The Eldest Daughter Is Beautiful and Saucy
Chapter 1263: confident
Chapter 1263: Confident
Cui Shanzhong was unwilling to accept this!
He was filled with tears!
The defeat was like a landslide. No one could understand the feeling of powerlessness Cui Shanzhong felt.
“General, we can’t hold on any longer! The situation is hopeless! We have to retreat quickly to the palace! Maybe we can hold on for a while! I’ll send someone out to ask for reinforcements!” General Cui’s deputy general saw Cui Shanzhong not moving and shouted, “General, we can’t hesitate any longer! We should withdraw most of our troops back to the palace now. Maybe we can hold on until reinforcements arrive!”
I can’t hold on any longer…
Cui Shanzhong knows!
Even if we retreat to the palace now, it would be nothing more than a futile struggle of a trapped beast.
When Cui Zhongshan took command, he sent orders to each city, asking them to dispatch troops!
Those who are willing to come will come, and those who are not willing to come will be ignored.
Not to mention, now that the coalition forces of Great Zhou and Yan have invaded Yunjing, I am afraid that when the defenders of other cities hear the news, they will be considering whether to surrender to Great Zhou or Yan!
Who would be willing to fight against a rock with an egg, and come to rescue with a force that is not even enough to fill the gaps between the Zhou and Yan armies?
“Report! The Yan State is attacking the city at the east gate!”
“Report! The Great Zhou and Yan coalition forces are attacking the west gate!”
“Report! Da Zhou is attacking the South Gate!”
Battle reports were continuously sent to the old general Cui Shanzhong and Li Tianjiao in the imperial palace. When the soldiers of Xiliang heard that the city gates were surrounded on all sides, they all felt afraid to fight.
Whether it was the soldiers from Xiliang or other countries, what they were fighting for was morale! What morale is… hope!
Or it may come from their invincible general commander!
Or it may be because their desperate fight can win a glimmer of hope for the people behind them!
Or it may come from the fact that victory is in sight!
But what is there in Xiliang?
Their old general Cui Shanzhong is a famous general, but he has not led troops for many years and is over eighty years old… He often shows his inability to do his job on the battlefield.
Protect the people of Xiliang? But every time the Great Zhou conquered a city, it never massacred the people. Instead, it gave the people food, distributed land and houses, implemented new policies, and treated the people as the people of the Great Zhou! Many people in Xiliang who knew the benevolence of the Great Zhou defected to the Great Zhou. Only a few people were worried that the Great Zhou would massacre them, so they fled to the south of Xiliang early.
Hope of victory? Now Xiliang Yunjing is surrounded on all sides, and the city gates have even been opened. How can there be any hope of victory? Even if we retreat to the palace, it will only be a desperate resistance!
“Pass the order, have the soldiers withdraw to the palace and preserve their strength!” After Cui Shanzhong gave the order, he turned his horse’s head and galloped towards the direction of the palace, preparing to go back to redeploy and defend the palace to the death.
Now Cui Shanzhong only hopes to wait until the Great Zhou Emperor Bai Qingyan… can come back after all the food in their palace is consumed. Then, they, Xiliang, will send Bai Qingyu back to the Great Zhou as a gift and pledge their loyalty to the Great Zhou!
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Inside the palace, the sounds of killing outside could still be heard.
The eunuchs and palace maids kneeling in the palace trembled and dared not raise their heads. Whenever they heard a shrill scream, they would shudder, fearing that the Zhou army and the Yan army had already reached the gate of the Xiliang Palace.
Li Tianjiao knelt above the hall, looking down at Bai Qingyu who had woken up but was obviously still very weak. He sat casually on the sedan chair that carried him here, covering his heart with his hands, without any awareness of being a prisoner. His face, half of which was gentle and handsome, and the other half with hideous burn marks, had no expression, which made Li Tianjiao inexplicably uncomfortable and even felt contemptuous.
