Chapter 517 Chess Game (Part 1)
Seeing Huo Gannian walk into the hall, Yan Shijiu was neither surprised nor worried. Instead, he smiled happily, as excited as if he had won the jackpot:
"You're not dead after all! Hahahaha—I've been waiting for you for a long time!"
Huo Gannian raised his hand slightly, indicating that Duan Jie and others did not need to enter the hall, but just wait at the door.
He walked towards Yan Shijiu alone and stood in the hall with his hands behind his back.
His aura was as cold as an iceberg, and he exuded the calmness of having everything under control.
In comparison, Yan Shijiu looked much more embarrassed.
He was nailed to the back of the dragon throne by an arrow shot by Huo Gannian, and he tried several times to pull out the arrow.
Unfortunately, the arrow had a barb and it was stuck firmly on the back of the chair, making him unable to move at all.
He had no choice but to give up, sighed deeply, wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and continued in a cynical tone:
"You disguised yourself as the Dongyan army. You had to be provided with Dongyan uniforms. You also had to rely on your looks to enter the Nan Kingdom without being discovered until you fought Jiao Zuotai. That means Yan Lang must have betrayed me. The Dongyan army is at the border to prevent me from mobilizing the Western Yan troops.
He's not coming now because he's too embarrassed to see me, haha. If he can betray, it means you've wiped out Guangyu Lanzhou! All the intelligence I've received about Yanlang and the Northern Territory during this period is false. Zhuang Fengtian is also your man.
Huo Gannian raised his eyebrows coldly but said nothing, like a stern teacher who was not satisfied with the answer given by his student.
Yan Shijiu covered his increasingly painful chest, blood continuously flowing out of the wound. He was in so much pain that it was difficult for him to breathe, but he still spat out the blood foam in his mouth and laughed, "Hehe":
"Actually, when I got the news just now, I wasn't surprised. My intuition has always told me that you're not dead, even if Yun Chen personally identified your body... I spread the word to the world, seeing who would be willing to save Nan Lijun at the last moment, just to test whether you would come out. I just stood there and thought for a long time, reversing every detail, and finally understood your plan."
Yan Shijiu paused and raised his voice, as if speaking to Huo Gannian, but more to remind Yun Chen in the lattice fan behind the dragon throne:
"Huo Gannian, I'm going to dismantle your scheme and uncover the truth. Listen carefully—"
Huo Gannian nodded and raised his hand to make a "please" gesture, as if he was very interested in listening and wanted to see how much Yan Shijiu could say.
Yan Shijiu slightly curled his lips, a strange smile flashed across the corner of his mouth, and he spoke slowly, word by word, fearing that he was not speaking carefully enough:
"You probably started planning all this after the Lishan Road debate between loyalty and treachery that year. I fooled Nanlijun. She refused to listen to you in matters of state, military affairs, and the battle situation... You realized that the emperor was truly disobedient, so you wanted to kick her out and began to think about becoming emperor yourself.
Since then, the first battle you quietly orchestrated and won was the seemingly tragic, yet in reality, preemptive, siege of Guying City. Fu Lin is your man, and Night Wings is not something civilian militia can create in a couple of days. You had Fu Lin quietly on standby, predicting my siege of Guying City, yet you willingly walked into my trap and were trapped—
We were trapped until Nanlijun and I were defeated in the Northern Expedition in Luojiang. Except for Duan Jie's men who surrendered and were captured, all the former Tianlang Army soldiers left by the late Queen, whom Nanlijun relied on the most and who supported her the most, were killed in the battle!
It may seem like your Lion Might Army is trapped in Guying City by our Black Scale Cavalry! In reality, you're wasting resources on the northern frontier! You're using Luo Jiang to annihilate the former members of the Heavenly Wolf Army! Eliminate the forces directly under Nanli Jun's command! Clear the biggest armed obstacle standing in your way of the throne!
Once this obstacle is removed, that fool Nan Lijun will lose his most solid support. Your grand prayer to heaven, the storm rescue, is simply a cover-up for your collusion with Fu Lin, and a way to win the hearts of the people of Southeast. As you planned, Fu Lin succeeded, and you escaped from Guying City.
"Well, that's fair enough."
After Yan Shijiu said a lot, Huo Gannian made a brief comment with five words.
Yan Shijiu grinned, as if encouraged, and continued, enduring the blood flowing from his chest:
"Next, you headed north. You knew the court would send you north to rescue the king, and you couldn't ask for more. Because you heard I was missing, you guessed I was going to seize power in the Luojiang court. You urgently needed to contact Luojiang King Xiong Dun and form an alliance to deal with me. To this end, you even had Duan Jie lead his men to set fire to the grasslands, just to burn down the tribe and attract the royal court to deal with the aftermath.
