Chapter 351: The Best of the Best Strategy

Wang Yang said firmly: "Of course it's true! Please tell me the middle strategy."

Baoyue stared at Wang Yang for two more seconds before withdrawing her gaze. She put her hands behind her back, straightened her waist, and her eyes sparkled with a radiance that was as bright as jade in the snow and white mirrors flying in the clouds. In an instant, a bright, incomparable confidence and sharpness returned to her, as if the previous anxiety had never existed:

"Middle strategy: Stay in the barbarian territory, hold your breath, and observe the changes in the situation. Although the Prince of Badong falsely uses the name of suppressing barbarian chaos on the outside, he actually harbors the ambition of seizing the throne on the inside. As long as the barbarian tribes don't move, why would he waste his energy going deep into the barren land? At that time, he might just go through the motions, or have other arrangements. In short, it's just a formality, and he won't make a big move against the barbarian tribes. I predict that after the Prince of Badong controls all of Jingzhou, he will quickly go east, so staying in the barbarian territory can also be temporarily safe."

"But this strategy has five drawbacks."

"First, after the Prince of Badong controls all of Jingzhou, we will be trapped in the barbarian wilderness, like birds in a cage. By then, it will be difficult to leave Jingzhou."

"Second, no one can guarantee that your news in the barbarian territory will never leak. Once the wind leaks, the Prince of Badong might send troops to attack, or issue a manifesto, threatening and luring. By then, I'm afraid the barbarians themselves will be in danger of chaos without the Prince of Badong having to do anything."

"Third, even if the Prince of Badong doesn't know you are here, staying in the barbarian territory is ultimately living under someone else's roof. Although you now control the Yidu tribe, the Wenyang and Yongning tribes were subdued with the imperial court as your backing and profit as your foundation. If the Prince of Badong is strong and the imperial court is slightly weak, or if the two sides are in a stalemate, the power of the imperial court will be beyond reach, and the benefits of trade will be far off. I'm afraid the hearts of the barbarians will waver. Especially the Yongning tribe, they have cooperated with the Prince of Badong before. Before you 'explained the great benefits' to them, they might have been able to behave themselves. Now that their minds are active, it's not impossible for them to actively turn to the Prince of Badong for profit."

"There are five drawbacks and no benefits. Don't think about attacking from the rear when the Prince of Badong goes east. Barbarian soldiers cannot attack cities. Just this one point means they have no great achievements, at most minor harassment. Taking a step back, even if barbarian soldiers could attack cities, do you dare to use them? You might be able to restrain the people of the Yidu tribe, but once the other two barbarian tribes enter the city, I'm afraid it won't be something that military orders can prohibit, even Le Luo Luo and Ang Ta might not be able to control them. By then, the barbarians will loot wantonly, which will just help the Prince of Badong confirm the name of the barbarian chaos, and you will also be labeled with the crime of 'colluding with barbarian tribes to cause chaos in Jingzhou,' becoming the target of public criticism. 'Those who are not of our race must have different hearts.' The power of the barbarians is not so easy to borrow, so rather than staying here, it is better to return to Jiankang."

Wang Yang saw Baoyue stop and asked suspiciously:

"Didn't you say 'five drawbacks'? Why did you only say three? What about four and five?"

"Four... the food here is really too hard to eat, the place to stay is too simple, and you can't even bathe... in short, it's not suitable for long-term living."

Baoyue complained in a low voice.

Wang Yang expressed deep agreement with this. He was also uncomfortable living in the barbarian territory, couldn't eat the food, and couldn't sleep well. Even though his food and daily necessities here were top-notch, for Wang Yang, it was far less comfortable than his small courtyard in Jingzhou city. Don't look at it as not being a mansion, but it was small but complete, especially the decoration of the main house, that wood... I'm getting off track..."

"What about five?" Wang Yang continued to ask.

Five is if you stay in the barbarian territory, you can't live in my house.

This drawback naturally wasn't said clearly. Baoyue said seriously:

"Five is the miasma and fog in the mountains, many insects and few doctors. Living here for a long time might not lead to longevity..."

Wang Yang saw Baoyue making up drawbacks here and knew how much she didn't want to stay in the barbarian territory.

"What about the lower strategy?"

"The lower strategy is for you to use the three tribes as a base, plus your previous set, to bring the Wu Ning barbarians, Bajian barbarians, and Tianmen Louzhong barbarians under the imperial court's command, and then the six major barbarian tribes of Jingzhou will act together. Externally, they will be reinforcements for Wenyang County, acting as horns for each other; internally, they will use the six tribes as a sign to incite and link up the various barbarians in the state, sending troops everywhere to harass and raid, cutting off food and post roads. In this way, the Prince of Badong's momentum can be greatly frustrated. If you can persist without being defeated, the Prince of Badong will definitely not dare to abandon Jingzhou and go east. This will drag him down. When the imperial court's suppression army arrives, internal and external forces will combine, and the Prince of Badong will surely be defeated—"

Xin Yi clapped her hands excitedly:

"The young master's lower strategy is actually the upper strategy!"

Chen Qingshan also felt that this method was powerful, as if it had suddenly restrained the Prince of Badong who was about to succeed. But for some reason, she vaguely felt that something was wrong, but when asked what was wrong, she couldn't say.

Baoyue ignored Xin Yi and looked at Wang Yang:

"This strategy has the most variables and the greatest risks. Let's not talk about whether you can hold on after the war starts. Just look at the current situation, which has changed greatly, and is no longer comparable to when you persuaded the three tribes. Like before, when you used the power of the imperial court to join hands with Wenyang and Yongning to subdue the Wu Ning barbarians, it was as easy as turning over your hand. But if you use this move now, it might force the Wu Ning barbarians to turn to the Prince of Badong."

