Qixia City, Hongye Valley.

The red leaves all over the sky fell in the wind, and a thick layer was accumulated on the withered wild grass. After stepping on it, the entire calves would be invisible.

"Huh~ These dead branches and rotten leaves are so smelly!"

Two thin men, one tall and one short, were holding the tree trunk with bows and arrows on their backs, complaining.

"Hey! What's this? You haven't seen Daze's bandit suppression a few years ago! The bandit leader is really a tough person. He jumped down without blinking in the stinky pool that is drained from sewage and drowning! If Wang Er hadn't hesitated and jumped to chase him, he would have escaped!"

If the tall man is, the low man agrees:

"Wang Er is a real man, and I admire him too. By the way, when do you think the people from Zhao State come? We can't wait until they arrive before fighting, right?"

"Who knows? If we want to fight like this, we have the help of Chu people. Not to mention recovering the lost land in the sixteen cities, even if we attack the Golden Palace and cut the King of Gold alive, what's the difficulty?"

Both of them are scouts under Gongzi Su, with 300,000 Chu troops backing. They seem to have a backbone and have been much more tough in their words recently.

They spoke Zheng Guo dialect without lowering their voices at all. They spread very far in this bleak autumn forest.

Perhaps he was so angry that he was so angry that two golden men carrying swords and arrows came out from behind the bushes not far away.

One of the men with purple faces cursed in Zheng Guo dialect: "Shameless pig tricks! What a big tone?! Take Qixia City back first and then say such big words! When the Zhao army arrives, it will be the day when your Zheng Guo is destroyed!"

"Hey! I still want to wait for Zhao Ren to arrive? If I really want to come, I should have arrived long ago! There are only three days left!"

The short Zheng Ren jumped and scolded, one sentence more and more to the other!

"I won't look at your king! His character is corrupt! I'm shameless! If I were King Zhao, I wouldn't come! I worked hard to help you conquer the sixteen cities, but what did I get? I'm working for you in vain! If I come again, the coffin board of the ancestors of Qi's family will be unable to be suppressed!"

"you!"

As the battle gets closer, the scouts have to go back and forth several times almost every day to find out the latest news.

It was not the first time that the two sides met. Seeing that they were about to argue again, the tall man in Zheng State did not want to waste his time here, so he bent his bow and arrow, looking like he was about to start a war.

The specific battle between Jin Kingdom has not been decided yet. The two Jin people were told to not want to be troublesome when they got Shangguan. They snorted coldly, lifted the bushes, and crawled in, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

The two scouts of Zheng State did not chase after him and continued to walk back as usual.

A bird was frightened and flew up, flapping and stunning.

Now the two armies gather in Hongye Valley. As the battle is getting closer, the reinforcements of Zheng State have arrived, but the reinforcements of Jin State are nowhere to be seen. The Zheng people's momentum is getting stronger day by day, while the Jin people's style of conduct is as conservative as one day.

The two of them spoke without lowering their voices, and they were also open to spy on the news. It can be said that it was very strange, but that's it here.

In this era when the land is vast and sparsely populated, if the two countries want to fight smoothly, they have to make an appointment in advance for time and place, and then do a battle with soldiers and generals openly.

It is rare to directly attack the city or attack the city.

Because of the popular chariot war now, hundreds of chariots are starting to move in a huge way, and they cannot attack them at all. The city is too small to be able to open it.

This will make it more convenient to make an appointment in advance.

If this is not the case, it is very likely that one of them will be lost and the battle will not be fought for several years, and the food and grass will be wasted.

There are flags on both ends of the valley. To the south, the fiery red Chu flag and the black Zheng flag are next to each other, and to the north, the ginger-yellow-brown king flag is lonely.

In the Jin King's tent, the Jin King was angry with a stern face.

He returned to the Golden Palace to rest for one month, had a banquet almost every day, and was not allowed to drink when he came to the front line army. He felt very uncomfortable. He woke up early in the morning and shook his legs irritably.

When the scout came to report that he had not seen Zhao Jun yet, he became even more angry!

"What's going on in Zhao State? Even if you can't come, you should inform us in advance. Could it be that there is no waiter coming to deliver the message? It's impossible that there is no news like now!"

Seeing that the day of the battle was coming, the King of Jin was so anxious that he was almost bald!

If the Zhao army could not come as promised, facing the aid of Chu, the Jin Kingdom was not sure of victory and would probably retreat to the sixteen cities.

The Zheng people lost their territory. When they encountered this situation, how could they not pursue the victory?

It is impossible for them to massacre the city. The city is full of Zheng people. These Zheng people have just fallen into the hands of the Jin Kingdom and still regard themselves as Zheng people. Once they get the news that Zheng Kingdom is attacking, it is very likely that the city gate will be destroyed without attacking and there is no way to defend it!

Have you been happy for so long and you have to lose your life?

King Jin was anxious and afraid that King Zhao would be unhappy, which would affect the subsequent covenant. He wanted to send someone to scold King Zhao for being untrustworthy, and was worried that he would have any difficulties. He turned around and held a grudge for holding a grudge, so he never made a move.

Now he can only be passive like this, waiting for King Zhao to come and explain.

It was already this time, and King Zhao didn’t even have a letter. How could he not be angry?

Seeing the king sitting there angrily, the ministers looked at each other and dared not speak for a long time.

It took a long time before someone tentatively expressed their thoughts:

"King, the day of the battle is approaching, so we have to prepare early! If we are sure that Zhao people are not trustworthy and are stumbled behind them, we can't defend these sixteen cities at all! It's better to plunder and retreat quickly."

