Chapter 72: The Yandere Younger Brother Infiltrates the Enemy City and Runs Away with His Older Brother; The Loyal General is Fierce...
A ghostly figure appeared on the city wall, and Jia Ruzhen ascended the wall with her face as usual.
If anyone were to appear beside Jia Ruzhen, they would even assume that his complexion was much better than before.
Looking upstairs, Xie Meng was immediately taken aback: Could it be that this kid wasn't injured?
Xie Meng's expression stiffened—this was simply impossible!!!
However, this is indeed the case.
Jia Ruzhen stood atop the city wall and beckoned, instantly summoning a hundred soldiers from below to the wall. Each rebel soldier carried an oil-soaked blanket in one hand and a torch in the other.
The torch ignited the cotton quilt.
Sesame oil helps to intensify the fire!
In an instant, hundreds of large fireballs appeared on the walls of Guangling City.
The light illuminated the sky, as if dawn had broken ahead of schedule.
The kerosene blanket fell down!
It was like a dense rain of fire falling from the sky.
If this substance gets on your body, it will ignite wherever it comes into contact with fire, and the fire will not be easily extinguished because it contains oil.
The soldiers who were just climbing the city walls on ladders have turned into orange-red firemen!
The soldier at the top of the siege ladder was in so much pain he wanted to jump down. Below him, the other soldiers were setting each other on fire. With everyone struggling, the ladder was bound to become unstable.
So the rebels, in groups of three to five, pushed hard on the top of the siege ladders. One after another, the siege ladders were overturned.
As it overturned, orange-red arcs of light were drawn across the city walls.
When they land on the ground, they become clusters of fireballs, until people are burned to charred, black bones.
The Jingzhou soldiers outside the city were screaming in agony!
If the city is high and the moat is deep, and the people in the city still have supplies, then a direct assault on the city has an inherent disadvantage. Hence, military strategists say that attacking a city is the worst option.
However, the imperial court wanted to quell the rebellion quickly, and Guangling was the western gateway to Yangzhou. Only by opening Guangling could the rebels be threatened from both sides; otherwise, they could only continue to advance along the eastern front, and were very likely to be counterattacked and wiped out.
Xie Meng felt a raging fire burning in her heart, no less intense than the fire before her eyes.
The area below was already engulfed in flames...
The lieutenant climbed the watchtower and shouted, "General, let's withdraw the troops!"
With victory seemingly in sight, the tide of battle suddenly turns. Who could accept that?
Therefore, Xie Meng drew his sword, intending to descend from the watchtower and personally seize the city, his eyes almost bloodshot: "Follow me and kill! Follow me and kill your way into Guangling!"
The lieutenant used all his strength to hold Xie Meng's waist and loudly advised, "General, the rebels are powerful, and you are the commander of the western front. Please take care of yourself. His Majesty is also in command of our army, so please ensure the safety of the troops..."
At this moment, Xie Meng thought of the emperor.
Xie Meng shouted, "His Majesty has shown my Xie family a great kindness. I will repay this kindness even if it costs me my life!"
The lieutenant could only shout, "The war on the western front is far from over! If the general and all his brothers die under the city walls, wouldn't that further delay His Majesty's important task of recovering lost territory?!"
Looking up at the tower, Xie Meng's massive body seemed frozen in time, and he stared blankly for a moment.
As reason gradually returned, Xie Meng suppressed his impetuousness and had to admit that a direct assault on Guangling County was once again hopeless.
Xie Meng said in a deep voice, "Withdraw the troops."
Suddenly, the battlefield resounded with the urgent sound of gongs.
The rear guard of the attacking army became the front guard, and the soldiers pushed away the siege equipment, occasionally looking back at the city walls with resentment.
Many brothers who were just laughing and joking together in the camp are now burnt corpses left under the city walls.
On the battlefield, human life is always as cheap as grass.
As the southern expeditionary soldiers hastily retreated, Jia Ruzhen on the city wall raised his hand and ordered, "Fire arrows!"
A barrage of arrows rained down from Guangling City, and arrows flew like rain from below the city walls.
The soldiers who were shot fell near and far outside the city. At a distance from the camp, their vision gradually blurred, and then their eyes closed, and they fell into an eternal sleep.
Dawn was breaking outside the city.
...
At midday, the city gate tower was bathed in sunlight.
The Southern Expeditionary Force will not launch an attack for the time being.
The dilapidated main gate of Guangling City creaked open a crack, and a group of people rushed out of the city in formation.
The mortuary must clear the bodies outside the city before the next attack begins.
Otherwise, at the current temperature, the body would decompose in a short time.
If the rotting corpses trigger a plague, the sealed city will face annihilation and then collapse on its own.
Jia Ruzhen, with her extensive experience in the martial arts world, understood this principle well, and thus gave her soldiers a death order.
