Volume 5, Chapter 14: Joy at Decisive Victory (1/2)

Volume 5, Chapter 14: Joy at Decisive Victory¹

<blockquote class="Quote">Zizhi Tongjian</e Records Volu walls of Anze and looking down indifferently at the pools and streafei did not feel a shred of happiness Although this flood had drowned countless Yong soldiers, Anze was on the verge of collapse When killing ten thousand enerievously If this had not been the last resort, he would not have e countless acres of fertile land, leaving soTingfei ached dully within

At thistheir respects ca to allow his worries to infect the reatly to the extent that he forced himself to reveal a smile In a clear voice, he said, “This ti the ene arht arduously in the days to coilance!”

Presently, Duan Wudi was Long Tingfei’s highest ranking subordinate As such, he responded first, “General, there is no need to worry Although the Yong arth, their fleet was practically annihilated The roads between Anze and Jishi+ have beco it difficult for carts and horses to pass Henceforth, the Yong supply lines will be on the verge of being severed If the Yong commander-in-chief is self-aware, he may even retreat General’s scheme were able to defeat the enemy in an instant All of us bow in respect without exception”

All of the generals repeatedly voiced their acclaifei’s art of as like that of a deity’s The brilliance of its radiance or, co the pressure and torfei lamented a bit internally The majority of the officers present were braver than they ise,it difficult for them to assume responsibility by the everyone’s congratulations After all, he could not de battled continuously for soWith the oes and gets rest Tonight, this general will hold a celebratory banquet for everyone”

The gathered generals continuously voiced their affir only Long Tingfei and Duan Wudi behind to have a private discussion on the battleood distance As the biting spring breeze blew by, bits and pieces of their conversation drifted with the wind, but they quickly passed

Although sohted at having attained such a victory He regretfully said, “I have been engineering this stratage’s affair, I had Xiao Tong hunt down and htly controlling the region north of Anze The Yong are because of shi+ Ying, totally oblivious to the fact that I a the opportunity to act In addition, when fourth youngDai for over a hundred ed to kill the ence network These several ence network had ever been As such, I took advantage of the freezing weather to build a da was prepared to finally drown the Yong arht was that the navy His Royal Majesty secretly trained was dispatched to helpbitterly at Anze for five days, ere able to lure the core of the Yong invasion below the walls of Anze, allowing us to attain this success It is only a pity that the Yong navy is quite large, while it will still take a long time before our navy becomes even remotely powerful In addition, because of the terrain separating the da I had originally intended to release the flood when the Yong army was most exhausted in the early afternoon Unfortunately, I do not kno the Yong army was able to discover so beacon in a timely fashi+on, otherwise all these preparations would likely have been for naught”

Hearing these words, the expression on Duan Wudi’s face became somewhat restless Atop the walls of Anze, he had been able to overlook the Yong ar arnificant distance separating the two, Duan Wudi had exceptional eyesight Feeling both ad, he clearly reh the distance between thenize her However, it was inconvenient for hi were old fla contributed to Great Yong, the h Duan Wudi did not want to blab, Long Tingfei suddenly thought of Su Qing Turning around, Long Tingfei cocked his head With a s Dai is truly a heroine a the Yong intelligence network, it would not have been so easy for us to hide our intentions However, it is unlikely that she will be able to continue to serve in Great Yong”

Greatly startled, Duan Wudi replied, “Why has General said such a thing? This general no longer has any ties to Su Qing In addition, Su Qing is in quite an i Why has General said that she will be unable to find a hofei snickered behind his sleeve, thinking that Duan Wudi was unable to forget Qing Dai However, he did not becoed as a result He ell aware of Duan Wudi’s loyalty to Northern Han What was there to suspect about soarded their own reputation and abandoned personal considerations? Long Tingfei sar, he was south of Jishi+ and witnessed our navy intercept the Yong fleet Coincidentally, the Marquis of Chu, Jiang Zhe, was present within the fleet If our navy had launched an all-out attack, it would have been possible for us to capture Jiang Zhe, causing ourmaster Duan witnessed the situation, he intercepted and killed officers of the reinforcing cavalry units to throw the Yong army into confusion and allow our navy more time to act Unfortunately, defeat was snatched from the jaws of victory and the navy lost a vice co this point, Long Tingfei became so his whereabouts detected, elder young ht as well seek to assassinate an ier Guard protecting Jiang Zhe are as many as the clouds He further has an expert at the level of De et At the ti Zhe After our navy retreated, Jiang Zhe should have learned that the Yong officers had been assassinated and specially dispatched Su Qing to notify the Prince of Qi These were the deter’s et of assassination Having spent years in Northern Han, Su Qing ell acquainted with theher killed would return the greatest reward Unfortunately, Jiang Zhe truly has incredible foresight and set a trap Pursuing Su Qing, elder youngmaster’s martial arts skills are tremendous and he was able to escape This could be considered to have tarnished Jiang Zhe’s reputation

“Moreover, elder young ’s martial arts and swordsyi Sect Fourth young master Qiu should not be so fayi Sect As a result, he did not discover this fact If I had known of this long ago, I probably could have used this to incite Su Qing’s defection At the ti master exposed this fact Ha! The results were definitely lively! Although elder young master did not stay behind to watch the scene unfold, there are a few of our scouts aees ere able to escape They personally witnessed Su Qing being delivered unconscious to Jiang Zhe’s shi+p

“ Zhe is a trusted subordinate of the Yong Eyi Sect After the Fengyi Sect was destroyed, all those related to the Fengyi Sect were exter ar’s behavior, appearance, and talents, she is undoubtedly a key gest taboo of Great Yong, Su Qing’s future is assuredly destroyed Even if people remember her past contributions, she likely will still lose her military position

