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Chapter 161: The Famous Ploy – Part 2

Battle Royale of the Sinners

The servants bowed and hurried away.

Bao Xin frowned as he darted his eyes around the hall. Han Fu was not here yet which was strange.

"Excuse me. Where is the governor? We haven't seen him since we have arrived. I want to talk to him."

"We've sent our men to invite him over at the moment. This morning, he didn't attend the morning meeting because of his sickness. We still don't know if he has recovered enough to attend everyone here." Tong continued his fictional story.

"Oh, that can't be helped. If he's not well, then it's fine. He can send his representatives here or we can postpone the banquet."

Before Tong could open his mouth to give another excuse, Ju Shou walked over and bowed to Bao Xin.

"I'm sorry, I'm late. I'm Ju Shou, the deputy governor of Ye City. Our Lord is currently ill, so he couldn't attend this banquet. I beg you for your forgiveness."

Bao Xin nodded. "It's alright. It's the thought that counts. Please tell Lord Han that we are grateful for this warm welcome."

"My pleasure."

…

The banquet went on as planned. Ju Shou acted as the host of this event and kept Bao Xin and his men company. The surrendered officials also attended the banquet and sat on their side seats.

Entertainers with skimpy red clothes came and performed the city's traditional dance while a hundred of beautiful maids in pink dresses served the wine and food for the guests and the officials.

The banquet on the outside also went well. The soldiers ate and drank while they made a ruckus in a joyous mood. Brawls and fights happened. Since they were common things in the army, so nobody made a big deal of it.

The party went according to the plan, but changes occurred. The problem lied with the dancers and Bao Xin.

Bao Xin and his men were eyeing at the dancers with lust. They drooled as they scanned the bodies of the dancers who wore nothing but bikinis and a few accessories.

The two-piece clothes of the six beautiful female dancers were only there to cover their private parts. To these men who had seen nothing but men for years, this stimulation woke up their primal instinct.

"Sir Ju, do you mind if we request the dancers to entertain us on our bed?"

The sudden vulgar request shocked Ju Shou. "Pardon?"

"You heard me right, Sir Ju Shou. We wish to make them serve us tonight as well. We haven't taste women for ages. Since my boss isn't here and there's just us. Could you give us the girls and pretend nothing has happened? I promise you, I'll refer you to the Imperial Court and you'll be promoted into a higher tier noble rank."

Ju Shou stared at these men in disbelief and shocked.

"Don't be so shock, sir Ju. Isn't it normal to offer a tribute or a gift to the higher rank nobles to advance in your career? We've referred like twenty people to the court. Some of them are already ministers! Don't be shy, just give them to us."

Ju Shou frowned and thought. 'T-They're bribing me!? So they can ravish these girls!?'

Gritting his teeth, he had to go through with the plan. If he refused, the careful plot of Jia Xu would go wrong. Ju Shou called the girls over. The dancers stopped performing. They walked toward the six visitors and bowed.

"The gentlemen here wants to take all of you as their concubines. Greet them."

The faces of the dancers paled. Four of them were maidens, but the other two were married. They did not want to serve the men this way as they were pursuing the path of entertainers in their careers.

"M-My lord, but I'm married."

"Me too. I also have a child."

Bao Xin and his men laughed. "It's alright. You can call it a one night stand, perhaps it's a blessing. We've been saving up for years, so our seeds are pretty thick! You're likely to get another child for your husband! Hahaha!"

Ju Shou bit his lower lips until his teeth dug into his flesh. Blood seeped out from the wounds, but Ju Shou did not feel any pain as the pain in his heart was heavier. Anger could be seen in his eyes.

"You will entertain them once the banquet is over. For now, serve them by their side."

Hearing Ju Shou's order, they lost all hope. They shed tears of despair and regret that they picked the wrong road, yet they bowed to Ju Shou and followed his order.

Seeing the tears of the girls, the pain in his heart intensified. At first, he felt pity for Bao Xin and his men for being the preys of Jia Xu and Tong's plot. He thought that these soldiers were heroes of the Han Court as they sacrificed themselves for the people. Now, they revealed their true nature, he felt that their death would be justified.

'It's alright, all of you. None of you shall be soiled tonight!' Ju Shou swore.

...

Within an hour after the banquet started, both soldiers outside and Bao Xin's men inside the hall had heavy eyelids. They got drowsy after drinking a couple jars of wine, which was unusual for them.

