corpse snatching
The news of Liang Hongyu's death spread quickly to the surrounding counties and even back to Lin'an City, like the coldest wind in autumn.
Han Shizhong was discussing defense with his generals in the Phoenix Mountain camp when a personal guard suddenly rushed into the tent, his face pale and his voice trembling: "General! Madam, she... Madam, she..."
Han Shizhong's heart suddenly sank, and an unprecedented panic gripped him. He grabbed the guard's collar and said, "What's wrong, Madam? Tell me!"
"Madam... encountered an ambush by Jin soldiers at Crow Ridge... fought hard... and died for her country!" The personal soldier burst into tears after saying this.
There was an instant of dead silence in the tent, and all the generals were stunned.
Han Shizhong froze in place as if struck by lightning, his grip on his personal guard's hand fading. He stumbled a step, holding onto the table to regain his balance. His weathered face, unfazed by the sight of countless soldiers, instantly lost all color. His lips trembled violently, but no sound emanated.
He seemed to see Liang Hongyu's final image, trapped in a bloody battle, and the regretful and worried look in her eyes when she turned back to look at him...
"Hongyu——!" A heart-wrenching roar finally broke through his throat. Han Shizhong suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood and fell backwards.
"General!"
"Quickly call the military doctor!"
The generals rushed forward to support him, and the tent was in chaos. Han Shizhong slowly regained consciousness, his eyes red. He pushed away the people who were supporting him and struggled to his feet. His voice was hoarse but filled with terrifying murderous intent: "Call the troops! Assemble! I will destroy the Jin camp and avenge my wife!"
Although the generals were also filled with grief and indignation, they still had some reason. The deputy general hurriedly tried to dissuade him, "General! Please be patient! The Jin army's move is clearly a tactic to lure the enemy. If our army attacks rashly, we may be ambushed! If my wife is still alive, she would never want to see you put the entire army in danger because of her!"
"Danger?" Han Shizhong turned around suddenly, tears and blood mingling in his eyes. "Hongyu sacrificed her life for me and the Song Dynasty. If I, Han Shizhong, cannot kill her enemies, how can I live in this world with dignity? Get out of the way!"
He pushed the deputy general away and rushed out.
At this moment, another fast horse galloped into the camp, bringing a more detailed and heartbreaking news: Liang Hongyu's body was taken away by the Jin soldiers, and Wanyan Zongbing threatened that Han Shizhong should go and get it personally.
Han Shizhong calmed down after hearing the news. He stood there, his body trembling slightly from the effort of restraint. His clenched fists were white, his nails digging deep into his palms, oozing blood. He slowly closed his eyes, two silent tears falling.
He knew the deputy general was right. Acting impulsively would only lead to Hongyu's sacrifice being in vain and more soldiers being killed.
"Pass the order down..." After a long moment, Han Shizhong opened his eyes and spoke in a low, hoarse voice, "The entire army shall wear mourning clothes to mourn the lady..."
He walked outside the tent, looked toward Crow Ridge, and swore an oath, word for word: "Hongyu, you wait. I, Han Shizhong, will not be a human being until this vengeance is avenged! Wanyan Zongbi, I will make you pay with blood!"
…
When the news reached Han's residence, Liu Rumei was pruning a pot of chrysanthemums. When she heard the tragic news that Liang Hongyu had died in battle and her body had been lost, the golden scissors in her hand dropped to the ground with a clang.
Her face was pale and her body was cold, as if all her strength had been drained away in an instant. She staggered back a few steps and fell onto the cold stone bench.
She had never imagined that Qin Hui's so-called "elimination" would be so ruthless and would directly take Liang Hongyu's life! She had originally thought that at most Liang Hongyu would fall out of favor or be held accountable, but she had never imagined that this would be the outcome.
Liang Hongyu's heroic and honest face appeared before her eyes. She remembered that she held her hand and said that she would give her freedom and find a true love for her... Guilt, fear and regret gnawed at her heart like poisonous snakes.
It was her, the information she passed on, that killed the woman who loved her sincerely!
"No...it's not me...I didn't know it would be like this..." Liu Rumei covered her face, tears streaming through her fingers, her body trembling violently with fear and regret. She realized that she had embarked on a dead end from which there was no turning back, her hands stained with blood that could never be washed away.
