"My lord, rest assured. If we encounter resistance upfront, we can flank them from the side..."
Before Liang Cheng could finish, cavalrymen charged out from the Beacon Forts on both flanks.
Liang Cheng raised his longsword. There was no other choice now but to fight fiercely. Cavalrymen could only unleash their full, terrifying potential during a charge.
However, his men and horses were exhausted. It was uncertain whether they could break through the enemy. Even if they managed to, their speed would undoubtedly be impeded. The thousands of Qian cavalrymen relentlessly pursuing them would surely close in and surround them. Then, it was truly hard to say how many of their three hundred or so men could break out alive.
However, just then, the enemy cavalry blocking their path ahead suddenly slowed their pace. The rıghtful source is 𝕟𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕝⁂𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕖⁂𝕟𝕖𝕥
Liang Cheng slowly lowered his sword again, not ordering a charge. He knew exactly what their objective was: they wanted to take them alive.
Seeing the Yan cavalry also begin to slow, the surrounding Qian cavalrymen proactively began to encircle them. They maintained a wide distance, staying out of arrow range, but had already completely cut off any possibility of the Yan cavalry breaking out in any direction.
"Are they trying to persuade us to surrender?" Zheng Fan asked.
"It appears so," Liang Cheng replied.
"In this era, there’s no Geneva Convention."
"Whether there’s a Geneva Convention or not, it makes no difference."
Liang Cheng signaled the surrounding barbarian cavalry to gather. They spontaneously formed a circle, protecting Zheng Fan and Liang Cheng within it.
"Tsk. Tell me, was I a bit too callous with them before?"
At this moment, Zheng Fan truly felt as if he were on his deathbed, his words mellowing.
"My lord, when I led troops in the past, my ranks included not only people from different tribes but also beings from many different races."
Zheng Fan wasn’t sure if "Liang Cheng," the author, had ever created a special spin-off or a "movie special" for the character Liang Cheng that was never published."Liang Cheng" the author had died in a car accident; his death had been very sudden.Therefore, Zheng Fan didn’t know if there were any unpublished parts of the *Zombie Liang Cheng* graphic novel. Liang Cheng’s girlfriend, Ah Qiu, had never mentioned it either.
In the original graphic novel, the character of Liang Cheng was primarily set against a modern urban backdrop. His past was only vaguely hinted at. Many readers at the time had speculated about it, even trying to connect him to ancient zombie progenitors one by one. However, the original author, "Liang Cheng," never provided a definitive explanation.As for Liang Cheng’s true origins, Zheng Fan, the "ghostwriter" himself, wasn’t sure. He was only responsible for continuing the plot of the graphic novel and had no intention of subverting its themes.It was like how Gao E’s continuation of *Dream of the Red Chamber* simply carried the story forward in the same atmosphere, providing a resonant ending, rather than writing about Jia Baoyu joining a rebel army to seize the throne or anything of that sort.
"So?" Zheng Fan asked.
"My lord, a true king must possess a heart that can accommodate all. Any living being that worships beneath your banner is your subject.
"The Yellow Emperor."
Zheng Fan desperately wanted to ask: Is this your own self-embellishment, or did "Liang Cheng" truly leave behind a massive, unpublished spin-off? You’ve even brought the Yellow Emperor into this! What exactly is your past?
However, this wasn’t the time to ponder such matters. To indulge in fantasies of demons reigning supreme over the world now would only make him feel like a complete idiot.They’ve already surrounded you layer by layer. What kind of king of beasts is a tiger trapped in a cage?
"We’ve chopped off the heads of all the officials in Mianzhou City of the Qian State. No matter what terms they offer us now, they’ll all be fake.
The only reason they’re posturing to take us alive now is to extract information from us about the Yan State. Perhaps they think our actions this time were ordered by a superior.
Once they’ve squeezed every bit of information out of us, our heads definitely won’t be spared. Just watch, the enemy will soon send someone out to negotiate terms and demand our surrender..."
Zheng Fan had barely finished speaking when a man in the robes of a civil official rode out from the enemy cavalry, heading straight towards them.
"Too bad. It’s all fake. A Cheng, I really don’t want to be some loyal subject of the Yan State, but surrendering to the Qian State is just choosing a different way to die."
Zheng Fan dared to be so certain of the Qian State’s attitude because he knew how useless their border troops were. Therefore, it was highly unlikely the Qian State would proactively launch another northern expedition. If the two states were at war, even if a surrendered general wasn’t given a high position, he’d still receive a decent arrangement—a symbolic gesture like "buying a prized horse’s bones for a thousand gold pieces." But the Qian State simply had no need for such gestures.
"My lord, we can try to charge one more time."
"Can you break out on your own? I can’t right now. My body is incredibly weak, probably a side effect of the Mo Wan’s possession. If you can get out, go on ahead. Meet up with Blindman and the others. Find a chance in the future... and avenge me.
You don’t have to go overboard. Just annihilating the Qian State will be enough."
Liang Cheng desperately wanted to say that if Zheng Fan died, it wouldn’t just be him; everyone, likely including Blindman and the others at Green Willow Fortress, would probably suffer a collective, violent death.