Prefect Luo sternly said to Wang Can, "Wang Can, with a formidable enemy at hand, are you still going to protect the traitor?"

Wang Can only begged him to be lenient.

Yin Jin'an crossed his arms and sneered, "Prefect Luo, you go and meet the enemy first. With the country in peril, if you kill the Uyghurs, I'll respect you as a true man."

Prefect Luo shouted, "Li Zhen, kill him!"

Wang Can pleaded again, "Lord Luo, how about we drive back the Uyghurs first? Can we focus all our efforts on defeating them first?"

He kowtowed repeatedly.

Foreign enemies have reached our doorstep; can't we put aside our family feud for now? Besides, this has nothing to do with Yin Jin'an.

He also wanted to protect "Xiao Jin'an," who was the Crown Prince.

He then pleaded with Li Zhen, "Lord Li, Young Master Xiang is highly skilled in martial arts and possesses unparalleled righteousness. With a formidable enemy at hand, could you please give him a chance? Let's fight together, shall we?"

Li Zhen glanced at Lord Luo and asked hesitantly, "Lord Luo..."

"Kill Wang Can first, then kill Xiang Jikong to sacrifice to the flag. With a formidable enemy at hand, if such traitors are not killed, they will surely disrupt the morale of the army."

Prefect Luo giving Yin Jin'an a chance? Impossible!

Family comes first, then nation.

What does it matter if the country exists or not when his son and daughter are gone? It would be better if they were all buried with his son and daughter!

Xiang Jikong alone could kill the enemy. If this son were given a chance, and he fought bravely and won the hearts of the people, would he avenge his children?

No, kill him first.

Li Zhen obeyed the order and replied, "Yes!"

Wang Can pleaded desperately, "Lord Luo, the one who killed people was Madman Chu, it has nothing to do with Young Master Xiang! He didn't kill anyone from the Ma family, on the contrary, the people from the Ma family wanted to kill him!"

Prefect Luo was so angry that he could barely speak. He said to the guards beside him, "Kill, kill, kill that Wang fellow."

Before he finished speaking, Li Zhen had already run towards Yin Jin'an, while the guards ran towards Wang Can.

Yin Jin'an was prepared. He first grabbed a pair of thirty-pound stone locks and threw one at Luo Zhizhou's guard, while throwing the other at Li Zhen.

Hearing the stone lock whistling in the wind, the guards hurriedly pulled Lord Luo away, and Wang Can was so frightened that he broke out in a cold sweat.

Li Zhen quickly dodged the stone lock. In the blink of an eye, Yin Jin'an jumped behind Prefect Luo, grabbed him by the neck with one hand and pointed a Tang sword at Li Zhen with the other.

"Immediately order your men to leave the inn and engage the Uyghurs!"

Wang Can, fearing that Yin Jin'an would kill indiscriminately, hurriedly said, "Young Master Xiang, don't be impulsive. With a formidable enemy at hand, we must not fight amongst ourselves."

Yin Jin'an sneered: "Even ordinary people understand this principle, but Prefect Luo just doesn't. How could Xiao Zuo possibly appoint such a despicable person as you?"

"How dare you..."

“I am indeed very bold. You’d better shut up, or I’ll slit your throat,” Yin Jin’an said to Li Zhen. “You immediately mobilize all the soldiers to meet the enemy!!”

"This... could you please release Lord Luo first?"

"No!—Go and find out immediately how many Uyghurs have come? How many generals? How many soldiers do you have? How many weapons can you mobilize? Hurry!"

Li Zhen thought these were all military secrets, how could he possibly tell a wandering swordsman?

Wang Can helplessly reminded him, "Lord Li, you must do as Young Master Xiang instructs. He... his identity is extraordinary."

“Extraordinary?” Li Zhen looked at Wang Can with a puzzled expression.

Wang Can said impatiently, "Can you stop being so wishy-washy? What's the point of all this nonsense? Are you just waiting to become a slave to a conquered nation?"

Yin Jin'an ordered his men to tie up Prefect Luo and hand him over to Li Zhen, saying, "Military Supervisor Li, take him back to the prefectural city and immediately defend against the enemy, drive back the Uyghurs, and I'll wait for him to come and settle accounts with me."

With a formidable enemy at hand, Li Zhen was clear about what was more important and immediately led Prefect Luo to reorganize the soldiers of the Ganzhou Military Command.

Yin Jin'an and Jiu Tian packed their things and went to the county government office with Wang Can.

On the way, Wang Can gave him a general overview of the military situation in Ganzhou.

As a southern border prefecture, Ganzhou Military Command has six counties under its jurisdiction. Among them, Nanyu County and Dan County are border counties, and further in is Yongle County, which is the county under the jurisdiction of Longmen Town.

Originally, the border general in Ganzhou was Gu Yonglin, the second son of the Gu family.

The Gu family is a family of military generals, whose descendants are brave and skilled in battle. The generals who guarded the borders in the south and east all came from the Gu family.

In recent years, due to the rapid economic development and strong national power of the Eastern Yulong Kingdom, the Yulong Kingdom and its surrounding borders have been free from interference and war. As a result, the Chu Prime Minister gradually replaced the Eastern Gu Family Army with members of the Chu family.

When the Chu family arrived at the border, they interfered with the Gu family army, escalating the conflict between the two sides. The Gu family was also inexplicably accused of "treason" and massacred.

Last month, Gu Yonglin, who was guarding the southern border, was stripped of his military power and replaced by Wu Aiguo, the prime minister of Chu.

Gu Yonglin returned to Beijing to report on his duties, but was immediately imprisoned upon arrival, and his entire family was executed.

Upon hearing that the entire Gu family had been executed, the Uyghurs immediately took action.

Even the Liao Dynasty in the north began to take action.

"The entire Gu family was killed?"

"His Majesty has ordered the execution of the entire family!"

Yin Jin'an thought Emperor Yangsheng was trash.

Wang Can kept sighing. Emperor Yangsheng hadn't fought a war for ten years, and people thought the world was truly at peace. But he was like a donkey that had been used and then discarded. At least he could have left himself a donkey!

Linxian County is only about 40 li away from Yongle County next door, and more than 100 li (50+ kilometers) away from the prefecture. If the Uyghurs invade, whether they attack Yongle County or the prefecture first, it will only take them half a day to reach Linxian County.

Li Zhen didn't need to go through too much trouble to mobilize the people from the Ganzhou Military Supervisory Office, because of Lord Luo's selfishness, all the people from the Ganzhou Military Supervisory Office were blocking the madman Chu at various intersections.

It shouldn't be too slow to gather them, but I'm afraid the Uyghurs will pick off the Ganzhou military officers and soldiers blocking the road one by one.

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!