Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
The Dragon King had not completely defeated Golden Roc Fort in the battle of the seaside slope, but he had changed people’s attitudes towards him in the Western Region. Gu Shenwei turned from the infamous and unwelcome Dragon King into a popular and prestigious hero overnight. Many highborn, powerful people began to inquire about him.
However, these people were afraid to do so publicly, in case of being rejected by him. They instead would find someone acquainted with both sides to pass their intentions to the Dragon King. Only when they got a positive response would they send their own man.
It was a rule — anyone who broke it suffered a bad outcome.
The Central Plain was the first to send people to inquire about the Dragon King.
Like the businessmen in Hui City, the Central Plain merchants had not expected the Dragon King’s victory. They had ignored their former ally, and never showed any support to him.
Gu Shenwei and Zhong Heng knew that there were two reasons for this: At the time, the Dragon Army had been weak. More importantly, Wei Song was hostile to the Dragon King. Due to that alone, his personal hatred influenced the kingdom’s strategy.
Despite that, the Dragon King had won the war, so Wei Song had to earn the Dragon Army’s support. Otherwise, he would be charged with a serious dereliction of duty.
Wei Song selected two middlemen.
Realizing that her colluding with the Golden Roc Army had been discovered, Queen Mother Wang of the An Kingdom was terrified when the war ended. Thus, she paid a visit to the Queen of the Dragon King. During the visit, she subtly inquired about information while keeping a smile on her face.
The Queen received her warmly. Then, she pretended to leak several secrets unintentionally, scaring Queen Mother Wang a lot.
A few days later, Queen Mother Wang cheered up, for she had good news. An officer of the Central Plain, who had almost forgotten about her, sent a messenger to her privately. This messenger made many tempting promises to her, asking in return that she do one thing for her homeland: figure out the Dragon King’s stance on the Central Plain.
He told her that the Central Plain hoped to restore their friendly alliance with the Dragon King.
The messenger had been at Xiaoyao Lake for quite a long time aready. He had been staying on the northern shore, observing the war, and not taking any actions until the war ended.
Queen Mother Wang gave great importance to this task. She invited the Dragon King several times, but he refused. Given that, she had to visit the Dragon King’s queen again.
The Queen was about to leave for the Stone Kingdom across the lake, so the court maids were packing up her things. At the sight of Queen Mother Wang, she did not command the maids to leave. The Queen received her warmly, but Queen Mother Wang felt embarrassed.
During the conservation, Queen Mother Wang did not mention the Central Plain’s intentions. She just expressed her surprise at the Dragon King’s not asking the Commanding Officer of the Western Region for help. She said that winning the support of the Central Plain was crucial if the Dragon King wanted to defeat Golden Roc Fort and Norland.
Having been given instructions by the Dragon King, the Queen dared not make a decision on her own. She said smilingly, “I am not interested in it. Besides, the Dragon King has never discussed this with me. But I overheard him say it was useless to ask the Central Plain for help since they are so far away from us.”
“The Central Plain could be of great help,” the Queen Mother Wang said desperately. Having lived in a small kingdom for years, she was inexperienced with plots and conspiracies. She continued confidently, “Even if the troops of the Central Plain could not cross the lake, they could help fight against the main force of Norland in the east. In this way, the Dragon King could concentrate on handling Golden Roc Fort.”
“It does make sense. I will talk to the Dragon King about it, but I do not know whether he will listen to me or not. Your Majesty, you are the Princess of the Central Plain. If the Dragon King intends to work with the Central Plain, we will need your help,” the Queen said plainly.
Xu Yanwei supervised the court maids to do their work. Looking at the Queen’s calm expression, she nodded and thought, “This young lady is really clever. Perhaps she’s been learning this since childhood. She did not show her talents because of her shyness and being overshadowed by her brother.”
After the visit, Queen Mother Wang awaited news from the Dragon King for two days. At first, she was excited, then she became disappointed and uneasy as time went on. She had witnessed the bloody scenes of the Dragon King’s war, and she couldn’t forget that. At the time, she thought that the Golden Roc Army would win the war. That was why she had followed her son’s advice to surrender to Golden Roc Fort. She never expected that the Dragon King would be victorious.
“If I do not get any news from the Dragon King, I will be forced to beg for the Dragon King’s mercy through the Queen,” Queen Mother Wang thought to herself.
Gu Shenwei only lightly punished those who had colluded with Golden Roc Fort during the war. His intention was to let them know that the Dragon King was merciful, but not ignorant.
Queen Mother Wang was an insignificant person, so Gu Shenwei just gave her a small punishment. Soon the Queen invited her for another meeting. The Queen told her, “The Dragon King said, ‘It is good to form an alliance with a great power, but we have lost touch with the Central Plain. We do not know what to do to quickly regain trust.’”
“That’s not a problem. As long as the Dragon King sends a messenger to the Central Plain, the Commanding Officer will treat him as a distinguished guest,” the Queen Mother said. She was very relieved after receiving the Dragon King’s positive message. All of her former fears and anxiousness disappeared immediately.
“It’s hard to say. What if the Commanding Officer refused to meet our messenger? No one can guarantee anything,” said the Queen doubtfully.
“No, he would not. Things have changed. The Dragon King dominates the Western Region, so no one would dare to reject his messenger,” the Queen Mother Wang persuaded. She almost revealed that a messenger from the Central Plain was already in the city.
