Chapter 20 Spring Day (V-Entry Announcement) The Eighth Time!
Chapter 20
Kill the Crown Prince of Northern Yan, Chizhanlan?
she? ?
Was this decision...too hasty?
Ye Xiren doubted whether she had misheard, or whether General Yan had lost his mind. He couldn't even kill Chizhan Lance, yet he sent her.
If Chi Zhanlan Ce were so easy to kill, the person in front of him wouldn't be imprisoned here.
Seeing her shocked expression, her eyes wide and round, Yan Danqing couldn't help but smile, a hint of amusement in her eyes. She shook her head and finished speaking:
"Before the last assassination attempt, I considered the possibility of failure, so I hid a private token in Nandu City. I'll tell you the location. After you get the token, go find the people I left in Nandu. They will obey your orders..."
His expression turned serious, and he leaned forward, whispering his assassination plan that he had already thought of. Ye Xiren listened intently, her eyes widening, and she stood up straight.
I dare not miss a single word.
Hearing the last part, she frowned: "But how do we lure out Chi Zhanlan Ce?"
“There is someone hidden among the pro-peace faction who won’t be too wary of by the people of Northern Yan.” Yan Danqing certainly wouldn’t miss the key point, and added, “Take the token to the Jade Silver Shop in the West Market, and you can contact that person and have him cooperate with you. Then, execute the plan we just discussed, and you will definitely be able to kill Chi Zhanlan Ce.”
His tone was nonchalant, as if he weren't planning to kill the Crown Prince of Northern Yan, but rather talking about the weather.
Ye Xiren gasped after hearing this.
She was still thinking about how to buy herself another day, while this person was already planning how to strike Chi Zhanlan Ce decisively. During her time in prison, she hadn't been idle at all.
"What if no one comes to the prison? What will you do with your plan then?" Ye Xiren's eyes were complicated. If they kept the person locked up here, whether it was Jiang You or the Councilor, they were both pro-peace factions, so they would definitely not let the pro-war faction see the person.
What if she doesn't come up with a way to get in?
Yan Danqing smiled, his voice resolute:
"It will come."
Those who are meant to meet will always meet.
Ye Xiren looked at him and felt that his eyes were a little strange, but she didn't think much of it. Time was of the essence, and she couldn't afford to waste any more time. So she sat up straight and asked, "Who should I go to after I take the token?"
“Ma Shan,” Yan Danqing uttered a name.
Ye Xiren: "??"
She raised her voice: "Ma Shan? You mean that burly refugee Ma Shan with a sickle hanging from his waist?"
What a coincidence!
"You've met him?" Yan Danqing asked, somewhat surprised. "He's my personal guard. Before the assassination, he led a group of men disguised as refugees and infiltrated Nandu, awaiting orders in case of emergency. As long as you show him the token, he will obey you unconditionally."
Ye Xiren remained silent for a moment, then answered honestly:
“I think I might be able to get him to help me without the token… after all, he’s right here at the door.”
Yan Danqing was stunned again.
Suddenly, he burst out laughing. In such a dangerous moment, in such a life-or-death situation, he laughed heartily, raised his chin, and his messy hair revealed his face. His eyebrows relaxed, as if ice and snow were melting away. The spring scenery that had not been seen on the third day of the third lunar month was revealed in just one laugh.
It was only then that Ye Xiren realized that General Yan... was rather handsome.
After Yan Danqing finished laughing, there was still a hint of amusement in his voice. "That's good. I was worried that you wouldn't cooperate well with the Yan family army. But now it seems there's no need to worry. The Yan family army isn't just him. After I'm imprisoned, Huaianqu will definitely secretly send experts from the Yan family army over. You take the token and have Ma Shan help you gather the others to follow your orders."
Ye Xiren took a deep breath, banishing all other emotions, and nodded solemnly.
“As long as Chizhan Lance dies, chaos will surely ensue within the court. Without regard for anything else, Minister Ye will receive the news at the Dali Temple and realize that taking the blame for me is useless. The Ye family’s crisis will then be resolved,” Yan Danqing said softly.
In this way, not only was the Ye family's troubles resolved, but peace talks were also successfully prevented. This was a decisive move; with the Crown Prince of Northern Yan gone, how could there be any possibility of peace talks?
The outcome should be decided on the front lines of the Huai'an Canal, not through behind-the-scenes conspiracies, and the Liang Dynasty should not be usurped by a peace negotiation scheme.
This is the best possible outcome right now.
After he finished speaking, he raised his hand again.
The chains rattled, and with every movement he made, they would rip at his body, the anchor points splintered with iron spikes, instantly drawing blood.
Ye Xiren frowned.
Yan Danqing ignored his wounds, and the pain didn't even make him frown. He simply pulled out a tattered cloth from his sleeve, on which a letter had already been written in blood, and handed it to Ye Xiren.
