Chapter 547: Assistance
Editor: Atlas Studios
General Yuan was the person who had made the greatest contribution to Great Zhou. Also, he was the official most trusted by the commoners.
Now, the country was in chaos. Emperor Jingyan, as well as the orthodox heir appointed by him, were dead, and only the Second Prince was left. Even though General Yuan had said that he wanted to choose someone from the Guo Family’s branch family, there were still people who hoped that General Yuan could become independent. They were willing to follow General Yuan to help him conquer the world.
However, as General Yuan’s subordinates for many years, they knew that General Yuan was a loyal person, so they could only take things slowly. However, Qi Xiuyuan actually rebelled at this time and had such a legitimate reason!
Even if General Yuan and Qi Xiuyuan were on good terms, the General Yuan of the past would definitely not tolerate Qi Xiuyuan’s rebellion. However, Qi Xiuyuan had just saved General Yuan’s family, and Qi Feng had died in the process. Considering General Yuan’s character, perhaps he couldn’t bring himself to act against Qi Xiuyuan. They could only grit their teeth in hatred.
However, since they had such thoughts, they would not give up so easily. Therefore, they could only hint to General Yuan that they were willing to follow him.
Seeing that even his subordinates had such thoughts, General Yuan sighed and knew that the Great Zhou Dynasty was doomed.
If there was only Qi Xiuyuan, he might be able to turn the tide and barely protect the Great Zhou. However, Qi Xiuyuan’s younger brother, Qi Haoran, also controlled a large number of troops. Even if he was only an assistant commander now, he commanded a solid number of soldiers. Moreover, even his subordinates had thoughts of rebelling, let alone others.
General Yuan was at a loss for a moment, not knowing what to do.
Rebel?
Wouldn’t that confirm the Imperial Court’s previous suspicions of him? Then Emperor Jingyan’s previous vigilance would become reasonable, and General Yuan would become a despicable person with evil intentions.
General Yuan’s eyes darkened and he gave up on this thought entirely.
There were four people in the world who knew General Yuan the best—his Military Advisor Shen Mu, his mother Matriarch Yuan, Madam Shen, and Qi Xiuyuan.
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Although Qi Xiuyuan didn’t know as much about General Yuan as the three of them, he could still figure out General Yuan’s bottom line. Since General Yuan was a man who valued his reputation and honor very much, Qi Xiuyuan wasn’t too worried about General Yuan when he staged his uprising. Instead, he was on guard against the other loyalist forces.
Because General Guo was indebted to Qi Xiuyuan, although he did not explicitly say that he would follow him, he would not attack Qi Xiuyuan. By doing so, he had expressed his attitude. There was no movement from the Yuan family’s army at all, as if they did not know that the people living near the city gate were rebels.
However, a decree came from the Imperial City to chase after Qi Xiuyuan and send a decree to Qi Haoran’s army, asking his adjutants to capture Qi Haoran and bring the army back to the Imperial City to protect the Emperor.
When the Second Prince’s edict landed in Qi Haoran’s hands, he pursed his lips and threw it into the fire to burn it. Those so-called adjutants were long dead.
Of course, it wasn’t Qi Haoran who killed them. They simply died in battle when they were fighting with West Xia.
Amid such a fierce fight with West Xia and the constant bloodshed, the army had been disrupted and reorganized. With Emperor Jingyan dead, who would listen to the orders of the Imperial Court?
Qi Haoran touched his unshaven face and sighed sadly. “I wonder if my son will still recognize me. How detestable are those West Xia soldiers who refuse to retreat.”
“Fourth Master, Fourth Master.” Fei Bai ran over and panted. “Fourth Master, the people we sent back have sent back news that they were stopped by a group of bandits on the way. There are more than 30,000 of them.”
A murderous look flashed across Qi Haoran’s eyes. “Just 30,000 people and they’re already rushing back to report. Are they that incompetent? Don’t we have 60,000 men? Just crush them.”
“But Fourth Master, didn’t you ask them to go back and reinforce Eldest Master? Although 30,000 isn’t a large number, they can still hold them back.”
“Damn it.” Qi Haoran walked around twice and suddenly turned around to ask, “Where are Liu Dahei and the others?”
“Huh?”
Qi Haoran stroked his chin and said, “Since Big Brother has already rebelled, let’s start recruiting troops. Liu Dahei is a smart person. If he’s used well, he can be a good general.” Then, he added, “Send a message to them and don’t waste your breath with them. First, do your best to keep as many of those people as possible. After we beat them up until they’re afraid, ask them to make way. Otherwise, I’ll fight them to the death. Considering Big Brother is still in Lin’an City and there are so many loyalist forces there, his men definitely won’t be able to hold on for long.”
Fei Bai agreed and ran to send a messenger pigeon.
After receiving the letter, the assistant commander immediately mobilized his men and began to charge at the encirclement as if they did not care about their lives.
When the rebel army surrounding them suffered heavy casualties, the Qi family army read out Qi Haoran’s letter loudly. They stood on the battlefield and shouted at the rebel army who had temporarily stopped fighting, “Our Assistant Commander Qi said that if anyone dares to stop us from saving General Qi, our Assistant Commander Qi will fight them to the death. If you don’t believe me, you can try.”
The people on the other side were speechless for a moment.
The people on this side continued to shout, “Our 60,000 people just retreated from the battlefield of West Xia. How dare 30,000 of you, who are so skinny that you can’t even hold your sabers, surround us? Your leader wants to use you to fill the corpse pit, right?”
“Fill up what corpse pit? I think their leader thinks that they’re wasting grains, so he’s using them to let us train our saber techniques. If they’re really brave, turn around and walk west. The prisoners of West Xia are there. If they have the ability, go up there and kill them. What’s the point of following us to kill us?”
The people on the other side became anxious. If they really continued shouting, the people here would probably revolt. These were all fools. If the bandits could bewitch them, so could others. The leader hurriedly shouted, “Don’t think that you’re justified just because you’re loud. Why would you retreat from the battlefield if you’re that capable? Since Qi Xiuyuan has rebelled, you’re just rebels now.”
“Damn it, we’re Assistant Commander Qi’s men. His father was killed by that traitor, the Second Prince. His big brother is being surrounded, so it’s only right for the younger brother to save his elder brother and avenge his father. Don’t make it sound like you’re so virtuous and loyal. Aren’t you also rebels? Besides, although we’re going to save General Qi, our Assistant Commander Qi is still fighting against the West Xia army at the front. The reason why you can cause trouble here is because our Qi family army is fighting against West Xia in front. Otherwise, you’d long have been beheaded by West Xia long ago.”
“If you have the ability, go and kill those West Xia dogs…”
“Our Assistant Commander Qi only has 60,000 people now and dares to go against West Xia’s 200,000-strong army. What right do you have to talk nonsense here…”
“You’re even stopping us from saving Assistant Commander Qi’s big brother…”
The curses instantly drowned out the rebel army opposite them. Many people had hesitant expressions on their faces. They didn’t know if what those people said was right, but one thing was certain. Qi Haoran had been standing in front of them, blocking the West Xia army from the commoners.
Many people quietly retreated as they held their weapons.