Astral Apostle

Cheng Liqing could not care less about anything else. He ran with the remaining soldiers back to the pass to regroup with the main army.

However, when they approached the pass, they were shocked to discover that flames were soaring into the sky. Screams sounded repeatedly, and a charred smell wafted out.

As for the soldiers who were supposed to be guarding the pass, they were all missing.

"Oh no, there's a change in the pass. Our retreat has been cut off!"

Cheng Liqing's face paled.

Before he could react, shouts suddenly erupted from both sides of the road.

"Kill!"

It turned out that there were already bandits from the stronghold lying in ambush here. Their numbers far exceeded this group of crippled soldiers, and they directly swarmed forward.

Cheng Liqing was furious at being humilitated like this. He held onto his iron spear and tried his best to kill a few lackeys, but in the end, he was still outnumbered and was pressed to the ground and tied up.

...

The fire in the pass burned for an entire night, almost burning this place to ashes.

The corpses of the soldiers were layered and stuck together. Most of them were burned to death. The main force of the soldiers who occupied the pass was almost completely destroyed by the inferno.

However, this was a military fortress, and there were no residences around, so the villagers were not implicated.

At this moment, the bandit troops hiding in all directions returned to the pass to clean up the battlefield.

On the other side, the lackeys escorted the disheveled Cheng Liqing into a makeshift tent.

After entering the military tent, Cheng Liqing looked up and saw that Fang Zhen, Fan Zong, and the others were all present. His eyes immediately turned red. How could he not realize that he had been tricked?

"Fan Zong! You son of a b*tch, so your surrender was faked!"

Cheng Liqing lost his composure and roared angrily. He struggled with all his might. If not for the fact that he was tightly tied up, he would have rushed up and fought for his life.

Fan Zong sneered when he heard this,

"All's fair in war. Your tricks were inferior to others, so what's there to say? I've been in the Green Forest for decades, so how can I rely on you to join the Imperial Court? Who else can you blame for falling into a trap? Chief Chen is akin to a celestial being. I must be insane to want to join the Imperial Court!"

At that time, when he received the Imperial Court's persuasion to surrender, Fan Zong had a plan.

Actually, under normal circumstances, Fan Zong would not reject recruitment.

However, in the current war situation, the Imperial Court was clearly at a disadvantage and was beaten until they could not breathe. Moreover, Chen Feng's strength was shocking. He was the epitome of a peerless hero, his prestige resounding through the world. If he betrayed this person, there would be no way out.

With these two factors, if he still "abandoned the darkness and joined the light", wouldn't that be like eating arsenic during your birthday celebration?

(TL Note: Celebrating one's birthday during one's old age was believed to be a sign of longevity, but eating arsenic is trying to achieve the opposite effect.)

Although Fan Zong was not very successful in the Dragon King Stronghold, he did not intend to court death. He might as well take this opportunity to make a contribution and show his loyalty.

Therefore, he had long known who to choose and what to do.

However, Fan Zong only reported the situation. The specific plan was not formulated by him, nor was it thought of by a boor like Fang Zhen.

After the matter was reported, the Third Head, Duan Yunfeng, came to secretly provide support.

Duan Yunfeng roughly determined the personality of the enemy general according to the letter Fan Zong showed him and specially came up with a plan.

He lured the enemy into a trap and attacked with fire!

After feigning defeat, he used this place as bait to lure the Imperial Court's troops in. Meanwhile, the bandits hid in the tunnel and waited for an opportunity to close the door and set fire to the camp to wipe out the enemy. They tried their best not to leave any survivors.

Duan Yunfeng did not even blink when he set up such a vicious plan to burn tens of thousands of soldiers to death.

In the end, this plan succeeded. The effect was obvious, and less than 10% of the soldiers survived.

The threat of the Imperial Court's troops along the way had already been resolved in one battle. There was no need to worry that someone would endanger the rear court of the Dragon King Stronghold anymore.

At this moment, Duan Yunfeng sat on the main seat of the military tent and stared coldly at Cheng Liqing.

"A defeated general still dares to be arrogant. Men, push him out and behead him. His head will be hung on the flag. There's no need to leave his corpse intact."

As soon as he finished speaking, a guard immediately pushed Cheng Liqing out.

Soon, a short scream sounded outside before being cut off.

