(There are two more chapters in the evening.)
Northwest Frontier Fortress, a lonely city, surrounded by clouds and sand.
At dawn, a tall Qi Refinement Grandmaster pulled the reins and reined in the horse. Looking at the desolate scene of the vast sky and high ground, she felt particularly peaceful. She only had two horsemen at her side. Wu Liuding and the female sword attendant had parted ways with the Wu clan cavalry a day ago. Under the escort of the white horse Yicong, they had headed together to the base of the Northern Liang Protectorate that was overseen by Mount Chu. If everything went as expected, this group of top-class swordsmen would serve as the sharpest and most secretive 'blade tip' of the Northern Liang border army. As for the young minister, Xu Beizhi, he had already turned back on his horse. She, Hsu Fengnian, and Sui Xiegu continued north. They directly passed through the border defense line of Liang Mang and swaggered into the Southern Dynasty's Dragon Waist State. Tantai Pingjing bent down and stroked the soft mane of the horse. This horse was extraordinarily handsome. Indeed, only Beiliang could raise such an outstanding horse. She looked up at the quiet young Prince Liang sitting high on the horse. Along the way, intelligence reports were constantly sent to him. Hsu Fengnian read them and burned them casually. It seemed that he had not once interfered with the border military affairs. This kind of hands-off boss seemed very relaxed and comfortable. It was as if he could do the job well for anyone who sat in his position. However, Tantai Pingjing was not a frog at the bottom of the well. Since Beiliang claimed to have 300,000 cavalry, if they were in a peaceful world, not a person with the surname Xu could be the Prince of Peace. The Zhao family of Li Yang would have already cooked the hound. Not to mention, in the current chaotic world, Beimang's million-strong army was pressing on the border. If any mediocre lord who could not convince the masses had the northwest gate, before the Beimang army showed their strength, the Beiliang side would have been in chaos. No matter how many border troops there were, as long as the army's morale was slack, even if they gave Beiliang 300,000 soldiers, they would still not be able to stop the fierce army of Beimang that was released from the cage by the old woman.
Hsu Fengnian's thumb and forefinger subconsciously rubbed the rough reins. He stopped the horse on the slope and looked into the distance.
The fire and smoke sank to the west, the valley was quiet and the mountains were empty. But the general could fight a hundred battles without the Emperor building the Great Wall.
This was a frontier fortress poem that was popular in the Central Plains. The poet was a poor scholar with a bright future, but trouble came from his mouth. Because of this poem, the poet was suspected to be "cold and charming" in the literary world. After the poet returned to the Central Plains to be an official, he wasted more than ten years in the local officialdom and never got promoted. In the end, he was depressed and resigned. When Hsu Fengnian first traveled in Jianghu with Huang, he once went to the poet's hometown. Although he was very embarrassed at that time, it was not a problem for him to pretend to be rich and buy a pot of wine to visit. Unfortunately, he only saw the moss and did not see the poet. Hsu Fengnian gently exhaled a turbid breath. At that time, he only thought that the Emperor of the Zhao family must have done something. Later, when he personally experienced some of the officialdom rules, he gradually understood that it was not the man sitting on the throne who was so narrow-minded. It was the local officials who were trying to figure out the Emperor's mind. Not to mention the distance, just the nearby Beiliang, how many officials, in order to curry favor with him, often used expensive antiques, calligraphy and paintings to establish a relationship with the Beiliang's Lu family in Qingzhou? How many unknown back doors did they open for the Lu family's children in Beiliang's officialdom to be unimpeded? Even some of the best teachers in Beiliang's academies favored the Lu family's children who had mediocre literary talent and hoped to establish a relationship with the Lu Family and then the Xu family. If it were not for Lu Chengyan's opinion, Lu Feichi, the head of the Lu family, would have used this opportunity to become the leader of Beiliang's literary world. Hsu Fengnian could not help but feel a little sad. He still remembered the ordinary bamboo lantern that the ancestor of the Lu Family gave to Lu Feichi before he died. He wanted Lu Feichi to take over the lantern that swayed with the chaotic times and strive to pass it on. Obviously, Lu Feichi, who had long complained about the family moving to the barren Beiliang, suddenly found that the Lu family had a great reputation in Beiliang after the process of taking root in Beiliang was too smooth. Not only Lu Feichi, but the entire Lu family was too complacent and was far less conceited than the old fox Wang Linquan, who was a "relative of the Emperor". But what really made Hsu Fengnian depressed was Wang Linquan's obedience. The more the Wang family of the Spring God Lake deliberately tolerated the scholarly Lu family, wasn't it deliberately digging a hole for the Lu family to jump into? Compared to the Lu Family's insensibility, Wang Linquan's overt schemes and schemes were actually more of a headache for Hsu Fengnian.
But these were difficult to resolve and could not be explained clearly. As the "son-in-law" of the two families, Hsu Fengnian could not use his status as the King of Beiliang to bully others. The more he did, the more mistakes he would make. In the end, he could not escape the saying that he favored one and discriminated against the other.
Fortunately, these thorny matters were not urgent. Moreover, Lu Chengyan handled things appropriately. Even his second sister, Xu Weixiong, admitted that she could not find any flaws in Lu Chengyan. Between women, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, sister-in-law and sister-in-law, these relationships were all like swords and knives that did not see blood. Men were naturally incomparably miserable when they were involved.
Hsu Fengnian, or in other words, Beiliang, was facing a great disaster. Ever since Xu Xiao was conferred the title of King and took over Beiliang, Beimang had been eyeing them covetously.
As long as they could destroy Beiliang and bypass the eastern border where Gu Jiantang was overseeing, then the fertile Central Plains would be like a woman waiting to be slaughtered. How could Beimang, a man who could not endure the hunger and thirst, not risk his life to attack Beiliang?
In the past, under the planning of Xu Xiao and his master, Li Yishan, although Beiliang did not have the problem of whether to defend or not, there was still enough space for the Beiliang cavalry to move around. They could take the refugees and retreat to the Western Regions. They could also retreat to Western Shu and Nanzhao as support, enough to fight Beimang to the death. Even if Beimang took over Beiliang, which retreated after the battle went badly, it would be an isolated place with scorched earth. On the contrary, it would increase the supply line of the Beimang army. Beiliang could continue to confront Beimang at the Western Shu border and could even harass Beimang in the vast Western Regions. However, because Chen Zhibao was conferred the title of King and entered Beiliang, he cut off the entire Western Regions of Western Shu and Nanzhao. As a result, Hsu Fengnian and Beiliang had no strategic depth and could only defend to the death.
Hsu Fengnian felt an indescribable sense of guilt deep in his heart. It could not be said that he had let down the Beiliang people, but he felt that he had let down Li Yishan.
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