Chapter 752: Borrowing bones to paint skin to disrupt the grassland

The bloody cleaning in Tongwan City completely came to an end. Those gate clans that once had ghosts in their hearts were uprooted, and the bloody smell on the streets dissipated after several days of strong wind.

What replaced it was the almost fanatical vitality and absolute submission to the Governor's Office after the commoners were assigned land.

This barren Northern Frontier land, under the reshaping of the iron wrist, its military and political rule had already been cast into an iron giant stone that no external force could shake.

Deep inside the Xia Prefecture Governor's Office, in that airtight core study.

Chen Yan had long since taken off the robes stained with the foul aura of slaughter, changing into a set of moon-white cloud brocade casual robes that were soft in texture and unblemished by a single speck of dust.

He stood upright in front of that giant Northern Frontier sand table that occupied half of the study and was finely piled with yellow earth and fine sand, his deep eyes wandering slowly over those undulating mountain veins.

Between his slender and powerful joints, he was casually holding two rough animal bone chess pieces carved into wolf head and eagle body shapes, representing the forces of Rouran and Turkic, his fingertips rubbing back and forth on the rough bone texture, making an extremely faint rustling sound.

The heavy solid wood carved door of the study was pushed open by a crack from the outside extremely cautiously.

Zhang Wenqian held a stack of thick almanac account books in both hands, his official boots stepping on the excited and almost chaotic steps, striding across the high threshold without caring about dignity.

This Deputy Governor of Xia Prefecture, who was always steady and introverted, was breathing rapidly due to excessive excitement at this moment, his cheeks flushed with a pathological flush, and even the black gauze hat on his head was shaking slightly.

He didn't care about those official rituals, directly placing the account book that weighed more than a thousand catties in his hand heavily on the edge of the desk, bringing up a strong scent of ink as the pages flew.

"Zhuguo, great joy! The implementation of the Equal-Field System and the curved-shaft plow is simply like divine help. The latest urgent reports from military colonies everywhere show that the refugees and garrison soldiers who were assigned land are reclaiming wasteland like crazy, and the progress is a full three times faster than expected!"

Zhang Wenqian swallowed his saliva to moisten his dry throat, his hands supporting the desk, the fanatical light of infinite longing for the future flashing in his bloodshot eyes.

"As long as it develops according to this amazing momentum, and God rewards us with a few timely rains, this official dares to guarantee with my head that the major treasuries of our Xia Prefecture will surely welcome an unprecedented crazy bumper harvest before winter, and the mountains of grain and grass will be enough to support the army to eat their fill for three years!"

Facing this shocking good news that could make any feudal lord ecstatic, Chen Yan's angular face did not show half a hint of satisfaction.

He threw the eagle-body bone chess piece representing Rouran into mid-air and accurately pinched it back into his palm, his dark gaze like two sharp short blades, crossing the map of Xia Prefecture and locking firmly onto the vast grassland at the northernmost end of the sand table.

That was the death zone soaked in blood between the Jinshan Mountains where the Turks retreated and the ruins of the Rouran Royal Court turned into scorched earth. The ambition fire flashing in the bottom of his eyes not only did not go out, but burned more and more vigorously because of the abundance of grain and grass.

Chen Yan tapped slowly and rhythmically on the hard ironwood frame on the edge of the sand table with his protruding knuckles, the dull echo hitting people's heart pulses one by one in the quiet study.

"Your eyes are staring at the few grains of coarse rice in our own pot, but you can't see the monstrous storm that is about to sweep the world outside this Great Wall."

He stopped tapping, a cruel cold smile raised on his lips that played with all the situations in his palm, his voice revealing an extremely rational and hair-raising coldness.

"Moheduo, the clever fox who became a spirit, the Turkic Crown Prince, used the intelligence I gave him to raid Rouran's nest, grabbed all the gold, silver, and women, but stopped when he saw the profit. He didn't even have half a thought of lingering in the battle, directly wiping the soles of his feet and retreating to the foot of the Jinshan Mountains."

Zhang Wenqian heard this analysis, and the joy of harvest in his heart was extinguished by more than half. He straightened his body, his brows tightly twisted together, and a layer of fine cold sweat seeped out of his back.

Chen Yan turned the Turkic wolf-head bone chess piece in his fingertips nimbly, his cold face interlaced with light and shadow under the reflection of the charcoal fire.

"He clearly saw through my open scheme of borrowing a knife to kill, deliberately not fighting to the death with the Rouran main force that rushed back. He wants to sit on the Jinshan Mountains and be a spectator, digesting the amazing wealth he grabbed to frantically expand his military equipment."

Chen Yan's wrist exerted force abruptly, pressing the Turkic wolf-head chess piece heavily on the landmark of Jinshan, the bone and the sand table making a harsh, tooth-aching sound.

"Once he accumulates enough strength, this fox will become a vicious wolf that devours everything. He not only wants to annex Rouran, which has already been beaten to disability, but also wants to become the unique new hegemon on this entire grassland. By then, his full mouth of fangs will surely turn back and bite the neck of our Great Zhou!"

Zhang Wenqian was shocked by this layer-by-layer terrifying deduction and gasped. He searched for the cotton handkerchief used to wipe sweat at his waist in a panic, and the hem of his official robe trembled slightly with the trembling of his legs.

"If we really let that Turkic thief sit big and become a force so steadily, even if our Xia Prefecture stockpiles more grain and grass, we won't be able to withstand the trampling of the iron cavalry that will come out in full force after the entire grassland is unified. This is absolutely a sign of a monstrous chaos!"

A scarlet dark light like substance surged in the bottom of Chen Yan's eyes. He grabbed the red bone chess piece representing Rouran with his backhand, and with a destructive, violent force, nailed it firmly to the center of the black territory representing the Turks, smashing a sunken deep pit in the yellow earth on the sand table.

