Chapter 224

Chapter 224

As for the Haizhou New Emperor's plan to swarm him with sheer numbers and take his life, Han Zhang could only say it was exactly what he wanted.

Because what are people who've survived the zombie apocalypse best at?

Fighting in a crowd!

After all, zombies basically always show up in packs, and they're highly infectious.

Fighting zombies means not only facing the pressure of being surrounded, but also making sure you don't take a single scratch during the fight if you want any chance of walking away alive.

It goes without saying that under such brutal conditions, the apocalypse survivors who managed to stay alive are all fighting machines of one kind or another.

Since the Haizhou New Emperor dared to give him this chance to make a name for himself, he naturally wouldn't let the man down!

Han Zhang's mind was made up. Kang Zhanxun and the others had no choice but to rally the army and follow behind him, marching to the city walls to have his back.

Beneath the walls of Haizhou, the two armies faced off, the tension thick enough to cut.

Below the walls, soldiers stood in dense, dark ranks. Above the gates, crossbowmen had their strings drawn and bolts ready, while logs and boulders were stacked high.

Han Zhang's father and mother were bound with coarse hemp ropes and shoved up against the battlements, with axes and blades glinting behind them.

Seeing that Han Zhang truly intended to charge into enemy lines alone to save them, the elderly couple was moved yet terrified, struggling and crying out:

"Son! Don't worry about your parents! Kill that bastard king! If you die fighting the enemy for our sake and your great cause fails, we'll never rest in peace even in the grave!"

"Son, your parents have lived our fill. Listen to us... you must not charge into their formation alone, or you'd be failing us as a son!"

"My boy... your parents have truly lived enough, lived enough!"

Han Zhang's father and mother shouted with eyes bulging with desperation, then tried to bite their tongues off, not wanting to become a burden to their son.

Their son had poured so much blood, sweat, and tears to reach where he was today, and the whole clan and countless brothers' lives depended on him. If everything were to collapse because of two old folks like them, they couldn't face their ancestors in the afterlife!

However, the soldiers nearby were prepared for this. Seeing the move, they reacted fast, clamping down on the old couple's jaws and shoving the rags back in their mouths.

Then they slammed a few punches into their guts, sending the two elders doubling over on the ground, able only to emit muffled, pained grunts—not even allowed to die.

"Father! Mother—!"

Witnessing this, Han Zhang's eyes went blood-red. He raised his long halberd and pointed it directly at the figure in imperial yellow atop the city wall, his roar shaking the battlefield:

"Zhao Yongxi! Don't you touch my parents! I'll charge your lines!"

"Good, good, good! What a devoted son, touching heaven itself!"

On the city wall, the Haizhou New Emperor Zhao Yongxi clapped and cackled, though the laughter carried an unmistakable note of madness and spite.

"Han Qinzhang, I never thought you'd know what it's like to lose family? And you can't even bear this much? Then do you know how I felt, wailing in agony, when Jiayou took his last breath?"

"Han Qinzhang, the world praises you as a man of loyalty and love, but in my eyes, you're nothing but a total hypocrite! You claim to love the husband waiting at home and refuse to marry Jiayou—then why did you even go near him?!"

"It was you who got Jiayou to fall for you, and then you spurned his affections, which pushed him over the edge! How dare anyone offend the royal family's honor? Your exile to Yunyang was entirely your own doing!"

"Every inch of land belongs to the king; every soul is his subject. My imperial brother taking a liking to you was a blessing from several lifetimes of good deeds—who are you to say no?!"

"It was you who killed Jiayou! You sent him to his grave with regrets! Now you just waltz up to our gates, with those god-awful cannons and guns... Han Qinzhang, you call me despicable, but weren't you plotting treason the whole time?! You backstabbing traitor!"

At this point, if he still couldn't see that Han Zhang had long been preparing to rebel, he'd be the biggest fool on earth.

He never imagined that this bastard Han Zhang had been plotting to steal the throne, building up all this strength right under their noses!

They'd underestimated this snake!

The Haizhou New Emperor stared hard at Han Zhang, losing it and screaming curses.

