Chapter 2: Paraphrasing
The city of Rollling has been under siege for two months. Facing the other side’s stormy attacks, Rollling City protects the left side of Wallan City like a rock in the middle of the river. Reinforcements and supplies continue to arrive slowly. Echoing with Wallan City, the soldiers of the two cities hold fast and refuse to come out. They rely on the sturdy city defenses to resist the coalition army. The 800,000-strong coalition army is unable to make any progress under the two cities.
But autumn is approaching, and the grain in the Varna Plains will be harvested soon. With its help, the coalition forces can last for another three months. After two months of siege, the city walls of the two cities are already scarred, and it is difficult to hold out for another three months.
Another month. I can’t hold on any longer. I’ve told myself so many times that I can’t hold on any longer, but Rollling City has somehow managed to hold on like a miracle. Will it still be the same today? Che Shun, the supreme commander of the Rollling Army, thought to himself, looking at the soldiers below the city like ants. He could only feel a sense of emotion in his heart. The enemy’s soldiers are being replenished so quickly, while he, with only 80,000 left out of 180,000, is still the result of conscripting all the males over the age of 13 in the city.
The fires below the city were as bright as blood, and the balls of fire on the earthen mounds shot in succession, embellishing the night sky. Will Rollling City still be here tomorrow?
The enemy finally began to sound the retreat, and the allied soldiers withdrew from under the city in an orderly manner. Che Shunhui let out a sigh of relief in his heart. This wave has finally been stopped, but what about the next wave? Sixty thousand reinforcements are still on the way and will not arrive for six days. Hopefully, he can hold out for those six days. Shaking his head, he once again abandoned the sad thoughts in his mind. Che Shunhui sat down in a chair. There was still half an hour of rest time, so he had to make every minute count.
Half an hour, an hour, two hours passed, and there was still no sign of an attack on the city. Che Shunhui puzzled over the encampment below the city, repeatedly asking, “Gentlemen, what do you think is the reason?”
“Could it be that the conflict within the allied army has finally erupted?” one general said.
“No, Roll City is about to fall, and even if there is conflict, it will be suppressed by this imminent victory,” another general said coldly.
“Could it be another trick?“
”No matter what, we must hold fast.“
”Look, the enemy seems to be withdrawing.“ One general pointed down the road and called out.
There were indeed two fiery dragons converging below the city and retreating.
”Quickly scout,” Che Shun returned, and as soon as the words fell, ‘Report–’ a scout ran up to the top of the city.
“General, the enemy is withdrawing, really, really,“ the scout said, finally weeping with joy.
”Are they all withdrawing?“ a general asked calmly.
”Not yet, only the central army and part of the left flank are retreating, with a total of about 30,000 people.”
The generals were overjoyed. ”General, with 30,000 people, the final number of retreating troops will not be less than 300,000. Even if this is not the entire retreating army, the threat it poses to us will be greatly reduced.”
“Only the Bixin Kingdom has 300,000 troops, so it must be Bixin that has withdrawn its troops,” A female general said, “This general is named Xiu Xiangxian, also known as Rakshasa. She usually gets a lot of dirty looks from others because of her ugly appearance, but she has set up countless military feats in this battle. She has repeatedly led her troops to suddenly attack and set the enemy’s siege equipment on fire, so she was promoted to the rank of thousand-soldier leader, but she can actually lead 3,000 soldiers. After this battle, Xiu Xiangxian is even more considered the pride of the city by the people of Gulou City.
“Find out immediately what kind of troops are withdrawing.“
The 800,000 troops under the city finally began to retreat in full force, with fire dragons retreating non-stop.
”General, the enemy’s formation is already in disarray. Why don’t you let me lead 10,000 troops to kill them?”
“The enemy is not in disarray. Look, although the flags have all been abandoned, you can see that they have been thrown with great care, almost all of them blocking the direction of Wallan City. That is to prevent the Wallan defenders from attacking. And look at these 800,000 troops, apart from the occasional collision between people and horses, there is no sign at all that their hearts have been disturbed. And you can see that the enemy’s formation is actually scattered but not chaotic. The scattering is to allow the cavalry to quickly pass through the infantry and catch up with our pursuers.” Xiu Xiangxian calmly analyzed for the generals.
“Are you going to let these damned things retreat easily?“ said one general angrily.
”Don’t worry, from here to Jiajing Pass, from now on it will be the world of our Empire cavalry. The 800,000 allied troops will never be able to get back together if they retreat. We can defeat them one by one and gradually recover the Wado Corridor.“ Che Shun’s eyes flashed with cold light.
