Chapter 153
The Third Prince had been itching for a fight. Upon hearing that he could participate, he immediately stopped talking. He didn't even know how many men he had under his command. He simply took off his outer garment, revealing the soft armor he was already equipped with, picked up the heaviest and longest halberd from the weapon rack, swung it around a couple of times, and after confirming that it was quite handy, he entered the battlefield with a smug grin and an arrogant gait.
—Compared to its use on the battlefield, the halberd is more often used as a ceremonial weapon, simply because it is too long and heavy to maintain balance. Although there is a saying in combat that "an inch longer, an inch stronger; an inch shorter, an inch more dangerous," the longer the weapon, the more difficult it is to wield and control. This is true even for ordinary halberds, let alone the Fangtian Huaji, which Xue Jin'an extracted from the database, emphasizing aesthetics over strength.
The first of the eighteen weapons is the sword, spear, halberd, and dagger. The halberd was used far less in actual combat than the first three, and its popularity was naturally not high. In later generations, its fame was basically tied to Lü Bu, the number one warrior of the Three Kingdoms, and even gave rise to the saying, "Among men, Lü Bu; among horses, Red Hare; the halberd was used to stab his adoptive father."
To put it bluntly, the Fangtian Halberd that Xue Jin'an created is a beautiful but useless piece of junk. During the previous Northwest Army exercises, Xue Jin'an had also tried it out and confirmed that if it were put on the market, nine out of ten people wouldn't be able to handle it.
The Third Prince wielded the halberd with great power and might; if he were paired with a top-quality red Akhal-Teke horse, he would indeed resemble Lü Bu at first glance.
The Third Prince charged straight into the Rainforest Map—his reason for choosing this map was simple: it featured Monk Fang and Prince Zhang, and the Imperial Guard and the Northwest Army were evenly matched. This map was where the fighting was most intense, but it also had the most survivors.
The Third Prince was a typical warlike and reckless man. He would run to wherever the fighting was most intense. In order to find people more accurately, he even asked Xue Jin'an for a telescope and rushed to the center of the battle.
In less than a quarter of an hour, Fang Tianhua halberd smoothly entered the battle between the two sides. With a brute force, he swept his arm and cleared a space. Then, without saying a word, he directly confronted Fang Heshang, who was the most skilled among them. Fang Heshang also reacted quickly and counterattacked.
The two fought so fiercely and arrogantly that the others who were almost caught in the crossfire quickly moved away from them, unknowingly clearing a space for them, as if the two were fighting in a ring.
When the Third Prince's eliminated soldiers arrived, both the Third Prince and Monk Fang had blood on their faces. However, Monk Fang's injuries were more numerous and frightening. He eventually exhausted his internal energy and was slammed to the ground by the Third Prince's halberd. He couldn't get up for a long time, his head was dizzy, and it seemed like mosquito coils were spinning in his eyes.
Seeing that things were not going well, Prince Zhang immediately provoked him, saying, "Damn Xue Langhuan, you really are a good dog of the Seventh Prince, doing whatever you're told."
The Third Prince was not ashamed at all, but rather proud, laughing arrogantly and unrestrainedly, "Grandpa is happy to be a mad dog, what's it to you? Even if you were to try to prove your loyalty to the Seventh Brother, he wouldn't accept you."
The coded words used by Prince Zhang were absurd; he never expected that he would be the only one truly harmed in the end. He silently clutched his chest, suppressing the metallic taste rising in his throat. Finally, under Cui Zui's command, he adjusted his formation, surrounding the Third Prince's eliminated soldiers and the Northwest Army who hadn't yet reacted, preparing to devour them all.
The Third Prince was indeed quite brave. His sudden entry as a third party did cause trouble for Cui Zui and Helian Cheng at the beginning. However, by the time they left the rainforest map and headed to other maps, news of him had already spread throughout the army by the two commanders. With this precaution, they rarely stumbled. The two sides even tacitly joined forces to try to drive this "grain-picking" out.
Even though the Third Prince's martial arts skills are beyond the reach of ordinary people, if five or ten people are arranged to fight against him, the Third Prince can only show his weakness.
Xue Jin'an was not surprised. Putting aside his princely status, the Third Prince was actually a person very suitable for charging and scaling walls on the battlefield. However, he was ultimately just a brave man with reckless courage. Such bravery was destined to fail when facing a mature commander.
This is what Xue Jin'an intended to teach the Third Prince. Throughout the battle, the Third Prince, Cui Zui, and Helian Cheng served as whetstones for each other.
...
Cui Zui and the Third Prince were no match for Helian Cheng's cunning and shrewdness. In the end, the battle ended with a score of three to one. Helian Cheng won the three maps: Desert, Western Regions, and Capital. As for the remaining map, Rainforest, the Imperial Guards were greedy and wanted to take down the Northwest Army and the Third Prince at the same time. They managed to swallow them up, but it was a Pyrrhic victory. Only a few small groups of people were left who could barely stand.
Later, Cui Zui personally carried them back.