And Han Zhang naturally wouldn't let him spin lies unchallenged. Hearing this, he revealed a mocking sneer and fired back:

"Zhao Yongxi! The real fake and vicious one is you! Back then, Chang Gongjun Jiayou seized what he wanted by force and treated people like dirt—who in the whole capital didn't know? He wasn't the only one he targeted and bullied!"

"You and the late emperor knew full well how vicious he was, yet instead of stopping him or teaching him, you spoiled and covered for him every step of the way. What happened to him was on you!"

"Back then, I was already properly married to a husband. He married me when I had nothing, and we were bound by love and gratitude... It was your royal brothers' scheming that made Jiayou set his sights on me, and it was you who forced me to abandon the one I loved and become an ungrateful wretch! I wouldn't be a heartless bastard, so I left for Yunyang, yet you still kept coming after me, using hundreds of thousands of Yunyang people as bait to harm me! With behavior like that, how dare you talk about royal honor?!"

"Furthermore, I, Han Qinzhang, raised my army for the common folk of this land, and to restore the true heir, the Former Crown Prince! You, a false emperor who abandoned your cities and left the people to suffer—who the hell are you to question me?"

"Zhao Yongxi, it was your endless spoiling and blind indulgence that killed Chang Gongjun Jiayou—you killed your own brother with your own hands! If you're so full of hate, you should just kill yourself and go down to the underworld to apologize to him!"

"Now you're spinning lies and blaming me for everything, simply because you can't face your own stupidity and failures, can't admit how blind you've been!"

Every word was a knife to the heart.

Each of Han Zhang's sentences hit like a slap in the face. The Haizhou New Emperor shook with fury, pointing at Han Zhang, his fingertips trembling:

"You... you traitor! You're full of it! You killed Jiayou—it was you, not me! Kill... kill him! Kill him now!!"

"Han Qinzhang, I want you dead! Today I'll make you die for Jiayou!"

Before his words even faded, he slashed his arm down, his face twisted like a demon out of hell.

"Kill—!"

"Kill—!"

"Kill—!"

The elite Haizhou troops, already primed, surged forward with war cries, charging at Han Zhang in an instant. Blades flashed, spears stood thick as a forest, as if the next moment they would devour him whole.

"Zhao Yongxi, today I'll make you die for my husband, my parents, and the people of this land!"

Han Zhang let out a furious roar that shook the very ground, throwing himself into the enemy lines.

His halberd turned into a deadly whirlwind. With every swing, it kicked up a storm of blood and guts! The blade stabbed, slashed, swept, and smashed—his strikes were wild and wide, yet brutally precise.

One horizontal sweep sent three enemy soldiers flying with their shields, snapped in half at the waist!

A spinning heavy strike cleaved an enemy general in half, helmet included!

A full-spin sweeping strike cut down a whole row of spearmen, men and weapons crashing down together!

He was like a god of war, drenched in blood. Wherever he passed, men and horses fell, and blood ran in rivers!

Though the Haizhou army was numerous, not one of them could last a single blow against him! His armor had been stained dark red with enemy blood, his face splattered with gore, yet his eyes only got sharper, like a hawk's, burning with a will that wouldn't break!

On the city wall, the Haizhou New Emperor watched, his face going white as a ghost, his whole body trembling:

"Useless! A pack of useless trash! Tens of thousands of men and you can't stop one man? Fire! Fire, I said!"

Instantly, a dense rain of arrows shot forth, like an inescapable net cast from heaven.

"Brother Han—!"

"General—!"

"Elder Brother—!"

Han Qinnian and the others stationed at the rear cried out in terror at the sight of this.

Han Zhang, however, showed not the slightest panic. He immediately raised his shield, blocking the rain of arrows while continuing his advance on the enemy, heedless of the wounds on his body.

Whenever an arrow struck him, he pulled it out without flinching, as if he felt no pain, charging forward relentlessly, leaving a trail of piled corpses in his wake.

His wounds multiplied, blood streaming freely, yet his fighting spirit only grew fiercer, as if he knew no fatigue.

Han Zhang was like a tireless killing machine, carving a bloody path straight through the tens of thousands of enemy troops!

He wasn't fighting—he was... butchering! Reaping lives in the most primal, most efficient way possible!

Watching the mutilated remains of their comrades and that blood-soaked demon drawing ever closer, the soldiers finally broke under the unbearable weight of fear.