Meanwhile, in the Prime Minister's residence, Qin Hui, upon learning of Liang Hongyu's death and the news that Wanyan Zongbi had taken her body, a grim smile appeared on his face. Liang Hongyu, a major threat, had finally been eliminated, and Wanyan Zongbi's move, regardless of whether Han Shizhong had fallen for it, would undoubtedly deal a heavy blow to him.
Late at night in Han's mansion, empty wine jars rolled all over the floor, the room was filled with a strong smell of alcohol, and the floor was a mess.
Han Shizhong didn't light a lamp. Leveraging the scattered torchlight outside the tent, he stumbled to the table, grabbed a half-empty jar of liquor, and drank it headfirst. The liquor flowed freely down his jaw and neck, mixing with the dark red blood stains that had long since dried on his armor.
"Hongyu..." he murmured, his voice hoarse. His free hand clutched a tattered red battle robe, the one Liang Hongyu often wore. There was a noticeable tear at the shoulder, the edges stained darkly with blood. He remembered it from when she'd blocked an arrow for him while defending the city last year.
He closed his eyes, as if he could see her frowning yet smiling face again: "It's just a minor injury, nothing serious, as long as my husband is fine."
But now, the clothes are still there, but the person can never come back.
A sharp pain surged through his chest, and Han Shizhong groaned, curling up and sliding down onto the floor, leaning against the table. He didn't cry out loud, but his shoulders shook uncontrollably. His suppressed sobs echoed through the room, more mournful than his outbursts.
He lifted the wine jar to pour more, but found it empty. Furiously, he smashed the empty jar against the tent wall, making a dull crack. The fragments flew apart, and one grazed his cheek, leaving a bloody streak, though he was completely unaware.
"Why were you the first to leave..." He questioned the void, his eyes bloodshot, his gaze distracted and painful. "You said... you wanted to live in seclusion with me, to live a simple life like a wandering wanderer... You said it!"
He fumbled for another jar of wine, broke the mud seal, and gulped it down again. This time, the choking caused him to cough violently, a heart-wrenching cough that seemed to want to cough out all his internal organs. The wine and tears mixed together, blurring his vision.
In the dim light, he seemed to see Liang Hongyu standing at the door of the tent, dressed in a fiery red dress, smiling and waving at him, just like how she had greeted him at the camp gate countless times when he returned from the battle.
"Hongyu!" He stretched out his hand excitedly, trying to catch the phantom, but he missed and fell heavily to the cold ground.
He lay on the ground, his fingers digging into the ground tightly, his nails cracked and bleeding. Finally, all his strength seemed to be drained away, and he stopped struggling. He just lay there quietly, like a wounded and dying beast, emitting desperate, suppressed, and intermittent groans.
Han Shizhong fought a lifetime of battle, desperately seeking only to lose his family fortune and surrender his military power. Even his beloved wife was brutally murdered by the Jin army, her body never even left. Even so, he was met with unwarranted suspicion and even abandoned by the Song emperor. If it weren't for his wife's wit, who saw Zhao Gou's murderous intent, he would have been killed by him. He, Pengju, and his wife, all devoted themselves to the Song Dynasty, yet this was their fate, while those treacherous villains continued to control the court and live happily ever after.
The night was long, and only the smell of alcohol and endless sadness filled the silent mansion, wrapping him tightly and sinking him into bottomless darkness.
Just when Han Shizhong was drinking all night, the news of Liang Hongyu's death reached the Qingcheng Gang.
In the study, Asen clutched the letter in his hand, unable to believe that the intelligent, resilient woman with such a heart for the world had passed away. He had thought he had long since forgotten her, but upon hearing the news of her death, it felt like a hammer hammer was hammering down on his chest, piercing a hole in his heart. Only then did he clearly realize that he had never truly let her go.
He slid down from the chair and knelt on the ground, his eyes looking towards the north as he murmured, "Sister Hongyu...don't worry...Asen will take you home."
It was the night of the new moon when Asen and twelve Qingcheng Gang death warriors arrived at the outskirts of the Jin camp. Liang Hongyu's body was hung high on the flagpole at the gate. The torches of the patrolling Jin soldiers occasionally flickered across her pale face, and her shoulder armor reflected a cold, hard light.
