"Your Majesty can rest assured now." Mr. Ya reached out and supported the white-haired man. It turned out that this man who had traveled to Daliang many times and claimed to be an envoy was actually the Pope himself.

Mr. Ya: "Although there were countless deviations in the process, the final result at least did not waste your time and energy spent here."

The Pope gazed at the ferocious sea monsters on the ocean, his face showing a calmness without any sadness or joy. It seemed that instead of being happy, he also felt an indescribable compassion and melancholy.

"It's too early to tell the outcome," the Pope said. "Destiny is a very mysterious thing. It's impossible to predict the fate of a person, let alone a country? Only God knows that."

Mr. Ya: "For example, that idiot Jialai Yinghuo couldn't help but reveal the matter to Gu Yun in advance?"

Jialai Yinghuo hated Gu Yun, the last member of the Gu family, so much that there was nothing left in his life except this hatred. He had long since abandoned the dignity of the Wolf King and became a mad dog, with no overall view. In his opinion, as long as he could strike Gu Yun, he didn't care whose deployment was destroyed. But they had no choice but to cooperate with this mad dog. The hatred between the Eighteen Tribes and the Central Plains for generations was too deep, and the power that the goddess left in the capital was too important.

"I really admire that Gu Yun," Mr. Ya sighed, "If I were him, I might not have done anything, but he actually handled those things quietly. Otherwise, the facts we uncovered today would definitely be even crazier than they are now. The garrisons in various places might have already...what do they call that? 'Clearing the court'?"

Pope: "The effect is not ideal, but there is nothing we can do. The opportunity is fleeting and we have no choice. Jacques, all of us are trapped beasts, all looking for a way to survive. Either we devour others or we are devoured. Countless eyes are staring at this huge and plump herbivore. We must take the lead, otherwise in three to five years, we may not be able to fight."

Mr. Ya looked at the vast sea. There was water everywhere, and the sea and sky were one color. He asked in confusion, "Your Majesty, if this is just a herbivore, why would we go to such great lengths to pluck out its claws and fangs?"

"Whether it's carnivorous or herbivorous, it's not determined by body size or claws," the Pope muttered. "You have to see if it's greedy, if it has a heart that longs to devour and bite... Do you smell this?"

Mr. Ya was stunned. The purple gold with high purity had almost no smell when burning. Probably only Gu Yun and the dog could smell it. He asked tentatively: "Your Majesty, are you talking about... the smell of sea water?"

"It's the stink, child," the Pope whispered. "If there is a devil, then it is undoubtedly this little mineral. The blue-purple flame has ignited this damned era since the day it broke through the earth. It has turned all the children of God into the hearts of iron monsters."

Isn’t the machine that burns purple gold man-made?

Mr. Ya shrugged and did not refute, but he was somewhat disapproving.

The Pope did not explain any more. He just lowered his head, muttered something, kissed the ring with a scepter on his hand, and made a simple prayer.

"Please forgive me," he whispered. "Please forgive me."

At this moment, a cluster of azure signal fire suddenly appeared on the front-end sea dragon pioneer and shot straight into the sky.

Mr. Ya's eyes seemed to be filled with fire. He tried to hold back his excitement, but for a moment he could not suppress it: "Your Majesty, it's about to begin!"

That was the eighth day of the fourth month in the seventh year of Long'an.

It was the third day since Anding Hou Gu Yun moved from the hot spring villa to the imperial capital's prison.

It was quite cool and eerie in the prison. Fortunately, the chill had gradually faded after the beginning of spring in the capital, and it was already quite warm. The haystack in the prison cell was a little softer than a camp bed, so it wasn't uncomfortable to stay there for a few days. Gu Yun just took it as a way to cool off.

There was silence all around him. He didn't even have a cellmate to chat and brag with. The jailers were all iron puppets and couldn't talk. This was the innermost cell in the prison. Only royal relatives, princes, generals and ministers were allowed to enter. Even the commander of the Northern Camp, Tan Hongfei, was not qualified.

The last person who was qualified to be imprisoned here was the emperor’s brother, Prince Wei. Gu Yun enjoyed the treatment of a single room, so he had to stay alone.

But even if someone was chatting with him, he couldn't hear it - the effect of the medicine he hastily drank before leaving had long worn off, the small moles on the corners of his eyes and earlobes had faded almost to invisibility, and he didn't have the glass mirror with him. With his eyes open, he could barely count his fingers, and the footsteps of the iron golem coming in and out were all he could hear vaguely.

Of course, all the iron tools on his body were searched away, but Gu Yun was not helpless.

