Lord Xu used to be like everyone else. Before he came here, he had an irrational trust in Marquis Anding who represented the Black Iron Camp. It seemed that as long as Gu Yun was there, he would go there to try his luck, and he would be there to support him if the sky fell... Of course, this trust was shattered now.

Deputy Inspector Xu's face turned pale, but he still held on to the last glimmer of hope and asked, "Marshal... could it be that you intentionally crossed the river this time?"

"How is that possible?" Gu Yun looked at him in confusion. "Alas, I've already told Lord Feng Han that this thing is definitely not reliable. The Black Eagle can fly fast because it can rely on human control in the sky. He made such a big thing. It's fine if it's calm, but it has to rest when it encounters a little wind and rain. Isn't going to the battlefield just delivering food to others? Look, it really rested."

Ge Chen vomited violently, tears streaming down his face as he said, "Your subordinate...I will tell Lord Fenghan when I get back."

Xu Ling's heart was about to burst. He couldn't be as optimistic as Ge Lingshu. He felt that he might never be able to go back.

Fortunately, there was someone who could speak human language. Chang Geng turned around and said to Deputy Envoy Xu with a smile, "Don't listen to him. He is just trying to scare you. This place is flat and there are no garrison tents anywhere in sight. This means the enemy's vanguard is not nearby at all. There is a thunderstorm tonight, and the explosions and thunder are mixed together. He has already calculated that it will not attract a large number of enemy troops. At most, the alert patrol soldiers will come to take a look."

Gu Yun had a wicked smile on his face.

Xu Ling looked at Prince Yan with tears in his eyes. Apart from anything else, he was in awe of Prince Yan's courage and open-mindedness. He said sincerely, "Your Majesty is wise."

"What do you mean by wise?" Chang Geng waved his hand. "I have been fooled by him all the time since I was a child. I have gained experience."

Xu Ling: “…”

For some reason, he felt that there was a strange intimacy in the few words King Yan said about Gu Yun.

It was not a pleasant experience to be ambushed in the wasteland on a rainy night. Fortunately, the Western patrol soldiers came quickly. After a while, someone came over, cursing and speaking in a foreign language. The sound of horse hooves could be heard from the ground. Gu Yun, who was smiling playfully just now, suddenly frowned and whispered, "Strange."

Xu Ling was afraid of his surprise, so he asked hurriedly, "Gu Shuai, what's so strange?"

"There are... three, four, five people... why are there only so few?" King Yan said in a low voice, "Isn't the patrol of the Westerners too frivolous?"

"I don't know," Gu Yun shook his head, "Get rid of it first - is there anyone who can speak their gibberish foreign language?"

As soon as he finished speaking, everyone's eyes were focused on King Yan. Chang Geng and the twenty or so guards who looked hungry looked at each other for a moment: "Why are you all looking at me?"

Ge Chen was shocked and said, "Your Majesty can't even speak the foreign language?"

Chang Geng was puzzled: "...I can speak a few Suzhou slangs, but when will I learn foreign languages?"

It turned out that over the past year or so, people either thought he was unpredictable, or that he was scheming, or simply that he was a capable person. They always thought that no matter what they encountered, he should have a way and should know a little bit about everything.

At this moment, Deputy Envoy Xu on the side suddenly said: "This humble official actually knows a little bit."

The eyes that were just staring at King Yan shifted collectively - including King Yan's own.

Xu Ling coughed dryly, but he didn't show his fear. He said, "To be honest with you, Your Highness, when you and General Gu were guarding the gates of the capital, all the officials followed the emperor to the gates, and I was one of them. I felt that scholars were useless, and I was powerless to fight the enemy without mastering the six arts. So I decided to learn the foreign language. If I can't wear armor in the future, if I can follow the generals and run errands and learn the language, it will be worth my life in this world."

The last sentence was almost sonorous. In fact, among this group of people, except Deputy Envoy Xu, the others were either veterans or Black Crows. Some were cunning and crafty, some were very fast, and they could play with their lives as well as kill people. They experienced one thrilling danger after another along the way. If it were anyone else, they would have collapsed long ago. But it was difficult for Lord Xu, a weak scholar, who had a heart to serve the people, to grit his teeth and carry on all the way.

The sky was dark and windy, and there was a scholar between heaven and earth.

Even Gu Yun rubbed his chin, feeling embarrassed to tease him anymore.

"I'll have to trouble Master Xu later," Gu Yun's playful eyes darkened, with a cold iron light in them, "Here I come!"

As he spoke, a team of lightly armored Western patrolmen approached. One man stepped out from the crowd, walked around the fire and wreckage that had not been put out by the rain for a long time, and muttered something.

Xu Ling whispered, "He said, 'It's raining so hard, there shouldn't be a fire for no reason. There are no outsiders in this area. What happened?'"

