Chapter 528: - Old Bastard

“This Count is tired. All of you, escort this Count into East Mountain Fort so I can rest.”

Zheng Fan was not deliberately putting on a performance.

He truly was exhausted.

He had been killing for so long, and halfway through he had even let the Demon Pill possess him once. The fact that he had lasted until now without collapsing was already remarkable.

Even the Sword Saint’s clothes were soaked with blood. That alone showed how brutal and grinding this battle had been.

He was tired.

Truly tired.

But he still could not sleep.

At the very least, Count Pingye knew perfectly well that he still had value he needed to provide.

Once battle began, tens of thousands of lives on each side were dragged into it. From the men at the bottom all the way to those at the top, no one was spared. Everyone strained with everything he had for one final result.

Either you died or I did.

There was no vague middle ground to choose.

No matter how tired he was, no matter how badly he wanted to sleep, he still had to force himself to hold on.

Earlier, he had used the command carriage and his suit of golden armor to forcibly gather the central army and the broken troops, then smashed them back into the fight. Now Jin Shuke’s inspired stroke had finally caused the Chu before them to begin collapsing.

But the battle itself, or more precisely the overall situation, had not yet truly settled.

The killing and grinding slaughter still had to continue for a while.

Still, dawn had already appeared.

Under the present circumstances, the wind had effectively turned.

Unless the Chu still possessed one untouched fresh army to commit, the longer they remained outside East Mountain Fort, the more awkward their position would become.

At the root of it all, Yan was stronger and Chu was weaker.

That Pillar of State of Great Chu had indeed almost reversed the battle with one unexpected move. But so long as Count Pingye’s side endured and caught its breath, such an inspired stroke could never last forever.

Even if this battle ended in victory, it was destined to be a bloody one for Count Pingye’s side.

But it was worth it.

Whether the price paid for victory was worthwhile depended on the level of the opponent.

The Imperial Clan Guards of Great Chu.

A Pillar of State.

And that Fire-Phoenix Banner.

No matter how one calculated it, they had profited!

“Escort the Count into the fort!”

“Escort the Count into the fort!”

Most of the horses that had originally pulled the command carriage had been killed, wounded, or scattered during the earlier melee.

That did not matter.

Yan soldiers began pushing the carriage forward with human strength.

The great “Zheng” banner still fluttered above it.

Even though the golden-armored figure atop the command carriage was merely sitting there, he still gave those who saw him an impression of towering strength.

Using soldiers to push the command carriage might appear to waste a little manpower on a tense battlefield, but in the larger struggle that handful of men truly meant nothing.

It was like doing business.

You had to invest capital before expecting profit.

The shift in the central battlefield, combined with the renewed advance of the command carriage, told every Yan force still fighting:

The counterattack begins now!

Liang Cheng had always been at Count Pingye’s side, and Tian Wujing had personally given him private instruction as well. Zheng Fan naturally had his own understanding of the battlefield before him.

The hardest moment had already passed.

Earlier, the Chu tactic of splitting their army, peeling away the outer layers like an onion, then searching for the center and trying to solve everything with one decisive blow had created an enormous advantage for them for a very long time.

But now, that same tactic had dug their own grave in advance.

After Jin Shuke’s cavalry smashed open one section of the battlefield, he personally raised his banner and charged back out.

Yan riders who had also rapidly disengaged from the fighting followed him.

Even farther away, scattered Yan cavalry who had been fighting their own separate battles instinctively began gathering beneath his banner the moment they saw it.

Once upon a time, Jin Shuke had been nothing more than one ordinary convict soldier.

His birth could hardly have been lower.

At first, he could not even speak the Xia language.

When Zheng Fan was stationed at Cuiliu Fort and marched south on one of his military adventures, Jin Shuke had accompanied him into a Qian stockade.

That stockade had been less a fort than a henhouse.

That night, Jin Shuke noticed one detail.

When Zheng Fan’s gaze swept across the Barbarian soldiers staring at the women there with undisguised instinctive hunger, something dark had flashed through the Count’s eyes.

So later, after Jin Shuke became captain of a city gate guard and finally possessed the means to choose otherwise, he still insisted on marrying a Savage woman.

No one was born a fool.

And even fools could distinguish beauty from ugliness.

Back in Shengle City, Savage women were the lowest slaves.

In the red tents, they were the cheapest class as well.

Jin women were obviously cleaner and had better skin.

A thousand arguments aside, for a Barbarian to marry a Xia woman was itself something worth boasting about.

