It doesn't matter what the lord is.

"Then let's go with five cities. This little girl is right. It's better not to hurt feelings. We are also taking this opportunity to make friends with Li Yi. Right now, we all have the same enemy, so there's no need to make the relationship too awkward..."

Kaiya opened his fan, squinted his eyes, looked up and down at Yunye, and asked:

"what's your name?"

Yunye sat back down, poured herself another glass of wine, and answered calmly:

"Yunye, the "yun" in kidney bean, and the "ye" in vegetable leaf."

40. It’s not the time to poach people yet

Thanks to Yunye's outstanding performance, the envoys sent by Liyi finally avoided losing face for Yunyang.

When leaving, Yunye, who was drunk, was completely unsteady on her feet. Two girls from the envoys helped her walk. Yunye put her arm around a girl, and the smile on her face was so handsome that it made people's heart beat faster. She even wanted to tell the two girls some dirty jokes. However, the girls from the envoys were basically experienced in the love field, and Yunye's jokes were really a bit elementary, so the two girls didn't even blush out of courtesy.

After Zi Pu and Yun Ye left, Norn sipped his drink and said to Kaiya:

"Kaia, your plan has failed. Originally, we played the good cop and the bad cop, and we were able to scare those pretty girls. But we didn't expect such a fearless guy to show up and cut down the twenty cities into five. Now, there's not enough for us to fill our teeth."

Kaia didn't drink. He fanned himself with a folding fan and said:

"Li Yi has found a treasure this time. I have checked the background of this envoy group, and today's matter was almost certain. We have done everything we should do, including placement, blocking information, intimidation, persuading people to drink, and playing cop-out. But that little girl named Yun Ye still has the courage to stand up and argue with us. What she said is indeed on point. It will be embarrassing for both you and me if we get into a fight. Originally, our asking price for those twenty cities was sky-high, and it is still acceptable to pay back five cities."

The two discussed how much support they should give to Li Yi this time. As for Li Neng, they had already accepted his defeat before receiving the battle report. Li Yi could become the prince of Yunyang in that state, which meant that his brother Li Neng must be much worse than him. Such a person, let alone bringing 1,500 people to cause trouble for Li De, would still lose even if he was given twice the troops.

"The army needs to be at least 5,000 people. Li Yi still has some people, and we will probably need 3,000 people on our side."

"We may need to have more weapons and equipment here. The weapons in Liyi's place are basically outdated."

"You have to pick a better strategist. You're facing Fang Shisan, who is ranked tenth in the world. If the gap is too big, there's no point in fighting. Just wait to be beaten to death."

"As for the guests, we as the princes cannot command them at the moment. We can only use our connections to send as many as we can. Fortunately, there shouldn't be many capable fighters in Yuxi City. Apart from Alayya who ranks fifth on the rookie list and the half-blood magician Fileta, there shouldn't be anything else to watch out for."

The two of them discussed it again and took most of the situations into consideration.

Although Kaiya kept his eyes narrowed and looked calm, he knew all these things clearly.

After discussing these key issues, Norn put down his glass and said to Kaia:

"It's a pity that Yunye followed Liyi. I don't think she has much status in the envoy group. I guess she is not valued. We might as well snatch her away and use her for our own benefit."

Kaia clapped his hands with his folding fan and replied:

"That's what I meant, but now is not the time."

Seeing Norn's puzzled look, Kaia smiled and explained:

"In this world, strategists are the easiest profession to change jobs. I have done some private research and found that nine of the top ten people on the strategist list have changed jobs, and five of them have changed jobs more than three times. This is because they see benefits too clearly and don't care much about feelings, so they always move to other places to be strategists at any time."

Kaia paused, then continued:

"Wait a minute, now is not the right time. I think that woman named Zi Pu is a person who will steal the credit and deceive her superiors and subordinates. If you follow such a person, you will definitely suffer. When she has suffered enough and has no way out, we will take her over, and she will naturally work for us wholeheartedly."

Noren agrees.