"Move it quickly!"
"The prefect has ordered us to clean up the battlefield within half an hour!"
"Corpses must not be thrown into the river, must not be buried, must not be left alive, and must be cremated in a unified manner, piled up far away to burn!"
So the soldiers' corpses gradually piled up, forming a small mountain.
Many soldiers had already been burned to a crisp, and they would be thrown into the mountain of corpses to turn to ashes.
Even soldiers who had struggled for a night and a half, still able to move their limbs, were burned alive as corpses, their faces covered in filth and their eyes filled with despair.
Right now, Ying Xi was facing a pair of eyes that looked exactly like that.
He was young and wanted to live...
He left his hometown and came to this place by imperial decree, and he is about to die here.
He is my soldier...
Ying Xi vigorously moved her body!
However, Ying Xi was powerless to do anything about it. She was also unable to move and could only watch helplessly as the soldier was thrown onto the pile of corpses to be burned.
The rebels threw torches at the top of the pile of corpses.
The pile of corpses is on fire!
Even from the burning pile of corpses, horrific screams could still be heard:
"Help!"
"I don't want to die..."
"Father, Mother, your son will repay your kindness in the next life!"
"Jia Ruzhen, you bastard!"
"You surnamed Jia, even if I become a vengeful ghost, I won't let you go..."
"It hurts so much! It's burning hot! Ah—"
The fire seemed to be burning Ying Xi as well, and anger consumed the young emperor.
His visit to Jiangnan to oversee the war effort allowed him to witness the cruelest side of the world: war is more terrifying than banditry, and the enemy treats prisoners of war more cruelly than bandits.
If he could still move, if he could make any contribution to this battle, he would kill Jia Ruzhen!
As Ying Xi was thinking this, her back was once again pointed at by Prince Yong, and her body became even stiffer than before.
As long as someone shows even the slightest sign of struggle, even if they don't actually want to escape, it will make Prince Yong feel like he's facing a formidable enemy.
Ying Dang grunted.
A rebel soldier by the fire asked, moved, "Why not capture those who can still move? Why kill them all?"
The squad leader replied, "The prefect will not allow it."
The soldier opened his mouth, his brow furrowed, but he didn't dare ask why it was forbidden.
The screams from the pile of corpses gradually subsided. They were all dead.
The sergeant suddenly shouted at Ying Dang, "Hey, all of you, learn from that kid and take our wounded back. You guys search around and bring back anyone who can move!"
The sergeant pointed to Prince Yong and then to the others in the mortuary team.
Just now, Prince Yong killed two rebel soldiers, changed his and the emperor's clothes and infiltrated the squad, and had Ying Xi, who was unable to move, play the role of a wounded rebel soldier.
The rebel soldiers searched the area below the city and found two or three more wounded soldiers, then reported back to their sergeant.
The sergeant ordered, "Return to the city!"
The team moved.
The wounded soldiers were carried by men and marched back to Guangling County, their path strewn with mud and blood.
Ying Xi draped one arm over Yong Wang's shoulder and was supported by him as they walked away from the pile of corpses that reeked of burning flesh.
At this moment, Ying Xi was only holding on by sheer willpower, and her eyes were already too heavy to open.
Closer, closer...
Guangling County is just ahead.
Ten years ago, he and his brother left their hometown through this main gate by car.
Ten years later, though he had reached the pinnacle of human achievement, he never imagined he would return to this place in such a wretched state. Alone, he ventured into the enemy's lair, arriving at the heart of their territory.
Ying Xi slowly exhaled a long, foul breath.
The procession passed through the gap in the city gate.
At the bottom of the arched city gate, even the brick seams were loose, and craftsmen were carrying buckets to pour grout into the cracks in the wall.
The craftsmen do their work meticulously.
Ying Xi stared blankly at the craftsmen, his memory sharp, and found them all somewhat familiar:
"When Xie Meng conquered Yuzhang County, he only replaced the local officials and transferred the original soldiers, without harming any civilians."
"Prefect Jia has killed countless of Xie Meng's generals. If Guangling is captured, will the imperial army massacre the city's inhabitants...?"
"Guangling is the birthplace of the emperor. If it were returned to the court, would the emperor consider the bond between fellow townsmen?"
Shh! Are you out of your mind?!
The two craftsmen spoke in very low voices, their words barely reaching Ying Xi's ears.
Guangling is now under the rule of Li Yilong, so his words just now are tantamount to treason.
The troops clearing the battlefield walked slowly past below.
Two craftsmen lay prone on the brick wall, pretending nothing was wrong.
Fortunately, the sergeant behind them didn't hear it.
