Although he had already made his decision in his heart, Suo Lun still fell into a moment’s hesitation.
If the purpose was to disrupt Zhili’s army morale, or even prevent the expedition from proceeding, there was no doubt that having Tuli Wen and Tuli Yang appear now to expose the ugly faces of Zhili and Tu Lingduo would be the most suitable.
At this moment, Zhili’s grand army had only set out three or four days ago, and was merely several hundred li from the royal city.
If Tuli Yang and Tuli Wen appeared before all the nobles and vassals at this time to expose the scandalous affairs of Zhili and Tu Lingduo, there would be two possible outcomes.
The first outcome: Tu Lingduo would be utterly disgraced and die a tragic death. Zhili’s reputation would be ruined, the eight hundred thousand troops’ expedition would collapse, and Zhili would hurriedly return to the royal city to extinguish the fire and pacify the numerous vassals.
The second outcome: Zhili would call a deer a horse, stubbornly insisting that both Tuli Wen and his son were fakes, substitutes found by Suo Lun, and then through the sorceress Yao Meng’s techniques, they had been disguised to look exactly alike. Moreover, he would find an opportunity to massacre the ten thousand vengeance soldiers from Luanyang City to the last man.
Which of these two outcomes was more likely to occur?
Without a doubt, it was the latter!
The eight hundred thousand troops had already set out on expedition, their morale at an incomparable high.
For this expedition of eight hundred thousand troops, everyone had paid a tremendous price, and also yearned to obtain tremendous benefits.
For instance, Suo Lun’s Rocky Peninsula salt fields, and the magic mirror industry, could all be taken out and divided among them.
Not to mention, the Tu Ling family might later take half of Yingzhou Island.
Therefore, this expedition was, for Zhili, an arrow on the bowstring, impossible not to release. For all the nobles and vassals, it was the same.
And most importantly, the main force of Zhili’s punitive army against the rebel was the three great legions. The backer behind the three great legions was Duke Tu Lingtuo.
Would he care about Zhili and Tu Lingduo’s scandalous affairs? No, he completely would not care. Only a portion of the nobles and vassals would care.
Therefore, exposing Zhili and Tu Lingduo’s scandalous affairs now carried a greater likelihood of being met with calling a deer a horse and reversing black and white. At that time, Tuli Wen and his son would truly be so angry they would spit blood. Moreover, a perfectly good card would be wasted just like that.
Then, when would be the right time to expose Zhili and Tu Lingduo’s scandalous affairs?
At the very moment before the great battle erupted, instantly shaking army morale.
At that time, the ten thousand vengeance soldiers from Luanyang City would undoubtedly defect. At that time, Suo Lun would absolutely not give Zhili any chance to call a deer a horse, and the great battle would immediately erupt!
Zhili would mobilise hundreds of thousands of troops to assault the city, and Suo Lun would bombard them with several hundred cannons. A rainstorm of canister shot would be sufficient to bring fatal killing intent.
And once Suo Lun’s city assault was frustrated, combined with being dogged by scandal, that would be the most fatal blow.
At that time, the numerous vassals and nobles would directly abandon Zhili on the battlefield.
Only when the scandal was combined with Zhili’s defeat would it exert its greatest effect.
Without Zhili’s defeat as groundwork, the so-called exposure of scandal would be utterly useless, absolutely ending in the outcome of calling a deer a horse and reversing black and white.
But with Zhili’s defeat as groundwork, then this scandal would be sufficient to deliver a fatal blow to Zhili.
At that time, Suo Lun could draft an edict on behalf of the king, stripping Zhili of his position as Young Lord, with full legitimacy!
Running the entire matter through his mind once, Suo Lun carefully explained it to Tuli Yang.
Very quickly, Tuli Yang calmed down, and then began to use his mind to carefully think through this matter.
Indeed, it was so!
At this moment, Zhili’s morale was high, like the sun at high noon! Eight hundred thousand troops to punish Suo Lun, an arrow on the bowstring, impossible not to release.
At such a time, it was completely impossible to topple Zhili through public opinion.