“It seems that… General Bai pretended to surrender to Yunjing City with the mentality of being ready to die.” She rested her hands on the edge of the table and said with a smile, “Or is it that he is confident?”
Bai Qingyu raised his eyelids and looked at Li Tianjiao. His hoarse and terrifying voice sounded slowly and steadily: “What are you saying, Emperor Xiliang? Xiliang colluded with Yan State and betrayed the Great Zhou. I was captured by General Cui Shanzhong and was seriously injured and almost died. How can I be so confident?”
Li Tianjiao smiled coldly: “Listen to the killing sounds outside, isn’t this… the Great Zhou is attacking the city? The Great Zhou is attacking the city. You are the last trump card we Xiliang hold in our hands. You know I will not let you die!”
“The Emperor of Xiliang is really kind to me.” Bai Qingyu spoke slowly.
“I will not keep you in suspense, General Bai. Now that Xiliang is doomed, we Xiliang only hope to survive and are willing to submit to the Great Zhou!” Li Tianjiao stood up and walked towards Bai Qingyu from the high steps. “I hope… General Bai will take this opportunity to tell the Emperor of the Great Zhou that Xiliang saved your life no matter what. Now both Yan and the Great Zhou want to get Yunjing first. As long as the Great Zhou is willing to stop stationing troops in Xiliang and exempt Xiliang from paying tribute for ten years after Xiliang submits to the Great Zhou, Xiliang will submit to the Great Zhou!”
Bai Qingyu lowered his eyelids to hide the coldness in his eyes, stroking his fingers, and spoke slowly: “Yunjing is now surrounded by enemies on all sides and is on the verge of destruction. Your Majesty, do you think… Xiliang still has room for bargaining with the Great Zhou?”
Li Tianjiao had already walked down from the high steps, stared at Bai Qingyu and said with a smile: “It is said that a drop of water is returned with a spring of gratitude, but General Bai will not refuse to say a few words!”
“No matter how big the hat your majesty puts on you, Bai Qingyu is afraid that she can’t do anything about it…” Bai Qingyu said with a faint smile.
Li Tianjiao laughed. She walked with her hands behind her back, circled around Bai Qingyu, and suddenly bent down and spoke above Bai Qingyu’s head, “General Bai is the younger brother of the Great Zhou Emperor. He holds a very high position in the heart of the Great Zhou Emperor. When the Great Zhou Emperor learned that General Bai had been captured alive, he was so frightened that he gave birth to a child prematurely. After giving birth to a pair of children, she left her own flesh and blood and set off for Xiliang on the same day. This shows how important General Bai is in the heart of the Great Zhou Emperor…”
Bai Qingyu’s palms tightened suddenly. My sister gave birth prematurely? !
Was it because she knew that he was arrested, or… did she really think that Yan State betrayed the Great Zhou? What about Xiao Rongyan? Didn’t he send the news to her elder sister?
Seeing Bai Qingyu’s slightly stiff body, Li Tianjiao’s smile deepened: “If General Bai can agree, I… can send General Bai out of the palace now.”
Unlike what old general Cui Shanzhong thought, since Li Tianjiao knew that the Great Zhou and Yan Kingdom were joining forces to attack the city and had already opened the east and north gates, there was no point in holding Bai Qingyu and other Bai Qingyan anymore.
It would be better to send Bai Qingyu away, make a ceasefire with the Great Zhou first, and announce to the world that the State of Yan is a vassal of the Great Zhou. Then…if the State of Yan attacks Xiliang again, it will be touching the territory of the Great Zhou.
This… is Xiliang’s only chance of survival!
Otherwise, the Xiliang Palace, which only has a small amount of food in stock, may not be able to hold out for more than a few days.
Since this is the general trend, Li Tianjiao does not want to let the soldiers of Xiliang make fearless sacrifices anymore. After all, as long as she can negotiate a ten-year period of no tribute and no stationing of troops by the Great Zhou, she can rely on these troops to develop slowly!