In ancient times, she gave birth to seven daughters and was divorced by her husband's family.

Wang Shoufu and Duke Liang exchanged a look of surprise, and asked hurriedly, "How many soldiers did you bring?"

"A total of 10,000 soldiers and horses."

"Ten thousand soldiers, isn't that too few?"

Duke Liang and Prime Minister Wang both felt something was wrong, but neither of them said it out loud.

They speculated that the prince might want to leave more troops garrison in Qingzhou.

"Please invite the two generals in."

General Murong and General Li looked haggard, with sunken eye sockets and dark circles under their eyes. It was obvious that they had traveled day and night and hurried here with their soldiers.

After all, Qingzhou is very far away from Zhaozhou.

Seeing the two of them arrive, Prime Minister Wang and Duke Liang were very happy and said enthusiastically, "Since you are here, please sit down. Let's discuss the matter of Bai Lu and Bai Qi together."

The two asked anxiously, "Have you seen them?"

Wang Shoufu shook his head and said truthfully, "I also want to say something nice to you to cheer you up, but the fact is that Bai Lu and Bai Qi never showed up from beginning to end."

"The Turkic Khan was very treacherous. He found two fake Bai Qi and Bai Lu, tortured them, and then pushed them down the city gate. Fortunately, we saw through his trick, otherwise we would have been deceived as well."

"The Turkic Khan refuses to tell us what's happening with Bai Lu and Bai Qi now."

"He said... only by killing him can we find them..."

After hearing this, everyone frowned.

General Murong fell into deep thought.

General Li was furious and rushed out with his sword in hand, cursing, "Damn it, I'll kill him! This Turkic Khan is worse than a sewer rat!"

"Hey, hey, come back soon, come back soon!"

While everyone was arguing, a voice came from outside: "General, the Crown Prince is here!"

His Royal Highness the Crown Prince actually arrived?!

Upon hearing the news of the prince's arrival, everyone was very happy and hurried to welcome the prince, who had traveled all the way, into the tent.

However, outside there was only the prince and more than a thousand soldiers in distinctive armor.

"Your Highness, why did you only bring so few people with you?"

After hearing this, the prince looked at everyone, his eyes bloodshot.

His originally handsome and gentle face now looked very haggard, as if he had aged several years.

He gritted his teeth and said, "The others are all behind! I was anxious, so I brought people here first."

"So that's it."

Everyone nodded and said to the Crown Prince, "Your Highness, you have worked hard on the journey. Come and sit down."

The prince nodded, looked at General Murong and General Li, and asked in confusion, "Hey, why are you two here?"

"I remember... you should be guarding Qingzhou right now, right?"

"..."

After hearing this, everyone fell silent at the same time, and the atmosphere became very strange.

They all looked at General Murong and General Li at the same time.

General Murong and General Li looked at each other with embarrassed expressions on their faces.

Then, the two of them knelt on one knee in front of everyone and pleaded with the Crown Prince: "Your Highness, we have violated military orders. Please punish us..."

"We couldn't bear to see General Bai Lu and Bai Qi suffer, so we rushed here first."

"......" After hearing this, the prince lowered his eyes and his head buzzed.

Before this, the Queen Mother specially sent people to chase the Crown Prince and the soldiers, asking the Crown Prince to help cover up for General Murong and General Li, so that their violation of military orders would not be known to outsiders.

Unfortunately, the prince did not receive the news at that time.

The prince immediately took a thousand men and rode fast horses to Zhaozhou.

He then ordered 20,000 troops to go to Zhaozhou, and the rest followed Deputy General Yun to garrison in Pingzhou.

They were in such a hurry that three of the horses died of exhaustion...

The little soldier couldn't catch up with the prince at all.

The news just didn't arrive.

The prince nodded, but did not criticize too much. He smiled and said, "Hurry up and get up. I was just joking with you. Didn't I ask you to come here specifically?"

Unexpectedly, after hearing their explanation, the prince took the initiative to help them cover up the past.

With the prince's words, everyone stopped talking and breathed a sigh of relief.

