Shushan: Extinction

Chapter 233 Yuan Chang joins the army! God's will is restored

Gu Nan was silent for a moment, then slowly turned around, looking at everyone in the secret room, with a hint of determination in his tone:
"Let's retreat. Leave Sansheng City while we still have a chance. As long as there is life, there will be no shortage of firewood."

The secret room fell silent again, and everyone lowered their heads, their hearts filled with reluctance and helplessness. However, they also knew that this was the only way out.

Gu Nan took one last look out the window. The sun had risen in the sky, and the golden sunlight was shining on the city wall. However, for Gu Nan and his group, the light was particularly dazzling.

Not only that, there were shouts of killing coming from outside, and Gu Nan's face suddenly changed! !
***
The crisis in Sansheng City spread quickly.
The bad news that came one after another were like a series of exploding bombs, shaking the entire capital and shocking the people in all directions!
The son of Zhenbei Marquis unexpectedly dispatched troops again without authorization! !

Governor Li Tao was killed! !
The Marquis' Mansion was attacked by a mysterious force and bloodbathed! !

The master strategist and fortune teller Xie Desheng, who was in charge of the overall situation in the Marquis' Mansion, was killed. He was a talent that even the King Wei Qu appreciated and praised.

Of course, the most terrible thing is that the Marquis of Zhenbei, the pillar of Sansheng City, is still staying in the royal capital.

At this time, all the civil and military officials in the court, and even the king Wei Qu, felt heavy in their hearts, and were even prepared to lose the important town of Sansheng City.

Wei Qu even urgently mobilized 6,000 guardsmen used to protect the royal capital: the Yulin Guards, and prepared to hand them over to Chen Yunsheng, the Marquis of Zhenbei, to take back and quell the rebellion, and seize the opportunity to recapture Sansheng City while the enemy was still unstable.

As a result, another urgent report came at this time:

Sansheng City is safe! !

Wei Qu immediately showed this urgent report to all the civil and military officials, and then announced the victory directly.

Now Wei Qu no longer cared about the authenticity of this urgent report. He just wanted to publish it first to calm the panic-stricken people in the royal capital.

About half a day later, another piece of good news came:
The main culprit behind the chaos in Sansheng City was Gu Nan, the chief of the spies of Cheming Kingdom, and Taowu, the seventh disciple of "Shi", the national master of Cheming Kingdom.

Ahem, the name of the national master of Cheming State is just “Master”.

At this time, this group of criminals had been wiped out. Gu Nan was beheaded on the spot, Taowu had one arm chopped off and fled with serious injuries, and seventy-seven Che Mingguo spies were killed and thirty-seven were captured.

The person who did such a great thing was actually an envoy named Sun Ting! !

The so-called Xuanfu envoy is similar to the Guanfeng envoy and Xuncha envoy, but he does not actually have much power.

But just after Li Tao was killed, the people in the city were in panic and many civil and military officials were in confusion. It was Sun Ting who stood up to take charge of the situation. He showed outstanding talents and stabilized the situation in the city.

You know, in terms of power and official position, Sun Ting can barely be considered the sixth most important person in the city.

More importantly, this victory report was not delivered through official channels, but was presented to us by His Majesty the Fourth Prince on his own initiative!!!

You know, Wei Qu has six sons and has not yet appointed a crown prince. There is no doubt that Sun Ting is obviously the man in the Fourth Prince's pocket.

As an outsider at the time, he was able to control the power in Sansheng City and force officials to do things. It is also very likely that he showed the token of the Fourth Prince.

Of course, he did not let down the Fourth Prince's trust.

The next day, the entire process of the San Sheng City incident was finally presented to the emperor, his ministers and others.

It was only at this time that Wei Qu and even Chen Yunsheng realized that Che Mingguo's action this time was actually a collaboration between inside and outside.

Not only were there secret spies like Gu Nan causing chaos inside, but Zhao Shang of the Tianyong Army was also lurking nearby with his troops, ready to seize the city at any time.

However, it was Cui Zicheng, a garrison officer in Sanli City, who discovered the enemy's actions. In addition to leading his own troops, he also gathered troops from four large and small grassland tribes outside the city, launched a surprise attack on the Tianyong Army in the middle of the night and won.

Neither Wei Qu nor Chen Yunsheng had any doubts about this. After all, night attacks were extremely risky but also very profitable, and it was easy for the weak to defeat the strong.

What's more, Cui Zicheng and others had the advantage of being familiar with the surrounding geographical environment, so it was not surprising that they could win in one battle.

