Chapter 368: Chapter 201 Start to lay cards on the table_2
Translator: 549690339
Even more so, it surpassed the vision and knowledge that a hunter could possess.
The awe of Lu Yuan is not solely on his diligence.
More importantly, his seemingly heaven-given perception and understanding, and his decisive nature to seize the moment when opportunity arises.
This continues to bewilder the outsiders, utterly unable to comprehend.
Many have difficulty understanding.
How could a hunter, who spent his days gallivanting around the mountains, suddenly achieve such a wide world view, greater than many from noble families, making the right decisions one after the other, leading him to his current position?
There are many speculations out there, even some that are quite bizarre.
However, no matter how they speculate, everyone is still unable to see through Lu Yuan, attributing it to divine providence in the end, and end their discussions with a sigh.
As for the speculations about him from the outside world, Lu Yuan was naturally privy to them.
However, he has never offered explanations to these rumors, nor he would ever do.
Would he be expected to tell everyone that he is a traverser, someone from another world, and that is why he possesses such a seemingly divine understanding?
That he knows how to act in his best interests, making the most beneficial choices?
Obviously, he wouldn’t.
So, keeping silent about these speculations is the best course of action.
Let them continue guessing.
Perhaps in their guessing game, they might end up leading themselves astray.
Looking at the Holy Maiden in front of him, Lu Yuan felt that she seemed to be leaning towards such an inclination.
While he found it amusing, he didn’t feel like explaining and only said: “Miss Lan and Sect Leader Lan have traveled a long way to give your aid, I am truly grateful.
“Today, I have prepared a banquet in our residence. I hope you and the Holy Sect members can eat, drink and be merry. Please make yourselves at home.
“I hope that in the future, I can count on your help in many matters.”
Lan Zhaoyun, who had been observing from the side for a while, promptly said: “Being able to serve the General is our honor. From now on, we will do our utmost to serve unto death.”
Lan Cai’er also nodded slightly and said: “Whatever martial skills I possess, I would gladly use for the general.”
Lu Yuan laughed heartily: “Then, I would like to express my gratitude in advance.”
On that day, a grand banquet was held at Lu’s residence, welcoming dozens of martial artists from the Five Poison Sect.
After the banquet, Lu Yuan arranged for them to be accommodated in the barracks outside the city where they could interact with the personal guard disciples he had selected for the extermination plan. The idea was for them to familiarize themselves with their teammates in advance.
As for Lan Zhaoyun and Lan Cai’er, naturally, they were staying at Lu Yuan’s residence.
After all, the two had just gotten engaged and according to the old gentleman’s will, it was natural for them to spend more time together and deepen their bond.
To this, Lu Yuan didn’t refuse. On the contrary, he was happy to see it.
As previously said.
If he were to marry such a wife, it would be a good idea to deepen their affection right now in order to avoid any untoward incident in their future conjugal bed.
Under such mutual attraction, their affections for each other quickly warmed.
Within a few days, they hadn’t exactly fallen head over heels in love, but it was no longer cold between them, and they didn’t lack for conversation topics.
Occasionally, Lan Cai’er even laughed a few times when Lu Yuan mentioned something interesting, gradually taking on the aspect of a love-struck couple.
Although it’s unclear how much of this affection is genuine and how much is fake, and how much of it comes from the heart or is forced.
But Lu Yuan couldn’t bother to care too much about these things.
Because in addition to dealing with Lan Cai’er, he had many other matters to attend to.
With the arrival of the people from the Five Poison Sect, the disciples under Lu Yuan from various places, who had been deployed, gradually handed over their military and political duties and started to assemble.
Meanwhile, shortly after New Year, the court sent a directive, asking him to gather a large army in preparation to launch an attack along with the imperial army on the Zhou people in Jiangnan in February.
During the autumn and winter of the previous year, Li Yanjing, the commander of the 30,000 Zhou people, actively sought battle with Shangguan Ming, but was ignored.
With no choice left, he began to aggressively attack in one direction, hoping for a breakthrough.
After two to three months of intermittent fighting, Li Yanjing finally broke the blockade on one side, escaped from Shaoyang Prefecture to Changsha Prefecture, and successfully besieged a county town there.
Then, they looted the food stores and, with the remaining 8000 or so remnants, he continued to hold out in Yiyang County, south of Dongting Lake.
Shangguan Ming, on the other hand, promptly led an army of 30,000 and laid a tight siege around the county, trapping them inside the city.
Although the Zhou people now have food, they only have a little over 8,000 surviving soldiers left. Even with the help of three Innate Grandmasters in the army, they couldn’t possibly stir up trouble in Jiangnan.
The measures they’re taking now are nothing more than desperate measures.
Shangguan Ming clearly understood this, so he simply besieged the county town, and had no plan of launching a full-scale attack.
The support from the court was coming soon.
By then, there would be an army of 100,000 soldiers and two Innate Grandmasters arriving.
Once they gather with the soldiers from Lu Yuan’s side, Shangguan Ming would have six Innate Grandmasters and over two hundred thousand soldiers.
With such a strong force, wouldn’t it be easy to capture the small Yiyang county?
Perhaps by then, there would be no need to deploy the army. The six Innate Grandmasters could easily penetrate the circle of Zhou people inside the city.
With such an easy option available, why risk lives and waste soldiers in attacking the county at this moment?
So, after besieging Yiyang county at the beginning of December, Shangguan Ming has been camping outside the city, patiently waiting for the reinforcements from the court.