Marry my elder sister? Fine! I'll give you the letter of annulment and marry someone else.

Finally, after spending a month, the army finally arrived at the border between Li and Tianqi.

More than 200,000 troops were unstoppable and captured the first city on the border without any effort.

The Kingdom of Li and Tianqi have always been in peace and there has been no war for a long time.

The mayor of this city has been fat and kind-hearted for many years, and the fat on his face has squeezed his eyes to a slit, leaving only a small space.

He was carefreely gnawing on a pork elbow that day, but when he saw so many soldiers, he felt like the sky was falling.

Song Zhi entered the City Lord's Mansion almost at the same time. She sat opposite him with a sharp gaze and asked him without emotion.

"Surrender or fight to the bitter end."

The fat city lord was stunned, and the big elbow he had not finished chewing fell from his hand and rolled to the ground with a gurgling sound.

He swallowed in shock and uttered two words without much hesitation.

"surrender."

Are you kidding? There are nearly 300,000 troops, but his small town is only guarded by 20,000 soldiers, not even a fraction of the enemy's.

That's not fighting to the last, that's seeking death because you're tired of living.

After answering, he pointed weakly at the uneaten pork elbow on the table and said, "Would you like some?"

Song Zhike said politely, "No, you continue eating."

The city lord smiled sincerely, "You are such a good person."

Song Zhi: “…”

This fat city lord's train of thought was truly amazing. Song Zhi coughed dryly and said, "You are still the city lord of this city, but we are going to station troops here. I don't want to make a big fuss for the time being. Do you know what to do when you contact the court?"

The fat city lord said, "I know. I'm very sensible. Anyway, I've long wanted to rebel against those people in the court. They keep increasing taxes. Do the people still want to live? You don't even know how long I have to save money to eat this plate of pork elbow."

As he said this, he squatted down with difficulty and picked up the big elbow that had fallen under the table with regret.

Song Zhi didn't know whether to laugh or cry, "As a city lord, do you have to act so miserable?"

The fat city lord sighed, "To be honest, since the court increased taxes by 20% half a year ago, I have already lost 20 kilograms."

Song Zhi looked him up and down. He looked like this even when he was thin. He didn't look fat when he was thin.

but……

She had never heard of an increase in taxes, and Song Yang had never mentioned it either.

If the tax had been increased by 20%, the treasury would not have been in such a deficit.

She smelled a hint of conspiracy and asked the fat city lord to explain in detail.

The fat city lord said, "Half a year ago, the emperor issued an imperial decree to increase taxes by two levels. It's almost killing the people. I also wrote a memorial to urge the emperor to reconsider, but I wrote several letters in a row and nothing happened."

"The people are complaining bitterly and can only tighten their belts to get by. They just hope that the taxes won't increase any further. If they do, they'll just have trouble surviving."

Song Zhi frowned and said, "Bring out the imperial edict for me to see."

"Okay, I'll go look in the study."

The fat city lord walked out with his elbow in his arms, supported by his servants. He did not feel repulsed by Song Zhi's occupation and arrival.

In this world, whoever has the stronger fist is the boss, and this is always the truth.

The advantage this time was so overwhelming that the number of casualties from beginning to end was negligible.

After they broke into the city, even the terrified people quickly accepted the incident calmly after realizing that they had no ill intentions and would not harm innocent people at all.

There were even some brave people who came up to them and asked them where they came from and why they were rebelling.

When it comes to chatting and talking with people, we immediately come to the area where Xie Ting is good at.

He rolled up his sleeves, squatted at the city gate without any image, and started chatting enthusiastically with everyone.

In less than half a day, he successfully became brothers with the people of this city.

In this regard, Meng Qi is far behind and has to admit defeat.

He didn't want to sit idle and fall behind, so he led his soldiers to clean up the place where they were stationed.

The garrison was chosen to be located in a valley not far from the city.

This valley is easy to defend and difficult to attack, with a dangerous terrain, making it very suitable for setting up camp.

As for the city, they replaced it with 20,000 soldiers of their own.

The original 20,000 soldiers were brought to the valley by Xin Wanyun to be subdued and brainwashed so that they could be used for his own purposes in the future.

Everyone was busy with their own duties, and Song Zhi took a walk around the City Lord's Mansion.

When he was bored, the fat city lord finally came back with a brocade box.

The servants carefully helped his fat body over the threshold. After coming in, he handed the brocade box to Song Zhi, panting.

"Sorry, I made such a mess in the study that it's a little hard to find this thing."

After receiving the imperial edict, he was so angry that he vomited blood. He threw it into the study in annoyance and never cared about it again.

He doesn't often go into the study now because it is a mess.

The servants wanted to punish him but he refused. It is no exaggeration to say that if he was not afraid of being held accountable by the emperor in the future, he would have wanted to throw the imperial edict into the fire.

Song Zhi opened the imperial edict and saw the vigorous and powerful handwriting. It was definitely the handwriting of the dog emperor.

I looked at the seal at the signature again, and it was real.

But she was sure that the dog emperor had not issued an order to increase taxes.

Although the dog emperor has many shortcomings, one of his few advantages is that he does not exploit the people to death.

If it wasn't the emperor, there was only one person who could get the blank imperial edict and seal, considering what the fat city lord said about it starting half a year ago.

Song Zhi frowned, his face looking a little ugly.

Mu Yuanzhi is indeed not a simple person. He is very smart. Under the cover of his frail health, his ambition has never been exposed.

"In fact, we, the powerless marginal city lords and ordinary people, don't care who becomes the monarch or the emperor."

Suddenly, the fat city lord licked his fingers after eating the elbow.

"All we care about is whether we can have enough food and clothing and live a stable life."

There was a deep light in his eyes. "I heard them all call you Boss, so I'll do the same."

His tone was profound. "Whoever can make our lives better, we will be willing to serve him as our master. Boss Song, do you understand what I mean?"

Song Zhi originally thought that he was a simple-minded city lord who only knew how to eat and drink, but he didn't expect that he was a wise man who pretended to be stupid, and everything was just a disguise.

If you think about it carefully, he has been the city lord here for so many years.

Being in a border city, it is not an easy task to balance the exchanges between the people of the two countries. It requires some skills.

After spending a short time together, he realized that Song Zhi was not that kind of despicable person, so he chose to be honest with him.

Song Zhi smiled, but the smile did not reach his eyes.

She leaned forward, drew out the dagger, and thrust it against the fat city lord's neck with lightning speed.

"Who do you think you are to speak to me like that?"

"City Lord!"

The servants around were about to step forward in fear, but were stopped by the men brought by Song Zhi, who all drew their swords.