Chapter 1100: Massacre, whos this old man afraid of? (2/2)
Gu Qishao narrowly avoided replying, “Unfortunately, you can’t kill me.”
But Long Feiye pulled Han Yunxi over and said, “Have him go for the slaughter! Kill Mu Yuanbo and hang his neck over the city gates!”
“Right! If he’s not killed, how can we placate the hearts of the Tianan people?” Gu Beiyue was quite excited.
They must have been addled by Mu Yanbo’s threats, or else they wouldn’t have lost their cool. They should have thought of this plan ages ago! Their original plan was to come here in secret for a surprise attack! Thank goodness Gu Qishao’s words had reminded Long Feiye and Gu Beiyue.
As an undying man, Gu Qishao was just as frightening as Bai Yanqing. If he gave it his all, it would be simple enough to massacre all the inhabitants of a captured city, to say nothing of Mu Yuanbo. Once Mu Yuanbo was dead, the Li Clan would lose their head and fall into disorder.
And if they happened to run into Bai Yanqing along the way, so much the better.
Long Feiye summoned a shadow guard and ordered, “Have the Tianning army reply Mu Yuanbo’s letter under this crown prince’s name. Just say that this crown prince will personally come forward with Han Yunxi! He should prepare himself to greet us at the gates!”
Hearing this, Han Yunxi recovered her wits as well. She knew what Long Feiye was planning!
Gu Qishao couldn’t care less about their plans. The Moye sword spirit gleamed with cold light in his hands. His temper wouldn’t be quelled until he slaughtered Mu Yuanbo himself.
It took half a month for Tianning’s troops to reach Tianan’s imperial city, but their group was only a day and a night away. Since Mu Yuanbo wanted to use the world’s people to push Han Yunxi off her altar, then they’d do the same and win people’s hearts again!
Just as the shadow guard planned to depart, Gu Beiyue called him over and muttered a few things by his ears. Whatever he said, the shadow guard made careful notes and repeated back to him before finally leaving some time later.
The momentary arguments hadn’t affected Long Feiye and Han Yunxi, but made them understand each other’s hearts even better. After discussing their counter plans, the group continued to advanced.
By nightime on the next day, they had already arrived in secret to the outskirts of Tianan’s imperial city. At the same time, Tianning’s military camp sent a letter to Mu Yuanbo while using Long Feiye’s name to issue an open letter to all people, civilians and soldiers alike. First, the proclamation described Long Feiye’s deep love for Han Yunxi and how he’d joined hands with the West Qin princess to create an era of peace under Great Qin to benefit Cloud Realm’s people; then it expounded on the threats that the Li Clan’s Mu family had raised against them, and how after much deliberation and discussion, they promised the people and soldiers in battle that to minimize the sacrifices, Han Yunxi was willing to personally travel to Tianan’s imperial city to exchange her life for the sake of Cloud Realm’s peace.
Gu Beiyue had told the shadow guard to write this letter. Although parts of it sounded sham and hypocritical for the sake of rousing emotions, it was true in a way. If Long Feiye and Han Yunxi weren’t concerned about the people’s hearts, why would they be threatened in the first place? When it came to repaying debts, Long Feiye was no slower than Gu Qishao with his wicked and merciless ways.
Once the letter became public, it spread across all corners of Cloud Realm Continent within a matter of days. Not only were the south central regions and Tianning affected, but even people in Northern Li, Western Zhou, and Tianan cheered Long Feiye and Han Yunxi on. At the same time, they denounced the Li Clan’s Mu family. Many more civilians even signed up for people’s militias, clamoring to fight. In a matter of days, Cloud Realm Continent was broiling with the Li Clan’s Mu family as their primary target. Everywhere sent punitive forces against their soldiers. The people said, if Mu Yuanbo dared to hurt a single hair on Han Yunxi’s head, no one in the world would give his Mu Clan easy days!
Long Feiye’s group remained hidden around the perimeter of Tianan’s imperial capital, waiting for their chance to move. None of them expected these developments. They were only planning to fight fire with fire, but ended up casting public ire against the Mu Clan.
Reports from their scouts indicated that even civilians near Tianan’s imperial city had raised a cry to arms. The citizens of other regions were equally excitable and were rushing to the traitorous army camps on their own without bothering to form militias. What did it mean by “when the world is in chaos, the people follow?” Exactly this! Long Feiye’s group could now take their time to watch developments unfold instead of rushing to sneak attack.
Sadly, news to the Tianan imperial city civilians were blocked, or else they’d probably be starting an uprising too!
On this day, a great pieces of news came from Jiangnan. One of the rebel forces couldn’t stand the pressure and surrendered, even cursing out the Li Clan’s Mu family for being cruel and unjust. They didn’t deserve to lead an army! At this news, many other traitorous factions gave up and surrendered too. Now it was even less mandatory for Han Yunxi’s group to show their faces. They could win without a single struggle.
Faced with such pressure, Mu Yuanbo no longer dared to slaughter the citizens of Tianan’s imperial city. Instead, he passed multiple sleepless nights. He had resorted to locking himself up in the study while the Li Clan elders knocked on his doors and took turns coaxing or threatening him.
That’s right, Great General Mu’s actions in putting Long Tianmo under house arrest and threatening Han Yunxi with a city-wide massacre had earned extreme disapproval from the Li Clan’s Council of Elders. Now that the Li Clan had grown to be a target of public censure and enemy number one, they could no longer remain aloof and indifferent. Yes, the Li Clan was skilled in leading troops, but they were the last ones to want war, much less participate in one.
Only those who had truly experienced war, with its rivers of blood and ground littered with bodies, knew what battles really cost, knew how to hate and fear such fighting.
This was the true Li Clan!
The Li Clan’s art of war was not a talent inherited on birth, but trained through generations of Li Clan members who’d experienced it first hand. In the battlefields, they charged through enemy lines and shattered their positions, licking their knives and drinking blood, risking life and limb to accumulate experience. The Li Clan’s books on military tactics were both stratagems and a record of its blood history. It was pages upon pages of military pledges![1]
The Li Clan was weary of war, which was why they chose to be neutral parties! When the Great Qin Empire had dissolved into civil war and left the East and West Qin sides both wounded, the Li Clan and its 100,000 soldiers hadn’t favored either side, or betrayed them to be kings of their own, but chose to dissolve the army and retreat to live in seclusion. They thus vanished from history…
Why had Great General Mu chosen this course of action?
1. The military pledges referred to here are the same as the ones sworn by disciples of the Li Clan. In Chinese it reads as 军令状 junlingzhuang and has two meanings. 1) An agreement between an army officer and his superior that he will be severely punished if he cannot successfully carry out a special mission for which he has volunteered; 2) Promise to get a job done, and accept severe penalities if unsuccessful. Think of it as a blood pact of sorts, swore upon military exploits and honor.