It had been the young monarch who had succeeded to the throne with Dugu Shan’s assistance that had taken Dugu Shan’s life.
This unexpected occurrence had come as a surprise to not only Lian Hai and Han Shu but also the whole Luohai court.
Clearly the young monarch had harbored a grudge against Dugu Shan after being informed that the latter had planned to take the throne in his stead, which was why he had killed Dugu Shan after the latter entered the palace.
Dugu Miao, after coming to know that the young monarch had murdered his father, had realized that the Dugu family was faced with the fate of being wiped out. Filled with indignation, he had led all his house guards and the half of the troops stationed in the city to the royal palace and forced entry.
Lian Hai had just finished writing this letter when, from the royal palace, had come news that the young monarch and Dugu Miao had both died during the fight.
The scouts planted in the royal palace by Lian Hai had confirmed the young monarch’s and Dugu Miao’s deaths. There were not many members in the royal household. Nian Feng had killed many of them when trying to usurp the throne, and Dugu Shan, in order to make sure that nobody made another prince a puppet monarch, had killed the last few sons of Mu Hengtian’s not long ago. Now that the young monarch was dead, the royal household had actually been exterminated.
The Luohai capital was now in a state of anarchy.
Ling Zhang was shocked and speechless at the message. The Luohai Kingdom had really brought about its own destruction.
The others were also astounded at the news.
“S–So the Luohai Kingdom has perished without us launching an attack.” Yuwen Jin was so amazed he was stuttering.
Everybody was feeling as though they had just hit pay dirt. Though shocked, they could barely keep from laughing.
“All members of the Mu family are dead, and none of the courtiers could make the others come to heel. Who do you think still stands a chance of becoming the Luohai monarch?”
“Nobody. Even if they have someone act as a regent, it wouldn’t make much difference.”
After a few moments’ silence, the officers were seized by great enthusiasm.
“Sire, should we take advantage of this golden opportunity and have our troops set off right away?”
“Yeah. We should fight our way to the Luohai capital and take it. It’s almost defenseless now.”
The Luohai Kingdom was now leaderless, its people panic-stricken, so there would hardly be any resistance.
Yuwen Tong glanced at them and said, “Calm down. Do not underestimate the enemy.”
On hearing these words, the thrilled officers recovered themselves.
“You’re right, Sire. I was being reckless.”
“Still, we can’t stand by and do nothing.”
“I think many people in this country are still unaware of it. We should spread the news for them.”
Ling Zhang said, “I’ll handle it.”
There were still many hard-core members of Jiahe Chamber of Commerce hidden in the cities and towns near the Luohai capital.
…
The news spread very fast. Two days later, everybody in the cities and towns near the Luohai capital had come to know about it.
When the Great-Wen army staged an assault, the Luohai troops stationed in a city chose to surrender themselves. The army took the city without suffering any casualties and then pushed squarely towards the Luohai capital.
When they reached the suburbs of the Luohai capital, Yuwen Tong gave the order to encamp instead of mounting an immediate offensive on the city.
Though the Luohai Kingdom was in anarchy, the defense of its capital was stronger than that of any provincial city, and breaching it would take a lot of doing, so Yuwen Tong planned to adopt another strategy to achieve his ends. He had his troops make camp outside the city, half surrounding it.
The sea of tents put the people inside the city under great emotional stress. The citizens turned restless, and there were several strands of opinions among the officials, who were having heated arguments.
Some advocated defending the city to the last breath.
Some believed they should sue for peace.
Some suggested they capitulate.
Only a couple of hidebound courtiers advocated defending the city. Those intending to sue for peace accounted for one third of the courtiers, still having the fond hope of helping the Luohai capital – or the Luohai regime – survive this crisis, despite the fact that the city was besieged by the army of the Great Wen. Most people were inclined to surrender, but not many had made public their stand on the matter; they were observing quietly, making no remarks, and would not say anything until the last moment.
Lian Hai and Han Shu had been staying in Jiahe Chamber of Commerce all along. Lian Hai, after Dugu Shan had helped the young prince succeed to the throne, had believed that his life was in danger and been on full alert, in case Dugu Shan made an attempt to kill him, but unexpectedly, Dugu Shan had at first been too occupied to find any time to kill him, and then been murdered by the young monarch. Afterward, Dugu Miao had taken some men and forced entry into the royal palace where he and the young monarch had died together during a fight. Lian Hai and Han Shu had both been caught flat-footed by the sudden change of the situation but also felt greatly relieved because of it.
The patriarch of the Dugu family and his heir were both dead. The rest of them were either worrying about the eventual fate of the Luohai Kingdom or busy dividing up family property. None of them knew about the relations between Lian Hai and Dugu Shan, so nobody would make trouble for him.
Thus, Lian Hai and Han Shu survived the upheavals.
The men they had planted in the royal palace, in a timely manner, sent them some messages about the arguments among the courtiers in the audience hall. After coming to know about it, Lian Hai and Han Shu both started thinking.
“The couple of geriatrics advocating defending the city are small in number, but they carry a lot of weight with the courtiers. If they keep doing this, it’ll waste a lot of our time. I think we should stir things up a little in the Luohai court one last time. By doing that, we’ll be getting revenge for our previous sufferings and at the same time assisting our master. What do you say?” said Han Shu.
Lian Hai said, “I couldn’t agree more. Tell me how you think we should do it.”
