Wei Jin listened intently, deeply shocked. He had never imagined that Li Guang had such an experience.
"During this imperial military examination, the Crown Prince unexpectedly recruited Wang Ling into his ranks, intending to use Wang Ling to find an opportunity to eliminate me."
When Li Hui learned that I had sent 20,000 troops from Shuixian Village to the southwestern frontier to assist General Wei, he sensed that an opportunity had come and sent Wang Ling to accompany General Wei on the expedition.
"Given the right opportunity, Wang Ling will definitely strike and kill me."
Li Guang's words left Wei Jin speechless with shock. In the capital, all the civil and military officials knew about the relationship between Li Hui and Li Guang, and about the struggle between Li Hui and Li Guang for the throne.
Given Li Guang's current strength, if Li Guang were to compete with Li Hui for the throne, Li Hui would have no chance of winning.
However, in the eyes of many, Li Guang's mind was not on vying for the throne, but rather on living in seclusion in Shuixian Village, focusing solely on farming.
But whenever the Northern Dynasty was in trouble, he would step forward to help. In everyone's eyes, this was Li Guang's shrewdness.
Li Guang did this to win the hearts of the people, so that inheriting the throne would be a natural progression.
Therefore, most people, both inside and outside the government, are taking a wait-and-see attitude and will not easily mention these matters for fear of getting into trouble.
Wei Jin had not been in the court for long and had only heard rumors; he had not made a special effort to inquire about these matters.
Some time ago, he heard that Li Guang was the young prince, and he was curious, but he didn't know if it was true or not.
During my last visit to Narcissus Village, Li Guang and Li Xue addressed each other as brother and sister, which basically confirms that the rumors are true.
In this era, one must be extremely careful when dealing with matters within the royal family, and maintain a rare kind of clear-headedness amidst feigned ignorance.
Now that Li Guang has revealed his secret to Wei Jin without reservation, Wei Jin is not only somewhat moved, but also a little uneasy.
"General Li, I didn't know that the Crown Prince wanted to use Wang Ling to harm you. If I had known, I would not have agreed to let Wang Ling come to the southwestern border with the army."
Now that Wang Ling has violated military discipline, causing me to lose three thousand men, I will take this opportunity to behead him and eliminate this scourge.
Li Guang smiled and said:
"Now is not the time to get rid of Wang Ling. I want to use Wang Ling, give him a chance to expose his true colors, and thus reveal Li Hui's crime of trying to harm me."
Wei Jin immediately understood Li Guang's intention and said:
"I know what to do. General Li, please give your instructions on how to deal with Wang Ling?"
Li Guang nodded and began to discuss with Wei Jin how to deal with Wang Ling.
After the discussion, Li Guang left, as he had important matters to attend to.
Seeing Li Guang leave, Wei Jinping composed himself and returned to his military tent.
Inside the main tent, the generals were still waiting. Wei Jin and Li Guang had been gone for so long; it was unknown what they had discussed.
Wei Jin sat down again in the main tent, still with a stern and serious expression.
Everyone held their breath, watching Wei Jin, wondering what he was going to do next.
"Bring Wang Bingling up here."
Everyone finally breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that Wei Jin had come to his senses and was going to let Wang Bingling off the hook.
Soon, Wang Bingling was pushed back. He looked extremely disheveled and was genuinely terrified.
Since he was pushed back, he shouldn't die; at least his life was saved.
"Thank you, General Wei, for sparing my life."
Wei Jin gave a cold laugh and said:
“Wang Bingling, it’s not that I dare not kill you, but that the officers pleaded for you. If you want to thank someone, thank them.”
At this moment, someone stepped forward and untied Wang Bingling. After being untied, Wang Bingling began to thank everyone.
"Wang Bingling, listen to me carefully. Although I will not kill you, you will still be punished. You will be made to face the wall and reflect on your mistakes for three days. Do you have any objections?"
"No objections, this subordinate is willing to accept punishment."
In Wang Bingling's view, facing the wall in self-reflection is not a punishment at all; he can at least get a few days of rest.
Soon, Wang Bingling was taken away to reflect on his actions by facing the wall in silence.
As for Tieguoli, although he had eliminated Wei Jin's three thousand men, it did not change the current situation at all.
With the camp burned down, more than 10,000 soldiers and miners had nowhere to live. The river was cut off, and they would soon run out of water. In such hot weather, they could not survive a single day without water.
What Tieguoli found most unbearable was that during his battle with Wei Jin, Wei Jin slashed his back, leaving him seriously injured.
Due to the hot weather, harsh environment, and lack of medical care, the large wound quickly became infected and festered, and Tieguoli soon could not hold on any longer.
In ancient times, such an injury would have been fatal. Ironfist's men were frantic with worry, but there was nothing they could do.
Two days later, Tieguoli had a persistent high fever and was on his deathbed. At this point, the water supply had been cut off.
Tie Guoli knew that Wei Jin had brought an army of 30,000. Once the other forces gathered here, they would launch an attack, and that would be the time when they would be completely wiped out.
While he was still somewhat lucid, Tegorli decisively ordered all his men to withdraw and return to Bagong. Although he was unwilling, there was nothing he could do.
When Wei Jin learned that Tie Guoli had evacuated, he did not pursue him, knowing that Tie Guoli was critically ill and would not live more than two days.
The last fire destroyed all their supplies. These people should have evacuated long ago. I don't know why they stayed in the ruins for two more days.
It will take at least ten more days for these people to evacuate from here and return to the Kingdom of Bagong.
During these ten days, they lacked water and food, and the hot weather and harsh environment, coupled with the possibility of being attacked by the soldiers of the Southern Dian Kingdom, meant that the vast majority of these people would not be able to leave the Southern Dian Kingdom.
It seems these people are on their own now. There's no need for me to waste my energy on them. Wei Jin plans to clean up the salt mine after they leave.
A few days later, Wei Jin's five groups of men completed their missions, the situation in the Southern Dian Kingdom stabilized, and all the salt mines that had been seized by other countries were recovered.
Next, in accordance with the agreement signed between the two countries, Wei Jin took over the largest salt mine resources in the Southern Dian Kingdom and organized his soldiers to mine the salt.
Wei Jin's 30,000 troops were stationed in several important locations in the Southern Dian Kingdom, completely thwarting the ambitions of neighboring small countries to invade the Southern Dian Kingdom.
That day, Wei Jin found Wang Bingling, brought him before several veterans, and began to speak:
"Ten years ago, the Kingdom of Bagong frequently raided the southwestern border of the Great Northern Dynasty. The Fourth Prince led his army to quell the rebellion. During that war, the Fourth Prince's son, General Li Ru, disappeared and his whereabouts remain unknown to this day."
General Li Guang and Minister Shaoqing led an army of 20,000 to the southwestern frontier. In addition to helping the imperial army stabilize the situation in the Southern Dian Kingdom and help reclaim the salt mines, they also wanted to take this opportunity to find the whereabouts of General Li Ru.
These veterans had accompanied the army on its expedition and knew about General Li Ru's disappearance. They were brought here to help search for him.
General Wang led these veterans to the military camp outside Lishui City to see General Li and ask for his help in finding General Li Ru.
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