Chương 30: Congratulations, You’re Rebels Now

Late that night, Gu Zhiwei sat beneath the light and opened her Panel to see what had changed. 【Strength: 32/100】 【Spirit: 37/100】 【Virtue Value Balance: 24】 Her Strength had gone up by one during the battle against Alezhen's thousand-man force, while the extra point in Spirit had come from controlling the leafcutter ants with such precision. As for her Virtue Value, Alezhen had contributed ten points, Togel nine, and Alezhen's personal guards had added a few more between them.

The brothers had spent their lives fighting tooth and nail, only to end up sitting neatly side by side in her Virtue Value balance after death. Somehow, it felt like a bizarre family reunion in hell. Thinking about what awaited her back in Great Yong, Gu Zhiwei put four points into Strength and kept the remaining twenty in reserve. A wave of heat immediately welled up inside her and spread from her spine through her limbs. At 36 Strength, every increase was becoming noticeably more powerful.

She had a feeling that even if she faced Alezhen without him being drugged first, she could still take him down within three moves. For now, she decided to stop spending Virtue Value. She would let the battles ahead push her Strength to forty first. Gu Zhiwei closed the panel. As she was getting ready for bed, she noticed how quiet the room next door was. Aglaya had been summoned by the khan's consort after dinner and still had not returned. She threw on a robe and stepped outside.

Moonlight shimmered across the courtyard pool. Grapevines stirred in the night breeze, their leaves brushing softly against the stone pillars, the faint rustling following the colonnade all the way to its end. Aglaya sat there alone, gazing into the hazy moonlight, her pale-gold hair loose over her shoulders. Gu Zhiwei sat down beside her.

"Finished talking with the khan's consort?"

"Finished." Aglaya's voice was slightly hoarse.

"I told her I'm going back with you to rebel."

"What did she say?"

"She wasn't happy. She tried to talk me out of it, then gave up when she realized I wouldn't budge." Aglaya sighed heavily.

"It's not like I could tell her I'm not really her daughter, or explain the whole System Quest thing." She turned toward Gu Zhiwei. The tip of her nose had gone pink in the autumn chill.

"She just told me to write often and said I could come back whenever I wanted once your grand rebellion succeeds. Little Urza was clinging to me the whole time too..." She sniffed.

"Shit. They really got to me." Gu Zhiwei handed her a handkerchief. Aglaya took it but did not wipe her eyes. She simply clenched it in one hand. Perhaps too much had built up over the past few days. After a long silence, she suddenly spoke again.

"I've never actually met my mom in the real world. She left not long after I was born. I don't even have a single photo of her."

"My dad drinks, beats his girlfriend, cheats. The full shitbag package." The moment she mentioned him, Aglaya practically ground her teeth.

"He stole every fucking cent I'd managed to save from working at a restaurant. Sometimes I seriously wish I could hand him over to the state and have them ship him straight to the front lines." She fell silent for a moment, trying to calm herself. Water murmured nearby as she nudged the tile at the pool's edge with her shoe.

"When I was little, I resented my mom for leaving me behind. But now I understand why she wanted to get away from that man. I would've run too. Hell, I might've run even faster."

"But I still wonder sometimes... before she left, did she ever think about taking me with her?" Aglaya looked down at the handkerchief in her fist.

"I even tried to find some tiny scrap of proof that she hadn't wanted to leave me. Something hidden in all the things my dad would curse about when he was drunk."

"I don't know whether the System creates our families in these worlds based on our real lives. But if it does, maybe my real mother looks a little like the khan's consort." She was quiet for a moment.

"These past few days, I keep thinking about it without meaning to. If they're similar in more than just appearance, then maybe she once... wondered how I was doing too." Gu Zhiwei listened without interrupting until she finished. Then she said, "Aglaya."

"Mm?"

"Do you know how amazing you are?" Aglaya looked at her.

"You grew up with every excuse in the world to become like the person you hated most." Gu Zhiwei's voice was quiet.

"But you didn't." She paused.

"You're optimistic. You work hard. You've done your best to build yourself a good life."

"If your mother knew that, I think she'd be very proud of you."

"You're seriously too good at comforting people." Aglaya immediately threw herself at Gu Zhiwei and wrapped her in a hug, burying her face against her shoulder. Her voice came out muffled. Gu Zhiwei patted her on the back. Before returning to her room, she glanced toward the neighboring courtyard. The lights in the khan's consort's chambers were still burning, and behind the arched window, a lone figure paced back and forth.

