After the accidental bombing incident, the empire's suspicion of the emperor reached a peak, even within the army, such voices appeared from time to time.
As for the emperor, he also began to become a little elusive. He always felt that some courtiers were secretly teasing him, and even once refused to have intimate conversations with any courtiers, let alone shake hands and other physical contact.
In order to rush back to the capital to fight the fire, Tan Yan adopted a strategy at great risk, and finally succeeded in breaking through the enemy's defenses, but he himself was seriously injured, and even Long Yuan had to return to the factory for overhaul.
Wu Qiao was anxious, wanting to know how Tan Yan was injured, but the emperor and the minister of defense kept offering condolences, and Wu Qiao's request for dialogue was always postponed by the hospital.
He couldn't calm down all the time, dangling around the room, Yajiu was almost fainted by him.
Wu Qiao really wanted to say that he was the marshal's family member and asked the emperor to step aside to make way for him.
Finally, when Wu Qiao finally managed to connect, he felt that he was going crazy with anxiety.
"Tan Yan..." Wu Qiao even became short of breath, his voice trembling uncontrollably, "Are you okay now?"
"Not good." Tan Yan said, "I have become a eunuch."
"… what?"
"You don't know what that means?"
"I know..." Wu Qiao didn't expect this situation. He wanted to comfort Tan Yan, and after holding back for a long time, he finally said, "It's...it doesn't matter. I'll just take the initiative in the future..."
Unexpectedly, Tan Yan over there snorted: "I'm really sorry for disappointing you, I was just joking."
"...What are you proud of?" Actually, Wu Qiao really didn't think too much about who should take the initiative. According to his personality, he should like to attack the role, but... He has to admit that he is served very comfortably every time, all fatigue seems to be swept away, leaving only a full sense of satiety on his body.
"The main injury is on the leg, and it will recover soon." Tan Yan said again.
Wu Qiao finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"However," Tan Yan suddenly changed his tone, "Besides the leg injury, there is something serious."
"What?" Wu Qiao immediately became nervous.
"Disfigured and ugly."
"Does it affect vision and hearing?"
"No, it just becomes ugly."
"..." Wu Qiao was thinking about what to say, after all, the other party was a very beautiful person.
"Do you want to see it?"
"Anything is fine." Wu Qiao replied, "If you want me to watch it, I'll watch it, and if you don't like it, I won't watch it."
"You don't care?"
"I don't care." Wu Qiao shook his head, "I just feel distressed, because you seem to care."
"Wu Qiao," Tan Yan asked him after a pause, "I suddenly want to know why you are with me."
"Huh?" Wu Qiao didn't understand.
"Is it because of looks? Or is it because of status? Or is it because of fighting or military skills? Is it because of liking, obsession, or just worship. If these things are gone, will your feelings gradually fade?"
"I don't know..." Wu Qiao was also puzzled.
What does he like about each other
If Tan Yan becomes ugly, of course he will not dislike it. He didn't seem to care if he was stripped of his title. What if you can't fight? It didn't look like he cared either. If he becomes stupid and stupid, he still won't leave.
So, really don't know.
"I can't tell the difference." After confirming, Wu Qiao emphasized again, "You are right, I like you, I am obsessed with you, I admire you. Even if you become nothing, I still like you, obsessed with you, I adore you. It doesn't make sense, but that's what I think."
"..."
"..." Wu Qiao felt a little awkward, and lowered his head and stopped looking at the other party.
"Okay." Tan Yan said, "Let me show you my face."
"Ok."
After the screen shook, Wu Qiao saw a familiar face.
There is no difference from before...
Wu Qiaozai looked carefully for a long time, and finally found a small scar above Tan Yan's left brow bone.
What is this "disfigured"? ! If you don't look carefully, you won't find it at all!
"Marshal," Wu Qiao said with a sigh, "don't be a fool in the future, no matter what happens, I will always love you."
"..."
—Tan Yan's injury healed very quickly.
Before he recovered, he ran to meet the emperor.
Many people advised him not to go, so as not to be ashamed again. The emperor has been moody recently, and seems to be on the verge of eruption—the more he doesn't want to be the king of subjugation, the more he will be engulfed in the shadow of defeat.
