Chapter 196 |
Yonghe Year Two.
Following the will of the people, the Emperor raised an army to conquer Nanning. After three months of preparation, Xu Tingfeng led the troops, with Xia Fuyang assisting in the battle.
Xu Jin and Xia Hong also strongly requested to go to war. The Emperor refused, and they asked again. The Emperor then allowed them to stay behind and take over logistics and military affairs, to jointly attack Nanning.
Zhennan Pass.
Xu Tingfeng rode in front, with Xia Fuyang by his side.
Behind them was the Great Zhou army. Xu Jin and Xia Hong, two old partners who had originally been stationed on the northern border for more than ten years, handled the logistics and military affairs with ease.
This was the battle with the most famous generals and the most thorough preparation in the history of the Great Zhou.
Xu Tingfeng: "I heard that His Majesty originally planned to lead the expedition himself."
Xia Fuyang smiled and said, "He said he wanted to come, but not to the front line, but to stay behind with my father and the Duke of Zhenguo. I don't think it matters. It's not like His Majesty hasn't been to the battlefield before. This time, it's just a walk. But those officials in the court... tsk, uncle, you know their virtues."
He looked towards Nanning.
"The Great Zhou's unification of the world depends on this battle!"
The capital.
Qu Dubian stood on the imperial city, looking south.
Behind him, Xi Zixing said, "Your Majesty, the Great Zhou will win."
Qu Dubian: "We will definitely win. I'm just thinking of someone."
Xi Zixing: "Lao Xia?"
Qu Dubian shook his head.
"It's Yu Ruo."
"The second prince of Nanning. Why is Your Majesty thinking of him? You two don't seem to have much interaction."
Indeed, during the five years Yu Ruo was in the Great Zhou, Qu Dubian sincerely felt that he was a masochist, a bit perverted, and hated his sneaky feeling of trying to uncover his disguise.
So he always avoided him.
It wasn't until the Xianghe disaster relief, when Yu Ruo rushed to Xianghe without hesitation and begged him for the people of Nanning, that he reduced some of his rejection and disgust towards this person.
Yes, he was hiding everywhere at that time, and he really hated Yu Ruo's cheap look of occasionally lifting his disguise and teasing him.
Later, on the day Yu Ruo returned to his country, they drank on the roof. Only Yu Ruo was drinking, and he was drunk.
They talked about everything, including the prosperous times of future generations. That was the first time he talked about future generations to people in this world. Yu Ruo said he didn't believe such an era existed in the world, but the yearning in his eyes was not fake.
Undeniably, Qu Dubian found a trace of resonance in Yu Ruo at that moment.
At least in that second, Yu Ruo understood his words, and they both yearned for the same place.
Qu Dubian: "If only he was born in the Great Zhou."
-
Late spring of Yonghe Year Two.
Xu Tingfeng led 30,000 troops and launched a surprise attack on the six cities of Youyun and the twelve cities of Jiangzhou, which Nanning had originally ceded to the Great Zhou and then taken back, winning a great victory.
Gunpowder and the divine arm crossbow showed their great power. The three-bow bed crossbow, as a powerful crossbow for attacking cities, was an invincible weapon in siege battles.
The army drove straight in and attacked the hinterland of Nanning.
The Nanning soldiers all gathered in the center of the hinterland. The second prince, Yu Ruo, desperately stopped the Great Zhou. The battle was deadlocked, and the two sides confronted each other for more than three months. In order to boost morale, the Crown Prince of Nanning led the expedition himself.
Winter of Yonghe Year Two.
Xia Fuyang challenged the enemy. The Crown Prince of Nanning rode out to fight and stop the enemy. He was captured, tied to the flagpole, and used to conquer the city. He was invincible and conquered Jin and Yuan states successively.
In the Nanning Imperial Palace.
Yu Ruo came back from outside, wearing armor stained with blood, with a cold face and steps like the wind.
He pushed away the guards who blocked the way and rushed all the way into the Nanning Emperor's bedroom. Duke Lu was crying here, "Please, Your Majesty, you must save His Royal Highness the Crown Prince!"