The next day, when Yunye opened her eyes, she saw a spinning ceiling. She covered her forehead with one hand, feeling that the world was constantly rolling and shifting, and there seemed to be a thousand flying insects buzzing in her ears. Her throat was so dry that it seemed to smoke. She sat up from the bed, and suddenly she had a splitting headache.

The memory of last night was vague, but before figuring things out, Yunye wanted to drink some water.

She slowly got up from the bed and found that she had slept in her clothes last night. When she got up, she felt a little cold. There was a pot of cold tea on the table. Yunye poured a cup and drank it. The tea that had been brewed overnight was bitter and astringent.

She raised her face blankly and looked at the bright sunshine outside.

Just then, a few girls from the envoy group passed by with Zi Pu. Seeing Yun Ye, Zi Pu paused slightly, walked up to her with a smile, patted her on the shoulder, and said:

"You did a great job last night."

Yunye blinked and asked:

"Last night... I don't remember clearly. How did the dinner go in the end?"

The girl from the envoy group next to Zi Pu said with a smile:

"You drank too much and fell asleep on the table. I couldn't wake you up. Yesterday, Sister Zi Pu was so cool. She argued with Lord Kaia and Lord Norn at the dinner party without any fear. Thanks to Sister Zi Pu, they originally asked for twenty cities, but Sister Zi Pu tried her best to reduce it to ten cities. Even though they were reluctant, they still agreed in the end."

Zi Pu also smiled, showing the appearance of a mature and caring elder sister. She took Yun Ye's hand affectionately and said:

"You have also made contributions. If you hadn't drunk all the wine yesterday, I wouldn't have had a chance to speak. When I come back, I will definitely talk to Lord Li Yi about your contributions and try to raise your salary so that your brothers and sisters can have a full meal."

Yunye scratched her head shyly, revealed a vibrant smile, and bowed deeply to Zipu:

"Thank you, Sister Zi Pu!"

"By the way, I'll give you the dress from yesterday as well. Girls should dress up more. I have something else to do, so I'll leave first."

After saying that, Zi Pu took the other girls in the delegation and left.

Yunye was left alone. Thinking that her daily salary might increase by a few or ten copper coins after she returned, Yunye smiled foolishly. Last time when she took her brothers and sisters out to play, she passed by a bun shop. She searched her body and found two copper coins. She bought a bun for six people to share. Each person only got a small piece, which was eaten in one bite. Next time she got her salary, she would buy a big meat bun for each brother and sister, so that they could sit on the doorstep and eat it with big mouthfuls.

Yunye raised her head and looked at the blue sky. She suddenly remembered that she seemed to have had a dream last night. She dreamed that she bravely stood up to refute Kaia and Noren, and convinced them with her emotions, reason and benefits.

Yunye lowered her head in shame, secretly cursing herself for being shameless. It was clearly Sister Zipu's work, but she made it seem like she did it. An ugly and unsophisticated girl like her, even if she tried her best to collect a lot of information beforehand, she would definitely not have the courage to speak up when the time came.

Yunye slapped herself lightly and told herself that she must work hard and not fall behind next time.

41. The End of Peace

The cooperation between Li Yi, Kaiya and Norn was a private cooperation among the princes. In order to avoid unnecessary disputes, every detail had to be perfect. Fortunately, most of the content of the cooperation had been decided in the previous correspondence stage, and Zi Pu was familiar with the work.

The only disturbance was that when the contract was about to be signed and take effect, an expedited letter from Lingyun City arrived.

At this time, the news that the third young master of Yunyang was defeated and imprisoned reached Huayue City.

The letter from Li Yi simply told Zi Pu to prioritize rescuing Lineng and to reject Kaiya's cooperation. Zi Pu was naturally shocked after reading the letter. I had been trying to persuade him for several days, but now he said he would not cooperate. Not only would the credit I had earned go down the drain, how would Kaiya and Norn react when they heard the news?

It's scary just thinking about it.

Zi Pu paced back and forth in the room trembling with fear, fearing that the hot-tempered Prince Qiming, Nolan, would get angry and directly take her to Huayue City and sell her as a prostitute. The more she thought about it, the more scared she became. She could only pin her hopes on Yunye, who had performed exceptionally well once before, and pretended to be calm and took Yunye to meet Nolan for a drink.