However, after all, Tan Yan still has a way. Not only did he succeed in making the emperor less irritable, but he also made the emperor promise to refer to his opinions in the military in the future.
The emperor obviously trusted him, and after the nuclear explosion, the emperor's self-confidence dropped to an all-time low. Tan Yan's process of persuading the emperor was not as difficult as he imagined.
Wu Qiao thought this was a good thing. The emperor's willingness to listen to Tan Yan's words at least shows that there will be no serious mistakes in the military. Tan Yan's suggestions will never be outrageous, Wu Qiao is still confident in this, and he still regards Tan Yan as an idol to this day.
However, the crisis was not immediately alleviated. It's like playing a game of chess. Once you lose a lot of important pieces in the first half of the game due to a few stupid moves, even if you move carefully afterwards, it will be difficult to recover the decline. The position will continue to be tense irresistibly. Chess will gradually move toward an ending that seems to have been doomed for a long time.
The balance is tipping to one side, too fast to add weight to the other side no matter what.
In October, Capital Star ushered in the coldest winter in hundreds of years.
Wu Qiao found that some of his generals were acting more and more abnormally.
Like the emperor, they went farther and farther on the wrong path for the sake of merit.
Wu Qiao first noticed that the results reported to him by his subordinates were very wrong.
A major general reported in his report that he wiped out 60,000 enemies in the last battle, but no matter how he thought about it, Wu Qiao felt that it was impossible for that army to kill 60,000 enemies.
Wu Qiao asked Ji Yao to lead someone to interview one-thirtieth of the people individually, and the results showed that these one-thirtieth people only wiped out about 500 people in total.
Wu Qiao questioned the major general, who was forced to admit that his report was false.
This fact shocked Wu Qiao very much.
Immediately afterwards, Wu Qiao discovered that those subordinates became more and more cruel in order to win.
Another major general used a strategy, which was to put the captured enemy uniforms on the corpses of his own people, and then throw them on the opponent's advancing route. When the people of the Republic saw the "companion" lying in the distance, they naturally wanted to turn the person over to see what happened. At this time, the bomb hidden in the corpse would explode and complete its unique mission.
Those corpses, who had sacrificed their lives for the empire, would be made into bombs to blow up their bones after death, which made many soldiers feel very chilling.
So Wu Qiao knew more and more clearly that now, the driving force for the generals in the army is no longer to fight for the country. satisfy.
Although Tan Yan has abolished many strict military systems, the generals still have lingering fears. Those systems did make them more persistent on the battlefield, but at the same time they lost many of the qualities they should have.
They transferred the pressure to ordinary soldiers, telling them that they must fight to the last moment. Many ordinary soldiers already regarded themselves as dead when they went out.
The military doctor told Wu Qiao that the proportion of patients with depression in the army has far exceeded the normal range.
The atmosphere of the army is oppressive, the business community is full of complaints, and the people are panicked.
No matter how you look at it, it is a sign of doom.
"Marshal..." Wu Qiao only felt that his chest was hard to breathe, and he took a desperate breath, which made his internal organs ache, "I always feel... really... I can't do it..."
"..."
"If you continue like this, you will probably lose. I am afraid that this country has no patience to wait for you, and there are others who are slowly helping the emperor to change the current situation. What people need is a vigorous and complete change." The emperor under the imperial system Power is supreme, and one must safeguard one's own interests when making decisions, which is also human instinct. Usually the people of the empire live well, and naturally they have no determination to overthrow the imperial system regardless of everything. However, when the country is alive and dead, and when they may become sacrificed children at any time, they panic wave after wave, and urgently need a revolution. Save everyone who is on the edge of the cliff.
"..."
"The torrent of the times has come, and it has gradually changed from a small stream to a vast ocean. The emperor is like a drowning man. Even if you drag him to the death, how long can you hold on? In the end, he will sink with you. At the bottom of the water, it turned into two inconspicuous skeletons."
The building will fall, and there is no tree to support it.
A spider web destroyed in a storm, no matter how hard the spider tries to weave it, it is impossible to restore it to its original shape, and the remaining parts will definitely be washed away, and no one can find it in the bright sunshine of the next day About the slightest trace of the spider web.
