in2ebook Chapter 261 'Common Ruler of the World'
Chapter 261 'Common Ruler of the World'
In Taoyang City, Min Wenshan and Qiu Wu were sitting in the military tent discussing the next round of city defense deployment, when they suddenly saw a soldier running in from outside, saying in a somewhat anxious tone: "General! The scouts have discovered that there seems to be a civil strife in the enemy camp!"
Min Wenshan was quite surprised to hear this. He and Qiu Wu looked at each other and then stood up and went towards the city wall.
The two men climbed up to the observation tower and saw that there seemed to be signs of fighting in the center of the Daqian army camp outside Taoyang City. Thick smoke and fire had burned a large area of the camp, and it was obvious that a very serious civil unrest had occurred.
"What's going on?" Min Wenshan was a little surprised. He turned his head and looked at Qiu Wu and asked, "Did you go to get help?"
Qiu Wu denied it of course. Seeing the chaos in the enemy camp, he still said with a cautious attitude: "Don't act rashly. What if the enemy is luring us out of the cave? If we take the bait and go out of the city to kill the enemy, we will fall into the enemy's trap and that will be bad."
Min Wenshan agreed with this and immediately turned around and ordered the scouts to investigate further.
The chaos in the Daqian military camp did not last long. At sunset, scouts brought back news that they saw a group of soldiers withdrawing from the Daqian military camp. Those soldiers looked like Wuhuan soldiers.
Min Wenshan was surprised to hear this, and after further investigation he learned that the Wuhuan had rebelled against Daqian.
"When the Northern Kingdom and Lu Kingdom joined forces to march south, Wuhuan joined forces with Zong Yanli. Now that they have entered the Northern Land, they are like brothers." Min Wenshan was very surprised that Wuhuan would rebel against Daqian. He frowned and said, "At such a critical moment against the enemy, how could Duzhe have a dispute with Zong Yanli for no reason?"
"It even caused such a commotion. Was it intentional, or..." Min Wenshan felt a little suspicious and naturally wanted someone to investigate.
Unexpectedly, this matter was covered up so strictly, as if they deliberately didn't want others to know about it.
If the intention was really to confuse the State of Qi, wouldn't the rumor have been leaked by now?
Min Wenshan suddenly felt that this might be a breakthrough for them. If Wuhuan and Daqian really broke up to this point, Zong Yanli would benefit Qi State in every way without the support of Wuhuan, the local tyrant!
Min Wenshan spent two whole days sending out secret agents and placing spies, and finally pried out some clues from the airtight enemy camp. It turned out that a few days ago, Zong Yanli had committed such a robbery against the Queen Saiya of Wuhuan.
Sai Ya was the princess of Wuhuan, and Du Zhe was able to achieve success because he married Princess Sai Ya.
Now Zong Yanli has actually done such a thing as robbing his friend's wife. No man can endure such a great humiliation.
“Hahaha! No wonder Zong Yanli wanted to keep this matter so secret!” After Min Wenshan learned the whole story, he almost clapped his hands in approval. He raised his head and laughed, saying, “I thought Zong Yanli had no flaws to be defeated, but now he is really asking for trouble.”
"I heard that Zong Yanli and Queen Saiya were old acquaintances. Maybe they were involved at that time..." Qiu Wu frowned slightly and said calmly.
"I think so too. Poor Duzhe worked so hard for Zong Yanli, but his queen was robbed by someone else." Min Wenshan felt a little sorry for Duzhe. After thinking for a while, he said, "I guess Zong Yanli had this intention a long time ago."
"Wuhuan may seem to have Duzhe as its king, but in fact, the person in power behind the scenes is Queen Saiya."
"Now that Zong Yanli has obtained the queen, it is equivalent to conquering Wuhuan."
"Poor Duzhe, not only did he lose his queen, but he also suffered such a backstab..."
After some discussion, Min Wenshan, Qiu Wu and others secretly asked people to investigate the matter in detail. In the end, they even heard many romantic stories between Zong Yanli and Queen Saiya, which made people gasp. At that moment, it seemed that everyone felt that Zong Yanli, who was so strong, also had such a dark side.
Thinking of this, Min Wenshan felt relaxed all over.
It's not his fault, because the hype about Zong Yanli was so deified that Min Wenshan once doubted himself. How could there be such a perfect person in the world?
Now that I know about this, I can only think that it is true!
Zong Yanli is just hiding it very well!
"General! An arrow was shot from the top of the city wall!" Just as Min Wenshan and others were discussing this, a soldier came from outside holding an arrow in both hands. On the arrow was a letter.
