Chapter 1372: Unforgivable Crimes

King Yao had clearly welcomed the Yangshan Chamber of Commerce to settle in Yaoguo, but Xue Zongwu interfered from the sidelines, resorting to murder, arson, and extortion.

Dong Rui had originally thought that He Lingchuan would at most use some tactics to teach him a lesson.

After all, he was a great general of Yaoguo, formidable in reputation, martial arts, power, and the size of his forces.

To his surprise, He Lingchuan dared to directly target Xue Zongwu.

"Didn't you just say we needed to silence the Yaoren?" He Lingchuan smiled faintly. "Instead of silencing them, wouldn't it be better to directly slap them in the face? Killing him would both deliver justice and satisfy our own grievances. Two birds with one stone, isn't that wonderful?"

"Now that's what I'm talking about!" Dong Rui clapped his hands and laughed heartily. "Wonderful, wonderful! Have you been gathering intelligence on Xue Zongwu these past few days?"

He Lingchuan pushed the documents in his hand forward. "These are them."

Xue Zongwu was a renowned general of the Yaoren, the Grand Tutor of the Crown Prince, and a truly high-ranking official of the royal court!

"You really know how to pick 'em," Dong Rui continued, picking up the materials. "All the villains we've killed before, combined, don't amount to the significance of him alone, neither in reputation nor cultivation. City massacre? Oh, I remember Fu Liushan talking about this in his stories. Yaoguo rarely sent troops abroad in the past hundred years, but Xue Zongwu himself was responsible for several such instances. When he led his troops, the northern tribes fought to the death rather than surrender. After Xue Zongwu captured the city, he ordered the massacre of all 270,000 inhabitants, reportedly leaving no one alive!"

"That was just one instance," He Lingchuan said. Since he had been targeting Xue Zongwu, he had long memorized all his information. "He massacred cities three times in total, sending 500,000 people to their deaths, truly 'bloodbathing' entire cities. From then on, all the tribes trembled in fear and dared not resist."

Dong Rui nodded. "Old Fu said his army even held killing contests in the cities, and Xue Zongwu personally awarded prizes to whoever killed the most in an hour. I wonder if that's true?"

"It's true. Our people interviewed a merchant from that city. He returned from a long journey that year to find the entire city silent and reeking of decay. His wife, concubine, three children, parents, siblings, and neighbors—even a family he often argued with—had all perished. The scene was utterly horrific; he fell gravely ill for three days after escaping and still suffers from nightmares."

In the Panlong world, He Lingchuan had been ruthless when leading his troops to attack Longchuan in Yuheng City. The Longchuan river bandits both feared and hated him, giving him the title "He the Butcher." Yet, his so-called "butcher" persona, when compared to Xue Zongwu, made him seem as kind as an angel.

"Civilian casualties are unavoidable in war," He Lingchuan said. He had led troops in battle himself and knew that "war losses" were often inevitable, and that civilians were usually the first to suffer when war broke out. "However, the deliberate massacre of an entire city, even in the Golden Plains, is appalling."

City Lord Liu of Shizhou treated his people like cattle and horses, stripping them bare. The cannibal Zhao Guangzhi treated his people like pigs and sheep, ready to be slaughtered and eaten. But even they never initiated a city-wide massacre or butchered hundreds of thousands of civilians in a matter of days.

"Don't forget that Tu Yuanhong was also killed by Xue Zongwu," He Lingchuan added casually. "More than a hundred people from Tonglin Village were buried with him, and no one knows how he provoked Xue Zongwu. Given Xue's character, is it really a big deal that he'd destroy a branch of our foreign merchant guild?"

Dong Rui continued to read the documents. "He condoned countless crimes by his subordinates in Shuangxi and Song'e? Where are those places?"

"You know Yaoguo occupies many mines, horse farms, and grain-producing areas in the western, central, and southern parts of the Golden Plains," He Lingchuan asked. "Those aren't within its own borders, right?"

"That's right, hasn't Yangshan also dealt with them?" Dong Rui replied, noting that the Yangshan Chamber of Commerce also needed these resources.

"Yangshan has tried to do business with them, but they're even harder to deal with than Yaoguo itself," He Lingchuan said, stretching. "These places are called 'tribute lands' and generally fall into two categories. In one, local officials manage and harvest, then send tribute to Yaoguo. In the other, Yaoguo directly occupies the land with its military, conscripts local people for farming and mining, and sends all the output back to Yaoguo, while the locals get almost nothing."

"Shuangxi has fertile land and sweet rainwater, making it a well-known grain-producing region far and wide. In such a blessed place, despite a great harvest last year, over nine hundred people starved to death—and that's just a rough estimate. Some, desperate with hunger, saw grain carts heading to Yaoguo one after another and resorted to theft. Xue Zongwu ordered these people to be slowly dismembered, then had their corpses filled with grain and thrown outside the city walls."

Dong Rui clicked his tongue. "What kind of twisted pleasure is that?"

Every target eliminated by the Black-Armored Army had their own perversions.

"There were many displaced people outside the city." He Lingchuan didn't elaborate, but Dong Rui clicked his tongue twice, understanding.

"Both of these tribute lands are managed by Xue Zongwu, where he acts like an emperor emeritus. If the top beam isn't straight, the bottom beams will be crooked—how do you think his subordinates treat the local people?" He Lingchuan walked to the window, picked up a three-finger-thick booklet, and slapped it onto the table; the sound alone indicated its weight. "These are all the crimes his subordinates committed over the past ten years with his connivance—a litany of bloodshed that a single booklet can't possibly contain."

