Chapter 51: Confronting the Bandit Chief
As the hidden rooms opened, two rows of women were dragged into Weiyang Hall.
The women were still in shock, their clothes disheveled. Some had injuries on their faces; others, seeing the light, desperately covered their heads with their sleeves, yet they couldn’t hide the crisscrossing red marks and white stains on their legs. No wonder there were few women in the Yangzi Fang; it turned out those with any beauty were locked in the dark rooms of Weiyang Hall.
This afternoon was not just a drunken stupor, but a conscience-devouring orgy!
A manās shout erupted from the villager team: “Er-niang!”
Er-niang was the one covering her head. Revealing one eye, she saw her husband. Her face instantly turned pale green. Having lost her virtue in front of her husband and so many others, Er-niang threw herself onto a blade point!
“Screw you!” A bandit slashed, and Er-niang collapsed into a pool of blood.
The villager was held back tightly by his fellow villagers, tears and mucus streaming down his face instantly. “Er-niang! Er-niang! Er-niang-zi…”
Listening to the wails and screams, Dong Guās smile grew wider. He clapped his hands, and many elderly and young people were dragged out from the dark rooms. Those who walked slowly were kicked into the hall; a bandit kicked an old lady right in the back of her heart.
Sanjinzi broke down. “Grandma!!!”
“San… Jinzi…” The old woman vomited a mouthful of black blood.
It turned out that right after receiving the envoys in Changzhuang Village, the intelligence was leaked to Dong Gu. Violating Dong Guās taboo led to this calamity.
Dong Gu raised his hand. “Prepare the dishes for the wine.”
This was code slang. The bandits simultaneously drew their knives and grabbed the hostages by their ears.
The Chief Envoy, Zhu Zhao, blocked them verbally: “Hold on! Chief Dong, let the common people go. Before I left the capital, His Majesty granted me the authority to act as I see fit. Conditions can be discussed!”
The gleam of blades stopped at the commoners’ ears. The bandits waited for orders.
Dong Gu waved his hand, deliberately teasing. He pulled out a short knife and rubbed it against a child’s cheek, leisurely yawning. “The conditions are in the letter. You know them. Ask your child Emperor to give me a hundred thousandāah, no, I have so many hostages, five hundred thousand taels.”
This was no longer just a lion opening its mouth wide.
When the Barbarian King made demands, it was still a number the treasury could reach. But Dong Gu spoke as if he were just tossing out words. Zhu Zhao couldn’t even bargain!
Zhu Zhao: “Chief Dong, five hundred thousand taels is enough to support…”
“Aaaaaahhhhhā” The child rolled on the ground wailing. A severed ear twitched on the floor.
Dong Gu stopped making small talk. Laughing, he grabbed the child by the collar and lifted him up, displaying his face outward. “Come, kid, I’ll tell you. These officials boasted in the village that they would save you from my hands. Beg them. Tell them to withdraw the troops and pay up immediately.”
How could a child know what five hundred thousand taels meant?
He was terrified, only able to open his mouth and beg for mercy: “Save… Save me…”
That cry for help seemed to burst a dam of emotions among the people.
The commoners, who were screaming in terror and at a loss just moments ago, grabbed onto the Imperial Court as their lifesaving straw. Countless cries of “Help,” “Save us,” “Blue Sky Lord, General, Long Live the Emperor in Chang’an, save us,” filled the air.
The living could not fight against thugs; they could only rely on the powerful state to act.
This scene touched Ying Xiās sense of responsibility and guilt as an Emperor. Dong Guās many crimes made his heart and lungs feel ready to explode.
Outside Weiyang Hall, the sound of clashing metal gradually approached, growing louder and louder. Surrounding the outer perimeter of the bandits at Weiyang Hall, a wall of silver-white snow appeared. Black falcons circled and landed. The Longwu Army had joined the battle.
The general leading the army strode forward with large steps. Seeing Xie Qianli, he bowed and reported: “General, Chief Envoy, the Luoshan Stronghold has been surrounded by my army!”
Xie Qianli said coldly, “Everyone, aim at the bandits.”
“Yes!!!” the general replied.
In an instant, stepping over bandit corpses, the soldiers set up strong bows and hard crossbows at the doors and windows. Everywhere, arrowheads were as dense as a sea of stars. Each position locked onto a target. The shouting was as loud as thunder: “Stand by!” “Stand by!” “Stand by!”
“Longwu Army, all stand by!”
It seemed the scales were tipping toward the Imperial Court.
That snow-bright battle armor, and the countless legends circulating in the Heluo region about this army, calmed the commonersā emotions slightly.
