Call of the Heroes of Chaos in Another World

Chapter 2124 Two Martial Arts Enter Hao, Great Hao Undergoes Shocking Change

Regarding Su Dingfang's western expedition of the Han Dynasty, Wu Bing'er's idea was to provide aid.

However, Wu Zetian's idea was to bring both dynasties under her control.

In Wu Zetian's view, the four minor dynasties were of no use and two of them were destroyed by Su Dingfang within half a year, which was clear evidence of this.

Instead of wasting resources and costs supporting Dajian and Dahao, it would be better to annex them, save those resources and costs, and let them take charge of the northeastern defense line of Dawu themselves.

At the same time, if they take over the Great Sword and the Great Hao, they can use this land to keep the Great Han away from the east of the Yellow River. Even if the two countries really go to war one day, they can keep the flames of war outside the Great Wu's homeland.

It was precisely for this reason that Wu Zetian orchestrated this "borrowing a path to conquer Guo" scheme, turning the tables and becoming the host.

Ever since the Han Dynasty conquered two of the four minor dynasties, it had already aroused the vigilance of the Wu Dynasty.

It was because Da Hao and Da Jian were preserved back then as a buffer between them that Da Wu was able to remain seated and did not immediately react violently.

But from that time onward, Da Wu clearly began to favor Da Hao and Da Jian in its policies, and began to readjust the relationship between the two dynasties.

After the Han Dynasty won the Battle of Henan and became completely powerful, the level of support increased several notches this year, which led to the expansion of the armies of both dynasties starting at the beginning of the year.

Now that the Han army is invading, and the Wu army is sending troops to support them, the Hao side is naturally unprepared! In fact, instead of being prepared, they welcome the arrival of the Wu army with open arms.

It was under these circumstances that Wu Zetian, as an envoy, went to the capital of the Great Hao Kingdom for talks, while Wu Bing'er, the general of the Great Wu Kingdom, led the Great Wu army directly to the front line of the Great Hao Kingdom to meet and reunite with the Great Hao Kingdom.

The two parties agreed on a three-day timeframe, during which they would each choose a time they deemed appropriate to carry out their original plans.

Even if the two of them launched their plans one after the other, three days wouldn't be enough time for news to travel between the border and the capital of the Great Hao Kingdom. Therefore, it wouldn't affect the other person.

It was against this backdrop that Wu Zetian launched a coup in the capital of the Great Hao Kingdom with an elite delegation of eight hundred men, seizing control of the entire royal family.

Although the Great Hao still had more than 10,000 troops in the capital, these unprepared troops were thus utterly overthrown by a mere 800 men.

It's impossible for all eight hundred elite soldiers in Wu Zetian's delegation to accompany her into the palace to negotiate with the Great Hao Emperor; this has nothing to do with trust. Any normal emperor would not allow eight hundred armed men into his palace.

Therefore, only fifty people actually followed Wu Zetian into the palace.

However, these mere fifty men were all highly skilled; if placed in the army, each of them would be qualified to serve as a military commander or even a colonel.

In addition, even Mo Jing, a fierce general of the Great Wu, was hidden among them.

Although Mo Jing, a fierce general of the Great Wu, made a fool of himself on the battlefield in the Western Rong region back then, his strength as a divine general was still undeniable.

Perhaps, within the ranks of divine generals, he is merely the lowest of the pyramid, ultimately just a low-level divine general.

However, within the Great Hao Dynasty, he would be absolutely invincible and unstoppable.

Furthermore, Ning Baizhou, the head of the Zhengwu Division at the early stage of the Celestial Realm, was secretly accompanying them. Therefore, although the number of Dawu forces that entered the Great Hao Imperial Palace was not large on the surface, it was enough to threaten the safety of the Great Hao Imperial Palace.

In fact, Wu Zetian was accompanied by more than just Ning Baizhou, a master of the Celestial level; there were three people in total.

Throughout Wu Zetian's time as an envoy to Zhongcang, he was always accompanied by two Celestial-level experts, one in the open and one in the shadows. One was Ning Baizhou, who was part of the Great Wu's official organization, and the other was the Celestial-level old swordsman from the top sect of Great Wu, Lujian Mountain.

Sword Slaughter Mountain is probably the most miserable of the top sects in the Human Sect. Compared with other prestigious sects in the same dynasty, such as Dragon Tiger Mountain and Wudang Mountain, it is incomparable.

