RPAGF Chapter 155 Desperate
Chapter 155 Desperate
Back at the Prince of Wei's residence, Chen Er sat in silence until Xun Yu, Li Zhong, and the heads of various departments, large and small, had all arrived. Only then did Chen Er address the group: "I presume you have all heard about what happened today. Er Gouzi, you are in charge of intelligence, do you have anything to say about this?"
"Please punish me, my lord. I failed in my duty, which led to the death of General E'lai. Please punish me." Upon hearing Chen Er's words, Li Zhong immediately knelt on the ground.
"Get up! This isn't the time to assign blame. I want the facts, the facts! Didn't your intelligence department receive any prior warning?" Chen Er said.
Li Zhong stood up and thought for a moment, then said to Chen Er, “Reporting to my lord, the intelligence department did have a report this month about a mysterious force in the martial arts world recruiting wandering knights, but it only appeared to be a typical family feud, so it did not attract our attention. However, it now seems that this is probably a secret plot by a certain warlord.”
"Why wasn't such an important matter reported!" Chen Er slammed his fist on the table and stood up, but he quickly calmed down. Indeed, Li Zhong couldn't be blamed. Who would have thought it was aimed at him? If it weren't for what happened today...
Even if Chen Er heard this news, he wouldn't care. After all, family feuds are commonplace in the martial arts world, and few of those so-called wandering knights are true heroes; they are just desperate criminals.
"Sit down." Seeing Li Zhong standing up again in fright, Chen Er waved his hand and told him to sit down. This matter cannot be entirely blamed on Li Zhong. Chen Er asked, "Immediately send more people to investigate this matter. There are only two suspects, Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu. Only these two brothers would have such an idea as to send someone to assassinate me."
Chen Er did not continue talking about this matter. He turned to the crowd and said, "E'lai has followed me for many years and protected me for so many years. Now he is dying like this. This matter must not be left like this."
"However, now is not the time to deal with this matter. Now is the time to deal with Elai's funeral arrangements. Fengxiao, I'm leaving this matter to you. Make sure Elai has a good journey. Also, Elai's son, Dianman, is seven years old now. Let him learn martial arts and military strategy from the generals."
As Chen Er spoke, his heart sank deeper and deeper. He was feeling extremely depressed. The death of Chen Qun was a huge blow to Chen Er, even more devastating than the death of Le Jin. After all, Chen Qun had always protected him and had sacrificed himself to protect Ying Qiuyu. Chen Er's heart was heavy.
Soon, Chen Qun's funeral began. At Chen Er's behest, it was conducted with the highest honors of the autonomous region. Chen Qun, like Le Jin, was buried in the center of the Martyrs' Park.
By this time, there were already tombs of two generals and some other generals there. On the day Chen Qun was buried, Chen Er personally went to see him off and stood in front of Chen Qun's tomb, announcing that he would avenge Chen Qun.
Upon hearing Chen Er's words, none of Xun Yu and the others stopped him this time. This incident had gone beyond the scope of battlefield strategy. If it were a case of death on the battlefield, Chen Er and everyone in the autonomous region would not have been so agitated.
After all, once you're on the battlefield, life and death are in the hands of fate. But this time, the mastermind behind it all, whose identity is still unknown, chose such a method. This has broken the tacit understanding among the imperial nobles, and it can be said that an unspoken rule has been violated.
That is, nobles are not allowed to assassinate each other. If everyone were to do such things, then almost all the nobles in the world would have died long ago.
Of course, the autonomous region's top leadership already had a fairly clear target of suspicion: the two Yuan brothers. Only they would have the urge to send assassins, especially since Yuan Shao had a criminal record.
However, the intelligence department quickly ruled out Yuan Shao again, because Yuan Shao had a high-ranking spy from the intelligence department by his side. This high-ranking spy, codenamed "The Lurker," did not find any evidence that Yuan Shao was involved in this matter, and Shen Pei also repeatedly stated that Yuan Shao was not capable of doing such a thing. Chen Er temporarily expressed his belief in this, as he and Yuan Shao had some tacit understanding, and he also believed that Yuan Shao would not do such a thing.
"Yuan Shu, Yuan Gonglu, you're asking for death, so don't blame me." After receiving more intelligence, although there was no direct evidence to prove this matter, all the evidence ultimately pointed to one target: Shouchun. Since it's Shouchun, what else is there to explain? It must be that big bastard Yuan Shu!
On June 21, 2190, news came from Yuyang, the capital of the autonomous region, that the autonomous region would send three army corps south to avenge Chen Qun. At the same time, Prince Wei, Chen Er, also issued a call to action, demanding that all the princes in the world exercise restraint.
Do not use underhanded methods such as assassination. Chen Er also declared that regardless of victory or defeat, the safety of all the feudal lords and nobles should be guaranteed. This call to action immediately received a response from all the feudal lords. Everyone wanted to dominate the world, but everyone also felt that their own lives should be guaranteed.
Chen Er's army marched south, deploying three corps at once, while the autonomous region began forming a new reserve corps.
This made all the warlords in the south feel insecure, especially Yuan Shu, who was particularly uneasy. He knew who Chen Er was after, and although he didn't know how he had been exposed, Yuan Shu knew that Chen Er's army was definitely coming for him.
"Reporting to my lord, according to our scouts, Chen Er's army has begun to assemble and will soon march south. According to General Zhang Xun's report, Cao Cao's army stationed in Pengcheng has begun to mobilize and seems poised to launch an attack soon," Jin Shang said to Yuan Shu.
"My lord, you wouldn't really have sent someone to assassinate Chen Er, would you?"
Seeing Yuan Shu remain silent for a long time, Jin Shang was greatly alarmed. He suddenly thought of the rumors of the past few days. Could it be that Yuan Shu was really behind the assassination attempt on Chen Er? As Yuan Shu's chief civil official, how could he know nothing about it? Jin Shang felt a great sense of disappointment. Was he really going to lose Yuan Shu's trust?
"Do I need to tell you everything I do?" Yuan Shu was already in a bad mood. He had tried to steal a chicken but ended up losing the rice instead. No one would be happy in such a situation, and Jin Shang just happened to run into this bad luck.
"Get out!" Yuan Shu roared angrily. Jin Shang, who also didn't want to stay any longer, immediately bowed to Yuan Shu and said, "This subordinate takes his leave." Then he quickly withdrew.