We Agreed On Experiencing Life, So Why Did You Immortals Become Real? - Chapter 391: Qin Jingsu! Bravest of the Three Armies!
Within the Qin Kingdom’s imperial palace.
Today, Qin Siyao had come to the palace to accompany her mother empress for the entire morning, and also visited her father emperor.
Just as Qin Siyao was accompanying her father emperor on a stroll through the rear palace,
Suddenly, the Qin Kingdom’s ruler sensed something and looked toward the direction of the ancestral temple within the palace.
“Father Emperor, what’s wrong?” Qin Siyao asked. In her heart, she also felt a trace of unease.
It was just like when Second Brother…
“Let’s go take a look!”
The Qin Kingdom’s ruler waved his hand with great force.
In an instant, Qin Siyao followed her father to the ancestral temple.
At the very front of the ancestral temple, among the soul lamps of the royal family members, the lamp symbolizing the eldest prince suddenly extinguished.
“Elder Brother…”
Qin Siyao called out softly, her mind going blank.
How could this be?
Elder Brother was together with my husband, how could Elder Brother…
“My lady!”
Just at this moment, a maid’s startled cry came from the temple entrance.
Qin Siyao turned to look and saw her mother’s body go soft as she fell to the ground.
“Mother!”
Qin Siyao rushed forward and caught her mother in her arms.
“Jingsu… my child, why has this happened, why must heaven take both my sons from me, why… why…”
“Mother!” Seeing her mother faint in her arms, Qin Siyao cried out anxiously, “Don’t scare your child, Mother!”
On the third day after the Battle of Shuling ended, Xiao Mo finally attacked into the Jin Kingdom’s imperial city.
After entering the city, Xiao Mo still did not harm the common people within the imperial city in the slightest. However, the Jin Kingdom’s royal family was not so fortunate.
Compared to the Chu Kingdom’s ruler, the Jin King valued his life more.
The moment the imperial capital was breached, the Jin King fled under the escort of Jin Kingdom cavalry. However, Xiao Mo could not possibly leave such a great threat behind.
Otherwise, the Jin Kingdom would continue to have legitimacy, which would be extremely troublesome in the future.
So Xiao Mo personally led cavalry in pursuit, and then personally severed the Jin Kingdom ruler’s head.
Besides the Jin Kingdom ruler, all the crown prince and princes who were in the Jin Kingdom’s imperial capital died by Xiao Mo’s hand.
Although the Jin Kingdom’s royal family had not been completely exterminated, with quite a few royal relatives outside the imperial capital, Xiao Mo no longer cared.
Those feudal lords were not of one mind at all.
Even if they pushed forward a new representative of the Jin Kingdom’s royal family, so what?
How many would recognize them?
How would the other feudal lords acknowledge them?
In the end, these feudal lords would only support different puppets for their own interests but just when Xiao Mo had captured the Jin Kingdom’s imperial city and was planning to lead his army to Caiyun City to reinforce Crown Prince Qin Jingsu, a battle report was delivered to Xiao Mo’s hands by flying sword.
Looking at this battle report, Xiao Mo stood there in a daze, unable to return to his senses for a long time.
“General, could it be that something has happened at Caiyun City?”
Seeing Xiao Mo’s appearance, Li Dadan and the others became anxious as well.
Xiao Mo shook his head and handed the battle report to the deputy generals beside him, “Crown Prince Qin Jingsu has died in battle.”
“What!” Li Jing couldn’t believe this news.
“General, what happened?” Zhao Guang asked incredulously, “Wasn’t Caiyun City being defended smoothly? With the great army the Crown Prince brought and Caiyun City’s great formation, even holding out for another month should have been no problem, right?”
In Zhao Guang’s view, he himself had held Yanmen Pass for such a long time back then, and Caiyun City’s protective formation was no worse than Yanmen Pass.
Not to mention that Caiyun City had abundant provisions, and the Crown Prince was not an incompetent person, so how could it have been breached so quickly?
