Pei Gonggui

As soon as he heard that this person reported Cai Min's name, Jiang Yue's eyes turned cold: "You are from Cai Min, so why do you have anything to do with Mr. Pei?"

"The Prince of Jin doesn't know something." The man said with a drawn-out laugh, "Lord Pei hijacked the emperor, ruined the court, and escaped from the capital in a hurry. Unfortunately, he was captured by Dudu Cai. In order to save the lives of the whole family, Lord Pei told Cai Dudu, the prince of Jin will definitely come here, so I waited here for a long time, just to persuade the prince to hand over his military power and return to Beijing with us."

"Nonsense!" Jiang Yue held the rein and sneered, "Master Pei has an upright personality, and he is at odds with the Cai family, not to mention that he doesn't even bother to ask for mercy from Cai Wei, even if he is really forced to mediate with Cai Wei due to the situation, Cai Wei is a man He is vicious and vicious, so how could he be spared? You and mere ants of the Cai family dared to order this king to hand over his military power, it really took the guts of a bear, it is extremely absurd!"

"Prince Jin! You deployed troops without authorization and went northward without an order. This is a crime of deceiving the emperor and disobeying the emperor. How dare you speak wild words here!" The man raised his spear and said, "There is a dense forest in front of this place and a valley in the back. , Difficult to advance and difficult to retreat, and now your middle army and rear army have been blocked by my troops, I advise you to quickly capture them with nothing to save your life—"

"Then it depends on whether you have the ability to take your life!" Jiang Yue pulled out the sword at his waist, clamped the horse's belly, and ordered the left and right guards to meet the enemy.

But at this time, Li Siyuan, who was two arrows behind Jiang Yue, saw that the situation was not good, and immediately stopped the rebel army from moving forward, and called the master to say: "There seems to be an ambush ahead and the king of Jin is fighting."

The master immediately sent soldiers to investigate, and when he heard the reports from the soldiers that there was a fierce battle ahead, he stroked his beard, rolled his eyes secretly and said, "The king of Jin is brave, good at fighting, and resourceful. During the previous uprising, we agreed to join forces with him. The general is gracious, and it is because he is afraid that he will not be able to fight against him rashly. Now that he is restrained, why should we submit to him? General, instead of staying here and taking our lives to help the king of Jin kill the enemy, why should we just fight with the king of Jin? It’s good to part ways! When the general has laid down a few more cities and the army is strong, then, depending on whether King Jin wants to make peace or wants to fight, why should he be afraid of his might?”

Li Si had thought about this for a long time, but he was worried: "Then if we leave here, King Jin will hold a grudge after winning today and chase us... what should we do?"

The master said: "The general is very worried." As he said this, he thought about it and suddenly said, "Since the general is afraid that the prince of Jin will turn around and pursue him, then let's not stop and let him not go or move. .”

Li Si hesitated: "How is this feasible?"

The master said in a low voice: "As the saying goes, 'the soldiers and horses have not moved, the food and grass go first', if the king of Jin has no food and grass, the soldiers and horses are hungry and can't take care of themselves, how can there be time to chase us?"

At this time, Jiang Yue was leading the troops to fight. He thought that the troops sent by Cai Wei were no more than the joint troops he and Li Si had sent. Although this battle was difficult, it was sure to be victorious. The clinker was in the midst of a fierce battle, but someone suddenly reported from the rear. It is said that Li Si's men and horses have begun to withdraw westward. Not only that, they also robbed the grain and grass team, and it seems that they are going to leave Jiang Yue's soldiers and horses to fend for themselves.

"Why is it now!" Jiang Yue gritted his teeth and cursed secretly, looking westward at the direction where the rebel army retreated, the flames were everywhere, and was about to send an order to the rear troops to pursue Li Si, but suddenly felt a gust of wind blowing by his right ear.

The sense of life and death from years of fighting on the battlefield sent a chill down his spine at this moment.He suddenly bent over to dodge and swiped his sword across, narrowly avoiding the knife that was slashed at his neck, and instantly cut off the enemy general who was attacking him by the waist and off his horse.

