Everyone thought everything seemed normal except Zhong Heng.
The Dragon King was most sensitive when it came to identifying the killers of Fort Jin Peng but failed at that time to recognize the two men that disguised themselves as servants inspite of guessing Shangguan Jianyi’s target of assassination to be the two Queens. There was a lot of contradiction in this.
Lin Xiaoyu was loyal but his martial arts were not outstanding in the Dragon army and was far from the battle-hardened Long Fanyun. He had blown his cover inorder to protect Jiang, an act not usual of the Dragon King.
Finally, Jiang had been killed, and indeed the Dragon King had reaped much benefit. He gave deceased Jiang a title to satisfy the grief and vanity of the swordsmen from the Great Snowmountains, making more with this even, their hatred for Fort Jin Peng while at the same time not offending the generals and civilians of the Xiaoyao Sea.
Verily, even Zhong Heng couldn’t have thought of a better plan to solve a problem like this
The only victim if truth be told was Jiang, the innocent girl from the Great Snowmountain, perhaps too, Lin Xiaoshan with the sheer helplessness and self-reproach that painted his face. His loyalty towards the Dragon King had intensified come what may.
Zhong Heng felt regret towards Jiang and even more respect for the Dragon King. This was the intelligence and determination expected of a hegemon. He was now entirely steadfast.
Ever since giving up the title of General of the Central Plains and becoming Prime Minister of the Stone Kingdom, Zhong Heng justly felt uneasiness in his heart from time to time. The Dragon King was too young a lad with much hatred in his heart and was impetuous during crucial times. It was proving to be a serious gamble, answering to leader as immature as this.
This had proven that the Dragon King did not pale in contrast with the Supreme King in terms of cunning, but still had much to learn in terms of disguise.
Zhong Heng felt the need to express such compliment in case the Dragon King misunderstood him by humbly bowing and saying, “Before the Imperial Wedding, the Dragon King should hold a formal ceremony to announce his event to the world.”
Gu Shenwei understood that the Prime Minister had suggested this to express his complete submission, thereby nodding his head firmly and saying, “Not now. Defeat Shangguan Jianyi first.”
“Yes,” Zhong Heng stopped. This suggestion was his no matter what and at every step of the way from then on, would raise it up again. This way, it would be a great contribution once the Dragon King had truly succeded in taking over the western region. It would beat the painstaking effort he put in to gather the soldiers, gathering the provisions and fodder and most substantially, governing the Stone Kingdom.
Zhong Heng had to find another way to impress the Dragon king, knowing just how much his duties were largely unknown when put against the Generals who led the battalions on the battlefield.
This kind of pandering seemed hasty in the past, but Zhong Heng’s confidence toward taking such risks in life had grown and was even willing to up the ante.
Gu Shenwei’s nerves relaxed when Zhong Heng left. The Prime Minister’s attitude was a new reminder to the Dragon King to be wary more of his own future actions, him repeating the mistakes that Shangguan Ru had made was out of question.
Shangguan Ru was the most promising master of the young killers, everyone believed she would be better than Shangguan Fei at the time when at the beginning, after she left Stone Castle to establish the Kun Society, she displayed indeed much leadership ability. However, after a series of defeats, her heart had softened and she started to doubt the killings. All her subordinates left one after the other as a result and even planned to kill their master.
Gu Shenwei believed that he would not change a lot so suddenly like Shangguan Ru did, but his subordinates’ demands of leadership in truth, were higher than hers.
Inadvertently betraying any kind of kindness was seen as a form of weakness, triggering unexpected betrayal.
Gu Shenwei had to solve the issue as soon as possible, realising at that point the great risk he was taking.
On the tenth day after Jiang had passed away, the Dragon King led a thousand guard troops and a thousand reserves to attack the invaders of the Hui Kingdom.
Although the wedding hadn’t been held yet, the princess went to the tower as his future queen, to see him off. She wore a pale green dress to express sadness from the premature death of a Queen and behind her, fanned out like a procession, a row of dense Dragon and Red Raven flags that seemed like she had two wings.
Those that had confidence in the battle saw a great change in the Princess but the enthusiastic soldiers felt her sadness.
Fang Wenshi was on horseback and saw only the princess when secretly he looked back among the crowds.
The Dragon King agreed to the military counselor’s orignal plan and decided to send him to Norland but had to spend money first, on flattening the roads. He had to wait till the final battle the following year to decide the victory and without wait start the plan to express intentions of an alliance with the Khan of Norland.
Simply supporting Norland or the Central Plain would bring undesirable consequence therfore Fang Wenshi believed that there surely was a way of reaping benefit from both sides while at the same time, maintaining independence and safety. He still had to believe though that he had the ability to find that way.
Gu Shenwei decided to let the military counselor have a try.
He placed a lone chess piece in a distant position and hoped it would provide the needed strength in the near future even though it did not help then.
After half a month, the two thousand Dragon troops reached the Kingdom of Hui, just in time when the war was most tense.
The generals and residents of the Hui kingdom guarded the capital alone and had started to count the time as soon as they had sent the messenger. They were ready to submit to the enemy outside the city even before the rescue period had expired.
Surrendering to a stronger force had already become the way of survival for the Five Nations of the Xiaoyao Lake.
Calling the soldiers who were encircling the city the ” Army of Fort Jin Peng” was a bit of a stretch. This was a group of bandits from the Western Region, Machetemen and refugees that were just about a thousand people, raising their self-made Fort Jin Peng flag and had heard that the young men of the Xiaoyao Lake had been captured by the Dragon King to become soldiers and were concentrated at the Stone Kingdom. The guard posts of the other four nations were empty so they came here to kill, loot and burn.
