Rebirth: The Journey of an Heiress-Chapter 1593 - 1588: Clear Objectives
The counselor nodded and then said, "Estimating that the King of Huangshan will receive the Imperial Edict to diminish the vassals one step after us, the Prince should quickly send someone to communicate with the King of Huangshan. If we can respond to each other, it would be beneficial, as the King of Huangshan is currently closest to the Emperor of Zhou, making it convenient to act."
The King of Jian had already formed a plan in his mind, nodded, and picked up a pen to personally write a letter to the King of Huangshan: "I will personally write to the King of Huangshan. You go and have the Crown Prince send someone to investigate the military intelligence of Zhou."
"Yes!" The counselor rose, bowed, and then went to visit the Crown Prince of Jian.
That day, the Princess of Jian, along with the pregnant Crown Princess Consort of Jian, departed for Yandu with the envoy from Yandu.
The Crown Prince of Jian watched the luxurious carriage carrying his mother and wife gradually disappear into the twilight, then immediately turned to see his father. Before entering the study, he instructed his subordinates to guard the entrance and not allow anyone to approach before drawing the curtain and stepping inside.
Seeing his father holding a flickering candle, standing in front of the map looking intently at something, he stepped forward to salute, "Father, I have matters to discuss with you."
"Speak, I am listening." The King of Jian did not take his eyes off the map, his voice solemn.
Despite the King of Jian having resolved to stand against Zhou to the end, he still felt uncertain in his heart.
The King of Jian had heard that this Emperor of Zhou, despite being a woman, had a firm ambition to unify the world. The last time the King of Xiping ambushed but failed to kill the Emperor of Zhou would certainly make the Emperor more vigilant, presenting a significant hidden danger.
But from the timing of Zhou’s military movements, the King of Jian had gleaned some additional information.
Although there were rumors outside saying... that the siblings of the Emperor of Zhou were united and mobilized their forces upon learning of the Emperor’s attack.
The King of Jian and his counselors had carefully considered these days, according to the timeline of Zhou’s attack on the Yan Kingdom, Zhou must have already been deploying troops to Yan Kingdom as soon as the attack on the Emperor of Zhou occurred.
Otherwise, if they waited until the Emperor of Zhou was attacked, then sent people back to Zhou to relay the message and then dispatched troops, even with wings, Zhou’s soldiers could not have arrived so quickly!
To explain this, either there was a traitor among their allied clans who sent the information to Zhou in advance.
Or would the Emperor of Zhou’s reason for coming to Yan Kingdom with the pretext of the plague was just a façade, and their actual intention all along was to militarily annex Yan Kingdom. It was merely coincidental that this overlapped with their allied clans and vassal kings, and the ambush by King of Xiping provided the Emperor of Zhou with a legitimate excuse to deploy troops.
The King of Jian didn’t believe there was a traitor among the clans, as their goals and interests were aligned with those of the vassal kings.
Therefore, the King of Jian believed it to be the latter. He even suspected that even if the King of Xiping hadn’t attacked the Emperor of Zhou, the Emperor would have found another excuse to attack Yan Kingdom.
From this, the King of Jian could also infer that this time, all the Princes of Zhou were not mobilizing to attack Yan Kingdom because of deep bonds with the Emperor of Zhou or because they couldn’t resist upon learning of the attack on the Emperor!
Instead, the military orders from the Emperor of Zhou were sent back to the capital city of Dadu long before the ambush by the King of Xiping, which led to Zhou deploying multiple armies to attack Yan Kingdom.
"Father, I believe... if we want Yan Kingdom to have peace, the Emperor of Zhou must die! I want to ask father to send a letter to the King of Huangshan, instructing him to find a way to kill the Emperor of Zhou!" The Crown Prince of Jian spoke softly, "Our Jian Army can first engage in battle with Zhou to hold back the forces led by the King of Zhen and the King of Fu to give the King of Huangshan time to kill the Emperor of Zhou. As long as the King of Huangshan has a clear target, only killing the Emperor of Zhou without having to defeat the Zhou army, it should be easily accomplished!"
Upon hearing his son’s words, the King of Jian turned around and placed the candle on the table, looking seriously at his son: "Why must the Emperor of Zhou be killed?"
"Father, please see clearly, the timing of Zhou’s military action doesn’t add up when I calculated it! The Emperor of Zhou must have long had plans to attack Yan, and had already ordered the Princes of Zhou to lead troops to Yan Kingdom early on. The ambush of the Emperor of Zhou by the King of Xihuai was merely an unfortunate coincidence giving Zhou a reason to attack Yan!" The Crown Prince of Jian raised his eyes to look at his father, "I still think that once the Emperor of Zhou is dead, Zhou’s cohesion won’t be as it is now, and the Princes will probably start seeking power just as we previously planned!"
Hearing his son’s words, the King of Jian tapped the table with a knuckle and picked up a teacup: "You are thinking just like me!"
Hearing this, the Crown Prince of Jian felt increasingly confident, yet no joy showed on his face. He said, "I think the King of Huangshan will probably receive the Emperor’s order to diminish the vassals in these few days, and he certainly, like us, doesn’t want to be seized power so easily; therefore, he too will understand that killing the Emperor of Zhou is our only path to survival!"
"What you say is reasonable, but if we act first, the King of Huangshan is timid..."
Seeing his father’s hesitation, the Crown Prince of Jian added, "Father, the King of Huangshan is normally timid and doesn’t participate in our vassal’s strategies, but this time the Young Emperor wants to diminish the vassals and submit to Zhou, making it different for him. For us in Jian as well... this is the last gamble. The worst result, then, is... we retreat and defend the city without going out!"
After a brief consideration, the King of Jian nodded and made a decision: "Let’s do as you said!"
"Since father has decided, may this son be bold enough to request father’s approval to lead the troops. I want to loop around to the eastern side of Zhou’s army to cut off their supply line. Without provisions, it will take time for new supplies to arrive, allowing us to take the initiative during this period." The Crown Prince of Jian cupped his hands in request, his features illuminated golden by the swaying firelight.
At this time, Bai Jinzhi also arrived at the military camp led by Bai Qingyu and Bai Jinxiu.
After listening to the message Bai Qingyan had Bai Jinzhi bring, Bai Jinxiu turned to Bai Qingyu: "No wonder, today there were reports that several groups of scouts have already been dispatched continuously from Jian City."
Since Bai Qingyu understood that his elder sister’s intention was still to deal with the vassal kings of Yan Kingdom thoroughly, he didn’t have much patience to wait for that King of Jian to act out and didn’t want the situation to escape his control.
He walked up to the map, studied it for a moment, focusing on two optimal ambush sites, contemplated for a moment, and spoke slowly, "By the calendar, our next supply convoy should arrive in three to five days, relay this information to the person who reports to the King of Jian."
Bai Jinxiu nodded: "I will arrange for someone to handle this!"