“We kill those geriatrics. If they die, those intending to sue for peace will know what it means. Considering the panic in the city, things will go the way we want once somebody suggests surrender,” said Han Shu.
Lian Hai gave it some thought and then nodded. “All right. Let’s do it your way. Our master is right outside the city. I’ll send him a letter first. You may start making arrangements straight away.”
Han Shu smiled, “You may rest assured that I’ll get the job done.”
Soon, Lian Hai’s letter was delivered to Ling Zhang.
Ling Zhang, after being informed of what Lian Hai and Han Shu were planning to do, immediately told Yuwen Tong about it.
“If they succeed, it won’t be long before we see those Luohai courtiers coming out of the city to surrender themselves,” said Ling Zhang.
Yuwen Tong looked at him and smiled, “These two subordinates of yours turn out to be quite audacious, but actually I’ve been thinking about the same thing.”
Yuwen Tong had chosen to lay siege to the city instead of attacking it because he wanted to wait for the people inside to capitulate. Of course, at first these people would want to sue for peace, but eventually they would no doubt yield.
However, Lian Hai and Han Shu’s action would shorten the process by having the courtiers skip the step of suing for peace.
…
The couple of old courtiers advocating defending the city to the last breath did not live in the palace. They returned home to sleep at night, though there was no telling whether they could get to sleep or not.
Lian Hai and Han Shu’s method was brutal and simple – assassination.
Presently most troops were stationed at the city gates, and there were barely any soldiers guarding courtiers’ abodes, which made it easier for Lian Hai and Han Shu to carry out their plan.
On the night of that very day.
Dozens of assassins showed up in the couple of courtiers’ abodes one after another.
“AAARGH!”
“Assassins! Assassins!”
“Master! Master!”
Successive screams of horror rang out, breaking the silence of the late night.
The couple of courtiers advocating defending the capital to the last breath were all killed at home late at night. Every one of them took a single blow, a fatal one.
Before daybreak, the officials of the capital assembled in the audience hall in the royal palace. At first they cursed the murderers loudly and sent some men to hunt for the culprits, but gradually they lapsed into silence and the mood in the hall became terribly subdued.
“All the victims were among those who advocated defending the capital. I think everybody in this hall knows what this means. I suggest we express our opinions one more time and make a final decision by the end of the day.”
Someone spoke, his voice resounding through the whole audience hall.
Some had suggested they defend the city to the last breath, and some had said they should sue for peace, and some others had implied they should surrender, but none of them had ever voiced their opinions outside this audience hall, but now all those who had advocated defending the city were dead, which was too much of a coincidence.
If the one responsible for the murder of the couple of courtiers was in this hall, then they would be able to make a decision soon, given that those present at this moment either wanted to sue for peace or intended to surrender, and these two strands of opinion were more or less the same; if the culprit was from outside the city, then it would mean that the capital city was no longer safe; if they couldn’t even talk freely in the audience hall without having to worry about someone disclosing their words to people they didn’t want the words heard by, where else could they deem a safe place to talk? In that case, it would mean that those outside the city were forcing them to make their positions clear, that it was high time they made a decision.
Suddenly someone let out a long sigh and said, “Are we still in a position to sue for peace? Is it possible we’ll be killed as well tonight?”
At these words, the hall fell silent once again.
It was another long moment before someone said, “Let’s surrender then.”
The atmosphere in the hall seemed to change at this remark.
“The Wan Kingdom has been subjugated. Right now we don’t have a monarch, and our capital is under siege. The way I see it, our country is bound to be annexed as well.”
The one who had suggested surrender, as though having fully regained his power of speech after expressing his opinion, continued, “As things stand, Yuwen Tong reunifying the three countries is an inexorable trend. The Fangcun Kingdom is on the other side of the sea and thus spared from the tragic fate, but we are mired in this situation and there’s no way we could extricate ourselves. It’s impossible for us to hold the city. As regards suing for peace … do any of you think we’re still in a position to negotiate with Yuwen Tong? Let’s face it – we’re just unwilling to admit our country is to be subjugated. If we submit, we’ll be able to ensure the safety of the citizens. I failed to protect His Majesty, and I failed to protect his son too. It’d be unbelievably shameless of me to risk the citizens’ lives to maintain my ridiculous dignity.”
After he made these remarks, the atmosphere in the audience hall became quite weird. Some wanted to speak but appeared to have difficulty opening their mouths; some pressed their lips tightly together; some were just panic-stricken.
Eventually, one of those scared ones was the first to second the proposal. “I agree with your decision, Your Lordship. Let’s just surrender. My mother, my wife and my children are all in the city. I really can’t bring myself to have them die with me.”
“Our young monarch has passed away, and there’s nobody left in the royal household. Whose kingdom are we supposed to be defending exactly? Besides, the kingdom has already fallen.”
More and more people expressed similar opinions and eventually more than half of the people present were talking about capitulation. The rest were keeping silent, raising no objections, but their stand on the matter was fairly clear.
Their only option was to surrender.
“Let’s ballot. If over seventy percent of us agree to surrender, then we surrender, and the others shall keep their opinions to themselves,” suggested someone finally.
Holding a ballot on it wouldn’t take long.
It was a secret ballot, so they did not have to worry about their face.
The results soon came out. Over ninety percent of the courtiers had chosen to surrender.
Many who had kept silent or advocated suing for peace had chosen to submit in the end.
Most people were secretly relieved as they heard the results.
“Send word for the city gates to be opened in two hours!”
“Let’s go there together, everybody.”
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