I Am Truly Not a Treacherous Minister Your Majesty

Chapter 24: War Begins

Northern Territory.

The King of the North sat in his mansion, savoring delicious stewed beef.

The northern territory is a bitterly cold place. In winter, the cold wind penetrates the bones, and the family can hardly leave the stove. They often cook around the stove, and thus, some stews that can drive away the cold have been developed in various ways, among which, stewed beef is a famous dish.

The stewed beef in the northern territory is not made from the cattle of the Great Xia Kingdom, but from the beef cattle introduced from the Western Holy Church. The cattle used for farming are more muscular and have a slightly inferior taste. The beef cattle from the western countries are very popular in the northern territory, and stewed beef has truly become one of the delicacies of the northern territory.

The King of the North put a piece of beef into his mouth and chewed it with satisfaction.

The King of the North is a tall man, standing at 1.9 meters. From his appearance, it is hard to associate him with a pampered prince. He has strong muscles, and his thick eyebrows add a touch of majesty to him. His eyes often emit a chilling anger—in fact, the King of the North is not a brute. On the contrary, he is the most familiar with the books of sages among the princes. Many people in the palace believe that if the King of the North were not born into the royal family, he would have become a powerful sage, both literate and martial.

But he is a prince, which means his life will not be easy.

Now, having left the power struggle, he enjoys the company of beauties and delicious food in his mansion every day. When he has nothing to do, he invites a group of martial arts experts to discuss martial arts together. Sometimes, after studying martial arts for a long time, he invites some great scholars to compose poems together, living a happy and carefree life.

However, the King of the North is not so happy now.

Just now, an urgent report came from the court, ordering the King of the North to immediately mobilize all available military forces and supplies to prepare for the arrival of General Bai.

The King of the North, Xia Ling, understood the meaning of the message very well. He had known about the incident in Hanyin City for a long time. In fact, if it weren’t for him, the court would have known about it at least a day later. He had specially received the official responsible for delivering the message and quickly handled all the procedures along the way.

Xia Ling knew how serious the situation in Hanyin City was. He was not good at power struggles, but he was not a fool. The situation over there was completely abnormal. However, he did not have much military power. At this time, the surrounding cities of Hanyin City had not moved, indicating that the corresponding officials might have long been at odds with the court. If he, the King of the North with little military power, showed up now, he might be easily taken down instead.

So he just tried to get the messenger to report to the court as quickly as possible.

And now, Xia Yuxiao personally ordered him to mobilize all the forces he could muster, which was a headache. You see, mobilizing food and equipment was not a problem, but he didn’t have many troops, so how could he mobilize them?

Thinking of this, the King of Dingbei’s mind started to turn as he ate.

He didn’t have troops, but he always had control over the surrounding cities. So what if he didn’t have troops? Recruit some! Regardless of the consequences, recruit first and talk later. The emperor’s order was probably to prevent the main army from being hindered by insufficient troops, so he planned to use these soldiers as a reserve force.

With this in mind, the King of Dingbei immediately made up his mind and ordered his servants to quickly convey his orders to the surrounding cities and promptly allocate personnel.

The rest was to prepare for defense.

The northern border was going to fight a battle involving tens of thousands of people. Since this was the case, there would inevitably be strategic maneuvers. As a result, his city, which was a key route to Hanyin City, might become a major target of attack. He didn’t want the city he had worked so hard to govern to be destroyed by war, so he had to prepare in advance.

Thus, the cities under the jurisdiction of the King of Dingbei began to dig pits and set up various defensive measures outside the city early on. Inside the city, large stones, rolling logs, and oil were stockpiled. He even hired a dozen mercenaries from the martial world to enhance the city’s defense capabilities. In addition to recruiting soldiers, the King of Dingbei required everyone, young and old, to start producing, making a large number of chevaux-de-frise and spear carts…

As a result, a miraculous scene appeared.

When General Bai led fifty thousand soldiers to the northern border, the King of Dingbei had already prepared everything. The army had just arrived and hadn’t even found a place to camp yet, but the King of Dingbei had already selected all the campsites, set up the tents, and prepared the food and vegetables in advance. The city defenses had been repeatedly strengthened, and patrols were everywhere.

In short, he had thought of everything General Bai had and hadn’t thought of.

General Bai was moved to tears when he saw this scene. He had thought that when he arrived at the northern border, he would have to spend some effort to settle these fifty thousand people, but he didn’t expect to have a god-level assistant at home. The troops could rest and reorganize as soon as they arrived.

Moreover, the King of Dingbei had sent people to survey many terrains in advance and released a large number of scouts to investigate the movements of some enemy troops.

…

The day of the great battle arrived.

Fifty thousand soldiers marched silently through the mountains and rivers of the northern border under the cover of darkness.

The soldiers of Daxia were exceptionally disciplined. To ensure absolute secrecy, all soldiers wrapped their weapons in coarse cloth before marching to avoid making noise. Their armor was smeared with grass ash and coal ash to prevent reflection at night. Since the terrain of the northern border had long been thoroughly explored, the troops did not use much lighting during the march and arrived near Hanyin City in the dark.

Then, fifty thousand people launched a surprise attack.

The barbarians in the city had no idea what was happening. Firearms were fired, and countless cultivators climbed the city walls and started a massacre.

The city was breached in less than two hours. To gain an advantage, the barbarian cavalry quickly began to break out, trying to use their cavalry’s charge to break through the siege.

Unfortunately, the soldiers of Daxia were already prepared. Countless spear carts were pushed out—these carts had rows of sharp iron spears. When the carts were pushed to designated locations and the stands were set up, the cavalry, even with spiritual energy protection, could not withstand the powerful kinetic energy. A significant portion of the cavalry was impaled on the spear carts.

At this moment, as if to prove their loyalty to Daxia, the surrounding cities, which had been holding back, also began to take action…