I have been a county magistrate for ten years. My subordinates insist on giving me a yellow robe.

Taiping County.

As winter turns to spring, the snow in Taiping County has long since melted, replaced by a vibrant scene.

Inside the City Lord's Mansion, Jiang Yuan looked indifferently at the scouts who kept coming in and out to report news.

Jiang Yuan, who is already 34 years old, looks much more stable. Li Hu and Wang Gang behind him also gradually appear mature and reserved.

After a long while, Jiang Yuan finally spoke in a low voice: "Li Hu, is the information accurate?"

"Your Majesty, did you really not rush out with Chen Liu and the others?"

Li Hu nodded heavily. "It has been confirmed. It is accurate. According to our spies, before the end of the year, Ning Fei led a large army to besiege Qingzhou City."

"Thirty days later, they broke into the city, and Chen Liu and his group broke out through the south gate. However, Ning Fei did not personally pursue them. Although he later launched a hunt for Chen Liu, he himself did not set out."

"And according to our spies, His Majesty has not been spotted near Chenliu."

Jiang Yuan was silent. He looked at the mountain of information in front of him, feeling mixed emotions.

According to the information currently available, it is very likely that Duanmu Yuanchen died on that day.

This was different from what Jiang Yuan thought, not at all. Jiang Yuan had never thought about why Duanmu Yuanchen did not break out with Chen Liu.

Why would you stay if you know you are going to die?

From the beginning to the end, Jiang Yuan had complicated feelings towards Duanmu Yuanchen. He couldn't really say he hated her, but unconditional trust was out of the question.

The two of them once escaped from an assassin's knife together. Jiang Yuan once saved Duanmu Yuanchen, and Duanmu Yuanchen also saved him.

Jiang Yuan still remembers that day at the execution ground of the city defense army, the guy wearing a five-clawed python robe, driving a carriage, holding a sword but only waving it randomly.

Although the other party had some bad thoughts about him later, Duanmu Yuanchen quickly corrected himself and gave Jiang Luoxue a hereditary title when she was just born without any hesitation.

But he shouldn't have died like this!

Why didn't Duanmu Yuanchen escape? Chen Liu was able to lead his men to fight his way out, so why couldn't Duanmu Yuanchen?

No matter how much Ning Fei wanted to kill him, if Duanmu Yuanchen only wanted to escape, he would be able to get away with the escort of tens of thousands of iron soldiers around him.

However, the news that came was that Duanmu Yuanchen did not escape, but stayed in the palace. No further news came afterwards, but according to speculation from all parties, Ning Fei would not have allowed this trouble to remain.

"Sir, what should we do now?" Li Hu's eyes flashed. After all, according to what Jiang Yuan said a few years ago, if Duanmu Yuanchen was defeated, Ning Fei would never let them go.

When besieging Qingzhou City, Ning Fei had already rashly gathered an army of 500,000. Now, it would not be excessive to gather hundreds of thousands more troops.

Jiang Yuan stood up quietly and slowly exhaled: "Duanmu Yuanchen is dead, but according to the news, doesn't he have a son named Duanmu Ning'an?"

"Yes, it is said that Xue Zhen and Long Guangxian from Chenliu led the remaining defeated troops and fled all the way. But according to the news, they have probably fled to Caiyun City, where Long Guangxian used to be."

"But I don't think it can hold out for much longer. Caiyun City has experienced many wars, so I'm afraid it won't be able to hold out for much longer."

Jiang Yuan nodded: "That's right, there are not many soldiers in Caiyun City, the city is doomed to be captured."

"I couldn't do anything when Duanmu Yuanchen died, but his son was innocent and did nothing wrong. It's reasonable and logical that he shouldn't have died!"

Li Hu stroked his chin, pondered for a long time, and said, "Sir, according to your suggestion, should we send people to Chenliu and ask them to come to our Taiping County?"

"But Caiyun City is quite far away from us. It might take a month for the news to reach us. They might not be able to hold on."

Jiang Yuan said, "Of course I know this, so I decided to send out spies while also sending out the army to Caiyun City!"

Li Hu looked at Jiang Yuan in amazement. Is he crazy?

Ning Fei is now at the peak of his career. If Taiping County really does this, wouldn’t it be a blatant challenge to him?

"Sir, this isn't a good idea. Isn't the risk too great?"

Jiang Yuan couldn't help but sigh: "Duanmu Yuanchen saved our lives and was not bad to us. His life or death is uncertain now, and we can't do anything, but his son didn't deserve to die."

"Besides, Chen Liu is also in Caiyun City. Are we really going to just stand by and watch him die?"

"That's definitely not possible!" Li Hu said directly.

Looking back to the past, it was just him, Li Hu, who stole... and took away so many things from Chenliu's house. When people saw him, they all laughed and joked. How could we watch such a good man die?

"Well said, pass the order along."

"Taiping Heavenly Cavalry will gather at the city gate in half an hour. We will rush a thousand miles to support Chenliu!"

After saying this, Jiang Yuan turned and walked out of the room, leaving Li Hu standing there with his mouth open for a long time.

"Taiping Heavenly Cavalry? Are they setting out now?"

Jiang Yuan walked out of the room and soon came to a garden. In the garden, the sun was shining brightly. Bai Wei was sitting on a chair watching the children playing in front of her. Although she was over 30 years old, there was not a single wrinkle on her face.

Jiang Yuan put his hands behind his back and walked silently to Bai Wei and sat down.

