Chapter 161: The Prince’s Will to Survive
The blizzard that had ravaged the Turkic territory for nearly a month had completely stopped in the Royal Court.
But the Turkic lands consisted of settlements separated by great distances, so the territory appeared very desolate even without snow, as there was no one to clean up everywhere.
The army rushed to Iron Mountain; the marching speed was fast.
Wei Wanlan concealed his identity, hiding in a military supply carriage. The carriage was clean inside, but it had originally been used to transport military equipment, so there was a smell of rust and pungent, bitter oil.
Wei Wanlan wanted to vomit again. He hurriedly suppressed it with a mouthful of nourishing tonic soup.
He hadn’t liked drinking medicine since childhood; no coaxing worked. So this time, the tonic was specially mixed with honey and licorice. Wei Wanlan treated it as a beverage.
Halfway through the march, Su Jingzhi brought him food in the carriage.
The dignified Regent King feared exposing the Little Emperor’s target. Only when delivering food could he see Little Wan hidden in the military carriage. Little Wan looked forward to his arrival; when the door opened, his eyes were wide open, looking at him, asking for a hug, incredibly cute.
“Brought you something good. Mutton soup.”
The mutton soup in the large bowl was steaming hot, the broth milky white, the meat slices silver-grey. It was seasoned with spices common in the Turkic lands. To have a hot meal during a forced march meant a special stove had certainly been used.
It was no big deal to give the Little Emperor something good to eat.
But Wei Wanlan sniffed along the rim of the bowl with his little nose, shaking his head alertly:
“Sorry, Regent King. Zhen doesn’t really want to eat pepper today.”
Su Jingzhi frowned, finding it strange. He had eaten it fine a few days ago. He thought he liked mutton, so he made this specially.
Wei Wanlan suggested obediently, “Zhen can eat the meat slices, and the Regent King can drink the soup. If we share the mutton soup, it won’t be wasted.”
Su Jingzhi: “This King gives it to the invalid. I’ll make you something else.”
Being understood is a very happy thing. The Regent King wouldn’t force him. He could sympathize with his stomach discomfort and immediately patiently switched to several other foods for him to try.
Finally, Wei Wanlan chose the sour dried cheese sticks.
It was the kind that was extremely sour; chewing a few bites could set one’s teeth on edge, causing saliva to flow down the cheeks. Wei Wanlan ate very comfortably, feeling that eating these made his whole person feel refreshed.
Until Su Jingzhi shut Wei Wanlan back into the military carriage to hide, Wei Wanlan still had a dried cheese stick in his mouth.
Less than an hour later, the sound of a scout’s hoofbeats was heard outside the carriage wall, voice resonant:
“Urgent military report—”
“Speak!”
The soldier’s words could be heard inside the carriage too. Wei Wanlan bit on the cheese stick. He heard the soldier report:
“Gaochang has entered from the northernmost point. To the south are Tuyuhun, Tubo, and the Turks respectively. They are all en route. Iron Mountain Camp is in emergency, facing a siege from four forces…”
Wei Wanlan stopped chewing the cheese stick. He listened carefully, feeling the scout was quite anxious.
He also knew that if the Iron Mountain Camp was lost, their retreat would be cut off, and they would be forced to stay in the Turkic lands, which was very dangerous.
Su Jingzhi’s voice had no ripples.
But he heard the clop-clop of his warhorse’s hooves as he swiftly designated a unit: “Li Jiucheng.”
“The subordinate is here!”
“Cut off Gaochang to the north. Just interfere and scare them first; don’t kill them.”
“The subordinate obeys.”
“…”
Knowing the Regent King wanted to play someone again, Wei Wanlan couldn’t guess who.
General Li led this light cavalry unit north. Before the Gaochang army could rendezvous with the other allied forces, he intercepted the Gaochang prince leading the troops halfway.
Li Jiucheng was tall and burly, and the Wei army was fierce. When the two armies engaged in close combat, there was no hesitation; it was like chopping melons and vegetables.
Li Jiucheng killed until his eyes were red.
The Gaochang prince begged for help frantically. Hawks flew continuously from above the battlefield to the allied forces’ sky. The other three countries received the news that the Gaochang army had been intercepted.
The leader of the alliance, King Murong Bohan of Tuyuhun, was closest to Gaochang.
