Chapter 36 Chapter 40

The chariot general who returned to the barracks was like a boy without tears on the mountain.

By the bonfire, he cut and roasted sheep and gave them to the soldiers who had meritorious service today. He personally opened a jar of wine and passed it on to his subordinates. The drunk Shen Ce was drunk on a crouching tiger's skin, and there was nothing but fire in his phoenix eyes.

The seventeen generals said with a smile that this time the great victory is just around the corner.

She was across a tent, lying on the couch amid the sound of Hu Jia outside the tent, closing her eyes, she was Shen Ce on the hillside.

"The soldiers below said... The general is cruel, and he will not let go of his own senior brother. In order to become a general, he killed him with the sword."

She held down the still spinning dice.

"And said..."

"He had to be killed," she whispered, "Zhang He defected to the west, do you think that the monarch will trust him if he gives him high officials and wealth? , at least the body is in my brother's hands and can be sent back to the north."

When Shen Ce said Zhang He's parting words to her, he was saying: If he loses, Shen Ce will kill him with his own hands and take his body away.

Yuanxi was her maid, and the soldiers followed Shen Ce from birth to death. It's hard to find a confidant, and it's hard to find someone who understands you. If everyone understands you, it is difficult to reach the sky.

On the hillside, Shen Ce didn't answer her. What he wanted, she knew.

She has only seen the situation of domination of the world in the book, and she can't imagine what peace is. After Dong Zhuo's Rebellion, Chang'an was completely empty, Guanzhong was hard to see in two or three years, and Luoyang City was burned to the ground. Split ever since.

The general is disarmed, and all the people enjoy their own happiness. What is the scene like?

Shen Ce won the first battle, led his troops to continue the western expedition, and ordered Zhaozhao to be sent back to Chaisang.

Shen's house was in the bustling city of Chaisang. She had never seen such a big house. Outside the door, she looked and looked, and the younger brother Yu Rong who brought her back said that the general ordered people to build this house, and it took four years to build it. It is built and expanded every year, because the military ranks are constantly changing.

"The general built it by himself, never lived there before, waiting for you to come back."

Someone was holding a piece of tender tofu in a lotus leaf, chasing them, constantly raising the tofu in her hand to her, Yu Rong drew a knife to stop her, she recognized the person from the tofu stall when she was young, and asked Yuanxi to go with a smile. purchase.

The stone wall of Shen's house is three feet high, higher than ordinary private houses, and more like a city within a city. There are also ditches outside the walls.

There are courtyards within the walls, and re-entry is the house.

She took off her shoes and went to the porch, crossed several rooms, and pushed open her brother's door. The general's book and seal have been delivered and placed on the empty table, waiting for Shen Ce.

"My brother sent me back because I was involved in the performance? The woman is in the army, breaking military discipline?" She picked up the seal.

Yu Rong hesitated and nodded, "Yes."

She smiled, sure enough, if he hadn't been forced to help, he wouldn't let himself go half a step away.

Shen Ce fought consecutive victories, and received the imperial decree just before the decisive battle.

The emperor asked Shen Ce to bring the seventeen generals back to Beijing on the grounds of being a king.

The ministers of the DPRK and China are arguing day by day, and Shen Ce is going westward, and his prestige is increasing day by day. Therefore, the emperor ordered him to return to the capital in order to establish his monarchy.

Then let the civil servants play, and describe it as a military force, disregarding the grievances of the people, and lowering the prestige of the policy.

Shen Ce had to leave the main force behind to confront the west, and bring his most trusted 17,000 cavalry to return to the southern border to be sealed.

Chai Sang and Shen Ce, the emperor granted the seal, sealed the king of Jiang Lin, and there were thousands of households in Shiyi.

Shen Ce gave up the fief to show his loyalty.

"The emperor is so suspicious, let the general disarm." Yuan was unhappy.

She shook her head: "Removing the armor is death. My brother has made countless enemies, and the enemies are all waiting for him to be weak. The tiger will lose its claws, and no one will be grateful, but will only attack them in groups."

"General Zhang is like this, and General Zhang is like this. You can't trust him." Yuan Xi sighed.

She smiled bitterly and said nothing.

Just after the queen was sealed, a catastrophe came suddenly.

