Chapter 530: Scheme
Editor: Atlas Studios
The Emperor of West Xia had some doubts at first, but after sending people to investigate, he realized that there were many Jin spies at the borders and the capital city of the two countries. It was difficult for him not to believe it now.
He could only send a secret order to send some troops back to defend. However, just a few days after the letter was sent, the Jin Kingdom launched an attack and a small-scale war broke out between the two countries.
The prince of West Xia suggested, “Your Majesty, the Jin Kingdom has only been investigating for a short period of time, so they must not have confirmed our military strength. This time, they must be testing our military strength. If we retreat now, I’m afraid they will think that our military strength is insufficient. When the time comes, we won’t be able to protect our territory if they attack before our army returns.”
“Then what do you think we should do?”
“Gather our troops and let them know that even if West Xia sends troops to Great Zhou, we won’t be bullied by the Jin Kingdom.”
Due to the previous battle for the position of the crown prince and the rebellion in the country, the Jin Kingdom’s national strength had decreased greatly. On the other hand, because West Xia had emerged stronger after reforming their country, although they could not crush the Jin Kingdom and Great Zhou, their overall military strength and national strength were stronger than the two countries.
However, since they had to partner up with the Jin Kingdom just to deal with the weak Great Zhou, how could they deal with the combat strength of two countries at once?
Both the Emperor of West Xia and the Prince of West Xia understood this, so they could only hope to intimidate the Jin Kingdom first while waiting for their army to return to defend. Although the attack on Great Zhou would weaken, it was more important to protect their homeland.
The Jin Kingdom army that had ambushed them previously had disappeared without a trace. No one knew where they had gone to hide. However, the Emperor of West Xia’s target was not them. Since he wanted to teach the Jin Kingdom an unforgettable lesson, they naturally would not choose an army outside. He directly targeted a city not far from the Jin Kingdom at the border of the two countries.
He asked the Prince of West Xia to personally lead the troops and mobilize the troops at the border to focus on attacking that city so that the Jin Kingdom would know that their current military strength at the border was not weak. Of course, he did not forget to let the troops that were mobilized plant more flags to create the illusion that their military strength had not decreased.
The upper echelons of the Jin Kingdom, who were still considering whether to attack West Xia, also learned from the spies planted in West Xia that West Xia was going to attack the Jin Kingdom and was ambitious enough to join forces with Tibet to take down the Jin Kingdom and Great Zhou.
The upper echelons of the Jin Kingdom chuckled and did not believe it. West Xia was not crazy. How could they go against the Great Zhou and the Jin Kingdom at the same time?
Source: NovelFull.com, updated on ƝονǤ0.ᴄο
But soon, there was news from the border that a Prince of West Xia had led people to attack their city. Furthermore, the spies reported that West Xia’s troops in other places were increasing day by day. Just by looking at the smoke from their cooking every day and the flags placed in the military camp, one could tell that they were increasing their troops every day.
Shocked, the upper echelons of the Jin Kingdom asked hesitantly, “I remember that there seems to be a Tibet princess in West Xia’s harem.”
“Yes, my lord. The most favored imperial concubine of the Emperor of West Xia is the third princess of Tibet.”
The expressions of the upper echelons of the Jin Kingdom changed. They hurriedly contacted the Emperor of the Jin Kingdom, Wulie, overnight. Wulie was having a headache over his restless brothers. When he heard this, he sneered. “West Xia is too arrogant. Do they think they can take over the Jin Kingdom just by forming an alliance with Tibet? Tell Pidusi to retreat from the border of the Great Zhou and teach West Xia a lesson. The territory of the Jin Kingdom has not expanded for a long time.”
In any case, considering the borders of Great Zhou were strictly guarded by the Yuan and Qi fellows, they would not be able to get a share of it. The Jin soldiers were just wasting time there. In that case, they might as well attack West Xia and let his brothers, who were always clamoring, have something to do.