Not to mention that there are numerous examples of successful night attacks recorded in history books, even they themselves have launched/been attacked at night.

After finding out that San Sheng City was safe, Wei Qu didn't dare to keep Chen Yunsheng any longer. He quickly rewarded him and asked him to return to San Sheng City as soon as possible to take charge.

After the court session ended, Wei Qu could only touch his head and smile bitterly. The world was so unpredictable. When he summoned Chen Yunsheng a few days ago, he was worried that the power of the Marquis of Zhenbei was too great and difficult to get rid of.

Now when Chen Yunsheng was asked to go back, he was already worried that the opponent's strength had been severely damaged and he would not be able to defend Sansheng City.

After all, the Marquis' Mansion suffered heavy casualties this time. The strategist Xie Desheng was killed, and even Chen Yunsheng's family lost five sons and two daughters.

Sansheng City is a place where four wars have taken place, and the pressure is enormous!

With this in mind, Wei Qu had to hold his nose and send Chen Yunsheng several thousand more soldiers with armor and weapons.
***
Sansheng City is bustling again.

In just four or five days, the people in the city seemed to have recovered from their injuries, and the city even showed a kind of abnormal prosperity due to the previous looting.

At this time, Gong Tianwu was sitting in the Cui family warehouse. The person in front of him was none other than the talent he had spent two causal points to find before: Cai Yuanchang.

When the major events in Sansheng City were settled, Gong Tianwu learned from his subordinates that Cai Yuanchang was in a very difficult situation and was almost out of food, so he sent a random person over and assigned him some copying and writing tasks.

Of course, for this talented S-level politician, doing such a thing would be easy, and he would also be grateful to the Cui family warehouse.

At this time, after Gong Tianwu got the account book written by Cai Yuanchang, he took a quick look at it and asked someone to call him over.

Cai Yuanchang did not dare to delay and hurried over.

It can be seen that Cai Yuanchang now looked much less tired and weathered. After all, since they learned that he was working at Cui's warehouse, there were fewer thugs who dared to harass him.

“Did you make this account book?”

Cai Yuanchang hurriedly bowed and saluted, with a hint of respect in his voice:

"It was done by a villain, sir."

Gong Tianwu nodded slightly:
"It's very well done, not a single mistake has been made, and the handwriting is very beautiful. It seems that the family tradition of learning has been passed down."

Cai Yuanchang smiled bitterly and said:

"My family has experienced a great change. It is really hard to look back. My father repeatedly warned us not to mention the past."

Gong Tianwu nodded and said:
"I have no intention of prying into your past, but I have some things on my hands that I need someone to do."

"My uncle won a great victory a few days ago, but the statistics of the spoils and military supplies have not been going smoothly and we need a clerk to keep the accounts."

Then Gong Tianwu raised the account book in his hand and said:

"I think you have the ability to serve as a clerk, but..."

At this point, Gong Tianwu changed the subject and said:

"Let me be frank first. You should know my identity, right? It doesn't matter if you don't know. I'll tell you now that the Marquis of Zhenbei is my father. I'm the seventh child, so I'm naturally at odds with the governor's office."

"If you become the secretary, you will definitely face some unnecessary difficulties and calculations."

After Cai Yuanchang heard what Gong Tianwu said, a gleam of ambition appeared in his eyes, but he immediately lowered his head sadly.

Gong Tianwu thought to himself, "I'm so patient, but your suspicious nature is still effective?" He said impatiently, "Forget it, can't I find someone to do it? Go away."

Cai Yuanchang trembled a few times, then turned around dejectedly and walked outside.

However, Gong Tianwu had already anticipated this happening and had specially sent people to wait outside.

Therefore, after Cai Yuanchang walked out a dozen steps, he met a man dressed as an accountant. It was Luo Zuoli who had introduced him to do the copying job before - and also a subordinate of Gong Tianwu's second uncle Cui Zicheng.

Luo Zuoli was stunned when he saw Cai Yuanchang:
"Lao Cai, what are you doing here?"

Cai Yuanchang smiled bitterly and said:

"The young master summoned me and asked me to do something, but I have a family motto and can only fail to live up to the young master's kindness."

Luo Zuoli sighed:

"Old Cai, do you know how many people are vying for this job? How could it be that you got this job? I risked my reputation to beg for you!"

"It's just because I owed your father a big favor back then, so I wanted to help you today!"

Cai Yuanchang was stunned for a moment:

"what?"

Luo Zuoli said with great regret:

"A few days ago, a batch of Semu goods arrived at the warehouse. Among them was a medicine made in the West called Jiaji, which is very effective for coughs. It is a good thing that is in short supply."