Before leaving, Zi Pu dressed Yun Ye up nicely. Yun Ye of course had no idea what Zi Pu's purpose was in doing this, and she thanked her foolishly and followed her happily to the appointment.

As expected, when he heard that Li Yi was going to tear up the agreement again, Norn couldn't bear it anymore and kicked Zi Pu in the abdomen, knocking her to the ground. But when he saw Yun Ye dressed up carefully, Norn's anger subsided a little, waved his hand to let Zi Pu leave, and then began to pour wine for Yun Ye.

Zi Pu, who had already acquiesced to Yunye's sex, returned to the hotel early. She felt a little guilty, but she soon began to comfort herself. Yunye had married Noren, which was considered a high-ranking official. After Noren had enjoyed the new girl from the envoy group, he would probably feel embarrassed to make things difficult for her again. This was a happy ending for everyone.

Zi Pu certainly didn't know that Yun Ye, who was drunk, was burping and sitting on the chair with her hair lifted, and all the anger that Nollen had said had disappeared.

She first pointed out that the Third Young Master Yunyang would not stay in Yuxi City for long, and that the Lord of Yuxi City, Lide, had intended to release him from the very beginning, because with Lide's character, he was definitely planning to catch a big fish, and holding on to the bait tightly in his hand would not yield any gain.

Then she told Norn that if they waited until Lide released the people before resuming negotiations with Yunyang Prince Liyi, it would take an unknown amount of time. During this period, Yuxi City would certainly be prepared to deal with the retaliation from Yunyang. It would be better not to terminate the cooperation now and arrange everything first. When the third son of Yunyang, Li Neng, arrived in a safe area, 5,000 soldiers would immediately attack Rivet City and catch Lide off guard.

Finally, she told Norn frankly that Li Yi was indeed wrong in this matter, and he was not very calm from the beginning to the end. But isn't this the kind of person Kaiya and Norn need? Selling out Yunyang's interests to avenge his brother is something that a calm person can't do. If you want to use him, you have to tolerate some of his problems, so that you can be considered a qualified ruler.

Norn was a person with such a bad temper, but when he calmed down and thought about it, he actually felt that what she said made sense.

Especially when he thought that Lid probably didn't expect that he would catch a super big shark, and was eaten to pieces before he could react, Norn couldn't help but sneer. When he was in the capital, he forgot the shame of defeat because of the joy of his realm breakthrough, but after being provoked by Kaia, he remembered his loss to Lid again.

He and Lid didn't actually have that much hatred, but at his level, even a buzzing fly around him had to be swatted to death, let alone a living person who defeated him in public.

Norlen admitted that Yunye's words made sense and accepted her opinion. Norlen drank a lot of wine that night, and the more he looked at Yunye, the more he liked her. She was dressed up by Zi Pu and looked particularly bright after drinking. Norlen couldn't help but put his arm around her shoulders. But just when he was about to touch her, Kaiya's words suddenly appeared in his mind.

——It’s not the right time yet.

Norn hesitated for a moment, but finally put his hand down. In his eyes, a girl of Yunye's status could sleep with her and play with her as he pleased, and it was her honor that he liked her. But this time was different. Since he was going to show a "respectful and humble" attitude, Norn decided to wait a little longer. Anyway, this woman would be his sooner or later, and even Li Yi was played around by him, so how could a small messenger under Li Yi escape?

Looking at Yunye's departing back, Noren smiled with relief.

He knew that Yun Ye must have regarded him as a gentleman now, and sincerely regarded him as a sage and wise ruler who appears once in a century. If she was given a chance to change jobs in the future, he believed that the scene of tonight would immediately appear in her mind, and she would willingly throw herself into the arms of Norn.

Noren exhaled a breath of alcohol and felt a little more respect for Kaia.

This tactic of playing hard to get is really powerful, especially when used against a girl who is inexperienced in the world. One can imagine how destructive it is.

……

Regardless of what Noren was planning, the development of the whole situation was exactly what Yunye had expected.

