latelenovela Chapter 353 Princess Chang's Rebellion 14
Chapter 353 Princess Chang's Rebellion 14
Zhao Wushang's iron mask gleamed coldly in the torchlight.
He stood in the center of the ruins in the south of the city, the thick blood under his feet having already seeped into the treads of his boots.
Three days after the massacre order was issued, this once bustling slum is now reduced to ruins and still-warm corpses.
"Commander, the east alley has been cleared."
The lieutenant clasped his hands in a fist and reported, his young voice trembling almost imperceptibly, "We found...we found seven survivors, all of them children."
Zhao Wushang did not turn around.
He was staring at a curled-up female corpse in the corner, the same woman who had asked him to look at her ribs.
Three arrows pierced her frail body, and she remained in the position of protecting her child until her death.
Now the two small bodies were lying next to her, and the blood from the hole in her forehead had stopped bleeding.
"Proceed as usual," a mechanical voice came from behind the iron mask.
The deputy general didn't move.
Zhao Wushang heard the soft clanging of armor and knew that the other party was trembling.
"Your subordinate... Your subordinate doesn't understand. These children are no more than six years old..."
"This is an imperial edict!" Zhao Wushang suddenly roared in fury, grabbing his deputy's collar. "You want to defy the imperial edict? Do you want to rot in the imperial prison like Sima Rui?"
The young general's face turned deathly pale.
When Zhao Wushang released his grip, he found warm liquid on his iron gauntlet—it was the deputy general's tears.
This discovery caused him a sharp pain in his stomach.
That night, Zhao Wushang, unusually, did not return to the palace to report.
He climbed the crumbling city wall alone, took off his mask, and gasped for breath.
A burnt smell wafted in the cold wind—the black smoke from burning corpses.
In the distance, the faint sound of a baby crying could be heard; it was probably a surviving child crying in the ruins.
"What am I protecting?" He gazed at the golden roof in the direction of the palace, feeling for the first time how unfamiliar that magnificent building was.
*
Water droplets seeped from the stone walls of the imperial prison.
Zhao Wushang carried a lantern through the corridor, and the jailers all lowered their heads, none daring to stop the emperor's most trusted executioner.
Sima Rui was imprisoned in the deepest cell.
When the lantern light illuminated the huddled figure, Zhao Wushang could hardly recognize that this was the once spirited prime minister.
The old man had all ten fingers severed, and his white hair was covered with blood clots, but his eyes were surprisingly bright.
"Commander Zhao, you've come to see me make a fool of myself?" Sima Rui's voice was hoarse and rough.
Zhao Wushang silently put down the food box.
He shouldn't have come, but after what happened in the south of the city, some questions were stuck in his throat.
"Why does the Prime Minister insist on remonstrating? He knows perfectly well that His Majesty..."
"Because I have read history books."
Sima Rui suddenly grabbed the iron bars, his severed finger leaving a bloody mark on the fence. "The rise and fall of dynasties, on the surface, is a struggle between armies, but in reality..."
A cough interrupted him, "It really is a matter of public sentiment!"
The old man suddenly ripped open his shirt, revealing a wound on his chest—three bloody characters carved with his fingernails:
The people are the most important.
"Watch closely, Zhao Wushang!" Sima Rui's eyes widened. "This is a principle sharper than the Emperor's Sword! The Eldest Princess understands it, which is why the people and army of Xin Xia are united; His Majesty does not understand it, therefore..."
The sound of the jailer's footsteps could be heard.
Zhao Wushang hurriedly closed the food box, but then heard Sima Rui say in a low voice, "Wang Huan is launching an uprising tonight, and the gunpowder in the west city is ready. Commander Zhao, leave yourself a way out."
*
The explosion from the direction of the West Gate shattered the night sky over Yingjing.
When Zhao Wushang led the Imperial Guards to the scene, the entire section of the city wall had already collapsed.
In the firelight, he saw that the garrison commander Wang Huan had a white cloth tied to his armor, a sign of surrender to the new Xia.
"Brother Zhao!" Wang Huan shouted amidst the chaos of the army, "Stop risking your lives for the tyrant! Look at these people!"
Zhao Wushang looked in the direction he was pointing and saw thousands of civilians pouring out through the breach in the city wall.
There were elderly people carrying their paralyzed wives, young people supporting their blind fathers, and many more women holding their children.
Their faces showed no fear, only resolute hope.
"Release the arrows!" Zhao Wushang heard himself giving the order.
With the twang of the bowstring, he suddenly pointed to the sky: "Aim at the rebels! Avoid the civilians!"
