Chapter 2192

"Just as the poison flower said, the more Mu Guo Yue wants something, the more he must act indifferent to it, and he must also satisfy the other party's wishes." Du Shan's eyes grew brighter and brighter, clearly more resolute in his idea, "Ya Guo's current wish is naturally to negotiate peace, to stop fighting!"

Ya Guo had always provoked Mu Guo before, always showing off in front of Mu Guo, but this time it was first slapped hard by Cang Yan, a bad start, and then invaded by Mu Guo, suffering a terrible defeat.

By now, Ya Guo also no longer wants to fight.

To outsiders unaware of the truth, this truly seems as if Cang Yan and Mu Guo had conspired, taking turns to teach it a lesson.

"To take something, one must first give something." Du Shan spoke solemnly, "So what Mu Guo needs to do now is to pretend it also does not want to fight, today return the prisoners, tomorrow discuss territory, the day after tomorrow extort some compensation, from every corner one can always dig up some important, some unimportant conditions to negotiate, anyway these matters are best dragged out, slowly, without hurry. The goal is to make Ya Guo continue to hold the illusion, to believe Mu Guo truly wants to negotiate with it, and once an agreement is reached, it will withdraw troops."

"What is the benefit of doing this?"

"Between Between Between Beijia." Du Shan pointed to the sand table, "Mu Guo is beating Ya Guo in hand, but its eyes are always fixed on Between Between Between Beijia. Between Between Between Beijia has always wanted to control the rhythm of this war, if Mu Guo can make Between Between Between Beijia believe that Mu Guo might at any time reach an agreement with Ya Guo and withdraw troops, then Between Between Between Beijia will not go all out on its western front!"

He Lingchuan nodded: "Makes sense."

This is also easy to understand, when Bai Qiu Yuan was occupied by him, the Ya people were also unwilling, on one hand gathering a great army, on the other shouting to take back the holy land, but once Mu Guo dispatched a great army from the western border to invade, the Ya king immediately felt immense pressure, hurriedly signing an agreement with the Nine Abysses Great Emperor.

Conversely, if the Mu army had not come, the Ya people would not have so easily submitted.

The same applies to Mu Guo, if it could unexpectedly end the war with Ya Guo, it could escape the disadvantage of fighting on two fronts, and thus concentrate its strength to deal with Between Between Between Beijia on the western front.

The furious and focused Mu Guo is like a fierce lion, Between Between Between Beijia also does not want to face it alone.

And Between Between Between Beijia also knows that Ya Guo has already been nearly crippled by beating, and hates to end the war as soon as possible. This is a case of mutual affection, as long as Mu Guo shows some sincerity, the agreement will naturally be reached?

He Lingchuan again tested Du Shan: "But this is all your inference, how to verify it?"

On the surface, war is just chaos, different people looking at the same event may reach completely opposite conclusions.

Du Shan's inference needs evidence to support it.

"This is not difficult. If I am not mistaken, within twenty days, Mu Guo will inevitably return to the negotiating table, at which time conditions will be relaxed somewhat." Du Shan smiled, "Recently, Mu Guo's proposed agreement terms lacked sincerity, merely intended to anger people and make exorbitant demands, which was convenient for controlling the pace, now it can make the opponent lower its price."

"You are right, Mu Guo's newly appointed chief minister does have two brushes, but he is not as sincere as Guo Shao Ping."

According to Mu Guo's system, this kind of strategy is ninety percent likely proposed by You Huan.

Illusion and reality, deceit and counter-deceit, that is the common practice of military affairs.

Thinking of this, Du Shan felt his whole body filled with vigor.

He Lingchuan looked at him and smiled: "Not bad, not bad. By judging others by yourself, you can see him clearly."

Du Shan felt embarrassed.

Thirteen days later, the latest intelligence from the Mu-Ya battlefield was again sent to He Lingchuan's desk.

Mu Guo proactively proposed a negotiation request, and retracted several of its previous outrageous conditions, appearing much more sincere. Thus the two countries returned to the negotiating table, preparing to open another round of bargaining.

Who would have thought, this time Ya Guo proposed several high demands, such as Mu Guo's army must retreat west of Mo Shan.

Mo Shan lies on the border between the two countries. Ya Guo's demand is simply that Mu Guo's army must completely withdraw from Ya Guo's territory.

After several consecutive victories, it became a bit overconfident, feeling capable again.

After all, Between Between Between Beijia is also cooperating with it on the western front.

One can guess, Mu Guo will not agree, its representative slammed the table and left.

So this negotiation will inevitably be shelved again, then awaited to be restarted after several days.

This pattern may very well continue to repeat.

Another piece of intelligence comes from Yang Shan Islands.

Fushan Yue wrote to He Lingchuan mentioning that recently, foreign merchants from Yang Shan Islands purchased large quantities of insect repellent, and placed large orders, instantly buying out all related medicines from Yang Shan Islands. Fushan Yue suspected, specially dispatched people to follow and investigate, discovering behind it was a high official of Mu Guo.

However, Yang Shan Islands' own medicine production has long been insufficient, needing support from Jin Jin Plain.

Yang Shan Islands has no snow year-round, high temperatures in summer, is a typical island jungle climate, with snakes and insects rampant on the island. During He Lingchuan's administration of Yang Shan Islands, Dong Rui and Ling Guang not only developed many insect-repellent and plague-preventing medicine formulas, but also guided residents to grow herbs and produce medicine. After taking several kinds of medicine, the body emits a smell that makes insects and ants retreat three lodgings, very effective.

"Medicine to repel insects and ants?" He Lingchuan laughed upon receiving this letter, "It seems Mu Guo has well-informed people, already preparing war materials for the later big battle."

"Wow!" The Soul-Capturing Mirror exclaimed, "Truly as Du Shan said. Mu Guo is playing with Ya Guo."

"Cannot say it's playing. Mu Guo's continuous material losses and personnel casualties on the battlefield are real and tangible, it too must grit its teeth to bear them; at the same time, it must carefully conceal its strategic purpose, so Between Between Between Beijia does not discover, or rather cannot confirm this inference. Fortunately, large-scale war is inherently grinding, fight then talk, talk then fight, Mu Guo's thoughts are hidden within. Without the accurate information from the poison flower, even I would find it hard to notice."

Is not the war between Between Between Between Beijia and Mu Guo the best representative of the grinding tactic? Between Between Between Beijia has long been accustomed, thus more easily misled.

"But You Huan's calculation is more ruthless than I expected, and also very patient." He Lingchuan looked at the letter in his hand, spoke slowly, "Indeed, what Mu Guo wants is not only national dignity."

"What else does it want?"

"Like me, it also wants strategic security in the surrounding areas! It has grown tired of Ya Guo repeatedly thumbing its nose, since Guo Shao Ping launched war on Ya Guo, You Huan taking over must win completely and thoroughly, cannot be like the first two times, giving up midway." He Lingchuan shook his head, "Mu Guo's victories on the battlefield these few times were hard-won, yet it repeatedly refused Ya Guo's peace proposals, actually telling Ya Guo, 'Without you, it is very important'! Alas, Ya Guo does not understand."

The Soul-Capturing Mirror is no longer the simple mirror of before, it pondered this sentence carefully, feeling a chill: "It, it..."

He Lingchuan spoke the cruelest sentence of this war: "It wants to completely destroy Ya Guo!"

It wants to completely swindle the wealth of the old man Fu!