Chapter 462: First Effort

The angry voice was like thunder, pressing straight into the clouds, not knowing how many night herons were startled.

The envoy swallowed, and saw General Hong throw the edict back to him: "Someone, take the envoy down to rest well; he still has to take this edict to Panlongcheng tomorrow."

Two soldiers stepped forward and led the envoy away.

General Hong stood with her hand on her saber, facing the Panlong Army.

The mask she wore today was a ghost-head mask, which looked particularly ferocious under the flickering firelight.

A night wind blew past.

She didn't move, and the thousands of people also stood frozen.

After a long while, General Hong gave a low order: "Wait for Commander Zhong to make the final decision. Now disperse, everyone go back to rest!"

The crowd still didn't move.

General Hong turned and walked away with large strides.

Until her back disappeared into the darkness, the square in the west of the city exploded with a bang, almost blown up by the cursing.

The anger of the Panlong Army was almost higher than the torches everyone held.

Everywhere there was spitting and cursing; He Lingchuan heard someone nearby who had already greeted the monarch's nineteenth-generation ancestors.

Truly no respect at all.

The Door Panel didn't bring his shield, so he could only stomp his feet hard on the ground: "Damn it... that bunch of cowards in the capital, bastards who don't have a P-eye!"

Hu Min spat into the pit he stomped out: "Why don't we just kill our way back to Western Luo and take the capital, so we don't have to suffer this sandwich pressure here!"

A Luo shushed him: "Don't talk nonsense."

Liu Tiao asked He Lingchuan: "Broken Blade, what's wrong with us fighting our way back? We don't need the motherland to send a single soldier to support us. Why does the monarch, why..." She couldn't continue; she was so angry she took a deep breath to calm herself down.

"Why are they afraid of us going back?" He Lingchuan said lightly, "We are too powerful, and the motherland is too weak."

Everyone looked at each other, recalling the edict General Hong just read; it sounded condescending and majestic in wording, but it was full of panic that couldn't be covered up.

"Defending against the border people of the northwest is more than defending against the enemy."

"Exactly!" Soldiers from other squads nearby heard it and echoed loudly, "Defending against the border people of the northwest is more than defending against the enemy. The motherland is defending against us, us!"

Guarding an enclave alone for more than ten years, yet being so feared, suspected, and squeezed out by the motherland, anyone's heart would go cold.

"Yes, the motherland would rather borrow troops from the Beijia Nation than let us go back!"

"Such a motherland, better not to have it!"

There was an uproar all around.

I don't know how long it took, but He Lingchuan finally heard the most critical sentence:

"Such a motherland, better not to return!"

Very quickly, someone responded: "Yes, going back is also being squeezed out and looked down upon; it's better to stay on the Chipa Plateau."

"You make it clear, the ones who will be squeezed out are the lords; what does it have to do with us? We are just soldiers; where can they not want us?"

"Go back to be cannon fodder?" Someone else retorted impolitely, "The forty thousand elites taken away by the motherland last time are all heroes here; after going back, they were broken up and assigned to various places, and in the end, those who died died, those who ran ran. Look at how many are left now! Talking about elite soldiers, if you and I go back, we will all end up like this!"

"Will the monarch love his soldiers like Commander Zhong, or command troops like General Hong? Look at their domestic rebellion suppression; the more they suppress, the more chaotic it gets!"

"Yes, if the soldiers are cowardly, the whole nest is cowardly. If we go back like this, we are at most grass bandits in troubled times; how can we be as prosperous as on the Chipa Plateau!"

He Lingchuan listened to the noise in his ears and let out a light breath.

So, the reaction of the Western Luo monarch was indeed within the expectations of Panlongcheng, right? Everything Panlongcheng did stepped on the "fear" point of the Western Luo monarch.

The monarch hadn't issued a relocation order yet, but Panlongcheng ran ahead; this was impatience.

The Panlong Army didn't take the Jin Xi Corridor given by the Baling Nation at all, but instead found another way, wanting to fight all the way back from the Western Ji Nation; this was disrespecting superiors and doing whatever they wanted. Destroying a country in just a few days—Western Luo couldn't do it at all; these were proud and fierce soldiers. With the above characteristics superimposed, which monarch wouldn't be afraid? If Zhong Shengquan returned with such an army, who in the whole country could be his opponent? Would such an army take the Western Luo capital easily? Therefore, even if the monarch had some hesitation before, after hearing the great victory in Western Ji sent back by Zhong Shengquan, he finally made up his mind:

Absolutely cannot let them come back!

Relocation order? Not issuing it.

Originally, there were court officials who opposed relocation, believing that the Panlong Wasteland was the territory of Western Luo and the ancestral foundation, and could not be ceded at will.

Then, in the name of righteousness, order the Panlong Army to guard the border and forever suppress the territory! He Lingchuan even doubted the time General Hong sent the victory report.

If they waited until the Western Ji palace was captured before sending a message to the motherland, the news would take at least ten days to go back and forth, so the envoy from the Western Luo capital couldn't have arrived in Yuheng City so quickly.

In other words, General Hong sent the victory report to Western Luo first, and then led the large army to besiege the Western Ji palace unhurriedly.

General Hong, or the god Lady Mitian, really didn't take the two countries of Western Ji and Western Luo seriously.

In the west of Yuheng City tonight, the Panlong Army was destined to spend a sleepless night.