"Is there something?" Bai Wei turned her head and spoke softly.

"Yes, I have to go out for a while, but I should be back soon." Jiang Yuan nodded and said.

"Is it dangerous?" Bai Wei spoke again.

Jiang Yuan thought about it carefully for a while, and finally nodded: "It's a little dangerous, but I have to go."

"Well, then you should pay attention."

After saying these two simple sentences, Jiang Yuan glanced at Jiang Luoxue and didn't say anything else. If he said anything more, it would be like making arrangements for his funeral.

A moment later, Jiang Yuan walked out of the room with a lot of things hanging on his body.

By the time he got on his horse and rushed to the city gate, it was almost time.

With nine city walls, Taiping County already occupies an extremely terrifying area. Together with the small cities on both sides of the city gates, a huge city that can accommodate millions of people has stood on the border.

Li Hu, Wang Gang, Zhao Kai, Kong Xuan, Qin Tianzhu and others have been waiting for a long time.

Looking around, outside the city gate, there were already thousands of cavalrymen lined up on both sides. Thousands of cavalrymen, all holding spears and fully covered in armor, even the vital parts of the horses were protected by armor plates.

Jiang Yuan glanced at both sides one by one. These guys were all strong men carefully selected from Taiping County. They were absolutely elite.

After millions of barbarians joined, the number of troops in Taiping County would have reached one million if all of them were to come out.

Among them, barbarian cavalry accounted for the majority, but Jiang Yuan only left behind 200,000 cavalry. There was no special reason, and he could not afford to support more.

Two hundred thousand cavalrymen require at least five hundred thousand war horses. Fortunately, since the grassland has recovered, these war horses can be raised on the grassland, saving Taiping County a lot of expenses.

The grassland can even provide a large amount of meat. It can be said that without the grassland, Taiping County would not be able to feed so many people.

"Everyone listen up! Move out!"

Jiang Yuan shouted loudly, and many cavalrymen around him immediately raised their spears.

After several years of training, even the barbarians on the grassland can use the spear quite skillfully.

Soon, a team of cavalry serving as the vanguard rushed out first. There were 1,000 vanguards, 1,000 rearguards, 3,000 soldiers in the middle, and 5,000 cavalrymen marched out of Taiping County in a mighty manner.

Although the number of people seems small, each of these guys is carefully selected and their fighting power is quite exaggerated.

In the blink of an eye, half a month passed. At this time, on the city wall of Caiyun City, Long Guangxian and Xue Zhen looked at the enemy in front of them with grim expressions.

There were a total of 50,000 people, but there were only less than 5,000 remaining soldiers in Caiyun City.

Long Guangxian took a deep breath and said, "Xue Zhen, I'm afraid we can't hold on any longer."

Xue Zhen nodded silently. Ever since Qingzhou City was breached some time ago, the city defense troops under his command had fought their way out of the city, but because of this, their main forces were completely wiped out.

The current 5,000 soldiers were pieced together along the way.

"Go inform Consul General Chen and tell him to get ready. We will definitely escort them out of the city."

Xue Zhen looked at Long Guangxian hesitantly: "Are you here alone?"

Long Guangxian suddenly grinned: "Humph, so what if I'm alone? Don't forget, this is Caiyun City, the Caiyun City that I, Long Guangxian, have guarded for fifteen years!"

Xue Zhen looked at Long Guangxian deeply, turned around and walked down the city wall.

A moment later, in the General's Mansion of Caiyun City, the white-haired Chen Liu was holding a child of three or four years old in his arms. His eyes were lifeless, but his hands subconsciously held the child tightly.

Beside him, Long Aotian wanted to speak with a conflicted look on his face, but was a little scared. This guy looked as if he wanted to kill someone, but he had been there for several days and hadn't eaten a single bite. However, he took good care of the children around him.

However, Long Guangxian did not explain clearly who this guy was. He just left a message and asked the people in the general's mansion to take good care of him, then went straight to the city wall to organize the defense.

Although I don’t know this guy’s identity, this is Caiyun City. What is there to be afraid of?

After hesitating for a long time, Long Aotian finally mustered up the courage to take a step forward.

"Well, sir, why don't we have something to eat?"

Chen Liu shook his head silently with an expressionless face, but never uttered a word.

"Uncle, you starved to death in our general's mansion. If this gets out, people will think that our general's mansion is stingy and doesn't give people food." Long Aotian spoke again.

Hearing this, Chen Liu suddenly turned his head to look at Long Aotian, and suddenly smiled inexplicably.

"Uncle, don't smile so creepily. I'm not a little girl. How about eating something?"

"You look a bit like a guy." Chen Liu spoke again inexplicably.

Long Aotian was stunned for a moment, then grinned and said, "That guy must be a bit like me! This is also his blessing!"

Chen Liu sneered and said nothing more. Instead, he carried the child to the dining table and began to mechanically stuff food into his mouth.

The tone of Long Aotian's speech was somewhat similar to that person's, but this kid was so arrogant and acted like he was the best in the world. If he really ran into him, he would probably be eaten to pieces without leaving a bone.

But then again, he probably won't show up.

This was within expectations. After all, they were being chased like stray dogs, running around everywhere. They probably couldn't stay in Caiyun City for much longer.

Chen Liu thought about this blankly, and his hands stopped moving.

At this moment, a clear voice came from outside the hall.

"According to the orders of the City Lord, I have come to pass on a message to General Chen of Chenliu. Send aid overnight. You must persevere!"