Chapter 293: Holding Position
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
The thing that worried Gu Shenwei most when he left the Great Snowmountain camp was Golden Roc Fort army attacking the camp by force.
Dugu Xian had a military background and was more than familiar with battles, whereas the swordsmen from the Great Snowmountain seldom had experience in battles involving more than a thousand of people. They were courageous and full of valor when fighting alone, but were as good as a rabble when put together.
Out of the entire camp, he could only rely on Tuo Nengya, the old macheteman.
Although Tuo Nengya's machete formations could only accommodate up to 200 or 300 people, it was already taking shape of a formidable army worthy to fight against Dugu Xian.
Moreover, Gu Shenwei trusted the old macheteman very much. Even though they had not met for the last three years, his trust in him was greater than that of the swordsmen from the Great Snowmountain who had fought alongside him.
To Gu Shenwei, Tuo Nengya was an odd person. He had pledged allegiance to Young Master Shangguan Chui solely because of a small kindness he had received from him. And he had been adamant on avenging him when the Young Master died. Yet when the opportunity to kill the murderer, Shangguan Fei, had arrived, he then changed his mind because he thought him weak and wanted to seek revenge on someone stronger than Shangguan Fei. Afterward, Tuo Nengya declared that he would travel all over the Western Region to raise money and recruit more machetemen to prepare for a battle with the Supreme King.
It was highly possible that even the Supreme King was not aware of his existence.
Gu Shenwei had scoffed at Tuo Nengya's actions at that time, however, he was also the first person he thought of when he was looking for someone trustworthy.
There was a fine line between holding on to foolishness and perseverance -- after all, they both wore a mask of weakness. But when Tuo Nengya came to pledge his allegiance to Dragon King with over a 1000 machetemen, and openly declared enemies with Golden Roc Fort, Gu Shenwei understood then, that the old macheteman was clinging onto his perseverance.
During a long talk late one night, Gu Shenwei asked, "What should we do if Dugu Xian decides to attack by force?"
Tuo Nengya had already considered about this issue. "There is a certain advantage for the Great Snowmountain to keep on defending instead of attacking. My machete formation that consists of 1500 men is more than enough to handle the skirmish if the enemy dispatched less than 5000 troops. But anything more than that... I'm afraid we are not their match."
There were about 5000 troops in the Golden Roc Fort army and they were adding to their numbers day by day. Gathering 10000 troops would not be a problem for them. Gu Shenwei asked again: "My army still has about 1000 swordsmen, is it possible to use them?"
Tuo Nengya thought for some time before answering, "The vigor that the swordsmen from the Great Snowmountain possessed certainly exceeds that of my men. The only problem is that they are arrogant and unyielding. I am afraid that they would jump into battle rashly, without careful consideration, and compromise my machete formation."
The swordsmen from the Great Snowmountain were exactly like that -- they needed no encouragement for attacking but you would need all sorts of tricks up your sleeve to hold them down to defend.
Gu Shenwei then summoned Long Fanyun, the chief of Canopy Peak. This young man had once served as his Weapon Carrier and was bestowed the long-saber during the battle, taking over as the chief of Canopy Peak when his father died in battle. He served Dragon King with utmost loyalty.
Gu Shenwei had requested that after he was gone, Long Fanyun must support Tuo Nengya at all times and follow the old macheteman's orders, especially when facing an attack from the enemy.
Long Fanyun swore to the Empyrean that he would obey Tuo Nengya like how he obeyed Dragon King. The young chief actually held the old macheteman in high esteem. That was because Tuo Nengya had led his machetemen to arrive in the nick of time, thus preventing the Great Snowmountain from being wiped out.
After more than a month, Golden Roc Fort launched an attack as predicted. The Great Snowmountain had some internal dissension over how they should approach the battle. All the swordsmen were bored from defending and wanted to go out and face the enemy. Only Tuo Nengya maintained his stance of defending.
Long Fanyun did not disappoint Dragon King. He openly showed his support for Tuo Nengya at the chiefs' meeting, and even persuaded Smallsword Peak and Luoshen Peak privately, making it three against two in a decisive moment, thus vetoing the suggestion of going into battle.
