Chapter 134: Ancient Instance (IV)

Yun Chu told Yuan Zhen about the Dongshan Village. Talents are extremely important resources at any time, especially at this critical moment when the imperial court is declining and many heroes are vying for supremacy. Therefore, after hearing what Yun Chu said, Yuan Zhen was somewhat tempted. "If Han Xiao is really as capable as Madam said, I am willing to visit him three times in person to recruit him."

Yun Chu said that this man had a cold and strong temper and could not be persuaded. Only a strong person could make him obey. If he wanted to bring him under his command, he had to think of other ways.

Perhaps because they suddenly started to pay attention to Dongshan Village, they suddenly heard news about Dongshan Village frequently. They found out that the various luxury goods that were highly sought after in the city in recent years were actually from Dongzhou. It was said that they were made in Dongshan Village. A living Bodhisattva appeared in Dongshan Village. Yongzhou City, which was almost a dead city due to the plague, was revived because of her medicine. The agricultural tools developed and improved by Dongshan Village won the attention of the court. The court sent people to invite the owner of Dongshan Village and the developer to meet the emperor, promising to be promoted if they surrendered...

People are saying that Dongshan Village is a pure land on earth, a paradise on earth...

Dongshan Village has become so famous. Yun Chu had never seen these things in her dreams, which made her a little flustered. She originally wanted to dress up as a woman and go to Dongshan Village as a lobbyist. After all, she had such a thing in her dream, but the current situation of Dongshan Village is obviously different from the dream. Such a change makes her afraid. She is essentially a weak woman, how can she have the courage to explore it herself?

She thought about it again. These things about Dongshan Village had not appeared in her premonition dream. Perhaps it was because they were not worth mentioning. Now that Dongshan Village had attracted attention from all sides, it must not be a good thing. It might disappear like fireworks in the blink of an eye. Thinking of this, she breathed a sigh of relief. Seeing that Yuan Zhen was still worried and thinking, she comforted him and advised him not to care.

As for Yunzhu, such a long time had passed and Yunchu had long forgotten her.

Dongshan Village became famous and attracted the attention of many forces. There were countless spies coming from all directions, but they were stopped at the huge iron gate and could not see anything inside. But even though they could not see the inside of the village, the visitors were all shocked by the wealth of the village built outside Dongshan Village. It was a paradise on earth!

There were so many people coveting this rich land that the troops from all sides could be dispatched in the name of suppressing bandits. Unfortunately, the soldiers who came basically never returned, either died or were captured or turned against, and all of them contributed to the Dongshan Stronghold. The iron gate blocked not only spies, but also thousands of troops. For a while, all the forces were helpless against it, and it could be said that it was truly self-determined and beyond the law.

There were also many wealthy people who coveted the various technologies of Dongshan Village. Those who thought too highly of themselves tried hard tactics when soft tactics didn't work, but not only did they get nothing good, they were kidnapped and their families were asked to pay ransom, which was considered extra income. Every time, the whole village would have a feast to celebrate, and they were very happy.

Gradually, the population grew larger and larger. With Dongshan Village as the center, a high wall was built several miles away. Thus, this place became a city, and An Cui named it Xiaocheng. The people of Xiaocheng have become quite fierce and bandit-like. Men, women, old and young are all bold and domineering. Compared with the skinny and timid people in other places, the difference is obvious at a glance.

The emergence of Xiaocheng triggered a sense of crisis among all parties. King Zhenbei personally sent troops to suppress the bandits, and Yun Rong went with him to wash away the shame of being captured three years ago. Then, from what he saw and heard on the way, he noticed something was wrong.

"Everyone in Xiaocheng knows the interesting story between the village chief and his wife. Three years ago, before the wife married the village chief, she said that she was born jealous and could not tolerate other women. If he dared to take a concubine, she would break his legs..."

"I once had the honor of meeting that lady. She was truly a beauty, the most beautiful in the world. I have never seen such a dazzling woman in my life. She must have an extraordinary background. No wonder those who tried to use women to seduce the village chief ended up in failure..."

"..."

