Chapter 73 Blackmail
The fall of the palace meant that Tiandou City was completely occupied by Xue Yu. In addition, the emperor was in a coma, which gave him a lot of room for maneuver.

He began to spread the news that the emperor was kidnapped on a snowy night and his life was in danger. At the same time, he gathered all the noble families and ministers who stayed behind in the city into the palace. These people were now his hostages.

Afterwards, he conveyed the order to the troops in various places to support the king.

As long as he could stabilize the troops in various places and make them dare not act rashly, his goal would be achieved.

The local troops were not well-informed. Even if they doubted the orders given by Xue Yu, they would not obey Xue Ye. They were a prince and a crown prince. In this situation, who would they dare to listen to unless there was an imperial edict.

Xue Yu grasped this point. The emperor was in a coma and could not issue an edict. If Xue Ye issued the edict on his behalf, the local army would not obey.

What he was most worried about now was that the emperor would suddenly wake up.

What Xue Yu has to do now is not to fight with Xue Ye, but to negotiate with Xue Ye. He must have the emperor in his own hands, only then will he feel at ease.

After bringing all the nobles' families, the ministers who stayed behind, and the families of those ministers to the palace, Xue Yu sent an envoy to the hunting ground the next day to negotiate with Xue Ye.

Xue Ye might not agree, but the people under him are different. Their families are all in Tiandou City, and they will not fight to the death.

While sending people to negotiate, Xue Yu was not idle either. Xue Ye's Crown Princess was still in the city. Someone rescued her last night, but she is now missing.

In addition, the various forces in the city need to be appeased, and at the same time, the city gates must be strictly guarded to prevent anyone from colluding with outside forces to open the city gates and let Xue Ye in.

The Earl's Mansion where Di Hong lived was no longer occupied. According to the information sent back by his spies in the Earl's Mansion, Tang Yuehua was picked up by the Li Clan and was now in the Li Clan's residence.

Tang Yuehua must not be captured. After all, she is a member of the Haotian Sect. Capturing her would be tantamount to offending the Haotian Sect. The affiliated sects of the Haotian Sect are still in the city. The patriarch of the Li Clan, Titan, is not easy to deal with.

He is now also a Soul Fighter, and he has only two Soul Fighters under him. With Titan's strength, it is no problem for him to fight two at once.

After discussing with the Crown Princess, Di Hong quietly returned to the Earl's Mansion, but it was empty. He was not in a hurry because he knew that Tang Yuehua was not in the Earl's Mansion and must have gone to the Li Clan.

As one of the affiliated sects of the Clear Sky Sect, the Li Clan is extremely loyal, otherwise they would not have immediately surrendered when Tang San revealed the Clear Sky Hammer.

After making sure that Tang Yuehua was fine, he prepared to leave Tiandou City with peace of mind and report the situation here to Xue Ye.

In the hunting grounds.

After receiving the conditions proposed by Xue Yu, Xue Ye was furious.

"Too presumptuous."

Xue Ye walked back and forth in the tent with his hands behind his back, his expression full of anger.

"This traitor actually used the families of the ministers, nobles and soldiers in the city to threaten me."

"He actually wants me to hand over my father."

"And declared me a traitor."

He almost laughed out loud.

"A rebel calling me a traitor is a joke for all eternity."

"Your Highness, please calm down." Ning Fengzhi hurriedly comforted him. Xue Ye had to remain rational at this time.

"The most urgent task is to appease the nobles, ministers and soldiers in the hunting grounds. We must make them stand firmly on our side."

Now that his family is in Xue Yu's hands, even if those nobles and ministers support Xue Ye, they will not joke with their family's lives. If Xue Ye attacks Tiandou City regardless of those people's lives, he will certainly be able to take it down.

But the problem is that if Xue Yuyu is determined to kill them all, he will carry out a massacre in the city and kill all their families. What should they do then?

