How could Jiang Yuan not know his intentions? Gritting his teeth, he said: “Come, seize the lot-drawing tube from his hands!” After waiting a while without seeing anyone move, his expression became extremely ugly. The next moment, he held up the imperial edict with both hands and declared: “His Majesty’s decree is here! Anyone who disobeys shall be charged with the crime of defying the imperial edict!”
Hearing these words, the soldiers dared not delay any longer. They stepped forward to surround Deputy General Li, forcing him to hand over the lot-drawing tube. By all rights, at this point he should have given up. But this Deputy General Li was a stubborn man who insisted on principles—he absolutely had to wait for General Zheng to return. In this situation, there was no choice but to cross swords!
Though Deputy General Li was brave and skilled in battle, two fists could not defeat four hands. Soon he was wounded, but the hand gripping the lot-drawing tube refused to let go.
The common people gathered around pointing and whispering, not understanding why they had started fighting. Seeing that the third quarter of the noon hour was about to pass, yet they still could not seize the tube from his hands, Jiang Yuan bit down hard on his teeth. Taking advantage of the soldiers entangling Deputy General Li, he strode to the execution platform and shouted sternly: “The time has come! Execute immediately!”
Jiang Yuan was planning to bypass the lot-drawing tube and directly order the execution!
Hearing his words, the executioner hesitated: “General, this… I’m afraid it’s not according to regulations.”
“What’s not according to regulations? Executing Wang Zhengfeng is His Majesty’s personal decree. Deputy General Li obstructing the imperial will has already committed the crime of deceiving the sovereign and defying the edict. After we capture him, this general will naturally deal with him. Now execute first!” Seeing the executioner still hesitating, he shouted heavily: “Do you also want to defy the edict?”
The executioner naturally dared not bear this charge. After confirming the identity, he raised the executioner’s blade that had drunk the fresh blood of countless people!
Seeing this scene, Deputy General Li roared and tried to rush over here, but helplessly those soldiers clung to him like maggots on bone, never letting him go. He could only shout sternly: “Surname Jiang, if you really dare kill the general, I will fight you to the death!”
To his shouting, Jiang Yuan didn’t even turn his head back once, saying to the executioner who had already raised his blade: “Why don’t you execute quickly!”
Right now the most urgent thing was to kill Wang Zhengfeng. As for Deputy General Li and others, they were merely jumping clowns who couldn’t stir up any storms!
Under his threatening shout, though the executioner felt reluctant, he could only grit his teeth and swing down toward the neck of Wang Zhengfeng, who kept shaking his head at him!
The blade rose and fell. A round head flew up into the air along with spurting fresh blood, then fell heavily to the ground, rolling a few times before stopping there. As for the headless corpse, it also fell to the ground with a “thud” and didn’t move.
Seeing this scene, Deputy General Li’s eyes nearly burst with fire. He forcefully threw the lot-drawing tube he had previously treasured like a jewel to the ground, and regardless of everything charged toward Jiang Yuan, saying with hatred in his voice: “Surname Jiang, you killed the general, I want you to pay with your life!”
This time, Jiang Yuan finally turned around, staring expressionlessly at Deputy General Li: “This person repeatedly violated the imperial edict, showing disrespect to His Majesty. He should—be sentenced to death!”
“If you have the ability, then kill me!” Deputy General Li completely ignored his words. After paying the price of two deep wounds that showed bone, he rushed to within one zhang of Jiang Yuan.
Jiang Yuan did not retreat, even stepping forward, saying to the soldiers who surrounded Deputy General Li as if facing a great enemy: “You all stand down!”
The soldiers were stunned. After confirming Jiang Yuan wasn’t joking, they retreated somewhat, but dared not go too far, keeping their eyes fixed on Deputy General Li. Once the latter made a move, they could immediately rush up to stop him!
Jiang Yuan said solemnly: “Though you have committed a capital crime, considering you once rendered service to Luoyang, as long as you lay down your weapon now, I can plead with His Majesty on your behalf and try to preserve your life!”
“Bah!” Deputy General Li spat on the ground, gritting his teeth: “You killed General Wang. Today either you die or I die. Take this!” With these words, the steel blade stained with fresh blood carried a gust of fierce wind as it attacked Jiang Yuan. The latter dodged to the side, then sighed, took a blade from a nearby soldier, and fought with Deputy General Li. The latter was after all severely wounded, and his martial arts were originally inferior to Jiang Yuan’s, so he quickly fell into a disadvantage, only able to struggle desperately!
“Surrender,” Jiang Yuan advised. Deputy General Li said with hatred: “I said that today, only one of us can live!”
Jiang Yuan shook his head sadly. After avoiding Deputy General Li’s another attack, he circled behind him, gripped the blade in reverse, and the sharp sword point pierced through from behind, penetrating through his chest!
Deputy General Li looked down at the blade tip stained with his own crimson blood, wanting to say something, but as soon as he opened his mouth, countless fresh blood poured out, completely unable to make a complete sound. The next moment he had already fallen backwards to the ground, becoming a corpse like Wang Zhengfeng. His eyes kept looking toward the direction General Zheng had left, as if hoping he would return, but unfortunately… he didn’t know that General Zheng had already died even before him!
Looking at General Zheng’s corpse, Jiang Yuan threw down the blade in his hand, saying sadly: “Give them both a proper burial.”
Though the other several people had complaints about Wang Zhengfeng and Deputy General Li’s deaths, they ultimately dared not defy Jiang Yuan and the “imperial edict,” choosing silence to protect themselves. Unfortunately, they didn’t know that they had long been branded as Wang Zhengfeng’s accomplices, so… they had to die!
In the following days, these several people either suddenly died violently in the forest while sleeping, or drowned in the river after getting drunk at night. In short, within a few days, all those people had died, causing panic among the people in the city.
The people first suspected Jiang Yuan, since the dead were all those who had previously obstructed Jiang Yuan at the execution ground. But what they didn’t expect was that Jiang Yuan was also ambushed one night, fighting desperately for his life before barely escaping alive!
At the same time, news spread rapidly throughout Luoyang city: the emperor in Chang’an, knowing what had happened in Luoyang, believed that Luoyang’s generals were being duplicitous, respecting Wang Zhengfeng more than him, so he sent his personal shadow guards to Luoyang to assassinate them!
Initially many people didn’t believe it, thinking it was an absurd rumor. But as more and more people around them said this was true, they gradually moved from initial denial to doubt, and finally one by one came to believe it.
And their dissatisfaction with Li Shimin, their dissatisfaction with the Great Tang, began from this point!
Rumors are fiercer than tigers—this was absolutely correct. Even more… when a rumor reaches its peak, destroying a country is not impossible!
The people’s resentment in Luoyang city grew more intense as time fermented, while Chang’an remained completely unaware of all this. It wasn’t that Chang’an was careless, but from the very beginning, Li Jiancheng had ordered Jiang Yuan to cut off communication with Chang’an.
Not everyone believed this rumor. Some people noticed problems within it and tried to leave the city to report, but without exception, they were all assassinated not far from the city, their bodies becoming food for wild beasts.