Chapter 1: The Sun Rises for the First Time Section 27

  On the vast plain of Juntu, countless large and small bonfires were lit up, illuminating several miles around with a fiery glow. Soldiers bustled back and forth on the battlefield during the day. The remains of the warriors from both sides had to be buried, the spoils of war collected and sorted out, and the scattered war horses rearranged.

  Murong Feng sat beside Feng Lie.

  "I'm going to die." The wound from the wind slash was too severe, and I had lost too much blood. My breathing was now extremely weak.

  Murong Feng gazed at him in anguish.

  "How did you know I was the mastermind behind all of this?"

  Murong Feng smiled wryly and said slowly, "You're in a hurry to arrange the tribe's army to hide near the Nu River, and you didn't even do what we planned together. Originally, it should have been your people in prison, so why did it become Qiū Jū's people? Because only Qiū Jū's subordinates would scold him as a pig, while your subordinates wouldn't say half a word."

  "Feng Lie, our friend of over twenty years, why must you do this?" Murong Feng asked softly as he saw that the other did not respond.

  "Tan Shi Huai, Murong Feng, Tie Gen, I won't let any of you off?" Feng Lie said with a cold smile.

  Murong Feng's face was indescribably ugly. He stared at Feng Lie in astonishment, his face twisted in extreme pain, "Why?"

  "Have you all forgotten? Twenty-two years ago, the three of you led a great army to slaughter more than ten thousand people from my family's tribe. Have you all forgotten? Tan Shi Huai killed my wife and son, have you also forgotten?"

  Murong Feng was stunned.

  "So I will kill Tan Shi Huai, kill Tie Gen, and kill you. Not only will I kill you all, but I will also torture you, making you die in agony. I will make Tan Shi Huai lose everything, including his power."

  Murong Feng stared blankly at Feng Lie, speechless.

  "Do you still remember when Tan Shi Huai attacked Ding Ling back then? That was my plan. Originally, we could have killed him, but you and Tie Gen rescued him. Rescuing him is fine too, let him suffer the pain of his injuries until he dies, screaming in agony all the way to death. Good rescue indeed."

  "Do you know why He and Lian were able to ascend to the throne? That was also my doing. I persuaded the Western Xianbei elder, Helan Lang, to support He's ascension to the throne. The condition was that once the time was ripe, he would help him take the throne of the Xianbei king. As a result, the honest and simple Huai Tong was actually driven to death by his own brother. How delightful, how delightful!"

  "Why did Hualian go to rob the Iron Root woman? Because I told Hualian that the Iron Root woman is like a flower. That cruel and evil person deserved to be punished. Good, Hualian has fallen into the trap, naturally not afraid. As a result, I shot four arrows at once. Ah, it's so refreshing! Iron Root is dead, the invincible Black Eagle Iron Cavalry was eliminated, you were forced to rebel, the Xianbei world is in chaos. Refreshing! You think you can escape from Ben Niu Yuan by relying on yourself? Leaving you alive is good. Can let you create even more chaos in Xianbei. This way, Hualian will be even more inseparable from Luo Zhan, and it will be easier for Luo Zhan to seize the throne."

  "To seize the throne, one must die. If He Lian dies, his young son, Jiuman, can inherit the throne. This child is still drinking milk, what can he do? With Lu Zhi and Luo Yi as regents, cultivating power, after a few years, this world will be the Lu-Zhi-Luo family's. How delightful! Delightful! Tan Shi Huan, I will make you die without an heir, and your kingdom will perish."

  "So I came up with a plan with Luo Zhan. I found Kuai Tou and persuaded him to get rid of He Lian and take back the throne that was originally his. Soon, Mi Jia would come forward and advise He Lian to send troops to eliminate you. Luo Zhan would find you and prepare to purge the treacherous officials and clear the emperor's side. Mi Jia would also come to you to join forces and prepare to strike down He Lian. The ultimate goal of all these things was just one thing: kill He Lian and frame you for it. Then, killing you would be easy and no one would be able to investigate. As for Kuai Tou, Luo Zhan would naturally take care of him when he purged the treacherous officials at Tan Han Mountain. If everything went smoothly, the world would soon belong to Luo Zhan."

