At the end, he looked at the two long spears standing to the left and right of the tent curtain with a look of sympathy on his face. One of the spears was adorned with a rat-patterned mask, and the other with an ox-patterned mask. Both men were tensely stiff, their eyes not straying...
He silently sighed, shook his head, and with the warm water jug in tow, strode away.
An hour later, he hurried back to the military tent, lifted the curtain, and bent down to enter.
But before he could speak, he saw Yang Ge gesture to him with a wave of his hand.
Yang Ge beckoned towards the Cold Moon treasure sword hanging in the tent, and the next second, the sword, which had been quietly lying in its sheath, shot out like lightning, turning into a streak of blade light that Zhou Fu could only see as a blur, piercing through the tent curtain and flying out.
The next second, a muffled grunt could be heard not far away.
Zhou Fu, shocked, followed the direction of the grunt and saw the Cold Moon treasure sword flying back, returning to its sheath.
He clearly saw that when the Cold Moon treasure sword flew back, it carried a smear of fresh red, which swiftly turned to dark red as it returned to the sheath...
"Zi Rat."
Yang Ge softly called out.
The young man wearing the rat-patterned mask bent down and entered the tent, cupping one hand in the other in salute: "Second Master."
Yang Ge pointed at Zhou Fu and said, "From now on, you twelve will follow Zhou, entering and leaving with him, sleeping and rising with him; if anything changes, protect him first and help him break through."
The two men under the tent tentatively exchanged glances, their expressions somewhat strange.
Yang Ge withdrew his hand, picked up the ancient book, and said softly, "I don’t believe in the White Lotus Sect, but I believe in you."
Zi Rat’s eyes, once filled with skepticism, cleared immediately, and he saluted again: "As long as the Twelve Zodiac Guardians are present, Zhou Fu shall be safe."
His words were soft, yet they resonated firmly.
Yang Ge awkwardly tugged at the corner of his mouth, then abandoned the gesture: "I am asking you to guard him and help him break through, not to meet the enemy head-on. He must live well and completely unharmed, and you all must live full and well too."
Zi Rat lowered his eyelids and said resolutely in a low voice, "The Twelve Zodiac Guardians... will strictly follow the Second Master’s orders!"
Yang Ge nodded, and Zi Rat bowed and exited the tent to personally replace the tent curtain.
Zhou Fu, at Yang Ge’s invitation, sat down next to the charcoal stove, somewhat at a loss, and said, "Second Master, I haven’t stepped half a foot out of the military camp."
Yang Ge nodded nonchalantly: "Minor issues. I had already anticipated they would play dirty, I just overestimated them a bit, they keep using small tricks that aren’t fit for the light."
Zhou Fu, slightly stunned, then looked at Yang Ge with an odd expression and said quietly, "Now that you mention it, I remember... their tactics might not be so crude. Among the gifts sent by Ashikaga Yoshiaki’s envoy were several... um...lets say, quite ’charming’ Dongying women. I sent the hounds I used to kill those envoys, and all those women were slain. Those assassins might have infiltrated the military camp seeking me out of desperation, following the heads."
Yang Ge just ’heh’ed lightly, noncommittally, and then continued to inquire, "How are the supplies?"
Zhou Fu immediately answered, "Reporting to Second Master, the supplies are still sufficient, enough for the servants’ army for a month, more than enough to support the army in taking down Kyoto!"
Such words should not come from the mouth of a professional commander.
Unfortunately, the previous military exploits of Yang Ge leading the servants’ army to sweep through Honshu had given him far too much confidence.
In short... he learned military strategies, while the appearance of a near peerless Grandmaster like Yang Ge on the battlefield, disregarded all military strategies!
Out of instinct as a commander, he had once placed himself in opposition to Yang Ge and conducted war games. When he increased the troop numbers to one hundred thousand and assumed Yang Ge was clueless about military matters, just a brute, that’s when he got the best outcome: his victory, but he would have to die.
With such a devastating force on the battlefield, what high walls or deep moats couldn’t be taken?
"One month..."
Yang Ge pondered for a moment, then softly said, "That’s too much."
Zhou Fu raised his eyebrows in surprise then quickly realized: "You mean... to divide the forces again?"
Yang Ge, shaking his head slowly, explained, "Dividing the forces again wouldn’t make much sense and would leave a hidden danger. What I mean is, we need to cut back on food distribution."
Zhou Fu couldn’t understand the reasoning behind it at once and respectfully asked, "Please enlighten me, Second Master."
Yang Ge: "Haven’t you ever raised hunting dogs? Hunting dogs should not be fed too much; if they’re too full, they lose the desire to chase after prey."