The next morning, before Gu Zhiwei and the others departed, the khan's consort had more than twenty chests carried into the courtyard. They were filled with gold, silver, and jewels, along with clothes, ornaments, and all manner of things a young woman might need.

"These ten chests are my thanks to you," the khan's consort said.

"Consider them a contribution to your rebellion." Then she turned to Aglaya.

"These twelve are luggage I prepared for you. Don't trouble other people over every little thing once you're away from home. Be careful, and write to me every month. Do you remember?" This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. Aglaya had slept well and looked nothing like the miserable girl from the night before. The instant she saw the beautiful clothes and jewelry, her eyes lit up.

She clung to the khan's consort's arm and immediately started acting sweet.

"Got it, got it! I promise!" The khan's consort also gave Gu Zhiwei five thousand of her personal troops. Most were slaves from the Western Regions or soldiers from fallen kingdoms whom she had bought or redeemed over the years. They had never taken part in Beirong raids into Great Yong and answered to the khan's consort alone. Urza's position as khan was still far from secure, yet she had still carved five thousand men out of her own forces and placed them in Gu Zhiwei's hands.

Gu Zhiwei thanked her repeatedly and promised to return all five thousand once she had secured a foothold of her own. The khan's consort only laughed softly. She stroked Aglaya's hair, reluctance plain in her eyes.

"No need to thank me. I'm protecting my daughter as much as I'm helping you." Then she smiled.

"May your grand rebellion succeed soon. And once it does, remember to send someone back to sign a formal alliance in the name of your new regime."

Half a month later, five thousand cavalry appeared outside Huaiyuan. Gu Zhiwei had long set her sights on the Northern Garrison Army's seventy thousand troops. He Zheng already had nearly thirty thousand men, but that was nowhere near enough to launch a rebellion. At first, Ge Chu wasn't worried in the slightest. He and Alezhen had reached an arrangement years ago. Whenever Beirong cavalry crossed the border, the Northern Garrison Army simply shut its gates and stayed put.

Once the riders had plundered enough from the surrounding villages, they would leave on their own. This time, however, the cavalry outside the city did not scatter into the countryside. Five thousand riders came straight through the bitter late-autumn wind and charged directly at the Northern Garrison camp. The deputy general who had scrambled onto the watchtower finally spotted Gu Zhiwei riding at the very front, followed by thousands of unfamiliar faces from the Western Regions. His expression changed instantly.

"Attack! Attack! They're not Beirong!" Gu Zhiwei almost laughed from sheer fury. So apparently, this deputy general had quite the understanding with the Beirong. Did he even remember who he was supposed to protect in the first place? She raised her bow, drew, and shot the shouting deputy general off the tower. Matt hit the camp entrance first, preventing the still-open gates from being closed. His monstrous strength sent the guards at the entrance stumbling backward in shock.

Several dropped their weapons and ran on the spot.

Wang Pu and Aglaya immediately seized the opening and shouted toward the camp.

"We only want Ge Chu!"

"Those who surrender will not be killed!"

"Drop your weapons and you will be spared!" Before the defenders could recover, the thunder of hoofbeats rolled in from another direction. He Zheng had arrived from the mountains with tens of thousands of soldiers. After the five hundred elite troops he had lent Gu Zhiwei returned, they had praised her so extravagantly that they made her sound like some legendary figure descended from Heaven itself. The lead soldier also brought back Gu Zhiwei's letter.

In it, she had explained her plans in detail, along with the kind of country she intended to build. He Zheng needed only one night to make his decision. He was already a rebel general. No one knew better than him how thoroughly Great Yong had rotted. Now that Heaven had placed a worthy lord before him, what reason did he have to refuse? This time, he no longer greeted Gu Zhiwei the way he had when they first met. He cupped his fists and bowed.

"He Zheng and the old troops of the mountains await your orders, my lord." Gu Zhiwei wasted no time on ceremony.

"Take your men and encircle the camp." Gu Zhiwei had originally planned to take down the commander first, then surround the camp and force the rest to surrender. Unfortunately, she had seriously overestimated Ge Chu's backbone. The moment Gu Zhiwei's cavalry hit the main gate, he grabbed the commander's seal, a small amount of silver, and five hundred personal guards, then made a glorious "tactical retreat" through the rear gate. He had left in such a hurry that he had not even packed his luggage.

Clearly, the man valued his life very highly. Gu Zhiwei rushed up the watchtower, swung her bow into position, and loosed several arrows in quick succession. Whenever one of the deputy generals trying to rally the troops dared poke his head out, an arrow slammed into the timber beside him. Within moments, none of them dared show themselves. He Zheng's men quickly followed and seized the camp's key positions one by one. Matt led his troops straight toward the command tents.