He Lingchuan looked in the direction where General Hong disappeared earlier.

This should be the strategy of Zhong Shengquan and General Hong.

They knew very well that public opinion could not be violated or blocked, but it could be guided, so they directed the questioning and anger of the soldiers and civilians toward the Western Luo Nation.

This is called advancing by retreating.

In fact, the Western Luo Nation was the culprit, and this pot was not wrongly carried.

If it weren't for its weakness and incompetence, the Panlong army and civilians wouldn't have had to suffer so many hardships.

And Zhong Shengquan and the others didn't know what price they would pay for choosing to stay in the Panlong Wasteland in the future! If they insisted on returning to the country at this time, could they avoid the heroism of more than ten years later? Could everyone live safely?

Because of the monarch's reprimand, the Panlong Army slowed down their pace of returning east, continuing to garrison Yuheng City, confronting the Jin Tao army.

The Western Luo envoy whipped his horse and went to Panlongcheng to find Zhong Shengquan.

Obviously, General Hong and the army under her command had to wait for the final decision from Panlongcheng.

When the sky was just getting light, He Lingchuan carried a bucket to fetch water, but saw several figures by the river.

One was by the river, and the others were far away.

Just looking at the back, he could confirm that the one by the river was General Hong.

Her aura was truly too strong.

"Who?" The personal guards behind General Hong felt it, and a sharp gaze glanced over.

General Hong's voice was very calm: "It's fine, fetch your water."

She didn't even turn her head, knowing what he was going to do.

He Lingchuan walked up, rinsed the bucket in the river, and said: "Why doesn't the General rest?"

General Hong stood facing east, looking at the white mist floating on the river: "I don't need to."

Right, He Lingchuan then remembered that she had achieved a semi-divine body through the transformation of Lady Mitian's divine power and didn't need to eat, drink, or sleep like ordinary creatures to maintain her physical strength.

She had people around her and behind her, but the feeling she gave He Lingchuan was that she was independent from the world, isolated from the whole world.

"General."

General Hong didn't make a sound, only her mask turned slightly.

"Even if the monarch opposes it, the large army can still fight all the way back, right?"

"If we fight back, do you know what we have to face?"

He Lingchuan shook his head: "I only know what we don't have to face."

"Oh?"

"After returning to the country, at least we don't have to face the joint attack of Baling and Xianyou, and we are no longer isolated without help."

General Hong nodded: "And then?"

And then...

"Even if we can return to the country, do you think the Panlong Army and these millions of civilians can live a stable, prosperous life far from war from now on?" General Hong said lightly, "That's impossible. There is no such pure land in the world."

But they could avoid annihilation, and the story of the Panlong Wasteland wouldn't end in the most tragic ending. Of course, He Lingchuan couldn't say this, so he could only say firmly: "It's worth a try! At least in the Western Luo Nation, there are two things worth us fighting for with all our might!"

"What are they?"

"Future and hope!" And the opportunity to escape fate.

General Hong raised her head slightly, as if she had been touched.

"Do you think the future and hope will be in the Western Luo Nation?" Her voice was indifferent, and only by listening carefully could one identify the sarcasm hidden within.

"Could it be in the Panlong Wasteland surrounded by enemies on all sides?" He Lingchuan said impolitely, "Even if Commander Zhong goes back to seize the country, the foundation he builds will be stronger than in the wasteland, right?"

General Hong smiled: "Dare to speak so wildly? He Lingchuan, you have guts." If this were in the country, daring to say such things would cost half a life even if it didn't cost one's head.

"What I said is just what the Panlong Army thinks." He Lingchuan took a deep breath and requested solemnly: "General, please take us back to the country!"

General Hong didn't answer and turned to look east again.

After crossing the river and walking a few more miles, it was the border guarded by heavy troops of the Jin Tao Nation.

He Lingchuan felt, was she also fighting a battle between heaven and man in her heart?

"Go back after fetching the water."

So He Lingchuan bowed to her, filled a bucket of clear river water, and walked away without looking back.

In any case, he had tried.

But even if he joined the Da Feng Army, he was now of low status, and General Hong couldn't listen to his opinions.

This golden opportunity to reverse the final fate of Panlongcheng might have been missed just like this.

He Lingchuan sighed helplessly, then remembered the conversation between King Yuan and his nephew Shao Jian that he heard in the ruins of Thousand Star City.

King Yuan firmly believed that the three things he wanted his nephew to send to Zhong Shengquan were more important than himself, and more important than the entire Yuan Nation.

What about Zhong Shengquan?

Would he think so too?

After returning, He Lingchuan lay back in the ruined house, looking up at the starry sky through the large hole in the roof.

The deeper he immersed himself in this Soul Village, and the more things he cared about, the less he wanted it to head toward its destined end.

But this piece of history was abnormally stubborn; it seemed very difficult for him to change the ending.

After dawn, everything was as usual.

Hu Min said to the crowd: "Let's open a gambling pool; who guesses moving east, who guesses returning west?"

"Is your gambling addiction passed on by the skinny one?" Liu Tiao snorted, "One tael of silver, I bet General Hong will continue to move east. We've already fought here, how can there be a reason to return in low spirits?"

Hu Min nudged He Lingchuan: "Captain, what about you?"

"I bet on returning west."

February, hello.

Asking for monthly tickets with five hearts facing the origin!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 463 =====