Chapter 274

"Although I was acting, the sentence that mountain berry juice is for women to drink is true."

Seeing Wang Yang drinking happily like a master there, Young Master Chang said impatiently.

Wang Yang smiled happily with a hint of drunkenness:

"Why should a true man rely on things in a cup to label himself?

Singing wildly in drunkenness is not necessarily great courage;

Staying calm in danger is the hero.

If the heart has heroic feelings, even if drinking mountain berry juice, one can still stir up the wind and clouds;

If the belly lacks courage, even if one drinks a thousand cups of strong wine, it is just adding turbid energy!"

Young Master Chang's expression tightened, and he looked at Wang Yang with a strange look in his eyes.

After a while, he reached out and grabbed the pottery jar, poured himself a bowl of mountain berry juice, took a big gulp, smacked his lips, and shook his head:

"What wind and cloud taste, I didn't drink it at all. No matter how grand the words are, mountain berry juice is still for women to drink."

Wang Yang smiled and patted Young Master Chang's shoulder: "Still short of practice, buddy."

"Song dull?" Young Master Chang was puzzled.

Wang Yang smiled evilly with a hint of drunkenness: "Practice, you'll know after practicing."

Young Master Chang became more and more puzzled:

"No, you haven't answered my previous question, how come another one came out?"

"Is the previous question hard to answer? Pour me another bowl of this wind and cloud taste." Wang Yang cut with his palm boldly.

Young Master Chang had no choice but to lift the jar gloomily and fill it up for Wang Yang.

Wang Yang sipped the mountain berry juice slowly and said:

"Your first flaw is—"

"First?!" Young Master Chang was shocked.

"Yes, the first flaw was when I told you the peace faction said: 'They came from far away, and they didn't burn, kill, or plunder, and they only want three thousand robes and jackets each. Is this little matter even a matter? Just give them five thousand each!' After you heard it, you said 'Is that really so'."

Young Master Chang asked puzzledly: "Is there any problem with this?"

"Yes, I said something so exaggerated as bait to test you. As a result, you didn't question or be vigilant when you heard such words, but instead followed along with me. This cooperation was too much—"

Young Master Chang said "wronged": "I questioned it! I said 'Is that really so,' isn't that asking if you are telling the truth? Isn't this questioning???"

"From a linguistic perspective, 'Is that really so' is a typical confirmatory response. Based on the progress of our previous chat, it belongs to a low-suspicion context. In this context, the positive feedback direction of the phrase 'Is that really so' is far greater than the questioning direction. So although you asked 'Is that really so,' your subconscious or your core semantics—"

Young Master Chang was completely confused.

Wang Yang waved his hand: "In short, when you say 'Is that really so,' it basically means you believe it, not question it."

"I..."

Young Master Chang stared with copper-bell-like eyes, his mouth opened and closed, looking just like a catfish thrown onto the shore.

Although he didn't understand more than half of it, he still felt—

Han people are really too terrifying!

But he still wouldn't give up and questioned:

"I am a barbarian, and my Han language is not good. I don't understand what you said. I just used the phrase 'Is that really so' casually. Isn't that okay?"

"It's okay. But your expression also betrayed you."

"Expression?" Young Master Chang recalled and asked puzzledly: "I am greedy for profit, and when I heard that five thousand robes and jackets were being given, I couldn't help but be excited. Is there any problem with this expression?"

"No problem. I'm not talking about your excited expression, but the micro-expression before you were excited."

"Before being excited? Micro... micro-expression?"

"When you first heard my words, your pupils contracted for a moment. This is your instinctive reaction to receiving threatening information. I think you were suspicious of my words, thinking whether there were any traps in it, but you didn't say it, and you were still there saying 'Is that really so.' You say how cunning you are..."

Young Master Chang's thoughts were exposed, and he was imitated by Wang Yang's tone of voice, feeling both embarrassed and guilty, and at the same time feeling terrified. This person knew what he was thinking from the moment his facial expression changed. Wouldn't he have no secrets in front of him in the future? Thinking of this, he couldn't help but rub his face with both hands, as if to wipe something away, and suddenly remembered Wang Yang's last sentence, his movements stiffened—

I am cunning?

