003
The main tent of the Southwest Army's encampment was in complete chaos.
"General, why can't you just marry that girl?"
The air inside the tent fell silent for a moment.
"Ouch—"
The man who made the suggestion was suddenly slapped on the forehead.
"Marry, marry, marry your father! Why don't you marry him?"
Yu Baizhou withdrew his hand. "I called you here with a plan in mind, but you all came up with terrible ideas."
"So, do I have to fight a war to marry one? And you guys will pay for it?"
A man with a slightly scholarly air stepped forward and advised, "General, please don't be angry. In my opinion, this may not be a bad thing."
Yu Baizhou strode to the head seat and sat down. "Jing, let me tell you."
The man called Jinghe maintained his smile and coaxed, "I think the general should agree to Governor Wang's request to get the grain supplies first. After all, this marriage isn't something that can be settled in a short time."
"So that we can discuss this further in more detail."
Yu Baizhou's face was grim. He subconsciously raised his hand but touched his stubble. "What if the advisor can't come up with a good plan? You know what the governor is up to."
“Actually… even if we really married the governor’s daughter, there might still be a way out. We don’t have any other way out right now,” Wei Jinghe laughed heartily. “After all, the general is not young anymore, and there should be a mistress to manage the inner quarters.”
"Isn't it better to boost morale by sacrificing his own marriage to exchange for food and supplies for our soldiers?"
"This is a win-win situation, a deal with no downsides... oops, I mean, a good marriage."
"Even if the general is unhappy, we can find another reason to divorce him later."
Yu Baizhou covered his eyes, "How could the governor possibly watch me go and agree to a divorce? Your thinking is far too naive."
"I'll think about it some more..."
*
"If you ask me, we should get the general drunk and carry him straight to the governor's mansion. By then, we'll have the supplies, the general's wife, and once we've made it a fait accompli, what can he say?"
After the meeting adjourned, several deputy generals secretly went to Wei Jinghe's tent to continue their discussions.
"You think you haven't been beaten enough?"
Deputy General Zhang touched the large bump on his forehead and remained silent.
"Actually, I think that what Deputy General Zhang said, though rough, is quite reasonable," another deputy general remarked.
"Our general is just too conservative and indecisive. The fierce energy he has on the battlefield, cutting down those southern barbarians, doesn't work here. Look at him... he's as awkward as a virgin when it comes to marrying a girl..."
"Do you think his innocence can put food on the table? It can help him get a wife and ensure the soldiers have enough to eat. Isn't that a great thing?"
"Hey, with my short temper, I just don't understand. Getting a wife is just a matter of blowing out a candle and taking off her clothes, so why is he being so stubborn!"
Wei Jinghe's lips twitched. "Deputy General Li, your words may be rough, but yours are just too rough..."
He also knew the general's concerns, which were nothing more than the fact that the governor of Yunzhou had secretly pledged allegiance to the second prince not long ago, and even if the general was slow to realize it, he could see that the governor was trying to win him over.
The Southwest Army was created to protect the southern border, and he was unwilling to let it become a victim of the power struggle within the imperial court.
Nowadays, the general is surrounded by illiterate, rough men. Even the general himself, who knows a few characters, has only read a few military books.
For them, encountering this situation truly proves the saying: "Having two holes in your forehead, no matter how good-looking you are, is useless."
Completely in the dark...
He looked up at the sky in anguish and sighed, "God, for the sake of our 100,000 soldiers' provisions, couldn't you just be a human being and give us a strategist...?"
"Look," Deputy General Wang said, taking a few steps closer to Deputy General Li in alarm, "Is Military Advisor Wei acting up here...?" He poked the bump on his forehead, "...something's wrong with him..."
"Get out of here, get out of here. Do you think everyone is like you?"
"Military Advisor Wei—" Just as he finished speaking, a soldier suddenly came from outside the tent and said, "Several people have suddenly arrived outside the military camp. One of them claims to be a strategist and requests to see the general."
"General, please come and take a look."
"Really? I'll go right now!" Wei Jinghe hurriedly put on his outer robe and followed the soldier, ignoring the deputy generals in the tent.
"Damn it..." Deputy General Wang scratched his head, which hadn't been washed for two months, "This really works..."
"Tonight I'll go back and pray to God, when will He grant me a wife..."
Deputy General Wang smiled foolishly.
