20demayo Chapter 234 Destiny
Chapter 234 Destiny
Xia Yu's Jingnan army could no longer move forward and could only temporarily return to Yanjing.
Shen Yuyao saw from a distance Xu Yunxuan who was waiting for her outside the palace gate, and Zi Su who was standing beside her with tears in her eyes.
After getting off the carriage, Shen Yuyao looked up and saw Xia Linan and Zhang Mingyu also came to the gate to greet her.
"Mother concubine."
"Lin'an, Mingyu." Shen Yuyao looked at Zhang Mingyue's rosy face and slightly bulging belly, and instantly understood, "Great, the Ning Wang Mansion is going to have another baby!"
Xia Linan's round face was also full of smiles. "My son was just thinking about reporting the good news to my father and mother, but I never thought that my mother could see it herself."
"Good, good, good!" Xia Yu stroked his beard and said, "Time flies, there will always be successors!"
"This is a perfect double blessing," Xu Yunxuan pulled Shen Yuyao over, looked her up and down, and said, "How come you've lost so much weight in just a short time in the military camp? Where's my little fairy princess?"
She saw that Shen Yuyao and Xia Yu had already returned to the palace, but Xia Xiaoxian was nowhere to be seen, and she was very confused.
"Princess Xiaoxian came back to Yanjing together. As soon as she entered Yanjing City, she accompanied her monk uncle to the temple." Shen Yuyao smiled and said, "Let's go. Everyone is tired. Let's talk when we get back to the mansion."
"Wait a minute!"
Xia Yu suddenly said, "Yuyao, Lin'an, Yong'an, and Ping'an should all stay at the gate of the palace, and the rest of you should go into the palace and rest first."
Seeing Shen Yuyao looking at him with a puzzled look, he explained, "There is another distinguished guest coming to Prince Ning's Mansion today, so naturally the princess will bring her three children to greet the prince together!"
Xia Yu seldom spoke with such a serious expression. Shen Yuyao was somewhat curious as to which distinguished guest the prince valued so much.
After waiting for a whole incense stick of time, a carriage slowly drove towards the alley on the right side of Prince Ning's Mansion.
The carriage stopped at the gate of Prince Ning's Mansion, and an old man with white hair and beard got off the carriage.
"Uncle Gu." When Shen Yuyao saw the person coming, she immediately greeted him with a smile.
It turned out that the person who got off the carriage was General Gu Cheng, a fierce general under Duke Shen!
While General Gu was protecting Geng Yiwen's escape, he was captured by General Zhang Yu, a subordinate of Xia Yu.
He originally thought that he would surely fall at the hands of Prince Ning, but unexpectedly, Prince Ning treated him with great courtesy and did not force him to join Prince Ning's army. Instead, he treated him like an elder and respectfully sent him from the battlefield outside Zhending City to the gate of Prince Ning's Mansion in Yanjing City!
As soon as Gu Cheng got off the carriage, he heard such a familiar and kind name. He then thought of how he had followed Duke Shen to fight on the battlefield, and that now the eldest daughter of the Shen family was the Princess of Ning.
For a moment, Gu Cheng's eyes were filled with tears.
"Yuyao meets Uncle Gu." Shen Yuyao walked to Gu Cheng and bowed.
Seeing that his former well-behaved niece, now the Princess Consort of Prince Ning, was so polite to him, Gu Cheng did not hesitate and surrendered to Xia Yu in front of Xia Yu, right at the gate of Prince Ning's Mansion!
Because of Xia Yu's withdrawal, the Great Xia Dynasty finally ushered in a brief period of peace.
Here, in the Imperial Palace of Kyoto City, Xia Chongwen and a group of ministers were rejoicing over Xia Yu's withdrawal of troops, when suddenly Huang Zicheng came to the palace to report.
"Your Majesty, General Gu Cheng, the deputy general of General Geng Yiwen, surrendered to Xia Yu at the gate of Prince Ning's Mansion in Yanjing the other day!"
"What?" Xia Chongwen was so shocked that he stood up from the dragon throne. "How dare he!"
