In mid-spring, at the long pavilion and ancient road, orioles are singing through the leaves.
Cheng Qianye, along with Zhou Zixi, Cheng Feng and others, led an army of more than 10,000 people and marched towards Zhengzhou.
The carriage of the Lord of Jin was spacious and comfortable.
Cheng Qianye lifted the curtains in the car.
Looking at the dense pines and cypresses and green grass on both sides of the road, I feel very comfortable.
Her generals had just captured the city of Zhengzhou, and she led the follow-up troops from Bianzhou to Zhengzhou.
Go check out her new territory and meet that person.
Cheng Qianye thought happily.
Bianzhou, Zhengzhou, and Haojing occupied by the Quanrong are actually basically on the same latitude.
Zhengzhou is located between Bianzhou and Haojing, relatively close to Bianzhou, only less than 200 miles away.
They set out from Bianzhou and marched for four days, and were almost reaching Zhengzhou city.
When the army was more than twenty miles outside the city of Zhengzhou, they saw several red-haired riders riding towards them from afar.
Soon, Cheng Feng, who was guarding the front of the team, led a group of people to Cheng Qianye's carriage.
The man lifted his skirt and knelt to receive him.
"I have seen you, my lord."
Cheng Qianye became happy, jumped out of the car and helped Mo Qiaosheng up.
Mo Qiaosheng did not show the joy she had imagined.
He stood up with a solemn look on his face.
"What's wrong? What happened?" Cheng Qianye had a bad feeling in his heart.
Mo Qiaosheng frowned slightly, thought for a moment and said,
"Last night, Xiao Xiu arrived in Zhengzhou and brought bad news. Zhang Fu was captured in Gaojing."
The soldiers and civilians of Zhengzhou City welcomed their new lord.
However, Cheng Qianye had no time to greet the people who came to greet her. Under the protection of Mo Qiaosheng, she rode her horse straight into the city gate.
Arriving at the gate of the City Lord's Mansion, she dismounted and walked quickly forward.
"Where is Xiao Xiu? Ask him to come see me." Cheng Qianye gave the order in a deep voice as he walked.
Xiao Xiu pushed through the crowd and knelt down in front of Cheng Qianye.
“My lord! My lord!” He raised his head, looking extremely anxious, and he grabbed the hem of Cheng Qianye’s robe out of control, “Please save Mr. Zhang, please find a way to save Mr. Zhang!”
Cheng Qianye panted and suppressed his irritability: "Stand up and tell me in detail."
Gaojing,
There is a heavily guarded prison inside the Qiuguan Office.
This prison was originally used by the previous dynasty to detain royal members who had committed crimes.
Now it is used by the Quanrong people who occupy Haojing to detain serious criminals.
An old prisoner who had been detained here for a long time couldn't help swallowing when he smelled the aroma of food wafting from the cell next door.
I don’t know where the new young man next door came from, but his only meals are white flour buns and thick soup.
Although this kind of food is nothing outside, but in this dark prison, it is as delicious as imperial cuisine.
The old prisoner looked at the food in his hand which was even more rotten than slop, and could not help but move closer to the railing separating the two cells.
He picked up a small stone and threw it at the wounded body lying motionless on the haystack.
The young man raised his face slightly from the weeds and glanced at him.
"Hey." The old prisoner raised his chin towards the bowl of white steamed bun, "Brother, do you want to eat it? If not, can you give me some of it?"
The old prisoner has been here for a long time and is very experienced in prison life.
Generally, people who come here for the first time cannot eat because of indignation or because of severe injuries.
However, since they had just committed a crime, the jailers were unsure of their superiors' attitude and were afraid of having to explain themselves if someone died, so they often gave them the best food.
At this time, as long as you humble yourself and ask for it, you will often succeed.
Old Wu, who was in the cell opposite, was so angry when he first arrived that he didn't eat for several days, and every day he rolled his own white steamed bun from the opposite side to his front.
Now he has learned his lesson. Once he gets the food, he holds on to it tightly and refuses to give himself any.
Now, a young man came next door. The old prisoner could not help but be full of hope for the white flour buns.
The young man slowly stood up and spat out a mouthful of dirty blood.
He had recently been tortured and could hardly sit up, but he firmly stretched out his pale hand, grabbed a white steamed bun, and began to eat it bit by bit under the envious gaze of the old prisoners.
"Hey, hey, take it easy. You're so badly injured, how can you eat so much? Give me some."
The young man moved forward a bit, leaning against the railing and sitting up a little. Then he broke the steamed bun in half and passed it through the gap in the railing.
"Hey, hey, thanks, brother." The old prisoner stretched out a pitch-black hand, took the white flour steamed bun, and swallowed it in big mouthfuls as if he was afraid that someone would snatch it away, while saying thanks.
"My last name is Li, and everyone calls me Lao Li. What's your name, young man?"
"My last name is Zhang."
The young man leaned against the railing made of round logs, broke the steamed bun in his hand into small pieces, and stuffed them into his mouth bit by bit.
The jailer passed by on his inspection and knocked on the iron lock on the door.
"Old man Li, don't steal his food. This man is Zhang Fu, and the higher-ups have told us to keep him alive."
