Chapter 528: The Filial Great Nephew

Under the blazing sun, Zhang Tong stood on the city tower, gripping the ring‑pommed sword at his waist, his knuckles whitening from force.

At the end of Hongnong's East Gate, a black line had already appeared; that black line drew nearer and nearer, until it became a sky‑covering host of Xuanjia cavalry.

The Northern Border's Xuanjia cavalry had once overturned the Xiongnu's Xuanjia cavalry.

With fifty thousand elite warhorses, the thunder of their hooves on the official road surpassed the war drums; even Feng Xiang was shocked enough—let alone Zhang Tong, who came from a rough background.

The Jiangxia King also had cavalry, but…… their momentum was incomparable.

At that moment Zhang Tong even felt a bit dazed, as if something in the city wall's stone cracks was rustling down amid the thunder of hooves……

He shouted, "Prepare the rolling stones and fire oil; archers, to the front line!" His voice carried a tremor he himself hadn't noticed.

With the king's cavalry formation looking like that, if the troops really came under the city, who wouldn't panic?

The king pulled out his telescope from afar and already saw the rolling stones, horizontal beams, and archers on the city wall, plus a few conspicuous 'decorations'.

The king felt Zhang Tong had shamelessly copied his idea, and he was resentful about it; the Dongdu Marquis hurriedly interrupted, asking who those hanging figures were.

At this moment the Dongdu Marquis began to empathize endlessly with Xie Yuan and the Grand Tutor.

Only then did the king raise his telescope again for a closer look, "……Let me have another look!"

Wei Shen: ……"Who else could it be, the Yang clan~"

The king nodded, "The attire is quite nice; given this treatment, it must be the Yang clan."

"Is that even needing to be said?"

"……What if it's the city's intelligence bureau?"

Not knowing what Feng Xiang thought behind him, the Dongdu Marquis grew a bit anxious, "Those up there—are they your relatives or mine?!"

Eyeing those two fellows who today showed no kinship, "Your Highness, what should we do? I heard Young Master Yang is doing well serving under Xie Yuan," he reminded the unreliable king, "they're still working for you at home!"

The king sighed in an old‑fashioned way, "I've seen it all; now I know Zhang Tong's limit. It seems the good royal uncle is wary of the great clans, so those hanging up there are all youngsters. At least hang the grandfather up there to give me some deterrent, right?"

Wei Shen snatched the king's telescope, "No grandfather at all?"

Dongdu Marquis: ……The Yang clan is fortunate to have these two great nephews.

The Xuanjia cavalry the king had built at great expense was the ultimate dream of every military commander; nobody wanted to face them, Zhang Tong included. Though he wouldn't admit it, he was also afraid, and for that he had offended the Yang clan, committing an unpardonable act by hanging a few youngsters on the city wall to threaten the Northern Border King—if he had any confidence he couldn't have done that.

Reports said the Northern Border King himself led a hundred thousand cavalry south; though he didn't know how much was filler, he knew his own weight—Hongnong now had only over sixty thousand soldiers defending the city. Chang'an remained unstable, and Bai Li Jun's main forces were piled inside and outside the city. To be frank, unless it was absolutely necessary he wouldn't dare move against the Yang family, offending them for Bai Li Jun's sake, and he too felt nervous and fearful.

The dignity of the great clans having been offended and humiliated, the anger of the clans worldwide was enough to give Bai Li Jun a headache. The bachelor Northern Border King, day after day, thinks of ways to offend a clan; he dares to let clans and commoners serve together in the court, and Bai Li Jun, whose seat isn't even warm yet, must therefore stand opposite the Northern Border King to win over the clans.

Dark clouds pressed upon the city, as if it were about to collapse; Zhang Tong watched the arrogant iron cavalry halt about a hundred meters away, his heartbeat quickening all the more.

Just a hundred meters or so—how arrogant.

Behind those black clouds there was a white line; he was looking at the golden dragon pattern on the edge of the dark‑character banner when that white line moved. The king rode his white horse forward to the battle front, others spread to the sides, but the shield bearers at the very front of the Xuanjia cavalry refused to yield, so the king stopped behind their shields.

Wei Shen beside him spoke first, shouting at the top of his lungs, "What is Hongnong doing? Seeing us come, you first slap your own people twice? Who are those hanging on the city wall? Are you trying to scare us with human shields? I'm terrified, hahaha~

The cavalry beside him remained aloof and murderous, no one cooperating with his performance; on the city wall, Zhang Tong's deputy sneered and shouted loudly, "Is the Northern Border King even in the formation? Today we borrowed his maternal clan's youngsters to help defend the city—if he has the ability, let him step on the corpses of these brothers and uncles to enter the city!

