We have fought to the Arctic Circle, and you want me to inherit the throne?

Li Che stopped and pointed his spear at the ground, with sticky blood still dripping from the tip.

"Your Highness?" Xiahou Xian stepped forward and said in a deep voice, "This man must be the leader of the bandits. Kill him here and all this will be over."

Li Che slowly shook his head: "This man cannot die. He is the witness who convicted Governor Chen. Only by capturing him alive can we purge the Fuzhou officialdom."

Xiahou Xian's heart sank. "Your Highness, are you saying...that these pirates are connected to the Fuzhou government?"

Li Che sneered, "Isn't it obvious? I just put out the bait, and Chen Wenrui couldn't wait to send someone to inform them. This group of Japanese pirates is entrenched here, killing and looting the people, and no one in the entire Fuzhou government office is concerned."

"It shows how extensive the chain of interests behind this is. If all the officials in Fuzhou were executed at once, there would definitely be some who were wrongly accused. But if they were executed one by one, there would definitely be some who slipped through the net!"

Xiahou Xian was shocked when he heard this.

He was responsible for guarding the royal palace, but he did not have much contact with the Fuzhou government.

Although the Prince Fu's Mansion does not have the power to govern, it can inquire about state affairs, and once it finds a problem, it can directly submit a memorial to Emperor Qing.

The person responsible for contacting the court was Gong Qingwen.

Li Che didn't care what Xiahou Xian was thinking. He looked at the bandit leader in the distance and stared into his eyes.

I just felt that although the other party had a fierce look on his face, his eyes were too lively, giving people a feeling that he was fierce on the outside but weak on the inside.

Li Che suddenly had an idea and handed the spear in his hand to Qu Jinshan beside him.

Then he walked to the front of the formation and called out, "Yang Ling!"

Li Che's voice was not loud, but it clearly drowned out the noise on the battlefield.

The tall and thin bandit leader hiding at the back suddenly stiffened, as if hit by an invisible hammer.

The red eyes stared at Li Che, and he asked in horror: "You...how do you know my name?"

On the government's wanted list, his name might be Yang Da or Black Shark.

But his real name, Yang Ling, had been deliberately forgotten by him for many years, and only a few people knew it.

How could this extremely young general know that?

Li Che's lips curled up as he continued, "Not only do I know your name is Yang Ling, I also know that you are entrenched here under the protection of Chen Wenrui, the governor of Fuzhou."

"He tacitly allowed you to rob fishermen and merchant ships, on the condition that you give him a share of your ill-gotten gains!"

"Your men include impoverished coastal dwellers, playboys with gambling debts, and soldiers on the run from military courts! You're a ragtag bunch, yet you dare to impersonate Japanese pirates and wreak havoc on the region. Who gave you the guts?!"

Li Che spoke slowly, but each word was clear and pierced Yang Ling's heart, causing him to subconsciously ignore Li Che's self-proclaimed name.

In fact, what Li Che said were almost all ambiguous common phenomena, and he used the tricks of fortune-telling on the overpass.

The composition of the gangsters and the pattern of sharing the spoils between officials and gangsters, isn't that all there is to it?

But Yang Ling was already a frightened bird at this moment, and these vague words became irrefutable evidence.

He felt the hairs on his body stand on end, and his voice trembled as he asked, "How...how could you possibly know?"

Yang Ling paused halfway through his words and thought of a possibility.

Then, his eyes erupted with venomous hatred, and he roared, "It was Chen Wenrui, that bastard official who told you!"

"This treacherous traitor, I did so many dirty things for him, and he actually betrayed me?!"

Seeing that Yang Ling had really taken the bait, Li Che couldn't help but sneer in his heart.

But his face remained cold and majestic, and he said in a deep voice as if pronouncing a verdict: "I tell you clearly, I am Li Che, the Prince of Daqing!"

"You have disguised yourself as Japanese pirates, murdering civilians and plundering merchants. Your crimes are heinous! The imperial court has specially sent me here to eradicate you and bring you down!"

"Chen Wenrui has already confessed everything you did, and now the evidence is irrefutable!"

"Yang Ling, you're at the end of your rope, don't you realize it? Hurry and surrender! Don't struggle in vain!"

When the bandits around Yang Ling heard this name, they suddenly became agitated and the despair on their faces became even more intense.

"By the...By the King?!"

A person’s name is like a tree’s shadow!

Li Che's deeds of pacifying the areas outside the Great Wall and dominating the grasslands have long been spread throughout the world. Even in the hearts of this group of desperate criminals, he is like a god of death.

Not to mention that Fengtian warships come in and out of Fuzhou Port every day. Just one look at the fierce Fengtian marines on them is enough to scare these pirates for half a day.

Yang Ling's face was as pale as paper, and his body was shaking slightly, but the ferocity of a desperado in his eyes remained.

He swung the long sword in his hand fiercely and shouted: "Surrender? Bullshit!"

"What I've done is enough to deserve a hundred beheadings! Surrendering means death, and not surrendering also means death. It's death either way, so why should I surrender?!"

"Brothers, fight them! Kill one and you'll break even. Kill two and you'll make a profit!"

He tried to use madness to arouse the last bit of ferocity in his men, but not everyone was as crazy as he was.

