The Empress’s Gigolo

Shuoyang City, the Yun Nation. In the backyard of an unremarkable grocery store.

This was originally a secret business belonging to the Zhang family. However, ever since a few people arrived two weeks ago, all of the people from the Zhang family had vacated.

At present, a man stood there with his hands behind his back, looking at a map.

Dayao’s vanguards were still several hundred kilometers away from Shuoyang City. In the middle was Suyang City.

“Chief, Yang Jiu has disappeared,” another man walked over and reported.

“Oh?” The first man turned around upon hearing this news. “What happened? When did he disappear?”

He was about 60 years old, dressed in green, and looked very dignified.

He was Zhan Changkong, an old acquaintance of Ren Baqian and the Chief of the Golden Ring Residence.

He was one of the baihu that had been mobilized from Tianjing Basin and deployed to the Yun Nation.

“Yang Jiu was said to have gone to scout out the army camp last night, but he hasn’t returned since. I have gone to search for him, but couldn’t find any traces,” the other man explained.

“Was he captured?” Zhan Changkong frowned.

“I think… it’s possible…” the other man mumbled as if he didn’t dare to speak.

“What’s possible?” Zhan Changkong’s expression immediately turned serious.

“He could have deserted! I felt that something was amiss with him these last few days—it was as if he was preparing for something. Even though he isn’t very highly skilled, he is agile and an expert in concealment. Also, since nobody has information about us, it’s very unlikely for someone to have captured him. Combined with his recent behavior, I feel that there’s a higher chance that he deserted.”

“I have always found that Yang Jiu to be cold and indifferent, and indeed, he isn’t trustworthy!” Another burly middle-aged man raised his voice upon hearing that.

“Do we still stand a chance to capture him?” Zhan Changkong didn’t look very happy.

“If he left the city at midnight, then we can’t catch up to him anymore. After all, we are also limited in manpower,” that man answered.

“Chief, there’s no harm in him deserting—I’m just afraid of him informing on us. We can’t stay here any longer.”

“If he did inform on us, the enemy soldiers would have already been here by now. However, for safety purposes, we truly can’t stay here any longer. Liu Dong, go inform the previous agent and get him to arrange another location for us to stay. Xu Yi, go notify the others to pack their things and evacuate. And you… Go look for Yang Jiu again. Perhaps he really got into an accident.” Zhan Changkong gave out his orders.

After he had made the necessary arrangements, Zhan Changkong turned around to the last man standing there. This man had a cloth covering his face that only revealed one eye. He said, “Tell me, Ling Zekuan, if Yang Jiu really escaped, would he inform on us and sell us out?”

“Chief, only you, myself, and Liu Dong know about the agent. Even if he informed on us, the Yun Nation will merely become aware of our existence and will act more cautiously in the future,” answered Ling Zekuan, the external attendant. During the initial scouting mission when he was guarding Zhan Changkong’s back, half of his face and one of his eyes got slashed. However, he managed to stay alive.

Zhan Changkong and his people moved their dwelling place and monitored the situation for a few days before finally being at ease after they didn’t detect any signs of activity. Even though this Yang Jiu had deserted, he still upheld their camaraderie and didn’t sell them out.

At the moment, they were staying in the capital city of the Yun Nation.

…

Wearing a long gown and a scholar hat, a scholar with a long beard reported to the prime minister of the Yun Nation, “Prime Minister, the city guards of Xuan City captured someone during their patrol who is said to hail from Dayao. They transported him here through the night.”

“Oh? From Dayao? An aboriginal?” A 16 year old boy whose body was shaped like a ball, or rather like two balls joined together, was being addressed as prime minister. On his ball-shaped face, he had a pair of small eyes that were bright and shiny.

He was the Yun Nation’s prime minister and was currently being coined by the city officials as a traitor. He was the traitor who controlled the power of the dynasty, used the emperor as a puppet, and ganged up on him for his own personal interest. He blocked the channels of speech and demoted those who had a different political view. Even now, he was still only interested in the internal strife. His name was Zheng Chengmian.

“No, he was said to have come from Tianjing Basin. He said some other stuff as well,” the scholar said.

“What?”

“Tianjing Basin was pacified by the aboriginals about six months ago.”

“What?” Zheng Chengmian was alarmed when he heard this. “The aboriginals had already pacified Tianjing Basin six months ago?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Those barbarians had already pacified them for six months, but continued acting as if they were still in chaos… What do you think their reason is for doing that?” Zheng Chengmian stood up and paced around his room. Almost every inch of his body jiggled with every step he took.

His entire body could be considered to be made out of an accumulation of fat.

“If the news of the pacification of Tianjing Basin gets out, Great Xia will definitely not deploy their troops readily. Then, the aboriginals only need to deal with us and the Chen Nation. However, they kept this a secret and acted as if the Protectorate of the South was implicated. Now that Great Xia replaced all of their forces with recruits once again and gathered 530,000 soldiers, Dayao still kept this a secret. My guess is that Dayao’s target is Great Xia’s army. In other words, their target is Great Xia!”

“You are correct. These are my exact sentiments as well. There is no reason for them to keep this secret so firmly unless their target is Great Xia!” Zheng Chengmian burst out laughing before smiling at the middle-aged scholar and saying, “In that case, the reason for attacking us this time is…”

“The same as before! To plunder! The barbarians don’t know how to build, they only know how to destroy. They don’t know how to conquer, they only know how to plunder,” the middle-aged scholar replied without hesitation.

“Hmph! That’s what I thought. In that case, we can’t divulge the news that Tianjing Basin has already been pacified. We have to involve Great Xia as well. Kill that man!”

“Understood!”

Yet, the two of them didn’t know that the captive had another piece of news that he didn’t tell them.

This piece of news was that the Rear Guard Commandery had deployed over 400 men into the Yun Nation to scout out the situation in every city.

The reason he didn’t divulge this information wasn’t because of camaraderie—it was because he wanted to tell this news to the ministers when he met them in order to save his own life. He might have even asked for a reward.

Even though these were just his thoughts, he never had the opportunity to speak ever again.

The two ministers never got to hear this information. Otherwise, they would definitely have reconsidered Dayao’s motives for attacking the Yun Nation this time around.

However, the piece of news that they had just received actually caused them to make yet another wrong judgement about Dayao’s motives. They continued getting absorbed in their own internal strife and worked hard toward achieving a more important goal.

To them, it might be a good thing to have a few of their cities get sacked.

Those warlords were so imperious and domineering that it was hard for the imperial court to have any jurisdiction over them. The situation had been shaped like this ever since the establishment of the Yun Nation.

There was originally a chance to break out of this situation several decades ago, but the emperor and prime minister at that time lacked the vision and lost this golden opportunity.

This time, however, they would definitely not let go of the opportunity.

At present, after the cities had been sacked, those warlords had either died or escaped. Even after the barbarians vacated the place, the warlords’ foundations would all be swept away. The imperial court could then seize all of the cities and greatly strengthen its power and control.

It could even create an imperial household with centralized state power like Great Xia.

To the Yun Nation, this would be more beneficial than detrimental and could even be considered an extremely meritorious deed!

Lately, many scholars and officials in the city had been making a lot of noise and were listing all the crimes and charges against Zheng Chengmian and the ruling dynasty. What did they even know?