The capital city, the imperial palace.
Gao Qingyun suddenly sneezed: "Who's talking about me behind my back?"
But before he could think further, he suddenly heard a notification from the system:
"Host reputation points increased"
Gao Qingyun looked puzzled and shook his head again.
"What's going on lately? My reputation keeps going up!"
But Gao Qingyun didn't take it too seriously.
"I guess it's because Xiao Zhu has been saying good things about me everywhere lately."
"Hey, this kid is pretty good to me."
He turned and walked into the classroom, and then he heard a lot of chatter inside.
"Hmph, Zhang Xianzhong is clever enough to find an excuse to go out and have fun!"
"It's so unfair! Why do you male students get the chance to leave? We want to leave the palace too!"
Gao Qingyun felt a headache coming on when she heard these sounds.
He muttered to himself, "No wonder the ancients said that women and petty men are the most difficult to deal with. They really are unruly when you get close to them."
"When Xiao Gu and the others first came to class, they didn't dare to speak loudly."
"Now look at them, they've all become incredibly shrewish."
Fortunately, the three female students were fierce, but only towards Li Zicheng and his men.
Upon seeing Gao Qingyun enter, they immediately composed themselves and said in sweet voices:
"Sir, you've arrived?"
Li Zicheng and Zheng Chenggong, who were standing nearby, were speechless upon seeing this scene.
Li Zicheng gritted his teeth and said:
"Mr. Gao is absolutely right, these women are all born actresses!"
"These three young vixens are like completely different people the moment they see Mr. Gao!"
"Hmph, when I have time, I will find a few young ladies for Mr. Gao in Mizhi and let them come to the palace to serve him."
"I'll see what kind of expressions they have then!"
Zheng Chenggong, who was standing next to him, nodded in agreement.
“Brother Li, what you said makes sense. When I see my father someday, I’ll ask him to help me bring a few young women from Japan.”
"Let's teach them a lesson they won't forget!"
After whispering for a while, the two watched as Gao Qingyun was helped to sit down by his three female students, and then the Chinese class began.
They all felt it was a bit boring.
"What's so great about learning this stuff!"
"Exactly, it would be better to have a math class."
"Ah, I really envy Old Zhang. If I had known that the emperor was going to send people to Goryeo, I should have volunteered!"
Both of them felt a little regretful.
Goryeo, outside Gaeseong.
Zhang Xianzhong suddenly woke up with a start, muttering curses as he said, "Something's not right. Someone must be talking badly about me behind my back."
"Hmph, it must be those two bastards, Li Zicheng and Zheng Chenggong."
"But let them say whatever they want. When the news of my great victory gets back, they'll be even more jealous!"
He sprang to his feet with a somersault.
Only then did they realize that after he fell asleep, the Ming soldiers hadn't seen him lying there sleeping in the wild.
Instead, they set up a small tent next to him.
Zhang Xianzhong rubbed his eyes, stepped out of the tent, and casually asked the people outside:
"What time is it now? Have those Jurchens left Kaesong yet?"
The Ming soldiers outside the tent were on high alert, staring intently into the distance.
They were terrified that the Jurchens inside the city would charge in.
They were all speechless after hearing Zhang Xianzhong's question.
"Sir, what you're saying is outrageous."
"Although we won a small victory yesterday and killed two or three hundred Jurchens, there are still tens of thousands of Jurchen troops in Kaesong."
"How could they possibly abandon the city and flee?"
"In my opinion, we should hurry up and retreat south!"
Several commanders surrounded Zhang Xianzhong and tried to persuade him.
"Yes, although we don't know why the Jurchens haven't come out of the city to attack us yet."
"But every moment we stay here increases the danger!"
"That's right, let's take advantage of the Jurchens' inaction and quickly retreat back to Hanjing!"
They all chimed in, urging Zhang Xianzhong to speak quickly and order them to head south immediately.
However, Zhang Xianzhong simply shook his head and smiled, then grinned and said:
"Where can we run now?"
"I suspect the Jurchens dare not go to war because they don't know our strengths and weaknesses, which is why they've been staying in the city and watching."
"If we show even the slightest sign of retreat, they'll pounce on us instantly!"
"Therefore, at this point, we should not only not retreat south, but should continue north to attack Kaicheng!"
"Hmph, so this is what you call the enemy not only refusing to surrender but also daring to resist? How can I, Zhang Xianzhong, let them get away with this?"
What he said at the beginning made some sense, and the commanders nodded in agreement.
But what he said next started to go off-topic again.
"My lord, it's clear that the enemy is stronger than us, how can you say such a thing?"
Zhang Xianzhong shook his head dismissively.
"We'll only know who's stronger after the fight!"
"Men, charge with me!"
After saying that, he really did walk north alone.
Seeing this, the other Ming soldiers hesitated for a moment before following suit and heading north.
At this point, they had no choice but to follow Zhang Xianzhong down this dark path.
Meanwhile, in Kaesong.
Jirhalang frowned deeply, his face ashen.
"You bunch of good-for-nothings!"
He slammed his hand on the table, sending a chill down the spines of all the Jurchen generals in the room.
Jirhalang angrily said, "You secretly sent people to attack Hanjing, and that's already bad enough."
"How could you have suffered a defeat, and even lost Nikan on the front lines?"
"How am I going to explain this to my uncles when I get back!"
Nikan is Jirhalang's nephew, so it's not a problem for him to say that.
Upon hearing this, the Jurchen generals present immediately began to protest their innocence:
"Sir, this isn't our fault!"
"The intelligence reported by the scouts was clearly wrong!"
Others chimed in:
"Yes, they clearly said that both the Goryeo army and the Ming army withdrew south."
"But now it seems that at least the Ming army hasn't left, and may even be secretly reinforcing Hanjing!"
"Otherwise, why would the Ming troops outside the city dare to stay there? Clearly, there are Ming troops lying in ambush behind them!"
"The Ming army must know that we have 10,000 troops in Kaesong. The fact that they dared to ambush us shows that their forces must be quite large!"
After hearing this, Jirhalang did not pursue the matter of Nikan's death in battle.
His eyes gleamed with thought: "What you said is not wrong, but how exactly did the Ming army manage to deceive the scouts?"
The generals all shook their heads: "We don't know. Perhaps the Ming army is very good at hiding?"
"Those Ming people have always loved to play tricks and schemes, just like it's written in Romance of the Three Kingdoms!"
"That's right, wasn't there some news a while ago that a Grand Preceptor surnamed Gao had appeared in the Ming Dynasty? He's supposedly very good at divination, so it might just be him..."
"Enough!" Jirhalang snorted coldly, telling them to shut up.
"What you're saying is completely undermining morale."
"Don't talk nonsense again!"
However, he also felt a bit worried.
Jirhalang tapped the table lightly and lowered his head in deep thought.
“I know Yue Tuo; he has always been very reliable.”
"However, after he returned from the Ming Dynasty last time, when I asked him about the Ming Dynasty, he seemed quite wary in his words."
"I was even a little afraid of that Master Gao. It's clear that there's something really wrong with Master Gao."
"Could it really be him who did this this time?"
Just as he was thinking, a soldier jogged in, his face full of terror.
"My lord, something terrible has happened! The Ming army has suddenly launched an attack!"
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