The more Yun Rong listened to this information, the more he felt something was wrong. A ridiculous guess popped up in his mind. That lady... couldn't it be his sister Yunzhu? No, no, no, how could it be Yunzhu? How capable Yunzhu was, wouldn't he know? It was just that the timing was too coincidental...

They arrived at Dongzhou hesitantly and full of suspicion. In fact, the local officials of Dongzhou had already colluded with Xiaocheng. As soon as they came in, An Cui already knew about it.

"You've come just in time." An Cui smiled as she was inserting small flags on the sand table. "The Yuan family also left half a month ago and joined the competition. The imperial court was defeated and had to move the capital to the city of Qi. We are almost ready. This country is plagued by internal and external troubles, and the people are living in misery. It's time for us to come on stage and put an end to this chaotic situation."

Those who came to the meeting included all the generals that An Cui trusted, including Han Xiao. They must know An Cui's ultimate goal better than most people, otherwise they would not be able to lead their soldiers to provide qualified training.

So on the day the soldiers arrived, An Cui stood on the high city wall, overlooking the soldiers and horses that were surging like a black tide below. Originally their formation was very neat, but unfortunately, when their artillery fire began to attack fiercely, their army was defeated.

"boom--"

"Bang--"

Blood and flesh flew everywhere, and they had no power to fight back. They retreated as soon as they arrived.

Yun Rong followed the retreating team and fled. When he turned around, he saw a person on the city wall wearing a gorgeous palace dress, with red and gold sleeves fluttering and long black hair dancing in the wind. She looked down at them coldly, as if she was looking down at an ant...

His pupils shrank into pinholes, disbelief surged in his heart, and he almost fell off his horse.

After returning to the camp, he immediately ran to find King Zhenbei.

"What? You said that the wife of the mayor of Xiaocheng might be your sister Yunzhu?"

"That's right, there is no mistake. Yunzhu is my biological sister and looks very much like our mother. I definitely won't be wrong!" Yun Rong said firmly.

King Zhenbei laughed loudly, "Great! God is really helping me! I originally thought it was impossible to chew this hard bone, but I never thought that the city lord's wife was Yunzhu..."

"Brother Wu Ling, don't be too happy too soon. Yun Zhu knew that you were the one we wanted to rely on, but she was merciless today. I'm afraid she has already hated us." Yun Rong sighed. It's only natural to think that a noble lady from a noble family was forced to marry a bandit leader, but they didn't send anyone to rescue her. In order to preserve the reputation of the Yun family, they just thought she was dead. No wonder she hated us.

Even so, the incredible force and weapons displayed by Xiaocheng made them salivate, so they decided to send a message to An Cui, asking her to meet with Yun Rong, saying some nice words to coax her, and let Xiaocheng submit to King Zhenbei so that she could help them.

The letter was given to the soldier guarding the city gate, and then passed up the chain of command until it finally came to An Cui.

An Cui looked at the earnest words and sneered in her heart. If it were the original Yunzhu, she might still have a little attachment to their family affection, but unfortunately, according to the original book, the original Yunzhu's life had ended two years ago. After waiting for a long time without being rescued by her family, Yunzhu, who found herself abandoned, finally chose to commit suicide.

She replied and agreed to meet Yun Rong.

Not long after, Yun Rong quietly came to Xiao City. Someone met him at the city gate and quietly took him into the City Lord's Mansion. Yun Rong did not notice anything wrong. He just thought that An Cui was just a woman after all. It would be inappropriate if she was discovered by Han Xiao. He did not believe that they were a group of bandits and had any kind of righteousness.

As a result, just as he was led into the City Lord's Mansion and turned a corner, the guide suddenly disappeared. He was shocked and at a loss what to do, when suddenly a shrill sound of gongs and drums rang out all around, and soon even a bell rang. The sound was so loud that it woke up the entire Xiaocheng people from their sleep and they rushed out of their homes with weapons in hand.

Yun Rong was caught by the guards who rushed out. He was horrified. Seeing An Cui and Han Xiao coming over, they were familiar faces, but they felt so strange.

