Wuxia: The Super Slave Master

Page 269

Luo Chen looked at the setting sun in the sky. Unbeknownst to him, two hours had already passed. This Shi Hui was quite cunning, repeatedly tempting Luo Chen. For a time, Luo Chen's evaluation of Shi Hui improved considerably.

But Luo Chen didn't know that Shi Hui here was a real coward!

"We can't stay here any longer. If the enemy launches a surprise attack, we'll suffer a greater loss!"

At a single command, thousands of troops charged toward the city walls, but the soldiers on the walls immediately organized a counterattack. Unexpectedly, Luo Chen's first wave of attacks was repelled by the enemy.

"My lord, I must go now!"

No sooner said than done, Zhao Yun leaped onto the siege ladder. Several archers from Hepu saw him charging up and immediately drew their long arrows, shooting them at him.

Zhao Yun's spear swirled around him, as if a god had descended to earth. Before anyone knew it, Zhao Yun had reached the top of the city wall.

Seeing their commander so valiant, the Jingzhou soldiers felt a sense of humiliation. Since ancient times, generals have always been the last to ascend the city walls, and now they were being asked to clear the way for them. How despicable!

"Charge! Protect General Zhao Yun! Kill!"

At this shout, the Jingzhou army rushed towards the city wall. The Hepu soldiers had held off the first two waves, but with Zhao Yun, a god of war, wreaking havoc on the city wall, they were showing signs of defeat.

Seeing that the situation was not good, Shi Hui gathered a hundred men, who were armed with long swords and charged towards Zhao Yun. It should be noted that only five people were allowed to pass side by side on the city wall at a time.

Zhao Yun was quickly surrounded, and more and more soldiers rushed up, and wounds began to appear on Zhao Yun's body.

Luo Chen gripped the reins tightly, hoping Zhao Yun could persevere; the Jingzhou army had to achieve merit in this battle.

Zhao Yun sent several more flying, but his strength was waning. He could only use the techniques within his moves and dared not recklessly use his immense power anymore.

Seeing his general surrounded, a Jingzhou army corporal gritted his teeth and rushed to the top of the city wall.

"General Zhao, I've come to save you!"

Without hesitation, he charged at a soldier, and the soldiers behind him also climbed onto the city wall at that moment!

"Kill them!"

Seeing that he could not defend the city wall, Shi Hui quickly led his personal guards down the city wall and then went directly to the archer squad leader.

"I want you to fire the arrow!"

"General, our brothers are still up there!"

"Didn't you hear me? I said fire the arrows!"

"this.."

Shi Hui gave him a push, picked up a longbow from the side, and shot a fire arrow onto the city wall, instantly setting the wall ablaze.

Before harming the enemy, they injured their own people first, and the fire raged fiercely.

Perhaps even the soldiers of Hepu did not expect that their general would treat them this way, and countless puzzled heads looked at him.

Shi Hui, however, remained calm and composed, and said to the sergeant, "If you don't let go, I'll chop you down!"

The sergeant, left with no other option, gritted his teeth and gave the order.

"Fire arrows!"

Rows of rockets were fired at the city walls, and countless people fell from the walls, including soldiers from Jingzhou and Hepu.

Zhao Yun took a closer look and realized that if he didn't break through now, he would eventually be completely exhausted here.

The Hepu army was originally a group of scattered but brave soldiers. When they saw that their general was determined to kill them, they were unwilling to lose their lives like this!

"Damn it, we're risking our lives here, and he's just using us as bait! Brothers, let's rebel!"

It's unclear who shouted this, but the remaining soldiers responded and cut the ropes binding the city gate.

Fearing that he might accidentally injure the rebels, Zhao Yun shouted, "Those who lay down their weapons will not be killed!"

Upon hearing this, everyone put down their weapons and knelt on the ground. Zhao Yun left behind several dozen men and led them back to Luo Chen's tent.

The city gates slowly opened, and the Jingzhou army rushed in like fish swimming in water.

Shi Hui spat, "These useless fellows!"

When he turned around, he saw that the squad leader was looking at him with a slightly strange gaze, and his heart skipped a beat.

"What do you want?"