Fang Zhen retracted his gaze and smiled, "Brother Duan, you're really good at both martial arts and tactics. Your plan succeeded. You should be the top contributor to this battle."

"It's just a scheme. It's nothing."

Duan Yunfeng waved his hand, not wishing to take credit.

He paused for a while before he narrowed his eyes,

"This battle has been won, and we've resolved the danger behind the stronghold. Right now, the Chief is wandering outside with his troops and harassing the imperial troops, but we can't rely on the Chief alone to support the battle…

"Brother Fang, you captured thousands of soldiers alive last night. I have a plan. Choose a group of elites from the stronghold and change into the clothes of the soldiers to deceive the nearby soldiers and fortresses. That fellow surnamed Cheng had caused most of the main troops in this direction to be buried here. It's time for us to expand our gains."

Fang Zhen's eyes lit up, "Sounds good. Let's do that!"

He was not someone who liked to use his brain to overlook others, but Duan Yunfeng was a ruthless person who had a quick mind. He did not mind listening to the other party's instructions.

...

The Imperial Court's army divided into several groups to attack the Dragon King Stronghold. Under Duan Yunfeng's plan, the army in one direction suffered heavy losses and could no longer maintain their strategic role. They quickly retreated.

As soon as the battle started, the pressure on the Dragon King Stronghold decreased. The situation became better and better, and they slowly gained the upper hand.

When Ma Zhen received the battle report, he was so angry that he drew his sword and slashed the report into two.

Although he was the commander of the three armies, because the efficiency of information transmission was limited, most of the time, he had to rely on the commanders of the other armies to perform at their own discretion. He could not micromanage the front line at any time… although he really wanted to do so.

"Cheng Liqing! Incompetent person, you underestimated your enemy and advanced, ruining my overall situation!"

Ma Zhen was furious.

Yuwen Yan frowned, "Marshal, calm down. Since it's already done, we can only think of a way to salvage the situation."

At this moment, there were only Ma Zhen, Huang Ping, and Yuwen Yan, the three highest decision makers in the tent. It was a private meeting.

Ma Zhen exhaled and calmed himself down. He sat down again and said in a deep voice,

"The situation is disadvantageous to us. The Dragon King Stronghold has resolved itself on one side, and it's difficult to seal it off again. Meanwhile, that villain Chen Feng is attacking outside non-stop, and our Imperial Court's army is already in a dire state. If we want to drag this winter through, we'll probably have to pay a tragic amount of casualties, and the effects will be limited as well."

"Marshal, you mean…" Yuwen Yan probed.

A cold glint flashed in Ma Zhen's eyes,

"Continuing the battle will only increase the casualties. The chances of winning are quite slim. Although there will be many private benefits if we delay, it's not easy for us to report to the Imperial Court if there are too many casualties… Since this battle can't be won, why don't we preserve our strength for the Imperial Court?"

He was still a little different from Pang Hong in this regard. As the descendant of the Duke of Yi, if the country was unstable, his family would suffer even more, so it was inevitable that he would consider more extreme ideas.

With that, Ma Zhen turned to look at Huang Ping and said coldly,

"Since we're retreating, we naturally can't return empty-handed. We have to give Chen Feng a huge gift. The genocide plan that we mentioned back then will be implemented by your side. If we succeed, even if Chen Feng wins this battle, he won't be able to take a breather for a few years. This means that it will indirectly slow down the footsteps of this group of bandits and give the Imperial Court a few years of breathing space. It will still be a great merit after returning to the capital!"

Hearing this, Yuwen Yan could not bear it.

But it seemed that the Marshal had made up his mind. In the end, he still had to use the method of flooding the lake to turn the entire Huyang into a thousand-mile swamp state.

Once this plan was used, it was equivalent to treating the entire Huyang as an abandoned pawn. They were basically ignoring the commoners, with the only goal of wanting to severely injure Chen Feng and the outlaws.

Looking at another point however… if the rebels wanted to overthrow the Great Xia Empire, they were mortal enemies. It was not a problem for the Imperial Court to counterattack and do everything they could.

As long as the final outcome was effective, it was acceptable for the Emperor and the entire court to pay such a price to protect the stability of the country.

After all… if he lost his empire, what was the use of living beings?

Yuwen Yan sighed to himself.

Although he still had some conscience, as a noble with vested interests, he naturally would not object to this decision. He slowly nodded in tacit agreement.