King Jin was even more angry: "Do you want to be drowned by the world? There are some ordinary people in the city. What can you find when plundering? Can you still move this city away? You are short-sighted! There is no view of the overall situation!"

Most of the ministers only care about immediate interests and do not care about the reputation of the country at all!

The King of Jin was relieved by scolding him. The minister blushed and embarrassed, and he wanted to die immediately. He was not in the mood to coax him.

All the ministers who can follow the front line want to make achievements and achieve success.

Someone just came up with a bad idea, and the king scolded him. Others pondered for a moment, and then someone spoke again:

"Speaking of this, the most valuable Qixia City is too far into Zheng State, and we cannot defend it. Fortunately, we have been assigned a large number of slaves during this period, and we have seized time to mine copper mines, and we have made a lot of money. In fact, it is no loss."

This person only talks about gains and does not directly express his suggestions, but his words and meanings are all about stopping when they are right!

"Not losing money? Why don't you lose money? Do you know how big the copper mine reserves in Qixia Mountain are? These mined during these days are just a drop in the bucket! After spending so much effort, you finally took over here, but you told me that you won't lose money?! Stupid! It's really stupid!"

If the King of Jin can understand what to stop when he sees it, then he is not the King of Jin.

If he still needs to grab it, he may hesitate. If he has already grabbed it, he just needs to find a way to protect it. What's so difficult?

The most difficult thing in this world is never to talk, but to act!

But these ministers only know how to talk all day long, and they are all giants of language and shorts of action!

The ministers obviously knew his shortcomings.

Unfortunately, they all wanted to help the king get rid of this shortcoming, but the king didn't appreciate it and was always stubborn.

The king obviously wanted to protect these 16 cities, especially Qixia City, which produces copper.

I thought that with the Prime Minister of Zhao, the situation would be unstoppable to continue to attack Zheng. Most of the ministers who came to the front line wanted to get a family of aristocratic families. Seeing that the situation was not good, they returned to the capital the next day for various reasons, leaving the King of Jin alone on the front line to supervise the battle.

The King of Jin was so angry that he had thrown cups, plates, bowls and cups all day long. Unfortunately, no one paid attention to him, only the slaves who served him were there all the time.

When he got angry enough, he silently picked up the things and sent them to the craftsman to knock and beat them, and then continued to use them as new ones.

The King of Jin was greedy and stingy. These servants who had served him for decades knew this best.

Qixia City is not close to Qishui City.

Gong Shuyu took the army to support Zheng State, and only Ren Yi, who had just had an unhappy relationship with him, was left beside Bai Jingyuan.

Ren Yi is serious in her daily life, but in fact, in front of people close to her in private, she occasionally tells jokes or shows a very cute side of her.

In some cases, Bai Jingyuan was one of these people.

But obviously, he hasn't been recently.

It is obvious that Ren Yi no longer comes to his place to have a free meal, and he will not come to tell him any interesting things.

She is always busy every day, busy training, busy solving all kinds of messy suitors, and busy handling political affairs.

She is not taking time to play with him, chat with him, or teach him some knowledge.

Fortunately, it is Qishui City here. With Qishui Zhang’s warm hospitality, Bai Jingyuan will not feel lonely.

Zhang Yuan still likes to eat roasted beans, even though he has no more teeth now.

"When the snow falls in winter, the cold plum trees bloom, and the scenery is beautiful!"

Zhang Yuan sat in a wheelchair and skillfully placed soybeans on the edge of the small mud stove in front of him.

The soybeans are too round, the edges of the mud stove are too narrow, and the old man is too old.

So his hands are always shaking, and soybeans always roll onto the ground.

The beans fell on the floor and rolled away drippingly.

Xiang Lian'er is still as fur as she is so confused that she can't stand the mess. Whenever the beans roll down, he will stick his butt and chase after him to pick it up.

Whenever this happens, Zhang Yuan will show his bare gums and laugh until he keeps coughing. Xiang Lian'er then holds the beans in her hand tightly and bends back to help him calm down.

Bai Jingyuan sat opposite them, watching Xiang Lian'er's tears rolling onto the floor one by one, and then fell into flowers with a "slight" sound, then silent, and took off the scorched soybeans from the mud stove.

The soybeans are a little hot just after picking up, but they are a little soft when they eat. If they are placed in the small plate next to them for a while, they will become burnt and crispy.

Bai Jingyuan never minds whether a ingredient was eaten by noble people or slaves. When he first met Zhang Yuan, he discussed the issue of roasted beans. At that time, he exaggerated that Yuan was very interested in life and knew how to eat it. However, this was the first time he had eaten the most delicious beans in Zhang Yuan's memory.

Unfortunately, Zhang Yuan could no longer eat with him.

Time has changed many things, and has made some habits deeply rooted, becoming scars that cannot be removed in the minds of those people. Every time they touch them, even if the wound has healed, they still have a habit of being sore and painful, and they will cry.

Bai Jingyuan’s deepest memory of the autumn of this year is that Xiang Lianer endured her grief. As she did when she was a child, she scolded, “Aweng likes to eat these things that are not allowed to come on the table. After eating, she farted, which made me embarrassed in front of other servants.” She shed tears and stuck out her butt and picked up beans on the ground.

On the day Zhang Yuan passed away, the cooling of Qishui was very severe, and people immediately felt the arrival of winter.

Bai Jingyuan couldn't sleep that night, tossing and turning until the middle of the night, suddenly someone came to pat the door, and the yard door made a bang.
To be continued...