693 Dispute (1/2)
Everytime an officer came back, Tuershan's face would darken a shade deeper.
There was very little good news. Most officers were ignorant of what was going on in the camp, and they were more alarmed than the soldiers that their own orders were being ignored.
This shouldn't have happened and couldn't have happened. In the Norland, military orders were imperative and could not be disobeyed, and the Court Attendants Army was always highly disciplined in following orders. In the face of such open insubordination, the officers were at their wits' end, unable to recall any past experiences they could draw on.
Looking at the noble officers swarming back, Tuershan suddenly felt a surge of disgust in his heart, but he still had to listen to their reports.
”The soldiers went mad and are refusing to carry out any of our orders.”
”No one knows why they are running around.”
”King Riyao's soldiers are nearly finished.”
”I saw a centurion being killed with my own eyes. He clashed with the soldiers…”
”The tenth corps… I don't know where it went.”
Very few officers were flexible enough to adapt to the situation. As soon as they discovered that most of the soldiers weren't obeying the order of 'stay where you are,' they summoned and gathered the soldiers who were still obedient at the main tent.
Tuershan realized that he had made a mistake. If he had initially ordered the soldiers to assemble, more might have come. But now only several thousand people had answered the summons, among whom there were still soldiers that changed their minds and were turning around to join the crowd that was out of control.
He felt a bit of fear. The officers who had gathered around him were almost all aristocrats. The officers who had been drafted from the ordinary soldiers had never been many, but now they were even rarer. Most of them had joined the ordinary soldiers.
Why hadn't there been any warning of such a divisive split? Why was there no one sending him news secretly in advance? Wasn't he the most popular and respected general among the ranks of the ordinary soldiers?
In the face of fear, Tuershan's instinctive reaction was to challenge it. So he laughed several times before turning to face the kings. ”It looks like someone doesn't want me to be the Commandant. Honestly, I don't care. At worst, I will just go home and watch the sheep graze. However, I'm a stubborn man and despise people who stab me in the back. I have to find out who he is.”
The kings all had their own concerns and hadn't felt the danger yet. Like King Riying, all they saw was a good opportunity.
At this point, it was no longer necessary to cover up the relationship between them. King Shengri stood beside Tuershan and said to the kings, ”Do not think that you can turn the table though just a little mutiny. Tuershan has met the expectations of the masses and he was jointly chosen by all the officers.”
Then King Shengri turned to the group of officers, ”This is your new Commandant. Does anyone have a problem with it?”
A cold voice came out from the crowd. ”I heard there was an extra bloody sheepskin. Is it true?”
”Lies!” King Shengri's answer was clear and resolute.
”But it's true,” said a young king inappropriately. ”We counted the bloody sheepskins together.”
The influence of King Riyao's charge hadn't disappeared because of his assassination but had increased instead.
King Shengri felt like his victory was slipping through his fingers like sand, and that he had to do something to stop it. Without answering the crowd, he suddenly cried out, ”Dragon King, it was the Dragon King who hatched a plot in the camp. He ran away with King Riying as soon as the mutiny started. King Riying is obviously the mastermind. Everyone saw it.”
The panic grew. Any charges, if not refuted by the parties involved right away, would almost be accepted universally. King Shengri's strategy of transferring the contradiction was almost successful until it was stopped dead in its tracks.
”Who said we ran away?” King Riying pushed his way out of the crowd, who was sweating profusely yet appeared quite calm. ”King Shengri, you are an elder. There are not many kings of the older generation left. You have to be responsible for what you say.”
King Shengri blushed but didn't confess to anything. ”Where's the Dragon King? Where is he hiding and what is he plotting again?”
”I'm here,” Gu Shenwei said from the crowd, ”And I'm 'plotting against someone.'”
Some people laughed. King Shengri's accusation was loose in the first place, and now no one believed him. Azheba then said what was on most people's mind, ”The Dragon King is a foreigner. How could he possibly incite the soldiers into disobeying orders?”
King Shengri still wanted to say something but was stopped by Tuershan. He was the Commandant of the Court Attendants Army after all, and no matter what happened on his first day in office, he had to turn the tide by himself. ”No matter who's behind this, I'm sure that I can find out later. The most important thing is to stabilize the military spirit. Who can tell me what the hell is going on? What do the soldiers want? Who are they trying to kill?”
The officers could not answer this question, and the few soldiers who had followed the order to come here looked so frightened that they could not speak at all.
King Riying coughed and stood before King Shengri but faced towards the crowd instead of Tuershan. ”I have looked into it and concluded that this isn't a common mutiny. There's no need to bother looking for the mastermind because the mastermind does not exist. If there's indeed someone behind the scenes, it would be the old Khan and the former Commandant.”