Longzang

Chapter 321 Self-Examination
Inside a side hall outside the imperial palace, the teacup in the hand of Marquis Xiang, Qian, cracked with a loud snap.

There are also images here; whatever appears on the sand table in the main hall will also appear here, belonging to the pieces of that replica of the Heaven and Earth Chessboard.

He watched as the Liao people donned red armor in the video, watched the leader cast a spell to change the appearance of the Liao people, watched the Crown Prince's troops block his way, watched the Crown Prince's deputy general behead him with a single blow, and then the Liao army was routed under the Liao army's attack. It took all the composure he had ever mustered to keep from crushing the teacup in his hand.

“Useless! All of you are useless!” Wang Qian squeezed out the words through gritted teeth.

That magical longsword was his ancestral heirloom. Relying on the favor of Prince Fu, he stuffed this almost cheating item into the hunting party. Unexpectedly, Prince Fu's troops were wiped out in the blink of an eye, and the treasured sword fell into the hands of the Liao people.

Immediately afterwards, this Liao tribesman used the stolen sword to kill the Crown Prince's deputy general, and then, disguised, wiped out the Crown Prince's troops. Wang Qian could imagine what the Crown Prince must be feeling at that moment.

Inside the main hall of the imperial palace, the crown prince gripped the armrest, his knuckles turning slightly white. Apart from that, there was nothing unusual, except that he couldn't help but glance at Prince Fu, his eyes filled with undisguised disgust.

In the footage, the Crown Prince's troops were routed and scattered in all directions. Except for a dozen or so cavalrymen who fled at the start of the battle, the rest could not escape the pursuit of the Liao people and were wiped out in a short time. The combat strength of several officers in the army was unexpectedly weak, even weaker than that of the Prince of Fu's subordinates.

The Prince of Jin glanced at the Crown Prince and said, "Making friends from all sides is a good thing, but you should also make friends with some useful people."

The crown prince quickly rose and bowed, saying, "Father's words are wise!"

The Prince of Jin said calmly, "Sit down, there's no need for all this nonsense."

The prince felt a slight dampness in his hands, and quietly wiped them on his clothes. His heart was as cold as the autumn air.

Officers who could participate in the autumn hunt could gain favor with the Prince of Jin, earn military merits if they performed well, and even, with a bit of luck, might directly receive an official position. Therefore, the number of officers under the Crown Prince who could participate in the hunt became extremely scarce.

The Crown Prince has always prided himself on recruiting talented individuals, and his household is already overflowing with people, making it quite difficult to bestow titles and rewards. Therefore, the spots for officers in this hunting expedition were allocated to various parties well in advance.

Unexpectedly, this year's hunt took an unexpected turn. The Liao tribe not only launched a surprise attack disguised as government troops, but their overall strength also surged. Several mid- to late-stage experts emerged, and these weren't ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivators; judging by their combat power, they were at least Heaven-rank, and perhaps even Immortal Foundation Establishment cultivators. Now they even possess a treasured sword!

How could such people be included in the autumn hunt? Moreover, all the Liao clan's powerful members take poison pills to suppress their cultivation, so how could their strength be fully restored?
As a result of these unexpected events, these unlucky guys who came to gain experience and prestige did not only fail to achieve military merits, but also lost their lives, though they did manage to make a name for themselves in front of the Prince of Jin.

To be fair, the Crown Prince's army suffered a defeat that was somewhat undeserved, and their response was also sound. The purpose of setting up three treasure vaults was to encourage everyone to compete for them; there was no first-come, first-served rule. Whoever grabbed it first got it, and being early was useless if you couldn't keep it.

Therefore, the deputy general appointed by the Crown Prince, seeing that Prince Fu's troops had just fought a major battle and that many of them still had bloodstains on their armor, naturally became interested in seizing the opportunity. Although he didn't understand why Prince Fu's troops had spared the lives of several hundred Liao people, he couldn't let go of these opportunities for military merit. Moreover, the relationship between the Crown Prince and Prince Fu was not good to begin with.