"Monster! He's a monster!!" A young soldier dropped his spear, shrieking in terror, and turned to flee.

His breakdown was like opening Pandora's box. A second cry of fear followed, then a third:

"Run! We can't hold him back! There's no stopping him!"

"He'll slaughter us all! Someone help us!!"

"Stay away! Don't come near!!"

Panic swept through the entire army like a tidal wave.

Soldiers shoved and trampled one another, scrambling desperately to flee. Orders, loyalty to their sovereign—all of it evaporated in the face of death.

The instinct to survive drove them to flee as far as possible from this hellish demon!

The once-tight encirclement instantly split open with a massive gap.

Soldiers wailed and cursed, colliding like headless chickens. Some, driven insane by fear, leapt straight off the city walls!

"Come back! All of you, come back! Anyone who flees will be executed! Execute them!!"

On the city wall, Zhao Yongxi, the New Emperor of Haizhou, screamed hysterically, drawing his sword to cut down two fleeing guards—but it couldn't stem the tide of the rout.

He could only watch helplessly as Han Zhang, bathed in blood, fought his way up to the ramparts.

Zhao Yongxi staggered backward until his spine slammed against the cold battlements, trapped.

Watching Han Zhang approach step by step, all color drained from his face, yet he still forced a twisted, manic, defiant grin and roared hoarsely:

"Han Qinzhang! My father and I were blind to have once taken you for a loyal hound when you're nothing but a wolf! You thieving usurper! I curse you to a miserable death!"

"Today you slay your sovereign and usurp the throne—heaven will punish you! Your bloodline will be severed, and you'll die without a proper end!"

"All that talk of national vengeance and right versus wrong is nothing but high-sounding rhetoric to mask your ambition! In this world, it's always the victor who writes the history!"

Zhao Yongxi panted heavily, the madness of a cornered man blazing in his eyes.

"You call me shameless, say I trampled on the lives of the people—then I'll watch from the underworld! I'll see how you 'love the people like your own children' once you sit on the dragon throne to secure your rule! The road beneath your feet is paved with bones too—how much better are you than me?!"

With that, he screamed and raised his sword to cut his own throat.

But he failed.

Han Zhang's halberd swept out to stop him, then struck again to cut the tendons of his wrists and ankles, and finally dislocated his jaw—only then did he flash a cold, cruel smile, leaning close to whisper:

"Zhao Yongxi, you're right. I, Han Zhang, am indeed a wolf. Even without the matter of Chang Gongjun Jiayou, I would have seized your Zhao dynasty's throne."

"Since Jiayou's taking a liking to me back then was my fortune, then my taking your throne now is your Zhao family's luck as well."

"Kings, lords, generals, and ministers—are they born to their rank? ...This throne—your Zhao family could sit on it, and I, Han Zhang, can sit on it too!"

"Ah—ah—!"

With his jaw dislocated, Zhao Yongxi could only emit inarticulate, guttural sounds from deep in his throat. His eyes bulged with fury, burning with boundless hatred and regret as he glared at Han Zhang, his body convulsing from the storm of emotion and pain.

He refused to accept it. He simply refused to accept it.

Han Zhang rose, looking down at him from above, and smiled with murderous cruelty:

"Want to die by your own blade to preserve your last shred of pathetic dignity? Did the people of Yunyang consent? Did the people you abandoned when you fled the city consent?"

"Zhao Yongxi, rest assured. I, Han Zhang, have always repaid kindness with kindness and enmity with enmity. For the sake of our years of acquaintance and our 'bond of sovereign and subject'... I will make sure you, the fallen emperor, are recorded in the annals of history—your name remembered for a thousand ages!"

With that said.

Han Zhang lost all interest in toying with him. He turned abruptly, his blood-stained cape trailing a resolute arc behind him.

He flicked his sleeve dismissively, his voice cutting like iron, ringing across the ramparts:

"Men! Take this wretch away! The False Emperor Zhao Yongxi, guilty of heinous crimes, has brought ruin to the state and calamity to the people, casting aside the lives of all under heaven! I will personally hold a public trial of his crimes, proclaim them to the world, to atone to the people and set the record straight!"

His beloved's parents were his line in the sand.

Cross it, and he would destroy you without mercy, body and soul.