Astute Princess: Married to be the Empress Novel - Chapter 122

Chapter 122 Siege A City
After that, he said to the generals, “Since the Great Chen army has already withdrawn, everyone should relax first. Pass down the order and let the military chef add food tonight. Let the soldiers eat and drink properly. These days, everyone has been working hard. Take it as a reward for the soldiers. Perhaps, they will soon follow General Mu Lin to the various countries.”

“Yes, Your Highness.” After the generals finished speaking, they bowed to Huyan Mingshuo. They turned around and left the tent. Huyan Mingshuo walked into the room as usual and told Fu Yingran about the decision just now, wanting to hear her opinion.

After listening to him, Fu Yingran pondered for a moment and said, “En, it’s good that you make this decision. This way, not only will the casualties of the army be reduced, but it will also cut off the Great Chen Kingdom’s path of retreat. I estimate that within three days, the Great Chen Kingdom will definitely hand over Mu Linghua and submit to me, Ye Lan.”

Judging from what he had learned from Zhou Qing, the emperor of the Great Chen Kingdom was indeed a good emperor who loved his people as much as a son. If the Yelan army surrounded the city, the city would be cut off from food and water, and the Tian Yi Villa would be completely evacuated from the Great Chen Kingdom. With the little savings he had in the Great Chen Kingdom’s treasury, he could barely maintain the livelihood of the entire army and people of the city for three days at most.

At that time, Emperor Da Chen would definitely open the city to surrender so that the people in the city wouldn’t be hungry and frozen. This was the difference between Ming Jun and Dim Jun.

After Huyan Mingshuo heard this, he nodded and replied, “Well, I hope it’s as you said. We can only wait now.”

On this side, after Mu Lin brought his army into the city, he ordered people to surround the entire city. When the soldiers and civilians saw him, they hurriedly ran into the palace to report to Emperor Da Chen. At this moment, Emperor Da Chen was in his own bedroom, worried about the 200,000 soldiers.

Suddenly, the door of his bedroom was pushed open. His personal eunuch ran in panicked and immediately knelt on the ground and said, “Reporting to Your Majesty, something is wrong. The Second Prince was brought back by his men. He has already arrived at the entrance of the palace. Your Majesty, hurry up and take a look.” This eunuch had always been an old man following Emperor Da Chen. Of course, he knew that the Emperor had always doted on this second prince. Therefore, when he received the report from the guards guarding the palace gate, he immediately ran over and told the Emperor.

After Emperor Da Chen heard this, he frowned slightly. What exactly was going on? How could this Bao’er be kidnapped by his subordinates? Something big must have happened in the middle. He really should have gone to take a look, so he said to the eunuch, “En, let’s go and see what happened together. It actually caused our Great Chen soldiers to kidnap our Great Chen’s prince.” As he spoke, he lifted his foot out of his bedroom and headed towards the entrance of the palace.

“Yes, Your Majesty,” the eavesdropper replied after listening in. Then, he immediately got up from the ground and followed behind Emperor Da Chen towards the entrance of the palace.

When they arrived at the entrance of the palace, they saw Chen Bao, who had his hands and feet tied up tightly, standing there with his chest raised. Behind him, a dozen soldiers were kneeling down in unison.

When Emperor Da Chen saw this, he was puzzled. This time, even he couldn’t see why.

So he looked down at these people and said, “What exactly is going on? Someone come out and explain it to me clearly.”

Hearing his voice, all the soldiers kneeling on the ground raised their heads. When they saw Emperor Da Chen right in front of them, all the soldiers hurriedly bowed and said, “Greetings, Your Majesty. Long live my Emperor!”

Immediately after, the leading general knelt two steps forward and came to the Emperor. He kowtowed to him and said, “Your Majesty, the situation is like this. Back then, when the army of Ye Lan was at the gates, the Second Prince forcibly brought 200,000 soldiers out of the city to fight.”

Originally, for the sake of the dignity of the Great Chen Kingdom, I can’t blame you for intending to fight against the Yelan army. If both sides are equal in strength, we as soldiers of the Great Chen Kingdom should also fight to the death. The horses’ corpses don’t dare to complain, but the Second Prince, knowing that there is a great disparity in strength between the two sides and that our army is invincible, has repeatedly sent our soldiers to their deaths in vain.

It has only been half a month since we dispatched our troops. Of the 200,000 soldiers of our Great Chen Kingdom, less than 50,000 are left. The other 150,000 soldiers have already died for our country. However, the Second Prince is still unwilling to give up. It was only last night that he ordered all the remaining soldiers to gather together in order to launch a final attack on Ye Lan.

Your Majesty, those are 50,000 lives, Of the remaining fifty thousand people, And some of them are crippled, There’s no way to fight, If we go to war, “They can only wait for death. The soldiers were raised by their parents. I really can’t bear to see them die in vain. Therefore, I ordered people to tie up the Second Prince and bring the rest of the soldiers back to the city overnight. All of this was done by me alone. It has nothing to do with anyone else. The Emperor only needs to punish me.” After saying that, he lowered his head and waited for Emperor Da Chen’s final decision.

When the others saw that he had committed all the crimes alone, they immediately refused. Everyone did it together. If they were to be punished, they should also bear it together. It was not a gentleman’s doing to let them hide behind others like this. Therefore, the others also said, “This subject was also involved in this matter. This subject is also guilty. Please punish us as well, Your Majesty.”

After Emperor Da Chen heard their words, The brain exploded with a boom, Two hundred thousand soldiers were brought out, In less than half a month, there were less than fifty thousand left, Some are disabled, The remaining 150,000 soldiers died in vain. That was the hope of 150,000 families. How could he explain this to their families? Thinking of the 150,000 soldiers’ families, Emperor Da Chen’s body shook slightly and he almost couldn’t stand. His personal eunuch saw him, so he hurriedly took two steps forward to support him.

