Free Web NovelChapter 137: Hongmen Banquet
Therefore, Long Chen wasn’t worried about Lin Yuntian betraying.
Coming to his senses,
Long Chen began giving orders, sternly saying:
"Lin Yuntian, listen up!"
"At your command!"
"I’m giving you five hundred elite soldiers from Wu County, and you have three days to find out all the individuals and families involved in the betrayal."
"At your command!"
After the "Life-Taking Swordsman" left, Dian Wei, who was beside Long Chen, scratched his bald head in confusion and asked:
"My lord, why don’t we just attack the rebels’ stronghold directly?"
Long Chen rolled his eyes and explained:
"Well, first, we don’t know which powerful families and clans are involved in this. We need to identify them first."
"Secondly, even if we want to eliminate these rebels, we must first find evidence of their betrayal!"
"Otherwise, executing these influential families and clans without any evidence will surely lead to resistance."
"The people’s support will also significantly decrease, and my reputation will suffer!"
"So that’s why I didn’t immediately take action as soon as I received the news!"
"Don’t worry! These rebels will sooner or later perish under the chaos of war, it’s just a matter of them eking out a few more days."
Xu Chu asked curiously, clasping his fists:
"My lord, do you really trust that kid named Lin Yuntian?"
Long Chen remained silent. The reason he trusted so much was that he had checked the attributes panel of the "Life-Taking Swordsman."
His martial prowess was as high as 76, an extremely rare existence among the diverse groups of people.
However, despite having such high martial prowess, his other data was quite average.
Long Chen also understood that as an assassin who pursued the art of killing with a single blow, he primarily allocated his attribute points to strengthen his martial prowess.
His martial prowess was secondary; the main thing was his skills, techniques, and talents.
His talent allowed him to ignore level restrictions and view NPC attributes, giving him the advantage of knowing his enemies well.
[Name]: Lin Yuntian
[Occupation]: Assassin
[Title]: "Ninth on the Assassin Rankings" (Huaxia server), "Life-Taking Swordsman"
...
[Skills]:
Shadow Concealment (S-level)
Allows oneself and allies (limited to 50 people) to enter stealth mode, increasing the damage rate of the next attack by 80% and movement speed by +30%.
Shadow Blade (A-level)
Performs a stealth attack, increasing assassination damage by 100%.
[Techniques]: "Shadow Decision" (A-level)
Six levels in total, each level increases self-attack damage and movement speed...
...In short, the "Life-Taking Swordsman" is a very powerful assassin. If he joins the Imperial Guards that Long Chen established in the future, he will definitely be a great asset.
...
Three days later,
The "Life-Taking Swordsman" presented all the intelligence on the rebel forces to Long Chen’s table.
Then he stepped back.
Long Chen opened the intelligence and examined it carefully, his face turning pale with anger.
He angrily flipped the bamboo slip.
He berated, "These despicable scoundrels are actually planning to invite me to the Cloud Dream Pavilion banquet tomorrow night and arrange for assassins to kill me!!"
"A blatant attempt at a ’Hongmen Banquet’!"
"How audacious!"
"And these crimes are even more abominable, privately raising private soldiers and dead men!"
"What are they up to? Accumulating strength for rebellion?!"
"And colluding secretly with Zhou Xin, the governor of Danyang County next door, attempting to take down Wu County through internal and external cooperation!"
"I didn’t actively seek trouble with Danyang County, but they were the first to cause trouble for me!"
"This is intolerable!!!"
Long Chen’s anger caused the table to shake, and the powerful qi instantly shattered the bamboo slip, shocking Lin Yuntian below.
Xu Chu’s eyes widened with anger as he said, "The evidence against the rebels is irrefutable. Why not order them to witness the power of my great blade immediately, my lord?"
Dian Wei also volunteered with a clasped fist!
He revealed a fierce and terrifying demeanor, complemented by the red birthmark between his eyebrows, looking extremely ferocious.
He thought to himself, "It seems that there are too many powerful clans in Wu County, coupled with the assistance of the mountain tribes, which has led to these guys’ unyielding ambitions!"
In fact, Jiujian County was also in a similar situation before. However, Long Chen made preparations before taking office and finally wiped out the ambitious powerful clans of Jiujian County.
This led to the stable situation today.
However, the situation in Wu County was different.
But now,
With the irrefutable evidence against these troublemakers, it’s just the right time to clear up the bad practices in Wu County.
This would maintain the local stability, at least preventing theft during his future military campaigns.
At this moment, the military advisor, Xizhi Cai, was not by his side, so Long Chen had to figure out a solution to the rebellion in Wu County himself.
The evidence was already gathered, and there was no problem with a direct military suppression.
But Long Chen thought of the private soldiers raised by these powerful clans.
If they were to confront them directly, his soldiers would inevitably suffer losses.
Instead of confronting them head-on, why not seize the opportunity at tomorrow night’s banquet and eliminate the leaders of these powerful clans!
This way, the rebel forces could collapse on their own!
Considering this,
Long Chen instructed Xu Chu beside him, "Zhongkang, pass down the order to select five hundred elites from the army, disguise them as peddlers, and send them to the Cloud Dream Pavilion to await further orders!"
Xu Chu clasped his fist and responded, "Yes!"
Then, Long Chen turned to Lin Yuntian, who was seated below, and said:
"Yuntian, you’ve done well this time. After this mission, I will allocate a separate battalion and establish a special organization, the Imperial Guards."
"The Imperial Guards will only take orders from me, disregarding commands from other officials. You will be in charge for now!" ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com
Hearing this, Lin Yuntian was greatly shocked but immediately accepted the order with a clasped fist.
His loyalty also increased from 81 to 85.
After these two left, Long Chen rubbed his temples.
"It seems that the establishment of the Imperial Guards must be put on the agenda!"
...
The next evening, at dusk.
At the largest restaurant in Wu County, the Cloud Dream Pavilion.
Tonight, it was rented out by several wealthy individuals from Wu County, so the banquet hall inside was empty.
Only dozens of sturdy men dressed in black stood indifferently around.
The heads of several powerful clans in Wu County have all arrived here today.
They were dressed in luxurious attire, wearing embroidered robes and jade belts.
Leading them was a middle-aged man with a prominent eight-character mustache.
The other clan heads all deferred to him.
The reason was simple, because he was the head of the largest clan in Wu County, the "Lu Family".
"Ziyu, do you think our risky move this time will succeed? I’ve been worried sick lately!"
An elderly man in a dark red robe asked anxiously.
The stout man patted his shoulder and smiled, "Don’t worry! With the five hundred elite soldiers from the aid of Prefect Zhou, we will surely succeed!"
"As the saying goes, two fists are no match for four hands, let alone we have five hundred men! And they are all elite soldiers from Danyang."
