Chapter 108: Great Army Pressing on the City

Reguli saw Hemuti leave, and a sharp glint flashed in the depths of her eyes.

The Third Prince Halike asked from the side, "Mother Queen, he is so arrogant, why not take this opportunity to seize him?"

Reguli smiled faintly: "If he does not rebel, how can I kill him?"

Halike wanted to say something but stopped.

Only then did Reguli happily take her son over to thank Liu Zheng: "Quick, thank your father... no, thank your teacher!"

Halike almost kowtowed again.

Liu Zheng hurriedly supported him with a bitter smile and said, "Queen, please do not blame Xiang Zheng for acting on his own initiative; it is truly because these merchants are too shrewd. If I did not do this, they would never be willing to lean toward the royal family."

Reguli giggled: "Young Master Xiang, what are you saying? Remember, Loulan is always your home. In the future, whatever you want to do, just go ahead and do it; I will be your backing!"

Zheng Yueru watched from the side with a playful expression. Liu Zheng could not handle this at all and could only laugh dryly and leave in a hurry.

On-site bidding had already reached a state of madness.

Those few merchants from Arab bid the most fiercely because the demand for salt in that region was huge; the competition for a single agency right had already exceeded one million. Finally, it settled at one million two hundred thousand taels of silver!

In the other few regions, although the competition was slightly smaller, they all stopped at seven or eight hundred thousand.

In a short period of time, orders worth nearly ten million taels of silver were signed!

This shocked Liu Zheng, and Xiang Chenglin had long since been scared silly.

This...

This is the charm of the Silk Road, this is the charm of trading with the whole world!

If he were only in the Longyan Dynasty, Liu Zheng would not even dare to imagine this much money!

In the end, all the merchants who won the agency rights signed a tripartite agreement. One party was them, one was the Loulan royal family, and one was the Rongxiang Firm. The agreement stipulated that when the first batch of large-scale Refined Salt was transported to Loulan for delivery, that would be when they would pay their agency fees.

Although Liu Zheng was very short on money, he had no objections to this.

After all, he only had these three bags of Refined Salt right now... wanting to exchange them for other people's ten million taels of silver was purely a joke.

Once finished here, Liu Zheng's heart finally settled a little; he had finally managed to bind the merchants of these various countries together. The armed forces of these Chambers of Commerce were actually not to be underestimated, especially within Kucheng.

Just at this moment.

The first chaos within Kucheng still occurred.

No matter how strict the Guard Army's precautions were, how powerful their forces were, and how hard they tried to maintain stability, the Temple was, after all, inside the city. Hearing that the Temple army was already attacking like a hot knife through butter, how could the Temple believers in the city not be agitated?

Under the instigation of Muzhade, some Temple believers did not care about the surrounded Temple and instead directly began to attack the Loulan Wanggong. This was something no one had expected, and it could be seen that these extremists had a death-defying nature.

After Reheman received the news, he immediately rushed to reinforce the Wanggong and soon quelled this chaos.

But because these people were too extreme and death-defying, a corner of the Wanggong was actually burned down!

But a terrifying atmosphere also began to spread throughout the city.

The merchants could not sit still, the common people were in a panic, and the news that the Temple army was already on its way, intending to press upon the city, finally spread.

"Maintain stability!"

"The whole army, maintain stability!"

By this time, those merchants from various countries realized that they had been tricked! Because after these Temple believers failed in their attack on the Wanggong, their next target became these merchants who had just signed the agreement and become "running dogs" of the Loulan royal family.

On the first day, several Arab Chambers of Commerce bore the brunt and were impacted by these people.

This should have stemmed from a conflict of faith.

Afterwards, the firms of other countries also suffered varying degrees of smashing and looting.

At the beginning, these merchants still wanted to remain neutral and did not want to be enemies with these extremists. However, how could they withstand someone deliberately fanning the flames in the city... this matter was, of course, done by Liu Zheng.

You signed an agreement and still want to be neutral? Are you joking?

In the end, the merchants had no choice but to gather their own armed forces to resist these believers together.

They did not move until they had to, but once they moved, it was astonishing.

After all, they were proper armed groups, not comparable to the rabble of these believers. After two days of chaos in Kucheng, with the cooperation of the Guard Army and the merchants' armed forces, the chaos was completely quelled. In the end, all the streets were under strict guard!

"So fast?"

Muzhade was so angry his face turned green.

Everyone was also greatly shocked.

"Temple Envoy, this time those merchants from all walks of life are too abnormal!"

"Yes, they were more inclined toward our Temple before!"

"These guys who forget righteousness for profit!"

Muzhade's face was livid: "Who told you to let the believers go and trouble the merchants! Wasn't it you who said the city could be in chaos for at least three days? Why couldn't it even hold out until our army arrived!"

He slammed the table and rose in anger: "Continue to organize!"

Everyone was miserable.

It was not that the believers wanted to go, but that someone in the city had been instigating, saying that the merchants had already reached a "cooperative security" agreement with the royal family. The believers would naturally choose to kill these "meaty" targets first; they could create chaos and also loot gold, silver, and treasures—why not do it?

At this moment, the disadvantages of religious power—its dispersion and lack of strict systems, making it easy to lose control—were completely revealed.

Without the strict rules and regulations of an army, human greed will only continue to magnify; without restraint, there will be no temperance.

When people face interests and death, God has already been slowly faded away.

"Temple Envoy!"

"The Guard Army's encirclement has closed in by another five hundred paces!"

Muzhade had a gloomy expression.

