Inukami Jusaburo, his fingertips tracing the white tiger stripes back and forth.
He looked down at Park Roejang, who was kneeling at his feet. The suspicion in his eyes lessened slightly, but the corner of his mouth curled down as he waved to the guards behind him.
"Go, seize five of those Goryeo women guarding the city walls."
In no time, five white-haired, tattered Goryeo women and children were dragged up the city wall by the warriors like dead dogs and forced to kneel in a row.
Inukami Jusaburo drew his short sword from his waist, shoved the hilt into Park Roejang's hand, and shoved him towards the five women and children with his large hand on Park Roejang's shoulder.
" Lord Bak, anyone can talk, and I've seen plenty of self-inflicted injury schemes."
These five are all citizens of your Hanseong. If you take a knife and stab all five of them to death, then I'll believe you've truly turned against Great Yan.
"Come on, show your sincerity and determination."
Park Roejang looked down at the short knife in his hand, then looked up at the old woman with a wrinkled face kneeling at the front.
His wrist began to tremble, and he aimed the knife at the old woman's heart, pushing it forward three times, but he couldn't manage to stab her.
A soft click came from behind me.
The soldier's spear was pressed directly against the back of Park Roejang's head.
"What, can't you bring yourself to do it?"
Inukami Jusaburo placed his hand on the hilt of his sword and sneered, "It seems Lord Bak is using a trick."
Park Roejang's back was soaked with cold sweat, and his teeth ached from clenching them.
At that very moment, the old Goryeo woman kneeling opposite him suddenly raised her cloudy eyes and saw clearly the cloud and crane embroidery pattern peeking out from under Park Roejang's clothes, which was the attire of Goryeo official in charge of rites.
She knew in her heart that if she didn't die today, then it would be Lord Bak.
If I lose my own life, so be it. But if Lord Bak loses his life, the Goryeo Dynasty might truly be finished.
The old woman's chapped lips moved, but she neither cried nor shouted. Suddenly, she mustered all her strength and lunged forward, her withered chest colliding head-on with the short knife in Park Roejang's hand.
A muffled thud.
The dagger plunged to the hilt into the old woman's left chest, and warm blood gushed out from the wound, splattering all over Park Roejang's head and face.
The old woman gripped Park Roejang's wrist tightly. Instead of backing away, she used her last breath to push her body forward half an inch. Her cloudy eyes stared at Park Roejang, her head lolled to the side, and she breathed her last.
Park Roejang stood there dumbfounded, the hilt of his knife slippery and impossible to grip, his stomach churning so badly he almost vomited on the spot.
Inukami Jusaburo Park Roejang, whose face was covered in blood and who was trembling all over.
"Alright, take the remaining four away and behead them. Don't dirty Lord Bak's hands."
Inukami Jusaburo bent down and lifted Park Roejang from the pool of blood, patting the bloodstains off his face.
"Tell me, how do you want to kill Gu Moran?"
His three thousand heavily armored infantrymen are like an iron barrel, and there are those madmen throwing fire grenades. If we charge head-on, I won't get the better end of the deal."
Park Roejang knelt in the still-warm blood-soaked ground, his palms braced against the ground, his nails digging into the cracks in the bricks, his head bowed, not daring to let Inukami Jusaburo see his eyes.
"General, you may not know this..."
Although Gu Moran was skilled with firearms, he was extremely arrogant and had a penchant for women.
He was especially infatuated with our princess, and even insisted on taking her with him into battle.
He swallowed hard, his saliva tasting of blood, and looked up, his eyes filled with a desperate, reckless glint.
The people of Great Yan having a legitimate reason for their actions and always prioritizing courtesy before resorting to force.
General, why don't you take advantage of today's defeat and write a letter, agreeing to a peace banquet tomorrow at noon on the White Sandbar in the middle of the Han River?
They said they were willing to hand over all the Goryeo royal family members as hostages, only asking for passage back to Busan!
Inukami Jusaburo frowned:
" White Sandbar? That place is surrounded by water on all sides, and there isn't even a single tree. Would Gu Moran go there?"
"It's precisely because it's surrounded by water and you can see right to the bottom that he thinks we can't set up an ambush and he'll definitely go!"
The people of Great Yan don't have many other hobbies, except for enjoying feasts and joining in the fun.
Park Roejang grabbed Inukami Jusaburo's leg, his voice extremely low.
"Moreover, the silt beneath White Sandbar is loose!"
Tonight, the general can select fifty of the best swimmers, elite water ghosts, to lie in ambush with reed tubes in their mouths!
At tomorrow's banquet, both sides have agreed that only ten guards are allowed to enter the island. After several rounds of drinks, the Eldest Princess will feign offering wine during the banquet, taking the opportunity to unleash her White Tiger Gang Qi to launch a sneak attack on Gu Moran!
He raised his hand and made a throat-slitting gesture, his face contorted in a ferocious expression.
"If Gu Moran is entangled by the Eldest Princess for even half a breath, the fifty water ghosts beneath the sandbar will simultaneously burst forth from the sand."
With a flurry of blades raining down, let alone a prince, even if he were the God of War of the Great Yan, on this isolated continent without firearms or a large army to protect him, he would be chopped into mincemeat!
Inukami Jusaburo loosened his grip on the hilt of his sword and walked back and forth twice along the crenellations of the city gate, his hands behind his back.
Straw sandals rustled as they stepped on the blue bricks.
He quickly started calculating on the abacus in his mind.
Wa's homeland has been completely destroyed by the tsunami; its granaries have collapsed, its shipyards have been destroyed, and these 20,000-plus remaining soldiers are now like rootless duckweed.
If we can capture Gu Moran alive on this White Sandbar, not only will those ten thousand Subduing Fire Thunder outside the city be ours, but we'll also have them to ourselves.
He could even use Prince Yi Great Yan a hostage to force the Great Yan Dynasty to hand over all the hundreds of newly built deep-sea ships of the Dengzhou Navy!
With a ship and the fire and thunder of the Great Yan, let alone returning to Kyushu Island to dominate, Inukami Jusaburo...
It would be as easy as taking the shogun's seat himself!
Then, lead your troops to conquer Chang'an!!
"Very well! We'll proceed with Lord Bak's grand plan!"
Inukami Jusaburo suddenly stopped, slammed his hand on the brickwork of the crenellation, and turned to stare at Park Roejang.
"However, to prevent any leaks, before we behead Gu Moran tomorrow at noon..."
Lord Bak, please stay in our central command tent and rest well.
As for the job of delivering invitations..."
He pointed to a soldier with a severed tongue who was squatting in the corner, moving stones:
"Send that mute man to deliver it!"
On a shallow beach five miles upstream of the Han River, dozens of Great Yan engineers were swinging large wooden mallets, hammering sharpened pine stakes into the riverbed.
Zhen Meili stood on the first water-filtering dam filled with quicklime and charcoal, holding a compass and gesturing towards the water flow.
Suddenly, the river water, which had been flowing gently through the charcoal layer, seemed to boil over, bubbling up a large patch of dark red bubbles.
Immediately afterwards, thousands upon thousands of hair-thick, dark red bloodworms, instead of being burned to death by the quicklime, frantically burrowed out through the cracks in the mud and sand under the pine stakes, following the underground water veins along the riverbank, heading straight for the dozen or so drinking wells that had just been dug at the Great Yan Vanguard Camp on the south bank.
"Something's not right! This quicklime isn't killing them!"