Duke Lu was the Crown Prince's uncle, the Empress's younger brother.
Yu Ruo suddenly came in, and the Nanning Emperor frowned: "Didn't I say that no one is allowed to enter unless it's an urgent military situation?"
"What I have brought is an urgent military situation."
The Nanning Emperor's heart skipped a beat: "Speak."
Yu Ruo knelt down and said in a deep voice: "Please give the order, Father, to shoot the Crown Prince!"
His father was bedridden, and the Great Zhou army was advancing smoothly. It was originally a good thing for the Crown Prince to lead the expedition on behalf of the Emperor to boost morale, but that fool shouldn't have put himself in danger and been captured alive by the general of the Great Zhou.
The Nanning soldiers didn't dare to shoot him because he was the Crown Prince. The Great Zhou had already conquered Jin and Yuan states in the hinterland. If they took Wu state again, the road behind would be smooth, and the Nanning imperial city would be in imminent danger!
If he were the Crown Prince, he would have killed himself on the spot the moment he was captured alive, and absolutely not let himself become a handle to threaten his country!
Duke Lu was furious: "How dare you say such rebellious words? Are you trying to take advantage of the Crown Prince's capture to kill him, so you have a chance to inherit the throne?!"
Yu Ruo said coldly: "Compared to the subjugation of Nanning, what's wrong with killing a Crown Prince? Is a Crown Prince's life worth more than the lives of millions of people, more than the destruction of Nanning?"
"When the black dragon battle flag of the Great Zhou is really planted on the wall of the Nanning imperial city, what is the point of talking about inheriting the throne?"
He looked at the Emperor on the dragon bed, "Please make a decision early, Father!"
Riots broke out all over Nanning, and the Great Zhou approached the imperial city. Yu Ruo was not good at martial arts, only at strategy, and was also forced to wear armor and go to the battlefield.
Before the Nanning Emperor could speak, Duke Lu mocked: "How many soldiers does Nanning have? How could they be defeated so easily? Don't spread rumors here! Your mother is from the northern border, and now the northern border belongs to the Great Zhou. Are you also half a Great Zhou person? Then can I suspect that you have already had the heart of treason and collaborating with the enemy!"
Yu Ruo suddenly raised his head, and the murderous look in his eyes startled Duke Lu.
"You, you...!"
Yu Ruo ignored him, looked at the Nanning Emperor, and said another sentence: "Please give the order, Your Majesty, to shoot the Crown Prince!"
The Nanning Emperor coughed lightly, got up from the bed, walked around the bedroom twice, and frowned: "That is my favorite child."
He walked up to Yu Ruo and patted him on the shoulder.
"When you kill him, shoot more accurately, don't let him suffer too much."
Duke Lu was stunned: "Your Majesty! Your Majesty—"
The Nanning Emperor: "Someone, drag Duke Lu out."
Duke Lu was dragged out.
Yu Ruo received the order to shoot the Crown Prince, but the heavy feeling in his heart did not decrease at all.
He looked at his father, whose expression was calm. Except for the capital, all parts of Nanning were full of disgust and condemnation for his father's actions.
Fortunately, he still had a bit of kingly decisiveness, and did not persistently want to protect his Crown Prince brother.
Yu Ruo left the bedroom.
In the imperial palace, it was bleak.
The palace people walking back and forth with their heads down hurriedly, even though their faces were calm, they all had an uncontrollable panic aura.
After he left, the Nanning Emperor stood at the door of the bedroom, and after a while, shouted: "Bring me some more Wushi powder."
-
One after another, good news flew back to the Great Zhou.
Qu Dubian ordered that those who surrendered would not be killed.
February of Yonghe Year Three.
The Great Zhou conquered Qianzhou, which was only ten miles away from the Nanning capital.
Just before attacking the city, Xu Tingfeng called a halt.
Xia Fuyang said: "Something is wrong."
Xu Tingfeng nodded.
