Song of Adolescence

Chapter 374 The Soldiers Aim For Calming Purity

Xiao Chong walked into the courtyard and looked at the smoke signals. He could also hear the clear sounds of iron hoofs in the distance. With a frown, he asked, "Who are they?"

Xiao Se tucked his hands inside his sleeves as he walked out. "Only one army in all of Beili makes this sound of iron hoofs.

"He’s back."

"Grand Eunuchs!" Li Changqing pushed open the front doors, but the ones he saw first were Xiao Chong and Xiao Se. He was taken aback for a moment and recovered quickly. "The two princes are here too. Please, join the rest at the Hall of Calming Purity!"

Xiao Chong asked, "What’s happening outside?"

Li Changqing wiped the sweat from his forehead. "There’s no time to explain. The Central Army has rebelled! Ye Xiaoying is bringing Xiao Lingchen to lead an army of tens of thousands, and are now right at the gates of Heavenly Revelations City!"

"Xiao Lingchen? He’s still alive," Xiao Chong murmured.

Lanyue Marquis Mansion.

The old house steward stood there, an uneasy expression on his face. He rubbed his ears. "It’s been a long time since I heard this sound. This is the sound of iron hoofs. Makes me feel as if I’m back on a battlefield."

"Yes, indeed. Come with me to enter the palace." Lanyue Marquis smiled and gathered his sleeves.

"Marquis, will we be able to come back alive?" The house steward remarked, his expression bitter.

"This Marquis doesn’t know either. Maybe we won't," Lanyue Marquis quipped.

The house steward shook his head. "Feels uneasy."

Lanyue Marquis raised his head and murmured to himself, "Xiao Se, you’d better not lie to me."

Two hundred miles outside of Heavenly Revelations City.

The soldiers pulled down the iron visors over their faces, raised their long spears which had been polished to a shining gleam, and rode slowly forward on their yebei fine horses.

They were the most well-equipped army in Beili. Their horses were the fastest, their spears were the sharpest, their crossbows were the most ruthless, and their armours were the toughest. Even the twin-bladed Ye Banner Battalion couldn’t compare to them.

Their only weakness was, their military capability was very average.

But they also had an advantage. They emphasised glory more than any other soldiers. Back then, Langya Prince, the Pillar of State General Lei Mengsha, and the golden armour General Ye Xiaoying all began their paths to glory here.

Independent of the three armies, their existence served only to guard the imperial city. The Wang Li Heavenly Army.

In the midst of the 20,000 armoured soldiers marching, the most eye-catching figure was a lady in a green dress. She rode her horse at the forefront of the Wang Li Heavenly Army, turning her head to look in the direction of Heavenly Revelations City. "You must all be safe."

Outside Heavenly Revelations City.

Xiao Lingchen stopped his horse and looked at this legendary city before him. With a laugh, he remarked, "Heavenly Revelations City was once a military city. It’s easy to defend and difficult to attack. How many days will it take us to get inside?"

Ye Xiaoying chuckled. "Even if it’s our Langya Army, it’ll take at least three or four days."

Xiao Se, Xiao Chong and the rest followed Li Changqing to the Hall of Calming Purity. The Imperial Army and the Brave Tiger Guards were all armed and ready. They were the elite of the elite but they would not be able to stop Ye Xiaoying's army of thousands.

"Captain Li, what are your plans now?" Xiao Chong asked.

Li Changqing was already so anxious his head seemed to be blowing steam. "I have no plan. Everything happened too suddenly."

Xiao Chong frowned and thought for a moment. "Our plan now is to defend Heavenly Revelations City as long as possible. Although they outnumber us, Heavenly Revelations City will not be easily captured. We can defend it for at least a day. We will send word right now to the Wang Li Heavenly Army. By the time the Heavenly Army arrives, we will join forces to resist and wait until the other two armies arrive to defend the Emperor!"

Li Changqing nodded. "That's the plan then. That’s the plan." Then he pulled one of the soldiers from the Imperial Army next to him. "You, go send the message now!"