What does "No outsiders in this area" mean?

Just as Gu Yun turned his head, another foreign soldier picked up a piece of burnt debris from the ground, turned it over for a moment, and suddenly jumped three feet high, howling and saying something again.

Xu Ling said hurriedly: "He said, 'There is a Daliang military factory logo on it, and a Daliang spy has sneaked in' - General Gu, they are getting nervous. Have we been discovered?"

Wood can be burnt, but stone and iron cannot. I guess it is the mark of Lingshuyuan that makes it recognizable.

Xu Ling: "General Gu, I'm afraid these barbarians will show us a warning..."

Gu Yun placed one hand on the wind-cutting blade at his waist and tilted his head to look at Chang Geng. Chang Geng calmly took out a telescope that could be clipped on the bridge of his nose. He gently wiped the water droplets on the lens with his fingers and slightly plucked the bowstring, as if he was listening carefully to confirm whether it was damp. Then, under Xu Ling's dumbfounded gaze, he slowly pulled the bowstring.

Gu Yun waved his hand, and more than twenty guards from the Black Iron Camp quickly passed through the weeds.

I saw a Western patrol soldier untied a horn-shaped trumpet from his waist, took a deep breath, and was about to put it to his mouth to sound the alarm, when an iron arrow suddenly broke through the air and pierced his left ear exactly, shooting the man's head into a red and white rotten watermelon on the spot.

The brain matter sprayed all over his accomplice. The next moment, several black shadows suddenly rose up and pounced in front of the Western soldiers who had no time to react. The wind-cutting blades made a series of tiny sounds in the air, like cutting melons and vegetables. In a blink of an eye, several heads fell to the ground. The remaining one had no time to dismount. He raised his hands tremblingly and looked at the killer who suddenly emerged from the weeds in horror.

Only then did Xu Ling let out a breath and woodenly finished his words: "...Call in accomplices."

Gu Yun patted his shoulder and replied sincerely: "We can't recruit him now - strip him naked, tie him up and take him away. We can't stay here for long, leave first!"

Upon hearing this, the two Xuantie guards grabbed the Western soldier in a very rude manner, removed his armor and searched his body like peeling garlic skins, stripped him clean, then tied up the Western soldier, who looked like a half-cooked boiled chicken, like a ball of pork waiting to be slaughtered, stuffed his mouth, and took him away.

"I see there's a small village over there, let's borrow the place to hold the trial." Chang Geng said as he walked. "Generally, in places like this near the river, those who can escape during a war will have all fled, and I'm afraid only the elderly, the weak, the sick and the disabled will be left at home. Nine out of ten households are empty. When we meet people later, we can also ask the locals about the situation in the occupied areas. But we have to ask Lord Xu to go first. The brothers in the Black Iron Camp are always murderous even when they don't speak or move. Don't let them scare the people."

Xu Ling said hurriedly: "Yes, I obey your command."

As he spoke, he secretly glanced at Chang Geng. King Yan had been soaked by the rain. A strand of hair fell from his temple, dripping with water. He was clearly walking in the muddy pond in the deserted wilderness, one step deep and one step shallow. The expression on his face seemed to remain unchanged, and he had on his back the bowstring that could shake the world as soon as it was pulled.

Chang Geng accidentally raised his head and met Xu Ling's gaze, so he asked in a friendly manner, "What does Lord Xu want to tell me?"

Xu Ling's face changed several times, but he finally swallowed the words that were about to come out of his mouth and just shook his head politely.

The group walked into the small village and found that it was as quiet as a ghost village. There was no sound except for the sound of wind and rain and their footsteps. The shabby wooden doors were half-open, and the weeds in the yard were half as high as the wall. Broken tiles and dilapidated roofs were everywhere. A child's bean green bellyband was hanging at the door of a family. Mud and soup were dripping on it and it had become a rag.

The most spacious place in the village is the ancestral hall. The courtyard can be seen from afar and can be used by outsiders to stay.

Ge Chen took out a stick the size of a small fire starter from his arms, and after unscrewing the lid, a faint light shone out from inside. The bricks and tiles on the roof of the ancestral hall were no longer intact. It was raining heavily outside and drizzling inside. The tables, chairs and benches in the house were all overturned and broken. Only a few rags left in the corner, printed with plain colors of the Jiangnan region, still vaguely embodied the prosperity of the old autumn osmanthus.

Xu Ling looked around the ancestral hall and asked, "It seems that no one is here, General Gu, have all the locals run away?"

Gu Yun also frowned slightly, called a few guards to search around, and bent down to pick up the printed cloth in the corner.

"The last time I went to Jiangnan, it was spring and flowers were in full bloom." Gu Yun said, "The flowers were in full bloom, the breeze was warm, and even the rebels were not in a hurry. They used merchant ships filled with Xiang Ning to secretly transport the purple gold..."

