Chapter 664: Wields Troops Like a God

After all that commotion, Wu Gongling's meaning was actually very simple.

He wanted to marry Hui Qingping.

Once the five Elders understood what he intended, they did not know whether to laugh or cry.

You?

A coarse brute with a filthy mouth, and you still want to marry an Elder of Tiannü Sect?

To the five of them, it was practically a joke.

There had indeed been women in Tiannü Sect's history who later married, but those cases had happened only when both sides were willing and Tiannü Sect had approved. The disciple would first withdraw from the sect and only then marry, so that the sect's rules were not violated.

Hui Qingping had worked for so long to reach the position of Elder. Would she throw away a lifetime's labor to marry a crude brute like you?

If that was not a joke, what was?

The five Elders soon lost even the desire to rebuke Wu Gongling for his insolence.

He was no longer satisfied with merely having grabbed the woman's backside. He had become even more outrageous and now wanted to marry her.

The five had originally been rather interested in watching Tiannü Sect become a laughingstock.

The problem was that they themselves could not stay out of the matter.

Wu Gongling actually wanted them to help propose the marriage and persuade both Tiannü Sect and Hui Qingping.

Wasn't that pure nonsense?

And this bastard was exactly the sort of unreasonable brute who would do it.

He put on an attitude of no longer caring about the war: kill me or carve me up if you like; I, your father, am marrying Hui Qingping!

No one knew how Wu Gongling managed to twist the affair around, but somehow it ended with the five Elders speaking to him gently and persuading him to concentrate on the matter in his hands first. If he could not even survive the present crisis, what marriage would there be to discuss?

In the end, they finally managed to coax Wu Gongling into continuing the march.

All along the road afterward, the people from the five sects guarded Wu Gongling with extraordinary care.

There was no helping it.

Hui Qingping had suffered the greatest humiliation of her life. She had guarded her chastity for a lifetime, only for her clean reputation to be ruined in the hands of a bastard like this. She was about to become the laughingstock of her sect and of the cultivation world.

There was no way she could swallow the insult.

She wanted Wu Gongling dead!

When she then learned that Wu Gongling had become even more outrageous and actually wanted to marry her, Hui Qingping nearly coughed up blood from rage.

She had seen shameless men before.

She had never seen anyone this shameless.

It was shamelessness taken to the extreme!

When news reached Tiannü Sect, however, the sect actually urged her to endure for the time being.

That nearly made her faint from anger.

Tiannü Sect felt guilty making such a decision, but its concerns were not unreasonable.

Endure for now. Killing him afterward would not be too late.

The sect had already paid such an enormous price and lost so many people. How could they allow the larger affair to be ruined now?

Fearing Hui Qingping might cause trouble, Tiannü Sect ordered her to return and prepared to send someone else to take over.

Hui Qingping exploded and refused to leave.

She intended to stay until the end and personally kill Wu Gongling with her own hands. She wanted nothing more than to cut him into ten thousand pieces herself.

Tiannü Sect had wronged her and could do little about it.

All they could do was repeatedly warn her not to act recklessly, while ordering the other disciples to watch her closely.

Only afterward did Hui Qingping realize just how bad her decision to remain truly was.

It turned out the entire army already knew what had happened to her.

Whenever the soldiers saw her, every pair of eyes looked indescribably strange.

More infuriating still was Wu Gongling himself.

They inevitably crossed paths often, and he would deliberately raise one hand as though savoring the memory of the touch, then wink and make eyes at Hui Qingping as though passing secret affection between them.

He even began calling her “Pingping.”

The moment he saw Hui Qingping, he would shout, “Pingping!”

The thickness of his skin was outrageous enough to make the accompanying soldiers want to cover their ears.

They discovered that their Grand General's shamelessness was simply beyond description.

Hui Qingping nearly went mad from rage.

She would tremble all over with fury, yet could do nothing.

Even her own sect's disciples watched and restrained her, while a crowd of cultivators around Wu Gongling guarded him closely.

What could she accomplish alone?

Since it was not their sect's affair, the other five Elders treated it partly as entertainment.

Even they did not know whether to laugh or cry and discussed Wu Gongling privately.

The man was a fucking lunatic.

Was he afraid his eventual death would be too comfortable?

Winking and making eyes at her as though sending affection—where did he get the confidence to think he could actually conquer Hui Qingping?