The title of King Feng was enough to intimidate these bandits and prevent them from moving rashly, not to mention that Li Che had just killed so many of them.

"What are you waiting for?" Yang Ling looked at the bandits beside him. "Which of you hasn't done murder and playing with women? Do you think you can survive in Li Che's hands?"

"You chose this path of death!" Li Che's voice suddenly rose, interrupting Yang Ling, "But your crime is yours alone!"

"I can make a promise to you, to all of you: If you surrender and confess your guilt right now, I can ensure that your parents, wife, and children will not be implicated, and you can live out the rest of your life in peace!

"This is your last chance. Think carefully and don't make mistakes!"

"Parents, wife, and children? Hahahaha!" Yang Ling seemed to have heard a huge joke, "Your Highness, Prince Feng, you don't know enough!"

"I, Yang Ling, have long been a wandering ghost. My family is broken and my wife and children are all dead!"

"I'm just a worthless person, I've had enough of life! What family do I have left to protect?"

"Hahahahaha!"

He laughed so hard that tears came out of his eyes, and he looked like a madman.

The surrounding bandits were not infected by this madness. They loosened their weapons and looked conflicted.

Yes, you, Yang Ling, are awesome. You, Yang Ling, are a very extravagant person. Your whole family is dead.

But we are not like that. We still have parents, wives, children, and nine clans to rely on!

That's Prince Feng! He's General Tiance!

When facing such a god-like figure, how many heads do we nine clans have enough for him to chop off?

Li Che's face showed no surprise at all, but instead revealed a hint of sarcasm: "Really? A wandering ghost? A dead life?"

"Yang Ling, let me ask you, are you willing?"

"If you died, your body would be left exposed in the wilderness with no one to collect it. But what about Chen Wenrui? What would happen to him?"

"I'm telling you, he'll put all the blame on your damn life, and this matter will become a mess!"

"He'll say he knew nothing and was simply deceived by you. He'll only receive a light accusation of oversight, a salary penalty, a demotion, or even just a reprimand."

"Then, he patted his butt and moved to another place, continuing to be his official master, wearing his silk and satin, eating his delicacies from land and sea, and hugging his beautiful wife and concubines!"

"Use the dirty money you and your brothers earned with your lives to live happily ever after!"

Li Che's words were like the sharpest knife, cutting open Yang Ling's heart.

The wild laughter stopped abruptly, and the madness on Yang Ling's face froze instantly.

His body trembled violently, and the knuckles of his fingers holding the knife turned white from excessive force.

"How much money did you earn for Chen Wenrui with your miserable life?" Li Che pressed on, "In the end, you were just a scapegoat for his crimes. Your death only earned you a tiny bit of dust on his official hat!"

"Yang Ling, are you willing to do this? You're also a fierce gangster. Are you willing to sacrifice your life to help that crooked official advance? Let him continue to rise in rank and wealth by stepping on the corpses of you and your brothers?"

"Do not!!!"

Yang Ling roared like a wild beast and stared at Li Che, his eyes filled with a struggle like a raging sea.

He looked at the few dozen men left around him. They were all covered in wounds, with fear and confusion in their eyes.

He looked again at the murderous elite soldiers behind Li Che and the black muzzles of the muskets.

Dang clang——

A crisp metallic collision sound was heard.

The blood-stained narrow Japanese sword slipped out of his hand, fell on the hard reef, bounced a few times, and then rolled into the dust.

Yang Ling seemed to have been drained of all his strength in an instant, and his tall body hunched over: "I... surrender..."

As Yang Ling threw down his sword and surrendered, the dozens of remaining Japanese pirates around him also dropped their weapons like dominoes being pushed down.

Xiahou Xian and Prince Fu's personal soldiers were shocked by the scene before them.

His Royal Highness Prince Feng actually made this notorious bandit leader surrender voluntarily with just a few words?

He is truly worthy of being called His Royal Highness the Prince of Feng. No wonder the storytellers in the city all say that His Royal Highness once chased and killed 300,000 Khitan troops alone on horseback!

"Tied him up!" Li Che's voice rang out.

"Count the stolen goods, search for evidence, and make sure you find irrefutable proof of their collusion with the Fuzhou government!"

"I will obey your orders!"

Xiahou Xian and others responded loudly and immediately ordered the soldiers to go forward to tie up the prisoners and take control of the scene.

Yang Ling's arms were tied tightly behind his back by two personal guards. As he passed by Li Che, he suddenly raised his head:

"Prince Feng, you win... But let me tell you, the water in Fuzhou City is deeper than you think. Behind Chen Wenrui... there is a noble person!"

Li Che's eyes narrowed slightly, and he looked back coldly: "If you have anything to say, let's talk in the lobby!"

"A noble? A noble is nothing. Not a single one of them can escape. I say that!"

Yang Ling was slightly startled, then his mouth twitched and he burst into laughter: "Hahaha, hahahahaha!"

"As expected of you, you are worthy of being General Tiance. I believe in you!"

"But I won't accept this. If it wasn't that cowardly Prince Fu who came to Fuzhou, but you, how could we have ended up in this situation?"

"Your Highness, Prince Feng... You may have saved the people of Fuzhou temporarily, but can you save them forever?"

"You're always away sometimes, right? Fuzhou...is not Fengguo!"