"Ge Chu already ran!" he roared.

"If you don't want to die for him, put down your weapons!" Morale in the camp had already collapsed. Their commanding general had abandoned them and fled, while the few officers still trying to organize a defense had been pinned down so completely they could barely raise their heads. It did not take long for the first soldier to drop his blade.

He Zheng entered the camp soon afterward and began listing Ge Chu's crimes for all to hear: shutting the gates and abandoning the border villages, framing his own subordinate officers, and secretly colluding with Beirong. Some soldiers who still had a conscience left stopped resisting the moment they saw him. Only Ge Chu's trusted men, the ones he had not managed to take with him, continued trying to organize a counterattack. Gu Zhiwei showed them no more mercy. She drew her blade and joined the fighting herself.

Amid the chaos, Wang Pu even managed to find the surviving men from his old ten-man squad and pull them out of the battle. Before sunset, the Northern Garrison Army camp had completely changed hands. Gu Zhiwei did not immediately begin reorganizing the troops. Instead, her first order was to have new proclamations posted throughout the camp.

"The imperial court has forsaken its duty, abandoning the soldiers and people of the north to the ravages of war."

"From this day forward, the Northern Garrison Army will no longer take orders from the capital. This army will fight for the survival of the people of the north."

"No soldier shall harass civilians or take so much as a needle or a thread from them. Violators will be severely punished under military law." A second proclamation followed.

"Those willing to stay will be registered anew and reassigned to their units."

"Those unwilling to stay will surrender their weapons and remain in camp for the time being. Once the northern frontier is stable, you will be given travel money and allowed to return home." When the news reached the prisoners, the soldiers stared at one another in confusion. Most of them had assumed some unknown power had invaded the north. One moment, they had been privately mourning their terrible luck.

They had fallen into the hands of what looked very much like an army of bandits, and their chances of leaving alive seemed rather poor. Then the proclamations went up. The good news: apparently, these people had no intention of killing them. The bad news: they were rebels now. A few soldiers who already hated both the imperial court and Ge Chu joined Gu Zhiwei's army on the spot. Most, however, chose the safer option and kept their heads down. Rebellion was no small crime.

Even if they were willing to risk their own lives, they still had families back home. And then Ge Chu delivered a god-tier assist. He had fled so quickly that all he knew was that an army containing soldiers from the Western Regions had attacked the camp. He had not even seen who was leading them. Naturally, he had no intention of admitting that he had abandoned his post and run for his life. So the moment he reached Shuozhou, he hurriedly issued a proclamation.

"The tribes of the Western Regions colluded with Beirong and launched a surprise attack on Liangzhou. For petty profit, soldiers within the Northern Garrison Army conspired with foreign enemies and opened the camp gates without authorization, causing the Northern Garrison camp to fall and the northern frontier to be lost." Since Ge Chu was making the whole thing up anyway, he never bothered to specify exactly which soldiers had supposedly colluded with the enemy. The result was magnificent.

Every soldier who had remained inside the Northern Garrison camp was now officially a traitor. Even if Gu Zhiwei released them and let them go home, the authorities would arrest them the moment they showed their faces. Worse, their families could be implicated as well. When the soldiers heard the proclamation, the entire camp erupted in curses. Ge Chu, that inhuman bastard. Then they thought back over the past few days. Gu Zhiwei had not tortured them. She had not forced them to join her army.

She had given them food and water and even promised to send them home. Without anyone quite noticing when it happened, their loyalties had begun to shift. At last, an old soldier stood up and spat hard onto the ground.

"Fuck it. I'm in!" That was all it took. The others immediately began scrambling to follow, some of them suddenly worried that if they joined too late, all the good positions would already be taken. Over the past few days, they had heard plenty of stories from their former comrades who had already switched sides. Anyone who made it into the cavalry received good hide armor, proper weapons, and even warhorses captured from the Beirong. Even the infantry were issued new sabers and uniforms.

Their meals had improved too. Gone were the meager bowls of beans they used to scrape by on every day. Now they were given enough food to fill their stomachs, and sometimes there was even meat, something they had rarely tasted before. The soldiers listening to these stories could barely hide their envy. More than a few began bitterly regretting how stubborn they had been a few days earlier. Outside, the soldiers were still scrambling for a place in her army.

Inside the command tent, Gu Zhiwei was thinking about something far more important. An army needed more than soldiers.