Why did the Loulan royal family not take action against this Temple in Kucheng at the first opportunity?

Did they have absolute confidence?

Where exactly did this kind of confidence come from?

Muzhade could not figure it out.

The Temple currently had an army of one hundred thousand, and by coercing the common people along the way, it had already reached two hundred thousand. Where on earth did a mere forty thousand Guard Army get the confidence to only surround him without killing him?

Suddenly, his expression changed drastically: "That Mire, has he been killed?"

"Not yet!"

"Take me to him!"

Standing on the city wall.

Liu Zheng suddenly had the feeling of having just transmigrated and resisting the Bandits in Yangzhou. Yet now, in the blink of an eye, nearly a year had passed.

And this time, it was also likely his first time personally experiencing a real war. These Temple Army were not the rabble that the Bandits were.

Two hundred thousand...

Forty thousand on this side.

It sounded quite unbelievable.

Reheman said from the side: "Young Master Liu, as you ordered, Hemuti has already been allowed to escape the city. It is expected that he will rendezvous with the Temple's main army and arrive at Kucheng tomorrow!"

Liu Zheng nodded.

According to his plan, Hemuti had to be let out. Just as Reguli had said, if he did not let him go, he could not kill him with justification. And as for Muzhade of the Temple, he would keep him. Because by keeping him, Mire would not die.

He wanted to let Muzhade see despair step by step, and finally use Mire to trade for his own life.

Reheman looked at Liu Zheng's back and sighed deeply.

Such a young young master, yet his methods were so terrifying, his schemes so profound, and he could plan for everything without a single oversight.

What a terrifying person this was?

He was even somewhat glad that he was not an enemy of Loulan. If he were, perhaps the entire Loulan would not have anyone who dared to be mentioned in the same breath as him. This was also why, when the Temple Army began to rebel, not a single civil or military official in Loulan feared the war; at this moment, the territory of Kucheng was very united, single-mindedly resisting the thieves. This was not only because these vested interest holders wanted to protect their actual interests, but more so because of their optimism about the current situation in Kucheng, and their dissatisfaction with Hemuti for causing trouble in Kucheng some time ago.

Over these past few days, Young Master Liu had utilized all of these emotions.

What kind of great talent was this?

Even...

He gave a self-deprecating smile.

This Young Master Liu had immense ambition; he only regarded Loulan as a commercial transit point, nothing more. He did not even look down upon the entire Loulan—what a cruel fact this was.

Liu Zheng said indifferently: "Brother Re, you must understand, this will be a fierce battle."

Reheman nodded heavily.

Liu Zheng laughed out loud: "But there is no need to panic. Brother Re must always understand that a regular army should not be defeated by a group of rabble, no matter how many of them there are!"

"The strength of an army lies in its quality, not its quantity!"

Liu Zheng smiled slightly: "Sometimes, having many troops is not necessarily a good thing!"

Reheman was left completely confused.

Having many troops is not a good thing? Who had ever heard of this logic?

Liu Zheng said: "We only need to hold out for three days, and we will surely win!"

Reheman was overjoyed.

If someone else said this, he would not believe it, but who was the person before him? Young Master Liu!

From the moment Reheman met him, he had never doubted him. Because this Viscount could always create miracles in desperate situations.

Liu Zheng smiled slightly and said no more.

Two hundred thousand?

In global history, it was not as if there hadn't been armies of hundreds of thousands. The Sparta of Guluoma also had hundreds of thousands, yet in the end, they were beaten to pieces by a few tens of thousands of elite troops from Rome. Chen Sheng and Wu Guang also had hundreds of thousands, but they still could not defeat the powerful Qin army.

During the subsequent Yellow Turban Rebellion, the thirty thousand Qingzhou Army were easily defeated, disintegrated, and reclaimed by Caocao.

In Liu Zheng's view, as long as it was an army, if it lacked strict military discipline and a military soul, then it would absolutely not possess any combat effectiveness.

The Temple Army had one hundred thousand.

He was somewhat fearful.

But having to coerce the common people, this two hundred thousand, which seemed terrifying enough to others, was in his eyes now equivalent to the combat effectiveness of fifty thousand!

With so many people, do they not need to eat?

Are the provisions sufficient? Can the logistical supplies keep up?

Can the hearts of the people be controlled?

Is the system strict and clear?

If they cannot take Kucheng in three days, will the morale of the army still be stable?

These were all things that needed to be considered comprehensively.

"Brother Re, is the Suicide Squad I asked you to prepare ready?"

Liu Zheng turned back and asked.

Reheman laughed out loud: "Young Master, rest assured, one hundred elites have already been prepared and are awaiting your orders at any time!"

Liu Zheng nodded with a smile.

Just at the dawn of the next day.

The warning horn finally sounded in Kucheng.

The Temple Army had finally arrived! Climbing the city tower, one could see a long dragon in the distance, countless heads, a black, dense mass, with an astonishing momentum. The leader was none other than Hemuti, and at the front of the formation was a large banner representing the Temple.

"The royal family is dead, the Temple shall stand!"

"Kill!"

"Burn the Wanggong!"

"Kill this group of ungrateful royals!"

Vast and mighty, continuous and unending, they came with a menacing momentum.

The Kucheng Guard Army, upon seeing this formation, were all terrified.

Two hundred thousand people, just how many is that?

Looking out, it seemed as if the sky and the earth were filled with people.

The sight alone brought an infinite sense of shock.

Afterwards, these two hundred thousand people set up camp just one mile away.

The entire Kucheng was in a state of panic.