Before a wooden bird could fly into the commander's tent, it was caught by a personal guard. He fiddled with the little thing in his hand several times, but he couldn't make anything out of it. Just as he was about to bring it to the military's spiritual center to take a look at it, someone beside him suddenly whispered, "Give it to me."
The personal guard looked up and saw Shen Yi walking in from outside. He hurriedly offered the wooden bird to him with both hands.
Shen Yi took it and stroked the dumb bird's head. The personal guard was stunned and thought he heard General Shen sigh.
The wooden bird was attracted by the magnet left behind by General Zhong Chan. Shen Yi gently held it and walked into the tent. The light in the tent was dim, and several military doctors quietly went in and out. A choking smell of medicine assailed their nostrils, mixed with the smell of blood that couldn't be washed away.
Yao Zhen was standing at the side. He turned to look at Shen Yi with a grave expression.
In order to stall for time, the main ship Gu Yun was on was hit by the enemy. The main ship disintegrated on the spot, and the golden box exploded on the surface of the water. Fortunately, although Gu Yun was deaf and blind, he reacted quickly. When he felt that something was wrong, he immediately ordered people to abandon the ship and jump into the sea.
Because he jumped in time, when the eagle armor fished him out of the water, he wasn't cooked yet.
The Western Army's ocean supply line was cut off, and the upper reaches of the inland river were controlled by Gu Yun's troops in the southwest. Both supply lines were cut off, and they had no choice but to retreat to Dongying's waters.
If the commander wasn't seriously injured, this battle would definitely be a perfect victory that would go down in history.
This time, Gu Yun had prepared a battle report, a letter from home, and other props in advance. He hid it from outsiders and insiders. Even in the two river barracks, the news was suppressed. Other than a few high-ranking generals, personal guards, military doctors, and the eagles who fished him back, no one else knew.
One could imagine how much pressure Shen Yi and Yao Zhen were under this time.
Shen Yi asked, "How is he?"
"You came at the right time. He's awake," Yao Zhen whispered, "Commander Gu really had the foresight to transfer you here. Brother Jiping, if you weren't here, I probably would have thought that the sky was falling."
Shen Yi smiled bitterly, "How could that be? The first time, the second time, the second time, the second time … You rest first, I'll say a few words to him."
Yao Zhen nodded. He waved his hand and led the military doctors away. Shen Yi walked over quietly and lifted Gu Yun's hand that was hanging weakly by the bed.
As soon as the bed curtain was put down, people came in and out of the commander's tent. Gu Yun didn't notice at all. It wasn't until this moment that he felt the thick calluses from the wind blade on the claw in his hand that he knew the person who came was Shen Yi.
Gu Yun's bones and flesh weren't in good condition. His body was clamped with steel plates, and his entire body was fixed so he couldn't turn his head. He fainted for a while and was woken up by the pain. When he opened his eyes, the cold sweat on his forehead began to drip down. Even if he opened his eyes, he couldn't focus. The military doctor said that it was easy for people to damage their ears and eyes in a huge earthquake. He had made things worse for himself more than once. Now, his eyes could only see a little light. Not to mention a glass mirror, even a clairvoyant probably wouldn't be of any help.
"I don't know if I can recover." Gu Yun thought silently, "Will I really not be able to see in the future?"
Shen Yi looked at Gu Yun's blank gaze and felt a lump in his throat. He wrote on Gu Yun's palm, "There's a letter from Linyuan Pavilion."
Gu Yun blinked.
Shen Yi opened the wooden bird and prepared to write to him. Who knew that when he glanced at the contents of the note, his face would tense up.
Gu Yun waited for a long time and didn't hear him say anything. He tapped the back of Shen Yi's hand with his finger in confusion.
Shen Yi was a good-tempered person. Other than when he was fighting with Gu Yun, he would roar a few words that were half true and half false. He rarely got angry. At this time, he was sitting on the edge of the bed. The hand that was holding the wooden bird suddenly trembled. His chest violently rose and fell a few times. With a click, the wooden bird's head was broken off by him.
