Chapter 985: The Greedy Regent Prince

“Thirsty?”

“No.”

“Hungry?”

“No.”

“Sleepy?”

“Not that either.”

The Sword Saint, who had only just returned, sat there looking at Zheng Fan fussing over him.

Zheng Fan looked back.

Then both men laughed.

Zheng Fan lifted his teacup, took a sip, and said:

“You have no idea. Without you sleeping in the tent next to mine, I can’t eat properly, can’t sleep properly. My heart simply won’t settle.”

The Sword Saint said:

“On the way back, I heard that during the decisive battle the Regent Prince personally charged at the front and led the heavy-armored cavalry into the enemy formation. You did not sound like a man who had been eating or sleeping poorly.”

“Rumors. Those have to be rumors. Old Yu, you know what the soldiers below are like. They love turning me into some legend, making up stories every day about how brave I am here and invincible there. When you were at my side, I still hid in the rear. With you gone, how would I possibly dare charge? Don’t listen to their nonsense.”

“Fine. I’ll go beat my son later.”

“Forget it, forget it. He’s captain of the personal guards now. The boy is grown. Leave him a little face.”

The Sword Saint took the teacup from Zheng Fan’s hand.

“This time I ran into a group of mysterious people—the kind I have heard you mention before.”

“You fought them?”

The Sword Saint shook his head.

“No. They did not give me the chance, so I still cannot confirm it completely.”

“It’s confirmed. Anyone that cowardly has to be them. I ran into them too. Their numbers seem fairly substantial, but most are Qi Refiners. There are fewer Martial Artists and swordsmen. I’ve already put the Blind Man in charge of investigating.”

“Mm.”

“They are absurdly timid for people with that much strength, but I still dislike having them wandering around outside. If we get a chance to deal with them, best to deal with them. Even if we can’t uproot them completely, trimming a few branches would be worthwhile.”

“You need to catch hold of something they cannot afford to let go.”

“Mm. For now, though, they are only a minor problem. In front of the great momentum of the age, they cannot jump very high.”

“After what happened this time, Chu is basically finished, yes?”

“It’s like a Fifth Grade swordsman who has had both arms cut off. You can call him a strong fighter, and technically he is one. But ask how much strength he can really bring out anymore, and the answer is not much. Chu is about there now. Several hundred thousand elite troops are not the same thing as several hundred thousand ordinary soldiers, much less several hundred thousand civilians. Rebuilding that elite force will be hard. Without five years, they cannot recover. And even if you gave them five, unless Great Yan falls into internal chaos, they still would not have the teeth to bite anyone. The problem is that continuing to fight them from here would be troublesome, and not particularly worthwhile.”

“How did this rich man’s war feel?”

“Comfortable.”

Zheng Fan sat down on his command chair and crossed one leg over the other.

“Strong troops, powerful horses, abundant logistics. Unless the commander’s brains turn to soup, then purely from the perspective of warfare, you are already standing where defeat is almost impossible.”

In this round of the Yan-Chu national war, Great Yan had held a stable advantage over Chu in all three major categories: combat strength, logistics, and the quality of its commanders. Add in an open strategic scheme that forced the Chu to seek a decisive battle on their own initiative, and the conclusion had been inevitable.

“You’re becoming more modest,” the Sword Saint said.

“Was I not before?”

“You were all right.”

At that moment, Liu Dahu entered to report.

“Your Highness, Eunuch Huang has come to take his leave.”

“Mm.”

Eunuch Huang entered and knelt in salute.

Strictly speaking, he was an imperial army supervisor appointed by decree and therefore formally equal in rank to the commander of the army.

But nobody practiced that sort of equality in front of the man sitting here.

“Now that the campaign is over, this servant has come to bid Your Highness farewell. I must return to the capital and report the events of the battlefield to His Majesty.”

“How are your wounds?”

“This servant is terrified that such small injuries should trouble Your Highness’s thoughts. Your Highness may rest assured. This servant’s hide is thick. A little rest and I will be perfectly fine.”

“You had better be fine. The next time this Prince goes on campaign, we’ll still need you, Eunuch Huang.”

“This servant thanks Your Highness for your profound favor and appreciation. This servant’s heart belongs entirely to Your Highness. If someday Your Highness is drinking and finds yourself short of a side dish, just send someone to give the word. This servant will immediately dig out his own heart, chop it fine, mix it with sesame oil, and personally bring it to Your Highness.”

Zheng Fan laughed.

“Back then Wei Zhonghe said this Prince knew how to talk, and I actually believed him. Looking at it now, compared with you gentlemen who came out of the self-castration fraternity, I still have a long way to go.”

“Your Highness may rest assured. Once this servant returns, I will make sure to needle that old bastard Wei Zhonghe a few more times.”

