Qin Official

"Father, please take me with you!"

Xiang Ji in the dream was still the young man who was no taller than a wheel, but running desperately beside the military chariot.

"You're too young."

The eldest father, Xiang Yan, stood in the car and turned around. His uniform was as bright as fire, his thick beard covered his laces, and he was kind but stern to them.

"When can Ji'er go to the battlefield?"

A weapon was thrown from the car, leaving behind the laughter of my father and Xiang's uncles and brothers:

"When you are at least as tall as a six-foot halberd, you can join us in killing the Qin invaders on the battlefield."

He could only pick up the short halberd, raise it high, and shout at the smoke and dust of the convoy:

"My eldest father will definitely win here!"

"Chu Bisheng!"

At that time, in Xiang Ji's mind, as the invincible father of Shangzhu Kingdom, who had killed Qin Qin's seven captains and defeated Li Xin, there was no possibility of defeat.

Until the bad news came.

Only then did he know that for General Chu, once defeated, there was only one choice:

"die!"

After drinking so loudly, Xiang Ji woke up from his dream, covered with sweat. This was a small tent, set up in the middle of a newly opened bush, and the ground was wet. He could even see a frightened The lizard crawled out from the gap.

This was the place where they were trapped, a swamp called Daze Township. That damn field woman pointed them to the wrong way. The remnants of the Chu army ran into it. They encountered heavy rain and were unable to escape. As a result, they were driven away one after another. The Qin army was surrounded.

Xiang Ji's body was also covered with scars from his forehead to his legs and feet. The most serious one was when a sharp arrow pierced his armor and plunged into his back. Although it had been briefly treated, it was still painful. It hurts.

This is the most serious injury Xiang Ji has suffered since he started his army, but these injuries are completely without the humiliation and pain caused by defeat!

Now, as I wake up, every detail of the failure of the battle the day before yesterday comes to mind. If the formation had been set up like this, if the charge had been launched earlier, if I had been more determined, if...

Without if, the result would be that he was completely defeated!

A total of 60,000 Chu people died in the battle at Fuli. Long Qie, General Pu, and Yu Ziqi all died on the battlefield. If it weren't for his cousin Xiang Zhuang, his subordinate Yingbu worked hard to rescue him. Xiang Ji was attacking Heifu's main formation. After the failure, he almost died.

So Xiang Ji once again thought of the tradition of Chu:

"On the day when the master comes out, there will be glory with death, and humiliation without life. The law of Chu is that if you overthrow a general, you must kill him. If you cannot ask for it, you must ask for it yourself!"

This is a tradition that has been continued from Qu Xia, Ziyu, Shen Yinrong and even Xiang Yan. In the Spring and Autumn Period alone, 17 Mo Ao, Ling Yin, Sima, and princes committed suicide due to defeat. This is because Chu people value dignity more than life and will not hesitate to die generously for their beliefs.

In the Spring and Autumn Period, it was hanging, but later it became suicide, and a ritual system of suicide was even developed.

Killing oneself has become a way for losers to go to justice gloriously and retain the last trace of dignity.

At least in Chu Ren's mind, he always thought so.

Xiang Ji forced himself to stand up and touched his side, but found nothing. Then he looked to the side, where Xiang Zhuang was guarding him with his eyes wide open: "Where is the sword?"

After years of military service, the sword seems to have become a third hand, empty without it.

But Xiang Zhuang, who was guarding Xiang Ji in the tent, seemed to have a premonition of something. There were two swords hanging on his waist, one was the famous sword "Gongbu" that Xiang Ji had given him during the Battle of Xihe, and the other was Xiang Ji's sword. He is holding two swords firmly at the moment.

Xiang Zhuang's tongue was cut by a Qin official in the past, and he could not speak. He could only make babbling sounds and shook his head at Xiang Ji.

"do not worry."

"I'm not quite there yet."

"My sword, even in the end, must point at the enemy."

Xiang Ji said this and asked Xiang Zhuang to help him up. At this moment, they heard the commotion outside.

"What's the matter?"

Yingbu, who was guarding outside, came to report: "In the Shangzhu Kingdom, it is the Qin army who is singing, and what they are singing is..."

This man is not afraid of heaven and earth. For the first time, despair appeared on the face of Fu Li, the tattooed prisoner who remained calm despite being pressed several times by the Qin soldiers:

"It's Chu Ge!"

