The Prodigal Son

On the muddy road, Sheng Qiao was leading his cavalry in pursuit of Qin Yu's forces.

Because he had not led his troops out of Qixia Pass to meet Qin Yu's forces, allowing Qin Yu to cross the Qujiang River without losing a single soldier, he was severely scolded by Liang Jingzhe in a letter.

After scolding him, Liang Jingzhe ordered him to immediately lead his troops to cooperate with Deng Pu's troops and find a way to force Qin Yu to Xingzhou.

However, Liang Jingzhe warned him that Qin Yu was extremely cunning. They only needed to put pressure on Qin Yu and try to avoid direct confrontation with him. In particular, they needed to do a good job of reconnaissance to avoid being ambushed by Qin Yu.

At this moment, Sheng Qiao was also holding back his anger.

The person who ordered himself not to fight was Liang Jingzhe, and the person who scolded himself for not knowing how to adapt to the situation!

However, he also admitted that he had not thought things through and had overlooked the time it would take for tens of thousands of cavalry to cross the river via a bridge that was two zhang wide.

This time, I must kill Qin Yu and make my uncle look at me with new respect!

"law……"

A warhorse's neigh came from ahead.

A scout galloped up on horseback, kicking up mud, and rushed toward the depressed Sheng Qiao.

Upon approaching, the scout quickly dismounted, his voice trembling as he said, "General Xiong, something terrible has happened..."

"Something terrible has happened? What terrible thing has happened?"

Sheng Qiao frowned and snapped at him impatiently, "Just say what you have to say, don't beat around the bush!"

Damn it!

Lately, everything has been going wrong!

Even scouts reporting news can be frustrating!

A look of grief and indignation crossed the scout's face. "General Xiong, you should come and take a look yourself..."

Upon hearing this, Sheng Qiao's face darkened further, and he angrily said, "It had better be something serious! Otherwise, I'll take your head!"

Filled with rage, Sheng Qiao quickly led his personal guards, guided by scouts, and ran forward.

As soon as they reached the mountain pass ahead, a mountain wind carrying a strong smell of blood rushed towards them.

The smell of blood is so strong.

Sheng Qiao's eyelids twitched, and he quickly led his men towards the mountain pass.

When they reached the mountain pass, the smell of blood became even stronger.

The smell of blood was mixed with a foul odor, and it was hard to tell whether it was the smell of feces or horse manure.

Even though Sheng Qiao was no longer a greenhorn, he almost vomited from the smell.

Sheng Qiao suddenly tightened his grip on the reins, and almost fell off his horse after just one glance.

Looking up, all that could be seen behind the mountain pass were corpses lying haphazardly.

The tattered battle flag still flutters in the wind, seemingly silently recounting the battles that took place here.

Because of the heavy rain, many low-lying areas are flooded.

But those pools of water weren't greenish-blue, nor were they muddy water; they were a glaring blood red!

Sheng Qiao didn’t know how many corpses were here, but he did know that Deng Pu’s troops numbered 20,000!

After trying to calm himself down, Sheng Qiao gently spurred his horse and slowly walked towards the battlefield strewn with corpses.

When they arrived at the center of the battlefield, they saw a large number of unusual corpses.

The armor on these corpses had long been removed, and most of them had their hands tied behind their backs.

captive!

Only prisoners of war have their hands tied!

These soldiers were all killed after being captured!

Sheng Qiao clenched his fist and looked up to scan the area.

Almost all the corpses around were like this!

In a daze, Sheng Qiao seemed to see the soldiers of Chu being tied up one by one. They naively thought they would be taken to a place to be locked up, but little did they know that what awaited them was the slaughter of the Ning people!

They fled in despair, pleading desperately.

But it was all in vain!

In the end, they fell in droves, becoming the fallen souls of the Ning people.

Sheng Qiao shook his head vigorously, trying to shake off the inhumane images in his mind, but those images were like maggots clinging to his bones, and no matter how hard he tried, he could not get rid of them from his mind.

