Astral Apostle
chapter-544

For the next period of time, the Imperial Court's army and the Dragon King Stronghold were still locked in a stalemate.

However, the officials of the Imperial Court slowed down their attacks. They shrank the battle line and retreated a distance to station themselves. They no longer approached the water stronghold at the front line of the Dragon King Stronghold. They seemed to have the intention to defend themselves, as if they planned to focus on guarding against Chen Feng's continuous attacks.

In the main camp, Ling Fengzi listened to the military meeting as usual every day. However, Ma Zhen only mentioned that they would not move and did not explain the reason.

However, the officers participating in the meeting discovered something unusual. Huang Ping, who was also a high-ranking general, had actually disappeared for many days.

When someone asked about this, Ma Zhen said that Huang Ping had received a military order and brought his troops to receive a batch of important supplies from the Imperial Court to prevent them from being intercepted by bandits.

Everyone believed it and did not ask further. In his placement state, Ling Fengzi only faithfully noted down the information and secretly passed it to the Dragon King Stronghold. He did not take the initiative to ask further.

This was actually fake information. Ma Zhen had used it as an excuse to deal with everyone to hide Huang Ping's movements.

In fact, at this moment, Huang Ping had already received his orders and left quietly with his troops. He headed to the upper reaches of the Huyang River and began to implement the plan.

This mission was very important and could not allow for any errors. In order to hide his tracks, Huang Ping did not bring a large number of troops.

Due to the implementation of the five strategies to break the bandits, the official army focused on controlling many civilians scattered in the countryside, causing the number of spies scattered in the wilderness to decrease. This made Huang Ping's secret operation quite convenient.

In order to prevent the news from leaking, the soldiers in Huang Ping's team did not know the details of the mission and thought that they were going to fight in a roundabout manner.

The group advanced carefully and delayed for a while before finally arriving at their destination.

...

Huyang, Dingbo Mouth.

This was a dike that had been built many years ago. Its history could be traced back to before Great Xia was established.

There were many rivers in Huyang, and the largest one was called the Sha River. It ran from the west to the east and connected to the Central Plains. The Dingbo dike was located on one of the banks of the Sha River and had always been controlled by the government. Occasionally, it would be repaired.

However, the Sha River was flooded all year round, and the flood prevention effect of the dike could no longer keep up. Therefore, in recent years, Huyang had been plagued by water disasters.

However, even so, this was still an important dike. Although it could not prevent water disasters, it could at least be controlled to a certain extent and not cause a complete flood.

Huang Ping arrived with his troops and asked the soldiers to be on standby for the time being. He looked at the surging river, his eyes flickering.

The deputy general at the side asked carefully, "General, why are we here?"

"The Marshal has ordered us to dig up the dike at Dingbo Mouth and drown the bandits."

Huang Ping's tone was indifferent.

The deputy general was stunned for a moment before his expression changed slightly, "Are you serious? If the Sha River is missing this dike, the people of Huyang will…"

Before he could finish, Huang Ping turned to look at him, his eyes cold.

Under his gaze, the deputy general's voice gradually lowered. In the end, he shut his mouth.

Seeing this, Huang Ping retracted his gaze and said coldly,

"Pass down my orders, pull down the dike!"

The deputy general was helpless and quickly passed down the order.

Only then did the army know the goal of this trip. The soldiers were all left in disbelief.

The higher-ups were actually so ruthless?!

Such a sinister matter of leaving burning all bridges immediately encountered resistance from many soldiers.

However, disobeying a military order was a huge taboo and would be punished by military law. The soldiers did not dare to disobey and could only helplessly do as they were told and begin to pry open the dike.

However, not long after, a few villagers suddenly appeared nearby. They hurriedly ran over and shouted anxiously,

"Generals, you can't dig up this dike!"

When the soldiers working heard the sound, they turned around in surprise.

These villagers who had suddenly appeared were all wearing ragged clothes. Their skin was dark, and their hands were callused. It was obvious that they were farmers who had worked all year round.

The guards around immediately went forward to restrain the anxious villagers.

Huang Ping narrowed his eyes and got someone to bring them in front of him.

After being brought to the military tent, the farmers were uneasy and bowed in an incongruous manner.

"Who are you? Tell me your name…"

Huang Ping started to question.

Not long after, he figured out the background of these people.

It turned out that there was a small settlement of more than 20 families nearby. Its location was relatively remote and hidden.

These farmers were from the village. When they went out, they happened to bump into this group of soldiers and did not intend to show themselves at first.

However, when they saw the officials' actions, they could not sit still anymore. They couldn't care less and wanted to run out to dissuade them.

"General, we can't dig out this dike. If this place collapses, there will definitely be a flood!"

"That's right. If this area disappears, everything within a thousand miles will suffer!"

The farmers were nervous as they tried their best to persuade him.

Huang Ping did not comment and asked his guards to bring the farmers down.

