Xie Yang slowly opened his eyes, and immediately saw the big long face of King Chu Zhuang that was distorted to the extreme by anger. King Chu Zhuang said: "Since you promised not to be valley, why did you break your promise? It's not that I don't have credit, it's that you're killing yourself. Hurry up and get punished! ”

Xie Yang said: "The foreign minister heard that the order issued by the monarch is 'righteousness', the courtier's completion of the mission is 'faith', and the credit carries the great righteousness as 'profit'. Righteousness cannot tolerate the opposite of credit, and credit cannot tolerate the opposite mission.

"The king wants to bribe his ministers to achieve his goal, but he does not know his fate. The foreign minister was ordered to come out, and there was no return, how could he be bribed by others? The foreign minister pretended to promise the king, but in order to fulfill the mission; Death becomes fate, this is the glory of the foreign minister. The widow obtains the letter of the minister, and the foreign minister dies as he deserves, where is there any other requirement? ”

The king of Chuzhuang said: "The Ming lord will not kill the good ministers, and he will not pardon you." When you're healed, I'll send you back home. ”

The siege continued, and the Song and Chu people waited for the Jin army to appear with diametrically opposed feelings, but neither side knew that they had been tricked by the Jin people. As time passed, the emotions of the Song people gradually changed from excitement to calm, and anxiety and anxiety surged back into people's hearts; However, the depressed Chu people regained their former morale, and they kept shouting at the enemy in front of the battle, saying that the Jin people only had themselves in their hearts, and they were the best at playing tricks on others; The Song people are not worth gambling on the fate of a country for that lie, so let's go back to reality and consider how to solve the current deadlock. The Song responded with boos and bows and arrows.

The time had come to May, and the Chu army had besieged Shangqiu for eight months. This siege battle was unprecedented for either side. Although no large-scale fighting broke out between the two sides, the financial and material resources were consumed. The attrition caused by such a protracted confrontation is enough to weaken and even drag down the great powers.

The soldiers were all people with family property and land, and they were also the main labor force in the family; Staying abroad for a long time made them feel like arrows, and the food in the army was almost exhausted, if they couldn't find a solution, the people of Chu would have to go all the way back to their hometown.

Under great pressure, the king of Chu Zhuang ordered the camp to withdraw his army.

King Chuzhuang boarded the chariot, but Shen Xi rushed out sideways. He grabbed the reins of the war horse, crawled in front of the car and wept bitterly, kowtowing again and again, saying: "The ancestor did not dare to abandon the king's order when he knew death, and the king could not break the promise he made to his father!" ”

King Chu Zhuang was speechless for a moment, not knowing how to answer. Uncle Shen said on the side: "Build houses, reclaim the land, and sow grain to show your determination to destroy the Song Dynasty, and the Song people will not dare to disobey orders!" ”

King Chuzhuang issued an order according to the proposal of Uncle Shen. The people of the Song Dynasty looked from afar and saw that the Chu people were enthusiastically devoting themselves to the large-scale production movement of self-sufficiency. A few days later, the Chu people reclaimed several plots of land and began to sow wheat seeds.

The Song people couldn't help but be terrified. It turned out that the grain of the Song people was almost exhausted, and although the nobles, including Song Wengong, donated their own food, they still could not solve the fundamental problem. The limited amount of food could only be distributed to the soldiers, but it could only ensure that they would not starve to death; Ordinary citizens have no relief and are left to fend for themselves.

Hunger began to appear in the streets, first sporadically, then more and more. Helpless and scrawny people lay on the streets waiting to die, and passers-by could only wipe away a handful of tears and pretend not to see it.

The Song turned an abandoned market into a morgue (the market was empty of trade anyway), and the corpse collection team shuttled from one city to the market day and night. But soon the number of corpses decreased significantly - they were all eaten as food by the hungry people.

The tragedy has only just begun. The vast majority of people still can't even eat the corpses, so they start eating the living. Someone started attacking people, killing and eating them. Families with children dress up their children beautifully, send them to another family, and bring back a child in the same family.

The children who were exchanged did not know that their parents could not bear to eat their own flesh and blood, so they exchanged them with other people's children; The ultimate fate of these children was to be brutally killed and used as food, and the bones were used to make fires to cook meat, and each corpse was used to the fullest, and finally consumed without a trace.

At night, the city is filled with the smell of cooking and burning corpses, and this ancient city has become a city that survives by cannibalism.

The people of the Song Kingdom really couldn't continue to hold on, and they didn't need the enemy to do anything if they went on like this, and they wiped themselves out. That night, Hua Yuan decided to go to see Zi Yan secretly. He obtained the approval of Song Wengong, changed into the military uniform of the Chu people, and retracted into a basket; Several soldiers shook his wheels and drove him down the wall.

Hua Yuan took advantage of the cover of night to connect with the spies in the enemy camp and followed the spies into the Chu camp. The spy pointed to a tent and said, "That's the tent on the prince's side." With that, he disappeared into the darkness.

Zi Yan was sleeping soundly on the bed at this time, Hua Yuan climbed on his bed, pressed his sleeve with his knees, pulled out a dagger against his neck, and reached out to push Zi Yan.

Zi Yan woke up suddenly, he wanted to get up, but he couldn't pull out his arm; When he turned his head to look, he saw Hua Yuan's big round face with a beard and a hideous face.

Zi retorted: "Who are you?" Why are you in my bed? Hua Yuan identified himself and said that he did not come to assassinate Zi; If Zianti can listen to him say a few words, after he finishes speaking, he will completely rely on Zianti to deal with it, otherwise he will die with the other party.

Zianti expressed his willingness to communicate with Huayuan. Hua Yuan stepped back from the bed and put away his weapon, Zi got up and got out of bed, and sat face to face with Hua Yuan.

Hua Yuan said: "The widow ordered me to tell the great powers, saying: 'Our country has reached a desperate situation where it is easy to eat and dissect the remains. But even so, the Song State would rather break the country to pieces than sign an alliance under the city. 'If the big ** team can retreat thirty miles, our country will only listen! ”