Chapter 2140 - 2133: We Can Use Poison Too
"How could something like this happen?" Xiwat was still standing there in a daze, unwilling to believe the news Zeta had just brought back.
Indeed, within their Mansha Kingdom, the main split was between the Radical Pro-War Faction led by him, and the pro-peace Conservatives headed by several other Generals. The two camps did have some open and covert struggles, but in his view, everyone’s starting point was that they wanted the Mansha Kingdom to develop better.
And now Zeta was telling him that while their Generals were away leading campaigns, the Conservatives had seized the chance to launch a military coup and snatch power—this was something he simply could not accept.
But even if he didn’t want to accept it, he knew very clearly in his heart that this probably was the truth. Combined with the fact that the victory reports they’d sent back hadn’t received any response from the court, and even their families in the capital had lost contact—who could say these two things were completely unrelated?
"Let’s wake him up first." Zhang Menglong loosened Zeta’s clothes. Black miasma was already spreading over his body, a massive amount of toxin assailing his brain. This must be some kind of slow-acting poison—if it were acute, he would never have made it to the front lines and would’ve died from the poison long ago.
However, after several days of forced marching, his condition was also bad. The poison hadn’t invaded his brain yet, but it had already seeped into his internal organs. If it were anyone else, there really would be no saving them. Fortunately, he had run into Zhang Menglong.
"Can he still be saved?" Xiwat asked worriedly.
Zeta had followed him for many years and earned great military merit. Later, once he was a bit older, Xiwat had him stay back in his mansion as a commander. If Zeta died, Xiwat would feel deeply guilty.
"It’s not a big problem." Zhang Menglong pressed one hand against Zeta’s back. Under Zhang Menglong’s meticulous control, a surge of Strange Fire energy slowly seeped into Zeta’s body, and very quickly, the black miasma around him began to disperse.
The poison turned into steam and seeped out through his pores; even the ceiling was smoked pitch-black by that vapor.
"Damn, this toxin really is vicious. If Zeta’s Life Levels hadn’t already been close to a Transcender’s, he’d have been dead long ago. His life is tough enough." Although Zhang Menglong had removed the poison, Zeta’s body had already been riddled with wounds by the toxin.
He took out an elixir he’d refined earlier and fed it to Zeta. A few minutes later, Zeta’s complexion finally began to grow ruddy again.
"He’s awake! He’s awake!" Several Deputy Generals, who were also on very good terms with Zeta, shouted in delight. They hadn’t expected Zhang Menglong to actually have such a life-saving technique.
"Zeta, what exactly happened? Explain it in detail. How are my family?" Bosgang was also worried about his family in the capital, and his emotions grew a bit agitated.
"Hey, hey, don’t shake him. He’s still very weak. Even if he didn’t die just now, a couple more shakes from you and you’ll shake him to death." Zhang Menglong helped Zeta sit up. "Can you still talk?"
Zeta nodded. He didn’t have much strength, but recounting what had happened was no problem.
Overall, the situation was extremely bad.
One month ago, ever since Xiwat moved funds to have Warcraft wings purchased, he drew massive opposition from the Conservatives. First, they felt that now that quite a few cities had been retaken, it was time to quit while they were ahead. Duankeng City was easy to defend and hard to attack; in their view, it was simply beyond their capabilities to capture it.
To them, this inexplicable large-scale purchase of Warcraft wings was downright brain-burned stupidity. Using these things to attack Duankeng City—they couldn’t figure out any rationale for it, and figured that most of the money would just be wasted.
Secondly, even if they did take the city, it would require enormous resources to rebuild these cities and station troops to guard them. That was absolutely a case of exhausting the people and draining the treasury.
They also had one more worry: if Xiwat really captured those two cities, the status of the Pro-War Faction in court would receive a massive boost, and then their voice would become much stronger. That would directly harm the Conservatives’ interests.
In the end, they actually made a deranged decision: they wanted to seize control of the government!
In secret, they used certain methods, bribing the servants in the General’s Mansions of the other four Radicals in the capital, ordering them to poison the generals’ daily food and drink.
This poison was slow-acting and showed no signs in the short term. No one could find any trace of it in the food. But once it accumulated to a certain degree inside the body, the toxin’s effects would erupt.
The Generals were all fighting on the frontier and had left very few guards in the capital. The entire capital was quickly taken over directly by those pro-peace Conservatives. The current Emperor had already become a puppet.
Not only that, just recently, they even used the generals’ families as hostages to coerce the remaining three Radical Generals back to the capital, then captured all of them.
Right now, that bunch of Conservatives had practically reached the point of "holding the Emperor hostage to command the feudal lords." Throughout the Mansha Empire, apart from the troops under General Xiwat, all other military power had fallen into rebel hands!
"The situation is a real headache." Xiwat’s expression was grim. Now, the rebels’ numbers were more than ten times those of his forces, and his own family was most likely already in the rebels’ hands. It was likely only a matter of time before those rebels came to negotiate, demanding that he lay down his command and give up resistance.
"This situation feels familiar." Zhang Menglong suddenly recalled the plot in Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils where Qiao Feng helps the Khitan Emperor put down the rebellion. This was basically a carbon copy.
"Uncle Zeta, how is my grandpa?" Bosgang asked anxiously.
"Your grandpa is fine for the moment. He’s elderly and doesn’t hold any military power, so the rebels don’t take him seriously. They only sent people to surround your grandpa’s mansion," Zeta said.
Hearing this, Bosgang let out a slight breath of relief.
"But General, your General’s Mansion is already under tight surveillance. Your family has all been imprisoned by them, just so they can make you hesitate."
"Hmph!" Xiwat snorted angrily. "What do they take me, Xiwat, for? Faced with a choice between country and family, I will put the country first. They think they can threaten me with my family? They look down on Xiwat far too much!"
"But General, your family..."
"No need to say more. Even if my entire family is sacrificed, they will be proud of the choice I’ve made." Xiwat’s eyes were filled with grief, yet incomparably firm. "Anyone who clings to life and fears death has no right to be called family of mine, Xiwat."
"Mm, heroic spirit through and through. You have my respect." Zhang Menglong said. "General, what’s your plan now? Whatever you decide, I’m on your side. If it were me, I’d just fight my way back!"
"Fight our way back... easier said than done." Xiwat sighed. "Menglong, you may not realize this, but the military power of the other Generals is in no way inferior to mine. In the capital, the Emperor’s Imperial Guard alone is nearly equal in number to our eight corps. Now that all those forces are in rebel hands, their troops outnumber ours by more than ten to one!"
"What’s there to fear in sheer numbers?" Zhang Menglong sneered. "They know how to poison; we can poison them too."