Xiaoyao Xiaojunhou

Chapter 579 Shaking hands
The Yan people went south!
Also, the local garrisons in the three prefectures and counties of Haozhou, Chuzhou, and Chuzhou actually defected together!

Seeing this, Zhu Xiuyuan was shocked, and he squeezed the letter paper so hard that he almost tore it to pieces.

At the same time, Zhu Xiuyuan felt a cool air pouring in from the top of his head.

At this time of year, the Lantern Festival has just passed, and the climate is still relatively cold.Now that he got this news again, Zhu Xiuyuan suddenly felt chills all over!

He is not calm anymore!
It turned out that after learning that Emperor Chen had urgently summoned him late at night, Zhu Xiuyuan speculated that the Yan people might have gone south.

When the Yan people went south, they might not be able to attack the capital.

Therefore, Zhu Xiuyuan could still remain calm and regard this as a threshold that could be crossed.

But now, not only the Yan people went south, but the local garrisons from three prefectures and counties also rebelled with them!
From the Yangtze River where the capital is located to the north to the border with Yan State, there are five states and counties in this area.

Close to the north of the capital, on the north bank of the Yangtze River, across the river from the capital are Yangzhou and Hezhou.

Hezhou is in the east and Yangzhou is in the west.

To the north of Hezhou is Chuzhou.

Both Hezhou and Chuzhou are relatively small in area. The two states overlap and can barely be tied with the huge Yangzhou.

Therefore, the first line of defense in the northern part of the capital is the Hezhou, Chuzhou, and Yangzhou lines.

To the north of these three states are Haozhou and Chuzhou.

To be precise, north of Chuzhou is Haozhou.

To the north of Yangzhou is Chuzhou.

Haozhou is about the same size as Chuzhou, and it can be regarded as the second line of defense in the north of the capital.

The current situation is that the Yan people went south, with a total of 20 troops.

Then Haozhou, Chuzhou, and Chuzhou, the local garrisons in these three prefectures and counties have all rebelled and turned to the Yan people.

This is equivalent to the fact that the second line of defense in the northern part of the capital, namely the Haozhou and Chuzhou lines, has been completely defeated and turned against each other, helping Yan to do harm.

Chuzhou, the first line of defense, has also rebelled.

In other words, of the two lines of defense in the northern part of the capital, the second line has been removed.

Chuzhou was also removed from the first line of defense.

Only the "skin" of Hezhou and Yangzhou is left to protect the safety of the capital.

The weakest point of this "skin" is Jiangpu County, Hezhou, which is across the river from the capital.
Jiangpu County is a long and narrow terrain. It faces the capital across the river to the south and borders Chuzhou to the north. Chuzhou has already rebelled...

In other words, between the territory actually controlled by the Yan people and the capital of Chen Guo, there is only Jiangpu County and the Yangtze River!
This has just begun, and the situation in Chen Guojing City is already so dangerous!
Zhu Xiu was far from expecting this.

After all, who would have thought that Haozhou, Chuzhou, and Chuzhou would rebel at the same time?
There was nothing unusual beforehand, who could have imagined it!
Once these three states rebel and defect to the Yan State, the area actually controlled by the Yan people will inevitably be separated from the capital by only a narrow county seat!
The danger was right in front of him, and Zhu Xiuyuan could no longer remain calm.

Zhu Xiuyuan put down the letter he read at the beginning, trembling with his hands, stood up and walked to the edge of the charcoal basin in the middle of the carriage, stretched his hands over the charcoal fire, and used the heat of the charcoal fire to dispel the coldness in his body.

After the chill subsided, Zhu Xiuyuan immediately took the letter, scanned the cruel beginning, and then read down.

In the following content, Kou Wanwan described in detail the situation and routes of the two armies of the Yan Army.

The Yan army totaled 20, divided into two groups, east and west, each with [-] troops.

They invaded from Haozhou and Chuzhou respectively and penetrated deep into the hinterland of Chen State.

The [-]-strong army on the west road has joined forces with the [-]-strong garrison of King Linhuai of Haozhou and is running towards the capital.

However, Chuzhou and Qingliuhou, who also belonged to the West Route Army, with 3 troops under their command, had taken the lead and captured Jiangpu County in Hezhou...

Zhu Xiuyuan felt chilled again when he saw this.

Oh my god, the "skin" that used to protect the capital has been torn away!

Jiangpu County was captured by Qingliu Hou of Chuzhou!

The actual control area of ​​the Yan people is only separated from the capital of Chen Guo by the Yangtze River!

What is this called...

Zhu Xiuyuan took a few deep breaths. After the excitement in his heart calmed down a little, he held the letter and read on.

... Because the territory of Haozhou is so large, the 15 Yan army and the [-] garrison under King Linhuai, a total of [-] troops, are still rushing south.

It is estimated that it will take about a day to reach the outskirts of the capital.

