Chapter 38

Inside the private room, the huge map was still spread out on the table.

It resembles a gigantic corpse with its chest ripped open.

Mountains and rivers are its bones and muscles, rivers are its green veins, and those densely packed cities and garrisons circled by Tang Pu with cinnabar are like festering wounds on its body.

Cui Yunshu sat motionless next to the corpse.

She felt like she was going to die.

Not the kind of quick, painless death that comes from being stabbed to death.

It's a slower, more agonizing, suffocating feeling, like being slowly suffocated.

Tang Pu has already left.

But the scorching aura emanating from him, a mixture of sweat, rust, and fervent idealism, still lingered in the air, burning her skin.

Memorial on Pacifying the Nation and Establishing a New State

Private navy.

Intelligence stations and armories were scattered throughout the country.

These words, like a group of drunken madmen, rampaged through her mind, smashing the little order she had painstakingly built up called "calmness" to shreds.

She just wanted to run away.

She just wanted to take her family and money to a place where no one knew her before the end of the world, buy an island, become a lazy island owner, bask in the sun every day, count her gold coins, read storybooks, and just live a life of leisure and waiting to die.

Is it that difficult?

Why?

Why did she transform from a potential billionaire who just wanted to lie low into the "chief strategist" in the eyes of a neurotic ally with a "great rebellion" in mind?

What did she do wrong?

Should she have avoided opening "Yun Jian Ge"? Or should she have avoided setting up that "joint-stock company"? Or should she have avoided...?

I'm too lazy to think about it.

I can't figure it out.

Cui Yunshu buried her face deeply in her hands, her fingertips icy cold.

She is now facing an extremely serious problem.

Tang Pu, this "revolutionary vanguard" with explosive action, has been ignited by her own hands. He is now a red-hot cannon, ready to explode at any moment. If she doesn't quickly find him a safe target to fire his cannonball, he'll be the next one to blow up, along with the entire Cui family.

We need to find him something to do.

A serious matter that is complex enough, time-consuming enough, and makes him feel that "this is contributing to a great cause."

Send him to the depths of the East China Sea to draw a nautical chart? No way, that guy might actually be able to draw her a map of the waterway defenses that would allow her to directly attack the capital.

Send him to the Western Regions to trade horses? No way, he can bring you back a warhorse that can directly equip an entire army.

Cui Yunshu felt that her brain was like an overused, old abacus, with every bead stuck in its groove and unable to be moved.

Just then.

A series of urgent, somewhat anxious knocks sounded at the door.

It wasn't the kind of commotion Tang Pu would cause, almost tearing the door apart; it was more restrained and professional.

"Miss."

She is the manager of the Yunjian Pavilion's main branch in Beijing, and also the head of the intelligence network whom she personally promoted.

"Come in."

The shopkeeper pushed open the door and entered, his face solemn. He respectfully presented a letter sealed with sealing wax.

"Northern border, urgent dispatch from 800 li away."

Cui Yunshu's heart skipped a beat.

She opened the letter and quickly scanned the coded text written in secret.

The more I looked at her, the brighter her eyes became.

It wasn't the kind of fervent, burning brilliance that Tang Pu possessed.

It is like a traveler who has trekked through darkness for three days and three nights finally seeing a glimmer of hope, a light that signifies survival after calamity.

A golden opportunity has arrived.

The opportunity just came knocking on our door.

"Go, bring Prince An back to me..." she ordered, almost blurting out the self-reference that Tang Pu had been leading her astray.

...

Tang Pu returned very quickly.

He probably thought that the "mastermind" had given some new strategic instructions, and he was in a state of excitement, ready to be ordered to go into battle at any time.

As soon as he entered, his gaze fell on the map, as if he were looking at his lover.

"Princess, has something else happened in the capital?"

"Nothing's happening in the capital." Cui Yunshu pointed to the chair opposite him, gesturing for him to sit down. "It's the northern border."

She pushed the newly deciphered intelligence report over.

Tang Pu took it, glanced at it, and his expression instantly became extremely solemn.

"A blizzard has blocked the mountains? The supply lines are cut off?!" He stood up abruptly and paced anxiously in the private room. "Nonsense! Utter nonsense! Don't those good-for-nothings in the Ministry of War know what winter is like in the North? Why didn't they stockpile winter clothing and medicine in advance? Has all the military funds allocated each year been wasted?"

“It’s too late to say all this now.” Cui Yunshu calmly interrupted his roar. “The military report should have already reached the Emperor. The court must be in complete chaos right now. It will take at least a month to transfer supplies from the capital and transport them over the official roads. A month… tens of thousands of soldiers on the northern front will probably freeze to death or die of disease before the barbarians even arrive.”

Tang Pu's fists clenched so tightly they cracked, and the veins on the back of his hands bulged.

