Chapter 726: The Ultimate Hidden Patience of a Venomous Snake, the Lethal Plot Biding for Its Moment

Hearing Kezhuhun Qiyuan's urgent questioning, Hou Wanjing's body, as stiff as a statue, finally made an extremely slight movement.

He slowly closed his eyes, tilted his head upward, as if he were painstakingly digesting the shocking contents of the Secret Letter that could overturn North Dynasty military knowledge.

After a long while, he exhaled a long breath of foul air and flipped the Silk Scroll in his hand onto the table.

When Hou Wanjing opened his eyes again, the shock in his eyes had been completely suppressed by his unfathomable scheming.

He looked at the generals and strategists before him, his voice low as a rumbling thunder deep in storm clouds: "The report from the Andi says the Zhou State... has won."

"Moreover, it wasn't a hollow victory relying on fortified cities. The Zhou army went out of its walls, and on the open plains they shattered Jinyang's fifty‑thousand troops! Not only did they hold Xia and Ling prefectures…" Hou Wanjing spoke extremely slowly, as if each word weighed a thousand pounds, "They also beheaded… over forty thousand!"

"Even worse, the few thousand remaining Qi remnants, together with the terrified Rouran cavalry, have been completely driven out of Zhou territory. Crown Prince Gao Xiaoyu even lost the central army's Great Banner, fleeing back to the east bank of the Yellow River like a dog with no master!"

Boom!

"Behead forty thousand?!"

As soon as Hou Wanjing finished speaking, Kezhuhun Qiyuan was first stunned, standing motionless as if struck by lightning.

Yet in an instant, his scar‑covered face erupted into a hysterical, ecstatic laugh!

"Hahaha! Good! Very good! To die so well!" Kezhuhun Qiyuan laughed until tears nearly burst forth, wildly slapping the table, shaking the ink, paper and inkstone into a frenzy, "Forty thousand elite! That old fool Gao Ying this time has sunk blood‑money, pain piercing his heart! He deserves this day!"

One must understand that the figure forty thousand does not represent forty thousand peasants brandishing wooden sticks!

The troops Gao Ying sent out were the veteran Six Town Xianbei veterans drawn from Jinyang's main camp, who had endured countless battles!

Such battle‑hardened elites, even a mighty Qi State loses one and becomes one fewer; to forge another forty thousand such warriors, even draining a whole nation, would not be achievable in just three to five years!

Beside them, Chi Luo Tong was so excited that his whole body trembled violently, his breath itself scorching with heat.

This was absolutely the most wonderful celestial music he had ever heard in his life!

Plop!

Without hesitation, Chi Luo Tong dropped heavily to one knee before Hou Wanjing, fists clasped, his voice roaring with extreme excitement: "Great King! Heaven grants us a golden opportunity! This is surely a divine chance bestowed upon us by the heavens!"

"The Jinyang forces this time suffered such devastating losses in the northwest, not only losing troops and commanders but also throwing the army's morale into chaos! Their homeland must now be utterly empty! We cannot wait any longer; it's the perfect moment to strike while they're weak!" Chi Luo Tong thrust his head up, his eyes burning with an intense yearning for imperial power, "Subordinate General requests permission! I am willing to be the vanguard, leading our Luoyang's hundred‑thousand tiger‑wolf troops to forcefully cross the Yellow River and march north! Seizing the chance to cripple them, we will in one blow pull the young Gao Ying from the throne, allowing you, Great King, to sit on the throne and rule the world!!"

Watching the two fierce generals, like sharks smelling blood, wildly clamoring for battle, the atmosphere in the entire Shufang seemed completely ignited by this impending rebellious fervor.

Yet, faced with this within‑reach imperial temptation and his subordinates' fervent endorsement, Hou Wanjing, seated on the throne, showed not a single hint of excitement or agitation on his face.

On the contrary, his gaze grew ever colder, cold enough to seemingly freeze the surrounding air in an instant.

Hou Wanjing shook his head without hesitation, his ice‑cold stare sweeping over the kneeling Chi Luo Tong, and he spat the two words from between his teeth: "Impossible!"

Those two words were like a bucket of ice water freshly carved from a frozen cavern in the harsh winter month, instantly chilling Kezhuhun Qiyuan and Chi Luo Tong to the core. Their ecstatic expressions froze, and they looked at Hou Wanjing with puzzled, anxious faces, shouting in unison: "Great King! Why not? This is a once‑in‑a‑millennium chance!"

Shao Ling, who had been silent beside them, let out an extremely shrill cold laugh.

His mouse‑sharp eyes fixed on the two generals, he coldly reminded: "Gentlemen, perhaps you've been completely blinded by the 'forty‑thousand' head count? Have you forgotten a terribly fatal matter?"

