Chapter 727: Congratulations, Master Dao and the Prince Are About to Become Brothers-in-Law

Only now did the generals begin to faintly understand why Jin Jue had previously broken his promise and refused to join Song in attacking Yan. He had probably been planning ahead for this all along.

At this point, one thing was certain. Song and Han had agreed to send troops together, yet Han's refusal to move had helped turn the situation into what it was now. This cautious Grand Marshal was unquestionably connected to it. No one knew how much work he had secretly put into Wu Gongling, or whether Wu Gongling's maneuvering, which had pushed Song into making the first move, also had something to do with him.

One general raised a concern. "Grand Marshal, if Meng Shanming is determined to deal with Wu Gongling, he could split his troops during the withdrawal. One force stays on this side of the river, while another crosses it, then both advance on Binzhou from two directions. Wu Gongling would be in grave danger."

A mysterious yet modest smile appeared at the corner of Jin Jue's mouth. "All of you have been anxious about why, even now, I still keep a heavy army massed along Yan's border without moving. You have also wondered why, after deciding to attack Song, I still have not begun redeploying troops in preparation."

He turned his gaze back to the map and tapped the position of Binzhou with one finger. "This is precisely to keep Wu Gongling secure. If Meng Shanming leaves him alone for the time being, then so be it. But if he makes a move against Wu Gongling, our army will immediately launch a full-scale feigned offensive against Yan. At that point, which will matter more to Meng Shanming: eliminating the hidden danger that is Wu Gongling, or stopping the invasion of Han's army?"

Understanding dawned on the generals once again. One of them slapped his palm and praised, "Exactly! At that point, Meng Shanming will have no time to worry about Wu Gongling. His troops will have to cross the river in haste and head north to reinforce Beizhou."

Jin Jue nodded. "Once I guided Wu Gongling into Binzhou, his life and death were in my hands. If he obeys, I will help him survive this crisis. If he dares disobey, I will immediately withdraw our troops from the border and relieve the pressure on Yan. With no worries behind him, Meng Shanming will certainly eliminate Wu Gongling first. If Wu Gongling wants to keep living comfortably, then he has no choice but to obey Han. If I tell him to attack Song, then he attacks Song. He has no choice!"

The generals thought it through carefully. It truly was so. They looked at one another, beginning to wonder whether they had misunderstood this man before.

Jin Jue turned to face them and reminded them solemnly, "I know all of you harbor ambitions to win merit and establish great achievements. But no matter how strong a state may be, it cannot endure being repeatedly tossed into war. What is consumed is our own national strength. When two states contend, victory does not necessarily have to be decided on the battlefield. Unless there is no alternative, one should not lightly start a war. To subdue the enemy's army without fighting is the highest strategy!"

The generals fell silent.

Seeing their expressions, Jin Jue sighed inwardly. He did not know whether any of them had truly taken his words to heart.

...

What had to come finally came.

After their long-distance dash to Yanjing, Luo Zhao's forces at last reached the Dongyu River again.

Nanzhou's iron cavalry had harassed them throughout the journey. The losses suffered by Luo Zhao's army were neither enormous nor negligible: nearly one hundred thousand men had been lost, and the troops' morale had been worn down to exhaustion.

Nanzhou's cavalry had paid a price as well. It was impossible to follow and harass an enemy for so long without taking losses. Battle deaths, wounded or diseased warhorses, and other attrition had reduced their effective strength by more than ten thousand.

Yet this was a price they had to pay.

Because of their harassment, Song's troops had never been able to withdraw at full speed. In fits and starts, Nanzhou's cavalry had delayed the retreat by nearly ten days.

For an army of two or three million men, ten extra days of consuming provisions was no small matter.

To a certain degree, it could even become the decisive fatal point.

On the Song bank of the Dongyu River, Meng Shanming's Yan forces had already arrived ahead of them. They were waiting in full battle readiness, having made preparations to hold the river defenses and prevent the Song army from crossing easily.

Luo Zhao was burning with anxiety.

