The Eldest Daughter Is Beautiful and Saucy
Chapter 85: plan to fight
Chapter 85: Planning and Fighting
Probably in order to make the trick more realistic, Ji Tingyu cut off another piece of his arm!
Ji Tingyu fell off his horse quite hard. He untied the blood-stained bag on his body and handed it to Bai Qingyan. He held Bai Qingyan’s hand tightly to signal her to rest assured.
Ji Tingyu’s forehead was bulging with veins: “Miss… I was ordered to go to Southern Xinjiang to deliver winter clothes for the Duke and his men. We encountered assassins chasing the Tiger Battalion Commander Fang Yan in Chongluan Ridge! We risked our lives to save General Fang Yan…”
“General Fang Yan said that Liu Huanzhang rebelled and colluded with Southern Yan and Prince Xin. In order to gain military merit, Prince Xin forced the Duke to go to war, killing hundreds of thousands of soldiers. The front line was defeated. General Bai Qingyu risked his life to resist while evacuating the people. Prince Xin abandoned the people and forcibly took away most of the troops to protect him and fled! General Fang Yan asked us to send back these six bamboo slips of march records! We hid all the way… All the brothers died to protect these six bamboo slips! I only ask… God to give justice to the Duke and the Bai family!”
When the King of Qi heard this, his face was filled with horror. It was common sense to send the bamboo slips recording the march back to Dadu and present them to the emperor. Why would someone chase and kill along the way? !
Xiao Rongyan lowered his eyes and drank tea without saying a word. However, the Qinggui who were invited to the back hall to rest and drink tea all stood up and headed towards the main entrance. Curiosity got the better of them, and they wanted to know firsthand how all the men of the Bai family died!
Bai Jintong looked at the floor soaked with Ji Tingyu’s blood, and reached out with trembling hands to take the bundle wrapped in bamboo slips, although she knew in her heart that Ji Tingyu would only appear more real if he was badly injured.
But when Ji Tingyu really treated him so cruelly for the sake of the Bai family, Bai Jintong still felt as if the sea was boiling over his heart. Justice for the Bai family… Heaven and the imperial court were unwilling to give it clearly, so he could only ask for it by these self-defeating means? !
Bai Jintong opened the bundle in front of everyone, tremblingly took out a side of the bamboo slips and unfolded it.
The Crown Prince’s wife, Mrs. Dong, and the second wife, Mrs. Liu, both women whose husbands and sons had not returned, also pushed aside the guards and stepped forward, grabbed the bamboo slips and browsed through them carefully, intending to find any clues in the march records that their husbands and sons were still alive.
Bai Qingyan tightly tied the rope that bound Ji Tingyu’s broken arm and shouted, “Uncle Ping! Take Ji Tingyu to ask Doctor Hong for treatment! Quick!”
The King of Qi pushed aside the guards who were blocking his way, took two steps forward, bowed respectfully and said, “Since the march records are here, could the Crown Prince’s wife hand them over to me? Now take these bamboo slips to see my father!”
Although the King of Qi was not a man of great talent, he knew in his heart that with the ability of the Duke of Zhenguo Bai Weiting, it was impossible for him to be so stubborn and ignore the advice of the King of Xin and force the troops to go out like the King of Xin did when he cried in the palace yesterday!
He forced the Duke of Zhenguo into battle because of his greed for merit, and abandoned the common people after the defeat. These two things were enough to block Prince Xin’s path to the top!
The heartbeat of the King of Qi was extremely fast. The crown prince had always been the heir to the throne. If there was a legitimate heir, the heir would be appointed. If there was no legitimate heir, the eldest son would be appointed. The King of Xin was the legitimate heir, and he was the eldest son! Although he knew that he did not have the ability to govern civil affairs or military affairs, he did not want the country to fall into the hands of a narrow-minded hedonist like the King of Xin! Since he wanted the supreme position, he had to plan and fight for it for himself.
Dong looked at the bamboo slips in her hand, her blood rushed to her head, her mind was numb and blank, she could no longer hear the words of the King of Qi, her eyes were bloodshot, tears flowed like a fountain, her anger almost burned her to ashes.
Second wife Liu knelt on the ground and looked through one side of the bamboo slips. Not finding any information about her husband and son, she cried heart-wrenchingly and changed for another one.