Zhou Fu suddenly understood and nodded in agreement, "On one side, they suffer from biting cold and hunger; on the other, they face the tender pleasures of Heian-kyō. Within three days, these vicious dogs, accustomed to bullying on borrowed power, will be red-eyed and baring their teeth towards Heian-kyō!"
Yan Ge nodded his head and said indifferently, "Exactly, and... there are too many dogs, mad, fierce, and falsely plump. It’s perfect to use Heian-kyō as a stone lock for them to sharpen their teeth and strengthen their limbs. Starve a batch, kill a batch, and the ones that are left can be put to great use."
Zhou Fu thought he had become accustomed to Yang Ge’s ruthlessness towards these Dongying pirates, but upon hearing Yang Ge’s words, he couldn’t help but mutter under his breath, "Too cruel, truly too cruel!"
But immediately after, he whispered with some concern, "Second Master, this way of doing things... How will this servant army end up being dealt with?"
Yang Ge: "Isn’t that simple? After Dongying is done, we can drag them to Goguryeo and keep fighting. If there are any left after Goguryeo is finished, we can pull them to the steppes and head north... "
He hissed, stroking the stubble on his chin, lost in murmuring thought, "It’s a plan indeed. We can completely use Dongying as a base for the servant army, continuously exploiting their adult men, batch by batch sending them overseas as the vanguard for Huaxia’s expansion. If the steppes are done, we can strike further into East Asia. Not only does this reduce the casualties and difficulties of expanding the territory, but it thoroughly neutralizes the hazard of those pesky Dongying brats. When the population of the Divine Land finally explodes, we can directly move a batch of Huaxia blood here to truly claim these islands..."
For a moment, numerous brilliant ideas flashed through his mind.
As such, to actively promote on the islands how they are earthquake-prone and unsafe, and for their safety, it’s necessary to seize a piece of land on the continent for them and their descendants to live and prosper in peace and without worries.
Or, in the case of a pirate leader whose military exploits are so outstanding that they cannot be suppressed, reward him openly with a return home as a daimyo, only to kill him once he boards the ship and send a Huaxia man disguised as him back to Dongying to promote as a daimyo.
Lost in a burst of inspiration for quite some time, Yang Ge finally made a decisive pounding of his fist, affirming, "This has potential!"
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Startled by the thud of his fist, Zhou Fu shivered, shouting in his mind, ’Holy shit, holy shit,’ thinking, ’As long as they don’t die, he’ll use them to the absolute limit, vowing not to stop until Dongying’s last drop of blood is drained!’
His relation with Yang Ge wasn’t as close as Yang Tiansheng’s and Li Jincheng’s, so he refrained from asking ’What grudge, what grievance?’ that question.
But in his heart, he was truly wondering... just what kind of grudge would make the Second Master so determined, single-mindedly, and racked with brain-straining effort to doom the pirates completely!
Yang Ge looked up at Zhou Fu, who was wide-eyed as if seeing a ghost, staring at him, "Why are you looking at me like that? Even if such things need to be done, it should be the court to take the lead... What, is it too troublesome for you?"
Zhou Fu suddenly snapped back to reality, shaking his head like a rattle-drum: "Not at all troublesome, not troublesome!"
He dared not find it troublesome, for if it were any more troublesome, the Second Master himself might just establish a kingdom!
"Then let’s proceed with that."
Yang Ge picked up a book and said lightly, "Send a few reliable brothers over, set the granary on fire, and publicly claim that it was someone from the Ashikaga Shogunate who started the fire. He fears us, he dares not engage us in battle, and can only resort to burning our food in hopes of starving us to death in the snow... Starting tomorrow, reduce the food ration by twenty percent per day, and after seven days attack Heian-kyō."
Zhou Fu’s complexion fluctuated between storms and sunshine with his words, changing so constantly it was more fascinating than a face-changing magician.
After Yang Ge finished, Zhou Fu knitted his brows and pondered for a long time before he asked softly, "Second Master, seven days... might that be a tad too long? The Ashikaga Shogunate won’t just sit idly by!"
Yang Ge leafed through his book and replied softly, "That is exactly to give them time to muster a large army, to find the courage. If we take down Heian-kyō now, centuries later, some shameless people might say we merely took advantage of a quick entry and exit..."
"If we are to fight, we’ll sink them at their peak!"
"Break through Heian-kyō, chop off the heads of the Dog Emperor and Ashikaga, beat them until they forever see themselves as inferior!"
"After all, it’s the pirates who will die. Even if all 84,000 in the servant army are wiped out, I won’t feel sorry for them."
"It’s only seven days."
"I have patience."
"I can wait."
His words were so light, so ethereal, that even the sound of flipping pages seemed unusually pronounced.
Yet to Zhou Fu, they felt heavy, much like his present situation.
Outside the tent, the wind whistled, carrying snowflakes, while he sat by the warm brazier...
His back was cold.
His heart, ablaze!