His army faced the danger of running out of provisions. He also knew that the enemy had already cleared a broad swath of territory inside Song, making it impossible for Song's supplies to reach them in time. If they could not cross the river soon, the consequences would be unimaginable. Even if these two or three million men did not die in battle, they would starve to death.

Luo Zhao spent his days inspecting the riverbank again and again, searching for any opportunity to cross.

The Yan army was using the same method against him that Song had once used against Meng Shanming.

But Luo Zhao could not reproduce the miracle of Rolling Dragon Gorge, and Meng Shanming would never allow the miracle of Rolling Dragon Gorge to be repeated by the Song army.

On one side, there was still no news of the beloved beauty waiting at home. On the other, the army stood on the edge of such a crisis, while immense pressure from the court awaited him afterward.

The anxiety in Luo Zhao's heart was beyond anything outsiders could imagine.

Even with cultivators helping regulate his body, illness of the heart was not so easily treated. The once high-spirited Grand Commander-in-Chief Luo, the elegant and handsome Jade-Faced Gentleman, grew more haggard by the day. He became dark and thin. His eyes, whether staring across the river or fixed on a map, were constantly threaded with blood. His whole person had fallen into extreme anxiety and unrest.

He could barely eat or sleep.

If cultivators had not helped sustain and regulate his body, the enormous pressure and long days without proper food or rest would have broken him down long ago.

The lofty ambition with which he had once crossed the Dongyu River into Yan had vanished without a trace.

Did he regret it?

If he said he felt no regret at all over his earlier strategic decision, that would be a lie.

Luo Zhao truly regretted it.

He regretted ever underestimating Meng Shanming.

The lesson he had learned this time would be enough for him to remember through life after life.

The two banks of the Dongyu River now presented an unprecedented spectacle.

Yan troops stood on Song's side defending Song's river line, while Song troops stood on Yan's side trying to break through Song's own river defenses.

Everything had been turned upside down.

...

In a mountain forest, Niu Youdao held an intelligence report and read it carefully. It contained inside information on Song's secret peace negotiations with Yan.

When one state fought another, losses on the battlefield could never be won back at the negotiating table. No matter how skilled one was at negotiation, it was useless.

Qian Liansheng, the Song envoy who had once stripped to the waist outside Yan's imperial palace and cursed Shang Jianxiong, had now lowered his proud head. After being refused an audience several times, he had finally managed to see Tong Mo.

When Yanjing had been in danger, Qian Liansheng had been the one making exorbitant demands.

Now it was Tong Mo who sat steady and demanded the moon, acting as though he could barely be bothered with the other man.

Yan now had confidence.

It was Song that needed something from Yan.

Yan could allow Song's army to return, but the price was one hundred million gold coins and one hundred thousand cartloads of grain.

There was also another demand that seemed rather excessive.

It had been proposed by Shang Jianxiong himself. He had insisted that it be included among the negotiating terms and refused to budge. Everything else could be discussed. Only this condition was not open to negotiation.

Truthfully, even Tong Mo and the others felt it went too far. But Shang Jianxiong insisted, so Tong Mo had no choice but to carry it out.

Emperor Mu Zhuozhen of Song had a consort he doted on above all others, a woman who gathered thousands upon thousands of favors onto herself. Her beauty could easily be imagined and needed no further description.

Shang Jianxiong's condition was this consort.

He demanded that Song hand her over to him.

How could Qian Liansheng possibly agree to such a condition? If he truly agreed and subjected the Song emperor to such extraordinary humiliation, then he might as well stop wanting to live. More importantly, he had no authority to decide such a thing in the first place.

Naturally, he refused.

He did make one concession. Song could send one of its princesses to become Shang Jianxiong's woman instead.

Shang Jianxiong rejected that immediately.

What kind of joke was that? If he took Mu Zhuozhen's daughter, would that not make him one generation lower than Mu Zhuozhen?

Of course, Qian Liansheng was not entirely without leverage in the negotiations. He knew Yan ultimately still needed Song to join it against Han, and used that point to bargain.

But Shang Jianxiong was determined to obtain that consort.

