Mutual Destruction

Li Zhi slowly came around. Opening his eyes and seeing Sun Chao'en's face, he felt an immediate wave of relief. He struggled to sit up, but the slightest movement brought piercing agony, followed by numbness across many parts of his body. Raising his left arm to look, he saw that, sure enough, everything below the elbow was gone. "How long was I unconscious? What time is it now?" "It has been only three days since the great battle on the front lines. Your Majesty was unconscious for merely three days." For an ordinary person, that might not sound terrible, but Li Zhi was at Scenery Command; to be unconscious for three days clearly meant his divine soul had suffered injury. As memories from before his collapse gradually flooded back, Li Zhi let out a bitter laugh. "To think Eldest Uncle... no, that old scoundrel, the King of Qi, could be so treacherous, secretly colluding with Huaipu to catch me off guard. Still, I am no easy prey; I tore a massive chunk out of him as well. Only, I intended to live and die with the army, to fight him to the bitter end—how did I suddenly end up back here?" Sun Chao'en replied, "Your Majesty fought to the very end, collapsing from utter exhaustion. Fearing you would fight on, the generals struck you unconscious and fought desperately to break through the encirclement, which was how they managed to bring you back." Li Zhi collected himself and asked, "How are the soldiers? What was the final outcome of the battle?" Sun Chao'en paused for a moment before answering, "At the final moment, General Lan ordered a scattered breakout. If any soldiers escaped, it is not yet time for them to make it back." Li Zhi's face darkened, and he said slowly, "When I fell, seventy to eighty percent of our million-strong army had already fallen. And with a scattered breakout at the end, I fear... not many will return alive." Li Zhi looked at his severed arm again and asked, "How are my injuries?" "Your Majesty has too many external wounds, and your vitality and blood are severely depleted, but your sinews and bones remain sound, and your foundation has suffered only slight impairment. You need only take nourishing immortal pills and recuperate for a time, and there will be no lasting harm. Fortunately, the divine soul is only mildly damaged; there is a flaw in your sea of consciousness, but immortal medicine can still mend it. Only this arm is more troublesome, requiring hard effort to regrow." "Help me up." Sun Chao'en helped Li Zhi to his feet, and the two walked out of the palace hall into the courtyard. It was already early winter. Fresh snow had just begun to fall, casting a bleak, desolate chill across heaven and earth, cold biting to the bone. In his state of extreme weakness, Li Zhi gazed at the drifting snow and asked softly, "Over a million soldiers, gone just like that. Do you think... I should keep fighting?" In this sentence, Li Zhi no longer used royal titles, speaking instead like an old friend opening his heart. Sun Chao'en replied, "That depends on whether Your Majesty truly wishes to fight." Li Zhi gave a bitter smile. "Of course I am unwilling to accept this! But if I continue fighting, will it bring far too much suffering to the people of the world? Just because of my refusal to concede, nearly ten million lives have already been lost or broken along the way." Sun Chao'en said, "Your Majesty should see it this way: if this realm falls into the hands of Huaipu or the King of Qi, the common people will suffer far worse. Over the coming centuries and millennia, who knows how many more lives will be thrown into that bottomless abyss." Li Zhi paused, taken aback. "You truly think so?" "Naturally," Sun Chao'en answered without hesitation. A trace of color gradually returned to Li Zhi's face, and he said in a deep voice, "Very well, then I will fight them to the bitter end once more! I am a man who has already died once anyway—what is there to fear? How many troops do we still have?" Sun Chao'en finally smiled. "A newly trained force of one hundred and fifty thousand is ready to prove its might upon the battlefield. However... our military supplies are somewhat lacking. Should we send word to Qingming to ask for special aid?" Li Zhi shook his head. "We will proceed according to standard practice; there is no need for a special plea for aid. Under normal circumstances, I would have already lost; fighting on is merely because my heart refuses to yield. From here on, this is between the two of us. We will fight this on our own." Sun Chao'en