"Is this arrow from Wuhuan?" Qiu Wu stared at the arrow for a while, recognized the Wuhuan logo on the arrow, raised his eyebrows slightly and asked Min Wenshan: "Is it Duzhe?"
"Are you here to surrender?" Qiu Wu continued to ask.
Min Wenshan shook his head with a strange expression on his face and handed the letter to Qiu Wu. The content on the letter was naturally not about surrender, but it brazenly said that he wanted to cooperate with him and said that as long as Qi was willing to give him shelter, he could do a deal with him.
Qiu Wu couldn't help but sneer as he watched. He put down the letter and said, "How many soldiers does Du Zhe have? How dare he talk about cooperation so brazenly?"
Min Wenshan turned around and sat down next to him and said, "It looks like Duzhe and Zong Yanli are at loggerheads. Duzhe is desperate and trying every possible means to save his life. I'm afraid Zong Yanli doesn't want to be tarnished by a scandal and wants to kill Duzhe himself."
"How does General Min plan to respond?" Qiu Wu asked with a slightly raised eyebrow.
"Of course there's no hurry." Min Wenshan leaned back with peace of mind, and said calmly, "It's not us who are in a hurry anyway."
"If we can get Du Zhe to surrender this time, it can't be cooperation." Min Wenshan thought for a while and said, "There is no such thing as a free meal in the world. What if he is using us to deal with Zong Yanli?"
"No hurry, wait a moment."
Qiu Wu had no objection this time. He followed Min Wenshan's advice and ignored Du Zhe's intention to cooperate.
No one knew what was going on, but a folk rumor had been circulating in the capital recently and had even reached the ears of the emperor. Min Wenshan knew nothing about it until he received a secret letter from the empress dowager, asking him to find out who was behind it.
The secret court in the imperial court suspected the person who spread the rumor, saying that the "common ruler of the world" was in Qi State, and that the real dragon was not the new emperor.
This incident caused great unrest in the court, and they were afraid that it would upset the people.
Min Wenshan was greatly surprised when he learned about this, and he secretly arranged for people to investigate. In order to avoid alerting Qiu Wu and asking him to do something secretly, Min Wenshan went to investigate privately, and finally confirmed that the folk rumor originated from the capital.
As this folk song spread to the border, many stories and versions had emerged.
The most talked about thing is the story of some god. The master who carved the ice dragon around the pillar was praised as the person enlightened by the "dragon".
It is said that the former emperor of Qi was not a real dragon, because the carved ice dragon had a broken tail and stumps. The people said that they wanted to see a real dragon...
As the rumors intensified, Min Wenshan became furious, and Qiu Wu naturally knew about it. At this critical moment, Du Zhe suddenly appeared, and the huge ice dragon statue outside Taoyang City was wrapped in red silk, revealing the upper half of the extremely magnificent dragon head, which seemed to be about to leap into the air and fly around the icicle.
"I offer a true dragon to my lord!" Du Zhe, covered in snow, stood in front of the ice sculpture. He sat upright on the horse's head with a tired look on his face. The soldiers behind him retreated to the rear. This move clearly showed that he was surrendering with sincerity.
"The common ruler of the world does not belong to Qi!" As Du Zhe's firm cry fell, the soldiers standing on the city wall looked at the crystal clear dragon head that seemed to be roaring towards the light, and they were all shocked at this moment.
"Oh my god..."
"It really is a dragon!"
"Is this the legendary ice dragon circling the pillar? Just hearing and seeing it will put you in a dream."
"If I can transform into a dragon in my dream, does it mean that the person the Lord of the World is referring to is me?"
"Hahaha, what a sweet dream..."
The soldiers in the Qi army were also excited about this, and even Min Wenshan's face was stained with excitement. Perhaps the temptation of the four words "common leader of the world" was too great, and no one could resist such temptation.
What's more, Min Wenshan has already held the highest position. To put it bluntly, he is only one step away from the dragon throne.
How could he not salivate?
So after a brief discussion with his subordinate generals, Min Wenshan decided to accept Du Zhe.
"General, be careful!" One or two generals under his command remained vigilant and suspicious. They tried to dissuade Min Wenshan, saying, "The ice dragon is wrapped up and its entire appearance cannot be seen. Besides, how can such a huge ice sculpture be delivered into the city?"
"It's said to be a dragon, how can we let others see it?" As Min Wenshan's confidant, a personal soldier spoke up to defend Min Wenshan: "This ice dragon must be transported back to the capital for the emperor to see in person."
“Do you generals want to see the real dragon first, rather than the emperor?” As the words fell, the man who spoke the words suddenly turned red in the face, and he quickly knelt down and said, “I have absolutely no such intention, I just think this matter is too coincidental…”
"What's the coincidence? The rumor did not originate from outside the Great Wall, but from within the capital."