On such a lively night, Yun Rong was pressed to the bulletin board in front of the City Lord's Mansion, feeling the hostile gazes of the crowd below. An Cui stood aside and said, "After driving away one group, another group comes. It's endless. We just want to live a peaceful life and never compete with them for anything. But we didn't expect that we would be guilty of possessing a treasure and be condemned by the world!"

The hostility in people's eyes has turned into hatred. They all clenched their weapons and gnashed their teeth in hatred.

Yun Rong originally didn't understand why An Cui did this, but at this moment, he suddenly understood that she didn't just want revenge on him, she wanted...

"In that case, why don't we fight for this world and see who will rule it!"

That night, Xiaocheng was "forced" to join the battle.

Yun Rong was thrown into jail and realized that he was just being used.

He, the King of Zhenbei, and all the troops that came to suppress the bandits before, all became the legitimate reasons for Xiaocheng to fight for the world. Originally, people had a hard time because of the nobles' struggle for power and profit. No matter which force they were against, no matter what reasons they offered, the people actually felt disgusted and had no good feelings towards them. But they were like ants, no matter how disgusted they were, they could not do anything, they could only accept everything silently, no one supported or opposed it.

Now, people all over the world will think that Xiaocheng was forced to rise up in rebellion because they had no other choice. Coupled with the good reputation of Xiaocheng in recent years, I am afraid that many ordinary people will empathize with them and even think that they are the best destination and more trustworthy than any other force.

No one knows what kind of impact these seemingly tiny ants, who themselves do not even realize how powerful they are, will have on the battle situation.

After being imprisoned, Yun Rong realized that the person who really controlled Xiaocheng was the wife of the city lord, not the city lord. And the wife of the city lord was indeed named Yunzhu. In an instant, he regretted that he had abandoned Yunzhu and fled alone, and that he had underestimated this sister.

...

Nowadays, apart from Xiaocheng, there are four forces that want to fight for the world. Unlike Xiaocheng, they are all royal relatives and nobles. They rebel under various high-sounding banners. The real imperial court has moved its capital again and again in three years, and has been defeated step by step. It is only a matter of time before it collapses and a new dynasty is completely replaced.

They were greatly surprised by Xiao Cheng's joining, but they did not take it seriously. After all, compared with them who had been accumulating strength for many years, Xiao Cheng did not have the ability to compete with them.

However, Xiaocheng unexpectedly captured two cities in just three days without any soldiers, namely Dongzhou and Yongzhou. The officials of Dongzhou had long been in collusion with Xiaocheng, and had opened their gates to welcome them. Yongzhou was originally an abandoned city due to the plague. If it were not for the help from Xiaocheng, the people inside would have died long ago, so the people of Yongzhou opened the city gates to welcome them in, and they looked so happy, as if they had been waiting for this day for an unknown period of time.

This was just the beginning. After that, the Xiaocheng army was unstoppable. Often, the guards of the cities they wanted to attack had to be attacked from both inside and outside. The people inside were the ones who seemed to be the prey. They were like being bewitched and believed that only by being ruled by An Cui and others could they have a future. They were transformed from fish into knives, so An Cui and others often did not need to put in much effort to take down these cities.

Soon, Xiaocheng captured several surrounding cities one after another, and its power was close to that of the other four major forces, forcing them to finally take this opponent seriously.

Yun Chu was extremely panicked about this, because she recently received a message from the King of Zhenbei, who had retreated to Zhenbei, to all members of the Yun family, that the wife of the City Lord of Xiaocheng was Yun Zhu, and Yun Rong was now in their hands, and his life or death was uncertain.

How could this happen? Yunzhu didn't die, but became Han Xiao's wife? In the dream, Han Xiao was not interested in women, and no matter how she seduced him, he never even glanced at her. Why didn't this happen in the dream? She wanted to find the old woman to ask her, but how could she find her? She could only desperately hold on to the jade pendant, hoping to dream about something else.

Unfortunately, what she dreamed about was still the difference in fate between her and Yunzhu. She was the one who was supposed to enter the bandit den and become the second-in-command's wife, while Yunzhu was the one who was supposed to become Yuanzhen's wife...

