Xiaoyu responded and left. The guard waved his hand but before he could refuse, he was stopped by Luo Yi's stern gaze.
"Reporting to General Luo, a merchant ship captain requests an audience!" After Xiaoyu left, the guard finally caught his breath. "It seems he has urgent military information to report to General Luo!"
"Urgent military situation!" Luo Yi's heart skipped a beat; his ominous premonition seemed to be coming true. "Quickly, go and invite him in!"
The one who entered was a foreign captain with a thin face and sharp eyes. When he saw Luo Yi, he simply cupped his hands and said, "Jiang Ruo, captain of the Peace Trading Company and the Yatang, greets General Luo."
"So they're one of us!" Luo Yi's face lit up with joy. The Peace Trading Company was a large trading company that Li Jun established at the beginning of his business, on the advice of Jiang Tang. On the one hand, it cooperated with wealthy merchants in Kuanglan City to smuggle goods to areas not under the jurisdiction of the Peace Army. On the other hand, it openly traded with various countries. Although some aristocratic families criticized the Peace Army for "competing with the people for profit," it was the organization that supported most of the Peace Army's military expenses and war funds. Although Luo Yi came from an aristocratic family that looked down on both barbarians and merchants, as a rebel against that ancient family, he dared not be arrogant in the slightest towards these people who made silent contributions to the Peace Army.
"Let's skip the pleasantries." Jiang Ruo sat down and got straight to the point: "Three days ago, on my way from Kuanglan City to Xizhou, I rescued a man from the sea. He said he was a merchant from Japan who encountered a large group of Japanese pirates on his way. He jumped into the water to escape. He said that these Japanese pirates were gathering on a small island and were preparing to launch a large-scale raid on Canghai County!"
"Damn Japanese dogs!" Luo Yi said angrily. The Peace Army's navy had returned to Kuanglan City with Li Jun, leaving only a few small warships in Xizhou. Luo Yi had only two thousand soldiers, and even with the soldiers that Tang Peng had taken to inspect the area, there were less than five thousand. If the Japanese pirates were to attack, they would definitely be well prepared. How could a mere five thousand men possibly withstand them?
After a moment, he asked curiously, "Is that merchant from China or from Japan?"
"Yes, they are Japanese."
"That's strange. The Japanese also abduct other Japanese?" Luo Yi frowned and said, "There's probably a trap involved. What Japanese would tell the truth?"
“The Japanese have always been like this, always chasing after profit, regardless of whether they are one of our own,” Jiang Ruo said with a cold smile. “That Japanese merchant hates them for stealing his goods, which is why he was willing to reveal everything. I’m sure there’s nothing wrong with it. I’ll pass this information on to the general. Whether you believe it or not is up to you.”
Luo Yi smiled wryly. For some reason, he kept offending people with his words today. First, he made Xiaoyu misunderstand, and now he had angered the foreign captain. He was completely unlike his usual eloquent self. He stood up and bowed, saying, "Captain Jiang, please don't misunderstand. I didn't mean to distrust you. I'm just afraid that this Japanese are full of tricks."
“I know, I’m not blaming General Luo.” Jiang Ruo returned the greeting, “I’m carrying extremely valuable goods on this trip, and they must not fall into the hands of the Japanese pirates under any circumstances. There will be a major battle in Xizhou soon, so I must leave first.”
Jiang Ruo's reasons made it impossible for Luo Yi to persuade her to stay, and Luo Yi himself had no time to argue with her any further. If the information she brought was correct, then the arrival of the Japanese pirates would be within a few days.
"Have you all dealt with the Japanese pirates?" he asked his officers and advisors at the military conference. Although he had been recuperating from his injuries for the past two months, he had not been idle and had promoted some local officers and advisors from Xizhou. Therefore, he had been quite effective in winning over the hearts of the people of Canghai County.
“In the past, Japanese pirates have harassed Canghai County, but they generally dare not come to Xizhou.” An aide said, “Xizhou is a large city, usually heavily guarded. Japanese pirates bully the weak and fear the strong, and their harassment along the coast is mostly against small cities.”
"How did the coastal cities defend themselves when Japanese pirates attacked in the past?"
"The Japanese pirates aimed to plunder and implemented a strategy of using war to sustain war. Therefore, in the past, we always fortified our walls and closed our cities to the outside world. Since the Japanese pirates could not break through the city, they naturally turned to other places."
"Naturally shift the blame elsewhere?" Sensing the problem in his advisor's words, Luo Yi frowned and glared at him, saying, "So, the strategy of diverting the trouble elsewhere?"
The aide looked ashamed, but then said, "Between two options, choose the lesser of two evils. If the city falls, given the Japanese pirates' ruthless nature, blood will surely be spilled in the streets and corpses will fill the ditches. This is a last resort."