Before he could catch his breath, the enemy general who had spoken to him just now swung at him with a spear in the air.He led the horse to avoid it, but he didn't notice that the enemy general widened his eyes, lowered his spear, and suddenly swept down towards his horse's leg——

"My lord, be careful!" "Hurry up! Hurry up!"

Jiang Yue fell from his horse in front of his eyes, and his back fell heavily on the solid ground, choking his throat like iron, before he could recover, he saw the tall horse whose front legs had been cut off by the enemy general. Shi Zheng screamed and fell towards him...

At dawn, Pei Jun and his party finally completely escaped the pursuers in the forest.

At this time, they had been running westward in the mountains for four days and five nights, their food and water had long been exhausted, all of them were so hungry that their chests were stuck to their backs, their breath seemed to have sparks, and their hands and feet didn't look like themselves. That's right, even the black dogs who were traveling with them lost their ribs, but their wills seemed to be whipped by someone, making their legs and feet dare not stop for a moment.

"Lord, look!"

The first guard suddenly made a sound, pointing to the faint lights in front of him and said to Pei Jun: "There is a village there!"

The word "village" is like rain, causing everyone to look forward for a while, and they really see a faint smoke rising from a few miles away.

Pei Jun gave the exhausted Fang Mingjue a hand, telling him to hold on, and he will have food soon.Everyone rushed forward in three steps and two steps together, and finally reached the entrance of the village at sunrise.

Farmers in the village had already gone out to farm. At this time, when they saw Pei Jun and his party of three or forty people with swords and swords and covered in mud and blood on the road, they thought it was bandits coming down from the mountain, so they picked up their hoes and shouted loudly. call someone.When the men in the village heard the sound, they all picked up the guns and came out of the house. The women and children hid behind the broken doors and windows and looked at them in panic.

Everyone hurriedly put away their weapons and explained their purpose. Yan Yuliang took out some copper coins and broken silver from his waist, and said softly with all his strength: "Excuse me, everyone, we just want to change some food."

The villagers gradually relaxed a little, but they were still a little defensive.A village woman said: "Look at this village, where can I exchange food for you? The harvest in the field is not good, the government collects taxes and grain all day long, and the bandits come back every ten and a half months. We farmers can have enough leftovers." What to eat? The doll is starving to death!"

The old village man on the side drove the crowd away and said: "Let's go, let's go, you must have committed a crime in the city and escaped, we dare not take you in! The officials in the county are very bad, if you come to the door, you will be fine... ..."

"Uncle, please give us another meal." Pei Jun helped Fang Mingjue, and said in a low voice, "We have traveled for four or five days. If we don't eat, we will starve to death."

"Then go and have a look in the field!" The old man lost his temper, "If you can find something to eat, I will give it to you for free!" He said, waving a hoe, walked up to Pei Jun and shouted: "Go away, hurry up!" Get out! Don't force me to report to the police!"

Pei Jun frowned, and was about to say more, but Fang Mingjue stopped him: "Forget it, Daxian."

Fang Mingjue shook his head slightly: "Let's go."

Pei Jun glanced around the whole village with complicated eyes, and seeing the emaciated children and sallow-faced women of the villagers, he couldn't ask for food anymore, so he could only hold back the unwillingness in his heart, and exchanged glances with everyone. , indicating to leave.

It was raining lightly at night, and they found a hole in the earth behind a hill not far from the village, drilled wood and built a bonfire, and found some big tree leaves to catch the rain, at least they quenched their thirst.

Pei Jun washed the wound with the rain, and Fang Mingjue helped him bandage it up again, then sat at the entrance of the cave and looked in the direction of the village in a daze.

Yan Yuliang walked up to Fang Mingjue and sat down, clutching his stomach that was already aching from hunger, and sighed: "Why, I was never lenient when I took money from the household department. Now that I entered the village and saw the misery of the peasants, I began to regret it again. Did you commit the crime yourself?"

Fang Mingjue listened to him without making a sound.Pei Jun patted Fang Mingjue on the back of the head and said, "I told you a long time ago that some money can't be taken, and if you take it, you will lose your heart, and you will have to live in shame for the rest of your life."