The Queen pretended to be indifferent. She changed the subject and began to talk about the jewelry of the Queen of the Sha Kingdom.
Queen Mother Wang was just an unimportant middleman, and no one would listen to her. Knowing that the Central Plain was only using her to find out his stance on them, Gu Shenwei had no intention of negotiating with them through her.
Once they learned that the Dragon King intended to restore their alliance, the Central Plain chose another middleman immediately.
To Gu Shenwei’s disappointment, the lobbyist they chose was Zhong Heng.
Zhong Heng used to be an inferior officer in the Central Plain. Later he offended the Wei family, so he was forced to serve the Dragon King. Unlike Gu Shenwei, he did not take revenge. All he wanted was to make peace with the Wei family.
Before the war, Zhong Heng was in touch with the Central Plain on and off. Xu Xiaoyi had noticed that. Even though he had never posed a threat to the Dragon King, Xu Xiaoyi still actively reported his activities to the Dragon King.
This time, Zhong Heng met the Dragon King as a lobbyist. He did not mention his meeting with the messenger of the Central Plain the night before.
Gu Shenwei was a little upset about Zhong Heng’s concealment, but still, Zhong Heng had not crossed any lines.
“Golden Roc Fort lost 80,000 troops, so they are unlikely to take actions for another year or two. That’s good news for us. But there’s also some bad news. Facing such a great loss, the Supreme King now has no choice but to work with Norland. Otherwise, the Dragon Army could face a stronger enemy soon. We have to drag the Central Plain into it. We cannot let them benefit for nothing,” said Zhong Heng
Zhong Heng cleverly made it necessary for the Dragon Army to actively contact the Central Plain.
“Wei Song will never forget that I killed his son,” Gu Shenwei said, understanding the power of such hatred. It was the reason the Central Plain deserted the Dragon King a long time ago.
“I heard that there will be a new Commanding Officer in the Western Region,” said Zhong Heng.
“That’s good news. Keep an eye on it, but don’t take any actions,” replied Gu Shenwei.
Zhong Heng said no more.
Gu Shenwei was not eager to form an alliance with the Central Plain, for he had received another intelligence report.
Last year, Fang Wenshi had volunteered to head to Norland to be a lobbyist. While there, he sent a letter to Gu Shenwei confidently reporting that Norland did not fully support Golden Roc Fort. He said many powerful figures in Norland opposed forming an alliance with a killer organization. Besides, he was on good terms with several of them. As long as the Dragon Army won the war or kept the standoff situation with Golden Roc Fort, Norland would slowly change their stance.
When Fang Wenshi had written this letter, the war had not broken out yet. Gu Shenwei, of course, did not believe that Norland would abandon Golden Roc Fort based on this one letter. But the day before Zhong Heng’s visit, he met with an important middleman of Norland.
Dugu Xian had spent most of his military time in Norland. His former motherland, Xiaowan, was a vassal kingdom of Norland.
Compared with the Central Plain, Norland had sent a more outspoken middleman. Dugu Xian said straightforwardly, “A leader of 1,000 soldiers from Norland is in my residence. We are best friends, and we have helped each other on the battlefield. But now, we serve different masters. As for how to deal with him, I am awaiting your command. I will follow it without hesitation.”
“So far, Norland is not our enemy,” replied Gu Shenwei.
Dugu Xian had said those things to test Gu Shenwei’s response. When he heard his answer, he was relieved.
“He asked me to send a message to you. I will repeat his words without my own opinion. Ever since you commanded me to serve as Left General, I strictly follow your orders.”
Later, Gu Shenwei felt strange about these meetings. Outspoken Dugu Xian had flattered him that day. But Zhong Heng, who knew the Dragon King very well, had stupidly tried to conceal his relationship with the Central Plain.
Everyone makes mistakes.
Gu Shenwei motioned for Dugu Xian to continue.
“Norland only forms alliances with the strong. Dragon King, you have proved that you are strong. Therefore, you have one month to decide to fight or cooperate. Your decision needs to reach Norland within a month. Basically, you have ten days to make a decision, at most, to get your answer there by the deadline,” Dugu Xian said.
This sounded like a threatening ultimatum.
Dugu Xian had to explain, “People from Norland talk in this manner. Don’t worry about it too much.”
Gu Shenwei had not given answers to either side. He was awaiting better terms and offers.
“Although the thousands of soldiers in the Dragon Army are enough to annihilate Golden Roc Fort, we are far from competing against a real strong power. But still, I have many choices. I could side with one party, work with both of them, or ignore them completely, and let Norland go to war with the Central Plain first,” Gu Shenwei pondered to himself.
“I should base my final decision based upon the benefits instead of personal opinion,” he continued thinking.
It was the first time that Gu Shenwei realized that a king was lonely. “Ministers have many choices to survive, but a king only has one way or death,” he thought to himself.
Three days passed since Zhong Heng had become the lobbyist for the Central Plain. The King of the Kang Nation, Shang Liao, was recruiting troops on the northern shore of Xiaoyao Lake. Finally, he came to attend the memorial ceremony for the fallen soldiers.
Gu Shenwei decided to solve this imminent threat first. If he could handle Shang Liao properly, he could be a great help to the Dragon Army.
At the same time, a special guest from the distant west arrived. Like the Central Plain and Norland, he hoped to form an alliance with the Dragon King. His arrival sparked Gu Shenwei to come up with a good plan to handle Shang Liao.
