Chapter 62: The Battle of Sunset (6)

  Yang Songfen widened her eyes and saw that around the catapult, twenty or thirty officials wearing court uniforms were tied up with ropes by those slaves. They seemed to be from the Bao Ying Fu government office, possibly caught on their way to escape. There were old and young, male and female, and those slaves were obviously preparing to use them as hostages. They all hung their heads in despair, barely breathing.

  "Damn it!" Yang Suofeng couldn't help but curse. He turned his head to look, and only saw that on the empty ground below, more than a dozen wounded soldiers who were unable to move were lying scattered about, while Su Yunfeng and Cai Bingxia were sleeping soundly. If by chance a huge stone from the sky came crashing down, it would be a disaster. But giving the order to open fire seemed like a very difficult thing to do - after all, he couldn't just blink his eyes and kill those officials from Baojing Prefecture along with the enemy, could he?

  Suddenly, She Yan cried out in surprise again: "Feng Ling, someone is coming over with a white flag. Are they surrendering?"

  Yang Shuangfeng said angrily: "Surrender my ass! Others are here to negotiate with us, maybe they want us to surrender!"

  Xie Yan was about to give the order to shoot arrows, when Yang Shuangfeng said: "No need to rush, let him come over and see what kind of nonsense he spouts!"

  The envoy who came to negotiate was a ruddy-faced little fat man, not tall in stature, with a plump and round body, small eyes that shone with a very cunning light. His limbs were quite strong and powerful, belonging to the typical type of limb development, and his brain was not simple either. He stood calmly at the door and shouted towards the clock tower: "Which one is the person in charge here? I am Shakya, the seventh generation disciple of the Red Furnace Holy Sect, representing the Red Furnace Holy Sect to come and talk to your person in charge."

  Yang Shuangfeng leaned out of the clock tower, saying lightly: "I am Yang Shuangfeng, Rear Admiral of the Imperial Navy. If you have something to say, please speak up. If not, then let's just get this over with - we're not in a good situation here, so I won't be inviting you for tea!"

  Sha Ke covered his forehead with his hand, looked up at Yang Shuang Feng and said loudly: "Lieutenant General of the Navy, you have been surrounded by us. To avoid unnecessary damage, please put down your weapons immediately. We guarantee your personal safety and property."

  Yang Shuang said, "Sorry, Sha Ke, I don't believe your guarantee and promise! Now the streets outside are filled with the corpses of ordinary people, all left behind by the Red Lotus Sect. Your inhumane slaughter of ordinary people, using their blood as a tool to deal with the imperial court, even if you speak eloquently, no one will believe you!"

  Sha Ke's face sank, and he said coldly: "Vice Admiral, why do you slander our Chi Lian Holy Church? When have we ever slaughtered innocent civilians? We shed blood and sacrifice ourselves for the happiness of the people..."

  Yang Shuangfeng sneered coldly: "The fact is that there's no need to say more! If you have the ability, then come and attack!"

  Sha Ke took a deep breath and said fiercely: "Yang Suofeng, you will regret it! I'll have you skinned alive soon! My master, the great heavenly king Mu Zi Xun of the Red Lotus Holy Sect, is about to lead an army of one million to attack you, and you will be punished to death with no place to hide!"

  Yang Jirui's face changed slightly.

  Yang Shuang smiled calmly and said faintly, "Sha Ke, you don't have to scare me. No matter how great your master's abilities are, he wouldn't dare stay in Bao Ying Fu for long. Otherwise, the Nile God Forbidden Army from the west of Bao Ying Fu would be deployed, and the Shangguan Blood Army Corps from the east of Shanhai Pass would be deployed. Your tens of thousands of people would really have no place to bury their bodies. Are you all gathered into a fighting force now? I don't think so! If your master dares to stay overnight in Bao Ying Fu, then I will truly admire him! But maybe he has already left Bao Ying Fu by now! You say I regret it? You will also have a day when you regret it!"

  Sha Ke swung his hand vigorously, obviously hit by Yang Suo's words, and turned away with a huff. Yang Suo aimed her gun at his back, wanting to shoot him down, but finally sighed and cancelled the idea. In the midst of war, not killing the messenger, she should still be civilized.

