Take control of Wei Zhongxian at the start and confiscate 100 million from him!

Chapter 205 The world is the board, and all living beings are the pieces.

Qufu, the Confucius Mansion.

In stark contrast to the tranquility of the Dezhou post station, the Confucius Mansion's council hall is now immersed in a sea of ​​ecstasy.

Kong Yinzhi was clutching a secret, urgent letter from Luoyang, sent three days prior! He paced back and forth excitedly, his face radiating uncontrollable fervor, feeling as if the blood in his veins was about to boil!

"Hahaha! Okay! Okay!"

He abruptly stopped and burst into laughter at a trusted elder who was equally excited: "The letter said that three days ago was the auspicious day we agreed on! His Highness Prince Fu has indeed kept his promise and started the uprising in Luoyang on time! He has not disappointed me!"

Kong Yinzhi waved his hand triumphantly, his voice rising with excitement: "His Highness Prince Fu has raised the banner of pacifying the rebellion as promised, igniting the first spark in this tinderbox of the world! Now, our proclamation is about to spread throughout the land, the scholars are in an uproar, and the people's hearts are at our command! Prince Fu's army is leading the refugees eastward, heading straight for Dezhou! The pressure will soon be immense! The great cause can be accomplished! The great cause can be accomplished!"

The elder stepped forward, lowered his voice, and his eyes gleamed with excitement: "My lord, what about His Highness Prince Lu of Yanzhou..."

Kong Yinzhi was filled with boundless pride, and with a flick of his long sleeves, it seemed as if the fate of the world was entirely in his hands:
“Prince Lu has already informed us! As agreed, he only needs to stay in Yanzhou and respond once he sees confirmation of Prince Fu’s uprising! At that time, Prince Fu’s 100,000-strong army will be pressing towards Dezhou from the south, while Prince Lu will join forces with the scholars of Shandong from the east, launching a pincer attack from both the east and the west!”

His eyes gleamed with an almost manic light as he spoke, enunciating each word clearly:

"That little emperor in Texas will be like a turtle in a jar, a bird in a cage!"

"He has no chance of escaping!"

……

At this moment, Mount Xiao is shrouded in a misty morning fog. The mountain scenery is hazy and the world is silent, except for the occasional chirping of an unknown bird that breaks the ancient tranquility.

A road worn smooth by time, reduced to pale stone, humbly winds around the waist of the mountains like a thin thread.

On this very thread, a silent "black dragon" is moving stealthily.

An army of nearly 10,000 men.

The backbone of this army consists of three thousand fit and dark-skinned veterans from Sichuan.

They are not always at the forefront, but rather like a carefully woven net, evenly distributed at the front and flanks of each line.

They were Qin Liangyu's direct descendants brought out from Shizhu, and they were the soul and backbone of this new army.

Their eyes were calm yet sharp, like those of seasoned hunters who had lurked in the mountains for decades, their pupils reflecting no superfluous emotions, only their target.

The long, heavy white-handled spears in their hands were as light as a feather, as if they had long since become one with their arms and spines, an extension of their bodies.

Silence is their language. Killing is their instinct!

Filling the space between these skeletons were four thousand taller Shaanxi youths, whose expressions were a mixture of naivety and deep-seated hatred.

They are the new blood of this army, and also its flame.

Almost every one of them was a survivor of the devastating famine that swept through Guanzhong, where families were destroyed and people perished.

The emperor's ruthless recruitment in Shaanxi not only provided them with enough to eat to survive, but more importantly, it gave them a target for revenge and the right to do so.

Their hands gripped their weapons so tightly that their knuckles turned white from the force.

The youthful vigor that should have been on those faces was replaced by primal and terrifying flames.

When they occasionally looked up towards the southeast, their eyes were filled with a primal thirst for blood, as if all their love was buried in that land, and all their hatred had been born there.

……

The army took a brief rest in a sheltered mountain hollow. No fire was lit; the soldiers simply leaned against the mountain wall, eating their cold, dry rations.

