Chapter 197 Clouds

Chapter 197 Clouds

Xue Qingning was furious when she received news that Shen Nanzi had defeated the Prince of Huaiyang.

He wrote to the King of Liang, requesting cooperation and sending Xue Yuqing, a rising force from the Xue family, to lead an army of 100,000 to jointly annihilate Shen Nanzi.

King Liang was willing to cooperate.

*

After Shen Nanzi learned that Prince Liang might be the mastermind behind Prince Ding, she realized that he was a tough nut to crack.

After discussing with Zhao Zhendong, she fought two battles against the Liang King's army, winning one and losing the other, with the two sides evenly matched.

In addition, many feudal lords were eager to attack Luoyang and redistribute the land.

Among them, the most formidable force was Prince Qi.

Prince Qi had a masked general who was almost invincible in every battle.

The weak Prince Qi relied on this fierce general to fight his way back from the north to the Central Plains.

Several fiefdoms along the way either became his allies or were occupied by him.

Looking at the forces that Prince Qi had acquired, seven vassal states had already been brought under his control.

It had only been five months since the late emperor passed away, yet Prince Qi had already taken action as soon as the news of the late emperor's death broke.

At first, it was just small-scale skirmishes, a few tentative battles. Later, with enough troops recruited, they started to rampage.

The fighting style was extremely barbaric, but effective; they had already reached the outskirts of Luoyang, the fiefdom of the Prince of Dai.

The next step is to head straight for Luoyang.

Prince Qi had long attracted Shen Nanzi's attention, and she sent people to investigate.

She also copied the character "承" from the banner and had it sent to Xie Yu so he could investigate it.

During this period, both Chengjun's army and Liang Wang's army tacitly agreed not to engage in battle.

After receiving replies from both sides, Shen Nanzi's expression turned somber.

At the same time, she discovered that Prince Qi's army had a deficiency: their military pay was insufficient.

Therefore, once they had eaten and drunk their fill, they would immediately go to war, turning granaries into their military pay wherever they went.

Their biggest weakness is that they cannot fight a war of attrition.

Shen Nanzi received another piece of bad news: the 100,000-strong army that the Xue family had seized was heading straight for her Ningchun City.

The Xue family's 100,000 troops, plus the Liang King's 50,000, total 150,000, are being attacked from both sides; this is meant to force them to their deaths.

Shen Nanzi immediately wrote a letter with urgent delivery and sent it to Prince Qi's military camp.

The gist of the message is: We hope to cooperate and can provide a month's worth of provisions, on the condition that we intercept Xue Yuqing's army.

They quickly received a reply from the other party, who was willing to cooperate, without even mentioning the delivery of supplies.

Prince Qi also proposed a two-pronged attack on Prince Liang, but Shen Nanzi felt that Prince Qi's forces would be weakened by splitting his troops into two groups.

The reply from Prince Qi was that there was no need to worry; they should set a date with her and attack Prince Liang together.

A few days later, they received a letter from Prince Qi.

Interception successful.

It turned out that Xue Yuqing's team encountered a frozen river, leaving them with only two options:

One option is to take a detour, which would add an extra month to the journey.

Secondly, one could cross the river directly, and once across, one would enter the fiefdom of the Prince of Huaiyang.

Xue Yuqing, the commander, is still too young and doesn't understand the load-bearing capacity of the ice layer.

Urged on by Xue Qingning, they chose to cross the river directly.

This resulted in a large number of soldiers falling into the icy river, and the crossing was put on hold.

The commander-in-chief and other generals had a disagreement. This army was originally seized by the Xue family, and although the generals in it had all been replaced with Xue family confidants.

However, this also sowed the seeds of future problems, leading to a direct escalation of the conflict during this river crossing incident.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, the masked general of Prince Qi's army led a thousand cavalrymen and charged directly into the commander's camp, beheading Xue Yuqing.

To catch the thief, first catch the king; it's simple and brutal, but very effective.

Shen Nanzi received information from her own mole that it was Prince Qi who had orchestrated the internal flames and then released the celestial predictions of the Grand Astrologer, stating that the glacier would not thaw for more than a month.

This led Xue Yuqing to take a desperate gamble.

During this time, Shen Nanzi also discovered that Zhao Zhendong would support any cooperation with Prince Qi.

Shen Nanzi pretended to know nothing, and she unconditionally supported anything that was beneficial to her.

A month's worth of provisions was enough to thwart Xue Qingning's siege of her; this deal was far too profitable.

She couldn't wait to see Xue Qingning's reaction after learning the truth.

New Year's Eve arrived in the blink of an eye, and there were still three days left before the attack on King Liang.

There is an unwritten rule in all armies that no fighting will take place for three days during the New Year, as the soldiers also need to celebrate the New Year.

This was also Shen Nanzi's first Chinese New Year away from home.

My sister-in-law cooked a table full of dishes and set out the reunion dinner at our temporary accommodation.

The New Year is incomplete without my brother at the steaming dinner table.

Shen Nanzi didn't dare mention her brother, so she tried to find a topic to talk about with her sister-in-law about the children.

It wasn't until she saw her sister-in-law set out an empty bowl and chopsticks that Shen Nanzi realized her sister-in-law had known all along.

“He must have been watching us, preventing us from eating. He was watching us!” Yang Wenhui choked up.

"Sister-in-law, I'm sorry." Shen Nanzi, who had held back her tears for half a year, finally burst into tears at this moment.

Holding her sister-in-law, whose shoulders were trembling, Yang Wenhui's face was covered in tears.

"Sister-in-law, I'm incompetent; I couldn't bring my brother out."

“When your brother told me to take the children and leave, I had a feeling that what you’re doing isn’t going to be easy.”

“Sister-in-law! If I hadn’t insisted on marrying Xie Yan back then, none of this would have happened, and my brother wouldn’t have died young.”

“Your brother won’t blame you. He feels bad that his sister is having such a hard time.”

"Sister-in-law, I meant well."

"You did nothing wrong. If everyone knew the way out, everyone would avoid it. That's life. We mature through our mistakes and grow through pain. Rather than being influenced by others, it's better to take control of your own destiny as you are now."

The two women, sister-in-law and aunt, hugged and cried for a while. Yang Wenhui wiped away her tears and said, "Go and call the children in for the family reunion dinner!"

Shen Nanzi wiped away her tears and called the children over. The older one, Ji Chuan, was stunned when he saw the empty bowl and chopsticks.

Xie Chengze also glanced at Shen Nanzi.

This reunion dinner was both difficult and painful to eat.

After the family reunion dinner, light snowflakes began to fall outside.

As dusk approached, the children played in the yard.

Shen Nanzi couldn't see Xie Chengze in the blink of an eye, so she quickly went to look for him.

Outside the courtyard, Xie Chengze was running out, with Xiao Wen and Xiao Wu following behind.

Fearing something might happen, Shen Nanzi said, "Cheng'er, stop."

Xie Chengze stopped immediately upon hearing her voice.

Shen Nanzi rushed over, "What are you chasing?"

Xie Chengze looked at the empty space ahead and looked up with some regret: "Mother, Cheng'er can see the clouds."

Shen Nanzi looked at the empty road ahead, with old houses on both sides.

His gaze sharpened slightly: "Yunxiao is with Fang Shuo; he might be someone similar."

"No, it's Yunxiao. Cheng'er recognizes him," Xie Chengze said firmly.

Shen Nanzi pursed her lips, took Cheng'er's hand, and said, "Let's go. You can't run around like that anymore."

As soon as I entered the courtyard, Qinghe came to report.

Fang Shuo sent someone to deliver the gifts.