12dz Chapter 636 When you're starving, all principles are worthless!
Chapter 636 When you're starving, all principles are worthless!
Chapter 636 When starving to the extreme, so-called principles are worthless! When the emperor is angry, millions will die.
An emperor's promise should naturally carry equal weight.
Moreover, in front of countless people outside the canopy, Liu Bang first bestowed a surname and then a given name.
Such a favor, if the waiter were to die like this, it would truly become a joke!
"save?"
"This might be difficult to save!"
"Xiao He himself is in grave danger outside the Great Wall, so whose help can he rely on?"
"You can't possibly tell me that he could muster an army in the city strong enough to rival Wu Sangui in just a few days, can you?"
"Even if you believe in Liu Bang, there should be a limit!"
"Under these circumstances, even if he possessed extraordinary abilities, it would be useless!"
At this moment, Emperor Sun completely revealed his smug and petty nature.
what?
You're saying Liu Bang was able to turn the tide under these circumstances and rescue these two people unharmed?
What a joke!
Absolutely not!
"You shameless scoundrel, aren't you ashamed as you think? Haven't you been slapped enough?"
"Don't try to imagine the Great Ancestor with your meager abilities, okay?"
"Of course, let's not forget that those who participated in this challenge were not only Emperor Gaozu and Xiao He, but more importantly, two other people."
Liu Bei said irritably.
"How should I put it? Even with Han Xin, Gaozu probably wouldn't have dared to do this without Xiang Yu."
"But since he dared to do this, to lick blood off the edge of a knife, he must have been confident."
Although having those two people go to see Wu Sangui in his place was tantamount to giving himself an insurance policy.
But to most people, there is not much difference.
Liu Bang's own death was a failure of the challenge, a physical death.
The deaths of Xiao Er and the tailor represent social death.
At least Liu Bang's reputation as the founder of the Han Dynasty was almost completely ruined.
Once he made that promise, this layer of insurance was also indispensable.
Inside the sky.
Upon learning that martial law had been declared at the Pingxi Earl's residence, Liu Bang knew that the only remaining option against Wu Sangui was annihilation.
His original plan was that if the result of the test was that Wu Sangui simply felt powerless to resist Li Zicheng and was unwilling to submit, he would choose to surrender to the Manchus.
If that's the case, Liu Bang would be willing to give Wu Sangui a chance to live.
This was his only chance of survival.
As for another possibility, if Wu Sangui was intimidated by the strength of the Manchus and the court was unable to send troops to reinforce the border, he might surrender to the Qing out of fear.
Although he had no chance of survival, Liu Bang was not implicated in the aftermath.
After all, the will to survive is a natural human instinct.
However, Wu Sangui's decision to imprison the two men clearly indicates a third possibility.
The surrender to the Qing dynasty was probably already part of his plan; it was just a matter of time, and there might have been some unresolved issues regarding their interests.
And he must have known very well what would happen to the people after the Manchus entered the pass.
It is even possible that the common people within the Great Wall were used as bargaining chips in negotiations with the Qing Dynasty.
This is not just a death sentence; his entire Pingxi Marquisate, as well as any clansmen with even the slightest blood relation to him, will not be spared.
Nine Clans Elimination Game?
Faced with such a purely selfish and wicked person, Liu Bang even felt that exterminating ten generations of his family would not be excessive!
"Sir, is Xiao Er not coming back?"
After two or three days of waiting without seeing the waiter return, the old manager roughly guessed what was going on.
"That's how it is for now, but please rest assured that since I promised to guarantee his safety, I will not let anything actually happen to him."
"As for the next two days, although he may find it difficult to leave the Pingxi Marquis's residence, his life there, in terms of both food and lodging, should be far better than that of this small restaurant."
"Don't worry, even if Wu Sangui sends someone to the capital to confirm the news immediately, it will take at least a month for them to make the round trip."
"For the next month or so, let's treat that kid and Zhang the tailor to a better diet."
"I will bring them out before that deadline."
"But before that, I became increasingly curious. You and that kid don't seem to have a grandfather-grandson relationship."
Liu Bang first explained, and then asked a question that posed a question to countless people outside the heavens.
Faced with this question, the old shopkeeper hesitated.
He gave Liu Bang a deep look, then fell silent.
Seeing this, Liu Bang waved his hand.
"What's wrong? Is there something you can't say about it?"
"If you really don't want to talk about it, I won't force you."
"It's not some big secret, just some mistakes I made in the past."
"Xiao Er isn't my grandson. Surely you can tell that, sir?"
The old shopkeeper gave a wry smile.
He laughed for a moment, then sighed again.
"Like that tailor, I am a former soldier of the Ming army. I was a squad leader, and he was once a soldier under my command."
"For a long time, the imperial court was unable to pay the soldiers' salaries, so we had to find ways to support ourselves."
"My lord, as you know, in these chaotic times, the imperial court is short of money and food; it can't even support us. And we have to guard the passes, so we really don't have much energy to waste on other things..."
Although he still couldn't figure out Liu Bang's identity, he felt that this man should be aware of the situation in the Ming Dynasty.
Liu Bang: “…”
Although he had already gained a general understanding of the early stages of the late Ming Dynasty from the immortal's previous assessment of Zhu Youjian.
But to say it's this bad is really beyond my understanding.
Do even border soldiers have to find their own way to survive?
From this perspective, the Ming Dynasty truly deserved to perish.
Seeing that Liu Bang did not refute, the old shopkeeper continued on his own.
"At first, we thought of borrowing some grain from the surrounding people."
“We will protect them, and they will be responsible for solving our survival problems. When the imperial court is unable to take care of us border troops, this should be a very reasonable deal.”
“What seems reasonable to us is not the same to the people. No matter whether they have surplus grain at home, the people are unwilling to give us even a single grain.”
“Those people who usually treat us with the utmost respect look at us as if we were debt collectors when they learn that we want to borrow some food. Their disgust is palpable.”
Once the floodgates were opened, there was no stopping.
As the old shopkeeper spoke these words, Liu Bang's heart grew heavier.
"At the beginning, we still remembered our identity, the words 'defend our country,' and our principles."
"But as food and pay became increasingly scarce, many soldiers were so hungry that they couldn't even lift their weapons. When hunger reached its extreme, the so-called principles became worthless!"