…

"My father's soul is in the north of the Great Wall, driven by quicksand and rocks and strong winds.

Its sun is like frying, its moon is like stew.

The north of the Great Wall is uninhabitable. When will we come back? When will we come back!

My brother's heart is in the east of the sea, and the long sky waves rush into the cloud tower.

The soul fell into the sand, and the body was buried in fish and shrimp.

The east of the sea is uninhabitable. When will we come to rely on it? When will we come to rely on it?

My son's confidants are in Lingnan, where poisonous insects rain like swords and halberds.

Cut off the hair first, then tattoo the ridge.

The end of the world is uninhabitable. When will I come home? When will I come home?

Only my hometown is the place to live. When will I come to peace? When will I come to peace? "

The singing was very small at first, like the chorus of several people, but gradually grew louder and turned into a chorus, coming from all directions...

This rhyme and words are indeed a Chu song, and the content is quite similar to the traditional funeral song "Calling the Soul" of Chu State, perhaps a local version of it.

When he launched his army to attack Shouchun two years ago, Xiang Ji once sang "Calling Souls" loudly. At that time, he believed that he had recalled the soul of the Chu nation that had been lost for a long time...

That soul-calling song once inspired the Chu people's courage to fight, but today's song is destroying the fighting spirit of the only three thousand Chu soldiers left at a speed visible to the naked eye!

Yingbu, this tough man, lost all his fighting spirit at this time. He knelt in the mud in despair and murmured: "Qin has already conquered Chu? How many people are there in Chu?"

"The people of Heifu's army are from Honda's Nanjun. The words in this song are indeed the style of Nanjun's Hengshan and Western Chu."

This time, Xiang Ji judged clearly that these singing people were either Nanjun soldiers, one of the main forces of Heifu's army, or they were shameless county officials who had recently abandoned Chu and surrendered to the invaders.

But he could carry it clearly, but ordinary soldiers may not be able to carry it clearly. When the singing gradually died down, while Xiang Ji fainted again due to his injuries, the soldiers who had been following Xiang Ji since the day he started the army came to report:

"Shangzhu Kingdom, Yingbu has taken his people away!"

"There are more than a thousand people who followed him out of the swamp and begged for surrender from the Qin army!"

But Xiang Ji seemed to have expected it, and said with a smile: "Yingbu, Yingbu, those tragedies broke his back. He thought he could survive this way, so he should chop off my head before going."

Yingbu did peek outside the tent for a while, but in the end he was frightened by Xiang Ji's reputation and did not dare to come in.

Xiang Zhuang came to ask for instructions angrily. Does that mean, should we pursue him? But Xiang Ji shook his head:

"Let's go, let them be."

"To this day, anyone who wants to leave, can leave."

"Xiang Ji will not take anyone who doesn't want to die with him to death this time."

When he walked out of the tent again, everyone had gathered here. The originally small open space in the swamp was no longer crowded, and most of the Chu soldiers were gone.

"How many people are left?"

"Eight hundred."

Xiang Ji smiled sadly: "The number of people who followed me in raising troops in Chaohu was exactly eight hundred."

Drums sounded outside. This was the Qin army starting to advance towards Zezhong! After all, Heifu lost the patience to continue the siege and wanted to end the battle and destroy the Chu Kingdom before the sun set!

Xiang Ji's eyes swept over the faces of the remaining people one by one. He had always been affectionate and loving, and could almost call most of the soldiers by their names.

"Zhong Ping, I still remember the day you took the city of Huaiyang, you were able to lift the entire Qin people and throw them off the tower. How about today?"

"Liu Ji, your family has been a retainer of the Xiang family for generations. Your eldest father died in the battle with my eldest father. Your father died protecting the Xiang family's manor. You are hiding among the people. When you heard that I raised an army, you responded immediately."

Every time someone was named, those Chu Wei and Chu soldiers who were covered in glory and exhausted but still holding onto their weapons would burst out with a loud shout, as if they had followed Xiang Ji for two years and fought hard just to get a shout from Shangzhu Kingdom. Thumbs up.

Some people despise Xiang Ji, some hate Xiang Ji, some people dismiss him, but some people respect him and are loyal to him from the bottom of their hearts.

Because after more than ten years of suffering, those Chu people achieved exciting victories one after another!

"It has been eight years since I raised the army. I have fought more than twenty battles. Those who fought were defeated and those who attacked were subdued. I was not defeated. Then I crossed the Xihe River. That is the farthest place that Chu people have traveled."

