ChangNing’s Imperial Army - Chapter 134

Chapter 134 – Two Rabbits

The deck of the ship was stained with blood. Shen Leng’s men separated Bai Shangnian’s men and kept them on the outside. Hence, they could not get to him in time to save him. The headless corpse swayed for a brief moment before collapsing onto the ground, next to his long lance.

Shen Leng jumped into the water and saved Gu Le. Gu Le’s wound on his left shoulder was too big, and he had been submerged in the water for quite a while, making him look extremely weak. Shen Leng got some men to send him back to Yanping Island on a Wu Gong boat to look for the military physician to provide critical care for him. Thereafter, he brought the rest of the men with him and headed towards the fleet – his fleet.

At this moment, the men that Shen Leng brought with him were in an extremely dangerous predicament. The combat soldiers of the three Garrison B regiments had been glaring like a tiger watching its prey. Earlier on, when Shen Leng was not around, they used boarding the ships to participate in the drill as an excuse. Their people boarded every ship. In other words, They had more people in every ship, as compared to Shen Leng’s men.

In Shen Leng’s Fu Bo ship, General Wang Gendong brought some men to retreat and defend the bow of the ship. The three generals of the three Garrison B regiments were on that ship. They were originally planning to kill Shen Leng, but Shen Leng was not around.

On the ship, Hei Yan asked Shen Leng, “If you go back now, how can you stop those three people, as well as thousands of combat soldiers?”

“Even if I can’t stop them, I still have to do it. My people are there, I cannot abandon them.”

Shen Leng took a deep breath. He commanded the ship to approach Fu Bo. Once both ships were close to one another, Shen Leng leapt up and jumped directly onto Fu Bo. He drew his sword and stood in front of Wang Gendong.

Thereafter, Shen Leng tossed the head in his hand onto the ground – Bai Shangnian’s head.

The moment Ma Ji and the other two men saw Bai Shangnian’s head, they exploded. The three of them yelled at the same time, and their faces were ashen in an instant.

“What else do the three of you want to do?”

Shen Leng lifted his black cord sword and pointed it at the three of them. “Bai Shangnian has already been executed. You still dare to rebel?”

Ma Ji bellowed, “I will kill you and avenge the general!”

“Anybody who comes forward shall die!”

Shen Leng swept his black cord sword across, creating a ray of cold blade light, forcing Ma Ji to retreat. “Do you really think that nobody knows what your General Bai did? He tried colluding with the official registrar of the Navy, Dou Huainan, and brought the water bandits into Yanping Island in an attempt to assassinate the Navy’s commander, General Zhuang Yong. Right now, every single one of those water bandits is currently being massacred. Your general’s head is right here. If all of you dare to take another step forward, it will be considered treason!”

The last word was like a sudden clap of thunder – the three of them including Ma Ji were stunned and did not dare to advance.

“Bai Shangnian was a dumb fool. He thought that he had already managed to bribe Dou Huainan. However, Dou Huainan reported everything he did. Do you know why the Navy’s drill is held in Yanping Island? It’s a pit that we dug for Bai Shangnian, waiting for him to jump right into it by himself. If he tried to do anything, it would be a huge crime, deeming him a rebel, causing him and his family to be executed. And you should know very well that in crimes as such, there is no such thing as accomplices. Everybody involved is considered guilty to the same degree. Great Ning’s military laws are intolerant of people like you. General Zhuang gave an order that if Garrison B’s soldiers were to be well-behaved and observe the rules, he will not consider all of you to be as guilty as Bai Shangnian of said crime.”

He took a deep breath before continuing, “If you keep fighting, the three of you might not be able to keep your lives. Even if I were to die, I will drag all three of you to hell with me. By then, I will be Great Ning’s hero, a model soldier within the military, while the three of you will get your entire family executed and forever be humiliated. In front of your names, there will be one word – ‘traitor’!”

Ma Ji and the other two men looked at each other in dismay. For a moment, they were truly scared by what Shen Leng said. Furthermore, Bai Shangnian’s head was sitting on the ground right there. Their initial anger and hatred had dissipated a fair bit. All of them were fearful.