The governor of Wuling tore up the covenant and rebelled on his own. On the way Shen Ce returned to the west, he trapped Shen Ce in Jingzhou with an army of 100,000.

Zhaozhao hasn't slept since joining the army all night, and in the end, he began to be in a trance.

All the news of coming back is that you will lose, and you will lose every day...

Even the generals sent by the emperor to monitor Chai Sang began to order the withdrawal of troops. As soon as Shen Ce died, Chai Sang was the place to be fought, and he didn't want to risk his life to guard this place.

That night, tens of thousands of military horses left.

Zhaozhao took his maid and rushed to stop the general's horse, begging him not to withdraw his troops or give up Chaisang.

Once there is no army here, it is a piece of fat and beautiful fish: "Chai Sang is a military fortress, and if it falls into the hands of outsiders, it will do no good to the southern border. I ask the general to protect the southern border and defend Chai Sang." She stopped the horse and refused to let it go.

Immediately, someone waved the whip to open the lost sister Shen Ce.

Zhaozhao was injured in the shoulder and was hugged by Yuanxi, fearing that she would be kicked by the withdrawing horse. Yuanxi kept crying, she didn't understand why everyone was from the southern border, but no one wanted to guard here.

Zhaozhao said nothing: Even if Chai Sang falls, the southern border will be torn apart again, and if you have military power, you will have your own land. Of course, this general will not waste his troops for Chai Sang who has nothing to do with him.

On the river bank, only Chai Sang Erlang and Shen Ce's few sailors remained.

After Zhaozhao was picked up, she followed her brother to the west, and when she came back, she hid in the Shen residence. The soldiers here had never seen her true face. When the guarding army left, Zhaozhao asked her maid to pack her clothes and come to the barracks by the river.

Live in Shen Ce's tent and accompany them to guard the river.

...

"I'm not from Chaisang. I lived in Linhai County when I was young. I came to Chaisang for two years, and then went to Wuling County." Zhaozhao looked at the huge waves in the river and said to his maid in the wind and rain in the early autumn, "but, yes Chaisang took in me and my brother."

This is also the place where my brother joined the army, from a junior general to the king, he is guarding the place.

"If the general is defeated..." Yuanxi was thinking, they can still go to the west, and there will be the Shen family's army in the west.

"My brother won't be defeated," she smiled with tears in her hand, holding the secret report she just got in her hand, the 17,000 cavalry had all been wiped out, and Shen Ce was dead, "My brother is a general, how can he be defeated. Anyone will be defeated, He will not."

During the fierce battle in Jingzhou, thirteen of Shen Ce's generals died in the battle. In the end, there were only about 500 people left in the Shen family army, all of whom had red eyes and blood in the crevices of their fingers. He walked out of the sea of ​​blood from the mountain of corpses, like a ghost king who crawled out of the Palace of Kings of Hell.

The king of rivers and waters, the first battle shocked the world.

Back to Chaisang, he ordered people to close the gate of Shen's house, not to receive congratulatory letters or congratulatory gifts.

He washed his hands, took off his shoes, and walked barefoot along the corridor to the waterside pavilion.

The waterside pavilion in Shen's house is uniquely built, there is no fence next to it, and there is a pond next to the wooden floor.

Rain falls on the pond, and there is a thin back leaning against the column, completely forgetting that the corner of the skirt was blown to the surface by the wind. That water, soaked through the skirt corners, was still going up a little bit, trying to go further on the cloth.

Shen Zhaozhao's beauty had long spread in the military camp. Today is better than the past, making him think: there is a beautiful person, who is pure and graceful.

He couldn't think about the second half.

Although Shen Ce was mentally prepared, when those eyes full of water looked at him with strangeness and alertness, he still suffocated: "Zhao Zhao."

She didn't answer, and twisted a small dice with her fingers. The dice had six sides, and there were bumps on the top and bottom. When she twisted it, it would spin several times on the floor like a small spinning top.

Gollum turns twice, Gollum turns two more times.

Yu Rong said that she jumped into the river late at night and no longer recognized people when she was rescued. Looking at it now, it was more serious than he thought.

When he wanted to call her again, she held down the dice first and said in a cold voice, "You people, see my brother in distress, and don't keep any of them. The congratulations to the general are still in the front hall, so take them all."