Then, he turned to the deputy general and said calmly,

"Let these bumpkins lead the way and send a few hundred troops to follow them. Capture all the villagers and use them as coolies to help us dig the riverbank… In addition, our actions need to be kept a secret. We can't leave anyone alive to leak the news. After this is done, we'll execute them all."

"… I understand."

The deputy general was silent for two seconds before accepting the military order.

He strode out of the military tent with an angry expression, but in the end, it turned into a helpless expression as he commanded his men to bring the rest back and capture them.

It did not take long for the soldiers to capture the civilians of the nearby village and turn them into coolies.

In order to survive, these villagers could only do as they were told.

As the dike was torn apart step by step, the water gradually increased, and the roaring river water quickly caused the rest of the dam to burst.

At this point, there was no longer a need for manpower. If a huge amount of river water poured out, it would definitely continue to expand. In the end, if they wanted to stop it, they could only use human lives to fill it.

Only then did Huang Ping stop the troops from working. He killed all the captured civilians and threw their corpses into the river.

The corpse that died with remaining grievances floated in the river and flowed down.

Huang Ping did not take another look and immediately retreated with his troops.

Only the angry river water was left running non-stop, breaking through the riverbank. More and more of it leaked out and flowed further and further away.

...

Somewhere in the forest of Huyang.

Zhou Jing and a group of soldiers were resting here. There were only about a thousand of them.

He had not been guarding the stronghold these past few days. He had personally led his troops out to use the fighting style of a bandit, harassing the officials until they felt like dying.

Because he mainly relied on his own strength to attack the enemy, he did not bring too many troops. They were only there to act as a necessary support. Only with fewer people would he be agile.

During this period of time, they had attacked repeatedly and had obtained rich results. They had destroyed many official camps, and a large number of soldiers had retreated.

"If this continues, the Imperial Court's army will sooner or later be unable to withstand the pressure and retreat. The situation is in our favor now. I wonder how long the enemy can last… Speaking of which, the officials look like they're at their wit's end. Are they really going to give up on the expedition?"

Zhou Jing thought to himself as he bit into the jerky.

At this moment, the lackey who was out exploring the surroundings suddenly ran in.

"Report! Chief, two villagers have specially come to see you. They say that they have an urgent report!"

"Bring them over."

Zhou Jing came back to his senses, not surprised at the sudden request.

During this period of time, he had been running around in the Huyang area and did not hide his tracks. Although he did not have a fixed location, there were occasionally villagers who were not controlled by the government who happened to bump into him and came to seek an audience.

Soon, two travel-worn villagers were brought in.

Seeing Zhou Jing sitting there, the two of them immediately bowed and said anxiously,

"Chief Chen, something bad has happened. The flood has erupted again!"

Zhou Jing was stunned when he heard this, "A flood? It shouldn't be the flood season yet, right?"

"It's absolutely true. Our village has been flooded!"

The two villagers spoke confidently, their faces filled with anxiety.

"Could it be that something happened upstream? Is it a river dike that has been in disrepair for a long time, and now there's a breach?"

Zhou Jing frowned.

Was this an accident or man-made?

Could it be that the imperial soldiers wanted to attack with water and drown all the troops? However, at the moment, both sides did not seem to have started any decisive battles in the upper reaches.

Moreover, there was no military transfer information from Bill.

He did not think in another direction at first… As the orthodoxy of the world, the Imperial Court could actually be so "resolute" and give up the territory of a province under their jurisdiction to directly flood the entire area. This totally upended the bottom line he had of them.

Although it was also very sinister to implicate the commoners, the official army at least had a name for them. They were all classified under "subordinate criminals who colluded with the enemy and rebelled".

As for digging out the dike and flooding Huyang, there was no reputation for them to save. To not care about the survival of the people here showed a great lack in virtue and one's future generations would all be cursed.

"Alright, let's go take a look first. If it's easy, I'll get the stronghold to send someone to deal with it."

Zhou Jing immediately made the decision.

The floods were the main source of disaster in Huyang. Since he treated this place as his foundation, no matter if it was an accident or man-made, he had to deal with it.

Moreover, this was not the first time such a thing had happened. In the past two years, when the government was not doing anything, the Dragon King Stronghold would occasionally patch up the floods and save people. They were already used to it.

"Thank you, Chief. Thank you, Chief!"

The two villagers were immediately grateful and thanked him repeatedly.

At this moment, one of them seemed to have thought of something.

"By the way, on the way here, we discovered foot and hoofprints left behind by a large group of people passing by on the southeast fork. I wonder if they're from Chief's stronghold."

"Southeast? I don't think we've walked that way."

A leader beside him interrupted in confusion.

Hearing this, Zhou Jing's eyes flashed.

Since they were not on his side, this unknown team was probably from the Imperial Court.

For him to suddenly appear close by, they most likely had ulterior motives.

"Let's catch up to this group of people and capture them for questioning."

Zhou Jing did not hesitate and immediately made a decision. He called for the boys to set off.