Chapter 1 The Xiaochen Village

Xiaochen Village was an imperial estate near the capital. On this day, Steward Zhou Fu, the neighbor of the grand-uncle of the adopted son of the eunuch in charge of Xiaochen Village, led a group of farmhands to pull the grain from the cellar, load it onto carts, and prepare to send it to the capital.

Zhou Fu was not young. His adopted son was only sixteen this year, but he was already forty-three. This was also why that person could recognize the steward eunuch as his adopted son.

How perverted would that steward eunuch have to be to recognize Zhou Fu, this old geezer, as his adopted son?

However, Zhou Fu was actually one of the people in charge of Xiaochen Village. The local small yamen... let's just say that Xiaochen Village is also a yamen. Among them, there must be a group of people at the top who are all about connections and occupying positions without doing anything, and they are indispensable. But equally indispensable are those who actually do the work.

Without people who actually do the work, the tasks from above cannot be completed, let alone their own benefits.

In fact, Zhou Fu had been in this position in Xiaochen Village for seven or eight years. But the imperial estates near the capital were nominally under the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the early years, but in reality, they were managed by the Second Prince, and the people in charge of each estate were also the Second Prince's people.

Then, about three years ago, Zhou Fu and another steward competed for the position of "confidant." The higher-ups, of course, listened to the steward eunuch of the Second Prince. What they were vying for was the position of "adopted son."

Zhou Fu and his competitor, Ma Quan'er, both spent money to build connections, wanting to latch onto that eunuch. As a result, something happened to Ma Quan'er's family. His wife was caught having an affair, and for a time, the whole village knew about it.

The steward eunuch didn't have a dick, and although he also kept a mistress, he could only use a *jiao xiansheng* (sex toy) to satisfy his desires. He had always been somewhat inferior in that regard, so he sympathized deeply with Ma Quan'er and promoted him to the real steward of Xiaochen Village.

Zhou Fu always thought that Ma Quan'er must have done it on purpose.

Because Ma Quan'er's wife, with her broad shoulders, thick waist, dark face, and buck teeth, was nicknamed Wild Boar. How could she possibly be able to seduce someone?

But no matter what,

Ma Quan'er won.

Zhou Fu, who had been working hard in the village his whole life, deeply felt the true meaning of "power struggle" for the first time.

Later, Ma Quan'er began to suppress Zhou Fu's side, deliberately bullying the people around Zhou Fu, as if he wanted to vent all the losses he had suffered because of "Wild Boar."

But not long after, the late Emperor died, and the chaos of the princes began. The Second Prince began to privately stockpile weapons in the imperial estates.

But before he could even start, the Imperial Guards rushed in. The steward eunuch was arrested, and Ma Quan'er was also arrested, along with Wild Boar and Ma Quan'er's sons and daughters as family members of the criminal.

Involving oneself in a treason case meant that the entire family would be implicated.

Zhou Fu remembered the day Ma Quan'er was arrested.

He saw himself kneeling behind a group of Imperial Guards.

Ma Quan'er shouted:

"Zhou Fu'er, Zhou Fu'er, I'm dying for you, dying for you!"

Indeed,

He was dying for him.

Because Zhou Fu knew that even if he had competed with Ma Quan'er and become the chief steward under that steward eunuch, when the higher-ups asked you to privately stockpile weapons in the estate, could you object? Would you dare to object?

Ma Quan'er's entire family was executed.

Those days,

Accompanying the failure of one prince's rebellion after another,

Countless people were killed for treason.

But Zhou Fu had heard that none of those princes had died. They were now confined in their mansions, only allowed to have children, endlessly having children.

For Zhou Fu, no, to be precise, for every ordinary person, that was like living the life of immortals!

Ordinary people didn't understand what it meant to be depressed and unable to achieve their ambitions. They didn't know what it meant to have no way to display their talents.

Every day, they faced the soil and worked hard to earn enough food for their families. It was already extremely difficult, and it was hard to understand how difficult it was for those princes and lords to be confined in exquisite mansions with fine clothes, jade food, and many women to serve them!

Once, after drinking until he was slightly drunk, Zhou Fu

Slapped his wife, who was trying to stop him.

It wasn't a holiday,

He took out some yellow paper from the cabinet, set up a brazier, and started burning paper.

Burning it for Ma Quan'er,

Burning it for Wild Boar,

Burning it for Ma Quan'er's children who would run to him and beg him to be lenient when he was bullying them.

The rebellious princes didn't die. The scholars in the city said it was because the Regent was benevolent and didn't harm his siblings.

But Zhou Fu knew that it was because there were too many people like Ma Quan'er who had already died for them.

Zhou Fu seemed to understand some truths in the dark.

So, when the new steward eunuch came, Zhou Fu didn't try to get close to him, even though he had the highest support and everyone expected him to take the position. He still used his poor health as an excuse and didn't compete for the position.