The sergeant smiled and said, "General, since you know how to sacrifice your brothers to hold off the enemy for you, now that the city has fallen, you should also sacrifice yourself for your brothers to save our lives."

Upon hearing this, Shi Hui sensed that something terrible had happened. He was about to draw his sword when several soldiers who had been waiting behind him pounced on him.

One wasn't enough, so another pounced on him. Even if you had unparalleled martial arts skills, they were completely useless at this moment.

And so, Shi Hui was brought under the control of his own soldiers to Luo Chen's tent, while all of his soldiers surrendered. This battle ended there.

The Jingzhou army suffered several hundred casualties, but killed two thousand enemy soldiers and captured two thousand.

Shi Hui arrived at the main hall and was forced to kneel on the ground by two soldiers. Shi Hui spat disdainfully.

"Luo Chen, I am not defeated by you!"

Luo Chen laughed loudly: "You still lost to me, didn't you?" Luo Chen walked up to him and slapped him across the face.

“Our army killed two thousand of your men, but only half of those two thousand men were killed by me. The other half were sent to hell by your own hands.”

"So what? History has always been about the victors and the vanquished!"

"Alright, since that's the case, you go down and compensate them too!"

Shi Hui was slightly taken aback; he had originally thought he would survive.

"Wait a minute! I am Shi Xie's nephew. If you spare my life, perhaps, perhaps, you can change the course of the battle!"

"What, are you scared of death now? Weren't you so imposing just now?"

Shi Wei lowered his head, and Luo Chen gently helped him up: "Sometimes, we have to face death because it is unavoidable. You should pay the price for what you have done. Go down!"

"General, spare my life! Luo Chen, Luo Jingzhou, no!"

Shi Wei's voice gradually faded. Luo Chen looked at the map in his hand. The enemy army was now divided in two; it all depended on Shi Xie!

Chapter 177 Jiang Gan Arrives

Shi Xie was dressed in white mourning clothes, and the surrounding officials came forward to comfort him.

"My lord, please accept my condolences!"

"Yes, the people are already gone. My lord, do not grieve. The most important thing now is to defend Hepu!"

Shi Xie looked at his subordinates and couldn't help but sigh. He knew what was most important right now, but he was still unable to come to his senses because his beloved younger brother had left him.

Just then, a soldier ran up quickly.

"Report!"

Shi Xie turned around: "Hurry up and get on!"

"My lord, Hepu is in dire need of help! Please send troops to its aid immediately!"

"Very well, all generals, proceed immediately into the council hall!"

"Yes!"

"Report!"

Before they could even go inside, another soldier rushed up.

"how?"

"My lord, Lord Shiwei requests reinforcements!"

Shih-hsieh wondered how urgent the situation would have to be for soldiers to keep asking for help.

Just then, a soldier slowly stepped forward, looking somewhat frightened, though it was unclear what he was afraid of.

"My lord, Hepu has fallen. Lord Shiwei is determined to live and die with Hepu. Please accept my condolences!"

"what?"

Hepu City was heavily guarded, how could it have fallen like this?

Shi Xie couldn't believe it. He turned around, but before he could take two steps, he collapsed to the ground and fainted. The remaining generals quickly carried him inside.

About an hour later, an advisor stepped forward and asked, "How is the lord feeling?"

Shi Xie nodded: "What's the situation in Hepu now?"

The strategist shook his head, and Shi Xie sighed deeply before standing up.

"Luo Chen, I will definitely take your life!"

He had barely finished speaking when he spat out a mouthful of blood and fainted.

Luo Chen counted the number of people and wrote a letter to Lujiang. After receiving the letter, Sun Quan summoned Gan Ning and others and gave them instructions.

Although Gan Ning did not know why his lord asked him to help Luo Chen attack the South China Sea, for many years, he was known as a water pirate, but in reality, he had always been an army planted by Eastern Wu in the Jianghu.

After Zhou Yu's death, he submitted to Sun Quan's command. As long as his lord gave the order, there was nothing he couldn't do.

The resistance in Nanhai was much easier than in Hepu. Just as Gan Ning captured Nanhai, a group of Jingzhou troops suddenly arrived. At the same time, Lu Su also came to the city of Nanhai and ordered Gan Ning to return to his camp.

