Late at night, two envoys came to visit the Prince of Yan's mansion. One of them was thin, with a fair face and was very elegant. He was the Right Prime Minister of Yan, Yue Yuanting. The other one was dressed simply and was not very noticeable. His thick black beard covered most of his face. He looked strong and powerful. He was the general Han Xiaoyun in disguise.
The two of them walked into the cabinet and saw Ji Fan sitting behind the desk. They couldn't help but be overjoyed and excited. They immediately knelt down and greeted: "Your humble servant greets His Royal Highness the Crown Prince."
Yue Yuanting and Han Xiaoyun were both important officials of the State of Yan, serving under the Queen Mother. Ji Fan had to treat them with courtesy. He got up from behind the desk and personally helped them up from the ground: "No need to be polite, my two lords. Please take a seat."
Han Xiaoyun looked at Ji Fan, whose youthful look had long since faded away, with a face full of shame. He hesitated to speak, and after a long silence, he finally sighed and uttered a sentence: "It has been seven years since we parted from Beiyan. Your Highness has suffered..."
When Changling was defeated, it was the Emperor of Yan who was eager for success, but all the blame fell on a young man. Han Xiaoyun personally escorted Ji Fan out of Yan. Ji Fan was only eighteen years old, thin in white clothes, shackled, and had a short shoulder. He was forced to bear the crime of the country.
Seven years passed in the blink of an eye, and thousands of days and nights were all torment.
Han Xiaoyun could no longer remember what Ji Fan looked like when he left Yan. He only remembered that he did not cry or get angry when he received the order. He was extremely calm and his back was straight in the court. Although Ji Fan in front of him did not change much in appearance, he acted flawlessly and smiled lightly. He had become a deep pool that was hard to fathom.
Things are different and people have changed.
When Ji Fan heard Han Xiaoyun talking about the past, he paused slightly and smiled, "General, you have a good memory. It has been seven years. At that time, I felt that the days passed by were like years, but now looking back, it is just a blink of an eye."
He turned around and sat down behind the desk, raising his hand to signal, "Please take a seat, my lords."
There was a screen beside him, and behind the screen was a couch. The curtains fell quietly, hiding the person lying on the bed. Rong Xuan deliberately concealed his breathing and hid inside to eavesdrop on their conversation. Of course, he had Ji Fan's permission.
Han Xiaoyun looked around and said, "Your Highness, why don't you see Feng Chen?"
Ji Fan: "He is in the princess's residence, there are many people and eyes, so we didn't let him come over."
Han Xiaoyun also knew that Yan Fengchen was marrying the princess. Hearing this, he sighed and nodded, and said nothing more.
Right Prime Minister Yue Yuanting bowed and said, "Your Highness, in the past few months, I have sent several memorials to Emperor Zhou on the orders of the Queen Mother, hoping to fulfill the seven-year agreement to welcome you back to Yan, but I have been refused in every possible way. Now our emperor is seriously ill and has not woken up for many days. The third prince has been ordered to supervise the country and govern separately from the Queen Mother. This time, I and General Han went to Zhou to follow the Queen Mother's orders to escort Your Highness back to Yan. Otherwise, once Your Majesty passes away, the third prince will ascend the throne on an excuse, and I am afraid that he will never be able to turn the tide!"
Ji Fan was the crown prince appointed by the Emperor of Yan himself. He had endured humiliation for the country for many years. If he could return to Yan in time, he would have fewer obstacles to ascend the throne. From the officials to the common people, even if they wanted to criticize him for being a noble, they had no reason to do so.
Ji Fan fell into deep thought after hearing this. His profile was dim and unclear under the flickering candlelight. After a while, he said calmly, "How many troops did you bring with you into Zhou this time?"
Han Xiaoyun only said two words: "Five thousand!"
He gritted his teeth and said word by word: "A total of 5,000 people, all of whom are upper seventh-rank and lower fifth-rank swordsmen. These are all the idle soldiers that I can mobilize. Now they are all in disguise and lying in ambush outside the city."
Ji Fan frowned when he heard this: "Five thousand people?!"
This place is under the emperor's feet, with tens of thousands of soldiers guarding it. How could Han Xiaoyun dare to come here with only 5,000 people to plot against the Zhou Dynasty? !
Yue Yuanting stood up and explained: "Your Highness, you may not know that General Han's Jishu Battalion is currently suppressing a rebellion in Jiangyan. Far water cannot quench thirst. The Shenwei Battalion is stationed in the royal city. If we easily mobilize troops, it will inevitably arouse the suspicion of the Third Prince. Five thousand people are all the elite troops that can be mobilized for this delegation to enter Zhou. Even General Han pretended to be sick and did not leave the house. He secretly mixed into the delegation because he was afraid that the Third Prince would hear about it and send people to kill him halfway."
"These five thousand soldiers were not registered. They were divided into several groups and quietly left Yan from Beiming Pass. This is how they avoided the Third Prince's investigation. The delegation only brought five hundred people to Beijing, but in fact there were another five thousand people secretly ambushed in the suburbs."