"Japanese pirates..." Luo Yi pondered for a moment. It seemed that sooner or later he would have to settle things once and for all with the Japanese pirates.
"My lord, Xizhou has few soldiers. Even with the Peace Army, there are only about five thousand men. If a large group of Japanese pirates were to invade, I fear I would be unable to resist. I urge you to order a scorched-earth policy."
"I'm afraid that even a scorched-earth policy won't be enough to repel the enemy," another advisor said. "The Japanese pirates came prepared this time, and they won't give up until they break through the main city. Xizhou has too few soldiers to defend the city. If the Japanese pirates launch a large-scale invasion, I'm afraid we won't be able to hold it at all."
"Hmm..." The staff and officers argued for a long time without reaching a conclusion. Luo Yi was getting tired of it. He straightened his spirits and said, "What normal interactions have the Japanese had with our Divine Continent other than plundering?"
“Of course,” an aide said, shaking his head. “Legend has it that the Japanese were originally descendants of barbarians who crossed the sea and intermarried with the natives of Japan. When powerful nations emerged in our land, they feared the might of Heaven and would send envoys to establish friendly relations. If our land fell into conflict and war, they would take advantage of the chaos and attempt to seize our land. The Japanese themselves do not have their own writing system; their writing system evolved entirely from the writing system of our land. The leaders and chieftains of the Japanese admire the elegance and refinement of our land’s literature and are well-versed in our history.”
"In addition, the Japanese are extremely interested in the military affairs of our Divine Continent. They regard Sun Lou, the strategist of the Four Seas Khan, as a celestial being, and Sun Lou's military strategies and tactics are essential reading for them."
“Sun Lou…” Luo Yi’s eyes suddenly lit up. Sun Lou’s military treatises and battle formations were essential texts for generals and commanders throughout the land. Although Sun Lou’s life was short, he was invincible, which was related to his exceptional skill in setting up battle formations. “Those Japanese pirates must be very familiar with Sun Lou’s Ten Great Formations?”
"Indeed, during the internal wars of the Japanese pirates, they often followed Sun Lou's methods in troop deployment."
"If that's the case, I do have a plan to repel the Japanese pirates, but I'm afraid they'll leave Xizhou and go elsewhere to burn, kill, and plunder." Luo Yi pondered for a moment and said, "For now, we have no other choice. Men, send orders to all the coastal counties and prefectures, instructing them to fortify their defenses and scorch the fields, so as not to give the Japanese pirates any opportunity. Also, ask the stonemasons and carpenters in the city to work through the night to make weapons for me, in case of any unforeseen circumstances!"
※ ※ ※
The fierce winds from the Qionglu Grassland made the battle flags of the two armies flutter wildly. Cold raindrops fell from the gray sky from time to time, hitting the iron armor silently. The bugles wailed and the war drums were faint. Under the city of Huichang, the tension was high.
"Miss Ji, everything depends on you. The great cause of leadership rests entirely in your hands, so please don't be reckless," Feng Jiutian said to Ji Su, bowing earnestly.
"Hmph, even without your plan, I can still take down Liu Guang's first kill amidst a vast army!" Ji Su seemed somewhat displeased with his arrangement, speaking half in a fit of pique and half in seriousness.
"That's natural, but if Miss Ji kills Liu Guang but loses Yuzhou, it will be difficult for her to explain to the commander when he returns. Even if Yuzhou is not lost, the other soldiers of the Peace Army are not as brave as Miss Ji, and casualties are inevitable. When the commander returns and sees that we have lost most of the soldiers he has carefully trained, it would be a small matter if he blames me. If this causes a rift between Miss Ji and the commander, then it will be a big problem."
Ji Su glared at Feng Jiutian resentfully and said, "Don't always try to intimidate me with Li Jun. I'm not afraid of him!"
Feng Jiutian stroked his beard and smiled, a mischievous glint in his eyes. This expression seemed rather incongruous on a man nearing fifty, but for some reason, Ji Su felt his gaze seemed to see right through her, as if asking with a smile, "Aren't you really afraid of him?" She couldn't help but blush. She wasn't afraid of Li Jun, of course. Although Li Jun had defeated her and removed her helmet, and according to the rules of the Broken Heaven Gate, he was the husband chosen for her by the God of War, if she wasn't happy, she could easily kill Li Jun and regain her freedom. The Three Cardinal Guides and Five Constant Virtues, and the vow of lifelong fidelity, were things concocted by idle, bookish people. For her, a daughter of the grasslands, freedom and spontaneity were more important than life itself. However, after spending so many years with Li Jun, the mask he wore because of his "fear of women" had been removed. This man, though lacking in romantic understanding, wasn't entirely without merit.
