Gu Shenwei believed that sometimes speed was more important than strength. Like now, although the main force was still stationed at the southern bank of Xiaoyao Lake, he still wanted to attack the coalition forces immediately.
Naturally, Dugu Xian didn’t agree with him.
Therefore, after a short conversation, he had fallen into disfavor before he could find favor with Gu Shenwei. At least, he thought so.
Dugu Xian lived in a house near the royal palace. Although there was no clear order to restrain his freedom, he dared not walk out of the house: all soldiers and civilians in the capital hated him so much that they wanted to tear him apart.
Gu Shenwei needed a professional general, but it was not a good time to put Dugu Xian in an important position: there were too many dissenting opinions, and rebuilding the army was not the most pressing issue.
Dragon King’s return to Stone Kingdom’s capital triggered a series of reactions. Therefore, he had to reorder things the confusion as soon as possible.
Fang Wenshi and Xu’s sister and brother’s small plot could not be hidden from him. Lin Xiaoshan had stuck to his principles and never reveal a word to Dragon King and the Prime Minister. It was Xu Yanwei who had taken the initiative to confess, because she still did not believe Zhong Heng, and tried to prove that he had the intention to betray him. But her confession involved the military counselor and her own younger brother.
Gu Shenwei rebuked these three people in a very harsh tone even though they were all his own people, especially Xu Yanwei and Xu Xiaoyi. After that, he had issued a clear order: Xu Yanwei was not allowed to leave the royal palace in the future, and Xu Xiaoyi could only take charge of money. If they dared to poke their noses into other’s business, they would be expelled from the Stone Kingdom.
Xu Yanwei was used to Dragon King’s threats, so she didn’t take it seriously. She asked before leaving,”Where is Miss Ru? Why didn’t you bring her back? Well, it’s none of my business. You should go to visit the Princess, because she misses you very much. It is all because of me. I have put in a good word to her for you.
Xu Yanwei was sent away. Xu Xiaoyi said embarrassedly, “It’s all my sister’s fault, and actually I didn’t believe…” He glanced at Fang Wenshi, indicating that he had been deceived.
Xu Xiaoyi was still happy even though he was reprimanded. He couldn’t help boasting about his contribution, “Dragon King, your money is untouched. I hid it in a secure place.” After that, he left.
Now Fang Wenshi was left alone. He was the initiator of the conspiracy, so he was anxious, but felt somehow insulted.
A scholar could be killed, bribed, or abandoned, but he could never be humiliated.
Fang Wenshi’s expression was serious, but he nervously stood by his principles.
“You have suffered a lot recently.” Gu Shenwei softened his tone because he was an adult over thirty years old while Fang Wenshi was still an immature youth.
“Not much.” Fang Wenshi said stiffly. After a pause, he began to complain,” I was held by Supreme King for a while, cruelly tortured and bribed. But I still had faith. I escaped from Jade City and traveled a long way to your only stronghold in Western Region. Even though I have been underappreciated here, I am always loyal to you and I never dare to give myself up. I hoped to preserve strength for Dragon King but no one appreciated it. So, I didn’t suffer, not at all.”
It was the first time in years that Gu Shenwei had felt a smile try to break free on his face. He could never beat Fang Wenshi in a rhetorical fight, so he pretended not to hear the irony in his remarks and changed the topic, “Well, that’s good for you. Now that Golden Roc Fort has occupied a large territory, and the situation of the Western Region will change dramatically. It’s a turbulent time. My military counselor, do you have any brilliant insight?”
Fang Wenshi had many “brilliant insights”. But he was reluctant to put forward them quickly since he had just been reprimanded, so he raised his head and kept silent, counting from one to ten in his heart. When he felt it was the right time, he began commenting on the overall situation. Soon he forgot about Dragon King’s rudeness as he became more excited.
“First, turbulence is good, great in fact. Powerful heroes come forth in turbulent times. Without turbulence, how could you have the chance to compete for hegemony in the Western Region? I said that you had to wait for ten years. Now, this decade can be saved.”
“Secondly, it is not Golden Roc Fort but the Norland that have occupied the territory. Don’t be fooled by the Golden Roc Flag. It depends on who is holding the flag. At this time, it’s not smart to fight against Supreme King. Even if we win, it’s still meaningless.”
“Third, why does the Central Plain seem to be weak? Because its opponent is not Golden Roc Fort, but the entire Norland. Look at the map, you will understand the truth. The Western Region and the Central Plain are separated by thousands of miles of desert. It’s good to win the Western Region. Will the loss of Western Region have any influence on the Central Plain? No. Look at Norland. Its border next to the Central Plain is no less than 10,000 miles, but the Western Region is just a small part of it. From the perspective of the Central Plain, starting a full-scale war rashly in the Western Regions is not worth the loss. Instead, it may be a diversion.”
“I think that the Central Plain will start the war sooner or later, but its goal will not be the small Golden Roc Fort. If the Central Plain can defeat Norland at one stroke, the Supreme King will surrender for sure.”
Fang Wenshi talked about his analysis of the situation in the Western Region the entire afternoon, so Gu Shenwei had to interrupt him. Those things were too far away, even further than the time that he would use Dugu Xian. “You have a point. But our problem now is to deal with the four-nation coalition forces outside the capital.”
