: The Requiem of a Noble Family

"Grandpa, does this mean our family's thousand-year-old tradition is going to end here?"

The young man asked unwillingly, "With a family tradition spanning a thousand years, don't you have at least one or two trump cards? Don't you have a backup plan?"

Impossible, he absolutely refused to believe it.

The old man glanced at him. He knew he had a way out, but he would never use it on such a worthless piece of trash.

The most promising members of the family, the truly promising younger generation, had already been dispersed throughout the country and hidden away incognito before Luoyang was besieged.

They directly control villages across the country, where everyone is a trusted confidant and absolutely loyal. They hide their family's descendants among these villages, and with the entire village as witnesses, no one would doubt their identity.

Even with their strength, it would be difficult to have so many absolutely loyal confidants. To remain steadfast in the face of Huang Chao's generous rewards after the destruction of their family requires absolute loyalty. Even the slightest lack of loyalty could bring annihilation to their family's only remaining lineage.

Those who remain in Luoyang now are all people who have been abandoned.

Only a few seeds were given all their hopes that they could restore the family's glory.

"Gentlemen, if we continue to wait, is there really any chance for things to turn around?"

Another old man spoke up. He was also sitting in the grand chair in the front row, and he was also one of the people with a very high status among the five surnames.

"There's no turning back now. We're preparing to lead our troops out and fight our way out. Even if we die, we'll die with dignity."

The head of the Wang family of Taiyuan spoke, his tone filled with desolation.

A few years ago, he was a powerful figure who controlled the emperor and the court, high above and looking down on all living beings.

In the past, Huang Chao could not even get to see him, and he couldn't even get close to the gatekeepers at his residence.

Now we are at their mercy, like fish on a chopping board.

The disparity is enough to drive anyone crazy.

It's already quite remarkable that they've managed to hold on until now.

But now, they can't hold on any longer and are preparing for a desperate charge.

"We, the Li family of Zhao County, will follow."

"If Huang Chao wants to wipe us out, he'll have to see if he has the teeth. Even if he dies, we'll break a few of his teeth!"

"Our Zhao County Li family has taken out all the treasury and is preparing to distribute it to our soldiers. For every soldier killed, we will give them a hundred taels of gold and a hundred acres of fertile land."

"Our Zhao County Li family still possesses a total of one million taels of gold, 1000 million mu of land deeds, and countless mountains, forests, and fishing grounds. We will distribute these until they are all gone, and we will never go back on our word!"

"Count us in too. Anyway, these things are useless now, so let's use them to motivate the soldiers."

These people are all heads of their families, so naturally they wouldn't lack this awareness.

"All the family members donned armor and went to the battlefield. Rather than be slaughtered like pigs by Huang Chao, they would rather die a glorious death on the battlefield, at least they would have fought for their own death."

The head of the Cui family of Qinghe said coldly, his tone unfriendly as he looked at the pale-faced juniors.

Hearing the patriarch's words, the young men of the Cui clan of Qinghe shuddered. Send them to the battlefield?!

Is such a filthy place a place for people of their noble blood to go?

But since the head of the family had given the order, they had no choice but to obey, and they could only grit their teeth and accept it with bitter faces.

Before the young people from other families could even gloat, orders came down from all the families, and everyone was to go to the battlefield.

"Bring His Majesty along too. Even if he dies, we must make Huang Chao bear the infamy of murdering his emperor in the street."

Someone said in a sinister tone.

Although Huang Chao rose to power through rebellion, and the change of dynasties inevitably involved the purge of the previous emperors and the royal family, it was a stain on his record. It didn't cause much harm, but it was disgusting.

The others nodded in agreement; whether the emperor agreed or not was not within their consideration.

Once they reached an agreement, whether the emperor agreed or not was no longer important.

"Also, all the grain and fodder in the city have been burned; we absolutely cannot leave any for Huang Chao."

New strategies kept being proposed.

"This time we don't need to divide our forces. Huang Chao's command camp is at the south gate. We will launch a full-scale attack on the south gate. This battle is a fight to the death; we will fight to the last man!"

Outside Luoyang, Huang Chao also received intelligence and learned of the decisions made by the powerful families.

He intended to concentrate all his troops at this gate and crush the enemy in one fell swoop.

But he also worried that this was a ploy by the powerful families to lure them away from their stronghold. If the families sent some elite troops to lead their members out from other branches and try to hide their identities, things would be very bad.

Therefore, at least 20 troops should be stationed at both gates, just in case.

Only one million troops could gather at the South Gate. Facing the allied forces of powerful families who were heavily rewarded, the outcome was uncertain.

Under normal circumstances, even if the allied forces of the powerful families numbered 250 million, Huang Chao would not be afraid at all.

But he never expected that these aristocratic families, after being driven to the brink of despair, would also be inspired to use all their family assets as military rewards.

With such a generous reward, the combined forces of the powerful clans will become extremely formidable.

According to his intelligence, each of these aristocratic families directly transported dozens of cartloads of gold, silver, and copper coins to the center of their army and distributed them according to the number of heads.

With the incentive of this gold and silver, the fighting power of the soldiers in the aristocratic alliance will be greatly improved. This money is enough to buy their lives, not to mention the additional rewards for each enemy killed.

A hundred taels of gold and a hundred acres of fertile land—no ordinary soldier could resist such temptation.

Even the fear of death couldn't outweigh the greed in the face of such enormous profits.

"Why would people from ordinary families help the wicked and kill each other?"

Huang Chao sighed.

In this battle, countless innocent soldiers will die, countless families will lose a pillar of support, countless children will lose their fathers, countless wives will lose their husbands, and countless parents will lose their sons.

"The aristocratic families have committed heinous crimes!"

Huang Chao attributed everything to the powerful clans. Since they knew they were going to die, why couldn't they just die peacefully?

Why drag these innocent soldiers down with them?

Such selfishness is truly a cancer on the world.

Huang Chao vowed that he would take this opportunity to completely eradicate the aristocratic families.

The aristocratic family: Listen to me, thank you. We're all dead, yet we still have to cooperate with you to get what you want.

We won't do it!

We have our own little tempers too!