"I know." Tan Yan over there was extremely calm, as if these things had been turned in his mind thousands of times, "But I can't go, with strong enemies around, I can only hold on."
"...Well." Wu Qiao understood that that person would not leave. Now the only empire in the empire can deal with the supreme commander of the Republic who loves to play table tennis. If Tan Yan doesn't care about it, he may collapse. The mutiny is also extremely risky. First, there are not so many people in the army who dare to point their swords at the emperor. Not many people are willing to listen to the rebels; Forcing the emperor to abdicate is equivalent to giving up the current struggle with the Republic, and it is easy for people to take advantage of it. The imperial palace is by no means easily captured in a few days, it is extremely strong, easy to defend but difficult to attack. The emperor's huge guard army directly obeys the emperor's orders. Moreover, for the sake of stability, the emperor has always divided the army between two people, half of each person. It used to be Tan Yan and Xiao En, but now it is Tan Yan and Dai Lun. There is a civilian defense minister, and the current defense minister is one of the emperor's biggest cronies. Tan Yan was recently promoted to Marshal, the purpose was only to exaggerate his military exploits, in fact, he didn't mean to let Dai Lun obey his orders, Dai Lun still reported directly to the Emperor and the Minister of Defense. Therefore, once either of Tan Yan and Dai Lun wanted to mutiny, the other would rush to put out the fire. Tan Yan knew that Dai Lun was loyal to the emperor. No one can predict what the emperor will do, the situation is uncontrollable, he dare not bet. There are so many old ministers of the emperor in the palace who are still powerful, and it is even more unrealistic to solve the problem single-handedly.
"The emperor was overthrown, I don't care, I don't want to fight the revolutionary army, but maybe there is no choice..." Tan Yan said suddenly, "What I am worried about is that after the change of dynasty, after I was executed, the new leader, the new government... Can the Republic be defeated?"
"Don't say anything that will not be executed!"
"Okay. After I lost the military power, will the new leader and the new government be able to defeat the Republic? This sentence is not wrong, right? The country has changed hands, the supreme commander of the revolutionary army, the person who led them to conquer the world, took over the military department Isn't it expected and reasonable? Even if I surrender to them, there is no reason for the old marshal to continue to hold military power. So, that person... can I trust him?"
"Talk about Yan..."
"I can't predict, in this struggle, whether the emperor will win or the revolutionary army will win. If the emperor wins, I will continue to hold back and wait for new opportunities. Now the emperor has agreed to try not to intervene in the war. , in my opinion, the war can persist and will not end soon. However, if the Revolutionary Army wins, will they fight worse in the subsequent battle with the Republic? After all, I have already fought against the Republic The generals have fought countless times, but the people of the Revolutionary Army have not."
"Marshal..."
"Wu Qiao..." Tan Yan had a rare tiredness in his eyes, "Recently, I have often wondered if it would be better if I hadn't fallen in love with you, if I still just admired you... In this way, no one knows what will happen tomorrow... In the troubled times, the two of us can each choose a path, so that this country will not have no one to trust. If the emperor wins, at least I will be there, and if the revolutionary army wins, you will be there in the future... I can also rest assured some."
"..."
"But after thinking about it, I have never experienced the feeling of liking someone, so I am not reconciled."
"I thought so too." Wu Qiao lowered his eyes, "I'm sure the monarchy will be overthrown, but I don't know if it's now or at some point in the future... If the uprising fails, it's better to have you persuade the emperor than from now on." In the future, it will be much stronger for the emperor to make decisions alone."
"..."
"Tan Yan, the two of us, aren't we too narcissistic?" In terms of narcissism, the two of them are really a couple.
"..."
"But Tan Yan..." Wu Qiao let out a whimper like a small animal, "If one person chooses a path, maybe...the two of us...we will never be together again."
One person chooses one path, there are so many variables in that kind of thing, who can guarantee that there will be no problems
Changing the world and making the people of this country live better has always been the greatest ideal in Wu Qiao's life.
However, in the distant past, Wu Qiao never thought that he would have to pay such a price for his ideals.