After breaking through Xiaoyi Pass, Jiangxia lost more than 200 people, but killed more than 7,000 enemies. This is an astonishing proportion, and it is not an exaggeration to describe it as "enough to be recorded in the annals of history." "Some people may think that there are 30,000 soldiers and horses guarding Xiaoyuan Pass, and more than 7,000 people died. Isn't there more than 20,000 people left?" In fact, this is not the case. In ancient wars, if a general lost his city, his life would be in danger. When the soldiers are defeated, they will flee separately. Generally, they will not go back until the battle has a winner. This can be regarded as a kind of self-protection. After Jiangxia passed Xiaoyan Pass, it was natural that it would approach Taiyuan. As for Taiyuan Mansion, because King Qi suddenly fell ill, Taiyuan Mansion was temporarily in charge of King Qi's eldest son Zhu Xiao. Of course, this is only on the surface. In fact, the master behind the scenes of Prince Qi's Mansion has always been the representative of the Yuan Clan, Yuan Hanqiu. So even if Zhu Xiao takes power, his first thing is to ask Yuan Hanqiu how to deal with it next. But on the first day when he went to the Qiuhan Thatched Cottage built by Yuan Hanqiu in Taiyuan, Zhu Xiao was rejected and Yuan Hanqiu did not see him. The thatched cottage in the cold autumn. Although it is called a thatched cottage, it is actually a luxurious mansion hidden in the dark. This house covers an area of ??more than 70 acres, and from the outside it seems to be decorated in a simple and casual way. But after actually walking into this house, you can see that the layout of this house coincides with the principles of the Four Symbols and Bagua, and all the stone and wood are made of exquisite materials. Especially the pile of rockeries in the back garden that are modeled after the top of Huashan Mountain, which look almost the same as real mountains from a distance. It takes an unknown amount of manpower, material and financial resources to build such a mountain. And this Qiuhan Thatched Cottage is just a temporary residence for Yuan Hanqiu in Taiyuan. At this moment, he was sitting in a pavilion in the middle of the rockery. Beside him were three maidservants with swords on their backs, who were as beautiful as flowers and jade, warming wine for him. On the stone table in front of you, there are several exquisite dishes. Opposite the stone table sat a middle-aged man wearing a Taoist robe. Yuan Hanqiu picked up the wine glass and said to the Taoist priest in front of him: "Taoist Priest Qingyun, Hanqiu would like to toast you another glass." The Taoist priest named Qingyun waved his hand, turned the wine glass in front of him upside down, and said, "The wine is not enough. After drinking, please speak frankly about why Yuan Clan asked the old Taoist. " I'm afraid there are not many people in the Ming Dynasty who can directly refuse Yuan Hanqiu's toast. However, Yuan Hanqiu didn't seem to be angry at all about Taoist Priest Qingyun's rejection. Instead, he drank the wine in one gulp and said, "What does Han Qiu want to do with the Taoist priest? I believe there is no need for Han Qiu to say it clearly." Qingyun smiled, directly picked up the jug and poured some wine on the stone table, and then He stretched out his right index finger, dipped it in the wine, and then wrote two sentences on the stone table. After finishing writing, Qingyun stood up and laughed and said: "Thanks to Yuan Clan for taking care of me, I will accept fifty thousand taels of gold from you for these two sentences." Yuan Hanqiu looked at those two sentences, then raised his hand and clapped it. shoot. After a while, on the stone dam outside the pavilion, more than 20 strong men came carrying more than a dozen large boxes. After the box was put down, the strong men opened the box. Golden light immediately refracted out, and dozens of boxes were filled with gold. Yuan Hanqiu stood up and said to Qingyun: "Thank you Taoist Master for your guidance. If you have free time in the future, Hanqiu should go to Zhongnan Mountain to pay a visit." Qingyun waved his hand and said: "You don't have to come within three years. With so much gold, Old Taoist I have to stay in the secular world for a while before I go back." Yuan Hanqiu nodded and said to the strong men: "Send the Taoist Master away and protect the gold." "Yes!" Han responded in unison. After Taoist Priest Qingyun and the group of strong men left, Yuan Hanqiu looked at the handwriting on the stone table that had not yet completely dried, and whispered to himself: "Avoid the edge for the time being, and make a decision before moving. With your back against the big A tree, self-contained? " After Yuan Hanqiu finished reading these two sentences, he seemed to be in confusion, as if he could not understand the Zen meaning contained in these two sentences. On the other side, Jiang Xia, after a period of slow speed, suddenly began to accelerate towards Taiyuan Prefecture. King Qi was seriously ill, so Zhu Xiao went to Yuan Hanqiu several times to discuss countermeasures, but in the end he could not see Yuan Hanqiu. In desperation, Zhu Xiao had no choice but to order the withdrawal of all troops and horses on the road from Xiaotan Pass to Taiyuan Mansion, and fully guard Taiyuan Mansion. In this way, Jiang Xia's soldiers and horses seemed to be entering and leaving an uninhabited country. He rushed all the way towards Taiyuan Mansion. On the way, Zhang Meng asked Jiang Xia with some confusion: "Your Majesty, why did we bring so few people to Shanxi?" Jiang Xia smiled lightly and said, "If we had brought more people, how could they dare to kill me?" "Then after Taiyuan is captured, where will we go?" "I'm not going anywhere, just wait for them in Taiyuan." "Huh?" Zhang Meng stared at Jiang Xia with wide eyes, clamping the horse's belly tightly and speeding forward. Only then did he realize that Jiang Xia was planning to use himself as bait to attract all those who joined the attack on the capital to come to Shanxi for a decisive battle. This is undoubtedly a crazy behavior, even a little self-destructive and overestimating one's own abilities. "But Zhang Meng knew that Jiang Xia must be sure of doing this. After following him for so many years, has he ever failed? The place close to Taiyuan Prefecture is Yuci. Jiang Xia rushed to Yuci without encountering any obstacles. However, he was also exhausted along the way. Going forward, there will definitely be a big battle. No matter how confident Jiang Xia is, he is by no means blind. He knows that at this time, he should let his people take a good rest in Yuci. ¡°Maybe they knew that Jiangxia was coming and there would be a big war after coming, so the entire Yuci County was empty without a single person. After Jiangxia and the others arrived in Yuci, the entire county was tightly defended by them. Jiang Xia lives in the county government with a group of his personal guards. It was late at night, and Jiang Xia actually had two choices. One is to take advantage of the darkness and attack them unprepared. The second is to recharge their batteries and wait until dawn before attacking Taiyuan. If it were in the past, Jiang Xia would probably choose to take advantage of him in the dark. But now, his decision is to wait until dawn, attack Taiyuan Mansion in a dignified manner, and directly kill King Qi. Just when Jiang Xia was still thinking about the siege plan after dawn tomorrow, he suddenly shouted to the closed door of the study: "Since you are already here, you might as well come in and sit down." "Squeak" of the study The door was pushed open, and a man wearing a long off-white cloth with a jade piccolo hanging around his waist walked into the room. After seeing Jiang Xia, the man bowed slightly and said, "Yuan Hanqiu, please see the emperor." "Yuan Hanqiu?" There was a slight doubt on Jiang Xia's face, because he had never heard of this name before. Yuan Hanqiu smiled slightly and said: "Perhaps I should introduce you this way, Mrs. Yuan of Chen County, Yuan Hanqiu is here to see the emperor."