Before he finished speaking, a personal soldier rushed in quickly: "Marshal, please take a look, behind the ancestral hall... in the backyard there is..."

Gu Yun raised his eyebrows: "What is it?"

The soldier's expression flickered for a moment, avoiding Gu Yun's gaze, and said with difficulty: "...Villagers."

The small village in the south of the Yangtze River is winding and graceful. There is a small river in the village. The houses on both sides are located along the stream, which flows in both directions. But now it is all dilapidated. The four stone tablets with the words "loyalty, filial piety, chastity and righteousness" in front of the ancestral hall are half broken, and the rotten stones have rolled into the weeds. Xu Ling kicked something with his feet, and when he looked down, he almost jumped up - it was a dead body.

Xu Ling: "This...this..."

As he was speaking, King Yan had already taken the lead and entered the backyard of the ancestral hall - he saw that the tablets of the real ancestors were scattered all over the courtyard, the collapsed relics of gods and Buddhas were dilapidated and covered with dust, and on the black stone slabs, countless corpses with their heads and bodies separated were neatly arranged, men, women, old and young, all of them, and the black eye sockets of the bones were covered with spider webs.

Xu Ling gasped and unconsciously grabbed the door frame.

"This place is well connected," Chang Geng said in a low voice after a long silence. "There are seas and canals in the north and south, and official roads in the east and west that lead to all corners of the world. There used to be a constant flow of people coming and going. There are also many plains here. If the foreign races forcibly occupy it for a long time, it will definitely be difficult to sustain. It will be easy for our people to sneak in. I think they... will have to do a thorough cleanup."

Xu Ling asked blankly, "What do you mean by thorough?"

"Send out the heavily armored troops to massacre the whole village," Chang Geng whispered. "Draw a circle, drive the people in the circle together, clean them out, and don't let anyone in. Then just send people to guard the entrances and exits of the major official roads. This way, there won't be another incident like the thousands of Black Iron Camp pretending to be traveling merchants and sneaking into the southwest. Now I finally understand why there were only a few soldiers on patrol just now."

"…Because this place is basically an uninhabited area." Chang Geng suddenly attacked while speaking, kicking the Western prisoner in the stomach. The prisoner's intestines were almost kicked out by his angry kick. He couldn't even scream, and could only groan on the ground like a pig being slaughtered.

Gu Yun took the object from Ge Chen's hand and illuminated a soaked piece of wood, on which there was a line of words carved by fingernails -

A soldier asked, "Marshal, what is that?"

Gu Yun's throat moved slightly: "... the tears of the survivors are all in the dust of the barbarians... the word "li" is only half."

There was a skeleton under the big wooden pillar. It had rotted into a pile, with white bones all over it, which was extremely horrifying. Only an index finger, which had been eaten clean by insects and ants, was still pointing at the writing relentlessly.

It seemed to be asking silently: "Where are the king's generals and cavalry in this land of plenty?"

After a whole night of being wet in the rain, it was only at this moment that the cold finally seeped into his bones.

The four words "the fall of Jiangnan" came through the paper with unprecedented force, and the whole ancestral hall was dead silent for a moment.

After an unknown amount of time, Chang Geng gently pushed Gu Yun and said, "Don't look, Zixi. The night is long and dreams are many. Let's leave here first and meet up with Elder Zhong."

Gu Yun's fingertips were tense, and he straightened up when he heard the sound. Somehow, his vision went dark, and he staggered half a step before he stood firm. Chang Geng was startled and held his elbow: "What's wrong?"

Gu Yun felt a tightness in his chest, and a feeling of physical weakness that he had not felt for many years arose spontaneously. For a moment, he was dazed and had an indescribable feeling of weakness - since he was injured at Xiguan, no matter whether he quit drinking or reduced the amount of medication, he could not stop his health from deteriorating, as if all the debts he owed in the past had come to him all at once.

Now, facing the questioning of a skeleton, he was speechless, and even felt a little uneasy and weak in his heart. Gu Yun thought: "When can I take Jiangnan back? Will I... make it in time?"

However, the doubts and worries in Gu Yun's heart only lasted for a moment, and he suppressed them forcefully as soon as he turned around - at least to outsiders, he had returned to normal.

"It's okay." Gu Yun glanced at Chang Geng, pulled his elbow out of Chang Geng's palm, and said to Xu Ling as if nothing had happened, "Master Xu, ask that white-haired monkey where his lair is, how many people there are, how many armors there are, and where the steel armor is hidden. If he doesn't tell me after asking once, I will cut off one of his fingers and roast it for him as a snack."

It was said that many Western soldiers were bought with money and did not have the courage to fight to the death. Gu Yun did not even have time to use his many tricks to scare him. As soon as his personal guards showed their cutting wind blades, he confessed everything.