"What is this?" He thought, "What is this?! Who are we risking our lives for? Who are we working hard for? Is there any f * cking meaning to this? "
Gu Yun's heart tightened. He was afraid that there would be more problems. He didn't have time to think about his blindness and forced himself to open his mouth, "Why … cough …"
There was a wound on his throat caused by shrapnel that almost injured his meridians. It almost overlapped with the old scar from before. Although it wasn't enough to turn him into a Liao Ran, it was very strenuous for him to speak like a broken bellow.
The broken bellow asked, "Does the imperial court still insist on the peace negotiations?"
Shen Yi's eyes were bloodshot. He wrote on Gu Yun's hand, "Linyuan Pavilion sent someone to monitor the foreign affairs team. It was discovered that some of them were secretly communicating with the western emissaries. A group of people with unknown origins sneaked into the foreign affairs team."
Gu Yun immediately breathed a sigh of relief. He moved his neck impatiently, "I thought it was something … Didn't the foreign affairs team's name list already arrive? There's no reason to suddenly add people. If that's really the case, they can be stopped outside the station. It doesn't matter. "
Shen Yi, "Because of this battle, the foreign affairs team originally had no reason to come to the front line. They were on standby in Pengcheng and asked the imperial court for a decree. Li Feng said that it wasn't good to return without accomplishing anything, so he ordered them to rest and reorganize in Pengcheng. When the imperial court allocated the military rewards and supplies, they were to be sent to the front line of the two rivers together. It's considered …"
Gu Yun slightly raised one of his long eyebrows. Shen Yi paused with difficulty and wrote stroke by stroke in his palm, "Reward the military."
These two words were too sensitive for all the former members of the Black Iron Battalion. Gu Yun obviously twitched, and then he was forcibly tied back to his original position by the steel plates on his body. Cold sweat immediately flowed down his temples.
Shen Yi hurriedly held him down, "Zi Xi!"
After being tossed around like this, the bandage on Gu Yun's chest was obviously bleeding. The smell of blood broke through the layers of medicine and scattered in the air. This made his face even paler.
Shen Yi had the illusion that his whole body was slowly evaporating.
But he was still unwilling to obediently faint.
He still had to forcefully put up an illusion that he was at ease internally and externally.
What could a person gain from risking life and limb in vain after his death?
Even if he had the Thousand Years Merit, he would only be a memorial tablet in the future.
When later generations of royalty and aristocrats thought of it, they would come up with a few idle stories or deliberately belittle him a few times to show that they were knowledgeable and stood out from the masses.
When the common people thought about it, most of them liked to make up some groundless anecdotes and scandals. They would say that in his life, he had eloped a hundred and eighty times, and that his luck with women was only after his death.
Shen Yi, "I'll write a letter to Miss Chen immediately. I, I … I'll accompany you to resign and go home. You can just kidnap His Highness as well. I'm willing to recuperate and treat my injuries. I don't care about the Li family or Zhang family! I … "
Gu Yun sighed and gently held his hand.
Shen Yi's breathing was so chaotic that he couldn't speak. In a place where Gu Yun couldn't see, he made an expression that he was ready to cry. However, he didn't dare to tremble and sob too much so that Gu Yun would notice. He cried so hard that he didn't even dare to breathe loudly. He silently breathed in through his mouth and even used his steel armor to catch his tears.
Gu Yun still felt it, but he didn't expose him. He reached out and patted him softly, "It's not a big deal. You don't have to be so angry … Is there any news about Changgeng?"
"Yes." Shen Yi trembled as he wrote, "His Highness said that you don't have to worry about anything else. If there are bad people who intend to cause trouble, just kill them as you wish. Even if the sky in the capital collapses, he will be able to hold on."
Gu Yun smiled weakly.
Blood loss would make a person's mind muddled. He had to expend several times more energy to concentrate and think clearly about the situation. "I was wondering why … the war hasn't even ended yet, and someone wants to get rid of me first … Cough cough, as expected, the situation in the capital has changed. Someone is desperate. There will definitely be a war between us and the westerners. I can't leave right now, so I can't help him much … Let the foreign affairs team in, then immediately detain them and watch them closely. Cut off their connection with the capital. If the westerners are also … cough cough … playing some role … why don't we beat them at their own game …"
Shen Yi didn't say anything.
