Chapter 1417 - 339: Reverse Meaning (Part 2)

Chapter 1417: Chapter 339: Reverse Meaning (Part 2)

This bearing, this expression...

In later generations, if some pretty boy wants to go for this style, he’d need loads of makeup and carefully angled lighting, but A Ming has this aura from the inside out.

"I heard from Siniang that back in Hutou City, there was some rich madam who wanted to keep you?"

A Ming shook his head and said, "No such thing."

"There was!"

Xue Three, who now walked with a bit of a bow-legged wobble, came in shouting,

"My lord, back then we all told him to just go along with it—scam some gold and silver, then scam some connections so we could get a foothold in Hutou City. But he flat refused to go. In the end it was the blind man sending Fu Water that got us our first bucket of gold."

A Ming lifted his eyelids and swept a glance at Xue Three.

Xue Three, who had already advanced in rank, glared right back. Now, he wasn’t scared at all!

This was also the confidence that let him tell Fanli the truth right to his face earlier.

But Fanli really had no sense of propriety!

Just then, a commotion came from outside.

A deputy general led a group of men over, dragging along a man with disheveled hair in blue armor.

"Thud!"

The man was thrown to the ground.

The deputy general saluted Zheng Fan:

"Lord, this man should be Zhou Huaizong."

Zhou Huaizong, one of the spokesmen of the Zhou family, Shi Yuantang’s adopted son.

Once the city is broken, these Chu officers are naturally the big fish.

They’d caught a big one,

but right now no one knew where Li Fusheng was happily hacking away with his personal guard inside the city, and they really couldn’t find him. Plus the command banner was planted here, so this deputy general brought this big fish to Lord Zheng.

Lord Zheng nodded and said:

"Record the merit."

"Thank you, Lord!"

The deputy general led his men away. The killing hadn’t ended, and the trawling hadn’t stopped.

Zhou Huaizong’s arms were bound. He raised his head with difficulty and looked at Zheng Fan.

"You... you are Zheng Fan?"

"This lord indeed."

"Beast, beast!"

Zhou Huaizong cursed out.

He was wounded, and several of his joints had been dislocated. Right now he couldn’t even flop up.

But in his curses, one could clearly feel that rage welling up straight from his heart.

"Heh."

Lord Zheng only smiled.

Shi Yuantang was already dead by his hand, and in the battle of West Mountain Fort, he himself would have merit recorded. So when it came to these small fry, Lord Zheng really couldn’t be bothered to lift his eyelids.

"A man may be killed but not humiliated. Yan bastard, one day you won’t come to a good end either!

The evil you’ve done today will surely become the fruit you reap in days to come!"

"Oh? Do you listen to sutras often?"

Zhou Huaizong still glared viciously at Zheng Fan.

Zheng Fan had already lost interest. If he hadn’t been high on pills that day, and if Shi Yuantang hadn’t already been set on seeking death long before, he might have liked to share a drink with that old Chu Zhuguai and have a proper talk.

One could only say, too many coincidences made their contact extremely brief.

"My foster father’s remains, his remains..."

The city’s already fallen, and he’s still thinking about this.

You could only say that Shi Yuantang had really done a good job educating the younger generation—this was just an adopted son, after all.

"Sorry, they’ve probably long since been ground into mince."

"You... you beast, you beast!!!!!!"

"The winner is king, the loser is bandit. This lord doesn’t feel he did anything wrong."

Although he’d only ordered Fanli to hold the funeral, today’s yangko-twisting was something Fanli added for himself.

But there was no need to explain that to outsiders.

In truth, even on the Yan side, this sort of humiliation of an enemy main general’s corpse would normally be despised.

However, first, Prince Jingnan had slaughtered prisoners under Jade Plate City before this, drawing away most of the public censure;

second, the Chu people had sallied out and then the city had fallen.

So-called desecration of the remains had turned into a psychological attack.

Everything is judged by its outcome—that’s an eternal truth. Like this, not only would no one despise him, they’d sincerely cry out, "So damn clever."

Zhou Huaizong looked at Zheng Fan. He could no longer communicate with Zheng Fan—he hadn’t intended to communicate anything anyway.

Their values were simply worlds apart.

The Chu people pursued ancient rites and loved romance;

when nobles of Chu State fought, captured enemy nobles were to be treated well and released, and nobles who died in battle were to be buried properly or have their corpses preserved and sent back.

Thus Lord Zheng’s action really did touch the reverse scale of the Chu people.

Mm, it looks very civilized—and indeed, it only looks that way.

Xiong Liqing had once told Lord Zheng about this war etiquette on a certain night.

Lord Zheng had only smiled then

and said:

"In your Chu State, only nobles count as people."

Chu people’s romance, their ritual, their morality—all rest on the aristocratic stratum.

That’s why even when Nian Yao sits in the post of Grand General, he still has to call himself a slave.

Lord Zheng had no intention of hoisting a banner of equality for all in this world, but that didn’t stop him from criticizing it and showing his contempt.

Just as Lord Zheng was going to have someone drag Zhou Huaizong away so his shouting wouldn’t get on his nerves,

a captain led men over with another prisoner.

This one actually still had a hint of elegance.

If you want to see whether a Chu man is in a sorry state or not, you look at his hair.

The man before him had had his helmet taken off, but the hair at his temples was long, smooth and close to the ears—this meant that when he was captured, he’d already taken the time to tidy his hair himself.

"Fong Family of great Chu, Fong Yuanyang, pays respects to General Li!"

As he spoke,

he actually knelt to salute Lord Zheng.

"Impudence, this is our Yan’s Lord Pingye!" the captain barked.