Daming: At the start of the showdown, Lao Zhu was stunned

Chapter 922: King Zhou’s Death
"Sir Tongzhi, the assassins have already infiltrated Adu's group. And that Akmu, wait until they start fighting..." In the darkness of the night, Ye An quietly came to Ma Ye's side and gently stroked his neck with his thumb.

Ma Ye nodded. He sat upright in the tower, but his heart was beating nervously. Tonight was his last-ditch effort. In order to kill Zhu Su, he risked sending 21 of his most trusted warriors out of the city in a hanging basket. Through Akmu's connections, they mixed into Adu's group.

In the eyes of people like Ma Ye, these Tusi tribes in the southwestern border areas are no different from ignorant barbarians. He naturally does not think that with Adu's ability, he can kill Zhou Wang Zhu Su. Instead of trusting others, he is more willing to trust himself.

As long as Ah Du succeeds in attacking Shuidong at night, twenty of these twenty assassins will naturally sneak into the Shuidong village, create chaos, and then take advantage of the chaos to assassinate Zhou Wang Zhu Su...

He knew that in order not to alert Shuidong, King Zhou Zhu Su had left most of his troops in Guiyang City, and there were only a dozen people around him. His twenty death warriors were more than enough to assassinate King Zhou.

Sending out 20 death warriors was a risky move, and it was very likely that they would be discovered by Di Meng, the commander of the Zhou Wangwei who was staring at him. But it didn't matter, as Di Meng would be thrown into disarray as soon as the news reached him.

Once King Zhou died, the dirty water would naturally be thrown on Shuixi. By then, Di Meng would be too busy to join him in the crusade against Shuixi, so how could he have the leisure to care about the fact that he had lost twenty-one subordinates?
Even if King Zhou didn't die... it didn't matter. Each of the people he sent out was a loyal and trusted warrior. Even if it was impossible, they would choose to commit suicide by taking poison and would not leave any witnesses for King Zhou.

He was very meticulous. He even kept a special assassin by his side, even for the Yi man named Akmu. Once a conflict occurred, this assassin would find a way to kill Akmu and completely cover up the fact that Ma Ye had instigated Adu... Who would believe that he, the commander of Guizhou Guard, would instigate the leaders of the western part of Shuixi to attack King Zhou?

It would be enough to prove the crime of "Shuixi assassinating King Zhou".

This is enough to prove that what he said was true and Shuixi really "rebelled".

The only variable is King Zhou Zhu Su. If this King Zhou survives, stabilizes the situation again, and investigates the matter thoroughly...

During the days when Di Meng was watching him, Ma Ye knew that the King of Zhou was not someone he could easily get along with… If it weren’t for the King of Zhou, his plan to force Shuixi to rebel would have been realized long ago. Now he would not risk losing his head to do something like assassinating the king.

If the situation is stabilized again, he, Ma Ye, will be at his wit's end... He might even be charged with the crime of losing his head.

Thinking of this, Ma Ye's whole body began to tremble slightly.

"...Mr. Tongzhi?" His confidant Ye An asked worriedly.

"Well, it's okay." Ma Ye said to Ye An, his fists were clenched white, and there was a sickly blush on his face.

He was a gambler, a mad gambler. In this last struggle, he placed a huge bet, even his own head.

But this also made him, a born gambler, feel extremely thrilled and excited.

"Let's go out of the city." Ma Ye slowly supported himself on his knees and stood up.

"Death or rapid advancement...it all depends on today." A strange, twisted smile appeared on his face.

……

"What? The Guizhou guards are actually gathering at the west gate?" Di Meng was in the city, dispatching and monitoring Ma Ye's subordinates. He was suddenly shocked when he heard the news that Ma Ye was gathering troops.

He hurried to the west gate of Guiyang City and saw Ma Ye leading a large group of Guizhou Guards officers and soldiers, preparing to leave the city.

