Gu Chi was amused: "A traitorous offspring?"
Shen Tang said quietly, "Still a great victim."
Seeing his lord's worried expression, Gu Chi couldn't help but tease, "If that's the case, what's the point of gods descending to earth?"
Shen Tang gritted her teeth: "Come and undergo the tribulation!"
"You are all here to collect debts and become calamities!"
How many normal, literary scholars are there in the world?
How rare are oddballs?
Why is she surrounded by so many oddballs?
She refused to believe it wasn't fate!
Gu Chi was speechless.
He shrugged unceremoniously from his horse: "If they're here to collect debts, then Chi is definitely not included."
He is the lord's mouthpiece and confidant.
He would say anything that his lord couldn't or shouldn't say, bearing the bad reputation himself while leaving the good one for his lord. Compared to his colleagues, he was like a warm cotton-padded jacket in winter and a refreshing cup of tea in summer.
Shen Tang's lips twitched, and she couldn't help but retort, "...Wang Chao, I just said you're fat, and you're already getting all worked up?"
Not funny at all.
She needs to vent to relieve her frustration.
Gu Chike, on the other hand, went straight for patting herself on the back.
“You’re all equally bad…” Shen Tang muttered softly, then raised her voice expectantly, “When we go back this time, the situation on the border of Longwu County should be calm for a few years. We should take this opportunity to properly appease the people and recruit some more people.”
The current number of people is somewhat insufficient.
"Recruiting talented individuals?"
"A minor official who isn't too capable will suffice... I can't retain anyone too capable with my limited resources. However—if Wangchao has a suitable candidate, I'll try to persuade them. Maybe they'll take a liking to me..."
Gu Chi: "..."
Who's the bastard, and who's the mung bean?
At this moment, Jiang Sheng joined the group chat.
He told Shen Tang a harsh reality: "Birds of a feather flock together. Wang Chao is a man of great stature, and those who get along with him and consider him a friend are mostly his kind. My lord does not want to give 'Du Jie' another 'calamity,' so we must avoid it."
Shen Tang: "..."
She glanced silently at Jiang Sheng.
Having spent a long time with Shen Tang, Jiang Sheng knew that Shen Tang didn't have many taboos. As long as the official business was done well, there was no need to be bound by the master-servant relationship in private, and they could even joke around. So he said, "My lord, please don't look at me like that... My friends, while they may not become my 'calamity', it's hard to say for Qi Yuanliang... To avoid conflict, it's best to avoid them."
His relationship with Qishan is currently quite delicate.
He won't provoke anyone, but if someone is unlucky, he won't hesitate to pour a bucket of boiling water on them and stomp on them.
Shen Tang: "...I understand."
There's absolutely no way to rely on these scoundrels.
On the eighth day of the march, Jiang Sheng could finally see her lord's beautiful face clearly. This meant the bad luck had dissipated, and she could finally drink water to her heart's content and walk without an umbrella. However, she couldn't take any money now—
Any money that nominally belongs to her will disappear.
Shen Tang: "..."
She wrote "Kang Jishou's Ten Thousand Ways of Exploitation" overnight, ready to be implemented as soon as she returned to Yonggu Pass.
Gu and Chi were helpless in this regard. Fortunately, she didn't faint for no reason, nor did she do anything embarrassing like riding a rocking horse and singing nursery rhymes in public. This improved Shen Tang's mood somewhat, preventing her from having a sour face all day.
I thought the return journey would be more difficult than the journey there, requiring me to hide from XZ and evade pursuit—it would be strange if the Ten Crows remained silent after such a big incident as causing a ruckus in the capital of the Ten Crows—but strangely enough, the Ten Crows were indeed quiet, which aroused suspicion.
When they were only ten days away from Yonggu Pass, the scouts they sent out captured a suspicious fellow. The man looked disheveled, but he was dressed like a soldier of the Ten Crows. They arrested him out of caution, and after some interrogation, they learned what had happened at Yonggu Pass.