Instantly, Tuli Yang bowed and said, “Many thanks to Lord Suo Lun for resolving my confusion. I nearly committed a grave error.”
Suo Lun said, “I completely understand your state of mind, Elder Brother. Rest assured, when the time comes, I shall certainly let you personally dispose of Tu Lingduo.”
“Many thanks, Lord Suo Lun.” Tuli Yang said, “I take my leave!”
After Tuli Yang departed, only then did Zhuang Zhixuan cease concealing her sympathetic gaze, sighing and saying, “He is truly pitiful.”
Then, Zhuang Zhixuan looked towards Suo Lun and said, “If you had suffered his fate, what would you do?”
Suo Lun said speechlessly, “You truly do not know how to chat. Are you trying to cuckold me?”
Zhuang Zhixuan’s face flushed red, and she said, “You are more beautiful than a woman, and also cold and captivating. It is forever only you who bring calamity upon women. How could there possibly be a woman who could bring calamity upon you?”
Suo Lun smiled and said nothing. He was thinking of one matter. Tuli Yang had not seen any intelligence, yet he knew that Zhili’s eight hundred thousand troops had already set out, and even knew about the ten thousand vengeance soldiers from Luanyang City.
And now, it had only been four or five days since Zhili’s grand army left the royal city.
Without a doubt, someone was deliberately creating momentum. Zhili had probably exhausted all means to announce it to the world, wanting the entire Raging Wave Kingdom to know that the siege of Suo Lun by the whole world had officially begun!
Especially the citizens of the Southeastern Province, whom Zhili wished even more to convey this message to.
Suo Lun’s doomsday has arrived. Do not aid and abet the tyrant!
…
In the days following the Heaven sacrifice, the entire Southeastern Province was in a state of panic. Through the deliberate propagation of certain parties, nearly everyone knew that Zhili’s eight hundred thousand troops were marching to punish Suo Lun!
In the eyes of ordinary citizens, and even officials, Suo Lun was already certain to die, and they certainly did not wish to be buried alongside Suo Lun!
In truth, the citizens of the Southeastern Province had just tasted the sweetness of Suo Lun’s rule, feeling that Suo Lun’s rise to power seemed somewhat better than even Duke Zhiwei.
But now, Zhili’s grand army was about to arrive. They certainly did not wish to be drawn into this great battle.
Over the past two days, Zhili had dispatched a tremendous lobbying team to persuade the civil officials and military officers of the Southeastern Province to turn traitor and betray Suo Lun.
Although Zhili’s grand army was still several thousand li away, a wave of desertion had already begun in the Southeastern Province.
Many officials had vanished from their posts. Whether they had fled, or were hiding in the shadows preparing to pledge allegiance to Zhili and deliver a fatal blow to Suo Lun at the critical moment, was unknown.
Seeing this scene, Gui Xingfu could not help but feel some regret for his choice once more.
But spilt water cannot be retrieved. The words he had spoken could no longer be taken back!
Just then, a griffon beast swooped down from the air. A Shadow Pavilion warrior said to Gui Xingfu, “My lord asks if you will return to Tianshui City. Will you return?”
It was actually this sort of inquiring tone.
“Of course.” Gui Xingfu said.
Then, he lightly leapt onto the griffon beast.
Immediately after, he saw another griffon beast flying back to Tianshui City, upon which sat Yan Wuzhi, the leader of the Southeastern civil officials!
Suo Lun had actually dispatched griffon beasts to bring the two of them back to Tianshui main city!
…
The moment the griffon beast landed, Gui Xingfu leapt down and knelt before Suo Lun, saying with extreme anxiety, “My lord, Zhili has dispatched large numbers of people to the Southeastern Province to lobby. Countless officials are stirring restlessly, preparing to betray you and surrender to Zhili, even offering up the entire Southeastern Province. Please make preparations early, my lord!”
Suo Lun said, “Preparations? What sort of preparations do you think should be made?”
Gui Xingfu said, “Dispatch a grand army to take over all the commandery cities of the Southeastern Province. Completely suppress all dissenting voices. Discover any who collude with Zhili, and kill them without mercy!”
