The moment Xu Nian'an brought down the long sword in his hand without hesitation, the hundreds of thousands of Great Snow Dragon Cavalry present also acted without the slightest hesitation.
They brought their butcher's blades down on the remaining prisoners of war!
Splurt~!!!
Splurt~!!!
Blood gushed like fountains. In the blink of an eye, more than a hundred thousand headless corpses littered the scene.
Was it cruel to butcher the hundred thousand prisoners who had already given up resisting?
The answer was yes. It was cruel beyond measure, but Xu Nian'an didn't care.
In the past, just because a group of people from a defeated nation had tried to assassinate him, Xu Nian'an had unhesitatingly brought his butcher's blade down on the nation behind them, massacring a million civilians.
He had shown what it truly meant for an emperor's wrath to leave a million corpses in its wake.
On the battlefield, trapping and killing five hundred thousand Tiandou troops without hesitation, dropping nuclear bombs—each time, the death toll had exceeded hundreds of thousands.
In Xu Nian'an's eyes, there were only two kinds of people.
His own people, and everyone else.
Between his own people and everyone else, Xu Nian'an would choose his own people without hesitation.
So don't even talk about just a hundred thousand prisoners of war. Even if there had been a million, Xu Nian'an would still have brought down his blade without hesitation.
Killing Xue Yi, the so-called commander-in-chief of the Heaven Dou Allied Forces, did nothing to quell the fury in Xu Nian'an's heart.
Instead, his rage only grew more and more intense.
Those worthless fools.
Just five hundred thousand of them had wiped out a ten-thousand-strong Dragon Guard.
Xu Nian'an's heart ached, his fury surging. Clearly... clearly, if only they'd waited a little longer—
Xu Nian'an would have arranged for them to awaken their Martial Souls. By then, after absorbing Soul Rings and becoming Soul Masters, even a hundred thousand against five hundred thousand could have crushed the enemy with ease.
But there was no "if only," and no second chance.
"Xu Yi!"
The moment Xu Nian'an's words fell, a middle-aged man slowly emerged from the crowd. His long hair hung loose, three arrows were embedded in his chest, and his face was pale, his lips drained of color.
Xu Yi had possessed such outstanding talent as a Soul Master that he had become a Soul Emperor before the age of thirty-five. Deeply valued by the former king, he had been specially appointed commander of the Imperial Guard. Now, at only thirty-five, he had already become a level seventy-one Battle Soul Saint of the Power Attack System (after receiving special enhancement).
"You have disappointed me greatly."
Thump!
"Your subject deserves ten thousand deaths!"
"If not for Your Majesty, this subject would have let the Heaven Dou Allied Forces march through Gulei City and prey upon the people of Great Ming!"
"I failed to fulfill the order to hold the city for one month. This subject deserves ten thousand deaths. It was my dereliction of duty. I beg Your Majesty to punish me alone."
"The three thousand Dragon Armor Army soldiers still at my side fought to the death and never retreated. The hundred thousand Dragon Armor Army soldiers died without retreating, to protect Great Ming and its realm!!!"
Soul Power surged through Xu Yi's entire body. After saying this, his eyes rolled back, and he fainted completely.
"Your Majesty!"
"General Xu Yi... General Xu Yi did everything he could. It was just... there were simply too many enemy troops. We couldn't kill them all. There was no end to them."
"We beg Your Majesty not to punish the general any further!"
Clatter!
As soon as the words fell, the three thousand Dragon Guards also dropped to their knees.
Xu Nian'an's pupils narrowed.
He truly hadn't expected the people summoned by the system to have feelings too.
Xu Nian'an had thought they were even lower than Xu Yi, who was an NPC.
After all, they had been summoned by the system. But now, it seemed he had underestimated them.
They were real people too, with blood and feeling, flesh and bone.
They had the same black hair and eyes, and yellow (flesh-colored) skin.
"Phew~!!!"
After a long while, Xu Nian'an let out a deep breath and waved his hand.
It hurt. It really hurt!!!
His heart hurt even more.
If they could have feelings of their own, that meant they were real people too. They could marry and have children, contribute to Great Ming without end, and leave countless generations of descendants behind!
A hundred thousand people... damn it, if each had three to five children, that would make five hundred thousand!
"March!"
The pain was still there, but the war had to go on.
