Princess Promotion

In the early morning, the sun is warm.

Under the sky overlooked by the falcon, the dense crowd on the vast land was divided into two.

There is a clearly visible dividing line running down the middle.

On one side was the Qi army led by Xiao Ge Lao and Fu Hongxuan.

On one side was the Yan army led by Yan Yunfan.

"The handover begins!" the envoy shouted loudly.

Yan Yunfan stood quietly on the city wall, gazing into the distance, watching the Yan army flag that once fluttered slowly fall and be replaced by the Qi army flag.

Yan Yunfan originally thought that he would feel angry and would not be able to suppress the urge to draw his knife and kill someone.

But when this moment really came, Yan Yunfan's heart was filled with endless confusion and trance.

Yan Yunfan watched all this silently, his thoughts wandering, not knowing how to face what was happening before his eyes, nor where the future would go.

However, Yan Yunfan did not have much time to feel sad about the passing of time.

When the handover of soldiers began, to put it bluntly, the former Yan soldiers lined up to register and receive Qi military uniforms.

Yan Yunfan always thought that Fu Hongxuan was the most difficult person to deal with.

The truth is…

"This is simply outrageous. This old man looks to be in his sixties or even seventies! He is older than me and he even staggers when he walks. Yet he still goes into battle to kill the enemy. This is a joke!" Elder Xiao roared angrily, his voice deafening.

Elder Xiao pointed at the Yan officials and generals and scolded them harshly, "Are you out of your mind? With an army of 500,000, there are only a little over 30,000 of them. They're either dying or little kids no taller than a wheel."

The civil servants of Yan State lowered their heads, their faces pale, and did not dare to refute.

However, Lord Xiao did not give up and even Yan Yunfan was scolded.

Yan Yunfan couldn't understand why a skinny old man who looked to be in his fifties or sixties was so energetic and could curse for several hours without stopping.

The most horrifying thing is that he keeps cursing until now without even repeating the words he mocks.

He would ask about everything from the soldiers' age, physique to height, and even the cooks and the carts transporting grain would have something to say.

Yan Yunfan finally made it through the morning and ran to find Fu Hongxuan during the break.

As soon as I came in, I saw Fu Hongxuan leisurely cutting wood strips with a knife.

Yan Yunfan walked up to Fu Hongxuan's desk in a bad mood and said in a low voice, "That old man is jumping around and pointing fingers everywhere, and you're just watching?"

Fu Hongxuan said without even raising his eyelids: "Serves you right!"

That group of old, weak, sick and disabled people, anyone who knew a little about military tricks, knew what Yan Yunfan was planning.

Generally speaking, there are only two possibilities for asking the old, weak, sick and disabled to join the army: they have suffered a devastating defeat in a war and all the young and strong men have died on the battlefield.

They had no choice but to lower the conscription conditions again and again to allow these old, weak, sick and disabled people to go into battle.

However, this situation obviously does not apply to the State of Yan.

Because in the past ten years, Yan State has not fought any large-scale wars, most of them were small-scale battles.

Moreover, because Yan State was rich in resources, it paid tribute to the barbarians with grain every year. However, the neighboring Qi State and Western Zhou Dynasty did not have enough food themselves, so how could they possibly give it to the barbarians?

Therefore, in recent years, the barbarians basically only caused trouble for the Western Zhou Dynasty and the State of Qi.

The State of Yan would come to collect food at the appointed time every year. It can be said that the State of Yan had not fought any serious wars in all these years.

So it is impossible that all the young and middle-aged people have died and the old, weak and sick have to go into battle.

If it's not the first type, then it's the second type. These veterans are the substitutes.

Every year, each county has a recruitment quota, which will naturally be distributed to every household. Unless the brother is an only son, one of the two brothers must join the army.

But the circumstances of each household were different, and wealthy families would pay officials to exempt themselves from military service.

Those who pay do not have to go, but the number of people must not be too small. At this time, officials will let some old beggars or people who are short of money take over in order to make up the number of people.

Even when Fu Hongxuan was in charge of the Western Zhou army, this kind of thing continued to happen despite repeated bans.

Only the Qi army did not experience this situation, and the main reason was that the empress gave too much.

Ordinary people may not be able to buy an acre of land of their own even if they work as farmers for most of their lives.

Even if you work hard to buy land, it will be gone in an instant if you encounter natural disasters or man-made disasters. In many cases, land is a luxury for ordinary people.

These days, being able to eat enough is considered a good life.

Nowadays, you can earn an acre of land by serving in the army for two or three years. Where can you find such a good thing?

Unless one's family is wealthy, everyone would scramble for this opportunity to join the army.

There were even cases where there were many brothers in a family and they fought over who could join the army, and some were willing to spend money to join the army.

Now that there are so many old, weak, sick and disabled people in the Yan army, even a fool would know that these people are just being dragged in to make up the numbers.