Whenever Ji Su thought of the subtle tenderness that Li Jun seemed to unintentionally reveal, a sweet feeling would rise in her heart. She understood the complex and tangled emotions between Li Jun and Mo Rong, and she even knew that Li Jun's kindness towards her was largely due to her status as a Rong princess. Li Jun needed her to stabilize her father, the Khan, and to help the Rong people gradually adapt to peaceful coexistence with ordinary people, thereby gaining benefits that he couldn't obtain from abducting ordinary people. In this way, Li Jun's grand ambition of conquering the world would have a solid ally. It was precisely because she deeply understood her importance to Li Jun's cause that she could empathize with his pain: deeply in love with Mo Rong, yet forced to be with her; their relationship, originally for political reasons, had blossomed into genuine affection. This man, so calculating, still possessed a few traces of a pure heart deep within. Since Li Jun never abandoned Mo Rong for the sake of his great cause, then after developing intimate feelings for her, nothing could make him give her up. As the ancients said, "Priceless treasures are easy to obtain, but a loving man is hard to find," especially since this loving man is such a heroic and extraordinary figure...
But Mo Rong wasn't the only obstacle between them. If it weren't for Li Jun, Mo Rong and he would definitely be good friends. But because of Li Jun, their relationship was limited to a lukewarm one. No one wants to share their most beloved with someone else; he felt this way, and so did the sincere and honest Mo Rong. Actually… he didn't really care. His father had seventeen wives and concubines, and he was used to it. Mo Rong didn't seem to have many concerns about it either. The key issue was that fool Li Jun. Why did he insist on the idea that gender equality meant monogamy? Didn't he know that forcibly separating lovers for the sake of monogamy was actually the greatest inequality?
Ji Su sighed deeply. How could she tell outsiders about these young lovers' secrets? How could she let that fool know? That fool was so clever when facing the enemy, so why couldn't he understand her hints?
"Huh?" Suddenly realizing that she was standing there dumbfounded in front of hundreds of thousands of enemy soldiers on both sides of the battlefield, Ji Su's face flushed red. She covered it up and asked, "What did Mr. Feng say?"
Although she was wearing a helmet, Feng Jiutian seemed to still see the flush on her face. A string of sarcastic words almost spilled from his lips, but he ultimately restrained himself from indulging his habit. To mock a young person troubled by love was itself the most laughable thing. Either he had never experienced true love himself, or he was too old—so old that he needed to be jealous of young people's romances to remind himself of his own past…
"I mean, Miss Ji, you need to be extra careful. You are of noble birth, and it's truly unavoidable that you have to take such a risk." Feng Jiutian sighed, suddenly realizing he needed to change his mind. How could he allow this woman, so deeply in love, to suffer such a fate?
Ji Su was unaware that Feng Jiutian's initial plan was for her to die in battle, thus provoking Hulei Khan to launch a full-scale attack on Liu Guang. If the Rong people of the Qionglu Grassland were to launch a major offensive into Chen, the siege of Yuzhou would naturally be lifted. Furthermore, if Hulei Khan were to forge an irreconcilable enmity with Liu Guang, his alliance with the Peace Army would have to be maintained and strengthened. This plan had to be meticulously crafted, ensuring that Hulei Khan did not suspect that Ji Su's death was orchestrated, while simultaneously preventing Ji Su from falling alive into Liu Guang's hands. For the sake of Li Jun's grand plan for the world, Feng Jiutian was willing to sacrifice anyone, but in this moment, his resolve began to waver.
"So, should I go?" Ji Su asked.
"Wait a moment, let me think about it some more." Two conflicting feelings swirled in Feng Jiutian's heart, causing him to feel a slight headache. He took a deep breath and rubbed his temples with his fingers.
"Is Mr. Feng feeling unwell?" Ji Su was completely unaware that her life or death was in Feng Jiutian's hands. Although she was sharp-eyed and meticulous, she absolutely trusted her own people, especially since the person in front of her was the one she wanted to entrust her life to and rely on.
Her question cut Feng Jiutian like a knife. Feng Jiutian opened his eyes and asked in return, "For Commander Li's great cause, this trip is extremely risky. Miss Ji, you might as well think about it again and decide whether you want to go or not."
“I have made my decision,” Ji Su said resolutely. “Not only for Li Jun, but also for my Rong people. In the past two years, I have witnessed the people of Kuanglan City living a life of plenty, and I have dreamed that my Rong people could also live such a life. Now, the Peace Army allows the Rong people to move freely and trade fairly in Yuzhou. The Rong people can obtain salt, tea and medicine without plundering or shedding blood. My father wrote to say that songs are heard all over the grasslands, all thanks to Li Jun. For this, I am willing to risk any danger.”
Feng Jiutian's heart pounded wildly for a moment, then he slowly said, "Since that's the case, you may go."
Just as Ji Su was about to urge his horse on, someone suddenly said, "Wait!"