After Li Xin, the second lady of Yunyang, returned to Lingyun City, she relayed Li De's conditions to the Yunyang Lord. After hearing this, the Yunyang Lord lost his temper and criticized Li De for forgetting the basic principles of seniority and inferiority:

"Don't you think about it? Without me, who will raise him from childhood to adulthood?"

"Now you've grown so powerful that you don't even listen to me! You're trying to negotiate conditions to let your brother go. You might as well just piss me off to death!"

Facing the furious Lord Yunyang, Miss Yunyang chose to persuade him in a roundabout way:

"If he wants gold, silver and jewelry, just give it to him. He can take it but not spend it. When Li Yi conquers Yuxi City, won't all the things belong to us, Yunyang?"

I don’t know whether it was Li Xin’s persuasion that worked, or Lord Yunyang was eager to welcome back his third son, or the jewels that Li De proposed were not valuable things in Lord Yunyang’s eyes. In short, Yunyang finally met the conditions proposed by Li De, and allowed Li Neng to avoid the fate of being divided into five equal parts.

However, Li Xin refused to make another trip to Yuxi City, so Lord Yunyang had to replace the envoy.

This peace talk had achieved very good results on the surface. Yunyang Territory welcomed back their Third Young Master, and Yuxi City also received the first war reparations.

But everyone knows that this is not the beginning of peace, but the end of peace.

42. Watertight Attack

For the people of Yunyang, the past month has been the period with the most time to watch the show.

This melon can be traced back to this time last year, when Li De, who was still the fourth son of Yunyang, fled to Yuxi City. This incident caused quite a stir in Yunyang. The official attitude was that Li De and Li Yi failed in the competition for the Yunyang prince and were exiled to Yuxi City. The people also accepted this reason. After all, everyone knew that the fourth son of Yunyang was a lazy and dissolute young man.

But what happened next made everyone feel that things were not that simple.

First, when Lord Zhaochen's thirteenth daughter led troops to attack Yuxi City, Yunyang did not send troops to help Lide, but let him fend for himself.

Then, in order to avoid giving everyone the impression that "the fall of Yuxi City means that Yunyang lost to Zhaochen", the Yunyang Lord chose to remove Yuxi City from the Yunyang territory and severed the father-son relationship with Lid.

Soon after, Fang Shisan joined Yuxi City and helped Li De to capture four cities of Lineng, the third son of Yunyang.

Lord Yunyang immediately went to Rivet City, the last city in the Li Neng fiefdom, on the pretext of "visiting relatives", forcing Fang Shisan to withdraw his troops.

During the Spring Festival, the lord of Yuxi City, Li De, was summoned to the royal capital. During this period, Li Neng launched a surprise attack on Yuxi City, but was defeated by Yuxi City. After the royal capital incident ended, the Lord of Yunyang announced that the eldest son Li Yi would be the crown prince.

When the demons invaded, Yunyang did not send a single soldier to support Yuxi City. Instead, it piled up troops under the four cities of Zhenmo, Tiebi, Lieyang and Tianqi, making it difficult for the defending general Luge to return to help. He almost watched Yuxi City being captured by the demons.

After Li De returned from the demon clan, Yuxi City directly swallowed up Li Neng's attacking army and captured the third son of Yunyang, Li Neng, alive.

And then to now.

Li De accepted the ransom sent by Yun Yang and released Li Neng as promised.

The next day, Yunyang Prince Li Yi led 5,000 elite soldiers and horses to approach Rivet City.

This was a typical game of grudges. After nearly a year of testing each other, the two people who had parted ways unhappily in Lingyun City now each led an army to engage in a real contest. There were countless eyes watching here in the Yunyang Territory. Whoever lost would be labeled a rookie.

This was also a life-and-death game. If Lide lost, his entire family business would be given to others as a dowry. If Li Neng lost, it would mean that unless the Lord of Yunyang personally led an expedition outside Yuxi City, there would be no force in the entire Yunyang Territory that could compete with Yuxi City.

Therefore, in this war, Li Yi, who was always impatient, also chose the safest way to fight.