”How do we recover Jiajing Pass?” asked one general worriedly.
“That’s easy. Now that five countries are defending the same city, their hearts will be divided. With a little provocation, they can be made to distrust each other. Taking Jiajing City will be a piece of cake. With five countries defending the city, Jiajing Pass will no longer be a united front. Maybe the other side won’t even send anyone to guard it.” Xiu Xiangxian said.
“On the contrary, it will take some time to recover the Varna Plains. Now that the Varna Plains have been divided among the three countries, it will take a long time for the three countries to recover it if they send heavy troops to guard it,” Che Shun sighed.
Three months later, the coalition army of the five countries withdrew from the Vadong Corridor, while the 300,000 troops of Biaoxin returned directly to the country two months earlier. A month later, Jiajing Pass was recovered, but the Varna Plains were still in the hands of the three countries of Meng, Biaoxin, and Chuhuai.
I was wearing a dragon costume and was pestering my mother: “Mother, let me go out and play! This place is so boring.”
“My dear, you need to learn all these things. You will need to do all this in the future.”
I pouted: “Why do I have to do everything by myself? Can’t I just get someone else to do it?”
“There are some things that cannot be done by others. Do you know why Zuo Zai is so rampant now?“ Long Lituoqi is a negative example for me, and I shook my head.
”It is because Ri Jinhuang (my grandfather) let Long Lituoqi do things that should not be done by others, which allowed him to take over the political power after Ri Jinhuang passed away.“
I nodded, but I disagreed in my heart.
”If you really don’t want to be here, go back and play. It is impossible to go out of the palace and play.”
“Okay,” I said, and I ran back to my chambers.
I had secretly recruited the 30 men from the Golden Squad to serve as my personal bodyguards. My mother had carefully selected the guards to prevent Long Li Duoqi’s people from infiltrating, but if I hadn’t secretly assassinated a few of them, my mother would have revealed a lot of spies. Ten members of the Golden Squad guarded the outside, and I added an additional soundproof barrier inside, before Sister Sui appeared in the palace.
“Your Majesty, the second prince is hurrying back with a division of the Demon Dragon Army, the third prince defeated the Chu-Huai army in the Green River three days ago and is also hurrying back to the capital with 3,000 troops, and Lan Mieqing’s 10,000 troops are still 300 li from the capital.“
”My second and third brothers are here to help me, they were invited back by the three empresses.“
”Constance has sent some bad news!“
”What is it?”
“General Lin Yiquan seems to have become very close to Long Ludiqi recently.”
My face paled. Lin Yiquan was already a senior official in my court, with extremely high prestige both inside and outside the military. During the Battle of Wallan, he even controlled 300,000 troops. Add to that the fact that he could already influence 100,000 to 200,000 troops, and if Lin Yiquan also sides with Long Ludiqi, then among the millions of troops in the country, Long Ludiqi could have nearly 700,000 troops under his control.
Among the 70,000 troops in the capital, Long Lidoqi can influence 20,000, and with Lin Yiquan’s 20,000 city guards, the enemy-to-friend power ratio is 4 to 3.
“No way,” I shook my head, “the Lin family has been loyal for generations, and Lin Lao is even extremely loyal to my father, so how could he go over to Long Lidoqi?”
“After all, General Lin is a soldier. Without Long Li Duo Qi, I’m afraid he would not have been able to conquer foreign countries while Your Majesty was still young. As it stands, Long Li Duo Qi is the only thing supporting foreign conquests.
“Alas, the Empress Dowager and the others are after all women, and they don’t want to see war. If it weren’t for the fact that the Varna Plains were conquered by my father, I’m afraid they wouldn’t support the recovery either.“
”The background of Lan Shi has been roughly investigated. It turns out that he is a member of the Laughing Demon Sect. The specific identity is still being investigated. Lan Ruqian doesn’t seem to have joined the Laughing Demon Sect.“
”Do you know who was behind the last robbery?”
“It was the people from the Laughing Demon Gate and the Evil Heart Association. Do we need to deploy the Black Hands?“
”Not yet. The people we saw were just low-level thugs. We’ll wait until the higher-ups are exposed and then take them all down.“
”Your Majesty, should we deploy the Night to strike at Long Li Duo Qi?”
“The Long residence is heavily guarded. The 3,000 soldiers are all warriors who have experienced countless deaths and lives with Lan Meiqing. Each of them can fight ten opponents. Coupled with the 2,000 guests, there are also countless experts hiding among them. It is simply impossible to sneak in and assassinate without being noticed.“
”So we just let him run rampant?“
”I’m waiting for an opportunity, the day he lets his guard down.“
”What about Zhang Laoren?” I asked.
