With just a banner Dugu Xian quickly settled the riots in the military camp. He almost got himself killed, but he became a great commander-in-chief of the Dragon army.
When he walked out of the main tent, he took only ten guards with him. When he looked around, he knew what was happening.
The surrounding screams came one after another, but there was no fire, and there was no chaos, indicating that the scale of the riots was far from what he had imagined.
When he entered the depths of barracks, instead of slogans of murder or arson, he was met with inquiries.
He was close to his tent, so he came back here first. He summoned his guards, attendants and counselors. They all were panicking. They had heard a rumor that the Left General had died. When Dugu Xian made his appearance, they were very much relieved.
It was far from dawn. Dugu Xian did not hurry to finish his tasks. He took his time rounding up a team of more than seventy soldiers and asked a soldier to hold his banner.
The banner was thirty centimeters long and embroidered with a large Chinese character: “Left”.
Dugu Xian led his small team to the military camps nearby. He collected 20 executioners and added them to the team. They began to move through the military camps.
There were approximately 20 armies of a thousand people in the barracks. The disturbance had already spread to most of the campsites.
Dugu Xian rode to a camp without disputes. When he arrived, he did not get down from his horse but continued to move forward. He was followed closely by the soldier holding his banner and executioners raising their shining weapons. The executioners looked more dangerous than Maid Lotus or the other guards.
The soldiers were fearful, and many of them did not even get dressed. When the Left General showed up, they felt relieved.
When Dugu Xian rode past, the herald started to shout, “Await the order in your tent!”
Low-ranking officers returned to their tents and the camps returned to normal.
Dugu Xian only had half an hour, so he could not check all the camps. When he found that the situation was starting to come under control, he quickly rode to the southeast corner of the camp. He was immediately attacked.
“Get out of Xiaoyao Lake!” Several attackers yelled. They shot three arrows at him.
Maid Lotus stayed in her saddle, close to the Left General. She was dressed in guard’s clothing to conceal her identity. Many people knew that the Dragon King had a female guard, but if she wore feminine clothing, she would attract unnecessary attention and gossip.
She carried a common scimitar. Although it was not particularly convenient, it was more than enough to block an arrow.
Her task was to protect the Left General from insurgents.
A head flew out from behind the tent. Then, two men were thrown out. At the sight of this, the executioners got down from their horses and tied the two men up.
Dugu Xian stayed calm, as if unaware of the dangers around him.
The heralds were divided into two groups. One team ran ahead to announce that the Left General was on the patrol, while the other team stayed and commanded soldiers to await their orders in the tent.
Dugu Xian felt confident. He had trained and supervised most of the soldiers himself. He believed that no matter where they were from, the new recruits would not blindly join the rebellion over a few slogans. After all, they were accustomed to following strict orders.
He was right to some extent, but his reasoning was a bit off. According to the investigation afterwards, there were two reasons most of the soldiers from the five kingdoms had not joined in the uprising. First, the Left General had appeared in time, which stabilized the soldiers’ morale. Most importantly, they cared about the land in the Land of Fragrance. They were afraid that they would not get the land they had been promised if they joined the rebellion.
Shangguan Yun was smart, and many of the insurgents were insightful. However, they were held back at the thought of guarding Xiaoyao Lake. They had underestimated the influence the Land of Fragrance had on the soldiers. It had never occurred to them that a distant kingdom could make these soldiers desert their homeland.
The soldiers seldom talked of the distant land that belonged to them. They carefully kept the receipts and remembered their importance when it was time to make a choice.
The Land of Fragrance had played an important role in Dugu Xian’s success. His strict training and prestige also helped.
After the first few insurgents were caught, the soldiers who had been driven out of the tents knew what to do next. They took action by capturing the instigators who had been shouting their slogans earlier. They tied them to the ground and handed them over to the executioners.
Dugu Xian remained silent. As for his counselors, they recorded the names of the captives, and then commanded them to return to their tents.
Disturbances had been a frequent occurrence since the soldiers from the five kingdoms joined the Dragon army. But this was the last one.
After this failed rebellion, the Golden Roc Fort and the royal families of the five kingdoms finally had to admit that the Dragon King had won the soldiers’ support.
When Dugu Xian returned to the Dragon King’s main tent, only an hour had passed.
The good news had already spread from one tent to the next. The military officers were relieved. As for the Prince and the captives, their faces had turned pale with fear and disappointment.
Gu Shenwei had been worried, but now he was no longer concerned. He remained calm as if everything was under control. All he needed now was to find the answer.
He immediately interrogated the insurgents. One of the most important questions was whose name they had used when they incited the soldiers of the five kingdoms to join the uprising.
Soon after Dugu Xian’s return, the preliminary results of the interrogations came out.
There were more than fifty rebels disguised as soldiers from the five kingdoms. They were not actually nobles from the Land of Fragrance but a gang of bandits from the Dragon Army.
When the Dragon King went to the Stone Kingdom to seek a marriage alliance, he had met the gang of bandits in the desert. Maid Lotus had made several of their leaders swallow special pills and forced them to serve the Dragon King.
After that, the bandits had performed excellently. When the capital was under siege, they had made great contributions. That was why they had gained the appreciation and trust of Prime Minister- Zhong Heng.