This is Xiang Ji's pride, and it is also the talk of all those present today, just like his father Xiang Liang said goodbye to him when the two sides separated in the Battle of Fuli.

"You may be disappointed with Father Zhong."

"Dan Ji'er, you have never let Father Zhong down!"

"The Xiang family can have such a heroic figure like you, so that they can ring a few more bells in this world! That's enough!"

Xiang Ji raised his head and saw that even his father-in-law was no longer here.

"But now that we have been defeated by Fuli, and we are trapped here, I will die in this world."

People cannot choose their origin.

But you can choose how you die.

"I would rather die in battle than die of hunger and thirst, or linger at the feet of the Qin people, and be humiliated by the jailer and die with an axe!"

No one would sing the praises of someone who died like that.

"I will fight to the death today. I am willing to fight quickly for you, break the siege, kill generals, and cut down flags for you!"

Xiang Zhuang's tongue was cut by a Qin official and he couldn't speak, but he let go of his voice and roared like an angry beast!

"I will die today!"

Then all the remaining Chu soldiers began to roar and beat each other with broken shields and broken spears in their hands. The sound of tinkling and clanging filled the river, causing the Qin army, which was wading from the outside to slowly advance, to hesitate for a moment. meeting.

Xiang Ji changed his mind.

He no longer wanted to die of suicide like the defeated generals of the Chu people before him.

He would rather use the sword in his hand to ring the sonorous bell that belongs to the Xiang family and the Chu Kingdom for the last time!

He would rather have a battle to end this tragedy: the intersection of swords, blood-red snow, broken shields and severed limbs, let everything end here!

Even though his intention to die was clear, when Xiang Zhuang brought in the big black horse "Wuzui", which was covered in wounds and mud, Xiang Ji seemed to see himself.

"Good horse, you will follow me to the end."

This tall and thick man, this demon king who killed many people in Xihe and Xiangyi, suddenly became gentle, caressing the fur of the black horse, brushing away the hard mud from its hair, but in the end he did not get on the horse's back.

He was injured all over in the Battle of Fuli, but if he had to fight on horseback, he could still do it. Xiang Ji even dared to pat his chest and promise that he would not be defeated in a confrontation with any cavalry commander. The halberd in his hand , and Wu Zhui, who is sitting down, are always handy and invincible!

Xiang Ji had Wu Zui tied to a tree beside the tent, took one last look at it, and turned away decisively.

Wu Zhui was anxious and restless. Even though he was wounded and tired, and even though he was chained, he was still neighing. But he could only watch his tall and majestic master, holding a halberd and shield, together with the last eight hundred Chu soldiers. Heading towards Zewai.

They staggered, but they also walked firmly. Although their clothes and armor were broken, under the leadership of Xiang Yu, with 800 people, they outlasted the momentum of 80,000!

It heard their roaring voices, and heard their confrontation with the Qin people wading over the water, the glint of swords, the intersection of gold and iron, the Chu people's curses, and the Qin people's chants mixed together, and from time to time, heavy objects fell crashing down, It created a large splash of water, and the ripples must have spread far away.

It kept struggling and pulling on the rope, hoping to break free and join the battle. It was also a member of the Chu army! It once carried its master invincibly, crossed the chasm, and drank from the Yellow River!

In this battle with the Qin people's thousands of forwards, the Chu people may have won. It heard footsteps heading outward, gradually getting further away, and then there was a sharp whistle that broke through the air!

It remembered that it was the sound of thousands of crossbows firing and arrows falling in the Qin army's position!

Whenever this sound appears, countless people of the same kind, together with their riders, will flip over on their backs!

Just like a sudden rain, the water splashed in the swamp, but after the sound of the salvo passed, there were still Chu people alive!

"kill!"

It is the charging horn of the Chu people, the voice of the master. It screams with all its strength, but it is still so explosive, like rolling thunder!

Then there was the second salvo, and again, and again, and with each pass, Chu's roar became much quieter.

Until there was no more sound.

I don’t know what happened, but the sound outside gradually stopped. Wu Zhui finally broke the tree trunk as thick as a child’s arm, dragged it outside, jumped over the bushes, jumped into the swamp, and saw the scene outside...

Looking around, in the huge swamp, all the Chu people were lying down, and the arrows falling from the sky were piercing their bodies, like rice stalks that had just grown.

