Chapter 519- Mystery in Tianjing
Translator: ryangohsf
Editor: Nora
11th month, 2nd day, Xunzhou Prefecture, Tianjing City.
The towering Tianjing City was like a massive dragon coiled up in the middle of Chuannan, showing off the ambition of Hong Xiuquan.
After a year of hard work, the population of Tianjing had crossed five hundred thousand and was enough to compete with the grade 1 prefectures of players.
Just when Ouyang Shuo welcomed and met the civil servants, Yang Xiuqing led the remains of his troops and arrived outside of Tianjing City.
Long before his return, the news that the South Army had fallen at Mulan Stronghold had spread out in Tianjing City. The huge city was in a solemn mood.
The civil servants and generals of the country could not imagine how two hundred thousand elite troops fell in one night. This great blow caused the entire imperial court to be unable to breathe.
The fate of the entire country seemed to become precipitous all of a sudden.
On the day he received the news, Hong Xiuquan smashed his tea cup during the imperial court meeting. Following which, he folded his sleeves and left, leaving all of the ministers standing there and looking utterly awkward.
The same day, within the palace, a concubine carelessly mentioned Mulan Stronghold and was dragged out and executed.
Such a scene sent shivers down their spines.
The entire Tianjing City was covered in a terrifying and horrible atmosphere.
The usually bustling city instantly turned cold and quiet.
On the city walls, squads of soldiers patrolled, their eyes sharp and their expressions serious. Everyone knew that the loss of the South Army meant that the entire Xunzhou Prefecture was exposed in front of the enemy.
The rising wind forebodes a storm.
Hence, when Yang Xiuqing and his troops arrived at the city gate, they saw many different expressions on the guarding soldiers and the people around them.
Shock, despise, anger, curiosity.
When Yang Xiuqing saw their faces, he felt truly bitter and sad.
As for the three thousand soldiers he brought back, they felt a massive sense of guilt under the weight of such stares.
Members of a defeated army, what courage and honor could they speak of?
A feeling of regret and shame rose up from within them.
Every soldier wanted to use their helmets to cover their faces, as they had no face to meet the people in the city.
However, the soldiers in charge of guarding the city did not dare to block them. Only one guard instantly ran when he saw them. He ran toward the King Palace in the city.
Yang Xiuqing was expressionless, as he led the three thousand men. He calmly passed through the city gates and headed toward the barracks in the city. If one did not know, they would think that the battle had never occured.
The spy that the Black Snake Guards had planted by Yang Xiuqing's side could not help but nod his head at Yang Xiuqing's performance.
Yang Xiuqing was really special.
On the matter of his calm demeanour alone, there were not many that were his match.
Everyone knew that in suffering this huge defeat, as the main commander and general, his responsibility was the greatest.
The fury of the king was also incredibly merciless and violent.
Pretty much everyday, there would be people scolded or punished by the king. It would be the ministers who spoke, his concubines, or soldiers that did not perform their duty well.
The fall of the South Army had caused the negative side that Hong Xiuquan had tried to hide to explode out. He suddenly became an impulsive and irritable person, annoyed at nearly anything.
A massive sense of failure pressed onto his head and turned him crazy.
The moment he thought about the empire he had built up crashing down because of this battle, Hong Xiuquan wanted to just skin Yang Xiuqing alive.
As they say, when one fails to meet their goals, one would definitely grow crazy in anger. Hong Xiuquan was now at the verge of total insanity.
Under such circumstances, the fate of Yang Xiuqing was fairly obvious. His best possible outcome would probably be a complete corpse.
Not only Yang Xiuqing, his family would probably be massacred.
The events of history would replay once more.
However, Yang Xiuqing did not choose to surrender to Shanhai City or flee into the woods. Instead, he would rather return to the city resolutely.
All of this was something that other people could not understand.
In truth, two days ago, Hong Xiuqing had obtained the location of Yang Xiuqing through his mysterious intel network.
Hence, Hong Xiuquan could not understand the other man’s plans.
Weirdly enough, on this day, be it Yang Xiuqing or Hong Xiuquan, neither took any extra actions. Yang Xiuqing entered the army camp and Hong Xiuquan did not ask to meet him.
Everything seemed calm.
Anyone with a brain would know that this was merely the eve of the storm.
In the cold city, the dark currents and hidden powers started to act.
When Yang Xiuqing arrived at the camp, he sent a soldier he trusted to the palace to pass a letter to Hong Xiuquan.
It was this letter that temporarily preserved his life.
Apart from the people involved, no one knew what words the letter contained. It could actually calm down the killing intent of Hong Xiuquan.
As a result, the dark currents within the city started moving quicker and more vigorously.
Especially under the provocation of the two intelligence organizations, the entire city became a mess.
Various powers were probing one another.
Anyone with power was trying to see the direction of the country’s progress through this thick fog.
Unfortunately, all of these actions were destined to be useless.
Because Shanhai City, who had been preparing for a long time, finally bared their fangs.
11th month, 2nd day afternoon, Chiyou City.
The hundreds of civil servants that were previously locked up in the secret prison brought their families and started to move to Shanhai City.
Out of all of them, only one stayed—Pei Ju. Based on Ouyang Shuo's plan, Pei Ju would follow him and enter Xunzhou Prefecture.
Pei Ju was good at both martial arts and administrative work. Moreover, he was a great minister.
Hence, after this peaceful noon, Ouyang Shuo asked to see Pei Ju alone in his reading room. It was the first time the two of them got to meet alone, so they poured their hearts out and talked about almost anything.
Ouyang Shuo knew that he needed to use his lofty goals and ambitions to reignite the fire in Pei Ju’s heart.
As such, not only did Ouyang Shuo tell him about the plan to destroy Taiping Country, he even told him about the plans for the next year.
After listening to Ouyang Shuo’s grand blueprint, Pei Ju was jolted awake. If his plan succeeded, his empire would not merely be the size of the Tang empire at its prime.
In just an hour, Ouyang Shuo had managed to convince Pei Ju and gain his recognition.
Pei Ju could only laugh awkwardly at this.
This trip was to give Pei Ju a close look at the Shanhai City Army.
11th month, 3rd day, Ouyang Shuo led the troops and left Chiyou City. Following them included the three thousand Divine Martial Guards, the Guards Division, and the threee independent mountain barbarian divisions.
Only the 4th independent division, which would become the the iron armored beast division, stayed. They were in charge of the area defence before the Garrison Division was built up.
For this trip, Ouyang Shuo would lead his men west to the intersection between Guilin Prefecture and Xunzhou, blocking off the north escape route of Hong Xiuquan.
The next day, the Dragon and Leopard Legions would split into two and invade Xunzhou Prefecture.
The battle to destroy Taiping Country had officially started.