Sheng Qiao dismounted his warhorse and knelt with a thud on the blood-soaked mud, roaring with bloodshot eyes, "Qin Yu! I'll curse your ancestors!"

……

Dusk, outside Dongyuan City.

Liang Jingzhe and Song Ling stood on the hillside, keeping a close eye on the battle.

After a day of rest, Liang Jingzhe launched an even larger-scale siege.

They launched wave after wave of attacks!

We must not give the Dongyuan defenders any chance to catch their breath.

After a day, his strategy began to show results, and the Dongyuan garrison was already showing obvious signs of weakness.

But he was still somewhat dissatisfied with the result.

In his mind, they should have already captured Dongyuan by now!

He truly hadn't expected that these ragtag people would have such a tenacious fighting spirit.

Just as Liang Jingzhe frowned, his personal guard trotted over with a disheveled messenger. "My lord! General Sheng has sent an urgent report!"

Seeing the messenger's disheveled appearance, Liang Jingzhe suddenly had a bad feeling.

Could something have happened to Sheng Qiao?

Was he ambushed by Qin Yu and his troops?

Liang Jingzhe panicked and was about to ask a question when the messenger suddenly knelt down with a thud, wailing with grief and indignation, "My lord..."

Seeing the messenger's appearance, Liang Jingzhe panicked even more, his face darkening as he demanded, "What happened? Speak quickly!"

The messenger looked up, his eyes bloodshot, and wailed, "Qin Yu led his troops to attack General Deng's forces at Donggou Pass, and General Deng's forces... were completely annihilated..."

"What?"

Liang Jingzhe felt a sudden dizziness and almost stumbled and fell to the ground.

Did Demp's 20,000 troops suffer a complete annihilation?

That's 20,000 men!

Song Ling was also stunned by the news.

Once he came to his senses, Song Ling grabbed the messenger and roared menacingly, "What exactly happened? Speak up!"

"We don't know either!"

The messenger, his voice choked with tears, cried out, "When we arrived, all we saw were corpses everywhere! Tens of thousands more were captured and then murdered! The entire area around Donggou Pass was littered with bodies; even the ground was stained red..."

Upon hearing the messenger's words, boundless grief and indignation instantly overwhelmed Liang Jingzhe and Song Ling.

Overwhelmed with grief and anger, their eyes instantly turned bloodshot and their bodies trembled uncontrollably.

Kill the prisoners!

Their people had all surrendered, yet Qin Yu still cruelly murdered them?

After a long period of grief and indignation, Song Ling suddenly clenched his fists and roared murderously, "Qin Yu, you treacherous dog! We, the people of Chu, swear to never share the same sky with you!"

Liang Jingzhe clenched his fists, but ignoring his anger, he hurriedly asked the messenger, "Where's Sheng Qiao? Did he go after Qin Yu?"

"Um!"

The messenger nodded slightly. "According to our reconnaissance, that scoundrel Qin Yu has led his troops towards Xingzhou. General Sheng has already led his troops in pursuit to avenge those 20,000 soldiers..."

"asshole!"

Liang Jingzhe suddenly flew into a rage, "That bastard! How dare he? Is he courting death?"

Liang Jingzhe was furious and wished he could fly to Sheng Qiao's side and slap him twice.

Who do you think he is?

On his first time leading troops onto the battlefield, what gave him the right to pursue Qin Yu?

Does he have Qin Yu's brain?

He is now blinded by rage and will not only fail to avenge those 20,000 soldiers, but will also fall into Qin Yu's trap and lose 10,000 cavalrymen under his command!

Liang Jingzhe grew increasingly furious and worried. He roared menacingly, "Men! At all costs, order Sheng Qiao to immediately lead his troops back to the north bank of the Qujiang River and establish a defensive position at Sanli Bridge! Anyone who disobeys will be executed without mercy!"