Chapter 1097: The Li Clan appears, chaos spreads (2/2)
Faced with these circumstances, it was impossible to guard against dangers even if they wanted to!
While everyone was still reeling from the news, the shadow guard in charge of reports from Tianan arrived. “Your Highness, princess, Tianan Country’s sent a secret missive. Long Tianmo has been put under house arrest and Great General Mu has taken control of all military power in the country. He is preparing to give orders for a punitive expedition to the three prefectures in the west.”
Now Long Feiye’s suspicions were confirmed. Great General Mu was none other than the direct bloodline descendant of the Li Clan!
“Looks like the Li Clan has long colluded with the Bai Clan,”[3] Long Feiye said coldly. He never understood why Chu Tianyin couldn’t find the reasons for the Western Zhou emperor’s interference at the Hundred Poisons Sect affair. Now it was clear that this wasn’t the emperor’s intentions at all, but Great General Mu’s own plan.
A complicated look flickered past Han Yunxi’s eyes before she asked anxiously, “Could Mu Qingwu have fallen into Bai Yanqing’s hands?”
If the Li Clan wanted to disrupt the order of the Cloud Realm Continent chessboard and win a piece of the kingdom for themselves, why wait until now to act? With their current strength in the armies, they could raise chaos across the lands at any time! Even if Great General Mu had changed his mind and suddenly wanted to be a ruler, he wouldn’t need to wait for so long. The best time for the Li Clan to raise their troops would be while Jun Yixie was still alive. That would leave the East and West Qin factions contending with the threat of Northern Li and internal turncoats, guaranteeing pure chaos.
Han Yunxi recalled back to the news of Mu Qingwu’s disappearance and began to wonder whether the Bai Clan was threatening the Li Clan.
“Princess, the young general wasn’t kidnapped back during the incident at Hundred Poisons Sect,” Gu Beiyue reminded her.
No matter what deals the Mu Clan and Bai Yanqing were doing, Long Feiye’s group had to act fast to deal with the traitors on all sides! He looked at Han Yunxi and said, “We must lead the expedition personally. We can’t sew someone else’s wedding robes!”[4]
If they headed for Poison Sect’s forbidden grounds instead and left the fighting to their subordinates, even the central regions would be in peril, to say nothing of the southlands. Ning Cheng wouldn’t be able to fight without worry from backstabbing in the rear factions, either. After all, if Great General Mu had the motive to raise troops, then he must have far more chips in his hand than they could see. Right now, Long Feiye’s most pressing matter was to personally lead Baili Yuanlong’s 100,000 soldiers and have the deputy generals and high ranking officials within the military reaffirm their vows. Only then could he insure no more traitors left the ranks. If anything happened to these 100,000 men, they would be in no end of trouble.
Han Yunxi had similar concerns. Although she was unwilling, she nodded and said, “Fine, send someone to tell Tang Li.”
Very soon, news reached the Tang Clan and Skyriver City. Long Feiye, Han Yunxi, Gu Beiyue, and Gu Qishao didn’t waste a minute as they set back for Three-Way Pass. Mu Linger personally submitted a request for a military assignment to become an army doctor, which Han Yunxi approved. However, they’d hardly reached the barracks that night when the 100,000 soldiers turned traitor too!
Two factions turned against them. One of them had already been deployed: the 5,000 crack troops who were supposed to act as Ning Cheng’s reinforcements. The other was the faction preparing to head north to deal with the Northern Li emperor’s 20,000 men. At the same time, the garrison troops in charge of guarding the border between Tianning and Tianan went missing, allowing Great General Mu to break through Tianning’s borders overnight. Meanwhile, troops stationed in the central regions and southern Jiangnan also broke into chaos, raising rumors that the south central regions wanted to break free from East and West Qin rule to stand as an independent country!
Throughout this night, Cloud Realm Continent was filled with the sound of battle and unrest from all fronts!
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Long Feiye’s teacup shattered on the ground as silence spread throughout his tent.
“The Li Clan wants to wreck chaos upon the entire world!” he said coldly.
He finally saw clearly. The Li Clan had no aspirations of bringing East or West Qin down, much less fight them for a piece of the continent. They only wanted to stop them from uniting the lands by causing unrest everywhere. Otherwise, why else would the south central regions be clamoring for independence? Why else would Ning Cheng and Baili Yuanlong’s traitorous forces surrender to Northern Li instead of attacking them back?
Gu Beiyue was currently staring at the map on the wall. He half turned while pointing at a location to state, “Great General Mu has played a fine piece! With the south central regions in chaos, half of Cloud Realm Continent will be in an uproar. It will be impossible to hand over the autumn harvests and its grain this year, thus limiting our reserves! Meanwhile, the attacks on the east and west borders of Tianning might have been broken through, but Western Zhou and Tianan’s troops are too weak to overtake Tianning in a short time just yet.”
Long Feiye could also see the clues. There were only traitorous factions within the 100,000 troops to damage their fighting power. If they deployed too many troops south, it’d be impossible to finish up Northern Li quickly; if they deployed too little, then Tianning’s internal unrest would deteriorate all the faster. As things stood, all of Cloud Realm Continent was embroiled in battles from the east, west, south, and north, each of them checking and containing their enemies. Who knew how long this stalemate would last?
“These aren’t the Li Clan’s intentions, but Bai Yanqing’s I bet!” Han Yunxi declared.
Gu Beiyue turned serious. “Princess, Your Highness, we have no other choice but to…”
1. Reminder that this is the Mu for Mu (穆) Qingwu, not Mu (沐) Linger! They look the same in English but are completely different characters in Chinese.
2. For a memory boost, check out that whole maze labyrinth affair and the kidnapping of Grand Concubine Yi around chapter 693.
3. Also known as Bai Yanqing and the Wind Clan.
4. Awkward phrasing, but the idiom basically means “we can’t end up having someone else take the credit/rewards for all our hard work!”