If the Yan army, from officials to soldiers and generals, had not all been bribed and corrupt, these people who had no fighting ability would have been used as vain personnel.

Or the soldiers who were originally in good physical condition were secretly designated as their own private army, and now there are not enough people, so they have to randomly recruit some people to make up the number.

Yan Yunfan originally wanted to just gather a group of people to make up the numbers, hide the most elite group, and turn them into his own private army.

The original plan was to let the people who made up the numbers be dispersed throughout the team, so that even if a few were caught, it could be attributed to the subordinates' poor performance.

What Yan Yunfan never expected was that Fu Hongxuan did not find fault and could even be said to have turned a blind eye.

The most difficult person to deal with turned out to be Lord Xiao!

After Lord Xiao discovered the situation of someone filling in the gaps, he actually drew a straight line of 300 meters on the open space and then took out an hourglass.

Anyone who fails to run the 300 meters within the time specified by the hourglass will be deemed unqualified.

This method was used to quickly filter out more than 30,000 defeated soldiers.

Yan Yunfan took a deep breath and said, "Okay, I deserve it. Let's just wait and see."

Fu Hongxuan then put down the knife and looked at Yan Yunfan helplessly.

The look in his eyes seemed to be saying, I've given you a backdoor and I don't care about anything, but you can't even deal with an old man.

Fu Hongxuan brushed off the sawdust on his body with a calm and composed manner, and said, "Old Man Xiao is a veteran of three dynasties, and even His Majesty has to respect him..."

Fu Hongxuan had just started to speak when Elder Xiao, whose presence was respected by Her Majesty the Empress, walked in angrily.

As soon as he came in, he went straight to Fu Hongxuan, slapped the table and said harshly: "Fu, what do you mean, don't you want to do this anymore?"

Then there was a burst of output. Elder Xiao had disliked this kid for a long time.

It would be fine if he just had a stern face every day, but he, a commander, actually didn't care about such an important matter as the handover of the army.

There are so many problems, but no one cares.

From the moment Lord Xiao came in, Yan Yunfan tried to reduce his presence and moved cautiously towards the exit of the tent.

After finally reaching the exit, I heard Elder Xiao's sinister voice behind me: "Prince Yan, why are you here?"

Since the Prince of Yan surrendered to Qi, the Empress, in recognition of his merits, bestowed upon him the title of king, added the Nine Gifts, and granted him a fief of 10,000 households, which was hereditary.

Thus, the Prince of Yan suddenly became a prince, and Yan Yunfan was naturally named the crown prince.

Yan Yunfan didn't know how to answer Elder Xiao's question for a moment. Should he say that he came to Fu Hongxuan to discuss how to deal with him?

As Yan Yunfan fell silent, Elder Xiao's questioning look almost became real.

His eyes moved back and forth between Yan Yunfan and Fu Hongxuan, almost saying that you two are in the same group?

Fortunately, Fu Hongxuan spoke at this time: "Prince Yan, come here to hand over some things to me. I will consider what you said carefully. You can go back and rest first."

Yan Yunfan turned around and left, fearing that he would be caught and whipped by Lord Xiao.

Throughout the morning, whenever something went wrong, Elder Xiao would ask Yan Yunfan, "Is this how Prince Yan commands his troops?"

After Yan Yunfan left, Xiao Ge Lao turned around and asked, "Have you been bribed by Yan Yunfan?"

The tent was instantly quiet. Fu Hongxuan looked up at Elder Xiao and said, "Mr. Xiao, please be careful with your words."

Elder Xiao was not afraid at all. How could Fu Hongxuan beat him to death?

With his hands on his hips, he said, "Give me a reasonable excuse, or I will report you to His Majesty for treason."

Fu Hongxuan was silent for a long time, and finally spoke slowly: "Mr. Xiao, what do you think is the most urgent thing to do?"

Elder Xiao replied without hesitation: "Of course, we should take over Yan State as soon as possible to stabilize the situation."

Fu Hongxuan nodded slightly in agreement, but then asked, "Then I want to ask you, is Yan State now in our hands?"

Elder Xiao almost subconsciously wanted to answer "Of course", but the words suddenly stopped at his lips, and he realized that something seemed wrong.

Looking at Elder Xiao's stunned expression, Fu Hongxuan knew that he already understood what he was going to say next.

Fu Hongxuan stood up and put his unfinished work into the box. He said, "Now we shouldn't worry about how much they embezzled or what they concealed. Instead, we need to ensure that we can take over Yandi in the shortest possible time."

Fu Hongxuan closed the box, looked at Elder Xiao, and said, "His Majesty has ordered me to take over Yan territory as soon as possible to avoid any complications. Other issues can wait until we have complete control and there will be plenty of time to investigate thoroughly."