"I see your mother coughing so hard every day, so I thought you could do a good job to leave a good impression on the people above you, and then I will go and ask Mr. (Cui) Sanye for a pill for you."

"If this medicine can cure your mother, then even if she dies and sees your father in the future, she can at least say that she has repaid his kindness."

"But do you know how much favors I have given up for this job? Oh, forget it, a rotten tree cannot be carved."

When Cai Yuanchang heard what Luo Zuoli said, a huge wave of emotion suddenly rose in his heart.

He never expected that this job was obtained by Luo Zuoli after much effort of pleading, and he never expected that it was also related to his mother's illness.

His face turned pale in an instant, his lips trembled slightly, and his eyes were full of regret and self-blame.

"I...I really don't know..."

Cai Yuanchang's voice was a little choked, and he didn't know how to explain for a moment.

Luo Zuoli waved his hand and sighed:
"Forget it, forget it. It's useless to say more now. Since you rejected me in person, let's just forget about it."

"It's just a pity to waste the medicine... Hey, your mother's body won't last much longer."

When Cai Yuanchang heard this, he felt as if his heart was being cut by a knife.

His mother had been coughing for years, and her condition was getting worse day by day. The family had no money to treat her, so he could only watch her suffer. Now that he heard that there was a cure, he missed the opportunity because of his hesitation, and he suddenly felt extremely regretful.

"Uncle Luo!"

Cai Yuanchang suddenly stepped forward, tightly grasped Luo Zuoli's hand, and said anxiously:
"I... I will go back and apologize to you, sir! I am willing to take on this task, please help me one more time!"

Luo Zuoli glanced at him, a complicated look flashed in his eyes, and he said slowly:
"Old Cai, have you thought it through? This job is not so easy to do, and the young master will not change his mind easily. If you regret it again, I am afraid that even I will suffer the consequences."

Cai Yuanchang nodded heavily and said firmly:

"Uncle Luo, I have thought it through! For my mother, I am willing to fight for it! Please help me ask the young master for a favor. I will never forget your kindness in my life!"

Luo Zuoli was silent for a moment, and finally sighed and said:
"Well, considering your filial piety, I will risk my reputation to give it another try. However, I cannot guarantee whether it will succeed or not."

Cai Yuanchang nodded quickly and said gratefully:
"Thank you, uncle! Thank you, uncle!"

Luo Zuoli waved his hand, indicating that he didn't need to say more, then turned and walked towards the courtyard where Gong Tianwu was.

Cai Yuanchang stood there, feeling uneasy, his hands clenched into fists so tightly that his nails almost dug into his palms.

Not long after, Luo Zuoli came back with a dull expression on his face. He walked up to Cai Yuanchang and whispered:
"The young master did not comment, but asked you to go see him again."

Upon hearing this, Cai Yuanchang heaved a sigh of relief and nodded quickly:

"Okay, okay! I'll go right away!"

After saying that, he walked quickly towards Gong Tianwu's yard, feeling both nervous and expectant.

When he stood in front of Gong Tianwu again, Gong Tianwu just glanced at him indifferently and asked:

"Why? Have you figured it out again?"

Cai Yuanchang took a deep breath, knelt on his knees and said respectfully:

"Sir, I was foolish just now and failed to live up to your kindness. Now I have thought it through and am willing to serve you. I only ask you to give me another chance."

Gong Tianwu heard this and said impatiently:

"Who do you think I am? You say you won't do something, then you change your mind right away? You treat a serious matter like a joke."

"I see you are already in your forties, how come your temper is still so unstable? If in a few days you suddenly get scared and come to me and say you don't want to do it anymore, wouldn't that be like a monkey trick?"

Cai Yuanchang kowtowed with a wry smile:
"Don't worry, sir. I will do my job well and nothing like that will happen."

Gong Tianwu snorted coldly:

"In your situation, you definitely can't stay, but considering that Lao Luo has been working for so long and has made some contributions, I'll make an example for you."

"But let me be frank. This time you took the initiative to come here and beg to do this job. If you quit without a reason again, then Lao Luo who recommended you will also be punished."

Cai Yuanchang said repeatedly:

"Don't worry, sir. I will do my best."

As he said this, he bowed deeply to Gong Tianwu.

As he bowed, a prompt suddenly popped up in front of Gong Tianwu:
"You have successfully recruited a Class S talent: Cai Yuanchang as your subordinate."

"Your destiny +0.5."

"Cai Yuanchang's current loyalty is: 58."

(End of this chapter)