mtl008 Chapter 924 I'll Take You to Shatter It
Chapter 924 I'll Take You to Shatter It
Sheng Junyao swept away the arrow aimed at Li Duan with his longsword, pulled her into his arms with one hand, and landed steadily back on his horse.
The large, heavy cloak wrapped Li Duan tightly in her arms.
"Li Duan, don't be afraid."
"We've come to take you home."
Li Duan was enveloped in heat, and tears welled up in her eyes, but she couldn't hold them back. "I know, I know, Brother Sheng, you caught me."
Li Duan raised her head and looked towards the city tower. On the city tower, Helian Jue's outstretched hand was still in mid-air, but the Great Yan soldiers on the city tower fell down in response, and a cleaver was held to Helian Jue's neck.
Lu Yangyang peeked out from behind Helian Jue, looking at Li Duan from afar.
"Little Pear, we've come to take you home."
Tears instantly streamed down her face, but Li Duan raised her hand and waved it forcefully at Lu Yangyang, "Okay!"
Helian Jue felt a chill run down his spine. He looked incredulously at Li Duan, who was tightly wrapped in Sheng Junyao's arms below the city wall, and even more incredulously at the soldiers who had suddenly fallen on the city wall, as well as the knife that had landed on his neck.
Lu Yangyang pressed the knife in her hand against Helian Jue's neck, and blood immediately seeped out. "It's been a long time since I've used this knife, I'm a bit rusty."
Yin Yueling slowly walked over from behind her, fiddling with a small knife. "Sister Lu, your scalpel is so much fun. Can I borrow it for a few more days?"
Helian Jue turned his head to look at Yin Yueling, only to see her playing with an extremely thin silver knife in her hand. His lieutenant was walking towards Yin Yueling with lifeless eyes. When Yin Yueling reached Helian Jue's side, she stopped and slashed the lieutenant's neck with the knife. Yin Yueling grabbed the lieutenant's head in time and turned it towards Helian Jue. The blood that spurted out was warm and splashed onto Helian Jue's face.
"I hate it when people look at me rudely. If you look at me again, it won't be as simple as washing your face. I'll gouge out your eyes." Yin Yueling gently slapped the deputy general's corpse aside, and a small silver knife landed in front of Helian Jue.
"Who exactly are you people?" Helian Jue was not unprepared for the peace talks to fail.
Even so, even if peace talks are not possible, Yanjing still has nearly 200,000 troops, which is enough for them to defend Yanjing if they go all out.
It is true that Zong Que brought 400,000 troops, but if the war continues, Zong Que may not be able to afford it.
He had made full preparations, and the powerful families in Yanjing, for their own interests, naturally stood with him. He dared not say that this battle would be foolproof, but it absolutely, absolutely could not be like this!
"Want to know what happened?" Lu Yangyang grabbed him by the back of the neck and jumped off the city wall with him.
Before Helian Jue could react, he felt his leg bone snap with a crack, breaking completely.
Lu Yangyang held the rope and used Helian Jue as a cushion, stepping on his legs to land.
Lu Yangyang looked up at the city gate tower, then loosened the rope. "It's still a bit too high."
Lu Yangyang pulled the rope back, tied up Helian Jue, and brought him to Li Duan.
Ignoring the pain, Helian Jue looked up at Li Duan, "Showa! What exactly did you do?"
Ritsu sat on her horse, looking down at him. "I am not Showa. My name is Akatsuki Ritsu, and I take my mother's surname."
"Want to know why?" Li Duan asked with a smile. "Turn around."
Helian Jue was puzzled, but subconsciously turned his head slowly toward the city gate behind him.
The city gate was slowly opened, and the scene behind it gradually appeared in his eyes. Behind the gate were not his Great Yan soldiers, but countless female slaves, densely packed and seemingly endless.
Their clothes were worn and tattered, but their faces were clean and their hair was neatly combed. They were of different ages; the older ones had gray hair and hunched backs, while the younger ones were being held in arms.
“There are 80,000 female slaves in Yanjing,” Li Duan said, looking at the female slaves and wiping away her tears little by little. “I am one of them.”