The capital was a heavy place, the Emperor's bed. They had already fought here, and they would never agree to Nanning's surrender, and then give up the land they had conquered—the place where the horses of the Great Zhou stepped was the territory of the Great Zhou.
Unification of the world was right before their eyes. If they were the people of Nanning, they would definitely gather all their strength for a desperate final struggle.
Xu Tingfeng and the others had also made preparations for a protracted siege.
For this final step, it was better to be slow than to make any mistakes.
"To think we've reached this point without encountering any resistance."
While they were puzzled, a Nanning man rode over on horseback and tremblingly presented a state letter. "Th-this is from our Emperor, instructing me to deliver it to the Emperor of the Great Zhou."
When two nations are at war, envoys are not to be executed.
Xia Fuyang said, "We should be able to read it too, right?"
The envoy replied, "Y-yes, you may."
Xia Fuyang opened the state letter, originally thinking it was a letter of surrender. But after glancing at it, he flew into a rage: "This heartless beast!!"
The Great Zhou.
The Imperial Palace.
A solemn atmosphere filled the air.
The state letter from the Emperor of Nanning actually only stated one thing.
He believed that the death of an emperor should be accompanied by ten thousand people buried with him. Therefore, he ordered the fifty thousand soldiers guarding the capital to strap the remaining explosives from Nanning's inventory onto their bodies.
With the news blocked, the ignorant citizens in the city all thought the Emperor and the soldiers were protecting them, honestly cowering in their own homes.
These commoners added up to tens of thousands.
The Nanning Emperor gave Qu Dubian a choice. First, withdraw the troops.
Second, launch a forceful assault, but all they would get was a dead city, a magnificent imperial tomb.
Qu Dubian really wanted to curse him out as a lunatic and a psychopath.
A magnificent imperial tomb indeed... A tomb with a hundred thousand living souls buried alongside him, wasn't he afraid of being trampled to death?
Xi Zixing said, "If Your Majesty chooses to retreat, the Emperor of Nanning might not necessarily abandon this plan. If Your Majesty chooses not to retreat, historical records will note it, and Your Majesty's reputation may be damaged."
But to retreat at this moment would truly be a pity.
Qu Dubian shook his head.
When a choice destined to be controversial was placed before him, no matter how he chose, it would not be perfect.
If he chose to withdraw the troops, and the Nanning Emperor proceeded with his original plan, future generations would certainly label him as soft-hearted, lacking the decisiveness of a formidable leader, and wasting the hard-earned merits of his generals.
If he did not withdraw, the final path to unification would be paved with the lives of nearly a hundred thousand civilians, and he would inevitably be branded as cruel and cold-blooded.
Qu Dubian ordered, "Send word to the front lines: retreat twenty miles."
The Minister of War wrung his wrists and sighed, "Alas, what a pity."
Qu Dubian replied, "The Great Zhou crusades against Nanning as an army of justice. If we disregard the lives of so many people in the city, we would be no different from the Nanning Emperor who blew up the dams."
Since the Nanning Emperor used moral kidnapping against him, Qu Dubian replied with a state letter of his own.
It contained only a few brief words:
If you slit your own throat before the imperial city to appease the wrath of the Great Zhou's people, then when the Great Zhou army enters the capital, we will not harm a single civilian, nor will we trample a single seedling.
An emperor is supported by the whole world; it is only right and proper for him to face disaster for his country and his people.
The Great Zhou envoy who came to deliver the letter was neither haughty nor humble. He loudly read the contents of the state letter while crossing straight through the Nanning capital, proclaiming their Emperor's words to the common people.
As long as the originally guilty emperor died, the Great Zhou would not harm a single ordinary citizen.
Nanning.
Yu Ruo walked through the city.
The thick scent of gunpowder permeated the air. The soldiers were like silent stones; some curled up in corners, while others stood straight to the side. They had long since strapped explosives to their bodies, prepared to sacrifice their lives for their country.
There were quite a few people like this.
"Second Highness."
"Second Highness..."
Seeing him arrive, the soldiers tried their best to lift their spirits and greet him.
