Chapter 839: Can't Even Keep a Dog in Check

"Uproot them completely?" Guan Fangyi's mind immediately went to the grave outside Maolu Villa. "Didn't Xiaoyue Pavilion help you inside the Secret Realm?"

"One matter is one matter," Niu Youdao said. "If I had no value to them, would they have helped me? Look only at the immediate matter and you can call it help. Look at the larger situation and it was cooperation—mutual use, nothing more. It hardly counts as one side helping the other. The people who truly helped me, I will naturally remember!"

Guan Fangyi sighed. "So you've never forgotten how Black Peony died. Master Dao, you've always been broad-minded. Why can't you let this go?"

Niu Youdao's voice held no emotion. "Hongniang, I'm a man. A woman died to save me. That debt is something I can never repay her. All I can do is give the dead an accounting. I'm not someone who clings to every matter either. If something can be put behind us, then naturally it's better to let it pass. But can this be put behind us? Xiaoyue Pavilion may be able to cooperate with me now, but that doesn't mean we can cooperate forever. They won't simply stop once their uprising succeeds, and Nanzhou cannot afford to decline. Sooner or later, the two sides will come into conflict."

...

At the imperial court in Song's capital, officials were arguing heatedly over Yan's attack on Zhao.

Emperor Mu Zhuozhen sat high above them listening to court, but his expression was distracted and his thoughts seemed elsewhere. In truth, he was still turning over the earlier discussion he had held with several ministers in the Imperial Study.

Truly confidential matters would never be discussed openly in court. It was far too easy for secrets to leak.

Earlier, after receiving a message from Maolu Villa in Yan, Mu Zhuozhen and several ministers had still hesitated. Did Niu Youdao really have the final say? Were Yan's three great sects merely decorations?

Then came Yan's undeclared attack on Zhao—launched entirely outside the control of Yan's three great sects.

Only then did Song realize that Niu Youdao wielded enormous influence over Yan's military affairs.

Niu Youdao's message could not have been clearer: begging anyone else was useless. If they wanted help, they had to come beg him.

The moment news of the war arrived, Mu Zhuozhen and several ministers secretly chose a man and dispatched him toward Maolu Villa to negotiate with Niu Youdao.

Calling it a negotiation was merely preserving their own dignity. In truth, they were going to beg him.

The secret envoy had been granted substantial authority.

Beauty, women, renowned beauties—so long as Song possessed them, if Niu Youdao wanted them, the envoy had the authority to agree!

As for money and valuables, within a certain limit, whatever Niu Youdao asked for could likewise be granted.

Of course, all of that rested on one condition: they first had to confirm that Niu Youdao could make the forces of Beizhou in Yan attack Jin, forcing Jin to withdraw troops and relieving Song's pressure.

...

"War has started? You're certain it has truly started?"

At the Han-Song front, inside the central army command tent, Jin Jue questioned the messenger repeatedly after hearing that Yan and Zhao had gone to war.

Once he confirmed the report was true, that this was no feint and the two sides had genuinely begun fighting, Jin Jue let out a breath of relief. He immediately faced the gathered generals and ordered, "Have the troops on the front line remain on full alert. Await my command and be ready to attack Song at any moment!"

"Yes!" the generals answered with cupped fists.

Quite a few of them secretly found the matter amusing.

Jin Jue had previously been frightened by a single warning letter from Niu Youdao.

Niu Youdao had actually ordered Han to stop attacking Song. It had been an absurd joke. Who did he think he was?

Everyone had said there was no need to pay attention to him, but Jin Jue had remained extremely cautious. He said Niu Youdao could not be underestimated, that the man wielded great influence over Shang Chaozong's faction, and that by stepping out personally Niu Youdao was signaling a direct confrontation. Carelessness was unacceptable.

Jin Jue had even genuinely redeployed troops to guard against the forces of Beizhou in Yan.

Now, with Yan and Zhao at war, events had proved everyone's guess correct. Niu Youdao had merely been bluffing. Yan did not possess the strength to fight two states on two fronts at once unless it wanted to court destruction!

