Chapter 87: Persuading the Yuan Marshal to Surrender

  When Nicholas saw the poor Taoist's fearless attitude towards being scalded by boiling water, he wisely chose to change the subject!

  "Alright, let's not talk about that!" Nicholas smiled at me and said: "Let's discuss the ransom instead? How much do you plan to ask for?"

  According to the mainland's convention, nobles who were captured by enemy countries in war had the right to buy back their own freedom with money! This is also the reason why the mortality rate of nobles on the battlefield was extremely low. No one wanted to kill them, and captives were worth the most! As a result, captured nobles would receive preferential treatment, and they could maintain a certain degree of harmony with their captors. After all, who can guarantee that they will never be captured? This is also one of the reasons why Nicholas was polite to me. A grand duke like Nicholas is worth 100W gold coins! Of course, considering his reputation, he could ask for many more, but I am not short of money. If I were to sell him cheaply, wouldn't that be a waste of talent?

  "This? Hehe! I still want to ask about Father's intention! I think I'll invite you to our imperial capital first, Father misses you very much, it's been many years since you last met, now is a good opportunity for you two to reunite!" The poor Daoist pushed back

  "Ah! Alright! This time, I'll have your father laughing at me!" Nicholas said with a bitter smile: "In the academy, he was almost always captured by me in every tactics class. Now, it's the other way around, and I've become his son's captive! Ah!"

  "It's nothing! You're being polite, I just got lucky!"

  "Can you tell me how you did it?" Nicholas looked at me with longing in his eyes, saying: "I really want to know how I lost!"

  "Can you guarantee that we won't meet on the battlefield again?" the poor Taoist asked back.

  "No way!" Nicholas said firmly, then went on to say: "I get it! Hehe, although I don't know what tricks you have up your sleeve, but Nicholas won't lose twice in the same way! You'd better be careful from now on too!"

  Nicholas is now a defeated general, but his words are full of confidence, leaving no room for doubt!

  "Alas! If I had a choice, I wouldn't want to be on the battlefield opposing you!" The poor Daoist said with a gloomy tone.

  Then I asked him tentatively, "Isn't there any room for maneuver? King Vana is ignorant and foolish, indulges in flattery, persecutes the loyal and good, and has always been known as the 'Household King', really not an object worth serving!"

  "How dare you!" Nicholas stood up in anger and shouted: "If you are trying to persuade me, this would be the greatest insult to me!"

  The guards behind the poor monk rushed up, drew their swords and glared at Nicholas, if he made another move, it would be a case of beheading!

  I waved my hand for the guards to withdraw and then asked Nicholas: "Is your uncle truly loyal to Your Majesty, the King?"

  "Of course, that's beyond doubt!" Nicholas shouted at me in a rage: "Nicholas' honor can be defended with death, but never insulted by surrender!"

  "Good!" The poor Tao suddenly smiled and said: "So you will absolutely execute any command of your king without a single mistake?"

  "Not bad! I will!"

  "I said 'any' of his orders!" I deliberately emphasized 'any'!

  "Even if I die, Nicholas wouldn't bat an eyelid!"

  "Great! Haha!" The poor Taoist laughed and said: "Then I can rest assured!"

  "What do you mean?" Nicholas couldn't guess what I was thinking!

  "Heh heh! How should I put it?" The poor Taoist smiled and said: "I plan to make a deal with your king!"

  "What deal?" Nicholas seemed vaguely uneasy, as if he had walked into a trap of mine.

  "What a fine bargain for your king to command you to serve me!"

  What I said made everyone present dizzy! They all looked at me with a stupid expression! The king is not an idiot, Nicholas, such a famous general, he alone can play the role of at least one legion! He is a priceless treasure of the country, who would give him away for free?

  Nicholas even rolled his eyes and said disdainfully, "Fine, I'll wait! As long as you can get it, I'll surrender to you! But can you? You're dreaming!"

