[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-stealing-ming":3,"chapter-stealing-ming-stealing-ming-chapter-44":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Stealing Ming",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1220661,1614,"Chapter 44: Section Nine","stealing-ming-chapter-44",44,"\u003Cp>\"Exactly — it was Zu Dashou. Sun Degong was on the left wing, he was on the right wing, and they fled at the same time. And he's the Vice Regional Commander of the Guanning Army, from a Liaoxi military family, and very close to Xiong Tingbi.\" Fei Liguo was hopping with rage as he cursed: \"If I live to get back, I swear I'll bring charges against him.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"It wasn't Zu Dashou.\" Huang Shi said it with absolute certainty. He figured it was the Guanning Army's chronic habit of fleeing in battle flaring up again — historically the Guanning Army had done this more than once or twice. The Liaoxi military clique cared only about its own interests.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Why?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He could hardly tell Fei Liguo that he had read Zu Dashou's future historical record. Huang Shi said helplessly: \"Maybe it was, but even if it wasn't him, it was one of the men in the Guanning Army reinforcements who came this morning. It doesn't matter now — what we need to think about is what to do next.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"It had to be Zu Dashou. But what's done is done, no point dwelling on it.\" Fei Liguo muttered in dissatisfaction, though he too knew the matter at hand was what counted most: \"Obviously we can't go back to Guangning now — Sun Degong will kill us to silence us. We can't defect to the Later Jin either — Sun Degong will still kill us. Heavens, we've truly reached a dead end.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"So we strike first and kill Sun Degong.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"How do we kill him?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Huang Shi decided to shock Fei Liguo into focus, or at least suppress his stray thoughts: \"Since Sun Degong fled back to Guangning and tried to silence us today, that means...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"It means he still has a follow-up plan. Otherwise there'd be no need for this.\" Fei Liguo was no fool.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Exactly. Otherwise he'd just surrender directly to Nurhaci and the deed would be done. When the time came, killing us would be no different from slaughtering two dogs — why bother with such theatrics? So...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fei Liguo scratched his head, still barely able to follow Huang Shi's train of thought: \"So he still has a plan in Guangning.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Quite right.\" Huang Shi continued to lead him on: \"Since he wants to kill us, it means we pose a threat to his plan. His plan is...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fei Liguo scratched his head for a long while, utterly unable to keep up with Huang Shi's thinking: \"I can't figure it out. There's no way we could know his next move.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"We do know!\" With his historical knowledge as a foundation, all the fog had cleared for Huang Shi: \"Since Sun Degong fled back to Guangning, he intends to hand over Guangning City. And to hand over Guangning City, he must capture Wang Huazhen. After today's defeat, the Guangning Army is certainly annihilated, and Wang Huazhen's authority is shattered. So Sun Degong's next step will definitely be a mutiny in Guangning City.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Watching Fei Liguo, who was stunned speechless by his seamless logic, Huang Shi smiled and continued to elaborate: \"The only flaw in Sun Degong's plan is Xiong Tingbi going to Guangning and using his years of prestige as Grand Coordinator of Liaodong to overawe the potential rebels. But since we've confirmed that someone close to Xiong Tingbi...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Zu Dashou!\" Fei Liguo immediately interjected.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Huang Shi couldn't be bothered with him and went on: \"So Grand Coordinator Xiong will not go to Guangning. Sun Degong is acting against Wang Huazhen with foreknowledge while Wang is unprepared, but he never imagined we're still alive, and we've seen through Sun Degong's entire plan. As long as we strike him at the moment he launches his rebellion, we'll be the ones acting with foreknowledge while he's unprepared.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Huang Shi had already compared this new plan against his original one. He realized his geographic position was worse, but as long as he could convince Fei Liguo, his actual strength would be greatly enhanced.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Go kill Sun Degong? Are you insane? We're his accomplices — the Great Ming will never spare us.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"We won't go back right away. Sun Degong will surely report that we died fighting valiantly, to bolster Wang Huazhen's trust in him. If we kill Sun Degong while he's staging his rebellion, we'll be cleared — we'll pin all the blame on him. What happened to us today clearly shows we're not Sun Degong's henchmen. Wang Huazhen will be saved by us — he'll have even less reason to suspect us.