283. Blast open the fertile waters, and flood Huaqu City.
Xie Wenling closed his eyes, forcing himself to calm down.
He said wearily, "Please sit down first."
He looked at the little princess: "Your Highness, how did you come to be here? What is the situation in the palace now?"
He then looked at Lin Fuman, his head beginning to throb: "And you, didn't I tell you to go back? Why did you come back?"
The little princess excitedly recounted how she sneaked out of the palace, how she met Lin Fuman, and how the two of them searched for her all the way there.
After listening to the little princess's story, the room fell into a deathly silence.
Qu Zijin leaned against the headboard, his face ashen, his eyes filled with despair as he looked at the little princess.
He muttered, "It's over...it's completely over...the princess left the palace without permission and went to such a dangerous place...I...I am guilty beyond redemption..."
Even one of the reasons the little princess ran away was because of him!
So many difficulties before hadn't been able to break him, but now, looking at the little princess's arrogant face, he wished he could just smash his head against the wall and die.
He only has three students in total!
Now, there are two of them, both of them are here!
What a terrible thing...
Qu Zijin could hardly imagine the chaos that had gripped the capital city.
Xie Wenling's expression was also not good.
He rubbed his stinging temples and looked at the three little girls standing side by side.
One is the little dumpling he cares about most, who is the most obedient and the most reassuring, but whom he least wants to see here.
One is a princess of noble birth who is willful and capricious.
Another one is Lin Fuman, who seems calm but is also incredibly audacious.
He took a deep breath and slowly exhaled, feeling that the pain from his injury couldn't overshadow the heaviness in his heart.
Very good, he now understands the same deep sorrow that Qu Zijin felt.
I can't calm down at all.
He glared fiercely at Qu Zijin: "No wonder you're your student, just like you, coming out to rescue people without any help."
Clearly, he wasn't thinking things through as much as he thought before he spoke.
Lin Fuman and Xiao Tuanzi, who inexplicably felt that they were also affected by his yin-yang, both looked up at him.
However, the little princess couldn't understand any sarcastic remarks; she took them all as Xie Wenling praising her.
She nodded smugly: "Yes, yes, I am of the same lineage as the Grand Tutor!"
Qu Zijin remained silent and turned his head as if to bang his head against the wall.
Fortunately, his two attendants caught him in time and pulled him back.
Xie Wenling took a deep breath, and then another.
"In other words," he finally resigned himself, "we now have a high-ranking official who is still recovering from serious injuries, a princess whose identity cannot be revealed, and two... children."
His gaze swept over the three little girls, finally settling on the little princess's face, which seemed to say, "I did nothing wrong, and I'll do it again next time."
Moreover, their greatest enemy now, besides the ever-watchful Prince Zhennan, is probably Her Highness the Princess.
We have to be constantly on guard to prevent her from driving Qu Zijin crazy.
Upon hearing this, the little princess puffed out her little belly, completely oblivious to her surroundings: "Yes, your great, invincible, beautiful, intelligent, strong, and lovely—Your Highness has arrived!"
Qu Zijin felt dizzy again and almost fainted once more.
Xie Wenling closed his eyes wearily, feeling that the road ahead was shrouded in darkness.
A brief silence fell over the room, the atmosphere heavy.
"Now... what should we do?" Qu Zijin slumped back, his voice hoarse and weak, utterly dejected.
He looked at Xie Wenling, hoping he could come up with an idea.
Xie Wenling had gradually regained his composure and began to analyze: "Now that His Majesty has discovered the princess's disappearance and learned of our attack, he will surely send out a large number of people to search for her."
"Although the main force can't come, we can still send a few elite units."
"But the problem is, the King of Zhennan's men must also be searching for us in secret."
"We must find a way to both attract the attention of the search team sent by His Majesty and ensure that His Majesty's men find us before the Prince of Zhennan's men find us."
"To attract attention?" The little dumpling blinked, then suddenly had a flash of inspiration. "Then should we make a huge commotion? So that people far, far away can see or hear it?"
As soon as she said that, Lin Fuman immediately chimed in excitedly, "Yes! Make a big commotion! I'm good at that!"
As if presenting a treasure, she pulled out several bulging paper packets from her oversized bag and carefully picked out two to open.
