The palace immediately fell into chaos. Some ministers followed the chamberlain and knelt down, saying in a trembling voice: "Your Majesty, please move to the Eastern Capital!"
"Your Majesty, please move!"
The prince also knelt on the ground in fear and kowtowed heavily: "My son, I sincerely ask the saint to move to the east capital as soon as possible!"
"..."
Whether to move the emperor out of Beijing or not, there have been many disagreements in the court over this issue recently.
Some ministers believed that Chang Sui Ning Langzi was ambitious and occupied Luoyang, the eastern capital. Going there at this time would be like a sheep entering a tiger's mouth. By then, the dignity of the Tian family would be gone, and both the emperor and the prince would be reduced to puppets, and life and death could only depend on one thought!
Some people also believe that if the emperor flees without a fight and the hearts of the people are shattered, it will only accelerate the fall of the capital and make the situation that was still promising become completely doomed... It is really foolish and cowardly to actively abandon the capital before the situation is clear.
Furthermore, the capital may not be able to be defended!
Bian Chunliang claims to have an army of 200,000, which is suspected of exaggeration. Even if he really has 200,000 troops, they are all improvised mobs... No matter how powerful Bian Chunliang is, he will never be able to do it.
Integrating two hundred thousand people into a well-disciplined iron army in such a short period of time!
There are still 40,000 well-trained troops guarding the capital, so they may not be unable to fight with them!
Even if they are not sure of victory, they can at least delay the resistance for ten and a half days. Time is an opportunity. They have once again urged the Shannan West Road army to return to the court, and sent urgent orders to everywhere, inviting all forces to come to Beijing to escort them...
If we can wait for reinforcements in this half month, the capital can save the day!
But, but...
They never expected that an army of 40,000 people could only resist Bian's army for three days!
How could this be so...
Why did it fail so quickly? Why?!
This shocked question exploded in everyone's minds, and it also appeared in the emperor's heart.
Amidst the mournful cries urging him to move, the Holy Emperor stood up slowly, holding on to the golden dragon relief on the armrest of the dragon chair.
There was a breeze blowing in from outside the palace, fluttering the large dragon robe on her body, making her figure under the robe appear even more thin and emaciated, even feeling a bit empty.
A bolt of lightning flashed across the hall, instantly covering the hall with a layer of deathly whiteness. The glow on the dragon chair behind the Emperor was also covered up by this paleness, and the firm obsession in her eyes that had never faded was also covered for a moment.
gray.
Many times, the Holy Book Emperor can clearly feel the invisible chains wrapped around his body.
Yes, she finally ascended the throne and became the true dragon emperor, but she still has chains on her dragon body. The Li family, the generals, the nobles... these people have been tightly binding her and competing with her all the time.
, wanting to put her to death and make her disappear into ashes.
Since taking the throne, she has been thinking about breaking free and killing them every day...
For more than ten years, she has been walking unswervingly on this path, killing vassal generals, royal children, and nobles. She has clearly killed so many enemies...
But it wasn't until this moment that she clearly felt that the chains with sharp thorns finally broke one by one and fell apart... But at the same time, what appeared on her body was the pain of broken bones as the imperial power was stripped away.
As the chains peeled off, she seemed to have no support, and she completely lost her sense of the dragon chair behind her.
In a daze, she seemed to realize that although imperial power and chains were naturally hostile, they were also dependent on each other in a certain sense... and what really brought her disaster was outside of the chains that bound her.
Even out of her sight.
The empress stared blankly outside the palace.
Under the illumination of the glazed palace lantern, countless dust particles surged in the wind and rain.
The particles of dust that had never been looked at directly gathered together, turning invisible into tangible forms, and suddenly swarmed towards her, like invisible filaments like a cocoon, entangling her one by one.
The empress felt that she could not move.
She never took any problem lightly, but at this moment she subconsciously wanted to deny it and avoid it, trying to tell herself and the world that "Li Yin set up a trap to plot against me." However, there were countless voices in her mind, forcing her to face up to her long-standing feelings.
Misperception.
Questions about "people's hearts", along with countless fine cocoons made of tiny dust particles, seemed to be crushing her to pieces.
The moisture from the rain poured into her nose, and for a moment, she seemed to have returned to the time when she was a neighbor of the Elephant Garden many years ago.
Those years were dark and humid, always depressing, but at this time, the first thing that appeared in her mind was the innocent laughter of children.
When they were young, Ah Xiao and Ah Shang loved to laugh, especially Ah Shang.
When he was very young, Ashang's temperament was extremely bright, he was lively and very stubborn.