Within the Great Wu Dynasty, the academy and the Mingdian Academy are right next door to them. They are truly right next door; the three of them are crammed into the same area, all near the capital of the Great Wu Dynasty.

Even if someone wanted to stay humble, it would be impossible to avoid being subservient at Lujian Mountain.

In contrast, although Wudang Mountain and the Sage's Lecture Hall were both within the same dynasty, their actual locations were quite different.

Not to mention, apart from Wudang Mountain, the headquarters of the three Taoist schools are all within the Great Qian Dynasty. With mutual support and assistance, they are not afraid of the oppression of the Sage's Lecture Hall.

Within the Great Martial Arts Academy, the principle of checks and balances is emphasized rather than simply killing someone outright.

However, Mingdian Academy was different; they truly wanted to eliminate any potential threats, and those who dared to resist would be annihilated.

Not only Lujian Mountain, but also Mahayana Buddhism, which was once a loser, Mingdian Academy has always wanted to completely wipe them out.

Against this backdrop, in order to survive, Lujian Mountain had no choice but to completely and utterly submit to the Great Wu Dynasty, becoming a sharp blade of the Great Wu Dynasty.

It can be said that the Sword Slaughtering Mountain has now basically lost its autonomy and is almost entirely controlled by the Great Wu Dynasty.

Today, the name "Lujian Mountain" is just that—a name—and has been lost to history.

As its name suggests, Lu Jian Mountain is a Taoist sect that focuses on swordsmanship, cultivating both Taoism and swordsmanship. The most powerful of the seven peaks of Lu Jian Mountain is comprised of a group of swordsmen. Therefore, this sect once produced many renowned swordsmen of the Great Wu Dynasty.

However, most swordsmen are unyielding, preferring to break rather than bend. The moment they bend, their sword spirit is lost, and how can those swordsmen possibly advance further?
Therefore, the most powerful main peak among the Seven Peaks of Lujian has gradually declined over the years, which has indirectly made Lujian Mountain no longer as strong as it once was.

It is precisely because the Sword Slaughtering Mountain is now completely subservient to the Great Wu Dynasty that Wu Zetian has such a Celestial-level guard by her side, instead of any other Celestial-level beings within the Great Wu Dynasty.

The third Celestial Being within the capital of the Great Hao Kingdom is the one who has always protected Wu Bing'er.

Wu Bing'er was not only the eldest princess of the royal family, but also a woman who was granted the title of queen and appointed as a general, standing among the top generals in the military of the Great Wu Dynasty.

With such a status, when leading troops outside, she would naturally need to be protected by celestial beings. Moreover, the level of her guards was far superior to that of Wu Zetian.

Although Wu Zetian had two Celestial Beings by her side, one in the open and one in the shadows, both of them were only at the early stage of the Celestial Being realm. Moreover, she only had such high-level guards when she left the Great Wu to travel to another country.

In contrast, Wu Bing'er, although she only had one Celestial Being by her side, was a master in the late stage of the Celestial Being realm, and a rare female in the late stage of the Celestial Being realm, which made it easier for her to perform her protective duties.

Moreover, this level of security is available even within the territory of Great Wu itself.

Wu Bing'er also considered that Wu Zhao had a limited number of people he could mobilize within the Great Hao Dynasty, so as to be on the safe side, she temporarily lent her security guards to Wu Zhao.

Although losing such a close bodyguard has significantly reduced her security, it has also made her less vulnerable.

However, putting aside the possibility of her being assassinated by the Celestials, a truly effective assassination would be meticulously planned and would require a great deal of time for scheming and design.

If everything goes smoothly with Wu Zetian, this celestial being will return as soon as he completes his mission, and there shouldn't be any major problems with the time in between.

On that day, Wu Zetian entered the palace, and Ning Baizhou immediately took control of the lives of the emperor and all the princes of Da Hao.

Wu Zetian was both a princess of the Great Wu and an envoy of the Great Wu. She negotiated with the Great Wu as its representative. Almost all the high-ranking figures of the Great Wu, from the emperor to his ministers, attended the meeting. It was precisely because of this that the Great Wu was completely captured.

Mo Jing led the fifty armored soldiers who had accompanied him into the palace, and together they launched a coordinated attack from within and outside the Great Hao Imperial Palace to allow the armored soldiers of the envoy delegation outside to enter the palace, thus successfully taking control of the palace.