How can I be more cunning than you???

However, since he needed help from others, he couldn't say this clearly, so he had to swallow this breath silently and continued to ask: "Then what is my second flaw?"

"The second flaw was when I told you that although the war faction had the upper hand, there was a big flaw, and then asked you 'Can Young Master Chang guess it,' and you shook your head—"

"What's wrong with shaking my head?!"

"Shaking your head is fine, but you blinked your innocent and ignorant big eyes, playing innocent and ignorant there, which was a bit deliberate. This pretending to be stupid must be consistent. You didn't pretend much before, and your shrewdness had already been revealed. Now you suddenly pretend to be simple; isn't that trying to cover up? And that ya tutu cha of yours, you acted too much..."

Wang Yang laughed as he said this.

Young Master Chang said seriously: "I really wanted to ya tutu cha, I wasn't acting."

Wang Yang's smile faded:

"No, to be precise, you wanted to ya tutu cha before. You would have kept Liu Cheng first, made a gesture of ya tutu cha to fight, and then used Liu Cheng as a bargaining chip to negotiate. But ever since you knew Duke Liu was finished, uh, that is, lost power, ever since you knew Duke Liu lost power, you lost your confidence. Because you clearly understand that if the imperial court doesn't care about Liu Cheng, and the war faction gets their way, then the ransom is hopeless, let alone the fact that the imperial court will instead increase troops on a large scale and fight you to the end—"

"You won't fight me to the end!" Young Master Chang said decisively. "The Han court's greatest concern is the Northern Xianbei. My Wenyang tribe is just a minor ailment. Fighting us consumes money and effort; winning brings no profit, and losing brings great harm. As long as you fight, we will retreat into the deep mountains and dangerous paths and circle with you! It is easy for you to win a few small victories, but if you want to clear us out, it won't be successful even if you spend a few years. If you provoke reactions from other barbarian tribes, then you will be in even more trouble! Don't forget that decades ago, when your Song Emperor was in power, the barbarians of the four commanderies of Jingzhou rose up together, and the whole province was cut off by water and land; the Han army dared not come out! Even if your Qi mobilizes troops, it will only repeat the same mistakes."

Wang Yang asked back: "Since you are so powerful, you should be the masters of Jingzhou. Why did you retreat back into the mountains?"

Young Master Chang said neither humbly nor arrogantly:

"I am not saying we are powerful. There are too many barbarian tribes, we cannot be of one heart, and we are not good at attacking cities. In open field battles, we are also inferior to the Han. But our tribe has existed for a hundred generations and has its own way of standing; it is absolutely not something that can be exterminated by external force!"

Wang Yang smiled, his voice slightly cold:

"It may be difficult to exterminate all the barbarians, but it is more than enough to eliminate one tribe. Let alone one tribe, even if a few more tribes were added, it wouldn't matter. Since the Zhou and Han dynasties, barbarian rebellions have been endless. However, there has never been one that could steadily occupy an entire commandery without leaving. What is there to talk about with the rebellion of the barbarians of the four commanderies? Not to mention the distant ones, just take the Yuanjia period of the previous dynasty. The barbarian rebellion in Yongzhou rose greatly, and the momentum was far greater than the four commanderies of Jingzhou, but what was the result?

In the 19th year of Yuanjia, they broke the barbarians along the Mian River and captured seven thousand living barbarians. They advanced to conquer Huyang and captured another ten thousand; in the 22nd year, Emperor Little Xiao Wu was stationed in Yongzhou, divided the army to cover and suppress, and won again, with twenty thousand surrendering; when Wang Xuanmo led Jingzhou, he met with the imperial army, pacified the mountains, and captured seventy thousand living ones; in the 26th year, the large army went out to suppress, advancing from eight directions, and the barbarian groups hid their tracks and stopped their voices, none daring to raid! In the 27th year, they captured twenty-eight thousand living barbarians and twenty-five thousand surrendering barbarians; by the 4th year of Great Ming, the barbarians of the five waters rebelled again, and the Song general Shen Qingzhi led the armies of the commandery to suppress them, fighting for a year, pacifying them all, and capturing tens of thousands of living people.