In the banquet outside, a few soldiers dropped on the ground, falling asleep. Their friends started laughing at them thinking that they were dead drunk.

"This wine is so strong. I think I'm already drunk!"

"Yea, it tastes like normal wine, but it's damn strong!"

"HAHA! Weakling! You can't even handle 2 jars of wine!"

"HAHAHA! I think that guy used to brag he drank 10 jars without breaking a sweat. Now look at him, he's done! HAHAHA!"

The same event happened inside the government hall. Several city officials already fell asleep while Bao Xin and his men struggled to stay awake as they were looking forward to the night entertainment.

"Sir Ju, your wine is very strong. My apologies, I think I'll have to stop toasting with you for now."

Ju Shou was also struggling to stay awake as well. His jar was not wine but water, but the drowsiness already overwhelmed him. However, because of his anger, he stayed awake to see the death of these men.

"Please don't apologize, general. I'm also at my limit, too."

As Ju Shou spoke, he gave Jia Xu, who disguised himself as one of the officials at the back, with an angry glare. Despite the fact that they were allies, Jia Xu put his drugs in everyone's food without an exception.

'Indeed, to fool the enemies, you have to fool your allies first. But at the very least, you should have warned me or have given me an antidote beforehand!'

'Damnit! It's fortunate that it was mild sleeping pills and I replaced my wine with water! If it's wine, we all would've died here before we kill these men!'

…

…

Tong, Jia Xu, and Zhang He sat on the back row of the banquet, observing the crowd and the effect of their drugs.

In this scheme, Jia Xu pretended that Han Fu was alive to lure the enemies inside the city. The party was nothing but a rouse and an opportunity to poison these soldiers.

Once they got inside, they drugged the soldiers with Jia Xu's personal drugs mixing with the food and drink in the banquet.

At first, Jia Xu wanted to use his numb poison to paralyze them. However, Tong gave him an idea that the combination of sleeping pills or powder mixing with alcoholic wine could also kill. Furthermore, the execution would be cleaner this way. If they were to fall asleep when they were drinking, none of them would have suspected that they were poisoned.

Jia Xu was inspired by the idea and agreed with Tong's suggestion, and put sleeping powders into all food instead of more noticeable numb poison.

The plan went well. The soldiers and Bao Xin had not suspected anything after they ate and drank a lot of food and wine.

The more they ate and drank, the more severe the drug effect. It was possible for the drugged soldiers and officials to fall asleep and stop breathing, which would result in death.

For the sake of the realistic scene, Jia Xu put the drugs into all food that had been served, but he replaced the wine of the officials with tea, so they would not die from the side effect of the sleeping pills.

The food in front of the three was also contaminated with Jia Xu's drugs, yet Tong ignored the fact and ate them with glee.

Meanwhile, Jia Xu and Zhang He did not dare to touch to food. They only drank tea and watched everyone. As soon as they saw Tong's empty plate, they glanced at him to check his condition.

Seeing the satisfied face of Tong, the two looked at him as if he was a monster.

Although Tong's poison and drug immunity did not take effect as he voluntarily ate the drugged food, he still had his regen skill as a backup lifesaving skill. With this skill, Tong chowed down his food to the point that his stomach bloated.

*Burp*

<<DING>>

<<Your [Gluttony] has been strengthened by your recent action>>

<<Probability that your [Gluttony] can take control of your body has been increased>>

<<Your [Gluttony] has 5% chance to take control of your body>>

'Crap, I forgot about this.'

"My lord, all food here is not safe. Are you alright after eating all that?" Zhang He was worried.

"Meh, it's alright. It's just a little drowsiness. As long as I don't drink alcohol, I'll be fine. By the way, Wenhe, when will we start? I could have killed all of them when they first entered the hall actually. But since you insist with your plan, I left them be."

Jia Xu raised his eyebrows and gave Tong a weird stare.

"Please don't recklessly act outside of my plans. You could have killed all of them, yes. But doing so will anger the 10,000 soldiers. If we want to get rid of them, we'll have to do it thoroughly. I don't want to see any unnecessary casualty."

The corner of Tong's mouth twitched.

'Don't want to see any unnecessary casualty your sister! If Zhang He had hadn't open the gate in time, all my soldiers would have turned into porcupines!' Tong retorted in his mind.