Chapter 258: Chapter 257 Xie Zhang
On the long street, Xie Xun and Xie Zhang were utterly embarrassed by the archers ambushing them from both sides. This was an unexpected battle. The Crown Prince had planned it for a long time and was better prepared than Xie Zhang and Xie Xun. The Capital City was the stronghold of the Forbidden Army and the Jinyi Guard. In both manpower and supplies, they far surpassed the Northern Iron Cavalry.
Both Xie Zhang and Xie Xun were wounded. Half of the long street remained ahead; marching straight on would lead to harsher ambushes. Xie Zhang said gravely, "Urban combat. Xie Xun, take Feiying. Cui Lansong, head through Nanhua Street to the city gates. I’ll take Xu Zhou and loop through Three Cross Street via Seven Miles Alley."
"Brother, I will not leave your side!" In the torrential rain, Xie Xun turned back and severed the arms of two Forbidden Army soldiers. His longsword pierced through the rushing figures. Rainwater couldn’t wash away the bloodstains on his body, and his embroidered robes were as red as a bridal dress.
Xie Zhang squinted, grabbed Xie Xun, and shoved him toward Cui Lansong and Feiying. "Take him and leave! Don’t waste words. If we stay together, no one gets out alive!"
"Yes!" Cui Lansong and Feiying shouted behind them. Xie Zhang bellowed fiercely, "Left and right flanks, follow Xie Xun. Break through to the North City Gate at all costs. Zhixu, I’ll wait for you at the gates!"
Xie Zhang charged into the alleyways of the long street ahead of Xie Xun. Xie Xun also understood that the ten-mile street was fraught with ambushes. They had to separate to seize a sliver of hope. If they all tried to break through the long street together, the archers from both sides would turn them into a mess of holes. Everyone would be open targets. The darkness, the thunder, the heavy rain—they were all covers for the enemy.
But emotionally, how could he bear to leave Xie Zhang?
"Brother!" Xie Xun screeched his brother’s name, charging forward, only to be stopped by Feiying and Cui Lansong. In one night, Xie Xun had lost his parents, elder sister, and aunt. He couldn’t bear to let Xie Zhang leave his view.
Xie Zhang’s shoulder was slashed to the bone by the curved blade of a Jinyi Guard, and blood soaked through his wedding attire. The enemy forces were overwhelming, and both the Forbidden Army and the Jinyi Guard were Imperial City Guards and Emperor’s Guard, trained year-round with formidable combat prowess. While the Northern Iron Cavalry was valiant and adept in open-field battles, their experience in urban combat was limited. Ningzhou had only conducted a few urban combat drills. The Jinyi Guard and Forbidden Army, however, trained as if the Capital itself were their battlefield.
Xie Zhang beheaded one man, blood streaming over his entire head, mixing with rainwater as it dripped down his body. He shouted harshly, "Go!"
Xie Xun knew there was no time to waste and led Feiying and Cui Lansong into the left alley. Once they entered the alleys, the archers lost their targets, forced instead to leap from the rooftops for close combat with the cavalry.
In close combat, the cavalry had the upper hand.
At the rearmost end of the forces, the Crown Prince sat silently in his palanquin, listening to the sound of rain. Fierce winds lifted the curtain on the palanquin, and the muffled clatter of pearls couldn’t drown out the sounds of the bloody battle just a stone’s throw away.
His Shadow Guards stayed close to him, unwavering.
Lin Cheng rode in at full gallop. Amidst the chaos, he didn’t even have time to dismount but saluted atop his horse. "Your Highness, Xie Zhang has taken Three Cross Street while Xie Xun proceeds along Nanhua Street. Zhang Bolan and Chen Mo are chasing Xie Zhang and have set an ambush ahead."
"Understood. The plan remains unchanged. Lead them to the tall buildings on Three Cross Street."
"Yes!"
As Xie Xun led Feiying and Cui Lansong to break through to Nanhua Street, he suddenly realized something. The pursuers behind them were sparse, slain by men sent by Cui Lansong and Feiying. The dense cluster of soldiers from before was vanishing from the ten-mile street.
Cui Lansong, with his fiery temper, roared, "What’s going on? Why aren’t they chasing?"
"No, they’re after the Eldest Young Master now."
Xie Xun, his thigh gashed and two arrows lodged in his body, turned to stare at the dark alley behind him. His entire body trembled. All the Forbidden Army and Jinyi Guards had gone after his elder brother. Xie Zhang, as if anticipating this, had instructed him to take the Northern Iron Cavalry’s best forward flanks and vanguard forces—two thousand strong. Over a thousand from their five thousand troops had already fallen. If they continued this battle of attrition on the ten-mile street, they would all be doomed to fight to the death.
To face over thirty thousand of the Forbidden Army and Jinyi Guards, even five thousand cavalry had struggled. Now, what could Xie Zhang possibly do to break through with only a little over a thousand men in a heavily surrounded kill zone?
"Brother!" Xie Xun’s body turned to ice, his mind mentally tracing the terrain of Three Cross Street. His thoughts turned unusually sharp. "Everyone, regroup and follow me!"