"Pfft—cough cough cough—" Shen Tang choked on the water that hadn't yet slid down her throat, but she didn't have time to wipe the water off her face and hurriedly asked, "Wang Chao, what did he say about the situation at Yonggu Pass?"
Did she hear that right?
Gu Chi said, "My lord, you heard correctly. It is indeed true that Yonggu Pass decisively defeated more than 40,000 of the Ten Black Army, a great victory!"
Shen Tang: "..."
Not only was Shen Tang surprised, but Gu Chi and Jiang Sheng also wore expressions of disbelief. Despite their complete trust in their colleague, they weren't optimistic about the battle to defend the pass. Optimistically, they could hold it, but the losses would be heavy; they had never considered the possibility of a decisive victory!
Jiang Sheng initially thought there were reinforcements.
Only after pressing for details did I learn that there was no such thing.
Moreover, this resounding victory was also dramatic.
The troops at Shiwu and Yonggu Pass were locked in a standoff, and the border barrier was breached. At this critical moment, this thing rose up again.
The situation began to reverse from that point on.
Yonggu Pass held a slight advantage thanks to its brave warriors and learned scholars, but not enough to cripple Shiwu. The real disparity arose when Shiwu sounded the retreat. Taking advantage of the moment when Shiwu's formation faltered during their retreat, the Yonggu Pass troops suddenly unleashed their power. They pursued them for over ten miles, displaying ferocity!
In their panic, the soldiers of Shiwu could only flee.
The more this happens, the less cohesive they become, and their formation falls apart.
In the end, they were killed in a sorry state.
King Shiwu, seeing this situation, was so angry he nearly fainted. He had finally managed to reorganize his troops, preparing to rest for a few days before attacking again, but then received the devastating news that his capital had been attacked and reduced to ruins. Coincidentally, a daring general at Yonggu Pass launched a night raid, seizing another opportunity. Shiwu's morale was already low; after this series of events, how could they possibly be in the mood to attack the city?
They had no choice but to retreat in disarray and rush back to the capital.
The soldier who was captured was a deserter who had fled the battlefield.
Fearing military punishment, he escaped when no one was watching and fled, only to fall into Shen Tang's hands.
Shen Tang stared in disbelief: "When did Yonggu Pass become so formidable?"
She believed in the abilities of Chu Yao and the others, and she also believed that General Chu Jie, as the garrison commander of Yonggu Pass for more than ten years, had rich combat experience and was very accurate in seizing opportunities. He could expand the results of the battle whenever there was an opportunity—but she did not expect him to be so fierce.
"Moreover... our forces are severely depleted, and pursuing the remnants carries a great risk, as for a midnight raid..."
The operability is even smaller.
This result sounds like a fantasy.
Shen Tang was worried that she would be facing a land riddled with holes and nearly deserted. But thinking of this, she felt that all the bad luck she had experienced in the past few days was worth it. Her bad luck was nothing to worry about; it was distressing but not fatal. But the common people of Longwu County, and so many precious lives, had truly survived!
How could it not be worth it?
She couldn't help but think to herself, "Kang Jishou did a great job!"
Even the plan to exploit him was shelved.
Gu Chi: "..."
He doesn't say who is envious.
Upon learning of the chaos in Shiwu, which disregarded his own forces, Shen Tang abandoned his previous cautious approach of traveling by day and night and instead accelerated his pace, compressing the ten-day journey into six days.
As Yonggu Pass rose above the horizon, Shen Tang's smile grew even wider. He was eager to return home and wished he could shrink the distance to an inch!
"I, Shen Tang, am back!"
Chu Yao and the others received the news half a day in advance and waited early.
Xun Zhen made a special effort to groom himself, looking radiant and energetic.
Then--
He recognized two familiar faces: "Xian Deng?"
Then he looked at Lin Feng, who seemed much rougher.
He exclaimed in surprise, "This young friend is actually under Lord Shen's command?"
Jiang Sheng also looked at Xun Zhen in surprise: "Hanzhang?"
Immediately afterwards, my heart skipped a beat.
etc--
Did Xun Hanzhang meet with Qi Yuanliang?
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