Can I become the Yu-Gi-Oh by summoning the Flame Swordsman?

Xia Chao watched his health points drop to zero, and finally closed his eyes in despair, lying backwards on the ground.

While waiting for the last second of death, Xia Chao replayed his life trajectory in his mind like a kaleidoscope. He knew a thousand words at the age of three, recited Tang poems at the age of five, read the Four Books and Five Classics by heart at the age of seven, and was proficient in poetry and songs at the age of eight.

He thought of his wedding night, of his coming of age, of his success in the imperial examination, of his ambitions, and of his continuous promotion.

He remembered running under the sunset, which was his lost youth.

He also remembered...wait, why am I not dead yet?

Xia Chao opened his eyes in confusion and found himself still in the familiar study. The young assassin was sitting on a wooden chair and flipping through a deck - it seemed to be his own deck, because the deck in his duel disk had been taken away.

"I was saying that you solved your problem before I even started." Bai Chu flipped through Xia Chao's deck nonchalantly, feeling that it suited him very well. "I'll take your deck. I'll return to you everything you said to me just now.

I have something to ask you. If you answer well, you can escape death, but if you tell a lie, you will be asking for death. "

Xia Chao was silent for a while, then said, "Go ahead."

"Can I see the memorial you wrote?" Bai Chu picked up a piece of written paper on the desk and asked casually.

If I say no, will you not watch it?

"If you don't say anything, it means you agree." Bai Chu looked at the strong and vigorous handwriting on the paper and read silently in his mind:

Wang Qi, I, the minister, have been carrying out the king's orders to monitor Qi's words and deeds, working day and night without rest. In the end, I found that Qi's son Ji, who lived in the countryside, seized the children's land and houses, collected taxes for private business, destroyed people's tombs, and repeatedly killed innocent people. There was widespread resentment and the people cursed him.

Yang Qi's son Yang Ji robbed the houses of men and women in his hometown, engaged in business and collected taxes privately (the law of the Daguang Dynasty prohibited officials from being businessmen), and dug up other people's graves. He was responsible for more than a dozen deaths...

Bai Chu's eyebrows stood up and he asked, "Are these true? Do you have any witnesses?"

"Yes, the enemy is somewhere in my house. I personally went to their hometown and brought them here." Xia Chao nodded.

"No wonder Yang Qi wants to kill you. It seems he has heard some rumors." Bai Chu touched his chin. "Let other colleagues in the Censorate handle this matter. Your life is in danger now."

"No, in fact, many people in the Censorate know about these things, especially the Right Censor-in-Chief Wang Wen. As one of the highest-ranking officials in the Censorate, he knows more details, but he has repeatedly warned me not to meddle in other people's affairs."

"That's because Yang Qi took good care of it." Bai Chu said, "Then you didn't listen to your superiors and intervened in this matter privately."

"Because Wang Wen and I have a grudge." Xia Chao said angrily, "He distributed some of the benefits Yang Qi gave him to everyone in the Censorate, except me. He didn't even tell me about it. I still learned the whole story from other people."

Bai Chu looked Xia Chao up and down and thought to himself that he thought you were a man of high character and refused to accept bribes, but it turned out that the disaster was caused by the uneven distribution of the spoils.

"It would be of no benefit to me to know about this matter, and I dare not threaten Yang Qi directly, so I want to report it directly to the king. If you spare my life today, I will keep my mouth shut and never talk about this matter again." Xia Chao thought that Bai Chu was a loyal follower of Yang Qi, so he pleaded.

"Let's not talk about this for now." Bai Chu said, "You said in your memorial that the king specifically entrusted you, the Censor-in-Chief, to investigate Yang Qi's handle. Why did you do that?"

"Because..." Xia Chao organized his words: "Before this, the king wanted to raise an army to conquer the Luchuan Kingdom in the southwest that had repeatedly harassed our southern border. The Junior Master and Minister of War Yang Qi and the Imperial Academy Lecturer Liu Qiu and others strongly opposed it, so the matter was delayed."