Duke Liang and Prime Minister Wang led General Murong and General Li into the tent. The Crown Prince frowned and asked, "What's the situation now?"

"......" Everyone informed the Crown Prince of the situation in detail. The Crown Prince was silent for a long time and sighed: "Okay, Your Highness knows..."

He clenched his fists, lowered his head, and said firmly: "Tomorrow, we will storm Zhaozhou City!"

"If we don't do this, Bai Lu and Bai Qi will be in danger inside."

“Everyone knows what will happen to them.

The Turkic Khan was cruel by nature, and he had a thousand, ten thousand ways to torture Bai Lu."

"We have sufficient troops now, so storming Zhaozhou City is the best strategy!

There can be no further delay.”

The prince turned to the generals and said, "This battle may result in casualties. Have the lieutenants ask the soldiers if they are willing. If not, we can discuss this further."

He thought to himself that if Bai Lu were here, he would definitely not want to see so many soldiers sacrificed in vain.

Soon, after everyone consulted the soldiers, they all responded loudly: "What's there to hesitate about? Attack quickly! Otherwise, our White Snake will be in real trouble!"

"Most of us came from Qingzhou. White Snake saved us all... We can tell the difference between good and bad!"

"How can I just watch her being tortured in the enemy camp?"

"..."

In the middle of the night, the Dawu army launched a fierce attack.

The clanging sounds of swords and spears clashing and the sharp sounds of golden swords colliding intertwined together, and after a while, the place was filled with smoke.

The city gate was violently smashed open by the soldiers' fierce attack.

By the time the night deepened, Zhaozhou City had been completely breached and the entire city fell into the hands of the Dawu army.

But after entering the city, they saw many people collapsed in their houses, and the bodies of those in the outer city who did not have time to escape were shocking...

Everyone fell silent.

They shook their heads and sighed as they took over the city, but soon realized something was wrong.

Bai Lu is gone!

The prince was filled with anxiety and rushed to the generals to ask, "Have you seen Lady Bai?"

"Nothing!" several generals quickly replied. "We've searched the four corners! Nothing!"

“…” The prince also went to the city in person, but he couldn’t find any trace of her!

“…” After searching for a long time, everyone finally realized the seriousness of the situation.

"Bai Lu and Bai Qi are really not in the city!"

"And... why are there so few Turks?" General Murong frowned, his tone full of confusion. "There are only 5,000 Turkic soldiers in the city. We killed 2,000... and now we only have 2,000 remaining. Where are the rest?"

After hearing this, the prince's face suddenly changed, and he suddenly realized: "Oh no! Things may not be what we thought!"

"No, we have to search the surrounding area first to see where they escaped to!"

"Could he have hidden in the mountains?"

Everyone took action immediately and soon found a small path next to a small city gate, which led to Lingshan Mountain not far away.

That is the largest mountain in the south of the Yangtze River. It is deep in the mountains and has dense forests. Even if tens of thousands of people hide there, they will not be easily discovered.

"Could it be that the Turks have taken refuge in Lingshan?"

"It's very likely. Let's quickly lead our troops into the mountains to search!"

"Wait! Don't rush to send troops. We must analyze the situation first and don't act impulsively!" General Murong hurriedly stopped everyone. Looking at the chaotic scene in front of him, he was full of anxiety.

The prince and several generals were not reckless people, but now that they knew Bai Lu was in trouble, they all lost their composure and just rushed forward.

"What if we're wrong?" General Murong rubbed his swollen forehead and said in a deep voice, "The situation is unclear right now, we have to clarify things first.

There are two questions at the moment: First, when did the Turks start fleeing?

"Secondly, Bai Lu is not in the city, so where are the other people in the city?"

"......It is now known that thousands of people died in Zhaozhou City, but it stands to reason that there are still many civilians alive. Did they also hide in the mountains? Or went somewhere else? We must at least find someone to ask about the situation!" Prime Minister Wang nodded and said in a deep voice.

"I heard that there are still some people alive in the city. Why not bring them here and ask them?"

The prince immediately ordered the survivor to be brought to him. One of the survivors was an old woman in her forties, her face full of horror. When she saw the prince in armor, she immediately fell to her knees with a thud, begging with trembling lips.

