Chapter 423 Building a Mound of Corpses!
At this critical moment, a loud shout suddenly rang out—
"stop!"
The gleaming, sharp blade was about to fall on Dai Junliang's head when it was stopped by this shout. Ma Xu turned his head fiercely: "Who dares to stop me!?"
As soon as he finished speaking, he immediately showed a shocked expression, and the knife in his hand froze in mid-air.
In the crowd, a tall figure sat steadily on horseback, clad in armor, exuding extraordinary heroism. Especially as the first rays of sunlight illuminated his handsome face, his cold and stern gaze added an air of intimidation.
Upon seeing him, Ma Xu froze on the spot, stammering, "You, you are—"
Mu Xian, who was standing next to Yuwen Ye, frowned and immediately said, "Why aren't you paying your respects to the Grand General?!"
Grand General Who Assists the State?!
Upon hearing these five words, Ma Xu's expression changed drastically, and the people around him were also startled, quickly stepping aside and kowtowing. Ma Xu hurriedly dropped the knife in his hand and stepped forward to pay his respects: "Greetings, General!"
As he spoke, his voice trembled involuntarily.
Dai Junliang, who had been knocked to the ground, hurriedly got up and kowtowed to Yuwen Ye, saying, "This humble general, Dai Junliang, greets the Great General."
For a moment, the entire Fufeng seemed to fall silent.
Yuwen Ye lightly shook the reins and strode forward.
He glanced at the two of them and then asked, "What are you doing?"
Dai Junliang raised his head, about to say something, when Ma Xu immediately stepped forward, cupped his hands and said, "General, this humble general is here to kill the traitor and rid the court of this scourge."
"spy?"
Yuwen Ye raised an eyebrow slightly: "Who is the spy?"
Ma Xu immediately pointed to Dai Junliang beside him and said, "It's him, Lieutenant General Dai Junliang! This man is cowardly and afraid of battle. When I was about to go out of the city to fight, it was he who obstructed me in every way and delayed the battle. If it weren't for the fact that he left those troops behind, I would definitely have been able to defeat Xue Xian's army!"
"..."
"He's helping the enemy, he must be a spy!"
Upon hearing this, Dai Junliang became anxious and hurriedly said, "General Ma, please don't make false accusations. The reason I was obstructing you was because Xue Xian was clearly prepared in that battle. If you rashly went out of the city to fight, you would have no chance of winning!"
"fart!"
Ma Xu jumped up and down, yelling at him, "You're a spy! I'll kill you!"
Seeing them arguing so heatedly, Shang Ruyi frowned slightly.
Yuwen Ye remained calm, only giving a wink to those around him. Mu Xian and the others immediately stepped forward to pull them apart. Yuwen Ye looked at Ma Xu, then at Dai Junliang, and asked, "You just said that Xue Xian came prepared. What's going on?"
Dai Junliang hurriedly reported, "Reporting to the General, on the evening of the 16th, Xue Xian's vanguard arrived at the city and set up camp five miles west of the city, separated by the Xiaolin River. Afterwards, Xue Xian led 20,000 troops across the river and suddenly challenged the city to battle. General Ma saw that there were not many of them who had crossed the river and that they had just arrived, so he concluded that they were exhausted from marching for days and would be no match for him. Therefore, he decided to lead the entire city's garrison out of the city to meet the challenge."
Upon hearing this, Yuwen Ye frowned slightly.
He asked, "And then?"
Dai Junliang said, "In my opinion, since we have been marching for days, Xue Xian should rest and recover his strength before challenging us. However, he challenged us before even setting up camp, which means he was already prepared for the battle. His failure to rest is a feigned weakness to lure the enemy, and there must be a trap involved."
"..."
"Therefore, I tried my best to stop General Ma from leaving the city to fight. But—"
Before he could finish speaking, Ma Xu's face showed a look of panic, and he hurriedly said, "General, you must not listen to his one-sided story. If he does not obstruct us and we let everyone follow me out of the city, we will surely win a great victory!"
Yuwen Ye said coldly, "Tell me the result."
These three words were like an invisible hand, instantly gripping Ma Xu's throat.
When he met Yuwen Ye's cold, piercing eyes again, which were as sharp as swords, his heart skipped a beat, and he stammered, unable to utter a single word.
Dai Junliang lowered his head and said in a deep voice, "When General Ma left the city, his 20,000 troops began to rout and retreat in less than a quarter of an hour. General Ma pursued them relentlessly, but by the time they reached the banks of the Xiaolin River, it was already dark. Suddenly, two groups of troops emerged from both sides of the river. It turned out that Xue Xian had secretly deployed two groups of troops to cross the river. They attacked from both sides, blocking their retreat. Those 80,000 troops—"
By the end, his eyes were red and his voice was hoarse and choked with emotion.
The soldiers around them all lowered their heads.
That night, apart from Ma Xu, who escaped alive under the cover of his soldiers, no one actually saw what happened on the riverbank, nor did they know what kind of fierce battle those 80,000 troops had gone through, and in the end, not a single one of them survived!