  Yang Jirui said solemnly, "No wonder this time the rebellion of the Red Refining Sect came so fiercely. It turns out that Mu Ziyan was planning behind the scenes. It seems they have been plotting for a long time."

  Yang Shuangfen furrowed her brow and said: "Who is Mu Zi Xun? The leader of the Red Refining Sect?"

  "He's not the leader, but his power is greater than that of the leader. In fact, he's the de facto head of the Red Lotus Sect. Since the sect was defeated by General Yue 30 years ago and their old nest, the Red Lotus Divine Capital, was destroyed, the sect has been in disarray. Many of its old members were either killed or captured, leaving only a few survivors. Mu Ziyan is one of them. It's said that he protected the young leader of the Red Lotus Sect and helped him escape from the Red Lotus Divine Capital, preventing General Yue from achieving total victory. This man has the power to command the princes and holds the highest authority in the Red Lotus Sect. He's also cunning and full of tricks, a great calamity indeed."

  Yang Shuangfeng couldn't help but think of Tang Zixuan, Geng Sanglan and Gang Yanglie, who were also members of the Chi Lian Sect. However, they had never mentioned Mu Ziyan's name before, and he didn't know what their relationship was like. As soon as he thought of Tang Zixuan's cruelty to him, the anger in his heart began to burn again.

  Under Shak's command, the rebellious slaves used hostages as weapons to push the catapult forward slowly. Yang Shuangfeng was anxious and uneasy, but he never gave the order to fire. The catapult finally entered the range and threw out the first giant stone as big as a millstone. The giant stone flew in the air, smashing the roof of the county government office under everyone's tense and fearful gaze, the entire roof of the county government office fell down one after another like dominoes, instantly smoke and dust rose, and debris was everywhere. The power of the catapult was simply unstoppable, making people's hair stand on end.

  Yang Shuang's heart skipped a beat as he involuntarily inhaled a mouthful of cold air, not expecting the catapult's destructive power to be so enormous. His heart tightened, and seeing that the catapult was already loading its second massive stone, almost without thinking, he instinctively bellowed: "Fire!"

  Monty didn't hesitate, the three light cannons fired simultaneously, and the shells whizzed down around the catapult, smoke billowing up, instantly blowing it to smithereens, but the hostages next to it also fell into a pool of blood.

  "Please forgive me." Yang Shuofeng's heart was trembling and didn't dare look forward.

  Those slaves shouted and rushed forward like a tide, but were blocked by the palace warriors with eagle-shaped longbows. The slaves' weapons were too simple, they could only rely on their hot blood to surge forward, under the fierce arrow rain, row after row fell down continuously, wailing and screaming filled the air, in front of the small governor's mansion, the flat and wide street instantly became a hellish scene with corpses scattered all over and blood flowing like a river.

  Yang Shuangfeng calmly found the Shak hiding behind the crowd, waving his arms and legs to urge others to charge forward. He aimed at Shak's head and fired a shot. The gun rang out and Shak fell silently into the crowd. Many people around him quickly retreated, but more people were still desperately rushing forward.

  The arrows shot by the warriors of the palace poured down on the enemy, one wave after another, knocking them to the ground in a street littered with corpses. The bodies blocked the enemy's advance and gave Yang Su-feng excellent shooting opportunities. Those leaders who shouted loudly to boost morale were often blown up by bullets as thick as fingers flying towards them after they finished shouting their slogans. Yang Su-feng seemed to have lost all sense of pain and sorrow, completely transforming into a calm and ruthless killing machine, with each movement of his finger on the trigger bringing an end to a life.

  The crazy shouting and screaming woke up Su Yunfeng and others, they were terrified to lean against the wall, helplessly watching the big door being closed gradually.

  The enemy grew more numerous, and Montijo and his companions were forced to close the gates and barricade them with furniture, stones, etc. They placed a light cannon in an open space at some little distance, and the balls whizzed past the tops of the walls, falling among the enemy, and bursting into bloody flowers.