If Song wanted to bargain, then they could bargain slowly.

He was not afraid to drag things out until Song's two or three million elite troops starved to death beside the Dongyu River.

Take your time.

Let us see who becomes anxious first.

Another report arrived in Guan Fangyi's hand. Seeing what Niu Youdao was reading, she glanced at Yuan Gang standing nearby and knew the report in Niu Youdao's hand must have come through Yuan Gang's channels. Slightly displeased, she gave a mocking smile. "First, congratulations, Master Dao."

Niu Youdao looked back at her. "For what happy occasion?"

Guan Fangyi said teasingly, "Congratulations, Master Dao. You and the Prince are about to become brothers-in-law."

"..." Yuan Gang, standing to one side, looked stunned. He wondered whether he had heard correctly and even glanced at Niu Youdao as if trying to work out whether Master Dao had taken a fancy to some woman. He had never heard that the Princess Consort had any sisters.

"Uh..." Niu Youdao froze as well, having no idea where this had come from. His eyes fell on the paper in her hand, and he reached out for it.

Guan Fangyi smoothly hid the report behind her back and tipped her chin toward the one in his hand.

Niu Youdao looked at his own report. There was nothing particularly secret in it, so he handed it over in exchange.

Only after taking Guan Fangyi's report did he discover that the information had come from Shang Chaozong's side.

Song clearly understood the decisive role Shang Chaozong had played in this war. It also knew how much influence Niu Youdao wielded over Shang Chaozong. While negotiating with the Yan court, Song had therefore sent people to negotiate with the two of them as well, working both sides at once.

Finding Niu Youdao in time was probably impossible, but they had managed to contact Shang Chaozong.

Song hoped this side would show mercy and allow Luo Zhao's army to return.

In exchange, Song was willing to marry one of its princesses to Shang Chaozong.

Nor would Niu Youdao be neglected.

Song was willing to marry a princess to him too.

The message Shang Chaozong sent over said that if Niu Youdao had no objection, he intended to reject the proposal outright.

For Shang Chaozong, no amount of gifts could persuade him to show mercy to the Song army. They had to achieve their strategic objective. He would never give Song an opportunity to sow discord between him and the court either.

Reading the report, Niu Youdao did not know whether to laugh or cry.

If he wanted to marry, what meaning did the woman being a princess or not have to him?

He immediately shook his head with a wry smile. "Send word back to the Prince. Tell him I'm not interested."

Yuan Gang reached out and took the report from Niu Youdao's hand to read it.

At the side, Guan Fangyi had finished reading the intelligence report Niu Youdao had handed her. She raised her head with a thoroughly unhappy expression. "What a joke. We women have actually become bargaining goods between states. Does Shang Jianxiong still have any shame as emperor? He publicly demands another man's woman and prettifies it as a marriage alliance. Is that something the ruler of a state should do? What did women ever do to anyone, that we should be passed back and forth like objects? Absurd. Ridiculous. Shameless!"

Niu Youdao sighed. "How often have the states used marriage alliances? How did the Empress Dowager of Zhao, Shang Youlan, end up marrying into Zhao? When the Song army attacked, so many women in Shang Jianxiong's harem were killed. Now that he has an opportunity, how could he not try to wash away the humiliation and pass that humiliation onto someone else?"

Guan Fangyi sneered. "Taking Mu Zhuozhen's woman will wash away his humiliation?"

Niu Youdao said, "Fine clothes, exquisite food, the concentrated favor of an emperor, the resources of an entire state spent on her. Now that disaster has struck the state and the burden has fallen on her, I'm afraid responsibility is difficult to escape. He who would wear the crown must bear its weight."

Guan Fangyi glared. "Not one of you men is any good!"

"Uh... Why overturn an entire boat with one sweep of the pole? What does this have to do with me? My hands are clean."

"Then why are you explaining it as though it's perfectly reasonable?"

"I'm only speaking the truth."

"That's exactly how you think. If you became emperor, you'd do the same thing, wouldn't you? Shameless!"

"..."

[End of Chapter 727]