Even if Xue Ye won, they would get nothing, but their whole family would be killed.

Now people in the hunting grounds are in a state of uncertainty, and some are even thinking of surrendering. Their homes have been robbed, and their entire families’ lives are in their hands. Anyway, this is a fight within your royal family, and no matter who wins, the emperor will be a member of your Xue family, so they can do what they should do. But there are also people who stand firmly on Xue Ye’s side. After all, in their opinion, Xue Ye still has a great chance of winning, even though they are at a disadvantage now.

They also believed that Xue Ye would not ignore their families, otherwise he would have attacked Tiandou City long ago.

Faced with the current passive situation, Xue Ye quickly calmed himself down and tried to stay as calm as possible.

Now Xue Yu is spreading the word everywhere that he has kidnapped the emperor, and is summoning local troops to defend the emperor before him. The local troops will not listen to Xue Yu, and naturally will not listen to him either, including those generals who support him.

After all, they are in the local area and don't know the real situation in Tiandou City. If they send troops rashly, who knows if they will become rebels.

Therefore, it would be better for them to keep their troops in place and not follow the example of those generals and city lords to follow Xue Yu to occupy Tiandou City.

The situation in Tiandou City has not spread too far. After all, due to the limitations of the times here, news transmission is relatively slow.

Although Xue Yu issued the order to defend the king in advance, it does not mean that Xue Ye will not issue it. It is just a matter of being a step late. He also needs to keep the troops in these places on hold so that he can continue to maintain his advantage over Xue Yu.

In his opinion, the Guards and the Royal Knights were enough.

While they were thinking about how to respond, Di Hong came back.

As soon as he entered the tent, Xue Ye couldn't wait to ask.

"How is the situation in the city?"

Di Hong shook his head: "It's not good. Xue Yu has completely occupied Tiandou City and even the Imperial Palace. He has also captured the families of all officials and nobles in the city and brought them into the Imperial Palace."

"In addition, the important roads in the city are strictly guarded, and the defenses of each city gate are also very strict."

"He is truly a shameless thief. He had the guts to confront me head-on, but he resorted to hostage-taking." Xue Ye was very angry, but more of a helpless person.

"Does Sect Master Ning have any solution?" Xue Ye could only pin his hopes on Ning Fengzhi.

Ning Fengzhi did not answer Xue Ye directly, but looked at Di Hong.

"Anything else besides this?"

Di Hong said: "I also found the Crown Princess. She is safe at the moment, but only temporarily. There are only a few dozen people protecting her, but the Crown Princess is still gathering the remaining resistance forces in the city."

Although Tiandou City was occupied and the palace was captured, many soldiers were still evacuated from the palace. Although not many, together with other resistance forces, it was not a problem to gather a thousand people.

Ning Fengzhi looked at the sand table and quickly came up with a countermeasure.

"There is a way."

"What method?" Xue Ye looked at him.

Ning Fengzhi pointed at the sand table.

"My method is very simple, internal and external cooperation. Since Xue Yu secretly brought people back to Tiandou City to cooperate with the internal and external forces to capture the city, we can also use the internal and external cooperation strategy to retake Tiandou City."

He looked at Di Hong again.

"I'll have to trouble you to go back to Tiandou City to find the Crown Princess and join forces with her to attack the South City Gate."

"Will this work?" Xue Ye asked worriedly. After all, there were not many people in the city, and Di Hong also said that the city's defenses were tight, and it would not be easy to take it down.

Ning Fengzhi reminded: "Your Highness, have you forgotten that Xue Yu has 30,000 guards on the way here?"

After Ning Fengzhi's reminder, Xue Ye also understood. He was so anxious that he forgot that Xue Yu still had 30,000 guards who had not entered the city. These people had not yet arrived in Tiandou City. The combat effectiveness of the defenders in Tiandou City was completely inferior to theirs, which gave him a lot of room for maneuver.

(End of this chapter)