Your Highness, Please Love Me Tender

128. A Letter of Surrender Arrives

Translator: Flying Lines

The army continued to advance.

After conquering another city, Ju Liandao led soldiers to the meeting point where they were going to meet up with Gongsun Yi.

Gongsun Yi wore a suit of armor. His aura was not as relaxed as it was when they saw him in City Yang. Instead, it had turned blood-thirsty. His features were elegant and distinguished, and the standard-issued armor made him look more restrained. Seeing Su Jie, Gonsun Yi’s lips twitched upwards, and a gentle glint flashed in his eyes.

“Gongsun Yi greets Your Highness the Crown Prince.”

His voice was magnetic and consistent, yet his tone of voice steady and firm like a rock in a rainstorm.

Zhou Zaiyue, who stood beside Gongsun Yi, also knelt.

A faint smile revealed itself upon Su Jie’s face. He stepped forwards to help Gongsun Yi and Zhou Zaiyue up, saying with a smile, “Save such formalities. Thanks for your hard work during this journey.”

“It is my honour to kill enemies for Your Highness.” The corner of Gongsun Yi’s lips tugged into a smile. His looks gave people a kind of free and easy feeling.

Zhou Zaiyue also gave a modest response, then his eyes landed on Xiao Shengnian.

What was Xiao Shengnian doing beside His Highness?

Zhou Zaiyue frowned lightly. Even though he believed in Xiao Shengnian’s personality, this matter involved the important task of reuniting Yanling. Mistakes couldn’t be tolerated. Also, State Yanhui was rather ambitious and was always attacking State Liukong. Now that Xiao Shengnian was by His Highness’s side…

“Teacher.” Before Zhou Zaiyue could finish his train of thoughts, Xiao Shengnian revealed a warm smile and greeted him.

“Hm.” Zhou Zaiyue gave a slight nod. His attitude towards Xiao Shengnian was always like this. Or more precisely speaking, other than treating Su Jie a little more specially, Zhou Zaiyue usually treated others with this kind of cool attitude.

Zhou Zaiyue didn’t ask why Xiao Shengnian was in Yanling. He only said: “Shengnian, does your father know that you’re following us into battle?”

Xiao Shengnian was also a clever person. He knew what Zhou Zaiyue was worrying about. However, Zhou Zaiyue’s words also contained concern for Xiao Shengnian.

“Father knows I’m in Yanling, but he doesn’t know exactly what I’m doing in Yanling.” Xiao Shengnian answered with a smile.

They conversed for a bit longer, and Su Jie summoned the vice-generals in the army to discuss when they should attack.

The situation at this moment wasn’t suitable for Xiao Shengnian to attend. After all, he wasn’t Yanling’s citizen, so he used the excuse of needing to change clothes and left.

After closing the door, the room’s leaders started to discuss what they should do next.

Some soldiers suggested sending messengers into the imperial city to convince them to surrender. They felt that if they could obtain victory without fighting, then they would lessen the losses sustained. However, other soldiers thought that they should simply advance their attack. After all, the messengers they sent before were cruelly killed by Lan Buhui. They were about to reach the imperial city already, what was the point of sending messengers?

Hearing these two opinions, Su Jie didn’t make a decision hastily. Instead, he asked, “Elder Zhou, what do you think?”

“Approach the imperial city and attack the palace.”

“What does General Zhanbei think?”

“Strike whilst the iron’s hot, attack!” Ju Liandao said, full of heroism.

“My opinion is also the same. If Lan Buhui wanted to surrender, he would have sent a letter of surrender to us. Yet, there has been no movement at all…”

Just as Su Jie said this, a hurried knocking noise sounded from outside. Su Jie frowned. Logically, there shouldn’t be any soldiers who would dare to disturb them… unless something had happened?

Thinking of this, Su Jie said, “Come in.”

“Reporting to Your Highness, a messenger from the imperial city said they are willing to surrender.” The soldier looked a little breathless. It seemed like, after knowing about this message, he probably ran all the way here.

“Surrender?” Su Jie froze. Just as he said that Lan Buhui didn’t send anyone to declare their surrender, a messenger came from the imperial city the next moment. It certainly was… a coincidence.

Although Su Jie remained his composure as usual, he still felt awkward at this moment. However, these vice-generals didn’t look disrespectful. No matter what decision the immortal’s descendant made, as subjects, they could only submit if they couldn’t convince him otherwise. The belief of the immortal was deeply rooted inside their hearts, and had already seeped into their flesh and souls.

“Summon the messenger,” said Su Jia after a slight nod, deciding to figure it all out since all the vice-generals were here at this moment.

“Yes, Your Highness.” The soldier accepted the order, saluted, and then ran out. After a while, he brought back a short, ordinary-looking man.