However, rest does not mean tranquility.

"Are your kid's legs made of cotton?!"

A suppressed growl, thick with Sichuan accent, exploded from a corner. An old soldier with a white-spear was mercilessly striking the unsteady lower body of a new recruit from Shaanxi with the heavy shaft of his spear.

"boom!"

The rifle barrel slammed into the back of his knee, causing the recruit to stumble and nearly fall to his knees. But he gritted his teeth and didn't utter a sound, only glaring at the veteran with bloodshot eyes.

There was no pity in the veteran's eyes, only a cold urgency: "Stand firm! What do you think war is? A dinner party? Let me tell you, once you're on the battlefield, the moment your legs buckle, the enemy's blade will be an inch faster! The enemy is right ahead, do you still want to avenge your wife and children?!"

"Auntie woman..."

These four words were like a black lightning bolt, instantly cleaving through the recruit's mind.

A scene already soaked in blood and tears flashed by like lightning—his wife, thin as a skeleton, cradling their equally dying daughter in her arms, finally collapsed helplessly on the cracked ridge of the field. And not far away on the official road, the magnificent carriages of the Prince of Qin's mansion, transporting the "Flower and Stone Tribute," rolled on, indifferently crushing his shattered world.

That boundless hatred erupted like magma from the earth!
"what--!"

The recruit didn't answer the veteran, but instead let out a wild, suppressed roar. He suddenly took a step forward, and the newly issued spear in his hand seemed to be filled with all his life and hatred, thrusting forward with a piercing whistle!
"Pfft!"

With a muffled thud, the spear pierced right through the tree opposite him, which was as thick as a bowl! The spear tip protruded from the other end of the trunk, still trembling and buzzing.

The veteran watched this scene, a barely perceptible hint of satisfaction flashing in his eyes, before his expression hardened again. He said calmly, "The strength is enough, but the accuracy is still lacking. Let's try again."

Such scenes are not isolated incidents, but are constantly unfolding in every corner of this silent army.

What the White-Clad Soldiers taught was never some exquisite fancy technique, but rather the most direct and deadly killing skills they had acquired on the battlefield in blood and fire, at the cost of countless comrades' lives.

Every thrust, every flick, every sweep is aimed at killing with a single blow, leaving no room for error.

……

Qin Liangyu reined in her horse and stood atop a high hill, overlooking the army resting in the valley.

She was advanced in years, her temples already streaked with gray, but she still looked dashing and spirited.

Qin Liangyu recalled what she had seen and heard in Shaanxi a few months ago.

Inside the confiscated Qin Prince's mansion, gold and silver were piled up like mountains, fine wine flowed into pools, and decadent music filled the air; but just a wall away outside the mansion, the land was barren and desolate, with corpses of the starving littering the fields, and the tragic scene of people exchanging their own children to eat each other played out every day.

It was only at that moment that she truly understood why the young emperor had unleashed such a thunderous storm in Shaanxi, using almost cruel methods to uproot those hereditary princes and vassal kings.

For example, in treating an illness, if the disease has reached the point of no return, only strong medicine can cure the serious illness. Similarly, in repairing a dike, if an anthill has already formed, only complete destruction and reconstruction can bring peace!

From that moment on, Qin Liangyu's loyalty was no longer merely a matter of duty from a subject to his ruler, inherited from her ancestors. A more solid element was added to that loyalty—a profound identification with a wise and benevolent monarch.

However, a lingering doubt remained in her heart. In her view, the matter in Shaanxi was settled, yet the emperor was in no hurry to send her back to Sichuan. With the White Spear Army's fighting strength, whether transferred to the capital to protect the central government or sent to Liaodong to fight against the Later Jin, they would have been an invincible sharp blade.

But the Emperor's secret decree was unexpected and almost inconceivable—it ordered her to recruit refugees in Shaanxi to train in battle, and after reorganization, instead of going to the capital or aiding Liaodong, she was to quietly head south, with her sights set on Luoyang in Henan.

