Xiao Jihuai's wedding is being prepared in full swing. The wedding will be held in the grand Jinan Marquis Mansion. The number of people who have come to send congratulatory gifts in the past few days is almost over the threshold. Many people have sent thousands of taels of gifts, just for
Obtained an invitation for the wedding day. It is said that an ordinary guest invitation for two people has been bid up to 600 taels.
Even the Xu Mansion, which had always been deserted, was bustling with activity these days. Xu Qinghan had to put a notice on the door: the wedding will be hosted by the man, and the woman will not accept gifts or send invitations except for relatives. This made those big people happy.
Officials large and small returned home disappointed.
Xu Muxue's wedding dress was personally customized by people from the palace's clothing bureau, all according to the regulations of the princess's daughter-in-law. The pearl on top of the phoenix crown was specially gifted to her by Concubine Xiao. Xiao Ping also heard the private discussions among the people from the clothing bureau.
, that bead is worth at least three thousand taels, and this wedding dress is all made of the best materials. Calculated, it costs more than ten thousand taels, which is far more than the cost of the wedding dress when the emperor's grandson married his concubine.
Already.
When these words reached Xiaoxue's ears, it didn't make any waves. She didn't even look at the luxurious wedding dress that was custom-made in a hurry. She was still dressed in plain clothes all day long.
…
"Hurry up for eight hundred miles!" He Qizhou shouted as he rushed into the provincial capital Jincheng under the scorching sun. The main avenue in the city was crowded with tourists, and the horse that was about to die was still being urged to death by its rider.
"Get out of the way, get out of the way!" He Qizhou used his shouts and increasingly sophisticated riding skills to speed through the crowd. After walking two or three miles, he couldn't help but secretly worry. This Jincheng is really big. I wonder if he has missed the inn?
"Get out of the way, get out of the way, get out of the way!" He Qizhou found several horses walking side by side in the middle of the road. They were all wearing bright clothes and angry horses, but they turned a deaf ear to his shouts.
"Third Young Master, do you want to give way? It seems to be an urgent post ride.
"Are you stupid? You want us to give way to a postman?" the third young master said angrily.
"If you don't let the postman kneel down and salute, it's already a mercy. Why do you still want to give way?" The young master next to the third young master also said.
"Ah, why is that guy still charging towards me? Stop him quickly and hit my Dawan horse. I will kill him!" the third young master exclaimed, as the post horse was heading straight for him.
"Yes!" The guards on the left and right were about to raise their whips to hit He Qizhou's fast horse.
"Ah -" the third young master let out a scream, and flew into the air in the blink of an eye. Then he saw the postman sitting on his horse, and kicked the young master next to him off the horse. He rode one horse and led another.
The horse turned around and galloped away.
I thought I was going to fall half to death, but I didn't expect Luo Li to be unharmed. After a moment of rejoicing, I suddenly woke up and started crying: "You immortal board, hurry up and chase me, your grandma will bring back the land horse!"
Several retinues immediately chased him, but they couldn't match the speed of the two horses, and they disappeared without a trace in the blink of an eye.
He Qizhou resented the other party's rudeness and ignorance for obstructing the military post. Isn't that just delaying the military flight? I can't teach him a lesson too hard. It's a good thing to grab two horses! Well, these two horses are really good. Hey, the post is right in front of him!
No need, just change horses at the next post. He Qizhou lowered his head and galloped under the flag of the post, and the red and white flag suddenly waved wildly.
He Qizhou stopped counting how many stations he passed. It wasn't that he didn't want to count, but there were too many to remember. In the evening, dark clouds covered the Yizhong Plain, and from time to time lightning jumped out of the clouds like golden dragons, and struck fiercely.
It pierced the earth, followed by a deafening thunder.
No one dared to stay in the open wilderness. Along the river, on the straight post road, only a black figure was seen, running alone under the dark clouds, moving slowly to the east. After a while, the rain poured down, and the torrential rain fell.
Driven by the strong wind, the rain stirred up countless vapors in the air, like a cloud of smoke, completely covering the black shadow.
He Qizhou tenaciously emerged from the mist, but in an instant he was wrapped up again. The horse under his crotch could no longer move forward, and his legs buckled and fell. He Qizhou, who had long been accustomed to this, quickly left the stirrups with his feet, touched the saddle, and flew away.
Calculating the distance, we can still reach the next station in two or three miles at most.
He Qizhou raised his head and took another sip of rainwater. Although the rain slowed down his horse, it still saved him time to drink water. There were endless mountains in front of him, Yuzhou was almost here!
He Qizhou looked behind him and saw that the horse in the water was motionless. The heavy rain during the Huangmei season seemed to be deliberately making things difficult for him. Except for the darkness above his head, the sky in the distance already showed golden light, but the strong wind around him was still there, trying desperately to block it.
After him, he violently blew up the fallen leaves and grass, mixed with water vapor and catkins, and rolled them towards the distant city...
The motherland is still against the wind! Time is almost running out! Looking at Yichuan Tobacco and the wind in the city, He Qizhou felt a sadness welling up out of thin air, comparable to the plum yellow Shiyu...
Xiao Jinhuai is very busy these days. The day after tomorrow is the wedding day. He is in the Hanlin Academy, the Armed Forces Hall, in the army, in the court, in the capital, and from outside. Regardless of rank or official title, he just feels that he is entertaining guests every day, not in Baiyun Tower.
, even in Yumen Xiaozhu, it seems that having too many friends is not a good thing. It is really tiring to maintain the image of being open-minded and having close friends all over the world.
"Xiao Lang, are you leaving so soon?" Lying on the couch was the charming Shangguan Qiudi.