Suo Lun smiled and said, “If Heaven wishes to rain, and a mother wishes to remarry, let those who wish to surrender to Suo Lun go as they please. As for offering up the Southeastern Province? Then they need not trouble themselves. I shall voluntarily abandon the entire Southeastern Province.”
At these words, Gui Xingfu and Yan Wuzhi were utterly shocked!
In the previous great battle, Suo Lun had defeated Gui Xingfu, eliminated Zhiwei, frightened off Duke Tu Lingtuo, and exhausted every ounce of effort before finally seizing the entire Southeastern Province.
Next, Suo Lun had carried out a great slaughter before finally subduing Yan Wuzhi and the Southeastern civil officials, completely grasping the situation of the Southeastern Province.
The Southeastern Province, obtained with such difficulty, and Suo Lun actually said he would abandon it.
Suo Lun said, “The entire Southeastern Province lies wide open. If Zhili’s grand army wishes to enter, I cannot defend against it at all. Moreover, I only have two hundred thousand troops in hand. Defending a single Tianshui City is more than sufficient. But wanting to defend the entire Southeastern Province’s six commanderies and over forty counties would be utterly inadequate. Rather than defending an estate with leaks on all four sides, it is better to tightly defend a single room.”
Gui Xingfu said, “But to retreat from the entire province without a fight is truly too regrettable. Previously, you seized the entire Southeastern Province precisely because you wanted to use one province to resist the entire Raging Wave Kingdom. And now, even the Southeastern Province is lost, then…”
Suo Lun said, “The reason I previously wanted the Southeastern Province was not because I coveted its tax revenue, but because I coveted its war potential, its young adult population, and its vast fertile fields. Given half a year to a year, I could have newly trained two hundred thousand troops in the Southeastern Province. Unfortunately, Zhili did not give me this opportunity, and instead used Tuli Yang’s death to orchestrate this siege by the whole world. The fruits of the Southeastern Province had just been swallowed into my stomach, not yet digested, when the enemy arrived. So of course I must quickly spit them out, taking the opportunity to extricate myself. Otherwise, I would truly be certain to die!”
Gui Xingfu could not help but think of a greedy python, capable of swallowing prey two or three times its own size. Then it would quietly lie in wait for days and nights, waiting to digest the food in its stomach.
And if at this time the enemy arrived, and the python had no time to spit out its prey, nor could it flee, it could only allow itself to be butchered alive.
How similar was this to Suo Lun? Previously, Suo Lun had relied on Tianshui City’s strength to annex the Southeastern Province, a dozen or more times its size.
Only Suo Lun was far more rational. Before the great enemy arrived, he had resolutely abandoned it, spitting out the prey!
“My lord is resolute. This old servant admires you.” Gui Xingfu said, “However, to abandon the Southeastern Province just like this. Publicly, it will be extremely passive. It will only make Zhili’s side even more arrogant, and make the forces of the world look down upon my lord even more. Previously, resisting the entire kingdom with one province, there might still have been a glimmer of hope. But now, relying merely on one city to resist the entire kingdom, I fear no one can see any hope!”
Yan Wuzhi said, “Zhili’s eight hundred thousand troops already outnumber Tianshui City’s population. And by yielding the Southeastern Province, we have no buffer whatsoever. Once the Heavenly Wolf Pass or the Wind Thunder Fortress defensive line is breached, we will certainly lose, and certainly die!”
Gui Xingfu said, “Although my lord possesses giant trebuchets and barrels of flaming oil, in the previous great battle, Tu Lingtuo suffered sufficient losses. This time, he is certain to have countermeasures, and it will be difficult to make him fall for the same trick again. Moreover, even if Zhili piles up human lives, eight hundred thousand troops are sufficient to breach the Wind Thunder Fortress defensive line!”
Suo Lun did not explain. He merely looked at Gui Xingfu and said, “Last time, you, Duke Zhiwei, and Duke Tu Lingtuo attacked Tianshui City from the north, west, and south. Although you were not fighting simultaneously, giving me an opportunity to exploit, Tianshui City was still in a situation of being besieged on all sides. Under such circumstances at that time, I told Princess Zhiyan that I had a seventy percent certainty of victory in that battle.”