In seniority, Eunuch Huang stood on equal footing with Eunuch Wei. It was only that his assignments had never been as prestigious, so in earlier years he naturally would not have dared put on airs before Wei Zhonghe.

Things had changed long ago.

After accumulating military merit through several campaigns as army supervisor, it was almost as though Eunuch Huang had divine protection around him. His standing had become transcendent.

“Oh, right. I have a letter here for His Majesty.”

“This servant accepts the order.”

Eunuch Huang stepped forward and tucked the letter into his sleeve without changing expression.

Yanjing, Fengxin City, and the command tent already had courier riders running day and night without interruption. If the Prince still needed him to deliver this letter personally, then clearly it was no ordinary letter.

“Does Your Highness have any other instructions for this servant?”

“Have a safe journey.”

Eunuch Huang dropped to his knees again.

“This servant kowtows in thanks for Your Highness’s great grace. Your Highness, you must take care of your health. This servant is going now.”

Eunuch Huang had barely left the command tent before Liang Cheng entered. Clearly, he had arrived earlier and had been waiting outside.

“Master.”

“Come, come.”

Zheng Fan rose from the command chair and walked down.

“Dahu. The map.”

“Yes.”

Liu Dahu spread the map across the ground.

“Ah Cheng, you didn’t get much fighting this time. Are your hands itching?”

“This subordinate is fine. As long as Master won, that is enough.”

“How can that be? You spent years painstakingly training troops. I can’t have you doing nothing but laying eggs and never getting to eat the egg fried rice.”

“Heh.”

The Sword Saint, sitting nearby, could not help laughing.

Liang Cheng hesitated for a moment, seemed to decide that he ought to laugh too, and then did so.

“Work it out for me. With the situation stabilized, how many troops can we draw away from here right now?”

Liang Cheng looked at Zheng Fan in confusion.

“Master means... we are continuing the war?”

“What else?”

“It should not be Chu,” Liang Cheng said.

“Chu is mostly bone now, with barely any meat left. Keep gnawing and all we do is waste time for little gain.”

Zheng Fan walked to one side of the map and planted the sole of his boot over Qian territory.

“This one is the fattest.”

Liang Cheng did not immediately object.

As a general, the moment his commander proposed a target, his instincts naturally shifted into the mode of planning a campaign.

“Master, what about logistics?”

“For the Yan-Chu national war, eastern Jin supplied the first round of logistics itself. Xu Wenzu’s side sent two more batches. We used the first. The second just arrived. That is enough to sustain the army until after the beginning of spring. Originally, this national war was planned on the assumption that it might last two years. Instead, it ended in less than half a year. Unless something unexpected happened, the court’s third batch of military supplies, which should have been headed to this front, is probably sitting at South Gate Pass right now.”

Zheng Fan shifted his left foot and planted it over South Gate Pass.

“What is the strategic concept?” Liang Cheng asked.

“In earlier years, Qian relied on the Three Frontiers line to stop the Yan army from advancing south head-on. Even if Yan cavalry bypassed the Three Frontiers and penetrated deep into Qian, once the logistics were blocked by that defensive line, there was simply no basis for sustained operations. The raiders could even be worn down and destroyed inside Qian. At best, we were thieves breaking into someone’s home for a quick round of looting. We still had to get out before daylight, and on the way out we had to worry about the owner suddenly smashing us in the back of the head. But the weakness in Qian’s Three Frontiers line has always been South Gate Pass. This region originally belonged to Jin, within the Wenren Clan’s sphere. Once the lands of the Three Jins were absorbed into Yan, the opening at South Gate Pass was simply torn wide. You could say that, because of this one gap, half of Qian’s Three Frontiers system became useless. When the Qian-Chu coalition counterattacked in the Liang and Zhao lands, part of their purpose was to close this opening again. Deep down, the Qian still believed the Three Frontiers were their safest and most reliable defense. Understandable. They had protected Qian for a century. The last time I invaded Qian, I entered through this opening as well, then went south and stole Shangjing. This time, I want you to select one hundred thousand elite cavalry from this battlefield and pull them out. March across Jin, pass through South Gate Pass. Chen Yang, that old bastard, was not transferred here this time. He still has the foundation of fifty thousand former Jingnan Army soldiers under him. Take those too. Then I’ll order Gou Moli to pull out the Fan City Army, cross the Qishan Mountains through the Liang and Zhao lands, and rendezvous with you. That gives you two hundred thousand cavalry. If conditions allow, try to take Lanyang City, Qian’s northeastern gateway. Then cut across from there. Do not rush south. Your only objective is to isolate the Three Frontiers. Meanwhile, the First Prince and Li Liangshen have forces in Yinlang Commandery that can apply pressure from the north. This time... we’ll turn Qian’s Three Frontiers into the filling of a meat sandwich.”

After explaining the plan, Zheng Fan looked at Liang Cheng.

