Green Mountain
Chapter 345 - 285, Mandated by Heaven, may you enjoy longevity and everlasting prosperity

Chapter 345: 285, Mandated by Heaven, may you enjoy longevity and everlasting prosperity

Is it over?

It’s over.

Li Xuan gasped for breath as he looked around. Blood mixed with yellow earth, and corpses littered the ground—a hellscape made manifest.

Breaking enemy lines, taking the lead, seizing banners, slaying generals. Breaking through was the easiest; killing the general, the hardest.

When the commanding general dies, the will of ten thousand soldiers collapses.

When Li Xuan set foot on this blood-soaked path with the resolve to die, he hadn’t truly imagined he could reach Yuan Zhen’s side. Now, in this moment, it all felt surreal.

As if caught in a dream, he didn’t know whether he should wake.

At that moment, Chen Ji struggled to crawl up from the ground, his expression a mix of shock and disbelief.

Seeing Li Xuan in a daze, he immediately tore off a strip of his clothing, rushed forward, and wrapped it around Yuan Zhen’s severed head, then handed it to Li Xuan.

Li Xuan snapped back to reality and took the head. On instinct, he wanted to undo the black cloth covering it, but Chen Ji forcefully held him back.

Li Xuan looked at Chen Ji in confusion, but Chen Ji offered no explanation: "Quickly! Don’t let the border army suffer more unnecessary deaths!"

Li Xuan immediately raised the black cloth-covered head of Yuan Zhen high and shouted hoarsely: "Yuan Zhen is dead!"

The battlefield fell silent for a brief moment, then erupted like a tidal wave. One by one, the border army infantry shouted in unison, filled with excitement: "Yuan Zhen is dead!"

"Yuan Zhen is dead!"

"Yuan Zhen is dead!"

The cry spread from near to far, rolling outward like crashing waves. In an instant, the morale of the Heavenly Strategy Army shattered. Aside from Yuan Zhen’s Guard Camp, the rest slowly laid down their weapons, devoid of the will to fight.

The Tiger Armor Iron Cavalry swiftly weaved through them, driving the Heavenly Strategy Army soldiers into a single area, confiscating their weapons, stripping their armor, and leading their horses away. They even threw down hemp ropes, forcing the Heavenly Strategy soldiers to bind each other.

The war was truly over.

In the dark of night, the border army infantry collapsed to the ground.

Chen Ji had thought they would either weep bitterly or cheer in victory, but they did neither. The battlefield was only filled with endless confusion and silence.

Just then, the Tiger Armor Iron Cavalry suddenly raised their iron halberds once more, charging their horses through the ranks of the Heavenly Strategy Army prisoners, slaughtering them without mercy!

This sudden turn of events shocked the border army infantry, who scrambled to their feet, staring at the Tiger Armor Iron Cavalry in alarm and disbelief.

Li Xuan roared, "What are you doing?! Killing surrendered generals on the battlefield?! It’s not out of compassion, but if we set this precedent, no one will ever surrender to the Ning Dynasty again! If our soldiers surrender to the Jing Dynasty, they will face the same butchery!"

But the iron halberds in the hands of the Tiger Armor Iron Cavalry didn’t stop, as if they heard nothing at all.

In the distance, hoofbeats signaled an approaching rider. Li Xuan turned his head to see Mr. Feng galloping toward them.

From a distance, Mr. Feng called out, "After Guyuan surrendered its city, could the Heavenly Strategy Army truly keep their word? Between Jingning and Ning, it has always been more common for our forces to surrender to the Jing Dynasty, while theirs rarely surrender to us. The enmity runs too deep. This time, we must extinguish any lingering fantasies among the faint-hearted in our dynasty."

With that, the Tiger Armor Iron Cavalry continued their slaughter of the prisoners until none were left. By the time the Heavenly Strategy Army tried to resist, it was already too late.

When they had completely massacred the Heavenly Strategy Army, Li Xuan, in his fury, noticed the Tiger Armor Iron Cavalry and the Elephant Armor Guards simultaneously raise their blades to their own necks, moving in unison as if controlled by a single will.

The next moment, Liu Family-trained elites collectively slit their throats and fell from their horses, collapsing into pools of blood!

This sight caused the border army infantry to stumble backward in shock. Even as veterans of countless battles, they had never witnessed such a scene!

Li Xuan’s earlier anger turned to stunned horror, leaving him speechless.