This made Gan Ning even more confused, but soldiers take obedience to orders as their duty, and Gan Ning displayed this sharp and refined quality. Thus, Nanhai City fell into Luo Chen's hands.

The news naturally reached Shi Xie very quickly. At the same time, Liu Zhang sent an envoy to ask Shi Xie to submit to him.

Now that he only had two cities left, and it seemed that his time as a warlord had come to an end, he sighed and decided to surrender and let the Xichuan army take command of him.

Meanwhile, Luo Chen marched through the night, leading 30,000 troops directly to the vicinity of Jiaojian City. He also dismissed the peace envoy Jiang Gan, a man who had been killed by Cao Cao in history because he fell into a trap.

He actually possessed a silver tongue, capable of eloquent and persuasive speech, but historically, he was considered rather dim-witted, which is why he fell for their schemes.

Now, Luo Chen has given him a chance to start anew, but Shi Xie will not surrender. However, Jiang Gan's words are too sweet, so he barely managed to save his life.

When he was about to leave, Shi Xie escorted him all the way out of the city.

"Brother Jiang Gan, if things don't go well with Luo Chen, my door will always be open for you!"

"You're too kind, sir. Would you mind escorting me for another mile?"

At this point, Jiang Gan pointed to the imperial edict on the city wall, which listed a wanted bandit leader. Shi Xie laughed heartily.

"I didn't expect Brother Jiang Gan to be afraid of death. This is unlike when you first arrived!"

The two exchanged pleasantries, and Jiang Gan took the opportunity to flatter Shi Xie. Shi Xie was very pleased and led his soldiers to escort Jiang Gan two miles away.

At this moment, Jiang Gan calmly bid farewell to Shi Xie. Suddenly, Jiang Gan's eyes changed, and he pulled Shi Xie into his arms and took out a dagger.

"Don't come any closer, or I'll stab your lord to death on the spot!"

Shi Xie was unaware of what had happened, while the remaining military officers surrounded Jiang Gan.

"Jiang Gan, my lord has treated you kindly, why are you doing this?"

"Haha, that's right, Shi Xie does treat me like a brother, but there's one thing you shouldn't forget: I'm an envoy sent by our lord!"

Shi Xie's face darkened. Even though Jiang Gan had him hostage, he couldn't leave today. Perhaps he still held a sliver of hope in his heart.

"Jiang Gan, if you release me now, I will have them let you go. At most, you will perish with me. Why bother for Luo Chen?"

Jiang Gan spat at him and said, "What do you know? Before our lord appeared, everyone thought I was a fool. Only our lord would confide in me. Today, I am willing to sacrifice myself for our lord!"

Shi Xie thought to himself, "This is bad. I'm not afraid of your intelligence or your ruthlessness, but I'm most afraid of your fearlessness of death!"

Shi Xie wanted to continue persuading him, but just then, a series of battle cries suddenly rang out, and judging from the direction of the sound, it should be from the direction of Jiaozhi City.

"Look, your lord abandoned you just to attack my city. Who else would you want to serve as a lord like that?"

Jiang Gan smiled calmly: "So what? From now on, future generations will only remember that I, Jiang Gan, fought for my lord. Let's go together!"

"Jiang Gan, don't make a move!"

Just then, the sound of countless hooves came from afar, and ten thousand men quickly surrounded the few hundred men.

Luo Chen stepped out from the crowd, and Jiang Gan was so excited that he almost burst into tears.

"I have not granted you permission to die, how dare you speak of death so easily!"

Luo Chen's words struck a chord with Jiang Gan.

With Shi Xie's fate sealed, the generals knelt on the ground. At this moment, Jiang Gan was finally able to relax and released his grip. Several Jingzhou soldiers then forced Shi Xie to stand before Luo Chen.

"A man of such talent, how could he have fallen to such a state? Wouldn't it have been wonderful if you had agreed to Jiang Gan's surrender to me?"

Chapter 178 Turmoil in the North

Shi Xie sneered at Luo Chen: "You killed one of my brothers and one of my nephews. What makes you think I would surrender to you?"