The two were separated by a fence, and he was secured inside. He raised his hand and stretched it forward, a difficult movement, and blood gradually stained his clothes.
Ye Xiren quickly sat up, grabbed the railing and reached inside, her body almost pressed against the iron bars, her fingertips pointing forward, and reached for the blood-written letter, preventing anyone from continuing to endure the pain and hand it over.
Yan Danqing was taken aback.
Ye Xiren was already reading the blood letter, and the more she read, the more her brows furrowed. She felt a little sad and looked up at General Yan without saying a word.
Yan Danqing twitched the corner of his mouth and said softly, "The Yan family army cannot be in disarray. After killing Chizhan Lance, have Ma Shan take this blood letter back to Huai'an Canal as soon as possible to stabilize the morale of the army."
Ye Xiren felt increasingly distressed. Her dark eyes were fixed on the person bound by countless iron chains inside the cell, and her voice was so soft it seemed to vanish in the wind:
“General Yan, you haven’t finished yet. Your men killed Chizhan Lance and prevented the peace talks. The people in the court, and even the common people, will not know that the peace talks were actually a conspiracy. They will only think that you are harming the Great Liang and causing war.”
“You will become a sure-fire traitor. Even if there is no general guarding the Huai’an Canal, and even if you are exceptionally talented, the Emperor will not dare to let you lead troops into battle. You... will surely die.”
The plan is excellent; it will kill Chi Zhanlan Ce.
But all of this comes at a price: Yan Danqing will sacrifice himself. He will die along with Chi Zhanlan Ce, with no chance of escaping punishment.
She only needed to relay the plan and deliver the items without exposing herself, but those members of Yan's army were not unknown to anyone, and it was impossible for them to be without casualties.
An investigation afterwards revealed who was behind it and who committed the act.
"That's why I prepared a blood oath, insisting that Ma Shan bring it back to the Huai'an Canal. Even if I die, I can't let the Yan family army fall into chaos and fall into the Northern Yan's trap," Yan Danqing replied.
Ye Xiren felt distressed.
The more General Yan prioritized the overall situation, the more heartbroken she felt for his plight.
Seeing her like this, Yan Danqing gently comforted her: "It's alright. I'm already stuck here. It would be best if I could take Chizhan Lance with me."
He was very important to the Great Liang, and Chi Zhanlan was equally important to the Northern Yan. If they died together, there would still be a chance of victory on the main battlefield, and they would not be driven into a known dead end.
Ye Xiren bit her lip, but she couldn't help asking:
"Is it worth it? Ever since your Yan family guarded the border, generations of loyal and brave marquises have died on the battlefield, leaving only you in the Yan family. You were clearly brave and skilled in battle, turning the tide and leading the Yan family army to defend the country's gates, yet you were still unjustly imprisoned... Why continue to save the country when you have suffered such injustice?"
Yan Danqing was taken aback.
Then he laughed and asked, "Have you ever seen the real Great Liang?"
Ye Xiren shook her head.
Yan Danqing looked at her, his gaze seemingly looking through her dark, clear eyes to a very, very distant place, to a thousand miles of rivers and mountains, to ten thousand lights.
“I grew up in the northern desert of the Sixteen Prefectures. It was a vast and boundless world. My father and brothers took me to roam the grasslands, and my mother led the herdsmen to herd sheep and hunt horses. The sky was high and the sea was wide. The herdsmen sang and danced around the campfire, living a life of unbridled joy. Later, the northern desert was conquered, and the Northern Yan occupied the Sixteen Prefectures. The herdsmen either died or fled. There was nothing left on the grasslands.”
"I was taken to Baipingyuan, which is the heart of the Central Plains. It is rich in millet and wheat, and is a grain field that feeds countless people. As long as the weather is good, the golden wheat fields stretch out in waves, which are the most beautiful scenery on this land. Later, Baipingyuan was occupied by the Northern Yan army. Their iron hooves trampled the farmland, and the flames of war burned the wheat fields."
"I arrived at Weishui City again. Amidst the chaos of war, the ground was littered with the corpses of the starving. I formed the Yan Family Army with a group of exiled soldiers and farmers who had lost their land. Hoes were our guns, sickles were our swords, and our bodies were our shields."
"Now I am imprisoned in the Southern Capital, a land of water and rivers in Jiangnan, rich and beautiful, yet also turbulent and precarious... Across the vast land of China, spanning over three million miles and encompassing tens of millions of people, Daliang is the pillar of everyone, not just the pillar of the officials in the high halls who are now arguing endlessly about 'peace and war'."
"When the nest is overturned, how can the eggs remain intact? When the city falls and the country is destroyed, those who wield immense power either betray the country or flee. They always find a way to survive, but ordinary people cannot."