Just as Chang Geng said, a large area of ​​plains along the river was cleared by them and turned into an uninhabited area. Only one sentry was left to guard each area. Each sentry post had only a dozen people, most of whom were cavalry.

"Part of the army will serve as the vanguard to confront General Zhong and his men, and part of them..." Xu Ling pursed his lips with difficulty and translated, "... plundering everywhere, forcing the captives to work as miners and slaves for them, and transporting the looted goods back to their countries to silence those who want to dethrone the Pope."

At this time, the sudden rain had stopped, and the thick clouds had cleared, revealing a little thin moonlight. Looking into the distance, everything was filled with smoke, and the grand scene of farmers busy in the fields and drinking tea and discussing national affairs would never appear again.

Xu Ling whispered, "I thought the refugees in Jiangbei were already suffering greatly, but they still have a thatched hut to shelter from the rain, and they can get two bowls of porridge every day..."

Chang Geng: "There is no point in talking any more. Let's go and let that foreign dog lead the way to their sentry post."

Two guards from the Black Iron Camp immediately responded and carried the Western soldier.

"Your Highness Prince Yan!" Xu Ling took a few quick steps and called out to Chang Geng, "When can I fight the Western dogs?"

Chang Geng kept walking and answered without turning his head, "If we can successfully settle the refugees in Jiangbei, and God will spare us a natural disaster, and we can recuperate for a year or two, and wait until the Eighteen Divisions run out of ammunition and food, and reopen the Purple Gold Passage in the Northern Frontier, I don't believe we can't do anything to these Western dogs!"

But now the court is in chaos and every step is difficult. Millions of refugees are still displaced. How can we talk about recuperation and unity against foreign enemies?

Xu Ling took a deep breath, his eyes were red, and he caught up with Prince Yan and whispered in his ear: "Your Highness, do you know that you have made too many reforms in the court before, and some people have regarded you as a thorn in their eyes... Let's not talk about anything else, but this time when we go south to investigate the case, if Yang Ronggui really embezzles and conceals the truth, he must have heard about it in the past few days. If he wants to burn his boats, he can just replace all the gold and silver in the palace with beacon tickets, and say that Your Highness has used all means to force the implementation of beacon tickets, and has given local officials all kinds of unachievable targets. They have no choice but to embezzle and pervert the law. The Inspectorate and the Censorate will definitely hear about it and attack them together - what will you do then?"

Chang Geng smiled faintly: "If there is really someone who can take over this chaos, recover Jiangnan, and stabilize the four directions, what's the big deal if I pack my bags and leave? Lord Xu, what I did was not for myself, nor for those people to say good things about me - whoever wants to report it can report it, I ask myself if I have done it right by heaven and conscience, whether I sleep in the military office in the middle of the night or in the prison, as long as my ancestors don't come out and slap me in the face, otherwise..."

He stopped talking, and a bitter smile with a hint of sarcasm flashed across his young and handsome face. Xu Ling seemed to see the indignation and helplessness lingering around King Yan, and his heart was shaken, and his face was burning with pain.

The Censorate had been publicly slapped in the face by Prince Yan more than once, and they had long been eager to find some evidence to hold Prince Yan's party accountable.

The Inspectorate was a gathering place for the "clean stream" in the court - they were all like Xu Ling, who were unwilling to curry favor with the powerful, nor to be involved in corruption with businessmen. They claimed to be loyal only to the emperor, and regarded what Prince Yan did as a poison to quench thirst. In addition, with rumors spreading, they always felt that Prince Yan was a cunning and treacherous person who played the emperor in the palm of his hand.

Xu Ling followed the King of Yan to the south this time. On the one hand, he investigated corrupt officials. More importantly, taking advantage of the fact that the noble families and the new nobles were fighting each other, the two courts had planned to join forces to impeach the King of Yan, the instigator. Xu Ling's purpose of coming here was not simple. That is, Emperor Long'an was worried about the King of Yan Li Min, and the two courts wanted to find evidence of the King of Yan's rebellious heart.

Some people have worked hard to make the south and north of the Yangtze River devastated, even if the means were somewhat drastic - but they are waiting in the court to find fault with others. Who is actually bringing disaster to the country and the people?

Xu Ling couldn't help but choke up a little: "Your Majesty..."

Chang Geng raised his eyebrows slightly and asked in confusion: "What's wrong with Master Xu?"

Xu Ling was speechless for a moment.

Gu Yun led the way in front without saying a word. The scholar Xu Ling thought he was whispering quietly, but in fact, with Gu Shuai's hearing ability when he was not deaf, he could have heard every word in the downwind direction.

He caught a glimpse of his personal soldier who was extremely angry after hearing what he heard, and then glanced at Ge Chen who had a flickering look on his face. He roughly knew where this "accident" of mistakenly entering the enemy camp came from.