But Jin Shuke still chose otherwise.

All because of that faint trace of dislike Zheng Fan had shown beside a campfire one night.

A wolf in the pack watched and studied the preferences of the Wolf King.

There was nothing shameful about that.

Nothing humiliating either.

And now, that insignificant little figure from years ago had survived the bloody attrition of the Barbarian convict tribes and survived military adventure after military adventure under Count Pingye.

He had endured until today.

At last, it was his turn to use his own strength to help the Wolf King forcibly change the course of an entire battle.

Unfortunately, Jin Shuke had no attention left to spare for the excitement of his own transformation.

He still had too much work to do.

Under his command, the cavalry kept cutting across the field, circling, then stabbing into one battle cluster after another.

He became a cord that forcibly reconnected a battlefield that had been divided into countless separate pieces.

At the same time, he was like a needle-blade.

Each time he stabbed, he struck exactly where the Chu found it hardest to endure.

He never stayed for long.

Yet every strike made the Chu bleed.

As the command carriage moved faster and faster, as Yan troops established local superiority in more and more sections of the battlefield, as Chu determination was stripped away layer by layer, and finally as troops from the three rear camps rushed forward to reinforce them, the entire Chu situation collapsed.

Victory or defeat ultimately rested on one breath.

If the enemy kept his breath and you failed to renew yours, you could only swallow the bitter result.

Shi Yuantang still stood on his bronze war chariot.

He did not rage.

He did not stamp his feet and curse.

Around him gathered several Chu units that had come to protect him earlier, together with more and more remnants that had collapsed back toward his position.

They had lost.

They were defeated.

The Pillar of State of Chu let out a long breath.

Only half an hour earlier, he had still been full of confidence.

He had thought the Great Yan Count Pingye opposite him was simply too young.

Even now, he still believed Count Pingye was too hot-blooded and impulsive, unsuited to the true Way of a commander.

He still believed Zheng Fan’s refusal to withdraw temporarily, choosing instead to force his way forward against the tide, had been a deeply irresponsible military gamble.

Even though

Shi Yuantang had lost.

In his view, the Yan had won by luck.

And he himself had lost by luck.

The fact remained that Yan had been the attacking side from the beginning.

They already possessed most of the larger strategic advantages.

Yet in the end, they had still needed to gamble lives and stake everything merely to scrape out a dangerous victory.

In Shi Yuantang’s eyes, why?

Why bother?

How could affairs of army and state be handled with such emotion?

What he did not know was that Count Pingye had simply gotten carried away.

What he knew even less was that in Count Pingye’s eyes, affairs of army and state truly could not outweigh one simple sentence:

Because I fucking felt like it.

Shi Yuantang sat down again.

One of the soldiers controlling the bronze chariot looked back at the Pillar of State, hesitated, then chose to drive the chariot toward a breakout.

East Mountain Fort could no longer be returned to.

If the Chu army had shattered the Yan center as planned and seized that brief victory, there would naturally have been enough time afterward to clean the Yan off the walls of East Mountain Fort.

But now, that section of wall had already fallen completely into Yan hands.

The Yan had not yet fully seized the fort itself, but even if Shi Yuantang returned inside, the Yan army would soon kill its way in after him.

That would merely mean locking himself in a smaller cage and waiting for Yan to come catch him.

Why bother?

As for breaking out, Shi Yuantang held almost no hope.

The fighting here had continued for so long and created such an enormous disturbance that it was impossible for every other Yan force in the surrounding region to remain unaware.

They might not be able to rush an entire relief army over immediately.

But once his remnants escaped, those nearby Yan forces would have little trouble helping block his path.

Ultimately, after Central Mountain Camp fell, the Chu south of Zhennan Pass had completely lost their ability to conceal battlefield movements.

They had lost what initiative remained to them as well.

Shi Yuantang quietly removed his helmet.

He gave no instructions about where his men should flee or which direction they should take.

He merely began combing the white hair at his temples with his fingers.

Elsewhere across the field, Jin Shuke was not the only man pulling the battle back together.

Very soon, Liang Cheng gathered another force, raised his own banners, and began coordinating the overall situation as well.

The Yan had survived the most agonizing stage of the struggle.

Their very nature meant that once they gained the wind at their backs, the advantage became enormous.

Especially when the enemy had already begun collapsing.

...

On the command carriage, Count Pingye sat with his eyes closed.

His ears, however, continued listening to the noises around him.

He wanted desperately to sleep.

