#684 - Puppet Show

Late afternoon, dusk, Tianshan.

"Ah!!! I'll fight you bastards!"

"Pfft!"

"."

Corpses were strewn across the valley, and blood flowed like a river.

Broken spears and halberds, pools of red-black blood, overturned horses, and discarded flags piled up at the bottom of the valley. After the battle, dark dust swirled in the mountain gorge, lingering for a long time.

If they were fighting on the plains, they might have been able to fight and escape, and at least some of them could have gotten away.

But unfortunately, this was in the Tianshan Mountains.

Therefore, the entire 200,000 troops had nowhere to go, and they had only two choices before them—

Surrender, or fight to the death.

Judging from the results, the Ji Kingdom's soldiers were quite brave. Knowing that they could not possibly win, more than 100,000 people chose to fight to the bitter end.

Correspondingly, there were more than 100,000 more corpses in this valley.

If we add the losses on the Da Jue side, the total number is almost 200,000.

In one day, nearly 200,000 people died in battle.

It should be known that neither side had black powder, this kind of "weapon of mass destruction", so the tragic nature of this battle can be imagined.

However, although the fighting was very fierce, the ending was not surprising.

Or rather, with the absolute crushing of military strength, there could be no surprises.

Da Jue ultimately captured or annihilated all the troops that the Ji Kingdom had sent out this time, clearing the biggest obstacle for the subsequent annexation of the latter.

On the other side, when this news reached Wei Changtian's ears, he had already arranged a plan to execute Yan Huanwen.

"Alright, that's it. Go and arrange it."

In the state office's council hall, Wei Changtian clapped his hands and stood up.

"Now that the battle on the Tianshan side is over, Da Jue's army will probably retreat north soon."

"Since Yan Huaiqing is so obedient, we can't be too unkind. Let's deal with Yan Huanwen as soon as possible and be done with it."

"Anyway, he's basically said everything he knows, so there's no point in keeping him."

"Are there any other questions?"

Wei Changtian glanced at everyone, and when he saw that no one raised any questions, he prepared to leave.

However, Liang Zhen quickly walked two steps to his side and said in a low voice:

"Changtian, Miss Li and Tang Chen have been wandering around the city all day today."

"Wandering around?"

Wei Changtian was stunned when he heard this: "What did they do?"

"The strange thing is that they didn't do anything serious all day, just drinking tea and watching operas or something."

Liang Zhen roughly explained the situation with a puzzled look, and it could be seen that he didn't understand Li Zimu's actions very well.

However, Wei Changtian had already vaguely understood something.

Good fellow, a high-end honey trap?

Tsk tsk tsk, if a woman like Li Zimu were put in the previous life, she would definitely be a master at hooking up with rich guys.

"Where are they now? Haven't they gone back yet?"

"Not yet. The sentry just reported that they went to a restaurant to drink."

"Okay, I got it. Tell our people not to worry about them."

Wei Changtian curled his lips: "Oh, tell Li Zimu to come and see me tomorrow."

"Okay."

Liang Zhen responded, watching Wei Changtian slowly walk away, but he was still at a loss.

How did it seem that Changtian already understood Miss Li's intentions?

So... what exactly is Miss Li trying to do?

Did she think that as long as she ate and drank with Tang Chen, the latter would open his mouth?

If that were the case, then the Ministry of Justice wouldn't have to work so hard to interrogate prisoners. They could just serve them good food and drinks...

Strange.

On the other side, south of Liangzhou City.

Just as Liang Zhen was racking his brains to figure out Li Zimu's motives, the latter was sitting with Tang Chen in an elegant private room of a restaurant called "Moonlight Pavilion", exchanging cups.

Although it was not yet night, the two had already drunk quite a bit of wine.

Outside the window, pedestrians were crowded, and the setting sun in the sky was like blood.

Li Zimu looked at Tang Chen with her chin propped up, her cheeks flushed red, and her eyes somewhat blurred.

Although Tang Chen was also somewhat drunk, his complexion was still normal.

"Miss Li, you're already drunk."

He gently moved Li Zimu's wine glass away and sincerely advised, "You haven't cultivated, and getting drunk is most likely to hurt your body, so you shouldn't drink anymore."

"I'm not drunk..."

Li Zimu muttered, and when she saw that her wine glass had been "stolen", she reached out to "grab" it back.

But whether intentionally or unintentionally, both of them wanted to take the wine glass, and their hands just happened to touch each other.

"."

As if struck by electricity, both hands suddenly retracted, leaving the wine cup swaying in the ambiguous air.

After trembling a few times, the wine cup finally stopped shaking.

And at this time, Li Zimu asked in a rather complicated tone:

"Young Master Tang, are you worried about me?"

"I..."

A simple question, but it stunned Tang Chen all of a sudden.

He moved his gaze away somewhat awkwardly, and after organizing his words for a long time, he stammered, "We are friends, so naturally I don't want to see you..."

"Don't say so much!"

Suddenly, Li Zimu's voice became louder, and she interrupted somewhat angrily: "Are you worried about me or not?"

"This..."

"It... it should be, right..."

"."

The fragrance of wine wafted, and the voices of diners outside were noisy.

It was not known whether it was because the environment was not quiet, or because Tang Chen's voice was a little low, but in short, his words were not very clear.

However, Li Zimu heard it clearly.

She first smiled happily, then lowered her head somewhat dejectedly and murmured softly:

"Young Master Tang, thank you."

"Don't laugh at me, but you are actually the first person who has ever cared about me..."

"."

A low murmur without too many ups and downs, but the desire to protect that rose in Tang Chen's heart was almost overflowing.

He raised his head in surprise, wanting to ask something, but in the end, he couldn't ask.

Instead, Li Zimu poured herself another glass of wine after a moment of silence, drank half of it, and then took the initiative to say:

"Young Master Tang, didn't you want to know my origins?"

"Then I'll tell you now..."

"."

A new moon rose in the east, and the setting sun finally disappeared on the horizon, leaving only a last ray of afterglow.

Across the street from Moonlight Pavilion was a two-story teahouse with a tattered blue banner, very inconspicuous.

However, there was a man performing a puppet show in front of the teahouse, and many people were watching.

The strings flew, pulling the slightly rough wooden figure up and down, sometimes waving the long knife in his hand as if killing enemies, and sometimes kneeling on both knees as if begging for mercy.

"Hey! Shameless villain, eat my knife!"

"Lord, spare my life! Lord, spare my life! This lowly one has eyes but failed to recognize Mount Tai!"

Combined with the vivid dubbing of the puppeteer, a scene of "a chivalrous person failing to uphold justice and kneeling to beg a bandit for mercy" was vividly displayed, drawing applause and laughter from the crowd.

It was not known whether they were cheering for the wooden figure or for the puppeteer.

"."

"Play another section!"

"Yes! Another section!"

"Old brother, let this wooden man kowtow to us! Let us be lords for once!"

"Okay! You watch!"

"Hahaha!"

"Hahahaha..."