The opening of the valley where the camp was located was wide and difficult to defend. Tuo Nengya's plan was to lure the enemy in deep. After the first few days of tentative confrontations, he voluntarily surrendered the outer perimeter of the camp gates and withdrew the troops to a well-fortified narrow valley that was easy to defend.
The Golden Roc Fort Commander Dugu Xian was a cautious general but more than half of his troops consisted of machetemen hired by Golden Roc Fort. These men were eager to claim the heads of their enemies for esteem and reward. Seeing the enemy retreat, they clamored for permission to pursue and attack.
The pursuit attack proved to be disastrous. The main force of Golden Roc Fort ran up against the machete formation consisting of 1500 machetemen. With the narrow terrain and slippery ground from the freezing winter, it was very difficult to maneuver. Troops at the front could not continue further, and the troops at the back could not move forward.
Halfway through the battle, swordsmen from the five peaks of the Great Snowmountain suddenly appeared from both sides of the hillside. Like a tiger charging into a herd of sheep, after days of mindless defending, the swordsmen released their pent-up energy at the trapped Golden Roc Fort army.
Even though Dugu Xian managed to call for a retreat in time, they still suffered about 3000 casualties. Many machetemen fled during the night after noticing that things were not looking good. Overnight, Dugu Xian's army, which originally had enough men to surround the enemy, became one that needed to focus on self-preservation instead.
It was under such a circumstance that Dugu Xian sent out a messenger to Supreme King to ask for immediate peace negotiations so that he could have time to reorganize the army.
Gu Shenwei finally felt relieved. He was sure that even if he had remained at the camp, he could not have done it better than Tuo Nengya.
Fang Wenshi was beyond thrilled. After repeatedly saying, "Wonderful!", he continued, "This victory came too timely, and at such an important time as well. This will surely be the foundation for all of your future accomplishments and ambitions."
No one knew what was the Supreme King really thinking. Governor Mo Chu finally appeared on the third day after Dugu Xian sent out the messenger. He first summoned the Special Emissary from the Central Plains and expressed that he would be willing to work together with the Central Plain as mediators to urge for peace negotiations between Golden Roc Fort and the Great Snowmountain.
Just like that, the peace negotiations that residents of Jade City had been hoping for began.
Peace negotiation was a complicated and delicate matter. Not even the sharpest saber or a highly skilled killer could do much this time. Times like these were opportunities for Fang Wenshi to show his expertise.
The first step of the peace negotiations was to ensure that both sides maintained the status quo. No one was allowed to provoke a conflict. This meant no more battles on the western border for Golden Roc Fort and to the Great Snowmountain, it also meant that Dragon King's safety in Jade City was ensured.
The preliminary agreement was soon reached: a temporary cessation of hostilities for a period of three months. Any party who violated the truce would be punished jointly by Norland and the Central Plain.
The second step was the start of the long process of peace negotiations. Some of the issues were rather perplexing:
Concerning the statuses of the Great Snowmountain and Dragon King, were they simply bandits or a force with rising influence?
What about the land which the Great Snowmountain were staked on, who did it really belong to? What made the situation even more complicated was that Shu-lik had claimed ownership as well.
Lastly, should Dragon King, along with his swordmen and machetemen, return to the Great Snowmountain?
Fang Wenshi argued and debated with all sides, talking more in those days than Chu Nanping had had for an entire year. That was how his reputation came about, other than "Head-shaking Military Counselor", another nickname for him was "the quick-tongued Fang who talked like a continuous volley of arrows".
Gu Shenwei let the military counselor handle the peace negotiations as he busied himself trying to establish a foothold in Jade City.
Although North City was safe, it was impossible for him to live there as no weapons were allowed in the city. It was very inconvenient for him to constantly hide his weapons everytime he entered. Moreover, he had also killed several assassins in the residence of the Special Emissary from the Central Plains the night Joy Pavilion caught fire. This had caused the wealthy merchants and nobles to be fearful and they did not want Dragon King as a neighbor.
Therefore, he bought a large mansion on the westernmost side of South City to establish himself. Soon, the residents of Jade City would refer to the mansion as the "Residence of Dragon King".
It was similar to the time when he set up Kun Society, just that everything now was done on a larger scale. The Great Snowmountain, however, had to minimize on recruiting machetemen as they still needed to provide for a troop of over 3000 men in the western border of Jade City and therefore did not have extra resources to spare.
