I Possess a Scroll of Demon-Subduing Records

When one is in a position, one should govern accordingly; once one reaches a higher position, one is willing to sacrifice the interests of the lower classes to plan for one's own benefit.

Song Yun remained expressionless, seemingly completely uninterested in these matters, but his ears were secretly perked up, eager to hear what Xiao Yue would have to say.

Xiao Yue did not hesitate and said frankly, "I know things will be difficult, but life is not all about profit. A person's value cannot be simply measured by profit."

The strategist meant to abandon the burdens of the elderly, weak, women, and children, but these useless burdens might be the only thing that the soldiers fighting on the battlefield cared about.

When I first raised an army in Hanzhong, I tricked tens of thousands of soldiers into following me north, promising to treat them like brothers. When we arrived in Chang'an, I also promised to implement benevolent policies.

Now that the young men of Chang'an are willing to die for their cause, how can I betray my promise and disregard my initial vow?

Xiao Yue made her stance clear: "I earnestly request the strategist to devise a better plan, and to do everything possible to protect the people of my Han people! If things cannot be done, the opportunity to fight can be abandoned."

Lu Yuanhua sighed, his serious and solemn expression from before disappearing, replaced by a smile.

"Your Highness is truly a wise ruler; I am deeply in awe of you."

Lu Yuanhua bowed deeply to Xiao Yue, who quickly stepped forward to help him up, saying, "No need, strategist, why do you need to bow so deeply?"

Lu Yuanhua was old enough to be Xiao Yue's great-grandfather, not to mention he was a very prestigious old man. Although the two were in a relationship of ruler and subject, Xiao Yue would not dare to accept it without a reason.

Lu Yuanhua smiled and said, "This bow is for the sake of all living beings, Your Highness is certainly worthy of it."

"The strategist flatters me."

In the present day, the country is divided into two dynasties, North and South, and Xiao Yue is considered the weakest of them all. She is even embarrassed to represent the people of the world.

Lu Yuanhua shook his head: "Though the world is vast, among the powerful and wealthy, I have only seen Your Highness as one who is willing to work for the common people!"

This alone is enough for Lu Yuanhua to be willing to die for Xiao Yue.

Xiao Yue is benevolent and decisive; she is definitely a capable leader with whom one can plot great things.

Although she is currently the weakest party, Lu Yuanhua is willing to emulate Marquis Wu and dedicate himself to Xiao Yue, striving to conquer the world!

Xiao Yue felt a little embarrassed by Lu Yuanhua's words and quickly said, "The strategist is also a man of noble character. He was still willing to help me when I was down on my luck. I will remember this great kindness."

"Alright, you two stop flattering each other. Old Lu, you definitely came here with ulterior motives, trying to test His Highness, right?"

It was only now that Song Yun realized Lu Yuanhua's trick; this old guy was really putting on a convincing performance.

However, it was precisely because of her sincerity that Xiao Yue's performance earned Song Yun's admiration even more.

He was a recluse who disliked power struggles and the powerful. He served Xiao Yue because he thought the princess was a good person and someone he could get along with.

If Xiao Yue had chosen profit over the common people today, he wouldn't have said anything—that's how all the powerful and wealthy are—but he would no longer associate with Xiao Yue and would sever all ties with Lao Lu as soon as he left the house.

Now it seems that Lao Lu's original intentions remained unchanged, and Xiao Yue was also a sincere gentleman; only he was fooled.

Their words were naturally quite blunt.

Lu Yuanhua had achieved his goal, and he wasn't annoyed that Song Yun had exposed him. He smiled and said, "I did indeed prepare a second plan today."

Xiao Yue then realized that Lu Yuanhua had been testing her.

However, she wasn't angry. They had only met halfway through their lives and lacked understanding of each other. Although there was superficial trust, there was still some distance between them.

Lu Yuanhua's actions made them understand each other's ambitions, so she naturally wasn't angry.

"Strategist, stop keeping me in suspense and tell me!"

"Your Highness, please do not be hasty. Please look at this picture first."

As he spoke, Lu Yuanhua unfolded a white silk scroll, on which were marked several place names, including Qinzhou, Liangzhou, Yongzhou, and Yuzhou.

"This is……"

Xiao Yue certainly understood how valuable a map was, especially such a complete one.

"This information was gathered by many extraordinary individuals from the Qinghong Gang and compiled by Miss Hua Nianrou. There are slight discrepancies with the actual terrain, but the differences are minor."

Song Yun was initially quite pleased to see the map, since it was the Qinghong Gang's doing, and he felt honored to have contributed. However, when he heard that it was Hua Nianrou who had compiled it, he immediately felt terrible.

"Nianrou is weak, how can you let her do such an exhausting thing? Don't you care about her since she's not your disciple?"

Song Yun was so angry that he wanted to grab Lu Yuanhua and beat him up. Lu Yuanhua was also a little embarrassed, so much so that he didn't dare to say that Hua Nianrou had been working tirelessly for several days to finish drawing this map as soon as possible, and had now fallen ill.

Fortunately, Lin Yi had a friend there who stabilized Hua Nianrou's condition.

"Old Song, don't get agitated, don't get agitated..."

