204: Coward Zhao Heng! Angrily beheads Wang Linquan! (13)

Chapter 203: Coward Zhao Heng! Angrily Slaying Wang Linquan! (13)

Though the messenger cavalryman was nervous, he still had to report the military situation truthfully.

“Your… Your Highness, six thousand cavalrymen suffered heavy casualties before the Mo Dao formation.”

“Li Chang'an’s Xuanjia cavalry charged from the flank, and the provincial cavalry was utterly unable to stop them.”

“The Xuanjia cavalry, with their armored men and horses, charged head-on, and the six thousand Qingzhou cavalry were completely annihilated!”

Zhao Heng couldn’t believe his ears. “What? All six thousand of my private soldiers are gone!”

These six thousand cavalrymen were his life’s work!

It wasn’t easy for a Prince to raise an army!

He hadn’t even recovered when the infantry scout returned!

“Reporting, Your Highness!”

Zhao Heng quickly asked, “How are the infantry? You have twenty-four thousand men!”

The scout’s Face was flushed with obvious anger!

“Your Highness, the cowards of the Qingzhou Navy scattered with a single charge from the Xuanjia cavalry.”

“Ten thousand of the Qingzhou Navy were killed, and another ten thousand fled into the water!”

Zhao Heng quickly asked, “What about our four thousand infantry? Those are elites!”

The scout angrily said, “Once the Qingzhou Navy’s formation broke, our infantry were also scattered!”

“After gathering the remnants, more than half were lost!”

After hearing this, Zhao Heng slumped into his chair.

Thirty thousand infantry and cavalry couldn't take down Li Chang'an’s five thousand men!

Zhao Heng knew the Qingzhou Navy was corrupt and useless, so he had sent out all forty thousand of his troops.

But he never expected Li Chang'an’s Xuanjia Army to be so fierce, actually capable of scattering over ten thousand infantry!

Zhao Heng sat coldly in his chair, muttering to himself.

“Li Chang'an, Xuanjia cavalry… sounds similar to the Northern Liang Army’s Iron Buddhas!”

“My ten thousand men!”

“Li Chang'an, you deserve to die!”

Wang Linquan, sitting in the corner, didn’t dare to breathe loudly.

He knew a bit about Zhao Heng’s manic depression; one wrong move and he would be used as a punching bag.

After a long while, Zhao Heng had no choice but to accept reality.

“Since the troops remaining in the central army are so powerful, Li Chang'an’s side should be empty now.”

“Xun’er and Wei Dong are at Tianmu Mountain, I wonder how their progress is now?”

“With the assistance of my sworn father’s second Disciple, Li Chang'an will surely be captured easily!”

Zhao Heng and Wang Linquan waited until late into the night without any news.

Several more scouts were sent out, but none returned.

An ominous premonition rose in Zhao Heng’s heart!

The two anxiously sat until dawn, when the yamen runners from the provincial capital rushed over!

“Your Highness, something big has happened at the city gate!”

“The Prefect asks you to come and see!”

Zhao Heng angrily said, “What big matter? Why doesn’t the Prefect come to report it himself!”

The yamen runner said, “It is of great importance; the Prefect dares not leave without authorization. Please, Your Highness, go yourself!”

Seeing how solemnly the yamen runner spoke, Zhao Heng dared not delay and immediately took his sedan chair to the city gate.

As he approached the city gate, Zhao Heng heard someone reading the proclamation posted by the King of Tang.

“Last night, this King apprehended a group of Green Shirt Alliance members and interrogated them overnight.”

“Unexpectedly, these rebels had already colluded with military officers and wealthy merchants in the city, daring to besiege this King’s carriage.”

“This King was personally enfeoffed by the Son of Heaven; besieging this King is an act of rebellion. Fortunately, Heaven protected this King, and I decisively defeated the rebels.”

“This King has already beheaded the ringleaders, and their heads are now displayed at the city gate!”

“This is to serve as a public warning. King of Tang, Li Chang'an!”

Most of the common people were illiterate, so a scholar was currently reading the proclamation.