After the match ended, a group of people lay dead in the room, their eyelids drooping and not even wanting to lift their arms. The Third Prince, who had been fighting non-stop from the start to the end, was lively and energetic, forming a stark contrast with the lifeless crowd. However, his body had also reached its limit, but his spirit remained high.
Although the match had only lasted a little over an hour, everyone felt more tired than when they usually stayed up all night to fight, and every part of their body was screaming in pain.
Seeing that they were all getting into the swing of things, Xue Jin'an nodded in satisfaction and said, "The massage room over there is open, and someone is waiting there. Go on."
"Thank you, sir/commander." The two groups helped each other into the specially set-up massage area.
The Third Prince was very interested in everything Xue Jin'an had set up and was the first to respond. As soon as he stepped in, while everyone else was still watching and hesitating, he had already chosen the massage bed that looked the most pleasing to the eye and lay down. The employee waiting next to him immediately smiled and stepped forward to introduce the packages to him.
—This massage area was specially set up by Xue Jin'an after perfecting the new training method. It also has a bathhouse. When the Minister of Works first saw it, he didn't quite understand the setup. The Minister of Revenue even directly said he wanted to abolish the place. He didn't understand why it was built and why it would cost money to hire employees.
This minor issue didn't even reach Xue Jin'an's attention, nor did Cui Zui intervene. Xu Pingchuan took the two of them to experience the exhilarating sensation, and immediately the two of them were speechless.
Not only did they stop talking, but after feeling their physical condition the next day, they nodded in agreement and decided to have this thing, which was only available in the military-only area, copied in a special area on the other half of the area. However, Feng Yin was very careful and set up this area as a member-only benefit, and it was a paid service.
Incidentally, in order to retain customers, Feng Yinshou does not plan to reissue membership cards, and will instead share one membership card with Jiu Tianyi.
That said, the people who went in with no idea what they were about to face had no idea. When they saw the masseuse lock the door, they blinked their clear, foolish eyes and asked why the door was locked.
They soon learned that the door was locked to prevent them from escaping.
The screams, like pigs being slaughtered, came in layers, so pitiful that they sent chills down the spines of both commanders.
Xue Jinan remained calm, saying, "Muscle soreness after exercise can be very painful if you try to massage the muscle lumps, but it will be fine by the next day."
Cui Zui covered his ears, unable to block out the piercing screams. He twitched his lips and asked, "Will everything really be alright?"
This sounds like something's up, and it's not a small thing.
"Won't there be any problems?" Even Helian Cheng, who knew a little about what Xue Jin'an had said, couldn't help but ask.
Although the two said the same thing, their meanings were completely different. Cui Zui was worried about the person performing at the time, while He Liancheng was worried about things like whether the person would die during the massage.
As it turns out, massage is an activity that won't kill you. No matter how pitifully the people inside scream, they all come out alive, though they seem mentally disoriented.
The Third Prince, who stretched out his limbs looking very comfortable, once again stood out from the group. His voice was deep and powerful, which was why he had shouted the loudest earlier. This also allowed him to feel the benefits of the massage more quickly. His body aches were greatly relieved, and his strength was restored to a great extent.
Xue Jin'an said, "That's all for today. We'll continue tomorrow. I hope you can hold on for a little longer."
At that moment, the soldiers on both sides contorted their faces. Looking at Xue Jin'an's youthful face, they roared inwardly, but could only manage to utter, "Your subordinate obeys!"
At this moment, their respect for the Seventh Prince/Commander Xiaolong reached an unprecedented level, and they reached a consensus: never mess with the Seventh Prince/Commander Xiaolong.
The soldiers helped each other down to rest, and Helian Cheng praised Cui Zui, saying, "He performed very well."
Cui Zui pursed his lips. "I lost. I accept my defeat wholeheartedly, but one day I will defeat you."
The third prince nodded in agreement, "I will eventually defeat you."
The Third Prince had already treated this like a single-player game; his goal was to defeat Cui Zui and Helian Cheng and win.
Xue Jin'an commented on this wild king, "You can give it a try after Helian Cheng retires."
"When the Northwest Army is handed over to someone else, we won't need to worry about anything when we fight, and we can go all out." The Third Prince didn't understand the meaning behind Xue Jin'an's words at all, and thought that he was being praised, so he accepted it without any politeness.
Cui Zui didn't want to discuss the battle any further. He looked at Xue Jin'an and changed the subject, "Master, isn't it too much of a burden for you to do this for three months?"
Although Cui Zui intended to use this matter as a pretext to divert attention, his concern for Xue Jin'an was genuine, and he looked worried when he talked about it.
"It's acceptable." Xue Jin'an replied casually, and Cui Zui, seeing that he didn't seem to be reluctant at all, felt relieved.
In fact, Xue Jin'an was fearless. Anyway, the most serious loss was in the battery level, and his battery health had also improved a lot. The battery was gradually approaching the level of a normal mobile phone. If it ran out of power, he could just eat something to charge it.
Before we knew it, the day of Geely's opening arrived.
Ever since the Seventh Prince joined the Imperial Guard, the officials of the Great Qi Dynasty have been trembling with fear, waiting for him to cause trouble. After all, he was the kind of person who could confront the Rong and Di envoys even during his confinement. How could he possibly stop now?
