Shen Yicheng already knew that an army had gathered outside the capital and that Xiao Ruxun had led two hundred thousand soldiers to surround the capital.
Da Yun had surrendered at the last moment, not only offering Wuqing to Xiao Ruxun, but also Tongzhou to Xiao Ruxun. Along the way, he had swept away the thirty thousand elite soldiers of Gansu and ten thousand elites of the capital, taking away Shen Yicheng's final trump card. Right now, Shen Yicheng was no different from a commander without an army.
It wasn't that he didn't have any soldiers. When Xiao Ruxun's army swept through Fangshan and Liangxiang and Yuan Huang's army reached Tongzhou, all the garrisons around the capital had madly surged into the capital. No one could stop the rapid influx of more than one hundred thousand soldiers, not even Shen Yicheng.
Once all of them had entered, the gates were closed and the drawbridge was raised. The capital, protected by the moat, instantly became a truly isolated city. Soon after, Xiao Ruxun's army surrounded the capital and easily locked it down.
For the past three days, no one had dared to enter Shen Yicheng's office. Other than the old servants of Shen Yicheng's residence who would punctually deliver food and then Shen Yicheng would come out of the restroom, no one dared to speak with him.
In these three days, he had not said a single word, nor had he handled a single matter of government.
The entire Imperial Palace was guarded by the Imperial Bodyguard, and the inside of the Imperial City was under the control of the Imperial Bodyguard. However, this was not the case outside the Imperial City. Roaming soldiers from the capital were everywhere. Other than a few of the major city gates controlled by organized armies, and a part of the eastern district of Chaoyang Gate, which was relatively safe under Fang Shoushi's Datong Army, the majority of the capital had become a haven for crime.
Roaming soldiers who could not find their troops plundered for food, and when they had no place to live, they robbed the houses of the common people to live in. The rich and prepared people had their own defenses, and the roaming soldiers did not dare to approach. The common people were the unlucky ones. More than one million people lived in this enormous city, and countless miserable things were happening.
It was no longer easy for the Imperial Bodyguard to guarantee the safety of the Imperial City. Because many officials lived in the inner city, it had to be guarded. Right now, it was being guarded by the soldiers from the capital that could be controlled. The entire outer district had become a chaotic area, and countless people had been killed in the last few days.
Fang Shoushi had already requested an audience with Shen Yicheng three times, but there had been no response. He had come to the Imperial Palace several times to request an audience with Shen Yicheng, but he had not received an audience. Of course, the reason he did this was not only to admonish Shen Yicheng, but more importantly, to find out where Zhu Yijun was currently living.
The efforts of these last few days had not been in vain. Sun Chengzong told him that it was already confirmed that the retired emperor, Zhu Yijun, was currently living in Yuxi Palace, where the Jiajing Emperor had lived. His daily life was closely monitored and controlled by the elite Imperial Bodyguard, so it was impossible to get close.
Even now, when everyone was in a state of panic, it was still difficult to get close.
Fang Shoushi could not help but sigh at this.
Under these circumstances, how would the situation change?
In any case, he only wanted to protect Zhu Yijun's safety and allow Zhu Yijun to ascend to the throne and stabilize the world. Other than that, he did not care about anything else. He did not care about Shen Yicheng's life or death, and he did not care much about the politics of the court.
Although he had heard of the things that had happened in the capital over the last few days, with Shen Yicheng not paying attention, the entire court had come to a standstill. All the officials at all levels were worried about their own lives. No one had the time or energy to care about others, especially the commoners in the outer city. No one cared about them.
The commanders responsible for managing the security of the various cities had been paralyzed and had even become temporary shelters for the defeated soldiers. It was only the pitch-black cannons and muzzles on the inner city gates that prevented the defeated soldiers from easily approaching. Otherwise, it would only be a matter of time before the inner city was attacked.
However, Fang Shoushi was also worried. Under the intense pressure of Xiao Ruxun's 200,000 soldiers, how many people could remain calm?
Climbing up the city gate tower and looking at the endless barracks and troops outside Chaoyang Gate, how could he not feel the pressure and find it hard to breathe?
If this sort of pressure continued for too long, a person really would have problems.
Even more serious was that the grain stored in the warehouses at Chaoyang Gate was already in a critical condition. Right now, most of the grain was provided to the soldiers in the inner city and the nobles in the Imperial City. No one in the outer city cared about the grain, and it was hard to say how the hundreds of thousands of people and soldiers in the outer city would survive.
Fang Shoushi also knew that once the grain ran out, it was hard to say what people would do in extreme hunger.
He wanted to stop all this before the capital fell into chaos, so he truly did want to see Shen Yicheng. He did not want to see the Emperor return to the throne and see a ruined capital.
But seeing Shen Yicheng was truly a very difficult task, much less the current Emperor. Fang Shoushi had not seen the current Emperor.
Of course, if he knew what the current Emperor was doing, he would probably faint from anger.
He was learning from Zhao Gou.
When the capital was in chaos and trembling, he had heard that violent noise, a noise that could not be concealed. He had heard it, even though he had been on the bed with his empress and giving birth to the next generation.
That violent noise had given him quite a fright. He had sent someone to find Shen Yicheng, hoping to get some psychological comfort, but he had not expected Shen Yicheng to not come out to see him. There was no news from Shen Yicheng, and he had locked himself in the cabinet, not allowing anyone to approach.
The Emperor had asked to see him, but he would not.
Zhu Changluo panicked. He wanted to know what had happened outside, wanted to know if he was safe, or if he was not. Then he happened to hear two or three eunuchs outside whisper, "Scoundrel Xiao's two hundred thousand soldiers have surrounded the capital!"
He fell to the ground in fright.
After a long while, he got back up, and then climbed back onto his bed. He pressed down the empress, who had just sat up, and began to make love even more violently than before.
This kind of extreme physical pleasure seemed to be deliberately suppressing the fear in his heart. He had tried it before, and he felt that it was very effective. Now, he could only use this method to hide his fear.
Speaking of which, the little empress did not feel that there was anything bad about it. Although this little Emperor husband, who was about the same age as her, had asked for a little more, she was very happy. She had been taken to the palace for no reason and had become the empress. She was also very panicked, and she also needed comfort.
Sex and love were the best ways to escape from reality. They could make people feel extreme happiness and temporarily forget some things.
Of course, the following Sage Period would only make these worries worse.
Although the little empress was dissatisfied that her husband had to have sex with the other two concubines from time to time, at this time, it was better not to mention it.
The two of them escaped from reality in extreme happiness, not thinking about those troublesome things, even if they were matters of life and death.
This was the so-called drinking today, getting drunk today.
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