Some also asked in low voices, "Is Nanning going to fall?"
Yu Ruo could not answer a single word.
The common people poked small holes in their windows to look out, revealing eyes filled with fear and panic.
They feared the soldiers of the Great Zhou, feared the explosives whose power far exceeded Nanning's, and feared even more the crossbow arrows that could shoot spears and pin them fiercely to the city walls.
Smoke filled the air; this city exuded an aura of decay and ruin.
Even the ants crawling on the ground could smell the scent of a falling nation.
A heavy mountain seemed to weigh on Yu Ruo's heart.
There was no dynasty in history that did not perish. The world spoke of lasting for thousands of generations, but the change of dynasties was an inevitable fate, like a curse, with the only difference being the length of time.
With wise and capable rulers, it would last longer; with foolish and incompetent kings, it would be short-lived.
If his royal father had not blown up the dams and joined forces with the Northern Frontier to besiege the Great Zhou, they would not have forced out an Emperor Yonghe.
If his royal father had not blown up the dams and spread the plague, Nanning's destiny would not end in this generation.
Gu Xin, who was beside him and had now become one of the city's defending generals, said in a deep voice, "Your Highness, with one word from you, we will definitely live and die with Nanning!"
Yu Ruo pointed at the explosives and said, "Surrender, and you won't have to die."
Regarding the explosives piled up in the city, some avoided them like tigers, while others were fearless.
"We are willing to live and die with Nanning! Defend the nation's gates to the death!"
"Defend the gates to the death!"
A stone was thrown out from the residential houses on both sides.
"We don't want to die!"
"Isn't living anywhere still living? It doesn't matter if we die, but how old are our children?"
"Are the children going to be blown up to death too?"
Scattered voices of complaint and resentment came from the residential areas, pouring a basin of cold water on the patriotic fervor that had just begun to boil.
"The envoy sent by His Majesty of the Great Zhou said that we don't have to die..."
Sobbing sounded, followed by louder and louder crying.
An old man walked out from an alley and knelt down from afar, "Your Highness."
Yu Ruo hurried over, "Please rise."
The old man did not rise but grabbed his hand and said, "We are not, we are not cowards, but those children really shouldn't be gone just like that. Can you, can you discuss with His Majesty and send all the children to a safe place?"
"This way, knowing the children are safe behind us, we commoners will definitely fight the Great Zhou soldiers with our lives."
"..." Yu Ruo's eyes reddened for a moment.
No matter how he tried to help him up, the old man refused to rise, knocking his head on the ground, his cloudy old tears mixing with the dust and mud.
"I beg you!"
Yu Ruo could only straighten his back and look in the direction of the imperial city.
"I understand."
His left hand pressed onto the scabbard of the longsword at his waist.
Bang!
The Emperor of Nanning overturned the table and threw Qu Dubian's state letter onto the ground.
"A brat who has barely passed his twentieth birthday, asking me to commit suicide?!"
"What does he think he is..."
He sneered, "Wanting everything, he is clearly just trying to preserve his own reputation in the historical records."
"Commander Yuan! Get your ass in here!"
"Isn't the Great Zhou Emperor benevolent? I want to see exactly how benevolent he is! Drive all the citizens out of the city, strap them with explosives, and herd them in front of the Great Zhou army. Let's see if they will kill them or not!"
For a long time, no one answered.
"Commander Yuan?!"
"Damn it, someone come here."
Not only was there no commander, there was not even a single palace servant.
The Emperor of Nanning waited for a long time, but no one paid him any attention. He could only stand up and walk barefoot out of his bedchamber.
It was spring now, and the southern spring warmed up faster than the north, but walking barefoot on the ground still felt a bit chilly.
After getting used to taking Cold-Food Powder, his skin had become sensitive, and sometimes even wearing shoes felt abrasive to his feet.
Everyone in the palace knew of His Majesty's habit of walking barefoot. Therefore, wherever he usually walked, the palace servants had to wipe the floors spotlessly clean, without leaving even a speck of dust.