He did not dare actually fall asleep.

His consciousness wandered constantly along the border of haze and confusion.

He could hear the breathing of the soldiers pushing the command carriage.

He could hear screams from farther away.

From those sounds alone, he could roughly judge the situation directly ahead.

It should be going very well.

He should probably be able to truly sleep now.

He bit the tip of his tongue.

Pain forced a little clarity back into his head.

Zheng Fan opened his eyes.

His gaze was hazy and slightly confused as he seriously scanned his surroundings.

Yan banners still fluttered everywhere.

Very few Chu banners remained.

A’Ming was searching his own body for any small weapons still lodged in it.

Without looking up, he said:

“Master, if you’re tired, sleep for a while. From where this subordinate stands, the situation has been settled. A’Cheng is back on his feet as well. With him and Jin Shuke both operating, the Chu cannot stir up another wave.”

Count Pingye’s eyelids immediately began drooping again.

The Sword Saint, sitting cross-legged nearby and recovering his qi, spoke at that moment.

“The skilled archer in the Chu army may still be alive.”

Count Pingye’s eyelids forced themselves open again.

“The pills still there?” Zheng Fan asked A’Ming.

A’Ming felt around, then found a small bottle.

“Lucky. Somehow this bottle didn’t break.”

Inside were pills Xue San had concocted back at Snow Sea Pass.

They did not grant immortality.

They were made from several medicinal herbs mixed with minerals and even a certain amount of metal.

Their effect was comparable to Five-Mineral Powder, but the side effects were not as severe.

Naturally, consuming too much would still ruin the body.

But using one occasionally to force the mind awake and squeeze out some extra potential was not much of a problem.

After all, everyone in later generations knew that heavy oil, heavy spice, and heavy salt were unhealthy.

People still happily demolished barbecue skewers anyway.

The pill was red.

Count Pingye tossed it into his mouth and swallowed.

The Sword Saint saw this and said:

“Better not to take things like that unless you have to.”

Every high-level cultivator cared obsessively for the condition of his own body.

The Sword Saint did.

Tian Wujing did too.

Old Tian had once warned Zheng Fan that tobacco was bad for his health.

Zheng Fan smiled after swallowing the pill.

“I don’t take them normally. I just need to finish dealing with everything in front of me. Once this battle is completely settled, I can sleep for three days and three nights.”

The pill worked extremely well.

Count Pingye’s energy returned very quickly.

Along with it came a strange kind of excitement.

Order after order began leaving the command carriage.

In truth, none of them were some brilliant strategic instruction aimed at reversing the battle.

They were mostly adjustments to the different sections of the field.

Even if the commander had said nothing, any regional officer with half a brain should already have known to make those same adjustments.

Count Pingye understood that perfectly well.

But he still insisted on having the orders carried out personally.

The purpose was to tell every section of the army:

Their Count was still perfectly fine.

That alone steadied morale.

By now, as the Chu collapse spread, only two places could still truly be called active battlefields.

At one point, broken Chu troops were instinctively fleeing toward East Mountain Fort.

In their minds, safety existed behind walls.

And safety was exactly what they craved most desperately now.

Jin Shuke was leading cavalry in pursuit from behind, like wolves driving a flock of sheep.

The northern gate of East Mountain Fort suddenly opened.

A huge number of fleeing Chu immediately rushed toward it.

Then, without mercy, the gate closed again.

That single opening and closing crushed the heart of the Chu remnants.

More than half the men fleeing toward the fort lost all hope.

They simply dropped to their knees and surrendered, begging to live.

A smaller number still tried fleeing elsewhere.

Some, stubborn to the point of idiocy, tried making for other gates in the hope of entering the fort.

Others wanted only to escape this whole region and run as far as possible.

But now that the Yan had survived the hardest stage and launched their full counterattack, they finally had room to display their skill at mounted archery.

Those Chu trying to flee merely provided one more hunting game.

Unlike Count Pingye, whose body had been forcibly hollowed out by Demon Pill possession, ordinary soldiers could ignore the exhaustion of their bodies while victory stood before them.

Excitement carried them onward.

The Chu, by contrast, found despair making every ache and burden in their bodies heavier.

The so-called hunt was, in truth, one-sided slaughter.

The Yan blades naturally showed no mercy to any Chu unwilling to surrender.

The fiercer the earlier Chu offensive had been, and the harder the Yan had been pressed, the heavier the fury accumulated inside the Yan soldiers now became.

