Chapter 153 - A Provocateur!
The king was just asking. The biggest problem he was worried about was the fact that the kingdom was surrounded in four directions.
He looked at the other three reports before looking back to the one from the north and spoke blandly, “The situations on these three sides seem to be a coincidence. They actually happened at the same time… I reckon the four armies have been plotting on this long ago.
That means we may need to face the united force of the whole Land of Han-Yang this time. And we can’t count on the northern army, because Ye Nan-Tian will definitely leave the battle. The whole northern army is going to break down.
The war has just begun, yet our best force is going to collapse soon.”
The king spoke slowly. The Crown Prince was getting more and more hopeless. The pressure of knowing they were going to the end of the kingdom had made him feel breathless.
Besides, he was one who was responsible for all of this.
That was lifting a rock and dropping it on his own foot
He had actually hit himself into a cripple.
Unlike the Crown Prince, the king was rather calm. He talked peacefully like nothing seriously was happening.
It seemed all the negative situations couldn’t threaten his kingdom at all. It was like the kingdom would firmly stay under his control again.
“When Prince Hua-Yang left, the reports came. They are doing really good in controlling the timing. They actually started the battle before Prince Hua-Yang left, because they had considered the time it took for the soldiers to send the report back to the capital. That was a rigorous plan. Right after the army departed, the three reports came to me and struck my heart.
The departure date of Hua-Yang was the top secret of the kingdom. Yet our enemies knew about it. Well, there is a provocateur in our court.”
The king’s eyes lit up.
“A provocateur?” The Crown Prince was shocked and he looked at his father.
“Yes. So our plans, whatever we discussed in the court, were never secrets to our enemies.” The king spoke blandly, “That is why we suddenly fell into such a miserable situation.
Four sides burst into wars at the same time. Two War Gods showed up for the war at the same time. Dozens of the southern tribes and thousands of the northern grassland tribes all turned up against us. It takes a lot of time to arrange such battles.
To organize these forces and persuade them to attack as a union should at least take half a year in preparations. During the six months, our spies around the world actually failed to get any information about it. That is a big problem.
Everything I said proves that our enemy is thoughtful, careful and foxy. They are obviously controlling many people in our kingdom including some important officials in the court. Yet our men can never get to know anything about these men’s true identities. That is really a horrible force.
Facing such a force, who has such a perfect plan, our kingdom is truly in great danger this time. They tried so hard to set this thing up against us. That means they wants to defeat us in a short time once and for all.”
The king’s thoughts were sharp like knives.
“So what we need to to, or can do, is to buy more time and wait for the opportunity to show up in our side.” The king had come up with his plan, “So even if we need to sacrifice men’s lives, we have to keep holding the war. We have to try everything we can to buy the time for us.
As long as we can make it last over one and a half years, half of their united force will collapse.” The king looked outside the window and spoke blandly, “War is simply a competition of money. The tribes in the north and the south are always poor. They have no capability to arrange a big-range battle. They can only make some assaults every now and then to get resources. The other two kingdoms are absolutely funding those tribes.
It won’t last forever. Unless they both want to become broken kingdoms themselves.
Time.
That’s what we need. That’s the key.
As long as the war lasts long enough, the unfair resource allocation will eventually arouse fights among them. They will start to fight against each other… That is our opportunity. We need to wait for the occurrence of their infightings and that will bring us the opportunity to fight back.”
Every word the king said was filled with a dense killing intent. His voice was firm and his eyes were sharp.
There was, however, a big concern in his mind. It was Ye Nan-Tian.
At the moment, the pigeon had been sent by the House of Ye. Ye Nan-Tian would return soon. The north battle had been the safest side of the kingdom. If Ye Nan-Tian left, the northern army could only keep defending and it wouldn’t last long.
The key was Ye Xiao. If Ye Xiao was alright, Ye Nan-Tian would return to the battle. No matter how bad it was, once Ye Nan-Tian returned, then victory was already certain.
But if Ye Xiao was dead, they were doomed to lose the northern battle.
The king frowned and murmured, “There must be some rather wise people in the enemy’s side. Things about Ye Nan-Tian are the key issues about this war. They must have thought about it! And it must be the most difficult thing for them to deal with Ye Nan-Tian.
They all knew the most powerful general in our kingdom was not Hua-Yang. It was Ye Nan-Tian.
So… that fight outside the city gate… Was it a plot? They did it purposely in order to deal with Ye Nan-Tian? So that they could collapse our northern force?”
The king’s eyes were extremely cold.
The Crown Prince was sweating badly.
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At the moment, Eunuch Wang spoke outside, “Your highness, the officials are here outside the hall.”
It was the afternoon.
The king replied, “Tell them to wait for me in the Cheng-Tian Hall.”
And then he talked to the Crown Prince, “You come with me.”
Then he walked out with big strides.
The Crown Prince answered him humbly and then followed him out.
Looking at his father’s back, the Crown Prince was touched.
He had always felt that his father walked too fast. Even though he looked vigorous with his big strides, it lacked of a sense of liberty. He thought a king should have a sense of liberty.
Yet now he knew that the liberty hidden inside his father was far more than he could compare to.
When the war was entering a hopeless situation, the king still walked firmly and steadily with big strides. He just looked the same as he usually was.
He was like a moving huge mountain, holding all the storms from all directions.
He took them all.
It was in the Cheng-Tian Hall.
The king was sitting in his throne looking down at the officials calmly.
The officials had been in great confusion.
The officials just got the information a bit later than the king. They all knew about what was going on now.
The wars in four sides were going to burst out in any second.
It made them all worried like their hearts were burning.
They all understood one thing. There wouldn’t be an unbroken egg in a collapsed nest [1].
The king calmly watched them talking for a while and then spoke blandly, “Silence.”
The officials shut up immediately.
The king stood up with his hands on his back. He looked down and said, “The Right Prime Minister, Lord Li, Lord Tao, Tao Ju-Ze… And…”
He named six officials.
They stepped forward immediately and humbly waited for the king’s words. They looked panic. Apparently, they had thought about what the king wanted to say to them.
“You guys haven’t done good in disciplining your junior generations. Your boys mess around and ignore the national affairs. My soldiers are fighting with blood and lives in the frontlines, yet your boys tried to bully their families… Do you admit your mistakes?”
The king’s voice was calm and peaceful. Yet the raging anger inside his tone was clearly heard by everyone.
The officials all knew about what had happened outside the city gate. They knew what severe consequence it had brought to the kingdom.
Normally, such things like foppish young lords messing around with each other would never trouble the king. He didn’t like it, but he wouldn’t care much about it. Yet this time, such thing had a negative impact on the kingdom’s future.
The other officials gloated, [They are truly unlucky, aren’t they, the Right Prime Ministers? Ha. What can they possibly say?]
The officials including the Right Prime Minister immediately kneeled down and said, “We do. Please punish us, your highness.”
They asked for punishments, because they actually thought that the king wouldn’t really punish them for some fights among the boys. It would just be a light punishment if the king really wanted it.
However, the king’s voice suddenly became extremely cold.
…
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[1] There wouldn’t be an unbroken egg in a collapsed nest (覆巢之下无完卵), when an organization collapsed, no one inside the organization can stay fine from it.
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