Chapter 287: Unsolvable Yang Plot

No, no, no, that won't do.

No matter how you say it, I'm about to become a mother, so I still need to keep some dignity......

It's fine to coax one's own obedient child, but you can't go to any lengths just to coax the child!

Otherwise, how will you raise the child in the future!

Du Shanü shook her head, flinging those ill-formed thoughts from her mind, then recounted in full how Ruansizong had brought the magistrate of the two cities to defect; only then did she seem to recall something, and she praised:

"Afang, I didn't expect your skill at forging handwriting to be this good!"

"That Ruansizong is a complete old fox, his temperament even more wild and obstinate; earlier when I met him, I gained not the slightest advantage; if it weren't for you forging the letter to change his mind, I fear he would truly be taking his family and leaving Yongzhou......"

If Ruansizong truly leaves, then everything can be considered over.

Although she had some confidence then, the other side would surely yield for power and profit, but that confidence wasn't a full guarantee.

If we say the odds are fifty-fifty, then she, who came up with that yin stratagem, naturally only has a fifty percent chance.

And the remaining fifty percent chance depends on whether Chen Weifang can actually pull this off.

The Ruan family's grandfather and grandson, being grandfather and grandson, given Ruansizong's fierce protectiveness toward his offspring, while at home they would inevitably have seen the grandson reading and writing; if Chen Weifang's forged handwriting is off......

Then, that would mean becoming enemies with Ruansizong.

Du Shanü isn't exactly afraid of anyone, but who would willingly gain an extra enemy for no reason?

If Ruansizong again couldn't hold back and defected to Du Shanü's enemy camp, wouldn't that be adding insult to injury?

That would certainly be enough to make her drink a pot!

Du Shanü's expression turned sorrowful, while Chen Weifang, hearing the praise, kept her expression unchanged, only giving a half-smile as she said:

"... As long as the Wise Lord thinks Fang is useful, that's enough."

Du Shanü didn't think further, just straight away began counting on her fingers:

"Therefore, now of Yongzhou's eight cities, Ju Cheng and Tancheng have fallen, Peaceful City and Safe City have submitted; except for the somewhat northern Horizontal City and Pure City not being in our hands, the entirety of Yongzhou is practically in our grasp."

"This time I've come to find you because, aside from me and Chinu being inseparable and our affairs being somewhat inefficient, making it hard to keep up, there's also the matter I want to discuss with you: how to retake Horizontal City and Pure City."

These two cities......

They really are somewhat special.

If the situation were clear, we had hardly ever heard any news about these two cities before.

But if we say we've never heard of them, when we previously went to Tancheng to meet the Deposed Crown Prince's funeral, Du Shanü indeed heard several of the entourage report that they personally saw Horizontal City marching toward Pure City.

And a few days earlier, Du Shanü had intentionally sent people to scout, and indeed they heard the news that Horizontal City had captured Pure City.

Just these two pieces of information actually already reveal a lot——

At that time the old prefect was still in office, Yongzhou's internal affairs were in chaos, and everyone felt endangered.

The Horizontal City side had the gall to rally militia to attack Pure City......

At the very least, the magistrate of Horizontal City is at least someone who can make decisions.

But don't underestimate this 'can make decisions'; it's completely different from the officials of Peaceful City and Safe City who just go along and serve tyrants.

Those two magistrates are mediocre, accomplishing nothing; if they want to make a name for themselves, they can only be pushed around everywhere.

Whatever the prefect orders them to do, that's all they can do.

Even though they clearly knew the earlier grain and labor tax was unreasonable, the orders still flowed down without obstruction.

To put it bluntly, who knows if they were lining their own pockets in the process.

The most they could do was, within their own jurisdiction, make things difficult for more people.

Thus, when the An Nan army previously attacked the city, these two at most dared to send scouts to spy, and otherwise never dispatched troops.

In contrast, Horizontal City was able to act swiftly and decisively, and while everyone was still reacting, it deployed troops to annex the neighboring city and strengthen itself—truly an utterly unexpected move.

Now, with the north and south divided, everyone in the Nine Provinces feels endangered......

Everything else is false; only having money, grain, and troops in hand is real.

Therefore, the magistrate of Horizontal City is probably someone with brains.

Thus, what Du Shanü can do is destined to be somewhat limited——

It's not that she fears the opponent, but she is severely short of manpower; if she could persuade them to surrender and make them serve her, then persuasion would certainly be the best strategy.

But as we said before, if the opponent has brains, what would persuade them to surrender?

That person himself already controls two cities; frankly, the Imperial Court's reach is now truly limited, they even killed the Imperial Envoy earlier and no one pursued it, so why not just seal the mountains and become a mountain king—how could that not be more pleasant than serving under someone else?

Thus, the difficulty of taking Yongzhou's northern two cities is certainly destined to be far greater than that of the southern two cities sent by Ruansizong.

But how to take them, Du Shanü really is......

"Wise Lord, don't forget, Tancheng suffered a great famine earlier, and there are still many corpses left."

Chen Weifang lowered her eyes, as if hinting, and said:

"If the Wise Lord can bring herself to do it, why not send people to gather a bunch of famine victims' corpses?"

"Although spring this year has been late, right now April is just around the corner and the weather will warm up; as long as we throw the corpses into those two cities, the rotting corpses will surely breed a great plague......"

Du Shanü's temples throbbed twice, and she quickly used a fingertip to press against the palm of her other hand, cutting off Chen Weifang's words:

"Stop stop stop! Afang, take a break, it's not yet the time to use you."

She asked them how to take the city, but actually she just wanted to use people, use people!

Afang opens her mouth just to dump corpses—what's the difference between that and destroying the city?!

Chen Weifang's behavior is like having caught people and beaten them over and over, relentlessly interrogating......

However, just as they were about to beat the person to death, the final look——

Oh, it turns out I haven't even asked!

Is this right?

Can this be right?

Du Shanü's head ached as if it would split, she said impatiently:

"Guai Nunu, you speak."

She blamed herself for constantly watching Afang's gentle and tranquil demeanor, momentarily lax, and failed to recall Afang's nickname of "Poison Strategist".

If she had remembered, she would not have let Afang speak first!

Du Shanü now could only place her hopes in her own Guai Nunu, her eyes inevitably carrying some anticipation.

Chinu pondered briefly, then spoke:

"...... Better yet, let's pretend not to know about the war, summon someone under the guise of reporting duties, call the county magistrate of Horizontal City to the Zhoufu, Wife Master, what do you think?"

Du Shanü's heart stirred, she immediately let out an interested oh.

"Nunu means......"

Chinu indeed understood her Wife Master's temperament, and continued:

"If they dare to come, why wouldn't we dare to detain them and instead hold the Northern Border Two Cities hostage?"

"If they dare not come......"

A faint, almost imperceptible smile curled at Chinu's lips:

"Wouldn't that be even more advantageous for the Wife Master?"

"If they do not esteem the esteemed order issued by the Zhoufu, we can outright label them as rebellious...... sending troops to suppress them would merely be reasonable."

(To avoid unclear expression, here is a partial map of Yongzhou; if you are familiar, please ignore.)

?? Esteemed order: a respectful term for a superior's command, also used as a directive to address elders.

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