Chapter 368: Slay the Chu Slaves

The moment Li Fusheng heard those words, his entire face began to redden as though he had been drinking and the liquor had gone straight to his head.

“Chief Commander Zheng, just tell me how you want this handled. Give me the order and I’ll do it.”

Once Li Fusheng’s emotions surged, they were genuinely difficult to suppress.

Especially after Zheng Fan brought up the name **Li Bao**.

That name was like a spear thrust straight into the deepest part of Li Fusheng’s heart.

The seven Chief Commanders of the Zhenbei Army could hardly be called true brothers. That would have been unrealistic. But Li Fusheng and Li Bao genuinely had shared life-and-death bonds. They were comrades who could turn their backs to one another without the slightest fear.

Li Bao had died here.

He had stayed behind to cover the First Prince’s retreat and been surrounded and killed by the very Chu soldiers now sitting on the ground demanding food.

*A gentleman can wait ten years to avenge a wrong.*

That was merely the excuse scholars used to justify cowardice.

A real grunt took revenge best before the night was over.

Alliance?

Diplomatic relations?

Li Fusheng had already stopped caring much about either.

And despite looking rough and straightforward, Old Li was hardly stupid. There was plenty of calculation beneath that coarse exterior.

Zheng Fan’s posture.

Zheng Fan’s words.

The way Zheng Fan sat atop the Pixiu with Tian Wujing’s shadow practically hanging over him—

Li Fusheng understood perfectly well who had truly issued this order.

If anything went wrong, *that man* would carry the weight.

There would be no problem.

More importantly, Li Fusheng knew Zheng Fan. Long ago, he had even advised this brat to cultivate more killing intent.

Without Tian Wujing’s command and approval, would Zheng Fan really lose his mind, run over here, forge an order, and massacre prisoners?

Of course not.

There was, however, one deeper layer Li Fusheng had not yet understood.

That would require time.

Later, perhaps, he would slowly savor the meaning behind it:

If one command from the Prince of Jingnan would have been enough, then why had Tian Wujing deliberately forced Zheng Fan to step forward and go through this entire performance?

And what exactly did Tian Wujing hope to accomplish through it?

At that moment, Mao Mingcai finally understood enough of their conversation to become completely bewildered.

What the hell was happening?

He had come here to help the Chu envoy press for grain.

How had the entire scene suddenly changed beyond recognition?

Truthfully, Mao Mingcai did not feel particularly sorry for the Chu soldiers. He was Great Yan’s Minister of War. No matter how crooked his sitting posture became, his backside could never end up on the Chu side.

But he had come here to proclaim an imperial decree.

Whatever his private feelings, the court had already reached its conclusion and issued its decision.

The Crown Prince and a room full of ministers had spent days hammering out the alliance clause by clause.

His Majesty had affixed the imperial seal.

The central court had formally approved it.

This was Great Yan’s will.

This was the court’s will.

It could not simply be violated.

Everyone possessed something he had to uphold. It did not always need to sound lofty. Sometimes it was simply the foundation upon which a man stood.

If you sat in the position of a Minister of one of Great Yan’s Six Ministries, yet refused to defend the court’s laws and dignity, then what reason did you have to exist at all?

“What exactly are you people talking about?!”

Mao Mingcai roared and strode forward two steps.

Li Fusheng turned and looked at him.

He said nothing.

Only smiled.

Although the Zhenbei Army had already been dismantled and redistributed, some of its wildness remained difficult to tame. Its so-called respect toward court ministers still existed largely in form.

More importantly, Li Fusheng’s killing intent had already been completely awakened.

At this moment, he carried an air that said:

*Even if the Heavenly King himself comes, I don’t recognize him.*

A faint smile appeared at the corner of Zheng Fan’s mouth.

By now, he had completely let go.

Or perhaps he had entered the proper state.

Mao Mingcai stared at him and shouted:

“Count Pingye! What exactly did you mean by those words just now? What are you trying to do?”

Zheng Fan answered calmly:

“Debts must be repaid.

“Murder must be answered with life.

“That is all.

“How many sons of Great Yan did the Chu kill here? That day, the Wang River was covered with the corpses of Yan soldiers.

“Minister Mao—

“I merely want to give them an accounting.”

“But the alliance has already been concluded! Count Pingye, are you planning to defy an imperial decree?!”

“When a general is in the field, there are orders from the court he may refuse!”

“I’d like to see who dares!”

Mao Mingcai spread both arms and roared:

“The alliance has been concluded! The people need peace and recovery! Anyone who dares recklessly reopen war may do so—but first, step over my corpse!”

Zheng Fan shook his head.

Then raised his little finger and dug around inside his ear.

Afterward, he brought the finger to his lips.

“Hu... hu...”

