Chapter 158 Persuasion to Surrender!
Every winter, Dongchuan suffers from a shortage of supplies. This is especially true when there's heavy snow or fighting. The reason the purchased goods are so varied is because they were all obtained by Madam Song and her people, going from village to village, using all her persuasive skills to procure them!
If Song Niangzi hadn't been plotted against by her rivals to seize her grocery store, her whole family wouldn't have been exiled!
Shen Lanxi turned her heel and continued her inspection!
That day, all the soldiers from the three garrisons gathered, and Shen Lanxi raised the banner of punishing the treacherous officials, leading his troops toward Shilipo overnight!
They could have marched during the day, but Shen Lanxi deliberately chose to do it at night in order to train everyone.
During a rest stop along the way, the soldiers started a fire and baked flatbread.
Wei Dongzhu took out a paper package from his pocket, which contained two coarse flatbreads, a few pieces of pastry, and two eggs.
He heated the eggs on the warm charcoal ash and handed a piece of pastry to Shen Lanxi!
The soldiers from the three detachments, along with Shen Yuanjing and the others, remained silent, all reaching their hands to the fire to warm themselves.
Shen Lanxi looked around and, seeing that Wei Dongzhu's hand hadn't been withdrawn, took the pastries from him.
Wei Dongzhu took a bite of the coarse flatbread, and seeing that the egg was almost heated, he used a wooden stick to pull it out of the charcoal fire.
They march at night, so they certainly won't rest for long.
Wei Dongzhu wiped the eggshells clean with his clothes, then took out a clean cloth from his pocket, put the cloth on his fingers, and quickly cleaned off the eggshells.
"Have an egg!"
Shen Lanxi looked at the food handed to her and said, "I'm not hungry, you can eat it yourself!"
Wei Dongzhu: "I heated up two!" He didn't pull his hand back.
Shen Lanxi glanced at him, took the item from his hand, and handed it to Shen Yuanjing, who was standing to the side.
Shen Yuanjing: "..."
"Aren't you going to thank Master Hu?"
Shen Yuanjing instinctively gripped the handle and quickly thanked him, "Thank you, Master Hu!"
Wei Dongzhu replied sullenly, "You're welcome!"
Shen Lanxi handed the pastries to Shen Yuanjun.
Shen Yuanjun smiled and accepted it: "Thank you, Master Hu!"
Tonight, the kitchen made two kinds of pancakes: one was a meat pancake, and the other was a plain pancake without filling.
Everyone unanimously chose the unfilled flatbread!
Because when the filling was being prepared, the cooks were preparing it right next to the corpse that had been whipped to death, and they saw it all during their drills!
Recalling that day when the whip lashed flesh and blood flying everywhere, bones breaking apart, and the body rotting into a mess, none of the soldiers have touched meat in the past few days.
In the past, whenever the kitchen cooked some meat, they would rush over and grab it, but these past few days they've all covered their mouths and taken a detour!
Many of the younger recruits have nightmares every day, and sometimes they even vomit while eating!
Everyone looked at Shen Lanxi with fear in their eyes, and wherever her gaze fell, everyone in that area would lower their heads and avoid her.
After resting for fifteen minutes, we set off again.
By the time we arrived at Shilipo, it was already late at night.
"Xiao Fang, take men and arrest Zhao Nanshan's family!"
"Hu Zhu, go and challenge them!"
"Yuan Jing, Yuan Jun, Yuan Kun, Yuan Xu, you take your men and surround them!"
"yes!"
The group split into two teams and quickly began their operation!
The guards reported that Zhao Nanshan had led two hundred men to meet him outside Shili Slope, and had also sent another two hundred men to fetch his wife and children.
"Zhao Nanshan's soldiers must all be elite troops. Fortunately, his forces are scattered, which is perfect for whetstones for my team!"
The sounds of fighting and clashing weapons could be heard from not far away. Judging from the sounds, Wei Dongzhu's group was fighting against Zhao Nanshan's men!