Elder Xiao frowned slightly, then relaxed his brows. What Fu Hongxuan said made sense.

It was true that I was a little too picky and almost lost the big picture.

Lord Xiao picked and chose on Fu Hongxuan's desk, found the memorials, and signed and stamped them.

Then he said calmly, as if nothing had happened, "The army will set out tomorrow!"

Fu Hongxuan:... This old man and Yao Chuguang are exactly the same lineage, they change their attitude faster than turning the pages of a book.

Everything went smoothly in the afternoon. Yan Yunfan secretly ran to Fu Hongxuan and asked, "How did you convince that old man?"

Fu Hongxuan glanced at Yan Yunfan and said, "Tell him that this situation is normal. If the Yan army wasn't corrupt and its combat effectiveness wasn't low, they wouldn't have surrendered so easily."

Yan Yunfan: @￥%*&

In the outer courtyard of the palace, pavilions and towers are arranged in an orderly manner, and flowers are in clusters of splendor, competing for splendor.

A gentle breeze blew, and King Yan sat alone in the pavilion.

After a while, he heard light footsteps behind him. Without turning back, the King of Yan turned to the next page of the book in his hand and asked, "How is the handover with Qi going?"

Zhou Hui was startled, then stepped forward and replied, "Your Majesty, there was a minor incident, but everything is proceeding as planned."

The corners of Prince Yan's mouth curled up slightly, and he said with a touch of indifference and detachment, "It seems that they want to take action in Qing'an."

From the beginning to the end, King Yan never believed that the plan conspired by Yan Yunfan and Fu Hongxuan would succeed.

Although the King of Yan has not yet figured out why Yan Yunfan has fallen into the trap and the Empress has not yet closed the net.

If the empress just wanted to test Yan Yunfan's cards, she could have closed the net from the moment Yan Yunfan and Fu Hongxuan reached a deal.

The King of Yan guessed that perhaps the Empress just wanted to muddy the waters, as nothing could be seen from a pool of stagnant water.

Only by stirring the water in the pond can you know where the fish in the pond will swim.

Prince Yan suddenly looked forward to how the Empress would break the impasse!

The Prince of Yan put down the book in his hand and turned to ask the people around him, "Do you think the Empress will personally show up in Qing'an to close the net?"

Zhou Hui raised his hand and made a gesture of wiping his neck, and asked in a low voice: "Do you want me to arrange for an assassin?"

King Yan said indifferently, "Keep your hands clean. Even if we fail, we can't let people suspect us."

At the same time, Yan Yunfan stood at the gate of Qing'an City, watching the Qi army gradually approaching.

Fu Hongxuan was leading the way on horseback, and the person sitting in the carriage following behind should be Lord Xiao.

Half a month ago, Fu Hongxuan proposed to change the original route as planned. Naturally, Lord Xiao opposed it on the spot and threatened to submit a memorial to the Empress for instructions.

Fu Hongxuan had no objection to this, so Lord Xiao could naturally submit a memorial to the empress.

Unless there is an order from the empress, the route will be decided by Fu Hongxuan.

Lord Xiao was so angry that he jumped up and down and submitted three memorials in a row.

But before the Empress's order arrives, the army must obey Fu Hongxuan's command in everything, and even Lord Xiao has no right to stop it.

Finally, they split into two groups. Fu Hongxuan led a large army to bypass Yuzhou, while Yan Yunfan followed the 100,000-strong army along the original route and arrived in Qing'an ahead of time.

Fu Hongxuan glanced at Yan Yunfan and said calmly, "Let's get started!"

Yan Yunfan's heart was beating so fast that it seemed like it was about to jump out of his chest.

Elder Xiao got off the carriage, snorted coldly, and then immersed himself in the handover affairs.

As time passed by, Yan Yunfan had never felt that time was so long.

Yan Yunfan kept replaying various possible accidents in his mind, even wondering whether the ridiculous empress would suddenly jump out from somewhere.

She said with a smug look on her face that she had already seen through all their conspiracies and tricks.

Then the guards rushed forward and captured him and Fu Hongxuan.

Fu Hongxuan saw that Yan Yunfan was absent-minded, so he walked over and patted him, saying, "What are you daydreaming about? It's all over, let's go back!"

Yan Yunfan blurted out: "Is it successful?"

After these words were spoken, the two looked at each other and fell into a brief silence.

Yan Yunfan looked away feeling a little guilty, not daring to say that he had actually always suspected Fu Hongxuan was a double agent, but he didn't expect that he was serious about it.

Fu Hongxuan looked at Yan Yunfan's guilty expression and finally understood how Yao Chuguang felt when he looked at him.

Even after being sold, he still helped count the money.

Fu Hongxuan could only say that Ziyao Chuguang had never lost when it came to playing tricks.

Plan carefully and win the battle from thousands of miles away.