Chapter 347

"Bai Ting, take people to operate in the forests on the flanks, make a show of force, and put pressure on the inside of the pass. Zhang Honghong, pretend to build siege equipment and make a posture of being about to attack at all costs, making them feel they can't hold it."

Luo Feng arranged the strategies one by one, "Wang Hou, the message must be fast and covert, ensuring it is delivered to Li Mao and Zhao and Qian at the same time.

In addition, have our people inside the pass find a way to spread rumors, saying that the Imperial Court is furious because the first two passes were lost, and after Yang Jiye arrives, he will take the heads of the Zhenguo Pass garrison commander and major military officers to sacrifice to the flag as a warning to others!"

"Yes!" Everyone took their orders and acted separately.

Inside the camp of the third pass, Li Mao paced back and forth in the hall.

The tragic sight of two passes being broken in succession was still before his eyes; the Ming Army soldiers were like evil ghosts, charging forward regardless of their lives, and their mouths were shouting things like "bring honor to ancestors" and "start a new family tree."

The Ming Army generals were even more terrifying, actually being able to think of strategies like climbing up from precipices and mixing in with retreating soldiers to seize the gate, leaving him unable to defend against them.

He asked himself, if the Ming Army repeated their old tricks, could he hold it? When would the Imperial Court's reinforcements arrive?

After they arrived, would they really, as those quietly circulating rumors said, take him, a defeated general, to the chopping block?

"General, the Ming Army outside the city is moving frequently, seemingly building more scaling ladders and battering rams. In the forest to the west, there are also firelight and figures; there may be an ambush." The deputy general reported.

Li Mao's heart tightened, and he felt even more irritable; even though this pass wall was very high, it still couldn't give him enough sense of security.

Just then, a personal guard entered with a nervous expression, handing over a small arrow with a roll of thin silk tied to the shaft.

"Where did it come from?" Li Mao asked.

"I... I don't know, it was just nailed to the pillar outside your bedroom corridor."

Li Mao felt a chill in his heart, dismissed those around him, and unfolded the thin silk with trembling hands.

The handwriting on it was elegant, and the content was exactly the letter of persuasion to surrender that Luo Feng had dictated.

The letter analyzed his situation thoroughly, pointing out the dead end while offering a way to live, especially the sentence "Under the command of the Ming King, you might not be able to obtain a position as a general with real power," which hit his heart in one stroke.

He, Li Mao, had been here for twenty years and was only a garrison commander, and that was by fawning over superiors and luck.

If he could defect to that Ming King in Beijiang who held the Imperial Seal and was on a roll, and become a general with real power...

This thought made his mind active, but the fear of the Imperial Court's accumulated prestige and the consequences of failure made him hesitate.

"Let's see... let's see... maybe General Yang's reinforcements will arrive soon?"

He muttered to himself, carefully hiding the thin silk in his bosom, and decided to wait and see for now.

He even began to calculate that if he really had to take the path of surrender, what official position he should ask for from that Ming King, and how much reward money would be worth it.

Almost at the same time, in the military camp inside the pass.

Deputy Lieutenant Zhao and Deputy Lieutenant Qian also received almost identical arrow letters.

Unlike Li Mao's indecision, the two's reactions were almost identical after reading the letter—first shock, then a long silence, their eyes flickering uncertainly.

Like the ordinary soldiers, they suffered from the Imperial Court's deduction of rations and had long heard of that Ming King in Beijiang who implemented new policies and treated soldiers and civilians well, and even secretly developed a good impression.

The disastrous defeat of the first two passes made them completely disappointed in Li Mao's command ability and the Imperial Court's rescue.

What was said in the letter hit every pain point and desire in their hearts.

"Brother Zhao, look at this..." Deputy Lieutenant Qian lowered his voice, his eyes shining.

Deputy Lieutenant Zhao was a few years older and more steady, but the hand holding the thin silk was also trembling slightly.

"What the letter says is not necessarily a way out. Li Mao is mediocre and incompetent; following him is a dead end. When Yang Jiye arrives, can we, the defeated generals, have a good outcome?"

"But... offering the pass to surrender is a capital crime after all..." Deputy Lieutenant Qian still had concerns.

"Capital crime?"

Deputy Lieutenant Zhao sneered, "Guarding here, waiting for the Ming Army to break the pass, or waiting for Yang Jiye to hold us accountable, isn't that a capital crime? Maybe it will even implicate our families!

The letter says that the Ming King only punishes the chief culprits and treats the soldiers who turn back well. Li Mao is the chief culprit! If it weren't for his incompetence, how could the first two passes have been lost so quickly?"

The two looked at each other and saw the determination in each other's eyes.

They were not from high backgrounds and had climbed to their current positions through military merit and risking their lives; they knew the suffering of the bottom layer better than Li Mao and lacked foolish loyalty to the Imperial Court.

Born in this chaotic world, only surviving and striving for a future was the real thing!!

"Do it?" Deputy Lieutenant Qian gritted his teeth.

"Do it!"

Deputy Lieutenant Zhao nodded heavily, "But be fast, be clean! Absolutely don't let Li Mao notice, and don't let other officers loyal to the Imperial Court react.

Tonight, while Li Mao is restless, summon the confidants in the name of discussing defense, control the camp, and then... open the city gate!"

At the hour of the Rat that night, Li Mao was under the lamp, repeatedly pondering the letter of persuasion to surrender, weighing the price of surrender.

Suddenly, a personal guard reported that Deputy Lieutenant Zhao and Deputy Lieutenant Qian were requesting an audience for urgent military intelligence.

"So late..." Li Mao frowned, feeling inexplicably uneasy, but still said: "Let them in."

Zhao and Qian entered in full military gear, hands on their swords, followed by seven or eight fierce soldiers who were also fully armed.

"What is so urgent?" Li Mao asked.

Deputy Lieutenant Zhao stepped forward, cupped his hands and said: "General, we just received secret intelligence that the main force of the Ming Army seems to have abnormal movements and may launch a general attack in the second half of the night; we have come specifically to discuss countermeasures with you."

"Night raid?" Li Mao was startled and stood up, "Is the news accurate? Why haven't the scouts reported it?"

Previously, it was a night raid by the Ming Army that caught everyone off guard; now, were they going to repeat their old tricks?

"The event was sudden; the scouts have likely been eliminated."

Deputy Lieutenant Qian took over the conversation, while seemingly inadvertently moving his feet, forming a pincer movement against Li Mao with Deputy Lieutenant Zhao.

Li Mao sensed something was wrong and said sharply: "What do you want to do?!"

"We don't want to do anything," Deputy Lieutenant Zhao slowly drew his sword, his face no longer having the usual submissiveness, "Just feel that, General, you... should change your path. The brothers don't want to follow you, and that dog Imperial Court, to die together!"

Before the words fell, the brothers behind him erupted and lunged straight at the personal guards beside Li Mao!

Zhao and Qian both drew their swords and stabbed at Li Mao, who hadn't yet recovered his senses!

"You dare... ah!"

Li Mao only had time to let out half a scream before he was pierced through the chest by two sharp swords, his eyes wide, looking at his subordinates in disbelief as he slowly fell to the ground.

Deputy Lieutenant Zhao picked up Li Mao's head and shouted loudly to the other officers and soldiers who had rushed over upon hearing the sound:

"The Imperial Court is without Dao, the border troops are suffering! The Ming King of Beijiang acts on behalf of Heaven to punish the rebellious and treats the soldiers well! Those who are willing to follow us to offer the pass and make merit, and seek wealth and status, follow me! Those who resist, kill without mercy!"