He handed over the command to an old general in Yunyang, Ferrog, who was over 60 this year. Ferrog had always been steady in his use of troops, and was one of the few remaining old generals in Yunyang after experiencing countless wars. He had experienced the great war between Yunyang and Zhaochen, and had also followed the Lord of Yunyang in the battle against the Lord of Cangzhou. He retired from the frontline generals of Yunyang only after his physical strength, energy, and ability to fight for power and profit could no longer keep up with the younger generation of generals in Yunyang.

To be honest, if Lord Yunyang hadn't been instructing him behind the scenes, it wouldn't have been so easy for Li Yi to ask Ferrog to come out of retirement.

Before Li Neng was released, Ferrog had already begun to study this siege. He sent out scouts in advance to find out the geographical environment near Rivet City and had a general understanding of the entire situation. It must be said that Rivet City is just like its name, a nail stuck in a dangerous position. There are mountains on both sides of the city, and the geographical environment is easy to defend but difficult to attack. Although it is possible to send special troops to cross the mountains and take Yuxi City directly, Ferrog will not take such a risky move.

Once the retreat was cut off, Ferrog would face a situation of being forced to fight back. The best thing Lid did was not to make the opponent's situation worse, but to make the opponent unable to figure out his details. Even if Lid could tell Ferrog the whole process of his defeat, Ferrog still could not accurately calculate how many people Lid's army had now.

In this situation, Ferrog, as a veteran, adopted the most cautious and safest approach: a frontal attack.

After all, Rivet City had only been in Lid's hands for a few days. Lid had only slightly reinforced the city walls. The last large-scale renovation and expansion of the entire city was more than 20 years ago when the demons invaded. Lid had plundered a large amount of wealth from it, but had never thought of strengthening the defense of Rivet City. As a result, although Rivet City now has a wonderful geographical location, it itself is not a strong city.

After considering all the above, Ferrog assembled 5,000 soldiers and launched a violent attack on Rivet City the day after Linen was released.

Likewise, he also felt the fierce resistance from Rivet City. The ladders would be overturned in less than five seconds, and it would be useless even if the defenders on the city wall were suppressed by a rain of arrows. Fang Shisan had always been very good at using archers, and naturally had a lot of experience in dealing with archers. The shield formation of Yuxi City was a little cumbersome in the pursuit battle, but it was completely impregnable in the defense battle.

The battle-hardened Ferrog was not at all flustered.

If Li Yi was in command of this army, after seeing the hedgehog-like defense of Rivet City, he would probably start to consider the strategy of building a plank road in the open while attacking Chencang secretly, but Ferrog did not. He knew very well that the stronger the defense of Rivet City was, the more desperate Lid was to pile up his troops here. Only by breaking Rivet City and killing all the elite troops under Lid could this war be considered a victory.

To this end, sacrifice is inevitable and unavoidable.

The rain of arrows from the sky was like a dark cloud. The white-haired Ferrog, wearing heavy armor and leaning on a sword, stood solemnly in front of the Rivet City.

The time, place and people are all favorable. The time is equally shared by both sides, while the place and people are both on Lid's side.

But Ferrog has two important cards in his hand, one is the number of people and the other is the armaments.

The revenue of Yuxi City is indeed not to be underestimated, but a large part of it has been invested in reproduction. A lot of money has been invested in arming the army, but it is obviously still slightly insufficient compared to the rich and powerful fighting style of Yunyang. For example, this time Ferrog brought 100,000 arrows and 30 siege vehicles. He used these weapons without hesitation, completely ignoring those opposing voices, and exerted the maximum pressure in every attack. While damaging the city defense array set up by Fang Shisan, the soldiers defending the city had to deal with it.

At the same time, he also arranged soldiers to take turns patrolling to guard against any surprise attack by Rivet City on their camp.

He may not be ranked high on the strategy list, but Ferrog has completely achieved the goal of "not being reckless" in dealing with an advantageous situation. With steady and cautious tactics, relying on the advantages of manpower and armaments, it is only a matter of time before Rivet City is conquered.