“Those thousands of soldiers are like sheep without their shepherd. Their commander-in-chief has already surrendered, so there is nothing to worry about. Dragon King, you should have long-term vision…”
Gu Shenwei gave him some perfunctory remarks and then left without his military counselor.
Fang Wenshi’s words were indeed reasonable, but it was not the time to implement them.
The news of Dragon King’s arrival had spread throughout Stone Kingdom’s capital. But nobody could recognize him when he was walking on the street.
An exaggerated reputation had both advantages and disadvantages. Dragon King could march in Xiaoyao Lake and capture a country with the strength of two people because of his ruthless reputation and the rumor of the one hundred thousand army behind him. But the drawbacks were emerging, which had almost overweighed the benefits.
If the people in Stone Kingdom recognized the Dragon King, they might be disappointed, because he was not the person deified or demonized in their imagination. They were all excited and had high morale. They thought that Dragon King could defeat the enemies outside the capital by breathing fire and the war that had lasted for a year would end soon. Then, they could resume their old life to live and work in peace and contentment.
Thanks to his fake reputation, few people in the Stone Kingdom’s capital had made preparations to fight against Supreme King, even though they had been engaged in the war with Golden Roc Fort’s puppet country for a long time.
Zhong Heng was busy reading official documents and issuing orders when Gu Shenwei found him in the Council Chamber of the royal palace.
Zhong Heng was the person Gu Shenwei needed the most at present. He wouldn’t hitch his wagon to a star like Fang Wenshi, nor would he stick to the accustomed rules like Dugu Xian. This Prime Minister, who was well aware of the essence of compromise, was always concerned with the current problems.
If the Dragon King couldn’t show up in time, Zhong Heng would surrender for sure, because his loyalty has limits. As long as the conditions were appropriate without any conspiracy, he would give up whatever he had already gotten. The only reason that he hadn’t given up was because Golden Roc Fort had complicated the issue.
There was no necessity to test Zhong Heng. It was enough to treat him as a savvy businessman who would deliver the goods if he got the money. Therefore, after Gu Shenwei entered the capital, he met with Zhong Heng at first to demonstrate his trust. After his identity was disclosed, he immediately ordered Xu Xiaoyi to hand over half the bank notes to enrich the treasury controlled by Zhong Heng.
Zhong Heng fully understood Dragon King’s meaning. As a result, even though he had figured out the plot made by Fang Wenshi and his followers, he decided not to get to the bottom of it, but completely handed it over to the Dragon King.
“The spies said that the hearts of coalition forces outside the capital are not strong and the soldiers will flee at any time. I think we can start fighting now.”
Zhong Heng made his suggestion as soon as he met the Dragon King. After carefully defending the capital for more than eight months without any attempt to attack, it was finally time to start the war.
This was exactly the suggestion that Gu Shenwei was eager to hear, “Who is in charge of the coalition forces?”
“A group of advisors and killers from Golden Roc Fort. There are seven or eight leaders controlling about a hundred people. The coalition forces barely exist because of they are very repressive. But they know nothing about military strategy and tactics except for forcing soldiers to fight.”
“What about the high-ranking military officers of each country? Will the soldiers obey their orders?”
Zhong Heng thought for a while, touching his own chin, “It’s hard to say. The high-ranking military officers don’t want to fight either. But they are more afraid of the Golden Roc killers than the soldiers.”
Gu Shenwei thought for a while with his hand on the hilt of his saber, “Do you think these high-ranking military officers will surrender?”
Zhong Heng was a little surprised. It turned out that Dragon King’s idea was not merely to defeat the enemy, but also take to the opportunity to expand its strength. “Since they have surrendered to the Golden Roc Fort, they will surrender to anyone; as long as we can show stronger power than them and kill the killers. But we can’t count on their loyalty.”
Gu Shenwei was well aware of this. If he had thought too highly of loyalty, he would be still huddling up in the Great Snowmountain. The art of managing people was infinite in variety, and enemies could come into use. Loyalty was like a sticky core. You can wrap up a ten-fold, or even a hundred-fold ball around that core.
“So, our enemies are only seven or eight advisors and killers from Golden Roc Fort.”
“It’s seven or eight people in the center of the army.” Zhong Heng pointed out the difference. Then he realized that the Dragon King could break into the military camp since he could enter the capital through the line of encirclement. “Golden Roc killers are full of cunning tricks. Watch out.”
Gu Shenwei had already thought about this, and felt that he could take a risk. Stone Kingdom was not the focus of Supreme King, so the killers he sent out shouldn’t be top-tier, “I am more worried that the five thousand coalition forces will flee too fast. In that case, we will have to take down them one by one. Shangguan Fa will not give us too much time.”
Zhong Heng meditated for a while and finally came up with a well-arranged idea, “Yang Dou, the former Prime Minister of Stone Kingdom, has been hiding in the military camp. He has some families staying in the capital trying to establish relationship with the high-ranking military officers of each country. What conditions would you like to offer them?”
“I can spare their lives. Each country stays independent, and Yang Dou can be the Prime Minister.”
Zhong Heng was surprised: what was he supposed to be if Yang Dou became the Prime Minister? Later, he understood the little trap that was hidden in Dragon King’s words. He nodded and smiled, “These should be enough. When will you do it? How many people you will take with you?”
“Tonight, two people are enough.”
It was almost dark outside. Zhong Heng was not surprised again. He thought that his own movements need to be fast enough too.