Chapter 707: Chapter 291: Infighting in Long Mountain, Li Tiancheng’s Caution
Longyou, Year 48, June 21
At Song Yuan’s station, chaos erupted on the side of Long Mountain.
“In the battle of Changbai Gully, only 39 from the four armies of Longyou returned alive. The prestige of Long Mountain from the past 48 years was lost in a single morning. Zhou Yuan bears the blame.”
“Just one month. Just one month! The new army is gone, 961 Earth-digging Realm Limit forces, a quarter of the camp’s foundation, they’re just gone.”
“A quarter of the foundation, dare you say. What about the thousands of sets of armor for the new army, and the 800 sets prepared to be sent to Zhaoyang, did you count those? That’s already all the existing Hundred Forged Level armor of the camp, including the Healing Pills distributed before departure, all now in the hands of Great Xia.”
“Great Xia, those damned Great Xia, we must grind them to dust!”
“The families of the soldiers who died in battle are all in the camp crying and clamoring, and there are more than two hundred families of captured soldiers asking us to save them. What should we do now?”
“How to save the more than two hundred captured soldiers? Even Capital Commandant Zhou Yuan was captured, and there are two Colonels, Li Yuanqing, Cheng He. We can’t yet say if Great Xia has killed them.”
“I told you long ago, making Zhou Yuan the New Army Captain wouldn’t work. You insisted, and now such a huge loss, how to wrap this up?”
“How to wrap this up? The new army is gone. Zhou Yuan must be clever. Given his strength, how could he be captured so easily? Probably having lost the battle, and knowing he couldn’t escape blame, he might as well have been captured deliberately, actually planning to switch allegiance to Great Xia.”
“This……”
“I said long ago, outsiders can’t be relied upon. The good four armies were entrusted to Zhou Yuan, and now they’re all gone, hmph!”
……
On the top floor of the main hall at Song Yuan’s station, over fifty people gathered, including almost all the Cold Resistance Level experts of Long Mountain.
Upon closer inspection, one could see that the positioning of these fifty people was somewhat clearly divided, with roughly thirty people on the left side and fewer than twenty on the right side.
At this moment, all the individuals angrily speaking one after another were from the left side.
They seemed to be discussing last night’s great defeat in anger, but it was obvious they were all blaming Zhou Yuan, with several of the Li Family members starting to spread filth about him, accusing him of deliberately being captured, and eventually targeting the outsiders in general.
Hearing this, someone on the right side finally couldn’t stand it anymore.
“Song Ning, your son, and the 39 returning soldiers all said Zhou Yuan sacrificed himself to shield their escape, stubbornly fending off the Xia Army, leading to his capture. Li Xuanping, are you just blindly lying with your eyes open? Is this appropriate?”
The speaker stepping out was Meng Ying, one of the Eight Great Vajra of Long Mountain, who had always maintained a good relationship with Zhou Yuan. Naturally, he couldn’t bear to hear everyone slander his old friend, so he spoke forcefully and pointedly at the accuser, Li Xuanping.
In the Battle of Changbai Gully, one of the two Cold Resistance Level soldiers who escaped was Li Yuankai, Li Xuanping’s son. So, in truth, Zhou Yuan saved his son, yet at this moment, Li Xuanping is reversing the truth, accusing Zhou Yuan of intentionally being captured and planning to switch allegiance to Great Xia, clearly being ungrateful.
This was the reason Meng Ying was so furious.
But what happened next made him even more furious.
Li Xuanping, whom he had named, showed no trace of shame on his face, instead directly stepping forward and coldly laughing: “Song Ning and Yuankai have just broken through to Cold Resistance Level, and a group of defeated Earth-digging Realm remnants can’t even be mentioned. Given Zhou Yuan’s strength, even if he faked resistance, do you think they could tell?”
Meng Ying’s expression froze instantly at these words.
Not only him, but all the Cold Resistance Levels behind him raised their heads angrily at Li Xuanping, clearly provoked to anger by his shamelessness.
The more infuriating part was, Li Xuanping continued.
“Xiao Ning, Yuankai, did you really see clearly last night?”
Song Ning and Li Yuankai stood behind Li Xuanping. Facing the intense gaze of Meng Ying and the others, their eyes visibly avoided contact, eventually bowing their heads and choosing to remain silent.
“Shameless, shameless, shameless…”
Meng Ying was now extremely furious, pointing at the three of them, his body shaking with anger, repeating the word shameless three times.
“Meng Ying, no need to say more. Whether Zhou Yuan’s capture was real or fake, I have no intention of investigating further, but the loss of Long Mountain’s reputation and the huge losses from the battle must be blamed on him. From now on, none of you outsiders should expect to hold any military positions.”
With Li Xuanping’s words, all the Li Family members behind him immediately voiced their agreement.
“That’s right, after this battle, who would dare entrust the new army to outsiders?”
“That’s right, military positions cannot be given to these outsiders.”
“We should still discuss Zhou Yuan’s crimes, investigate whether he was truly captured?”
“Exactly, if he’s found to have switched allegiance to Great Xia, not a single one of his relatives should be spared, all should be imprisoned.”
……
Bang…
“Li Xuanping, all of you shut up!”
Seated above, lost in thought with closed eyes, Li Xuanling finally couldn’t endure anymore upon hearing this. He slammed the table in front of him to pieces and angrily rebuked Li Xuanping and the others.
It’s a pity that his authority seemed somewhat insufficient.
“Young Prophet, the alliance with Zhaoyang was proposed by you, the formation of the new army was proposed by you, appointing Zhou Yuan as the Capital Commandant was proposed by you. The shipment of 800 sets of armor to Zhaoyang was arranged by you… You have been the leader for over two months, and we have listened to you in everything. Now that such a significant incident has occurred, you don’t expect the Council to only hold Zhou Yuan responsible, do you?”