Big Moon Ballad

Chapter 2640 Injustice
When Meng Shi, who had been guarding Luoyang for more than half a month, saw the banner embroidered with the Tengshe pattern, he felt dizzy for the first time.

Her legs went weak and she almost fell.

"Your Highness!"

The guards behind her supported her, quite frightened, thinking that enemy troops had arrived.

"It's alright," Meng Shi said, supporting herself against the city wall. She knew that this was the result of her previously strained mental state relaxing.

She felt languid all over, as if a heavy burden she had been carrying had finally been lifted off her shoulders.

The massive army that appeared on the horizon was as dark as a tidal wave, and even from several miles away, the oppressive feeling was overwhelming.

"It's the Former Qin army..."

"Why are there so many people..."

Even knowing that their lord had a close relationship with the former King of Qin, the exhausted Luoyang garrison remained on high alert upon seeing such a large army approaching.

They were already at their last gasp, and it was impossible for such a large army to completely destroy Luoyang.

The secret guards arranged by Yelü Hua around Meng Shi were secretly terrified when they saw such a huge army.

"Your Highness, this army is..."

Meng Shi had already spotted Ying Baoyue riding a black horse at the very front of the army. She smiled and said with a sigh of relief, "Open the city gates."

The other guards on the city wall, however, did not obey her orders as before. Instead, they looked at each other with strange expressions.

"Your Highness," the guard whispered, "His Majesty previously decreed that the opening of the city gates must be done by him personally ascending the city tower to deliver the imperial edict."

"Really?" Meng Shi was taken aback, a strange feeling rising in her heart. After a moment, she sighed, "Then you should go and inform His Majesty quickly."

The guards were swift, and the news of the Former Qin King leading a large army arrived at Yelü Hua's desk in less than a quarter of an hour.

"Your Majesty, since the rebels and the Western Rong have already withdrawn their troops and Luoyang has been defended, there is no need to welcome the Former Qin army into the city."

Yelü Hua glanced at the worried old minister beside his desk and knew what the other was thinking.

If the Former Qin army were to enter the capital of Northern Wei this time, Northern Wei would completely lose its autonomy. He, the King of Northern Wei, would no longer be qualified to stand on equal footing with Ying Baoyue.

“That’s it,” Yelü Hua sighed, “the people in the city are starving to death.”

"Your Majesty! The people can still hold on a little longer. If we let the Former Qin people into the city now..."

Yelü Hua raised a hand to stop the old minister's admonition.

“You and I both know why the Western Rong people retreated,” he said calmly. “If Ying Baoyue leaves, those people will immediately come back.”

“The victor is king, the loser is villain,” Yelü Hua said, looking at the jade seal on the corner of the table with a desolate and complicated gaze. “The Northern Wei failed to defend the Eternal Night Great Wall. The only one who could defeat the Western Rong people was her.”

"Tell the Queen to open the city gates."

"Welcome the Former Qin army into the city."

……

……

After holding out for more than ten days, all the gates of Luoyang were opened.

The emaciated people in the city were initially filled with fear and unease as they watched the army enter the city. However, when they saw the countless wagons loaded with grain following behind the army, their expressions of fear turned to joy.

“I brought 100,000 shi of grain,” Ying Baoyue said, sitting at Yelü Hua’s desk. “Let’s distribute 50,000 shi to the soldiers and civilians in Luoyang.”

“Fifty thousand…” Yelü Hua’s gaze was somewhat complicated. “How will Northern Wei repay this favor?”

“This is not a favor, and this grain did not come from the Former Qin Dynasty, but from the Middle Tang Dynasty.”

"This is a transaction between countries, and there will naturally be a time when you need to repay it."

Ying Baoyue looked at the map hanging behind Yelü Hua and said, "The Northern Wei cannot be defeated now, otherwise the Western Rong people will be able to enter the south as if they were in an empty land." "Before you came, the Western Rong people and the rebels withdrew their troops. Scouts reported that they did not turn back, but went south."

Yelü Hua's gaze turned serious. "Where do you think they'll go? They can't possibly go straight to attack Southern Chu, can they?"

"Although the people were running south, the scouts reported that they were taking a detour to the southwest."

southwest……

Meng Shi and Li Meiniang, who were sitting together in the study, looked at the map hanging on the wall almost at the same time.

“If it’s heading southwest, then that’s Juyong Pass,” Meng Shi pondered. “Are these rebels planning to hide deep in the mountains?”

West of Juyong Pass lies a remote, mountainous region.

“It’s not Juyong Pass,” Ying Baoyue frowned. “Juyong Pass is just a decoy. I’m afraid they want to bypass Juyong Pass and go straight for Zijing Pass.”

"Zijing Pass?"

Meng Shi was taken aback, "But what's over there..."

“Guanghua Jun is probably right,” Ying Baoyue said, looking at Yelü Hua. “This group of people does indeed intend to attack Southern Chu next.”

“I didn’t think that way either,” Yelü Hua said, somewhat speechless. “Are these people crazy? They actually dare to attack Southern Chu?”

The Southern Chu was a vast and powerful state. This group of people marched south from the north and besieged Luoyang for many days. How could such an exhausted army dare to challenge such a behemoth as the Southern Chu? Should we say they were courageous or simply courting death?

"Is this courting disaster?"

“That’s not necessarily true,” Ying Baoyue pondered. “What if they have an inside agent in Southern Chu?”

"How is this possible?" Yelü Hua gasped. "That's Southern Chu!"

“Something just happened at Jixia Academy. I don’t know if you’ve received the news,” Ying Baoyue glanced at the people in the study. “More than half of the disciples and elders have been killed or injured.”

"What?" The three of them were taken aback.

These days, all their attention has been focused on preserving the Northern Wei, leaving them with no energy to pay attention to other countries.

Ying Baoyue recounted in detail what had happened at the Jixia Academy, saying, "This group of rebels did not head south for no reason."

"Guanghua Jun, have you found out who led this rebellion of the Northern Wei garrison?"

When this matter was brought up, Yelü Hua immediately felt ashamed.

The fall of the Great Wall at Yongye was ultimately due to internal problems within the Northern Wei army, which allowed the Western Rong people to take advantage of the situation and invade.

He sighed and handed a scroll on the table to Ying Baoyue. "It took the deaths of more than a dozen secret guards to find this out."

Ying Baoyue opened the scroll, glanced at it, and her gaze froze.

"It seems I need to apologize to you."

This scroll contains the biography of a general named Zhou Fu.

Although this General Zhou was a garrison commander on the Great Wall of the Northern Wei Dynasty, he was born in the Former Qin Dynasty.

This man is forty-five years old this year. He arrived at the Eternal Night Great Wall when he was twenty and has been guarding the wall for twenty-five years.

It's hard to imagine that such a person would lead the defending troops in rebellion and allow the Western Rong people to enter the Central Plains.

But when Ying Baoyue saw the last few lines of small characters on the scroll, she understood everything.

Zhou Fu's father was named Zhou Dacheng. He was not a military general, but a steward in the Duke's mansion. Zhou Fu was not born into a prominent family and rose to the position of general step by step on the frontier through his military achievements.

The Duke's Mansion that Zhou Dacheng served was the same mansion of the General of Chariots and Cavalry that was burned to the ground more than 20 years ago.

Zhou Dacheng himself also died in the fire that wiped out the Jin family, leaving no trace of his remains.

In other words, Zhou Fu's father was a servant who served General Jin Cheng. Zhou Fu, as the son of a servant, was able to become a general because of the appreciation of Jin Cheng, the father of Yun Zhong Jun.