readbooksol Chapter 1306 Lou Shuwan (Part 1)
Chapter 1306 Lou Shuwan (Part 1)
Chapter 1306 Lou Shuwan (Part 1)
My head is buzzing.
The field of vision was sometimes clear and sometimes blurry.
The evening wind blew through the mountain stream, its mournful sound like that of ghosts. She stood on a small platform in the middle of the stream, with a waterfall cascading beside her. The setting sun slanted down through the gaps in the stream, casting a blood-red glow that mingled with the blood on the corpse.
In the sunset, she groped her way down the thin branches of the surrounding plants, took a dagger, and painstakingly cut the branches off. Then she cut strips of cloth from the corpse next to her.
"what……"
Every movement was draining her remaining strength, causing her to tremble and gasp for breath, sweat pouring down her face.
"Ha ha ha ha……"
She placed her twisted fingers on the stone, and then pressed down.
"Ahhhhhhhhhh-"
In the setting sun, the suppressed roar was drowned out by the rushing waterfall.
……
Fell into a trap.
It happened as soon as the news of Chen Fangda's death came back.
The rebel army heading to the northwest encountered Mongol cavalry that charged out from Hengshan and suffered heavy losses—which shouldn't have happened. The rebel army, which had been operating in the north for many years, was at most poor, but had experienced many life-and-death situations. Even if they were attacked, they shouldn't have suffered such a crushing defeat. However, chaotic news soon began to arrive on a large scale.
The Yellow River breached its banks, and a main force of the Mongols fled towards Guanzhong after defeating the rebel army. At the same time, news came from the north that the Jurchens were showing signs of restlessness. Further news came that the Mongols and Jurchens, as foreign tribes, had reached a cooperation agreement. The Jurchens had secretly revealed the details of the rebel army and the true situation in Jin to the Mongols. Even traces of Jurchen generals had been found in the Mongols' army.
At the end of May, countless messages, some true and some false, gathered in just a few days.
Guanzhong was easy to defend and difficult to attack. After the Jurchens invaded the south twice, it was originally occupied by the Jin Dynasty and administered by Liu Yu's puppet regime. It wasn't until two years ago, when the Huaxia Army defeated Zong Han in the southwest, that the various Han Chinese forces in the Central Plains gradually squeezed out the Jurchens' Bianliang forces over the next year. Lou Shuwan took advantage of this situation to take control of several gateways in Guanzhong. At this time, due to the Jurchens' years of plunder and the destruction they caused when they left, the Qin River Valley had not yet recovered its strength. Lou Shuwan originally intended to make this fertile land her own backyard.
On the one hand, she naturally understood the importance of Guanzhong, but on the other hand, her ten years of efforts had all been focused north of the Yellow River, and she didn't have the resources to immediately channel resources into Guanzhong. Having gone through more than a decade of chaotic warfare, Lou Shuwan was actually quite assertive, and she preferred to consolidate Taiyuan first rather than immediately recovering Guanzhong.
Only by having the determination to fight the Jurchens can Guanzhong possibly play its role in the future. If one sees fertile land and a safe location and immediately goes there to enjoy the benefits, then in reality, one will not be able to defend this place.
Of course, it was also because she controlled Guanzhong that Lou Shuwan made the decision to let Luan Shi take over and develop the Northwest.
News from the Northwest would take some time to arrive, making it difficult to assess the strength and weakness of the Mongol army in the short term. Theoretically, even if the enemy was powerful, they might not be able to break through strong passes like Xiaoguan and Dasanguan. However, to ensure stability, Yu Lin went south to inspect the area and bolster morale, while he himself remained in Weisheng to oversee the development of the Taiyuan region.
The inspection trip to Yuci had been planned more than a month in advance. Before the trip, someone even wrote a letter saying that since General Yu had gone to the south, the female prime minister should behave herself and not go out, so as to avoid any unscrupulous people from causing trouble.
However, she did not like such statements and attitudes. Of course, there were complicated reasons for this, but the most direct problem was that her status in Jin was that of a female prime minister. When someone openly treated her as a monarch, she would always subconsciously avoid it and try to appear selfless.
This is her weakness.
Now she knows.
The sudden attack came from the northeast of the camp. The combination of muskets and explosives tore a hole in the battle-hardened female soldiers. After that, countless people clamored and attacked. A garrison stationed near Yuci had defected. Lou Shuwan guessed it was Ma Ling, but the real force was the suicide squad that led the way with firearms.
Since the Huaxia army defeated the Jurchens with firearms, armies all over the world began training and researching firearms. The Jin region even received direct technology transfer from the Huaxia army, so her army also had many firearms. However, in general, this was all subsequent training, and they had basically not experienced high-intensity actual combat. Many of her generals were still not proficient in the use of firearms.
The group of men who came over almost crushed their way through the military camp, carving a path through it.
Her guards fought desperately to protect her as she moved, but in the dim light, Lou Shuwan could see bursts of fire from explosions. Even though the guards around her were fearless, they would be blown apart whenever a group of people gathered, resulting in numerous casualties.
They fought and retreated, but the pursuit from behind was like a persistent leech. In the dim night, Lou Shuwan seemed to see Zou Xu leading the charge, but she wasn't sure if it was just her imagination. Several miles from the camp, Shi Jin led his troops into battle, and she saw muskets firing at the enemy.
Zou Xu.
Dai Mengwei opened the Chinese Martial Arts Association in Bianliang City and formed the so-called Danchen Guard. The Danxin Guard within it recruited all sorts of martial arts masters, whom Lou Shuwan had even mocked to Yu Yulin: "Nothing but petty thieves and scoundrels." But the Gongchen Guard within it was said to be composed of elite soldiers whom Zou Xu had been keeping an eye on for over two years. In that night, even though the other party hadn't given their name, it was this name that flashed through Lou Shuwan's mind.