“In reality, I arievances, she was disloyal to Northern Han Now that her identity has been exposed, thatTrapped in such a dilemma, it is possible that she ain, there is no har to recruit her If it is possible for her to return to Northern Han, I can pardon her of her previous cri’s intelligence network in Northern Han”

Duan Wudi hesitated for some time before he replied, “Miss Su’s will and detere her eneral feels that it is unlikely for her to return to Northern Han However, if this general did not seearmy It seems that she has not been dis for some ti infor Tingfei’s brows furrowed slightly After only aZhe won’t pursue and investigate this h that man seereater than an ordinary individual’s I have heard Ling Duan speak of the man’s viciousness and mercilessness Even that De Zhe turns stern He will definitely not let Su Qing off lightly Could it be the Prince of Qi’s intentions? Li Xian, the Prince of Qi, once took a disciple of the Fengyi Sect as his wife It is possible that his former sentiments have not be ter is his direct subordinate Li Xian’s character has always been arrogant and despotic, declining to bother with trifling matters Even if he has suffered repeated setbacks, his temperament stays the sa Zhe to stop it However, I do not believe that Yong Eyi Sect alnanimity is as deep as the ocean, it is unlikely that he will per’s continued existence This matter will definitely have further consequences

“I will first dispatch people to investigate If Jiang Zhe has become hostile with the Prince of Qi because of this matter, then ill add fuel to the fire and pass this infor court This is the best pretext for denunciation There are those ill definitely not let this opportunity slip by When the time coht now, thethe enemy If we can trap Li Xian at Qinzhou, there is no need for these plots After all, the Prince of Qi is a hard-to-co on the battlefield can he live up to his illustrious nah Duan Wudi had listened earnestly, he did not fei’s words He was not skilled at this kind ofmilitary officer and not a sche, he likely would have been co Duan Wudi’s intentions, Long Tingfei could not help saze swept across behind hi caused his” had fallen with each passing day Thinking back to when Tan Ji, Su Dingluan, and shi+ Ying were still alive, he would feel relaxed wherever he went Although Tan Ji was not fond of speaking, ems had been brainstorh he was fei felt extreluan’s death hadhis hands the most The life of this kind of sharp blade capable of overco’an because he had participated in an assassination atte’s life on his own initiative Although the three Lu brothers could replace Su Dingluan, Long Tingfei still felt soh the three Lu brothers’ valiance and ferocity were not inferior to Su Dingluan’s, they lacked Su Dingluan’s ih to rally the entire ar undaunted in the face of all perils His for every obstacle As for the three Lu brothers, they did not have such an effect

Finally, there was shi+ Ying This was the sharpest ache in Long Tingfei’s heart shi+ Ying was the general he had profei had placed in shi+ Ying was greater than the other three However, in one night, shi+ Ying had become a traitor who had cofei still had a feeling that the reason he had issued orders to only i and not summarily execute hi the situation However, contrary to Long Tingfei’s expectations, shi+ Ying actually went so far as to cofei had breathed a sigh of relief After all, he was reluctant to point his sword at this trusted subordinate of his However, when Su Qing’s identity was divulged, Long Tingfei did not knohy but began to wonder if he had beenHowever, the evidence available was undeniable and shi+ Ying’s actions caused hihts deep in hisof the successive deaths of the ranking generals by his side, Long Tingfei found it difficult to endure the rage roiling in histhe broken scene before hi the resent army does not have any place to take shelter and will definitely scatter in all directions Since Wudi has said that Jiang Zhe was the first to leave, he will likely be briefly separated fro, dispatching our arion Once they have discovered Jiang Zhe’s whereabouts, wein our power to ensure that he is killed Elder young o personally If we can kill Jiang Zhe, thearmy will definitely plummet In addition, the Prince of Qi will have no way to explain this ’s affair, it is si Zhe is able to luckily escape The best outco intercepted and killed”

Duan Wudi did not attach h assassinating an eneh to cause enemy morale to waver, if they could not deal the enee, it would not be considered as a victory Moreover, Jiang Zhe was heavily protected A successful assassination attempt was not necessary However, Duan Wudi would not daed the subject and said, “General, although the Yong army has been defeated, its main cavalry force remains Once the floodwaters recede, they will definitely return Li Xian, the Prince of Qi, has a savage nature He likely won’t retreat I wonder what the General has planned in the future?”

Long Tingfei’s mind focused and he replied, “I was just about to discuss thisarrievous losses If we laid out lines of defenses before Anze and Qinyuan, although the Yong arh the defensive lines, Great Yong could send another eighty to a hundred thousand men with its massive territory and army In comparison, our army will find it difficult to continue In addition, if both of our two countries suffer disastrous losses, outsiders would likely obtain the advantage Although both of us hope that Great Yong is besieged on all sides, ti is also of the utmost importance Further, Anze is already broken It will be quite difficult to defend Anze

“In my opinion, it is best to provoke the Prince of Qi and o on an anxious offensive while ithdraw to Qinyuan When the ti army wishes to attack, they will have to traverse these swamplands and nearly forty li³ of hilly terrain Now that their fleet has suffered heavy losses, their supply train will be in dire straits As we remain entrenched at Qinyuan, not only can we rely upon its stout walls, our supply line will be secured If this drags out, our arraphic and social conditions, allowing us to wait at ease for an exhausted eneht at our own pace Even if we cannot ill be able to hold up the Yong ar still has internal troubles and other external ene ar able to underth, what’s not to like about it?”