Tianshan Sect had helped a lot during this period. This secret organization among the machetemen of South City were now somewhat public. Only Mr. Hong the blacksmith knew their leader. He lent several machetemen to Dragon King and said that remuneration could be worked out at a later time.
Along with that, a total of 20 young swordsmen and 10 young girls traveled all the way from the Great Snowmountain and arrive safely at Jade City just in time for the armistice truce to come into play. They were sent by Long Qinying, chief of Luoshen Peak to Gu Shenwei. The swordsmen would serve as guards and the young girls would wait on Dragon King.
Gu Shen Wei was held up by these trivial matters until Xu Xiaoyi came to rescue him.
Xu Xiaoyi had a prior agreement with Dragon King. He had immediately headed to Jade City to help Gu Shenwei out once he caught wind about the peace negotiations in Shu-lik City. Xu Xiaoyi managed to run the Residence of Dragon King smoothly and orderly thus freeing Gu Shenwei up to handle more pressing matters.
He was waiting for the Master of Xiaoyue Hall.
Among the various influences in Jade City, Gu Shenwei believed that New Moon Hall was the only ally that could fight against Golden Roc Fort. Their long-standing deep hatred, ruthless methods as well as their well-concealed identities would assist the Great Snowmountain as a reinforcement.
Gu Shenwei had struggled with accepting New Moon Hall as an ally because Maid Lotus was a disciple of New Moon Hall, and might be hiding somewhere in Jade City right now.
Gu Shenwei always felt conflicted when thinking about Maid Lotus. She was the one who had modified the seventh chapter of Wayless Book and caused him to suffer for more than half a year of qigong deviation. It was impossible to remove it entirely, not to mention that the condition continued to occur every one to three months.
A strong desire to kill would surface in his heart ever since he had endured the freezing pain that penetrated into his bones. At this time, he would be stroking the Dragon Head Sword instead of the Five Peaks Saber with his right hand.
But she was also the partner who he coordinated with the best.
Both Chu Nanping and Tie Linglong could fight alongside him, but neither of them was killers to begin with, and would never be in the future as well. There was no one to rely on but himself during crucial moments.
During times like these, he would miss that cold and indifferent girl.
Guan Shang, the female black-masked assassin had mentioned that she would convey Dragon King's wish to meet the Master of Xiaoyue Hall after seven days. But two weeks had passed since then, and there was still no sign of the Master and Guan Shang.
New Moon Hall truly seemed to prefer hiding behind the scenes.
Gu Shenwei could not just keep on waiting. He had already spent too much time meeting the main influences of Jade City while helping to expand Xu Xiaoyi's businesses. If not for the supplies that Golden Roc Fort had left behind at the Great Snowmountain camp, his money alone could not have even lasted a month.
No one was willing to openly support Dragon King since the situation was still hazy as the peace negotiations were still in process. Even Lyu Qiying, the manager of Southwall Tavern, would only agree to meet Gu Shenwei in utmost secrecy.
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However, no matter what, the Great Snowmountain would still survive this winter. Gu Shenwei believed that the following months would only consist of influences secretly pitting against each other, and there would be little opportunity to involve sabers. He would be able to come up with a solution to settle all the problems come next spring.
The residents of Jade City shared the same sentiments as well, and their topic for conversations quickly went back to fine wine and women. Therefore, when the news of Miss Ru from the Stone Castle was about to get married arrived, it immediately overtook the peace negotiations and became the hot topic.
Fang Wenshi came back with this piece of news and told Dragon King about it as a trivial matter.
"Miss Ru?" Initially, Gu Shenwei had no idea who she was.
"Shangguan Ru, she used to be known as the Tenth Young Master. If I recall, you used to be her killer in the past."
"Yeah." Gu Shenwei replied coldly, wishing to end this topic at once.
Fang Wenshi, however, clicked his tongue in amazement and continued, "This is so unexpected. Really unexpected indeed. I would never have imagined that Supreme King would give Miss Ru's hand in marriage to Fifth Young Master Meng! They were like sworn enemies in the past! To think, sworn enemies will be married as husband and wife, haha, just the thought of it spells trouble!"