declared, "I shall serve unto death!" Li Zhi said, "Let us agree beforehand: this time, we will fight as far as we can take it, but the moment things become untenable, you must flee immediately to Qingming and never return. That is the place where your talents can truly shine. If you do not agree to this, I will not fight." Sun Chao'en pondered for a moment and finally nodded. Li Zhi smiled. "All right, now do you have any potent medicine for these wounds? I'm practically dying of pain!" *** Beneath the walls of the Southern Jin capital, a sea of a million corpses seemed to choke every corner of heaven and earth. His face ashen, the King of Qi walked amid an endless expanse of the dead while a general at his side reported continuously, "The Right Longxiang Army suffered thirty-five thousand killed, twenty-one thousand wounded, and thirteen thousand missing... The Right Qingbo Army suffered forty thousand killed, wounded..." The more the King of Qi listened, the more irritated he grew. He roared, "Give me the total!" The general hesitated for a moment before whispering, "One million two hundred thousand dead, nine hundred thousand wounded, with half of the wounded in critical condition..." The figure caused the King of Qi's breath to halt for an instant, his heart seized as if by a massive hand, unable to beat. Nearly two million casualties—more than half of Southern Qi's elite had perished here. "What about Huaipu's casualties?" "They have not been published, but according to the generals' observations, their casualties are also above one million." The King of Qi gave a sneer and said slowly, "Five million against one million two hundred thousand, with immortals stepping in to veil karma and a host of immortals maintaining morale, and yet three million still died?" Another veteran minister spoke up, "Yet this battle thoroughly wiped out Zhenshan Li Zhi, eliminating a grave peril to our vitals. That is our greatest gain. Otherwise, had Li Zhi taken Southern Jin, the situation would have spiraled out of control." Only then did the King of Qi's expression soften slightly. Dressed in general's armor, the Fourth Prince suddenly spoke, "The reason Li Zhi inflicted such terrible losses upon the soldiers of our Great Tang is entirely due to Qingming backing him from the shadows! In my humble opinion, we should join forces with Huaipu and dispatch a proclamation to Qingming at once, demanding that Wei Yuan compensate our army for our losses!" The King of Qi stopped in his tracks, swung his hand, and delivered a stinging backhand slap across his face. This slap not only dazed the Fourth Prince, but also stunned the assembled generals and ministers. In private, the King of Qi had cursed Qingming and Wei Yuan countless times, wishing he could hack Wei Yuan to pieces and devour him. The ministers and princes had always chimed in to echo his hatred, never expecting their words to provoke such a furious reaction today. The King of Qi bent down and picked up a flying-sword gun from the corpse of a Zhenshan soldier. The weapon's craftsmanship was quite crude, lacking the exquisite, refined finish of Qingming armaments; it was clearly an imitation, falling a notch below even Southern Qi's own manufactured weapons. He skillfully disassembled the flying-sword gun, inspected the parts inside, and asked, "Have Zhenshan's casualty figures been compiled?" A general answered, "One hundred and ninety thousand captured, one hundred and ten thousand severely wounded. The rest are presumed killed in action." The King of Qi paused. "Nine hundred thousand dead?" "...Yes." "Good, what a Li Zhi! Perhaps this throne of Mine truly should have been passed to him!" Civil ministers and military generals held their tongues, while the princes seethed with indignation. Paying no mind to his subordinates, the King of Qi merely looked across the boundless mountains of corpses and seas of blood, saying slowly, "Send someone to Qingming. Tell Wei Yuan that from now on, we will no longer restrict the flow of population into Qingming. If he wants more, we can even sell them to him without charging exorbitant prices." The ministers all paled. One hurried to protest, "Your Majesty, this contradicts the Venerable Lord's commands..." The King of Qi's face darkened instantly. The minister immediately slapped himself across the face, his cheek swelling up at once. The King of Qi let out a cold snort. As long as these ministers understood before whom they knelt, and who possessed the power to sever their heads on the spot, that was enough.