It was good enough for him to be a small steward.

Zhou Fu had told his son,

There are three kinds of people in this world:

One kind is the immortals in the sky; one kind is in the mud; and one kind walks on the ground.

When the wind blows,

The immortals in the sky are not exposed to the sun or rain, and those in the mud are covered in mud.

Those who are blown over are those who run on the ground. They jump around happily, really thinking they are someone!

"Yo!!!!!!!"

Wang Bangzi, the cart driver, let out a long cry from his throat.

The mules also made noises together, as if echoing him.

Wang Bangzi looked around triumphantly.

Zhou Dashan, Zhou Fu's son, who was sitting on the mule cart behind him, whispered to his father:

"Dad, I heard people fleeing from the north say that the Yan dogs are attacking."

Zhou Fu scolded: "Attacking my ass, with General Nian guarding Zhennan Pass, how could the Yan dogs possibly break through? Can they fly?"

The people of the capital area had a very good impression of Nian Yao.

During the chaos of the princes, the people of the capital area were most afraid of being caught in the war. As the saying goes, when gods fight, mortals suffer.

It was Nian Yao who led his troops and quickly and accurately brought back those rebellious princes one by one. Although many heads were lost and many people were arrested, at least the capital area had not experienced the passage of a large army.

"Dad, I'm just worried."

"Worried about what? What's there to worry about? His Majesty's carriage has returned to the capital, put your heart back in your stomach. The Yan dogs can't come. Didn't you see those troops from various great families passing by our estate in the first half of the year?

What were they doing?

They were going north to fight the Yan dogs. So many people, so much armor, one person spitting would be enough to drown the Yan dogs."

"That's true, Dad is right."

Zhou Fu looked around,

Deliberately lowered his voice and said to his son:

"Even if they really attack, whether it's our Majesty or our masters, or the Yan dogs, they will all need people to farm the land.

The Yan dogs also need to eat, they can't just drink water and be full.

Last month, I asked your mother to buy some black cloth back.

After we deliver the grain to the capital this time, let's go to the teahouse and see what the wind is blowing from the north.

When we get back, let your mother and your wife cut the cloth. It's not for making clothes, isn't the Yan people's flag black?"

Zhou Dashan's eyes widened immediately.

He never expected that his father would even prepare for this.

Zhou Dashan wanted to ask something else, but his father stopped him with a look.

It was enough to say this much. There were so many people here, and it wasn't good to keep whispering.

Zhou Fu leaned back on the mule cart, gazing at the north with a somewhat dazed look.

He didn't know what he was doing, he just wanted to live. The people in the imperial estate lived better than the people outside.

Because no matter what, the official's money is the easiest to embezzle.

If you embezzle the money of noble lords, the noble lords will skin you alive.

But the official's money,

Except for His Majesty,

Even His Majesty's son in the future is actually embezzling his money.

So,

Zhou Fu didn't want to die. He could now guarantee that his family had meat with every meal. Life was quite comfortable.

Living,

Living...

"Yo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Wang Bangzi cried out again.

Every time he came out to transport goods, he liked to do this, as if he wanted to tell the women in the village that his thing was as big as a donkey's.

However,

This time,

What responded to Wang Bangzi was not the sound of mules, but a rumble like an earthquake!

"Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

The earth,

Was really trembling!

Wang Bangzi's mouth was still open, and he looked back with some confusion.

Zhou Fu had already sat up,

His eyes,

Fixedly staring at the north.

There,

A layer of black clouds was spreading wider and deeper, and in an instant, it formed a dark cloud pressing down on the city!

Zhou Dashan said foolishly:

"Which lord's cavalry is that? What a big show."

He was the one who told his father that he was worried about the Yan dogs coming, but in fact, he was the one who least believed that the Yan dogs would come.

On the contrary,

Zhou Fu, who had shouted loudly that the Yan dogs could not possibly come from General Nian, had already prepared the cloth for making the black dragon flag.

At this moment,

Zhou Fu slapped his son on the head,

And cursed:

"You little bastard!"

Immediately,

Zhou Fu shouted:

"Folks, stop, everyone stop, kneel down, kneel down!!!!!!!"

Zhou Fu jumped off the mule cart, knelt down, put his hands on the ground in front of his head, and stuck his butt up high.

It had to be said that

This old man who had been born in the village, grown up in the village, and started a family in the village had an extraordinary talent for saving his life.

He knelt down,

His son, Zhou Dashan, also knelt down immediately.

The others were looking at each other, very confused and at a loss.

Zhou Fu buried his head,

And shouted:

"It's the Yan dogs... the Yan army is coming, the Yan army is coming!!!!"

Zhou Dashan's body trembled. The Yan... the Yan dogs really came?