The normally cautious Grand Marshal had truly been frightened by a bluff. Now it looked ridiculous, did it not?

The others laughed inwardly, but Jin Jue himself remained cautious.

He still worried that Niu Youdao might truly try something.

That was precisely why he decisively ordered preparations for another offensive. He intended to exploit the Yan-Zhao war to accelerate the campaign against Song and, if possible, finish Song before the fighting between Yan and Zhao ended.

After the generals dispersed, Jin Jue turned to the clerk inside the tent. "Draft a memorial. Tell the imperial court to contact the three great sects and urge Wu Gongling to coordinate with our offensive so we can resolve Song as quickly as possible."

"Also advise the court that some of Wu Gongling's harsher conditions can be accepted for now. We can settle accounts with him later!"

Mentioning Wu Gongling gave him a headache.

The goose hunter had ended up getting pecked in the eye by the goose.

They had originally assumed Wu Gongling was someone they could manipulate at will.

Who could have imagined he was actually a jackal or a tiger?

Wu Gongling had suddenly risen as an unexpected force and caught Han completely off guard. Worse, Han had no good way to deal with him.

He had the Tiannü Sect behind him. Han's armies were separated from him by Song and Yan, so they could not threaten him directly. They could only watch helplessly as he occupied southern Song and actually began governing it in respectable fashion.

At first, everyone had assumed Wu Gongling could never last.

The people's hearts were not with him.

Yet somehow, Wu Gongling rapidly stabilized public sentiment in the territory he had taken and gradually built real momentum, disrupting Han's plans and throwing Song into panic.

Reports said Wu Gongling personally toured his territory, "upholding justice for the people."

A crude brute who used to solve problems with a blade had actually begun conducting public trials.

He righted grievances for ordinary people and earned endless cheers.

Whenever he left a place after an inspection tour, the commoners beat gongs and drums to see him off. Wu Gongling, eyes brimming with tears, accepted plaque after plaque praising him as an "Upright Lord of Justice."

On one occasion, because of some incident, he had even wept uncontrollably before the commoners and publicly knelt to apologize, saying he had failed in disciplining his subordinates.

He moved the surrounding people so deeply that they too dropped to their knees and begged him to rise.

Some people found this strange.

The territory had only just been occupied. Refugees from all directions had only recently gathered there. Some disorder and looting were understandable.

But where had so many great miscarriages of justice suddenly come from?

Once people investigated, the answer became clear.

What damned injustices?

Wu Gongling had manufactured every last one of them himself.

No wonder a military brute who normally carried a saber could suddenly judge cases like a divine magistrate!

Even the plaques praising him as an Upright Lord of Justice had been arranged by people secretly acting at Wu Gongling's instigation.

Anyone who knew Wu Gongling knew that in his earlier years he had committed no shortage of arson, murder, robbery, and the seizure of civilian women.

And now he was kneeling before commoners in apology?

People had seen shameless men before, but rarely one this shameless.

The worst part was that this thick-skinned bastard did not blush in the slightest. He would do absolutely anything, no matter how shameless, without caring whether others mocked him.

He kept fabricating scene after scene and seemed to take endless pleasure in it.

Everyone knew perfectly well that he was buying public support.

Yet neither Han nor Song could do anything to him.

Han's reach did not extend that far.

Song did not want to fight on two fronts and be attacked from both front and rear. It could only stare helplessly while Wu Gongling grew stronger.

What infuriated Song even more was that its own former subjects—especially the wealthy local clans—made full use of their advantages and worked tirelessly in the occupied territories to help Wu Gongling pacify the population.

They had genuinely done Wu Gongling an enormous favor.

With their help, he rapidly established himself in the occupied region.

The Song court was so enraged it nearly coughed blood.

...

In the imperial palace of Yan, Tong Mo, Shang Yongzhong, and Gao Jiancheng emerged from the Imperial Study with grave expressions.

Nanzhou had bypassed the imperial court and brazenly launched a war against Zhao.

The Emperor was furious.

