Chapter 396: Chapter 303 Dayue_2
Du Mingqian asked, "You went to Tanzhou, was it to find this token?"
The man glanced at them, took a deep breath, and clenched his teeth tightly again.
Fu Zhen and the others exchanged looks, then she said, "A guard of a fallen royal family, what are you looking for this token for? Are you from the Prince Yi Mansion, or the Dayue Palace?"
The man looked back at her with venomous eyes, "You are an enemy of our Dayue, what difference does it make if I tell you or not? The outcome is death regardless."
"But you still want to find a chance to survive," Fu Zhen raised an eyebrow, "If you really believed you were bound to die, you had plenty of time to bite your tongue and end your life after we pulled the cloth from your mouth, and if I’m not mistaken, you also have poison hidden in your mouth.
"—In short, if you wanted to die, no one could stop you. But you didn’t do so, didn’t that mean you thought there’s still a chance to live?"
The man was stunned by her words, the venom in his eyes frozen.
Fu Zhen continued, "The enemy of your enemy is your friend. We rescued you from Xu Yin’s hands, at least we won’t treat you like Xu Yin did."
The man sneered, "Do you intend to release me then?"
"If you cooperate with us well, it’s not impossible."
"And just by your light words, I should trust you?" The man snorted and turned his head away.
Pei Zhan said, "Xu Yin already knows your identity, yet still treats you like this, you’re not on the same path. Given that, why not choose to cooperate with us?
"Tell us everything you know, the Emperor of Great Zhou is benevolent and righteous. Even if there are remnants of your royal family, as long as you behave, it’s not impossible to be lenient and allow you to live in the northern lands."
The man was silent for a moment, then glanced at him sideways, "Who are you people?"
Pei Zhan squatted down, grabbed his right hand whose tendons had been severed, and wrote a character on the back of his hand.
Once the man saw clearly, his whole body suddenly trembled, his face turned white as he looked at him, and the sound from his dry throat was not coherent: "You, you are the Commander of the Western Expedition of Great Zhou, Pei Zhan?..."
"Audacious!" The guards stepped forward, "You, a worthless captive of a fallen nation, dare to call our general by name!"
In the face of such a stern rebuke from the guards, the man showed no intention of resistance, his eyes fixated firmly on Pei Zhan’s face, as if his body inadvertently bowed lower:
"I long realized you were not ordinary people, but I never expected that you were, that you were..."
He muttered to himself, then moved his still-capable arms to make a cupped-fist salute, "Although you destroyed my country, I still admire your bravery. This gesture is my respect as a martial artist to you."
The guards looked at each other, unconsciously stepping back.
Pei Zhan looked at him, "What is your name?"
"My surname is Tie, called Tie Ying."
"Tie? Was your father the Guard Commander of the Monarch of Dayue?"
"That was my uncle."
"Whom did you serve?"
Tie Ying lowered his head, looking at the ground, after his Adam’s apple moved, he said, "I cannot say."
Pei Zhan said softly, "Our war against your Dayue was not invasion or usurpation. We fought to protect our nation and people, to defend our territory.
"The fault lies with your Monarch and your court, it was your own lack of virtue that brought about the ruin.
"If Great Zhou truly wanted to annihilate, your people could not possibly still live on their land.
"Nor would there be a chance for bottom-level people like you to survive. And it couldn’t be possible not to station the army and directly take over your territory."
After invading Dayue, Pei Zhan led his men to annihilate the Dayue Royal Family. All the royal members identified in advance, regardless of whether they committed suicide or were executed, none on the list survived—though whether this is completely accurate remains to be confirmed.
But the Dayue army was nearly entirely destroyed, and the remaining soldiers, leaderless, fell into complete disarray. After this battle, it would take at least fifty years to recover nation strength.
Afterwards, Pei Zhan led the remaining troops back within the borders because Great Zhou’s army had already suffered consecutive losses from years of war; winning this battle was extremely difficult, how could there be extra forces left to station in Dayue?
Thus, the Dayue people still lived where they were, and their current ruler was a newly established one. It’s said he is a distant branch of the fallen Monarch, who had provided some assistance when Great Zhou invaded Dayue.