  Murong Feng sat silently beside him, not uttering a word. What could he say? He had absolutely never thought that the reason for Feng Lie's split was so sufficient. How could the hatred of killing his wife and slaughtering his tribe not be avenged?

  "Although the plan is no longer perfect, it's already irrelevant to the overall situation. You can't avoid a fight with Andelin, and even if you don't attack him, he'll still attack you. As soon as your two armies make contact, Andelin will die. You'll be attacked by Mika, the Murong family, and over 20,000 Mongols led by Li Tian. Everyone will die, and I'll die too. I'm tired of it all."

  The wind has probably blown for too long and hasn't spoken in a very long time.

  "Are you mad? Don't you hate me?" Feng Lie suddenly asked.

  Murong Feng shook his head, grasped his hand and said firmly: "Good brother. No matter how you treat me, you are my good brother."

  Tears welled up in his eyes. With a deep sense of apology and guilt, he forced out a faint smile and said to Murong Feng: "Good brother..."

  Feng Lie died. He walked away with satisfaction. His life was filled with hatred and conspiracy, he hated himself and everything in this world. He finally got what he wanted.

  Murong Feng involuntarily burst into tears and sobbed loudly.

  Li Hong quietly walked in and sat down beside Murong Feng.

  When he knelt beside Tie Lang and wept bitterly, Murong Feng was sitting silently beside him.

  "The general did not tell him the truth before his death, and for him, it was indeed a blessing."

  Murong Feng stood with his hands behind him, gazing up at the dense stars in the sky, silent.

  "All of this, it's all because you said the word 'pig', which led me to deduce that Feng Lie was the mastermind behind the scenes. And the reason for all of this is rooted in the massacre twenty-two years ago."

  "The road to unity is not something that can be resolved with a single massacre."

  Li Hong gazed at Murong Feng's stern face and didn't dare make a sound.

  "In three more days, the 10,000 people trapped in Xīn Chén Yuán will be surrounded by the great armies of Mǐ Jiā and Mù Róng. It will also be a miserable victory."

  "Is it true that General Yuwen Yang went west just for this matter?"

  "I'm Yuwen Shang, telling them two paths. Wear the crime and establish merit, let bygones be bygones, or wait for extinction instead. See if they dare to conspire against their lord again next time. As long as Yuwen Shang brings Lu Zhan Yan into Xingchenyuan, Lu Zhan Yan is dead." Murong Feng said coldly.

  "Is General Bear going to secretly meet with the King?"

  Murong Feng looked at him in surprise, "You're really clever. Eavesdropping on our conversation and you can infer so many things. Not bad. Tell me, let's see if it's correct or not?"

  "General Taishan told Xiong Ba to inform the Grand King that Lord Luoluo was plotting to establish a new ruler in secret at Tanhan Mountain. The Grand King was shocked and hurried back immediately. Once he returned to Tanhan Mountain, who would dare to make another move?"

  Murong Feng smiled and shook his head, "Things are very complicated. He Lian is a real conspirator, not a fake one. Wind crack was clever but was misled by his own cleverness. At first, He Lian's foundation was unstable, so he had to rely on Luo Zhan for everything. As time passed, the power that the king himself cultivated matured, and Luo Zhan became not only useless to He Lian but also a stumbling block. To remove this stumbling block required timing. As a result, Luo Zhan, who was impatient and wanted to usurp power, gave He Lian an opportunity. He Lian sent someone to contact me and restored my official position. At that time, I didn't know about the Wind Crack affair, so I thought He Lian was playing some kind of trick and didn't give a clear answer. It wasn't until after the night raid on Chenzi that you inadvertently revealed Wind Crack's weakness, which made me realize that He Lian was telling the truth, while Luo Zhan was deceiving me. A friendship of over 20 years ultimately turned out to be just a scam." After saying this, Murong Feng became very sad.