Just as Xie Zhang predicted—the target of the Forbidden Army and Jinyi Guards wasn’t Xie Xun but him!
Leading the left and right vanguard, Xie Xun saw only small fractions of Forbidden Army and Jinyi Guards pursuing him. The majority went after Xie Zhang into the alleys. Xie Zhang continued his killing spree even as he thought:
Thank goodness—I gambled right!
If Zhixu could reach the North City Gate and join Ting Feng, they would be safe. There was no way the Crown Prince would let Zhixu leave the Capital alive. If Zhixu followed him in a breakout attempt, it would only lead to certain death!
As midnight approached, the torrential rain intensified. Xie Zhang, along with General Xu Zhou and others, struggled to break through to Three Cross Street. Fierce winds whipped the banners atop the high buildings, and there, on the high wall, hung a figure clad in a bright red wedding dress, swaying in the storm. Xie Zhang’s chest tightened, his eyes pricking with pain. "Shu’er..."
General Xu Zhou grabbed Xie Zhang. "Eldest Young Master, be careful!"
"Let me go!" Xie Zhang roared, his heart twisted with anguish. On his wedding night, how could his Shu’er—a vision of pure humiliated grief—be strung up on the high walls? This was supposed to be their happiest day!
In the Feng Mansion, Fengyu had been unsettled all evening. After the shopkeepers left, the storm hit. Sitting by the window, she felt a searing pain in her chest as if flames were burning her heart. She clutched the Soul Suppressing Pearl, her eyelids twitching incessantly.
Zhang Da and Chunlu, who had been monitoring the situation outside, had dared not stray too far. Near midnight, it was Chunlu who brought back Feng Changqing and Su Yuejiao. Severely injured, the Forbidden Army had discarded Feng Changqing and his wife at the doorstep like refuse. Covered in blood, Feng Changqing had sustained a fatal abdominal stab wound, his blood gushing wildly. Fengyu, long ill, watched as Chunlu, now nearly a skilled healer, deftly bandaged Feng Changqing. Su Yuejiao, with an arrow lodged in her back, lay unconscious.
"Father! Mother!"
"Shu’er..." Su Yuejiao coughed up blood as she weakly stirred awake. Clutching Fengyu’s hand, she gasped, "Go to Three Cross Street... go to Three Cross Street... save Xie Zhang!"
"Mother!"
Su Yuejiao’s words broke intermittently, her consciousness flickering. On the verge of death, Fengyu leaned in closer to listen, her face changing drastically as she suddenly yelled, "Zhang Da!"
Moments later, Zhang Da gathered a team of guards escorting goods from the trading house and left Feng Mansion, heading for Three Cross Street.
By the time they arrived at Three Cross Street, Xie Xun had already led the left and right cavalry flanks there—but they were too late. On the high tower, the woman in the bridal dress fell like a shattered butterfly. Lin Cheng sliced through the rope, and her body plummeted ten meters from the platform to the ground, which was sodden with mud and blood. The heavy fall would surely shatter her bones into fragments. Xie Zhang shoved Xu Zhou aside, his eyes red with rage, and charged toward the high platform in a frenzy.
Amid the storm, he seemed to hear Feng Shu’s voice faintly.
"Brother..." Her voice raked through the storm in desperation and sorrow, piercing through the layers of rain. "Brother, leave, now!"
With a deafening thud, the woman fell from the high wall to the ground, splattering mud everywhere. The phoenix crown on her head shattered upon impact, the brilliant pearls scattering into muddy puddles, sinking into the earth.
"Shu’er!" Xie Zhang’s eyes turned bloodshot, his soul shattering as arrows rained toward him from all directions. He was just two steps away—just two steps from catching Feng Shu.
"Brother!" Xie Xun cried out in terror, swinging his blade recklessly forward.
"Eldest Young Master!"
"Little Marquis, stay calm!"
"Get out of my way! All of you, get out of my way!"
High above on the platform, the Crown Prince Yuwen Jing looked down at them all, coldly disdainful. At long last, over a decade of jealousy and hatred found its long-awaited release.
"Brother!" Feng Shu, disheveled and anguished, staggered toward him, falling several times along the way. Stumbling and crawling, she reached him and caught his fallen body in her arms.
Blood gushed endlessly from Xie Zhang’s mouth and nose. Feng Shu, trembling, tried to stop the flow with her hands, but the blood soaked through her fingers. Helpless, she wiped frantically, her lips quivering. Something seemed to choke her throat. The man she loved lay dying in her arms, but she couldn’t string together a single sentence. She wanted to call his name, to tell him so many things. Pain and desperation consumed her—why couldn’t she speak?
"Shu’er..." Xie Zhang clutched her hand tightly. "As long as it’s not you... it’s fine."
He stared deeply at his new bride, as if to engrave her into his very soul. "Go with Zhixu... to Ningzhou... live well."
In the eleventh year of Jianming, the sixth day of the sixth month.
Xie Zhang, eldest son of Marquis Zhenbei, died on his wedding night, pierced by countless arrows.