  The five-meter-high stone wall of the Zhifu government office became an insurmountable barrier for the enemy, and Yang Shuangfen and the palace warriors were calm and collected slaughterers who looked down on the unarmed enemies who rushed up with only a surge of hot blood. This was indeed a massacre, even decades later, Yang Shuangfen did not shy away from this point. Perhaps those slaves had lost their minds, perhaps it was a temporary impulse, more importantly, they were instigated by the leaders of the Red Steel Sect, and they launched an attack without preparation, but crashed into a strong steel plate, resulting in broken heads and bloodshed. Finally, when the bodies were about to pile up to half the height of the stone wall, the slaves who had lost their backbone finally realized the heavy price they had paid, and chose to retreat.

  "Cease fire." Yang Suofeng waved his hand to stop the action of annihilating the enemy from behind, "Let them go."

  Xie Yan and Monty Yu looked at each other in dismay, deeply puzzled, but still ordered the shooting to stop.

  Yang Suofeng stumbled down from the bell tower, his throat parched and almost unable to speak due to the excessive smoke. However, more importantly, he felt an inexplicable fatigue. He looked back silently at the ruined yamen, but suddenly noticed that amidst the dust-filled air, a large black iron box had appeared out of nowhere, half-buried in the rubble. He didn't have the heart to look at the piles of corpses outside, all he felt was exhaustion, as if he needed a good sleep. His gaze fixed on the iron box buried in the ruins, as if trying to see through what was inside.

  Su Yun and others looked at his charred face with complex eyes, wanting to say something, but nothing was said. They just continued to sit slowly on the ground, quietly enjoying this rare tranquility.

  Xie Yan and several other strong palace warriors carried the iron box out of the ruins and placed it on an open space.

  Yang Shuang said with a wry smile: "If there's nothing inside, I'll definitely go crazy."

  Xie Yan picked up the iron hammer and slammed it onto the lock several times, but couldn't break it open. Then other imperial guards took turns using the hammer to strike the lock, with six or seven people striking it in succession before the iron box was almost deformed, but finally the lock broke off.

  Xie Yan hastily opened the iron box, and everyone was stunned for a moment.

  Inside was a bundle of silver notes and dazzling gold and silver jewelry, almost filling up an entire box.

  Yang Shuang said with a tongue twister: "Wow! We're rich!"

  Su Yunru and others also looked curiously, immediately they were also stunned, even Yu Huanjuan couldn't help but slightly move her expression.

  Yang Xuanfeng suppressed the excitement in his heart and took a closer look, only to find that there were nearly 80 million gold coins worth of silver tickets from the Four Seas Money House, as well as nearly 60 million imperial central bank silver tickets. In addition, there were over 100 million gold coins worth of gold, silver, and jewels, with pure white diamonds being the most abundant, followed by cat's eye jade and other precious gems. There were also a large number of deeds to estates in the Menis region, covering an area of over 300 hectares. Furthermore, there were even stocks and securities from the Ronisia Federation. Everyone was shocked beyond words. Although Mu Shunying's greed had long been notorious throughout the nation, no one could have imagined that he had amassed such wealth. Yang Xuanfeng couldn't help but wonder if Mu Shunying also had another identity, just like Tang Zixing, because it was simply impossible for an individual to accumulate such wealth through their own efforts alone.

  In the treasure box, there was another thing that caught everyone's attention, which was a very ordinary warm jade. The warm jade was extremely white, with no blemishes on its surface, and it was smooth as a mirror. Nobody could find anything special about this piece of warm jade, but it was wrapped in bright red silk fabric very carefully, as if Mu Shunying had kept it as a very precious item before her death, apparently with some background to it. Since they couldn't explore any leads, Yang Songfen simply put it into his own bosom, waiting for the future when he would have time to study it slowly.

  "This treasure chest matter, no one is allowed to speak out." Yang Suofeng ordered seriously.

  Suddenly, the sound of horseshoes rang out, like a spring thunder that awakened the earth.

  Monty slowly said: "The dragon knights of Butterfly Dance have arrived."