"General! Should we light the beacon fire to notify Chengzhou?!" The soldiers said in panic. The beacon fires all over the mountain meant that an extremely urgent incident had occurred in Liangzhou, but the distance was far and they had no idea what had happened. This made people even more panicked.
Qian Zheng said slowly and chuckled like an old man: "Why are you panicking? Did you see anyone coming to report military intelligence? Isn't Yuchi Army guarding Liangzhou? I think we should have confidence in Yuchi Army!" Qian Zheng said with a smile.
The reason why he was not panicked was not because he had confidence in Yuchi Feng, but because when Yuchi Feng took office in Liangzhou, someone sent him a superstition and asked him to "take good care" of Yuchi Feng.
This care is not about taking good care of him, but finding an opportunity to delay Yuchi Feng's retreat. There are often wars in sensitive border areas. For example, when a war breaks out, it is necessary to delay the speed of food and grass, the speed of reinforcements, and the speed of reporting.
This "delay" has its own rules. If it is delayed too little, it will not cause much harm to Yuchi Feng. If it is delayed too long, Liangzhou will be breached, and his Songcheng will also be doomed!
So when the beacon fire was just lit in Liangzhou, Qian Zheng decided to delay it for a while, at least until someone came to report the military situation. What if it was a beacon fire lit by a bored kid in Liangzhou? Or maybe there was a wildfire somewhere. If there was a wildfire in Liangzhou, they would also light a beacon fire to let everyone go down the mountain quickly to take shelter.
While thinking, Qian Zheng picked up the telescope again, looking at the curling green smoke as if he was appreciating the scenery. It was really a unique artistic conception.
"Does it look good?!" Suddenly, a sneering voice came from beside him.
Qian Zheng shook his head: "It's OK, it's OK."
"I'll chop off your head and hang it on the city gate. I think this decoration is great and should look pretty." The people around him joked.
What? Chop off his head?! Qian Zheng immediately put down the binoculars and glared at the strange man who suddenly appeared beside him: "Who the hell are you? How dare you chop off my head!"
Suddenly, a handsome man in military armor took out a golden dragon plate and said, "Third Prince Duanmu Jinhong! Can I chop off your head?"
Qian Zheng's face turned pale, his legs weakened, and he knelt in front of the Third Prince, his mouth crooked: "Third, Third Prince..."
Duanmu Qingchen looked down at Qian Zheng coldly. In this world, it is people like this who ruin everything!
When Yao Guang opened the gate for everyone, he first opened the gate of Chengzhou, because there were troops stationed in Chengzhou, and if troops were to be transferred, they had to be transferred from Chengzhou. So General Yuchi and his men had to go to Chengzhou to transfer troops and make good deployments.
Duanmu Qingchen and Duanmu Jinhong went to Songcheng, so that they could meet people from Liangzhou and Chengzhou in Songcheng.
When they arrived at Songcheng, they found that everything was peaceful and the people were still living their lives as usual, seemingly unaware of what had happened in Liangzhou. If she hadn't seen the situation in Liangzhou in the secret realm first, Yuchi Yanxia would have thought that Yao Guang was exaggerating and that there was no Taotie army at all.
It was not until the hunter who came back in the evening said that he saw a beacon fire in Liangzhou from the top of the mountain that the people began to get nervous and climbed to high places to look into the distance.
At that time, beacon fires had actually been lit in various mountain strongholds, including the mountain stronghold near Songcheng.
Duanmu Jinhong was a little suspicious when he found that the commander of Songcheng had not notified the people to leave or lit the beacon fire. The impatient Yuchi Yanxia also felt that there was something fishy. The one in Liangzhou was her own brother! Liangzhou was in flames, and she was of course worried.
Duanmu Qingchen climbed to the top of the city wall. With the Golden Dragon Plate in his hand, naturally no one dared to stop him. So he successfully climbed up the city wall and just happened to hear Qian Zheng's words.
Without Yuchi Yanxia by his side, Duanmu Qingchen's true nature was revealed. His dandy nature, coupled with Duanmu Jinhong's stern face, turned into evil.
"Hmph! Light the beacon to notify Chengzhou! And evacuate all the people in Songcheng!" Duanmu Qingchen shouted loudly, and the soldiers immediately became nervous.
"Yes!" All the soldiers did not dare to delay any longer and quickly lit the beacon fire to notify the people to leave the city as soon as possible!
The common people's sense of smell is often sharper than that of the soldiers, which seems to come from their distrust of the officials guarding the city. So before the soldiers notified them, they had already privately packed their bags, tied up their old cows, and started to leave the city in twos and threes.
As soon as the beacon fire was lit here, Yuchi Yanxia went up to the city wall, took the telescope from Duanmu Qingchen, and looked at the distant mountains with worry.
"No! I want to go and take a look!" Yuchi Yanxia could no longer wait when she saw the beacon fires all over the mountain.
Duanmu Qingchen was shocked. Unexpectedly, Duanmu Jinhong had already stopped Yuchi Yanxia and said, "Mother, calm down. We don't know the situation in Liangzhou very well. At this time, I think we should listen to Miss Lian's orders and make preparations for defense in Songcheng."
Duanmu Qingchen looked at Duanmu Jinhong. His calmness was what he didn't have. If it were him, he would probably say immediately: "Okay, I'll go too!" Because he likes adventure, likes thrills and excitement.
But in this situation, this is exactly what is unacceptable, because if you just run over recklessly like this, you may very likely become food in the mouth of a glutton.
Duanmu Jinhong's words calmed Yuchi Yanxia down. Recalling what she had seen before, she felt that she had been controlled by her emotions and had lost her usual calmness. Fortunately, the prince reminded her. This reminder also gave her unprecedented pride in her heart. She saw her son's calmness and maturity. He was no longer the impulsive and foolish son he used to be.
The beacon fire was lit and the war began. General Yuchi, who had arrived in Chengzhou, saw it and immediately ordered Chengzhou to evacuate the people.
But Chengzhou is different from Songcheng, because Chengzhou is a prosperous provincial capital. Because it is close to the border, there are merchants coming from all over the place.
The sudden announcement of evacuation did not sit well with many wealthy and powerful people living in Chengzhou. Some even insulted the officers and soldiers who came to evacuate, accusing them of being incompetent and unable to defend the city, while letting the people suffer. The difficulty of evacuating Chengzhou was far greater than that of ordinary people in Songcheng, and also exceeded the expectations of General Yuchi.
Indeed, because of the Yuchi Army, the Qian Dynasty had been peaceful for more than a decade, and no foreign country dared to invade. Even if there were occasional foreign enemies attacking the border, they were blocked by the Yuchi Army outside the border, preventing them from setting foot on the Qian Dynasty's royal land.
Therefore, let alone Chengzhou, even Songcheng has never been conquered by foreign enemies. For the residents of Chengzhou, Chengzhou is already a very safe city in their hearts. If there are enemies, they should be blocked outside the distant Liangzhou.
Until the evening, only ordinary people left the city in an orderly manner under the supervision of officers and soldiers, and went to the next town for refuge. General Yuchi had sent people with fast horses to notify the next town to accept the evacuated people. (To be continued)