Forced to Ascend the Throne after Transmigrating

“If Beiting refuses to give you money, will you really kill the captives?”

Although my brother always keeps his word, the massacre… is still too bloody.

Perhaps the Great Zhou had always been in a weak position before, and Prince Ding had only heard about it, and he had never done it himself. But Prince Ding still knew that if he killed one person, he only needed to be ruthless, but if he killed so many people, it would not be enough to be ruthless.

This requires an extremely strong heart, otherwise the nightmares every night alone would drive a person crazy.

Ye Shuo nodded, although reluctant, but firm: “Yes.”

It was just like when the young emperor first ascended the throne, and when he faced questions from the fifth, seventh, and eighth princes, he always answered with the same word: “yes”.

Ever since he took this position, Ye Shuo never thought that he would be able to escape unscathed and stay clean.

If he was just a prince, it wouldn’t matter what he did, but now that he has become the emperor, everything depends only on profit.

Not everyone is qualified to be merciful. It can be said that he is no different from the emperors recorded in history.

“Whether Beiting agrees or not, it will only benefit us.”

If Beiting agrees to compensate, he can use the money to buy grain to reclaim wasteland, provide relief to disaster victims, and help the people who are in dire straits to overcome difficulties. If Beiting does not agree to compensate, that’s fine too. Killing these 30,000 prisoners and further weakening Beiting’s national strength will also be a good thing for their Great Zhou.

But I am still going further and further on this road to becoming an emperor.

Ye Shuo couldn’t help but look into the distance, towards the place where the prisoners were being held.

Prince Ding suddenly felt that even if he, the crown prince, or Emperor Taicheng were in their current situation, they probably wouldn’t be able to do better than him.

Afterwards, not long after Huyan Guang left, Ye Shuo ordered the soldiers of the Great Zhou to take shovels and start digging holes on the spot.

No matter how strong the Beiting soldiers were, they were just lambs to be slaughtered without their weapons. A few smart ones vaguely sensed something and were unwilling to die like this, so they tried their best to run away.

However, fists were still too weak compared to swords and knives. After killing several people in succession, the Beiting group had to calm down when looking at the corpses neatly laid out in front of them.

Ye Shuo thought about it, and then whispered a few words to one of the guards who had been protecting him recently.

The guard understood and nodded hurriedly: “I understand.”

When the group of people in Beiting started to riot again, one of the soldiers of the Great Zhou whipped them and cursed them: “Why are you yelling? It’s not like we didn’t give you a chance. As long as the Wolf King and his men pay the ransom, you can leave when the time comes. Who will stop you? Do you really think that our Great Zhou wants to keep you? There are so many people, how long will it take to kill them? When the knives are blunt, they will have to be replaced with new ones. You really think you are important people, bah!” řἁΝổВĚ𝐒

Only then did these 30,000 captives learn about the ransom.

To be honest, 20 million taels of silver is not a lot, it is only one-fifth of the tax revenue of the entire Beiting. After all, Ye Shuo’s purpose is to gain benefits, not to go against Beiting regardless of the consequences under such circumstances.

Although Ye Shuo acted rather crazy, he was not a real madman after all. Compared to expanding territory, the most important thing right now was to keep the people of the Great Zhou alive.

But despite this, there are still many difficulties in achieving this goal.

First of all, Beiting may not be able to accept the reversal of status with Dazhou. In the past, Dazhou ceded land and paid compensation to Beiting, but now the situation has suddenly reversed. Beiting may not bow its head so easily. Secondly, it is not the farming season now, and the Beiting royal family is extravagant. It is hard to say whether there are 20 million taels in the national treasury. Even if there is, Beiting may not be willing to give it up.

Anyway… let’s take a gamble.

Ye Shuo had already prepared for the worst.

On the other side, Huyan Guang brought back the news, and the Beiting Wolf King was indeed furious.

“How dare you!” The emperor of the Great Zhou was just a young man in his twenties. He got the throne because the Ye family had no more people. Under such circumstances, he dared to challenge him. He was simply courting his life.

But then again, Beiting is indeed at a disadvantage now. No one knows what Lan Feng did, but in less than a month, they lost three cities and in the end even had their heads chopped off. The Wolf King not only did not feel pity, but instead regretted why he let such a waste lead the army.

First it was Lan Ruo, then Lan Feng. This made the Wolf King even doubt the Lan family, wondering if they were still as brave and warlike as they were in the past. He had also been very cold towards the Lan family in recent times.

Just when the Wolf King was about to order the army to attack, he was suddenly stopped by Zuo Xian King standing nearby.

“Wait a minute.” Then Zuo Xian turned around and looked at Huyan Guang beside him.

“You just said that the emperor of the Great Zhou said personally that they were running low on food and fodder?”

Huyan Guang did not dare to be negligent and nodded quickly.

It should have been a good thing that the enemy’s weakness was exposed so easily, but instead of feeling any joy, King Zuo Xian frowned even more tightly.

The Emperor of the Great Zhou not only told them the weaknesses, but also what to do next.

When food and grass are insufficient, the prisoners must be killed. This is not a threat; the other party is just stating a fact.

