More and more people from Dragon Horn Commandery appeared on this long street. They held all kinds of objects in their hands, and the fear and nervousness in their eyes gradually sank down, replaced by an incomparable determination.
All of the commoners shared the same thought at this very moment.
Even if they all died here, they could not let that young Lord Warden Commander die here!
If one life was not enough to exchange for his, then they would use hundreds of lives to do it!
The two daoists exchanged a glance but said nothing.
These commoners, even if they filled this entire street, would be of no use. In front of daoist sage like them, they were nothing more than ants and would not affect them in the slightest.
Naturally, they also could not stop them.
From afar came the sound of horse hooves.
A burly man with a full beard rode his horse to the front of the street. Without the slightest hesitation, he dismounted in one fluid motion. Then he charged into the street and roared, “If you want to kill Lord Warden Commander, kill me, Zhao Ge first!”
After this man arrived, several more riders came as well. They also dismounted. The leader, a woman with an heroic bearing, stepped onto the street and said in a deep voice, “Protect the Lord Warden Commander!”
The martial artists immediately drew their blades and swords and stood in front of Chen Chao. These martial artists, whose cultivation was not high, stared at the two daoists in the distance with no fear in their eyes, only the purest killing intent!
Seeing these clearly trained martial artists appear, the scholar from before also regained his spirit. He shouted at the top of his lungs, “Those who carry firewood for the masses should not be allowed to freeze to death in the snowstorm!”
“Fellow townsfolk, protect the Lord Warden Commander!”
“Yes! Lord Warden Commander has done so much for us, we must do something for him too!”
“Damn it, even if Your Father's entire family die today, Lord Warden Commander cannot die!”
“Those damn foreign bastards actually want to kill Lord Warden Commander, I wish I could smash their heads open!”
“Your Excellency, don’t worry! With us here, no one can hurt Your Excellency!”
“Fuck their mothers, let’s fight it out with them! They want to kill Lord Warden Commander because they don’t want us to live well!”
“Yes! If they won’t let us live well, then none of us will live!”
Even the most honest people have moments of anger, and even the most timid people have moments of courage. These commoners lived at the very bottom of this world. In the eyes of those high and mighty cultivators, their opinions, their demands, and their emotions were never worth the slightest consideration, because they were weak enough to be erased without effort.
But even the weakest people would not spend their entire lives being trampled on. They, too, had things they would protect.
Over the past ten years, even over the past two hundred years of the Great Liang Dynasty, the common people had truly felt what had been done for them. They knew that over those two centuries, life had been getting better day by day, that being able to eat their fill was thanks to the efforts of successive emperors of Great Liang.
There was once a rather interesting story recorded in the annals about Emperor Taizong of Great Liang. It said that one day, while inspecting the affairs of the people, he met a farmer’s daughter in the fields. After learning his identity, the little girl asked Emperor Taizong a question.
“What is an emperor?”
This question was very simple and very innocent, without any other meaning. But the officials who had been accompanying Emperor Taizong at the time all stopped, unsure how to answer it.
As for Emperor Taizong himself, after only a brief moment of thought, he smiled and gave the little girl his answer.
“Other dynasties’ emperors, We do not know what they do. But in the Great Liang Dynasty, the emperor is someone who works to make life better for all of you common people.”
Emperor Taizong was naturally a wise ruler. During the years of his reign, he always upheld what he had said, striving to make the people of Great Liang live better lives.
After Emperor Taizong passed away, Emperor Lingzong succeeded the throne and continued to do the same.
But simply being able to eat one’s fill was not enough.
So the Great Liang Emperor and Chen Chao appeared.
In the first ten-plus years, the Great Liang Emperor told the foreign cultivators that they could no longer casually bully the common people of Great Liang as before. And in the past few years, it was Chen Chao who told the foreign cultivators: if you still dare to bully the people of Great Liang, then you will all die.
Because of Chen Chao, the long-suppressed resentment in the hearts of the common people could finally be released. Especially after the common people had retreated, Chen Chao became the great tree standing behind them.
Perhaps this young Lord Warden Commander did not have a particularly good reputation in the foreign lands or even within the imperial court, but that was not what the common people cared about.
The common people only knew that this young Lord Warden Commander kept them in his heart. If they suffered injustice, once he knew about it, he would definitely seek justice for them!
A Lord Warden Commander like this absolutely must not die!
If he died, then in the future, when they suffered injustice again, would there still be someone like him to stand up and seek justice for them?
Would there?!
The common people were in a surge of righteous anger. At this moment, not to mention the two daoist sages here, even if the demon emperor once again descended into human territory, these commoners would not leave.
The burly, bearded man Zhao Ge had somehow squeezed to Chen Chao’s side. The middle-aged martial artist lowered his voice and said, “Lord Warden Commander, leave quickly!”
Chen Chao glanced at him but did not respond.
Zhao Ge anxiously said, “You cannot die here. You leave first. I will hold them off. I can at least buy you some time for survival!”
Chen Chao shook his head and asked, “Elder Brother, I shouldn’t die here. So should you all die here?”
Zhao Ge frowned. “Your life is worth more than all of ours. As long as you are alive, Great Liang will only get better. As for us... us... dying doesn’t matter...”
Looking at this man he had known for some time, Chen Chao shook his head and said calmly, “It does matter.”