Gu Yun, "… Jiping?"
Shen Yi suddenly asked, "Do you think it's worth it?"
Gu Yun was stunned.
Shen Yi's gaze quickly swept past the bloodstains on his chest. He leaned close to Gu Yun's ear and sent his words into the deaf man's ears word by word, "You're thinking that there will definitely be a war between us and the westerners. Others are thinking about how to pull you down from your position. Do you think it's worth it?"
Of course, Gu Yun's heart couldn't be completely free of grudges. It was a pity that he had Shen Yi, who liked to blow up. When the two of them got along, no matter what they originally thought, one of them had to be responsible for blowing up and the other one had to be responsible for calming down. Shen Yi took the role of the former first. Gu Yun could only calmly play the role of the latter.
Gu Yun, "You spent five taels of silver to buy that broken dangling hairpin for Miss Chen. Was it worth it? Didn't you still buy it like a fool?"
Shen Yi, "I'm cheap to the woman I like. It's only right that I get separated. If I'm not shameful, then who are you being cheap to?"
Gu Yun slowly replied, "Sure enough, there is no filial son in front of a sickbed for a long time. You unfilial thing, you even learned to scold people."
Shen Yi, "…"
In Gu Yun's half of his life, he had thought of leaving many times. Shen Yi had thought of "I'll never care about this bastard again" many times. He shook off Gu Yun's hand and turned to leave. He thought, "Do you want to die or not?"
Gu Yun, "Jiping!"
His hand grabbed aimlessly in the air and grabbed nothing. His fingers were almost deformed by bandages and medicine. His five fingers couldn't even close together. His pale skin was covered with scars that were exposed under the lifeless bandages. Shen Yi's heart felt very uncomfortable and he suddenly lost his attitude.
Shen Yi, "Don't move!"
Gu Yun said softly, "In these two days … there will definitely be envoys from Dongying secretly contacting us. Zhong Ze is a civil official after all. We have to rely on you …"
Shen Yi's heart ached, "Okay, don't say anymore. I know."
Gu Yun was interrupted by him, but he wasn't angry. He suddenly thought of something and laughed. After panting for a while, he said to Shen Yi, "Defend your country and become a famous general. In a hundred years, the people will confer you the title of a god and set up a temple for you. How good would it be to live on incense?"
Shen Yi mocked, "Confer you what? Anyway, there's already a door god. Do you want a window god? Bed god? "
"It's all the same," Gu Yun laughed softly, "Anyway, no matter which temple they worship, what they want is the same … Uh, promotion and wealth, a happy marriage … and children."
Shen Yi heard this. Okay, isn't this a liar, a matchmaker, and a child-giving Guan Yin?
He suddenly felt even more indignant. He didn't want to be associated with this kind of person at all.
Gu Yun said weakly, "Great Immortal Shen, give me the flute in the bedside box."
Shen Yi sighed and took out a small box that he kept beside his pillow. Inside the box, there was a white jade flute with a dim luster, a thick stack of unidentifiable sea-patterned paper, and a few wind-cutting blades with different names engraved on them.
This small box seemed to contain all of Gu Yun's feelings and righteousness.
"I won't die." Gu Yun's fingertips grabbed the cold jade flute. He thought firmly in his heart, "They didn't kill me on the spot, so I won't die. Changgeng's Wu 'er Gu hasn't been cured yet. There are so many people in the capital who want to find trouble with him. How can I …"
How can I what? Before he had time to think, he fell into an exhausted coma once again.
A thousand miles away, in the middle of the night, Fang Residence.
Fang Qin sat in the room with a gloomy face. After a long silence, he slowly raised his head and asked, "Really? You heard it with your own ears? "
The manservant kneeling in front of him couldn't help but tremble. He quickly nodded.
The head of the Fang Family of this generation suddenly laughed. A moment later, he covered his face with one hand. His shoulders trembled. It was unknown whether he was crying or laughing. Fang Qin had once plotted Lü Chang to walk on this path. He had thought that Yan Wang was ambitious and might walk on this path one day. He never expected that the first to walk on the path would be his own father.