Everyone was more or less waiting to see how Wu Gongling would eventually die.

Of course, for the time being they still had to protect him.

There was no helping it.

The bastard might be an outrageous brute, but damned if he did not command the loyalty of his troops.

...

“Bastard!”

Inside the central command tent by the river, Luo Zhao's eyes flickered rapidly as he stared at the map. Suddenly he slammed a fist onto the desk.

“What has angered the Grand Commander-in-Chief?”

A smiling question came from outside the tent.

Luo Zhao looked back.

Wen You entered first. Behind him came three men in succession: Su Yuanbai, Elder of Lingxiao Pavilion; Dong Yinglai, Elder of Blood God Hall; and Chang Fei, Elder of Heaven-Splitting Palace.

Seeing them, Luo Zhao turned and cupped his hands in greeting, his face still cold.

Su Yuanbai, who had spoken before entering, smiled and asked, “Who has made the Grand Commander-in-Chief angry?”

Luo Zhao pointed toward the map. “Wu Gongling's route of march is wrong. This does not look like someone intending to maneuver against Yan's rebellion-suppression armies. From what I can see, there is a nine-in-ten chance he intends to divert the calamity eastward. He is heading straight for our Song defensive line.”

At first, Luo Zhao really had believed Wu Gongling's nonsense.

Only after Wu Gongling had maneuvered for some time and his route stretched farther and farther did Luo Zhao finally realize something was wrong.

The men exchanged looks.

Dong Yinglai of Blood God Hall sighed. “The Grand Commander-in-Chief truly deserves his reputation. None of the rest of us saw through Wu Gongling's intention, yet the Grand Commander-in-Chief did.”

Luo Zhao heard something hidden in the words and asked suspiciously, “What do you mean?”

“It is exactly as the Grand Commander-in-Chief suspects. Wu Gongling has been circling around only to come toward our Song side.” Wen You gave a bitter smile and handed him a letter. “These are the instructions from the three major sects. They want the Grand Commander-in-Chief to coordinate with Wu Gongling's attack.”

“Coordinate with Wu Gongling?” Luo Zhao looked uncertainly toward the three Elders.

When all three nodded, he immediately took the letter and read it. His face sank.

“What is this? He says he was the one who drove a wedge between the Yan court and Nanzhou, and you actually believe that nonsense?”

Su Yuanbai asked, “Does the Grand Commander-in-Chief see a problem?”

Luo Zhao shook the paper in his hand. “If he truly possessed that kind of ability, if he truly had the calculation to manipulate Yan's court and sway Yan's politics, how could he have been suppressed all these years without rising? Who in Yan could possibly have held him down?”

“Believe that nonsense? I'd sooner believe I've fallen under his spell!”

Su Yuanbai said helplessly, “Even if the Grand Commander-in-Chief's judgment is correct, there is one thing we cannot deny.”

“Wu Gongling's rapid withdrawal truly did give the Yan court confidence that the rebellion could be suppressed. His rapid defeats also truly did help bring about Shang Chaozong's arrest, and that genuinely has driven a wedge between the Yan court and Nanzhou.”

“That much cannot be denied, can it?”

“...” Luo Zhao was speechless.

There truly was no arguing with that.

He asked, “Are we really going to follow his damned nonsense and do as he says?”

Su Yuanbai replied, “Things have already reached this point. What else can we do?”

Luo Zhao asked in return, “Do the three Elders understand the consequences?”

The three exchanged glances.

Chang Fei of Heaven-Splitting Palace said, “If the Grand Commander-in-Chief has some better insight, we will certainly report it upward. We will not delay your military affairs.”

Luo Zhao pointed at the map. “Song and Han may have agreed to join forces against Yan, but if the war first ignites along Song's border, Song will have no choice but to move first.”

“What do you think Han will do then?”

“We have competed with Han for years. How could we not understand their calculations?”

“They will certainly stand aside at first and watch us consume ourselves for a while. Or, to put it another way, they will wait until we relieve some of the pressure in the north before they move.”

“If Song suffers too much loss first, then even if Yan is eventually conquered, Song will inevitably suffer in the later negotiations over how the spoils are divided.”

He tapped the map with one finger. “Han will certainly be making the same calculation!”

“If we fight, then either Han should move first, or both sides should move at the same time and let each rely on his own ability. How could Song be the one to bear the pressure first?”

