Chapter 535- Bearing This Anger
Translator: ryangohsf
Editor: Nora
Guiping Pass, jail.
When Pei Ju stepped into the jail, pairs of doubtful eyes looked toward him.
Although the surrendered soldiers were all locked up, they were not totally cut off from the world. They were clear that the current Guiping Pass was under attack, and the situation was bad.
In such a situation, for the Shanhai City minister to come here, his purpose was quite obvious.
"Guys." Pei Ju looked around, his voice suddenly filled with a lot of charm, "There's no need to hide anything. I'm sure all of you know that Guiping Pass is under attack."
The moment his words sounded, chatter broke out.
Listening about it was one thing, but learning the truth from the minister was another. A weird glow appeared in some of their eyes.
"The situation is dangerous now, and we may fall any moment." Pei Ju raised both his hands to calm them down and continued, "If it falls, Shanhai City will suffer heavy losses. Your lives might also be lost. Guiping Prefecture has already been occupied, and the Taiping Army there has already been cleared out. Hence, I ask all of you to not have any false hopes of the enemy treating you nicely."
Pei Ju's words were the same as extinguishing the hopes in some of their hearts.
Unfortunately, some of them did not fear death, or they were loyal to their king till death. After hearing that Guilin Prefecture had fallen, they were not angry. Instead, they were a little happy.
The enemy of the enemy is a friend.
It was obvious that to those loyal people, Shanhai City was their enemy.
Pei Ju had incredibly sharp eyes, so he immediately noticed their weird expressions. However, they did not come out to sow chaos, so it was hard for him to deal with them. As such, he could only look on.
"Guys, it's time to prove your loyalty to Shanhai City. Don the armor, take the weapons, and fight along with the Lord's personal army - the Divine Martial Guards!"
"For Shanhai City and also for yourselves!"
Pei Ju knew that time was of the essence, and he did not expect a long speech would convince them. He could only link the battle with their lives and hope to ignite their spirits.
As he spoke, the Divine Martial Guards that followed him opened up the arsenal and passed some armor and weapons to each fallen soldier.
After receiving the weapons, the aurae of the surrendered soldiers changed. The originally soft squad instantly turned bloodthirsty, becoming a force that had been through many wars.
"Hen, you just want us to risk our lives for your Lord!" Suddenly, resentment spread out amongst the crowd, the voice filled with contempt and anger.
A wave would cause thousands of waves.
"That's right! You cannot hold on anymore, so you thought about us. Isn’t that too late?" With weapons in their hands, they had the strength to speak, so their attitudes became arrogant.
"That's right, you locked us up like prisoners. When did you even see us as humans? Now, with problems cropping up, you suddenly think of us as your own people; what a joke!"
"Hen!"
All of a sudden, the voices of doubt toward Pei Ju and Shanhai City rose up. The Divine Martial Guards unsheathed the Tang Blades around their waists and solemnly waited.
"Why, you want to kill us to make us keep quiet? Bring it on!"
With weapons in their hands, some of the soldiers even became fearless. Amongst them, it was obvious that someone was fanning the flames to cause problems.
"Brothers, look, they need us now, so they treat us so politely. Once the battle ends, we will be forsaken and deserted once more."
"That's right. Rather than fighting for them, why not kill our way out?"
"That's right, kill our way out. They cannot even save themselves, so why will they stop us?"
Under the words of some people, the group started to fidget.
Some of the surrendered soldiers started to look at Pei Ju with nefarious intentions.
When Pei Ju saw that, he felt a shiver run down his spine.
If the three thousand of them really wanted to cause problems, the one hundred Divine Martial Guards would fail to suppress them.
The key was that Pei Ju was worried about the safety of their Lord.
The longer this lasted for, the more dangerous the situation would grow.
Thinking about that, his expression became sharp, and he hollered, "Why, you want to rebel?" Instantly, a forceful aura broke out, stunning everyone.
The surrendered soldiers were terrified.
They did not expect this polite looking old man to emit such an aura when he was angry.
"I want to rebel; what can you do about it?!" There were still a few men who were not scared, and they directly charged out with their blades.
When Pei Ju saw that, he was calm and unafraid.
"So bold!"
The Divine Martial Guard standing behind him raged, moving past Pei Ju and beheading the man with one stroke.
Fresh blood splashed onto Pei Ju's robes.
