The next morning, the surplus generals and commanders who had been preparing for the whole night did not feel tired at all. Their nerves and faces were all red because of their excitement, as if they had returned to the dominating days in the past.
They set off from their temporary residences or the dormitories of the Royal Academy for Advanced Officers and marched to the Emperor's Mausoleum in twos and threes on civil vehicles.
The four Kurfürst families had been troubled by the problems with Li Linghai, the reformists, and Lei Chenghu's rebels. They were almost like birds that were alarmed.
They had deployed heavy guards in the "central administrative area" where the royal palace, the Council of Elders, and the major government departments were located. Most of the Crystal Suit Legions and the low-altitude assault fleets were deployed there, too. It was so heavily guarded that even a fly could not fly in.
However, the soldiers and the resources were limited after all. The "members of the Blood Oath Alliance" alone were more than enough to be captured. Who could've thought that the impoverished, down-and-out commanders would stir trouble in the Emperor's Mausoleum?
Besides, Chu Tianhe, Zhao Zhenwu, and the rest of them were all legitimate generals of the Imperium after all. It was one thing to rob them in the dark underground, but when it came to the daylight, few people dared to do anything to them.
Most importantly of all, it was perfectly legal and even encouraged to visit the Emperor's Mausoleum. They were now the reserves of the Imperial Guards, and they had to go to the Emperor's Mausoleum for drills every other day. Even if they were stopped by checkpoints on their way, who would stop them after they revealed their identity?
The surplus generals who were divided into ten groups indeed reached the Emperor's Mausoleum without any hindrance.
In order to cover their tracks, they did not put on the uniforms of the generals at first but dressed in casual clothes to keep a low profile.
It was not until the Emperor's Mausoleum was right in front of them that they changed into clean uniforms in the public vehicles and the toilets nearby under the command of Chu Tianhe, Zhao Zhenwu, and the other captains. Then, they pinned the medals and medals on their chests and gathered from all directions and marched toward the gate of the Emperor's Mausoleum side by side.
It was a sunny day with no clouds in the sky. Inside and outside the Imperial Mausoleum, there was an endless stream of visitors from all over the world outside the Empire, surging like a tide.
In the more than ten years since the Imperium's counterattack, in order to encourage the people to sacrifice themselves for the country and to pay respects to the Emperor's Mausoleum, many schools, sects, and enterprises at the edge of the Imperium would organize their employees to visit the Emperor's Mausoleum and the national museum.
On the west side of the Imperial Mausoleum, there was a large national cemetery, where the victims of the wars of conquest over the past thousand years were buried. It was also the highest-level cemetery for martyrs in the empire.
According to Blackstar the Great's design, those victims would be loyal to the Imperium when they were alive and would naturally turn into heroic spirits after they died. They could continue to protect the souls of the Wuying lineage and the Imperium of True Human Beings.
The scale of the Cemetery of Martyrs was huge, and there were also many family members and students from various academies who came to pay their respects.
Also, the national museum and the Cemetery of Martyrs seemed to be having some sort of major event today. A lot of influential official media were gathered here.
The sudden arrival of thousands of generals whose shoulders and chests were glittering in gold naturally gave the guardians a shock. They checked the list of the groups who were going to visit the Emperor's Mausoleum, only to discover that the names of those generals were not on it.
Taking a closer look at these generals, he saw that each of them had a sorrowful look on their faces. Their eyes were filled with bitterness and anger, and each of them had a piece of white cloth tied around their arms. That was a sign that a loved one had just passed away.
The guardians realized that things were not good, but they did not dare stop so many generals from breaking in. They hurried to report the situation to their superiors, but their superiors were all hesitant and ambiguous. They could not even find the highest commander of the guardians!
A few experienced, well-informed veterans immediately realized that there was more to it than meets the eye. They had already recognized the generals and knew that they were all from the "Seminar for Generals", or the reserve officers of the Imperial Guards.
They were in the Seminar for Generals today, and chances were that they would be assigned to the Imperial Guards tomorrow as their immediate superiors. Did they have nothing better to do than to compete with their future superiors?
Immediately, they all winked at each other. Knowing that there was no bottom to the problem, they did not really try their best to stop it. They were merely doing what they were asked to do.
Zhao Zhenwu was the first to hold his head high and crash into the guards of the mausoleum. The guards of the mausoleum were immediately dispersed by the furious generals like a bamboo fence. Thousands of surplus generals broke into the Emperor's Mausoleum majestically.
The slightly weird team immediately attracted the attention of the tourists nearby. Thousands of tourists gathered around them.
