517 The Rise of Li Feihong 3 (1/2)
The next day, a meeting was held again. This time, all agenda focused on Ye Commandery security after Ma Chao's prison break incident.
Li Feihong, Zhuge Liang, and Zhou Cang attended the meeting as usual. Today, he had to pick up Zhao Yun, Wei Yan, and Hu Che-er into his dimension as the merge order would be effective as of the end of the day.
The morning meeting was uneventful as everyone cooperated to deal with Ma Chao's issue and the security issues.
100,000 Elites from Tong's Immortal Legion, 50,000 men from Li Feihong's unit, and 50,000 former soldiers of White Horse Legion were dispatched to garrison in Ye Commandery for the time being.
This dispatch order was suggested by Sima Yi, who preferred a calm working environment over equally distributed troops over the country. Li Feihong didn't mind it and approved the advice.
200,000 Soldiers were allocated toward the capital legion. Half of them were already present, but the other half would travel from their perspective cities to Ye later on.
Reinforcement of the three legions calmed the panicking officers and Cao Cao's subordinates. The matter of security was solved, but no outsiders were aware that Ma Chao was under Li Feihong's dimension yet.
”Next agenda, Ma Chao's whereabouts,” Te Langpu moved on to the next issue.
But before they continued, the empress showed up and interfered with the meeting.
”HER MAJESTY DONG HAS ARRIVED! KNEEL AND PRAISE HER MAJESTY!” The guards shouted, warning the court officials in the throne room about Dong Bai's arrival.
Cao Cao, Te Langpu, Sima Yi, Li Feihong and all officers stopped what they were doing and prostrated on the floor.
”Love live your majesty! May you live a long and prosperous life!”
An etiquette greeting was in order. Dong Bai strode into the room while Liu Xie and the other princes stood up, giving up the seat to their mother.
As Dong Bai was walking pass Li Feihong, whose position was on the forefront next to the stairs to the throne, she winked at him as she learned what had happened yesterday from Diaochan.
Excited by development, she stopped cultivating mid-way and appeared in the court to cease all conspiracy.
Since they had one extra move that could checkmate and destroy all schemes behind their back, Dong Bai sacrificed her precious cultivation time to finish the internal fighting business once and for all.
Dong Bai: ”I gotchu, fam! Congrats on the first night, BTW.”
Li Feihong's face twitched when Dong Bai's private message popped up in front of him. He wanted to retort that he hadn't done anything to Zhang Min yet.
However, he couldn't say anything as they did cuddle together last night. Zhang Min seemed to be happy with it since she snored while she snuggled against his chest with a drooling smile.
”You may rise. We have another important announcement to make.”
Everyone looked nervous as they thought that Dong Bai would have been busy cultivating in her room, preparing to fight against Lilim. Having Dong Bai appearing in the meeting today was bad news to every schemer.
”Li Feihong has found a trace of Ma Chao and Liu Bei yesterday. A group of cultists from Jiangdong raided the prison and rescued both of them. Our supreme general managed to kill a few on his pursue, but he ran into Lilim and Sun Ce. They got away afterward.”
Obviously, it was a made-up story to boost Li Feihong's reputation, giving him another reason for Dong Bai to bestow Li Feihong another reward.
Still, the majority of the officials believed in the fabricated story. They looked at Li Feihong in a positive light even though he failed to apprehend Liu Bei and Ma Chao.
A few ministers, including Sima Yi, Cao Cao, and Te Langpu doubted in this information since they had planted spies everywhere in this country. Had such a fight had happened, they would have learned about it yesterday as well.
Zhang Jiao and Lu Zhi, who also had intelligence agencies, also doubted Dong Bai's story. But since she was plotting something to promote their ally, Li Feihong, they kept their mouth shut.
Dong Bai continued, ”It's unfortunate that we can't recapture the runaways, but we know now that Sun Ce and Lilim have recruited Ma Chao and Liu Bei to their side. With this intel, we have to be extra cautious about the southern campaign.”
All civil officers nodded in agreement. In the next fight, they were expecting heavy resistance from multiple immortals and armies of cultivators. It would be the toughest war that they would face.
”Unifying the armies and fight the common enemies is a difficult task. We need a leader with charismatic, talented, smart, and reliable cultivation strength. After all, in all wars, we should not be afraid of invincible enemies, but we should fear our comrades-in-arm with the brain of a pig. A trustworthy and reliable leader is needed!”
Everybody agreed again. Even Cao Cao concurred with the remark [Comrades with a brain of a pig are the worst foes] as he had seen many foolish commanders turning a sure-win battle into a loss.
However, Te Langpu detected a subtle gesture that Dong Bai was giving.
'Not good! She's going to cancel the election and command the troops herself, isn't she?'
Even Sima Yi doubted Dong Bai's motive, 'She is confident enough to stop cultivating. Did they gain another trump card against Lilim? Has someone become another 8-wing immortal? Wait …'
Sima Yi had enlightenment after he connected the prison break incident with the theoretically deduced 8-wing immortal together. Not many 6 or 7-wing immortals had the potential to get to that point, but Sima Yi thought of one of them.
Li Feihong!
'SHIT! She's going to promote Li Feihong again! But his supreme commander position is already the highest he can get. What else can she … NOOOO!! PLEASE DON'T MARRY ZHANG MIN TO THAT GUY!!'
Sima Yi wanted to scream, but he couldn't utter a word. However, the eyes which almost slipped out of the sockets revealed the state of his mind.
Dong Bai laughed as she turned to Li Feihong, ”Fortunately, we have such a charismatic and talented man among us! Not only he squired against the goddess with 10 wings to a standstill, but he has also managed to breakthrough because of the battle experience with the stronger foes!”
At that moment, everyone turned toward Li Feihong in shock. They knew what the presence of an 8-wing cultivator meant to the political war behind the scene.
No scheme could content against absolute power! Li Feihong could destroy everybody here with ease!
The emperor's faction would suppress all opportunist politicians once again!
Lu Zhi revealed a wide smile and heaved a sigh of relief. The election struggle was meaningless now under the presence of the empress and Li Feihong.