Fang Mingjue wiped his face with a handkerchief, and sighed: "I used to think that no one is exempt from vulgarity in the capital, but now I think it's just an excuse for myself. The money from the household department is just counted in the ledger, and sometimes it's all in my own pocket." I don’t feel the money anymore... Thinking about it now, I really did a crime.”

"It's not too late." Yan Yuliang said, "When we reconcile Prince Jin and return to the capital, you will be restored to your original post, so that you can do a few practical things for the people..."

"Can we go back?" Fang Mingjue groaned angrily, fell on the stone beside him and said, "I'm about to starve to death. I've worked in the Ministry of Accounts for these years, if I end up starving to death in the forest, I deserve it Retribution, just report me as a corrupt official."

Pei Jun pulled him up and said, "I was chased a few days ago, so I didn't have time to hunt and catch birds in the woods. I can try my luck tonight. If I bring back some rabbits and sparrows, it should be able to deal with it for a while. It's already here. With a village, the county seat should not be far away, and once you arrive at the county seat, you don’t have to worry about not being able to get something to eat if you have money.”

At this time, the black dog whined, as if to respond, and the three of them sat at the entrance of the cave and looked at the white moon in the night sky. Yan Yuliang sighed: "I don't know what happened to my wife..."

"My daughter still had a fever before leaving Beijing. This is all I've been thinking about these days." Fang Mingjue looked at Pei Jun, "Your apprentice Qian Haiqing is also on that boat. I heard that his grandfather is in Jiangnan. A genius doctor, he should also have some medical skills, maybe he can treat my daughter's disease?"

"Sure." Pei Jun replied lightly, looking at the moon at this time, and recalling the night when he was in the forest with Jiang Yue when he was hunting in winter, he couldn't help pulling out the moonlight from his bosom that was coaxed from Jiang Xuan at that time. Rubbing his little flute quietly, his brows furrowed slightly, "When we arrive at the county seat, I still have to inquire whether Prince Jin has arrived in Ningcheng or not. I've always felt uneasy these days... This trip was too unexpected. thing."

After that, he looked at the little flute in his palm, and Jiang Xuan's obedient appearance when he handed the little thing in his hand seemed to appear in front of his eyes. At that time, Jiang Xuan said: "I like this little flute very much, uncle must keep it well." Don't lose it, and don't give it to others." So he didn't forget to bring this little flute with him the moment before he left the mansion in a hurry.

"I don't know what happened to Pei Yan and the others." Pei Jun closed his eyes and frowned, "I just hope they must have escaped, they must have escaped..."

The same moonlight is also covering the capital surrounded by war at this moment.

In the evening, Cai Yan's army had assembled in the outskirts of Beijing, and the imperial court's reinforcements had not arrived, so the forbidden army in the city had to go out of the city again to fight the rebels.

Inside the closed city gate, the streets that had been singing and dancing all night were deserted and deserted. The people shut their doors in their houses, but they could still hear the sound of fighting outside the city gate.

A group of men in black clothes entered the capital from outside the city, hurriedly walked through the streets in the middle of the capital, entered the imperial city in a hurry, came outside the Zhongqing hall, and reported to the inside: "Report to the emperor, the shadow guard of the imperial city is asking to see you! "

After a while, Hu Li opened the door and came out from the imperial study, and led them in. He saw Jiang Zhan sitting behind the imperial case in a long gown with gold patterns. Hearing the sound, he put down the folded newspaper in his hand, and said in a cold voice: "I ordered you to arrest Pei Ziyu and his party to return to Beijing to subdue the law, but you didn't catch them, and now you still have the face to come back to see me?"

The leader of the shadow guards bite the bullet and said: "The humble minister is not doing well, so he should be sentenced to death, but... But after tracking all the way, although Pei Jun and other criminal ministers were not brought back, one person was still brought back."

Jiang Zhan raised his eyebrows: "Who?"

The leader of the shadow guards lowered his head, motioning for the shadow guards behind him to get out of the way.

Jiang Zhan helped the case and got up, and saw several black shadows in the hall divided into two rows, and a thin and small figure appeared from them, calling him timidly:

"Emperor...Uncle Emperor."