He had a secret that was never passed on to others - it was a game he and Shen Yi played when they were very young. They competed to see who could remove small parts from the puppets in the Marquis' Mansion the fastest. The two naughty kids would get together to study how to dismantle the iron puppets that guarded the Marquis' Mansion. Once, Shen Yi was unable to dodge and was mistakenly identified as an enemy by the iron puppet when he was doing something bad. He was thrown directly onto the roof and almost lost his life. Of course, Gu Yun also did not escape the beating from the old Marquis.

The bloody lesson did not teach Gu Yun a lesson, but instead made him more courageous. The two of them studied it over and over again for a long time, and they believed that there must be a method that could be as consonant as stealing a wallet, where they could just walk past it and take off a piece of the parts with a single touch.

Later, it was discovered that there were places that could be removed, but they were limited to insignificant places such as the iron monster's mask and the logo on its arm, so Gu Yun's unique skill never had the chance to be revealed.

But now I finally have the chance to use it.

The day before, when the Iron Golem jailer delivered food, Gu Yun was quick to reach out and grab when it put down the food box, and easily took away the slightly rusty number plate on the Iron Golem's elbow.

He rubbed the iron sheet on a stone to make it thinner, first pried open the shackles on his hands and feet, stretched his body for a long time, then tore a piece of bed sheet to make a rope, caught a little mouse and kept it nearby, saving two bites of food from every meal for it, and playing with the mouse when he had nothing to do.

That incident was deliberately dug up by someone with ulterior motives. Gu Yun knew this. When he was secretly investigating five years ago, he had erased some fatal evidence, but he did not touch Wu He. Firstly, he was just an old dog who was barely alive, and secondly... I'm afraid he was not without selfish motives. He was really unwilling to just erase that unforgettable truth without leaving a single trace.

Gu Yun admitted that he had handled things improperly. If he had been half as calm and tactful as he is now, he would have understood that he should have either collected those things and waited for the right time to launch them all at once and rebelled. Or he should have been ruthless and destroyed all the past, buried it in the past, and never let it see the light of day again.

No matter how wrong he was, he shouldn't have hesitated when he should have been decisive.

Just like Emperor Yuanhe, if he had not been so hesitant, there would be no Gu Yun in the world, and there would be another kind of peace.

Gu Yun didn't know what would happen next, nor did he know whether the fledgling Chang Geng could really stabilize the morale of the four armies. However, he was in the Heavenly Prison, so there was no point in worrying. He could only relax and conserve his energy.

Later, the mouse found this man annoying and bothered, but couldn't avoid him, so he simply pretended to be dead and refused to pay any attention to him.

The young marquis, who was disliked by cats and dogs, had no choice but to sit against the wall and meditate with nothing to do. It seemed that the attitude of this mouse was similar to that of Chang Geng when he was a child.

Gu Yun thought endlessly of Chang Geng, and couldn't help but sigh. He turned the iron sheet on his fingertips into a windmill and said to Haozi with emotion: "He might as well complain about me making trouble for him every day."

The mouse gave him a round butt.

Gu Yun took a deep breath and forcefully cleared away these distracting thoughts. He casually reached out and grabbed the moldy blanket on the haystack, draped it over himself, and closed his eyes to rest.

Only by keeping your spirits healthy can you face the difficulties ahead.

No one could disturb the half-deaf man in the prison, so Gu Yun fell asleep quickly. He had a dream in the cold and musty smell.

Gu Yun dreamed that he was lying on his back under a huge guillotine. The blade weighing more than a thousand pounds was pressing on his chest, scraping his flesh and pressing into his bones bit by bit, cutting him in half alive. He was cut off from his body and limbs, with only a wound on his chest, which hurt him so much that he was scratching his heart. In his ears were a mess of crying, cannon fire, the howling of the border town, and the intermittent and out-of-tune sound of the Hujia...

He was cut open by the guillotine, but there was no blood from the wound. Instead, a signal arrow fell out, screaming and rushing into the sky, shaking the mountains and rivers.

Gu Yun suddenly woke up with a muffled groan. The old wound on his chest began to hurt for no apparent reason. The piercing sound of the signal arrow in his dream lingered in his ears, forming a unique tinnitus.

There seemed to be a strange connection between him and his Xuantie Camp. That night, at the garrison site on the ancient Silk Road in the Western Regions, the first ominous signal arrow exploded brilliantly in the night sky.

The urgent war report was not delivered to the capital until a day later. The black eagle who delivered the letter had only one leg left. He arrived at the panicked Beidaying camp with his breath held on. He died as soon as he landed without saying a word.