Only its owner, Xiang Ji, still holds the halberd and stands in the middle of the lake!

Beside him were more than a dozen Qin soldiers who were killed. Coveting the heavy reward for Xiang Ji's head, they advanced rashly without obeying orders. When they saw countless arrows, they stopped moving and tried to behead them, but they were all killed by counterattacks.

So the arrows from the distance continued to fire, almost turning Xiang Ji into a hedgehog. However, even though he was exhausted, he never fell down.

This man was cruel and violent, but he did fight to the last moment and died standing.

The red armor on Xiang Ji's body was soaked with blood, making it appear even brighter red, and it became the only red that survived.

Opposite Daze, there were black flags, an overwhelming black armor formation, and 100,000 people slowly surrounding this red dot...

…

After the fighting stopped, in front of the Qin flag fluttering in the west wind, Hei Fu stood on the military chariot and released the hilt of his sword that he had been holding tightly.

Looking at the black horse rushing out of the marsh and running towards Xiang Ji's body, he stretched out his hand to stop the crossbow raised by the soldiers. After sighing for a long time, he raised his head and looked at the darkening sky. The red demon star is no longer there:

"The star Yinghuo has fallen..."

"The prophecy that Qin will be destroyed by Chu has also been shattered."

On the contrary, it was another thing that became a fact from now on.

"Will future generations say this?"

Heifu showed a stone-falling smile:

"Heifu, a native of Chu."

"I'm going to die here!"

…

"The body of the split item was divided into five. One was passed to the East China Sea, one to Sishui, one to Chenjun, and one to Jiujiang. The head was passed westward and brought back to Guanzhong via Dangjun, Yingchuan, and Sanchuan."

This is what Hei Fu did to Xiang Ji's body. Xiang Ji's body was full of arrows. When he pulled it out and weighed it, he found that it weighed half a stone...

The so-called "King of Chu" had been led by Cai Ci a few days ago, and together he burned himself to death in the ruined Qixian County. Cai Ci failed to serve the King of Chu and killed himself to death, but now he is able to die for his country.

After Xiang Ji also died in battle, the Chu state was completely wiped out, leaving only Ji Bu still guarding Shouchun and besieging Zhao Tuo.

At this time, Wei Yang and his men happily led the big black horse over and said that this was Xiang Yu's mount. However, the horse was very violent and mischievous. It kicked and injured two people and kept moaning, as if it was mourning Xiang Yu. .

"What's the name of this horse?" Heifu looked at the Chu surrendered general Yingbu who was being held aside. Just now, Heifu ordered him to lead the Chu surrendered soldiers and charge into Zezhong, successfully consuming most of the people's lives, but Yingbu Bu also received a blow from Xiang Ji on the thigh, but he was still alive. His fate was still waiting for Hei Fu's judgment.

"My name is Wu Zhui." A man is not as loyal as a horse, and Yingbu looks ashamed.

"It is indeed Wu Zhui." Heifu sang in a low voice:

"There is nothing you can do if your glory is not gone, but there is nothing you can do if you are worried..."

But there were only horses and no Concubine Yu. After questioning the captives of the Chu army, Yingbu and others, they said that Xiang Ji did have a concubine named Yu who was beautiful, but she stayed with him and her whereabouts are unknown.

Also missing is Ya’s father Fan Zeng...

Maybe he hid among the people, or maybe he hid in a mountain and swamp?

"Regent, what to do with this horse?"

"It's better to kill him." Wei Yang and others suggested.

"No, cure it."

Hei Fu did not reach out to touch this horse, which always wanted to bite people and avenge its master. He just pointed at it from a distance and said:

"Then, take it to Jiangdong, take off all the harness, and put it in the horse garden pasture."

"Let the chief of the Wujiang Pavilion, who was convicted of serving the Chu army, be raised by the people of Yu. Let this man and his horse live in the garden for the rest of their lives..."

There is no need for Hei Fu to kill a horse. The soul of Chu State has been wiped out today.

Surrounded by the cheers of the Qin army, they congratulated each other and looked forward to returning to their hometown before the New Year.

They all felt that the war was finally over.

But next, can the Central Plains be freed from Nanshan?

"Not yet."

Heifu looked to the north. There was another enemy there, an ambitious enemy that he had let go many years ago!

"It's not over yet!"

…

ps: There is only one chapter today.