He knew perfectly well what this meant. That was the place where he had fought and bled, where countless of his comrades-in-arms lived.

"I'm going to find the Crown Prince! We must..."

“It’s too late.” Cui Yunshu interrupted him again. “You know better than I how inefficient bureaucrats are. By the time they finish their wrangling, it’ll be too late.”

Looking at Tang Pu's face, which was distorted by anger and anxiety, she knew that the time had come.

Come on, my good ally, it's time for you to shine.

On Cui Yunshu's face, there was that unfathomable expression that Tang Pu was most familiar with—an expression that seemed to indicate that everything was under control.

"Yuanzhi".

She called him by his courtesy name.

Tang Pu immediately stopped in his tracks, like a tamed tiger, staring intently at her, awaiting her "divine revelation".

"You said before that you wanted to conduct live-fire exercises." Cui Yunshu's voice was unhurried, as if she were playing a game of chess where she already knew the outcome. "Now, the opportunity has come."

"What?" Tang Pu was taken aback.

“I believe,” Cui Yunshu stood up, walked to the huge map, and gently tapped her finger on the vast land of the North, “that this is the perfect opportunity to test the combat capabilities of our ‘intelligence and logistics network.’ A… great military exercise.”

Tang Pu's breath hitched.

In an instant, he connected the words "Northern Crisis" and "Military Exercise" in his mind.

Then, his eyes burst forth with an unprecedented, dazzling light.

He understood!

He understood completely!

Master strategist! Truly worthy of being called the master strategist!

She actually managed to see an opportunity for our "great cause" in a national disaster!

This is not disaster relief!

This is using the court's crisis to train our own troops! It's using the emperor's money to buy the morale of the northern army!

high!

That's way too high!

"Please give your instructions, Master!" Tang Pu knelt on one knee, his voice trembling violently with excitement.

Seeing his self-conquest to such an extreme, Cui Yunshu's slight sense of guilt vanished instantly.

Yes, that's right, I'm training them. Just think of it that way, and you're on the right track.

“My plan is simple.” Cui Yunshu’s voice carried an undeniable decisiveness. “Abandon the slow official canal transport and post roads. I will use all the branches and warehouses of ‘Yunjian Pavilion’ in the northern prefectures to purchase cotton clothing, medicinal herbs, spirits and high-calorie food locally.”

“And you,” she turned her gaze to Tang Pu, “use the Prince of An’s mansion and all your military connections to open up a rapid supply line that belongs only to us, under the guise of ‘delivering emergency military supplies,’ from outside those official roads blocked by heavy snow.”

"I'll take care of the money and supplies, and you take care of the roads and people."

"While those high-ranking officials in the court are still arguing about which warehouse the first batch of supplies should be allocated from, our supplies will have already been delivered to every soldier in the North."

"This is our future army's logistics support exercise. Do you dare to take it on?"

"dare!"

Tang Pu suddenly raised his head, his tiger-like eyes burning with fierce flames. "Why wouldn't I dare! I'll take care of it right away!"

He felt like his blood was about to boil.

This is a hundred times, a thousand times more exciting than just talking about war on paper with maps!

Theory combined with practice!

This is the right way to achieve great things!

"Don't worry, Princess! No! Don't worry, strategist!" He was so excited that he was incoherent. "I will immediately muster the royal guards and send a message to my uncles in the north, asking them to cooperate fully! I guarantee that your supplies will be on the Great Wall within ten days!" [34]

After he finished speaking, without even waiting for Cui Yunshu to say another word, he turned around and rushed out like a cannonball.

That figure was filled with the high-spirited fighting spirit of "working hard for the revolutionary cause".

The private room finally returned to silence.

Cui Yunshu let out a long, long sigh of relief.

She felt like she had just run a marathon, and every pore on her body was exhausted.

Finally...

We've sent this plague away.

She slowly sat back in her chair, picked up the cup of ice-cold tea that had been changed countless times, and drank it all in one gulp.

The cold liquid calmed her head, which had become feverish from overacting.

exercise?

great cause?

Fuck it.

She walked to the desk, spread out a new account book, and picked up her pen.

The pen tip glides across the paper, producing the most beautiful sound in the world.

The unfathomable depths of her dark eyes were gone, replaced by the purest, coldest shrewdness and calculation characteristic of a businesswoman.

The imperial court's procurement funds can be at least 30% higher than the market price.

With the military's supply line secured, how many checkpoints will be spared from taking advantage of "Yunjian Pavilion's" goods?

What is the value of this intangible asset—the favor one gains within the entire Northern Army?

A highly profitable "profiteering from national crisis" is about to begin.

As for Tang Pu and his "great cause"...

Let him be.

As long as he doesn't bother me, I can interpret this matter however I want.