Chapter 291

"Old Grand Coordinator, please rise quickly."

Lu Zhishen walked quickly to the bowing Zhong Shidao and reached out with both hands to help him up.

This was his former direct superior, who had taken good care of him, so he could not be negligent.

"You, you are Lu Da?"

Lu Zhishen had fought in the Western Army for many years, and relying on his daring to fight and kill,

even though no one was supporting him from above, causing his merits to be obscured, he still had a small reputation.

Later, he worked under the two Grand Coordinators, the old and young Zhong, who actually controlled the Western Army,

so even though his appearance and identity had changed greatly, several generals still recognized him.

"It is indeed I."

Lu Zhishen, who had originally intended to use this identity to build a relationship with the Western Army, admitted it generously.

"I never expected that you, this fellow, would actually join the Liang Shan bandits!"

Tongguan's eyes were full of hatred as he looked at Lu Zhishen.

If he had known this beforehand, he would have long ago found an opportunity to behead Lu Zhishen and display his head to the public!

Now, watching this reckless man showing off before his eyes truly broke his heart.

"Chancellor Tong, the Great Song is already gone; what meaning do these words of yours have?"

Facing Tongguan's undisguised hatred and murderous intent, Lu Zhishen shook his head indifferently.

The Great Song had already perished; even if Tongguan, a mere eunuch, had once had a great reputation, what use was it now?

Didn't he see that after he came out, the few subordinates who had been closely following Tongguan had quietly distanced themselves?

As long as he could persuade the others in the Western Army, a mere eunuch could not stir up any waves.

"Commander Lu, you say the Eastern Capital has already fallen into the hands of your Great Gan; is there any other evidence?"

The other generals didn't care about Tongguan, whose authority was greatly damaged, but stared fixedly at Lu Zhishen.

Compared to Tongguan, this was a matter of life and death for them!

And with the old Grand Coordinator first, and then Lu Zhishen claiming to be an imperial envoy,

the fall of Bianliang and the destruction of the Great Song was likely a near certainty.

It was just that, as the saying goes, this matter concerned their life and death, so one could not be too cautious.

If Lu Zhishen could not produce conclusive evidence, they could not be blamed for wavering.

"Evidence?

This imperial envoy has no other evidence, but I do have quite a few weapons!"

Lu Zhishen heard this and smiled proudly, taking out a palm-sized metal object from his waist

that had a revolving cylinder which seemed very strange to the people of the Great Song, and placed it on the table.

However, anyone with some understanding of modern firearms would recognize it at a glance;

one could immediately recognize that what Lu Zhishen had taken out was none other than a revolver,

invented by the Mao Xiong people and famous for never jamming, and the Russian roulette method!

"Could this be the Liang Shan fire-spear?"

Seeing this object, the generals whispered to each other.

They had heard in battle reports sent by the imperial court earlier

that the Liang Shan bandits had a type of fire-spear with power comparable to a crossbow.

Unfortunately, before they could obtain any physical samples, the connection between the Eastern Capital and their Western Army was severed by Liang Shan.

"Everyone, please look."

Lu Zhishen invited them, then raised the revolver

and fired a shot at a decorative suit of armor in the main tent.

The generals watched Lu Zhishen's movements intently, and then, amidst a crisp "bang" sound,

a hole appeared in the chest area of the armor.

Through the hole, they could even see the tent fabric behind the armor!

This suit of armor had been pierced through by the bullet from this fire-spear!

"What terrifying power!"

The generals' gazes met in the air, and they all saw deep shock in each other's eyes.

Although this suit of armor was far inferior in defensive power to the infantry armor in their army that weighed dozens of jin

and was specifically used for life-and-death struggles with Western Xia heavy infantry,

the fact that it could be displayed in the main tent meant it was a fine piece of armor,

and it was only slightly inferior to the armor worn by these generals themselves.

Since this fire-spear had pierced even this suit of armor,

didn't that mean that in the face of Liang Shan's weapons, let alone the armor worn by ordinary soldiers,

even the precious armor spent at great cost by these generals themselves was still vulnerable?

