Chapter 253.2: Hello Chang'an
Chapter 253.2
The girl knelt atop his back, and with a sharp “crack”, she dislocated his right arm!
Li Yi screamed in agony, the sound echoing throughout the dense forest.
Struggling, he barely lifted his head before she struck his already-injured jaw with her elbow. His chin twisted and dislocated, blood spilling from his mouth.
A heavy blow to the jaw disorients anyone, and Li Yi’s mind swirled with pain. One thought alone dominated his brain—“She said… ‘Your kung fu isn’t great, be careful’?!”
Who exactly should have been careful?!
The advisor watching shivered from head to toe.
What was their commander thinking?
Why choose to kidnap her of all people?!
It was as if he had picked a divine sword from a pile of scrap metal to challenge himself, or selected the single path out of a hundred that led straight to the gates of the Underworld!
He had gone and done himself in!
The advisor could only think, “It’s over,” though he realized that the girl had deliberately lured Li Yi out, drawing him into a trap… clever, if ruthless.
Earlier, as Li Yi had dashed forward, Chang Suining had already noted the source of the commotion. Now, having subdued Li Yi, her gaze swept to where the advisor had hidden.
Meeting that look, the advisor panicked, abandoned any thought of saving Li Yi, and scrambled to flee.
Chang Suining didn’t even chase him, simply pulling Li Yi up from the ground.
Li Yi struggled, spitting blood, his words garbled: “You…”
Chang Suining looked at him with amusement: “Do I look easy to bully?”
All of his courage had been expended in his reckless attempt to ambush her.
Ah Dian, true to his word, returned quickly with five or six men. Seeing Li Yi captured, he was shocked—the hide-and-seek had ended far too quickly!
Chang Suining pointed in another direction: “There’s one more.”
Ah Dian, round-headed and eager like a hunting dog, sprinted off to pursue.
Chang Suining led Li Yi out of the forest.
Ah Dian soon returned with the advisor, carrying him out.
Over half of Li Yi’s hundred-man force had already fallen. Now, seeing their commander captured, the rest either fled or surrendered.
Li Yi knelt on the ground, held by two of her men. Chang Suining approached with a short blade in hand.
Li Yi’s face was pale; he shook his head at her.
“I ask, you answer. Understood?” she said.
“…Yes!” Li Yi quickly nodded. “Ask! I’ll tell everything!”
“Why did you defect to Xu Zhengye? Who guided you?”
“…Long ago, Xu Zhengye sent someone to deliver a letter to me!” Li Yi said, suddenly looking at the advisor: “Later… later it was they who persuaded me to cooperate with Xu Zhengye, to trap General Chang in Hezhou. They made me do it!”
Chang Suining glanced at the advisor, then asked: “How did you learn of the Empress’s plan to replace the commander in advance?”
Li Yi had clearly prepared for the change of command, softening Old Chang and plotting to kill He Wei.
“Someone delivered a letter… informing me!” Li Yi poured everything out at once. “They also told me who the Saint had planted as spies around me… to eliminate them early!”
“That person…” Chang Suining narrowed her eyes slightly, “who was it?”
“I don’t know!” Li Yi shook his head frantically, tears streaming: “I really don’t know!”
Chang Suining studied him. “You trusted this person blindly without knowing who they were? Weren’t you afraid of being manipulated?”
“I had no choice!” Li Yi’s eyes glinted with hate. “…The Saint betrayed me after Father died, seizing military power for herself!”
He had already made tactical mistakes—he would surely face severe punishment!
He had endured enough being bullied all his life!
“I only know this much… what happened with General Chang was my own foolishness, believing their instigations. I already know my fault. Don’t kill me, I beg you, don’t kill me!” he pleaded.
A commander of an army begging a young girl—it looked pitiful, almost laughable.
Chang Suining looked at his pitiable form with a cold smile.
Once, she too had felt sorry for Li Yi, bullied by princes; she had even helped him as a child.
But not all pitiful people grow soft-hearted. Some become both pitiable and hateful wrongdoers.
If he hadn’t been restrained, Li Yi might have even kowtowed for mercy.
Chang Suining drew her short blade.
Li Yi froze, mouth slightly open, consumed by fear.
Then suddenly, his expression changed. He looked up sharply to the front.
He heard the sound of hooves!
This direction… it couldn’t be Chang Kuo’s troops—it had to be the route from which Yu Zai’s forces were arriving!
Yu Zai had arrived?!
“You can’t kill me now—my reinforcements are here!” His lips trembled, voice wavering. “Otherwise, they won’t forgive you!”
Reinforcements?
Chang Suining turned to look.
Soon, her own reinforcements arrived from behind—Chang Ren and Lady Jicai with hundreds of cavalry.
Ahead, the approaching army was vast. A direct confrontation would overwhelm her few hundred men.
But that didn’t matter—Li Yi was in her hands.
Once Old Chang stabilized the situation there, he would arrive with the main force.
She needed to see if the approaching troops were indeed Li Yi’s reinforcements.
Scouts ahead reported the discovery to their commander.
Soon, the vanguard appeared within Chang Suining’s line of sight.
Their uniforms matched Li Yi’s army—the eight ten-thousand troops previously dispatched to Yangzhou.
Li Yi’s eyes blazed with joy, scanning for Yu Zai among the approaching soldiers.
Yet the person he sought did not appear.
Until one rider emerged from the army, riding slowly, dressed in official scholar’s robes.
The youth was fair-skinned and strikingly handsome.
Li Yi, hope rising, froze in disbelief: “Wei… Wei Shuyi?!”
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