Promises with a beauty in his arms, a supposedly dead uncle invites him to die from the rooftops
On the city wall,
Inukami Jusaburo groped his way into the nearby fire-fighting water tank, haphazardly rinsing the lime powder from his eyes.
When he looked up, his eyes were swollen like peaches, barely open, and the whites of his eyes were bloodshot.
He peered down through the crenellations and saw that the black-armored cavalry of the Great Yan had poured into the barbican like a floodgate opening.
The three thousand Satsuma foot soldiers were kneeling on both sides of the road, kowtowing and begging for rewards.
The west gate of Hanseong has fallen.
Inukami Jusaburo felt a surge of blood and qi in his chest, and he coughed up a mouthful of black blood.
With trembling right hand, he reached into his robes, pulled out the half of the royal white tiger blood jade that Park Roejang had given him before his death, and slammed it hard onto the city bricks.
Snap!
The blood jade shattered into seven or eight pieces.
" Park Roejang! You old dog, you even schemed against me in your death!"
Inukami Jusaburo, clutching his broken chest, roared at the five hundred remaining black-armored assassins around him.
"Ximen cannot hold out!"
Come, follow me to the central clock tower!
There are still 20,000 Goryeo commoners imprisoned there. Use their lives to build a human wall!
Isn't Gu Moran a man of integrity and righteousness?
I'd like to see if he dares to blow up those 20,000 civilians along with the Subduing Fire Thunder!
At worst, the whole city will be buried with them!
Five hundred assassins grabbed Inukami Jusaburo and fled like madmen along the horse path on the north side towards the city center.
Below the city walls, Xie Linyuan, carrying Kim Tae-heung, gracefully descended from the three-zhang-high city wall, returning to the front lines with a few leaps.
With a loosening of his grip, he handed the blood-soaked King of Goryeo over to several attendants who came forward.
"Father!"
Kim Seon-a rushed over, tears streaming down her face.
Two large, bloody holes in Kim Tae-heung's collarbone were still oozing black blood, but he ignored the pain.
His withered right hand gripped Kim Seon-a's wrist tightly, his cloudy eyes wide with terror as he stared in the direction of the torchlight in the city center.
His throat was making a cracking sound like a broken bellows.
"No... don't go to the clock tower..."
Seon-a, quickly stop Prince Great Yan...
That madman, Inukami Jusaburo, is in the cellar...
It also concealed a deadly weapon...
Going to the clock tower is a dead end...
Before he could finish speaking, Kim Tae-heung's head lolled to the side, his hand holding Kim Seon-a fell limp, and he fainted on the spot.
"Father!"
Kim Seon-a -ah was terrified.
Shen Ling'er ran over quickly with her medicine box on her back, squatted down, opened Kim Tae-heung's eyelids to take a look, then pinched his pulse to check it. She pulled three silver needles from his hair and quickly inserted them into his Tanzhong and Qihai acupoints to seal his heart meridian.
"Princess, don't panic. The King of Goryeo has only fainted due to excessive blood loss; he hasn't died yet."
Shen Ling'er withdrew her hand, wiped the black blood from her fingertips with a handkerchief, and looked up at Gu Moran.
"My lord, his collarbone has been pierced and shattered by an iron hook. The hook is coated with corpse poison refined from the body of a dead man, and the poison is already heading towards his heart."
"It's windy here. We must carry him back to the rear camp immediately to have his bone scraped and the poison removed. If it's still half an hour later, even a miracle won't save him."
Gu Moran nodded and waved his hand:
"Guards, carry the King of Goryeo back to the central army camp in a sedan chair, and assign two hundred personal guards to protect him closely!"
At this time,
Thick smoke suddenly billowed from the streets of Hanseong.
The rearguard left behind by Inukami Jusaburo were carrying barrels of kerosene and setting fire to houses and shops along the street.
Fueled by the wind, the fire quickly turned several main roads leading to the city center into a sea of flames, the thick smoke choking the warhorses and causing them to snort.
From the direction of the distant clock tower, faint, mournful cries and pleas for mercy could be heard.
Kim Seon-a watched her father being carried onto the palanquin, wiped away the tears on her face, turned around and walked to the edge of the muddy ground, where she pulled out the white tiger sword stuck in the ground.
She walked to Gu Moran's horse, knelt down on one knee in the mud with a thud, and raised her face, which was stained with blood but still breathtakingly beautiful:
Your Highness!
Although my father said the bell tower was a trap, there are 20,000 unarmed people from my Hanseong imprisoned under the bell tower!
Seon-a knew she had no right to make demands of the prince, but she couldn't let those 20,000 lives go unsaved!
"Please, Your Highness, lead the main force to the Bell Tower to rescue the people. As long as they can be saved, Seon-a's life will be at Your Highness's disposal from now on!"
Gu Moran looked down at her.
Because she knelt so quickly, the collar of her Hu-style robe came undone, and with her rapid breathing, her snow-white, smooth skin and the deep cleavage swayed in the firelight, making one dizzy.