“It was precisely Caiyun City’s formation that had problems,” Xiao Mo shook his head, calming his mind, “After the Crown Prince left Caiyun City, worried that the Jin Kingdom feudal lords would interfere with us, he fled while delaying time. In the end, the Crown Prince failed to break through at Shuling and sacrificed himself.”
“…” Everyone fell into silence, their eyes filled with grief and indignation!
Although Qin Jingsu held the position of crown prince, he was extremely approachable and had no airs about him.
Moreover, during these days, everyone had gone into battle together to kill enemies and risked their lives together, so everyone had long regarded Qin Jingsu as a brother.
“Li Jing, you will be the commanding general. Xiao Yang and Xiao Gui, you two will be deputy generals. Guard the Jin Kingdom’s imperial capital well. Additionally, our army’s wounded will be placed in the Jin Kingdom’s imperial capital under your care.
Yongsheng, you will serve as recruiting officer here. Just as in Chu territory, Yan territory, and Wei territory, only recruit willing Jin territory people.
If no one enlists, so be it. Otherwise, if they go on the battlefield they won’t put in effort, will damage our military discipline, and might even become turncoats.
As for those Jin territory generals who surrendered to us, I will leave half of their troops to be incorporated into your armies, and I’ll take the rest with me!
While I’m on campaign, you must repair the Jin Kingdom imperial capital’s formation with utmost speed and stand ready at all times. Understood?”
Xiao Mo instructed.
“Yes, General!”
Everyone clasped their fists in salute and responded in unison.
Early the next morning, Xiao Mo led the great army away from the Jin Kingdom’s imperial capital.
The Jin Kingdom feudal lords’ allied army that had killed Qin Jingsu thought they were already secure, and also hurried to attack the Jin Kingdom’s imperial capital. However, very soon, when they heard the news that the Jin Kingdom’s imperial capital had truly been breached, everyone looked at each other, not knowing what they should do for a moment.
“This must definitely be false news deliberately spread by Xiao Mo, nothing more than his devious scheme,” one Jin Kingdom feudal lord said, “Everyone must not be influenced by Xiao Mo!”
The others nodded, also believing that the imperial capital absolutely couldn’t have been breached so easily.
They continued to attack Yaoqin City but when Xiao Mo led the Snow-Treading Dragon Cavalry out of Yaoqin City and then hung the heads of the Jin Kingdom ruler, crown prince, and other royals atop the city walls, the feudal lords’ allied army instantly fell into chaos, their morale plummeting.
After all, the Jin Kingdom’s royal family had all died, and they began to doubt why they were fighting.
The hesitation brought by this doubt caused the Jin Kingdom feudal lords’ allied army to fall into brief chaos.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, under Xiao Mo’s leadership, the Snow-Treading Dragon Cavalry directly charged into the feudal lords’ allied army’s camp.
The Snow-Treading Dragon Cavalry completely split open the Jin Kingdom feudal lords’ allied army’s main camp.
The Northern Frontier infantry formed battle arrays, their blood qi soaring to the heavens!
Those Jin Kingdom generals who had surrendered to Xiao Mo did indeed still have some reservations at first but when they saw Xiao Mo’s unstoppable momentum, entering as if into an uninhabited realm, they knew that the Jin Kingdom’s situation was truly lost.
In comparison, the Qin Kingdom had only lost one crown prince but the Qin Kingdom’s incomparably wise ruler was still there yet now the Jin Kingdom’s imperial capital had been destroyed, the feudal lords’ allied army was greatly defeated, and countless had been slain.
The Jin Kingdom was truly gone!
Furthermore, these surrendered Jin Kingdom generals also knew that the Qin Kingdom treated generals from other nations equally, with everything based on military merit, so they fought even more desperately on the battlefield to kill enemies, wanting to demonstrate their value.
After routing the Jin Kingdom’s feudal lords’ allied army, Xiahou Nan and Xiao Shi also learned the news of the Jin Kingdom’s destruction.