It was needless to mention the style of the surplus generals such as Zhao Zhenwu. What was most unusual was that at the front of the crowd, a woman and five children were surrounded by the generals like stars around the moon. They were the widow and children of "Zhou Lifu", a lieutenant general of the Imperium who was beaten to death in the arena the day before. The eldest son was even holding Zhou Lifu's portrait in his hands. The 3D light beam had been set to black and white.
Such a configuration naturally raised the curiosity of the crowd.
The surplus generals wasted no time in throwing out leaflets to the crowd, narrating their experiences vividly.
How they fought bravely on the battlefield, how they made contributions time and time again, and how they were in dire straits after they defeated all their troops and returned to the rear. In order to survive, they even had to drag their broken bodies to sell their strength, and in the end, they were unfortunately beaten to death in the arena, and so on.
Those leaflets had been printed last night and were still steaming at this moment, stained with their fury and regret.
Naturally, they had learned the tactic of throwing leaflets from the "Blood Oath Alliance".
After the assassination of the Blood Oath Alliance, many oppositions and reformists in the Imperium discovered the beauty of the ancient propaganda method of "leaflets".
The dissemination through the Spiritual Nexus seemed to be fast and advanced, but it was very easy to be blocked and traced back to the source. However, when the leaflets were thrown out, it was barely possible to find them as long as they were picked up and hidden.
On the other hand, the tools for printing leaflets were very easy to make, too. They were nothing more than cylinders, metal plates, and special ink.
Even if they were not refiners, the regular Immortal Cultivators could still carve tiny words on the metal plates with their spiritual energy. As long as they practiced how to write in reverse, a couple of dedicated people could print thousands of leaflets in a day.
The content on the leaflets greatly astounded the people of the Imperium who had come to visit the mausoleum.
According to the official propaganda of the Imperium, the counterattack of the Imperium in the past ten years had been an unprecedented triumph. Even though a lot of soldiers had been sacrificed, they had died a worthy death because of their valiance.
It never occurred to them that such filthy and dark scandals were hidden behind the glorious victories. The soldiers of the Imperium and the noble Immortal Cultivators had fallen to such a low level.
Immediately, all the leaflets were thrown out. More and more tourists and visitors gathered around the generals from various directions in the Emperor's Mausoleum. Even the reporters of the major media had come to investigate after hearing the news.
Surrounded by the overwhelming crowd, the surplus generals moved toward Blackstar the Great's mausoleum along the central axis of the Emperor's Mausoleum.
The real mausoleum was buried deep below the ground and must not be disturbed. However, on the top of the mausoleum was a statue that was 725 meters tall and carved out of an entire mountain. It was Wuying Qi who was wearing a battle robe and pointing at the sea of stars with one hand on his waist and the other hand at the sea of stars. It was regarded as a symbol of Blackstar the Great. All the mausoleum ceremonies would be held below the super enormous statue.
The purpose of the surplus generals' visit had been spread out in the Emperor's Mausoleum immediately. Even the groups that were preparing to visit the mausoleum made way for them.
When they reached the super enormous statue of Blackstar the Great, the surplus generals were already followed by hundreds of thousands of people. The crowd was surging like tides, but they were all standing solemnly in silence.
The weeping ceremony had officially begun.
Chu Tianhe, the "commander of the weeping ceremony", invited Zhou Lifu's widow and five children to his side. Straightening his clothes, he said aloud with the last bit of his spiritual energy, "My compatriots, you must know why we are here, right? We are not here to visit the mausoleum but to 'weep'!
"We are the firmest believers of the true path of immortality and the most loyal defenders of the Imperium, His Majesty, and the Council of Elders. We fought the people of the Holy League with the idea of dying together with them in the frontline. Although we did not make many contributions, we did some of the hard work. We even beat ourselves into the most miserable state.
"We did not dare to expect that our hard work could be exchanged for much, but right now, the fire of war in the frontline has not died out yet, and some people can't wait to kick us away and cut off all our paths of survival.
"This is the widow of Lieutenant General Zhou Lifu. Lieutenant General Zhou was known as' Ghost Butcher 'in the frontline. He was a tough general that scared the people of the Holy League. But after he returned to the rear, he was driven to death without any livelihood. His widow and five children were left behind, and they did not know what to do.
"What happened to General Zhou today is what will happen to all of us tomorrow. When cows and sheep are brought to the slaughterhouse to be butchered, they will bleat and cry. We are all living people and soldiers who have bled and sacrificed for our country. We can't even have a mouthful of food if we want. How can we not cry?
"However, we are not just crying for ourselves but for all the soldiers who have bled and sacrificed, for all the emperors, for the true path of immortality and its creator, Blackstar the Great, for the Imperium of True Human Beings, and for the civilization of mankind as a whole!
"The Imperium today is dominated by wolves and tigers. It is no longer the Imperium that Blackstar the Great created!
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