Martial Arts World Assassin

Chapter 177 Catch them all in one fell swoop

Prime Minister Xia invited Huang Sixi, Li Siyong and others to take a seat.

At this time, the VIP seats in the lobby were already full.

Suddenly, three drums sounded in the back hall, and a row of heavily armored guards walked out. They held yellow flags in their hands, stood on both sides of the main seat, and shouted loudly: "The King of Pingxi has arrived!"

When the drums stopped beating, Wu Sangui, the King of Pingxi, strode into the hall with the gait of a dragon and a tiger, and stood in front of the main seat with vigorous steps.

Huang Sixi looked around in the court and found that Wu Sangui had gray hair and was over 60 years old, but he did not look frail. He had a very majestic figure, sharp and gloomy eyes, giving people an aggressive and oppressive feeling, which was the tough aura he developed after experiencing the ups and downs of the battlefield.

Behind Wu Sangui stood the crown prince Wu Yingxiong, and in front of him stood three martial artists in plain clothes on the steps. These three people were Bao Zhu, Fan Zheng and Zhang Tianmeng. They and Chu Zhaonan were the four personal guards of King Pingxi, and their martial arts skills were comparable.

Chu Zhaonan was ordered by Wu Sangui to escort the relic and had left the Prince of Pingxi's Mansion long ago. Currently, only Baozhu, Fan Zheng and Zhang Tianmeng were left by Wu Sangui's side.

The Baozhu was nine feet tall, with a broad back and strong arms. He looked like a man with supernatural powers.

Although Fan Zheng and Zhang Tianmeng are not good-looking, they are masters of the Nan Tian Sword School, each of them possessing unique skills.

After Wu Sangui stood still, he first looked around the hall and waved silently.

The musicians who were performing in the hall immediately left the stage. After they left the hall one after another, the door of the hall closed with a "bang!", and the originally noisy atmosphere instantly quieted down.

Wu Sangui continued to look at the distinguished guests at the long tables on both sides of the hall and said with a smile: "This is the first time for me to meet you heroes. Nice to meet you, nice to meet you!"

Huang Sixi, Li Siyong and others sat on the left side of the long table, while on the right side were the foreign tribesmen from the border areas. They were all leaders of their own tribes and did not feel that their status was lower than Wu Sangui. They all sat in their seats tacitly and did not stand up to greet Wu Sangui. They just clasped their fists and bowed to Wu Sangui from a distance.

In recent days, all the distinguished guests present were entertained by Xia Guoxiang. After Wu Sangui spoke, Xia Guoxiang immediately walked to the middle of the long table and began to introduce the identities of the distinguished guests on both sides to Wu Sangui.

Prime Minister Xia pointed at Li Siyong and said, "This is Li Siyong, the great-nephew of Emperor Dashun!"

Dozens of people in the hall looked at Li Siyong and could not help but look at him with admiration. Although Li Zicheng, the Emperor of Dashun, was a short-lived flash in the pan, he was a heroic figure who swept across the Central Plains and overthrew the Qing Dynasty. His reputation remained unchanged for decades.

However, everyone knows that Li Zicheng had already captured the capital and almost occupied the world. However, he failed in his expedition against Wu Sangui's troops at Shanhaiguan. He suffered the greatest defeat in his life and finally had to withdraw from the capital.

So all in all, Li Zicheng's Dashun Army and Wu Sangui had an irreconcilable feud.

As the successor of the Dashun Army, it was very strange for Li Siyong to be invited to Wu Sangui's banquet at this moment.

This also made everyone present feel emotional. It seemed that the only things that the heroes in the world cared about were interests and power, and no personal grudges. As long as it was profitable and they could preserve their own power, they would join hands and form an alliance even if the revenge for their father's murder was in front of them.

Wu Sangui smiled slightly, sat in the main seat, picked up a wine glass and raised it towards Li Siyong: "Your grandfather is a peerless hero, and his achievements are as glorious as the sun and the moon! When I fought against your grandfather at Shanhaiguan, my original intention was not to oppose you, but to help you clear the court and wipe out the treacherous people like Liu Zongmin and Niu Jinxing. I didn't expect it to turn into the situation today. For the past 30 years, every time I think about it, it feels like a thorn in my side!"

Li Siyong showed no emotion on his face. He listened quietly to Wu Sangui talking about the past without revealing any emotion.

