Translator: Dj2203
Editor: Dj2203
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Zhuang Li waited outside for a long time before Le Zhengming came out from behind the screen. He was wearing a pure black battle robe, a copper belt with a tiger head and dragon scales around his waist, and a pair of dust-free leather boots on his feet. He was really tall and mighty, with an imposing aura.
Zhuang Li covered half of his face, trying hard not to laugh. It was obvious that this man had dressed up deliberately and must have worn his most handsome clothes.
So he picked up a bright red cape casually draped on the screen and said jokingly, “Why don’t you put this on too?”
Le Zhengming looked at the little curly-haired boy expressionlessly, as if he didn’t understand what the other party was saying, but his ears were as red as blood.
Zhuang Li turned his head away and looked outside the tent, and his thin lips couldn’t help but curl up. After not seeing him for a long time, his lover was still so easy to tease.
Silence spread between the two of them. The atmosphere seemed a little awkward, but it also revealed a kind of joy and intimacy that was difficult for ordinary people to understand.
At this moment, there was a clamor outside asking to see the general, mixed with faint hoarse cries.
Zhuang Li stood up subconsciously, but his shoulder was pressed hard by his lover.
Le Zhengming instructed: “Stay here and don’t move. I’ll go outside to check the situation.” Then he grabbed the big knife on the table and strode out.
Zhuang Li stretched his neck to look outside, only to see the deserters kneeling in an open space not far away, kowtowing to the main tent, their dusty faces furrowed by tears.
“General, we are sorry to you!”
“Thank you, General, for leaving us a way out. We escaped from the battle, and we deserve to be killed!”
“We know we were wrong, General!”
These people kowtowed and apologized, their eyes full of guilt and remorse. Many soldiers gathered around them, pointing and looking at them with contempt.
Le Zhengming raised his hand and made a stop gesture, and asked in a deep voice: “Do you know where you went wrong?”
“We made a mistake in abandoning our comrades.” One of the deserters muttered with his head down.
“No, you still don’t understand where you went wrong. The people you abandoned were not your comrades, but your family. You fled the battlefield because you wanted to return to your hometown to reunite with your wife and children, right? But do you know that in Guancheng behind you, there are hundreds of thousands of people, who are also someone else’s father, wife, and son.
“We can certainly retreat today and abandon Guancheng.”
“However, after the Jie people break through Guancheng, would they give up their ambition to annex Wei? No, this great victory will only ignite their desires, stimulate their ambitions, and make them even crazier.”
“Guess what they will do next?”
The soldiers looked at each other, their lips trembling slightly, as if they had already thought of the horrible answer.
Le Zhengming emphasized, “Yes, just as you thought, they will continue to move forward, straight into our counties, straight into our capital, and trample the mountains and rivers of Wei. There where our fathers, mothers, wives, and children are!”
“If today we gave up Guandu and Guancheng. So tomorrow, will we also have to give up the capital and all the counties? Who will protect our fathers, mothers, wives, and children? What’s the point of you running back to reunite with them then?”
After hearing this, all the soldiers asked themselves: Yes, if even we, the soldiers who defended the country from foreign enemies, fled, how could Wei be a safe land? What is the purpose of our service? If our relatives in our hometown were slaughtered by foreigners after we fled, who would save them?
For a moment, the noisy military camp became so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.
After a long while, one of the deserters covered his face and burst into tears, feeling so ashamed that he could not face anyone.
More cries mixed in intermittently, merging into a torrent of grief and regret.
Le Zhengming thrust the sword in his hand into the ground and swore: “I, Le Zhengming, am willing to defend Guandu to the death. Those who want to leave can leave now, and I will never stop them. Those who want to stay will fight with me until the last drop of blood! I will not regret dying for thousands of my compatriots and for protecting my homeland and relatives!”
The big knife made a long clanging sound and sank seven or eight inches into the ground, directly piercing through a rock buried there.
Everyone looked at the trembling hilt of the sword, then looked at the general’s rock-hard face, then one by one they drew their swords, raised them high into the air, and shouted loudly: “We are willing to follow the general and fight to the death at Guandu! We will never retreat!”
The huge sound waves rushed into the sky, scaring away the vultures that were circling in the air waiting to peck at the corpses.
These faces, covered with dust, blood and smoke, would eventually become a towering Great Wall. Unless the enemy killed them all, this Great Wall would always keep the danger out of reach of the people.
Zhuang Li watched this scene silently through the door curtain, his eyes moist and his heart throbbing. This was his lover, who had a will as strong as steel, courage to brave death, and a sense of mission to protect the world.
“System,” he asked in his mind, “Does the Ninth Prince chosen by the Lord God have such a broad mind and courage?”
7480 paused for a long time before saying, “Of course the Ninth Prince has the courage and mind to do so.”
“Yes, his mind is used to harm loyal people, and his courage is used to collude with foreign enemies and sell out his country. He is really excellent.” Zhuang Li gently stroked the corners of his lips with his fingertips and said with interest: “I like the Ninth Prince a little bit.”
7480’s knees went weak and he almost fell to his knees.
This sentence pattern was too familiar. Once the host says in a sarcastic tone that he likes someone, that person will definitely be in big trouble!
No, no, the Ninth Prince was far away in Guancheng, the host couldn’t see him at all, and the Jie army would attack in three days, so the host had no chance of survival. He was deliberately scaring people, he would die soon!
Thinking of this, 7480 slowly regained his composure.
It would be strange if 40,000 troops could win against an army of 180,000!
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