"Your Majesty has always treated General Geng and his subordinates well. Now that the deputy general has defected to the enemy, our army's morale has been greatly reduced!" Prince Cheng continued.
"Your Majesty!" Empress Dowager Lu said from behind the curtain behind Xia Chongwen, "We must punish them severely so as to establish the prestige of our army.
"Someone come!" Xia Chongwen shouted, "Behead all the family members of Gu Cheng who stayed in Kyoto! Anyone who surrenders to the enemy will have his entire clan killed!"
"Yes!"
"Your Majesty, Gu Cheng is General Geng Yiwen's deputy general. Geng Yiwen was guilty of the defeat. Now that his deputy general has surrendered to the enemy, he is also responsible for negligence. Therefore, I implore Your Majesty to punish General Geng as well to serve as a warning to others!"
Huang Zicheng continued to play.
"My dear minister, you are absolutely right! Eunuch Wang, draft an edict!" Xia Chongwen's face was icy, and he said angrily: "Remove General Geng Yiwen's title of Marquis of Changxing, and order him to return to the capital immediately for investigation!"
"Also, Duke Cao Li Jiujiang will take over the position of General Geng Yiwen! Head north to defeat the traitor Xia Yu!"
"Your Highness, I will obey your command! Long live the Emperor!"
The brief tranquility was broken again.
Yanjing City, inside the military camp.
"Report!"
"Come in!"
"Your Majesty, the new emperor has wiped out General Gu's entire family!"
"I got it!" Xia Yu replied with gritted teeth.
Xia Chongwen's viciousness was indeed beyond Xia Yu's expectation.
It seems that the real power of the court is still in the hands of that vicious woman in the harem!
"Send someone to General Gu's mansion to comfort him."
"Yes!"
"Also notify the princess consort and ask her to come to General Gu's mansion as well."
Long before Gu Cheng came to Yanjing, Xia Yu had found a house for him and gave it to him as a general's residence.
He originally wanted to find an opportunity to secretly bring all his family members from Kyoto to Yanjing, but he never expected that Xia Chongwen was one step ahead of Xia Yu.
Xia Yu was feeling regretful when he suddenly heard the soldiers outside the door shouting again.
"Report!"
"Come in!"
"Geng Yiwen was stripped of his title of Marquis of Changxing by the new emperor and placed under house arrest in Kyoto. Li Jiujiang was sent to take over as the general!"
"Is this true?"
When Xia Yu heard this, his eyes suddenly lit up.
It’s truly a godsend!
Li Jiujiang?
Li Jiujiang!
Li Jiujiang is great!
"As soon as Cao Guogong Li Jiujiang arrived, he immediately ordered the army to march into Hejian in three days! And then wait for the troops to arrive from the imperial court."
"Hahaha! Okay! Okay! Okay!"
Xia Yu burst into laughter.
It was indeed Li Jiujiang. With just one move, all of Geng Yiwen’s hard work was wasted!
"Pass on my military order. All the troops of Jingnan must assemble and prepare to march out today!"
Xia Yu was overjoyed and quickly gave orders to the messenger.
During the Great Xia Dynasty, the Fengxian Palace in Kyoto was built.
"Your Majesty, the deployment of troops by Duke Cao Li Jiujiang is truly stupid!"
When Shen Yizhong learned that Li Jiujiang replaced Geng Yiwen as the general who suppressed the rebellion and formulated such a strategy, he could not help but curse it as stupid!
He even spoke frankly at the morning court the next day.
"According to your opinion, what should we do?" Xia Chongwen felt a splitting headache. In recent days, Li Jiujiang, the Duke of Cao, whom he relied on, made many stupid moves.
Empress Dowager Lu was even so angry that she fell ill and was unable to attend the morning court today.
"In my opinion, Xia Yu is now in Yanjing City. Duke Cao should lead the army to quickly surround Yanjing City."
"Even if we are blocked by a small group of rebels, we don't need to pay any attention to them!"
"First, surround Yanjing City, and then destroy all the farmland outside Yanjing City. In this way, it won't be long before Xia Yu will be out of food and grass! He just gained an army of tens of thousands of people!"
"Starve Xia Yu for three to five months, and you're still afraid that he won't surrender?"