It was only Chen Ji who hazarded a guess: these Liu Family elites had always been under Mr. Feng’s suppression technique. His haste in surrendering the city, burning the granaries, and selling out the Crown Prince was likely because he could no longer keep them under control.

Thus, the Heavenly Strategy Army had to die. Otherwise, once the Liu Family elites lost control, the remnants of the border army would be powerless to manage the chaos.

Chen Ji looked around and noticed that Hu Junxian and Zhou You showed no abnormal reactions, as if they had known about this all along.

Mr. Feng paid them no heed, instead pointing at the corpses and gear strewn across the ground, smilingly saying to Hu Junxian, "General Hu, the Lord Prime Minister previously promised five thousand warhorses, ten thousand sets of armor, bows, halberds, and blades—all of it is here for you to take. With these war supplies, Guyuan City should be able to defend the Ning Dynasty’s borders for another fifty years."

Hu Junxian remained expressionless: "The Lord Prime Minister’s manner of delivering military supplies is certainly... unconventional."

Mr. Feng ignored the comment, instead praising leisurely, "These are military supplies the Liu Family poured an enormous amount of wealth into creating. Especially the leather armor from the Elephant Armor Camp—I’m almost reluctant to hand it over to you... Consider it a small compensation to the border army for Guyuan."

Armor is not necessarily better when heavier.

The leather armor of the Elephant Armor Camp was all made from rhinoceros hide, rendered flexible over months, then hardened on the surface with lacquer and iron sand. Even a mountain axe couldn’t cleave through it. Light, durable, and perfect for elite troops in raids or infiltration.

Throughout the history of warfare, only the finest among the elite had the privilege of wearing leather armor.

Mr. Feng spoke without false courtesy—he truly wanted to reserve the leather armor for the Jiefan Guard.

At this moment, Li Xuan propped himself up with his sword, his voice trembling with fury: "Is all of this the work of the Ritual Supervision?! No wonder you’re called the Poison Minister—you’ve sacrificed the lives of half the people of Guyuan to execute such a cruel scheme!"

Mr. Feng was unmoved, speaking with casual indifference: "Lord Li, you can call me ruthless if you wish. But speak carelessly of the Lord Prime Minister, and you may lose your life. This time, because of your merit in slaying the general, your life is spared. As the saying goes, ’Righteousness cannot tolerate sentiment, and mercy has no place in command.’ Do you know how many years of peace Guyuan can enjoy after this annihilation of the Heavenly Strategy Army’s main force and the killing of our archenemy Yuan Zhen? How many fewer border soldiers will die?"

With that, he lifted his head to look at Hu Junxian, pointing at Li Xuan: "General Hu, he bears some resemblance to you in your younger days. I wonder, though, how long it will take to temper and harden him—rough and unyielding, like the stones of Guyuan—before he can be truly useful."

Li Xuan could not accept Mr. Feng’s reasoning. He abruptly hurled Yuan Zhen’s supposed severed head to the ground: "A general’s head claimed at the cost of tens of thousands of lives? I want no part of it!"

Thud!

The head hit the ground—but instead of the sound of flesh and blood, it made a dull wooden thump. Startled, Li Xuan crouched down and pulled away the black cloth, only to find a chunk of pinewood in place of a head. Yuan Zhen’s real head was nowhere to be found!

Turning to Chen Ji, Li Xuan recalled how the other man had stopped him from removing the black cloth earlier. Surely, Chen Ji had realized it then but had kept silent for the sake of the greater good.

Chen Ji remained silent.

He had realized it because when Yuan Zhen’s head was severed, no Ice Flow was released. How could a Second-Grade Official of the Jing Dynasty die without Ice Flow accompanying his death?

Mr. Feng gazed at the wooden stump, his eyes narrowing slightly.

Lightly leaping off his horse, he flicked the tip of his boot against Yuan Zhen’s robes, revealing yet more chunks of wood, an imperial decree, and yellow paper talismans pasted over the wood.

With his hands tucked into his sleeves, Mr. Feng didn’t appear angry. Instead, he merely murmured, "Truly hard to kill... But at least this trail leads us to others who use the same suppression technique."

Li Xuan suddenly thought of something: "Wait! If the Yuan Zhen among the Heavenly Strategy Army was a grass puppet, how could it repel demons and evils?"

After pondering briefly, Mr. Feng replied, "The problem must lie with the imperial decree."

With that, he bent down and picked up the imperial decree, unfurling it. The words inside were written in blood.

