mtl008 Chapter 1215 You are the soldiers of my Great Qian
Chapter 1215 You are the soldiers of my Great Qian
“Date Masamune,” he began slowly, his voice calm as if he were speaking of something trivial, “you have done a great service this time. I will personally petition His Majesty and the Prince to award you this honor.”
"Thank you, General!" Upon hearing this, Date Masamune was so excited that he trembled all over.
He knew that he made the right bet!
From this day forward, Date Masamune will be the new king of this land of Japan!
A king, rightfully and legitimately appointed by the Celestial Empire!
However, while he was still immersed in the boundless ecstasy of his impending ascension to the pinnacle of power...
Yue Fei's next words, however, were like a bucket of ice water at minus thirty degrees Celsius, poured over his head and onto his heart.
It also poured down on the hearts of all the surviving Japanese samurai.
“However,” Yue Fei’s lips slowly curled into a cold, emotionless arc, “merits are merits, and faults are faults.”
"You and your warriors have rendered great service to our Great Qian Dynasty. However, the heinous crimes you committed in the city—burning, killing, looting, and raping women—are equally unforgivable!"
"Wh...what?!" Date Masamune was stunned upon hearing this.
His one remaining eye was filled with disbelief, shock, and bewilderment.
"General... what... what do you mean by this?"
"I...I don't understand..."
"Don't understand?" Yue Fei sneered. "Then I'll let you die knowing why."
He suddenly waved his hand!
"Somebody come!"
"These are the Japanese bandits who dared to defy military law and harm the people in front of my Great Qian Heavenly Army!"
"Give them all to me!"
"Rectify the law on the spot!"
"Leave no one behind!"
Yue Fei's cold, emotionless command was like a bolt of lightning from the heavens, striking Date Masamune and the three hundred or so surviving samurai on the head!
They were all dumbfounded.
They stood frozen in place, their faces filled with indescribable shock, bewilderment, and a chilling, bone-deep fear!
Righting the law on the spot?
Not leaving a single one behind?!
why? !
They are clearly heroes!
It was they who led the way for the Celestial Empire's army!
It was they who captured Edo Castle for the Celestial Empire's army!
It was they who personally beheaded that old scoundrel Tokugawa Ieyasu!
They may not have made any great contributions, but they certainly put in a lot of hard work!
Why is it that in the end, what awaits them is not reward, not glory, but... the executioner's blade?!
"S-General!" Date Masamune was the first to recover from the shock. He knelt down heavily with a thud. The ecstasy and smugness on his ugly face were gone, replaced by endless fear and confusion.
"Injustice...injustice! General! We've been wronged!"
"We...we killed Tokugawa's lackeys! We robbed Tokugawa's treasures! We...we were all serving the Celestial Empire! What...what crime have we committed?!"
He couldn't understand it, he really couldn't understand it!
Throughout history, the victor is king and the loser is villain; burning, killing, and looting are all perfectly normal occurrences in war.
Why did it become such a heinous crime in the mouth of this general of the Celestial Empire?
"What crime have you committed?" Yue Fei looked at his ridiculous appearance as he was still struggling in his death throes and let out a disdainful sneer.
He slowly walked up to Date Masamune, looking down at him with undisguised contempt and murderous intent in his calm, deep eyes.
"Date Masamune, don't you understand yet?"
"From the moment you set foot on this land and chose to become the 'traitors' of my Great Qian, you are no longer Japanese."
"You are the soldiers of my Great Qian!"
"Since you are a soldier of my Great Qian, you must abide by the military law of my Great Qian!"
"The first and most important article of the military law of our Great Qian Dynasty is—"
"Anyone who disturbs the people without cause or oppresses the good shall be executed!"
"Anyone who disobeys orders in battle or embezzles military merits shall be executed!"
"Anyone who commits adultery, plunders, or disrupts military discipline shall be executed immediately!"
Every word Yue Fei spoke was like a red-hot iron hammer, striking Date Masamune's heart, and also the hearts of all the surviving Japanese samurai.
They listened blankly, and finally, a deathly ashen look, a look of despair, appeared on their faces, which were etched with bloodlust and greed.
They finally got it.
They were wrong from the very beginning.
They thought they had found a new master who could make them rise to prominence and achieve instant success.
But they never dreamed of this.
What they found was not a savior at all.
Instead, it is a peerless demon god from the East, a hundred or a thousand times more terrifying than Oda Nobunaga or Tokugawa Ieyasu!
In his eyes, they were not heroes at all.
They are just a bunch of dirty, lowly chamber pots that can be discarded at any time after use!
"no, do not want……"
"General, spare our lives! We...we will never dare to do it again!"
Please! Give us another chance!
Faced with the overwhelming fear of death, these Japanese samurai, who had been so arrogant and domineering just moments before, finally broke down completely.
One by one, they dropped their weapons, knelt on the ground crying and begging for their parents, desperately kowtowing and pleading for that last, and most faint, glimmer of hope.
However, Yue Fei's bronze face remained completely unmoved.
He merely glanced coldly at the Shenji Battalion soldiers behind him, who had already pointed their flintlock muskets at them.
"Enforce military law."
He uttered four words calmly.
"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"
The next second, a rapid barrage of gunfire, as sharp as the heartbeat of death, suddenly rang out!
Those three hundred-odd Japanese samurai, who had been dreaming of becoming kings and prime ministers just moments before, didn't even have time to let out a final scream.
It was mercilessly torn to shreds amidst that devastating hail of bullets, like a storm of steel!
Blood stained every inch of the land in front of the castle tower.
This also marked the bloodiest and cruelest end to this war that had just begun in the east.
On the deck, Elizabeth could see everything that was happening in front of the castle tower clearly through a high-powered telescope.
She looked at the Eastern man who didn't even blink when he ordered the slaughter of the "meritorious official" she had just subdued.
For the first time, a deep, soul-deep dread appeared on that beautiful face.
This man...
So cruel.
It was so ruthless that even she, a pirate queen who was used to all kinds of bloodshed and betrayal at sea, felt a chill run down her spine.
She had thought she knew him well enough.
I thought he was just a somewhat old-fashioned and naive man, but essentially a trustworthy and reliable gentleman.
But now she realizes how wrong she was.
This man is anything but a gentleman.
He is a war machine, a being in human skin, calm to the point of being cold, rational to the point of being ruthless!
In his heart, there was only loyalty, military law, and what he considered to be the "greater good."
Anyone who dares to cross his bottom line, no matter who you are or how great your achievements are, he will not hesitate to completely erase you and everything you have!
"Giggle..."