He dismounted, walked over, bent down, grabbed her slender waist with both hands, and lifted her off the ground.
Kim Seon-a gasped and crashed into his broad chest, her nose filled with the faint smell of gunpowder and sweat from Gu Moran.
Gu Moran lowered his head, his lips pressed against her burning earlobe, and his right hand mischievously gave her a light slap on her pert cheek:
"You were originally one of my people, yet you try to use my own possessions to negotiate with me. Is this how Goryeo princess deals?"
Kim Seon-a's body went limp, her ears instantly turning bright red, the blush spreading all the way down her snow-white neck.
She placed her hands on Gu Moran's chest, unsure whether to push him away or not, and could only bite her lip and whisper:
"As long as Your Highness is willing to save them, we'll return to camp tonight..."
Seon-a would do anything for the prince, even be his slave...
"I'd rather not serve you like a slave; I'm a man of principle, and I can't bear to waste such a fair and tender body on you."
Gu Moran flicked her nose, released her hand, mounted his warhorse, drew his Sea-Calming Sword from his waist, and pointed it towards the city.
Tuoba Mang!
You lead the infantry battalion to use water cannons to extinguish the fire and clear the way!
Pu Yunshan, take eight hundred iron cavalry and follow me through the alleys. Let's go straight to the Bell Tower and meet that spineless mangy dog!
"Yes, sir!"
Pu Yunshan agreed and led his cavalry around the burning main street, following the wide side alley paved with bluestone slabs.
They smashed through roadblocks and sped towards the city center like lightning.
Kim Seon-a mounted her white horse and followed closely behind Gu Moran's horse, half a step behind.
The eight hundred cavalrymen broke through three streets in less than the time it takes for an incense stick to burn.
Just as they were about to turn the corner and reach the large plaza in front of Hanseong's central clock tower, the system suddenly lit up in red.
[Host, be careful, danger ahead.]
Gu Moran the reins sharply with his left hand, and the warhorse neighed loudly, its front hooves rearing up high, coming to a screeching halt under the archway at the entrance of Bell Tower Street.
Pu Yunshan and his eight hundred iron cavalrymen behind them also reined in their horses and stopped in unison, their iron hooves scraping sparks on the bluestone slabs.
Just thirty paces ahead, the tall, green-tiled roofs on both sides of the street were densely packed with people.
Two hundred archers stood in rows on the left and right, completely blocking the street entrance from their elevated position.
What's most eye-opening is that these two hundred men aren't wearing Wa bamboo armor at all, but rather the dark blue uniforms of the Qi and Lu Navy, the standard uniforms of the Great Yan Dynasty!
What they held in their hands were not the bamboo and wooden longbows of the Japanese, but the heavy ox-horn bows made by the workshop of the Great Yan Ministry of War. Two hundred triangular armor-piercing arrows gleamed coldly in the firelight, all aimed at Gu Moran's horse's head.
Pu Yunshan gripped his iron spear tightly, blocking half of the horse's body in front of him, and shouted at the top of his lungs:
"Where did this scoundrel come from!"
Are your eyes covered in poop?
Can't you see that this is His Highness Prince Great Yan Prince Yi's command banner?
Put the bow down right now!
The two hundred naval archers on the roof remained completely still, not even blinking.
Just then, in the very center of the left-hand roof, a robust middle-aged man wearing a black cloak and a bamboo hat took two steps forward, his footsteps making a soft clicking sound on the roof tiles.
He raised his right hand, slowly removed the straw hat from his head, and casually tossed it onto the street.
The torchlight illuminated his face, revealing a square face with a short, inch-long scar on his left cheek.
Lin Qingdai, standing behind Gu Moran, recognized the face. Her pupils contracted slightly, and she placed her hand on the hilt of her sword, lowering her voice to say:
"Your Highness, is he your own uncle?!"
Gu Debai!
Former Vice Commander of the Qi and Lu Guard!
The case file submitted by the Ministry of War five years ago stated that he encountered a storm while suppressing pirates at sea, and both he and his boat perished at sea.
How did he end up here, alive and well?
Gu Moran narrowed his eyes, loosened the reins, crossed his arms, and grinned at Gu Debai on the rooftop:
"Who would have thought that would set up such a grand welcome for me?"
It turns out to be my good uncle who died young and was buried in the ancestral grave.
"What's wrong? Did the Dragon King from the bottom of the sea think you ate too much, so he vomited you and your ship all the way back to Goryeo?"
Gu Debai stood on the edge of the roof, looking down at Gu Moran, his right hand slowly raised into the air.
With a single downward slap of his hand, two hundred armor-piercing heavy arrows would turn the street corner into a pincushion.
He tugged at the corners of his mouth, his voice hoarse as if two pieces of pig iron were grinding together:
"My dear nephew, how have you been?"
If I don't hide, your damned father will kill me sooner or later.
Now that he's been deposed, he can sit on the throne of Great Yan, and so can I!
Enough with the small talk, I've prepared a grand gift for you in Hanseong, especially for you, my nephew...
Dismount and face death!