Gangbuk-do
Firefox City has a great reputation, but this place is nothing but a ruin.
When the Central Plains was still ruled by the Great Zheng State, Firefox City was once a mighty city second only to Chang'an. Of course, Chang'an City at that time was far from what it is now. Firefox City is a purely military city in Zheng State. In order to show the strength of Zheng State's military power, the founding emperor of Dazheng ordered Jiangbei Province to build Firefox City, which can accommodate 300,000 soldiers.
At that time, the purpose of building this city was to deter Chen Guo in the south of the Yangtze River. When Emperor Zheng Guo was fighting for hegemony in the Central Plains, Jiangnan Chen Guo also coveted the Central Plains. He sent troops to the north several times, and once occupied the entire Jiangbei Province, which was only a thousand miles away from Chang'an City. Later, after Emperor Zheng defeated the enemy and ascended the throne, he personally led the army to drive Chen's army back to the south of the Yangtze River.
Then he ordered the construction of Firefox City and stationed troops here. One is to demonstrate his military power, the other is to convince the people, and third, why doesn't Emperor Zheng want to send troops south to dominate both sides of the river? Later, Zheng Guo's army marched south many times, and the starting point was here. It's just that although Chen Guo produced several stupid emperors one after another, there are many famous generals. Chen Guo's southern expeditions all ended in failure, but Firefox City has always been a military center.
Yang Jian, the founding emperor of the Great Sui Dynasty, raised his army, and the first big battle was to conquer Firefox City.
At that time, the all-conquering Sui army encountered the most tenacious resistance in Firefox City. Although they won later, the loss of troops made Yang Jian feel heartbroken.
The Sui army attacked fiercely, and before breaking through the city, Zheng Guo's army burned the big city to the ground. The fire lasted for half a month, leaving a ruin.
Later, the ruins of Firefox City became a must-see place for literati, and it is unknown how many poems have been handed down here.
Yang Jian wanted to restore the Firefox City at the beginning of the founding of the country, but because the national power was not enough to support the expansion of Chang'an City, and the courtiers objected, it was nothing.
Although the world is in chaos at this time, Jiangbei Province, which is next to Gyeonggi Province, has not been involved in the flames of war for the time being. It's just that there are obviously not as many people visiting Firefox City as before, and the official roads seem deserted.
A team of more than 200 people guarded the carriage and galloped north along the official road. The team coming from Shanbei Road did not choose the shortest road, but turned to Chang'an after half a circle to the south. After the long journey, the more than two hundred well-cultivated knights looked dusty, and everyone looked a little haggard.
Su Buwei, who was driving the car, opened the curtain to look in the car from time to time. The emperor's body had become weaker and weaker recently, and he couldn't eat for two days. It seemed that it was even difficult for him to insist on returning to Chang'an City. The once ambitious emperor was now curled up in the carriage as thin as a bone, without opening his eyes or speaking all day long.
What Su Buwei was most afraid of was that the next time he opened the curtain to look inside, the emperor would lose his breath.
In fact, up to now, even Su Buwei doesn't know why the emperor is still alive. This supreme being who is obviously lifeless has actually lived two years longer than the old director of the Yanwu Academy predicted. If this is not a miracle, then Su Buwei doesn't know what is called a miracle.
Perhaps even the emperor himself thought it was a miracle.
It is unimaginable that what supports His Majesty the Emperor is that he refuses to die.
"Where are you?"
A very faint voice of inquiry came from the carriage, and this was the first time the emperor spoke in three days.
"Go back to Your Majesty, Firefox City is ahead, and if there are no accidents, you can return to the capital in half a month. Is Your Majesty hungry, why don't you stop and cook a bowl of rice porridge for you?"
"Firefox City..."
The emperor who was curled up in the carriage pulled the blanket covering his body with some difficulty, and opened his eyes slightly: "I remember, when I was still a prince, the late emperor asked all the princes to come to Firefox City to pay their respects. The soldiers who died in the battle when we broke through the city... I even burned the paper money with my own hands..."
Su Buwei's heart skipped a beat, he didn't expect the emperor to be interested in saying this.
"Not only my brothers, but also the emperors of the Great Sui Dynasty would let their sons come to Fire Fox City to take a look at this ruin. This is the place where 70,000 warriors of the Sui Dynasty were buried. That's Taizu The most difficult battle the emperor fought after he raised his troops, even when he conquered Chang'an City later, he only lost 30,000 fine armors."
The emperor gasped for a while, and showed Su a smile despite the difficulty: "When we stop at Firefox City, I want to take another look."
Su was not afraid of being overjoyed, and quickly agreed. The emperor's spirit today is obviously better than before, he has long wanted to stop the car to cook a bowl of porridge for the emperor, and he is almost physically and mentally exhausted without the emperor's water and rice these two days. But then he became happy, and suddenly thought of something that made his heart tighten again, subconsciously looking at the emperor, the corners of Su Buwei's mouth trembled.
"Don't be afraid."
The emperor laughed very hard: "I'm not looking back... I didn't like to talk a while ago, because I wanted to save my strength. I was afraid that I would die before I could hold on to Chang'an City. Wouldn't that be a pity? Now that we are close to Chang'an, And this Firefox City, I have long wanted to see it again."
Only then was Su Buwei relieved, and gave instructions to the guard knight. Thirty or forty of the cavalry were divided to speed up and prepare first.
The carriage stopped slowly outside the ruins of Firefox City. Su Buwei jumped off the carriage and opened the curtain, then climbed up again, climbed out with the emperor on his back, and got out of the carriage carefully. Looking at the emperor, lest the emperor has no strength to fall from his back. An accompanying guard quickly pulled out the blanket from the carriage and wrapped it around the emperor.