But when the sergeant saw that Ying Xi wasn't even moving, he assumed he was crippled and shouted from afar, "Kid, I see you're carrying that guy who's too badly injured, so I'll just give him a quick death! Don't bring him into the city and waste food!"
Ying Xi's heart tightened.
Prince Yong, wearing a rebel helmet with the brim obscuring his upturned phoenix eyes, said in a sinister tone, "I will make him enjoy himself day and night; you don't need to worry about it."
"You—" The sergeant felt his authority vanish, and his eyebrows shot up.
The soldier's tone had a sinister edge to it!
The sergeant shouted, "Stop right there! I think you've got a problem!"
The sergeant strode forward and reached out his large hand to grab Ying Xi's shoulder.
Unfortunately, he immediately offended Prince Yong.
A fierce killing intent brewed in Ying Dangfeng's eyes!
He had already infiltrated the city; why would he care about these lowly soldiers?
Therefore, as the corporal charged forward, Prince Yong drew his short sword, the pigeon's blood on the blade dazzling the eye. The sword strike was incredibly fast, a blur of motion, and the corporal's two fingers fell to the ground in an instant. The severed knuckles were still retracting.
The sergeant yelled, "He's a spy! Arrest him!"
The rebels immediately turned their attention to the two men.
However, at this moment, there was no large army pressing in, and the soldiers were resting in batches, so there were only these few dozen miscellaneous soldiers under the city gate.
Prince Yong contemptuously slashed six or seven people with his blade, creating a gap in the encirclement. He then lifted Ying Xi by the ribs and stepped onto the shoulders of the city's inhabitants to climb onto the roof.
Ying Dang leaped across the rooftops of Guangling City, and before long, his figure had disappeared!
The people in the city had been suffering from the war recently. When they saw this scene, they numbly looked up and then numbly lowered their eyes.
The sergeant, clutching his severed finger, roared, "Spies have infiltrated the city! Report to the prefect immediately! Go now, you must go..."
***
—"Report!"
The soldiers who came to announce the news from the city gate arrived outside the prefectural governor's mansion.
The gates of the prefectural governor's mansion were tightly shut, with two of Jia Ruzhen's trusted apprentices guarding the entrance.
The soldier said there was something important to discuss, and the two apprentices could not act on their own initiative. They also knew that their master was currently unpredictable, so neither of them dared to provoke him.
The two apprentices released the messenger into the prefect's residence.
There was a medicinal smell deep inside the prefectural governor's mansion. The mansion was lavishly furnished, and all the servants were young girls.
The messenger continued walking in, and the further he went, the more bitter it became, until his nose went numb.
He pinched his nose and went to the back hall, stood outside the door, and bowed, waiting to be summoned.
However, he never received a summons from the prefect.
First, they heard the prefect coughing violently, as if he were coughing up his internal organs: "Cough, cough cough cough, cough..."
"I don't want to drink water!"
"Medicine—prescribe my medicine—"
"If you can't cure me, I'll make your whole family pay with their lives!!!"
The teacup was smashed to pieces.
The messenger outside the door was so frightened he was like a quail.
The voice of Prefect Jia inside the gate was shrill, but his words made people think carefully. The prefect had not been on the city wall to supervise the battle for several days, and he only appeared this morning. Was the prefect unwell?
The messenger held his breath as he delivered the news.
The doctor inside the room cried out in anguish, "The master suffered a blunt force injury that penetrated deep into his meridians and struck his internal organs. He will need at least some expensive medicine and will require more than ten years of proper care..."
"More than ten years!?"
How many decades does one have in a lifetime?
Jia Ruzhen's voice reached its peak as she smashed another teacup: "You can't even heal internal injuries, what use are you to me! Idiot! Idiot! Die, cough, cough cough."
With a swift stroke of his sword, Jia Ruzhen killed the physician. All the remaining doctors in the room immediately kowtowed, pleading, "Prefect, spare our lives! Prefect, spare our lives!"
The soldier who delivered the message broke out in a cold sweat.
However, fighting with someone aggravated Jia Ruzhen's internal injuries, and he seemed to vomit blood.
The room erupted in panic: "Master!" "Prefect!" "Quickly send ginseng slices, quickly put a ginseng slice under the master's tongue."
The chaos lasted for about half a cup of tea's time before the room finally calmed down a little.
It turns out that his calm and composed demeanor during the battle was an act.
The soldier who delivered the message was instantly terrified, thinking that he had inadvertently learned a top-secret military secret that could never be revealed.
Recalling the death of the innocent doctor, the soldiers felt that reporting the situation was far less important than their own lives.
He comforted himself by the news: What harm could it do to have a spy infiltrate?
The messenger immediately got up.
However, she was so frightened that her legs went weak and she accidentally tripped and fell on the steps in the back room, the noise attracting the attention of the people inside.
Jia Ruzhen asked sternly, "Who—"
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