Chapter 305 - The Operation Begins

The Attack of the Wastrel

“…What I want all of you to do next is to infiltrate and lurk around these countries silently. When they are about to rebel, unite with the other forces and have them subdued.”

Although Rong Yuan spoke calmly, everyone knew the difficulty within.

Leaving aside the fact that the countries Rong Yuan mentioned were all spies of the Empire, infiltrating into them alone was already not an easy task to begin with. The people that were present were all high-ranking figures. If these people were to suddenly appear at the borders of the other countries, it was not possible that they would not attract the suspicion of others.

After hearing Xin Yi’s question, Rong Yuan laughed confidently, “You don’t have to worry about it. I have a way to let you pass by unnoticed.”

Everyone would understand what Rong Yuan meant by the second day of the council meeting.

The battle between the Alliance and the Empire was in a stalemate. They each owned half of the continent. As long as whoever won the land of any of the smaller countries, it would have a huge impact on the battle. If done properly, the outcome would be decided once and for all.

At the regular council meeting that was held every half a month, several countries that pretended to be under the Alliance could no longer sit still.

In order to allow every country to have sufficient time in building up their strength, the defense troops were changed once every three months. This very day happened to mark the end of a three-month period.

“The Nieyun Kingdom’s hundred-year ceremony will be held soon, I’m afraid that it is not a convenient time to defend our side of the continent. Is it possible to change the schedule with the Minglan Kingdom? If you allow it, I will guarantee to unconditionally substitute for Minglan for another half a month after the ceremony. I wonder what Your Highness thinks of it?”

Feng Rao, who represented the Minglan Kingdom, frowned and thought about how the Minglan Kingdom, with similar military strength to Nieyun Kingdom, would benefit from this.

The next three months should have been Minglan Kingdom’s turn to defend the area between the Alliance and the Endless Sea Realm. As the terrain is beside the Endless Sea Realm, it was easy to defend but hard to attack. So long as no decisive mistakes were made, nothing would go wrong. He was a little reluctant to exchange such a good location with Nieyun.

Seeing that the Minglan Kingdom did not agree instantly, Mu Heng, who was Nieyun’s messenger, gritted his teeth severely and offered a duration that Feng Rao could not refuse, “One month. If Minglan is willing to exchange spots with us, Nieyun is willing to defend for a month unconditionally!”

Feng Rao was a little surprised when he heard this as he did not expect that they would go to such measures in order to allow their soldiers to rush back to Nieyun for the ceremony. Mu Heng was then willing to take up this exchange.

A month’s time may seem like nothing to a Martial Artist. However, a month’s time to rest and recuperate was extremely beneficial to any country. The Qi Kingdom took the opportunity and pretended to sigh, “The Minglan Kingdom is really lucky. If the Qi Kingdom had not been involved in the rotation already, I would want to exchange with Nieyun.” He shook his head after speaking, seemingly looking disappointed.

The representatives from the Sangna and Yunlan Kingdoms also expressed their persuasion. Naturally, they were not kind enough to let Minglan pick up this advantage, but they were instructed by the North Qiu Kingdom and could only carry out the action.

“This…alright. Let’s go along with the Nieyun Kingdom’s plans. But the Minglan Kingdom will have the final say as to when the month will be exchanged.” After Feng Rao listened to their persuasion, he finally yielded and agreed. Mu Heng was so happy that he thanked him continuously while exchanging a triumphant smile with the representatives of Sangna Kingdom and the others.

Through these few decades, the spies of the Empire, who had secretly hidden themselves as representatives of several Kingdoms in the Alliance, have long known each other’s identities. Just yesterday morning, they received an order from the North Qiu Kingdom. They were ordered to reorganise their troops and obtain the right to guard the east side of the Endless Sea Realm for the Alliance regardless of the method used. In the following three months, the Empire would mobilise their bravest troops to join forces with them and capture the land on the east side of the Boundless Ocean. If they were to succeed, it would eliminate one-tenth of the Alliance’s power. This would then break the stalemate situation.

It turned out that the Sangna, Yunlan, Nieyun and Qi Kingdom were all intentionally concentrating their forces near the east side of the Endless Sea Realm. After concealing their allegiance for so many years, they no longer had to feign civility with the Alliance’s people!

Rong Yuan watched their obscure communication silently. He wondered what their expression would be when they knew that their victory was all under his control. Thinking of that scene, Rong Yuan could not help but to smile slightly.

The smile just happened to be seen by Feng Rao and he asked in doubt, “Your Highness, do you think that it’s wrong?”

“No, I think it’s fine.” It was going so well that he wanted to clap and rejoice. 

The subsequent hours of the council meeting revolved around the usual military reports. After the meeting had ended, Rong Yuan returned directly to the residence he shared with Gu Lingzhi and activated the Communication Conch in order to assign missions to Tianfeng Jin and a few others.

Nie Sang led a group of graduates from the Royal School to disperse at the territory near the eastern part of the Endless Sea Realm. The remaining would then travel to the west. Of course, this was only just a superficial statement. In reality, the students from the Royal School were to head east for support. But those who went to the west had some underlying purposes.