"Besides, the Prince of Badong now has a great situation. It is one thing for you to persuade the barbarian tribes to nominally submit to the imperial court; it is another thing to make them send troops. Even if you can persuade them, they may not be able to coordinate uniformly, especially the few barbarian tribes that submitted last. In this situation, their hearts are easily proud, and their desires must be great. I'm afraid they won't follow your orders step by step."

Baoyue didn't say much about the drawbacks of this strategy this time, just briefly saying that this strategy was difficult to implement, and stopped at the point.

Other people who didn't know the inside story might think that this matter was extremely difficult to handle, but for Wang Yang, it might not be so. Baoyue witnessed the whole process of how Wang Yang set the pattern of subduing the two major barbarian tribes of Yongning and Wu Ning through one negotiation, and saw Le Luo Luo's attitude toward him, especially Le Luo Luo bringing troops to kill to the Yidu tribe to save him! This kind of method of hearing thunder from a silent place was what she saw with her own eyes and felt with her own body. So even if the situation is very bad now, she concluded that with Wang Yang's ability, provoking the six tribes to oppose the Prince of Badong is not a difficult task.

It's just that it's easy to make the six tribes send troops, but difficult to make them obey orders. The barbarian tribes are not obedient domestic dogs, but wild wolves lurking in the forest. Each tribe has its own ambitions, and each person has his own calculations. You want to use them, and they also want to use you. Usually, they are suppressed by the imperial court and barely have enough to eat; they also have precautions against each other. When the strength is vastly different, no one dares to make trouble easily. But if Wang Yang gives them a chance to show their fangs, then what they bite might not just be the Prince of Badong.

Things often move toward being out of control step by step, and ambitions also expand gradually. When the seeds of disaster first sprout, their form is not yet obvious, starting like a trickle, and eventually becoming a raging wave.

By then, the six tribes of Jing barbarians will shake the state and county, and the remaining tribes will take the opportunity to cause trouble. The Prince of Badong will rebel, the imperial court will suppress, and various forces will rise, causing Jingzhou to rot, and the situation of great chaos may start from this.

This is a great disaster that could truly shake the foundation of the country, and for the Great Qi, it is absolutely a bad thing that must be avoided as much as possible. But for the north, or for those with hidden ambitions, it is just the opposite.

Wang Yang's identity as a son of the Langya Wang family is Baoyue's guess, and it is the most likely and logical answer she inferred based on existing information. But in fact, there is another possibility that she has not declared.

If, if... he came from the north?

Baoyue had analyzed with Wang Yang before that if Wang Yang came from the north, he would also be a noble family of the northern land. As long as he revealed his identity, he would definitely be treated with courtesy, and there would be no need to impersonate another surname. But the second half of her sentence was that if Wang Yang harbored evil intentions, or had some secret mission, then impersonating the Langya surname would be a different plan.

But in Bao Yue's view, this possibility was very small. Even if the northern barbarians were crazy, they wouldn't use such a great talent as a spy. Even if they really used him as a spy, they wouldn't let him impersonate the Langya Wang family without proof or support; such behavior was simply no different from courting death.

However, Baoyue still couldn't completely ignore this possibility. Even if he wasn't a northern spy, if he was inclined toward the northern dynasty, or felt that he was already guilty of impersonating a surname, he might as well stir up the world, rise in the chaos, and when all parties were fighting into a pot of porridge, with Wang Yang's talent, relying on the barbarian tribes as his arm, wrapping up refugees, and recruiting troops, he might have a great chance to become a hero of one side.

Wang Yang was testing Baoyue's true intentions, and Baoyue was also testing Wang Yang's true intentions.

Wang Yang smiled: "I dare not use this lower strategy of yours."

Xin Yi shook her head, her expression regretful.

Baoyue breathed a sigh of relief, a smile on her lips:

"I see you don't just not use my lower strategy, you don't intend to use my upper and middle strategies either."

Wang Yang praised flatteringly: "Nothing can be hidden from Miss Xiao!"

Baoyue's eyes rippled, her expression carrying a bit of teasing and understanding:

"This is asking me for help again! Say it! What is this best of the best strategy of yours? And what do you need me to do in it?"

Xin Yi stood on tiptoe and whispered to Chen Qingshan:

"Why say best of the best strategy?"

Chen Qingshan whispered:

"The young master doesn't use the upper strategy, so naturally there is a best of the best strategy."

Xin Yi was confused:

"But is the term 'best of the best strategy' used correctly? It doesn't feel quite right. Shouldn't it be 'a strategy better than the upper strategy,' or 'the best strategy,' so it would be smooth..."

Chen Qingshan:...

Wang Yang didn't answer Baoyue immediately.

After pacing back and forth a few times, he turned around suddenly and looked at Baoyue:

"You help me with three things. First—"

Wang Yang deliberated and turned to say:

"I'd better write it down."

Then he ordered someone to take paper and pen. After the paper and pen arrived, he didn't hesitate and started writing non-stop.

Baoyue was very curious and couldn't help but lean closer to see. The more she looked, the more her brows furrowed. She really didn't understand what Wang Yang meant. When Wang Yang wrote the third request, a flash of lightning appeared in Baoyue's mind, instantly illuminating part of the fog!

She didn't know how Wang Yang calculated this step! Nor did she know how Wang Yang could do this! And even now, she hadn't figured out Wang Yang's entire layout! But Baoyue, being as smart as she was, had already figured out a key link through the things Wang Yang asked her to do!

Baoyue's face changed drastically, and she staggered backward. Her bright autumn-water eyes had already lost their luster due to fear and panic, and she repeated in her mouth:

"Impossible! I can't help you with this! Absolutely impossible!!!" ===== CHAPTER 352 =====