He had even cursed Yan's three great sects, calling them useless trash who could not even keep a dog in check—and instead had gotten bitten by the dog!

Tong Mo had put considerable effort into the Yan-Zhao peace negotiations.

The war a year earlier had shown that Zhao seemed unable to withstand Nanzhou's military edge.

That terrified Tong Mo.

The war with Song had already driven Nanzhou's prestige inside Yan to blazing heights. None of the commanderies and prefectures dared provoke it. The imperial court was being suppressed so badly it could barely breathe.

If Nanzhou kept fighting like this, expanding its territory and growing stronger again, the consequences would become impossible to predict.

The hatred left over from Prince Ning Shang Jianbo's generation made Tong Mo deeply uneasy.

If Shang Chaozong truly rose to overwhelming power, then even if the imperial court itself did not collapse, Tong Mo would have no road of retreat left.

Should Shang Chaozong choose to settle old grudges, Tong Mo could at any time become the price of compromise between Shang Chaozong and the throne.

A single call to "purge the villains beside the sovereign" would be enough to kill him.

With the frozen wars about to resume, Tong Mo could not sit idle.

Using the same concerns, he only had to stir them slightly to touch Shang Jianxiong's old sore spot.

And so he secretly contacted Zhao.

Zhao's situation on the battlefield had been poor.

Its offensive had been beaten back into a defensive posture. Having started the war first, Zhao had also left itself with no graceful way to withdraw.

What were they supposed to do about the territory they had already lost?

Now Yan had taken the initiative to seek peace.

Naturally, both sides struck a bargain immediately.

Because Yan was the one asking for peace, it had to make concessions.

The condition for the ceasefire was that Yan's forces withdraw and return the Zhao territory they had occupied.

Countless Yan soldiers had shed blood and lost their lives to seize those lands.

To Shang Jianxiong and Tong Mo, that was not particularly important.

Under heavy persuasion from the court, Yan's three great sects had also been forced to face reality.

Yan lacked the strength to annex Zhao.

Continuing to fight would cost more than it gained.

So long as Zhao had been beaten badly enough that it no longer dared invade, the strategic goal had already been achieved.

Returning Zhao's land and then joining hands with Zhao to restrain Han, resolving Yan's northern threat in the process, was not a bad choice.

Everything had been on the verge of succeeding.

Then Niu Youdao came back.

Tong Mo was filled with grief and fury.

Why had that damned thief come back alive?

The moment he returned, everything fell into chaos.

He bypassed the peace talks.

He bypassed the imperial court.

He even bypassed Yan's three great sects.

And then he directly started a war against Zhao!

In its fury, Zhao exposed the inside story of the humiliating concessions Yan's court had secretly offered.

Officials and commoners throughout Yanjing erupted in uproar!

Naturally, Yan's court could suppress the public anger by claiming the enemy state was spreading lies to disturb the people's hearts.

But the Emperor's rage could easily be imagined.

Shang Yongzhong sighed again and again as they walked. He consoled Tong Mo, "Prime Minister, there's no need to worry too much. Nanzhou has definitely enraged the three great sects this time. They may not come to a good end."

Tong Mo walked on with a dark face and said nothing.

Of course he hoped that was true.

But had Nanzhou truly acted on a moment of impulse?

Gao Jiancheng was frowning as well.

Niu Youdao had not only returned from the Tiandu Secret Realm, he had even taken first place.

Gao Jiancheng had only just relaxed when Niu Youdao created this new disaster.

He too had no idea what Niu Youdao was thinking.

Was it truly wise to oppose Yan's three great sects so openly?

Niu Youdao had returned and immediately become astonishingly forceful.

Almost too forceful.

That left Gao Jiancheng deeply worried.

He too hoped Niu Youdao had not acted impulsively.

Yet after reviewing the situations of the various states, he genuinely could not see what benefit Yan gained from forcibly reopening the war against Zhao under present conditions.

By contrast, the signs that Yan's three great sects intended to settle accounts afterward were becoming increasingly obvious.

[End of Chapter 839]