noffsinger Chapter 639: The Mountain Falls
Chapter 639: The Mountain Falls
Zhou Chang was also the first time that Prince Yi Fengming went out of the northern border of Vietnam. He felt unfamiliar with the vast grasslands, gray mountains, and black land.
For this purpose, Zhou Chang, using the title of "first-rank military officer", specially dispatched 2,000 soldiers and horses from the Beiji garrison as guards. In addition to the Jincao Division and the Navy Battalion, as well as Gao Yuan's expedition, they traveled cautiously all the way and finally arrived at Maizhou's main town, Maicheng, on the seventh day of March.
On the way here, they were fine if they encountered any towns, but in the suburbs outside the city, they could always see groups of refugees fleeing with their elderly and children on the official roads, and there were also starving people freezing to death on the roadside.
In many places, it is not an exaggeration to describe them as "misery everywhere, and starving people lying everywhere". Even at this moment, when the troops were walking on the streets of Maicheng, they could still see the people crying out of hunger and cold, and the whole place was devastated.
Whenever Zhou Chang saw such a scene, the words would come to his mind unconsciously: "It is sad that the palaces of the Qin and Han dynasties have all turned to dust. When the country prospers, the people suffer. When the country perishes, the people suffer!"
To this end, Zhou Chang first stopped and went, and his schedule was two days slower than expected, mainly to distribute some food to the refugees.
However, Gao Yuan tried his best to dissuade them at that time. After all, he had been a soldier and fought on the battlefield, and he knew that distributing it in this way would not help the people much, but would delay supplies at the front.
Zhou Chang also understood this truth, and in the end he could only mutter to himself that this was the last battle, and if he won this battle, everything would be fine after that.
The situation seemed to improve only when the team delivering military supplies arrived near Demai City.
Although the territory of Maizhou had been occupied by the Mirage Kingdom for more than ten years, it was, after all, the land of the neighboring Kingdom in the past. Even for hundreds or thousands of years before that, it was still the land of the neighboring Kingdom. Therefore, the customs and habits have not changed much, and even the people on the road speak the same language.
However, as soon as you enter the city, a strange atmosphere hits you.
Everyone seemed to be shrouded in the shadow of war, their faces tense and depressed. Moreover, this was already the forefront of the battlefield, but why was there no momentum or posture to meet the enemy?
Zhou Chang was puzzled all the way. He entered from the west gate of Maicheng and headed straight for the north city defense post.
Then, Jin Run was asked to come forward and hand over the supplies to the quartermaster, and then King Xian and any high-ranking commander did not come to greet them.
Even though they had been traveling for days, it had already been eleven or twelve days since they learned that King Xian was injured.
Could it be that King Xian’s injury hasn’t healed yet?
Zhou Chang didn't care either, knowing that the person who showed off was a big shot, even if he wasn't injured, he would not miss any opportunity to show off.
Then, Zhou Chang went to the city defense post, at least to visit his injured brother King Xian first.
"How is Brother Xian Wang's injury?" Zhou Chang asked a deputy general who came out to greet him.
The deputy general knelt on one knee and saluted, his voice filled with sorrow: "Your Highness Prince Yi, Your Highness Prince Xian died last night due to his serious injuries...already...passed away."
"What?" Zhou Chang thought for a moment that he had heard it wrong.
The deputy general stood up and wiped away his tears: "I dare not speak nonsense. His Highness is still lying in the inner room. Your Highness Prince Yi, please follow me and we will know after seeing him."
"Passed away? Dead? How is this possible?" Zhou Chang also lost his mind and walked in blankly.
Shouhou and Gao Yuan looked at each other and followed.
After passing through several corridors and twisting and turning, we finally arrived at the back hall of the city defense station.
The hall was now full of people standing inside and outside, whispering quietly, with everyone's face showing seven parts of panic and three parts of grief.
Ignoring everyone's inquiring gazes, Zhou Chang went straight into the inner room at the back hall. A strong smell of medicine hit him in the face, and then he saw Wang Fengzheng lying straight on the bed, covered with a white cloth.
Zhou Chang couldn't believe it, so he went up and opened it.
Wang Fengzheng was lying on the bed as if he was asleep, but his head seemed to have grown bigger, almost crushing the white jade pillow. How could such a person die?
However, the dark grey complexion told it all.
Zhou Chang's heart was struck by lightning and he collapsed to the ground.
Is this the legendary bad luck?
I was hoping that King Xian would finish the battle first, but how come he died before the battle was even over?
Isn't this the case of the mountain collapsing if you rely on the mountain, or the water collapsing if you are close to the water?
Also, all the time and effort spent on finding evidence, taking every precaution and keeping a backup plan, was all in vain?
"Your Highness Prince Yi, please accept my condolences. The news of our prince's death has already spread, but the funeral has not yet been announced. Now that Your Highness Prince Yi has arrived, you have to give us some advice." The deputy general came up to ask for instructions.
Zhou Chang knew he was incompetent, so how could he have any ideas?
The look of grief on his face was genuine, but it was 20:80, 20% for Xian Wang and 80% for himself.
She sincerely hopes that King Xian Fengzheng can win this war.
The thin monkey also came up to help Zhou Chang: "My Lord, please accept my condolences. Although you and His Royal Highness Prince Xian have a deep brotherly love, the dead cannot be resurrected. Please do not hurt your body because of excessive grief."
Wherever I get "knocked down", I want to sit there for a while.
Zhou Chang was so "struck" that he didn't want to get up. Instead, he leaned against the bedside of Prince Xian and pushed the skinny monkey away. He had no tears but could howl twice: "Woo woo... I want to stay with Brother Xian for a while longer. Brother Xian died so tragically. How did Brother Xian die?"
Xian Wang's deputy general rushed forward again and reported sadly: "Your Highness Yi Wang, our Xian Wang went out of the city to meet the enemy half a month ago. He was ambushed while pursuing the victory and was shot in the shoulder. After many days of treatment, the wound did not improve and even festered. Finally, the military doctors discovered that His Highness was... was poisoned..."
"Poisoned?" Zhou Chang got up from the ground in shock, "How did Brother Xian Wang get poisoned?"
The deputy general replied: "It was the arrow wound. The arrow was smeared with poison beforehand, and His Highness Xianwang was seriously injured and also stained with poison."
Zhou Chang turned around to take a closer look at Prince Xian's face. Sure enough, his face was green with black, and his lips were purple. He thought it was the color of a dead person's face, but now it was not the case.
He could not help but curse: "How could the bandits of the Mirage Kingdom be so despicable? On the battlefield, with real swords and guns, they actually used such mean tactics. Who, who is it? How could they be so unethical?"
"I don't know who the ambush troops are, but this has never happened before. I don't know what happened this time." The deputy general answered truthfully, but then he felt that it would not be glorious enough to just say that King Xian was killed by a poisoned arrow, so he quickly made up for it, "However, this time the Shen Kingdom is obviously anxious. Your Highness King Xian is wise and brave. He originally captured two states in one fell swoop and should have taken the last Jizhou with an unstoppable force. I'm afraid that this attracted the enemy's conspiracy, which caused our army to lose its commander and had to retreat to Maicheng."
After hearing this, Zhou Chang still had no idea, but Prince Yi's consciousness emerged, and the central idea conveyed was very clear: this villain's evil scheme must not be allowed to succeed.