Lieutenant Li looked disgusted and said, "You'd better clean yourself up first."
"It's been almost half a month since the battle ended, and you haven't even bothered to tidy yourself up... You're as dark as sheep droppings... What girl would want to be with you?"
Vice General Wang:...
He subconsciously wiped the dirt he had scratched off his head onto his trouser leg.
He'll go bathe in the river tonight, okay?
...
"Are you a strategist?"
Yu Baizhou asked with an incredulous expression.
He took several steps back, keeping a distance of several feet from the person in front of him, as if he were facing some terrifying plague god.
It is true that he has been terrified of women these days because of the daughter of Governor Wang.
"Exactly."
Song Ling remained calm and reached out to stop the person behind her from drawing their knife.
“Goodness…” Yu Baizhou felt extremely uncomfortable. “It’s not that I don’t trust you, but you…”
It doesn't look like it at all.
"General, do you perhaps look down on women?"
Yu Baizhou shook his head violently, "How could that be? How could that be? Miss is joking."
Although the woman before him was dressed in coarse white clothes and looked travel-worn, she possessed a cold and aloof demeanor, and her eyes seemed to keep people at a distance.
His cheeks were thin, and his skin was so pale; he always seemed unhealthy and wouldn't live long.
He was afraid that if the girl fainted in his presence, it could lead to a murder case and he wouldn't be able to explain himself.
"General!"
Where are the strategists?
Wei Jinghe rushed into the main tent and looked behind Yu Baizhou.
"Look, are you blind with so many people here?"
Following Yu Baizhou's gaze, he finally noticed the people beside him.
The leader was a woman with an outstanding demeanor, with a man and a woman behind her holding sword hilts in a protective posture.
"My name is Wei Yan, courtesy name Jinghe, and I am a military advisor in the Southwest Army. It is truly my fault that I did not recognize you just now. May I ask how I should address you..."
Wei Jinghe bowed and apologized.
"Song Ling." One shouldn't hit a smiling face, so Song Ling bowed in return.
"Tch, finally someone who understands." The round-faced girl behind Song Ling was about to say something sarcastic when she was stopped.
"Seven times full, one must not be rude."
"oh."
Wei Jinghe, his smile almost frozen, asked, "I've heard that you claim to be a strategist, is that true?"
Song Ling: "This humble citizen has come to relieve the food and supplies crisis of the Southwest Army."
At this moment, Wei Jinghe subconsciously exchanged a glance with the general, and both of them read surprise and shock in each other's eyes.
Unexpectedly, Yu Baizhou acted even faster than him.
"Come, come," he said, pulling over a stool and pouring tea for her, his face full of flattery. "I was very rude just now, please don't take it to heart, young lady..."
This is the complete opposite of the rejection he showed just now.
However, this forced smile looked awkward on General Yu's unshaven face, which was covered in mud.
“General Yu…” Song Ling put down the tea that had been shoved into her hand, “There’s really no need for this.”
“I know that the general and his advisor cannot fully trust me.”
"But the Southwest Army had just finished a battle, and half of the imperial court's grain and salary went into the pockets of corrupt officials, while the other half was robbed and killed."
"A little speculation from all sides will reveal the current predicament of the Southwest Army. General, there is no need to worry about who leaked the information, nor is there any need to be so vigilant."
"In other words, the crisis of the Southwest Army was already an open secret, and all parties were waiting for someone to take the lead so that they could all share the spoils."
Yu Baizhou and Wei Jinghe's stiff smiles faded; they were well aware of the grim situation.
Yu Baizhou had considered marrying Governor Wang's daughter in exchange for grain, but this would obviously put the lifeline of 100,000 troops in the enemy's hands.
Even as a general, he couldn't get any state to lend him grain, no matter how much he begged. Yunzhou was the only one willing to agree, on the condition that he marry the governor's daughter.
Song Ling: "I wonder if the general could dismiss the Zhou people? I would like to ask the general a few questions in private."
"OK."
Seeing Wei Jinghe retreat knowingly, Song Ling looked at the two behind her and said, "You two also step back and wait outside the tent."
"yes."
"yes."
Inside the tent, before General Yu could say anything, he heard the woman's shocking question.
"Does the general have designs on the throne?"
"Clang—" Yu Baizhou lost his grip on the cup.
"Young lady, watch your words!" The man hurriedly picked up the cup, his already rough and dark face becoming even more serious and intimidating. "Not discussing state affairs is my duty as a subject."
