Second possibility

Suddenly, the wind blew through the dense forest, making a rustling sound, and soon, there was another sound of horseshoes coming closer and closer like drums.

The sentinel ambushing in the jungle outside Wangzhou City held his breath, clenched the longbow in his hand, put the arrow on it, and then pulled it away bit by bit.

At the moment when the cavalry approached, a hundred arrows were fired.

"Protect the king!"

The horse neighed, and the well-trained guards jumped off the horses and surrounded Qi Rang.

More than a dozen commoners emerged from the forest, lit torches, and when they saw that the cavalry were all dressed in official Wei uniforms, they slowly put down their bows and arrows, but they still did not relax their vigilance.

"Who are you?"

The leader of the forbidden army behind him handed over his waist badge. The palm-sized iron plate shone coldly under the firelight, and a vertical line of seal script was engraved on it: Palace Guards, next to it is the unique official seal of Wei State.

Qi Rang didn't intend to hide his identity at all, and he didn't hold the badge of the Minister of Supervision to cover his eyes and ears at this moment.

The leading soldier was a little hesitant, but he still let them go. He probably saw that Qi Rang was the leader of the group, so he followed him closely, planning to play by ear.

The leader of the Forbidden Army behind him wanted to stop drinking, but was stopped by Qi Rang, who looked at him,

"Isn't it possible that some people from the Qi and Lu armies have mixed in here recently?"

The soldier looked only sixteen or seventeen years old, with dark skin. He seemed a little nervous after listening to the question, and he only stumbled and said something after holding back for a long time,

"Military secret, no comment."

Qi Rang raised his eyebrows,

"What's the name of the little brother? It shouldn't be a secret, right?"

"I...my name is Li Goudan, and my father said that a cheap name is easy to support."

The leader behind him couldn't hold back a burst of laughter.

Qi Rang gave him a cool sideways glance, and the leader immediately turned serious again.

Passing through the dense forest, you can see a majestic city wall from a distance. After walking in, Qi Rang squinted his eyes at the majestic word Wangzhou on the city wall.

The gate of the city opened, and a general in white robe and silver armor came over with a gun, dragged the horse stiffly, and stopped in front of Qi Rang, looking at the several horses shot to death by random arrows carried by the soldiers behind him, with a gleam in his eyes. With a smile, jokingly said,

"Your Majesty knows that the food in the army is not good, so he specially sent horse meat here."

After finishing speaking, Lili got off his horse and gave Qi Rang a salute.

This person was Chu Zhao who was trapped in Wangzhou.

Qi Rang raised his hand to help him up, looked at the panicked dog behind him, and said with a smile,

"In the past few days, this little brother Lao has brought the widow to get acquainted with this place."

Goudan blushed, half kneeled on the ground, and replied extremely loudly,

"Yes!"

The people around him burst into laughter, and Goudan scratched his head and laughed twice.

After entering the city gate, Qi Rang discovered that the situation here was even worse than he had imagined. He dug out a spoonful of food for the soldiers and said it was rice porridge, but there were only a few grains of rice in the big pot of soup. This is not enough to eat.

Qi Rang looked at the generals behind him,

"How much time is enough for today's food and grass?"

"Back to the king, less than half a month."

The arrival of the monarch cheered up the soldiers. After seeing the generals, Qi Rang walked around the camp alone. At this time, he was standing on the city wall, looking into the distance.

The two armies of Qi and Lu attacked the city during the day and retreated at night. At this time, the lights that were lit in the distance can still be seen.

Slight footsteps sounded behind him, and then he stopped without saying a word, Qi Rang didn't move.

Here, there is only one person who dares to stand behind him secretly and still not salute.

Sure enough, Chu Zhao couldn't hold back and uttered first,

"What is your majesty going to do next?"

Qi Rang changed the subject without answering,

"This time, the grain and grass have been transported from the capital of Wei, and it will probably arrive in the next two days."

After being quiet for a while, Chu Zhao didn't follow his words, and his tone was rare confusion,

"Your Majesty may not know, but I have always been jealous of Mr. Xiangguo."

Qi Rang turned his head to look at him calmly,

"Why?"

Chu Zhao laughed in a deep voice, his half-drooped black eyes concealed the surging emotions in his eyes,

"Master Xiangguo always knows how to please you better than me. Just like Xiangguo is good at chess, when you are upset, you always like to call Xiangguo into the palace to play chess to relieve your boredom. But you don't know, I am also good at chess."

Qi Rang opened his mouth to defend himself, but he heard Chu Zhao say again,

"When I first met the king, the king was with Xiangguo. Do you still remember the first sentence you said to me?"

Qi Rang thought about it seriously, but the combined memories of the two lives were too complicated for him to remember clearly.

Chu Zhao continued as if he had guessed it,

"I didn't know your identity at the time, so I said I was a student of my grandson. Dare I ask what your name is?"