  "We'll see about that!" The poor Taoist said disapprovingly: "You must remember what you said today!"

  "Hmph!" Nicholas said in anger: "I'm waiting to see you make a fool of yourself!"

  I'm so frustrated, why can't I have that majestic aura like other protagonists? They all have that "tiger's roar, majestic aura bursting forth" thing going on, while I'm just crying and wailing with my legs wrapped around each other. How come it's so damn hard when it comes to me? Everyone's a protagonist, how can the difference in being human be this huge?

  In the palace of the Great Han Empire, the emperor and several ministers were worried about the current situation. The old man who rarely spoke out was also specially invited by the emperor to discuss the matter.

  "Now Nicholas is still surrounding the White Tiger Castle, and he doesn't attack. I'm afraid it's really what Old Master said, their purpose is not to take down the White Tiger!" Ishihara Kuma said.

  "Indeed! The old master is indeed prescient. If you can still lead the troops, how could Nicholas be so arrogant?" Another minister said:

  "Not right!" Grandfather shook his head and said, "Nicholas is not easy to deal with. His current actions are very unusual. If he followed my intentions and put the attack target on the Vermilion Bird Military Unit, he should have launched a fierce attack on the White Tiger City. Only in this way can they mobilize the Vermilion Bird to come and rescue, so that they can find an opportunity to annihilate them! It's absolutely not Nicholas' style to hold back his troops like this now. Unless...he has other plans!"

  "What does he plan to do?" The king asked anxiously

  "I don't know!" Grandfather shook his head in dismay, saying: "It seems I'm still no match for this young man! What a pity that the Qinglong Army is being tied down by the Kingdom of Kart, otherwise we could have mobilized more elite troops!" As he spoke, Grandfather glared fiercely at Ishihara Koji, implying, 'If you hadn't gone to their kingdom to rob them, would they have been provoked to such a great extent?'

  As Grandfather's gaze swept across the crowd, everyone else also understood and glared at Ishihara Koji with anger! Ishihara Koji felt wronged, thinking to himself, "It's all because your family's kid forced me into this!" Under the murderous gazes of the crowd, Ishihara Koji couldn't even sit still, constantly feeling like a needle was poking him in the butt. Seeing Ishihara Koji's awkward situation, the King had no choice but to intervene and ask, "Although the Genbu Army is at the southernmost point and too far away, our Royal Guard is still here; shouldn't we send them up to provide support?"

  "No! The Royal Guard's position is too special, they are the last barrier to defend the capital, once used, the people's hearts will be in chaos!" Grandfather refused the king's proposal! Then he said: "The front line is not tense, besides, we don't know what card Nicholas will play yet? We must leave a reserve force!"

  "Ah! Indeed!" The king said: "But what is Nicholas going to do? Ah! Speaking of which, I was also a classmate with him in the academy. He was the iron first in tactics class, even the teacher who taught him wasn't his match. He was known as a genius commander. I had some dealings with him and his profound mind left a deep impression on me. Unfortunately, he can't be used by me!"

  Just as everyone was having a hard time with Nicholas' ingenious military strategy, the imperial attendant rushed in to report: "Your Majesty, an urgent red flag message from the front line!"

  "Hurry up!" The king stood up excitedly and said loudly

  "Yes!" The imperial guard pulled out the telegram and read it aloud: "On September 11, 4478 of the Glorious Calendar (Note: 9/11 Memorial Day!), the entire Nicolas-led Lancer Storm Legion was annihilated, with 20,000 elite troops and spirits of the forest defeated. Nicolas and 2,000 others were taken prisoner! — Kingdom of Bora Zoi Province Lord, Third Baron, Dragon Qing Tian Jing Shang!"

  The hall was silent for a long time, with only the king muttering to himself: "This is impossible! This, absolutely impossible!" Suddenly, he roared in anger: "This is a false report of military intelligence! If that kid can capture Nicholas alive, I'll be the God of Light!"