"Hahahaha..." Tong Pei's words made Liu Guang's eyes stop squinting and instead shine brightly. He laughed loudly, "Creating the impossible into the possible, that's what makes it a challenge. Besides, you can't understand the intentions of Peng Yuancheng and Li Jun. General Tong, you have to admit that when it comes to scheming, you are no match for these two!"
Meanwhile, in Yu Yang City, Peng Yuancheng, on the one hand, followed Feng Jiutian's orders to redeem the lands of local powerful families and distribute them to the poor, and forced these families to release slaves who had been sold into servitude due to debts. On the other hand, he cultivated relationships with local powerful families, explaining his helplessness and obedience to these influential clans. Furthermore, while outwardly complying with the orders, he secretly implemented them with significant discounts, leading to a mass exodus of powerful families from all over Yu Prefecture to these two cities. For a time, Da Gu and Yu Yang became gathering places for powerful families of all ranks in Yu Prefecture, a veritable golden age for the region.
Despite this, he did not hesitate to fulfill Feng Jiutian's request to mobilize troops and provide supplies and equipment. He also did not hide how he dealt with these powerful families and clans, and reported back to Kuanglan City in detail afterward.
The staff was completely baffled and brought it up with Peng Yuancheng. But Peng Yuancheng smiled slightly and asked, "Do you think Commander Li would be so indifferent to his own base? His sending troops to Chen State at this time has a deeper meaning. If you don't know, don't ask."
The staff could only remain silent. Although he was Peng Yuancheng's confidant, this man was incredibly wise; how could he let others easily discern his thoughts?
"Li Jun, Li Jun, isn't this move of yours just inducing a rebellion?" When he first heard that Li Jun had sent troops to Chen, his heart pounded. With Li Jun's main force abroad, wouldn't Yuzhou be within easy reach? How could he remain under someone else's command for long, especially under someone as lowly as Li Jun?
But reason was not completely extinguished by the flames of ambition. Why did Li Jun hastily decide to march on Chen before Yuzhou was even stable? This was unlike his usual deep, wise, and meticulous character!
Following Feng Jiutian's rise to power, a series of reforms targeting powerful clans made him realize the truth. With Li Jun outside and Feng Jiutian inside, firstly, the animosity generated by these reforms could be transferred to Feng Jiutian, the implementer; secondly, it would give those who harbored resentment towards Li Jun an opportunity to gather, expose themselves, and ultimately seek their own demise!
After the Zhu family was destroyed, those still dissatisfied with Li Jun's rule went into hiding underground. If Li Jun were still in Yuzhou, given his domineering presence and talent, these underground rebels would only dare to cause trouble in secret, never daring to come out and cause trouble. Even someone as intelligent as Li Jun would find it difficult to eliminate them all one by one. However, by appointing Feng Jiutian, who was not yet capable of suppressing the masses, to rule, he could provoke these people to turn against him. Then, when Li Jun returned with his army to deal with them, Yuzhou could be dealt with once and for all. This must be a very important reason for Li Jun's invasion of Chen! Although the plan is good, only someone as absolutely confident and bold as Li Jun would dare to use such a dangerous strategy.
His opportunity lay precisely in the perilous nature of this plan. If Yuzhou remained peaceful, he would forever remain subordinate to Li Jun. But if Yuzhou descended into chaos, he could fish in troubled waters. However, he could not be the one to instigate the rebellion…
Li Jun naturally knew that countless eyes were watching him in secret, but he never imagined that a pair of eyes would be watching so closely, always waiting for this powerful giant to reveal his weakness before delivering a fatal blow. A skilled strategist can outsmart others; if Li Jun weren't overly clever, why would he have taken such a risk, why would he have revealed such an irreparable flaw?
However, without Liu Guang's existence, how could the various undercurrents in Yuzhou have converged, how could they have found Li Jun's weaknesses, and thus stirred up the massive wave that nearly capsized the Peace Army's warship? Li Jun hadn't considered Liu Guang, a man on par with Lu Xiang, as an immediate enemy—his biggest miscalculation. Deep down, he held some expectations for Liu Guang, hoping this man, on par with Lu Xiang, would also be a great man like Lu Xiang. But in essence, Liu Guang's ambition was far stronger than Lu Xiang's, and the injustice he suffered in Heng Kingdom had ignited his ambition. This fire of ambition would not be extinguished simply because Li Jun was Li Jun; on the contrary, it would burn even more fiercely in someone like Li Jun. In fact, if Li Jun reflected on himself, he should understand that Liu Guang didn't want a competitor, after all, in terms of personality, Li Jun resembled Liu Guang more than Lu Xiang.
Peng Yuancheng was also caught in the fire. He was waiting for an opportunity. He wasn't capable enough to create one, but he had the patience to wait. Only those who survived to the end were heroes—this was his profound understanding of this chaotic world.
These hidden undercurrents began to converge with Tong Pei's return to Yuzhou. What they needed now was a moment of impulsiveness from Li Jun at the forefront, but with Li Jun's strategic acumen, would he do something so foolish?