"Gao Ying that scoundrel is naturally suspicious and cruel. Though he sent his main force to Xiazhou against Zhou, how could he be completely unprepared for us Luoyang, the starving wolf entrenched in Henan Dao?" Shao Ling pointed at the fengshui map on the wall with his feather fan, shouting, "Go check the map! At the treacherous crossing points across the Yellow River at Mengjin, Puban and others, Gao Ying has left as many as sixty to seventy thousand elite central troops! Those men are watching us, defending our river crossing!"

Kezhuhun Qiyuan snorted dismissively, then slapped his warblade at his waist and proudly declared, "Defending us? That's only sixty to seventy thousand! Luoyang boasts a full hundred thousand strong, elite cavalry and infantry! Adding the militia, we can easily muster one hundred fifty thousand! As soon as the Great King gives the order, Subordinate General will lead the charge, smash straight through! What are we afraid of?"

"Nonsense! Utterly foolish!"

Hou Wanjing finally could bear no more; he slammed his palm onto the rosewood desk, producing a thunderous "Bang!" that shook the heavens.

He sprang up, a terrifying aura of authority instantly sweeping the room like Mount Tai bearing down.

"Head‑on clash? Do you think war is a street brawl?!" Hou Wanjing pointed at Kezhuhun Qiyuan's nose, his Dark Hawk gaze as if to devour, "Do you know what the empire's foundation is? What is Jinyang? It houses the finest warhorses of the entire Qi State, the toughest armor, generations of military workshops, and countless granaries!"

Hou Wanjing grew angrier, like a raging lion: "Annihilating forty thousand elites will indeed make Gao Ying bleed with pain, but at most it merely cuts off a piece of flesh, never harming his foundation! As long as Gao Ying wields the Great Banner representing the legitimate Great Qi, with Qi's terrifying mobilization power on the Hebei Dao, he can re‑arm a hundred thousand, even two hundred thousand troops in a short time!"

"What about our Luoyang army?! A hundred thousand men sound impressive! Yet those hundred thousand mouths consume a mountain of gold each day! We lack depth, lack stable granaries, relying solely on playing the fool between Liang Kingdom and Zhou State to swindle money and grain! If we now rashly force a crossing of the Yellow River for a siege, and the war stalls…" Hou Wanjing stared at the two generals, his tone chilling to the bone, "That madman Gao Ying will immediately contract the northwest front, even if he forgoes attacking Zhou, he will marshal the entire nation to crush our internal rebellion! Then we will be besieged on all sides, with no place to be buried!"

Chi Luo Tong was left speechless by this thorough strategic analysis, yet he pounded his thigh anxiously, muttering unwillingly: "But Great King... are we to watch this golden opportunity slip away? Miss it and it will never return!"

"Who says this opportunity has slipped away?"

Hou Wanjing's angry expression suddenly and oddly subsided.

He returned to the Grand Master's Chair, hands folded on his abdomen, and his grim face slowly revealed a chilling, serpentine smile as if a venomous snake were flicking its tongue.

He looked at the three, retorting, "Imagine this: Jinyang is now guarding against us at every turn, watching us, ready to counter any counterattack. Yet if, at this critical moment, we not only make no move but actually stay put in the Hebei Dao. Even…"

Hou Wanjing licked his slightly dry lips, his voice dropping to a whisper: "Even, I would voluntarily report to Gao Ying, weeping and consoling him over his northwest defeat, pledging that Luoyang's forces will steadfastly guard the Hebei Dao for Great Qi, allowing him to focus on dealing with Zhou State."

Chi Luo Tong was momentarily stunned, then a flash of insight struck, and he blurted out, "That old fox Gao Ying will initially be paranoid. But now his primary nemesis has become the severely damaged Zhou State, so his vigilance will, over time, shift from us to the western front."

"Exactly so." Hou Wanjing turned again, gazing at the bleak moonlight outside, his eyes filled with a gut‑wrenching, extreme restraint and cruelty, "True rebellion is not driven by hot‑blooded rashness, but by becoming the most adeptly disguised venomous snake!"

Hou Wanjing's voice echoed softly through the empty Shufang, like a curse from hell.

"Let Gao Ying clash with Yuwen Hu of the Zhou State, and with that living Yan King Chen Yan who slew forty thousand! Let them bleed each other in this chaotic world's meat grinder! When the young Gao Ying's vigilance toward Luoyang drops to its lowest… when Jinyang's blood is later truly drained by Zhou, causing a devastating blow…"

Hou Wanjing suddenly crushed the wine cup in his hand, letting the scarlet wine mix with blood and drip onto the floor.

"That, then, is the day our Luoyang hundred‑thousand army forcefully crosses the Yellow River and delivers a killing blow to Jinyang!"