Upon hearing these few sentences, Zhao Heng’s legs went weak.

Li Chang'an was not dead!

That means Xun’er and Gong Banque failed!

Zhao Heng’s first thought was, where is Zhao Xun?

“No matter how audacious Li Chang'an is, he wouldn’t go so far as to kill Xun’er, would he!”

“He shouldn’t!”

“Last time he captured Xun’er, although he thoroughly humiliated him, he still let him go!”

As he was thinking, the scholar had already begun to read the list of names.

“Su Su, the Crown Prince of the fallen Western Shu kingdom! A core member of the Green Shirt Alliance, already beheaded!”

“Zhao Dingxiu, former Grand Academician of Western Shu! A core member of the Green Shirt Alliance, already beheaded!”

“Wei Dong, Commander of the Qingzhou Navy, and his son Wei Wei, conspired with the Green Shirt Alliance to assassinate the King of Tang, already beheaded!”

“Li Hun, Zhang Kang… and other Qingzhou Navy captains, guilty of the same crime as Wei Dong and his son, already beheaded!”

...“Wang Linquan, a merchant of Qingzhou, provided funding to the Green Shirt Alliance. His entire family has been executed, and the heads of his six sons and one daughter are here!”

Upon hearing this, Wang Linquan, who was outside the sedan chair, stumbled and fell to the ground.

Wang Linquan’s Face was ashen, tears and snot streamed down, and he couldn’t even utter a curse!

Li Chang'an, what a venomous mind!

Just as Zhao Heng breathed a sigh of relief, the last person on the list shocked everyone!

“Zhao Xun, the heir apparent of Prince Jing’an, was misled by Wei Dong and his son and attempted to assassinate the King of Tang!”

“When a Prince breaks the law, he is treated the same as a commoner! Zhao Xun was killed on the spot, and his head is here!”

Zhao Heng, as if struck by lightning, tumbled out of his sedan chair.

He scrambled and crawled to the Xiangfan city gate.

On the city wall, dozens of bloody heads!

In the very center was his son, Zhao Xun!

Zhao Heng’s eyes filled with tears, a mix of shock and anger, “Xun’er! My son!”

“It was your father who harmed you!”

“Li Chang'an! You are too much of a bully!”

Despite his extreme grief and indignation, Zhao Heng still noticed something amiss.

The heads of the main culprits of the Green Shirt Alliance were all disfigured by multiple sword cuts.

It seemed Li Chang'an was harboring remnants of Western Shu and Western Chu.

However, Zhao Heng was left with only two thousand demoralized remnants of the Qingzhou Navy.

Without an army, he was at Li Chang'an’s mercy.

At this moment, the city gate was once again crowded with people; Xiangfan City had been truly lively these past few days.

Since Li Chang'an arrived, several major events had occurred.

Now, this case of the heir apparent's rebellion was truly earth-shattering!

Just then, the sound of galloping hooves came from a distance.

Everyone looked far off and saw a troop of Xuanjia cavalry, galloping like ghosts!

These Xuanjia cavalry were filled with a chilling Aura and a formidable Evil Qi!

At the forefront of the cavalry was Li Chang'an, clad in dark Mingguang armor!

Regarding the disposal of the Green Shirt Alliance core members, Zhao Heng’s guess was not wrong.

The true Green Shirt Alliance members had already been hidden in his military camp.

The heads on the city gate were merely lookalikes, sacrificial lambs.

Li Chang'an came to Xiangfan City for Wang Linquan.

Now, Wang Linquan was the only remaining member of the Wang family who had escaped the net.

The thundering hooves stopped quickly at the Xiangfan city gate.

Zhao Heng pointed a finger at Li Chang'an, trembling and unable to utter a single word!

He had only a few personal guards by his side, no match for Li Chang'an’s hundreds of Xuanjia Army!

Zhao Heng was furious, but he was also terrified!

The bloodstains on the heavy armor of the Xuanjia Army’s men and horses had not yet dried.