Everyone began to kneel down, imitating Zhou Fu's appearance, sticking their butts up high.

Don't even think about running away,

If what was rapidly approaching from the north in a dark mass was really the Yan army, then there was no point in running, could you outrun the Yan army's cavalry on a mule?

Seemingly slow, but actually very fast, a team of Yan army knights had already galloped over and surrounded Zhou Fu and his group.

On the other side, the main force of the Yan army was still moving south rapidly.

Zhou Fu didn't dare to look up, but he could sense something through the sounds. He roughly guessed that the target of this Yan army... was actually the same as their trip,

Was,

Yingdu!

At this moment,

A huge shadow appeared in front of Zhou Fu,

And bursts of hot breath came over, causing a burning pain on Zhou Fu's body.

Zhou Fu had no choice but to look up,

And saw a huge ferocious beast standing in front of him.

"This...this..."

On the ferocious beast,

Sat a mighty figure wearing gilded armor.

That person lowered his head slightly,

His eyes seemed to carry supreme majesty.

Zhou Fu began to tremble all over. At this moment, he wanted to cry, he really wanted to cry, like when he was a child and was frightened and cried while hugging his mother's leg.

Don't blame Zhou Fu for not having courage,

You should know that even that "bold" Earl could only lower his head under this gaze.

"How many soldiers are there in the capital?"

Zhou Fu swallowed, forcing himself to calm down a little so that he could speak coherently. He could no longer think about why the other party would ask a farmer like him this question.

He just instinctively answered everything he knew to the person in front of him, without the slightest thought of resistance.

"Answering...answering the nobleman's question...this batch of grain...is for...for...those newly transferred...to the outer camps...outside the capital...to eat..."

The man on the ferocious beast nodded slightly,

Immediately,

The ferocious beast stepped forward, bypassing Zhou Fu and the others, and began to gallop again.

The army,

Was constantly speeding past in front of and on both sides of Zhou Fu and the other villagers of Xiaochen Village.

Dust flew up layer by layer, landing on Zhou Fu and the other villagers of Xiaochen Village, but no one dared to get up and pat it off. They didn't dare to complain even though their good clothes for going out were being ruined like this;

Everyone just tacitly buried their heads lower and lower, and stuck their butts higher and higher.

I don't know how long it had passed,

No one counted, and no one numbered,

The sound seemed to have disappeared.

"Thump!"

Zhou Fu's body tilted and fell to the ground.

With his movement, the other villagers also collapsed on the ground, all panting heavily, as if they had been holding their breath for a long time and were drowning.

"Son ah..."

"Dad..."

Zhou Dashan reached out, wanting to help his old man, but because his legs were numb, he couldn't help him up, and instead pulled his father, who was about to get up, back down to the ground.

"Ptooey..."

Zhou Fu, who had a mouthful of mud, didn't have time to scold his son,

But grasped his hand,

And said:

"Go...go home, let your wife and your mother, hurry, hurry up and make the flag, make the flag!"

After saying that,

Zhou Fu swallowed with some difficulty,

And looked at the south with lingering fear,

Muttering:

"The world is going to change...the world is going to change..."

...

Mi River,

Was originally a place where wealthy idlers in Yingdu gathered to play.

The people of Chu believed that

The water in the Mi River could remove disasters because it had been touched by the aura of the Fire Phoenix.

Not only would many nearby people choose the banks of the Mi River for their sacrifices, but even the sick would be carried by their families to bathe in the Mi River. After recovering from their illness, they would also come to the Mi River to fulfill their vows;

Marriages and funerals were inseparable from this river.

However, those who could truly feast and drink here all day long were still the dignitaries of Chu.

However,

Because of the continuation of the war in the north, and also because the local people might not be clear, but the nobles knew why the Regent had been trapped in Juyang City for so long.

So,

In this atmosphere, there were far fewer people who had the leisure to continue playing on the Mi River.

But it didn't mean there were no people playing,

Because at any time, in any place, what was never lacking were fools.

However, when a group of black-armored knights galloped along the banks of the Mi River, even the most foolish people finally realized that

The sky seemed to be falling!

The Yingdu, which could maintain a romantic atmosphere no matter what, was forcibly pierced through all the beautiful appearances by this large cavalry force with black dragon banners in an extremely unromantic posture!

The Yingdu beacon tower, which had not been lit even during the chaos of the princes,

Rose with billowing smoke.

The last time the people of Chu saw this smoke rising, even if they were still alive, they would probably have had four generations under one roof.

Outside Yingdu,

The imperial guards of the various camps began to quickly gather and move out; they were rushing outwards;

And the people on the periphery were frantically surging into Yingdu, dragging their families with them.

The soldiers didn't want to hold the city and wait for reinforcements. No matter what, defending the city seemed to be the safest option.