"Let's go and meet Zhao Nanshan!"
"yes!"
Zhao Nanshan is quite skilled. When Shen Lanxi arrived, Shen Yuanjing and his group were already injured. Although it's still unclear who won, it's because they outnumbered each other. If the numbers were equal, some of Shen Yuanjing's group would probably already be dead.
Shen Lanxi, accompanied by twenty guards from Peach Blossom Valley and secret guards from Ghost Valley, rode tall horses and approached unhurriedly.
The long stick in his hand dragged on the ground, making a clanging metallic dragging sound!
Zhao Nanshan slashed a soldier with one stroke, then pulled the sword back forcefully, and the soldier's head rolled to the ground.
Shen Lanxi coldly stared at the head that had rolled to the horse's hooves, her eyes as cold and fierce as an eagle's.
Feng Wu raised his voice: "We are a righteous army, sent to punish the traitors and rebels on behalf of Heaven. Those who lay down their weapons and surrender will not be killed!"
Zhao Nanshan glared fiercely at Shen Lanxi and the others: "Don't listen to their nonsense. The kings here have rebelled. Where is this righteous army? They're all just spouting lies and deceiving people!"
Feng Wu: "Stop being so stubborn! Do you know that he is leading you down a path of rebellion from which there is no return? Think of your families! From now on, they will all bear the name of traitors, and they will not even find peace in death!"
“If you continue to follow him, you will be disloyal, unjust, and unfilial. You will be thieves in life and your corpses will be whipped after death!”
Upon hearing the words "whipping the corpse," one of the soldiers' hands trembled, and his broadsword clattered to the ground. As he frantically picked up the knife, he muttered, "Brother Zhu, listen to him! What he said is true, we really will be whipped on the corpse!"
Shen Lanxi raised an eyebrow. This soldier knew Zhao Nanshan's men. Of course, with weddings and funerals happening around here, you could easily find a string of relatives by simply shouting in the street!
Seeing that his soldiers were about to be persuaded, Zhao Nanshan immediately roared, "Listen to his nonsense! They are the rebels! What righteous army? They just called themselves that. The King of Dongliao has already rebelled. I'm leading you to join a loyal minister and general!"
Unexpectedly, Zhao Nanshan is quite eloquent. If he had that mouth on the battlefield, he would definitely be a master of verbal sparring!
"Do you still want your family?"
Zhao Nanshan frowned: "What do you mean?"
Shen Lanxi: "Your family has been detained by me. If you dare to resist, your whole family will be beheaded!"
Zhao Nanshan stared intently at Shen Lanxi, his eyes filled with a hatred that seemed to want to tear her apart.
"Impossible! You're lying to me. No one is allowed to listen to his nonsense anymore; he's trying to demoralize our troops!"
Shen Lanxi: "As expected of the rebels, they don't even care about the lives of their families. They're truly cold-blooded!"
Feng Wu: "He wants to build his career by stepping over the corpses of his family!"
Shen Lanxi asked in a puzzled tone, "What kind of merit is worth exchanging the lives of loved ones for!"
Feng Wu said coldly, "What are relatives? His wife and children are dead, he can remarry and have more children. He has no parents, his relatives are all from his wife's side of the family, they have nothing to do with him. He can marry ten or eight more women in the future, he can have as many in-laws as he wants!"
Shen Lanxi: "That's right, if you don't have family, you can make them yourself!"
Zhao Nanshan was furious, wishing he could chop those two guys who were working together in concert into pieces.
"Kill them! They're all greenhorns, and the one on horseback looks like a woman. Don't be afraid. Cut them down, and you'll be rewarded with a hundred taels of silver each!"
Shen Lanxi sneered coldly: "Don't you have family? Don't your soldiers have family either?"
Feng Wu: "Listen to this, everyone. He doesn't even care about his own wife, children, and relatives. How could he care about your lives, let alone the lives of your families? Is it worth it for you to follow someone like that?"
(End of this chapter)
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