  However, the king's strength was ultimately very weak and could not be compared with Lu Shi. Lu Shi's power spread throughout the western Xianbei, and it was generally difficult to contend with him. That day you mentioned that the troops stationed in Tanhan Mountain suddenly reminded me. The Tuoba tribe of the Western Xianbei had a long-standing feud with Lu Shi's Hongri tribe. In those years, the two tribes fought a war over pasture, and Lu Shi suffered greatly, and had to swallow his anger and give up a large piece of good pasture. The leader of the Tuoba tribe, Tuoba Feng, had once stationed troops in Tanhan Mountain to protect King Tan Shi Huai. As long as we can persuade Tuoba Feng to send troops to Tanhan Mountain, He Jin can keep the throne of Tanhan Mountain, and Lu Shi can only let He Jin do as he pleases under unexpected circumstances. So I asked Xiong Ba to represent me and go with He Jin to persuade Tuoba Feng in person. Tuoba Feng had a good relationship with King Tan Shi Huai, so there should be no problem. However, Lu Shi's strength was very powerful, and without solid evidence, nothing could be done about him. It was just hoped that this time the annihilation of Lu Shi would give him a lesson.

  Li Hong opened his mouth wide and felt that this Xianbei country's affairs were too complicated.

  "The Emperor and Xiong's whereabouts cannot be exposed, so tomorrow we will still go to surround the Da Wang's camp, just to show off for Luo Han Shan's Lu Zhi. Lu Zhi sent a few horse bandits disguised as Meng Li's army to deceive me, I can also deceive him. Lu Zhi placed Meng Li's army in Da Wang's camp, just to ensure that Da Wang will definitely die. He knows too much, in order to properly settle Lu Zhi in the future, we can only send him to Ju Tun for us to deal with."

  "Marshal, what's going on with Feng Lie again?"

  "He just wants revenge and hopes I'll kill him too."

  "He has eliminated Da Sui, who will go and annihilate the troops of Da Wang?"

  "He can pretend to be me under my name. It's just for show."

  Murong Feng gazed at the busy warriors below the mountain and suddenly said to Li Hong, "Don't mention it. If more people know about it, Feng Lie will be ruined."

  Li Hong said in surprise: "Didn't he betray Generalissimo?"

  "But he did not betray the Xianbei, and that was enough."

  Everything is just as Murong Feng said.

  The next day, the troops set out to surround and link up with the main camp.

  Two days later, the 10,000-strong army of Hongri Tribe led by Luozhi Gedan was surrounded by the 17,000-strong army of Bai Zhan Tribe led by Mi Jia, Jin Diao Tribe led by Murong Ji and Hei Diao Tribe led by Murong Qian. The two sides fought for a day. The Hongri Tribe's army was completely annihilated. Luozhi Gedan and three small generals were beheaded.

  Eight days later, news came from Tanhan Mountain. Luozhuo Luo, the lord of the fallen tribe, was dismissed by the great king for massacring treacherous officials in Tanhan Mountain without permission and has been sent back to his hometown. The position of Western Xianbei Lord is now held by Tuoba Feng, the lord of the Tuoba tribe. Kemo, the lord of the Hu tribe, a branch of the Xianbei, Quwu, the lord of the Changluo tribe, and Mengli Zhemoti, the lord of the Qirui tribe, plotted to rebel but were defeated by Murong Hua, the lord of the Huoye tribe, and Fenglie, the lord of the Niutou tribe. The position of Central Xianbei Lord is now held by Murong Hua, the lord of the Huoye tribe.

  A great crisis of the Xianbei state was eliminated under Murong Feng's careful planning.