Moreover, if a weapon used by an imperial envoy for demonstration was so terrifying,

then what kind of astonishingly powerful weapons did the May May Ren Wang possess?

The generals' eyes as they looked at Lu Zhishen unconsciously held a bit more awe.

This was awe for the Liang Shan and the May May Ren Wang Zhang Jie behind him.

"Everyone, in our Great Gan army, not only do we have this type of individual fire-spear,

but we also have cannons with power and range ten or a hundred times greater than this.

The walls of the Eastern Capital were literally blasted down by a hundred cannons firing in unison.

How do you think the Western Army's fortresses compare to the walls of Bianliang?"

Lu Zhishen calmly put away the revolver and gave a lecture on the power of cannons, speaking eloquently.

Facing Lu Zhishen's words, which contained an implicit threat, the generals were all speechless.

Comparing the fortresses they guarded to the walls of Bianliang, which had been built, expanded,

and reinforced by the Great Song for over a hundred years without sparing any effort—unless one was a fool, one could easily tell which was weaker and which was stronger.

Moreover, there were hundreds of thousands of imperial guards in the Eastern Capital!

Even if the imperial guards had seen no war for a hundred years since the Chanyuan Alliance and their combat effectiveness had declined severely,

hundreds of thousands of pigs would not be so easy to catch and defeat!

The fact that Liang Shan could breach Bianliang in such a short time meant their strength truly exceeded their imagination.

Especially according to the words of this imperial envoy Lu Zhishen,

Bianliang was not breached from the inside out by someone surrendering the city,

but was breached by Liang Shan with absolute strength, and even a corner of the Bianliang city wall had collapsed!

"His Highness the May May Ren Wang sent the imperial envoy here, so there must be demands; please, imperial envoy, state them."

Representing a large part of the Western Army's strength and being a family of generals for generations like the Yang family of Yang Zhi,

Zhe Kexing, the current head of the Zhe family, known as the "Zhe Family Generals," stepped forward and asked.

However, knowing that Liang Shan's strength was not something the Western Army could match, he subconsciously used honorifics.

"Not the May May Ren Wang."

Lu Zhishen shook his head, correcting the error in Zhe Kexing's words,

and he bowed in the direction of Bianliang, saying solemnly:

"My Lord has already offered sacrifices to Heaven and ascended the throne in the Eastern Capital, establishing the imperial position, with the country name Great Gan;

from now on, you should respectfully address my Lord as His Majesty the Emperor of Great Gan!"

As for how this news could reach Lu Zhishen, who was rushing to the Western Army, so quickly,

when Zhang Jie had only ascended the throne less than a day ago,

Zhang Jie indicated that what he obtained from the Consumption Zhang Jie was not just military technology like explosives, bullets, and cannons.

Having lived in the information age, he naturally knew the importance of information transmission,

so he specifically had the Consumption Zhang Jie search for information on radio and wired communication.

In this ancient world of the Great Song, which was very clean and free from other noisy electromagnetic interference,

his radio communication was established very quickly, and basically, one radio device could guarantee communication across the entire territory.

Lu Zhishen's team carried a radio communicator,

communicating various intelligence with Bianliang every day and controlling the information of the Western Army in real-time;

once something went wrong, the main army in the rear would immediately press at the border,

striving to nip the Western Army's treason and collusion with Western Xia in the bud.

And for major events like Zhang Jie ascending the throne and starting a new dynasty,

it was naturally the first to be transmitted across the world through the radio network.

Even Lu Zhishen's appointment as Governor of the Five Armies Governor's Office was delivered via radio.

"I wonder what orders His Majesty the Gan Emperor has?"

Hearing the news that Zhang Jie had already ascended the throne and established a new dynasty,

Zhe Kexing's already humble words and actions subconsciously lowered even further.

The other Western Army generals also pricked up their ears: at this time, the Great Gan was powerful,

and any information could concern their life, death, glory, or shame, so they could not help but pay attention.