Liu Fangliang could not hold back and showed anger on his face. He felt that Wu Sangui was being hypocritical.

Huang Sixi, Mu Jiansheng and other nobles in the Mu Palace were just there to watch the fun. After all, in the minds of the former Ming loyalists, both Wu Sangui and Li Zicheng were traitors who deserved to be killed a thousand times.

As for the frontier tribesmen on the right side of the long table, they stared at each other in confusion, some of them not quite understanding what Wu Sangui meant. They had heard of Li Zicheng, but they did not know why Li Zicheng was defeated and what was the root cause of the hatred between the Chuang army and Wu Sangui.

Wu Sangui continued to say to Li Siyong: "Fortunately, I have established good relations with your brother Marshal Li a few days ago. Today, Mr. Li has not abandoned me and has come all the way here. Please drink this glass of wine to resolve the suspicion between our two families!"

"Easy to say!"

Li Siyong raised his glass to Wu Sangui: "Please, King Pingxi!"

After saying that, he drank it all in one gulp.

Wait until Wu Sangui finishes drinking this glass of wine.

Minister Xia pointed at Huang Sixi and introduced him: "This gentleman is the husband of the Five Poison Sect Leader. Since the Five Poison Sect Leader is a woman and cannot show her face in public, he will appear before the prince on her behalf."

Wu Sangui did not take the Five Poison Sect seriously. In his opinion, although the Yunnan and Yunnan barbarians were numerous, they were a motley crowd and it would not be difficult to persuade them to surrender. He could make them submit by using threats and inducements.

Wu Sangui did not speak to Huang Sixi, but just clinked glasses of wine with him from a distance.

Huang Sixi also remained silent and watched the situation on the scene.

At this time, Prime Minister Xia had come to the right side of the long table and pointed to the young herdsman in the front seat: "Your Majesty, this is Prince Galdan from Western Mongolia. He is also a descendant of Genghis Khan of the grasslands!"

Wu Sangui stood up in awe and said, "So you are the descendant of our great master. I am so sorry, so sorry!"

Prince Galdan said carelessly: "I, as a descendant, feel ashamed of my ancestors. All the pastures conquered by my ancestors were seized by the Manchu bannermen. This time, I went south to discuss with the King of Pingxi how to deal with the Qing Dynasty! I have made a promise beforehand. After the Qing Dynasty is destroyed, the Tianshan North and South Roads, the Four Eastern Leagues of the Grassland, the Two Western Leagues, Chahar, Rehe, and Suiyuan will all belong to Mongolia. As for other territories, you can take them as you like. Anyway, I have no interest in the Central Plains!"

What he called the Tianshan North and South Road actually included the entire southern Xinjiang grassland.

Prince Galdan was ambitious and was determined to restore the former super territory of the Golden Family. However, he understood that Mongolia was not strong at present. So he made his attitude clear to Wu Sangui that he would never lay hands on the Central Plains territory so that the alliance between the two sides could continue to cooperate smoothly.

Wu Sangui felt that Prince Galdan was sensible, so he said with a smile: "The land outside the Central Plains was not originally our Han land. If I can recover the Central Plains in the future, I will never set foot on the border!"

His words actually resonated with Li Siyong. Nowadays, those ambitious people in the Central Plains regard the border as a barren land. Even if the territory is given to them, they are unwilling to incorporate it into their territory.

Huang Sixi was the only person in the whole world who had a broad world view. After he expelled the Qing court, he would immigrate there at all costs wherever his troops could reach, even if it was thousands of miles away from the Central Plains. He would occupy as much land as he could, and would not leave even a foot or an inch of it unoccupied.

Next to Prince Galdan was a lama who came from the border of Tibet.

The leading lama had long eyebrows and a long beard. Xia Guoxiang pointed at him and introduced him: "This master is the Buddha of the Tianlong Sect, the Holy Monk Tianlong. He has already stationed troops at the border of Sichuan, waiting for the prince to raise an army to recover the Central Plains, and the Holy Monk Tianlong will wave the flag to respond!"

Master Tianlong raised his palms and bowed to Wu Sangui: "The Living Buddha has passed down a decree. After the Qing Dynasty is overthrown, the monks of my Yellow Temple will only spread Buddhism in Sichuan and Shu, and will never set foot in other places!" He actually represented the powerful people in Tibet. In the future, he would cooperate with Wu Sangui in his rebellion against the Qing Dynasty. After the success, he only asked for Sichuan and Shu.