Two hours later, the attack on the Black Iron Camp in the Western Region shocked the government and the public.

When the news of the incident in the capital spread, He Ronghui led his men to besiege the Northwest Protectorate. As soon as he left, the Kingdom of Kucha led with one hundred and sixty sand tigers to forcibly blast open the Xuanqi patrol camp at the entrance to the Western Regions.

The chariot sand tiger is the biggest nemesis of the light-furred cavalry. For a moment, there was a roar of smoke and dust, flames like a curtain, war horses neighed and died, and cavalry fell down in large numbers.

But the Xuantie Battalion was the Xuantie Battalion after all. After a moment of confusion, they reacted immediately and the Xuanjia pressed forward without hesitation. After receiving the news, He Ronghui immediately led the Xuanying back and made a prompt decision to cut off the Sand Tiger's reinforcements from the air - the giant tanks were extremely fuel-consuming, and once the supply was cut off, they would immediately become a pile of scrap metal.

But the Sha Hu who knocked on the door was not bluffing. Just as everyone worried, behind him there were tens of thousands of soldiers with flags raised to the sky.

The foreigners stationed in the Wan Guo area, the Western Regions that had rebelled, and even the Indians who had been taking advantage of the situation to rob... there were even more of them than they had imagined. Even if it was a mob, it was still a "crowd". With Sha Hu by their side, the Black Iron Camp could only hold out with heavy armor, and soon the two sides began to fight with purple and gold.

He Ronghui urgently opened the Western Region Camp's purple gold inventory, only to find that the inventory was already stretched to its limit. When Emperor Long'an was investigating the smuggling of purple gold, Gu Yun had no choice but to suspend his secret operations, and the share allocated by the court to the Black Iron Camp was only enough to maintain daily patrols, and it was simply unable to cope with such a sudden large-scale battle.

He Ronghui sent people to allocate the Purple Gold, but the way to allocate the Purple Gold was blocked again - the news that Marquis Anding was imprisoned had spread, and no one could tell the specific circumstances. People were in a panic at this time, and all kinds of rumors were spreading. At this juncture, who would dare to allocate the Purple Gold to the Black Iron Camp without the order?

What if they intend to rebel in the capital?

He Ronghui had no choice but to send Xuanying to Beijing on the one hand, and to seek help from the nearby Northern Frontier City Defense Army on the other hand. However, before the messenger could set off, the eighteen tribes outside the Northern Frontier Pass suddenly launched an attack, and the news that the Wolf King Calais Yinghuo was heading south to personally lead the expedition came down with a "boom".

After five years of stability, the world outside the iron wall has changed dramatically.

Calais Mars brought tens of thousands of elite soldiers, thousands of heavily armored soldiers, and even an unpredictable "eagle" that was larger and more lethal than the Black Eagle. It bit the northern border defense that stretched for thousands of miles and was difficult to get rid of.

The fall of the northwest was unstoppable. Without the order from the commander-in-chief, Marquis Anding, the Black Iron Camp dared not retreat even if the last man died. He Ronghui held on for three days and two nights, but the army was exhausted. This magical army that had been built with the efforts of three generations was about to be destroyed by more than half.

And just at this moment, Chang Geng's messenger finally arrived.

This prince who lived far away in the capital and kept a low profile brought Gu Yun's private seal and imitated Gu Yun's handwriting perfectly.

He gave the messenger two letters in total - if the border was still stable, he would give him the first letter, telling He Ronghui not to worry about the court, and to immediately and secretly replenish the Western Region's purple gold inventory, repair the army's armor, and be ready for a battle at any time, whether through the black market or other means.

In case there was any change on the border, the second letter would be given to He Ronghui, asking him not to defend the city to the death, not to fight to the end, but to quickly withdraw his troops 200 miles to the east to Jiayu Pass and wait for reinforcements.

The enemy hiding in the dark has already taken action. It is undoubtedly too late to act now. Chang Geng does not have the Black Eagle in his hand, and the number of people he can contact with the Wooden Bird of Linyuan Pavilion is too limited. No matter how bad the sky or the earth collapses, it is difficult for the messenger to arrive in time. Therefore, he imagined the worst case scenario and tried his best to make up for the loss.

If something happens in the Western Regions, the Northern Frontier will not be able to remain unaffected. Therefore, General Cai Yin, the commander of the Central Plains garrison, will receive another letter from Chang Geng at the same time as the Xuantie Camp retreats, asking him to send reinforcements to the north and to draw as much purple gold as possible from the heavy reserve to Jiayuguan to resolve the urgent situation.

But Chang Geng knew clearly that if something really happened, this deployment would be far from enough.