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fei Liguo thought it over for a moment, sorting through this entire chain of logic. He realized it was indeed as Huang Shi said — they could completely clear their names, as long as they shifted all the blame onto Sun Degong.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Moreover, every step Sun Degong would take from now on had indeed become inevitable. Fei Liguo naturally had no inkling of Huang Shi's secret. After expending tremendous effort to grasp the full scope of Huang Shi's deductions, he assumed Huang Shi had just worked it all out on the spot. Though his face showed nothing, Fei Liguo was inwardly aghast.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"But the matter of contacting Li Yongfang...\" Fei Liguo suddenly spotted a major problem. He raised his head, his expression dark: \"You weren't originally planning to pin that on me, were you?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After the Zhenjiang campaign, the task of liaising with Li Yongfang had been transferred from Huang Shi to Fei Liguo. In Huang Shi's original calculations, that was exactly what he had intended. Somewhat embarrassed, he said: \"Brother Fei, between you and me, why speak such hurtful words? I imagine you didn't go to Liaoyang in person, did you?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I was the one in charge, but I certainly didn't go in person.\" Fei Liguo nodded. He decided to kill the witness and silence him: \"As long as...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The moment this thought arose, Fei Liguo suddenly recalled that the man before him had very likely once harbored similar designs against himself. The second half of his sentence died in his throat. Huang Shi watched his expression shift and knew exactly what he was thinking. He hurriedly explained: \"I will certainly say I had absolutely no knowledge of the contact between Sun Degong and Li Yongfang. The Great Ming can suspect whoever it pleases — since I'm not a spy, of course I know nothing.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Mm, pin everything on Sun Degong. A fine idea, an excellent approach!\" Fei Liguo decided he would kill that specific liaison retainer shortly, with some casually fabricated excuse — the others wouldn't know anyway. Fei Liguo knew perfectly well that Huang Shi was lying, but now the two of them were grasshoppers tied to the same string, neither able to leave the other. He'd just pretend not to see through it and let the matter drop. He now felt Huang Shi was unfathomably deep and had long since abandoned any thought of opposing him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Add to that what you said to Grand Coordinator Xiong this morning, and you'll surely be a great hero. Huang Shi, you really do think far ahead.\" Fei Liguo looked at Huang Shi as if he were looking at a monster.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Brother Fei, even a cunning rabbit has three burrows, let alone clever men like us.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Huang Shi did not feel nearly so sanguine in his heart. This time he had nearly died at Sun Degong's hands. In the final analysis, he had still benefited from his historical advantage — he could see through every step Sun Degong took, could easily pierce through all the dense fog Sun Degong laid down, and then choose the most opportune moment to deliver a fatal blow.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Sun Degong could not see through what Huang Shi was thinking. Sun Degong could see through Huang Shi's objectives even less, and of course had no way of knowing Huang Shi's specific plan. Huang Shi tried to imagine how Sun Degong must have felt this morning upon suddenly hearing that Huang Shi had betrayed him — it must have been an extraordinarily shocking sensation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And Fei Liguo had kept telling him that Huang Shi was perfectly safe, even going to great lengths to protect Huang Shi under Sun Degong's hints. Sun Degong must have felt danger lurking on all sides, so he could only resort to the desperate, risky expedient of killing by proxy. Admittedly, this hastily devised plan of Sun Degong's had a very high chance of success — if Huang Shi hadn't known the history, he would likely be a corpse by now. This gave Huang Shi the feeling that he had once again underestimated the ancients.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He heard Fei Liguo say softly: \"I don't know what passed between you and Sun Degong, but Sun Degong is truly a fool. Opposing you is the greatest mistake a man can make.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Was that a declaration of harmlessness? Huang Shi smiled and replied: \"You flatter me. Now let us discuss how to launch a surprise attack on Sun Degong.\"\u003C\u002Fp>",1504,"2026-06-04T07:54:30.907Z",1,"Novelzhen Translator","2db59383ab924431b7b7b3043db3377c9e3fa7607308fe62caa6d0a7a256aa22","stealing-ming-chapter-45","stealing-ming-chapter-43",323,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fstealing-ming-cover.jpg"]