The Ugly Empress by Yun Guo Shi Fei / 丑娘娘 by 云过是非

Chapter 38 - Fearsome Bandits

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Hearing Jiang Yu's report, Xue Junliang's expression only chilled for a second before resuming his usual calm and poised demeanor and he was back listening to the Empress teaching the Crown Prince.

Jiang Yu was the only one cold-sweating. Today, Xue Wang was in such a good mood because the spy had reported that Feng Wang had arrived at Ming River right on the day Xue Wang's plan to drown the city was scheduled to happen. But who knew another report came saying they found an official seal somewhere near the city.

It wasn't hard to guess what had happen; it could only mean Zhao Lu had come to Ming River. What Zhao Lu did in Ming River, Jiang Yu was very sure Xue Wang had guessed it.

Xue Junliang stayed for a a few more minutes before finally came out. When he walked outside, he said, "I haven't guessed wrongly... I was hoping I was wrong."

"Then... How do Your Majesty plan to deal with Zhao Lu?"

Xue Junliang stopped walking and said, "No need to deal with him. What good does dealing with him do? Pretending not to know is not useful either. Zhao Lu helped Feng Wang this once, but his loyalty is still completely towards Xue Country."

At this time, on the northern border, there was another event happening. Just like what Teng Yun had said, Cheng Tian sent his troops to into the remote terrain to quietly dig the river, preparing to divert the river water to drown Xue Country's soldiers bringing supplies and to shake Xue Yu and Teng Shang's soldiers.

Teng Yun had suggested sending a small troop to attack Cheng Tian's soldiers. Cheng Tian was too caught up in digging the river and forgot to guard the working soldiers. When Xue Country's troop came upon them, most of his soldiers were killed right then and there, and the rest were scattered. Xue Country's troop didn't even chase the escaping soldiers and went back to the army camp instead.

This happened several times, leaving Cheng Tian utterly vexed. He started to realize that his plans had been seen and predicted by Xue Junliang. There was no use in continuing digging the river so he ordered his soldiers to withdraw.

Teng Yun felt Cheng Tian's situation had come to quite an unfavorable point. If at this time, Xue Country were to deliver a big hit to Cheng Tian, Teng Yun reckoned Teng Shang might come back to the capital city sooner.

Here in the middle of the Imperial Court, at least Xue Junliang's schemes were obvious. But there in the northern border, Xue Yu was an unpredictable dark horse.

So Teng Yun drew Xue Junliang a plan.

Having been defeated twice already, Cheng Tian was bound to be furious and plan to launch an attack.

But Cheng Tian was someone who had worked in the Imperial Court for so many years, he knew not to directly attack the border pass. The border pass had been known forever as a place easy to defend but difficult to attack; directly attacking it would only guarantee his own defeat. So Cheng Tian would plan to sneakily attack Xue Country's army camp in the middle of the night, relying on catching the enemy off guard.

Teng Yun pointed a small village in the northern border to Xue Junliang. The small village was the closest to Cheng Tian's army camp and was hard to defend, so Cheng Tian would consider claiming this place first. Teng Yun suggested sending Teng Shang to empty the village within one day.

When Cheng Tian's army arrived at the small village, seeing the empty and desolate place, Cheng Tian felt a bad premonition. Just then, a soldier rushed to him to report that their army camp was in flames.

Cheng Tian realized his moves had been predicted. He ordered the soldiers to return to the camp. Before he could go out of the village, Teng Shang and his army came to surround the small village and close three of its four gates; the last gate opened to a river just outside the village.