Crown Prince of the Empire, I quit!

"Count casualties, replenish arrows, and seize horses! Take away any military supplies you can, and burn everything you can't take away!"

"Your Majesty, there are dozens of captives..." Han Qian asked.

"Kill." Hua Yunhong's voice was calm.

Screams soon rang out and then quickly fell silent.

He raised his head and looked southeast. There, the outline of the capital city loomed in the night, like a startled, slightly dazed giant beast.

"The capital... should have seen the fire." Hua Yunhong's lips curled up in a cold arc.

……

Capital, Imperial City, Privy Council duty room.

The hurried footsteps and frightened shouts broke the silence of the night!

"Sir! Sir! Something bad has happened! Yuquan Mountain Royal Manor! Flames are shooting up from the direction of Yuquan Mountain! An alarm has arrived... saying... that they are under attack by a large number of unknown enemy forces! Contact has been... lost!"

The deputy privy councilor on duty was so frightened that he rolled off the couch and rushed out of the door in dishevel. Looking towards the west where the fire had lit up half the sky red, his face instantly turned as pale as paper!

"How is this possible?! Where did the enemy come from?! Hasn't the northern border been pacified?! What on earth is Meng Zhi doing?!" He roared incoherently, a huge fear gripping his heart! Yuquan Mountain! Only a few dozen miles from the capital! How could the enemy have quietly reached here?!

"Quick! Ring the Yangyang Bell! Urgent military information! Citywide martial law! Close all city gates! Quickly notify the Prime Minister and all the remaining officials! Quick--!!!"

The shrill sound of bells quickly resounded throughout the imperial city, then spread throughout the capital! The slumbering capital was suddenly awakened! Countless lights flickered on in panic, and the people peered out in fear. The streets were filled with the sound of galloping horses and the clash of armor! Chaos and panic spread like a plague!

who?who is it? !

The barbarians in the north? The Qiang people in the west? Or... the remnants of the sacred tree that should have been destroyed long ago?!

No one knows, but the biting chill of the enemy at the gates makes everyone's hair stand on end!

……

Almost at the same time as the bells in the capital rang.

A galloping horse, covered in blood, filled with endless fear and despair, madly broke through the checkpoint outside the Beiting Protectorate. The knight on the horse almost rolled off the horse, crying out at the top of his lungs:

"General Meng! General Meng! This is bad! Blackstone Fort... Blackstone Fort's old armory has been looted! Han Qian's gang of remnants of the former dynasty have rebelled! They killed the guards, took the weapons, and disappeared! We're tracking them... They... They're probably heading south!!"

Meng Zhi, who was handling official business, suddenly stood up, his huge body knocking over the table! He grabbed the soldier who reported the news, his eyes as big as copper bells almost bursting!

"Han Qian?! How many people?! How long have they been heading south?!"

"About four hundred people! All elite! They've been gone... for at least five or six days!"

"Five or six days?!" Meng Zhi felt a chill rising from his feet to his head! Five or six days! Four hundred elite soldiers! Heading south! This time, this direction... their goal...

A name that he absolutely dared not think about, but was extremely clear, emerged in his mind - the capital! His Majesty had just left, and the capital was empty!

And the person who could mobilize Han Qian's loyal old subordinates, who could exploit the loopholes in the defense so accurately, and who could have such crazy courage...

only one!

The person who should have died in the depths of Snow God Valley!

"Hua-Yun-Hong-!!!"

Meng Zhi roared like a wounded beast, his voice filled with endless anger and... a hint of fear that was hard to conceal!

He fell for it! Everyone fell for it! Hua Yunhong had deceived everyone by faking his own death and escaping with a trick! His real target wasn't Beiting at all, but the defenseless heart of the empire!

"Hurry! Send an urgent message to His Majesty immediately! The capital is in danger!"

"Call the troops! Call the troops for me immediately! All the cavalry that can move! Follow me south to provide support immediately! Quickly!!"

The Beiting Protectorate's camp exploded instantly! Messengers rushed out frantically! Cavalry hastily assembled! Meng Zhi didn't even have time to put on his armor before grabbing his axe and leaping onto his horse!

However, Beiting is more than a thousand miles away from the capital! Even if we travel day and night, how can we make it in time?!

Meng Zhi stared at the dark night sky to the south, his heart aching. He only hoped that the walls of the capital would be strong enough so that his colleagues who stayed behind could hold out a little longer!

The poisonous blade has already drawn blood.

The prosperous heartland of the empire ushered in a devastating storm that no one had expected.

And at the core of this storm, Hua Yunhong was standing in the flames of Yuquan Mountain, looking coldly at the huge city in panic.

His revenge has just begun.

The flames and billowing smoke from Yuquan Mountain were like a burning poisonous dagger stuck in the heart of the empire, completely awakening the sleeping capital.

The shrill ringing of the Yangyang Bell echoed in the night sky, shaking every anxious heart. The city gates slammed shut, the iron gates dropped, torches on the city walls lit up like dragons, and the sound of weapons clashing was endless.

Chaos and panic spread through the streets. People closed their doors and peeked fearfully through the cracks in their windows at the ominous red light in the west.

Inside the imperial city, the lights were ablaze. The remaining prime ministers and the Privy Council's dignitaries, their faces livid, gathered in the main hall, arguing and roaring, then falling into a dead silence of despair. Where did the enemy come from? How large was their force? What was their purpose? Everything was a mystery! The devastating news of the fall of Yuquan Mountain and the utter destruction of the defenders was like a drenching cold water.

"It's Hua Yunhong!" An old minister uttered the name tremblingly, and the temperature in the palace seemed to drop a few degrees. The nightmare that should have buried him in the snow valley was really lingering!

"Absolutely impossible!" someone argued forcefully, "It must be Beimang or Xiliang taking advantage of the situation!"

"No matter who comes, the defenses of the capital are weak!" The prime minister finally slammed the table, his voice hoarse but resolute. "Immediately mobilize all the strong men of the capital's army, the city patrol, and even the servants of each prefecture! Defend the city to the death! At the same time, send an urgent message eight hundred miles away... no! One thousand six hundred miles away, report to Your Majesty! Also urgently report to Meng Zhi in Beiting!"

The order was given, and the vast machinery of the capital began, in a panic, to laboriously mobilize for war. Soldiers surged onto the city walls, civilians were driven to carry rolling logs and stones, and blacksmiths worked tirelessly through the night to forge arrowheads. However, the hasty chaos and fear of an unknown enemy made all this seem a bit chaotic and feeble.

……

The capital area is not a monolithic entity.

Hua Yunhong's surprise attack on Yuquan Mountain was a success, like a spark splashing into the dry grassland. Those forces that had been lurking in the local area, still harboring longing for the sacred tree of the previous dynasty or resentful of the Daqian rule, smelled an opportunity.

Some local tyrants who had been suppressed suddenly rose up in rebellion, attacking the county government, opening up granaries to distribute grain, and taking refugees with them, claiming, "We will rise up in Yingtian to recover our sacred trees!" Although most of them were a motley crowd, they were enough to disrupt the rear and tie down the troops of the counties surrounding the capital, preventing them from fully supporting the capital.