On the wedding day, my wife was abnormal

February 20th, the second year of Shenghui.

Pyongyang Royal Palace, Gyeongbokgung Hall.

Unlike the quarrels and noises a few days ago, the hall was now shrouded in a dead silence, but beneath this silence was a volcano about to erupt.

The charcoal brazier was still crackling, but it seemed to be burning the tense nerves of everyone in the hall.

The air was filled with a mixture of fear, despair, and the madness that comes from being forced into a desperate situation.

King Go Zang of Goguryeo was as pale as paper. He curled up on the throne, his body trembling slightly. If it were not for the armrests of the throne, he would have almost slipped down.

Regent Gao Yun stood beside the throne. His originally sinister face was now even more hideous and distorted. He clenched his fists tightly, his knuckles turned white from the force, and veins bulged on the back of his hands.

Your Highness, all the civil and military officials stood in silence with their heads bowed. No one dared to make a sound, and even their breathing was deliberately suppressed.

Everyone's eyes were focused, either explicitly or implicitly, on the wooden tray covered with white cloth in the center of the hall.

Below that were the heads of Jin Wenhan, the envoy sent to Haizhou to seek peace yesterday, and his entourage, which were sent back.

A eunuch knelt tremblingly beside a wooden tray, having just reported the results of the trip to Haizhou in a trembling voice.

As soon as the delegation stated their purpose, before they could state the terms of peace in detail, Murong Yan ordered that all of them be executed and their heads be sent back "as a warning to others."

Murong Yan even declared that she would flatten Pyongyang and use the blood of the Goguryeo royal family to pay tribute to the souls of the dead in Daqian. She would fight to the death before she would stop!

The deathly silence lasted for a long time, and was finally broken by Gao Yun's low growl like a wounded beast:

"Murong Yan! Witch! You're going too far!!!"

He kicked the incense burner beside him hard, and the ashes and unburned spices spilled all over the ground, scaring the ministers nearby and making them retreat one after another.

"Uncle..." The young king cried, his voice weak and limp.

Gao Yun turned his head abruptly, his bloodshot eyes fixed on Gao Zang, and then glanced at the ministers below the stage. His voice became hoarse and sharp due to extreme anger:

"Did you all hear it?! Did you all see it?! Ask for peace? Submit? Pay tribute? It's useless! None of it is useful! That witch doesn't want any of that! She wants all of our lives! She wants the Goguryeo state to be overthrown and the ancestral temples to be burned down! She even killed the envoys who came to ask for peace! She wants to wipe us all out!"

Below the stage, the original representative of the peace faction, the court attendant Wen Zhengchun, now had a pale face and trembling lips, unable to utter a single word in request for peace.

The facts were before her eyes, and Murong Yan blocked all possibilities of compromise in the most bloody way.

He closed his eyes dejectedly, and two lines of turbid old tears slid down his cheeks.

Park Jung-woong, the pro-war general, calmed down at this moment, but that calmness was a kind of despair with dead silence.

He stepped out of the line, knelt on one knee, and spoke in a deep and resolute voice: "Regent! Your Majesty! Things have come to this point, there is no turning back! Murong Yan's actions have destroyed all hope of survival for Goguryeo! The only solution now is to mobilize the entire nation and fight this witch to the bitter end! Even if... even if the city is destroyed and the country is destroyed, we will break a few of her teeth and let her know that the men of Goguryeo are not lambs to be slaughtered!"

As soon as he finished speaking, no one in the hall objected.

Even the most timid civil servants showed a look of despair and a hint of aroused ferocity in their eyes.

Asking for peace means death, and surrendering is probably also death, so it is better to fight to the death!

Murong Yan's cruelty unexpectedly gave rise to the last bit of unity and determination among the Goguryeo ruling class.

"That's right! Fight her!"

"Fight to the bitter end!"

"Defend Pyongyang! Defend Goguryeo!"

Sporadic shouts began to be heard, gradually gathering into a tragic wave of sound.

The fear did not disappear, but was temporarily suppressed by stronger despair and anger.