Su Buwei walked forward with the emperor on his back. The emperor leaned on him and looked up towards the ruins. For some reason, he suddenly said something that Su Buwei couldn't understand. Who do you want to tell.
"Ruins... In fact, what I fear most is seeing ruins..."
…
…
before the ruins
The guard put the reclining chair away, and then helped the emperor get off Su Buwei's back and sit on the chair. The emperor tilted his head and looked at the ruins that seemed to have no limit, and there was some sadness in his eyes that made people feel nervous. After Su Buwei put the emperor away, he quickly turned around to fetch the rice. He didn't want the guards to intervene in cooking the porridge. He knew that the emperor couldn't even chew even slightly hard rice grains.
But the emperor still has the dignity of the emperor, Su Buwei didn't want the guards to know this.
Master Zhang from Wudang Mountain walked over slowly, knelt down and took the emperor's pulse. The emperor shook his head slightly: "No need, I know I can persevere until I go back. If I don't do anything for the prince, I won't die."
Zhang Zhenren was stunned, and then stood beside the emperor, not knowing what to say.
"Really... If I hand over the rivers and lakes of the Great Sui to you, can you bring those hot-blooded men in the rivers and lakes to help the prince stabilize the rivers and lakes of the Great Sui?"
The emperor murmured: "It's like... the old dean assisted Emperor Taizu like that, just like my seventh brother assisted me... I asked you before, and you said that what you want is more from the hands of God." Stealing a few years to live, if you join the temple, I'm afraid you will die a few years earlier. I didn't blame you at the time, because I still had Xiao Yijiu in my hand. Although I could see that Xiao Yijiu was too thoughtful at the time, But in terms of cooperating with the court, he is indeed better than you."
"Your Majesty said..."
Zhang Zhenren said in a low voice: "Xiao Yijiu knows how to cooperate with the imperial court to stabilize the martial arts in the Central Plains, and he also knows better than me how to convince the people of Taoism, so that they will not believe in other sects. He could do something like a peach blossom overnight on Qingle Mountain, but I didn't have that in mind. When His Majesty chose Xiao Yijiu, I knew it was the most correct choice."
"But he let me down."
The emperor sighed: "My lord, you won't let me down, will you?"
Zhang Zhenren opened his mouth, but did not say anything in the end.
The emperor was obviously disappointed that he didn't get the answer he wanted, so the sadness in his eyes became more and more intense. After a while, he turned his head to look at Master Zhang and said, "It would be great if I could cultivate. If I could live forever, I would be able to make Da Sui stronger. It's not that I'm greedy for life and afraid of death, I just don't trust the prince. I firmly believe that I will do better than previous emperors, as long as I am given time... I will be able to make the Great Sui a giant ship that will never sink."
"The minister firmly believes."
Zhang Zhenren said.
Hearing the word minister, the emperor's face changed and a look of joy flashed in his eyes: "Zhen... I want to thank you."
"I just feel that the Great Sui cannot fall."
"Yeah... how could Tai Sui fall?"
The emperor smiled: "That's why I have to go back and tell the prince some things. I want to tell him, no matter what happens, don't leave Chang'an City. No matter how many people there are under the command of any thief, Chang'an City is not for anyone. It can be broken if it is broken. The reason why Emperor Taizu wanted to expand Chang'an City was because he knew that as long as Chang'an was there, the Sui Dynasty would not be able to fall... "
"So what if it's Luo Yao? He may be able to enter Chang'an himself, but his soldiers and horses cannot. What's more...he dare not enter Chang'an."
"yes."
Zhang Zhenren nodded: "As long as the old director is still in Chang'an City, Luo Yao will not dare to go in easily."
"Not only that."
The emperor suddenly smiled, a little incomprehensibly proud: "After returning to Chang'an City, I will tell you a big secret. This secret was only told to the successors by the emperors of the Sui Dynasty before their death, so even if I I was seriously ill and did not tell the prince in advance. Because this secret is too big, I am afraid that the prince will not be able to keep it. Once the secret is not kept and others find out, then the old dean spent half of the secret arranged by my Yang family for so many years. The secret protected by cultivation is useless."
"Chen... It's better not to know."
Zhang Zhenren lowered his head and said.
"No."
The emperor said: "The old dean is too old after all. If he hadn't spent half of his cultivation to do that, he might have been able to protect my Yang family for another hundred years, but now, he is almost at the end of his life." It's time to dry up. If the old dean is gone, you can only help the prince to keep this secret."
Zhang Zhenren was not talking, but his heart was getting heavier and heavier. I don't know what happened, but he didn't have any curiosity about the secret the emperor wanted to tell. Yes, just intense sadness.
"Once this secret has to be announced, I'm afraid it will frighten everyone."
The emperor smiled, and then moved his body with great effort.
"The determination of the Yang family to protect the empire is not something anyone can guess and understand. For the Great Sui, the painstaking efforts of the Yang family are far from being seen by outsiders. When the Baili Chang'an City was built, the courtiers and common people opposed it, but My Yang family is going to do it, because once Chang'an is built, Chang'an will become the strongest fortress that no one can break through when the Yang family's world is in crisis."
The emperor seemed a little confused, and he had said this back and forth several times.
He looked at the ruins, raised his finger with difficulty and pointed: "I will never be seen by people, the crown prince will never be seen by people, the Yang family will never be seen by people, Chang'an City has become this look!"
Zhenren Zhang was a little surprised at this time, how could the emperor still have such confidence now? Is it because of the big secret that the emperor just said? But what kind of secret can the Yang family spare no effort to protect, and Wan Xingchen spends half of his cultivation to create it
Is this the source of the emperor's self-confidence