Xiao Yue quickly stepped in to help dissuade them, as she was genuinely worried that the two old men would start fighting.

Song Yun was furious and let Lu Yuanhua go, after which Lu Yuanhua began to point out things on the map.

“If Your Highness wishes to protect the people of Chang’an, food is of paramount importance. Yongzhou and Yuzhou are both major grain-producing areas. If Your Highness controls Tongguan, you will force the Northern Wei to deploy Helan Zhangyue. Within ten days at most, the Northern Wei will surely send a large army to press on the border.”

In fact, Xiao Yue has been guarding Tongguan for so long that the Northern Wei should have taken action long ago.

However, some time ago, Lin Yi caused a great disturbance in Luoyang. Although he did not deliberately cause trouble in the palace, he still frightened the young emperor of Northern Wei and the civil and military officials.

For a time, no one had the mind to deal with the matters of Chang'an and Tongguan.

Once things calmed down on the other side, Xiao Yue had already gained valuable time to recuperate and win over the hearts of her troops.

Under Xiao Yue's benevolent rule, many people were deeply moved and willing to fight for her.

Benevolence and righteousness may seem useless, but justice resides in people's hearts.

Lu Yuanhua continued his analysis: "If Your Highness is unwilling to lead the retreat and launch a surprise attack on Southern Liang, then we will inevitably have to fight Northern Wei."

When the enemy is strong and we are weak, we must devise ingenious strategies.

Lu Yuanhua placed two black chess pieces on the map, one in Tongguan and the other in Chang'an.

Several white pieces were placed in Wudu, Pingyang, Shangluo, Huayin, and Baishui (Wei) counties respectively.

Looking at it this way, the situation becomes even clearer.

The black pieces are basically surrounded by white pieces, and it seems that there is only one way out: south.

However, Xiao Yue has already rejected this best solution.

Since that's the case, they have no choice but to live as if facing death.

"The situation appears to be at a disadvantage for us, but precisely because we are surrounded by enemies and no one knows who we will fight, that is our only advantage."

My suggestion is to launch a surprise attack on Huayin and march straight towards Luoyang!

A black piece was launched, opening up the white pieces in Huayin.

"As long as Huayin falls, the Northern Wei will be in a panic and will mobilize troops from all directions to besiege us and protect the capital."

Lu Yuanhua manipulated the white pieces as if he were mobilizing an army.

After the white pieces gathered together, the black pieces actually had more paths to advance.

Of course, as a price to pay, the haters might lose Chang'an.

Lu Yuanhua's plan was to exchange land for land.

My main force in the east is heading straight for the capital, while I leave men in the west to hold off the Wei army in Qin and Qi provinces.

In this way, whenever a city is captured in the east, the people under Xiao Yue's rule can temporarily enter that city.

By taking it one step at a time, they can slowly move out of Chang'an, unlike the original route which led directly south, a long and arduous journey with a high mortality rate.

This strategy, though slower, is relatively safer.

If that's all there is to it, it seems Xiao Yue didn't make any money; she was just constantly making a mess of things.

But Lu Yuanhua had a conspiracy hidden in this.

Xiao Yue focused his main forces on the east. If the plan went smoothly, the Northern Wei court would face a series of defeats.

Conversely, the situation is different in the west. They only need to follow in the footsteps of Xiao Yue and the others to continuously reclaim lost territory.

While simultaneously fighting and apprehending, will the generals leading troops in the fields still listen to the imperial court after a long period of time?

Even if he is loyal, would the emperor dare to trust him?

Chapter 486 Assassin

The full version of Lu Yuanhua's scheme was to allow the ambitions of generals fighting abroad to fester and sow discord between the Northern Wei emperor and his generals.

He will naturally have a matching plan at that time.

Since the Southern Liang Dynasty had already split, there was no reason why the Northern Wei Dynasty couldn't split as well.

Once the plan is complete, Xiao Yue will possess battle-hardened soldiers and wealth acquired through continuous plunder.

The strategy of exchanging land for land was certainly not a free exchange.

In other words, we moved to a new place, looted everything there, and then moved on to the next place.

And so it goes.

But the most important aspect of this strategy is Xiao Yue's bravery.

Xiao Yue must win the battle, and she must win it quickly.

The speed at which the pursuing troops to the west defeated the rearguard was not as fast as the speed at which they conquered cities and territories to the east.

This requires Xiao Yue to have strong leadership skills, and even more so, he needs to help identify the target of the attack.

Therefore, this plan is very risky. If you don't have confidence, this plan is tantamount to courting death.

After hearing this, Xiao Yue also felt a little hesitant.

She has come this far through adventure, but after each adventure, she knows how incredibly lucky she was.

If she had been even slightly less lucky, she would have been gone.

So after gambling once, she didn't have the courage to gamble again.

They often resort to such a desperate measure when they are forced into a corner.

And now, she has to gamble again.

For the sake of the world and the people, she had no choice but to gamble, because the potential reward of a gamble was the greatest.

However, with so many soldiers' lives in her hands, the more bargaining chips she had, the harder it was for Xiao Yue to make a decision.

At this point, neither Lu Yuanhua nor Song Yun interfered with Xiao Yue.

They can use tricks, but they must respect Xiao Yue's leadership.