At the time, this order seemed completely unreasonable.

Just a few days ago, an urgent secret report from the Embroidered Uniform Guard arrived, stating that Prince Fu, Zhu Changxun, had raised an army in Luoyang, using the pretext of "purging the emperor's inner circle" to coerce displaced people, and claimed to be an army of 100,000 men, intending to march towards Shandong.

In that instant, all the seemingly unrelated clues were suddenly struck by lightning in Qin Liangyu's mind, instantly connecting into a complete and terrifying picture!

She felt a chill run through her body, spreading from the depths of her heart, making even this seasoned general, who had seen countless battles and death, tremble slightly.

"The world is the chessboard, and all living beings are the pieces..." Qin Liangyu's lips moved slightly as she murmured to herself, "If the emperor wants Prince Fu to rebel, Prince Fu will definitely rebel. The emperor can even calculate exactly when and how Prince Fu will rebel..."

Her eyes were filled with immense shock.

"The emperor was not passively responding to a rebellion; he was actively and precisely inducing and catalyzing it! He used himself as bait, stationed in Dezhou, to lure the snake out of its hole; and he used the Duke of Yansheng as a pawn to stir up public opinion, making the snake think it had the right time and place! In the end, it was all to induce all the hidden, festering sores on the Ming Dynasty to surface at once, and then... cut them off in one fell swoop!"

After the immense shock, what welled up in Qin Liangyu's heart was no longer the pure loyalty between ruler and subject, but a veteran general's profound recognition of a more brilliant commander.

Having spent her life in the military, she understood the principle that "a bad soldier is just one bad soldier, but a bad general makes a bad army."

Why did her soldiers trust, respect, and follow her?
It's simply because she can see further, calculate more accurately, and lead them to fight the most important battles, seeking the greatest chance of survival and victory.

At this moment, she, the "general," along with the nearly ten thousand soldiers under her command, have become a pawn on the young emperor's chessboard.

For her, being able to follow such a shrewd and capable general was surely a blessing.
Qin Liangyu withdrew her complicated gaze, her eyes now filled only with the resolute determination of a pure soldier.

She gave a concise and forceful order to the messenger behind her:

"Order the entire army: Rest is over! Speed ​​up the advance!"

……

When Qin Liangyu led her army out of the last pass of Xiaoshan and onto the plains west of Luoyang, she did not immediately urge the army to advance. Instead, she reined in her horse and stood on a gentle slope, calmly casting her gaze toward the vast plains to the east.

She is waiting for the wind, and even more so for the thunder.

Soon, the earth began to tremble slightly.

That was a unique, earth-shaking tremor, the sound of ten thousand horses galloping, enough to make one's chest feel heavy. At first, it was like a distant, muffled drumbeat, then it transformed into a rushing river, and finally it was like a thunderclap sweeping across the heavens and earth, rolling in.

Some of the young Shaanxi soldiers looked tense, instinctively gripping their weapons, because the sound awakened in them a deep-seated fear of the sound of horses' hooves—a symbol of bandits and chaotic soldiers.

However, the old white-clad soldier beside them simply patted their shoulders, grinned, and revealed teeth stained yellow by tobacco: "Don't be afraid, kids. That's not the King of Hell's cavalry, that's our sword."

Before he finished speaking, a deep and long bugle call rang out in the army, not as an alarm, but as a signal to assemble.

"Form ranks! Stand at attention!"

The steady commands of officers at all levels echoed through the ranks.

The troops, which had just been marching, quickly adjusted their formation with a smooth and efficient pace.

Spears like a forest, shields like a wall, the entire infantry army transformed into a silent and impregnable fortress in a very short time. They did not form a panicked hedgehog formation, but instead greeted their allies with a solemn and ruthless posture.

On the horizon, the long dragon of smoke and dust finally revealed its true form: two thousand fierce and unparalleled cavalrymen.