Because of this, it gradually became difficult for her to come up with any new strategies that would impress everyone, and she had no idea where to start in the changing war situation. Yuan Zhen was a little disappointed and asked her to take care of the family and she didn't need to worry about these things anymore.

Yunzhu heaved a sigh of relief, thinking that she had done nothing. What did it matter whether Yuan Zhen liked her or not? Anyway, as long as she was his principal wife, she would naturally be the empress when he became emperor.

...

Now, the former bandits and refugees have become vassal states. Due to the reform of agricultural tools and planting technology, the soldiers and food are sufficient, and the lives of the people in the cities under their control have also changed immediately. With the support of Xiaocheng, there is finally a glimmer of hope. When the news spread, the people in other states were ready to make a move, and the lords suppressed them strongly, resulting in a vicious cycle.

There were also other people who used this incident to deal with Xiaocheng. They pretended to be refugees and tried to sneak into Xiaocheng. Unfortunately, An Cui was prepared. Isn't it easy to identify whether they were refugees or not?

The refugees all had worn feet, were skinny and had tired eyes. No matter how hard the spies tried to pretend, they could not look like real refugees, so they were caught when they were checked into the city.

Xiaocheng, as the center, is like an iron barrel. It is a pipe dream for spies to get in.

However, the news from Xiaocheng continued to leak out. They suffered their first defeat today. Although the losses were not great, there was no doubt that there was a traitor.

During the meeting, when An Cui said this, all the generals in the hall glared at each other angrily.

An Cui and Han Xiao sat together in the main seat, looking at the people below. Some looked angry, some looked thoughtful, and some had flickering eyes.

An Cui's eyes fell on Zhang Lei, the former second-in-command of the village and now the right general. "General Zhang, do you have anything to say?"

Zhang Lei said righteously, "Selling out your brothers is an unforgivable crime, and you should be executed!"

"That's right!"

"Now that I know who he is, I'll skin him alive!"

An Cui looked at the people below, took out a jade pendant from the box on the table, and said, "We found a token of the traitor from the prisoners of war. Does anyone recognize it?"

Qin Shixuan looked at the jade pendant and his expression suddenly changed.

Zhang Lei was shocked and said, "This, this jade pendant! Third brother!" He looked at Qin Shixuan, heartbroken, "I know you have always been dissatisfied with Madam, but how could you be so foolish to do such a thing? It is simply unkind and unjust!"

Qin Shixuan stood up at once, looking at An Cui and Han Xiao with a pale face, "This jade pendant was lost many days ago, and I don't know how it fell into the hands of the prisoners. Although I have always been dissatisfied with Madam, I will never joke with the lives of my brothers. Please understand!"

No one spoke in the lobby for a moment, and everyone looked at An Cui.

Everyone knows that Qin Shixuan is dissatisfied with An Cui. He has always felt that An Cui is using Han Xiao, and this seems to be confirmed when they start to conquer the world. Han Xiao has always listened to An Cui. He fights wherever she tells him to fight. He is busy training soldiers when he has nothing to do. He knows nothing about many affairs in the city. She controls everything in the city and has gained prestige and fame. If you want to say who has more power, it is undoubtedly An Cui.

But compared to the dissatisfied people, there are more people who are conquered. Han Xiao himself doesn't mind. They and their relatives have lived such a good life because of her, and he has also gained power and status. Why should he care about this? Therefore, only Qin Shixuan is resentful, and he may really betray her because of this.

"If you can't prove your innocence, how can people believe you? Keep him in custody." An Cui said, looking very angry.

Qin Shixuan kept shouting that he was wronged, looking at Han Xiao hoping that he would say something, but Han Xiao just drank his wine sullenly without saying a word, which disappointed him very much. He felt that he was already poisoned to the bone marrow, and there was no cure. After all, a girl from an aristocratic family married a man who came from a peasant family. Although she seemed to not mind at all on the surface, maybe this was a thorn in her heart, and she would pull it out sooner or later.