Wu Sangui agreed generously.

After reaching an agreement with Master Tianlong, Wu Sangui cast his eyes towards the yellow-haired barbarian sitting in the row behind Master Tianlong.

Huang Sixi, Li Siyong and others were also curious about the origins of this yellow-haired barbarian.

Prime Minister Xia then explained to everyone: "This is the envoy of Luosha State, His Excellency Gao Lijin. He does not understand Chinese, but his interpreter Mr. Lu Gaoxuan is from our Central Plains and can translate the barbarian language for him."

The Rakshasa Kingdom is Tsarist Russia. The people of this country have yellow hair and blue eyes, and their appearances are peculiar. The people in the Central Plains regard them as ghosts. "Rakshasa" means evil ghost in Buddhist scriptures, so the people in the Central Plains called it the Rakshasa Kingdom.

The Russian envoy Gao Lijin who arrived at this moment was actually the governor sent by Tsarist Russia to the Far East. The Yellow-haired Barbarian Musketeers under his command crossed Siberia, burning, killing, looting, conquering and colonizing along the way, until they pushed the territory to the northeast of Liaodong.

Even though he had conquered such a vast territory, Gao Lizhen was still not satisfied. He led the Huangmaoyi to build two cities in Nerchinsk and Yaksa in the northeast of Liaodong as springboards for invading Liaodong.

Liaodong was regarded as the birthplace of the Qing Dynasty by the Tartars, so they naturally did not want to be involved by the yellow-haired barbarians. As early as the Shunzhi period, the Qing government sent heavy troops to fight against the Cossack musketeers led by Gao Lijin. Although the Qing soldiers were able to repel the invasion of the yellow-haired barbarians every time, they also suffered heavy losses.

The Qing court nobles found that the elite Eight Banners troops were unable to completely expel the Yellow-haired barbarians, so they simply gave up and divided the territory with the Yellow-haired barbarians, using Liaodong as the boundary, and the two sides did not invade each other.

The Qing court really did not dare to go north to encroach on the territory of the Yellow-haired Barbarians. The Eight Banners nobles believed that it was enough to be able to defend the three acres of land in Liaodong. As long as the Yellow-haired Barbarians did not come to disturb them and exploit the Central Plains, they would never take the initiative to provoke border disputes.

But the Huangmaoyi were always ready to invade the south.

In order to invade the Central Plains more effectively, Gao Lijin, as the governor of the Rakshasa Kingdom in the Far East, took the initiative to contact Galdan of Mongolia to discuss a joint attack on Liaodong.

It happened that at this time Galdan received an invitation from Wu Sangui to discuss a plan to deal with the Qing court. Gao Lijin accompanied Galdan to the south to Yunnan.

In this way, after Wu Sangui launched his rebellion against the Qing Dynasty, he would receive strong support from four directions.

Mongolia marched from west to east, Russia marched from north to south, Tibet sent troops to Sichuan, and Chuang's army joined forces with the troops of the Pingxi Palace to sweep the Central Plains. When the time came, with everyone in the southeast, northwest, and northeast taking action together, it would not be difficult to overthrow the Qing Dynasty.

Wu Sangui looked at Gao Lijin and asked with a smile: "After you send out your troops, how will you decide to march?"

Gao Lizhen and interpreter Lu Gaoxuan talked for a while.

But Lu Gaoxuan replied, "Your Highness, Governor Gao Lijin said that when we conquer the Qing Dynasty in the future, the territory between Luosha Kingdom and Your Highness will be separated by Shanhaiguan, and they will never step into the interior of the pass! Outside Shanhaiguan, it was originally the territory of the Manchu Tartars. Luosha Kingdom only occupies the Manchus' old nest and will never occupy an inch of land in the Central Plains!"

Wu Sangui thought, thirty or forty years ago, how could Liaodong be considered Tartar territory? The thousands of miles of rivers and mountains in Liaodong were all the territory of the Ming court, and the Tartars were just subjects of the Ming court. They just rebelled and took Liaodong away.

However, for the sake of his own ambitions, Wu Sangui felt that he should meet Gao Lijin's demands. As long as the Russian Empire was willing to send troops to contain the elite Eight Banners, he would not hesitate to cede Liaodong.