The remaining two Celestials led the forces of the Great Hao's Heavenly Martial Academy to seize control of the residences of the Great Hao's high-ranking officials as quickly as possible.

From the emperor down, everyone in the Great Wu Kingdom who had the power to make decisions was controlled by Wu Zetian. Therefore, the entire capital of the Great Hao Kingdom was now essentially in Wu Zetian's hands.

The garrison of the capital, Dawu, was hampered by various concerns and lacked a high-ranking leader to take command. As a result, Wu Zetian was able to control the emperor and command the entire army.

Just one day later, Wu Bing'er, on the border of the Great Hao, used the pretext of inviting Great Hao generals to discuss military matters to seize control of more than 80% of the high-ranking generals of the Great Hao army.

Furthermore, taking this opportunity, he took command of 45,000 troops on the front lines of the Great Hao Kingdom.

As for the generals of the Great Hao under their control, the Great Wu side won over a group with high-ranking positions and generous salaries, and secretly killed another group with harsh methods, thus making some of them work for them.

Therefore, with the help of some of the generals of Dahao, they managed to assimilate this part of the army as much as possible.

Even with the help of these Great Hao generals, the lower-ranking officers and soldiers of Great Hao were unaware that a dramatic change had occurred in their superiors.

By the time they realized it, it was completely useless.

Just as the Han Dynasty had predicted, although the Great Hao was not as powerful as the Great Sword, it only needed to guard one of the Han Dynasty's defensive lines. Therefore, the Great Hao actually concentrated more troops on the front lines.

With this move, Wu Bing'er directly gained control of the vast majority of the Great Hao's military forces.

Soon after, the second batch of troops from the Great Wu also began to arrive in the Great Hao Dynasty. Even though some opposing and resisting forces emerged in the local areas of Great Hao, they could not cause any major trouble.

Therefore, from the day Wu Zetian officially staged a coup in the capital of Dahao, Dahao was almost completely under the control of Dawu in just one month.

During this period, Wu Zetian did not mistreat the Great Hao royal family, who were already under her control. On the contrary, she treated them as kindly as possible.

Without reporting to the Great Wu Dynasty, she directly bestowed the title of Duke of Great Wu Hao upon the emperor of the Great Hao Dynasty in the name of Wu Bing'er, and sent people to relocate the Great Hao royal family and some of the Great Hao nobles to Great Wu.

It can be said that Wu Zetian's policies and actions, both now and for a long time to come, are endorsed by the royal family of the Great Hao Dynasty and even by the emperor himself.

By leveraging the power of the Great Hao Emperor, a series of conflicts of interest arose during the process of the Great Hao Dynasty being controlled by the Great Wu.

With the help of the Great Hao Emperor, we can win over more Great Hao officials and noble families in the early stages, so that they can be used by Great Wu as soon as possible.

Similarly, it was also through the power of the Great Hao Emperor that they tried their best to appease those who were willing to resist.

In addition, treating the royal family and noble families of the Great Hao with kindness was also a way to deal with the Great Han.

When Su Dingfang destroyed the Dasheng and Dalan dynasties, he killed countless people within those two dynasties.

From the royal families of these two dynasties to the powerful families and nobles within them, as well as other resistance forces, Su Dingfang adopted a policy of killing whenever possible.

The Han Dynasty and the Wu Dynasty are different. The Han Dynasty is a newly emerging power. Within the Han Dynasty, there are many officials or generals of lower birth, as well as outsiders from other dynasties. These people want to take root in the Han Dynasty and share the spoils.

How can one get a larger slice of the pie?

The simplest solution is to eliminate the existing owners of the pie all at once. Then, the vacated portion of the profits can be divided among them.

Within Da Cang, because the Han Dynasty itself originated from Da Cang, some generals were still somewhat restrained and dared not act recklessly. However, even so, incidents similar to Meng Tian's massacre of aristocratic families in Qingbei Road did not never happen.

What they lack is a reason to justify using their knives.

Outside of Da Cang, in other dynasties and kingdoms, the internal complexities of Da Cang are unnecessary. As conquerors, they inherently possess the right to raise their swords; they don't need to find other reasons to do so.

Wu Zetian adopted a conciliatory approach, treating the royal family and noble families of the Great Hao with kindness. At least within the Great Hao, some people, even if they did not fully support them, would not hinder them when they later fought against the Great Han.

After all, if the burly men really attacked, they could very well have their necks slashed. They were naturally aware of the stakes.