There was no "By Heaven’s Mandate, the Emperor decrees"—just eight solitary characters:

Mandated by Heaven,

Long life and eternal prosperity!

At the end, it bore a bright vermillion seal!

Mr. Feng sighed softly: "No wonder he had an imperial decree with him. This was all for show."

He turned to Hu Junxian: "General Hu, as long as this man lives, Guyuan will never find peace."

Hu Junxian said nothing.

...

...

On a cliff, Yuan Zhen stood silently, gazing down at the mountain below with a calm expression.

Guyuan City was a ruin of broken walls, while the camp of the Heavenly Strategy Army outside the city still burned fiercely. Lives had been reduced to ash and dust.

A retainer approached, draping a large cloak over his shoulders, and whispered, "Marshal, we should go. After this setback at Guyuan, Lu Jin will seize the chance to place blame on us when we return. Perhaps we should slaughter some villages before heading back—it would give us some heads to deliver as collateral."

After a long silence, Yuan Zhen finally said, "I’ve dealt with Guyuan since I was seventeen. Back then, I only accompanied my father on campaigns, serving as a lowly vice general beside him. Later, when my father fell ill, he told me on his deathbed that if I ever broke through Guyuan, I should burn a eulogy for him at his tomb. At the time, I thought to myself: Guyuan City, with its feeble elders and crippled soldiers, clad in bamboo armor, wielding dull blades and soft bows, without even firearms—how hard could it be to take? If it were me as Great Commander, I could conquer Guyuan in no time."

"I looked down on my father back then," Yuan Zhen said distantly. "But after I inherited his title and rose from vice general to Great Commander over twenty-three years, I’ve attacked Guyuan seven times and lost seven times. Only then did I realize my father was far more capable than I ever gave him credit for."

He gestured toward the broken, battered city below, sneering, "In my youth, I thought I’d one day march to the prosperous Imperial Capital of the Ning Dynasty. Instead, I’ve been entangled with this old, battered city for over twenty years. I’ve spent my life’s prime clashing against these stubborn, unyielding stones, and perhaps my entire life will be ground to dust here."

His retainer remained silent.

Yuan Zhen turned to descend the mountain: "Let’s go."

But just then, cries of suffering echoed from below.

Under the night sky, he stopped and observed the shadows moving at the foot of the barren mountain. More than a dozen of his guards raised their vigilance as they stood before him.

In the biting wind, twenty or so figures ascended the mountain, carrying long knives still dripping with blood.

Yuan Zhen squinted to see who they were. When he recognized them, a look of realization crossed his face: "So it’s you. I thought you’d never return to Guyuan."

Third Master Hu shook the blood off his blade and grinned: "I made a vow to bring your head to our general’s grave. How could I break my word? These years, day and night, I’ve thought only of how to kill you!"

Yuan Zhen glanced at the fierce men behind Third Master Hu, calm as wolves and tigers. Slowly, his tense body relaxed: "So, we all have our obsessions."

Third Master Hu stepped toward him, step by step: "In the sixth year of Jianing, the Guyuan Border Army lost 3,214 soldiers; in the ninth year of Jianing, 2,932 more; in the fourteenth year of Jianing..."

He counted meticulously, leaving no life unaccounted for.

A debt of blood must be repaid in blood.

Xiao Wu whispered from behind him, "And there’s the Shopkeeper too."

Darkness clouded Third Master Hu’s expression.

Yuan Zhen shook his head: "And you think the Heavenly Strategy Army has lost any fewer men than Guyuan?"

Third Master Hu snapped, "If we both suffered so much, why keep coming back? Why couldn’t we just leave each other be?"

Yuan Zhen suddenly said, "Hu Junyuan, I’m luckier than you."

Third Master Hu froze: "What nonsense are you spouting at death’s door?"

Yuan Zhen chuckled: "I’m about to be freed, whereas you’ll remain shackled to this place, without escape. That makes me a bit luckier, doesn’t it?"

Third Master Hu fell silent.

Seeing his reaction, Yuan Zhen burst into laughter: "Do you regret returning to Guyuan?"

Behind Third Master Hu, twenty or so men moved as one, slaughtering Yuan Zhen’s attendants one by one.

Charging forward, Third Master Hu plunged his blade into Yuan Zhen’s abdomen, the warm blood spilling down the weapon’s length.

As he looked into Yuan Zhen’s eyes, he asked, "Any last words?"

The light in Yuan Zhen’s eyes began to dim: "I won’t be coming back to Guyuan in my next life."