Volume 6 Chapter 18 - As King (1/2)

“What are you thinking?”

In the largest tent of the Wuzhi, the old woman was personally making butter tea again, and asked Ding Ning who was silently looking at the wind and snow. While she was the ruler of a country, and they were like grandmother and grandson in age, this old woman who possessed ultimate power in Wuzhi treated Ding Ning like he was a teacher.

“Thinking how to not hurry for success,” Ding Ning turned his head and said with a faint smile.

The old woman said seriously, “In a hurry?”

Ding Ning looked at her and said, “Back then in Changling, things were too hasty.”

“Changling now is also hasty.” The old woman nodded.

Ding Ning said, “The Qi is weak, and can just send some grandmasters. The Yan just quelled their rebellion. Your Wuzhi has no power to fight. But the Qin is sending large amounts of grain towards the Yin Mountain. So in the next spring, they will definitely attack Chu.”

The old woman changed expression slightly. She grew silent, and her hands could not help but trouble as she poured tea.

She knew this was a conclusion that Ding Ning had made after judging the military news. While she did not believe that Changling would be so aggressive, the more she was in contact with Ding Ning, the more she believed that his conclusions would have a basis.

They would attack Chu in the spring. She thought intently, Yan and Qi were incapable at this time. Even if the Qin Dynasty would be in a more difficult state when they attacked Chu, the Yan and Qi were not much better off.

“Use war to feed war. The Qin military and all of Qin is very good at this.”

Ding Ning was still thinking of a previous military map with the food supply lines, and the movements of the thirteen marquises. He took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. “Unless the Chu Gold Dagger-Axe Army can reach the Wu Mountain in time, the Chu will lose.”

The old woman took a deep breath. She poured a cup of tea in front of Ding Ning and said, “The Gold Dagger-Axe Army is in the northmost part of Chu. They will not be able to reach the Qin-Chu barrier by spring.”

Ding Ning drank tea and was silent.

Now, it was his turn to be silent. The old woman sighed. “Use power and wealth to tempt the court officials. Create chaos in other dynasties to reduce strength…she fought along with the people of the Ba Mountain Sword Field around the world, and learned many moves. If I think about it, everything fits. Li Lingjun returned to the Chu. The death of the old emperor and the ascension of the new is a wave of chaos. Both the new emperor and the rebellion are her left and right hands. She uses her left and right hands to play chess, but on someone else’s board. Consort Zhao Xiang’s means have surpassed my expectations, and the rebellion was put down. But the territory beyond the Chu north has a drought this year. The barbarians have flooded into the Chu in the fall and winter to raid. She must have guessed that the main Chu army would go to defeat the bandits, so she attacked Wuzhi first, and will turn to attack Chu in the spring. The chaos of Yan and Qi was just her gilding the lily. Such moves are really farsighted. Only a person like you can match her.”

Ding Ning finished the butter tea. He was not humble and said, “She really learned a lot.”

“She learned quickly. Even if the Qin suffers great losses in battle, as long as the enemy dies, she will still reach her goals.” The old woman grimaced. “Other than the Gold Dagger-Axe Army returning, are there any other ways?”

Ding Ning shook his head. “I cannot think of one.”

“Then we can only fight for time.” The old woman considered for a moment. “I fear having the Gold Dagger-Axe Army return immediately is not hard. What is hard is how to delay the Qin army.”

“Back then, due to haste, many mistakes were committed. Some of those were created by him and Ba Mountain Sword Field, but some others were blamed on him and the Ba Mountain Sword Field,” Ding Ning looked at the old woman and said, “some of the things of the past have yet to be uncovered.”

The old woman stilled and said, “Then we will uncover these things.”

“This is not what I am worried about.” Ding Ning looked at the wind and snow outside the tent and slowly said, “Right now, Zheng Xiu is not acting like the Zheng Xiu of the past. Her previous brutal means of forcing the Changling cultivators to follow the orders of the court, and attacking the Wuzhi right after looked like madness in most people’s eyes. But now, it appears that every step is going according to her plans.”

“Her response is too calm, it does not seem like the true her. She had not yet started a true counterattack. This means that she is not in a hurry at all. This means that she still has hidden pawns that reassure her, she has trump cards left in her sleeve.”

Ding Ning grew silent.

The wind and snow outside the tent caused him to recall the true coldness of the woman from Jiaodong. What do you have … that even I do not know of? A cold voice echoed in his mind.