Since the day the large army went out, north of the Yangtze and Han rivers, south of Lujiang, they searched the mountains and swept the valleys, leaving nothing behind! The prisoners were tied by their necks, and they couldn't be counted! Therefore, it is known that once the imperial court decides to exterminate, the barbarian tribes will definitely be eliminated! It is like smashing an egg with Mount Tai, using the power of the world to press one corner! At that time, the so-called 'deep mountains' will all be valleys of accumulated corpses! The 'dangerous paths' relied upon will all become paths of tied necks! This previous verification is already clear!

If one relies on dangerous obstacles and boasts of the courage of an owl; if one temporarily avoids the sharp edge and boasts of the wisdom of a fox or rabbit; if one thinks that the conquest cannot last and the Han army has no strength to pursue, thinking of stopping the feet of a galloping cow with the fineness of a spider's silk; if one thinks that one can block the momentum of a hurricane with the thinness of a piece of paper, then it will only invite laughter! Young Master Chang is a smart person and will definitely not think this way.

What's more, you already know that the war faction wants to earn merit through war and seize power through conquest. They will not only not be afraid of duration, but they are hoping for duration; they will not be afraid of other tribes responding, but they are hoping for response! One general succeeds, ten thousand bones wither; the blood-stained red robes become even brighter. Even if Jingzhou is broken and destroyed, the mountains, rivers, grass, and trees are all soaked in rivers of blood, Great Qi still has twenty-two provinces, but what will remain of the Wenyang tribe?

So I said, although Young Master Chang says he wants to ya tutu cha, his heart does not want to."

After Wang Yang finished speaking, he picked up the fruit juice to moisten his throat in a leisurely manner, looking calm and relaxed.

And Young Master Chang, after the repeated "grinding" by Wang Yang before, had long since lost his momentum. Now, after listening to these words, he was even more frightened and had no will to resist. He just tried to stay calm, and while pouring himself wine, he tentatively said:

"What you said about Duke Liu and the war faction is all your one-sided words, and it's hard to tell true from false."

Wang Yang smiled:

"Since you already believe me, why bother testing me? Actually, what you believe is not me, but reason, because the logic of things is just like this, and it doesn't allow you not to believe it. Even if you don't believe it, it doesn't matter. If you want to gamble with your entire tribe, then you can try. In addition, for the sake of this roasted lamb leg, I will give you another piece of information. Earlier, I said that someone said, 'The Wenyang barbarians have the ambition of a wolf, and only swords and soldiers can deter them; they must slaughter the entire tribe to eliminate future troubles! Whoever dares to speak of sending satin should be executed to apologize to the world.' The person who said this has a noble status, high position, and great power, is greatly related to Jingzhou, and is extremely warlike. If my mission fails, and he is responsible for conquering the barbarians, then..."

Wang Yang's voice stopped, his eyes fell on the table, he eased his expression, and said earnestly:

"Brother, this roasted lamb leg is very delicious. I don't hope that this time next year, the children of your Wenyang tribe won't even have the chance to gnaw on bones."

After those dense, step-by-step, murderous and sharp words, Wang Yang suddenly said such a sentence.

Young Master Chang only felt his heart tremble violently, his hand shook, and the cold wine spilled out, dripping like blood between his rough fingers. The originally sharp eyes were now shattered into waves, and in a trance, he seemed to see the mountains of corpses and seas of blood in the Wenyang Valley...

Wang Yang stopped talking and drank the fruit juice silently.

The two sat quietly like this, and after a while, they heard Young Master Chang ask in a deep voice:

"The person you just mentioned, the one who wants to slaughter my Wenyang tribe, is it the Jingzhou Inspector, Prince of Badong, Xiao Zixiang?"

Wang Yang in his heart: ╮(￣▽￣)╭