Chapter 1747 - Preparing for Battle! (I)
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
With thundering hooves, squads of cavalry swept over the capital like a whirlwind, their stern voices rumbling across the capital.
“What’s going on? Why is today’s curfew so soon? Isn’t there still two hours?”
An old man stood on the second floor of a restaurant and looked at the cavalry running around outside. But he had only gotten halfway through his words when he was pulled back inside.
“You don’t want to live anymore? Get back here!” an old woman said in a raspy voice, and then everything fell silent.
Bangbangbang!
From west to east, north to south, windows were shuttered and doors were slammed shut. After curfew, the capital became like a city of the dead.
In the outer city, torches burned as the cold-eyed Imperial Army soldiers locked the gates. At certain crucial areas, ballistae were stationed.
The sharp tips of the bolts gleamed with intimidating light in the evening gloom.
Creee!
A sharp cry resounded over the Imperial Palace, traveling as far as ten li. As that gyrfalcon flew over the palace walls, the Imperial Palace was plunged into silence.
“That man… has he already become so bold?”
Within Yuzhen Palace, a veiled woman, her tender white feet bare, stood at the door to the palace and softly muttered. She could see that the entire harem had gone pitch-black.
This was the third day of curfew, and the consorts and concubines had all sensed that something was wrong and decided to extinguish their lights. Even their maids and eunuchs had become uneasy and taken shelter within the palaces.
“Sister, be at ease. No matter how bold he is, he would never dare to touch you!”
Yang Zhao stood in front of the door, dressed in his official attire. He stood in front of Consort Taizhen as if he was a high wall.
The carefree smile was gone from Yang Zhao’s lips, and gone was the wastrel who had first come to the capital. All that was left was weather-worn tenacity and strength.
Consort Taizhen creased her brows and softly asked, “Is there really no way to see His Majesty?”
Yang Zhao could only shake his head.
“The Imperial Palace is completely under the First Prince’s control, and the Imperial Army soldiers have all been replaced with his own men. I sneaked over to Taiji Palace once to take a look, but that place has been completely surrounded, with guards at almost every step. Outsiders can’t even hope to get in. The First Prince’s desire to rebel is now out in the open, and he would never allow anyone to get close,” Yang Zhao sternly said.
His eyes pierced through the darkness in the direction of the Eastern Palace. Eagles circled above that place, causing it to exude a powerful pressure, even from a distance. After a few moments, Yang Zhao turned in another direction.
“Right now, we can only believe in Second Brother. He’s the only one in the capital who can stop the First Prince!”
No one understood more than Yang Zhao that the only reason the First Prince had yet to mobilize his forces was that he was afraid of Wang Chong.
Whoosh!
A breeze blew past Yuzhen Palace, causing their robes to flap and rustle. Consort Taizhen was taken aback by Yang Zhao’s words. It wasn’t too long ago when the writer of the ‘Three Songs of Purity and Peace’ had been just a young boy, but in the blink of an eye, he had become the War God of the empire.
Hopefully… he can succeed! Consort Taizhen said to herself, her thoughts drifting into the distance with the wind.
East of the harem residences, past several high walls, the Eastern Palace was brightly lit. Countless Golden Guards and Imperial Army soldiers stood guard outside, as solid as a steel wall.
Within the Eastern Palace, the First Prince, the Ghost King, Lu Qiongji, Duan Zhuyan, Bai Hanzhou, Huang Tianzhao, Meng Tu, Kim U-Seok, Zhu Tong’en, Asura… all of them were gathered here.
The burning torches in the hall illuminated everyone’s face enough to see the murderous intent in their eyes.
All of their eyes were focused on a small model of the capital. The King of Foreign Lands Residence, the King Song Residence, the Minister of War Residence, Taihe Palace, Taiji Palace—all these places were represented in this model.
The struggles on the border were now irrelevant. With the arrival of the Beiting Protectorate army imminent, the only place of true importance was the capital.
The most critical moment had finally come!
“Ghost King, when will we strike?”
There was a fire burning in Li Ying’s eyes. While he was trying his best to suppress it, one could still hear the impatience in his voice.
The victor was king; the loser, scorned. Today, he would either become the same as dirt and dust, or rise to the heavens in a single bound to consort with the sun and moon, becoming the next Son of Heaven of this empire.
Life or death were the only paths! There was no third!
What he was truly concerned about was at what time he could finally seat himself on that supreme throne!
“Now is not the moment!” the Ghost King calmly said, and then he turned to Kim U-Seok.
“Are our soldiers assembled?”
“All of them are here. One hundred thousand soldiers and the thirty thousand soldiers trained by Milord are all ready and waiting for Milord’s order,” Kim U-Seok sternly said.
“Have you found out how many soldiers the King of Foreign Lands Residence has?” the Ghost King said.