Gui Xingfu and Yan Wuzhi quieted down, listening to Suo Lun speak.
Suo Lun continued, “This time, Zhili is mobilising the entire nation’s troops to punish me, and he is certain to learn the lesson from last time. He will simultaneously send troops to attack from the north, west, and south, no longer giving me an opportunity to exploit. And he is certain to learn the lesson from last time’s griffon air raids and flaming oil warfare. Wanting to repeat old tricks is impossible. So this time’s situation is vastly more perilous.”
Speaking to this point, Suo Lun paused, then said with absolute certainty, “However, this time I have seventy-five percent, even eighty percent certainty of achieving victory!”
Suo Lun’s words were filled with a power that inspired trust.
Instantly, all unease in Gui Xingfu’s heart vanished completely.
Since he had already bet on Suo Lun’s side, he absolutely did not wish to be buried alongside him!
…
In the following days, at Suo Lun’s single command, all troops, all workshops, and all labourers completely withdrew from the Southeastern Province to Tianshui City.
Of course, originally Suo Lun had not dispatched many troops to the six commanderies and forty-three counties of the Southeastern Province, merely a paltry thirty thousand or so second-line troops. However, many merchant caravans had gone there, desperately purchasing iron materials, grain, and so forth from the Southeastern Province!
So after the retreat order was issued, every day, countless carriages and troops withdrew from the various commanderies of the Southeastern Province!
In many people’s eyes, this was simply fleeing!
Suo Lun had actually retreated without a fight, yielding the Southeastern Province!
For a time, the various commanderies and counties of the Southeastern Province raised new banners one after another, declaring their departure from Suo Lun’s tyrannical rule and their return to Prince Zhili’s camp of justice.
At first, the civil officials of the Southeastern Province were still cautious. Later, seeing that Suo Lun also had no reaction, they grew bold, vying with one another to declare a clean break from Suo Lun and pledge allegiance to Prince Zhili.
In merely five short days!
All six commanderies and forty-three counties of the Southeastern Province betrayed Suo Lun and pledged allegiance to Zhili!
Originally, the people of the world were not optimistic about Suo Lun. Now public opinion completely tilted towards looking down upon Suo Lun, feeling that this time he was certain to die!
After confirming this, the officials and powerful clans who had previously submitted to Suo Lun’s tyrannical might leapt out one after another, viciously attacking Suo Lun.
They delivered public speeches, posted proclamations denouncing the rebel!
Zhili had only enumerated thirteen great crimes for Suo Lun, but in the mouths of the Southeastern Province’s officials and powerful clans, Suo Lun had been charged with no fewer than a hundred great crimes.
In their mouths, Suo Lun had completely degenerated into a deranged beast who had annihilated human ethics.
It was no longer merely that his death would not be sufficient to pacify public anger, but that he fundamentally had no right to have been born into this world. The very fact that he had once lived in this world was already a shame.
Even having done things so thoroughly, these officials and powerful clans still worried about not receiving Zhili’s forgiveness. Thus, they dug into their own pockets to conscript civilian labourers, responding to Zhili’s call and joining the punitive army against the rebel.
When Suo Lun had seized the Southeastern Province, he had not made these officials and powerful clans contribute a single gold coin or a single soldier.
Now, to curry favour with Zhili, these people opened their purses generously.
In merely half a month, the powerful clans of the entire Southeastern Province had raised over a hundred thousand gold coins, intending to present them to Zhili as military funds.
And they had conscripted over seventy thousand civilian labourers, establishing the Southeastern Punitive Army.
Several hundred officials, bringing over a hundred thousand gold coins and seventy thousand Southeastern Punitive Army troops, marched in grand and magnificent fashion to the Nu River Province to kneel in welcome to Zhili.
Truly, when a wall is about to collapse, everyone pushes it!
Before Suo Lun’s wall had even fallen, countless people had already come to push it with their hands, stamp on it with their feet, and even spit upon it.
For a time, in the eyes of the people of the world, Suo Lun truly was a dried skeleton in a tomb, lingering on his last breath!
…
As for everything happening outside Tianshui City, Suo Lun treated it as if he completely did not know!