The West Xia general merely wanted to plant more flags to intimidate the Jin Kingdom, but he didn’t expect it to backfire.
Having conquered a city of the Jin Kingdom, the Prince of West Xia was now satisfied. Now, the Jin Kingdom should hesitate and retreat, right?
The Jin Kingdom was indeed quiet for two days, but unexpectedly on the third day, a war between the Jin Kingdom and West Xia suddenly erupted. All the villages and stockades at the border of West Xia were attacked by the Jin Kingdom. Due to the lack of troops, the Jin Kingdom quickly took down some towns and entered West Xia.
This was completely different from what their intelligence sources had said. There were not many West Xia soldiers in the town at all. The Jin generals who attacked the city were both delighted and shocked. So it wasn’t only the Han people who could fake military achievements. The Jin Kingdom, a country which had been established for 200 years and prided itself on its martial arts, also liked to do such things. Therefore, the military achievements and intelligence reported by the Jin generals were not much different.
The upper echelons of the Jin Kingdom and Emperor Wulie only thought that their warriors had endured too much at the border of the Great Zhou. That was why they were so brave.
The brave soldiers of the Jin Kingdom attacked cities and conquered lands in the West Xia Kingdom. The Emperor of West Xia handed down three gold medals in a row and urgently recalled the armies that had penetrated deep into the Great Zhou. Although the Great Zhou was wealthy and wonderful, the Xia people were more used to life on the grassland and loved their hometown more. Therefore, they could not give up their hometown.
It seemed that the information was right. The Jin Kingdom was a treacherous villain. They had clearly agreed to attack the Great Zhou together, but in the end, the Jin Kingdom collaborated with Great Zhou to bully West Xia.
The Emperor of West Xia even suspected that this was a trap from the beginning. Otherwise, why would the Jin Kingdom be unable to advance at the border?
In the past, the Jin Kingdom had easily conquered Great Zhou’s territory as if they were playing with a cat.
Wulie had originally only planned to let the warriors expand the border out a little because he still had to be wary of the Great Zhou’s troops.
However, he did not expect West Xia to be so easy to fight. In addition, about one month into their battle with West Xia, the Great Zhou army also started mobilizing their troops. They were actually transferred back to Jiangnan to suppress the uprising rebel army.
Wulie was conflicted for a moment. In the end, he decided to give up on Great Zhou and beat West Xia up first.
The Great Zhou Dynasty had long lost its fighting spirit. Other than General Yuan and General Qi who were more difficult to deal with, the others were easy to deal with. However, West Xia was different. It was now a ferocious tiger that was awakening. Now that they dared to attack the Jin Kingdom, should the ‘tiger’ completely wake up, the Jin Kingdom would probably have another powerful enemy. The Jin Kingdom did not want to see such a situation.
The Great Zhou Dynasty consisted of Han people who were timid and would behave after being frightened. However, West Xia was a country of nomads like the Jin Kingdom. They were valiant and ambitious. Such an enemy had to be suppressed before they strengthened, to prevent them from becoming a powerful enemy.
Qi Xiuyuan and General Yuan, who had been secretly paying attention to this, heaved a sigh of relief as the Jin Kingdom’s battlefront moved towards West Xia. The two of them had spent a lot of effort to design all of this, but they did not expect it to really succeed.
The white-haired General Yuan looked at Qi Xiuyuan in relief and said, “The new generation really surpasses the old. Not bad, not bad.”
“General, you’re too kind. Without your connections, Xiuyuan wouldn’t have been able to do such a thing even if he wanted to.”
“But even with such connections, I couldn’t have foreseen such an effect. It can be seen that your talent is the most significant factor.” General Yuan looked at the map and his smile faded slightly. With a sigh, he said, “Now that the crisis of the Jin Kingdom has been resolved, it’s time to clean up West Xia’s remaining troops and those rebels in Great Zhou.”