Eagle-eyed and wolf-watching

Chapter 1556 Past Events in the Palace!
Evening, Palace

Murong Xinyun sat on the sofa, thinking about what her sister Murong Qingwu had said to her during the day, her expression full of thought.

Ever since she and her sister Murong Qingwu slept together in the palace some time ago, Ye Mingsheng has been very fond of her. In the past month or so, he has visited her for a total of eleven days, which made the other concubines very envious!
In the harem, Ye Mingsheng's favor is the concubines' greatest confidence, and those eunuchs and palace maids who look down on others for favors, seeing that Murong Xinyun is so favored, began to curry favor with Murong Xinyun instead of ignoring her as before!
Although Murong Xinyun understood this before, when he really saw these servants being arrogant at first but respectful later, he couldn't help but feel very emotional.

During this period, because of Ye Mingsheng's visit, many people congratulated Murong Xinyun, but in the face of these people's congratulations, Murong Xinyun did not feel any joy in her heart. She did not feel any happiness because of the improvement of her status in the palace!

When fighting with Ye Mingsheng, even though Ye Mingsheng was relatively gentle and did not do anything overly rough, that sense of moral shame always lingered in Murong Xinyun's heart, especially when she and her sister Murong Qingwu were fighting against Ye Mingsheng together!
As evil as Ye Mingsheng was at that time, Murong Xinyun felt ashamed in her heart. She instinctively wanted to escape and end it all, but unfortunately she couldn't do so!

Even her reason told her that not only could she not escape, but she had to act like she was enjoying it, in order to please Ye Mingsheng and make him happy...

Every time at this moment, Murong Xinyun would despise herself in her heart. She felt that she was the same as those women in Yijing's brothels!
Murong Xinyun could only hide such thoughts deep in her heart, and she didn't even dare to confide them to her sister Murong Qingwu.

Just when Murong Xinyun was thinking about all sorts of things in her mind, Xia Zhu's voice came to her ears.

"My lady, the attendant said that His Majesty will not come today!"

As soon as these words came out, Murong Xinyun's train of thought was immediately interrupted, causing Murong Xinyun to say instinctively:
"Has the attendant department given any news about why His Majesty is not here?"

Xia Zhu said without thinking too much:

"It seems that some news has been received from the grasslands in the north, and His Majesty has temporarily summoned several generals to hold a military meeting. The meeting lasted nearly an hour and a half, and it went straight to the evening hour. After the meeting, His Majesty still had some memorials to deal with, so he asked the attendant department to notify you that you will not come today, so that you can rest early!"

Hearing Xia Zhu's words, Murong Xinyun couldn't help but feel relieved, but at the same time, a little disappointment emerged in her heart.

According to her sister's plan, she will fight with His Majesty under the candlelight and moon tonight, and when the battle is over and His Majesty has his sage moment, she will get from His Majesty his inclination on the Liaoyang coal issue. To be honest, Murong Xinyun is not opposed to serving the family, but she is somewhat opposed to fighting Ye Mingsheng.

After all, in her heart, Ye Mingsheng was not her legal husband, but still her brother-in-law and the father of her nephews and nieces. Therefore, every time she fought with Ye Mingsheng, it was a test of Murong Xinyun's acting skills...

Although she was reluctant in her heart, for the sake of her elder brother Murong Hui and the family, Murong Xinyun was prepared to make some sacrifices. However, this was the first time Murong Xinyun had tried to trick Ye Mingsheng into believing something. So before she heard the news, she was very nervous. She was even worried about what she would do if Ye Mingsheng saw through her true intentions!
It was precisely because of this tense mentality that Murong Xinyun instinctively felt relieved when she heard that Ye Mingsheng would not come. However, when she thought about it carefully, she would not be able to get any information from him if Ye Mingsheng did not come, which meant that her sister's plan had completely failed, and she would not be able to help her elder brother Murong Hui!
Thinking of this, Murong Xinyun couldn't help but ask:
"Will your majesty come tomorrow?"

Xia Zhu thought for a moment and said:
"Your Majesty, I also asked Director Ye this question, but Director Ye did not answer me. I heard the news from the Attendant Department, and it seems that there is an urgent military situation in the Kipchak Steppe. Your Majesty may have to sleep in the Imperial Study tonight, and I am afraid that you will not have time in the next few days!"