The man knelt the moment he entered the room. He kowtowed a few times and said, “The Emperor is willing to surrender. Please be merciful and not slaughter another city again.”

The moment he said these words, the impatient vice-general Lian Cang glared. But because there were so many people, he didn’t say anything.

His Highness was clearly acting according to the will of the heavens to revive the Su dynasty! How could the messenger turn this into a rebellion? And ‘slaughtering another city’? How dare him say that?!

Also, how did Lan Buhui have the right to call himself an ’emperor’!

Lian Cang was furious, but because his position wasn’t senior enough, he could only use a gaze so fierce it could kill to glare at the kneeling messenger.

This messenger looked like he was scared speechless. His hands trembled a little as he took out a letter from his pockets. He said with a face full of bashfulness: “This letter of surrender… I’ll give this to the crown prince only, also, I’m just a messenger, please don’t kill me…”

Saying this, his gaze turned extremely fearful. All in all, he looked very wobbly. After speaking, he gave a few more kowtows.

“Bring me the letter of surrender.” Su Jie said mildly. Su Jie’s identity naturally didn’t allow him to walk there to retrieve the letter himself. Although the messenger’s speech was a little improper in places, Su Jie didn’t make life harder for the messenger seeing that he was so nervous.

Hearing this, Lian Cang went towards the messenger to take the letter of surrender.

Unexpectedly, this cowardly messenger would be scared to the point his face whitened. He hugged the letter of surrender to his chest, with a look like he was protecting his child. “Are you the crown prince? I will only hand this to the crown prince personally. You look so fierce, don’t approach me, otherwise, I’ll kill myself right here!”

Lian Cang glared with wide eyes. He stopped and fumed, “How could there be a messenger like you? You’re terrified to this extent, and you still dislike and avoid me?”

Yet, the messenger only shuffled backward on his knees, looking petrified. He seemed like he tried to act strong, and said with trembling lips: “I will only give this to the crown prince, no one else.”

Lian Cang turned around to glance at Su Jie. Seeing Su Jie not giving a response, he only gave the messenger a cold smile: “His Highness is noble. How could he interact with someone of your station? What? You still want to hand the letter of surrender personally to His Highness?”

“I… That’s not what I meant, I…” The messenger stammered. There was an anxious look on his face, like he wanted to explain but couldn’t find the right words. In the end, with a disconsolate face, he said, “I will only hand this to His Highness. I will only hand this letter of surrender to His Highness.”

“Who do you think you are?” Lian Cang laughed angrily, yet he stepped out the way and said, “Unless you can keep kneeling like this and crawl all the way to His Highness, otherwise, give the letter of surrender to me.”

The messenger froze, looked fearfully at Lian Cang, and then at the handsome Su Jie, who had a golden glower on his face, in front of him, and said resolutely, “His Highness has the appearance of an immortal, I am willing to crawl there.”

Saying this, the messenger actually crawled past the table to the side of Su Jie.

“Your Highness, I greet Your Highness.” After getting closer to Su Jie, the messenger once again kowtowed continuously.

Ju Liandao originally found this messenger a little strange. He was so cowardly yet he was sent here. Did Lan Buhui eat something wrong?

Just as he thought this, he suddenly saw Su Jie’s expression change as he sent a palm strike towards the messenger.

It turned out that the messenger made a sudden attack after kowtowing. He hugged onto Su Jie’s leg. The blade hidden inside the letter of surrender bit into Su Jie’s body.

Su Jie, who was sitting on the chair, didn’t expect that the messenger would make such a move so suddenly. After his lower leg was hugged, a splitting pain emerged.

The messenger used the blade to slice at Su Jie two or three times. Su Jie’s reaction was extremely quick and knocked out the messenger with just one strike.

However, his leg was already hurt. Since the messenger was not aiming at a vital point, it was very likely that the blade was poisoned.

Su Jie quickly deduced so, yet Zhou Zaiyue’s expression changed massively. He went to half-kneel on the floor to check on Su Jie’s injury.

Ju Liandao tugged on the collar of the unconscious messenger and gave him two cruel kicks before tossing him to one side.

The messenger’s previous weakness was faked in order to let the people in the room relax. He was one of Lan Buhui’s four generals. His name was—— Gong Che!

Because Gong Che was small and looked harmless, people let down their guards towards him. In reality, Gong Che was skilled at pretending, and to be on the safe side, he disguised himself to prevent anyone from recognizing him.

Gong Che’s mission was to approach Su Jie. His blade was covered in a highly toxic poison. As long as it scratched the crown prince, he would die!

As for the so-called letter of surrender in his pockets—— it was just a piece of plain paper!