Although Song Ling's expression remained unchanged, her hand, placed to the side, gripped the hilt of her sword tightly.
"General, you should know that treacherous officials are now in power in Luoyang, acting as accomplices to evil. The borders are fraught with danger, and the people are suffering terribly."
"The court is beset by internal and external troubles and is showing signs of decline."
Yu Baizhou frowned and did not respond.
She slowly rose again and said, "I traveled from the northern frontier through the Central Plains, detoured through Eastern Wu, and then to the southern frontier, passing through sixteen prefectures, seventy-two counties, and five hundred and thirty-nine counties."
"The people were in such dire straits that they had no clothes to cover their bodies, no food to fill their stomachs, and resorted to cannibalism..."
"Uprisings and unrest are commonplace everywhere, and even low-ranking gentry with only a few hundred cloth-wearing soldiers dare to carve out a mountain to live in and declare themselves kings..."
"General, cough cough cough—" Song Ling's face paled even more. She raised her hand to refuse the water he offered and asked him without any politeness, "With such a world and such an emperor, do you still want to be loyal?"
In prosperous times, a soldier who doesn't want to be a general is not a good soldier. In chaotic times, a general who doesn't want to be an emperor is not a good general.
She didn't believe that a general commanding a region wouldn't understand this principle.
Is he genuinely ignorant, or is he just pretending to be stupid?
“Miss Song, although I have not read many books, I know the principles of loyalty to the emperor and service to the people. Have you come here today with the sincere intention of relieving the food crisis of my Southwest Army?”
Yu Baizhou was unwilling to continue the argument, and his brows furrowed.
Song Ling's heart sank to the bottom. No matter what she said, this person wouldn't listen. So she could only manage to utter two words: "Blind loyalty."
"You...don't go too far!" Yu Baizhou was a man of few words and not good with words, and now that he was being rebuked, he couldn't say anything to refute her. And facing a frail woman, he didn't dare to make a move, so he could only sit down to the side in anger, throwing his robes back without saying a word.
Song Ling sighed inwardly, knowing that she had no choice but to accept the current situation.
The celestial signs and the guidance of destiny are certainly not wrong, but does she really want to acknowledge such an illiterate, ignorant, and loyal man to the Later Jin Dynasty as her lord?
Either the Eldest Princess or the Marquis of Wu'an are far superior to him. She went to great lengths to leave Luoyang for the Southern Frontier, but she doesn't know if it was the right or wrong decision.
"If I can help the general solve the problem of supplies, how about the general keep me as his advisor?"
"In the future, the general must consult with me on all important matters."
Yu Baizhou thought about it briefly and decided it was feasible. Discussion was one thing, but whether or not he listened was ultimately up to him. "Okay."
Song Ling immediately understood what he was thinking, but didn't expose his naiveté. In her words, "discuss" meant they would discuss it, and she would weigh the options and make a decision.
"General, you are only worried about two things right now: the grain supply and the marriage alliance with the governor's mansion, aren't you?"
Yu Baizhou was stunned. How did she know that Governor Wang wanted to arrange a marriage alliance? "Yes."
Song Ling got straight to the point: "Actually, this matter is not difficult to explain."
Yu Baizhou was puzzled; how could the problem that had been tormenting him for months be so easily solved by this girl?
"If you are so capable, why did you come all the way to the southwest to be my strategist? There are so many talented and accomplished people in the world..."
"God willing."
Why are you acting so mysteriously?
General Yu, inside the tent, felt utterly bewildered.
Wei Yan, standing outside the tent, was also completely bewildered.
"May I ask you two heroes, where do you come from?"
Qi Man glanced at Wei Yan lightly, "North."
"Can the girls there really help us solve this crisis?"
"nature."
"May I ask who you gentlemen are...?"
Qi Man closed his eyes and remained silent.
Seeing that Wei Yan was a little embarrassed, the man next to Qi Man gently explained, "Let's wait for our young lady to say."
"May I ask how this chivalrous gentleman is addressed?"
"I dare not call myself a knight-errant, just call me Wu Sheng."
"Her name is Qi Man."
Wei Yan nodded quickly.
At this moment, the tent curtain was lifted, and Song Ling looked at the group and said coldly, "Please invite Military Advisor Wei into the tent for a chat."
*
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