"Zhang Fu? The Zhang Fu who deceived the Queen Mother?" Old Li was startled. When the jailer walked away, he patted the railing.
"Even we here know your name."
There was a commotion in the prison.
"Zhang Fu?"
"That Zhang Fu?"
Many prisoners climbed to the cell door, wanting to take a look at this Han Chinese who was rumored to have dared to deceive even the Queen Mother Mei Zang.
"This is Zhang Fu. He is so bold that he can manipulate the Queen Mother and His Majesty at will."
"Yes, I heard that it was because of his instigation that the Queen Mother imprisoned Your Majesty, ordered Empress Liang to be executed, and even executed the entire family of the Empress. There are so many new people in the prison recently, all of whom were implicated in this matter."
"Damn it, it turns out this guy is Zhang Fu. He is the one who hurt me so badly."
"I thought he was some kind of extraordinary person, but I didn't expect he was just a pretty boy. How could he stir up such a big commotion? If it's a one-on-one fight, I can strangle him to death with one hand."
Zhang Fu turned a deaf ear to all this and swallowed the steamed bun mouthful by mouthful with difficulty.
He picked up the bowl of soup again and drank it slowly.
"Zhang, Brother Zhang." Old Li approached Zhang Fu and started chatting in a low voice. "You are so lucky. The Queen Mother didn't kill you. I heard that even the Queen Mother was..."
He bared his teeth and made a gesture of strangling his neck with white silk.
Zhang Fu smiled slightly and lowered her head to drink her soup.
"Good brother, give me some, give me some." Lao Li squeezed a broken porcelain basin between the gap between two railings.
Zhang Fu reached out and poured out the remaining soup.
"Hey, that's nice. Give me some more. Brother Zhang is such a good man."
Zhang Fu's hand holding the bowl was not steady, causing a lot of soup to spill out.
Old Li was shocked to see the purple-red whip marks crisscrossing on the back of the hand, which was originally white and well-proportioned.
He smacked his tongue and said, "You've been tortured enough. Forget it. If you can eat, you should eat more."
He took back his bowl, licked it and muttered quietly, "I guess you don't have many meals left."
He heard the figure with his back to him whisper,
"No matter what, I have to eat it. Only by eating it can I have a chance to stay alive, and only by staying alive can I have hope... I hope to wait for him."
Old Li thought to himself, "So he's a fool. He's in the Qiuguan Prison and still thinking about who can get him out. I've been here for a long time and I've only seen people walk out sideways, never standing up."
However, considering that Brother Zhang shared his meal, he did not say these harsh words.
In Zhengzhou City,
Cheng Qianye looked around at the people in front of him.
Here are her most capable advisers and bravest generals.
But each of them showed a heavy expression.
Cheng Qianye clearly saw the emotions in their hearts at the moment.
There was a sense of sadness in their hearts to a greater or lesser extent.
This also means that in their minds, Zhang Fu's fate is basically doomed.
Casualties are inevitable in war. Even when the best brothers sacrifice their lives for the country, everyone can only watch and all they can do is grit their teeth and accept the news of death.
Cheng Qianye set his eyes on Zhou Zixi.
Zhou Zixi pushed his wheelchair forward and said, "The only way to save Mr. Zhang now is to deploy heavy troops on the border and put pressure on the Quanrong."
He sighed. In fact, he had no hope of rescuing Zhang Fu.
But he had been friends with Zhang Fu for a long time, and ultimately he wanted to do his best for this colleague whom he had never met.
"Now, the Quanrong are in civil strife. Queen Mother Mei Zang has imprisoned the Quanrong emperor and strangled the queen. The court must be in chaos and unable to take care of itself. They certainly don't want to engage in a large-scale battle with our army. We can seize the opportunity to nibble away at their land, show our determination to attack, and at the same time send envoys to negotiate. There may be a glimmer of hope to save Mr. Zhang from the dire straits."
Zhou Zixi had one thing he didn't say: the Quanrong were a barbaric and brutal people, and it was unknown whether Zhang Fu could survive until the envoy arrived. Even if he could still survive, if the envoy didn't say something right, he might lose his life in advance.
The selection of this envoy is crucial in rescuing him, but he looked around his lord and there seemed to be no suitable person.
Cheng Qianye's gaze also looked at the faces in front of him.
Yu Dun is simple and honest, He Lanzhen is upright, Cheng Feng is always sharp-tongued, Mo Qiaosheng...
Even if Qiaosheng was suitable, they were reluctant to let him go.
Besides, he is a quiet person.
Zhou Zixi bowed and said, "I am willing to serve as an envoy to Xirong on behalf of my lord."
"If you are involved, even if I exchange Zhang Fu, it will be meaningless."
Cheng Qianye patted his shoulder. Zhou Zixi had disabled legs, and she couldn't bear to let him go into danger again.
"I have a suitable candidate. I will let her go. You just stay in Zhengzhou and do your best to plan for me."
The author has something to say: Stupid author: "Mr. Zhang, I'm so sorry for making you spend the New Year's Day in jail."
Zhang Fu: "If you really feel embarrassed, why don't you give me some more dishes? Why do you only give me two white steamed buns?"