This subtle instruction changed everything.
The already disorganized formation of the Imperial Guards completely collapsed, and many of them turned their arrows and fired them into the air.
When Zhao Wushang saw the deputy general nod slightly to him, he suddenly realized that these subordinates had also long harbored the intention to leave.
That night, 30,000 soldiers guarding the western city defected, leading 50,000 civilians to join the new Xia dynasty.
When Zhao Wushang returned to the palace to report, he found Ji Xuanye tearing at the curtains of the dragon bed like a mad child.
*
On the border of Xinxia, along the Luoshui River.
Ji Xiaosong was taking the pulse of fleeing civilians in a makeshift medical tent when Tie Zhenshan suddenly burst in: "Your Excellency! Urgent report! The northern barbarians have breached the Tianmen Pass of Ying Kingdom and are heading south!"
The tent fell silent instantly.
A woman from Ying State, holding a baby, suddenly knelt down: "Your Excellency, please save our homeland! The barbarians have left no one alive in their wake!"
Ji Xiaosong helped the woman up and turned to the military map.
Tie Zhenshan said urgently, "Our army has just taken in 200,000 refugees. Although we are not short of food and supplies, if we head north now..."
"Issue the order." Ji Xiaosong removed his ruling jade pendant. "The First Legion will remain to protect the people. I will personally lead the Second and Third Legions north."
"Too dangerous!" the old general exclaimed. "What if the Ying Kingdom takes advantage of the situation..."
“No need to worry.” Ji Xiaosong pointed to the location of Tianmen Pass on the map. “Three hundred miles south of here, there are three hundred thousand Ying Kingdom citizens who did not have time to evacuate.”
A resolute glint flashed in her eyes. "Moreover, if the barbarians are allowed to advance unimpeded, the new Xia will also be lost."
*
As the new Xia banners appeared on the horizon, the northern barbarians were plundering villages.
They did not expect to encounter organized resistance, and even less did they expect that the one leading the charge would be the legendary "female ruler".
Ji Xiaosong's white nails quickly turned red.
Her unique "wild goose formation" cut the barbarian cavalry into pieces, while the disciplined infantry squares of the New Xia army advanced like a moving city wall.
What is most impressive is that whenever she recaptured a village, she would immediately divide her troops to escort the people south.
"Governor!" the lieutenant general pointed to the dust rising in the west, "and the reinforcements from the Yingguo Army!"
Ji Xiaosong gripped his spear tightly, only to see that the exhausted troops were carrying the Zhao-character flag.
Even more surprisingly, when they saw the Qingxia Army Flag, they all dismounted and saluted.
Zhao Wushang removed his mask, revealing a face covered in scars: "Princess...we are escorting the people south, and the main force of the barbarian tribes is only twenty miles away..."
Two armies that should have been enemies reached a tacit understanding amidst blood and fire.
That night, Xinxia and the remnants of Yingguo's army set up camp back to back to jointly resist the three attacks of the barbarians.
At dawn, as Ji Xiaosong was bandaging wounded soldiers on the battlefield, he overheard the Ying soldiers whispering among themselves:
"I heard that soldiers in Xinxia get meat with every meal..."
"More than that! Land was distributed and taxes were waived, and children could even go to school..."
"How about...we also..."
Zhao Wushang turned his back to the discussions, but his hand on his sword remained still.
*
When news of the fall of the northern border reached Yingjing, Ji Xuanye was burning memorials.
He laughed wildly as he threw the urgent report that "the barbarians are three hundred li from the capital" into the brazier, then turned and grabbed the new prime minister by the neck: "I still have one hundred thousand imperial guards! And..."
"Your Majesty..." the Prime Minister gasped for breath, "The Imperial Guards... are almost empty... Commander Zhao..."
Ji Xuanye slumped onto the dragon throne.
At that moment, he finally realized that he was all alone.
Outside the window, the last group of palace servants were scrambling to grab treasures and escape.
He suddenly remembered the scene from his childhood when his elder sister, Ji Xiaosong, took him to sneak out of the palace to buy sugar paintings at the market.
“Royal sister…” He stroked the Emperor’s sword, then suddenly laughed maniacally, “You won…you won a long time ago…”
Three hundred miles away on the battlefield, Ji Xiaosong looked up as if sensing something.
The rising sun was piercing through the clouds, illuminating the refugee caravan stretching for dozens of miles behind her.
The new summer flag unfurled in the morning breeze, no longer embroidered with dragon patterns, but with a seedling breaking through the soil.