years, almost all the grain in Hedong, Henan Province has been kept for the army of the feudal town, and there is no grain to enter the customs. There is little grain in the west of the Bashu River, and the road is far away and difficult to transport, so in recent years, Chang'an's grain supply has been based on Guanzhong and Huainan. ”

"When Huangchao occupied Luoyang, he could eat Henan, and he also occupied the Huaibei lands at that time, so he was not short of food. As soon as he entered Chang'an, 300,000 soldiers and horses entered the customs, as well as more than 100,000 family members, adding up to almost 500,000 people. Before Huang Chao entered Chang'an, most of the imperial court and officials evacuated from Chang'an and took a large amount of grain with them. Most of those who remained in Chang'an were ordinary people, almost half a million people. Together, after Huang Chao entered Chang'an, there were almost 100% of people in Chang'an. ”

"A million people need at least more than 5 million stone of grain a year, and at least about 500,000 stone of grain a month. In the past, Huangchao traveled all over the world, eating wherever he went, and he didn't produce or farm at all. Where did he get his food? Although he occupied Chang'an, in fact, Chang'an had already run out of grain because there was no grain to supply Chang'an in the southeast. Now as soon as Huangchao enters Chang'an, millions of people are waiting for Huangchao to eat and drink? Huang Chao was happy for two days, and he had already found that there was no food in Chang'an City? Therefore, Huang Chao's military discipline only lasted for two days, and it immediately changed from poverty alleviation to wealth robbery. Because Huang Chao couldn't get food by himself, many troops began to look for food on their own, and in addition to looting, where else could they make food. ”

"It is precisely because of the lack of food that Huang Chao has been stopping in Chang'an, unable to pursue the Son of Heaven. How to send troops without food? Without food, Huangchao Chang'an can't get out, even the towns in Guanzhong can't attack, let alone pursue the Son of Heaven. Therefore, don't look at the ferocity of Huangchao now, but he is also a grasshopper after the autumn, and he can't be around for long. ”

Murong Xue didn't expect the princess to be able to say such a truth in one breath, although it was a woman's words, she had already made the current situation in Huangchao clear. Indeed, grain and grass, this is the key to the success or failure of the Yellow Nest.

Aunt Lan also glanced at the princess with some surprise, and said: "Not really, if Huang Chao is no longer confined to the gains and losses of the city, and continues to implement his previous strategy of wandering and fighting, gathering a large army regardless of it, and directly attacking Sanchuan with all his strength to attack the west and pursue the Son of Heaven, the dead end will become a way of life." ”

The princess shook her head: "This is indeed a solution, but Huang Chao will never abandon Luoyang and Chang'an." Conquering the two capitals is Huang Chao's greatest achievement in this life, but it will also become the biggest shackle after Huang Chao's generals, and he will never give up the two capitals, so Huang Chao's defeat is already a foregone conclusion. ”

As he was talking, an excited shout suddenly came from afar: "Good news, the Qin army has conquered Xuzhou, annihilated the 50,000 army of the puppet Qi, and captured the puppet Qi generals Huo Cun, Zhang Guiba, and Zhang Guihou, the three general of the thief army, and the king of Qin called on the soldiers and horses of all the feudal towns in the world to send troops to Qinwang together, counterattack Luoyang, and recover Chang'an!" (To be continued......)