Let them fight like dogs

On the thirtieth day of the sixth month in the fourth year of era name, the sky was overcast at the end of the month, and the night was as dark as ink.

Xia Luqi led a squad of Beiwei Army soldiers across the moat and crept to the foot of Angkor City. Everyone held a piece of wood in their mouths, but their eyes were as bright as torches, waiting for their prey like silent tigers.

At the third watch, Liu Rengui saw the torches on the city wall disappear and knew the opportunity had come.

"Signal General Xia and tell them they can begin the operation."

"Yes!"

Three bonfires rose in the night, as conspicuous as the Morning Star.

Seeing the signal, Xia Luqi immediately pulled out the grappling hook he carried, swung it a few times, and threw it up. With a soft clink, the hook firmly caught the city wall.

The soldiers behind him followed suit, climbing the wall as swiftly as agile apes alongside Xia Luqi.

As the rope ladders were lowered, the soldiers climbed up the wall one by one.

Unpacking their bundles, the soldiers began helping each other don their iron armor, drawing their broadswords to begin the operation.

In a corner, several Khmer soldiers were snoring soundly, reeking of alcohol, completely unaware that danger had arrived.

One soldier seemed to sense something; just as he blearily opened his eyes, he felt a chill on his neck, and then warm liquid flowed from his throat.

He instinctively wanted to cry out, but his mouth was clamped shut by a large hand. He could only let out muffled groans, but it was all over quickly.

Something called a soul quietly drifted away from these soldiers' bodies, and their forms slumped like tattered bags, devoid of any life.

Killing between the same species is always so swift and cruel, but the soldiers of the Beiwei Army were long accustomed to it. They gently laid down the bodies and lunged toward their next targets.

Without alerting anyone, Angkor City's drawbridge was slowly lowered, making a loud, grinding noise.

The soldiers at the city gate were startled awake. An officer woke from a sweet dream and cursed.

"What's going on? Who lowered the drawbridge!"

Responding to him were Xia Luqi and the Beiwei Army soldiers, rushing down from the wall like black gods of death.

The battle caught the Khmer people off guard and ended very quickly. In just fifteen minutes, the dozens of soldiers guarding the gate were completely wiped out.

When the Khmer defending general, hearing the commotion, hurried over with his soldiers to investigate, he saw a scene that made his soul scatter in terror:

The city gates were wide open, and Beiwei Army soldiers in dark iron armor were filing in.

"The Han people have entered the city! The Han people have entered the city! Charge! We must drive the Han out, or we will all die!"

The defending general shouted in despair, but it was all in vain. The Khmer soldiers who arrived in succession were like the Calabash Brothers—rushing forward wave after wave, only to be routed wave after wave.

Despair quickly spread throughout the city; the defeat of the Khmer army was inevitable.

Even that duty-bound general had his throat pierced by an arrow from Xia Luqi because his shouting exposed his position. The mingguang armor he had painstakingly bought from Daqian did not save his life.

Having besieged the city for over half a month, the soldiers under Liu Rengui's command had long been suppressed; now, they unleashed a slaughter like tigers among a flock of sheep.

Angkor City, later known as one of the four great wonders of the East, was turned into a purgatory battlefield. Shouts of killing were everywhere, and people constantly lost their will to fight, kneeling to surrender.

After a night of carnage, over two thousand of Angkor City's twenty thousand defenders were killed, over a thousand escaped in the chaos, and the rest were all taken prisoner.

When the hundreds of thousands of Common People in Angkor City peeked out from their homes the next day, the city walls—including the old palace walls—were covered with "Qian" flags with gold characters on a black background and "Gao" flags with red characters on a black background.

The world had changed. This was something the people of Angkor City had never anticipated. Although it was no longer the royal capital, it was still the largest city in Khmer.

After entering the city, Liu Rengui did not idle. He immediately began sweeping the estates of the Khmer nobles based on intelligence from the Hidden Guards.

Those Khmer nobles still wanted to struggle, but they were met with nothing but butcher knives.

Liu Rengui's face was calm and unruffled, but the words coming from his mouth were the coldest.

"Confess truthfully and hand over your family's wealth to live. Otherwise, die!"

Men die for wealth as birds die for food, but that's only because the knife isn't at their throats yet. When death was truly imminent, these pampered nobles ultimately lacked the courage to hold out.

Liu Rengui had always heard Gao Yuan say that Khmer was prosperous, but he hadn't expected it to be this wealthy. Over a dozen families and a palace yielded nearly five hundred thousand dan of grain alone, and various gold, silver, and jewels filled over a thousand carriages.

Not to mention the tens of thousands of people they had hidden away. Liu Rengui even turned up several rare tiger skins and nearly a hundred elephant tusks.

"Truly dripping with wealth. I wonder how many good things are in Phnom Penh!"

Watching the departing carriage convoy, Liu Rengui couldn't help but sigh.

Following regulations, Liu Rengui kept a portion of the gold, silver, and jewels to reward the army and replenish the treasury, while most were loaded onto carriages and sent to County.

As for the five hundred thousand dan of grain, it was merely recorded as a figure in the memorial; Liu Rengui took the liberty of keeping it all as military rations.

As for the large number of prisoners, they were escorted to Coastal Defense as before. The Common People remained as they were for the time being, awaiting relocation after the war ended.

In the blink of an eye, it was mid-July. Xia Luqi rushed into Liu Rengui's headquarters.

"Commander, we have been here for half a month. Are we still not deploying? The toungoo people have already captured Oudong."

Liu Rengui smiled faintly, put down his pen, and gestured for Xia Luqi to sit before speaking.

"Bang Jie, no need to rush. Since they want to fight, we will create the conditions for them to fight in peace. Isn't it better to wait until they're finished and then go pick the fruit?"

"But inside Phnom Penh, that is..."

"I know. Precisely because I know it's a fat sheep, there's even less reason to rush. We'll grab the other things we should first."

Xia Luqi waved his hand and stood up huffily.

"You scholars are just too pedantic. I don't understand any of this. I'm leaving, I'm leaving!"

Watching Xia Luqi's departing back, Liu Rengui shook his head with a smile and returned to his work.

What Xia Luqi didn't know was that Liu Rengui had already sent an envoy to tell Maha Bandula that he had no interest in Phnom Penh, letting the toungoo people attack as they pleased; if they captured it, all the wealth would be theirs.

Maha Bandula didn't dare believe it at first; he didn't believe Liu Rengui would give up such a fat sheep.

It wasn't until half a month later, when Liu Rengui led his army into Preah Vihear and set off toward Stung Treng in Ede and Gia Lai in Vietnam, that he believed it.

With no more interference, Maha Bandula ordered the attack on Phnom Penh.

Over forty thousand Toungoo Army soldiers, along with over thirty thousand Khmer youths Maha Bandula had forcibly conscripted from various places, began a brutal siege of the Khmer capital, Phnom Penh.

The Khmer monarch and ministers retreated again and again. Once they reached Phnom Penh, they knew they had nowhere left to retreat. It was time for a desperate gamble. Over fifty thousand Khmer soldiers launched a tenacious resistance against the invaders.

On the first day of the siege—in just one day, or more precisely, in just over eight hours—casualties on both sides exceeded ten thousand. The entire battlefield was littered with severed limbs and soaked in blood.

The attacking Toungoo suffered greater losses, with over seven thousand casualties. However, since they were all Khmer auxiliary troops rounded up from various places, Maha Bandula didn't feel the slightest bit of pity.