stonecrandall Chapter 1183 Framing and Slander, Northern Qi is Enraged!
Chapter 1183 Framing and Slander, Northern Qi is Enraged!
Huyan Zhuo roared, sweeping his longsword to force Lu Qi back, then turned to leave. But Lu Qi was like a shadow, his short blade aimed straight for his back. Huyan Zhuo barely managed to dodge to the side, the short blade piercing his left rib.
A sharp pain shot through him, and Huyan Zhuo's vision went black as he staggered a few steps. He knew he couldn't walk any further.
"Tell me, who exactly are you?" Huyan Zhuo asked, leaning on his sword and panting, "Let me die knowing why."
Just as Lu Qi was about to answer, a calm voice came: "It's alright to tell him."
Gao Yao emerged from the shadows, his black cloak flashing like the robes of death in the firelight. He looked at Huyan Zhuo, his eyes devoid of any emotion: "By order of His Majesty, I have annihilated you!"
Hu Yanzhuo's pupils contracted sharply. The other party said they were acting on orders—orders from whom? There was only one possibility: this was a deliberate act by the Qing Kingdom!
"So that's how it is..." Huyan Zhuo laughed bitterly, "Qing Kingdom is about to start a war."
Gao Yao remained noncommittal, simply saying, "You are a good general, but unfortunately you were born in the wrong era."
Before he could finish speaking, Gao Yao shifted slightly. Hu Yanzhuo didn't even see his movement clearly, only feeling a chill on his chest. Looking down, he saw a hand pressed against his heart. There was no excruciating pain, only a rapid drain of strength from his body, and everything before his eyes began to blur.
"Rest in peace, your death will have value." These were the last words Hu Yanzhuo heard.
Huyan Zhuo, the vanguard general of the Northern Qi dynasty, died.
With Huyan Zhuo's death in battle, the Northern Qi army's resistance completely collapsed. The soldiers scattered and fled, but most could not escape the pursuit of the warriors. The 123 men brought by Gao Yao were like a precise killing machine, working in perfect coordination and with astonishing efficiency.
Time passed slowly, the night gradually faded, and the eastern sky began to lighten with the first light of dawn. The shouts of battle in the military camp grew increasingly faint, replaced by the crackling of flames and the groans of the wounded.
Gao Yao stood in the center of the military camp, surveying his surroundings. Corpses were everywhere, blood soaking the ground, turning an eerie dark red in the dim morning light. The air was thick with the stench of blood and burning.
"Sir, the cleanup is complete." Lu Qi came up behind Gao Yao, his body covered in blood, but his breathing was still steady. "A total of 4,873 people were killed, and about 100 others fled south. They have been released as planned."
Gao Yao nodded: "Where are our people?"
"Seventeen lightly wounded, three seriously wounded, and no casualties," Lu Qi replied, his tone filled with pride. To slaughter nearly five thousand with just over a hundred men, while suffering almost no losses himself, was nothing short of a miracle.
Gao Yao showed no sign of smugness. He looked up towards the south, towards the heart of Northern Qi, the direction the deserters had gone.
"Have the three seriously wounded lead the less wounded to retreat first," Gao Yao instructed. "The rest of you, follow me to do one more thing."
Lu Qi asked in confusion, "Sir, is there anything else you require?"
"Use everything that has been prepared in advance. Put the tokens in the hands of the people. The arrows and weapons must be changed in advance. We have one hour. We must retreat immediately last night!"
Lu Qi immediately understood Gao Yao's intention—this was to definitively confirm Qing Guo's guilt in the attack.
"Here"
The warriors sprang into action. They retrieved letters from Huyan Zhuo's tent, many containing insults and provocations against the Qing Kingdom—this was normal; border generals of two countries rarely spoke well of each other in private. But now, these letters would become the "motive" for the Qing Kingdom to launch an attack.
Gao Yao personally inspected the battlefield. He walked past corpses, occasionally stopping to place a Qing Kingdom copper coin beside a body, or leave a fragment of a Qing Kingdom military uniform inside a tent. Every detail was meticulously planned, forming a complete "chain of evidence."
By the time he finished, it was already broad daylight. The dawn illuminated this hellish scene, where death was everywhere. Gao Yao stood on a high point in the camp, taking one last look at his "masterpiece."
"Withdraw," he commanded succinctly.
Over a hundred martial artists quickly assembled and retreated in the direction they had come from. Their movements remained swift, but with a greater sense of solemnity than before. Even seasoned martial artists, accustomed to life and death, could not remain unmoved in the face of such a large-scale massacre.
Gao Yao walked at the very back. His steps were steady, and his black cloak fluttered in the morning breeze. No one knew what he was thinking; his calm face betrayed no emotion.
Thirty miles away, the main force camp of the Northern Qi army.
General Tuoba Hong was having breakfast when a scout scrambled into the tent, his face ashen.
"General! Vanguard... Vanguard camp..."
Tuoba Hong frowned: "What's the panic? Speak slowly."
The scout swallowed hard, his voice trembling: "The vanguard camp was attacked, the entire army... the entire army was wiped out!"
"What?!" Tuoba Hong jumped to his feet, overturning the table and shattering dishes on the floor. "How is this possible? Five thousand men wiped out? How many troops did the Qing Kingdom send?"
"I...I don't know." The scout knelt on the ground. "The camp is a sea of fire, and there are corpses everywhere...Only a few soldiers escaped. They said...the attackers were from the Qing Kingdom army, not many in number, but each one was a master..."
Tuoba Hong's face turned ashen: "Experts? How many experts could slaughter five thousand people in one night?"
"The soldiers who escaped said that at least one of the attackers was a Grandmaster..." The scout's voice trailed off.
A deathly silence fell over the camp. A Grandmaster? If the Qing Kingdom truly sent a Grandmaster to attack the border, what would that mean? This was no longer an ordinary border conflict, but a blatant declaration of war!
Just then, another officer rushed in, carrying an arrow and several pieces of cloth: "General, these were found on the battlefield... They are arrows made in the Qing Kingdom's standard, as well as fragments of Qing Kingdom military uniforms."
Tuoba Hong took the arrow and examined it carefully. The shaft did indeed bear the mark of the Qing Kingdom's Armory, a mark extremely difficult to counterfeit. He then looked at the fabric; its texture and color matched the Qing Kingdom's military uniforms.
"And this too." The officer handed over a token. "It was found next to General Huyan's body... a troop mobilization order for the Qing Kingdom's Imperial Guards."
Tuoba Hong gripped the cold token, veins bulging on the back of his hand. The evidence was irrefutable. The Qing Kingdom had not only attacked the Northern Qi border army but also killed its vanguard general—an outright act of war.
"Summon all generals!" Tuoba Hong roared. "A report to His Majesty via urgent dispatch! The Qing Kingdom has betrayed its promises, attacked our border, and killed our soldiers. This is an irreconcilable enmity!"
Outside the camp, the sky was already bright, but the dark clouds of war were already gathering over the border of Northern Qi.
In a secluded valley three hundred miles away, Gao Yao and his warriors were resting. A night of rushing and fighting had taken a toll on even experts like them.