Shen Ce choked up, and after a long while, he said softly, "The general will be back sooner or later, so keep it."

Zhaozhao stopped looking at him, and then turned the top dice.

Shen Ce was seriously injured, and there were only four confidants left. No longer able to go west, the Shen family army hurriedly withdrew... and left countless hidden dangers for the future southern border. Shen Ce was well aware of the future troubles, but there was nothing he could do.

He lived in the residence to recuperate, and in the daytime, when he was in better spirits, he accompanied Zhaozhao.

Shen Ce believes that Zhaozhao can see his face in the daytime, and after looking at it for a long time, he can always remember it.

Zhaozhao always regarded him as an outsider, and those who withdrew their troops and abandoned Chai Sang before the battle spoke coldly to him. Yu Rong was afraid that Shen Ce would hear these useless wounds, but instead he smiled and said, "The harder she reprimands, the more it shows that she has a brother in her heart. I am happy to hear it."

After scolding for a long time, he didn't fight back. Zhaozhao felt that he didn't seem that bad, and occasionally asked him what he thought of his brother. Shen Ce's life is estimated to be at this time, and he can be cheeky and use all the praise he thinks of to praise himself. However, this move was indeed effective, and Zhao Zhao gradually regarded him as his own.

One day, Zhaozhao trusted with him and said something from his heart about the West Expedition:

"Since returning to Chaisang, I have often imagined the situation of my brother. For hundreds of years, the people who have changed the dynasty have been those who hold military power. I am the emperor, and I have learned from history, and I will doubt my brother," Zhaozhao said softly, "You Look, the one who destroyed the Jin Dynasty was a general of the Beifu Army. In order to gain prestige, he went on two northern expeditions and then killed the king. My brother's western expedition is very similar to his."

Shen Ce didn't say a word, he had already calculated these.

She smiled wryly, and said softly, "But if I were my brother, I would also go west. If you don't go west, three years later, the strong enemy in the west will be very strong, and then you will really drink the horses in the Yangtze River and throw the whip into the river. At that time , the first person to be robbed was Chai Sang. Look outside, Chai Sang was robbed, who would care? No one would care...except him."

Zhaozhao didn't say "my brother", but "he", and the slight changes contained in them the feelings were vastly different.

Shen Ce looked at those deer-like eyes and wanted to hug her. It was a man hugging a woman.

The girl in front of her was ignorant, and she lowered her head to play the top and dice. This is a child's toy. When she first arrived at Chai Sang, he carved one for her. Go to one. My brother practiced swords. Go to two. My brother practiced knives. Accompany Zhao Zhao.

She remembered that Shen Ce could tell that she would only suddenly smile when she turned to six.

Every few days, he carved a new dice with a yellow candle in the middle of the night, with six on each side.

When he got to Zhaozhao's house, he opened the gauze tent, put the dice under her pillow, and replaced the old one. The person sleeping on the couch suddenly turned over and fell off the bed after chasing him. When he fell into Shen Ce's arms, he was still desperately grabbing the front of his shirt: "Brother..."

Shen Ce hurriedly hugged her.

The smell when the incense burned out, she followed the incense to find him, her lips trembling slightly, regardless of whether she put her arms around his neck, and took a deep breath: "Jingzhou, Jingzhou, there are soldiers in ambush, don't go, brother, don't go..."

The maid and Yu Rong ran in to light the lamp, but he swung the sword and broke the candle.

Zhaozhao has been recognizing him by identifying incense since he was a child.

Zhaozhao cried, and the maid also cried. Yu Rong covered his face and whimpered.

Only Yu Rong returned to Chaisang ahead of schedule and escaped the disaster in Jingzhou. His brother Yu Hua died in that battle, and all the thirteen brothers who fought on the battlefield when they were young and shared blessings and misfortunes all died in that battle. Erlang on the battlefield didn't cry, he couldn't cry in front of outsiders, he hid in a boudoir where no one could see, and vented once through the crying of the girls.

Shen Ce hugged Zhaozhao with one hand and patted Yu Rong's back with the other.

Soft hands held both sides of his face.The girl's breath, soft and light, with moisture, fell on his eyelashes... He locked her eyes with his eyes.

In the moonlight, she pursed her lips slightly, lowered her head, and gave up what she wanted to do.