He blew on it twice.

“Minister Mao, if you do not kill the wolves—if you do not beat the wolves until they’re afraid—yet you release the tiger back into the mountains, then what peace are you talking about? What recovery?”

“You are a subject of Yan! How dare you defy an imperial decree!”

Zheng Fan raised a hand.

Pointed at Mao Mingcai.

And said:

“Minister Mao is tired.

“Help Minister Mao away so he can rest.”

“I’d like to see who dares!”

Mao Mingcai roared again, sweeping his gaze around.

The words had barely left his mouth when a saber sheath smashed into the back of his knee.

Mao Mingcai dropped onto one knee.

A hand immediately pressed down on his shoulder.

The man who had moved was Ran Min.

“You...!”

Ran Min ignored Mao Mingcai’s glare.

Instead, he looked toward Zheng Fan and said:

“Count Zheng, this general escorted Minister Mao all the way from the capital to this place. I can testify that Minister Mao caught a chill during the journey. His body is weak, his head fevered, and what he needs now is rest.”

Zheng Fan finally took proper notice of the armored soldier with the unusually quick brain.

He looked at him twice.

“What is your name?”

“This general is Ran Min, Squad Leader of the Second Garrison of the Jingnan Army’s New Force.”

“Ran Min?”

Zheng Fan nodded.

“Take good care of Minister Mao for me.”

“This general obeys!”

Ran Min forcefully helped Mao Mingcai upright.

Mao Mingcai opened his mouth, ready to curse him viciously.

But as Ran Min supported him, he leaned toward the Minister’s ear and whispered one sentence.

Mao Mingcai immediately fell silent.

“My lord, do you want to force the Jingnan Army into rebellion right here?”

You can die.

Of course you can die.

But if the mighty Minister of War dies here—dies at the hands of Jingnan Army soldiers then there is no point even discussing how the court might punish anyone afterward.

Because by then the Jingnan Army will have no choice but to rebel.

Compared with that, offending Chu would be a minor problem.

If the Jingnan Army rebelled, Great Yan’s entire state would...

And so Mao Mingcai allowed Ran Min to support him away.

His steps had become weak and unsteady.

“Heh heh.”

Li Fusheng chuckled and looked at Zheng Fan.

His meaning was obvious:

*What next? Hurry up and say it.*

Once a man truly decided to do something, all the other messy thoughts inside his head tended to fade.

Zheng Fan was the same.

At this point, his mind had already shifted away from guilt over massacring prisoners.

Now he was thinking only about how to do it properly.

And if they were going to do it it had to be done beautifully.

“The Chu want grain, don’t they?

“Give it to them.”

Li Fusheng stared.

“You actually want to give them grain?”

At present, even the landlord’s household had no surplus.

Great Yan’s Eastern Expedition Army had fought for too long.

Thankfully, half the territory of the former State of Cheng had still been functioning and barely able to support the army.

They also had to thank the First Prince. When he originally led the Eastern Expedition Army into Cheng territory, he had restored order region by region instead of leaving everything in chaos behind him.

Even so, the State of Cheng had nearly exhausted itself supporting this war.

Otherwise, there would never have been so many Cheng refugees fleeing famine toward Shengle and Litian City.

Yan’s own army was short on grain.

Naturally, Li Fusheng had no desire to waste precious food feeding Chu soldiers.

Even if it were their final meal before death he still did not want to give it to them.

They were going to die anyway.

Did they really think they deserved to die with full stomachs?

*Pah.*

*Dream on.*

Zheng Fan pointed behind them toward the Wang River.

“Set up cauldrons there.

“Start cooking.

“Then tell the Chu to go over in batches to eat.”

Li Fusheng’s grin instantly returned.

He praised:

“Brilliant.

“Brilliant.

“You brat—your brain really does work.”

Zheng Fan said leisurely:

“Merely returning their own methods to them.”

“Should I go speak with the other Chief Commanders?”

Zheng Fan shook his head.

“No need.

“Once your force moves, do you think they’ll be able to hold themselves back?

“And even if they can—do you think the soldiers under them can?”

“Understood.”

Li Fusheng rubbed his hands together.

“Then we start?”

Zheng Fan stretched lazily.

“Let’s go.”

...

“Grain!”

“Grain!”

“Where’s the grain?!”

“Where’s the food?!”

The Chu were still shouting.

Qu Tiannan sat cross-legged on the ground with his men.

He had refused any special treatment.

Among Chu’s great aristocratic clans, when two noble houses fought and one side captured an aristocrat, the prisoner would usually receive lavish hospitality. Sometimes beautiful maidservants would even be provided.

But among the Yan, Qu Tiannan had no interest in enjoying such treatment.

Besides the Yan did not appear to have prepared any.

