Palace Fighting: Naive Concubines' Ascent to Power-Chapter 594: Who Dares to Bully My Little... Brother!
Chapter 594: Chapter 594: Who Dares to Bully My Little... Brother!
Unexpectedly, they had not even started when their tricks were already seen through.
Since they had been exposed, there was no need to pretend anymore.
Lai Liang reached for the knife at his waist and shouted to the people behind him, "Attack, kill them all."
He drew his knife, took the lead, and charged forward.
From the buildings behind him, more than a dozen individuals wielding weapons rushed out.
The man who was pinned to the ground had freed his hands at some point, pulled the cloth from his mouth, and swept the hair from his face. His appearance resembled Uncle Ma’s, but on closer inspection, it was one of the Dead Soldiers protecting Guo Neng.
Lian Bao sneered repeatedly. Guo Neng, that sly fox, had actually dressed someone up as Uncle Ma. If they couldn’t recognize him and proceeded with the trade as usual, once this fake was swapped to their side, Lai Liang and the others would attack from the front while the imposter would stab them from behind, trapping them between two attacks, the consequences were unimaginable.
It seemed that Guo Neng did not really want to trade but to wipe them out entirely, leaving no one behind. Even if he failed, holding Uncle Ma, they would hesitate, forced to swallow this bitter loss.
But how could he so easily trust someone like Guo Neng?
As Lai Liang raised his sword and rushed at Lian Bao, a heavy iron rod descended from the sky, whistling through the air, and aimed directly at Lai Liang’s face.
Caught off guard, Lai Liang flinched and stepped back just in time to dodge his face.
The missed iron rod swung horizontally in a sweeping motion. Being too close, Lai Liang couldn’t dodge it and was struck on the chest, thrown into the air, and landed harshly, spitting out a mouthful of blood as he fell, possibly breaking several ribs.
"Who dares to bully my family’s little... brother!" Lian Wanzhen, holding the iron rod, thrust it into the ground, standing in the center of the clearing. Mid-sentence, he suddenly remembered the words Lian Bao had told him, abruptly altering "Xiao Bao" to "little brother."
He had been hiding on that rooftop for a long time, waiting for this moment.
The Guo family’s guards were stunned, their movements halted abruptly as they stood frozen, not daring to move.
In the initial encounter, had this man seriously injured their lead guard with just one move?
It took a good while before someone recovered and ran to help Lai Liang.
At that moment, the Dead Soldier stepped out from the crowd, his sharp gaze firmly fixed on Lian Wanzhen, releasing a fierce intent to kill as if he had met a formidable opponent.
With one man’s strength overpowering ten, Lian Wanzhen was capable of fighting Qian Chen. Brash and combative, he loved teasing cats and dogs, and in his teens, he dared to seek one-on-one fights, least afraid of brawling.
During the years of exile, for his family, he forcefully suppressed his nature, enduring and obeying the commands of his parents and elder brother. Without Lian Wanzhen’s martial prowess, their initial escape would not have been so smooth.
Back when the Lian Family faced a sudden disaster, he boldly stormed the Yamen. Eventually outnumbered, he was captured, and through practical experience, he grasped a profound military principle: individual fighting is inferior to fighting in numbers.
Of course, he knew this principle well before, but he had acted impulsively at that time.
One of the principles of military tactics is to win by outnumbering the opponent; armies favor attacking with overwhelming numbers.
While winning against greater numbers is possible, it’s typically a last resort. Essentially, even in those wins, the strategy involves dividing the enemy and looking for opportunities to attack with superior numbers.
Military tactics state: "Therefore, in the use of armies, surround them with ten times their number, attack them with five times, divide them when you are twice as many, engage them when equal, retreat when slightly outnumbered, and avoid them when seriously outnumbered." This principle is fundamental in deploying troops and arranging formations, all reliant on numbers.
He was impulsive and honest but not foolish. Seeing the Dead Soldier emerge and having moved closer to Guo Neng’s men, he cried out, "Ouch," and immediately retreated to Lian Bao’s side, positioning himself in front of Lian Bao and the others, ready to take a defensive stance against Skinny Monkey and his group.
The corner of the Dead Soldier’s eye twitched, his momentum dwindling a bit.
In such confrontations, seizing the momentum is crucial. Their opponent had initially overpowered them, and to their surprise, he had retreated, leaving them in a passive position.
Moving forward was not an option; the guards had yet to react, and if he moved forward, the opposing group could overpower him alone, regardless of how skilled he was.
But retreating was also not an option; doing so would disperse the momentum on his side, and the guards would be even less effective...
Lian Wanzhen didn’t care what the Dead Soldier was thinking, thinking to himself that wearing tattered clothes and being all injured, this fool dared to take the lead?
He simply ignored them and shouted at the guards, "Don’t move recklessly! I just got this iron club today and haven’t gotten the hang of it. If I accidentally strike too hard and kill someone, don’t blame me."
Xiao Bao had told him that today’s battle was not about fighting; it was crucial that the other side listened to what Xiao Bao had to say.
Although he said this, his expression was one of reluctance to let go, gazing at Lai Liang, who had been on the ground unable to get up, muttering to himself that he had not exerted much force, so how had he knocked the man down? Was he hitting a soft bone?
The tense atmosphere around Lian Bao lightened somewhat, with a few even feeling the urge to laugh.
Lai Liang, who was just being helped up, felt a surge of rage upon hearing this, which aggravated his already excruciating chest pain and caused him to vomit a mouthful of blood because of his broken rib.
At this point, the confrontation had reached a stalemate. With Lian Wanzhen present, Guo Neng’s guards and Dead Soldiers did not dare to decisively eliminate everyone.
And Lian Bao and his group had not made a move either; their primary concern at the moment was rescuing Uncle Ma, not engaging in combat.
Sensing the time was right, Lian Bao with a twinkle in his peach blossom eyes, broke the deadlock, "Tell your young master, killing us won’t be easy. Tonight, either negotiate sincerely with us, or wait for his deeds to spread throughout the Capital’s streets and alleys tomorrow. Even if he kills all of us, his deeds will still be known throughout the Capital City!"
Lian Wanzhen nodded in agreement, pulling a stack of papers from his chest and, without looking, flung them toward the other side.
The papers scattered as they flew, blossoming like flowers thrown by heavenly maidens...
Six or seven miles away, Guo Neng was in a room sipping hot tea, served by a Servant Boy.
Outside in the courtyard, another Dead Soldier and a few selected guards were on duty.
He sipped his tea while waiting to receive messages.
He was domineering and could hardly bear Xue Ping’s presence, let alone be manipulated by a band of thieves.
Negotiating wouldn’t be so easy!
Guo Neng didn’t care about the Silver or a few lives; how could he exchange these trivial things for the old thief he had finally captured?
If it weren’t for his plan to clean up everyone who knew about that matter completely, he wouldn’t be spending so much effort playing games with these people.
He had already planned everything. As long as the old thief remained in the Guo residence’s dungeon, those thieves had to play by his rules, which presented an opportunity to capture all the thieves at once.
A letter mentioned settling accounts with a single stroke; what a joke! Could someone offend Guo Neng and just settle everything with a single stroke?
This chapt𝒆r is updated by free(w)ebnovel(.)com