Just like Shangjing of the Qian in the past,

The city gate was closed, and the troops were gathered,

Li Fusheng could only force the Qian people he had captured nearby to attack the city to vent his anger.

But Yingdu was different,

The political significance of a capital basically outweighed its practical application.

And among the people of Chu, this surplus was heightened.

If we start from the first Chu Marquis, the Great Chu had eight hundred years of history.

When Meng Shou compiled the history books of the four countries, he actually calculated according to this.

And the capital of the Great Chu was not fixed. It had always been in motion.

In the earliest days of its founding, it fought with the Yue tribes in the mountains, seized territory, and the capital constantly moved forward. Wherever the Fire Phoenix flag of the Chu Marquis was, that was the capital.

Later, after the Great Chu was almost pacified and the Yue tribes in the mountains became a minor threat, they said that they chose to build their capital here because the Fire Phoenix had stayed in the Mi River. In fact, it was still because this was the core of the most prosperous, fertile, and densely populated area of the Chu people.

The Xiong clan built their capital here, and then ordered the nobles from all sides to defend it, so as to subdue the entire territory, and internally continued to suppress and assimilate the Yue tribes in the mountains, and externally continued to expand and open up territory.

Among the four great powers of the East, two countries had capitals with high defensive capabilities.

One was Yan, and the other was Qian.

Yan was because it had fought with the barbarians for too long, and had even been herded under the walls of Yanjing by the barbarians at one point;

The Qian people...the Qian people forcibly diverted the Qian River in order to guard against the Yan people's southward advance, and forcefully excavated the Bian River north of Shangjing.

The capitals of Jin and Yingdu of Chu, in contrast, did not pay so much attention to pure military defense.

The romanticism of the Chu people actually contained a very strong confidence.

They built famous historical sites outside Yingdu, but they were too lazy to build its city walls, because the people of Chu felt that the magnificent Great Chu didn't need it.

However,

This time,

The Yan army came.

They came very quickly and very suddenly, skipping over the lines of defense set up by the Chu people in the north, and arrived outside Yingdu in a sudden manner that almost disregarded any retreat.

When the familiar black armor of the Yan cavalry appeared outside Yingdu, and when the people of Yingdu saw the black dragon flags fluttering in pieces, both the common people and the powerful felt like they were dreaming.

The dream,

Quickly woke up,

Waking up was not loneliness,

Even the most romantic people of Chu could not create an atmosphere of loneliness at this time,

It was panic,

The panic of having all the splendor torn apart, and the edge of the blade teasing the thick rouge on their faces.

Jingnan King rode the *Pixiu* (mythical wild beast),

And came to the front of the army.

Giving speeches in front of the army made many people feel that it was a form of formalism, because the person speaking was not worthy of their position.

The speeches of the Wild Man King and Zheng Boye,

Could often make the soldiers roar and forget their fear of life and death.

And the Jingnan King,

In the hearts of the Jingnan army soldiers,

He was a god!

In the past,

The Great Yan only had the Zhenbei Army!

It was him,

Who led the rise of the Jingnan Army,

Now,

The several towns of the Zhenbei Army could only cooperate with the Jingnan Army in battle.

Tian Wujing didn't like to say too much nonsense. Most of the time, he just silently drew his *Kunwu* (mythical sword) and charged first.

This time, his gaze swept over the Jingnan army soldiers in front of him,

And calmly asked:

"Are you tired?"

His speech was very calm.

But with the blessing of Tian Wujing's third-rank peak martial artist *qi* (life force), it was like thunder.

All the soldiers drew their sabers and struck their armor,

And shouted in unison:

"Tiger!"

"Tiger!"

"Tiger!"

Long-distance marches, human and horse fatigue, were inevitable.

But they used this momentum to tell their king,

That they could still fight,

And they still dared to fight!

But Tian Wujing said:

"This king, is tired."

In an instant, all the horses were silent.

The soldiers couldn't believe that their king would be tired.

But this was what the king had said himself.

A king who was invincible in battle, a military totem, actually said that he was tired in front of thousands of troops.

The *Pixiu* turned around,

Facing south,

There,

The Chu army was forming a formation,

And in the distance,

They could already vaguely see the towering city walls of Yingdu that had almost no defensive value.

Tian Wujing turned his back to his soldiers, and to the Jingnan cavalry he had created with his own hands.

He gently patted the head of the *Pixiu* under his crotch,

The *Pixiu* opened its mouth,

And the *Kunwu* was spat out,

It swirled in the air, and finally fell into Tian Wujing's hands.

Tian Wujing held the *Kunwu* at an angle,

And said:

"Kill into the Chu capital, seize the dragon throne, and let this king rest."

----

Thanks to Shangxian Qitian for becoming the 149th leader of *The Descent of Magic*!

Don't wait tonight. I have to think about the following plot again. I don't know if there will be any more updates, good night for now.