Recently, the Yellow River has entered its flood season, making transportation difficult. Clearly, the other party had been arranging this for quite some time.
She recalled the image of the man who was always laughing and joking and calling her "Aunt Lou".
As expected of Ning Yi's disciple, he's ruthless.
This stab will be fatal.
During her escape, she fell off her horse and was injured. She continued running, but the directions from which she estimated reinforcements were almost all cut off. She changed directions several times, and the number of guards around her decreased until the last few men carried her into the mountains. The others tried to distract the pursuers from different directions, while the last guard dragged her down a rugged ravine.
In his last glimpse, he pulled her with all his might into this narrow platform halfway up the waterfall, a place so secluded that she was invisible from both above and below.
……
Many of the messages have become clear.
Judging from this arrangement, Zou Xu's schemes against him probably date back much further. Not only was Ma Ling persuaded to betray him, but some ministers in the court also wavered, and even the official who advised him not to go north might have been one of them.
but why?
Because I am a woman.
And he had no children.
She always considers Tian Shi's status and always acts like a female prime minister?
She once thought that her power in Jin was very secure.
But now it seems that what's being whitewashed, besides one's own naiveté, is probably also the shadow of the black flag...
Trembling, she pulled the dry rations from the body of the guard. The last guard who helped her escape was named Bian Fu, a former subordinate and friend of Shi Jin from Chifeng Mountain, and a rare hero in Jin. He had arrows stuck in his body, but the fatal wounds were probably from the holes caused by several musket bullets. Blood flowed from the bullet holes, staining the dry rations red, but Lou Shuwan still trembled as she ate the blood-stained food.
As the sun began to set, she surveyed the surrounding terrain. The ravine Bian Fu had brought her to was secluded, but going up or down it was extremely difficult. Jin was her territory, and there were certainly more loyalists there, but at this moment, she also realized the fragility of Jin. After her disappearance, it was highly likely to fall apart in a short time.
If I were Zou Xu, what would I do...?
Reinforcements might arrive, but the pursuers might not have withdrawn either. In fact, every moment he was missing, Zou Xu was persuading all sides to betray him.
We cannot sit idly by and wait for reinforcements.
Using the last rays of daylight, she searched the corpse and found various items: a tinderbox, a knife, gold and silver, dry rations, and even a hand grenade. Not knowing the situation, she dared not light a fire. Picking up the knife, she apologized and began cutting off Bian Fu's clothes, attempting to tie the strips into a long rope.
In the darkness, everything proceeded extremely slowly. Her left hand fingers were simply fixed in place with wooden strips, but the pain was unbearable. She wanted to cry and scream. She would work for a while, then rest for a while.
As night deepened, the surrounding darkness slowly faded. It was early morning, and there was no moon in the sky, but countless stars covered the earth and fairly shone over this mountain valley. Lou Shuwan sat there, and beside her sat the man's corpse, his upper body stripped bare. Lou Shuwan said, "Bat, oh bat, don't think you can fly and bring me to a place like this. Now that I'm like this, it's your karma."
After a while, he said again, "I'm still more sorry for you, but if you're watching over me from heaven, please don't mind."
I spoke a few words to him, and then continued making the rope.
She didn't know when she finally finished making the rope. She was covered in sweat from the pain and completely exhausted. The wind howled in the night, making it feel cold even in summer. She curled up in a ball, and in her pain, she thought of Ning Yi.
I can't remember much of what they looked like anymore.
She thought, "It's all your fault! It's all your fault!" But in reality, she was gradually forgetting even the grudges from many years ago, the story of Hangzhou, and her deceased father and brothers, and she couldn't think clearly about them anymore.
Over the years, her experiences in the Central Plains, every day in the vortex of power, have been as heavy as a mountain. The carefree, even tedious and boring, ignorant woman in Hangzhou, whom she occasionally thinks of, now seems like a complete stranger.
Life is a painful journey.
At least since the Hangzhou Rebellion, it seems that only the word "suffering" existed in her life.
Just like this moment, in the dark of night, she clung to the rope, pain and cold assaulting her in turn. She could do nothing but endure it.
"It's all your fault! You bastard!"
She gritted her teeth, trying to maintain her hatred, but sometimes a sense of tranquility would wash over her, as if her father and brother were close by, saying to her, "Let's just leave it at that, let's stop here..." She felt the temptation and thought it made a lot of sense.
She also wanted to stop here.
……
The sky gradually brightened.
On a small platform in the mountain stream, the woman covered in wounds also rose with the light. She painstakingly examined and bandaged herself, tying ropes to several nearby plants that seemed relatively sturdy.
In the sunlight, the tiny figure tried several times, her left hand causing her excruciating pain, but finally, on her last attempt, she carefully climbed down a short distance before slipping and tumbling down the hillside.
The not-so-grand wild waterfall still flows with a thunderous roar, crashing against the earth and turning into a calm river. The wild grass and rocks in the mountain stream stretch quietly in the sunlight. A rabbit crawls across the grass to drink water by the river, and at a moment, it runs away alertly.
In the grass, the woman's body struggled to turn over. She stared at the sun, tears streaming down her face, blood flowing from the corner of her mouth where it had been scraped.
But she didn't say anything.
He slowly adjusted his body, breathed slowly, groped slowly, exerted force slowly, and sat up...
At some point, she stood up and began to walk laboriously along the hillside toward Weisheng.
Outside Weisheng, she didn't know which soldiers she could trust more, so she couldn't take the main road or easily call for help. According to her estimation, she was about sixty or seventy li away from Weisheng, and if she considered taking a detour, it would be even farther...
She looked up at the sunlight, wondering what Wasion had become at this moment...