Chapter 1701: The Death of a Great General!
"Your Highness is hesitant?"
Hou Junji raised his head and smirked.
The First Prince clenched his teeth and swiftly replied, "How could that be?! This prince is only worried that the man in Big Dipper City is not that easy to deal with."
"Heh, Your Highness does not need to worry. Everything has been taken care of!"
Hou Junji chuckled and quickly turned his head.
"The righteous do not grasp for wealth and the kind do not command soldiers. As long as Your Highness is not softhearted, I will naturally help you ascend to the Supreme Seat of the Nine and Five! Of the six protectorates of the realm, Your Highness has only taken two. The strength of the Beiting and the greatly reduced Anxi is not enough. But if we take this place, we will truly be prepared, and everything will be different!"
His final words seemed to thud against the ground, echoing off the walls. Everyone in the hall fell silent.
At this moment, in Hou Junji's barely open eyes, there was a frighteningly cold gleam.
......
Two days passed. One hundred generals had held a secret meeting at Setting Sun Villa and a Protector-General of the empire had been removed. All this was a major shock for the common folk of the empire.
But while the entire empire was focused on Setting Sun Villa, the echoes of the incident yet to fade, another incident came hot on its heels and stunned the empire.
"Your Highness, terrible news!"
Wang Chong had spent these several days doing his best to investigate the Setting Sun Villa and save An Sishun and those other generals. At this moment, Xu Keyi rushed inside in a panic, his face pale and completely unlike his normally composed self.
After going through both the war of the southwest and the Battle of Talas, Xu Keyi had been hardened into a fierce, veteran general, and his personality was much more tempered and composed. But at this moment, Xu Keyi was so frantic that his lips were trembling, and Wang Chong could sense the fear in his body.
"We just received an urgent report! There's been a major incident in Big Dipper City! Great General Geshu Han was slain!" Xu Keyi blurted out the news before Wang Chong could ask.
Bang!
The news was like a lightning bolt, and the entire hall seemed to quake.
"What?!"
Wang Chong had been perusing documents related to the Setting Sun Villa incident when he heard the news, and he couldn't help but raise his head in disbelief.
"This is impossible!"
Wang Chong almost instinctively rejected the idea. Geshu Han was a mighty general, one of the best Great Generals in the empire. He was also surrounded by countless elites. Wang Chong's first reaction was to believe that this was all false, that such a thing could have never happened.
But a moment later—
Bong!
The resounding ringing of a bell came from the Imperial City. It was an extremely unique sound, one that had never been heard before in the capital.
The window several feet away began to fiercely tremble, and even Wang Chong's desk and the books on the shelves quivered.
Upon close listening, one could hear a somber sorrow in the bell's sonorous tones.
Whoosh!
Wang Chong's face went ghastly pale, all the blood draining out of it, and his heart chilled.
The Bell of Mountains and Rivers!
A giant bell stood in the Great Tang's Imperial Palace, cast from Deep Sea Xuan Metal and brass. It was taller than a man and weighed exactly 99,999 jin. Ever since it had been cast, it had rarely been used. Its tones were mournful, and in the Great Tang, it had another name: The Mourning Bell of Kings. Only when kings of high status or extremely important subjects of the empire died would this bell ring.
Wang Chong had heard about this bell when he was growing up, but in his ten-some years, this was the first time he had heard it ring.
......
"What? Geshu Han is dead?!"
At the same time, in the Minister of War Residence, which was now fully repaired, Zhangchou Jianqiong had been pruning a peony in his garden when he heard the news. The pot in his hand dropped to the ground and shattered, but he hardly noticed.
"Milord, the news has already been confirmed! The Imperial Court has already posted an announcement of his death! All the common folk in Longxi are wearing white in mourning to send him off! It is said that the weeping and wailing of the common folk can be heard as far as ten li," reported an old veteran who had served Zhangchou Jianqiong in the southwest, his face stricken with grief.
"How is this possible?"
Zhangchou Jianqiong's body trembled, his eyes full of disbelief. But at this moment, BONG! The resounding ring of a bell came from the Imperial Palace, shaking the entire capital and the Minister of War Residence.
The entire garden became deathly still. Zhangchou Jianqiong and his subordinate instinctively turned in the direction of the bell.