They were elite border troops under the command of Man Gui, the governor of Xuanda, and were a mixed force of seasoned Han Chinese knights and some of the recruited, extremely brave Mongolian tribal warriors.

They carried the harsh winds and sands and the heavy stench of blood unique to the frontier, their eyes were unruly, and their warhorses were exceptionally fine, clearly the best northern warhorses.

The leading general, wielding a lance and with a stern face, was none other than Hu Tingbao, Man Gui's trusted lieutenant. His eyes were already fixed on the figure of the commander clad in a scarlet cloak on the gentle slope.

Hu Tingbao spurred his horse straight down the slope, dismounted ten paces away from Qin Liangyu, knelt on one knee, and spoke in a booming voice:
"Hu Tingbao, a lieutenant general under the governor of Xuanda, has arrived with two thousand cavalry under the emperor's secret decree to await Commander Qin's orders!"

Behind him, two thousand iron cavalrymen moved with perfect coordination, reining in their warhorses in unison. The sound of their iron hooves striking the ground ceased abruptly, leaving only a trail of dust.

The immovable infantry formations and the raging torrent of iron cavalry created a striking scene on this desolate plain.

Qin Liangyu nodded slightly, her calm gaze sweeping over Hu Tingbao and the menacing cavalry behind him. Her voice was steady and powerful: "General Hu has had a long and arduous journey. His Majesty's strategic planning is excellent, and we are acting under orders without daring to make any mistakes."

There were no unnecessary formalities or pointless small talk.

Two elite forces that should have been independent of each other were, under the emperor's secret order, forged together like two pieces of red-hot iron by an invisible hand.

After a short while, in an abandoned post station about twenty miles away from the route of Prince Fu's army, Qin Liangyu and Hu Tingbao spread out the latest military map delivered by the Embroidered Uniform Guard on a dilapidated square table.

On the map, the Prince of Fu's bloated and disorganized marching route was clearly outlined in red ink. The crooked red lines stretched for dozens of miles, not like an army, but more like a fat snake that had eaten too much and was moving slowly, waiting to be disemboweled.

Qin Liangyu's fingers moved quickly across the map, her voice decisive:

"General Hu, the infantry are the hammer, and the cavalry are the blade. This battle should be won with a thunderous strike!"

"This humble general will obey Commander Qin's orders!" Hu Tingbao said, clasping his hands in a fist salute, his eyes brimming with fighting spirit.

Without the slightest hesitation, Qin Liangyu's fingers made a sharp slash down the middle of the bloated snake on the map, as if she were about to sever it in two with her fingernails.

Her voice was as calm as tempered steel as she directly issued a military order to Hu Tingbao:

"General Hu, there's only one tactic—cut them off, then crush them!"

"My three thousand soldiers will advance at full speed, like a sharp blade. They do not seek to kill, but only to completely cut off the three thousand guards and personal guards of Prince Fu and the tens of thousands of rabble behind them! Once the connection is severed, the rear guard will be leaderless and will collapse at the first charge."

Her gaze shifted to Hu Tingbao, her eyes sharp as an eagle's: "And we, your three thousand iron cavalry and my remaining four thousand infantry, will form a heavy hammer! The cavalry will break through in front, and the infantry will follow behind, fighting in coordination, with our target being the main force of Prince Fu's personal guard!"

Qin Liangyu slammed her hand heavily on the map, marking the area representing the Prince of Fu's personal guards, producing a muffled thud.

"Ignore the scattered refugees, ignore the harassment from the flanks, concentrate all our forces on their core, and crush them! A swift and decisive victory!"

She withdrew her hand, surveyed the tent, and gave a final command with unquestionable authority and coldness:

"Pass on my order:"

“Anyone who abandons their weapons and lies prone on the ground in front of the enemy lines shall not be killed.”

"The rest," her voice was completely flat, "not a single one will be spared!"
(End of this chapter)