However, they felt that they had been ignored since the Dragon King returned to Xiaoyao Lake. Whether it was selecting senior generals or land distribution, they were treated only slightly better than the common soldiers.
As a result, their dissatisfaction towards the Dragon King had increased.
That was when Shangguan Yun’s messenger had turned up. He had not only promised them a large sum of money, he also claimed that the Golden Roc Fort could help free them from the control of New Moon Hall’s occult sciences.
The bandits had no say in the Dragon Army, so they had agreed to Shangguan Yun’s plan. Shangguan Yun had selected five important figures from each of the five kingdom’s royal families. The bandits incited the soldiers from the five kingdoms to rebel against the Dragon King in the name of the five figures. These five figures included the King of the An nation who had fled Jade City; the King of the Stone nation who had formed an alliance with the Golden Roc Fort; the captive Prince of the Kang Kingdom; a nephew of the King of the Sha nation; and the young Prince of the Hui Kingdom.
The young Prince of the Hui Kingdom was only ten years old. He had been taken to the barracks of the Dragon army by the Dragon King as a hostage.
Gu Shenwei had written his name down on paper.
When the Prince of the Kang Kingdom opened the paper, he froze with his eyes wide open.
The Dragon King had won. He commanded the generals to return to their campsites and further stabilize the soldiers’ morale, while the Prince of the Kang Kingdom and the 26 captives were left to await their doom.
“How could it be? He is just a boy,” asked the Prince in amazement. He even forgot about what lay ahead of him.
“Shangguan Yun chose him because he is a child,” Gu Shenwei explained patiently.
The Prince finally understood. In fact, he had already assumed it but refused to admit it.
Shangguan Yun had not chosen five “heroes” at random. The King of the An nation was not in Xiaoyao Lake. The King of the Stone nation was sick. The Prince of the Kang Kingdom and the nephew of the King of the Sha nation would not live long once they got caught. The young Prince of the Hui Kingdom was the only exception.
The Prince of Kang Kingdom realized that his plan had failed. “The rebellion failed, and I was used. Only a few soldiers from the five kingdoms joined in the uprising. In just over a year the influence of the royal family has been weakened to this,” he mused in despair.
“You won,” the Prince said. But he was reluctant to kneel. His determination to die had been weakened. He continued in a less resolute tone, “Xiaoyao Lake is doomed to fall into outsider’s hands. The short-sighted royal families of the five kingdoms are to blame. They should not have accepted the soldiers and money from the Golden Roc Fort and the Meng family. Dragon King, you merely have good luck. If the Golden Roc Fort had not weakened the influence of the royal families, you would not have succeeded so easily.”
Gu Shenwei waved his hand. The guards walked toward the captives who still held some hope. They dragged the captives out of the tent in preparation for the guillotine. “This is the punishment they deserve. They must die,” he thought to himself.
They began to beg for mercy and cry out names. They claimed that they could give more of their associates names.
Their voices soon disappeared outside the tent. He felt there was no need to pursue the rebellion further. The military officers and the soldiers from the five kingdoms who had not decided yet were unlikely to make trouble in the future.
With a hint from the Dragon King, the guards left the Prince of the Kang Kingdom there without taking his scimitar.
The Prince regained his courage. “I will not live alone. I can not let those cowards be sacrificed for the five kingdoms. It’s a bigger disgrace than our failure.”
“You will meet them soon,” Gu Shenwei said. Unwilling as he was, he had to kill the Prince. Improper mercy would only give the hidden insurgents hope. “But I need you to do me a favor,” he added.
The Prince was stunned. “Please, tell me. I will help you as long as it does not hurt Xiaoyao Lake.”
“Pick a qualified successor from among the royal family of the Kang Kingdom.”
“What, what do you mean? Are you going to lay hands on my father? The rebellion was my own personal decision. He had nothing to do with it.”
“You misunderstood me. Your father will still be the king. But after his death, I need a new king from your family. This person must be competent, and I do not care whether he is in your immediate family or not. I have no intention of stealing the throne from any king. The Dragon King’s target is Jade City and the Golden Roc Fort.”
The Prince’s first response was to scold his decision. The throne of the Kang Kingdom was traditionally passed from father to son. Even upon his and his father’s deaths, the throne should be passed to his brother. But then his attitude changed. He and his father were the ones responsible for the royal family’s downfall and following old rules would only leave the throne open to an outsider.
“I have a distant cousin, Shang Liao. Among all my relatives, he is…”
The Prince suddenly realized that he had fallen into a trap. Shang Liao was not only the successor for the throne but also the one he trusted most. He wished that Shang Liao could help his father fight against the Golden Roc Fort.
The Dragon King had finally coaxed him to leak his most important secret.
“Do not kill him. Shang Liao was not a part of the rebellion. He is innocent…”
Before he could finish his words, several guards walked up to him, took his weapon, and then took him out of the tent.
“Promise me that you will not kill him, Dragon King.” When he reached the exit, the Prince turned around to plead with the Dragon King.
Gu Shenwei did not answer. He could not promise to keep him alive. He could only make that decision when he met Shang Liao in person.
The Prince of the Kang Kingdom was taken outside to be executed. Two guards brought another person inside.
The young Prince of the Hui Kingdom glared at the Dragon King, putting his broken palm behind him. He seemed to be more difficult to handle than the Prince of the Kang Kingdom.