"I see." Bai Chu suddenly realized, "Yang Qi mentioned this matter, and I thought he was poking the little king in the back. It turns out that there was a real dispute over this matter. The Minister of War is in charge of the army of the whole country. If the little king wants to send troops without Yang Qi's support, the logistics will not be 100% guaranteed."

"So the follow-up to this incident is that the little king insisted on fighting the Luchuan battle and ignored Yang Qi's opposition. Yang Qi didn't dare to confront him openly, but he was secretly thinking about changing the king." Bai Chu's heart moved slightly.

“The result of the Luchuan Campaign, according to historical records, was that although the southwest achieved a partial victory, it only reached an alliance with the barbarians and did not completely wipe them out. It also caused the national treasury to be empty and the situation to be turbulent.

However, what the history books will not record is that after the Luchuan Campaign, the area south of Tiannan was pacified for more than a hundred years without any unrest. The Luchuan Campaign itself was a defensive war. If this campaign had not been fought, the Daguang Empire would have gradually lost control of the Tiannan region. This was a battle that had to be fought... The history books are crooked. "

Bai Chu asked Xia Chao again: "Why is the Grand Master unwilling to support this battle? Is he a peace lover?"

"This……"

"At this time, you still intend to keep your mouth shut?"

"Yes!" Xia Chao was suddenly startled. He originally thought that Bai Chu was an assassin sent by the Grand Tutor to take his life, but now Bai Chu had dug up some black spots on the Grand Tutor. This made Xia Chao unable to figure out Bai Chu's intentions, and he didn't know what to say and what not to say.

Xia Chao said with a stiff face, "In fact, since Yang Qi became the Minister of War in the Daguang Dynasty, the desertion problem of the subordinate army has become increasingly serious, and the combat capability has been reduced year by year."

"why?"

"In peacetime, the army needs to be self-sufficient, and some soldiers need to work in the fields, just like farmers. Since Yang Qi, the soldiers have been engaged in farming, but they often don't have enough food to eat. After farming, they have to chop firewood for the military officials, and their military pay has been repeatedly deducted.

As a result, the number of deserters in the army increased. Soldiers were unwilling to serve in the army and fled to seek a way out. However, the number of soldiers on paper increased instead of decreased. The civilian officials who followed the army did some work or did nothing, but received multiple salaries from the Great Guang State. "

"I see..." Bai Chu took a deep breath. In this country of Daguang, the civil officials are greedy for pleasure, and the phenomenon of desertion and empty pay is common in the army. It can be said that it is all show and no substance. It is like a piece of beautiful and fragrant green plant, but when you peel it open, you will find that it is full of fat borers.

"In this case, Liu Qi's reason for opposing the war is easy to understand. If the soldiers were to fight with real weapons, he and his minions would not dare to be presumptuous. If they were to covet even a needle or thread of wartime supplies, they would be discovered immediately.

But if we really ignore the border areas, all the food and military pay will go into the pockets of Yang Qi and his followers. This battle did not empty the national treasury, but Yang Qi's hungry stomach. "

Bai Chu sighed, put away Xia Chao's memorial, and said, "I have asked all the questions I needed to ask. I will spare your life for now, but I will give you a piece of advice. You'd better go and arrange your funeral now. From now on, you can be anyone except Xia Chao. Xia Chao is dead tonight. Do you understand what I mean?"

"Yes."

"Who!" Suddenly, Bai Chu's mind moved. He looked up and saw a dark shadow flashing outside the window. "Who is there!?"

……

The man in black was running frantically in the night. When he passed the corner of the street, he quickly turned and hid in the dark alley, trying his best to control his heavy breathing.

"He was almost discovered... What a scary guy."

"Now that you're here, why don't you make friends with me?" The man in black couldn't see the figure chasing him from behind, but suddenly heard Bai Chu's voice coming from the side.

"Click!" Bai Chu turned on the light of the duel disk, exposing the man in black to the strong light. The man in black was temporarily blinded by the sudden strong light and hurriedly covered his face with his hands.

"How long have you been following me? What have you heard?" Bai Chu said murderously.

"Hmph, now that I've been discovered, I've got to say hello to my old friend." The man in black sneered and slowly took off his black mask.

The next second, Bai Chu's expression suddenly changed.