And such things would have been too embarrassing for the Chu to write into the formal treaty clauses anyway.

Then, suddenly, the Chu sitting farthest west noticed something.

The Yan had begun setting up cauldrons beside the Wang River.

Firewood was already burning beneath them.

At the same time, group after group of Yan soldiers appeared carrying sacks of grain toward the riverbank.

Cheers immediately broke out.

The excitement spread rapidly.

More and more Chu soldiers realized what was happening.

The Yan were finally preparing food for them.

Some impatient men immediately ran toward the cauldrons.

The rice was not even cooked yet.

Truthfully, even if it had been raw grain, they would have wanted to stuff it directly into their mouths.

A few men ran first.

Then a whole group.

When they realized the Yan did not seem interested in stopping them, more and more Chu soldiers began rushing toward the riverbank.

They had been starving too long.

Their eyes practically glowed green.

Soon a vast mass of Chu soldiers surged up from the ground and began running toward the cauldrons.

In truth, fewer than twenty cauldrons had been set up.

And fewer than a hundred sacks of rice had been brought over.

But the Chu no longer cared.

They crowded and shoved forward madly.

Some even began fighting one another over the chance to seize a little food.

Qu Tiannan watched the scene.

His mouth opened slightly.

But in the end he could not think of anything to say.

“Get some grain for the Pillar of State,” one of his close attendants ordered several guards.

Throughout the period of starvation, Qu Tiannan had eaten exactly what his soldiers ate.

He too had not felt truly full in a very long time.

His personal guards immediately rose and began shouting the title **Pillar of State**, ordering the men ahead to make way.

Chu chief envoy Jing Yang was still looking around for Mao Mingcai.

But when he saw the Yan finally distributing grain, he relaxed.

Only after watching for a while did he realize the amount of food being sent over seemed too small.

The sea of Chu soldiers had begun fighting for it.

Jing Yang frowned.

He intended to find Mao Mingcai and ask the Yan to release more grain.

After all, according to the alliance, part of Chu’s compensation to Yan would itself be paid in grain.

Rather than saying the Chu were eating Yan’s grain now, one might as well say they were consuming their own supplies in advance.

At worst, once this army returned to Chu, the amount consumed here could simply be added back into the compensation owed to Yan.

In this respect, Jing Yang’s thinking was actually very similar to Mao Mingcai’s.

Both were merely executors of state policy.

They represented the will of their own rulers and courts.

At this stage, neither man possessed the leisure to indulge personal likes and dislikes.

Their only responsibility was to complete the task in front of them.

More and more Chu soldiers gathered by the Wang River.

Thirty or forty thousand men that was no small number.

Viewed from the walls of Yupan City, the western side now truly looked like a sea of humanity.

The mass of people pressed against the river’s waves like two rivers converging into one.

Nearby, many Yan soldiers watched the Chu scrambling for food with cold expressions.

At first, some mocked them.

“Look at those Chu bastards fighting for food like dogs over scraps.”

But gradually the men laughing stopped laughing.

Because beneath the surface, most Yan soldiers had been carrying deep, suppressed resentment.

The Chu had been trapped in Yupan City for months.

The Yan soldiers had spent those same months sitting outside and guarding them.

They had wanted to watch the Chu starve.

Wanted to see them reduced to eating one another.

The worse the Chu suffered the better the Yan soldiers felt.

These had been enemies who killed one another on the battlefield.

How could putting down weapons suddenly turn hatred into laughter and friendship?

Great Yan’s court constantly proclaimed that Yan and Jin were both descendants of Huaxia.

But even that argument could not help the Chu here.

The Yan army had fought beside troops of the former State of Cheng and together defeated the savages.

What the hell were the Chu?

They had actually allied themselves with the savages.

From the moment the Prince of Jingnan crushed the savage main force at the Wang River and ordered Yupan City sealed, every Yan soldier here had been waiting for the Chu army’s end.

Yet now the Chu had been released.

And they still dared brazenly demand food from Yan.

Now they were even eating Yan’s grain!

“Fuck their mothers! What kind of goddamned alliance did the court come up with?!”

“Exactly! We feed these Chu dogs well, then let them swagger home?”

“Then what the hell happens to our revenge?!”

Across the Yan formations, dissatisfaction and hostility began boiling upward.

At that same moment, nearly three thousand cavalrymen from Li Fusheng’s force began quietly repositioning.

They looped around toward one side of Yupan City.

Plenty of people noticed the movement.

The Chu assumed it was a normal Yan redeployment and paid little attention.

Even Qu Tiannan, who had just received a little grain from his guards and begun eating, noticed it from the corner of his eye.

But for a moment he could not imagine what it meant.

Not because he was foolish.

Because the possibility was so extreme that it had never entered his mind.

He did not dare think it.