Since the Emperor of Great Zhou allowed Hu Yanguang into the tent, it proved that he did not necessarily want to fight. The Emperor of Great Zhou also wanted to negotiate, but the prerequisite was that they had to meet the conditions he proposed. If they failed to do so, the other party would probably turn against him immediately.  

After studying the current Emperor Yongxi for a while, Prince Zuo Xian had some understanding of his personality.

Seeing that Zuo Xian Wang remained silent for a long time, Hu Yanguang could not help but whisper: “Maybe the matter is not as serious as we thought. Maybe we can continue to talk about it?”

However, Zuo Xian Wang shook his head: “Impossible.”

“The emperor has made it very clear.” The other party’s reasoning was very clear. He did not ask for an exorbitant price, nor did he lower his attitude. The reasonable conditions proved that there was no room for negotiation.

Either meet his conditions or continue fighting. He has made it very clear. It is up to them to choose or not.

Although the wolf king was old, his character meant he was not afraid at all: “If you want to fight me, then fight me. Who’s afraid of who?” He just didn’t believe that he couldn’t deal with this man.

Upon hearing this, Zuo Xian Wang couldn’t help but take a deep breath: “If it were anyone else today, even the previous Emperor Jingwen would not have hesitated at all.”

“But this Emperor Yongxi… is really hard to judge. He is different from everyone else.”

He didn’t even bother to investigate, but simply blamed the entire alliance incident on Beiting. It’s hard to say that there wasn’t some old personal grudge involved.

Just because Beiting sent assassins to assassinate Emperor Jingwen, which led to Emperor Jingwen being seriously injured and died later, he still remembers it until now and even expressed his resentment in public. It can be seen that when Emperor Yongxi goes crazy, he is likely to do nothing.

Beiting is powerful, so he is not afraid of normal people, but no matter how powerful a person is, he has to be courteous when meeting a madman. King Zuo Xian feels that the current emperor of the Great Zhou is not very normal.

And his speculation is not entirely without basis. Look, whether before or after he ascended the throne, has he ever done anything that a normal person would do?

If there hadn’t been that group of locusts, the outcome of the battle between Da Zhou and Bei Ting would have been 40-60. But if the locusts continued to get involved, it would probably be 50-50.

What if, as Zuo Xian Wang said, the Great Zhou Emperor suddenly went crazy and insisted on dragging them to gamble on the fate of the country, so that both sides would suffer losses, and in the end, wouldn’t Chen State benefit for nothing? The Wolf King was already very dissatisfied with this matter. If Chen State was allowed to reap the benefits, the Wolf King would definitely vomit blood.

The wolf king’s expression was uncertain, and he hesitated for a moment.

Huyan Guang on the side was extremely anxious, wondering if the Wolf King and the others could come up with a decision quickly. You know, it took him a day to get back to the royal court, and the three-day deadline was getting closer and closer. If he continued to hesitate, the 20 million taels of silver would be in vain.

However, what Hu Yanguang did not expect was that at this time, the Wolf King actually said: “Send the message to the State of Chen and ask them to send troops to reinforce.”

Huyan Guang almost fainted, but since the Wolf King had given the order, they had no choice but to follow it.

Three days passed in a flash. It was noon, but Beiting still didn’t come with the silver. He only sent a soldier to ask them to give them more time. After the soldier left, Ye Shuo couldn’t help but close his eyes.

After a moment, Ye Shuo swung his right hand fiercely: “Do it!”

Soon, a total of 5,000 Beiting soldiers were forcibly pulled out of the team.

Needless to say, the bloody scene afterwards was extremely violent, and the strong smell of blood attracted countless hawks and falcons that loved to eat flesh and blood. It took four full hours for the screams to gradually disappear.

The next day, still no one came from Beiting, and then another five thousand lives were lost. This time, the pit was dug even deeper.

On the other hand, although the Wolf King knew the temperament of Emperor Yongxi of the Great Zhou, when he saw that he really started to bury people, he couldn’t help it and his eyelids twitched wildly.

On the third day, news finally came from the State of Chen.

“Reporting to the Wolf King, Chen, Chen Guo said that they can’t spare the time for the time being, so they can’t come over…”

The alliance between countries is already very weak, and the so-called alliance is essentially a piece of waste paper. The State of Chen hopes that both sides will suffer losses so that it can reap the benefits.

The moment the messenger finished speaking, there was a loud “bang” and the table in front of the Wolf King was split in half.

“Good! What a ruthless and heartless Chen State!”

Seeing that half of Beiting’s soldiers had been lost, just when Ye Shuo thought that he had to continue killing until they were all gone, at noon on the fourth day, Huyan Guang finally arrived.

“Emperor Zhou, wait a minute!”

“The Wolf King has ordered that we pay 20 million silver coins. I hope that Emperor Zhou will show mercy and let these soldiers live!”

Beiting finally compromised.

Ye Shuo raised his hand, signalling everyone to stop. When Hu Yanguang came closer, he saw that there was nothing behind him. Ye Shuo couldn’t help but ask, “Where’s the silver?”

Hu Yanguang: “I, Beiting, keep my word. I will definitely deliver it within seven days!”

Ye Shuo thought it was okay, at least give people some time to prepare.

So he decided to just kill a thousand people today as a token of his appreciation.

Hu Yanguang watched on helplessly, unable to maintain the smile on his face any longer, and his whole body stiffened instantly.