"Ma Tongzhi!" Di Meng was panicked and quickly stopped Ma Ye. "I wonder where the Tongzhi is going by gathering troops here late at night?"

"Oh, General Di." Ma Ye sat on his horse with a serious expression. "Gathering the troops at the city gate means we will go out of the city to kill the enemy. General, please stay here and defend the city well..."

Upon hearing this, Di Meng's face turned serious and he said, "Before His Highness left the city, he asked the co-magistrate to guard the city with me and not to leave without permission. Now the co-magistrate wants me to guard the city while he himself leaves the city... Isn't this going against His Highness's order?"

"You are all soldiers of the Ming Dynasty. How dare you disobey His Highness' orders? Disperse, disperse, all of you."

The most important order Di Meng received was to restrain Ma Ye and the Ming officers and soldiers under his command and never let them leave the city to attack Shuixi.

His Highness asked him to keep a close eye on Ma Ye, just in case he got desperate. How could he allow Ma Ye to leave the city?
"General Di, could it be that... you still don't know?" Ma Ye was stunned for a moment, then he showed a look of sudden realization. With a face full of sorrow, he said, "The Shuixi bandits just attacked the Shuidong stronghold at night. The Shuidong stronghold is already engulfed in flames. Just now, a message was sent to inform us that His Royal Highness the King of Zhou may have..."

"What...what?" Di Meng was stunned and said in disbelief: "You said His Highness..."

"I don't want to believe that His Highness has met with an accident." Ma Ye said righteously. "But Shuixi attacked His Highness, the news is confirmed!"

"I am the commander of Guizhou Guards. When I heard that His Majesty King Zhou was in trouble, how could I not lead the troops to help?"

"General Di, please stay here for a while. I will go and rescue His Highness and then return."

As soon as he finished speaking, the capstan sounded on the tower, and the heavy gate of Guiyang City opened. Ma Ye raised his arms and shouted: "Erlang, now His Royal Highness Prince Zhou is imprisoned. We are the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty. How can we watch our prince of the Ming Dynasty trapped in the hands of the enemy without saving him?"

"All of you, follow me, Ma Ye, to rescue His Highness and achieve unparalleled merit together!"

"Sun, moon, rivers and mountains!" The soldiers of Guizhou Guard were also elite. Following Ma Ye's encouragement, these soldiers all burst into earth-shaking shouts.

"General? This..." A personal guard of King Zhou beside Di Meng quickly pulled Di Meng, who was still in a daze. "General, Ma Ye is leaving the city..."

"Your Highness, is he really?"

Di Meng was shocked by the news of Zhu Su's "death" that Ma Ye had said. Now that he was pulled away, he finally regained some consciousness.

He knew Zhu Su's ability. He had already gone through all the storms and he didn't believe that Zhu Su was really dead. But since Ma Ye left the city under the pretext of rescuing Zhu Su, he didn't dare to really go and stop him.

What if this is true, and if I stop Ma Ye, I will endanger His Highness' life...

Zhu Su only brought more than a thousand Zhou Wang's guards with him, which was far less than the number of Guizhou Guards and Guizhou Vanguards under Ma Ye's command. However, not everyone in these two guards was Ma Ye's confidant. Therefore, with the help of the imperial edict and the title of Zhou Wang's personal army, Di Meng also had a certain degree of control over Guizhou Guards and Guizhou Vanguards.

At least, if he firmly opposed it, the officers and soldiers of the Second Guard would not obediently follow Ma Ye's orders.

But now, Di Meng did not dare to stop Ma Ye, so Guizhou Guard and Guizhou Vanguard naturally followed the lead of Ma Ye, the commander of the army. Di Meng did not dare to stop Ma Ye, but what if His Highness was fine, and Ma Ye took these two troops to attack the western part of Shuixi...

"Let's go, we'll follow them!" Caught in a dilemma, Di Meng had to grit his teeth and give this order which was not really an order.

(End of this chapter)