Grand Eunuch Jin Xuan suddenly turned around. "Jin Yan!"

But Jin Yan was nowhere to be seen. The most slick and cunning among the Five Grand Eunuchs, the Eunuch of Seal had already slipped away quietly when they left Jin Yu’s Residence.

Xiao Se exhaled a sigh. "I'm afraid the city gates won’t even hold for a day."

"Jin Wei!" Grand Eunuch Jin Xuan snapped, "Stop him!"

Jin Wei Gonggong bowed his head in acknowledgement, and immediately left to chase after Jin Yan.

Jin Yan Gonggong was in a hurry. He had a scroll hidden in his sleeve and of course, it was not the extremely important Dragon-Sealed Scroll. It contained more than a name, but the names of forty or so high-ranking court officials and nobles in Heavenly Revelations City. These were names of people who were secretly supporting this rebellion. As one of the Five Grand Eunuchs, Jin Yan Gonggong had the most connections in the imperial court and over the years, he had already laid out his own network.

Standing above the gates of Heavenly Revelations City, the supreme commander downed a mouthful of wine, then called out loudly, "Open the gates!"

"Open the gates?" The commandant of the city guard started in fright.

"Yes, open the gates," the supreme commander repeated with emphasis.

"We can't open the gates." The vice commander walked up to them and pointed at the huge army before the gates. "Your Excellency Supreme Commander, are you crazy? The army below us is clearly here to rebel and you want to open the city gates for them? You’re going to get us all killed!"

The supreme commander flung his flask of wine to the ground and pointed at the army. "Right now, there is an army of 200,000 below the city walls. How many garrisons do we have in Heavenly Revelations City? If we fight with them, that’s going to get us killed."

"Our army is here to defend the country. How can our soldiers surrender just because the enemy is stronger than us?" The vice commander retorted angrily.

Both the supreme commander and vice commander drew their swords at the same time, but before either of them could swing their swords, the vice commander’s head was rolling on the ground.

Everyone turned their heads in astonishment, and saw Jin Wei Gonggong resheath his blood-stained sword. The short and fat Jin Yan Gonggong followed right behind him and smiled jovially. "I didn't expect you would be faster than me by a few steps."

Jin Wei Gonggong ignored him and called out loudly, "Open the gates!"

"Open the gates!" Jin Yan Gonggong shouted at the same time.

Two of the Grand Eunuchs were here in person and with the horrifying death of the vice commander on the city wall, the supreme commander made up his mind. Finally, the other soldiers of the city guard nodded slowly.

"It's finally here." Jin Yan Gonggong grinned.

Jin Wei Gonggong’s expression was very solemn though. "Where did things go wrong?"

Jin Yan Gonggong didn’t understand. "What went wrong?"

"Neither you nor I killed Jin Yu, so who killed him? Is there still another powerful force in this Heavenly Revelations City that we failed to notice?" Jin Wei Gonggong asked.

Below the walls of Heavenly Revelations City.

Xiao Lingchen yawned. "This is completely different from what I imagined. I thought we were going to get a ferocious siege battle? Is this actually the Heavenly Revelations City gates known to be the most defensible?"

Ye Xiaoying frowned and said, "With an army of 200,000 pressing down on Heavenly Revelations, their final defence is a bunch of city guards? Where’s the Imperial Army? Where’s the Wang Li Heavenly Army? The Covert Crossbow Squad? Even if Li Changqing is not a general, he’s not that stupid. What’s going on?"

Xiao Lingchen turned his head and said, "Are you worried this is a ruse?"

"Something like that happened once. They opened the city gates and waited for the enemy to enter the city. Then, they beheaded the leader and caused the army to retreat. When the battle reached a point of hopelessness, that was their last resort." Ye Xiaoying said slowly, "We can’t rule out the possibility that they’re planning something like that."

"Now that the city gates have opened, why are we the ones fearing the unknown?" Xiao Lingchen flicked his whip and headed towards the slowly rising city gates. "Behead the enemy leader? This Prince is here! My head is right above my neck. Come and get it!"

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