Chapter 318: The Dust Settles (1)
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Noon.
A group of more than ten people flew across mountains and headed into the depths of the mountains. Ye Jingtang had been here yesterday, so he was leading the way as a guide.
The fifty kilometers of mountain paths was not far for people with strong martial arts skills, but crossing mountains and ridges along the way was ultimately still tiring. In a situation where people were unfamiliar with the path conditions, it was normal for them to miss their footing and slip.
Ye Jingtang saw that it was a little strenuous for Dongfang Liren to follow him. He wanted to do his duty as a personal guard and carry Dumdum on his back.
But Dongfang Liren didn’t have the nerve to lie on the man’s back in front of her subordinates. She only quietly held Daoist Xuanji’s wrist and asked her master to help take care of her so that she wouldn’t accidentally fall in public and embarrass herself.
Not long after speeding through the mountains, the group arrived near the Hidden Dragon Cave. The large medicinal furnace was still alone in the forest. As for Guan Yujia’s corpse, because he was a famous person in Wu Province’s Jianghu, the soldiers had already carried it away.
After walking another few kilometers into the mountains, they could see many arrows and discarded armor and weapons in the wilderness. The temporary camp of the 2,000 soldiers was nearby. There were more than 100 injured people inside. The Prince of Wu’s personal guards who had surrendered and the captured followers were temporarily detained here.
Ye Jingtang arrived at the camp and made inquiries. He found out that when the Prince of Wu fled with his guards, he had been injured by a stray arrow and fled to Yellow Stone Ridge.
More than 1,000 soldiers were surrounding Yellow Stone Ridge. But because Yellow Stone Ridge was another hiding place prepared by the Prince of Wu, defensive facilities had been built in advance. One man could hold off ten thousand men. Currently, the general leading the team was still trying to persuade them to surrender.
As for the hundreds of test subjects that the Prince of Wu had captured, the Prince of Wu didn’t have the time to care about them after the siege yesterday. Most of them had taken advantage of the chaos to escape into the forest. The soldiers hadn’t had the time to search for them.
After Ye Jingtang found out about this, he could only focus on the Prince of Wu for the time being. He went to Yellow Stone Ridge with Dongfang Liren.
Under the scorching sun, nearly a thousand soldiers holding powerful bows and crossbows were scattered in the mountains and wilderness around Yellow Stone Ridge.
Yellow Stone Ridge’s geographical environment was very special. It was surrounded by steep mountains on all sides. The only path leading to the top of the mountain ridge was a narrow path that the Prince of Wu had sent people to dig. Along the way, there were twists and turns and doomays dug out. Arrows couldn’t be shot from below. As long as one person and one spear guarded a corner, even if there were thousands of soldiers, they wouldn’t be able to break through to the mountain ridge.
There was no lack of experts in the Ze Province army who knew lightness skills, but there was still Bai Siming on the mountain ridge. Just three to five experts rushing up would be sending themselves to their death in vain. The thousand-odd soldiers who came to capture the Prince of Wu were helpless. They could only surround Yellow Stone Ridge to prevent him from breaking out. A military official stood at the foot of the mountain and shouted at the top of his voice, “As a dignified prince of the blood of Great Wei and a legitimate son of the Great Ancestor, if you want to die, the Imperial Court will give you a white ribbon to hang yourself and leave your corpse intact…
“The weather is so hot in June. If you die on the mountain, we can only cut off your head, cover it with lime, and bring it back to Yun’an. When the court officials see it, your head will probably be infested with maggots and smell terrible…”
This persuasion was very ridiculous, but the effect was indeed not bad.
In the depths of a natural cave on Yellow Stone Ridge, two torches were lit.
Four injured guards were leaning against the wall and looking at the weapons in their hands with lifeless eyes.
The Prince of Wu, Dongfang Heng, had aged more than ten years in just a few days. His hair was white, and he held a sword embedded with pearls and jade in his hand. He raised it to his neck several times, but when he heard the shout from the bottom of the mountain, he stopped.
The Prince of Wu felt that he should be a hero. In order to prevent the Dongfang clan’s imperial lineage from falling into the hands of an outsider, he had rebelled. Since he was unlucky and failed, he should commit suicide quickly and not lower his head to the empress. This way, he would probably be left with the reputation of being ‘unyielding’ in the history books of later generations.
But what the military official outside said made sense. He was the son of the founding emperor and the current empress’s uncle. Even if he had committed the crime of rebellion, he should be buried with a full corpse. Now, his death was certain, but if he died here, the soldiers would cut off his head and dismember his body. His head would stink when brought to the court officials for examination. His death would be too unseemly…
Beside the Prince of Wu, Bai Siming, dressed in a blood-stained robe, was sitting cross-legged on the ground. His expression was relatively calm. Seeing that the Prince of Wu didn’t dare to commit suicide, he said, “As long as there’s life, there’s hope. The soldiers won’t be able to attack in a short period of time. When it’s dark, I will bring Your Highness to break out of the siege and escape to Northern Liang. With Your Highness’s status, the Northern Liang Imperial Court will definitely protect you…”
Sitting at the side, Zhang Jinglin shook his head. “The two dynasties have just established trade relations, and Your Highness is not of much use to Northern Liang. If Your Highness escapes to Northern Liang, it’s very likely that Northern Liang will send you back as a favor. If you can cross the two countries and escape to the northwest of Heavenly Carnelian Lake, there’s still a chance of making a comeback.”
Dongfang Heng’s gaze moved. Driven by his desire to live, he said, “If it were decades ago, when the Heavenly Carnelian Cavalry was still around, I might have been able to make a comeback. Now, the tribes of the Western Sea are just a pile of loose sand. We’ll only be struggling at death’s door if we go over. We might as well join the Pacifying Heaven Cult.”
Zhang Jinglin shook his head. “The Pacifying Heaven Cult is located on the southern border of Great Wei. They don’t produce warhorses there, so no matter how many soldiers there are, they’re just infantry. They’re more than enough to defend a city, but if you want to conquer the world from the south to the north with them, no one has ever succeeded since ancient times.
“But this isn’t the case for the tribes of the Western Sea. The characters of the people there are wild, and their martial arts culture is prosperous. Women, children, old, and young can wear armor and draw bows, and they can fight well.. As long as someone can twist all the tribes into a rope and gather thirty thousand Heavenly Carnelian Cavalry, it’s enough to establish themselves between the two dynasties and stand on their own…”
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