Chapter 454: Defeat

Even though they waited for three days before attacking again, this didn’t mean that they had done nothing in the meantime.

Starting from the second day, the army would march in formation one time around outside Wu City every day. Although there were only 1,000 plus soldiers, other people didn’t dare to underestimate them.

“Your Majesty, please be seated!” Ren Baqian brought in a wooden chair which was recently made by some soldiers. It still smelled of freshly cut wood.

As there were no nails available, the chair was constructed using mortise and tenon joints.

After the empress was seated, Ren Baqian brought a person with a loud voice to stand beside him. He would say one sentence and that person would repeat loudly after him.

Then, he sat down and started to recall the slogans that he had used before to persuade them to surrender.

“People in the city, please listen. You have been surrounded.”

“Deliver yourself from the endless sea of tribulations by repenting. Put down the butcher’s knife and instantly achieve Buddhahood. ”

“Tell the truth and you will receive a lighter sentence. Leniency to those who confess to their crimes so that they can go home to celebrate the New Year.”

“Surrender and you will have a chance to live. It’s a virtue to spare lives, so Her Majesty has decided to give you a chance and will not use the weapon of mass destruction. I hope that you realize resistance is the road to death and only surrender can bring you a bright future.”

Everyone in Wu City was at a loss for words.

Was this telling them to surrender or not to surrender?

“There are still the young and the old waiting for all of you. Don’t make your close relatives suffer because of your impulsiveness.”

“Rebellion is fun for a moment, but it will send your family to the crematorium.”

“If you die, other people will live in your house, spend your money, sleep with your wife, and beat your children! What a tragedy!”

Within a few minutes, this one sentence reached the top of the city wall and offended everyone.

“Let me kill him!” Someone angrily grasped the hilt of his weapon. When two sides were at war, any tactic could be employed, but broadcasting slogan after slogan was really annoying.

In addition, everyone was still smelly and constantly reminded of the culprit.

“Do not get provoked by him. He is waiting for someone to go out.” Someone immediately stopped him.

“Hmph!” The person who was blocked was furious. He knew that if he were to go down, he wouldn’t be able to come back alive. It was just that he couldn’t take this lying down.

The slogans from that guy were contemptible—they were very annoying like an insect buzzing around and made people feel like whacking it.

“It’s useless. They should be exterminated,” Xi Wanya said when morning past.

He was dismissive of the way Ren Baqian was trying to induce surrender.

“It may work.” Ren Baqian didn’t argue, but just smiled. He rose up smugly and went to join the empress for a meal.

Persuading the enemy to surrender wasn’t feasible at the moment.

The aboriginals had always met violence with violence, killed until they were stopped, and never talked about surrender. The other side naturally wouldn’t surrender, and their mindset was to fight until the end.

However, he had mentioned the idea of surrender and some people might harbor this thought.

It wouldn’t work right now because Wu City hadn’t been breached, so even those who harbored such a thought wouldn’t display it.

However, they might surrender after the winged cavalry arrived and broke through their defenses.

After all, with so many people, surely not all of them were the men of steel who were “still heroes after 18 years?”

As long as a small portion of them surrendered, they would be able to play a big role in stabilizing Tianjing Basin in the future.

In particular, the Earth Wheel experts of the various big sects were well-known in Tianjing Basin and had great influence. With their cooperation, many things could be easily accomplished.

In the afternoon, Ren Baqian got someone to repeat the broadcasting of the slogans. However, there weren’t many people at the top of the city wall this time around. They seemed to know that the aboriginals wouldn’t attack today. As such, only a few top experts were at the top of the city wall watching the other side with their disciples following them.

“If we were to attack now, we can certainly take down the city in one fell swoop.” Xi Wanya looked at the city entrance.

“They are also thinking that way.” Ren Baqian poured cold water on his idea.

On the surface, it appeared that the other experts weren’t present, but in actual fact, they were extremely fast, were probably resting in the city, and could rush to the city wall shortly if an attack happened.

Besides, they might be recuperating and waiting for an attack to happen.

In the evening, when the aboriginals returned to the base of Mount Wu, Qingyun Sword looked at the information he had just received and didn’t say anything.

Dozens of people were below him, looking on and waiting for him to speak. Many of them had bloodstains on their bodies.

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A few days ago, numerous experts from Tianjing Basin had been gathered here, and everyone was full of pride and enthusiasm for killing Qi Zixiao. This was supposed to let the people of Tianjing Basin break out of their cage. However, after a few battles, more than half of their people were gone, and everyone was mournful.

