Chapter 703

Snake Staff Old Man, this cunning old fox, has already messed with Chen Wuji's mindset several times.

At first, he regarded this old thing and Gu Wenjie as his arch-enemy.

At that time, their strength was indeed also strong.

Later, Gu Wenjie suffered a major defeat.

The old and the young almost lost even their underpants, scurrying about like street rats.

Since Chen Wuji came over, he rarely had the habit of looking down on people; he always approached everything with extreme caution.

But at that time, he indeed thought Snake Staff Old Man was just a jumping clown, planning to ignore him, since catching him would be difficult anyway, so he let him be.

Unexpectedly, this relaxation let Snake Staff Old Man start stirring trouble again.

This time, the dreamlike linkage between Songzhou and Zhong Qiang let Chen Wuji sniff out the scent of that old fox, Snake Staff Old Man, in many details.

As for Lao Zamao, Chen Wuji now truly feels "seeing mountains as mountains, seeing mountains not as mountains, seeing mountains as mountains again"—it's also a lesson for him.

"Speaking of which, I'm ashamed; to this day I still haven't figured out what intention Snake Staff Old Man has with such a layout in Nan Jun; Gu Wenjie, looked at horizontally or vertically, seems like a fig leaf he pushed forward." Xu Zengyi lightly coughed, covering his mouth with a handkerchief.

Chen Wuji leaned against the carriage, "Sir, you need not concern yourself with his purpose; put bluntly, it's still about power and influence; having that is enough, and I don't need to know his detailed purpose."

Xu Zengyi nodded slightly.

Chen Wuji glanced at Xu Zengyi's still somewhat pallid face, "Sir, you'd better recover quickly; you'll be busy again soon. This way, I'll give you two more needles; rest well."

"Thank you, my lord!"

Chen Wuji took out a silver needle from his bosom and practiced his technique on Xu Zengyi.

Speaking of which, this silver needle was a gift from Zhang Lao, and it serves as the identification badge of the Charitable Relief Studio.

After inserting the needle, after waiting roughly half an hour, Chen Wuji removed the needle, instructed Xu Zengyi to rest well, then left the carriage and mounted his warhorse.

He did not return to his own carriage, but leading the personal guard, he galloped to inspect the front and rear armies.

During the march, this is something Chen Wuji must do every day.

The army of over thirty thousand, with the front and rear units about ten li apart.

Chen Wuji goes back and forth, checking here and giving instructions there, each day taking nearly an hour.

Taking advantage of this time, he also carefully reconsidered possible uprisings in various parts of Nan Jun; only after returning to the carriage did he issue orders to the various prefectures.

Based on his discussion with Xu Zengyi, he added another order.

Those who surrender shall serve one year of labor.

Those who stubbornly resist, or have already caused destruction to the locality, or engage in looting and pillaging, shall be utterly exterminated, leaving no survivors.

Besides this, the other orders remain unchanged.

"My lord, has something troublesome happened?"

Qin Zhanhong saw Chen Wuji finish his business, then asked with concern.

Chen Wuji nodded, "Some rebellions have occurred in the various prefectures, but it's nothing major."

"Rebellion?" Qin Zhanhong looked astonished, "My lord, you always benefit the people; how could rebellions arise? And in several prefectures at once? Surely someone is fanning the flames behind this."

Chen Wuji shared his rough speculation with Qin Zhanhong.

"So that's what's going on; this surnamed Yu is truly a despicable person!" Qin Zhanhong angrily waved his fist, "My lord, you must kill him, break his bones and hang him on the city wall; this wretch is too hateful, using poison to control the populace, unforgivable."

"Those two words 'despicable person' are used well!"

Chen Wuji does not harbor excessive contempt for Yu Ren, but in his eyes this person is utterly a worthless wretch, a despicable person.

This has nothing to do with his methods or abilities; it's merely a matter of his personal conduct and morality.

In terms of methods, he is still quite strong.

This combination of spirit worship and drug control, a "cutting the fuel from under the cauldron" tactic, if the prefectures cannot suppress it in time, will inevitably spread like a plague.

The territories Chen Wuji painstakingly conquered might be utterly destroyed by this wretch in a short time.

Yu Ren is not targeting a single locality but launching a full-scale assault; the time to link up contiguous areas will be very short.

Once linked, that influence will be like a raging flood.

Fortunately, to restore local livelihoods, Chen Wuji has left extremely capable personnel in the central-eastern prefectures, all of whom are pillars of his group.

Whether it's the veterans Qin Feng, Chen Bushi, Chen Luozi, Yang Tiejiang, Li Run, or the rising stars Cheng Zhiheng, Zhang Xun, Xu Zhang, Yuan Dingcheng, all are capable of commanding the military and civil affairs of a prefecture.

With these people around, Chen Wuji has nothing to overly worry about.

Otherwise, he would likely be led by the nose by Yu Ren, again falling into the firefighting struggles across the prefectures. Perhaps Yu Ren now steadily occupies the Fishing Terrace, not even dispatching scout horses, for this very reason.

At dusk, the army reached twenty li outside Wu'an City.

Lü Ji led the vanguard, after scouting the surrounding terrain, selected a valley backed by a cliff as the campsite; the cliff is an isolated mountain, behind it lies the ancient river course, ahead the new river course.

This place is easy to defend, hard to attack, and sheltered from the wind, making water access convenient.

While the army was setting up camp, the scouts had already reached the outskirts of Wu'an City.

As night fell, the scouts brought fresh intelligence about Wu'an City.

"Reporting to my lord, Wu'an City's defenses are lax; the garrison seems under two thousand; the gate stands open, as if they do not intend to close it at night."

As soon as the scout finished speaking, Xu Zengyi asked, "Have you ascertained the situation clearly?"

"Reporting to the military advisor, if Wu'an City has no hidden troops elsewhere, the garrison is about two thousand; I sent men to sneak into the city for a look." The scout replied.

"However, I cannot confirm whether they close the gate at night; perhaps they just close it late. When I led men there, the gate stood open, with only two soldiers lazily guarding the entrance, who also distributed talisman scrolls to the populace."

Yu Ren's little act has indeed left Chen Wuji feeling a bit dazed.

"Is this fellow planning to put on an empty city stratagem for me?"

Xu Zengyi asked, "My lord, what is the empty city stratagem?"

"It's meant to intimidate us; actually the city truly has only two thousand troops, and they're all useless old and weak." Chen Wuji briefly explained the empty city stratagem, then said, "Scout again!"

Yu Ren is one who plays tricks; he'd rather genuinely fall for a ruse than rashly advance troops.

The gain or loss of a city is not that important in Chen Wuji's eyes.

"Wu'an City is the largest city in Songzhou; logically it shouldn't be like this!" Xu Zengyi murmured, "Such a big city must have stored a large amount of luggage and supplies, unless... this place has long been an empty city, and Yu Ren has already moved the city's luggage and supplies out."

"That's possible." Chen Wuji nodded, "It's better to be cautious; don't be rash."