The king emerged in handsome silver armor from behind, he poked his head out doubtfully, "Cousin, uncle? Did they capture Wei Peng and Wei Ke?"

Wei Shen: "Do they still have that ability?!"

The king: "Then who are those hanging? I don't know them either!"

Wei Shen: "I don't know them either; anyway, they're not surnamed Wei."

Dongdu Marquis: …!

Zhang Tong and his deputy stared at each other, "Could it be that the Northern Border King doesn't even know he has Yang relatives? Then what's the point of this move!"

Insulting the Northern Border King for neglecting his six kin—could it affect the Northern Border army's morale? Probably not.

It might only affect our own morale.

Siege warfare is hard to fight; likewise, defending the city also depends on the commander's breadth of mind. Zhang Tong straightened his expression and continued to feign calm.

The head of the Yang clan, Yang Yao, also had his hands bound and stood on the city gate tower; merely because of his age and status he wasn't hung outside. The situation had already come to this point; hearing those words he remained calm, merely straining to narrow his eyes toward the source of the voices in the formation. He also had the leisure to observe the king and Wei Shen crowded in the middle, trying to find on them a resemblance to his sister, but too far away he could barely make it out.

Having approached, the king estimated the wall's height; not mentioning the unreliable sun‑shooting bow, even if he had Changli fire to shoot all those ropes apart, those pampered young nobles would probably still fall to their deaths outside the wall.

This left him feeling a bit constrained; even if these weren't Yang family members but ordinary commoners, dying like this in the siege would still make him unhappy.

As fortunes turn, the king came to understand the annoyance the Xianbei once felt.

Zhang Tong began to explain, "Those on the wall are all nephews and nieces of the Northern Border Princess Consort's clan; it looks like the Northern Border King is trampling on his maternal clan's bones to march south and rebel!"

The king was still wrapping his head around the unfamiliar title of Northern Border Princess Consort, hearing for the first time someone call his mother that. Beside him, Wei Shen had already flared up, shouting at Zhang Tong that they were suppressing the rebellion to the south to avenge the Taihe Emperor—who the hell was rebelling? Bai Li Jun was the world's greatest rebel.

What else could the king do? "Let's talk!"

He turned and muttered a while with the Dongdu Marquis, then spoke again with an extremely arrogant tone, "Zhang Tong, how about a wager? We'll duel commanders three rounds before the formation; you may pick any three from my cavalry. If you win, I'll spare your life and abandon Hongnong to first march south to quell the unrest in Youchuan; if I win, you lower those hanging from the city wall and we'll openly wage an attack‑defense battle. The choice of combatants is yours—you won't still be too scared, will you?" The king was arrogantly smug, his smugness making whoever saw him angry.

Feng Xiang looked bewildered and asked the Dongdu Marquis, "Free choice? That's risky enough—what if they pick those shield‑bearers up front?"

The Dongdu Marquis thought, the Xuanjia cavalry's training is always the same; the fifty thousand troops ranked up front are all elite, there's no such thing as cannon fodder. Even if the front‑line shield bearers usually train their bodies and killing skills, they're only slightly inferior to those behind with spears and swords—no one would think these people would just hold up shields, right?

Feng Xiang again worried, "If our random pick really loses, will we truly abandon Chang'an to go pacify Youchuan? I've heard the rebel forces there are already top‑heavy, the largest popular faction." Actually suppressing rebellion is also proper, but going now feels like we're clearing obstacles for Bai Li Jun; still, it'd be better to take Chang'an first.

The Dongdu Marquis twitched the corner of his mouth, "That's absolutely impossible." He too had just learned that the Youchuan rebel forces were actually in the king's hands, their high command all Xiaoqi cavalry.

But Zhang Tong wouldn't fall for the king's trick.

He also pushed Yang Yao to the edge of the battlement, "Northern Border King, Your Highness, don't keep saying useless things! The Northern Border Princess Consort's maternal uncles are all here—either withdraw your troops, or trample on the Yang clan's bones to assault the city, becoming an unfilial, unbenevolent traitorous minister!

The king scratched his cheek, "Isn't this making things hard for this handsome guy?"

Feng—the newly arrived, worried‑sick Xiang: "?"