"Boss, there are six watchtowers, three men each," the spy reported from his perch in the grass. "Wanyan Zongbing's central camp is in the center of the camp, about two hundred paces from the flagpole."
Arsen wiped his face, and rain mixed with mud dripped from his chin.
"Divide into three teams." Arsen said coldly, "Team one, burn the food supplies, team two, assassinate the commander, and team three, follow me to grab the corpse."
At three quarters past midnight, a sudden burst of flames erupted from the southeast corner of the Jin camp. It was the Qingcheng Gang's special fish oil fireworks, intensified by contact with water. While the Jin soldiers were rescuing the rebels, Asen slinked to the flagpole like a civet cat. The sickle-shaped flying rope silently latched onto the flagpole, and the dagger between his teeth gleamed green in the rain.
Liang Hongyu's body lay tied to a three-meter-tall flagpole. A north wind whipped up grains of sand, whipping the body suspended from the pole. Her scarlet battle robe had long since faded to a ragged maroon, its hem shredded by a sharp blade, trembling in the wind like a red banner weeping blood. Her head hung low, her long, tangled hair obscuring her features, dark brown clots of blood clotted between the strands. The wind suddenly lifted the tangled hair from her forehead. The face that once eclipsed the peonies of Lin'an was now covered in a crisscross of scars. Yet, her eyes remained open, their hollow sockets gazing southward, like two dry wells, filled with beacon smoke that the Huai River could not even reflect.
The moment he cut the rope, he touched her cold wrist. The weight of the falling body made him kneel on one knee, and the smell of decay hit him in the face.
"Song people are stealing corpses!" The Jin soldiers finally noticed something was wrong. Asen flung out three poisonous caltrops, carried Liang Hongyu on his back, and retreated to the designated west gate. Her armor pierced his back, like countless needles piercing his memory. That year, when she taught him how to use a spear, she always said, "Asen, you must be the needle that pierces the darkness."
The horses of the carriage that came to meet them were hit by rockets, and the members of the Qingcheng Gang were immediately surrounded.
"Take the brothers and go!" He pushed the body to his deputy, grabbed the burning cart and rushed towards the pile of food and hay. The gunpowder exploded, and the red flames instantly engulfed the pile of hay.
As the raging flames engulfed the entire Jin camp, Asen walked out from the sea of blood and corpses, holding the crescent-shaped sword given to him by Liang Hongyu in one hand. The bright flames burned his entire face red, and the scarlet blood flowed down the tip of the sword and dripped onto Wanyan Zongbing's flag. The blood spread along the flag, forming a red and strange flower of hell.
At dawn, the five surviving assassins and Asen returned to the Qingcheng Gang.
Liang Hongyu's body was buried by Asen on Luofeng Mountain by the Huai River.
The water whimpered beneath the cliffs, waves crashing against the rocks, colder than tears. Asen knelt before Xinlei's grave, unable to rise. He recalled their first meeting, her red-clad appearance, a heroic figure, reaching out to catch the whip that had fallen on him. He remembered the time under the wintersweet tree at the Jiaofangsi, when she had taught him how to use a spear, the petals, shaken off by the wind, lingering for a moment on his clothes, carrying the unique fragrance of the Jiaofangsi's agarwood.
"Sister Hongyu..." Blood foam rolled down his throat, "Asen has avenged you... While you were alive, Arsen couldn't be with you. After you die, Arsen will always be here with you."
A lone goose flew across the river, its mournful cry tearing through the thick fog. His shoulders shook violently, but he could only utter silent sobs. Tears streamed down his jawline, dripping into the dust on the mountaintop, and were instantly annihilated, as if nothing had happened. The memory of the girl in red, dressed in a tight outfit, remained in his heart.
When the first rays of sunlight fully illuminated the Huai River, Asen finally stood up. The blood-red morning sun reflected in his eyes like two clusters of eternally burning beacons.
"Let's go." He tore off the hem of his shirt and wrapped it around his hands that were bruised from digging.
When going down the mountain, there were fishermen's songs floating in the wind: "...the orioles are singing in the jade palace of Nanjing at dawn, the flowers are blooming early in the waterside pavilions of Qinhuai..." Asen looked back and saw the red jade belt that had just been tied to the grave, rustling in the strong wind and swaying in the wind.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