If Jin Shuke had not expressly forbidden indiscriminate slaughter, even the Chu kneeling and begging for life might have been harvested by Yan soldiers whose eyes were already red from killing.

In this battle, not killing prisoners was correct.

That did not mean the Prince of Jingnan had been wrong when he ordered the prisoners killed below Yupan City.

Had those prisoners not been slaughtered then, Chu would now have possessed one additional elite Azure Luan Army and one Pillar of State still in the prime of life.

When Count Pingye broke through Central Mountain Camp earlier, he captured many Baipu soldiers.

The Prince of Jingnan had taken quite a number of them, then released them in batches so they could flee back toward the various military forts and camps, even toward Zhennan Pass.

The message was deliberate.

Surrender in this war, and you can still live.

If the Chu were driven into absolute desperation and became determined to fight to the death, Yan would have to pay much more heavily.

This branch of Chu troops was nearly finished.

Those still escaping amounted to nothing more than scattered cats and dogs.

They could simply be hunted down.

The second unresolved point was the bronze chariot.

Shi Yuantang’s personal guards wanted to protect their Pillar of State and break through.

But broken Chu soldiers kept flooding toward that position.

Some shouted that they had come to protect the Pillar of State.

In reality, they clogged the bronze chariot so badly it could barely move.

The still-organized Chu troops near the chariot wanted to draw their sabers and cut a road through their own men.

Shi Yuantang personally stopped them.

Standing on the chariot, the old man looked around.

On the perimeter, Liang Cheng had already brought troops to surround them completely.

If reinforcements existed outside, the Chu might still have been able to charge out or form ranks and continue delaying.

There were enormous numbers of broken troops nearby.

If Shi Yuantang wished, his status as Pillar of State was still enough to suppress and organize them.

In truth, that was exactly what the broken soldiers wanted.

They themselves had already panicked.

They had fled here precisely in search of someone who could coordinate them.

But Shi Yuantang knew perfectly well in his heart:

There would be no reinforcements.

His force had itself effectively existed as reinforcement.

East Mountain Fort was only one section of the entire Yan-Chu battlefield.

Farther outward, Yan forces were stationed and moving everywhere.

Yan mounted scouts and patrols had completely covered the region.

For reinforcements to secretly approach and suddenly appear here was impossible.

The soldiers and officers were all waiting.

Waiting for one man to make a decision.

And in this situation, there were really only two decisions available.

Shi Yuantang spoke.

“This old man wishes to meet Great Yan’s Count Pingye.”

...

The bronze chariot remained where it was.

Around it stood the surrounding Chu troops.

They were frightened.

They were uneasy.

Because facing them were Yan soldiers wearing obvious, mocking smiles.

The old man who should have been standing on the bronze chariot was no longer there.

Everyone knew perfectly well what he had gone to do.

The Chu troops were forcing themselves to hold together while they waited for the Pillar of State to return from negotiations.

The Yan were likewise suppressing their exhaustion and holding on to their last breath while they waited for their Count’s military order.

After passing through line after line of Yan soldiers, Shi Yuantang, alone, finally stepped onto Count Pingye’s command carriage.

He saw Zheng Fan sitting in the commander’s seat.

The golden armor covering Zheng Fan was caked with blood.

His face was flushed.

After such a battle, there was not the slightest trace of exhaustion on his expression.

Instead, he carried an excitement that could barely be restrained.

Young.

So young.

High-spirited and overflowing with vigor.

Shi Yuantang sighed.

He envied the spirit of this young Great Yan Count.

A commander like this might one day lose precisely because of that same temperament.

But before that day came, Heaven alone knew how many opponents would fall beneath his blade.

Shi Yuantang himself was now one of them.

He did not kneel.

He was a Pillar of State of Great Chu.

He possessed his own dignity.

Even now, he would not deliberately bend his waist.

But he still smiled.

He cupped his hands toward Zheng Fan.

“Greetings... Imperial Son-in-Law.”

Chu people liked calling Zheng Fan “Imperial Son-in-Law.”

Especially Chu men who had been defeated by him.

Perhaps addressing him that way made him feel a little more like “one of us” and reduced some of the awkwardness of two men belonging to enemy states.

Count Pingye, still high from the pill, remained in a state of strange excitement.

He lowered his head slightly.

One hand supported his chin while his fingers rubbed the stubble that had grown because he had neglected grooming recently.

“Pillar of State?”

“This old man is Great Chu’s Pillar of State, Shi Yuantang.”

Zheng Fan raised his other hand.

