Chapter 231

The mandate of heaven is clear; use the Ming to strike the dim! The sun and moon are dim but shall shine again; the Huaxia is dark but awaits the dawn!

Now, the Great Ming Righteous Army, bearing the Dao of Heaven, following the hearts of the people, raises high the "Ming" banner!

Proclaiming to the loyal and righteous of the world: The "Ming" means the sun and moon shining together, illuminating heaven and earth, and dispelling the long night. The current Imperial Court, with the Second Prince usurping the throne and treacherous officials in power, is like dark clouds obscuring the sun, making the world dim, especially in Beijiang!

Their crimes are manifest, and both gods and men are enraged:

The first crime: Regicide and usurpation, the collapse of moral order!

In order to steal the Imperial Seal, the Second Prince did not hesitate to slaughter his own kin, causing the imperial court to collapse, and propriety, righteousness, integrity, and shame to vanish!

The second crime: Cutting off the path of survival for the North, to be punished by both men and gods!

Beijiang is suffering from a great drought, with a thousand miles of scorched earth, and the commoners are trading children to eat. Yet this national traitor, in order to eliminate dissidents, actually brazenly cut off the grain and fodder for Beijiang, regarding our millions of soldiers and civilians as grass; this is not the act of a human, but truly the heart of a jackal!

The third crime: Lightly abandoning Beijiang, splitting the land to seek peace!

The Xiongnu are invading the borders, and the frontier is in an emergency, yet the Imperial Court does not send a single soldier or horse, but instead abandons Beijiang, wishing to let our fertile land of Beijiang fall entirely under the iron hooves of the Xiongnu!

Officials force the people to rebel, and they have no choice but to rebel! The dark night is at its deepest, only "Ming" can break it!

We, the soldiers and civilians of Beijiang, are loyal and righteous, and now we have no path to retreat.

To retreat is to starve, to retreat is to face the barbarian blade, to retreat is to die in humiliation!

Therefore, we have founded the "Great Ming Righteous Army," swearing to use "Ming" as our banner, to cleanse the treacherous and evil, and to reopen the heavens and the sun!

Our ambitions:

First, to sweep away the treacherous sycophants in the court and restore the bright universe!

Second, to open the world's granaries and save the millions of commoners!

Third, to drive out the Xiongnu from beyond the borders and secure the Huaxia empire!

Where the "Ming" banner points, the light follows!

All our fine sons, how can you bear to see the mountains and rivers shattered? How can you bear to hear the wailing of the commoners?

The Great Ming Righteous Army hereby takes an oath:

All who assist our righteous army are brothers! All who abandon the dark for the light shall enjoy peace! If we encounter those who are stubborn and act as accomplices to the tiger, we will execute them no matter how far away they are, to sacrifice to the heroic spirits!

With the Imperial Heaven above, the thick earth below, the sun and moon as witnesses, and the mountains and rivers as proof!

We wish to raise the righteous banner together with the benevolent and righteous people of the world!

Commander of the Great Ming Righteous Army—Jiang Jinshi!

Feng Chunsheng finished writing in a flowing hand, not forgetting to carefully observe it, and only stopped when he saw there were no details to add.

This thing would be announced to the world later, so it could not be done carelessly!

If the Ming Army truly achieves something in the future, perhaps he might even be recorded in the history books because of this article!

Wei Xikang, having obtained the grain, finally stopped looking worried and returned just before the grain on the front lines ran out.

Upon receiving the news, the Prince of Zhenbei put on his armor and came; looking at the carts of grain, his eyes were a bit moist.

Seeing this, Wei Xikang felt incredibly pained and also knew how difficult it was for the Prince of Zhenbei to manage so many people.

"Your Highness! Was the journey safe!" The Prince of Zhenbei stepped forward two paces and paid his respects to Wei Xikang.

If Wei Xikang had returned half a day later, he would have already been prepared to lead his troops out of the city to fight to the death with the enemy.

"Uncle, I have something to discuss with you!" Wei Xikang said with a serious face.

"Your Highness, please speak!" The Prince of Zhenbei had already vaguely guessed what Wei Xikang was going to say next.

