Chapter 170 Hypocrisy and Treachery

Chapter 170 – Hypocrisy and Treachery

Tong had ordered his men to behead every civilian. Once they had completed the execution, he ordered more tasks to the men.

"Cut off the head of the dead bodies. I don't want to see any intact corpse of these people! When you're done, collect the heads on wagons and carts. I have the use for them. As for the dead bodies, throw them into a pit and burn it!"

The captains and lieutenants accepted Tong's order with goosebumps. His aura had changed after the night assault, from the soothing majestic aura into a bone-chilling menacing one. At the same time, his pupils were glowing red, resembling demonic beings.

"Y-Yes, sir!"

The subordinates scrammed away in fear.

At first, the soldiers were angry with the people of Liyang because they resisted and killed their comrades. With Tong's order of annihilation, they had their revenge and vented their frustration. However, the temperament of Tong in the aftermath terrified them. They could tell that Tong was planning something sinister.

With his men gone, Tong took a deep breath to calm his mind. He chanted his random mantra to enhance his concentration.

'Anger is a sin. I am calm.'

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'Grudge is a sin. I am calm.'

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'Vanity is a sin. I am calm.'

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It took Tong ten full minutes to stop the growth of his [Wrath], yet his new mysterious [Sin] still shot up.

Since he managed to reduce the [Wrath] by a bit, Tong decided to continue meditating. His initial works had been distributed to his subordinates, so he had enough free times for himself.

'One more time, Anti-Vaxx is a sin. I am calm.'

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'These messages are like my father's blood pressure in my previous life. I am calm.'

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…

…

Three hours later.

Headless corpses were thrown into a deep pit outside Liyang city walls. As soon as the soldiers tossed the last dead body into the pit, they hurled a jar of oil and a torch into it, igniting the flame. They did not need another jar of oil as the fat in the human bodies would do the rest of the work.

As for the heads of the dead, the soldiers collected them on wagons per Tong's order. The soldiers' expression when they looked at the piles of heads was as if they saw a ghost. The mountains of heads with their eyes open gave them bad vibes.

Aside from the soldiers who were busy dealing with the corpses, a thousand soldiers dissembled wooden houses for woods. They needed those logs and planks to craft several trebuchets, which was ordered by Tong. This artillery weapon was different from their knowledge as it was a counter-weight type, which could shoot a stone further than the ancient manned-type they were using. All of the catapults were constructed behind the walls around the city.

Meanwhile, the rest of the soldiers wandered around the fields in front of the walls in groups. These military men were either busy cutting trees or making spiked barricades. Tong ordered them to be placed outside the walls to block the siege weapons or enemy cavalries. All useless junks and rotten woods inside the city were gathered in front of all gates as another layer of barricades, just in case, the enemy brought in a battering ram.

As for the majority of the free soldiers, they sat inside the city. In their hands, each of them held a knife and a wooden shaft of an arrow. They were ordered to make extra crossbow arrows for the upcoming battles.

On the other hand, several superior officers in the army searched through destroyed houses and granaries. They took all the food and everything valuable on their carts and gathered all of them at the center of the city, which used to be the government building area.

Tong goofed around in that area as well. He stopped meditating and helped the soldiers sorting the treasures and food. He kept all the food inside his inventory, so it would not rot. But he left the treasures and jewelry around in several containers.

After the officers completed their job and the soldiers completed their tasks, the sun had already set.

Tong gathered them inside the city for dinner and a speech. He tapped the mountain of treasures which attracted the attention of the soldiers.

"What you can see here is the entire wealth of Liyang City. From my rough count, there are a total of 200,000 taels of gold, 10,000 tons of provision, jewelry and treasure worth over 500,000 gold!"

Tong soldiers murmured as they gazed at the treasure mountain with greed. They were expecting a share of these loots.

"We will add these provision to our supply, but we will not give the gold to you just yet."

The soldiers sighed in disappointment. Some of them gave Tong a dissatisfied look because they thought that Tong would keep them for himself.

"All these coins, gold, and treasures will be distributed to the families of our dead soldiers!"

"We have no use for any of them. But our wives, our children, or our parents will need these if you, the head of the family, leaves them to the next world."

The annoyed soldiers were taken aback. The stopped what they were thinking and listened to Tong with curiosity.

"I can't guarantee your safety! I can't promise you that all of you will survive our next fight! Not everyone can survive in the next few months! We are here to fight a prolonged war!"

