knife

Chapter 718 Misfortunes never come singly
Along both sides of the huge mourning hall where Cui Ming's coffin was placed, dozens of small sheds were set up. Those qualified to stay in such sheds to keep vigil for Cui Ming were naturally members of the Cui family and related figures with intricate connections to the Cui family.

Logically speaking, when someone like Cui Ming passes away, the funeral arrangements often last for dozens of days or even longer, because many important people need to be notified and attend, which is not something that can be done in a short time. Moreover, after the death of an important person, it is not an easy task to handle his or her affairs properly.

But this time it was very different.

Cui Shu used the excuse of "time is of the essence" to keep the funeral simple, and the burial was to take place in ten days.

In this way, relatives, friends, or stakeholders who live further away, after being notified, simply won't have time to come to the funeral. Not to mention, Cui Shu can use various methods to further delay the time it takes for them to receive the news.

After all, a major battle had just taken place, and the entire Boling County was still under martial law. War could break out at any time, and information was blocked. No one could blame Cui Shu for this.

Since no one can come, they naturally can't speak and won't cause Cui Shu any trouble.

Therefore, the main participants in Cui Ming's funeral were the Cui family members and friends from Boling County.

Before the coffin, incense smoke curled upwards, and the monks' chanting and striking of their wooden fish made those kneeling before the coffin drowsy. After all, the mourning had begun yesterday, and whenever someone came to burn paper money and kowtow, they had to wail loudly to express their grief. After crying so much, their voices naturally became hoarse, their tears dried up, and their sorrow gradually faded.

Moreover, these people kneeling below probably only see Cui Ming once a year, and some have never even seen him at all. To expect them to have any affection for a so-called elder they have only heard of but never met would be asking too much.

They're just here to make a show of things.

People like Cui Shu, Cui Tu, and Cui Peng would only kneel beside the coffin in full mourning clothes to receive extremely important figures when they came to pay their respects.

The wind and snow were heavy. Even though several large braziers were lit in the mourning hall, the freezing wind blew them away, leaving the fires pale and weak. The monks' chanting was trembling, and the kneeling people tried their best to shrink themselves into a ball, just wanting to get through their shift so that another group could take their place.

But just a wall away from the mourning hall, the scene was quite different.

Although it looked like a simple shed, it was built with great care, with excellent insulation. Several silver charcoal braziers inside were burning with a faint blue flame, making the room warm and cozy.

The floor was covered with a thick carpet, and each chair was wrapped in a fluffy blanket. On the coffee table in the room, there were all kinds of snacks, dried fruits, steaming tea, and even a lot of fresh fruits from the south.

Cui Shu sat at the head of the table, dressed in mourning clothes with a hemp rope around his waist, but his face was flushed with excitement.

"Misfortunes never come singly!" Cui Shu looked at the people in the room, his expression serious and his tone grave. "Just today, the family received intelligence from Nanyang! My elder brother suffered a great loss in Nanyang."

"What's wrong? Hasn't everything been going smoothly in Nanyang?" Cui Dong from the third branch of the family asked, somewhat shocked.

Before his death, Cui Ming had arranged for the entire Cui family to relocate to Nanyang if Boling County could not be defended. Didn't we hear that my elder brother Cui Cheng was making good progress in Nanyang not long ago? How did things suddenly go wrong?

"Big Brother has been lying all along!" Cui Shu couldn't contain his anger. "What do you mean 'smoothly'? It wasn't smooth at all. In fact, Cui Haogu was captured by Xiao Zhongren, who was based in Moshan, Nanyang, at the end of October. Xiao Zhongren used Cui Haogu to extort money and food from Big Brother several times. It's shameful to even talk about it!"

The people in the room were dumbfounded.

This is a bit too fantastical. But precisely because it's so fantastical, the possibility of Cui Shu lying is even smaller, because such a thing is easily exposed.

Even Cui Dong from the third branch didn't think Cui Shu would lie about this matter. He was just a little incredulous: "This, how is this possible? Cui Haogu is a Xuan Yuan Ninth Rank expert, and according to the intelligence, Xiao Zhongren is only a Xuan Yuan Eighth Rank expert, right? My elder brother had been saying before that this person could be recruited!"

Cui Shu sighed and said, "We've all been deceived. The Demonic Cult had already infiltrated Nanyang. A large number of Demonic Cult experts, under Jiang Qian's orders, infiltrated Nanyang after the Battle of Red Cliffs, and we were completely unaware of it. That's how Cui Haogu got caught up in it."

"Then what about the recent defeats?" Cui Dong pressed.

A minor defeat is easy, but what Cui Shu just said was that Cui Cheng suffered a great loss in Nanyang.

Cui Shu shook her head: "Jiang Qian went to Xiangyang!"

A collective gasp filled the room.

A person's name is like a tree's shadow.

In the past six months, although Jiang Qian was ousted from power in the Danyang Incident, her subsequent counterattack was quite fierce. In the Battle of Red Cliffs, she defeated the main force of the Southern Chu navy. In the Battle of Tong'an, tens of thousands of Chu soldiers surrendered. The death of Chu's general Xiang Ying was shrouded in mystery, which even triggered a civil war in Chu.

Jiang Qian's trip to Xiangyang indicates that she has completely stabilized the eight towns south of the Yangtze River, and also proves that the State of Chu poses no threat to her for the time being. Therefore, Jiang Qian has turned her attention back to Nanyang.

It's important to know that Nanyang was something the other side voluntarily gave up at the time.

It's understandable that Cui Cheng suffered a great loss at the hands of Jiang Qian, especially since he was unaware of her situation beforehand.

"How much loss?" someone pressed.

Everyone in the house knew that Cui Cheng, the eldest son of the Cui family, was based in Luoyang and that managing Nanyang was a backup plan for the Cui family. When Cui Cheng went there, the family arranged for many people to follow him.

As Cui Shu suffered a series of misfortunes, those who had reluctantly followed Cui Cheng in the beginning felt as if they had turned misfortune into blessing. But now it seems that it may not have been a blessing after all. Those who stayed at home were left dead and injured, while those who went to Nanyang were living in constant fear.
Cui Shu gritted his teeth and said, "In the past three months, my elder brother has lost more than 30,000 people in Nanyang! Hundreds of people surnamed Cui alone have been killed, but my elder brother has kept it a secret and only said that everything was going smoothly."

"what?"

Everyone in the room was stunned.

"Brother has fallen for Jiang Qian's trick! In every battle, it seems like Brother has seized a piece of territory, but in terms of troops, he has lost a portion of his strength. Little by little, this has accumulated until recently, when the enemy finally showed their fangs and annihilated the main force that Brother sent to Nanyang. Now we have completely lost the possibility of fighting for Nanyang, and the remaining troops have all retreated back to Dongdu!"

"Boling is lost, and Nanyang cannot be taken. Where will our Cui family go next?" someone cried out in anguish from inside the house.

(End of this chapter)