Han Xiaoyun also looked solemn: "Fortunately, Your Highness still has 3,000 Yanyun cavalry in his hands. If necessary, they can also hold back for a while."
Ji Fan's eyes froze when he heard this, and he looked up at Han Xiaoyun. He slowly clenched his fingertips, his expression uncertain, and said coldly: "I brought so many people with me when I left Yan, and now that I am returning to Yan, I must bring everyone back—"
When Rong Xuan heard him mention the three thousand cavalry, he couldn't help but think of the original novel, and frowned with worry: After Zhao Su ascended the throne, he regarded Ji Fan as a serious threat and ordered Xuanyuan Qing to lead troops to kill him. The three thousand warriors fought with their lives, and in the end, they all died like Ji Fan. Ji Fan was a clay Buddha crossing the river and couldn't save himself, so it was really difficult to take these three thousand people away from Zhou Kingdom intact.
Ji Fan must have known that this was not easy, so he closed his eyes for a long time without saying anything: "… This matter needs to be carefully considered, you should go back to the inn first, so as not to attract other people's attention."
Han Xiaoyun seemed to see through what he was thinking, and advised him in a deep voice: "Your Highness, a warrior cuts off his arm, a gecko cuts off his tail, and there has always been bloodshed without death! As long as the overall situation is taken into consideration and you return to Yan, let alone the three thousand cavalry, even if I lose my life in Zhou, I will have no complaints! You have been decisive in killing since you were young, you must not be soft-hearted!"
Yue Yuanting saw Han Xiaoyun was very emotional, so he secretly pulled his sleeve and came out to smooth things over: "The day after tomorrow, the Zhou Emperor will hold a banquet and invite all the civil and military officials to appreciate the snow wolf. We will then sound out the situation. If it really doesn't work, we can only do as General Han said and cut off the arm of a hero. Otherwise, once your majesty's condition worsens and the third prince ascends the throne to attack the Zhou Kingdom, your highness will be in danger!"
Yue Yuanting and Han Xiaoyun, one a scholar and one a warrior, were both pillars of the Yan State. These two extremely smart people, together, could not break the current predicament, and could only hold the determination to fight to the death.
"Your Highness, please consider carefully what I have said today. I will take my leave first."
Han Xiaoyun bowed and was about to leave when he suddenly heard a very faint sound of breathing on the bed. His ears moved and his eyes suddenly became stern: "Is there someone on the bed?!"
Ji Fan paused after hearing this, subconsciously looked inside the veil, and then explained: "It's okay, he is my confidant, the two adults can go back first."
Han Xiaoyun frowned in confusion: "Confidant?!"
Why would a confidant hide in the bed
He was about to say something, but Yue Yuanting was very tactful and secretly gave Han Xiaoyun a hand, taking him away: "General, it's getting late, don't delay your highness's rest, let's go."
The nights of Seven Years were long and lonely. Maybe it was a confidant that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince had found to warm his bed. Why bother asking so carefully
The door was closed with a creaking sound. Ji Fan walked to the bed and lifted the curtains. Seeing Rong Xuan still lying inside, he couldn't help but ask, "Everyone has left, why aren't you coming out?"
Rong Xuan was frightened by Han Xiaoyun just now. Hearing this, he kicked the quilt aside, covered his chest and exhaled, lying on the bed with a smile, "As expected of a first-class divine sword, with sharp ears and eyes. I didn't dare to breathe for a long time, but I didn't expect that he would find me."
Ji Fan lifted his robe and sat down beside the bed: "Han Xiaoyun has been on the battlefield for a long time, his ears and eyes are sharp, so he is naturally extraordinary."
Rong Xuan thought of their previous conversation and sat up straight. "Your father is seriously ill now, and it is urgent to return to Yan. However, the capital is heavily guarded. How are you going to fight your way out?"
"Kill them?"
Ji Fan frowned upon hearing this, then shook his head slowly: "How can a mere few thousand people fight against the elite troops of the capital? I'm afraid that not only will we fail to make it out, but we will also die here. Remember, you don't know that Yue Yuanting's martial arts are mediocre, but his strategy is extraordinary. Back then, he was the governor of Langping and was ordered to escort grain and grass to the capital, but he was robbed by the barbarians on the way and trapped in the alien camp. He was only accompanied by 400 guards. How similar is I."
Rong Xuan subconsciously asked: "Then how did he escape?"
Ji Fan twitched his lips when he heard that, and saw a bit of sarcasm in his mouth: "How did he escape? It was just a heroic act. He asked the 400 guards to flee southward to divert the pursuers, and he sneaked into the mountains and forests of the northern border alone to survive. Those barbarians didn't expect Yue Yuanting to be so bold that he didn't even bring a single guard with him, so they naturally fell into the trap. Later, he was appointed as the right prime minister, a high position among the ministers, but the 400 guards were all killed by the barbarians."
Ji Fan's voice suddenly became deep, and it was hard to hear clearly in the darkness: "I am afraid that he will use the same old trick again, hoping to let the three thousand cavalry escape to divert the pursuit. Four hundred people died back then, and now I am afraid that thousands of people will die..."