The heart of the soldiers shook. In the military, it was well-known that one should not jinx, yet Tong had jinxed it that some of them would die. Their morale decreased in an instant, but their attention was still with Tong's words.

"So these things will be for them, not for us! I want all of you to know this. As long as you are working for me, your family will never starve!"

"And do you know what you are fighting for? Do you know why you are risking your life for? Isn't it for them, your family?"

"I'm not leading you men here to fight for my greed or ambition. I'm here to help your families getting their places to call home. I bring you here to fight for their peaceful haven, so they don't have to touch these ugly battles and bloodshed we are about to get into!"

"You probably didn't know this because it is something that only government officials knew about. But I'll tell you so you will know what and why I am fighting against the Han Court!"

"Liu Ping, or the current Emperor, has slain his own younger brother and the previous Emperor for the throne. He framed me and my family for being rebels, even though we have tried our best to help the people. He did all these and invaded us because he desires my city's wealth!"

Parts of the soldiers nodded. These groups of people had been with Tong or had witnessed how Tong helped the villagers during the journey to Ganling City. They knew how their lord worked so hard for the people.

Still, Tong could not shake the image of Tong when he ordered the execution of the innocent women and children. It was different than what he did to the townsmen of Ganling City.

"What we did to the people of this city is hideous and inhumane. It was my mistake and my incompetency that led you into this massacre. Even if I have to apologize to the dead and to you, soldiers, I will not be able to wash away the blood on my hands for this lifetime."

"But this is what they will do to our families if they can break through our defensive lines and get to our city! They want our wealth! They want our women! They want us dead!"

"Our home will be burnt! Our wealth will be stolen! Our family will be either ravished or killed!"

"This is what the current Han Emperor wants to do to us!"

"Tell me, should we stay idly at home and let them kill us all?"

The soldiers were lost by Tong's diversion persuasion. From their attention to finding fault at his words turned into the attention on the crisis of their families. They gritted their teeth and shifted their anger to Liu Ping.

"NO!"

"Screw their sister! No!"

"WTF!? Hell no!"

The soldiers roared. They got angry thinking along what Tong described to them. They were doing well and were happy with their lives, but Liu Ping wanted to ruin it.

"And what do you think we should do since they are coming for us?" Tong asked the soldiers, hoping that the momentum was right and they would play along.

[We play dead?]

'…'

The moment he slipped out the question, the system goddess sent her messages to his mind with her voice.

[We put our wee-wee into their sisters' wuu-wuu?]

'…'

[We suffocate their soldiers with our grandmothers' unwashed panties until they think it's aromatic?]

'...'

[Work for me, BB! 1+1 = 2!]

'… No, thanks. Don't ruin the momentum, please.'

Thankfully, the people in this world was innocent and naïve, they did not know the definition of "Trolling" like the system goddess.

"Kill them!"

"We fight!"

"Kill!"

Seeing that the soldiers played along, Tong breathed out a relieved sigh.

"That's right. For our families, we fight! For our children and our wives, we kill!" Tong shouted.

"Kill!"

"Kill!"

…

…

Lilith, who was observing Tong from the beginning, laughed to herself.

"What a hypocrite! You are even worse than Liu Bei in terms of hypocrisy! You've just slaughtered a hundred thousand of the innocents, yet you proclaimed that your action is just? Boy, you have a good imagination!"

<beep>>

The system flashed. Lilith turned her attention toward the system warning, it was the birth of a new curse of [Sin] alert that she had set the system to warn her, in the case had someone gotten a hand on a new [Sin].

"Which one of you gets another sin?"

She checked the logs and found the new sin, [Treachery].

"Aha! That's the highest crime of the ninth Hell! Who gets this?"

She queried a search for the owner of the [Treachery]. When Lilith found the owner, she screamed.

"WHAT DAFUQ!? HOW MANY SINS DO YOU HAVE TO COMMIT UNTIL YOU ARE SATISFIED!?"

"ARE YOU SURE YOU HAD POSITIVE KARMA!? WHY ARE YOU ACTING LIKE A RUFFIAN!?"

The owner of the sin had just given a hypocrisy speech just now.

Zhang Tong.

Despite her shock, she reread the logs of Tong's past actions to recheck how he acquired this sin.

'He has never betrayed anyone. How did he get this?'

'Does killing the innocents count as a betrayal to the humanity?'

'That's not it! Something is wrong! He gets the new sin too fast!'</beep></your></your></your></your></your></your></your></your></your></your></your></your></your></your></your>