This was undoubtedly a morale booster for the soldiers on the other two battle lines!
In the following four months, as Xiao Mo fought battle after battle in Jin Kingdom territory, making the Jin Kingdom feudal lords doubt their lives,
More and more Jin Kingdom feudal lords surrendered to Xiao Mo and those feudal lords also sent Qin Jingsu’s body.
As for the feudal lord who had killed Qin Jingsu, he had already been ambushed and slain by other feudal lords as a pledge of allegiance.
That day, Xiao Mo used his head to make offerings to Qin Jingsu.
“Elder Brother, I will let you watch this great battle to its end!”
After making offerings to Qin Jingsu, Xiao Mo used a formation to protect Qin Jingsu’s body from decay, and the entire army carried the coffin as they marched!
Xiao Mo still had Li Jing serve as commanding general, having him lead four hundred thousand Qin Kingdom troops and two hundred thousand incorporated Jin Kingdom troops to support Xiao Shi.
While Xiao Mo personally led five hundred thousand Qin Kingdom soldiers and four hundred thousand Jin Kingdom troops to directly thrust into Qi Kingdom’s heartland.
After Qi Kingdom and Zhao Kingdom learned of Jin Kingdom’s destruction, they cursed Jin Kingdom for being useless in rage but after cursing, they also had to face one matter, the overall situation would become extremely unfavorable next.
Qi Kingdom’s commanding general Gu Fei had originally been advancing ever more smoothly, about to swallow more than half of Chu territory into his own territory but when the imperial capital sent word and Gu Fei learned that Xiao Mo had consecutively broken through three Qi Kingdom cities within a month, practically one city every ten days, he could no longer sit still!
If this continued, even if he completely conquered Chu territory, his own home would be lost.
Although very unwilling, Gu Fei could only withdraw his troops.
After learning of Gu Fei’s withdrawal, before the letter from Xiao Mo’s army had even reached Xiahou Nan’s hands, Xiahou Nan immediately knew what had happened and was about to lead his army to attack.
Deputy generals opposed, worried this might be Gu Fei’s scheme but Xiahou Nan disagreed.
He overruled all objections and personally led the army to pursue Gu Fei.
Over four months’ time, Xiahou Nan practically took over one city upon arriving at it, encountering only simple resistance from Qi forces.
This showed just how anxious the other side was.
Soon, Xiahou Nan had reclaimed all of Chu Kingdom’s territory.
Gazing into Qi Kingdom’s borders, Xiahou Nan’s mood was incomparably refreshed.
In this great battle, he had been frustrated for two years! Finally it was his turn to counterattack!
But Qi Kingdom was prosperous and strong with vast territory, well-trained soldiers, many famous generals and loyal ministers, and the common people also recognized the current Qi King.
So after Gu Fei returned to Qi Kingdom and the Qi Kingdom court also calmed down, they began carefully arranging defenses.
Xiahou Nan and Xiao Mo only took a total of eight border cities, and the speed of their advance slowed. However, during this time, Li Jing led the great army to successfully break the siege around Xiao Shi, then combined forces with Xiao Shi to counterattack Zhao Kingdom.
Zhao Kingdom had a total of fifteen provinces, with five provinces occupied by Qin Kingdom’s army.
Although Xiao Shi was seriously wounded and couldn’t go on the battlefield, battlefield command still posed little problem.
The two were confident they could annex Zhao Kingdom within the next year but just when everything was proceeding smoothly, unexpectedly the Zhao Kingdom ruler colluded with the Valley Kingdom and Flowing Fire Kingdom of the demon race world.
Valley Kingdom and Flowing Fire Kingdom dispatched demon race armies, temporarily stabilizing Zhao Kingdom’s situation.
If it were only this, it would still be manageable.
Xiao Mo and Xiao Shi still had confidence they could slowly conquer Qi Kingdom and Zhao Kingdom, just a matter of how much time it would take but just at this moment, a secret message arrived from the Qin Kingdom’s imperial capital—
[We are unwell. Now that Jingsu has also departed, the court needs stabilization. You all should slow your offensive for now and garrison the passes. Return to the capital as soon as possible.]