He did not feel like hearing too much courtesy or introduction right now.

He asked directly:

“You’ve come to surrender?”

Shi Yuantang nodded.

“This old man lost. I ask Count Pingye to give these sons of Chu a road to life.”

Count Pingye blinked.

He pointed at Shi Yuantang.

“If you know you lost, why aren’t you kneeling? A defeated commander should look like a defeated commander.”

“This old man is already advanced in years. I had hoped...”

“You want some dignity?”

The overexcited Count Pingye immediately answered for him.

“Yes.”

“Dignity exists when I give it to you. It is not something you ask me for and I am obligated to provide. I don’t want to give you that dignity. You nearly got this Count killed with that little performance just now. I don’t even know how many sons under my command died in the fighting. Sorry. I can’t give you dignity. Kneel.”

“Count Pingye, a gentleman may be killed but not humiliated. This old man never intended to live anyway. I only ask the Count to show a man already facing death...”

“Three counts. If you are not kneeling by then, every Chu prisoner today will be killed without exception.”

“Three.”

“Two.”

“This old man pays respects to Count Pingye.”

Shi Yuantang knelt.

There was no humiliation or hatred on his face.

Instead, he smiled like an elder looking at a mischievous junior.

That smile immediately irritated Zheng Fan.

Shi Yuantang said:

“Count Pingye, you fought this battle too impatiently. In this old man’s opinion, you should have withdrawn when the situation first turned. That would have been the safest choice.”

“You’re teaching me how to fight?” Zheng Fan looked as though he had just heard something absurd. He pointed at Shi Yuantang. “A defeated general who just lost to me, kneeling in front of me right now, wants to become my teacher?”

A’Ming lowered his head and looked at the medicine bottle in his hand.

Mm.

The drug was surprisingly strong.

Master was absolutely flying.

The Sword Saint, sitting cross-legged nearby and recovering his energy, could not help looking at Zheng Fan several extra times as well.

Normally, Zheng Fan was actually very skilled at dealing with people.

He knew when to be arrogant.

He knew when to pull it back.

His behavior was usually measured.

Under ordinary circumstances, he would never have pressed a defeated enemy commander this aggressively.

Then the Sword Saint noticed Zheng Fan’s reddened eyes and could only shake his head slightly.

They truly were fortunate that the pill had been made by Xue San and differed greatly from Five-Mineral Powder, with ingredients added specifically to neutralize some of the harsher effects.

Otherwise, one heavy dose might have sent Count Pingye the way of those uninhibited Qian literati: stripping off his armor and running naked through armies of thousands, ecstatically enjoying the breeze against his skin.

Count Pingye himself did not feel especially abnormal.

He simply felt excited, slightly dizzy, and far too lazy to bother speaking in circles.

Shi Yuantang shook his head.

“Some things still need to be said. Count Pingye achieved success while young. You should learn restraint and composure. Tian Wujing may look down upon all beneath Heaven while on the battlefield, but outside the battlefield, when has he ever truly gone around setting great fires everywhere? This old man knelt for two reasons. First, to ask for a chance at life for the sons beneath my command. Second, to buy myself the opportunity to speak with you, Count Pingye.”

Zheng Fan tapped his fingers against the armrest of the commander’s seat.

“Fine. Speak.”

“This old man lost this battle for three reasons. First, I did not have much cavalry. Once I used what I had to tie down the cavalry Count Pingye placed on the two wings of the gates, I possessed no remaining room to maneuver. From the beginning, mine was a single-strike gamble. Second, one can see that Count Pingye’s soldiers are not practiced at infantry battle. At the very least, they are not accustomed to forming tight ranks and fighting on foot. But they are individually fierce, willing to fight, and willing to fight to the death. Especially after Count Pingye personally pressed forward, they somehow endured the pressure of my Great Chu battle lines. They held. They resisted. They refused to break. Third, that cavalry force appearing at the end. This old man does not know whether Count Pingye positioned them there in advance or whether their commander made the decision himself. Either way, he used one small cavalry force as the lever that moved a thousand catties, and in the end caused my Chu army to collapse.”

Jin Shuke’s cavalry had been like two strongmen locked in a stalemate when a third person suddenly appeared and tickled one of them.

The comparison sounded novel, but it was extremely accurate.

Its effect had been even better.

Both Liang Cheng and Zheng Fan understood perfectly well that the foremost merit in this battle belonged to Jin Shuke.