"Well, I'm too tired. I have to go back early. You can go to Handan tomorrow morning." Xiao Jihuai said after seeing off several friends.
"What, after all this, you are still afraid that I will cause trouble?" Shangguan Qiudi was actually at Yumen Xiaozhu all the time, but she never showed up again after being rejected by He Qizhou.
"Listen to me, go ahead." Xiao Jihuai walked toward the door, paused, and left without looking back.
The Jinan Marquis Mansion was newly renovated and decorated with lights and decorations everywhere. In order to make the wedding ceremony more in line with the regulations of the prince's wedding, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince actually appointed Bu Hang, the Minister of Etiquette, to come in person to help set the ceremony;
The complete set of red sandalwood furniture in the wedding room was made for the harem by the imperial supervisor using wood donated by the Annan Kingdom. This was one of the congratulatory gifts from the emperor;
The catering on the wedding day will be handled by more than 70 chefs and kitchen workers sent by the imperial kitchen;
On the day of the wedding, on both sides of the more than three miles of road from Xu Qinghan's Mansion in the inner city to Yinan Houfu in the Imperial City, there would be a pair of Imperial Guard soldiers standing guard every three feet;
The five noble concubines in the palace, more than ten princes and princesses in Beijing will all attend the wedding banquet...
Xiao Jixiong looked at the long Yi Cheng and couldn't help showing a proud smile. Even the words he originally wanted to scold Xiao Jihuai took back: "If any friends come over, just push them away. Even if you can't push them away,
Don’t put it in Yumen Xiaozhu either.”
"Okay." Xiao Jihuai nodded in agreement.
…
Under the inner city of Xining, corpses piled up like mountains. King Li Hao of Tuyuhun stood at the top of the city, looking at Prince Hai, Northern Zhou Chiyan and others in the distance with mixed feelings in his heart.
"We shouldn't have let him live in the first place," said Wuzan, who was dressed in military uniform on the left side of Li Hao. He was the commander of Tuyuhun's imperial army and the father of the Wuerhan brothers and sisters. The tribe where King Hai belonged to was Tuyuhun.
The second largest tribe after the royal family, it colluded with the Northern Zhou Dynasty to rebel once thirty years ago, causing Li Hao's family to suffer heavy casualties. In the later stage of the rebellion, the defeated King Haijun personally killed several elders of the clan and re-established the clan.
He surrendered to the imperial court and for the past thirty years has been keeping his peace and stationed in the western border of Tuyuhun.
"Too many people had died at that time. Alas... I didn't expect that the Tianshan Sect would be implicated." Li Hao sighed.
"What's the point of talking about this? Now think about how to guard the time." Shi Ji, a Tianshan sect covered in blood, stood on the other side of Li Hao. It was his timely notification that gave Li Hao the opportunity to deploy his defenses.
time.
It turns out that King Haijun and the Northern Zhou Dynasty have been secretly communicating. Last year, one of the main purposes of the Northern Zhou Dynasty's massive attack on Jiayuguan was to divert the elite troops stationed in Longnan. The Kangche Kingdom in the Western Regions was already the leader between Qi and Zhou.
At both ends, they could not withstand the temptations of the Northern Zhou Dynasty and the threat of Prince Hai, so they sent out troops from all over the country to help Prince Hai rebel.
The three parties gathered 30,000 troops, hoping to capture Qi's lonely Tianshan sect in one fell swoop, and then march to the southeast to take Xining. King Haijun set up a trick, saying that Kangche State was leading troops to attack in a sneak attack, and asked the Tianshan sect to send people to help.
Because they had indeed received the news of the Kangche Kingdom's advance, the Tianshan Sect sent more than 200 masters without doubting that it was false. Unexpectedly, they never returned, and after being poisoned, they were surrounded and killed by the armies of the two countries.
When King Haijun sent people to Tianshan for help for the second time, the old master saw through the trick and sent more than 10,000 people to attack. Although the Tianshan sect was strong, half of the masters were lost first. How could they withstand the opponent's large number of people?
What's more, Chi Yan also brought the Northern Zhou Yulin Guards to join the battle group.
The old leader Bai Luo, who had already seen the clues, asked his deputy leader Shi Ji to lead twelve gang masters to break out of the encirclement and call the police in the direction of Xining. Shi Ji, who came to Yongquan Shangjing, finally took the three surviving people with him.
After defeating the rebel army, they rushed to Xining in two days. It is estimated that none of the 200 people who stayed on the mountain were spared. Even the leader was in trouble. It was the old leader who struggled to block the attack of the opponent's masters that allowed Shi Ji to
Others have a chance to break out of the siege.
Knowing the news of the rebellion two days in advance gave Li Hao a chance to save himself. Because there were too few troops and the outer city was too big, Li Haoze simply abandoned the defense of the outer city and let all the people take away their property and food and hide in
Inner city, and demolished houses on the main road leading to the inner city to block the opponent's cavalry;
All young and middle-aged men had to join the defensive team, so in addition to gathering the five thousand soldiers and horses around the capital, another ten thousand men were recruited from the one hundred thousand people in the city within one day;
For two days, they continued to strengthen the city wall and clear the fields. By the time the rebels came to the city, they could hardly harvest any food or livestock.
Of course, the rebels were not idle. The army passed by with overwhelming force. They also sent people to persuade the generals of the border towns bordering Qi's Longnan to surrender. Within a few days, they took control of the northern border of Tuyuhun.
Li Hao knew that it would be difficult to defeat the rebels who had a large number of enemies and high morale. He took advantage of the fact that the rebels had not formed an encirclement and sent people to catch up with the team that went to Qi to watch the ceremony. However, he did not expect that they could not get out of the Longnan border.