Then they waited and waited, but the Seventh Prince behaved himself and only took people to a strange shop every day. They immediately sent people to inquire out of curiosity, only to find out that the shop had not yet opened for business!
Now that the new store has opened, they can't help but be curious about how fun it is inside that can keep even the ruthless Seventh Prince in line. They couldn't help but feel curious and many people asked their family members for Nine Plus One memberships, wanting to experience it for themselves. However, they didn't expect that there were too many people queuing up, and the appointments were already booked until next year.
There were those who weren't well-informed, who tried to use their power to force the Geely boss to let them cut in line, only to be silenced by the shopkeeper's constant refusals. When they were so angry that their hearts, livers, spleens, lungs, and kidneys ached, they turned around and met the cold, death-looking gaze of a first-rank official in the imperial court.
He wasn't mistaken; the knife-wielding man's eyes couldn't be hidden. If Feng Yinshou hadn't threatened him beforehand not to act recklessly, this man would probably be dead by now.
The Left Minister did nothing to him, so the man should have been happy, but his happiness lasted only a short moment before he became anxious again. His heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys started to hurt again, this time out of fear.
Geely's business has been booming since it opened, and it seems to be getting better every day. Even with such a huge crowd, Xue Jin'an still insists on taking people there to play.
"He really is a child at heart." The ministers relaxed, thinking that the seventh prince would be engrossed in this game and wouldn't cause trouble until he got tired of it.
They harbored such thoughts, unaware that Galdan had brought his life and fortune to Xue Jin'an.
Galdan looked at the expressionless and composed seventh prince of the Great Qi Dynasty opposite him, his feelings were very complicated. When they first met, they were both very arrogant, looking at people with their chins held high, as proud as peacocks.
Now, he is a prisoner, barely clinging to life, desperately seeking protection. The person opposite him is exactly the same as he remembered, his arrogant attitude revealing all his unconcealable ugliness.
To describe Galdan's feelings, it was a mixture of envy, jealousy, and hatred, but not envy. There were three parts jealousy and seven parts hatred, yet he couldn't show it. He had to grasp at this straw to survive; it was his only remaining path.
—Just as Xue Jin'an had guessed, the Rongdi Khan sent men to kill Galdan, wanting him to die "gloriously" within the territory of Daqi. If it weren't for the Empress Dowager's quick action in locking him up in the palace prison in time, he wouldn't be alive now.
Galdan was terrified. After discovering that the Great Qi Society would protect him, he desperately clung to this lifeline. Even though the Rongdi envoys had returned, even though the assassins had disappeared, and even though he had been released from prison, he still voluntarily restricted his movements and stayed obediently in the palace, never venturing out unless absolutely necessary.
But such a life is not a long-term solution. Sooner or later he will return to the northern desert and break this life-or-death stalemate. However, he did not expect that it was not Da Qi who forced him to make a choice, but Weng Tianxin, who had always been by his side.
This was probably the only deviation from Xue Jin'an's predictions: the human heart.
Weng Tianxin received a secret message from Rongdi Khan. As the most suitable person to send Galdan to his death, he should have killed him long ago. However, his conscience and emotions held him back, and he did not take action at the best opportunity.
Thus, Galdan became a hostage of the Great Qi, and a thorn in the side of the Rongdi Khan.
Weng Tianxin began to waver again. After Galdan gradually lowered his guard and trusted him more and more, and after a year of relying on him for survival, Weng Tianxin made his move, but failed and was stopped by the secret guards who had been arranged nearby.
Galdan survived, while Weng Tianxin died on the spot and was beheaded. The Empress Dowager then placed his head in an exquisite box and sent it to the table in his room.
This is a choice, Galdan's last chance.
They could either become puppets of the Great Qi and use its power to return to the Northern Desert, or die like Weng Tianxin, leaving nothing behind.
Galdan wanted to live, so he suppressed his nausea, clung to the box containing Weng Tianxin's head, and came here to meet the person he hated most in his life, and pretended to be friendly with him.
"Seventh Prince, everything back then was my fault. I will punish myself with three cups." The once arrogant Third Prince has finally had his edges smoothed out and learned to bow his head.
Xue Jin'an didn't listen to what he was saying at all. Apologizing, admitting his mistakes, bowing his head... none of it mattered. The only meaning he had for Xue Jin'an and the Empress Dowager was his very existence.
“You’ll be able to go back soon,” Xue Jin’an said.
The next day, Geely and Heliancheng went online on time.
Xue Jin'an said, "It's time for the Northwest Army to make a move."
"What?" Helian Cheng asked.
Xue Jin'an gave a friendly smile and slowly said, "One hundred thousand troops will escort Galdan back to Rongdi."
As for helping the Third Prince quell some minor rebellions and wipe out some bandits on the way back, and being begged by the Rong and Di people to leave troops to garrison there, these were all unavoidable side helpers, weren't they? After all, we were already here.
Helian Cheng's eyes gleamed, and he readily accepted the task.
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