“No, we are still closely watching the situation. But other than those one thousand cavalry and the master archers mixed in with them, as well as the two-hundred-some Golden Guards granted by the Sage Emperor, we have not noticed any other soldiers. He has most likely scattered his soldiers in hiding spots throughout the city. However, we have already established many checkpoints. As soon as he begins to gather his soldiers, we’ll immediately know,” Kim U-Seok said.
Everyone seemed rather unperturbed by this information, and there was no indication of reproach. Wang Chong was no ordinary foe, and while Kim U-Seok was the Goguryeon Eagle King, he was still lacking compared to this man.
Kim U-Seok paused a moment before adding, “In addition, while we were not able to locate his soldiers, following Milord’s orders, we’ve investigated all the clans in the capital that have worked with the Wang Clan, including those who assisted in building the cement road, and we discovered some unusual information.”
As the leader of all the First Prince’s spies, Kim U-Seok had clearly failed in his inability to find out where Wang Chong’s forces were, so he had clearly tried to make up for this elsewhere.
“To our surprise, we found out that many of the elite guards belonging to these clans have gone missing recently. These clans are saying that their experts have gone with caravans to the Tea Horse Road, to Mengshe Zhao and Ü-Tsang, normal commercial activity, but upon careful investigation, I found that more than one hundred clans have apparently sent caravans to the south as of late.
“For these hundred-some clans to send caravans at a time like this is far too suspicious,” Kim U-Seok said.
“You mean that these clans have loaned their soldiers to Wang Chong?”
“What?! More than one hundred clans!”
Everyone instantly noticed how suspicious this was.
“There’s nothing strange about that, merely a repeat of the same tactic from the war of the southwest!” the Ghost King declared.
These words made everyone think of something, and they immediately scowled. Even the First Prince couldn’t help but grimace.
In the war of the southwest, the Annan Protectorate army had suffered grievous casualties, and Li Zhengyi’s reinforcement army had been defeated en route. The entire empire had been helpless and panicked. In this situation, Wang Chong had rallied the great clans, taking one thousand elites recruited from these clans along with a motley crew of mercenaries and charging in, eventually winning a miraculous victory.
Almost everyone in the capital knew about this, and the story was now an oft-told tale.
“How many people are those great clans missing?” Hou Junji asked, his eyes closed so that no one could see what he was thinking.
“Each clan is missing a different number of people, but the average is around fifty people,” Kim U-Seok respectfully called out.
“Quality is better than quantity when it comes to soldiers. According to the rules of the court, each clan can only retain around one hundred military-grade martial artists. If he’s taken around fifty people from each clan, presumably the best of them, then he has around five thousand men. And if I recall correctly, he used one thousand Wootz Steel swords during the war of the southwest to borrow those soldiers, and after the war, he handed those one thousand Wootz Steel swords over as he had promised.”
Buzz!
Hou Junji’s words had everyone twitching. The entire world knew about the sharpness of Wootz Steel weapons. At Talas, Wang Chong’s Wushang Cavalry had used these weapons to defeat the Celestial Wolf Cavalry, Mutri Great Cavalry, and Mamelukes to become number one in the world.
And those peerlessly sharp weapons with impressive lethality also gained worldly renown.
The Eastern Palace had taken control of the capital’s outer gates precisely to prevent Wang Chong from bringing in a large number of soldiers, and those Wootz Steel swords topped the list of items to look out for. Even though the Eastern Palace currently had complete control over the situation and an overwhelming advantage in soldiers, everything was different if Wang Chong had one thousand soldiers equipped with Wootz Steel weapons.
These one thousand soldiers had the same strength on the battlefield as ten thousand ordinary soldiers.
“Damn! How could this happen!?” the First Prince cried out, his eyes dark and his face scowling. “These bastards dare to oppose this prince! Once this prince takes the throne of the Nine and Five, I’ll make all of them pay!”
Waves of killing intent seethed in the First Prince’s eyes.
“Five thousand clan experts, one thousand of them equipped with Wootz Steel swords, added together with the twelve hundred people in the King of Foreign Lands Residence and those soldiers he’s hidden elsewhere in the capital, means we might be facing an army of ten thousand!” Hou Junji suddenly said. He was the only one who would ever dare to interrupt the First Prince.
“Senior Ghost King, why don’t we just address the root of the problem, gather our soldiers, and attack the King of Foreign Lands Residence, capturing the King of Foreign Lands before he can gather his soldiers! He’s the only one in the capital who poses any threat to us!” Huang Tianzhao suddenly said.
The one hundred thousand soldiers of the Imperial Army and the soldiers of the Eastern Palace, as well as the Beiting Protectorate army that could arrive at any time, were not something the one thousand soldiers in the King of Foreign Lands Residence could stop.
One hundred thousand could easily crush one thousand.
Everyone was tempted by this option. Only Bai Hanzhou remained aloof and unmoved.