"However, you only glanced at the minister, and then casually joked with Xiangguo: When did the grandson start accepting disciples based on their appearance?"

Qi Rang was dumbfounded when he heard that, what he said...was something he could say when he was young, arrogant and rude.Thinking of this, Qi Rang also smiled. He looked at Chu Zhao,

"The widow treats the general so disrespectfully, but the general still casts himself under the widow's tent, it's really magnanimous."

Chu Zhao shook his head, he was not magnanimous, it was clear that he had been interested since then but didn't know it.

At that time, he had just graduated from the teacher, and he was talking freely in the residence of famous scholars, but was interrupted by a burst of laughter, and then he heard a person denying his point of view in a few words.But after he heard this, Mao Sai suddenly understood, thinking that he had met a senior, he went up to pay a visit.

When the curtain was lifted, he saw a proud young man from the noble family. He glanced casually, not even surprised, as if Chu Zhao's appearance was only mediocre. To him, this person was nothing more than the dust under his feet. This kind of indifference and contempt made Chu Zhao's heart stop for a moment.

He left with anger, vowing to make that young man look him squarely next time, but he didn't expect that after so many years, the man still didn't see him, but he was already in deep trouble.

Qi Rang looked at the young man standing beside him, restraining his arrogance, his eyes were empty, like a child who was lost and couldn't find his way back.

His heart was full of sourness, his throat moved,

"Why are you talking about this to the widow tonight?"

Chu Zhao withdrew his gaze, looked at him, seemed to have returned to his usual vitality, raised his eyebrows,

"Life and death are impermanent on the battlefield, so let's forget about it."

After finishing speaking, he looked at Qi Rang coolly,

"The minister will leave first."

Before dawn on the second day, the sound of war drums and fighting was already shaking the sky.

Qi Rang changed his clothes and wanted to go up to the city wall to check, but was stopped by the dog beside him.

"My lord, the walls are too dangerous for you to go."

Qi Rang's brows were colder than ever, and he scolded,

"let go!"

Li Goudan hesitated for a while, gritted his teeth, let go of his hand, and followed Qi Rang as before.

Below the city is densely packed enemy troops. Tens of thousands of arrows flew down from the city wall. The people below fell down one after another, and one after another kept coming up. Some fell far away from the city wall. Some people fell very close to the city wall, and gradually some people reached the bottom of the city wall, and before they had time to put on the gun, they were knocked down by the falling stones from the city wall.

Qi Rang snatched the drum stick from the messenger's hand, climbed onto the high platform and beat the war drum with his own hands.

One click, one click, until the sound of fighting ceased, and there was only silence below the city, and the murmurs of the soldiers shot by the arrows above the city, a sea of ​​blood.

Chu Zhao did not know when he stood behind him, Qi Rang looked at him

"One more month."

He didn't know whether Qi Yuan could really fulfill his one-year promise, but one month later, he had another move, a risky move.

Chu Zhao nodded silently.

***

In September of the fourth year of Yuanfeng, General Qi Lian of the State of Wei led his troops to raid the State of Lu. He won consecutive victories all the way and approached the capital of the State of Lu.

When the news reached Wangzhou, the city was already devastated. The sentinel barely stood up with the help of the long gun, and two soldiers, one big and one small, sat on the ground tiredly.

"Brother Yizi, when can we go back to our hometown?"

"Stop talking, save yourself some energy"

The rallying horn blew, and the man named Brother Yi Zi staggered to his feet. Seeing that the people around him were still asleep, he kicked lightly. Unexpectedly, the smaller soldier fell straight to the ground.

Brother Yizi poked towards the tip of his nose, then stretched out his hand to close the little soldier's half-opened eyes, with neither joy nor sorrow on his face, then he limped forward, tears streaming down his eyes numbly.

Chu Zhao in the village held the secret report from his hand, looked at Qi Rang who was sitting in the main seat,

"Where did the general get the soldiers and military supplies?"

Qi Rang looked solemn and did not speak.

After a while, Chu Zhao lowered his voice,

"You sent them to die?"

Qi Rang looked at him without dodging,

"I'm just betting"

The monarch of the Lu Kingdom was young, and the government was mostly controlled by veteran ministers.

The king of Lu is in charge of the battle, and the courtiers are in charge of peace.

He bet that the National Assembly of Lu would withdraw its troops, Qi Lian would retreat completely, Qi Yuan's food and grass would arrive, and he would win the battle.

I don't know when it started to rain lightly outside, and the atmosphere inside the house was depressing and unsettling. A soldier rushed in and reported that Qilu was attacking the city again.

Chu Zhao put on his helmet, stopped at the door, turned his back to Qi Rang without looking back,

"Your Majesty, I will always be with you"

Qi Rang lowered his eyes and said nothing, and clenched his palms tightly.

The author has something to say:

I am very dissatisfied with what I wrote, but I really don’t want to stop updating. If I stop, I will probably never be able to move forward. Sigh