“Any problems?”

“It is very risky,” Liang Cheng said.

“In what way?”

“My army of two hundred thousand.”

“Oh?”

“First, the hundred thousand troops Master intends to assign me have only just come through a major war and have not yet rested. After leaving this battlefield, they would need to cross the entirety of Jin. By the time they passed South Gate Pass and reached Lanyang City, both men and horses would be exhausted. Even an elite army can fall apart if used that way. Second, the troops Jin sent to reinforce this war were already predominantly elite formations. Some garrisons did not empty themselves completely, but under the double pressure of Master’s princely order and the court’s imperial decree, what they sent were still their direct elite troops. Chen Yang’s command was no exception. So I believe he can gather fifty thousand men for me. But elite troops? Probably not. Besides, after the Three-State War, the old Jingnan Army core under Chen Yang suffered enormous losses. Their numbers have long since been rebuilt, yes, but they are absolutely not the same Jingnan Army Master remembers from years ago. Prince Jingnan has been gone for many years. As for Gou Moli’s force, they have spent months tearing at each other with Xie Zhuyang on the secondary battlefield. That old bastard also decided to make friends by lending his direct elite troops to Xianba and Tian Tian to play with. If I now ask him to regather his men, cross mountains and ridges, and meet me beneath Lanyang City... will his army still be able to fight? So what Master is giving me is not two hundred thousand iron cavalry. It is... two hundred thousand exhausted troops. And the new armies Qian raised years ago—the Zu Clan Army, Meng Clan Army, Han Clan Army, Zhong Clan Army, and Le Clan Army—all withdrew from the Liang theater intact during the Three-State War. None suffered any real damage. Over these years, they can only have grown larger. If I were Qian’s commander this time, I would not begin by hiding behind defenses. I would try to take the initiative and fight several battles first. After all, those armies were not present when Shangjing fell. From a purely military standpoint, their last major battlefield memory is still the Liang campaign where they annihilated Li Fusheng. Psychologically, they still believe they can fight. So if I try to bluff with an exhausted army, it will be difficult to truly frighten them.”

“You mean we cannot fight?”

Liang Cheng shook his head.

“We can fight. Even in their dreams, the Qian would never imagine that Master’s appetite could be this large, this greedy—that you would finish fighting Chu and immediately turn around to attack them. For those four words alone—*catch them unprepared*—the campaign is worth attempting.”

“Exactly.”

Zheng Fan reached out and wrapped one arm around Liang Cheng’s shoulders.

“When the troops are strong and the horses fat, I can command the army. No problem. I do not need you there. But the situation I just described? That one requires you. Without you, I would not dare be this greedy.”

“This subordinate only feels we may lose too much,” Liang Cheng said thoughtfully. “We can certainly achieve results, but they may not be large enough. The final outcome could still be withdrawal without decisive gain, after spending reserves we worked so hard to accumulate. If I were Qian, I would simply confront us. The Three Frontiers would hold against Yinlang Commandery, while the field armies would focus entirely on the force under my command. Then both sides return to a contest of attrition. Qian’s wealthy heartland lies in Jiangnan. Unlike Chu, whose richest northern regions became the battlefield directly, Qian can endure much longer than Chu. If the standoff drags on, Yan and Jin will once again have to tighten their belts. Everything returns to the old days. Overall... not worth it.”

Liu Dahu stood nearby with brush in hand, carefully recording the military conference.

The Sword Saint sat in his chair, listening with interest.

“Heh.”

At that moment, Zheng Fan smiled.

He planted the sole of his boot first on Wenqiu Commandery, where the command tent currently stood, then dragged it southwest across the map, skirting the Great Marsh, skirting Guyue City, and finally cutting laterally inward from southwestern Chu.

Liang Cheng’s gaze sharpened immediately.

“What if I personally lead another army along this route? Copy Nian Yao’s old method of raiding Qian and launch a surprise attack on Jiangnan from the southwest? Think about it. Qian’s main armies would be tensely confronting all of you around the Three Frontiers. And then suddenly... I stab them viciously from behind. What happens?”

“Master, that is no longer a military problem. The Chu have just suffered a catastrophic defeat at our hands, yes. But the State of Chu still exists. Will the Chu simply stand there and watch while Master leads an army openly across the territory directly beneath their noses?”

“Ah Cheng, you said it yourself. That is no longer a military problem. So naturally, we solve it through nonmilitary means. My elder brother-in-law... after I have just slapped him across the face as hard as I possibly could... will then willingly... open the road for me.”

“This subordinate is slow. Master, please enlighten me.”

“Wait a little longer.”

“Wait?”

“Master, this subordinate requests an audience.”

The Blind Man’s voice came from outside the command tent.

Zheng Fan clapped his hands once.

“There. What we were waiting for.”

[End of Chapter 985]