The air was filled with a pungent smell of blood, making Zhao Heng extremely uncomfortable.

A Xuanjia Army scout handed a scroll to Zhao Heng.

Zhao Heng was puzzled and tremblingly unrolled it.

It was a military commendation order, but not from the Xuanjia Army.

It was from the Northern Liang Army!

The commendation order was very old, and its content was quite ordinary.

However, this scroll had been perfectly preserved by its owner.

This showed that the owner of the commendation order highly valued his identity as a Northern Liang Army soldier.

“Wang Linquan, a foot soldier of the Northern Liang Army’s Tiger Leap Camp!”

Zhao Heng was both shocked and angry!

Wang Linquan was actually Xu Xiao’s secret agent!

Li Chang'an on horseback remained silent with a cold Face.

Zhao Heng had already drawn a saber from his personal guard’s hand.

“Wang Linquan! I’ll chop you down!”

Wang Linquan was the richest man in Qingzhou and had painstakingly curried favor with Prince Jing’an and his son.

Even Pei Nanwei was initially introduced by Wang Linquan.

Zhao Heng, with his deep cunning, had already guessed most of the connections.

Prince Jing’an of Qingzhou existed to restrain Northern Liang.

Wang Linquan was a Northern Liang secret agent who disguised himself and joined the Green Shirt Alliance.

His initial goal was to use the Green Shirt Alliance to weaken Prince Jing’an.

But later, to deal with Li Chang'an, Wang Linquan immediately sold out the Green Shirt Alliance to Prince Jing’an.

Zhao Heng was extremely enraged; Wang Linquan had truly made fools of him and his son!

Wang Linquan stared at the heads on the city wall, a hollow, cold smile on his Face.

“Great General!”

“This subordinate has done his best!”

“This subordinate doesn’t know… how I was exposed…”

He hadn’t finished speaking when Zhao Heng’s saber severed his neck.

One strike after another!

Zhao Heng’s madness was once again clearly displayed!

In a moment, he had hacked Wang Linquan into a bloody mess.

The grief of losing his son, the anger of being deceived, found ample release!

Then, this gray-haired Prince slowly walked before Li Chang'an.

He cupped his hands and bowed, saying, “Brother Chang'an, all of this was Wang Linquan’s instigation…”

Li Chang'an never expected Zhao Heng to be such a coward.

His son died, and he didn’t even dare to let out a fart.

Indeed, all those named Zhao were cowards.

Before he could finish his sentence, Li Chang'an had already ridden away.

Zhao Heng stood blankly at the city gate, watching the Xuanjia Army disappear into the distance.

Li Chang'an annihilated Zhao Heng’s private army but left him as a bare commander.

The Qingzhou Navy was terrible, and Zhao Xun bore no small responsibility for that.

In the original timeline, after Zhao Heng’s death, the Li Yang Dynasty quickly rectified Qingzhou.

The rotten Qingzhou Navy was also reborn.

If Li Chang'an killed Zhao Heng now, the Li Yang Dynasty would simply take over and rectify Qingzhou.

Li Chang'an was not the Li Yang Dynasty’s firefighter, nor would he help Zhao Chun weaken the feudal lords.

Since Qingzhou was rotten, let it remain rotten.

Leaving the suspicious and petty Zhao Heng would keep Qingzhou in its current state.

Li Chang'an led the Xuanjia Army back to the military camp.

Order reigned in the camp; it had not been thrown into disarray by last night’s battle.

Inside the central army tent, the Brocade-Clad Guards reported the spoils of war.

“Your Highness, Wang Linquan’s family assets, plus the appraised value of his curios, amount to over six million taels of silver!”

Gu Dazu couldn’t help but exclaim, “Heh! Murder and arson lead to wealth!”

Li Chang'an smiled, “Old Gu is overthinking; wealthy people like Wang Linquan are not easily encountered!”

He had originally thought that a Qingzhou magnate would be rich with a million taels of silver.

But unexpectedly, Wang Linquan was even better at accumulating wealth than Wu Lingsu.

