Rejected Beauty Practices the Villain Play-Chapter 857 - 833: Scandal
When Dugu Jing led thirty thousand Beiman troops to the border to join forces with the Great Commander, he did not anticipate a real battle. He thought that Xie Xun dispatched him to lead the troops, likely to intimidate Sannan.
Xie Jue was within Sannan’s borders, his fate unknown, and the border troops needed strong momentum to support Xie Jue. Yet, the Beiman Army saw this as their first expedition from Beining and were determined to achieve a glorious victory, especially under the leadership of their former commander, their morale was high. Though Dugu Jing understood this, he could not discuss it with the soldiers in detail, so he trained the soldiers at the border, occasionally exchanging combat insights with the Great Commander.
However, the Great Commander wasn’t inclined to engage with him. In the capital, he seemed pleased enough with Dugu Jing, but at the border, he found him increasingly disagreeable. Dugu Jing was not the kind to curry favor with someone who was indifferent to him; even if he might marry Fang Lingjun, he would not proactively flatter his future father-in-law. He didn’t understand the Beining tradition of sons-in-law trying to please their fathers-in-law, nor could he grasp it even when someone hinted at it.
Moreover, the Jiangnan soldiers were waiting to see the spectacle, so why would they advise him? Generals from Ningzhou held many grudges against Dugu Jing. After years of fighting, even when someone couldn’t stand it and hinted at him, Dugu Jing’s cold reception made them choose to watch the show. In this strange atmosphere, the Great Commander suddenly ordered a nighttime assault on the Sannan Border City because the envoy met danger at the royal palace, prompting an immediate military response. Dugu Jing led the troops at the forefront. Attacking cities was the Beiman Army’s strength; after all, they had been attacking Ningzhou for many years and were not unfamiliar with siege warfare. The defense at Sannan’s border wasn’t as perilous as Ningzhou’s, easy to defend and hard to attack. The south was almost flat terrain without formidable defenses, and the city’s defenses were weak; the city was breached before dawn.
A great victory! 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺
With the border city breached, the Beining Army was unstoppable. Sannan’s city-keeping generals didn’t know what happened; the city fell even though they were in peace talks. The soldiers knew peace talks were inevitable and genuine conflict wouldn’t happen, so they were roused from their sleep by war drums without having time to gear up.
At dawn, the army continued southward to attack city after city. Dugu Jing and his Beiman Army acted as the vanguard while the Great Commander secured the rear. They nearly captured one city a day. The Jiangnan cities were splendid but fragile, utterly defenceless, and the twenty thousand Sannan soldiers retreated as they fought, without a leader, quickly scattered.
Dead were the dead, surrendered were the surrendered, like a plate of scattered sand.
A Beiman general couldn’t hold back and said to Dugu Jing, "Marquis, this Sannan is truly weak, Beining is really having dog luck, and the south turns out to be such a small weak country. If they had even a third of our former combat power, Beining would have been dragged down, and we would have conquered Ningzhou long ago."
Dugu Jing could only sigh, no strong countries in the East or West, their geographical position was truly advantageous. This was national fate, not something to be envious of. Just like them, Beiman couldn’t settle in warm lands, they resided behind the snowy mountains, in perpetual cold, where not even grass grew. Places meant for snow wolves, snow leopards, and other hardy animals were their homeland, and they fought their entire lives to return to warmer lands. Sannan possessed fertile lands, yet their soldiers were weak. Dugu Jing said, "The Heavenly God is fair, not giving us fertile land but providing strong military power and resources. Sannan has rich land, but they... are too soft."
But no matter what, this battle must be fought splendidly. Dugu Jing also gave a strict order to attack the cities with full force and reach Sannan’s Mudan City as quickly as possible.
He didn’t care whether Xie Jue lived or died, but Xie Xun entrusted him with the troops, and he didn’t want to betray that trust. The surrender was already decided, so he adopted a balanced mindset and did what a general should do.
The Beiman Army, with unstoppable momentum, broke through one after another of Sannan’s defenses. When they were just three cities away from Sannan’s Mudan City, they received Xie Jue’s order to cease the siege; Sannan had signed the surrender document.
Dugu Jing hadn’t had enough of the battle yet, and suddenly receiving such an order left him bewildered. However, military orders were as weighty as mountains, so he waited in place for the Great Commander to make the decision. The Great Commander’s troops arrived half a day later than they did, entering the city at midnight. When Dugu Jing went to report, he was stopped by Xiaoqi, "Marquis, please stop!"
Dugu Jing said, "I’m here to discuss the next steps with the Great Commander."
Who exactly was going to Mudan City to receive the envoy? There was no need for the entire army to go there, part of it could remain for defense, while another part could proceed to Mudan City to receive Xie Jue.
"Father Commander wishes to be alone; please forgive us, Marquis!" Xiaoqi had matured significantly since following the Great Commander into battle, speaking respectfully to Dugu Jing. Even someone as perceptive as Dugu Jing sensed a strange atmosphere in the main tent.
Dugu Jing said, "Then the Second Young Master shall relay to the Great Commander, we must have a plan before dawn, regarding who will go to Mudan City to receive the envoy."
"Yes!"
As Dugu Jing returned to his own tent, a Beiman general came hastily, "Marquis, something terrible has happened, something terrible!"
"What’s the big deal?" They had won so many battles; what could be so urgent?
The young general pulled Dugu Jing aside to a secluded spot, "News from Mudan City: the High Priest has rebelled, burning the King of Sannan and framing the Prince, chaos erupted in the Sannan Royal Palace, and the Prince has been besieged for six days."
"The Prince has already issued a command, so he seems safe, don’t make such a fuss. He survived two years of undercover in Beiman, he’s not dying!"
Dugu Jing thought to himself that if he died, at least some spite would have been alleviated.
"The Prince is unharmed, but General Fang is dead, three hundred of the iron-clad guards also died in the royal palace."
"What? Fang Chuning is dead?" Dugu Jing blurted out, utterly shocked, "How is that possible, how could he die? Where did you hear this?"
"General Xiao Li said, he’s a Jiangnan general, the Great Commander also received the news this morning, and rumors about the Prince and General Fang have spread throughout the city, they’re quite unpleasant!" The young general was a very young leader from Beiman, only seventeen, and had been following Dugu Jing for just a year. He had also followed Dugu Jing in surrendering to Beining, showing complete loyalty to Dugu Jing. This time, he requested to join him on this campaign, making him Dugu Jing’s right-hand man.
"Could the news be wrong?" Dugu Jing wasn’t concerned about the rumors; he was still in shock that Fang Chuning might die. In Dugu Jing’s view, Fang Chuning, besides Xie Jue, was his biggest rival in Beining.
"No mistake!" The young general stomped his foot, "Marquis, the rumors are really awful."
"Why? Did he die horribly? Haunted and dismembered?"
"No!" The young general leaned in to whisper the rumors to Dugu Jing, only to be pushed away by him, "What are you doing? Speak up!"
The young general stomped his foot again and loudly spoke, "The rumor is that the Prince and Princess X were originally supposed to be betrothed, but due to inappropriate behavior and engaging in an illicit affair with General Fang during a palace banquet, they were caught by the King of Sannan. To cover up their affair, they killed the King of Sannan. When the matter blew up, the Prince, taking it to the extreme, killed everyone from the Priest Court to silence them, fearing that others would know about his affair with General Fang."
Dugu Jing, "...?"
Did his Beining language study not go well, or do these words have other explanations?