One of them contains grayish-white crystalline structures with a glassy luster.
The other packet contained a pale yellow powder.
Lin Fuman enthusiastically introduced, "Look, these are the saltpeter and sulfur I collected along the way. I can try making some explosives; the sound will definitely be loud enough, and the noise will be big enough!"
In this day and age, gunpowder is generally used locally to make fireworks.
But she knew that with a slight modification to the formula, she could create a powerful explosive.
"What is that? It sounds amazing!" The little princess's eyes lit up as she leaned closer.
The little girl didn't know what explosives were, but she still showed her support as always, looking at Lin Fuman with admiration: "Sister Fufu, you know so much!"
"Hehehe, you flatter me. All I need to do next is get some charcoal, that's easy."
However, Qu Zijin and Xie Wenling couldn't laugh.
They knew a little more than the children, and they also knew that Wei Xiuming had instructed the Ministry of War to conduct research in this area.
The Ministry of War has already produced some semi-finished products, which are incredibly powerful.
At this moment, Qu Zijin looked at the bag of dangerous things in Lin Fu's hands, and then at the three eager little girls. He rubbed his forehead, feeling even more dizzy.
He simply couldn't imagine what these three little devils would do to this place if they got together and added explosives.
“…Nonsense!” he rebuked weakly, but it was clearly not very intimidating. “Making a huge commotion might attract the search party, but it’s also more likely to attract the Zhennan King’s wolfish men first. Then we’ll be walking into a trap.”
Xie Wenling, who had been silent all along, seemed to be deep in thought at this moment.
His gaze swept over the saltpeter and sulfur in Lin Fuman's hand, then looked out the window into the distance.
“Explosives…” Xie Wenling repeated the word in a low voice, “If used properly, they might just be able to accomplish something.”
He looked up at Qu Zijin and said calmly, "I remember that the Prince of Zhennan and his men are currently in Huaqu City, right? And in a low-lying area near the Woshui River."
Qu Zijin was taken aback, and suddenly had a bad feeling.
His intuition told him that the most unruly person present might not be the little princess.
Xie Wenling paused for a moment, and under Qu Zijin's suddenly shocked and wary gaze, he quickly came up with another dirty trick: to live as long as heaven and earth.
He said slowly without changing his expression, "Although it is winter now, it is still the south. The Woshui River is wide and turbulent, and the flow of the river is still quite large."
"If we can blast a hole in the upstream river channel with explosives, we can artificially create a flood that will rush straight to Huaqu City."
"In addition, it's the dead of winter now, and there's been a long-awaited blizzard. If they get flooded, even if they survive, typhoid fever will ravage the army."
"In this way, we can even directly defeat the army of the Prince of Zhennan."
His meaning couldn't be clearer.
They blasted open the fertile waters, flooding Huaqu City.
An idea with a high success rate will be meticulously recorded by historians after it is used, leaving a significant mark and ensuring that everyone present will be remembered for eternity.
As for whether he will be infamous for eternity or be remembered for his virtue?
Then don't worry about it.
Tell me if you'll be remembered in history.
Qu Zijin gasped sharply, staring at Xie Wenling in disbelief as if he were seeing him for the first time.
His voice rose in agitation: "Xie Wenling! Are you crazy?! Do you know what you're saying?!"
"Flood Huaqu City? How could you say that?!"
"Besides tens of thousands of troops, there were also hundreds of thousands of civilians there! How innocent they were!"
"How is your action any different from that of the treacherous and rebellious Prince Zhennan?!"
"This is too cruel! I absolutely disagree!"
Qu Zijin was so angry that he trembled all over, and his wounds ached faintly.
He had never actually thought Xie Wenling was a bad person before.
Although he can be quite intimidating when he talks, his dirty tricks are even more frightening...
But Qu Zijin always believed in the inherent goodness of human nature, and he thought Xie Wenling was just saying it.
After all, he doesn't seem to have really done anything heinous.
That's why he's so furious when he hears this idea now.
He couldn't imagine that Xie Wenling, who was always aloof, arrogant, and exceptionally talented, would come up with such a ruthless plan that treated human life as worthless!
"One general's success is built on the bones of ten thousand..." Xie Wenling wanted to say something more, but his gaze swept over the little dumpling and he stopped.
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