With fury burning in his heart, Xu Nian'an gave the order. The three hundred thousand Great Snow Dragon Cavalry, the remaining hundred thousand Dragon Guards, and fifty thousand elite soldiers moved at once.
This time, Xu Nian'an didn't take everyone to attack Tiandou.
After losing five hundred thousand troops twice, the Heaven Dou Empire's forces must have been on the verge of collapse by now.
At most, they had fewer than three hundred thousand left.
Xu Nian'an could sweep through Tiandou with the four hundred and fifty thousand he had brought.
A day later, the Tiandou border guards on the other side of the Mingdou border noticed something was wrong.
The Heaven Dou army had been out of contact for more than twenty-four hours, with no message sent back.
In other words, the five hundred thousand troops of the Heaven Dou Allied Forces had gone missing again.
That afternoon, the moment a sea of silver-armored, white-robed soldiers came charging from the other side of the Mingdou Mountain Range, the Tiandou defenders were instantly shaken to their core.
The urgent-messenger relay was activated immediately.
That afternoon.
Xue Ye, the Great Emperor, received another urgent report at the Heaven Dou Imperial Palace.
"What!"
"The five hundred thousand Tiandou allied troops have gone missing?"
This same familiar sequence of events again.
Five hundred thousand troops had gone missing once more, but another piece of news in the letter made Xue Ye's blood run cold.
[The Daming Army has crossed the Mingdou border and entered the Heaven Dou Empire's foremost province, Di'ao Province!]
Before long, the State Council once again summoned the officials and convened the Tiandou Congress.
But before they could come up with any sort of plan—
Xu Nian'an led his army unhindered across the Heavenly Spirit Mountain Range and the Guhen Hills. They stopped before a great river, facing the prosperous Heaven Dou City across the water.
And in the space of a single afternoon, they swiftly encircled the entire city.
Their smooth advance was still thanks to Xue Ye.
After Long Xiaoyao had shown his hand just a little the last time, Xue Ye had been so frightened that he summoned the army in the middle of the night to guard the imperial palace.
Aside from the army that had attacked Great Ming, Heaven Dou City now held another two hundred thousand Tiandou troops.
Everywhere else was completely stripped of troops.
There was hardly a place with even ten thousand soldiers. How could they possibly stop Xu Nian'an's four hundred thousand?
Whenever he met resistance along the way, Xu Nian'an unhesitatingly ordered his forces to wipe it out.
The Heaven Dou Imperial Palace.
"Your Majesty, we... we've been surrounded!"
When the message reached the ears of Xue Ye, who was still at the Tiandou State Council discussing how to deal with the Daming Army, the entire hall fell silent.
"Wha... what!"
The next moment, the State Council erupted into chaos!
Some had suggested summoning more troops and asking the kingdoms and the Star Luo Empire to send reinforcements.
Others had talked about setting a trap and killing them.
All kinds of nonsense had been thrown around, but every suggestion depended on one thing: that Heaven Dou City hadn't been surrounded yet and they still had time to prepare.
Now that Heaven Dou City was surrounded, what was the point of fighting? What the hell could they even do?
Try to make a move right under the enemy's noses?
"Your Majesty, if you ask me, shouldn't we negotiate peace?"
"Exactly, exactly! Great Ming's economy isn't doing too well. We could form an economic alliance with them!"
Xu Nian'an had no idea what the other side was thinking.
That very night, they sent an envoy to negotiate.
They wanted to form an alliance with Xu Nian'an at the Wei River.
"???"
"You mean, the Heaven Dou Empire wants to form an alliance with Great Ming?"
At Xu Nian'an's words, the envoy smiled and nodded excitedly.
"That's right. We'll give Great Ming our entire system for developing the empire, every last part of it."
"We'll send personnel, factories, and funds to help develop the local economies of Great Ming."
"Once the deal is done, the capitalists' money goes back to them, and the commoners' money is split three-seven, with us taking seven."
At those words, Xu Nian'an nearly burst out laughing.
Li Shimin: I know this script.
They actually wanted to forge an alliance with him, imitating the Alliance of Weishui between Great Tang and Li Shimin.
"Except..."
"Developing the local economy takes time, but plundering doesn't. It's a sure-fire profit!"
At Xu Nian'an's words, the envoy's expression changed drastically.