Liao Fusheng: ...How long has it been since he remembered that name?
"Yes." Liao Fusheng, who always had the demeanor of a gentle young master, looked apologetic. "It's been many years since we last met. I didn't recognize the young general when we were outside. Please don't take offense."
Li Qing slapped him on the shoulder, "I'm so grateful to you for protecting my family so strictly, how could I blame you?"
Liao Fusheng's forehead was beaded with cold sweat. "Is this how you thank someone?" His shoulder felt like it was about to be crushed.
Fortunately, Li Qing quickly let go, and Liao Fusheng secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
When Li Qing looked at Li Ruo again, her expression softened considerably. She pulled Li Ruo down to sit and said, "Come on, tell me what happened."
Li Ruo was somewhat at a loss for words.
Grandma Li came out carrying a large bowl of steaming noodles.
"Come on, eat your noodles first. Once you're full, you can tell us your story."
The Li family was a military family, so there weren't many rules and regulations. Li Qing took a big slurp in front of everyone and exclaimed, "Grandma's noodles are still the best!"
I was extremely satisfied, and tears welled up in my eyes.
Grandma Li looked at him lovingly, wiped her eyes, and glanced at the urn on the altar. "It's a pity your father didn't have that blessing."
Li Qing quickly finished a bowl of noodles and knelt down in front of Old Lady Li: "It's my fault for being incompetent and failing to protect my father. Grandma, please scold me."
"Hey, what are you doing? Get up, get up!"
Grandma Li saw that her grandson, who was still as tall as her even while kneeling, gently shook her head. "How is it your fault? It must have been very difficult for you to come back alive. Sit down and talk."
Li Qing said, "Thirty thousand soldiers were ambushed. My father and I led the remaining five thousand men to break through, but we were forced into a dead end and fell off a cliff. My father and the others were seriously injured and died. Only two other soldiers and I were left. We were stopped by an exceptionally large vine and kept alive. Before the enemy arrived, I collected my father's body and hid in a cave with the other two to avoid the pursuers. Perhaps it was a mercy from heaven, but the cave turned out to be the den of a white wolf that I had saved before. Seeing the white wolf eating the fallen corpse, the pursuers did not expect that we were in the cave, and they left."
Li Yi's eyes widened. "Amazing! Could that white wolf be a deity descended to earth?"
Li Qing patted his head. "Perhaps. But the three of us were too badly injured, and we had repeated fevers. One of us died. When the other and I were unconscious, a hunter saw us, rescued us, and fed us herbs, which saved our lives."
I was kept at the hunter's house for two months before I could go out to work. I immediately went to find a team of five thousand people that we had left in Guiyang.
After discussing it with everyone, we felt that there were many strange things about that battle, especially the missing Deputy General Yang, who disappeared after the breakout.
Since they thought I was dead, I decided to play along, conceal my identity, and investigate the matter.
I intended to send a message to you, but I bear the blood debt of my father and 30,000 soldiers, and I have already made a do-or-die decision. If I still die in the end, what good would it do to send a message to you? Besides, if the news leaks out, you will also be in danger. So I did not write a letter.
As for going back, that's even more impossible. How can I explain to my father, the soldiers, and their families how I could send over 30,000 elite troops back in such an unclear manner?
We conducted extensive and covert investigations, and became even more cautious after he discovered that Deputy General Yang had connections with people in the capital.
After lying in wait for more than a month, we finally seized the opportunity and captured the leader of the Southern Cloud Army at the brothel he frequented. During the interrogation, we learned whether it was Deputy General Yang who betrayed us or whether he made a deal with the emperor of the Southern Cloud Kingdom, but only the emperor knew the specific reason.
I was furious at the time; I never imagined it was really my father's lieutenant.
But Vice General Yang has always been loyal, how could he harm my father? I don't believe it if no one authorized it.
Just as I was pondering how to proceed with the investigation, the great flood suddenly struck.
He arrived in a great hurry, as it was the first time he had ever met someone like that in his life.
Like seawater overflowing its banks, because Nagumo is located by the sea and has a low-lying terrain, almost the entire Nagumo was submerged in water within just two days, and the floodwaters rushed northward with devastation.
They were held up by the fleeing Nan Yun soldiers and couldn't even return to Yuzhou. The Nan Yun soldiers were plundering on the border, so how could they just stand by and do nothing?
Later, he went all out and gathered refugees and scattered soldiers from Dayin to capture the Southern Emperor during the internal strife in Nanyun.
Under interrogation, it turned out that the emperor had ordered Vice General Yang to do so because the Li family army had a high reputation among the people in the south, and they believed Vice General Yang's words, mistakenly believing that they were going to rebel with their troops.
And it turns out that Deputy General Yang wasn't even one of the emperor's men, but rather one of the Prince of Jiangning's men.
“The Prince of Jiangning once approached the Southern Emperor, hoping he would send troops to help him seize the throne,” Li Qing said.
Everyone who heard this was furious.
Old Mrs. Li had no teeth and stomped her foot hard. "No wonder everyone says your father is ambitious and loves to make a name for himself. These rumors spread too fast. It turns out that the emperor had done the work. No wonder they didn't even build a cenotaph for him."
As for the so-called "compensation for the surviving elders and orphans of the General's Mansion" and fulfilling their wish, it was merely a show for outsiders.
Li Ruo clenched her fists, making a cracking sound.
Because General Li's family were all cannon fodder in the book, there was little description of the Li family, and she was unaware of this inside story at first.
All I knew was that this emperor was no good; when natural disasters struck, he didn't care about his own enjoyment. I never imagined he would be so stupid and cruel as to frame loyal officials.
"I'm going to kill that dog emperor to avenge myself," Li Yi said, his eyes red. A few months ago, he would never have dared to say such a thing.
But during this time, he watched how his sister protected them, and how she and Xie Xiao fought off wave after wave of enemies, protecting the mountain.
My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