This was a typical mob whose aim was only to steal the valuables inside the gates that became helpless and could only fight outside the walls when they found that the gates were closed.
Even so, the King and the ministers of the Hui Kingdom had never thought of initiating the battle. The food within the city nevertheless, had seen become replenished temporarily and they only impatiently waited for the Dragon King’s rescue.
Therefore, when Gu Shenwei arrived with his army, he realised that the real enemy was not the troops that had laid siege on the tower given they broke up into small bands and fled, immediately retreating at the sight of the huge dust raised by the horses’ hooves.
It was the king and ministers of the Hui Kingdom who obstructed the Dragon army.
Upon finding that the besieged army was so vulnerable, they started to regret rescuing the troops, and due to this sent out messengers to give Gu Shenwei gifts then roundly refused to let the troops enter the city.
Gu Shenwei gathered the energies of the five nations of the Xiaoyao Lake. Only some had gained results in the Stone Kingdom, which did not affect the westernmost areas.
The enemies could not have been commanded by Shangguan Feiyi. However, upon discovering this, Gu Shenwei had decided to leave some parts of the garrison, and then return to the Stone kingdom himself but the cold attitude of the Hui Kingdom made him change his mind.
The Hui kingdom guarded the west of the Xiaoyao Lake, it was still a strategic route even though it wasn’t conducive for the passage of the army. Leaving it to a group of weak and incompetent guards would be a great mistake.
Gu Shenwei decided to stay longer to plug this hole.
The Dragon King received with warmth the messengers of the Hui Kingdom and rather than insist on entering the capital, he only requested they provide him with the daily necessities to help destroy the bandits in the nation.
Once the bandits scattered, many had already jumped into other countries. Gu Shenwei did not hurry to leave but rushed to the fringes of the Sha Kingdom where in the past, there was a humble sentry post whose troops did not number up to a hundred and had left as soon as the bandit army arrived.
The Dragon king thought he must block that opening therefore ordering the residents of the Hui Kingdom’s capital to stay at the borders. The army did not have to be too big in order to resist the foreign enemies.
Hence, the troops walked the path that led to the Shu-lik kingdom, until the Livesaver Spring that was seven days away to set up a sentry post. The reason was to light a signal fire as the signal, in order to discover quickly the tracks of the enemies. There were more guards especially in the areas surrounding the Liversaver Spring, their only task therefore was to throw rubbish and poison into the spring as soon as they discovered a large number of enemies.
It took time building a city, the process of burning bricks and cutting stones was slow. The locals were used to creating walls with earth. These two materials were readily available and even nearby cities used them. The requirement though was that these cities did not have to be too sturdy or tall because as long as they could be blocked for a while, reinforcements would naturally arrive at the rear.
During this period, Gu Shenwei sent two teams each consisting five hundred people that each advanced north and south respectively and encircled the Hui Kingdom to kill the scattering bandits around the kingdom.
Everything went on as planned that Gu Shenwei made time to send off the military counselor.
Being lobbyist to Norland meant one couldn’t be too shabby but neither too flamboyant yet had to go through the territory of Fort Jin Peng. Gu Shenwei had only sent three attendants but had given the military counselors a large sum of bank notes and some gold.
Fang Wenshi had finally realised his long-cherished wish to act like a proper counselor who could spend the capital at his own will. He did not truly feel happy however, he said. “Dragon King, as I shall wait for your good news at Norland ,await mine at the Xiaoyao Lake too.”
The atmosphere of separation was somewhat somber but Fang Wenshi recovered himself as he advanced into the desert and started to drag his voice, singing the “rustling wind” to the Dragon King. However, his rosy mood dissipated suddenly when he turned around and discovered that the Dragon King had left without seeing him off.
The person that Gu Shenwei wanted to see off was not a military counselor.
Lin Xiaoshan had become strong and lean after those days of suffering, his appearance had changed and his expression then was fearless and more determined.
The others were still avoiding death but he only felt like taking the initiative to go up. Only without the Dragon King’s permission was he barred from doing as he wished.
Fang Wenshi left in the day and Lin Xiaoshan carried out the plan at night while knowing nothing about the trip before he left.
“You kept saying you wanted to die. Have you gotten ready?” The Dragon King summoned him alone and asked him bluntly.
Lin Xiaoshan said immediately as he thought that Dragon King would send him to destroy the encirclement. “I’m ready with my sabre.”
“Very well.” said Gu Shenwei as he stared at Lin Xiaoshan. He had found that this young killer had proven his loyalty and dependability after days of observation. It was hard finding another befitting as this, he asked, “I want you to go to the Central Plains, conceal your name, and gather intelligence for me then never come back to the Western Region. It will be like you’re dead. Do you accept this?”
Lin Xiaoshan was extremely staggered by how greatly this differed from the task he had imagined and hesiated, “I…”
“I shall find another task for you if you are disinclined.”
Lin Xiaoshao knelt down on one leg. “I accept it, for even to hell I shall go as long as it is to the benefit of the Dragon King.”
“Your being in the Central Plains will be of great value to me.” Gu Shenwei in doing this had already placed a chess piece in a further position but had to prove that this piece was not only loyal, but energetic also. “There is also a person that you have to take with you and never return.”
It was this person who became a hot potato in Gu Shenwei’s hands that had to be sent away without anyone’s knowing.