Chapter 334 - The Start of a War (2/2)

“It seems you’re not that stupid after all,” Shao Feng snorted flintily, then twisted his head aside and shouted at his comrade-in-arms, “Jiang Xi! Waste no more time and get this over with!”

“Can you not see that’s exactly what I’m doing?!” bawled Jiang Xi.

On the other side, Shan Congwen had a sense of foreboding at the sight of Yuwen Tong suicidally charging at the Wan Kingdom’s army. It was only when he noticed the increasing distance between Yuwen Tong’s army and the Luohai Kingdom’s army commanded by Dong Gao that he came to realize that Dong Gao was trapped, that they had fallen victim to the enemy’s ruse!

Shan Congwen clenched his teeth. “Despicable!”

“Your Highness, Yuwen Tong’s men outnumber us. What should we do?” a general beside him asked anxiously.

“What else do you think we should do?! Fleeing like cowards?! Advance, all of you! The war is not lost yet!” railed Shan Congwen.

“Yes, Marshal!”

…

On the gate tower.

Ling Zhang was watching the vast sheets of dust and the sea of troops in the distance, his twenty-four bodyguards standing beside him. They could faintly hear the beat of war drums and the battle cries, and could feel the slight quaking of the ground, but what with the long distance, they were unable to see how things were going on the battlefield.

He had promised Yuwen Tong that he would stay in the city waiting for him to come back, but he was unable to get anything done when staying in the infirmary, so eventually his father, rather resigned, had chucked him off and had him come to this gate tower.

Looking in the direction of the distant battleground, Ling Zhang clenched his fists, staring unblinkingly. Although he couldn’t tell which one of those countless figures was Yuwen Tong, he still didn’t want to blink his eyes for fear of missing anything.

After Yuwen Tong specially sent him into the city on that pretext, he had had w.a.n.g Dashan and the others keep watch on the other sides during the past few days. So far there hadn’t been any particular news from the encampment, and the day before Yuwen Tong had acted normally when he was in the city, so Ling Zhang couldn’t fathom out why Yuwen Tong had had him leave the encampment. Right now, apart from the situation on the battlefield, this matter also concerned him.

…

On the battleground.

The Wan Kingdom’s army, under attack from Yuwen Tong’s troops, suffered heavy casualties, losing ground steadily. Shan Congwen’s eyes were red with resentment, but there was nothing he could do.

“Your Highness, we’ve landed in Shao Feng’s trap. This is Yuwen Tong’s pre-planned subterfuge. As things stand, we won’t be able to last long. Are those killers Dong Gao planted in Yuwen Tong’s army still an option for us? If they manage to kill Yuwen Tong, maybe we could still save the day!” said the general who was by Shan Congwen’s side protecting him.

Gazing at Yuwen Tong’s figure in the distance, Shan Congwen responded through gritted teeth, “Dong Gao was the one who made those arrangements. He couldn’t have planted those killers in Yuwen Tong’s army without Shao Feng’s a.s.sistance. Given that Shao Feng double-crossed us, those killers probably have already been disposed of!”

“No matter what, we have to give it a try. Maybe General Dong did it without Shao Feng’s knowledge! We still have a chance!” maintained the general.

“But Dong Gao has been surrounded. How the h.e.l.l are we supposed to make contact with him?!” raged Shan Congwen.

“Let’s shoot a signal flare and pray Dong Gao will see it!” suggested the general.

Shan Congwen gave it some thought and agreed, “Do it!”

Before long, a signal flare went off from the army of the Wan Kingdom, which rose into the sky and exploded into a cloud of blue smoke.

In the distance, Dong Gao who was trapped saw the flare and knew Shan Congwen was trying to send him a message. From the color of the smoke, he could faintly guess what Shan Congwen meant. However…

“What is Shan Congwen thinking? Does he not know that we’ve all been tricked by Shao Feng? He still thinks Shao Feng has really planted some killers in there for us?!”

Dong Gao was beside himself with rage, but considering the current circ.u.mstances, if he couldn’t figure something out to make a difference, not only Shan Congwen but also he and his whole army would meet their ends in this place. As a result, Dong Gao summoned a general of his and commanded him to take a small detachment of crack soldiers, figure out a way to approach Yuwen Tong and kill him.

“I’ll create an opportunity for you to make a breakthrough. Do whatever you can to kill Yuwen Tong!” bellowed Dong Gao.

At the cost of a large number of his men’s lives, Dong Gao managed to breach the encirclement of Jiang Xi’s troops and help a small group of crack soldiers, who had secretly changed out of their uniform, break through.

Although Jiang Xi promptly restored the encirclement, those who had made a breakthrough were pretty good at kung fu, and common soldiers couldn’t stop them. With their lightness skills, they zigzagged their way through the crowds.

“Archers! If any of them emerges from the crowd, shoot him!” commanded Jiang Xi.

The archers focused their attention on the targets in sight. At first they did shoot several of them to death, but the rest of the targets had wormed their way into the sea of troops. They were not wearing their original uniform, which made it very difficult to identify them. In addition, after infiltrating into the army of the Great Yue, they didn’t kill anybody and were just sneaking around. If the archers tried to shoot the targets, a lot of their comrade-in-arms would be killed by friendly fire.

Jiang Xi clenched his teeth in fury, fished out a signal flare and shot it into the sky.

This was a code they’d agreed on some time ago. Distantly, Yuwen Tong saw it, came to know what was happening and instructed an officer beside him, “Form up. Everybody stay alert.”

“Yes, Marshal!”

Since he had taken precautions already, there was no way he would fall for the enemies’ underhand methods. Shan Congwen and Dong Gao must die today, along with each and every single one of their troops! He had to wipe them out in one fell swoop, so that the Wan Kingdom and the Luohai Kingdom wouldn’t dare invade again.

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