After Qin Shixuan was taken away, everyone else also left. Zhang Lei and the others shook their heads and sighed, wondering how Qin Shixuan could do such a thing. When he returned home, his face changed and he immediately rushed to the study and took out a letter from a secret compartment hidden underground. He wanted to destroy it, but the door was suddenly kicked open. He turned around in shock and saw the captain of An Cui's personal guard.

Qin Shixuan was released from prison not long after being imprisoned. He then found out that the real traitor was Zhang Lei, and that he was framed by Zhang Lei in order to prevent him from being discovered.

Unfortunately, this defeat was actually deliberately planned by An Cui, with the purpose of testing whether Zhang Lei would betray her. As a result, he really betrayed her, so she had to eliminate him as soon as possible. After all, knowing that someone was going to betray her, keeping him would only cause trouble for herself. In the subsequent battle, she could not afford to fail even once.

Many people were shocked because Zhang Lei behaved normally and did not seem to be dissatisfied with An Cui.

Faced with irrefutable evidence, Zhang Lei had no way to defend himself, so he simply revealed his true colors and looked at Han Xiao with resentful eyes, "If it weren't for you, I would be the one who married her, and everything today would be mine!"

Everyone understood and remembered that Zhang Lei was the first person to say he wanted to marry An Cui.

Han Xiao, who had always been relatively taciturn, finally put down his wine glass and stood up when he heard this.

He walked up to Zhang Lei and said, "From the moment you had this idea, you and I are no longer brothers."

He personally killed Zhang Lei and cut off his head.

Although it was a false alarm, Qin Shixuan knew that Han Xiao was indeed deeply poisoned when he saw this scene. He was willing to abandon his former brother for An Cui. Afterwards, he could not help but give another piece of advice, "If you really like her, why not take the power from her? This way you can keep her by your side for a long time. Otherwise, how can you stay with such an ambitious woman like her?"

"If you are a brother, please stop saying such things."

"I'm thinking about you..."

"I know her better than you do. Just wait and see. Nothing you worry about will happen." Han Xiao said firmly.

Qin Shixuan looked at his back and thought, do you really understand her? Are you really that sure? Your knife doesn't say that.

...

As the emperor of the city of Yi suddenly died of a serious illness, the war that had been brewing for many years completely entered a white-hot stage. The two forces in the north united to attack An Cui, but were beaten back step by step. They had no power to fight back in the face of powerful bombs and improved crossbows, not to mention that Han Xiao was a natural general. Marching and fighting was as simple as eating and drinking for him, and his name as a god general was known throughout the world.

It took a year for An Cui to completely take over the northwest, and the winner in the southeast was the Yuan family. These two forces each had their own supporters and established their own regimes. The final winner will also be decided from these two forces.

At this time, it is the most stressful time and makes people unable to sleep at night.

The Yuan family was able to take over half of the territory because An Cui and his forces were in the north. In fact, if they fought against them, whether they could win would be a big question.

The equipment on An Cui's side was really too much, it was completely cheating, no one knew how it was made, their craftsmen had been researching for years but still couldn't figure it out. The difference between the soldiers was also quite large, An Cui's side had plenty of food, and the soldiers were all very strong, because they were full of yearning for life, their eyes were bright, and they were very motivated, plus that bandit spirit, their momentum was very overwhelming.

Although Yuan Zhen had never seen it with her own eyes, she could already imagine what they looked like from the letters she received. Yun Chu had been cheering him up and comforting him, saying that he would be able to do it. In fact, she was also very panicked. She was terrified that An Cui would really win. She now finally knew the difference between reality and dreams. She even suspected that the things in her dreams were actually fake and that she was obsessed with it and imagined them.

For this reason, she even threw away the jade pendant, but she didn't expect that the jade pendant fell into the flowers and was picked up by Yuan Zhen's personal servant. Because Yun Chu often played with this cheap jade pendant and treated it like a treasure, many people had an impression of this jade pendant. The servant thought that the lady had dropped it accidentally, so he picked it up and gave it to Yuan Zhen, who put it in his arms and prepared to return it to the lady later.

Not wanting to feel tired at noon, he had a dream while resting in his study room.