"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 great 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'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 Chu generals, 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 it was on the wet ground. 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 were hit by heavy rain and couldn't escape. As a result, they were chased 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.

The pain.

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 was set up like this, if the charge had been launched earlier, if I had been more determined, if...

Without if, the result would be a complete failure for him!

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 and his subordinate Yingbu who fought 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 the Chu people valued dignity more than

Live your life and die generously for your beliefs.

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

Suicide has become a way for losers to serve honorably and retain the last trace of their dignity.

At least in Chu people's minds, that's what they always thought.

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

After many 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" given to him by Xiang Ji 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.

Haidong is uninhabitable. When will we come to live there? When will we come to live there?

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?

The only place I can live in is my hometown. When will I come to live in peace? When will I come to live in 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 Chu songs, and the content is quite similar to the traditional funeral song "Calling Souls" of Chu State, and may be 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 iron-clad man, lost all his fighting spirit at this time. He knelt down 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, and 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 were 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 embarrassing songs broke his back. He thought he could survive this way, so he should cut 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 that we should pursue him? But Xiang Ji shook his head:

"Let's go, let them go."

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

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

When he walked out of the tent again, everyone had gathered here. The originally small open space in the middle of the river 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, which meant that the Qin army began to advance towards Zezhong! Heifu finally 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. What will you do 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 people 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 those Chu people suffered for more than ten years, they achieved exciting victories one after another!

"I have been eight years old since I raised the army. I have fought more than twenty battles. Those who fought were defeated and those who attacked were subjugated. I was not defeated. Then I crossed the Xihe River. That is the farthest place that the people of Chu 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!"
To be continued...