After all the Chu had already laid down their weapons.

They had already left the protection of the city walls.

If the Yan truly intended... then there was no way to resist.

...

Li Fusheng rode his Pi Beast beside Zheng Fan.

His eyes had already reddened like those of a glutton about to sit down before a feast.

And yet, somehow, he could still laugh and say:

“Back in the old days, I once told you that when I couldn’t control the urge to kill, you had to remember to stop me.

“You still have one last chance.”

“At this point, what’s the meaning in saying that?”

“I know who gave the order.

“That man certainly has the courage to issue it.

“But you?

“I thought you wouldn’t agree.

“From the first moment I saw you, I knew there was softness in your heart.

“You’re ruthless enough.

“You fight ruthlessly.

“You can be ruthless as a man too.

“But even so, I always felt you were softhearted in some inexplicable way.

“So tell me one last time.

“Should these people be killed?”

“They should.”

“Oh?

“Why?”

Zheng Fan turned and looked at Li Fusheng with surprise.

“Old Brother, this really isn’t your style.”

“Heh heh.

“If I can have a perfectly righteous reason before killing someone, then the killing tastes even better.”

Zheng Fan said:

“For the comrades who died in that battle.

“For the soldiers of Great Yan still standing here alive today.

“These Chu cannot be allowed to leave.

“The court’s will is the court’s will.

“But the court is not always right.

“They believe they stand high enough to see farther and farther.

“Yet sometimes—seeing too high and too far is not necessarily a good thing.

“We need to tell the soldiers of Great Yan who still live—and we need to comfort the comrades who died here—that we owe them an answer.

“Before the Black Dragon Banner—all who dare stand in the way will be ground to dust.”

Li Fusheng gave a delighted chuckle.

“I only asked casually. Didn’t expect you to give me such a long speech.”

“I had to convince myself first.”

Zheng Fan spoke honestly.

“Then I give the order and have the lads charge?”

“No.

“Wait a little longer.”

“Wait for what?”

“I still need to go through one more performance.

“I’ll need Old Brother to help me set the stage.”

“Fine.

“I’m about to have my fun anyway. I don’t mind helping you build the stage first.

“After all—you count as half a soldier I personally brought up.”

“That I do.”

Zheng Fan drew his cavalry saber.

Truthfully he had wanted to imitate Tian Wujing and draw the weapon directly from the Pixiu’s mouth.

Unfortunately, perhaps the Pixiu beneath him had only recently reached adulthood and its throat was not deep enough.

Or perhaps it simply looked down upon the ordinary saber Zheng Fan currently carried.

Either way the beast refused to swallow it.

Once the saber was drawn, Zheng Fan urged the Pixiu forward.

As he passed one Yan infantry formation, he reached out and snatched a Black Dragon Banner directly from a standard-bearer’s hand.

Now—

Zheng Fan held the saber in his right hand.

The Black Dragon Banner rested across his left shoulder.

Mounted on the Pixiu he galloped before the ranks of the Yan army.

His voice exploded outward:

“THE CHU SLAVES COLLUDED WITH THE SAVAGES!

“THEY INVADED OUR LANDS!

“THEY POISONED THE SOIL OF HUAXIA!

“THEY SLAUGHTERED OUR COMRADES!

“SONS OF YAN AND JIN—

“HOW CAN YOU SIT AND WATCH?!

“I AM ZHENG FAN—

“CHIEF COMMANDER OF SNOW SEA PASS—

“HIS MAJESTY’S ENFEOFFED COUNT PINGYE!

“I ASK THE SONS OF YAN AND JIN—

“FOLLOW ME!

“TAKE REVENGE!”

The words had barely fallen when Zheng Fan swung his saber.

A Chu soldier had just managed to seize back a handful of uncooked rice and was running excitedly toward the others.

Zheng Fan’s blade swept through his neck.

The man’s head flew.

Blood sprayed across Zheng Fan’s armor.

The sight shocked the surrounding Yan soldiers.

It shocked the nearby Chu even more.

Zheng Fan raised the Black Dragon Banner high.

With every scrap of strength in his body he roared:

“ZHENBEI ARMY!

“JINGNAN ARMY!

“RECEIVE ORDERS!”

For a brief moment, the surrounding Yan formations did not react.

But from the diagonal rear more than three thousand cavalrymen under Li Fusheng simultaneously raised their sabers.

Their thunderous voices shook the field:

“TIGER!”

“TIGER!”

“TIGER!”

Zheng Fan thrust the Black Dragon Banner forward.

Then roared:

“FOLLOW ME—

“AND SLAUGHTER EVERY LAST CHU SLAVE!”

————

Starting tomorrow, ten-thousand-character updates resume. Don’t panic!

[End of Chapter 368]