By this point in the banquet, Wu Sangui had already reached alliance terms with various forces.

He was in a very happy mood and told all the distinguished guests: "In a few days, I will raise an army in the name of the Grand Marshal of Land and Sea and the General of Restoring Ming and Suppressing the Enemy, expel the Tartars, and recover the Central Plains..."

Before he finished speaking, Liu Dahong, who was sitting next to Huang Sixi, suddenly interrupted and asked, "May I ask, Prince Pingxi, who gave you the title of 'General Xingming'? If someone asks about Prince Yongming's fate in the future, how should Prince Pingxi answer?"

King Yongming was Emperor Yongli, who was captured alive from Burma by Wu Sangui, who then ordered his execution.

Wu Sangui was the culprit who overthrew the Qing Dynasty. Now, in order to fight for the world, he is actually borrowing the status of the Ming court and labeling himself as a senior official of the Ming court in order to win the support of the Han people in the Central Plains. This is really shameless to the extreme.

Wu Sangui smiled with a fake smile: "Then, Your Excellency, what do you think I should use as a pretext to start my rebellion?"

Liu Dahong only raised doubts because he was dissatisfied with Wu Sangui's meanness and shamelessness. As for the strategy of raising an army, Liu Dahong had no plan in mind.

Li Siyong took over the conversation and said with a smile: "With your status as a prince, if you use the slogan of overthrowing the Qing Dynasty and restoring the Ming Dynasty as your slogan, it will probably be inconvenient. The Ming Dynasty was destroyed in your hands, and everyone in the world knows it. If you claim to be 'restoring the Ming Dynasty and defeating the invaders', I'm afraid people in the world will never believe you!
In my opinion, it would be better to change "Anti-Qing and Restore Ming" to "Drive Out the Invaders and Revive Han". In the past, our Chuang army rose up for the people of the world and enjoyed great prestige among the people. Before Your Majesty raises his army, it would be better for us to come forward and announce it to the world first. This will be more conducive to uniting the rebel armies in various places!"

After Wu Sangui said this, his trusted generals angrily scolded him: "Letting the Chuang army announce it to the world, isn't that letting the Chuang army take the initiative? Do you want us, the Pingxi Palace, to help your Chuang army conquer the country?"

Li Siyong replied calmly: "I have no selfish motives. Everything I do is to recover the Central Plains. The suggestions I made can help us expel the Qing invaders more quickly. If you only want to fight for power and profit, then there is no hope of overthrowing the Qing Dynasty!"

After hearing this, Wu Sangui suddenly stood up and said with a dry laugh, "Mr. Li is a straightforward man, and what he said makes sense, but I need to think carefully about it. How about we discuss this matter another day? Baozhu, you can send off these heroes for me!"

Baozhu understood and walked down the steps. When he reached the stone pillar at the bottom of the steps, he stretched out his hand and pressed the bulge on the pillar. With a "boom!", the ground in the middle of the hall suddenly sank.

The long table where Huang Sixi, Li Siyong and others were sitting suddenly fell down, and the table and the people fell into the dungeon below.

It turned out that this hall had been hollowed out and set with traps. One only had to press a switch and everyone in the hall would be trapped.

Wu Sangui only had problems with Chuang's army and the Five Poison Sect. Prince Galdan, Master Tianlong, Gao Lijin and others on the right side of the long table were still standing firmly in the lobby and did not fall into the dungeon.

However, Wu Sangui thought that everything was under control. Unexpectedly, Huang Sixi had already been thinking of a way to subdue Wu Sangui. When he saw the dungeon revealed, he suddenly jumped forward and was already next to Wu Sangui.

"Go down!"

Huang Sixi uttered two words, stretched out his hands and clapped his hands, and Wu Sangui flew to the prison.

At this time, the surrounding guards just reacted. They had no time to deal with Huang Sixi, so they swarmed towards Wu Sangui and tried to rescue him.

Huang Sixi did not follow. His figure flashed again and came to the stone pillar where the mechanism was set. He reached out and pressed it. The ground on the right side of the long table immediately sank. Prince Galdan, Master Tianlong, Gao Lijin and others exclaimed and fell into the dungeon one after another.

The hall was immediately empty and Huang Sixi jumped down to the cell. He could see at night and could keep track of everything that happened in the dim cell.

(End of this chapter)