After listening to this Great Chu Pillar of State ramble for so long, Zheng Fan simply said:

“Back when this Count was only a Garrison Commander, an elder brother in the army once taught me something. He said war is nothing more than strong soldiers and sturdy horses.”

Shi Yuantang nodded slightly.

“Those four words are extremely apt.”

Ultimately, Zheng Fan’s soldiers had possessed higher quality.

He also had more horses than the Chu.

The sudden Chu counterattack had caught the Yan completely unprepared.

But once they recovered, the cavalry strength Yan could still mobilize made the Chu situation extraordinarily uncomfortable.

In truth, had Shi Yuantang possessed another cavalry force beside him at the time, he might already have sent it to perform the same role Jin Shuke later played.

If that had happened, the Yan would unquestionably have collapsed first.

But there was no such thing as if.

Shi Yuantang continued:

“Indeed. If one puts aside the difference between commanders and stratagems, and neither side makes a mistake, then that is exactly how it is.”

“Finished?” Zheng Fan asked.

Shi Yuantang nodded.

“This old man has finished.”

“Then have them throw down their weapons and surrender. I guarantee their lives. There should still be some Chu soldiers inside East Mountain Fort. Calm them down as well.”

“Yes, Count.”

Shi Yuantang rose.

He walked down from the command carriage of his own accord.

Then he went before the surrounded Chu troops.

The battlefield wind stirred the old Pillar of State’s white hair and beard.

The Chu soldiers all looked at him with hope.

Men were not grass or trees.

Once their courage and momentum had truly been shattered, once the hot blood drained away, it was inevitable that they would begin fearing death and longing to survive.

That was normal.

Perfectly normal.

Shi Yuantang smiled.

Then he turned his head and looked back at the golden-armored figure atop the command carriage.

There were some things very few people knew.

The Regent truly had never maintained any relationship with the Shi Clan before taking power.

But the Fourth Princess was Shi Yuantang’s god-granddaughter.

The old Pillar of State genuinely adored that girl.

So he could hardly resist coming here to see his god-grandson-in-law.

It seemed, however, that the girl had never mentioned him to this Yan Count.

That was natural too.

Who could have imagined the two men would meet like this, here?

Looking at him now, the young man truly had too much edge.

Too much.

...

Count Pingye had no idea he had just been misunderstood.

The medicine was still working.

He stood of his own accord and walked to the front of the command carriage.

He had won this battle.

The price had been heavy.

But worth it.

After taking East Mountain Fort, adding another military achievement to his record was the smaller benefit.

More importantly, the eastern army group under Count Pingye would finally gain time to breathe and recover.

The lost soldiers needed replacing, did they not?

The weapons and equipment needed replenishing, did they not?

The horses needed replacing too, did they not?

So long as you could win battles, and win them decisively, none of those things were problems.

You could straighten your back while asking the rear for men, horses, and equipment.

No one could object.

And considering his relationship with the Prince of Jingnan... heh.

Central Mountain Camp.

Then East Mountain Fort.

For a while now, he could sit in the rear, recuperate, fish around, and watch other people fight.

It was like the best student in class finishing the exam early, then leisurely admiring the miserable expressions of classmates still scratching their heads over the questions.

That would be extremely comfortable.

The Blind Man could go home.

The Fourth Lady could come over and take charge of logistics while straightening out the relationship between his own troops and the other two armies.

At that moment, Count Pingye heard Shi Yuantang’s voice from ahead.

The old man was roaring with what sounded like absolute fury.

“This old man threw away every last shred of face and knelt before that Count, begging him to spare all of you! But that Count refused! He said he would slaughter every one of us, just like the Azure Luan Army beneath Yupan City, to strengthen the prestige of Yan! This old man is useless. I cannot protect all of you. This old man will go first!”

The instant he finished, Shi Yuantang suddenly reached out and snatched the saber from a Yan soldier standing beside him.

Without the slightest hesitation, he drew the blade across his own throat.

The saber fell.

The old man collapsed.

The Chu troops trapped in the center immediately erupted in furious roars.

“Fuck his mother! The Yan won’t give us a road to live!”

“Fight the Yan dogs!”

“Avenge the old Pillar of State!”

Liang Cheng silently raised his saber.

Then gave the order.

“Kill.”

Yan cavalry lowered their weapons.

And charged.

...

In the distance, Count Pingye stood atop the command carriage and stared at the old figure collapsed in a pool of blood.

His lips moved.

Then he cursed:

“Old bastard.”

[End of Chapter 528]