As was customary during past hunting expeditions, fierce fighting often broke out among the various factions vying for the spoils, resulting in numerous deaths. However, the fighting was always kept within reasonable bounds; at most, a few dozen soldiers would die, but the officers and generals would remain unharmed. How could the Crown Prince's deputy general have imagined that his opponent would immediately turn on them with a deadly attack, and that the opponent would possess a precious sword?

The battle in the video had turned into examining corpses and finishing off the enemy. Seeing that the Crown Prince's army had been completely wiped out, the Prince of Jin remained expressionless and switched to Wei Yuan.

Wei Yuan examined the sword, his large face expressionless.

The Prince of Jin watched for a while, and everyone almost thought the magic weapon had malfunctioned, freezing the scene. The scene then shifted back to the group of Liao people, who had stripped all the armor off the prince's men, put it on some of them, and then used magic to change their appearance, transforming them back into the prince's men.

The bodies were all dumped in a nearby ravine and haphazardly covered with some rubble.

Cavalrymen dressed in the robes of the Prince of Fu or the Crown Prince scurried back and forth, scouting the surrounding area. The Liao chieftain, wielding a precious sword, was clearly a master of military strategy, constantly setting up new traps.

Another unit emerged from behind the hill. Their armor was somewhat worn, but they were all fierce and valiant; they were the Northern Border Army.

They then saw two armies facing off in the open space ahead, with hundreds of bound Liao people nearby. The two sides were clearly marked: one side was the Prince of Fu, and the other was the Crown Prince.

The two generals were exchanging heated insults, and their soldiers were also making a ruckus; it looked like they were about to fight.

But upon seeing this, the border troops turned around and advanced in a different direction, leaving the disguised Liao people bewildered.

Inside the main hall of the camp, the border general breathed a sigh of relief. He had repeatedly instructed his troops before the hunt not to compete with others for spoils or get involved in disputes, especially between princes.

With the Crown Prince and Prince Fu locked in a standoff, siding with either side could easily be misinterpreted as taking sides. Furthermore, border troops interfering in the succession struggle is a major taboo. His main motivation for participating in the hunt was simply to make an appearance before Prince Jin and secure some benefits and military pay. The title of champion was a matter for the three princes.

Seeing that he had failed to deceive the border troops, the Liao chieftain was not discouraged. He continued to gather the scattered Liao people while sending a few dozen of Prince Fu's remaining troops ahead, with the main force of the Crown Prince's troops chasing behind. Behind them were Prince Fu's troops and Liao people mixed together, escorted by a few dozen of the Crown Prince's troops like prisoners.

So when the King of Wei's army had just successfully opened a treasure vault and was descending the mountain in high spirits, they saw the remnants of the King of Fu's army being chased and killed by the Crown Prince.

The King of Wei in the hall suddenly stopped laughing. After a moment, the King of Jin switched back to Wei Yuan's unchanging face and stared at him for a long time.

King Wei was furious, the Crown Prince regained his wooden expression, and Prince Fu wiped away his tears. Children can't hide their feelings, and a smile returned to their faces.

The King of Wei's troops were already small, and they went in with the idea of ​​the mantis stalking the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind. As a result, they were suddenly attacked from both sides by the troops of the King of Fu and the Crown Prince. As expected, they were all wiped out and lost their armor and weapons.

This hunt has clearly deviated from the planned course, but no one dares to stop it unless the Prince of Jin gives the order.

The scene finally shifted from Wei Yuan's large face back to the hunt, this time focusing on Xu Tongshou, the military governor of Anbei.

His troops were surrounded by the forces of the three princes. When the battle began, his men were still confused and hesitant. As a result, the enemy attacked immediately, causing heavy casualties in the first wave. Then, surrounded by an enemy force several times larger, his army collapsed and was completely wiped out.

When the Third Prince's troops suddenly made their move, the scene was replaced by Wei Yuan's large face.

The Prince of Jin remained expressionless, his breathing even, staring at Wei Yuan's unchanging face for the entire duration of a meal.

Lu Wenbo suddenly felt that the chair under his buttocks was not so hard anymore, and the collar was not so tight, unlike before when it was so tight that he could hardly breathe.