Qingyun Sword pondered for the time it took to burn a stick of incense before sadly saying, “We have been defeated.”

His ashen expression became even grayer.

“The winner hasn’t been decided yet! How can you say such a discouraging thing as the person in charge!” The person who rebuked him was an elder from a big sect. This sect’s top elder had been killed in battle with the empress while most of their experts had been killed in the battle yesterday. He was thirsty for revenge and didn’t want to hear such words.

“Elder Xu is correct—the winner hasn’t been decided yet. The other side doesn’t have more than 1,000 people, and we shouldn’t be afraid of them because we have so many experts,” someone immediately said in agreement.

“If we simply admit defeat, isn’t that letting down those who died in the battle?”

“In these two bloody battles, which sects or forces didn’t have people who were killed?”

It wasn’t easy for them to simply admit defeat. After all, they had close relatives and friends who died in battle as well as the ambition of breaking out of this cage for dozens of years.

Qingyun Sword closed his eyes and silently placed the note on the table beside him. Someone picked it up and read it right away. That person’s face immediately turned ghastly, and he passed the note to another person.”The winged cavalry… are here…” A voice filled with despair brought silence to the hall.

There were two types of troops in this world, the aboriginals and everyone else.

The aboriginals had two groups of soldiers, the winged cavalry and those aside from the winged cavalry.

One group had soldiers that were all at the Kismet Heaven level. As for the other group, their soldiers were all minimally at the Earth Wheel level.

An army of slightly more than 1,000 soldiers was equivalent in strength to one protectorate.

“I thought they were still in Great Xia…” someone said as his voice trailed off.

“They are already here and within 100 kilometers!”

“Why did we only receive the news now?” someone asked harshly.

“The entire household of Longshou City’s warlord was slaughtered, and all of Longshou City is controlled by the Protectorate of the South… This news is from Pingling City…”

“They should be about 75 kilometers away and will probably reach here by tomorrow.” Qingyun Sword kept his eyes closed while speaking.

“Withdraw from Wu City, return to the individual sects, and get the North Alliance, the Southern Metropolis, and the Green Bell Flower to immediately deploy their horses and troops. All the sects will get their disciples to join the army as well,” someone immediately said.

Previously, the original plan was to besiege and kill Qi Zixiao. After she died, Dayao wouldn’t have a leader and would have to face other strong enemies on their own. Although the aboriginals would take revenge on Tianjing Basin, but they only had the Protectorate of the South. Even if Dayao tried to mobilize more forces, it would be impossible to do so.

With so many powers fighting with Dayao, it might lose focus and collapse.

It was obvious that their original plan had already failed. In that case, they could only mobilize their warriors to fight against the aboriginals.

As soon as this was said, the hall became abuzz with noise as everyone instantly responded.

After all, with the winged cavalry was on the way, everyone defending Wu City was seeking death. The final outcome would merely be dying together with the city.

By mobilizing the army immediately, they might still have a chance.

“Let’s do it!” Qingyun Sword said with his eyes closed.

…

“Principal Ren, your old friend is here. Please come out for a chat,” a clear voice said from a distance.Currently, Ren Baqian had been hung from a tree branch by the empress and was fluttering in the wind.

Earlier on, the both of them were playing cards. The empress had gained tons of confidence from winning against Qing Yuan and Hong Luan. However, she lost to Ren Baqian and had pieces of paper pasted on her until she looked like a mummy…

…

Although Ren Baqian was hanging from a tree, when he deliberately ignored the angry look of the empress just now, he felt pretty good. He then began to hum a tune and sang, “The vast horizon is my love…”

Upon hearing this voice, Ren Baqian jolted and said, “Quickly, let me down.”

“You have so many old friends.” The empress was below the tree with her whole face covered in pieces of paper.

As an empress, she still had to adhere to basic ethics. Although she hung Ren Baqian from the tree, she didn’t remove the slips of paper from her face.

“It’s the envoy that Great Xia sent to contact the people of Tianjing Basin about mobilizing their forces.”

“Oh? Then execute him! Soldiers…”

“Your Majesty, please wait. I have an agreement with him, so he must have come because of urgent matters!” Ren Baqian hurriedly shouted.

After a while, Ren Baqian, with Lin Qiaole by his side, saw Su Qing standing on a piece of rock.

“Sir Ren, you deceived me badly…”

“I have just saved your life!”

The two spoke simultaneously.