If he found dirt on the soles of his feet after a walk, the servants responsible for cleaning the floors would lose their heads.
However, during this period, it was obvious that no one had been cleaning the floors. As the Emperor of Nanning walked along this path, his feet not only gathered dust but also stepped on small, sharp pebbles that dug into his skin.
He walked all the way to the main hall, intending to harshly reprimand Commander Yuan. Yet, as soon as he stepped inside, he saw Commander Yuan's corpse.
And Yu Ruo, standing beside Commander Yuan, holding a long sword.
In the eyes of the Nanning Emperor, Yu Ruo had always been a handy tool. An offspring born of lowly Northern Frontier blood, he was destined to have no share in the throne. With a face typical of the Northern Frontier, he looked completely out of place in Nanning.
But he was obedient enough, because his mother was in the imperial harem.
So even when he was sent to the Great Zhou as a hostage back then, he went willingly.
The Nanning Emperor treated him as a tool, never expecting that one day, the tool would slay its master.
"Imperial Father is here."
The Nanning Emperor took a step back, but forced himself to stop. He said, "Are you going to kill me?"
"I do not have long to live anyway. There is no need for you to kill me. Where is the signal flare? Give it to me."
Yu Ruo took the signal flare from his robes. It was like a small firework, with a limited range, but it was enough to be seen by all the soldiers in the capital.
Once the signal was released, the capital would turn into a dead city.
Yu Ruo dropped his sword and smiled. "Here you go. I killed Commander Yuan because he wanted to flee, for no other reason. Imperial Father, do not worry."
The Nanning Emperor took two quick steps forward and snatched the signal flare from his hand. "I will not set this off just yet. I have a new idea."
He voiced his idea of using the commoners to force the Great Zhou soldiers to retreat, ordering Yu Ruo to carry it out immediately.
"It does not matter if you fail. Even if the nation perishes, I will not let the Great Zhou Emperor's reputation remain untarnished, urgh..."
A dagger pierced through his abdomen.
The dagger was pulled out and thrust back in, repeated nine times.
The Nanning Emperor's pupils contracted for a few seconds before they began to dilate, and large mouthfuls of fresh blood spilled from his lips.
Clatter.
The signal flare fell from his hand.
He stumbled back several steps, pointing at Yu Ruo, "You—"
Yu Ruo gripped a dagger in his right hand, half of his sleeve stained with thick, sticky blood.
He picked up the signal flare, tore off its outer bamboo casing, and completely destroyed it right in front of the Nanning Emperor.
The Nanning Emperor, "Yu Ruo!"
"Tens of thousands of people buried with you?" Yu Ruo gave a short laugh. "Imperial Father, I do not think you are worthy."
"They all deserve to live well. They should not be implicated by a virtueless ruler like you."
Wu Ying came to Yu Ruo's side. "Your Highness, there were not many people left in the palace to begin with. Those who could hide have already hidden themselves. The assembled ministers are all inside the Administration Hall."
Yu Ruo, "Good."
He took out a blank imperial edict he had prepared long ago and dipped it into the blood of the Nanning Emperor, who was hanging on by his last breath.
"I must trouble Imperial Father to write a posthumous edict."
Nanning had changed emperors.
When Qu Dubian heard the news, he thought his ears were playing tricks on him. "Changing emperors at a time like this?"
Did the previous emperor finally fail to hold on and kick the bucket? Which unlucky bastard got pushed onto the throne?
Wen Xiaochun said, "Your Majesty, it is Yu Ruo."
"Him?"
Qu Dubian was surprised.
Given Nanning's current situation, no one in the imperial family would be willing to be emperor. If there was one, they must have been forced. But Yu Ruo... with this guy, it was hard to say he wasn't doing it willingly.
While he was deep in thought, the front lines sent over another wax-sealed state letter.
The wax seal was unbroken, clearly meant only for him.
Qu Dubian opened it and took a look.
At Nanning's Feixian Pavilion, where pear blossoms fill the building in the third month, I have prepared a pot of wine and invite you to attend.
Yu Ruo.