After Chen Bao heard everyone’s words, he actually boasted, “Shut up, they’re all cowards who fear death. Cowards, forget about being afraid of death. You actually dare to tie up this prince. Now you’re saying such a high-sounding thing. Damn it!”

Hearing Chen Bao dare to speak like this, the Great Chen Emperor was so angry that he covered his chest and scolded, “Unfilial son, shut up! That’s a soldier of my Great Chen Kingdom! How can you trample on me like this? 150,000 lives have been ruined in your hands! How can you be so righteous? Who gave you the courage to kneel down before me?” Then he instructed the guards beside him, “Someone, bring the Second Prince down to me and imprison him. Without my orders, he is not allowed to take half a step out of the Second Prince’s hands.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.” When the guards behind him heard his instructions, they immediately stood up and escorted Chen Bao to the Second Prince’s mansion.

Then, Emperor Da Chen said to the soldiers kneeling on the ground, “all of you get up, There’s nothing wrong with you guys doing this, I am here to thank you on behalf of the families of these fifty thousand soldiers, If it weren’t for your prompt decision, I’m afraid that even these fifty thousand soldiers wouldn’t be able to return. Therefore, not only are you not guilty, but you have also contributed. Not only will I not punish you, I will also allow you to be promoted to three levels in a row. I hope that you will do your utmost to serve our Great Chen Kingdom in the future and put the interests of our Great Chen people first everywhere. ”

The soldiers kneeling on the ground were overjoyed by this dramatic change. They immediately kowtowed to Emperor Da Chen and said, “Thank you, Your Majesty, for your kindness. I will definitely live up to the Emperor’s trust.” After that, everyone supported each other and stood up, preparing to leave the imperial palace and return to the barracks.

Emperor Chen also intended to leave, but before he could move, he saw a guard stumbling over. He knelt in front of him and said with a panicked expression, “Your Majesty, this is bad. The Ye Lan army has surrounded the city. Everyone is permitted to enter and leave. They are going to trap us alive.”

When Emperor Da Chen heard this, he turned around and asked, “What did you say? The army of Ye Lan has surrounded the city?”

“Yes, Your Majesty, not even a fly can fly out now.” The guard said again, trembling with fear.

As soon as he finished speaking, Emperor Da Chen fell to the ground. Everyone present panicked immediately. They hurriedly helped him up and carried him back to the palace. There was a burst of panic in the palace. Fortunately, Emperor Da Chen finally woke up after being treated by the imperial physicians with all his might. The first thing he said when he woke up was, “All of you go out and leave me alone.” He had to think carefully about what he should do next in order to preserve the Great Chen Kingdom as much as possible and not be shaken at all.

Thus, he locked himself up in the dormitory for a day and night. During this period, he only called a few ministers in charge of the court to discuss matters. No one else was allowed in, not even his favorite Imperial Concubine Li. Therefore, no one knew what kind of countermeasure he had come up with.

In fact, the decisions they made, As Huyan Mingshuo and his wife had expected, On the third day after Mu Lin ordered the siege, the Great Chen Emperor sent an envoy to negotiate with Mu Lin, hoping to resolve this matter peacefully. Mu Lin also knew that he was not a general capable of taking charge of such a matter, so he brought the envoy of the Great Chen Kingdom to Huyan Mingshuo’s tent and asked him to talk to Huyan Mingshuo face-to-face.

The envoy had also visited other countries many times, so he had naturally seen Huyan Mingshuo. Therefore, when he entered the tent and saw Huyan Mingshuo, he obediently bowed to him and said, “The envoy of the Great Chen Kingdom greets His Highness the Crown Prince of Yelan Kingdom.” Since the Emperor had already sent him to the Ye Lan camp to negotiate, that meant that the Great Chen Kingdom had already planned to bow down to Ye Lan. As a subject of the Kingdom of Officials, he would have to bow even more when he saw Huyan Mingshuo.

Huyan Mingshuo saw his attitude and instantly understood Emperor Da Chen’s intentions. Thus, he calmly said, “No need for courtesy. I wonder why your envoy came here?”

Seeing Huyan Mingshuo ask, The envoy stood up and said, “Reporting to His Highness the Crown Prince, “Our emperor has sent officials to deliver a message to His Highness the Crown Prince. My Great Chen Emperor said that we can agree to His Highness’ request, hand over Mu Ling Hua and submit to the Ye Lan Kingdom from now on. However, we hope His Highness the Crown Prince can order the withdrawal of the Ye Lan army from the siege as soon as possible and promise to do everything possible to protect our Great Chen Kingdom from other countries in the future.”

After Huyan Mingshuo heard this, he did not make things difficult for him. He immediately nodded and replied, “Alright, you go back and tell your emperor that I can agree to his request. However, I still have two more requests. I hope that your emperor will agree to them as well.”

“Your Highness, please tell me. I will definitely convey your highness’ words to our emperor truthfully. As long as it is not too excessive, I believe our emperor will definitely agree.” This means that your Crown Prince Shuo can make requests, but you can’t go too far.

After all, this envoy often sent out missions to various countries. Naturally, he was not an idiot. He also knew that as a surrender country, he had to make some concessions. The only thing he could do was to fight for the interests of his country as much as possible.

Huyan Mingshuo couldn’t help but raise his eyes to look at him and say, “Don’t worry, I’m not insatiable. I just hope that your emperor can promise me that the Crown Prince of your Great Chen Kingdom will never be Chen Bao, because I don’t want the country under my control to be controlled by a bastard.”