The 50,000 soldiers forcibly conscripted by Crown Prince Rui were of varying ages and had been whipped and forced to march for a long time. They suffered from diarrhea for days, making them look even more emaciated. In particular, many of them were teenagers wearing ill-fitting clothes, which made the soldiers of the Tiger and Leopard Division, who already knew the ruthlessness of the Northern Underworld Emperor, look indignant.
The Northern Underworld Emperor has gone mad. To save his own life, he's now throwing even his children and the elderly onto the battlefield. Next in line could be their wives and their infants!
Looking at the expressions on the soldiers' faces, Xia Yixin knew that she had achieved the effect she wanted. After distributing the chainmail to the 100 bravest members of the First Battalion and the Vanguard, Xia Yixin indeed saw envious expressions on their faces.
She stood before the camp, facing five thousand soldiers standing in perfect formation. She focused her voice, making it reach every soldier's ears, and said, "Today, I want to ask you a question: For whom do you fight?"
The five thousand soldiers looked at each other in bewilderment. Some of the bolder ones shouted "Nan Yu" while others shouted "Yan Xiaowei".
Xia Yixin smiled faintly, "No, you are not doing this for Nan Yu, nor for me, but for yourselves! This world belongs to the people. For many years, the Northern Emperor has been misled by eunuchs, and the people are suffering. Yet, Crown Prince Rui insists on instigating war. Is this your fault, or the people's fault? No! Why should we fight and risk our lives for their interests?"
As Yan Jiu's (Xia Yixin's) futuristic ideas reached their ears, the first reaction was shock! The second was astonishment!
In this era, his words are considered outrageous, yet why do they find them increasingly reasonable the more they listen?
Unconsciously, every soldier thought of the days when they went hungry, their parents who starved to death, and their brothers who died on the battlefield...
Seeing that the atmosphere was quite good, Xia Yixin continued, "Therefore, I want you to start today to fight for yourselves! Fight for your parents, fight for your loved ones! They are still being exploited, oppressed, and enslaved under the rule of the Northern Underworld Emperor! Think of the people in Maicheng, don't you want to create such a peaceful and prosperous world for them and for your children?"
In the quiet Tiger and Leopard Division, someone suddenly shouted, "Yes!"
Immediately afterward, countless people shouted loudly. They thought! They initially followed Yan Jiu (Xia Yixin) just for a meal, but gradually they were captivated by the feeling of being valued. Now, their hearts were stirred, and they suddenly grasped what they had been searching for all along.
Xia Yixin stood against the wind, and with a whoosh, the sword Shang Xie was drawn, its blade pointing directly towards the capital of the Northern Underworld. "For our ideals, for our descendants, wherever tigers and wolves go, none can stand against us!"
The shouts of five thousand men were deafening, and every soldier in the Tiger Wolf Division had a burning fire in their eyes.
Not far away, Zi Linglong looked at the handsome man standing against the wind, his armor revealing a sharp edge. Her heart pounded wildly. She felt incredibly proud, but also a subtle sense of inferiority. However, she quickly rallied herself and secretly resolved to become someone who could stand shoulder to shoulder with him. She wanted to become a worthy empress!
Xia Yixin struck while the iron was hot. Fifty thousand defeated soldiers could not be dealt with casually. After letting the Tiger Wolf Division rest briefly, she had them all change into the armor of the Beiming soldiers. Then, she rode her horse with the still unconscious Crown Prince Rui towards Meng City, which was more than ten kilometers away.
The Tiger Wolf Division, disguised as defeated "remnants," and with Prince Rui's face, successfully tricked their way into opening the city gate.
After entering the city, by the time the general guarding the city realized something was wrong, it was too late.
Because the battlefield of the front-line battle was far from Mengcheng, there were only two thousand soldiers guarding the city. Apart from the general who was skilled in martial arts and was knocked away by Xia Yixin with a single palm strike, Mengcheng was captured in less than two hours!
Xia Yixin confiscated more than two thousand warhorses.
Their mission was not to defend the city, but to disrupt Bei Ming's rear. So after taking the city, she rested for a few hours and then immediately set off to attack nearby cities.
With Prince Rui as her living advertisement, she succeeded time and again. After tricking the city gates open, she immediately killed the guards, captured the soldiers, and then sent them out of the city. She killed the local bullies and gentry, and opened the granaries to distribute food to the people.
So when she arrived in a town, the people were overjoyed, and later the townspeople would even spontaneously open the city gates for her.
"General Yan is mighty!"
"The Tiger and Wolf Division is mighty!"
Wherever the fierce and powerful army passed, the people of Beiming cried out. They had long suffered from the exploitation of the eunuchs around the Beiming Emperor, the officials who relied on them to act arrogantly, and the local gentry and bullies. At this time, a force like a mighty army from heaven helped them drive away the exploiters and distributed food and money to them. Some people even followed the fierce and powerful army, saying that they would go wherever they went. This indirectly led to many cities becoming ghost towns.
After fighting for half a month, Xia Yixin's Tiger Wolf Division not only did not decrease, but increased, with the number of soldiers approaching 100,000.
Many of them were originally defeated soldiers from the Northern Sea who surrendered directly and joined the Tiger Wolf Division.
In particular, the words Xia Yixin had spoken to the soldiers of the Tiger Wolf Division had been spread by the soldiers, which not only encouraged the soldiers but also the common people, leading them to rise up in rebellion.
When Xia Yixin led her army to occupy half of the Northern Underworld territory together with Zhao Tuo's army, the Northern Underworld Emperor had completely lost the opportunity to contact the front line.
Because there are hundreds of thousands of troops of the new emperor of Nanyu in Maicheng, and Xia Yixin and Zhao Tuo behind them. The nearest city occupied by Yan Jiu (Xia Yixin) is less than half a day away from the capital.
The Northern Underworld Emperor was completely thrown into chaos and panic.
His first move was to depose the crown prince, but now that he has deposed the crown prince, it is of little use. Instead, it has caused a great uproar among his remaining dozen or so sons in the capital.
They even got into a fight in Kyoto, resulting in a death.
During the morning court session, the officials were also arguing endlessly about who should be the crown prince.
The Northern Underworld Emperor, around fifty years old, had a puffy face, clearly from excessive indulgence, and a bloated figure.
The incessant arguments in the court caused him to roar in fury.
"Shut up, all of you! Is this the time to discuss who should be the crown prince?! I sent them to war and they all lost everything, yet now they're all so eager to fight for the crown prince position!! Place all the princes involved in today's disturbance under house arrest and strip them of their princely status. I'll let you fight it out again!"
His words immediately changed the expressions of all the civil and military officials, especially the head eunuch, Eunuch Zhang.
He knelt down with a thud. "Your Majesty, you mustn't! Almost all the princes were involved this time. If they are all dismissed, then Your Majesty will have no one to succeed you in the future..."
The Northern Underworld Emperor understood his implied meaning and angrily retorted, "Bullshit!"
"I deserve to die!" Eunuch Zhang immediately bowed low and humbled himself.
The entire court was silent. The civil and military officials all kept their eyes downcast, but deep down they all harbored resentment towards Emperor Beiming.
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