Unfortunately, that fool, Little Yunyun, put out the fire with an avalanche, nearly costing her life and delaying your plan. However, you eventually discovered the location of the Royal Court. While you were engaged in a war with Luo Jiang, letting Yunchen come and go to toy with him, you were actually creating opportunities for your people to infiltrate the Royal Court and persuade Xiong Dun.
The rest was easy. Touman and I had been planning to kill Xiong Dun, but we didn't know that, thanks to you, Xiong Dun had already seen through our plot and faked his own death at the wedding. I was so careless! I shouldn't have just performed an autopsy; I should have dismembered the body, which would have been the safest option. Sigh!
I'm guessing that the new king of Luojiang, the Iron-Headed King, who wears a mask every day and never reveals his true face, is Xiong Dun, right? This would explain why Luojiang's border invasion was all a show. You and Zhuang Fengtian were nominally on a Northern Expedition, but in reality, you were meeting friendly forces, drinking and eating meat. Pretty happy, right? Hahaha!"
Huo Gannian paced leisurely in the hall with his hands behind his back:
"Well said, keep going."
Yan Shijiu leaned back on the dragon throne, looking at the magnificent Nine Dragons caisson ceiling above his head, and sighed softly:
"Next, both your and Yun Chen's fathers died in battle. Although A'tai had to act ruthless to secure his position as General of the Black Scale Cavalry, skinning your father and making a scarecrow out of him, he never specifically killed your father. They died on the battlefield, where swords and spears were merciless. So, it wasn't me who killed your father—it was you who pushed for this war.
Just like the decisive battle in Youzhou later, your personal guard Ye Yan's family was also killed during that time. Yun Chen's best brother, Buyan, also resigned at that time. Did Buyan resign because he saw something wrong with you, perhaps discovering that you and the rebel leader, Fu Lin, were already acquainted?
He deduced all the calculations I mentioned earlier and immediately understood that since the siege of Guying City, all the soldiers and civilians who died in this world! It is no longer just the work of me, the big villain Yan Shijiu, but you and I each account for half! You, Huo Gannian, also have blood on your hands! The calculated war situation has implicated countless innocent lives! Including you and Yun Chen's father! Ye Yan's family! Hahahahahaha——"
Before Yan Shijiu could finish laughing, he was hit in the chest by another arrow. The pain made him stop laughing and start coughing.
"Ahem... Huo Gannian... Look at your ugly face, ahem... I was right! I touched upon the secret you least wanted to reveal! Hahahaha... ahem..."
Huo Gannian's face darkened as he raised his bow and arrow again, saying unhappily:
"If you keep talking nonsense, I'll aim my arrow at your throat."
"Alright, alright, I'll stop talking. I won't go off topic..." Yan Shijiu spread his hands in a gesture of surrender. Blood was pouring out of his body, but his expression was extremely happy.
"Next up is the triumphant return of the mighty Lion and Tiger Army. This is also your most ruthless plot—
You've always predicted that I would kill the King of Xiyan and Han Biao. You also knew of my plans to unify the Three Kingdoms, and guessed that I would send the Black Scale Cavalry directly into Kyoto, and then dispatch the Eastern Yan army to rescue. Before embarking on this plan, the most crucial step is to bring about the downfall of Huo Yun, dispersing the Lion and Tiger Armies to eliminate any obstacles hindering the Black Scale Cavalry's advance into Kyoto.
To facilitate my plan, you feigned arrogance and grandeur, becoming lawless and even helping me kill King Xiyan. This gave us a clear reason to throw you in prison and take everything away. Who could resist taking this juicy bait?
Nan Lijun and I successfully eradicated Huo Yun's power, unaware that all this was done to pave the way for you. You, through Nan Lijun, confiscated the entire Huo Gang. While this was purported confiscation, you actually ordered Zhuang Fengtian's sister, Zhuang Ji, to completely eliminate the Huo clan members who had taken advantage of your preoccupation with the war to cause rebellion.
You were thrown into the Heavenly Prison along with Duan Jie, Rong Yi, and the others. But you calculated that Nan Lijun and I would seize military power from Yun Chen. Therefore, this power must be handed over, and only Yun Chen would willingly hand it over. You exploited Yun Chen's loyalty and sincerity, and successfully returned the military power. The Lion and Tiger Army was reorganized into the Heavenly Power Army, dispersed along the southeastern border and into the northern border... I'll have to explain this in detail, because it's so beautiful..."
Yan Shijiu started coughing again as he spoke. Two arrows were stuck in his chest, causing him to bleed profusely and in extreme pain.
His face grew paler and paler, only his eyes still shone with a strange excitement.
Even though his body would not allow it, he still couldn't bear to give up. Even though he had already failed, he really wanted to review this shocking chess game with Huo Gannian.
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