The Eternal Beauty of the City of Wealth

Zi Ri pointed behind him and said, "Prime Minister, that golden car is the one my mother rode in. Look, isn't it coming?"

As she was speaking, Zixuan's chariot slowly came in front of everyone, and she got off the chariot with Bo Yuan and her two daughters.

When little Jing Gong saw it was Zi Xuan, he immediately ran over quickly, threw himself into her arms and shouted, "Sister Xuan! I miss you so much!"

Zixuan was also very happy. She picked up the pestle and mortar and looked him up and down. "Sister, I miss you too. You've grown a lot taller in the past two years!"

Chuju flattered her, saying, "Sister is getting younger and more beautiful!"

After greeting each other and exchanging a few words, everyone headed towards Linzi City.

The next day, Duke Jing of Qi appointed Zixuan as the General of National Defense, and Prime Minister Yan Ying and Sima Rangchu as his assistants.

He led 200,000 elite troops of Qi to join Zixuan's army and quickly advanced towards Pingyin City on the border between Qi and Jin.

At this time, Pingyin City was heavily surrounded by the coalition forces of the princes.

Niu Xi, the defender of Pingyin City, paced back and forth anxiously on the city wall.

He looked up from time to time in the direction of Linzi, and the deputy general asked in a panic: "General! When will the king send troops?"

"How can we defend Pingyin City with only tens of thousands of us?"

Niu Xi said angrily, "How would I know? The military report has been sent to Linzi for many days, but there is still no reply!"

The deputy general approached Niu Xi and said, "General! Look, the allied forces of the princes have over a million men. Our few tens of thousands are definitely no match for them."

"Why don't we surrender the city? Maybe we can save our lives!"

Niu glared at him and said, "Bullshit! Have you forgotten? All of our family members have been held hostage by the king!"

"If you and I surrender, our families will die!"

The deputy general said unwillingly: "General! If we don't surrender, neither you nor I will survive!"

Niu Xi sighed and said, "Alas! It's better for one person to die than for the whole family to die!"

The deputy general said again: "General! If it really doesn't work, let's retreat!"

"The king should know that we are outnumbered and won't blame us!"

Niu Xi thought for a moment and nodded, "But if we retreat without resistance, we won't be able to explain ourselves to the king. Those old guys in Linzi are smarter than monkeys."

"How about this, you prepare the horses and carriages at the north gate, and we'll resist for a while. If things don't work out, we'll retreat!"

The deputy general nodded happily: "Okay! General, I will arrange it now!"

Niu Xi waved his hand at him and said, "Go ahead!"

Less than ten minutes after the deputy general left, the coalition forces of the princes began to attack the city.

Like wild beasts released from a cage, the million-strong army rushed towards Pingyin City, shouting loudly.

Niu Xi hurriedly organized his soldiers to resist, but there were too many coalition troops, and the tens of thousands of defenders were no match for them.

In less than half an hour, the army climbed up the city wall. Niu Xi hurriedly shouted: "Retreat! Retreat quickly!"

After saying that, he ran towards the city, immediately mounted a warhorse, and galloped towards the north gate like flying.

At this time, the deputy general had already prepared the carriage and horses, and the two men fled after meeting.

After the coalition forces occupied Pingyin, they saw that Niu Xi and his deputy general had escaped, and hurriedly sent people to chase them.

After the two men ran twenty miles, they saw dust flying and the sound of horses' hooves behind them.

When he looked back, he saw that it was the Allied Forces pursuing him, and he was immediately scared out of his wits.

The two men whipped their horses hard and galloped forward like an arrow.

After running for another ten miles or more, he was about to be caught up. Niu looked up suddenly and saw a troop appearing in front of him.

Niu Xi wiped his eyes and took a closer look. He was immediately overjoyed to see that the unit's number and uniform number were both from Qi.

I quickly shouted loudly: "Brothers in front, help me!"

"I am Niu Xi, the defender of Pingyin City. Pingyin City has been lost. Come and rescue me!"

The troops in front were the troops of Sima Rangchu of Qi State. The soldiers saw two Qi generals galloping towards them.

There was another troop chasing closely behind, so they quickly informed Lord Sima.

Sima Rangchu recognized the man as Niu Xi, the defender of Pingyin City, and quickly ordered his men to protect them.

When the pursuers saw that they had encountered the main force of Qi State, they quickly pulled the reins and stopped chasing.

After Niu Xi and his companions entered the Qi army, they immediately came to Sima Rangchu and jumped off their horses.

He took a few quick steps, then knelt on the ground, kowtowed to him and said, "Your humble servant greets Master Sima!"

Sima Rangchu glanced at the two of them and said, "Niu Xi! Why are you so embarrassed?"

Niu 喪 clasped his fists again and said, "Your Excellency! The allied forces of the princes, numbering one million, are attacking Pingyin City."

"Because of the huge disparity in military strength, our army was ultimately outnumbered, and Pingyin City has fallen into the hands of the enemy!"

Sima Rangchuo waved his hand and said calmly, "Get up. The fall of Pingyin City was within our expectations."

After thanking him, the two stood up and breathed a sigh of relief, their hearts finally at ease.

Sima Rangchuo waved his hand and said, "Soldiers! Kill all these pursuers!"

"Yes!" the soldiers answered and rushed towards the pursuers.

There were not many pursuers, only about a few hundred.

When they saw the Qi army coming, they quickly turned their horses around and ran towards Pingyin City.

But the warhorse had just run dozens of miles in one breath and was now exhausted and panting.

The running speed quickly slowed down, and the Qi army took advantage of the situation and surrounded hundreds of people.

In just half an hour, all the pursuers were killed or wounded.

Those who were not dead quickly threw away their weapons, knelt on the ground with their hands on their heads and kowtowed for mercy.

After hearing the noise, Yan Ying drove his chariot over and asked, "Master Sima, what happened?"

Sima bowed and said, "Prime Minister, Pingyin City has fallen!"

"The two defenders, Niu and Xiang, were chased here by the enemy and rescued by our army."

Niu and the other two also quickly knelt before Yan Ying and saluted: "Your humble servants pay their respects to the Prime Minister!"

Yan Ying glanced at the two of them and nodded, saying, "Even if the city is lost, we can take it back. As long as the people are safe, that's all that matters!"

After hearing this, the two men burst into tears of gratitude: "Thank you, Prime Minister, for not punishing me!"

"Get up!" Yan Ying waved to the army and said, "Keep moving forward!"

After the coalition forces of the princes occupied Pingyin, they immediately opened the granaries to release grain and issued a notice to reassure the people.

Duke Ping of Jin entered the prefectural governor's office and asked the military commander, Zhang Junchen, "Lord Zhang, have you captured the commander of Pingyin?"

Zhang Junchen quickly replied, "Your Majesty, the pursuers we sent out haven't returned yet, so they probably haven't caught him yet."

"Well! Once you catch them, immediately chop off their heads and display them to the public! I will let the Qi generals know the consequences of resisting me!"

Here! At this time, the leaders of the various vassal states also came to the county magistrate's office.

Everyone was very happy to see that Pingyin City was captured easily.

Di Shimi laughed heartily and said, "Generals! I never thought the Qi army would be so vulnerable!"

"If we continue like this, we will be able to crush Qi with overwhelming force!"

Everyone nodded in response and burst into laughter.