Tuyuhun had two choices—save them, or not save them.
If not saved, the four-nation alliance existed in name only. This leader would be useless, unable to convince the masses, and there would be no need to fight.
But if saved, only Tuyuhun was in a position to save them. Su Jingzhi was forcing him to move troops north. This was the strategy of besieging Wei to rescue Zhao, even if he could see that Su Jingzhi wanted to reduce the threat the alliance posed to the Iron Mountain Camp.
Murong Bohan had to take the bait. After racking his brains for an hour, he made a decision he thought was optimal:
He also split his forces.
The Tuyuhun troops split in two. One went north to rescue, putting out the fire for the burning Gaochang nation. The other continued to act as the alliance boss, leading the Tubo and Turkic remnants to continue fiercely attacking the Iron Mountain Camp.
But they hadn’t expected that the main Wei force was waiting for exactly this result.
Iron Mountain commanded a high position and was originally easy to defend and hard to attack. The last time the Wei army surprised Iron Mountain, they also won by braving the wind and snow and using the weather.
Now, the four armies had been stirred up by Su Jingzhi until only two and a half remained.
The alliance army was eager to assume an offensive posture, but what they faced outside the Iron Mountain camp were two steel beasts standing like door gods on the left and right.
—Red Coat Cannons!!!
No one had ever seen a Red Coat Cannon before this war.
Suddenly, white smoke and bright light erupted from the black cannon barrels, followed by earth-shattering loud noises from afar. The earth beneath the alliance army seemed to crack. Wherever the heavy cannon hit, soldiers were frightened out of their wits; some were blown to pieces!
By this time, Wei Wanlan had been transferred from the supply carriage to stay inside the Iron Mountain Camp.
He didn’t need to fight; he just sat in the central command tent.
The Regent King supervised the battle outside.
Signaling soldiers reported the military situation to him.
This was a battle that went too smoothly. In fact, there really wasn’t much to report. After all, regarding this epoch-making killing weapon, the Red Coat Cannon, it could be considered a dimensionality reduction strike in stopping enemy charges.
By the end, Ashina Shali even thought they had incurred divine punishment.
Enemy soldiers started kneeling to pray to the heavens, but it was useless. Cannon fire continued to smash down in waves. Smoke rose everywhere. The deterrent power of the cannons alone was enough to repel the enemy on all sides.
The initial battle ended with the absolute superiority of the Wei army.
Su Jingzhi had never fought such a battle.
Only when the fighting paused did the Regent King stand in the open space of the camp, shrouded by the stars in the firmament, his mind still unable to calm down.
The advent of firearms showed him another possibility for the battlefield. How fragile personal combat appeared in front of firearms!
But he didn’t become despondent about his path because of discovering a new trend in warfare. Quite the opposite, he felt that this technology should be vigorously developed.
What if the scale of Red Coat Cannons became larger and their lethality stronger in the future?
Or, what if in some year and month, Red Coat Cannons could achieve automatic targeted strikes? Wouldn’t that be even more fascinating?
…
He wandered in his thoughts, his mind entertaining hypotheses completely foreign to this era.
Behind him, Tang Tuan slowly approached, signaling he wanted to come closer to report in a low voice. Su Jingzhi permitted it.
“After the alliance’s initial attack was repelled this afternoon, His Majesty felt stuffy and smelled odors in the tent, so he went out to stroll in the camp. When he returned, he fell.”
Little Wan falling was a common occurrence.
Others thought he was a steady Son of Heaven; only Su Jingzhi knew he was silly and often stumbled. His knees were always bruised purple and blue.
Tang Tuan: “After falling this time, His Majesty’s lips turned pale from pain, and he clutched his stomach and couldn’t get up. Boss—”
Su Jingzhi listened no further.
Lifting the tent curtain, Little Wan was lying in the innermost part of the tent. No attendants were left in the room; a dim candle was lit. This was him, as the Emperor, unwilling to shake the soldiers’ will to fight, secretly tending to his wounds.
Su Jingzhi sat over and touched his head. His forehead was covered in cold sweat. The body under the quilt was shivering, eyes tightly closed. Little Wan was already delirious from pain.