“The people from the Demon Alliance have started moving. Zhang Lao is keeping a close watch with the people from the Mu group.“
”Does the Demon Alliance have any connections?“
”It’s likely related to Long Li Duo Qi.“
”Then send the Black Hands to destroy him.“
”Isn’t that a bit bad? So far, no one from our group has a high status in the Demon Alliance, and we don’t know where the masters they secretly cultivate are placed.”
I was silent for a long time, and then said, “Let’s wait a while longer and let Konstantin have a good look around.”
“Okay. Also, it seems that the Holy Knight Order has started to support Long Riduchi.”
I sneered, “Really? Even the Holy Temple, which has always been aloof and neutral, has joined. It is said that the Holy Temple and the Demon Gate have a very bad relationship.”
“I understand.” Sui Zi nodded knowingly.
Three days later, ten paladins and three priests from the temple were killed in Lanbie City, and a bloody storm ensued.
“Second brother, third brother,” I shouted and threw myself into the arms of a man. This is my third brother. Third brother is a stable person, much better than second brother, the playboy.
“Alright, Your Majesty, don’t be like this. You’re already the emperor, why are you still acting like a child?” Although my second brother was smiling, there were tears in his eyes. When was the last time the family got together? New Year’s Day? In less than half a year, I will never see my father and eldest brother again.
“Alright, my son, don’t be like this. Let go of your third brother quickly. Your mother still has something to tell your two brothers.“
The queen first described the current situation in the capital. It had only been a few months since Long Li Duo Qi had taken control of most of the courtiers, but there were still some loyal courtiers who still had their hearts set on the imperial family.
”If it really doesn’t work out, we can make peace with the demons, and I will lead the Demon Dragon Legion back to solve this once and for all,” said the second brother.
“Even if the demons are willing to make peace, the monsters can’t even control the demons, and they won’t control them if they can. If the Demon Dragon Army just comes back like this, the entire frozen zone will naturally fall into the hands of the demons. Even if we can get rid of Long Ridoki at that time, we will have lost the frozen zone, and in the north, there will no longer be any strong city that can stop the demons. In that case, we will just have exchanged one powerful enemy for another.” Third Brother said.
“And now even General Lin has sided with Long Li Duo Qi. Who knows who will win if there is a real fight,“ said the Queen Mother.
”So what do we do now?“
”I will continue to reduce the strength of the Blue Dragon Army, while the number of imperial guards will also increase by 50,000. I hope you can supplement some of them, otherwise I’m afraid these 50,000 imperial guards will all be controlled by Long Li Duo Qi,” said the Queen Mother.
“Okay, we’ll send a message to each of you to send 10,000 people in separate groups.“
”Little brother, mother, I’ll send you a few guards,“ said the second brother, looking at me with nothing but concern in his eyes.
”That’s not necessary. You yourselves must be more careful and not give Long Li Duoqi a chance to take advantage. I have already urgently asked the abbot of Dajue for help, and someone will arrive in the capital in seven days.”
“That’s good,“ said the second and third brothers, overjoyed.
The second brother frowned: ‘Why is there no news from Taoism?’
”It is said that Taoism and the Demon Sect are fighting, so Taoism in the country is neutral towards both sides. It is said that it is thanks to Tao Lin the immortal that we are still here. If it weren’t for him, Taoism would have probably already supported Long Li Duo Qi,” said the Empress Dowager.
“Let’s go back and try to control all the armies we have. Let’s make the Demon Dragon and the Green Dragon legions completely mine, so that at least in terms of military power, we can compete with Long Li Duo Qi,“ said the second brother.
”We will leave immediately, and before we leave, we will leave 2,000 troops to protect the Empress Dowager and His Majesty,” said the third brother.
The Empress Dowager secretly cultivated about 3,000 people to fight against Long Lidoqi and began to impart their unique skills. In the future, these 3,000 people will guard both myself and the Empress Dowager. Although these 3,000 people were carefully selected by the Empress Dowager, a few Long Lidoqi people were still mixed in. This time, there was nothing I could do. How could I assassinate them when the 3,000 people were together?
Without any power, I could only wander around the palace all day, and there was no way for me to go out (several hundred people were following me). Becoming the emperor was like entering a prison, with no freedom at all. I could only rely on Cathy and Suizi to send and receive messages.