"You gathered all this information in just a few days?"

"I've been watching Xue Zongwu for a long time; the collection work began two months ago," He Lingchuan said slowly. "He's an important target, but it was difficult to make a move before. But I didn't expect that before I could settle accounts with him, he'd come looking for trouble with me."

"Yaoren, high-ranking official, committing evil deeds." He Lingchuan raised three fingers one by one. "Aren't all the elements in place, just missing the kill?"

"In terms of crimes, he's certainly qualified," Dong Rui admitted, agreeing that this target was worthy of the Black-Armored Army's deployment. "But how do you plan to proceed? This fellow built his career through martial prowess, his cultivation is very high, and his current status was earned through battle. Oh, and he also has elemental power and an army!"

The more Dong Rui read Xue Zongwu's resume, the more difficult he found him. This man was unlike any target the Black-Armored Army had faced before; to summarize him in one word: too strong.

Even if all several hundred Black-Armored Army soldiers were deployed, against Xue Zongwu and his army, their chances of success would be slim.

That wasn't like Zhao Guangzhi's scattered, disorganized troops, where a few dozen Black-Armored cavalry could make a thousand of the enemy flee in terror.

"How about we find a pretext to lure him away and kill him elsewhere?" Dong Rui's mind raced. "He has to travel between the capital and the tribute lands, right? We could ambush him on the road?"

"No," He Lingchuan flatly refused. "I want to kill a renowned general of Yaoguo within Yaoguo itself. Only that will create the most sensational effect!"

If Xue Zongwu were to die abroad, the Yaoren, though surprised, might not be deeply shocked.

Generals inevitably die on the battlefield; everyone is prepared for such a possibility.

Only by making them all feel incredulous and unbelievable can the Black-Armored Army truly become "heaven-sent divine soldiers."

"Furthermore, given his cultivation, having more people won't help us," He Lingchuan added. "It would only make our movements more difficult."

Dong Rui had another ominous feeling. "Are you suggesting?"

He Lingchuan pointed at himself, then at Dong Rui. "How about just the two of us?"

"You're constantly increasing the difficulty for yourself," Dong Rui said with a wry smile. "Can't we pick someone a bit softer? I think some other Yaoguo generals are quite suitable; do you want to pick a few others to kill instead?"

"For example?"

"Uh..." How would he know? He wasn't familiar with Yaoguo.

"Xue Zongwu is different from others; killing him has several advantages," He Lingchuan explained patiently. "Eliminating a scourge for the people goes without saying. It will also make the Black-Armored Army famous in Yaoguo, which goes without saying. When people in the Golden Plains hear of it, their awe for the 'Great Emperor of Nine Hells' will truly sink into their hearts. He is also King Yao's sword against neighboring powers—the fastest, sharpest one, striking wherever he points. Breaking this sword will surely impact Yaoguo's strength."

"Secondly, he is the great general guarding Yaoguo's northern border. With him stationed there, the Luodian people to the north dare not raid south. If he dies, border issues will resurface, and you know the Luodian people's nature."

Dong Rui rested his head on his hand, tired from reading the documents. He simply asked He Lingchuan directly, "Anything else?"

"Xue Zongwu is fiercely loyal to King Yao, which led to some unpleasantness with Qingyang. His arrogant nature meant Qingyang made him suffer quite a bit, using a favored loyal general like Xue Zongwu to put other ministers in their place." He Lingchuan chuckled. "His death might even stir up some suspicion. After all, Xue Zongwu isn't someone just anyone can kill."

"Alright, a thousand words won't do it—how do you plan to actually do it?" Dong Rui asked, rubbing his face. "Do we have an informant in Xue Zongwu's army? How can we know his movements?"

"It's not hard to predict his movements," He Lingchuan said, already having a plan. He stood up and opened the sandbox map. "The King of Yao's birthday celebration—he'll definitely attend."

"That's an opportunity. How will you know when he departs and where he travels?"

"This man loves ostentation and grand displays," He Lingchuan said, pointing at the sandbox map. "His military escort will take him to Jiangwang Pass and then return to the northern border. That journey will be so grand that even a blind man couldn't lose sight of him. But from Jiangwang Pass onward, well, it's a Yaoguo regulation that a border general can only bring a maximum of two hundred elite soldiers through the pass to the capital."

Without a king's summons, a commanding general cannot arbitrarily bring a large army back to the capital. This is an ironclad rule in any country.

Rashly leading an army back to the capital would surely cause suspicion among superiors and unrest in the court. Therefore, when Xue Zongwu returns to the capital, the number of guards around him will be limited, which presents a good opportunity for He Lingchuan.

"From Jiangwang Pass to the capital is over 320 li," He Lingchuan said seriously. "These 300-plus li are our operational zone."

Xue Zongwu leaving his territory to return to the capital is like a tiger leaving its mountain—there will definitely be vulnerabilities in his personal security.

"Where will we be then?" Dong Rui reminded him. "We also have to go to Yaoguo for the birthday celebration. Didn't that guy named Fan say earlier he wanted to travel with you? Oh, and King Yao even sent you extra guards!"

"If we time our departure correctly, we might be able to approach Xue Zongwu on the road," He Lingchuan said, not keeping him in suspense and revealing the answer directly. "His journey is longer than ours. We'll set off after he departs."