Bai Jintong held the bamboo slips in his hand, clenched his teeth, restrained the surging emotions in his heart, and tried to speak clearly, reading: “On the second day of the twelfth month of the fifteenth year of Xuanjia, scouts reported that 250,000 main forces of Xiliang were ambushed in the Chuanling Mountains, trapping Bai Qiying’s 40,000 reinforcements. Prince Xin urged Marshal Bai Weiting to lead the main forces of the entire army to the Chuanling Mountains, and cooperate with Bai Qiying to annihilate the main forces of Xiliang. The marshal suspected a trick, and Prince Xin, under the order of the emperor, supervised the battle and forced Bai Weiting to fight. If he disobeyed the order, Bai Weiting’s nine clans would be executed.”
When the people saw Bai Jintong reading the march record in public, they all came forward and looked up at Bai Jintong standing at the gate of the Duke’s Mansion, and were horrified.
It turned out that it was Prince Xin who ordered the Duke Zhenguo’s Mansion to go into battle!
“On the tenth day of the twelfth lunar month in the fifteenth year of Xuanjia, Deputy Commander Bai Qishan was trapped in Fengcheng for five days without food. The Southern Yan army captured the five sons of the Bai family alive, stripped them of their clothes and cut their flesh to humiliate them in front of the battle, in order to force Bai Qishan to surrender. The deputy commander decided to fight to the death with the Southern Yan cavalry to delay time in order to protect the people of Fengcheng and retreat. He raised his arrows with tears in his eyes and shot the five sons of the Bai family. Deputy Commander Bai Qishan said that the only sons in the family with elderly parents should step back, those who have not yet started a family should step back, and the rest… those who dare to die for the people of Dajin should follow me to fight and meet the enemy! The seventeenth son of the Bai family, ten years old, stepped forward with a sword, saying that he was willing to sacrifice his flesh and blood and follow his uncle to fight to the death for the people of Dajin, and would never live in vain! The Bai family army was deeply moved by the ten-year-old child, and they all drew their swords and shouted three times, preferring to fight to death rather than live in vain.”
Bai Jinzhi’s blood rushed to his head. He walked forward quickly, grabbed a bamboo slip and unfolded it. He read out with an unstable breath, “On the twelfth day of the twelfth month of the fifteenth year of Xuanjia, General Bai Qingming, who was swift and brave, destroyed a small group of cavalrymen from Xiliang and returned to the camp with a thousand soldiers to provide assistance. The camp was flattened, and General Jiyong rescued ten remaining soldiers… The remaining soldiers said that one day ago, Prince Xin saw the 50,000-strong army of Southern Yan coming, so he abandoned the camp and fled with 3,000 soldiers. General Bai Qingyu, who was guarding the camp, sent 500 soldiers to evacuate the people in the rear, and led 1,500 soldiers to fight. General Jifeng died and his body was burned.”
“It turned out to be Prince Xin! Prince Xin is so shameless! He actually fled with three thousand men!”
“Damn it! That’s it… Prince Xin still has the nerve to say that the Duke is stubborn in using the army! It was obviously he who forced the troops to go to war!”
“How shameless! Poor Zhenguo Mansion, all the men are ruined like this!”
The people cried, shouted and cursed, not caring that Prince Xin was a descendant of a royal family and the emperor’s legitimate son. They were heartbroken and furious, and wished they could tear Prince Xin to pieces alive.
“On the thirteenth day of the twelfth lunar month in the fifteenth year of Xuanjia, General Jiyong defended Feng County to the death, and the Southern Yan army attacked the city. General Jiyong Bai Qingming stated that millions of people depended on the later lord, and the Bai family army would fight to the death and would not retreat until only one person was left! In order to disrupt the morale of the Jin army…” Bai Jinzhi’s voice suddenly stopped when he read here.
Her hands clattered as she held the bamboo slips. Her anger and grief were about to burst out in a cry. The overwhelming hatred in her chest burned fiercely. She wept bitterly and gritted her teeth as she spoke word by word: “In front of the Yunpo formation, the heads of the seventeenth son of the Bai family were cut off and their stomachs were opened to humiliate them. The stomachs of the seventeenth son of the Bai family were filled with tree roots and soil…”
There was silence inside and outside the Duke Zhenguo’s Mansion.
When Fourth Madam Wang heard about her son’s tragic death, she was stunned. All her emotions were stagnant and then burst out. She grabbed her collar tightly, looked at her son’s coffin, screamed hysterically, and ran headfirst into the coffin.