So now, the only Yan people facing the West Route Army in the capital are 3 people from the Qingliu Marquis of Chuzhou...

The good thing is that Qingliuhou only has 3 people under his command.

The bad thing is that Jiangpu County has been taken away by Qingliu Hou.

The above is the situation of the West Route Army.

Then there is the East Road, Yan's army of 15, Hui and Chuzhou Shanyang King's [-], also an army of [-], went south along the Grand Canal, and in a short time, they were already approaching the city of Yangzhou!
King Jiangdu, who was stationed in Yangzhou, had not yet rebelled. With 15 troops stationed under his account, King Jiangdu held back the [-] troops on the Yanren East Road.

There is still a long waterway between Yangzhou and Beijing.

The army on the east route was blocked in Yangzhou, so it should not be able to attack the capital so quickly.

The above is the situation of the east and west armies of Yan State going south to attack Chen.

Kou Wanwan explained it in great detail in her letter.

However, the content of the letter was not finished yet. In the letter, Kou Wanwan explained one more thing, which was why she failed to detect Yan Ren's movements earlier.

"Yeah, why is that?"

Zhu Xiuyuan muttered to himself, frowning, holding the letter, and couldn't wait to read it.

In the past few days, Emperor Chen held court meetings almost every day. At the court meetings, Chen's monarchs and ministers would read together the news delivered from the detailed works of the Yan Kingdom.

But Zhu Xiuyuan remembered very clearly that at yesterday's court meeting, Xizuo sent back the news and said that the Yan people had not made any movements.

Chuzhou, Haozhou, Chuzhou and other places are also preparing for war...

But overnight, the Yan army with 20 troops appeared and divided into two armies.

There were also local garrisons in Haozhou, Chuzhou, Chuzhou and other places who rebelled together.

For such a big thing, there should be a lot of noise.

But why couldn't the scouts, agents, etc. under King Zhongshan detect any abnormalities?

This is so unusual!
Could it be that King Zhongshan also rebelled?
Zhu Xiuyuan once guessed this.

But then he put this speculation to rest.

First, King Zhongshan is loyal to the royal family and Emperor Chen, and it is impossible to rebel with just a few words.

Second, not even Kou Wanwan's men could detect the slightest abnormality, let alone King Zhongshan's men.

Zhu Xiuyuan, who couldn't wait to learn the truth, finally understood after reading Kou Wanwan's explanation.

It turned out that there were experts in the Yan army who used a "counter-reconnaissance" method to confuse all the scouts and spies.

According to Kou Wanwan's speculation, the masters in the Yan army might be her fellow disciples, but she had no idea about this...

The methods of these experts are so superb that even Kou Wanwan's subordinates were confused and failed to detect the slightest abnormality. It is really not easy!
After Zhu Xiuyuan learned the reason, he couldn't help thinking about it.

It seems that the Yan State is coming with great force this time, and they have made sufficient preparations. They hid their whereabouts in order to catch Chen State off guard... Now it seems that the Yan State's "blitzkrieg" has achieved remarkable results.

Because the power of the Yan Kingdom has extended to Jiangpu County, which is across the river from the capital!
As long as they cross the Yangtze River, they will be able to attack the city immediately...

Zhu Xiuyuan sighed, held Kou Wanwan's letter, and then read down.

Next, Kou Wanwan didn't reveal any big news.

She wrote some small things about her daughter's family in the letter... Then Kou Wanwan said that she was already making preparations to evacuate the capital, and had arranged enough manpower to evacuate with the entire Jiangcheng residence.

In the end, Kou Wanwan reminded Zhu Xiuyuan that this letter leaked too many secrets, and Zhu Xiuyuan would burn it after reading it.

In the carriage, next to the brazier, Zhu Xiuyuan was holding the letter, frowning, and was in a daze.

At some point, the rickety carriage suddenly stopped, and the driver's voice came: "Hey..."

"My benefactor, we have arrived at the Imperial City."

Yan Dashan's voice came from outside, but besides that, there were also bursts of shouting and shouting. It seemed like hundreds or even thousands of people were busy doing something at the same time.

Zhu Xiuyuan came back to his senses, listened carefully for a moment, opened the curtain, turned his neck and looked around.

I saw that the street at the foot of the Imperial City was lit with countless torches, and above the Imperial City high up, the flames were also soaring into the sky, illuminating the place as bright as day.

Moreover, there were indeed a large group of Jinwu Guards in action above the imperial city... That noisy sound came from them.

Are the Jinwu Guards... preparing for war?
Zhu Xiuyuan frowned tightly and stared at the Jinwu Guards on the imperial city with burning eyes.

He ignored Yan Dashan and kept sticking his head out, dazed there for a long time.

"Benefactor?" Yan Dashan looked strange.

"Dashan, come in!"

