Conspiracy!
Setting aside Wang Yue's situation with taking a secondary wife and concubines, Great Liang had also made its plans. It had to drive Great Yu back before the other nations joined the invasion. Only then could it deter them.
To show its resolve to burn its bridges, even Emperor Xiao Jingyan personally led the campaign. The soldiers below him were fired up, all vowing to seize this chance to distinguish themselves.
At first, the fighting went very smoothly. Before Xiao Jingyan's army even arrived, they had repelled Great Yu's attacks several times in a row, successfully holding back its forces.
Unfortunately, there was a traitor within Great Liang, and everything was now in flux.
Xiao Jingyan had brought fifty thousand Imperial Guards, forty thousand soldiers from Xiangyang Commandery, and thirty thousand from Nanyang Commandery, claiming to command an army of two hundred thousand.
When the army reached Plum Ridge, Xiao Jingyan noticed that Lin Shu and Nihuang seemed troubled. Remembering what Mei Changsu had told him about his true identity, he asked guiltily, "Xiao Shu, once we win and return, I'll immediately have the Six Ministries reinvestigate the case from back then. I'll make sure the Chiyan Army gets justice."
Hearing Xiao Jingyan's promise, Lin Shu emerged from his sorrow and said, deeply moved, "Thank you, Your Majesty!"
Xiao Jingyan took Lin Shu's hand and said earnestly, "I still prefer it when you call me Water Buffalo!"
Seeing Xiao Jingyan say that, Lin Shu was deeply moved. Water Buffalo had become emperor, but he was still the same. It seemed Lin Shu's choice had been worth it.
But before he could say anything, countless flaming arrows suddenly appeared on both sides of the ridge. At the same time, oil poured down from the slopes on either side of the