If Lucas Lu had been allowed to swiftly crush the rebel army, the Valeguard Kingdom might have managed to limp on for a few more years. But the Emperor’s foolish decision only accelerated the kingdom’s downfall.
Not everyone can lead troops to victory, and clearly, Leonard Wen just doesn’t have what it takes.
Lucas Lu retook Northwest Province and slaughtered eighty thousand rebels thanks to his rich combat experience and superb tactics. What does Leonard Wen have?
He’s just a marquis who bribed the Emperor to get promoted. He’s good at eating, drinking, and sucking up, but when it comes to leading troops, he’s hopeless.
Just as Ian Song expected.
After Leonard Wen arrived and took command, he immediately ordered the army to march on Dragonreach Province.
In his mind, the rebel army was just a bunch of pushovers—easy to squash however he liked.
But reality slapped him hard in the face.
As soon as they entered Dragonreach Province, Leonard Wen’s army was ambushed.
In that battle, nearly ninety thousand troops lost thirty thousand men.
Even Leonard Wen himself almost died in the chaos.
That fight scared Leonard Wen out of his wits. He finally realized that war isn’t child’s play—and that he’s not cut out for it.
Worried the Emperor would punish him, Leonard Wen did something even dumber.
Not only did he fake the battle report, exaggerating his defeat as a glorious victory, he also massacred civilians and claimed their deaths as military merits—sending tens of thousands of innocent lives to the capital just to please the court.
There weren’t many civilians left in Northwest Province to begin with.
After Leonard Wen’s stunt, those remaining civilians all turned against him. If you’re going to die whether you rebel or not, why not rebel?
So, over the next month—
Peter Xue, with the help of newly rebellious civilians in the Northwest, managed to seize half the province in one go.
As for Leonard Wen, he was so terrified he just holed up in Hanyin City, too scared to face the rebels at all.
But half a month later—