He nearly brutally requisitioned all supplies from the Yingzhou Hai family and the Ocean Guild.
Of course, he paid for them with money, rather than forcibly seizing them.
Zhili’s eight hundred thousand troops would need at least nearly two months to travel from the royal city to Tianshui City!
During this time, Suo Lun’s war machine turned with near-mad frenzy.
He was no longer spending money. He was desperately flinging gold coins, like a rainstorm of gold coins.
All iron materials, grain, weapons, armour, and so forth, he did not even look at the prices, directly sweeping them all up.
Every day, the orders he personally signed exceeded several hundred.
Every day, he spent over ten thousand gold coins.
Under this frenzied purchasing, the Yan Empire and the Eastern Li Kingdom were both madly profiting from this war.
They did not have gunpowder, but they had more than enough steel, arrows, armour, and weapons.
If there were no new armours or weapons, they were directly stripped from the soldiers’ bodies. In any case, Suo Lun paid double the price, and whether it was the Yan Empire or the Eastern Li Kingdom, neither had any wars to fight recently!
The Secret Gunpowder Island, naturally, engaged in twenty-four-hour frenzied production.
The shells needed were not only being produced by Suo Lun’s workshops, but also by the coastal regions of the Yan Empire and all the blacksmith workshops of Yingzhou Island, all in frenzied production.
Once production was complete, they were shipped to Pirate Bay or Tianshui City docks, directly exchanging goods for cash on the spot.
Although Suo Lun’s requirements for shell production were extremely strict, the profit from producing merely this iron ball actually exceeded that of a sword. For all the blacksmith workshops, this was completely exorbitant profit!
And the most frenzied of all was Suo Lun’s cannon foundry. With a continuous supply of iron materials, and under Suo Lun’s astronomical gold coin rewards, these artisans worked with complete madness.
Because the money earned from this two months of desperate labour was sufficient for them to live on for ten years.
A month or two ago, after defeating Yan Mo, Suo Lun had earned over a million gold coins!
And in this short span of less than two months, he had actually spent half of this astronomical sum.
Although he was merely a vassal, the extravagance of his spending completely exceeded that of a king!
Under this near-mad spending, all the sea merchants and pirates of the entire eastern sea region participated in transport.
All the coastal forces of the Eastern Li Kingdom and the Yan Empire did business with Suo Lun!
In merely fifty-some days.
Suo Lun had armed his two hundred thousand main force troops and fifty thousand second-line troops to the teeth.
At any cost, he had raised the number of cannons from over two hundred to over four hundred.
And the quantities of arrows, solid shot, and canister shot were astronomical, piled up like mountains!
…
Fifty-five days later!
Gui Qinshao was nearly four months pregnant, her belly already showing!
Moreover, Fu Yan’er was also already a month and a half pregnant! Her face was thicker than the heavens. Once, when Suo Lun and Yan Nai’er were being intimate, she directly burst in stark naked, said not a word, and directly mounted him. What could Suo Lun do?
Then, with a single shot on target, she directly became pregnant!
Finally, Zhili’s nearly nine hundred thousand troops marched in grand and magnificent fashion into the Southeastern Province!
Because the remaining nearly one hundred thousand were the Southeastern Punitive Army spontaneously organised by the Southeastern Province, flying the banner of avenging Duke Zhiwei.
At a single command!
Nine hundred thousand troops completely surrounded Suo Lun’s Tianshui City, truly blotting out the sky and covering the sun!
…
Then, Zhili personally wrote a letter of surrender to Suo Lun, ordering Suo Lun to go alone to White Cloud City to confess his crimes!
The letter of surrender stated that as long as Suo Lun confessed his guilt and submitted to the law, only he alone would be killed, and his family members would all be spared!
Suo Lun’s reply contained merely four words: I f**k your mother!
Zhili flew into a great rage and ordered the nine hundred thousand troops to attack Tianshui City from the north, west, and south, completely annihilating the Suo clan!
From this point, the final decisive battle to determine the king’s throne officially erupted!
And the moment for Zhili and Tu Lingduo to be utterly disgraced was also about to arrive!