Murong Xinyun couldn't help but frowned when she heard that. Her elder brother Murong Hui would come to Yijing to meet Ye Mingsheng in the next two or three days. If she couldn't get Ye Mingsheng's thoughts from him in the next few days, then she might really have no chance. If her elder brother's performance in front of the emperor this time was not in line with the emperor's wishes, his tenure as the governor of Liaoyang would be overshadowed...

At this time, Xia Zhu saw Murong Xinyun frowning, and didn't know what Murong Xinyun was thinking. She thought Murong Xinyun was sad because Ye Mingsheng didn't come, so she comforted him:

"Although your majesty broke the appointment today, please don't take it too seriously. Your majesty didn't just stand you up. Your majesty has always been diligent and caring for the people. Similar things have happened to the queen, Concubine Pei and other concubines before!"

"Especially that time on the Queen!"

At this point, Xia Zhu seemed to have remembered something and suddenly stopped talking. At this time, Murong Xinyun was aroused by Xia Zhu's words and said:

"What happened to the Queen that time?"

Xia Zhu hesitated when asked, and seemed to be hesitant to speak. Seeing this, Murong Xinyun couldn't help but say:

"Xia Zhu, there are only you and me in this room. Even if you mention the Queen, I won't report you to her, so what are you afraid of? It's okay, just say it boldly!"

After hearing what her own queen said, Xia Zhu said cautiously in a low voice:
"That was during the Battle of Jinzhong. It was said that the fighting on the front lines was extremely intense, with thousands of casualties every day. In order to get the latest battle reports, Your Majesty slept in the study for fifteen consecutive days. On the fifteenth day, it was said that the old queen mother couldn't stand it anymore. She was worried about Your Majesty's health, so she asked the queen to take Your Majesty back to the room to rest!"

"The Queen also obeyed the order of the old queen mother and spent a lot of time to pull His Majesty out of the study. However, after His Majesty returned to his room to rest, he was still worried about the battle report from the front line. He was so exhausted that he couldn't sleep!"

“So in order to allow His Majesty to have a good rest and relax, it is said that Qiqige, the maidservant beside the Queen, came up with an idea…”

When talking about the key points, Xia Zhu's voice became smaller and smaller, and her face flushed slightly. After hearing what she said, Murong Xinyun asked in surprise: "Are you talking about His Majesty and the three of them?"

Upon hearing this, Xia Zhu immediately reminded:
"Your Majesty, please keep your voice down! Be careful, there are ears on the other side of the wall. The harem is full of your Majesty's ears and eyes!"

Murong Xinyun nodded slightly and said softly:

"Empress, Qiqige, Concubine Bai?"

Xia Zhu nodded, and then said in a mosquito-like voice:

"Your Majesty has always had this habit. In the past, when Your Majesty couldn't sleep, he liked to visit his concubines. After a fierce battle, he would fall into a deep sleep!"

"I heard from the maid who was serving outside the room that night that your Majesty was very brave that night and defeated Concubine Bai and Qiqige in the battles one after another. However, these two battles also consumed a lot of your Majesty's physical strength. Just when your Majesty was resting and preparing to launch a general attack on the queen, the latest battle report from the General Staff arrived!"

"After hearing the news, His Majesty immediately ended the fight and returned to the study to prepare for a meeting. Because of this, the Queen slapped Concubine Bai, Qiqige. Qiqige had served the Queen since she was a child and was as close to her as a sister. The Queen actually slapped her, which was enough to show how angry the Queen was!"

Murong Xinyun, who had just experienced human affairs and became a woman not long ago, couldn't help blushing when she heard this kind of thing, and felt a little embarrassed, but the gossipy spirit burning in her heart made her ask curiously:
"Is this true or false?"

Xia Zhu whispered:

"Of course it's true, Madam Queen, because the Queen Queen has issued a gag order on this matter. Previously, there were two palace maids around the Queen Queen who were punished by the Queen Queen for talking about this matter, and then demoted to the laundry department. Now these two people are still washing clothes in the laundry department!"