Shen Leng pointed to the bank. “Take your men and camp by the bank. General Zhuang will naturally speak on your behalf. Now that Bai Shangnian is dead, it might not necessarily be a bad thing for all of you. Since he’s dead, who else will know who he conspired with and established contract with what people? His Majesty will not casually dismiss a whole garrison of combat soldiers. If I were you, I would be thinking about how to deal with the interrogation from the Commandant of Justice’s men.”

Ma Ji took a step back. “Are you sure that General Zhuang will not kill us?”

“If General Zhuang wanted to do that, I would not be trying to advise you right now. If everything goes according to plan, at this moment, the combat soldiers from Hedong, Hesu and Hebei are almost here. It’s just that Bai Shangnian suddenly pushed his plans forward, all the combat soldiers could not rush here in time. Behave yourselves.”

Naturally, the part about the combat soldiers coming over was a lie.

st themselves as they discussed for a good amount of time. Thereafter, they cupped their fists towards Shen Leng. “We absolutely had no idea what Bai Shangnian was colluding. Earlier on, we acted that way towards you because we did not know what he conspired. We misunderstood and thought that the Navy brothers harmed General Bai out of bad intentions. We will take our men over to the bank to camp there now. I hope that we can meet with General Zhuang Yong as soon as possible.”

“You will be able to meet with General Zhuang very soon.”

Shen Leng’s back was breaking into a cold sweat. He was facing combat soldiers of three regiments from Garrison B, who were well-trained and equipped with the best quality equipment. If they were up against water bandits, even if there were ten times more people, Shen Leng would not be afraid either. However, they were combat soldiers like him. If they ended up engaging in a battle, it would be too dangerous; the odds of success were too low. Even if they won out of luck, most of his men would end up dying.

Ma Ji and the two men passed down orders to their soldiers. The bugle sounded and the three regiments of combat soldiers got off the ship before they were arrayed by the bank. Shen Leng immediately ordered the fleet to advance towards Yanping Island.

“Impressive.”

Hei Yan lowered his head and looked at the wound on his shoulder. He was in such great pain that his eyebrow was twitching. “This battle of words was even more exhausting than the physical battle we had earlier on.”

Shen Leng replied, “Yeah…my back is drenched in sweat.”

Hei Yan laughed, “But you truly know how to tell a good story. Dou Huainan works for General Zhuang…you actually managed to think of saying that. Otherwise, those three fellas would not have trusted you that easily.”

Shen Leng said, “Dou Huainan truly works for Zhuang Yong.”

Hei Yan was stunned. “You were not kidding?”

Shen Leng’s tone was slightly cold, “I just found out about it too.”

Hei Yan stiffened up. His face became paler and paler. “In that case, my brother’s death…wouldn’t it be…wouldn’t it be…”

He looked at Shen Leng. “How can this happen?!”

Shen Leng held onto the railing of the ship. His face turned slightly pale as well. “There are some things we have no influence over, and have no idea about. Your brother did what he thought was worthwhile, and Zhuang Yong did not know your brother was planted next to Bai Shangnian. Also, your brother did not know that Dou Huainian being bribed was a setup that Bai Shangnian created right from the start. He also did not know about a bigger setup, which was His Majesty’s plan to take action and that he was not intending to use only one or two people. Right now…it seems like the entire thing cannot be continued.”

Hei Yan looked as if his soul had left his body. He looked like a block of wood falling to the ground. He muttered to himself, “My brother, my brother, died for nothing?”

Shen Leng stood next to Hei Yan; all sorts of feelings welled up in his heart. Originally, he did not want to tell Hei Yan about this, but he also knew that ultimately, it was impossible for him to hide it from him eventually.

This setup was not put in place by Zhuang Yong – it was His Majesty.

The emperor of Great Ning. He was the supreme emperor who could do anything with just a thought. His thought alone could kill anyone.

Hei Yan’s brother died an unfair death, and his death was not worth anything. But who could change that fact?