When every scholar read Hengqu's four sentences for the first time in their childhood, "Set your heart for the heavens and earth, set your life for the people, inherit the lost knowledge for the past saints, and establish peace for the ages." They all thought that they would one day become an unparalleled national scholar, capable of carrying the country for thousands of years. However, this little bit of heart blood would always be ground away by fame and fortune. It would be ground away by time. It would be ground away by the unpredictability of the world. After being ground away, they would fall into a "rut" for the rest of their lives.
Since ancient times, there had been many talented people, but how many real national scholars were there?
That night, Fang Qin sat in his study for the whole night. The next morning, he ordered his subordinates to secretly send his wife and son away.
When the first rooster crowed at the fourth watch, Fang Qin thought that he would rush out, drag Yan Wang up, and tell him everything about the premeditated rebellion.
Unfortunately, he imagined this process hundreds and thousands of times in his mind. In the end, he didn't do it.
It was difficult to be loyal and filial at the same time. He knew that he was destined to not be a national scholar, so he could only be loyal to one thing.
Five days later, an ambiguous rumor flew into the capital and into the ears of ambitious people. A few days after the foreign affairs delegation that was supposed to go to reward the army arrived in Jiangbei Daying, Jiangbei Daying was suddenly completely closed for unknown reasons.
The news that the Fang Family received was more detailed. Grand Secretary Fang received a note from his student. There were only two words written on it: "It's done."
At this point, Grand Secretary Fang let out a long sigh. Obviously, he didn't expect things to go so smoothly. The westerners, who had been eyeing him covetously, had done him such a big favor. His heart was filled with an indescribable excitement because "half of the country" was already done.
At the same time, the matter of Li Feng's birthday celebration was indeed proposed by the Ministry of Rites. Fang Qin took the lead to agree. Even Yan Wang's party didn't come out to make trouble on this occasion. They unanimously agreed to hold a big celebration.
Long An years later, they gradually restrained themselves and became frugal. Therefore, the procedures were ready-made. In order to ensure that the flattery didn't go wrong, the Ministry of Rites had already secretly started to prepare. As soon as the emperor approved, it immediately began to operate in an orderly manner. On the day of the celebration, the northwest emissaries all came to pay their respects. Fireworks filled the sky above the nine gates, and the bells and drums rang together. It was very lively.
The emperor wanted to go out of the palace to worship heaven and tell his ancestors that he didn't grow older in the past year for nothing. He also had some achievements. This time, he learned his lesson. He followed closely behind the thirteen imperial guards. He didn't bring any of the unreliable civil and military officials. He only brought the crown prince. Yan Wang led hundreds of officials to follow him.
Worship heaven and earth, worship the ancestors, a bunch of things were done in an orderly manner. There were no more problems. Li Feng finally let out a sigh of relief in his heart. The shadow left by the last time was covered, and he ordered to return to the palace.
The emperor's carriage set off to return to the palace. Outside the palace, the Imperial Guards and the Imperial Guards exchanged hands. At this time, there was a change.
Someone suddenly shouted, "Assassins!"
Before the voice died away, a few Japanese boomerangs pierced through the air. They went straight through the crowd of officials and brushed past the sleeves of a Hanlin. The Hanlin didn't make a sound. His eyes rolled back and he fainted. The two groups of imperial guards reacted at the same time. Someone shouted, "Protect the emperor!" Someone shouted, "Capture the assassins!"
Who knew that suddenly, one of the Imperial Guards would suddenly attack the crown prince. Changgeng was the closest to the crown prince. He suddenly took a step forward, grabbed the crown prince's belt, and dragged him back.
In the chaos, someone shouted, "The Imperial Guards have rebelled!"
The commander of the Imperial Guards, who was carrying out the task of protecting the emperor, was puzzled. He blurted out, "Nonsense!"
At this time, someone wearing an Imperial Guard's uniform took out a small crossbow and shot it at Li Feng's carriage. Li Feng almost rolled off the carriage. The commander of the Imperial Guards thought, "The Imperial Guards are rebelling, and they are trying to make us the scapegoat. Preposterous!"