"In the past, these two maids followed the Empress and didn't have to do any dirty or heavy work. They just massaged the Empress's shoulders and legs every day, and said auspicious words to the Empress during festivals. They also received rewards!"

"Now these two people are in such a bad situation, getting up early and working late every day to wash clothes in the laundry, their hands are covered with chilblains and wounds, how pitiful!"

As Xia Zhu said this, her little face was full of fear. It was obvious that she was very afraid of An Miaoyi!

After hearing what Xia Zhu said, Murong Xinyun was amazed. Although she knew that Ye Mingsheng had always been very diligent and spent most of the month either in the imperial study dealing with memorials, attending meetings, or inspecting the army and factories, she did not expect that Ye Mingsheng could actually do this!
It’s no wonder that Ye Mingsheng was able to unify the world and achieve such great success!
However, Queen An Miaoyi was also miserable enough. When Murong Xinyun thought that she was An Miaoyi at that time, she couldn't help feeling sad!
But soon Murong Xinyun began to gloat over the misfortune. To treat this bad woman An Miaoyi, she should be severely punished like this. Make her feel both up and down, and in agony...

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Erlunqin Grassland, Damao Mountain

The Luobi camp was filled with the smell of gunpowder everywhere. Teams of Luobi soldiers, with blood still on their bodies, with expressions of grief on their faces, were clearing the corpses of our troops and local people in the camp.

A few days after Darachi led his troops to Damao Mountain, the Cuman Khan Habib personally led 50,000 elite Cuman troops to the vicinity of Damao Mountain, and the two sides immediately engaged in a fierce battle!
The Cuman army under Habib, with the support of the Romans, was also equipped with a large number of firearms. Therefore, at the beginning of the battle, it posed a great threat to the soldiers under Darachi. However, the Roman soldiers had the advantage of geographical location, so under tenacious resistance, it was also difficult for the Cuman army to get beyond the line!
In order to win the battle, Dariyachi ordered his men to break out at all costs and send a letter to Urrigen Bayar in Damayuan, fifty miles away, asking Urrigen Bayar to lead his troops to come to the rescue as soon as possible. The two sides should join forces to defeat Khabib!
However, what Darachi did not expect was that Urgenbayar had been slow to take action, so he had to lead his troops to hold on. Fortunately, it rained several times during this period, and the humid weather made a lot of gunpowder of the Cuman army unusable. The lack of gunpowder also made the Cuman army's muskets and heavy artillery ineffective, which allowed Darachi to hold on to Damao Mountain.

However, even though the food and grass available to Dariyachi's army was besieged on Mount Damao, they were running out of food and grass. In order to avoid the food and grass being exhausted, Dariyachi tried to lead his troops down the mountain to break out but was ambushed!
In order to save him, his trusted general Sejilahu was shot several times. Although he was protected by the armor and did not die on the spot, in order to let Sejilahu survive, his left leg had to be amputated...
Dariyachi, who failed in his breakout attempt, had to give up the idea of ​​breaking out. In the situation of lack of food and medicine in Damao Mountain, he waited for the reinforcements from Urgenbayar. Just when Dariyachi and others had to kill horses to satisfy their hunger, Urgenbayar's son Jirigele finally arrived with reinforcements!

Seeing that Dariachi's reinforcements had arrived, Habib had to lead his troops to lift the blockade of Damao Mountain and retreat.

At this time in Dariyachi's tent, Jirigel ignored the angry glares from the dozen or so generals under Dariyachi's command, touched his chest and saluted Dariyachi, saying:
"Jizhigelu meets the Grand Prince!"

Looking at the bastard in front of him, Darya Chi suppressed his anger and asked:
"Damo Mountain is only fifty miles away from Damanyuan. I sent you the message half a month ago. Even if you were a turtle or a snail, you should have come here long ago. Why are you here only now?"

Facing Daryachi's insult, Jirigel's face turned serious and he said:

"You may not know, Great Prince, that Damanyuan was also attacked by the Kipchaks. Although my father received your request for help, we were unable to spare any manpower at that time. The Kipchak army that besieged Damanyuan numbered as many as 30,000. We only managed to repel them after a fierce battle!"

"Only after repelling the enemy will we have the opportunity and ability to come and rescue you, Prince..."

(End of this chapter)