Su Yuanbai smiled bitterly. “Things have already developed this far. Wu Gongling is already heading toward us. Asking him to make a long detour toward Han now seems rather unrealistic.”

Luo Zhao asked, “We have people over there. Have they tried forcing Wu Gongling to change course toward Han?”

Su Yuanbai sighed. “Wu Gongling is short on provisions. We also have no way to send him enough supplies now to relieve the problem. That method probably will not work.”

Luo Zhao said, “Even if it will not work, you still have to try every possible way.”

“His troops are causing havoc inside Yan, not inside Song. I don't care whether he burns and kills, loots, or uses some other method to gather provisions. In any case, Song's losses must be reduced as much as possible.”

Su Yuanbai sighed again. “The Grand Commander-in-Chief may not understand Wu Gongling's nature.”

“Once he decides something, even his elder brother could not stop him. A man who could dispose of his own elder brother is unlikely to change his mind for anyone.”

A ruthless light appeared in Luo Zhao's eyes. “He is nothing but a chess piece. How can we let him decide the game?”

“Our people are beside him. Look for someone among his subordinates capable of replacing him, then establish secret contact.”

“If Wu Gongling refuses to listen, dispose of him quietly and install someone secretly loyal to us to take over the army.”

“Afterward, the Cangzhou rebels will inevitably encounter Yan forces blocking the road. At an appropriate moment, have them feign defeat and change course toward Han. Then Han will have nothing to say.”

Dong Yinglai shook his head. “Grand Commander-in-Chief... I'm afraid that will not work.”

“To speak plainly, Wu Gongling has repeatedly been unruly and difficult to control. It is not as though we never considered replacing him.”

“But after careful thought, we discovered something. The isolated Cangzhou army is trapped in circumstances like these and still continues following him entirely because Wu Gongling's prestige holds the army together.”

“Otherwise, with no future visible after all this turmoil, the soldiers would have run, slipped away, and scattered long ago.”

Su Yuanbai nodded as well. “When Wu Gongshan was alive, he indeed had prestige in Cangzhou, but it was authority built through long years of holding military power.”

“When it comes to genuine prestige within the army, and to closeness with the officers and soldiers, Wu Gongshan may actually have been inferior to his younger brother Wu Gongling.”

“That is also why Wu Gongling could quickly gather the army's loyalty to himself after disposing of his elder brother.”

“At present he is under our control, so killing him would not be difficult. But the consequences might be troublesome.”

“In adversity like this, apart from Wu Gongling, I fear no one else can hold together the hearts of the Cangzhou rebels. On the road, nine out of ten of them would probably run off.”

Dong Yinglai added, “Wu Gongling also did one other thing.”

“He arranged for every soldier to carry three days of dry rations.”

“He promised that anyone willing to follow him could fight alongside him for a future, and that once the affair succeeded, they would share wealth and honor and he would never treat them poorly.”

“Anyone unwilling to follow could leave on his own. Wu Gongling would neither force him nor stop him. He said they had been brothers once and should part on good terms.”

“Those three days of rations were the minimum road to survival he prepared for anyone who chose to leave.”

“Quite a few soldiers were moved to tears by it.”

“If we truly kill him now, every man has provisions on his body. Once they start running, they'll have no hesitation at all.”

“With hundreds of thousands of men, how could we possibly stop them? A man could excuse himself to take a piss and simply disappear.”

Luo Zhao's teeth itched with hatred. “High-sounding bullshit!”

“A man who even killed his own elder brother somehow has the face to talk about having been brothers once and parting on good terms, and people actually believe that nonsense?”

Chang Fei sighed. “The key is that he claims his elder brother was not killed by him, and the Cangzhou rebels believe him. He is exactly the sort of man who can make unreasonable things like this work.”

“What are we supposed to do? Kill Wu Gongling and then confiscate the three days of rations he handed out?”

“The moment Wu Gongling dies and his successor immediately starts collecting everyone's provisions, even an idiot would start thinking something was wrong. How could army morale remain stable then?”

He had even blocked off that road?

Luo Zhao's expression twitched. Grinding his teeth, he said, “That bastard truly does wield troops like a god. Luo has broadened his horizons today!”

By “wield troops like a god,” he did not mean battlefield maneuvering and command.

He meant something else entirely.

[End of Chapter 664]