Xie Qianli took a heavy bow that required both hands of a soldier to lift.
This longbow was made of special material, completely abandoning portability in pursuit of absolute lethality. The metal arrowheads were spiral-shaped and had no fletching.
When the heavy bow was drawn, the sound of the string was enough to set everyone’s teeth on edge. One could already imagine that hitting an enemy with it would directly shatter Dong Guās head.
Xie Qianli said hard and cold, “Put the child down.”
The child was lifted up like a chick. Dong Gu showed no fear; instead, he grinningly held his short knife against the child’s jugular vein, raising his voice to provoke the court.
“Surname Xie, scaring me is useless! I’m not afraid of death!”
“When I joined the Green Ox Army and didn’t die, that was a profit. Being a bandit and having enough fun is also a profit. I carry countless lives on my back; every extra breath I take standing here is a profit!”
“As for you big officials, whatever Green Ox Army or Imperial Court Army, it’s all dog farts!”
Dong Gu laughed and joked, but deep down, there was an unspeakable despair. Holding the knife against the child’s neck, the child trembled, and a line of blood broke on his neck.
Dong Gu muttered as if speaking drunk words:
“I risked my life for the Green Ox Army. Just as I became a small leader, the higher-ups got scared of dying and ran, sending me to bring up the rear, costing me an eye.”
“I wanted to go down the mountain and live an honest life. Knowing I served in the Green Ox Army, even when begging for food, people chased me like a rat crossing the street.”
“If I don’t rob, should I just wait to die?”
ā”By what right is it that when you appoint me an official, I am an official; when you designate me a bandit, I am a bandit? What the hell are you! Official, bandit, or EmperorāI have the final say!!!”
Dong Guās voice shook dust from the rafters of Weiyang Hall.
His predicament was an inevitable result caused by the situation where rebels rose up all over Great Qin.
The court would not tolerate rebels, and of the common people who had once participated in rebellion, how many did so to fulfill some grand imperial ambition? The people just couldn’t survive and wanted a mouthful of food.
Dong Gu was wrong in his cruelty, and wrong to be born in chaotic times…
Ying Xi’s anger toward the desperado was mixed with a trace of pity. In the end, it was because Great Qinās national fortune had been too weak before.
At this moment, Dong Gu suddenly advanced a few steps, shouting while holding the boy: “Don’t give me that hypocrisy. Either kill me along with the hostage, or if you can’t make the decision, tell my demands to Ying Xi!!!”
Dong Gu called the Emperor by his name directly, scaring several people into paralysis on the spot.
The bandit chief would neither discuss a reasonable ransom nor leave any face for the court. Both sides were in a deadlock, so whether it was the envoys, the Longwu Army, the Luoshan bandits, or the villagers below, everyone was pushed to their limit.
Just then, Ying Xi stepped out from the crowd.
“No need to send a message to Chang’an. Zhen will talk to you personally.”
At this moment, everyone faced Ying Xi. Ying Xi wiped away the makeup that slightly altered his appearance, revealing his true face. He adjusted his sleeves and held his hands slightly levelācalm and composed, the posture of an Emperor receiving an audience.
There were naturally many in the Longwu Army who could recognize Ying Xi. On the spot, they almost couldn’t hold their weapons steady.
An officer blurted out, “Em-Emperor!?”
The cry of “Emperor” was like a sudden clap of thunder on flat ground, overturning the entire Weiyang Hall, adding infinite incredulity to the situation at the juncture of life and death.
No one dared to impersonate the Emperor.
Moreover, to impersonate the current Emperor right in front of the Imperial Tutor and beside the Commander of the Longwu Army?
He was filled with such majesty that he needed no self-verification. Countless subjects would express their loyalty and respect the moment he revealed his identity.
Xie Qianli and the others didn’t move a muscle in their tactical stance, but their voices spoke in unison, shaking Weiyang Hall and even the entire Mount Luo: “Long Live My Emperor!”
“Long Live! Long Live!”
The roar made the night air of Mount Luo hum.
Ying Xi had already passed through the bandits, approaching Dong Gu step by step.
But Dong Gu did not retreat; instead, he advanced, dragging the child further forward.
The Emperor and the bandit stood face to face.
The arrowheads were densely packed, all pointing at Dong Gu, fearing this bandit chief would go mad and shake the foundation of Great Qin.
Dong Gu pulled the corner of his mouth forcefully. “Did you come personally to send me money? Or to leash your dogs?”
The Emperor said, “The lives of the people are not bargaining chips; life cannot be priced. Zhen will not give you five hundred thousand taels of silver. Killing you is imperative; withdrawing troops is absolutely impossible. Zhen will not be threatened by powerful thieves.”
