Daily Intelligence System: Don't Kill Me, Honey!

”Don’t you agree?”

Chen Jie looked at Tang He, and Tang He nodded, saying, ”What Hero Chen said is absolutely right.”

”I’ll definitely handle this matter properly. Once I get back, I’ll strictly rectify military discipline. I will never let one rotten piece of meat spoil our whole pot of fresh soup.”

Hearing Tang He’s words, Chen Jie said, ”Well said.”

Tang He said, ”By the way, Hero Chen, you’re heading to the Great Capital this time, right?”

Chen Jie froze for a moment, looked at Tang He, and said, ”That’s right. How did you know?”

Tang He said, ”Oh, my big brother went too.”

”Zhu Chongba?”

Chen Jie asked.

Tang He said, ”Mm, that’s right.”

Chen Jie was puzzled. ”What’s he going to the Great Capital for?”

Tang He said, ”Uh, aren’t you all going to the Great Capital to rescue the Little Ming King?”

At these words, everyone was stunned. Tang He also froze, looking at Chen Jie and saying, ”Oh, so you’re not? I thought after Hero Chen became our Holy Sect’s Dharma King, you were leading people to the Great Capital to rescue the Little Ming King.”

Chen Jie said, ”Oh, the Little Ming King is indeed one of our objectives in heading north to the Great Capital this time. By the way, the Little Ming King being captured—you all already know about it?”

Tang He said, ”Not just us—lots of people know. Didn’t the court attack our Holy Land? After they captured the Little Ming King, they brought him back to the Capital, and Tuotuo openly declared he would hold a Public King-Beheading Assembly in the Capital this time to execute the Little Ming King there.”

Hearing this, Chen Jie fell silent. A Public King-Beheading Assembly.

Tang He said, ”Mm, this time it has alarmed heroes all under heaven. Countless people say they’re going to attend the assembly and rescue the Little Ming King together!”

Chen Jie said, ”For Tuotuo to fanfare like this, there’s obviously a plot. If everyone just rushes in headlong, won’t they all be caught in one sweep?”

Tang He said, ”Hero Chen is absolutely right, but there’s no way around it. The Little Ming King is Han Sect Leader’s only son and the rightful orthodox leader of all Red Turbans under heaven. This time, everyone flying the Red Turban Army banner will gather in the Great Capital. This is the righteous cause. In this life, we live by being justified in name and reason. If we let the court so easily behead the Little Ming King this time, then we Red Turban Army might as well pack up and quit.”

”So before this, our Holy Sect already issued an internal mobilization order. When the time comes, the thirty-six routes of Wolf Smoke under heaven will all converge on the Great Capital. This time, we’re knowingly heading for the tiger’s mountain even though we know there’s a tiger there.”

”We’re going to see whose blade is harder, that dog Tuotuo’s or ours!”

When he got to this point, Tang He’s eyes were shining. He was a warlike type; once he learned of this incident, he very much wanted to go to the Great Capital.

Unfortunately, Zhu Chongba didn’t take him, but took Xu Da and a newly met brother, Chang Yuchun, heading for the Capital.

Listening to Tang He’s account, Chen Jie realized this was a grand gathering of the Northern Red Turban Army: all thirty-six routes of Northern Red Scarf smoke and dust were converging on the Great Capital.

Tuotuo wanted to use this assembly as bait to lure all heroes under heaven into his net, and how could the heroes under heaven not know that Tuotuo was trying to use the Little Ming King as bait to lure them to the Great Capital to die?

But they couldn’t back down. To put it bluntly, Tuotuo was using an open conspiracy. If the heroes under heaven didn’t dare go, then the heroes under heaven—especially this Northern Red Turban line—would be looked down on by all the Jianghu. At that point, their influence would fall far short of what it is today.

The threat they posed to the court would also be nowhere near as frightening as it is now. But if the heroes under heaven just went like this!

Then they would be walking right into Tuotuo’s extermination trap. He’d simply lay down a killing formation around the Great Capital, and by then, none of the Northern Red Scarf who entered the Great Capital would be able to escape. The Northern Red Scarf line would be wiped out from then on.

Then more than half of the rebels under heaven would be gone, and the rest would never amount to a great threat. As long as the court slowly recovered its essence, wiping out these rebel armies in the future would not be impossible.

One must know that although smoke of war rose everywhere under heaven now, eighty percent of it was still under the banner of the Northern Red Turban Army.

Which is to say, they claimed they were acting on the late Ming King’s last will to expel the barbarians and restore China. But if the Little Ming King died at this point, how would the common people under heaven view them? This was a vicious scheme, one vicious enough to wipe out the entire Northern Red Turban Army line.

Tuotuo’s scheme wasn’t even sophisticated; anyone with any insight could see the intent at a glance.

But this scheme was also extremely clever, because even if you saw through the trick, you still had no way to deal with it. This was an open conspiracy with no solution.

If you’re afraid of death, then the Little Ming King can’t be saved. If the Little Ming King can’t be rescued, then the great righteous cause of the Northern Red Turban Army won’t stand. After all, you’ve been shouting that you fight for the late Ming King’s last will, but if you won’t even go save the Ming King’s heir, who’ll believe you’re fighting for the Ming King’s sake?

Whether you go or not is different from whether you can succeed in rescuing him. Not going is a question of attitude; failing to rescue him is a question of ability.

The Han commoners under heaven can allow you to lack ability, because ability can still be made up for. But the common people under heaven absolutely will not allow you to have a problem with your attitude.

Because if your attitude is off, it means you’re not really following the late Ming King’s last will to lead the Han commoners in expelling the barbarians and restoring China.

It means you have selfish motives, that you actually want to use this opportunity to seize the powers of the realm.

The people support you because they want you to lead them in driving out the Mulan people and restoring Huaxia’s orthodox rule.

But if all you want is promotion and Fa Cai, to grasp power, carve out your own domain, and be Emperor yourself without caring whether those at the bottom live or die, they absolutely will not allow that, nor will they support you.

And without a popular base, you’re nothing. This is the problem facing the Northern Red Turban Army, so they must show an attitude; they must display their stance.

In other words, this vicious scheme Tuotuo devised is one they must walk into; they have no choice.