Peng Yuancheng was far away in Yuzhou at the time, merely observing the situation, while Tong Pei had not yet arrived in Yuyang to contact him. Only Liu Guang in Chen State, while raising a bronze wine vessel and urging his subordinates to drink, coldly relegated the name Li Jun to a dispensable place in his memory.
“Li Jun wouldn’t do anything foolish, so I’ll arrange one for him. That Peng Yuancheng seems to be quite a character. So, I’ll spare Li Jun’s life and let him go back to Yuzhou to have another showdown with Peng Yuancheng.”
Li Jun, who was in the main camp, suddenly shivered. Someone with his level of cultivation should be immune to both heat and cold...
Section 3
In Thunder City, the former governor's mansion has been upgraded to the Yu Prefecture Governor's Mansion. Feng Jiutian, as Hua Xuan's "advisor," has also found a place to live in this vast mansion. Zhao Xian, who remains here, reports to him daily on the intelligence gathered from various places. Although the number of homeless children in Yu Prefecture has greatly decreased, some still roam in cities that the Peace Army cannot directly control. Moreover, Zhao Xian's intelligence network is now far beyond homeless children; many Peace Army spies are also mixed among the small merchants and vendors in various places.
Even so, Li Jun and Feng Jiutian were still not entirely satisfied with the results of the Bitter Child Camp's work, most importantly, the lack of information about the Lotus Dharma Sect. The fact that such a secret sect had stirred up such a storm in Chen Kingdom, yet they hadn't obtained any prior information about it, was undoubtedly a mistake on the part of the Bitter Child Camp. This was largely due to the fact that while Zhao Xian and Wang Erlei were good at finding intelligence, they struggled to assess its value. After all, they had only begun their formal intelligence work in the past year, and before that, they had mostly gathered trivial matters like wives cheating on husbands or husbands having affairs. Although Li Jun didn't say anything to them, Feng Jiutian bluntly ordered them to correct their behavior immediately, urging them not to wait until the last minute to gather intelligence, as it would be difficult to obtain useful information if the enemy blocked information.
This time, Zhao Xian hurriedly entered Feng Jiutian's spacious but somewhat empty room, bringing what he considered to be some important news.
"Sir." Everyone in the Peace Army addressed Feng Jiutian as "Sir." Zhao Xian found a chair and sat down. Although Feng Jiutian was a very strict person, he was not one to be overly concerned with etiquette and formalities. In his view, as long as the goal could be achieved, the form adopted was not important. It was for this reason that he transformed the originally magnificent living room into a spacious but simple office.
"Is there something you need?" Feng Jiutian asked as he buried himself in writing an official letter.
"Tong Pei from the Tong family led a group of people back to Yuzhou. They were discovered by my men as soon as they arrived in Huichang. They seem to have been in secret contact with Jiang Runqun, the city lord of Huichang, and are now heading towards Yuyang City."
"Oh? The Tong family..." Feng Jiutian stopped what he was doing, frowned and pondered for a moment, then said, "Tong Pei, the last commander of Silver Tiger City, right? They came from the Chen Kingdom?"
“That’s right, but what’s strange is that Wang Erlei didn’t find them there. They seem to have bypassed the four cities controlled by the commander. The reason they dare not appear in those four cities must be that they are afraid of being recognized by the Peace Army. If that’s the case, their trip will definitely be detrimental to us.”
Feng Jiutian smiled slightly. How could he not know this? As someone driven out of Yuzhou by the Peace Army, Tong Pei's return to Yuzhou was definitely not with good intentions. The key question was, what exactly did he want to do? Was it, as Li Jun and he suspected, to collude with unstable elements in Yuzhou to harm the Peace Army?
In any case, what's coming will come. Feng Jiutian decided to let Tong Pei move freely for the time being, so that she could gather the hidden enemies together and then have Li Jun wipe them out with lightning speed, which would save a lot of trouble. This was also the reason why Li Jun insisted on sending troops to Chen State despite his and Sima Hui, Yu Sheng and other civil officials' opposition.
“Let’s leave them alone for now,” Feng Jiutian said, but then he felt it was inappropriate, so he added, “Send someone to keep an eye on them. Their every move must be reported to me, but do not alarm them. This matter is of great importance, so you must be careful.”
When Tong Pei returned to Yuzhou, he was accompanied by Gongsun Ming, the military clerk under Liu Guang, who was known for his "unimpeded eloquence".
After first paying a visit to Jiang Runqun, the city lord of Huichang City, they did not receive a clear answer. However, Jiang Runqun did not directly reject them, nor did he betray them to the Peace Army. Instead, he hinted to them that the only person in Yuzhou who could influence the overall situation was Peng Yuancheng, who held the troops of two cities.
"Lord Jiang, you are mistaken. How can Peng Yuancheng compare to you?" Gongsun Ming's face broke into a grin, making it hard to believe he was speaking the truth. "Peng Yuancheng only possesses two cities under Li Jun's support. If Lord Jiang could manage the overall situation in Yuzhou, with the strong support of Commander Liu from the outside and Lord Jiang's overall planning from within, let alone just two cities, even if the entire Yuzhou were given to Lord Jiang, it would be a waste of his talents. Lord Jiang, why be so modest? I hope you will think it over carefully!"