"Your Highness, you are finally here! Please save us, save the people of this city!"

"What exactly happened? Why were so many people killed in the city?" the prince asked hurriedly.

The old woman calmed down and said slowly, "I know what His Royal Highness wants to ask... They... They all fled to the mountains..."

"There was a plague in Zhaozhou City a while ago, but the city officials colluded with the Turks and had no intention of actually treating the plague for us. Instead, they divided the city into two parts, the inner and outer city.

The people living in the inner city are those infected with the plague, and the people living in the outer city are ordinary people like us who are not infected!

Later, they used the excuse of curing the plague to trick Lady Bai into the city, and General Bai Qi followed her... but both were captured by the Turks!"

"We were very worried at first, but then we heard that they had surrendered to the Turkic Khan. We scolded them severely at the time, thinking they had betrayed everyone's trust."

As everyone listened, they became more and more anxious. "Please continue and tell me what happened next?"

The prince stopped him, "Tell me slowly, there's no need to rush. We will understand the whole story."

The old woman wiped her tears and continued, "But we didn't expect that Lady Bai and General Bai Qi didn't really surrender at all. They were just pretending to surrender in order to give us a chance to escape!"

"Later, White Snake came up with a plan. She developed a fake death drug and gave it to the people to drink. After they ate it, they pretended to be corpses, and then she took the opportunity to secretly escape from the city..."

"She even found an excuse to 'burn the bodies,' but in reality, she was helping to evacuate those people in the inner city who had taken the fake death drug..."

"We didn't know their plan at first, but later we slowly figured it out...it might be that White Snake secretly brought a doctor to the city to deliver medicine to treat the plague, which is why those people were able to survive and escape successfully..."

"But this was soon discovered by the Turkic Khan, who immediately ordered the arrest of Lady Bai and General Bai Qi."

At this point, the old woman's voice began to choke. "How could those civilians who had escaped watch their benefactor being captured? They immediately returned to the city and, along with the civilians in the inner city and some of the people in the outer city, fought the Turks to buy time for Lady Bai and General Bai Qi to escape!"

"Later, a man named Master Xi... led them out. I heard he also brought the king of the Great Stone Kingdom with him... But those of us who didn't have time to escape were killed or injured, and some even stayed in the city!"

"At that time, the Turkic Khan ordered the city gates to be closed. It was too late, so we had to hide in the cellar... But the cellar was completely useless. Many people were searched out. We were the few who were lucky enough to hide until now..."

"Those Turks are so cruel! They took away all the food from every household and even captured the people and used them as slaves!"

Compared with the rebels in Liangzhou, the Turks are much more ruthless.

At least the Liangzhou rebels did not really harm the people, and they wanted to keep the city to provide themselves with resources.

......The Turks are different. They want to kill all the Han people in the city, so that only Turks are left in each city!

That’s why Zhaozhou City has become what it is now. Almost a quarter of the people have been killed or injured, and there are very few survivors.

The old woman knelt on the ground and cried to the crowd, "Lady Bai took General Bai Qi to Lingshan. They are hiding in the mountains now!"

"The Turkic Khan led his men into the mountains a day ago to search for her. They must be trying to capture White Snake to threaten you. Hurry up and go into the mountains to rescue her!"

After hearing this, the prince's eyes widened with anger and he immediately led his troops into the mountains.

"Wait, I'll go with you!" General Murong hurriedly grabbed the prince.

The prince has been in a bad state recently, so he needs a smart general to follow him.

The prince turned to look at him and nodded in response, "Okay! General Murong, you will come with me into the mountains. I will leave 20,000 soldiers here to guard against any sudden attack by the Turks."

Wang Shoufu immediately responded, "Leave the defense of the city to me. Generals, quickly enter the mountains and rescue Lady Bai and General Bai Qi!"

General Li was left behind and stationed in Zhaozhou City with Prime Minister Wang.

When it was almost dawn, Gu Liang arrived with reinforcements and brought shocking news: "Riots have broken out in Qingzhou and Liangzhou, and the people in both places have revolted!"