At that moment, Zhangchou Jianqiong's eyes were filled with endless sorrow.
"Geshu... is really dead..."
......
Once!
Twice!
Thrice!
The Bell of Mountains and Rivers resounded over the capital, and the bustling capital became somber and serene.
In every direction, whether one was a porter or peddler, a big tycoon, or an elder relaxing on the side of the road and playing with children, all of them stopped for a moment. A mood of sorrow pervaded the air.
Today was bound to be a restless one for the Great Tang.
For the first time in ten-some years, the empire had lost one of its brightest general stars!
At the same time, on the Silk Road leading to the capital, several figures were trudging along. From their silk clothes and the carvings on their swords, it was apparent that they were people of significant status.
The man they were escorting seemed to be a prisoner, but his straight back and sharp eyebrows exuded an aura of dignity and power. This was the man who had been implicated in the Setting Sun Villa incident and censured by the Imperial Court, Beiting Protector-General An Sishun.
After the Setting Sun Villa incident, the First Prince had almost immediately stripped An Sishun of his authority and sent the Serpent Guards of his Eastern Palace to escort An Sishun back to the capital.
Whoosh!
There was a gust of air from above, and An Sishun and the Serpent Guards around him all looked up in surprise.
The messenger bird overhead did not fly past. Instead, it descended and flew straight toward An Sishun, taking him by surprise. The First Prince had already seized the generals of the Beiting Protectorate, and he truly couldn't think of anyone that would send him a message.
But regardless, An Sishun quickly extended his arm to receive the bird.
After glancing at the message, An Sishun turned ghastly pale and his entire body shivered.
"How could it be like this!?"
The letter he had received was an official missive from the Imperial Court. This missive reported an extremely grave incident, written on official yellow paper, and it had been sent to all the important subjects of the empire. This official missive had the seal of the court that could not be forged.
Even though An Sishun had been Beiting's Protector-General for many years, this was the first time he had received a message of this nature.
Only a few words had been written:
'Big Dipper Great General Geshu Han has passed!'
These words had been written in crimson cinnabar ink, like drops of blood. An Sishun was frozen to the spot by these words.
"Milord, Milord..."
The uneasy voices of the Serpent Guards came from around him. An Sishun came to his senses, and deep sorrow began to encroach on his hard and determined face.
"The sunset of an empire!"
An Sishun slowly raised his head to the dark clouds above, his lips trembling as he spat out these words.
The sunset of the empire had come, the passing of the golden age into the bitter autumn!
A Great General of his generation had died. As the saying went, the rabbit mourned the death of the fox, but this was not the only thing that made An Sishun grieve. A water bucket was bound to break near the well, and a general would usually die on the battlefield. This was an understanding he had reached the moment he became a general overseeing the border. What An Sishun truly mourned was the emptiness he felt in the empire, the decline that he smelled in the air.
One hundred generals had been arrested in Setting Sun Villa, and even he was being escorted back to the capital.
All of this was too suspicious, but before the waves had even settled, a mighty Great General of the empire had died. It was too abrupt and strange.
Whether these things were right or wrong, true or false, none of this should have happened in the middle of the empire's golden age.
The curtain had fallen on an era!
"Geshu, go in peace!"
An Sishun turned in the direction of Big Dipper City. Ka! He took a jade token from his waist.
He and Geshu Han had been promoted at nearly the same time. Geshu Han had become the Big Dipper Great General at almost the same time as he had been promoted to Beiting's Protector-General after his feats on the battlefield. The two of them, brimming with energy, had obtained an audience with the Sage Emperor. They had met in the capital, and both had obtained a jade token from the Sage Emperor.
Clap!
This jade token of the highest quality was obliterated in An Sishun's hand, and then its dust scattered into the wind, to drift toward Big Dipper City.
......
One of the Great Tang's most experienced Great Generals, Big Dipper Great General Geshu Han, had suddenly died in Big Dipper City. This news swept over the world like a storm, shocking all who heard it.
Great ripples stirred in all the border protectorates and armies. In the history of the empire, very rarely did Great Generals die on campaigns, particularly someone on the level of Big Dipper Great General Geshu Han.
As the Bell of Mountains and Rivers rang, the court was dismissed for three days, gripped by a solemn and respectful mood.