After receiving the secret message from the imperial capital, Xiao Mo had Xiahou Nan lead the army to garrison Qi Kingdom’s Haiyan Pass, and Xiao Shi likewise had Zhao Guang and Li Jing separately garrison Zhao Kingdom’s Yan Pass and Xuzi Pass.
These passes were all easily defended, difficult to attack locations.
As long as they weren’t lost, Qin Kingdom could attack Qi Kingdom and the tattered Zhao Kingdom again at any time.
While Xiao Mo and Xiao Shi both used “rest and recuperation” as their reason, leading their armies back to Qin Kingdom so as not to arouse others’ suspicions.
Two months later, Xiao Mo and Xiao Shi each returned to the Qin Kingdom’s imperial capital.
Not far from the Qin Kingdom’s capital, Xiao Mo and Xiao Shi’s two armies converged.
Xiao Mo saw his father sitting in a palanquin.
Xiao Mo knew his father had been seriously injured.
Although he had later heard that his father’s injuries had stabilized,
Xiao Mo also knew that matters were probably not so simple.
It was just that because his father used magical treasures to conceal it, Xiao Mo couldn’t tell exactly how his father’s injuries were.
Two days later, the Qin Kingdom’s ruler personally led civil and military officials outside the city to welcome the Xiao family father and son.
Compared to previous times when Xiao Mo and Xiao Shi and others returned in triumph, when the Qin Kingdom’s ruler and civil and military officials had joyful expressions, at this moment everyone’s eyes carried sorrow.
Although this great battle had been won, no matter what, in this great battle, the Qin Kingdom’s only crown prince, also the next ruler who satisfied everyone, had departed from this world.
“Subject Xiao Shi.”
“Subject Xiao Mo.”
“We pay respects to Your Majesty!”
Xiao Shi and Xiao Mo dismounted and spoke to the Qin Kingdom’s ruler simultaneously.
“Please rise, beloved ministers.”
The Qin Kingdom’s ruler helped Xiao Shi and Xiao Mo to their feet.
The Qin Kingdom’s ruler’s complexion also showed no sign of good or bad, giving the impression that he had deliberately feigned illness just to summon Xiao Shi and Xiao Mo back to the imperial capital, as if fearing they would rebel but Xiao Mo knew the Qin Kingdom’s ruler would not be so “bored.”
Moreover, Xiao Mo felt that with his understanding of the Qin Kingdom’s ruler, no matter what happened, he would maintain his composure and absolutely would not reveal any excess emotion before outsiders but what Xiao Mo didn’t expect was, at this moment, the Qin Kingdom’s ruler’s hand grasping Xiao Mo’s was actually trembling slightly.
Xiao Mo raised his head and saw the Qin Kingdom’s ruler’s eyes wavering.
His eye sockets were full of bloodshot veins, looking as if he hadn’t closed his eyes for a very long time.
“Frost Prince… has We’s child… returned?” The Qin Kingdom’s ruler forcibly suppressed his grief and slowly spoke.
At this moment, where did he still resemble a ruler? He was nothing more than an ordinary, common father.
“The Crown Prince… has returned…”
Several soldiers steadily carried over the coffin and gently placed it beside the Qin Kingdom’s ruler.
Opening the coffin lid, Qin Jingsu’s body lay quietly in the coffin, his face bearing a smile.
The Qin Kingdom’s ruler crouched down, gently stroking his son’s face. The civil and military officials all lowered their heads.
“Frost Prince, was Our child brave?” After a long while, the Qin Kingdom’s ruler asked with a trembling voice.
Hearing the Qin Kingdom’s ruler’s inquiry, Xiao Mo clenched his fists tightly and clasped them in salute, his voice heavy yet resolute, “In response to Your Majesty! Qin Jingsu! Was the bravest of the three armies!”