At the bottom of Mount Hulu, Dou Huainan ran over in a frenzy. He kept yelling at the general to be careful, telling him to leave quickly. The two soldiers blocking Zhuang Yong looked at each other and opened up a gap in the formation. After Dou Huainan charged in, he bent over and gasped for air. All of a sudden, he took out a dagger from his sleeve. A ray of cold light appeared all of a sudden.

The dagger was not aimed at Zhuang Yong, but the two soldiers that gave way to him.

Nobody expected a civil officer, who ran like a clumsy duck, to be that skilled. He turned around and stabbed one soldier in the lower back and twisted it twice before pulling it out and stabbing the other man in the neck. He pulled it out and stabbed him in the neck again, three times in total.

The first soldier had not died; he turned his head around and looked at Dou Huainan. His hengdao had already been unsheathed. The original plan was when Dou Huainan attacked Zhuang Yong, they would pretend to defend him, before launching a sneak attack on Zhuang Yong. They were the two people who were supposed to kill Zhuang Yong; they were the root of Bai Shangnian’s confidence.

However, everything vanished into thin air in a split second. There was nothing; it was all in vain.

Dou Huainan’s dagger pierced right into that person’s chest. He twisted his wrist; blood spurted out from his chest, landing all over Dou Huainan’s face.

“That person named Zhang Baihe should have already escaped.”

At a distance away, hidden troops sprung up everywhere. The Navy combat soldiers surrounded all 2,000 water bandits. Arrows flew everywhere; the water bandits were absolutely unable to persist. The Navy soldiers carried out a full-scale massacre. The water bandits who were besieged instantly collapsed. How could that mob be able to put up a fight against combat soldiers? Moreover, there were a lot more combat soldiers compared to them.

Zhuang Yong did not even look at the entire spectacle at all. The water bandits were not the main point. The focus was ship that had left Yanping Island. He did not know whether or not Shen Leng and his men managed to catch up with it.

“Zhang Baihe? He’s just an irrelevant small fry. Get people to give chase.”

Zhuang Uong turned around and looked in another direction. He saw a boat returning from afar, albeit vaguely.

It was a total victory. However, he was disappointed and frustrated. This setup had been planned by His Majesty for several years, and the academy head had also deduced everything meticulously for several years. Regardless of their importance, they had thought of everything. Originally, this battle would turn the Bai family upside down at the very least. And the objective was to completely render Mu Zhaotong powerless. However, right now, Shen Leng’s rashness ruined the entire setup…

What would His Majesty think of this?

Based on the current evidence, they were unable to prove that the entire Bai family was involved, and it was absolutely insufficient to sentence them to death as rebels. Too many people would rack their brains to show that Bai Shangnian’s collusion with the water bandits was nothing more than a personal grudge. There are quite a number of informers on Yanping Island itself. When the news got out, the people who would be threatened would go into hiding once again.

It had been almost twenty years, those people still believed that the emperor got his title in an unorthodox manner. Most importantly, because of His Majesty’s gradual increase in power, they were unable to dominate over the imperial court like they used to when the late emperor, Li Chengyuan, was in power. Li Chengyuan was a mistrustful and paranoid person, he was very suspicious of military leaders. Hence, he placed civil officials in important positions instead. Mu Zhaotong’s power and authority reached its peak during that time. The cabinet belonged to him, and so did the imperial court.

What a pity.

Zhuang Yong exhaled a long breath.

Because Mu Xiaofeng died first, Zhuang Yong had no choice but to change the entire setup. According to the plan, he had to fake his death and Dou Huainan would still assassinate him, however, they would make arrangements in advance and secretly send him away. By then, those people in the imperial court would make their appearance and recommend Mu Xiaofeng as the new commander of the Navy. His Majesty would then remember the faces of those people.

A huge net, catching two rabbits.

Most importantly, His Majesty might have to become passive. Those people would harp on Mu Xiaofeng’s death and not let it go. Similarly, Mu Zhaotong would become savage and seek revenge.

Zhuang Yong lifted his head and looked at the sky; he felt as though there was a huge rock pressing against his chest. He could not move it out of the way at all.