Little Wan was very afraid of bitterness and very afraid of pain. His delicate, pampered white skin; his palms were pinched white by himself. Su Jingzhi hurriedly picked him up, letting Wei Wanlan lean against him. He circled Little Wan from the waist, realizing even more the changes in Wei Wanlan’s physical condition recently.
He was a little afraid it was because of the Twin Gu.
Su Jingzhi pressed against Wei Wanlan asking about his condition. Touching his cheek, he felt that Little Wan’s face was covered in tears. He must have cried very sadly before he returned.
Su Jingzhi wiped away his tears, his voice gentle and coaxing: “Where does it hurt?”
“Stomach hurts…”
Those words were practically squeezed out through his teeth.
Wei Wanlan felt large beads of cold sweat rolling down his forehead.
This pain was completely different from the sore throat or headache of being sick. It was as if there was a chisel inside his stomach, hammering continuously. But he had just slipped on the snow in the camp; what did that have to do with his stomach?
Wei Wanlan had no time to think so much.
He was half-conscious, his emotions extremely unstable. He violently wanted to tear the bed sheet but helplessly found he had no strength.
He began to suspect he was about to die of pain. Because it hurt so much, he really wanted to throw a tantrum. He couldn’t even realize that throwing a tantrum wasn’t good. Trapped by Su Jingzhi, he bit Su Jingzhi’s arm hard.
Su Jingzhi groaned muffledly, letting him bite. But through the clothes, it only hurt at the beginning. Actually, not much force was used. He rejoiced he hadn’t worn wrist guards; otherwise, he feared the little fool would break his teeth.
The little fool, angry like a small animal, confused by pain, cried and complained:
“System… binding… participation level, air conditioning, potato chips, fried chicken, I want to go home, why did I transmigrate here…”
Obviously, Wei Wanlan no longer knew what he was saying.
Not only did he not know, but Su Jingzhi listened patiently for a long time and didn’t understand what he was talking about either.
Only that feeling that Little Wan and the Wei Wanlan of three years ago were not quite the same surfaced in his heart again.
Even, he began to think Little Wan shouldn’t belong here. That kind of innocent, brilliant, child-like nature—how could the royal family raise such a person?
Is Little Wan the real Wei Wanlan?
Obviously, he had verified it long ago. The birthmark was correct; it was definitely the person. But how to explain the change in personality from three years ago?
Possession reborn? Borrowing a corpse to resurrect? Using dark magic?
Thoughts only spun in Su Jingzhi’s mind a few times.
He wasn’t foolishly loyal enough to think that if Little Wan wasn’t the real Wei Wanlan, he should leave the throne. Little Wan was clearly very suitable to be Emperor. Now even he wasn’t fully confident he could snatch imperial power from Wei Wanlan’s hands again.
Wherever he came from, he was Little Wan.
This was the Little Wan he had recognized.
Very well-behaved and a bit silly Little Wan.
Very kind Little Wan.
Wanwan.
But Su Jingzhi was also very worried, afraid that Little Wan would really go back one day, go back to that place with “fried chicken potato chips milk tea stir-fried yogurt crispy noodles”. He admitted he was selfish; he wanted Little Wan.
So Su Jingzhi gently rubbed Wei Wanlan’s stomach, circling in one direction, the pressure neither light nor heavy. He soothed his emotions.
His voice actually carried a pleading tone:
“Wanwan, This King will treat you very well, absolutely won’t let you regret coming here.”
“Wanwan, stay.”
“Wanwan, don’t leave me.”
He murmured for nearly half the night.
And that stomach pain that almost took his life due to the fall gradually calmed down under Su Jingzhi’s constant soothing.
Wei Wanlan dreamed again.
In the dream, he held two little puppies. Running and running, he fell down the stairs. He fell and it hurt. He hugged his knees and cried loudly. The puppies were also scared, howling and crying along. The three little guys cried in a heap, then were picked up by the Regent King.
Su Jingzhi coaxed him, then coaxed the little puppies, until his stomach didn’t hurt and the puppies stopped fussing. They all calmed down, three pairs of dark eyes looking at the Regent King.
Su Jingzhi coaxed while saying, all be good, don’t go, don’t leave, This King will definitely perform well, absolutely better than your beloved fried chicken potato chips milk tea stir-fried yogurt crispy noodles…
Eh.
The Regent King is so strange.
Why did he compare himself to crispy noodles?
He’s a little raccoon!
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