Zhu Xiuyuan retracted the carriage and called to Yan Dashan to get on.

Yan Dashan did not hesitate, jumped on the carriage, opened the curtain, and walked into the carriage with his body bowed.

Yan Dashan was a tall man, so after he got in the car, he didn't sit down. He just stood there with his waist hunched over, which made Zhu Xiuyuan feel awkward.

"Sit down first!"

Zhu Xiuyuan asked Yan Dashan to sit down, and then glanced at his hand, which was still holding Kou Wanwan's letter.

Because he remembered Kou Wanwan's letter reminding him that this letter must be burned after reading.

So Zhu Xiuyuan took the letter and threw it into the brazier to burn it.

As soon as Nayan Dashan sat down, he saw the letter being burned.

He suddenly fell silent and did not dare to move.

The "love letter" written by Zhun's benefactor to his benefactor was burned like this... The burning fire of the letter illuminated Yan Dashan's face.

Zhu Xiuyuan accidentally looked over and saw a "relaxed" look on his face.

Zhu Xiuyuan was a little strange, but he didn't ask, because he had a very important matter to tell Yan Dashan.

"Dashan, the current situation..."

Zhu Xiuyuan did not hide anything and told Yan Dashan everything about the current situation.

"Now you go back to your home immediately and inform your father-in-law, Shuyu, and my wife about this matter, so that they can be prepared. If the capital is really captured, we will immediately break out and escape!"

Zhu Xiuyuan looked very serious. After all, this matter was a matter of life and death.

"My benefactor, I understand!"

Yan Dashan's expression also changed. He was very calm. He bowed his hands, jumped out of the carriage, pulled his horse, jumped on it, and left with his whip raised.

Zhu Xiuyuan watched Yan Dashan leave, and he jumped out of the carriage after the figure disappeared.

The current time is around four o'clock in the morning.

It was supposed to be a quiet time in the dead of night, but above the imperial city, it was in full swing.

Countless torches on the city wall and below the city wall illuminate this place like daylight, which makes it even less like a four o'clock in the morning atmosphere!
Zhu Xiuyuan landed on both feet and turned around to look around. The imperial city was full of heat and the silence in the distance.The sky-high flames here formed a sharp contrast with the surrounding darkness.

Suddenly, a gust of night wind blew.

With a biting cold air.

Zhu Xiuyuan couldn't help but shudder, wrapped his clothes tightly, let out a breath, and instantly turned into white mist when exposed to the cold...

Zhu Xiuyuan had no sleep at all. He felt that at this moment, his head was clearer than ever.

After calming down, Zhu Xiuyuan shook his clothes and walked towards Chengtianmen.

……

Be careful.

Bright lights!

Zhu Xiuyuan was one of the earlier ones.

Dozens of other ministers arrived first, but they gathered together in twos and threes, chatting privately in low voices, but did not speak to Zhu Xiuyuan.

Zhu Xiuyuan simply closed his eyes and rested his mind...

Not long after, ministers arrived one after another.

The voices of their discussions became louder and louder. Some complained about getting up early, some speculated about Emperor Chen's move. Of course, more ministers were discussing everything that was happening in the imperial city.

What are those Jinwu guards doing?
It seems that they don't know that "the influence of the Yan people has extended to Jiangpu County, which is only separated from the capital by a river."

Zhu Xiuyuan sneered and closed his eyes to rest.

After a while, the shouts of "Your Majesty has arrived" and "The Imperial Concubine has arrived" were very loud, waking Zhu Xiuyuan up.

He opened his eyes and looked up the imperial steps, and saw Emperor Chen and Concubine You coming.

Chen Huang's steps were a little messy, and he didn't have the leisurely feeling of the past.

Zhu Xiuyuan's eyes narrowed slightly, and he naturally knew what was going on.

The people of Yan have fought all the way to the other side of the Yangtze River. His throne probably feels a little hot on the butt.

Emperor Chen's steps were a little messy, but he walked very quickly. He walked to the dragon chair and was about to sit down when the ministers began to perform the courtesy of a monarch and his ministers.

When Zhu Xiuyuan bowed down, he discovered that Emperor Chen's foot was tripped by the dragon chair, and he almost fell down in front of the ministers...

Fortunately, Concubine You had good eyesight and quick hands, and hurriedly held him up, thus avoiding an accident.

In addition to Zhu Xiuyuan, many ministers also saw this scene.

The ministers did not dare to look around and hurriedly bowed down, pretending that they had not seen anything...

After all the ministers had finished their salutes, they met Emperor Chen again. He was already sitting on the dragon chair.

Zhu Xiuyuan couldn't help but feel funny in his heart. Chen Huang must have been shocked, otherwise he wouldn't have been in a panic while walking and almost tripped over the dragon chair.

After he laughed in his heart, he looked forward and habitually counted the heads in front of him.

(End of this chapter)