Chapter 550: Chapter 550. Death Has Arrived
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
The capital
Qian Jinhai still didn’t know that his time of death had come. He handed over the work assigned by the Emperor to the person in the backyard, and he went to the most famous Hundred Flowers Pavilion in the capital at night.
The girls of the Hundred Flowers Pavilion were all as beautiful as fairies. They were good at playing zither, chess, calligraphy, and painting. Most importantly, they were understanding and docile like kittens.
He fell in love with her after going there once, and he had to report to her almost every night. Even though he had the Emperor’s orders now, it still could not stop his thoughts of going to the flowers.
In any case, the refined iron that he needed was not in place yet so he would be happy one day at a time.
Qian Jinhai enjoyed the tender feelings of the girls at the Hundred Flowers Pavilion. He was bathed in the fragrance of the flowers when he returned home. Tonight, Miss Cuihong pulled him to drink. He especially liked this little pepper. He drank too much without stopping and fell asleep in the sedan chair. Just as they left the Hundred Flowers Pavilion and turned a street, the coachman and two guards were shot by poisonous sleeve arrows. Before they could react, they were poisoned to death. Qian Jinhai, in the sedan chair, was awakened by the sound of something heavy falling. He lifted the curtain and looked outside.
“What’s wrong?”
Before he could finish his sentence, he was shot in the throat by a sleeve arrow. A few men in black fell in front of him. Qian Jinhai fell off the carriage, his eyes widened, and his body twitched a few times. He died unwillingly.
The man in black left immediately after killing the people. Only the carriage and four corpses were left in the quiet alley.
In the middle of the night, the bodies were found. An urgent gong sound attracted the patrolling soldiers and brought the four bodies back to the government office.
Wan Yulin knew that Qian Jinhai had been killed after daybreak. When he heard that Qian Jinhai was dead, Wan Yulin was furious. Who would help him with a killing machine?
When Wan Yulin requested a thorough investigation, the capital’s magistrate was very busy. He investigated all of Qian Jinhai’s whereabouts. Last night, he stayed at the Hundred Flowers Pavilion until midnight. During that time, he had a conflict with Minister Lu’s son. At that time, Minister Lu’s son said’he wanted to teach Qian Jinhai a lesson.
Coincidentally, this Minister Lu was an old official of the previous dynasty. He was discreet and neutral, so he survived the political changes.
This time, his son had destroyed his father. Wan Yulin’s suspicious personality immediately thought Minister Lu was pretending to submit to him and waiting for an opportunity to avenge the previous Emperor.
Minister Lu was in trouble at home. He never dreamed that his son would destroy his painstaking efforts to avoid the change of dynasty.
Minister Lu’s entire family was raided, and young women were forced to become official prostitutes. In the past, they were the ones who played with other people’s daughters. Now, it was their turn to be played by others. This could be considered retribution.
The men of the Lu family were all taken to the crossroads and beheaded None of them were left alive. The officials in the court were all in danger. They did not know when the Emperor’s guillotine would fall on their necks.
The capital’s magistrate also found out an essential piece of information. A person was hiding in the backyard of Qian Jinhai’s house. This person was locked in the house by him and was very mysterious.
Wan Yulin’s mood was greatly boosted when he found out. He immediately ordered the news to be sealed, and no one was allowed to know about the existence of this mysterious person.
Xiao Zeyu received news from the capital that the target was dead. After reading the secret report, he finally heaved a sigh of relief.
As long as Qin Tie was dead, Wan Yulin would not be able to make the mortar, and they would have a 50% chance of success in attacking the capital.
Five days later, Jingshi Dao and Mo City’s soldiers came to report to Luo City. Cheng Yu and Yan Shikuan only left a small portion of their soldiers to defend the city. In contrast, most of their soldiers were sent to Luo City to assist the Young Lord in attacking the capital.
In the past few days, they had recruited more than a thousand soldiers. Adding on all the soldiers from the city and those from Jingshi Dao and Mo City, the Xiao Family Army had more than ten thousand soldiers for the first time.
On the training ground, the flags fluttered, and morale soared. When the soldiers heard that they would attack the capital, they were all in high spirits, their eyes shining with determination.
The day had finally arrived. Young Master wanted to lead them to a new world. Xiao Zeyu wanted to take command personally. Zhang Jinglin was the left vanguard, Zhong Yong was the right vanguard, and ten other generals were promoted. Yang Zhi brought his bodyguards to be the grain officer.
This was Yang Zhi’s first time following the army to battle, and he was very excited. Those escorts also felt that escorting grain was more exciting than escorting the most expensive escorts in the past, giving them a sense of honor.
Su Qing’s ten guards were promoted. They were promoted from vegetable farmers to cannoneers. Each of them was responsible for one mortar. The cannoneers were all veterans of the Xiao Family Army to ensure their loyalty. Su Qing had trained them for five days to ensure they could fire accurately. Cannons were precious and could not be wasted. They had to hit every shot. She also wanted to follow Xiao Zeyu to attack the capital, but Xiao Zeyu refused but let her stay in Luo City to help him recruit troops and stabilize the rear.
Su Qmg knew the front line was necessary, but the rear was equally important. Otherwise, what if they went to the front line to fight and their nest was destroyed?
If the army was going to fight, healing medicine was a must. Su Qing had prepared a full cart of medicine for injuries. In addition, every soldier was given medicine to treat external wounds and hemostatic medicine to protect them as much as possible.
After sending Xiao Zeyu away, Su Qing stayed in Luo City and began to recruit soldiers. She trained new soldiers, selected good generals, collected rations, made medicine, and received reports from the front line. She was busy from morning till night. Only at night could she go to the shed.
War was a long-lasting matter that required a large amount of financial support. Fighting a war was like burning money.
Su Qing and Xiao Zeyu had enough money to last them for three years, let alone a year.
Xiao Zeyu led the Xiao Family Army with unstoppable momentum, taking down three cities in a row. What made him the most excited was taking down Yan City.
People who did not eat salt had no strength. As the name suggested, Ysn City was a place that produced salt. The salt lakes of the past dynasties belonged to the imperial court. Being a salt official was a lucrative job. Taking down Salt City meant cutting off an economic bloodline of the imperial court.
At the same time, taking down Yan City could also ensure that the army had enough salt to eat. It would not be to the extent that the soldiers would be weak and powerless in battle.
Su Qing smiled when he received Xiao Zeyu’s report. At this rate, they could take down the capital before June.
At that time, she would have given birth. The child would be able to witness her father’s rise to power.
Wan Yulin received battle reports from the frontlines every day, and they were all reports of defeat, defeat, defeat…
The national treasury had expended a considerable amount of silver, and it seemed that it would not be able to make ends meet. The concubines and princes in the palace were all restricted from spending their monthly silver and asked to save money. However, even if these concubines did not spend a single cent, the silver they saved would not be enough for the army to spend in a day. Wan Yulin became more and more irritable and moody. Countless eunuchs and palace maids who served him were killed. When they heard that they were going to serve the Emperor in Yangxin Palace Hall, some timid palace maids hanged themselves.
Wan Yulin lost his patience. He was the True Dragon Son of Heaven. How could he allow the Xiao family’s child to violate the heavenly might repeatedly? He decided to personally lead the army and choose Shanhai City to fight Xiao Zeyu, where he would destroy the Xiao Family Army.
He sat in the bedroom with a gloomy face and ordered the eunuch to pass on the adherent.
“Bring that person to me..”