Crown Prince of the Empire, I quit!

Chapter 1155: The Strategy to Destroy the Family

Zhu Tao's withered fingers groped frantically in the cold dark compartment, his nails scratching the wooden inner wall.

There was a harsh "sizzling" sound. The tablets of several generations of ancestors looked down silently in the dim light.

The lingering scent of sandalwood mixed with the burnt smell wafting from outside and the faint sounds of shouting and killing.

A suffocating atmosphere of despair is created.

Finally, he touched a hard, oil-cloth-wrapped scroll.

"Found it!" A hoarse and ecstatic roar rolled out of his throat, like the last gasp of a dying beast.

He staggered to his feet, not caring about the dust on his sleeves and the blood between his fingernails, and clutched the oilcloth roll tightly in his arms, as if it was his only life-saving straw.

However, when he trembled and tried to open the roll of cloth.

"Father! You...you really want to use this?!"

Zhu Hong rushed into the ancestral hall, his face pale and his eyes filled with unbelievable horror.

He finally understood that what his father had hidden the deepest was not some treasure, but the most vicious plan to wipe out the entire family!

"Once that thing is released, the entire area west of the Yellow River will become a ghost town! Our Zhu family... our Zhu family will be eternal sinners! The women and children in the fortress, as well as our farmland outside the city..."

"Shut up!"

Zhu Tao turned around suddenly, his cloudy old eyes burning with a crazy red light and bloodshot.

"Women and children? Farm? Zhu Hong! Look outside! Changbaishan wants the lives of our entire clan! The lives of the Great Luo Immortals!"

He pointed towards the castle gate, where the sound of crossbow bolts breaking through the air and screams were tearing through the night sky.

"I've already lost my life, so what's the point of being a sinner? What's the point of talking about the afterlife? They forced me to do this! The court forced me to do this! Since they want my Zhu family to go to hell, then let the entire Hedong region, more than a dozen counties, be buried with us!"

He ignored his trembling son and tore the oilcloth frantically.

The scroll was unfolded, revealing two things: a yellowed map marking the location of the secret village and the guard password.

The other one is a densely packed list.

Behind each name, written in a ferocious red pen were "pox has broken out", "dead", and "may carry lice".

"Go! Deliver my death warrant!"

Zhu Tao pulled out the family head token and a blood-stained dagger from his waist, and stuffed them together to the only two remaining leaders of the personal assassins who followed him in. One of them had an old scar on his face and his eyes were numb and cold.

"Scarface! Take fifty men and the map to that 'plague village' and drive out all the moving 'things' inside! Remember, I mean 'drive'! Drive them to where there's water!"

"Drive to where the refugees are gathered! Drive towards their camp on Changbai Mountain! Tell them that as long as they get out alive and spread out, they can survive, and their families can survive!"

"Anyone who dares to disobey orders and retreat in battle will be killed immediately! Use this dagger to cut their throats!"

Scarface, the leader of the death squad, showed no expression. He took a deep breath, knelt on one knee, and took the token and blood-stained dagger with both hands.

"promise!"

Zhu Tao turned to another assassin, his eyes flashing with an even darker venomous fire:

"Dumb Dog! Take twenty people and this list! Go to the shacks outside the fort where the miners' families live, and also to the post station outside the city! There must be a lot of 'seeds' there that have just been infected and haven't been sent in yet!"

"Tie up those on the list who have just had pox, are experiencing a high fever and are vomiting blood! Don't kill them, save their breath! Take advantage of the chaos and throw them out with your catapults! Throw them directly into the Changbaishan army! Throw them where there are a lot of people! I want to turn their camp into a stinking ditch full of plague!"

The dumb dog nodded, his eyes equally calm, took the scroll of the list, bowed and left.

Two deadly gusts of wind, like the tongues of poisonous snakes, shot silently from the dying Zhujiabao into the dark and chaotic night sky.

Suzhou, after the great victory at Baishui Mine.

Changbaishan quickly rectified the chaotic mines, dealt with the surrendered soldiers, appeased the miners, and took over the crucial smelting workshops and warehouses. Wang Tietou led his remaining brothers, who were covered in blood but full of vigor.

Standing on the mountain of ore, looking at the head of the Zhu family defender hung high by the ever-victorious army, tears and fire were in his eyes.

"General!"

Wang Tietou strode up to Chang Baishan and knelt on one knee.

"Thank you, General, for avenging our brothers! My life, Wang Tietou, and those of my surviving brothers, is yours! Tell me, where should we attack next? We're a bunch of ground rats, and we're the best at digging holes!"

Chang Baishan pulled him up, but his eyes turned to Elder Song's attendant, who had just galloped over on his horse with a serious expression on his face.

This person is the core secret guard responsible for communicating messages.

The secret guard didn't wait for his breath to calm down and whispered hurriedly:

"General! Your Majesty has an urgent message! The 'wandering bees' left behind at Tongbao Pavilion have just sent back a top-secret report! Our undercover agents outside Zhujiabao have discovered a squad of elite soldiers secretly leaving the fort! They're heading northwest! Combined with the unusual records of the fort secretly purchasing large quantities of smallpox treatment herbs several years ago, and the recurring mention of 'Ghost Crying Valley' in the plague records... Your Majesty believes Zhu Tao has most likely deployed his final killing move—releasing the plague!"

"what?!"

Chang Baishan and Liu Yueli beside him turned pale. When fellow miners like Wang Tietou heard the words "pox" and "epidemic," they instantly remembered the tragic sight of their loved ones wailing in pain and festering, and all of them showed extreme fear and anger.

"That old dog! How dare he!"

Wang Tietou's eyes were bloodshot and he almost gritted his teeth.

"Location! Where is that damn plague village?!"

Chang Baishan's voice instantly dropped to freezing point, and the knuckles of his fingers holding the knife turned white.

The secret guard quickly unfolded a simple hand-drawn map and pointed to an unnamed place that was specially circled and located deep in the folds of the northwest mountains.

"Here! It's called 'Ghost Crying Valley' on the map, and local veteran miners have spread rumors of an ominous 'Plague God's Ditch'! The exact path is unknown, and the security situation is unclear! But Zhu Tao's assassins must have gone there!"

Everyone's attention instantly focused on Wang Tietou and the few white-haired old miners around him.

Wang Tietou stared at the area intently, and fragments of vague and terrifying memories from his childhood flashed through his mind.

Crying, stench, people wearing strange leather robes who dared not approach, the flames of burning corpses in the distance... That was where his mother and many other miners finally disappeared!

An old miner next to him, who had lost two front teeth and had wrinkles all over his face, began to tremble violently.

The voice was like a leaky bellows: "Plague God Ditch... that's... that's the grave of the living! General! I know! When I was young, I followed a dying brother to bury things there... I vaguely remember the way! The ditch is a dead end! There is only a small path on the cliff to walk through!" The old miner's eyes were full of fear, but looking at Wang Tietou's bloodshot eyes and Chang Baishan's anxious and determined face, a surge of grief and indignation rushed into his heart, "Give me some strength, I... I will lead the way!"