He had no control over the Hundred Thousand Mountains in the southwest. Although Shen Yi was there, he was an airborne commander without any foundation. It was impossible for him to mobilize troops without an order. The Jiangnan navy on the East China Sea front was even more worrying, because General Zhao Youfang was Li Feng's man, and it was impossible for him to mobilize troops privately for Gu Yun's side.

Chang Geng had a hunch that even if he could put out the fires elsewhere, there must be a fatal blow hidden in the vast East China Sea.

The bad news from Black Eagle really confirmed his worst assumption. Chang Geng took a deep breath, released the last wooden bird, turned around and said to Huo Dan, who had a few blood bubbles on the corners of his mouth: "Prepare the horses, I want to go to the palace."

At the palace gate, Chang Geng was stopped by Monk Liao Ran. Liao Ran was covered in dust, but his face was calm, as if all the urgency could be melted into his neatly-knit incense scars and dissipated by a Buddhist chant.

"Amitabha, Your Highness the Fourth Prince..."

Chang Geng interrupted him indifferently: "Master, there is no need to say more. I came to the palace to ask for permission, not to force the emperor to abdicate."

Liao Ran's expression changed slightly, and he gestured, "I believe Your Highness has this sense of propriety."

"I am not sensible," the eloquent Fourth Prince tore off his polite face and said bluntly, "Since the Qinling Mountains divide the north and south, the southeast and southwest are not under our control. Even if I can kill Li Feng on the spot, I can't clean up the current chaos. What's more, there is no one who can succeed to the throne. The eldest son is only nine years old, the queen is a useless sickly woman, and Zixi is not legitimate. I..."

He sneered: "I am the son of the Northern Barbarian Demon Girl."

Liaoran looked at him with worry.

"Master, rest assured. I am a poisonous creature. If I had been a little more willful, I would have already started to bring disaster to the country and the people. Haven't I done anything yet?" Chang Geng's expression turned pale again. "Now is not the time to talk about this. The foreign enemies must have been planning for a long time. This matter is not over yet, but they reacted too quickly. I suspect that there are enemies in the palace... and even around Li Feng. Does Linyuan Pavilion have anyone who can be used in the palace?"

Le Ran's expression became serious, and he gestured, "Your Highness, you mean..."

Chang Geng: "This matter is related to an old case from 20 years ago. It must be related to the Northern Barbarians. Investigate the people that the two Northern Barbarian women had contact with in the palace back then - anyone. The Northern Barbarian witches are good at using poisons and have many messy methods. Don't let go of any clues."

When he said "those two northern barbarian women", his voice was calm, as if they had nothing to do with him.

"I should have found it strange earlier," Chang Geng whispered, "Back then, Li Feng let Calais Yinghuo go so easily. There must be something fishy going on behind the scenes. Unfortunately..."

Unfortunately, he was too young at the time, and his heart, as big as his fist, could only hold a little bit of the worries of a young man who had left his hometown.

"If I were born ten years earlier..." Chang Geng suddenly said.

My eyelids twitched.

Chang Geng spoke each word with emphasis: "The world is definitely not this world."

Gu Yun would never let go.

"Zi Xi said that our Haijiao is ten years behind other military branches. I am worried that the East China Sea will not be peaceful. General Zhao is a talent for defending the city, but he may not be able to handle a war," Chang Geng said, "I have written a letter to Master. Linyuan Pavilion has a deep foundation in the Jiangnan area. I would like to trouble Master to help. Please accompany me!"

Monk Liangran frowned rarely. For some reason, Chang Geng's voice of "Zi Xi" made him terrified.

However, the situation was urgent and it was not the time to get entangled with a title. The monk, wearing a coarse linen robe, blended into the morning light in an instant and ran away quickly.

As soon as Chang Geng stepped into the palace, bad news came pouring in. The continuous stream of military intelligence from the front caught Emperor Long An and all the civil and military officials off guard.

The Xuantie Camp retreated from Jiayu Pass.

The Northern Frontier lost seven cities overnight...and didn't even wait for Cai Yin's reinforcements.

As if the rioters in southern Xinjiang had made plans, they colluded with the bandits in Nanyang and blew up the southwest baggage depot without warning...

"Report——"

Everyone in the hall looked towards the door with grim faces, and Li Feng didn't even have time to let Chang Geng greet him.

"Your Majesty, hurry up, there are 100,000 Western naval forces passing through the Japanese islands to invade—"

Li Feng's eyes widened: "Where is Zhao Youfang?"

The messenger banged his head on the ground and choked with sobs: "...General Zhao has died for his country."