"More than twenty years ago, the Northern Yan occupied dozens of prefectures in the northern part of Da Zhao and abducted hundreds of thousands of people from Da Zhao to be enslaved. The male slaves either died or escaped, or were forcibly sent to do hard labor. Most of these female slaves were abducted to Yanjing and became tools to be arbitrarily humiliated."
“On the streets of Yanjing, and even in the livestock pens where cattle and sheep are kept, female slaves can be seen everywhere. Whether they are princes and nobles of your Great Yan or vagrants on the streets, they can humiliate these female slaves at will. The children they are forced to give birth to, most of the boys are taken away, and if they are lucky, they can still make a living in the family. But the girls only have one fate, which is to repeat their mothers’ path and become new female slaves.”
“Helian Jue, you studied the classics and historical texts of the Great Zhao Dynasty with your imperial uncle, and discussed how, given enough time, the integration and unification of different ethnic groups can be achieved. Your ambition is so lofty,” Li Duan asked with a smile, “Have you seen these female slaves?”
"Now I'll tell you why you were defeated without a fight. It's because these female slaves you've never even glanced at spent nearly three years, over a thousand days and nights, digging a tunnel beneath your Yanjing city gate. While you were standing on the city gate with me, hoping to use me as a sacrifice for peace talks, our people had already silently taken over the city gate through this tunnel."
"This is impossible!" Helian Jue turned around in alarm, looking at Li Duan's face, which he clearly knew very well but now seemed completely unfamiliar: "You betrayed me, you knew it all along, you were just pretending, you instructed all of this, so why did you come with me knowing that I was going to use you as a sacrifice? You could have escaped!"
"Showa, tell me, do you even have me in your heart?"
Helian Jue stared into Li Duan's eyes, trying to find even the slightest hint of wavering. "I fell in love with you the moment I saw you at the banquet of the Great Zhao Emperor. My marriage to you was sincere. Even though there were grudges between our two countries, at least my feelings for you were genuine. Zhao He, you betrayed me?"
"If I ran away, how could I have caught you off guard and made you suffer such a crushing defeat?" Li Duan coldly met his gaze, her voice icy. "Your sincerity is worthless to me."
"Also, I will not run away. I will not abandon them and run away alone. I will take them all with me home."
“Oh, right,” Li Duan said to Helian Jue as if she remembered something, “You are about to die, and I’m afraid you won’t understand why you died. Let me tell you something else. Do you know why, in the past three years, you have had countless wives and concubines in your mansion, but none of them have been able to have children? That’s because I gave you a drug that will make you infertile. No matter how hard you try, it’s useless.”
"This is impossible! Why? Why are you doing this to me!" Helian Jue shouted hysterically at Li Duan, "Why are you doing this to me! Your mother died at the hands of the Emperor of Da Zhao, and you have no one to rely on. I made you my Princess Consort of Da Yan, and I saved you. Why are you repaying kindness with enmity!"
“I really do want to thank you,” Ritsu said with a smile. “I want to thank you for always being so self-righteous, otherwise my conscience wouldn’t allow it.”
"No, no," Helian Jue looked at Li Duan unwillingly, struggling to crawl toward her.
Lu Yangyang slapped him impatiently across the face. "No what? You're just afraid to admit you lost, so you're using Xiaoli as an excuse. When you wanted to sacrifice her, why didn't you show your true feelings?"
"Yueling, this beast is yours to handle. Give Ajiao an extra meal tonight." Lu Yangyang kicked Helian Jue away.
Yin Yueling lashed out with a whip, wrapped it around Helian Jue's neck, and dragged him away.
“Great idea, I’ll definitely treat him well.”
Lu Yangyang mounted her horse, and Zong Que led the army forward to escort the 80,000 female slaves of Yanjing out of the city gate.
Sheng Junyao wrapped the pear in his arms, pulled on the reins, and looked ahead at the majestic city gate and the city beyond it, which resembled a colossal beast.
“Liduan, look ahead, I’ll take you to crush it.”