Instantly, the entire place fell totally silent.
Everyone was shocked by the strength of the Divine Martial Guard. They did not even see clearly when he had slashed out, and the head had already landed on the ground.
Such blade skills were truly next level.
"They killed someone. Brothers, let's kill them!"
After the silence, an even louder uproar broke out, as the group grew emotional.
The fresh blood on the ground did not scare them. Instead, it ignited their killing intent.
When Pei Ju saw that, his eyes instantly turned ice cold. He knew that he could not drag on for any longer, so he signaled to the Divine Martial Guards.
They quickly took out their bows and shot at the group of surrendered soldiers.
Cries broke out.
Upon closer inspection, those in the crowd that had sowed the most chaos were shot and fell to the ground.
Such archery shocked all the surrendered soldiers.
The one hundred Divine Martial Guards actually suppressed the three thousand surrendered soldiers.
When Pei Ju saw that, he knew it was time for him to speak, "Guys, think about it, what should you do to benefit your family? I do not wish for all of you to risk your lives because other people are fanning the flames."
After a short pause, he continued, "In this battle, anyone who contributes will be able to get rid of their identity as a fallen soldier. The Lord will be magnanimous in your rewards."
"One path was a dead end to hell; the other was the path to riches. What choice should you make, is it not really clear?"
Along with the blood scattered all around, Pei Ju's words were highly convincing.
The remaining surrendered soldiers fell into deep thought.
Without other people fanning the flames, a large portion of them turned rational. Especially those who were born in Xunzhou Prefecture. Thinking about how their family members were in Shanhai City's hands, they calmed down.
"Mister, say what we should do. We will just follow your words."
Finally, someone stepped out and expressed his willingness to follow the commands of Shanhai City.
When Pei Ju saw that, he let out a sigh of relief and pointed to the Divine Martial Guards, “You've seen it just now. They are the personal guards of the Lord, the strongest warriors in Shanhai City."
"Now, they will lead you into battle."
The surrendered soldiers had a direct impression of the Divine Martial Guards. Naturally, they accepted their lead.
As time was of the essence, after hurriedly forming up, Pei Ju brought them up the city walls. Hence, only then did they see the scene before Ouyang Shuo’s eyes.
On the city wall, just as Pei Ju started to think about the past, a hurried shout alerted him.
"Lord, emergency military intel!"
He looked over and saw a messenger hurry over.
When Ouyang Shuo heard that, he turned around and accepted the letter.
Flecks of eye-piercing blood covered the letter from Xuanwu Pass. In his heart, a bad feeling started to grow.
Just now, he had looked out on the city walls, worried about the situation in Xuanwu Pass. Without reinforcements, could the five thousand soldiers there hold on?
In truth, Ouyang Shuo had no confidence at all.
But between the two, Ouyang Shuo had to make a choice.
The wilderness was just so cruel.
After opening the letter, he found more blood red. The entire letter was actually written in fresh blood.
‘To General Shihu:
Xuanwu Pass was suddenly attacked. The soldiers and I will defend it to the end. However, there are too many enemies, and they are about to overrun us. As for the hopes and well wishes of the Lord, I can only thank him in death.
General, there's no need to reinforce Xuanwu Pass, as I'm the last survivor. After sending out this letter, I'll die together with my brothers.
I hope in the next life that we will still be brothers.
Help me greet the Lord on my behalf and thank the king! -nameless mountain barbarian soldier.’
Looking at the letter, Ouyang Shuo grew furious, as tears started to form up in his eyes.
The valiant and fearless soldiers had sacrificed their lives to show their loyalty.
And as the person they were loyal to, Ouyang Shuo did not have the ability to save them. He could only watch them fight to the death and die one by one.
This was the first time that Ouyang Shuo hated this game, hated it for being so real.
"Pass this letter to Shihu."
Ouyang Shuo's voice was sore, filled with an unspeakable exhaustion. After passing the letter to Pei Ju, he turned around and looked toward the horizon.
The sunset at this moment looked exceptionally bright.
The back view of Ouyang Shuo seemed lonely and crestfallen. He even wanted to bring the Shanhai City Army into the Guilin Prefecture and start an all out war with the enemy to take revenge.
Unfortunately, his current situation did not allow him to do so.
The current Shanhai City did not have the strength to support another huge war.
Ouyang Shuo could only bear it, temporarily bearing this pain and suffering.