12dz Chapter 1955 Identity, Rebuke
Chapter 1955 Identity, Rebuke
"Hey, two big fish..."
Ran Ming touched his bald head, grinned, and revealed his gleaming white teeth.
He casually pointed the still-dripping tip of his knife at one of his personal guards:
"You, go! Call Li Bi over here! Let him identify these two demons and monsters!"
"Yes! General!"
The guards received the order, mounted their horses, and galloped off towards Li Bi's residence.
Ran Ming leisurely dismounted, took a water bag from a soldier, gulped down several mouthfuls, and then casually sat on a rebel corpse, waiting for Li Bi's arrival.
This bloody suppression, though brutal, ultimately concluded successfully according to His Majesty's plan.
He was now very curious about who these two leaders were who could orchestrate a rebellion of such scale.
And what kind of expression would Li Bi have when he saw them?
The morning light illuminated his blood-stained bald head and armor, making him look like a demon god who had just finished a massacre.
When the Chu army soldier, covered in blood and exuding a murderous aura, rushed to Li Bi's residence and informed him that the rebel army had been defeated and that General Ran Ming had asked him to go and identify the captured leader.
Li Bi's heart, which had been hanging in his throat, finally settled down. What followed was a feeling of exhaustion from surviving a disaster and a deep awe for the young emperor who was far away in the East but seemed to know everything.
He dared not delay for a moment and immediately rushed to Zhengyang Gate, which was still filled with the heavy smell of blood, under the escort of a team of elite Chu soldiers.
The closer you get to Zhengyang Gate, the more shocking the scene becomes.
Along the streets, Chu soldiers and conscripted laborers were silently clearing away the mountains of corpses, hauling them away in carts.
Dark red blood soaked through the bluestone slabs, pooling in the low-lying areas to form viscous pools of blood. The air was thick with the stench of rust and death, so strong it was nauseating.
Li Bi sat in the sedan chair and saw all this through the gap in the curtain. His face turned pale, and his stomach churned, but he forced himself to endure it.
The sedan chair stopped at a relatively "clean" open space some distance from the city gate, where it was temporarily under the control of Ran Ming's personal guards.
Li Bi straightened his slightly wrinkled official robe, took a deep breath, and tried to calm himself down before quickly walking towards Ran Ming, who was surrounded by a group of fierce soldiers.
Ran Ming sat imposingly on a wooden crate that had been moved from somewhere, his bald head gleaming in the midday sun.
The bloodstains splattered on the black armor had congealed into a dark brown, adding to its fierce appearance.
He was taking a big gulp of water from his water pouch when he saw Li Bi coming over, and casually wiped his mouth.
"Your humble servant Li Bi greets General Ran!"
Li Bi quickly stepped forward, bowed deeply, and lowered his posture considerably.
Not to mention that Ran Ming is the emperor's trusted and beloved general, whose official rank is far higher than his, his tremendous merit in turning the tide and saving Chang An from danger last night is enough to make him feel great awe.
"Alright, alright, stop with the formalities."
Ran Ming waved his hand impatiently and said in a gruff voice.
"Lord Li, I called you here to ask you to identify two people."
He gestured with his chin towards the two prisoners, one old and one middle-aged, who were bound hand and foot and forced to kneel in the center of the open space.
Li Bi followed his gaze.
The two men looked disheveled, their clothes torn, their bodies wounded, their hair disheveled, and their faces a mixture of blood, dust, and extreme exhaustion.
But when Li Bi's gaze swept carefully across their faces, his body suddenly trembled, and his pupils contracted sharply!
Although they were in a sorry state at this moment, completely different from their usual pampered and aloof demeanor, Li Bi still recognized them at a glance!
After all, he was once an important minister of the Han Dynasty and was very familiar with the key figures among these imperial relatives.
He took a deep breath, turned to Ran Ming, his voice trembling slightly, but more so revealing a deliberate coldness and resolve:
"General Ran, I recognize these two men."
He pointed to the old man and reported clearly, "This man is Liu Sheng, the former Prince of Zhongshan!"
He then pointed to the middle-aged man: "This man is Liu He, the former King Xuan of the Han Dynasty! He is a direct descendant of the false Han imperial family. In terms of seniority, he is the great-uncle of the false emperor Liu Xiang."
He deliberately added the words "former dynasty" and "false dynasty" to show his stance of distancing himself from the new dynasty.
As soon as Li Bi finished speaking, Liu Sheng, the King of Zhongshan who had been forced to kneel on the ground, suddenly raised his head.
His gray hair, stained with blood, clung to his forehead, and his old eyes were bloodshot from extreme hatred and humiliation.
He stared intently at Li Bi, as if he wanted to tear him to pieces with his gaze, and uttered a blood-curdling curse in his hoarse, broken voice:
"Li Bi! You traitor who betrays his master for personal gain, you shameless traitor! You bastard that even dogs and pigs wouldn't eat!"
"You enjoy the Han people's bounty and receive their favors, holding a high-ranking position, yet you commit this act of treason and usurpation!"
"You opened the door to thieves, letting the traitors of Chu into your home, causing the downfall of my Han dynasty and the slaughter of my Liu clan! And now you dare to point fingers at me here?"
"You...you will not die a good death! You will surely be punished by Heaven! In the netherworld, how will you face the late Emperor? How will you face your ancestors?"
He was agitated, cursing and struggling, and would have pounced on her if the soldiers behind him hadn't held him down.
Although Liu He, the Prince of Xuan, was not as hysterical as Liu Sheng, the resentment in his eyes was no less intense. His voice was low, but every word was like a knife:
"Li Bi, stop your hypocritical posturing and try to absolve yourself of any responsibility by using the term 'former dynasty'! Your name as a traitor is already etched in history, and you will be infamous for eternity!"
"Even if we die today, we will be loyal souls of the Han Dynasty!"
"And you are nothing but a dog wagging its tail and begging for mercy at Chu Ning's feet! The day you lose your usefulness will be the day you are discarded like a dog after the rabbit is dead! I'll be waiting to see your end!"
Faced with the two men's vicious curses and accusations, Li Bi's face turned pale and then red.
My heart was filled with mixed feelings: shame, anger, but more than anything, a twisted determination born from being driven to the brink of despair.
He knew that there was no turning back for him.
He suddenly straightened his slightly hunched back, forcing a cold and even somewhat mocking expression onto his face.
Meeting the murderous gazes of Liu Sheng and Liu He, he raised his voice and retorted in an almost defensive tone:
"Your Highnesses! At this point, why cling to past glories and hurl these pointless insults?"
He gestured towards the rebel corpses being cleared away around him, and the distant, faintly visible Chang'an city, which was gradually returning to order, his voice carrying a deliberately cultivated "rationality":
"The fate of the Han Dynasty has run its course, and the Mandate of Heaven has fallen to the Chu! This is the general trend of the world, overwhelming and unstoppable. Those who follow it will prosper, and those who oppose it will perish!"
"Your Majesty the Emperor of Chu is a man of both literary and military prowess, and is destined by Heaven to unify the Central Plains!"
"I, Li Bi, am merely following the will of Heaven and being pragmatic!"
"Does being a loyal subject mean doing what you do, like a mantis trying to stop a chariot, leading tens of thousands of ignorant and foolish people like moths to a flame, only to increase casualties?"