When he was punished to kneel down, Ah Shang easily refused to admit his mistakes. A child like that would rather kneel down for an hour than admit that he had done something wrong. But when he saw her, a mother-in-law, with chest tightness and coughing due to anger, she would become nervous.
He stood up immediately, said that he was wrong, and asked his mother and concubine what was wrong.
From about that time on, she began to see clearly the child's heart.
At that time, she didn't like Ah Shang's excessive restlessness. Every time she did this, she would always think of the frail Ah Xiao, and then think of the unsatisfactory but powerless situation...
It seems that there is a destiny of cause and effect, but this situation like a pool of stagnant water was unexpectedly broken by A Shang, who was pretending to be A Xiao.
From then on, she became more and more strict in asking Ah Shang to temper his temper.
Ah Shang did indeed do a good job, replacing A Xiao in studying, going to the battlefield, and becoming the crown prince... Every time he came to salute her, he was quieter and more composed than the last time.
It was quiet until the last time I knelt down to say goodbye.
This calmness is probably the result of her mother's teachings, and she naturally recognizes and appreciates it.
But at this time, as a bystander, she suddenly triggered these old memories, and suddenly realized that this process from vividness to quietness turned out to be a kind of alienation and separation...
This memory appeared very suddenly in the empress's mind, and this was by no means a suitable time to recall the past. Its sudden appearance was probably due to the changes in the relationship between mother and daughter, and the gradual divergence between the emperor and the people without her realizing it.
, have something in common.
At this moment, the empress was almost confused.
The human heart is invisible and changeable. Human nature is evil and greedy. Without deterrence and discipline, it is not enough to control... She has obviously never treated her carelessly, so why is she still out of control?
What went wrong? If she had to do it all over again, what changes should she make to avoid everything like this?
The empress tried to think about it, but found that she had no answer.
As a king, standing at the highest point, looking down on all living beings, and knowing everything about the world... But in the face of such a huge mistake, she had no answer!
This unanswered answer made the empress feel at a loss, unable to reflect on herself. Underneath the confusion was the fear of losing control——
What she hates most in her life is the word "out of control".
Out-of-control things, out-of-control people, out-of-control life... She wants to get rid of everything out of control, gain the power to control herself, and no longer be influenced by anyone and anything. This is her original intention to climb up step by step.
But at this moment, she was surrounded by a feeling of being out of control that was a hundred times greater than before, and was about to be swallowed up by it.
The gold bricks under my feet seemed to be cracking, and the entire hall was falling rapidly. The sky and the earth were spinning, and everything was shifting...
The empress subconsciously reached out her hand, trying to grab something.
A gust of cold wind howled into the hall, and the two candles on the bronze bird candlestick flickered and went out.
The empress's thin figure was extinguished in the wind like a candle, swaying and falling to the ground.
The emperor's crown fell, the jade beads scattered, and they splashed and rolled down the steps.
"saint!"
"His Majesty!"
"..."
The wind has not stopped and the rain has subsided slightly.
On the streets that were starting to become restless, an old man sitting in a carriage that was moving quickly sighed: "I have no intention of success, and I have no intention of failure."
A man in his early forties asked anxiously: "Father...where are we going?"
The old man was upset by the question: "How do I know?"
The man's eyes widened: "You... don't know where you are going? How dare you follow me?"
"The fire is burning on my eyebrows. If you don't leave, why are you waiting?" Mrs. Chu said angrily: "If you can leave, then it will be done!"
The man tremblingly raised his hand and pointed at the driver: "Then...you should know who these people are!"
Mr. Chu: "Nonsense."
The man holding the baggage breathed a sigh of relief and stopped asking any more questions. He only opened the corner of the car curtain, looked behind him, and said uneasily: "I don't know if I'm following you..."
When Taifu Chu heard this, he felt upset - if he had less students, he wouldn't have loaded ten cars with his children and grandchildren at such a critical moment. It was so annoying and annoying!
Ten fully loaded carriages carried the Chu family and galloped towards the Dengtai Tower.
There is a secret passage in Dengtai Tower that existed many years ago that can be used to get out of the city. Last year, Meng Lie, under the instruction of Chang Sui Ning, had someone reopen the passage and resume its use.
When Taifu Chu and his party arrived at Dengtai Tower, they could faintly hear the sound of Bian Jun's horse hoofbeats.
Chang Ren and others did not dare to neglect for a moment and went to various places according to the plan.
Logically speaking, the people on the list should be arranged to leave the city as early as possible, rather than waiting until Bian's army enters the city. However, the imperial court ordered that the capital be defended, and had already closed all the city gates, and strictly prohibited powerful officials from escaping.
