Memoirs of the Heavenly Khan

Chapter 179 Certificate of Surrender

The land of Weinan, on the battlefield, was in utter chaos.

Looking at the corpses of his comrades scattered across the battlefield, Lu Zuqian felt an immense sorrow despite their valiant efforts.

He wanted to cry, but his expression was already stiff, and not a single tear came out.

The attackers were not Li Shuang's army, but Hu Bing, who had gone on the expedition with them.

After Hou Zhongde's vanguard was defeated, the leaders of the various Hu tribes, seeing that the situation was not good, turned against their own side, seized weapons and supplies, and then scattered.

Lu Zuqian now understood that the people of Hu were truly afraid of Li Shuang.

That ridiculous Great Qi was nothing in the eyes of those barbarians!

The reason why these Hu people were willing to gather under the banner of the Great Qi was that they wanted to use it to fight against Li Shuang!
Finding themselves unable to defeat the enemy, these Hu people turned their attention to the Qi army, which was weaker than themselves.

After figuring all this out, Lu Zuqian felt not a sense of magnanimity, but rather an even greater emptiness.

So what is he, and what are these dead soldiers?
Step, step, step...

Some time later, Lu Zuqian heard the sound of horses' hooves.

He knelt on the ground, his armor tattered. He looked up and saw a man in gleaming armor riding a horse, looking down at him.

The man was quite young, and as the opposing general, he showed no sign of mockery.

"You are General Xiao Baoyin?"

Lu Zuqian nodded, not wanting to respond further, but simply prepared to be slaughtered.

"You and those defeated soldiers, come along!"

After he finished speaking, the man rode past him.

Behind the man followed thousands of cavalry.

Cavalrymen rode past in small groups, their warhorses brushing past him, and a strange emotion stirred within Lu Zuqian.

He had never seen such a magnificent army, or rather, he had never seen such a magnificent Han army in the Northern Dynasties.

Lu Zuqian tried to stand up, but found that his legs had gone numb from kneeling for so long. He collapsed and rested for a long time before his legs gradually regained feeling.

Behind the army, a group of defeated soldiers came over, among whom were people Lu Zuqian knew.

They helped him up, and Lu Zuqian asked the question that had been on his mind.

Who is the commander of this army?

The crowd was somewhat surprised.

"General, don't you know? That young military officer leading the group is none other than the Duke of Tang!"

Lu Zuqian recalled the fleeting impression left by their brief meeting and couldn't help but sigh:

"Truly a face that radiates the heavens, a bearing that rivals dragons and phoenixes!"
-
Chang'an City.

That night, Hou Zhongde gathered his men, determined to turn against them and capture Xiao Baoyin as a gift for their surrender.

"General, do we have any chance of winning if we attack the palace?"

Although Hou Zhongde's words to persuade his soldiers were very tempting, after their defeat, the soldiers had scattered and there were not many troops left.

"What's there to be afraid of? The Hu people under Xiao Baoyin's command have rebelled among themselves. Before the Duke of Tang even arrived, they attacked Lu Zuqian and Guo Zihui, and they scattered and fled. Now, the area outside Chang'an is full of defeated soldiers. How many troops does Xiao Baoyin still have?"

Hou Zhongde's words reassured his subordinates.

"We joined Xiao Baoyin's forces for wealth and status. Now that Xiao Baoyin can no longer provide us with wealth and status, we can naturally turn to others. Taking Chang'an is our greatest achievement. When we go to see the Duke of Tang in the future, we will have something to rely on."

Hou Zhongde's uprising was hasty, so even on the eve of his action, many people still had doubts and fears, so he had to keep persuading them.

When the time came to act, Hou Zhongde led his men, gathering over a hundred armored soldiers and nearly a thousand regular soldiers, and under the cover of night, left the mansion and headed straight for Xiao Baoyin's palace.

Unlike Luoyang, Chang'an did not have a strict neighborhood system.

After Hou Zhongde led more than a thousand people out of the mansion, they encountered almost no obstacles and arrived at Xiao Baoyin's palace.

It was called a palace, but it was actually a complex of buildings built on the ruins of an old palace from the Han Dynasty. In fact, because Xiao Baoyin established the Qi Kingdom for a very short time, he didn't even have time to change the architectural style. He simply built a wall around the outside to barely connect the buildings together.

Hou Zhongde dispatched a vanguard, which quickly dealt with the guards at the gate.

Leading over a thousand men into the palace, Hou Zhongde, upon reaching the palace gates, no longer concealed himself and roared:
"Capture Xiao Baoyin!"

His thousand men no longer hid, raised torches to signal, and made a great commotion.

When the palace gates opened, Hou Zhongde was completely surprised to find Xiao Baoyin already standing on the high platform in front of the palace, with her hands behind her back, looking at Hou Zhongde.

Beside Xiao Baoyin, his important minister Wei Langen was lying on the ground, seemingly seriously injured.

There were also more than a hundred armored soldiers in front of Xiao Baoyin.

"Brothers, don't be afraid, there are many of us!"

Hou Zhongde roared to embolden his men. Xiao Baoyin smiled upon hearing this.

"More than people?"

Xiao Baoyin waved to Hou Zhongde.

As the whistling of arrows echoed through the sky, thousands of barbarian soldiers surged around the palace.

These Hu soldiers were different from those who had surrendered to Xiao Baoyin. They had sharp eyes, strong physiques, and were fully armored. They looked like bloodthirsty machines, with greed in their eyes.

Upon seeing such a large army, Hou Zhongde's heart began to pound, and the soldiers behind him were all trembling with fear.

Hou Zhongde, on a sudden inspiration, cupped his hands and said:
"Your Majesty, I have heard that some villains have come to harm you, so I have come to protect you!"

Xiao Baoyin waved her hand.

"Since you're here to protect me, then come over here!"

Hou Zhongde hesitated, but eventually walked over and climbed the steps.

Only then did Hou Zhongde hear Wei Langen's words clearly.

"Your Majesty, you can't do this!"

Xiao Baoyin's face looked unusually crazed and distorted at this moment, completely ignoring Wei Langen's advice.

"This is all because Ohno forced me to do this!"

Hou Zhongde didn't know what was going on either. Xiao Baoyin turned her head and asked:
"Ohno Sou is almost at Chang'an, what do you think?"

"Your Majesty is of noble birth and should preserve your health to await the opportunity to restore the Great Qi."

Xiao Baoyin nodded and then raised her hand.

At that moment, a wail sounded behind Hou Zhongde.

The surrounding Hu soldiers had already fired their arrows, and most of the soldiers who had followed Hou Zhongde were not wearing armor and fell to the ground one after another.

"You are right. I intend to burn down Chang'an City in order to restore the Great Qi in the future."

In his fear, Hou Zhongde, upon hearing Xiao Baoyin's words, without thinking, angrily retorted:

"Are you crazy?!"

A hint of disappointment flickered in Xiao Baoyin's eyes.

"Wei Langen doesn't understand me, and neither do you! This Chang'an is my Chang'an. Even if I don't want it anymore, I can't give it to Da Yeshuang!"

Hou Zhongde looked at the nearly insane Xiao Baoyin, took a step back, and angrily said:

"Whose troops are these barbarians?"

Xiao Baoyin, however, said leisurely:

"Even if I am not the emperor of the Great Qi, I am still the Grand Tutor of Wanqi Chounu!"

(End of this chapter)