Rong Yuan had long ago secretly mobilised five teams from the Silver-Armored Troops to head west. He intended to hit them off guard while the Empire was concentrating on breaking the east!

Three days later, the people from both sides had sent messages to affirm the news that they have reached the designated location. At this moment, the Empire’s soldiers were beginning to enter the Alliance’s land with the help of the Sangna and other Kingdoms. They reorganised their troops on the territory of the Sangna Kingdom.

The land of the Sangna Kingdom was already connected to the east. The Empire then won over the nearby land while being unnoticed by anyone. As for the group of people from the Royal School, they lurked in the land of Minglan Kingdom, which was close to the state of Sangna Kingdom. On the day of their arrival, they had found the Kings of the neighbouring countries and informed them of the situation between Sangna and the other Kingdoms. All that was left, was to wait for the arrival of the Empire’s troops so as to catch them all.

As Gu Lingzhi was not rest assured by Tianfeng Jin and the others, they headed east at the fastest speed once Rong Yuan had finished his matter at hand and handed over the command to Rong Han.

At this time, ten days have already passed since the troops have begun the rotation. The Empire’s troops that had infiltrated the Alliance surpassed a hundred thousand. They disguised themselves as soldiers of the Sangna Kingdom and had scattered themselves all over the borders of Sangna.

In the palace of the Sangna Kingdom was a man in black suit who sat with a pale and sorrowful face in the main hall. The King of the Sangna Kingdom was instead, standing aside like a subordinate, listening to the man’s order.

“This time, my Empire must win all three territories of the east side and beat the Alliance by a landslide. After battling for so many years, it's about time to determine the victor!”

“Yes, Your Highness, it's about time to get rid of the Alliance,” the King of the Sangna Kingdom echoed although his eyes were a little dissatisfied. He was still the king of a country, but as soon as Pan Wen came in, he sat directly on the main hall and did not take him seriously.

Seeing how the war was about to begin, he decided to let things off. Besides, Pan Wen would leave for the North Qiu Kingdom after the war so there was no need to start a little quarrel and make things awkward.

“Well, don’t look for me if there are any more matters. I need to rest after a day’s journey.” Pan Wen arrogantly stepped down from the seat and headed to the bedroom prepared by the King of the Sangna Kingdom with the help of a maid.

After sending Pan Wen away with a respectful look, the King of Sangna Kingdom then revealed his scornful eyes and snorted disdainfully.

Ever since Rong Yuan ended Pan Wen’s grandchildren, he should have lost the qualifications to inherit the North Qiu Kingdom. But the King of North Qiu had too little sons. Other than him, there was only a detestable and incompetent Fifth Prince left. Coupled with the fact that his concubine managed to bear him a son which ensured the continuity of the Royal Family’s bloodline, his Crown Prince position was then miraculously preserved.

But ever since then, Pan Wen’s character had undergone drastic changes.

Although he was originally a little proud and arrogant, he had since escalated into an egotistical maniac. Along with his physical defect, he had developed a new eccentric habit. He was clearly incapable of sexual intercourse, yet he wanted to engage in licentious behaviours. He favoured abusing women with all kinds of objects and would sometimes, not spare men with beautiful looks.

Now that he was going to rest so early, it was likely that he was going to abuse the beautiful court ladies that he had sent in earlier.

“My King, the Prince has been too disrespectful of you. When the time has come, will the North Qiu really be able to fulfill their promises?” His confidante could not help but to follow behind and speak up after Pan Wen had left.

“Even if they can’t, do we still have a chance to back out now?” In order to help the Empire acquire more territories, he and the other kingdoms had defrauded quite a few allies of the Alliance. If he were to regret his actions now, he would only end up losing both sides. He could only try his best and hope for a bright future. After all, no matter how strong the North Qiu Kingdom was, it was impossible for them to confront so many countries at once.

At the same time, the Alliance was nearing the west territory of the Endless Sea Realm. Yuan Hang led a group of the Silver-Armored Troops to join Wang Xiaohu and the others. After finding the Alliance’s garrison of the west, Rong Yuan’s handwritten letter was handed over to Xie Jianyu.

Ever since he noticed that the Sangna and other Kingdoms had a bad intention for stationing themselves in the east, Rong Yuan had long handed the land in the west over to Xie Jianyu. He had really guessed it right.

“Never did I expect that the Sangna Kingdom would belong to the Empire. Fortunately, His Highness was already prepared, otherwise…” Xie Jianyu felt a little afraid after looking at Rong Yuan’s letter.

“There are less than one hundred thousand troops here. Is it really enough to break through the defense of the Empire?” Even though Rong Yuan had stated in the letter that the Empire has transferred most of the troops to the east in order to succeed and there were now less than half of the troops left stationed in the west, Xie Jianyu still wanted to be certain of it.

“Rest assured. The Empire has dispatched the troops to the east using various methods over the years in preparation of this strike. Now the west is like an empty shell. As long as the surrounding forces combine and attack, the territory will become the Alliance’s. Don’t you want the land of the Fengyang Kingdom to grow in size?” Yuan Hang enticed him.

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