Chapter 777 – Breakout, The Beauty’s Negotiator (Part 1)
The Loyalist Alliance had a total of twenty-three factions, with varying numbers of troops, strengths, and weaknesses.
However, to claim a seat at the table within the alliance and have a say in matters, their forces couldn’t possibly be too weak.
Currently, this faction of the alliance ambushed by Changshou Wang’s army was the governor of Wolong County in Haizhou.
Jiang Pengji smirked, “So this old guy was waiting here—does he really think he can catch all the alliance forces in one fell swoop?”
It was one thing for the previous emperor to declare himself king only seven days after becoming emperor, but now he stubbornly refused to withdraw his troops, lying in wait at the border of Chenzhou to ambush the scattered alliance forces.
The governor of Wolong County was an impetuous fellow who, having benefitted from the glory of the Loyalist movement, was eager to return to Haizhou but ended up losing his life in the process.
Jiang Pengji’s advance troop scouts were the first to discover the remnants of Haizhou’s Wolong County and learned about the situation from the survivors.
Given the severity of the situation, Jiang Pengji chose not to continue her journey. Instead, she opted to rest in place and gather her forces.
Everyone listened to the tales of the Wolong County remnants, their faces turning ashen.
Changshou Wang had declared himself emperor for over half a month, remaining quiet as a chicken with no action at all.
The Loyalist Alliance had camped outside the royal city of Chenzhou for a while, initially under the pretense of protecting the imperial court.
To be frank, the Loyalist forces, from the governors down to the county magistrates, totaled twenty-three factions with over four hundred thousand troops gathered. These more than four hundred thousand had been camped outside the royal city of Chenzhou, connected by their encampments, standards fluttering, looking quite imposing.
However, the royal family wouldn’t feel secure seeing this scene, as those four hundred thousand troops didn’t take orders from them!
Ever since Changshou Wang declared himself emperor, he hadn’t targeted the royal city of Chenzhou nor showed any intent to attack.
Thus, some people couldn’t help but entertain a gamble of hope—perhaps Changshou Wang was satisfied with claiming the throne and intended to withdraw his troops back to Zhangzhou?
In such a case, the Loyalist Alliance, guarding the royal city of Chenzhou and resisting Changshou Wang, would seem a bit of an eyesore and unnecessary.
The Empress Dowager wasn’t a woman of vision and strength; she was just an ordinary woman skilled in cosmetics and fabrics, not having a lick of political acumen! Her greatest talent was stirring personal chaos, having placed countless green hats on her late husband.
Her maternal relatives had secretly whispered slanders several times, inciting her to create trouble for the alliance and quietly squeeze them out.
Squeeze them out, fine, but this Empress Dowager even wanted to secretly reclaim the military power dispersed among the alliance lord’s hands.
In her eyes, how could she rest easy knowing that four hundred thousand indistinctly loyal troops were camped outside her royal castle with her and the Young Emperor inside?
Consequently, she broached the subjects of troop withdrawal and the handover of military power several times during court meetings, but all the lords of the alliance played dumb.
The Dongqing royal family was nothing of note; what face did they have to reclaim the military power from their hands?
Who gave them such boldness?
Thus, the Loyalist Alliance chose the former option, withdrawing their troops as if to say who’d want to linger around the royal city of Chenzhou?
Recently, many alliance lords began packing their bags and spoils, preparing to go home.
Haizhou wasn’t far from Chenzhou, and the governor of Wolong County, being an urgent type, had been secretly irked by the Empress Dowager and decided to leave at a whim.
Little did he know, the governor of Wolong County, who had withdrawn early, met his demise.
Jiang Pengji scanned the crowd, tightly gripping her bamboo slips, “With over ten thousand elite soldiers and generals, even if we were ambushed by Changshou Wang’s forethought, we shouldn’t have been reduced to such a tragic state after one encounter. After a night of fierce battle, only a few dozen remnants are left!”
Though several dozen remnants managed to escape, every one of them bore injuries, several severely hurt.
If not for the will to survive, those folks might have also passed on.
Nevertheless, over half of them had suffered lifelong disabilities.
As for the governor of Wolong County, he had already gallantly sacrificed himself during the ambush, and his remains were nowhere to be found.
Before he died, he entrusted his only surviving bloodline—a mere eleven-year-old Cai Xiang—to his confidant, urging him to protect Cai Xiang while breaking out.
Jiang Pengji sent the logistics medics to take care of the wounded, waiting for the mildly injured to awaken so she could gather more firsthand information.
Hearing this, the crowd felt somewhat heavy-hearted.
Li Yun pondered for a moment and said, “It appears Changshou Wang plans to take advantage of the disintegration of the Loyalist Alliance to defeat them one by one. How about we send our forces to catch up with other amicable alliance factions… at the very least, we can’t be isolated and give the enemy a chance to exploit us.”
The first faction from Wolong County had already been annihilated, leaving only the eleven-year-old Cai Xiang to escape—a family massacre would be an understatement.
Thinking about the enmity between their lord and Changshou Wang’s faction, it was only a matter of time before this ambush would fall upon their heads.
Although Jiang Pengji and Liu Zhi, this father-daughter pair, combined would only have around thirty thousand troops, they should be relatively safer, but the unpredictable nature of the world!
Who knew how many troops Changshou Wang would send out to ambush them?
Not just Yang Si and Feng Zhen; even the newly joined talents Qi Kuang and Shao Guang didn’t hold good opinions on this.
“The alliance forces hail from all directions, and they’re all on different paths. Among the forces in the northern part of Dongqing, the most noteworthy would have to be our lord and the Old Patriarch; if we must count, we might add in Huang Song, the governor of Maode County in Haizhou. But, who knows where Huang Song is now?”
The alliance hadn’t withdrawn together; there were one to two days’ intervals between them.
Communication in ancient times was not advanced, making it hard to reach out to alliance factions.
Li Yun’s expression dimmed, “That’s also true…”
Relying on others wasn’t as useful as relying on oneself; who knew what intentions other alliance forces had?
Mentioning other alliance forces reminded Jiang Pengji of Yang Jian.
Yang Jian was the Captain of Dongmen County in Zhangzhou, and since Zhangzhou was originally Changshou Wang’s fief, Yang Jian’s success relied on some favor from Changshou Wang… theoretically, he should naturally be in the Changshou Wang camp, yet he joined the Loyalist Alliance instead.
Given Changshou Wang’s narrow-minded disposition, he wouldn’t let Yang Jian and those like him off the hook!
However, remembering the vigilant Yan Lin by Yang Jian’s side, this young man had always been quite alert; he might not genuinely fall into a major calamity.
Just as she was thinking, a Messenger returned to report that someone from the remnants of Wolong County had awakened—also a confidant-level individual.
“Thank you, Zhong Langjiang, for saving my life!”
This person was wrapped in blood-soaked white cloth, covered in wounds, yet none were fatal, allowing him to awaken relatively early.
Two female medics carried him on a stretcher, and this man supported himself to bow deeply to Jiang Pengji.
“No need for such formalities.” Jiang Pengji cut straight to the chase, skipping the niceties, “What exactly happened to your Wolong County governor that led to such dire straits? When and where did that treasonous scum ambush you? How many troops were there?”
The blood-soaked middle-aged man thought for a moment, summarized his thoughts, and said, “My lords were ambushed twenty li from Jiamen Pass, at the foot of the mountains, and it was already late at night. It was too dark to accurately estimate the enemy’s numbers, but there were at least about ten thousand?”