After he finished speaking, he quietly clenched Rong Xuan's hand, which was cold, and it was unclear whether he was blaming or mocking himself: "Human life is worthless, I never cared about it before. It is said that love corrupts the heart, and it turns out that this is true... I have been with you for a long time, and I have become indecisive."
Ji Fan's eyes used to be filled with indifference, but since when, they began to show a bit of human warmth.
Even though Rong Xuan's mind was crooked and unstable, he couldn't help but feel a little touched when he heard that millions of lives were being gambled. He was about to say something when he suddenly heard a slight noise from outside. His eyes froze and he subconsciously stood up and asked, "Who!"
Ji Fan's expression also changed, and he immediately opened the door to check, only to see that the person standing outside was actually Deputy Commander Jiang Huan.
During the confidential conversation just now, Jiang Huan had been guarding outside the door, fearing that someone might have overheard everything. When he saw Ji Fan coming out, he subconsciously knelt down and apologized: "I deserve to die for disturbing Your Highness."
Ji Fan glanced at him expressionlessly, wondering what he was thinking.
Rong Xuan thought more. Jiang Huan was the leader of the three thousand cavalrymen. Hearing that their master wanted them to take risks, he must have felt resentful.
However, Jiang Huan paused, knelt on the cold ground, remained silent for a long time, and finally uttered only one sentence: "I have received the Queen Mother's secret order to escort His Highness back to Yan safely at any cost—"
He said in a deep voice, word by word: "Your Highness, please do not worry about us. We personally sent Your Highness to this prison back then, and now we will send Your Highness back safely, even if it means death!"
The last four words were squeezed out from between his teeth, like four lightning bolts flashing silently in the dark sky, followed by a deafening sound after the silence. It was hard to doubt the weight of this sentence.
This is an era where life is as cheap as grass, and this is an era where one cannot decide what to do. From the moment a person is born, this life carries many responsibilities.
In troubled times, the imperial power was divided in half, the country was divided in half, the parents were divided in half, and the promise was divided in half, leaving only one tenth of the remaining.
Three thousand people mean three thousand lives, but in the turbulent political situation and the increasingly decadent country, they seem so insignificant.
Ji Fan didn't say anything. He stared at Jiang Huan for a long while, then slowly leaned forward and squatted down. Without saying a word, he stretched out his hand and clenched his shoulders tightly, his knuckles turned blue, and even his scales made a rustling sound.
This was the first time Ji Fan spoke with such gnashing teeth. He stared at Jiang Huan, his face even gloomy, and his words were full of cruelty: "One man and three thousand cavalry, you must return the same way you came, not a single one can be lost—"
Back then, one man led three thousand horses, and their horses' hooves rushed into the blue sky.
Today, the snow covers the Tianshan Mountains, and the Beiming Terrace is not visible in the distance.
Ji Fan was not the only one who left Yan and entered Zhou and did not return to his homeland for seven years.
Hearing this, Jiang Huan looked at Ji Fan in surprise, then his eyes turned red, and he urged in an excited tone: "Your Highness, it's not a pity for me to die, you should consider the overall situation!"
Ji Fan stood up and kicked him to the ground, saying coldly, "Get out and keep watch! I have my own opinion on this matter, and I won't allow others to interfere. If you dare to eavesdrop again, I will never let you off easily!"
Jiang Huan got up from the ground, wanting to say something but stopping himself when he saw Ji Fan's gloomy face, he had no choice but to pick up his sword and go to guard the outer gate.
Ji Fan stood under the eaves, motionless, the night wind blowing up his fluttering sleeves, making him look even thinner. The cold moonlight fell on his face, as bright as a beautiful jade, but his eyes were also frosty and cold.
No one knew what Ji Fan was thinking, as his darkening level quietly dropped to 20.
Rong Xuan listened to the system prompt sound coming from his ear, raised his hand and placed it on Ji Fan's shoulder, then slowly clenched it: "Ji Fan..."
There seemed to be a sigh in his words.
Ji Fan did not turn around. He just raised his head as much as he could, as if he wanted to see Beiyan thousands of miles away through the moon. His deep voice sounded lonely and distant in the night: "Rong Xuan, if I sacrifice three thousand people for my own life today, when I ascend the throne to become emperor, I will sacrifice the lives of thousands of people for my own selfishness."
"When I was young, I read history books and understood a truth: a ruler can be cunning, deceitful, sinister and vicious. He can be heartless and unfaithful to his relatives, unloving his wife and children, but he cannot help loving the people."
"I will be the emperor of Northern Yan in the future. I cannot abandon my vast territory and the people. If I break the rules today, it will be like an ant hiding in a dam hole or a spark falling in the forest. I will no longer be able to restrain my heart."
Rong Xuan knew from the beginning that Ji Fan would be a good emperor. If such a person doesn't become an emperor, what kind of person can become an emperor? He thought for a long time before finally saying, "I want to find a way to meet Zhao Su."
Ji Fan paused when he heard that and looked back at him in surprise.
Rong Xuan repeated, "When Emperor Zhou holds a banquet, I will disguise myself and go to the palace with you. I will find a way to see Zhao Su."