Wei Xikang did not directly mention the matter of going out of the city to meet the Xiongnu in battle, but slowly recounted his experience of going to borrow grain.

Hearing the attitude of these commandery governors, the Prince of Zhenbei was full of guilt and at the same time very angry; what difference was there between their actions and insulting His Highness?

"Your Highness... you have suffered!"

"For the sake of the empire of Da Qian! It is not suffering!" Wei Xikang shook his head calmly, and then began to talk about borrowing grain at Yangguangzhai.

The Prince of Zhenbei sighed helplessly; who would have thought that in the end, they would rely on mountain bandits to obtain this precious grain.

"So... Uncle... send out the troops!" Wei Xikang looked firmly at the Prince of Zhenbei, "The commoners of Beijiang cannot wait this long! The Zhenbei Army cannot wait this long either!"

The Prince of Zhenbei gave a bitter smile: "To tell you the truth, Your Highness! Perhaps if you had come later, I would have already led the soldiers and rushed out!"

Wei Xikang's eyes lit up: "Uncle, have you thought it through?"

From a military perspective, defending the city was still the best choice! But now it wasn't that the Prince of Zhenbei had thought it through, but that the situation forced him; the Prince of Zhenbei simply had no second choice.

"Since that is the case, let the soldiers eat first! We will discuss the matter of sending out the troops!"

The Prince of Zhenbei was very glad at this moment that the Crown Prince had brought back grain and fodder; otherwise, if the soldiers charged on empty stomachs, how could there be any chance of victory.

On the city wall, the soldiers stood listlessly, unaware of the matter of grain supplies.

An old soldier couldn't help but complain: "I'm really so hungry I can't stand it; when will these days ever end?"

"Hehe! Say less! Save some strength to kill the Xiongnu!" A middle-aged soldier leaned against the battlement, closing his eyes to rest!

"No military pay, no grain; tell me, what are we doing here?" The old soldier clearly had long-standing grievances and kept venting his inner dissatisfaction.

This time no one responded to him, but they couldn't help but feel moved inside, because it was the truth.

If it weren't for the strict discipline of the Zhenbei Army, the people present might not have been in this position long ago.

It wasn't just him; in fact, the morale of the Zhenbei Army had been gradually declining for some time, and there were more and more voices of doubt.

"In my opinion, these high officials would never care about us..." The old soldier's words stopped abruptly because something happened outside the city gate.

He squinted his dim old eyes, placed his hand on the cold city wall, and looked into the distance.

On the grassland, there seemed to be some swaying black dots.

"These Xiongnu are here again!" The middle-aged soldier also took a look, then withdrew his gaze, not paying much attention.

During this period, the Xiongnu basically came every day, but they didn't attack the city; they would just wander around outside the city gate and leave.

Sometimes there were thousands of them, and sometimes there were only a hundred!

The Zhenbei Army was used to it; anyway, as long as they were in the city, the Xiongnu couldn't do anything about it.

The old soldier didn't care either, turned his head and continued to chat with everyone, mainly complaining about the military pay.

Before they had said a few words, someone came to notify them that it was time to eat, and after they changed shifts, they could eat hot meals.

Everyone was attracted by this and kept asking where the grain came from!

Although the Prince of Zhenbei had never told them that the grain was running out, everyone was not a fool and could still discover problems from some details.

Now they were only having porridge twice a day; if the grain were abundant, would it be like this?

Behind them, without them noticing, the Xiongnu army was approaching rapidly; at the junction of the grassland and the horizon, black dots kept emerging, as if they were endless.

By the time the garrison noticed the abnormality, the leading Xiongnu cavalry had already approached within three li.

The hearts of the garrison sank suddenly, and a chill rushed from the soles of their feet straight to their crowns.

He stared fixedly at that shadow; that was not the usual behavior of the Xiongnu, but a kind of...

A posture of being ready to strike!

And...

The number far exceeded the usual!

"Enemy—Attack—!"

The old soldier used all the strength of his life to let out a heart-rending roar, his voice distorted and changed due to extreme fear and shock.

"It's the Xiongnu! The Xiongnu army is here!! Beat the drums! Quickly!!"