As a fellow military governor, at least I still have fifty cavalrymen and two hundred naked men under my command.

As night fell, everyone chose their temporary campsites and began to rest.

The Liao tribe continuously deployed its forces, gathering scattered members, and the number quickly grew to four thousand. Thanks to the armor and weapons contributed by several other units, plus the access to the armory, most Liao members were armed. The leaders, in particular, acquired two more top-grade magical artifacts.

That night, the troops of King Ying and King Cheng set up camp and maintained vigilance, behaving in a proper and orderly manner. The border troops, on the other hand, continued to move under the cover of darkness, nibbling away at the scattered Liao tribes. They did not approach the secret vault, nor did they venture far east from the troops of King Fu and the Crown Prince. In the southwest corner, they diligently ate the scraps that others were too lazy to bother with, like cats and dogs picking up bones at a dinner table.

The Liao tribe, with their disguised scouts at the core, kept exploring and gathering their people. They worked all night, sweeping across half the hunting grounds and eventually assembling a force of six thousand men!
As night fell, Wei Yuan finally felt the eerie feeling of being spied on disappear. He immediately got up to stretch his limbs and conjured a gleaming cauldron, then tidied his appearance in front of it. Once he had done all this and felt that he was completely flawless, he made his aura deep and lofty, adopting the demeanor of a hermit, and sat down to observe his sword again before the feeling of being spied on reappeared.

As Xu Wenwu wrote, I should examine myself three times a day: Am I tall? Am I rich? Am I handsome?

As the spying descended, Wei Yuan continued to observe the sword, his large face remaining unchanged for eternity.

As dawn broke, the armies of King Ying and King Cheng met. They looked at each other from a distance and then parted ways, with King Ying heading west and King Cheng heading east.

King Cheng's army marched eastward, and unsurprisingly encountered the Liao tribe. They pursued a small fleeing Liao troop, only to be lured into an ambush and annihilated in a fierce battle. King Cheng's force was formidable; knowing escape was impossible, they fought to the bitter end, inflicting even greater casualties on the Liao.

This time, the Prince of Jin did not choose to switch Wei Yuan's face.

The King's troops brushed past a small group of Liao tribesmen, separated only by a mountain ridge, and neither noticed the other. The small Liao tribesmen continued north and indeed found a military camp. The camp was not large, and only a few dozen men remained inside.

This Liao tribesman group, numbering less than a hundred, consisted of individuals who all possessed the Dao Foundation level and were highly skilled in combat. They infiltrated the military camp, killed all the guards, and then discovered that there were two hundred horses in the camp!

At this moment, the situation in the hunting grounds changed again. The large group of Liao people who had gathered together reorganized on the spot, forming six thousand-man teams in just half an hour, each with its own uniforms and banners. The three princes, the two military governors, and the troops of King Cheng made up exactly six teams with different uniforms.

After reorganization, the Liao chieftain, wielding his treasured sword, drew a map on the ground, then pointed to the northeast corner with his sword, saying, "There's nothing here, the defenses are weak. Only a garrison of two thousand men outside the hunting grounds can arrive in time, and they can't stop us at all. According to the rules set by the human race itself, as long as we can escape to within a hundred miles of the hunting grounds, we will regain our freedom!"

Will the humans keep their promise?

The chieftain smiled and said, "It doesn't matter. As long as we fight our way out of the hunting grounds, the human guards will all come to surround and kill us. Then the Khan will have a chance to return to the grasslands. As long as the Khan can return safely, it doesn't matter if we all die."

As dawn broke, the leader pointed his long sword northward and shouted, "All troops, march!"

The thousands of Liao people started out in a surprisingly neat formation, resembling a well-trained army.

Wei Yuan, who was meditating and observing the sword, suddenly felt a sharp pain between his eyebrows, as if someone was pointing a knife at him.

At this moment, intuition is not unfounded. Wei Yuan immediately got up and left the tent, saying, "Everyone on alert, enter the position. There may be some fools coming over."

(End of this chapter)