Gao Yun looked at the angry, or rather grief-stricken, ministers below the stage, and the huge feeling of powerlessness in his heart was replaced by a kind of desperate madness.

He took a deep breath, forcing down the sweet, fishy taste in his throat. He walked to the center of the hall, pointed at the wooden tray holding the head, and said sternly, "Alright! Since Murong Yan won't let us live, don't blame us for going all out! Minister Jin's blood will not be shed in vain! Pass on this king's order!"

The hall instantly became quiet, and all eyes were focused on him.

"First! Effective immediately, martial law is imposed throughout Pyongyang! All males aged fifteen and over and under fifty are conscripted, issued weapons, and required to participate in the defense of the city! Anyone who disobeys this order will be executed!"

"Second! Demolish all non-essential buildings within the city. Transport all bricks, stone, and timber to the city walls to serve as logs and stone rolling blocks! Gather all kerosene and gold to prepare for battle!"

"Third! Open the royal treasury and the private vaults of the ministers, and give priority to supplying all stored food and property to the soldiers defending the city! Tell the soldiers, if the country is destroyed, what use are these material possessions? If you can hold on, your majesty and I will reward you generously!"

"Fourth!" Gao Yun's eyes swept over all the generals present, "General Park Jung-woong!"

"The general is here!"

"I appoint you as the Commander-in-Chief of Pyongyang's defense, with full authority over all matters related to the city's defense! All other generals are to be commanded by you! If anyone fears the enemy, or deserts the battlefield, General Park may execute them first and report to you later!"

"I obey your command! I swear to live and die with Pyongyang!" Park Jung-woong kowtowed heavily.

"Fifth!" Gao Yun finally turned his gaze to the civil officials. "All civil officials, according to their ranks, will guard different sections of the city wall, supervise the battle and comfort the people! The city survives, the people live; the city falls, the people die!"

Each order was filled with determination and heroism.

This was no longer a normal military deployment, but a dynasty's final struggle in the face of catastrophe.

After the order was given, Gao Yun slowly walked to the wooden plate and suddenly lifted the white cloth!

Several heads with terrified expressions and eyes open were exposed before everyone!

This caused a suppressed exclamation.

Gao Yun drew the sword from his waist, the blade cut across his palm, and blood immediately gushed out!

He dripped blood into the wine jar that the eunuch had already prepared. Then he raised the jar, glanced at everyone, and said in a hoarse but persuasive voice: "Everyone! Today, we swear by this blood wine! We will fight that evil woman Murong Yan to the bitter end! We would rather die in glory than live in disgrace! Drink this wine, and face the national crisis together!"

After saying that, he tilted his head back and took a big gulp of the blood wine, then handed the jar to King Gao Zang beside him.

Gao Zang was so scared that he was shaking all over, but under Gao Yun's gaze, he still took a small sip with trembling hands.

Then, the wine jar was passed among the civil and military officials, and everyone, whether willing or not, drank the "oath wine" mixed with the blood of the envoys.

The wine went down his throat, carrying with it a rusty smell and a suffocating sense of despair and madness.

When the last person finished drinking, Gao Yun threw the wine jar hard to the ground, and fragments flew everywhere!

"Alright!" he roared. "From now on, in Goguryeo, there will only be those who died in battle, no one will surrender! Let's bring in Murong Yan, and her weird phoenix dress! Let's see which is more powerful, her black and gold phoenix, or the solidity of the walls built by the flesh and blood of millions of Goguryeo soldiers and civilians!"

His words were filled with hysterical madness.

The dark gold nightgown that he had never seen in person was no longer a gorgeous dress in his mind and the minds of all the Goguryeo nobles. Instead, it was the embodiment of destruction and death, a nightmare that must be fought with all their might.

The court meeting ended in a tragic and desperate atmosphere.

The ministers quietly left Jingfu Hall, each of their faces filled with solemnity and determination.

They knew that Pyongyang, the last bastion of Goguryeo, was about to face a bloody battle.