Chapter 97: Battle!
Jin Sui first went to the Black Feather Camp to ask the soldiers: "I believe you have heard that a Tatar army of a thousand people can reach the border town in one day and one night at most."
"Li Zhou Mu asked me to flee to the city, and left the border town to be burned, killed, and looted by the Tartars, who also stole our food and people."
"But I don't agree! The Tartars are also human beings, what's there to be afraid of? We have three thousand border soldiers, why should we be afraid of his one thousand Tartars?"
"This border town is my border town, and the people in it are my subjects. I will never allow them to be bullied by foreign enemies!"
"Now, I ask you all, are you willing to guard the border town with me, or hide in Yanzhou City like a dog? Watching our brothers and fellow villagers being killed and robbed."
Cheng Yu was the first to respond loudly: "We swear to follow the prince to protect the border city until death!"
Wei Zhubo was anxious to interrupt and persuade King Li to go into the city to avoid disaster, and they would guard the border town.
In his heart, no one and nothing is more important than the prince's safety. As long as the prince is here, we can still make a comeback.
Unfortunately, before he could say anything to persuade her, he was drowned out by a deafening voice: "We swear to follow the prince to protect the border city until death!"
"I swear to follow the prince till death!"
…
The border soldiers of the Tuntian Camp were so moved that they cried. They believed that King Li wanted to stay to protect them, because according to the old rules, the Black Feather Camp could go to Yanzhou City.
Only the frontier soldiers of their farming camp and the people of the border villages hurriedly fled into the mountains to avoid disaster. But the Tartars came very quickly, and few people were able to escape.
According to word of mouth among the veterans, the worst situation at the border was not natural disasters, not oppression and exploitation by superiors, but the arrival of the Tartars.
This time was the same. If they hadn't happened to be chasing the horse thieves and discovered the Tartar army, the border town might have been attacked by the enemy while it was still asleep! Li Heng was shocked by the momentum of the border soldiers. Is this the Black Feather Camp and the Tuntian Army? Their morale is even stronger than that of the Yanzhou Army!
But soon he shook his head and sighed, "Your Highness is too naive! How can a border town with only half of its walls resist the Tartars?"
He suddenly thought of something. If the King of Li died in this battle...
After a quick weighing, he found that it would be more beneficial for him if the King of Li died. Moreover, the King of Li died fighting the Tartars, which had nothing to do with him.
After figuring this out, Li Heng suddenly decided to help the King of Li! If he wanted the Yanzhou Army, then he would send it to him. If he wanted the nobles to provide food and grass, then he would let them do it. Anyway, for the nobles, that little food and grass was nothing.
The more Li Heng thought about it, the more excited he became. Seeing the anxious look in Li Wang's eyes, it would be better to fight quickly. If this scourge is killed, Yandi will be peaceful! Then Jin Sui summoned Cheng Yu, Wei Zhubo, Liu Xiaowei and several captains of the Black Feather Camp separately.
He issued several instructions, one of which was to send someone to inform Han Xing to just watch and not fight, and not to try to stop the Tartars outside the border town by fighting with an egg against a rock.
Second, all the military farms were mobilized to inform the people in the border villages, including refugees and herdsmen, that since the Tartars were about to attack, they should hide in the mountains and forests.
The third was that she gave Cheng Yu instructions alone, asking him to spread out the map of the border town she had drawn earlier and tell him her plan.
Cheng Yu pondered and said, "Your Highness, this plan has great potential, but it requires bait."
Jin Sui smiled and said, "I am the best bait! If the Tartars knew that I was in the city, how could they not chase me in?"
Cheng Yu shook his head: "Your Highness, you should know from what Li Zhoumu said that Northern Xinjiang does not want to go to war with Daxia directly. They know very well that robbing some border residents will not have any consequences."
"But if you kill a prince, regardless of whether the prince is favored or not, Daxia will hold him accountable for the sake of face."
Jin Sui frowned. She had never thought of this. She thought that as long as she raised the flag of King Li and used herself as bait, the Tartars would rush into the city like crazy to kill her.
I didn't expect the Tartars to be as cowardly as Li Heng! "In Cheng Zhubo's opinion, what is the best bait?"
Cheng Yu said firmly: "Food, gold, silver and beauties."
The first two items were fine, as Jinsui soon came up with a new plan. That night he pretended to hold a banquet in the city, with meat stewed in a big pot, piles of food and fodder laid out, and boxes of gold, silver and jewelry displayed for show.
But this beauty, if she was not careful, she would get hurt, and she didn't want to take the risk.
"First, you should set up the battle array as I said. Li Zhouju and I will go to Yanzhou City and bring back the Yanzhou army and food supplies."
She had one last thing to do before leaving, so she took Li Heng with her and asked several soldiers to catch a fat pig and carry it to the cell.
Boil a pot of water and take a large iron brush to scrape the fish scales.
Boiling water is poured on the pig, and a red iron brush is used to brush the pig, brushing out strips of pork.
The key point is that the pigs were alive, wailing and screaming, and everyone watching the execution felt a chill in their hearts.
Li Heng leaned over the wall and vomited: "Your Majesty, why did you let me watch this?"
Jin Sui sneered: "Who asked you to watch? I am just doing an experiment. There are too many Tartars. We cannot defeat them head-on. We can only use other methods."
"For example, if we feed the pig poison, roll the meat out into balls and feed them to the Tartars, it should be able to kill quite a few!"
Suddenly, as if she thought of something, she waved her hand, and two soldiers dragged out the trembling assassin Qing Feng.
"Poison is not effective if you feed it temporarily. Qingfeng, you have been eating poison since you were a child. Your whole body is full of poison. If I cut your flesh into strips like this and feed it to the Tartars, it will be easy to poison a thousand people!"
While she was talking, the action of scrubbing the live pig with a hot water iron brush did not stop. The meat on the pig's legs had been scrubbed away, leaving only the bones.
Qing Feng's eyes showed fear as if he had seen a ghost. He had seen all kinds of torture in the Killer Pavilion, but none of them could compare to the fear brought by this scene.
The iron brush was stained with white meat and blood, and it was brushed on the meat, first breaking the skin, then bleeding, cutting the meat, and revealing the bones...
But you still can't die, and you keep enduring this torture until your internal organs are exposed, until only your head is left intact...
Qing Feng's mind flashed back to Huo Zian's previous comment: 'Devil!' "I'll admit it, I'll admit it, isn't that okay?"
Qing Feng's words were truly heart-wrenching. Even when all his fingers were cut off and his hair was shaved, he was not terrified to this extent.
Jin Sui waved his hand and said, "Carry this pig to the canteen and have it as an extra meal tonight."
Then he looked at Li Heng who was spitting out yellow water: "Master Li, let's listen together to what this assassin has confessed."
Qing Feng confessed that it was the Zheng family who asked him to assassinate King Li, and that those horse thieves were also his accomplices.
Jinsui asked someone to write a confession, asked Qingfeng to press his palm prints, and asked Li Heng to be the witness.
Li Heng asked hurriedly: "Your Majesty, don't you plan to punish the Zheng family now?"
Jin Sui smiled and said, "I will not let Lord Li be a bad guy. It won't be too late to punish him when the imperial envoy arrives."
If Li Heng were to punish them, he would definitely let half of Zheng's family members run away, along with 80% of their assets.
(End of this chapter)
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