However, Wu Lingsu’s income mostly came from incense money, and he did a bit of illicit business on the side.

Wang Linquan was a true big merchant who knew how to make money from money.

In just over a decade, Wang Linquan managed to accumulate so much wealth for Northern Liang; he was indeed a talent.

Li Chang'an made further arrangements, instructing Zhuge Liang and Gu Dazu to continue purchasing provisions and recruiting soldiers and horses.

Provisions could be openly acquired, but horses could only be bought privately.

Either raid bandit lairs or find black markets on the Northern Liang border.

After arranging these matters, Li Chang'an went to the tent where the Green Shirt Alliance members were detained.

There were over forty people captured in this batch, led by Su Su, the Crown Prince of the fallen Western Shu kingdom, and Grand Academician Zhao Dingxiu.

Among the forty-plus people, more than half were Western Shu remnants, and the rest were Western Chu remnants.

In the military tent Li Chang'an entered, there were only Su Su and Zhao Dingxiu.

Su Su was about the same age as Li Chang'an, while Zhao Dingxiu was already a white-haired old man.

Although Li Chang'an possessed an inherent Aura of authority, he was too young, and the two were somewhat unsure.

Qingniao said coldly, “Why do you not greet His Highness the King of Tang!”

Upon hearing this, the two then cupped their hands and said, “Greetings, King of Tang!”

After the salutations, Su Su asked again, “Are you truly Li Chang'an, the King of Tang?”

Li Chang'an sat down in the seat of honor. “Undoubtedly.”

Upon hearing Li Chang'an’s affirmative reply, Su Su actually performed a kowtow, a great bow.

“Su Su, on behalf of my six elder sisters, thanks King Li.”

This fallen Crown Prince choked up when speaking of his six elder sisters, who had been tortured to death by Chu Lushan.

Li Chang'an said, “It was merely a small effort. Young Master Su, please rise.”

After Zhao Dingxiu helped Su Su up, he said to Li Chang'an, “Thank you, Your Highness, for saving our lives.”

“We were betrayed by the beast Wang Linquan this time and almost died tragically!”

“If not for Your Highness, the great cause of Western Shu’s restoration would have been completely ruined!”

Su Su and Zhao Dingxiu spoke very carefully, for this King of Tang possessed great authority.

Zhao Dingxiu couldn’t help but compare himself to Su Su; the two were truly too far apart.

Su Su was like a simple-minded scholar, while Li Chang'an was already a King with profound prestige.

Li Chang'an said indifferently, “As for the restoration of Western Shu, let’s not mention it again.”

“You two do not possess the great talent for restoration.”

“You couldn’t even see through Wang Linquan’s feigned allegiance, so how can you talk about restoration?”

What Li Chang'an said was the truth; these two, one a student and one a pedantic scholar, were indeed incapable of great things.

They might be competent as local officials, managing counties, but they were far too lacking for restoration.

Upon hearing Li Chang'an’s words, Zhao Dingxiu’s Face flushed.

Scholars are sometimes like this, unable to recognize reality and unwilling to lose Face.

“Your Highness! Although you saved our lives, you must not insult us!”

Li Chang'an said directly, “Whether you have the ability to restore the kingdom, you yourselves know very well.”

“What I want to tell you is that since I saved you this time, I expect a return.”

Li Chang'an helping the Green Shirt Alliance members feign death and escape was a kindness of rebirth.

Although Zhao Dingxiu was pedantic, he was a man who understood decency and had integrity.

“Your Highness, Zhao still understands this principle.”

“What commands do you have, Your Highness?”

Li Chang'an said, “Come with me to Sha Province and serve as county officials for this King for three years.”

“Stop constantly thinking about restoration; doing something practical will benefit you more.”

Su Su and Zhao Dingxiu discussed it and immediately agreed.

Years of efforts in Qingzhou had been utterly destroyed.

Li Chang'an had helped them feign death, and he wouldn’t easily let them go again.

Given this, it was a good idea to go outside the pass and avoid the limelight.

The matter of the Green Shirt Alliance was thus settled.