I'm the villain in the book

Chapter 537
Dead silence.

In an instant, the entire hall seemed to suddenly fall into the void, and there was no movement except for the small sound of falling snow outside the house.

In the end, Li Wutong chose to give up.

Abandoning more than a million people in Huailing City in exchange for Dafeng's lingering life.

Like I said before, it's hard to say whether her decision was right or wrong.

But if we analyze it solely from the current pros and cons, it seems that she has no other choice.

refuse?
Ning Yongnian will undoubtedly kill Li Qi immediately, and Huailing City may still be slaughtered.

In this way, they are really "declaring their ambitions with death".

I would rather die, would rather subjugate the country, and would not bear the trumped-up charges.
Obviously, Li Wutong does not want to subjugate the country anyway.

Therefore, she could only accept such a condition.

"."

"Puff."

Weakly falling back to the wooden chair, Min Zhongguang sighed in pain, but didn't say anything after all.

The same is true for other envoys.

Everyone had different expressions, but they all chose to remain silent at this moment.

There is no doubt that no matter what the consideration is, they all acquiesced to Li Wutong's decision.

Even though everyone knows the consequences of this decision.

"emperor."

On the other side, Sima Cong also had a somewhat complicated expression.

He turned his head to look at Ning Yongnian, seeing that the latter nodded slightly, and then called the eunuch to his side again.

Pick up the pen, dip in the ink, put the pen down.

Soon, the fifth and last article of the "Huailing Alliance" was written down.

Sima Cong took a deep breath and handed the note to the little eunuch.

The latter received it in his hand, and immediately walked towards the gate of the palace step by step under the gaze of everyone.
After ten breaths, this note will be handed over to the ritual officer waiting outside the hall.

After twenty breaths, the drum beeps three times.

Thirty breaths later, the ritual officer will recite the content of the note to all the people waiting on the long street outside the government office.

After that.
The [-] Daning troops stationed in Huailing City would seal the city gates and slaughter more than a million unarmed people in the city.

It may take one day or two days to slaughter the city, but it will not exceed three days at most.

And after Huailing was completely turned into a dead city, Ning Yongnian would return to Daning with the "Huailing Alliance" signed by both parties and the troops that remained in Dafeng.

At that time, Li Wutong could be regarded as "fulfilling his wish" to save Dafeng and Li Qi's life.

For this result, she has given up too much.

It can even be said to have sacrificed everything that could be sacrificed.

Therefore, when she saw the little eunuch walking towards the palace door step by step, she felt both despair and relief in her heart.

"squeak"

The door of the temple was pushed open a gap, and the cold wind mixed with snowflakes squeezed in from outside the house.

The moon is dark and no one looks forward, and the snow is full of mausoleums.

The soldiers of Daning on the walls of the city were already ready to slaughter the city, and they would block the city gates and draw their swords out of their sheaths when Wu Ding gave an order.

However, at this last moment, just before the little eunuch was about to leave the hall, a person who should not have spoken at this time suddenly spoke.

"stop."

"My widow, don't agree!"

"."

The cold wind is cold, and the chill is piercing to the bone.

The center of everyone's attention was Li Qi with an extremely calm face.

From surrendering at the gate of the city to today, the Emperor Dafeng has been acting stupid for more than a month.

He was hanged on the top of the wall and suffered all kinds of humiliation.

He watched batch after batch of Dafengwu people die tragically at his feet.

Even just now, Meng Shi, who was born and died for him, waved his hands silently behind him and committed suicide
Li Qi endured all of these.

From Ning Yongnian's eyes, he could see that the former already believed that he was really stupid.

But even so, at this moment Li Qi still couldn't pretend anymore.

"emperor!"

The first exclamation came from Min Zhongguang.

The latter didn't know that Li Qi was pretending to be stupid before, so he would inevitably be shocked now.

He staggered and ran to Li Qi, fell to his knees with a "plop", raised his head in tears and shouted:
"Your Majesty! You, you are fine!"

"emperor!"

"His Majesty!!"

"."

The next moment, more envoys also reacted, all trembling and kneeling on the ground with extremely excited expressions.

Some of them may have guessed that Li Qi was pretending before, and some only thought that he "recovered" suddenly.

But no matter what, Li Qi returned to normal, and they had a backbone.

Just like that, the hall fell into chaos in an instant.

But in the extremely excited eyes of Dafeng officials and the extremely astonished eyes of Daning envoys, Li Qi just looked directly at Ning Yongnian and snorted coldly:
"Hmph, good calculation."

"."

"You're not bad either."

Ning Yongnian narrowed his eyes, and the surprise in Ning Yongnian's eyes slowly faded: "I almost thought you were really stupid? Are you going to continue acting?"

"It's just that I don't think it's necessary to act anymore."

Shaking his head calmly, Li Qi didn't have the slightest cowardice that "subduing the king" should have.

"Ning Yongnian, I know exactly what you think."

"Now that the Wei family is getting more and more powerful, your army must withdraw to Daning."

"But you are not willing to leave like this, so you want to use this method to drive a wedge between me and the government."

"Hmph, it's really a wishful thinking!"

"."

In a few words, Li Qi completely destroyed Ning Yongnian's plan.

But Ning Yongnian did not deny it, but nodded with a half-smile.

"Yes, that's exactly what I intended."

"But what can you do?"

"Now there are [-] soldiers from Daning in Huailing City. Regardless of whether you agree or not, everyone in the city will eventually die."

"And you have to risk your life in vain"

"Take your life for nothing?"

There was no trace of panic and hesitation on Li Qi's face, he interrupted with a sneer:
"Ning Yongnian, there is no need to talk about this between you and me."

"You should know what my death means."

"."

What is the meaning of my death.
When Li Qi said this sentence, everyone instantly understood the meaning.

Yes, whether Li Qi agrees or not, Ning Yongnian has the ability to slaughter the city.

But if Li Qi is really dead, then the nature of this massacre will change from "Dafeng gave up the people of Huailing" to "Ning Yongnian slaughtered the people of Huailing".

At that time, even if the Dafeng royal family no longer exists, the people of Dafeng will definitely hate Ning Yongnian to the bone, and the latter will undoubtedly have to pay a greater price if he wants to swallow Dafeng in the future.

Therefore, if Li Qi does not agree, there is a high probability that Ning Yongnian will not actually massacre the city.

On the other hand, if the "Huailing Alliance" cannot be reached, there is a high probability that Ning Yongnian will directly kill Li Qi and take Li Wutong away, so that Dafeng will "subjugate" the country temporarily at least in name.

Thinking about it this way, the game between the two sides is actually very clear.

What Ning Yongnian hopes is to leave behind a Dafeng who is riddled with holes and survives in name only.

But Li Qi's purpose is exactly the opposite——

Even if he dies and the country is subjugated, he still wants to protect the reputation of the Li family and the lives of more than a million people in Huailing City!
(End of this chapter)