The Emperorās words struck the ground with a resounding clang.
He thoroughly blocked Dong Gu’s path to life and death, firmly rejecting the bandit chief’s rude demands, which paradoxically caused Dong Gu to suddenly lose his leverage.
The bandit chief shook the short knife in his hand and shook the boy until his crying became loud. “Is that so? You want to be a fatuous tyrant, watching your subjects die?”
“The killer is the Luoshan Bandit Chief Dong Gu. Zhen has personally come up the mountain to stop it. If persuasion is useless, as for the Court’s reputation, the world will make its own judgment.”
Ying Xi did not play by any of Dong Gu’s rules!
Moral kidnapping was useless.
Once the value of the bargaining chip decreased, the hostage became safer.
No one expected the Emperor to appear and give such an answer. A sense of guilt and anxiety secretly spread among the Luoshan bandits in the stronghold, manifested in the uncontrollable trembling of their hands holding their knives.
Some bandits wavered. “I… I…”
That banditās chest heaved, and he shouted desperately, “If I surrender to the court now, will you still accept the amnesty!?”
Zhu Zhao, experienced as he was, immediately replied, “Put down your weapon quickly and come here!”
Clangā A machete hit the floor. A bandit stumbled and crawled over. The two women that bandit had been controlling, having had knives held to their necks for so long, instantly collapsed in a faint.
Where there was one, there was a second.
Machetes were constantly dropped, and hostages fled one after another. Suddenly, there were fewer bandits and more people fleeing. Families of commoners constantly ran toward the imperial envoys. There were also die-hard bandits loyal to Dong Gu trying to stop them.
Xie Qianli ordered, “Shoot the thugs, cover the people.”
The Longwu Army archers never missed. Bowstrings snapped crack-crack-crack. After a few rounds of arrows, not many bandits remained on that side. The hostages had mostly fled in the chaos, yet no crying or complaining could be heard yet.
Because everyone held their breath, their gazes burning like torches, focused on the final tug-of-war.
The Emperor and Dong Gu showed neither joy nor anger. Locking eyes, neither gave an inch, as if sight itself could become a weapon.
“Let the child go, and Zhen will leave your corpse intact,” Ying Xi said proudly. His voice was like a cold spring in winter, scraping the bone.
Bandit Chief Dong Gu had thought he could run rampant for years, but only now did he realize there was a sky beyond the sky!
That Great Qin Emperor looked frail, but his character was actually more bandit-like than his own!
Dong Guās arrogance was domineeringly suppressed by Ying Xi.
The bandit chief wanted to use the hostage boy to play the victim again, but the little boy seemed to recognize the situation. No matter how much he was shaken, he refused to cry again. A pair of dark, tear-filled eyes looked up at the Emperor, his ears covered in dripping blood.
The Emperors in opera plays wore golden dragon-patterned robes. Those Emperors were high above; none would personally come to a bandit stronghold to suppress bandits.
The little boy actually said foolishly, “Your… Majesty.”
“Good lad. This man cut off your left ear, so Zhen has decided not to leave his corpse intact anymore. If he dares to harm your life again, Zhen will make him wish for death to redeem himself to you for decades.”
No one could doubt the credibility of this sentence.
The little boy reached out his hand.
Ying Xi ordered sternly, “Release him!”
A glint flashed in the bandit chief’s eyes. In that moment, Dong Gu quickly threw the boy out of the circle with one hand and pulled Ying Xi with the other to use as a shield, slamming Ying Xiās body tightly against his own.
Using ordinary people as hostages no longer worked.
But using the Emperor as a hostage would certainly have more value. Moreover, at such close range, he would surely succeed.
Dong Gu arrogantly shouted, “No one can kill me! No one is worthy!!!”
But at this moment, his body suddenly became light, surrounded by golden rays. His person seemed to be withdrawing from this world, his spirit slowly drifting away.
“What’s happening… this is… I…” Dong Gu immediately panicked.
Radiance illuminated the entire Weiyang Hall.
Since deciding to approach the bandit chief, Ying Xi had already thought of a retreat and prepared well. He grabbed Dong Gu’s arm tightly, pressing close to him. Knowing Dong Gu was confused, he took him back to the Weiyang Palace study.
Then, before landing, he used all his strength to kick this fierce bandit far away.
The surroundings had already transformed into the most familiar furnishings, with the pale blue smoke of calming incense curling up.
The bandit chief clutched his groin and rolled on the ground.
Ying Xi called for people: “Lang Xun!!!”
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