Yan Danqing shook his head, his eyes filled with melancholy:
"When the city falls and the country is destroyed, they cannot survive, they cannot escape."
Only by ending war with war can we usher in a year of peace.
He did not die for the imperial court, but for this land of over three million miles and its millions of people.
Ye Xiren stood there, stunned, staring blankly at Yan Danqing. His words still seemed to echo in her ears, resounding and deafening. In that instant, she seemed to understand why her father and the others were willing to do anything, even risk their lives, to protect this person.
The pro-war faction in the court were not familiar with Yan Danqing, but they were in perfect harmony because they were doing the same thing and protecting the same goal.
Ye Pei is, Bai Chengguang is, Zheng Wenjue is.
Yan Danqing and the tens of thousands of soldiers guarding the Huai'an Canal were also among them.
"Are you done yet?" Footsteps sounded as Lu Qian called out.
Ye Xiren immediately stood up, stuffed the blood-written letter into her bosom and hid it, took a deep breath, and said with a firm look in her eyes, "General Yan, rest assured, leave this matter to me."
After saying that, she turned and strode away.
After entering the secret passage, she suddenly turned around and ran back, panting, and asked in a loud voice, "General Yan, what's your name again?"
Perhaps from now on, he will be considered a "traitor" and written in the annals of the Great Liang Dynasty, but Ye Xiren wants to remember his name and courtesy name, and to firmly remember this young general Yan who wanted to rewrite the ending for the rest of her life.
“The ‘Yan’ in ‘urgent’ teaching, and the ‘Danqing’ in ‘my two illusory bodies’,” Yan Danqing smiled upon hearing this and replied, “My name is Yan Danqing, and my parents gave me the courtesy name ‘Chunzhou’.”
Yan Danqing, courtesy name Chunzhou.
He sat upright in the dilapidated cell, shackled and bound. His wounds and the chains on his body did not affect him in the slightest. This place confined him, yet could not confine him. The candlelight flickered, and in the dim light, his eyes shone brightly, as if they could pierce the silent night.
Ye Xiren's eyes welled up with tears. How could she have ever thought that General Yan was a fierce and rebellious traitor?
Spring Day, clearly a name brimming with life.
But it was like clearing away the snow to bring forth spring, or burning lamps to prolong the day; he was clearly using his own life and blood to light the lamps and prolong the life of this dynasty.
Ye Xiren blinked, wiped away the moisture, lifted her skirt, and strode outside.
-
"You're finally out." Lu Qian looked her up and down. "If I didn't know you two didn't know each other, I might have thought you came to say goodbye to your lover, reluctant to part..."
Ye Xiren's face immediately darkened, and she sneered: "Those who are lewd see lewdness. Lu Qian, you traitor, don't use your narrow-minded eyes to look at General Yan."
Enraged, Lu Qian tightened his grip on the long sword, his eyes filled with malice. "Let's see how long you can hold out. Sooner or later you'll fall into my hands, and I'll make sure you suffer a fate worse than death."
Ye Xiren lowered her eyes, concealing the murderous intent within.
After she gathers Yan Danqing's men to kill Chi Zhanlan Ce, she will definitely kill this traitor as well!
The two left the imperial prison.
Ye Xiren looked serious. There were still many things to do, and time was slipping away. She couldn't afford to waste any more time. The whole plan was not simple, and she had to hurry.
Just as she was about to take Ma Shan away from here, her brow suddenly twitched. For some reason, an ominous aura surged in, and even the sound of the wind became strange. She almost stopped feeling heartbeat for a moment.
Several arrows suddenly shot out, piercing the sky and bringing with them a chilling killing intent.
Lu Qian groaned and lowered his head in disbelief.
A sharp arrow pierced his heart, and blood slowly oozed out. Looking at the Northern Yan symbol on the arrow, Lu Qian fell straight down with a face full of shock and confusion, and stopped breathing. There were continuous exclamations around him.
Ye Xiren's pupils contracted as she watched Lu Qian fall, and she subconsciously looked up.
On the opposite rooftop, a group of people stood quietly. The leader looked familiar; his gray-blue fur collar made him appear like an immortal, ethereal and graceful, with a smile in his eyes, but his eyes were cold and ruthless.
He held a crossbow in his hand, his upturned eyes fixed on Ye Xiren, his lips moving silently.
The moment the name flashed through her mind, the arrows from the crossbow were already upon Ye Xiren...
An arrow through the throat!
A note from the author:
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This story is also known as "The Story of Dealing with a Group of Ruthless People and Eventually Becoming a Werewolf Amidst Death After Death":)
The next chapter will be available for purchase!
At that time, the third update will be released along with a red envelope. There will be more updates after the VIP chapter begins. Thank you for your support, dear readers!
Kowtow! Duang! ! Duang! ! !
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