"No matter how capable Zong Yanli is, can he reach out to the imperial palace?"
"The generals are obstructing us like this. Could it be that they have some evil intentions?"
There were arguments in the tent. Min Wenshan raised his hand to interrupt them and said in a cold voice: "Okay! I have made up my mind. Our army is in urgent need of help. Du Zhe is also a fierce general. He is so sincere now. If I still refuse him, how can there be any brave warriors to join me in the future?"
Min Wenshan stood up and said, "Go, drag the ice dragon into the city."
However, what Min Wenshan did not expect was that the ice dragon was so huge that it could not pass through the city gate intact. If he wanted to drag the entire ice dragon inside, he would have to either push it down or knock it down. But after all, it was an ice sculpture, and if he pushed it down, it would probably break into pieces.
Min Wenshan was in a dilemma, but finally he gritted his teeth and had people tear down a section of the city wall, which finally allowed the Ice Dragon to enter the city. Du Zhe and others also followed him into the city.
The Qi army dragged the ice dragon with great effort into the city and hurried to repair the city wall. Min Wenshan and Qiu Wu came down from the city wall and only then did they clearly feel the huge size of the ice dragon. They were about to get closer to take a closer look.
Suddenly, the red cloth that originally wrapped the ice dragon was cut open by a sharp sword.
boom--!
A huge noise followed, and Min Wenshan didn't even have time to react. In the blink of an eye, he saw countless swords and knives poking out from the red silk. The next second, the huge ice dragon seemed to collapse under the huge force, and countless soldiers wearing Daqian military armor and holding swords rushed out.
"Kill!" Du Zhe, who had a gentle expression just now, changed his sincere look, drew out his sword, turned around and killed the Qi army who were about to close the city gate.
"It's a trick!" Min Wenshan was so scared that his face turned pale. He was about to turn around and run back, but suddenly he caught a glimpse of a very familiar black long sword, mixed with an extremely sharp murderous intent, flying towards the back of his heart.
In a hurry, Min Wenshan had no way to avoid it, so he reached out and grabbed the personal soldier beside him, and used the soldier's body as a shield to block the fatal blow.
The black long sword pierced through the body of the personal soldier, and the sharp tip of the sword was pointing straight at Min Wenshan's heart. Min Wenshan looked down and saw the long sword, and he felt as if his scalp was exploding, and even his legs were weak and he could not fight anymore.
"Come! Come! Meet the enemy!" Min Wenshan roared in panic, and suddenly he heard the familiar sound of horns blowing from all directions. It was the horn of the enemy's attack.
Perhaps it was because Min Wenshan was caught off guard, or perhaps it was because the man who jumped out from the lower part of the ice dragon was too ferocious, or perhaps it was because Min Wenshan had just sacrificed his personal soldiers to block the sword, so that when he shouted, the personal soldiers beside him not only did not come forward, but instead hesitated and wanted to retreat.
That is, under this retreat.
The man standing beside Du Zhe had already aimed at Min Wenshan with the longbow quietly drawn, filled with extremely sharp murderous intent. The piercing sound of breaking through the air came from behind Zong Yanli. She seemed to feel the familiarity of this arrow, and the arrow was blocked by her body.
It just rubbed her neck perfectly, the sound of breaking through the air rang in her ears, and without any deviation it directly made up for the blow that Zong Yanli failed to complete.
With a hissing sound, it pierced Min Wenshan's heart.
"Uh..." Min Wenshan didn't even see the direction the arrow came from. Being hit by the arrow suddenly made him feel a little dazed.
He lowered his head slowly and mechanically, with one hand still tightly grasping the body of the soldier who blocked the knife for him and was about to let go.
Min Wenshan's eyes fell on the arrow, and an uncontrollable sweet taste rose in his throat. His eyes were a little dazed, and he saw Zong Yanli walking towards him step by step, and also saw Jie Hu standing behind Zong Yanli with a longbow in his hand.
And there was a short soldier who took off his helmet and turned to look at him. That...
Oriole?
Min Wenshan's pupils suddenly shrank, and in that instant, it seemed as if all the puzzles and unknowns were connected together. He saw Yingli hiding behind Zong Yanli, who raised her chin slightly towards him and showed such a smug smile on her face.
Min Wenshan could no longer control himself, and large mouthfuls of blood spurted out of his mouth. He felt the panic of being about to die, and he wanted so much to cover his mouth to stop spitting out blood, and to pull out the arrow in his heart so that he could be back to normal.