“I am the Lord Warden Commander of the Great Liang Dynasty. The salary I receive each month from the imperial court comes from your taxes. In other words, the people support the officials, and the officials must do what they are supposed to do for the people.”
At this point, Chen Chao paused for a moment, then smiled and said,"There is no reason for the people to die while the officials cling to life."
Zhao Ge could not say anything.
At this moment, the two daoists were already preparing to move forward. Standing in front of them was a tall, sturdy man. He was the local butcher, Chen Chao's butcher knife from earlier was in fact his.
“This is merely a feud between us. If you dare to harm even a single hair on the common people today, as long as this official survives this day, this official will pursue you to the ends of the earth, through heaven and hell, and kill every single friend and relative connected to you, without exception!”
A voice rang out from within the crowd.
That voice was not very loud, but its tone was cold, carrying the most intense warning.
The two daoists stopped in their tracks and exchanged a glance. Neither of them doubted the truth of those words. In the foreign lands, Chen Chao was known as a great fiend. But for those familiar with him, and even for cultivators who were not close to him, they would immediately think of these few words:
Vengeful for the smallest grievance.
In all the years past, there had never been anyone who provoked this young Lord Warden Commander and was able to walk away unscathed.
So for Chen Chao’s warning, the two daoists both subconsciously fell silent for a moment.
“Daoist Brother, do not think too much. He will surely die today. Saying all this is merely to delay time. If he dies, everything returns to dust. Where is there any need to make this so complicated?”
The daoist in the green daoist robe spoke slowly, his voice carrying some disdain.
But the white-robed daoist shook his head and said, “That is incorrect. After he dies, there is still the Great Liang Dynasty. Given his relationship with that crown prince, the Great Liang Dynasty will seek revenge for him afterward.”
Coming to kill Chen Chao, the two of them could die, but they should not further implicate others because of this.
“Lord Warden Commander, we do not wish to slaughter the innocent indiscriminately either. Every debt has its debtor. As long as you do not hide behind them, we do not need to kill anyone else.”
After some thought, the white-robed daoist spoke slowly, considering this a choice they were giving.
This also indirectly confirmed their fear of Chen Chao. Otherwise, they would not have changed their stance because of a single sentence.
Chen Chao took a deep breath, pushed away Zhao Ge beside him, and walked forward.
When Chen Chao passed by her side, Lu Qingling suddenly grabbed the sleeve of his robe and frowned. “Lord Warden Commander!”
Chen Chao turned to look at the woman and smiled slightly. “Can you stop them? Since you can't, why waste lives for nothing.”
As he spoke, he broke free from Lu Qingling’s grip, but very quickly a figure appeared in front of him, blocking his path.
The surrounding commoners also quickly gathered, surrounding him and blocking him.
Chen Chao furrowed his brows.
“Lord Warden Commander, we may not have much ability, but today, before all of us are dead, you cannot die!”
A man clenched the woodcutter’s blade in his hand and said hoarsely, “Lord Warden Commander, you have protected us many times. Let us protect you once!”
“Yes, protect the Lord Warden Commander!”
A group of commoners, men and women, young and old, all raised the things in their hands.
Chen Chao’s eyes grew moist, and he could not speak for a moment, only feeling warmth in his heart.
The things he had to do were like walking through a storm on a muddy road. But with what these commoners did today, it was as if someone had handed him a lantern. Even if it could not change anything, it allowed him to see the road ahead in the darkness.
From afar came the sound of chaotic footsteps. A squad of soldiers arrived at this place.
At the same time, there also arrived the constables from the prefectural office and the officials from the warden’s office.
The local warden was a man in his thirties. He immediately shouted loudly, “Villains, do not think of harming the Lord Warden Commander, this official Song Qing is here!”
“Dragon Horn Camp, obey this general’s command - protect the Lord Warden Commander! Kill!”
The prefectural army’s deputy general responsible for garrisoning this place was a burly man. At this moment, he had only thrown on a simple suit of iron armor. Holding an iron spear in his hand, he immediately spurred his horse and charged toward the two daoists!
The two daoists looked at this scene and both felt it was absurd to the extreme. All the people here combined could not withstand even a single instant in their hands. They themselves seemed to know this, yet even so, were they still coming forward to die without regard for anything?
What exactly was it for?!
The two daoist sage who had cultivated for decades could not understand. Since they could not understand, there was no need to think further. After exchanging another glance, they no longer hesitated and were about to strike. Killing these commoners would simply be killing them; in any case, they absolutely had to kill Chen Chao today.
“Get the hell away!”
Another furious roar rang out.
A terrifying sound wave instantly sent the armored deputy general flying, and at the same time forced the charging Dragon Horn Commandery local warden to stagger back several steps.
As for the soldiers, they all collapsed one after another.
Yet the one who did all this was not Chen Chao, who was clearly at the end of his strength, but Huang Kong, who had previously been injured by Chen Chao. This thin young martial artist had arrived at the very front of the commoners at some point in time.
He raised his own horizontal blade.
The two daoists exchanged a glance and said in confusion, “Huang Kong, what is this supposed to mean?!”
Huang Kong could not be bothered to explain. He only said fiercely, “Right now, Your Father is also a Great Liang citizen!”
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