Supervision methods are very strict.
After the curfew, patrols in the city are particularly strict, and no one is allowed to go out and walk around. Once discovered, they will be killed on the spot.
Unwilling to abandon the city, the imperial court made various decisions to forcibly stabilize the situation and people's hearts, which greatly increased the difficulty of Chang Ren and others' actions. During these days, they could only deploy in secret and make preliminary preparations. Until now, Bian Jun entered the city.
The city's defenses were broken, and the imperial army had no time to take care of itself. Only then could the final rescue plan be put into action openly.
But the imperial court, which had persisted until this moment, was not unprepared.
The rear city gate passage has been opened, and there are still elite soldiers resisting in front of the palace gate. The five thousand forbidden troops used to escort the emperor and the prince out of the city are always on standby - the emperor's persistence, although stubborn, is never blindly waiting for death.
In other words, the court reserved time and room for escape.
However, the number of important ministers that the emperor could take away was limited, and the ordinary dignitaries and common people who had no one to escort them could only seek their own blessings and rely on their own luck.
The discipline of Bian's army was not strict. After Bian Chunliang led his troops into the city, he went straight to the palace. However, when the soldiers following him saw the prosperous Kyoto, their eyes almost lit up. Many people left the team and listened to their evil thoughts and greed.
The knife plundered wantonly.
Many people who knew that they did not have the ability to risk leaving the city made up their minds to stay behind closed doors and wait for the storm to pass. However, the doors of their homes were violently knocked open by Bian Jun armed with a knife.
On this night, the fate of the powerful is destined to be more difficult and twists and turns than that of ordinary people.
Bian's army specifically targeted wealthy families and looted them. The splendid gates were broken down one after another, and the cries were heard all over the place.
An old man in a brocade gown denounced "thieves without virtue" and was teased and laughed by Bian Jun, who dragged him out, stripped him of his clothes, and then killed him with a knife, leaving his body to be disturbed on the long street.
Crowd stampede.
The blood dyed the rainwater red and flowed into the moat along the grooves.
"Sister-in-law, hurry up!"
At the back door of Wu's house, Wu Chunbai picked up his young nephew, hurriedly put him into the car, and helped his elderly grandfather into the carriage.
Two of the three carriages were soon filled. When Wu Chunbai was about to board the carriage, a sharp arrow flew over and almost missed the tip of her nose!
When Wu Chunbai could barely avoid it, he fell to the ground. Regardless of the pain, he shouted in fear: "Drive! It's Bian Jun here. Let's go to the agreed place! Someone will meet you!"
Several coachmen were so horrified that they immediately waved their whips without caring much.
The accident happened in an instant. Almost at the same moment, a group of Bian soldiers on horseback had surrounded them. They fired arrows at the speeding carriage. When they saw that they could not stop them, they cursed.
When Wu Chunbai got up from the ground, he was surrounded by Bian's army.
She vaguely heard the cries of her family coming from the direction the carriage was leaving. The cries gradually faded away, which made her feel a little relieved, and she had to start looking at her terrible situation.
What was even worse was that, in addition to a group of servants who followed closely, she discovered that her brother Wu Zhaobai could not escape either.
Before those people launched an attack, Wu Chunbai said: "Generals, we just want to save our lives. All our belongings are at home. You just go and get them!"
Hearing his sister's words of surrender, Wu Zhaobai's expression changed, and he clenched his fists and endured without saying a word.
Among the group of people, some spoke a southern dialect, but the leader spoke with an easily distinguishable Shannan accent: "Of course I have to take the property!"
As he said this, a malicious smile burst out from his eyes: "My dear lady, please come with us!"
As soon as he finished speaking, he suddenly drove his horse forward and waved the horse roping pole.
The rough horse rope fell on Wu Chunbai, and the man tightened the rope and exerted force in his hands. Wu Chunbai was immediately pulled to the ground by the strong force. The man on the horse laughed evilly and drove the horse in a circle.
Looking at Wu Chunbai, it attracted more wild laughter and applause.
While Wu Chunbai was covered in mud and struggling, a figure suddenly rushed forward and threw herself beside her. With one hand, she grabbed the rope in front of her, and with the other hand, she took out the dagger she had prepared at some point, gritting her teeth.
Cut the rope quickly.
His movements were unfamiliar and panicked, causing his fingers to bleed, but he didn't care much and quickly picked up his sister: "Chunbai! Let's go!"
However, before the brother and sister could stand up completely, their path was already surrounded by the group of people again.
This time, the leader's face no longer had a teasing look, but a sinister look of anger.