But all night long, they heard the sound of the wind.
There were gasps of alarm and screams of agony.
There were the sounds of swords piercing flesh and blood, and the sound of blood gushing out, staining the night red...
Even now, when people mention that night, it's as if everyone is still immersed in a blood-stained nightmare. Although there are still soldiers in the city, and the soldiers still have swords in their hands, they have lost their fighting spirit. The common people have lost their support, and the entire Fufeng is almost on the verge of collapse.
And all of this is because of Ma Xu!
Thinking of this, Dai Junliang's eyes reddened, and he glared at Ma Xu with hatred.
Ma Xu was initially confident and assertive, but when he turned his head, he met Yuwen Ye's eyes. Those cold, sharp eyes seemed to pierce through him in an instant. Ma Xu felt a pang of guilt, his legs went weak, and he knelt down with a thud, kowtowing and begging for mercy.
"General, I, I didn't—"
At this moment, Shang Ruyi's brows also furrowed.
Although victory and defeat are common occurrences in war, this man's ambition, stubbornness, and lack of talent in commanding troops are his crimes. The fact that 80,000 troops perished is even more unforgivable!
At that moment, she even wished she could rush up and stab him!
But after giving him a cold look, Yuwen Ye stopped looking at him, jumped off his horse, and looked ahead. In front of them were towering city walls and tightly closed city gates. Fortunately, Xue Xian's troops had not yet reached this place, so the city walls and gates showed no signs of damage and looked quite sturdy.
Yuwen Ye said, "Let's go up to the city wall first."
Everyone was stunned for a moment.
At this moment, as the Grand General, shouldn't he first deal with Ma Xu, who had rashly gone into battle and suffered heavy losses? Or perhaps he should recount the remaining troops in the city? Why did he go up to the city wall at this time?
Even Dai Junliang hesitated for a moment, and said with a solemn expression, "General, perhaps we should not go up to the city wall yet."
Shang Ruyi glanced at him.
Yuwen Ye didn't look at him, but said calmly, "I came here to find out the situation here, especially the final result of that battle. Otherwise, it will not be good for future battles."
After saying that, he waved his hand and said, "Go up to the city wall."
This time, no one dared to disobey, so they all dismounted and followed him up the city wall.
Shang Ruyi followed behind him, watching his back, a sense of doubt creeping into her heart—Yuwen Ye's words about "the final result of that battle" seemed odd. Wasn't the final result simply the annihilation of those 80,000 troops? Why did he say they needed to see the final result again?
Could there be some other outcome?
With that thought in mind, she quickened her pace, but just before she reached the top of the city wall, a gust of wind suddenly blew by, and Shang Ruyi subconsciously sniffed.
What's that smell in the wind?
Moreover, it was the kind of extremely unpleasant, foul stench?
Just as she was wondering what was going on, everyone had already followed Yuwen Ye up to the city wall. Suddenly, the view opened up before them. The towering city wall offered a wide view, allowing them to see far into the distance and take in the entire Fufeng County. The low houses were lined up one after another, densely packed in the city. Even the city wall on the other side was faintly visible in the sunlight.
Just then, the kind boy beside him suddenly screamed in agony—
"Ah! What's that?!"
Shang Ruyi was startled and quickly turned her head away.
Because of her position, she could only look at the situation inside the city after climbing the city wall. But in fact, Yuwen Ye brought people up to look at the outside of the city, that is, the other side. Shang Ruyi hurriedly walked to his side and looked ahead.
Her expression immediately changed.
Just outside the city gate was a wide, flat area with many messy footprints and bloodstains on the ground, clearly left from the battle two days ago. Following the bloodstains forward, almost at the end of the line of sight, there was a silver chain in the sunlight, shimmering in the water. This was the Xiaolin River, the moat of the city.
That is, the place where 80,000 men were lost in the battle with Xue Xian.
Because it was too far away, the situation on the riverbank could not be seen clearly, but just from Dai Junliang's account, one could almost imagine the tragic scene on the riverbank that night.
But what alarmed them was not the river.
Instead, a high wall appeared on the opposite bank of the river!
The high wall was not made of stone or bricks. Because it was too far away and the sky was not fully bright, it seemed to be dark, with a reddish and white hue. For a moment, it was impossible to tell what it was that could build such a high wall outside Fufeng City!
A strange tremor suddenly rose in Shang Ruyi's heart.
A gust of wind blew by, and the high wall trembled slightly in the wind. The stench carried by the wind swept through the entire Fufeng, and Shang Ruyi immediately covered her mouth and nose.
That is—
Just then, more sunlight pierced through the clouds and shone down, illuminating the high wall as well.
They finally saw it clearly.
That was actually a pile of soldiers' corpses!
Jingguan!
That's a Jingguan!
Xue Xian collected the bodies of the 80,000 soldiers who died in the battle of Fufeng and built a mound of corpses!
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