"Since he, Moheduo, likes to watch the fire from the other side and watch the show so much, I will make this stage on the grassland chaotic today. I want him to know what it means to be burned by fire and unable to escape!"

"Where is Li Yu!"

With this low roar containing endless killing intent exploding in the study, a faint sound of clothing friction came without warning from behind the large red wood carved screen that had been silent in the corner shadow.

Li Yu, the Commanding Emissary of the Mingjing Si, was like a dark night ghost that had been lurking for a long time, wearing a night suit that blended into the darkness, walking out silently on the expensive Western Region carpet, kneeling on one knee on the stone slab three steps away from Chen Yan, his head bowed deeply.

"The subordinate is here, just waiting for the Zhuguo to drive, even if it is a mountain of knives and a sea of fire, I will not refuse even if I die ten thousand times."

Chen Yan strode to the back of the wide rosewood desk, bent down to pull open the secret drawer with an extremely complex dark lock, and brutally pulled out a set of extremely exquisite Qi State third-rank official court robes made of top-grade cloud brocade and complexly sewn with gold thread.

He threw the heavy official robe together with a scroll of top-grade bright yellow silk, on which was even stamped a fake customs clearance national letter with a fake Qi State seal that was seamless, directly at Li Yu's feet, the gold thread on the official robe reflecting blinding light spots under the charcoal fire.

"Change into this outfit, take the ten thousand repeating crossbows and horizontal sabers just seized from that group of dead ghosts' underground arsenal, and then mobilize one hundred thousand piculs of top-grade millet enough for the army to eat their fill for half a month, and secretly head north immediately to cross the Great Wall defense line."

Chen Yan looked down at Li Yu's head, issuing this top-secret crazy military order that made Zhang Wenqian, who was standing on the side, feel his scalp tingle and even his breathing stop.

"Your identity on this trip is no longer a dark agent of Great Zhou, but a special plenipotentiary imperial envoy representing the Great Qi court to go to the grassland to form an alliance with Rouran!"

Zhang Wenqian widened his eyes in horror. His brain, which was good at calculation, was like being struck by lightning, completely unable to understand why his master wanted to use such a massive amount of military equipment and grain to subsidize the enemy.

Chen Yan ignored Zhang Wenqian's shock. He bypassed the desk and walked to Li Yu's side, bent down and lowered his voice, which was filled with cold calculation, and laid out the core strategic logic of this advanced version of borrowing a knife to kill.

"The Rouran people have just had their families killed and their ancestral graves dug up by the Turks. The monstrous hatred in their chests only needs a spark of prairie fire to completely burn their reason."

He extended his fingertips and tapped heavily on Li Yu's shoulder twice, with such force that Li Yu's body leaned forward slightly.

"You take this batch of military equipment and grain representing the national power of Great Qi to give them confidence. I want you to use every means to put that brainless brute, Wen Gexi, on the fire to roast, forcing him to immediately lose all reason, tilt the whole country's soldiers to fight the Turks to the death, and not give Moheduo even a day's chance to breathe!"

Li Yu did not have half a hesitation. He respectfully picked up the Qi State official robe on the ground, got up and walked behind the screen to quickly take off the inconspicuous night suit, and put on the cloud brocade court robe that represented the dignity of a great power's powerful minister.

When he walked out from behind the screen again, the forbearance and humility that originally belonged to the dark agent were completely wiped out, replaced by an arrogant, sinister, and unfathomable superior's pressure, and even his pace carried a kind of arrogant and floating domineering air.

He had completed the transformation from the bones, perfectly incarnating into that Qi State powerful minister who was about to set off a bloody storm on the grassland.

Chen Yan looked at Li Yu's earth-shaking change with satisfaction. He personally walked to the small red clay stove beside the bookshelf, picked up the boiling silver wine pot, and poured a cup of spicy and pungent strong wine for Li Yu in the carved rhinoceros horn cup.

"Going to the grassland alone to enter the game is like going deep into a wolf's den and a tiger's cave, with nine deaths and one life. A little carelessness will lead to being chopped into meat mud by those savages who have killed until their eyes are red."

Chen Yan picked up the wine glass, the amber wine liquid in the glass shaking violently under the charcoal fire halo. He handed the wine glass to Li Yu, infinite fanaticism for hegemony burning in his deep eyes.

"But as long as your tongue can sing this play round, you will be the supreme help that I use to pry the national destiny of the entire grassland in this heaven and earth chess game!"

Li Yu respectfully took the wine glass with both hands, raised his neck and drank the strong wine like a knife in one gulp, the boiling wine liquid burning all the way to his stomach along his throat, stimulating his full ambition to die.

He turned the rhinoceros horn cup upside down on the desk with a muffled sound, left no words of farewell, and resolutely turned and strode out of the study, his clothes fluttering in the night wind.

Half an hour later, the thousand-jin lock of the north gate of Xia Prefecture City was lifted silently.

Hundreds of Embroidered Attire Envoys who had changed into the elite imperial guard armor of the Qi State, driving dozens of heavy baggage carts whose axles were pressed to make painful groans and were tightly wrapped in waterproof oilcloth, were like a dark blue iron flow, silently escaping into the vast and boundless night of the Northern Frontier.

Chen Yan stood with his hands behind his back in front of the half-open window of the study, letting the cold wind mixed with sand from outside the Great Wall blow his moon-white casual robe to bulge backward, his deep gaze crossing the heavy darkness, as if he had already seen the desert that was about to be stained with blood.

A cruel smile that made people's livers and gallbladders crack hooked on his lips, and his fingers slowly closed and clenched into a fist on the windowsill.

"Rouran, Turks, then let me teach you well what is the balance of power on the grassland!" ===== CHAPTER 753 =====