"Wait! There's a traitor in the Imperial Guards who tried to assassinate the emperor. Capture him! "
After the Imperial Guards were divided into two groups, in order to keep each other in check, there was no communication between the two sides. Moreover, they were in a competitive relationship. One side carried out the task of protecting the emperor, while the other side cooperated to supervise. Of course, the cooperating side was at a disadvantage. They had to follow the emperor and do the same work. However, they couldn't show their faces in front of the emperor. How could they be convinced?
The main guard thought that there was an assassin hiding in the Imperial Guards. The cooperating guards thought that the main guard had bad intentions. The Imperial Guards thought that the Imperial Guards were rebelling. Under the deliberate instigation of some people, the three sides suddenly fell into chaos.
Almost all of the capable generals in the imperial court had been transferred by Gu Yun to various garrisons. Now, those who stayed in the capital were either good-for-nothings or schemers with bad intentions. The scene suddenly became chaotic.
Fang Qin and the others seized the opportunity and deliberately rushed in front of Li Feng in a sorry state. They swarmed forward and said, "This place is dangerous. Your Majesty, please leave quickly."
A group of unfamiliar guards came in. Fang Qin said, "Your Majesty, please get off the carriage! We swear to protect Your Majesty with our lives. "
In the panic, Li Feng didn't pay attention to many details. He grabbed Fang Qin's arm and asked, "Where's the Crown Prince?"
Fang Qin gave a meaningful glance to the imperial guard on the side and said to Li Feng, "The Crown Prince has someone protecting him. Just now, this official saw Yan Wang over there. I'm afraid they were separated. You should leave first. This official will immediately send someone to look for him."
Li Feng angrily said, "Pass on the order of Beidaying! Lawless bastard … "
Fang Qin responded. He immediately ordered his own people to pretend to run out and "pass on the order". This was also something they had thought long ago. They couldn't let the imperial guards react. They had to isolate the Emperor as soon as possible and cut off his connection with the imperial guards and the Beidaying.
Fang Qin coaxed and urged Li Feng. The people around him all changed into the imperial guard's clothes. At this time, they swarmed forward. Li Feng didn't notice for a moment. By the time he reacted, it was already too late.
At this time, there was also a change in the front line.
The Pope received news from a spy who had infiltrated the Foreign Affairs Bureau that there was a coup d 'état in Daliang. The reward mission sent by the imperial capital of Daliang to the garrison was actually an assassination mission. They planned to recreate the scene of the Black Iron Battalion in the Northwest 20 years ago. Gu Yun was seriously injured, and was even likely to be dead. The garrison was forcibly blocking the news, but the internal situation was already chaotic. It was a good opportunity to counterattack.
If it was in the past, the Pope might not have believed this news easily. At least, he would have sent people to repeatedly verify it from other angles. However, he no longer had such leeway.
The Daliang Navy had cut off two important lines of communication between them and the country. On one hand, the battle between the factions in the Holy Land was close to white-hot. On the other hand, the originally well-behaved colonies, starting from the Nanyang Islands, had started a rebellion. They simply couldn't do anything else. Now, they could only go through the Dongying people to the far east.
The Pope didn't trust the Dongying people at all. He always felt that those jackals could bite back at any time, so he was eager to break the deadlock.
No one knew better than him that the Western Navy's prestige on the water was supported by abundant energy. Without a large amount of purple gold as a backing, it was simply a pile of scrap iron.
Mr Ya made a tight strategic deployment and sent people to the Dongying shogunate to ask for cooperation.
The Dongying people nodded and bowed, politely sent people away, turned back into their own yard, and closed the door.
A travel-worn Dongying samurai came in from the back door at some point. He took off his bamboo hat and said in a low voice, "I saw General Gu."
"Then Gu Yun wasn't seriously injured, and he's not dead, right?"
"I'm not sure. I only saw Gu Yun pass by in a hurry. With my status, I'm not qualified to talk to him. But the garrison was in good order. The artillery was filled, and there was no chaos at all. It looked like they were ready to attack at any time. I also didn't see the so-called 'assassination group.' If there was, they might have been secretly controlled. "
"I understand. Thank you for your hard work."
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