Chapter 157

  Xue Ban-chuan sat cross-legged in front of his desk, on which were arranged the Four Treasures of the Study. A letter was spread out before him, and he had just written one sentence:

  The guilty minister half-river hundred bows...

  Under the case were still several paper balls, it seemed that Xue Ban Chuan had been searching for words and phrases for a long time, but still hadn't found suitable wording.

  It had been half a year since they last met, and Huang San Yuan found that Xue Ban Chuan had aged significantly, his face gaunt and lifeless.

  "Lord Xuecheng, is your body alright?"

  "Cough, can still hold on." Xue Ban Chuan lightly coughed once, as if suddenly discovering something: "You come think and unite with me to deal with the King of Youzhou, or else, I'll capture you and offer you to the King of Youzhou, he won't blame me then."

  Huang San Yuan has one black line on his head.

  Is this still the Xue Banchuan I know? The former General Xue used to be calm and collected, no matter what happened, he always looked like he had everything under control. But today's appearance is really quite frightening.

  Last year, Xue Ban Chuan plotted for a long time, framed Han Huju, cultivated his own confidants, and eliminated Han Huju with lightning speed, successfully taking the position of city master.

  The means cannot be said to be unrefined.

  But after sitting in this position, Xue Banquan only understood the difficulties of Han Huzi. Heishi City is on the border of the empire, and going out of the city is the territory of the Rong tribe. The Rong tribe comes to sweep and fight every two or three days, but it's indeed impossible to win. Wanting to develop Heishi City and build an elite army, there is a lack of financial resources and materials, making it difficult to start.

  Xue Banchuan couldn't help but admire Han Hujiao at this moment. Han Hujiao indulged in wine and women, yet he did nothing, and Blackstone City had never been in chaos. But Xue Banchuan didn't have such ability.

  To put it simply, Xue Banxian is a top-notch strategist, but he may not necessarily be a top-notch city lord.

  Xue Ban Chuan was an ambitious man, originally planning to use Blackstone City as his base and expand outward. Later on, he might have become a powerful warlord, gathering heroes from all over the world to hunt together. However, during his time in control of Blackstone City, he became exhausted and drained, and that ambition was washed away by the rain and blown away by the wind.

  "Xue Chengzhu, are you afraid that the King of Youzhou might not accept your surrender?"

  Now Yang Longhuan's slogan is: Don't ask anyone else, just kill Xue Si. He has made up his mind to avenge Han Hu for Xue Banciao. Even if Xue writes a letter of surrender, even if he writes thousands or tens of thousands of letters, it will not change Yang Longhuan's mind.

  "I know," said Xue Ban Chuan, "but what if? After all, planning is in the hands of man, but success is in the hands of heaven. I want to try my best to write a letter of surrender, maybe the King of Youzhou will spare me."

  "If you have time to write a farewell letter, can't you use this sentiment to stop Yang Long instead?"

  "Block, what can I block?" Xue Banchuan said with a bitter smile: "You think this city is under my control? Do you know how many big households are in the city, and there are their people in both the military and government? I'm just an accountant who takes care of things for them. Yang Long has not even arrived yet, but someone has already started reporting to him, waiting for the army to come and then open the door to surrender."

  Huang San Yuan was at a loss for words, he was good at accounting, not good at leading troops, and even more so, did not know how to manage a city, balancing all aspects of the relationship. Perhaps, Xue Ban Chuan indeed had his own difficulties, it wasn't that he was truly helpless, nor would it make the former Xue Ban Chuan become like this.

  He fell silent for a moment, then said, "Does the Eldest Young Master want me to pass on a message to the City Lord?"

  "What did Mr. Cheng say?"

  "Bowing one's head is certain death, lifting it up may bring survival." Huang San Yuan said: "The master's words are just these, if the main thing in Xue City is to hand us over to Yang Long, then so be it."

  "Lower head, raise head......" Xue Ban Chuan muttered to himself, then waved his hand and said: "Someone, bring a chair for General Huang."

  ……

  Hedgehog village, Cheng Dairen is also having a headache.

  "Hey Guan Er Ge, how's your sword practice going lately? Have you suddenly gained insight into any new sword moves?"

  "Zhang San, you're still handy with that spear, haha, do you feel like you have divine power possessing your body, able to take on ten thousand enemies?"

  Liu...

  "Less feathers, how come you didn't go practice your marksmanship? You're a man who aspires to be a great hero."

  Cheng Dairen wandered around the mountain stronghold, rising to level three. The stronghold still lacked a top-level figure. He had looked at everyone with potential to rise to the top level, but no one was able to level up in a short period of time. Now it's just himself...

  Although he got Afly's quick sword, his strength was still excellent. Building a mountain stronghold was originally to upgrade one's own strength. But now the problem has come back again.

  It seems that there is only one method left now. That is to accumulate fear value, reach 1 million and then exchange a top-level character with the system.

  Cheng Dalai checked his own fear value, and in the past few days, he had accumulated some more fear value. He currently has over 100,000, but there is still a big gap before reaching one million.

  "Big boss..." Xu Shenji rushed over at this time: "Big boss, something's happened."

  "What's going on?" Cheng Dairen was shocked. Nowadays, the mountain stronghold is like a knife's edge, how can anything go wrong?

  "The grain transport team from Youzhou has clashed with our people."

  Yang Long stopped this time to attack Heishi City, claiming to have 50,000 troops. And these 50,000 people are not all soldiers on the battlefield, but also include logistics camps, grain teams, and partner armies.

  A large contingent of troops had already passed by, with a steady stream of hundreds of people in small teams transporting grain through Qingniu Mountain. When they passed by Hamao Village, Hamao Village naturally arranged for some fodder and water to be provided for them to rest.

  To some extent, the Hama Village served as a relay station. Now that Cheng Dairen didn't have the strength to tear his face with the King of Youzhou, he was naturally also very happy to do these things, anyway, he didn't need to go and die either.

  Luo Tie was among this grain transport team.

  Luoshan Mountain suffered a defeat, Luo Tie was defeated and became a low-ranking soldier. Because of this, Luo Tie was naturally extremely dissatisfied in his heart, and he either beat or scolded his comrades around him. The crowd was full of complaints, but no one dared to intervene.

  Even if Luo Tie became a small soldier, who didn't know that this was the intention of the King of Youzhou to temper him. Now you give him face, in the future when he rises again, won't he be the first one to take revenge on you?

  So in this team, Luo Tie is not an official but is more like an official.

  The team arrived at Qingniu Mountain, and Cheng Dalai had already arranged for people to receive them. The wine and grass were all prepared neatly. Luo Tie sat in the back and started scolding, saying: "A group of mountain bandits are really arrogant, and they still sit with us on an equal footing, what kind of thing is this?"

  "Lu Jiang, lower your voice, the military advisor ordered, don't quarrel with them."

  "General... Haha, you guys take General's words seriously, but in my eyes, he is just a fart!"

  Luo Tie had his own ideas, and this time he was forced to the bottom, which made him very unhappy. However, if he could eliminate the bandits at Hamao Village and remove a major threat for his adoptive father, wouldn't that allow him to stand up again?

  So he was making a show of his strength while also thinking about what to do.

  Wow!

  Luo Tie slammed his wine bowl on the ground and said, "Is this wine? It's not even as good as horse urine! This is how Cheng Da Lei treats us. Let him get out here!"