“In the fight for domination, not advancing means backing up! Not becoming the overlord means becoming a pile of bones!” Diwu Qing Rou said.
“It is true that, during these years, Great Zhao has not lost any territory. But it did not gain any either. During that same time, the enemies advanced every year. Before, they did not dare to touch Great Zhao because Great Zhao was a gigantic beast to them. They were not able to fight it so they did not dare to. But over ten years ago, Tie Shi Cheng fearlessly mobilized his troops and broke this ironclad law!”
“That Great Zhao was falling.” Diwu Qing Rou’s eyes flashed with a conflicting look, “At the time, I had just come into power. I immediately hatched a dark scheme to assassinate Tie Shi Cheng! Surprisingly, both the officials and military leaders in the court joined together against me. They said I lacked intelligence… Haha…”
“After that, I started a policy to kill all of the blacksmiths of Iron Cloud. They immediately used their words as weapons and called me a cruel person!” Diwu Qing Rou sighed and said, “But have they ever thought… This was war! War is brutal. That year, if I did not assassinate Tie Shi Cheng, Iron Cloud would continue to prosper. And then, even I cannot deal with the brothers Tie Shi Cheng and Tie Long Cheng together…”
“That year, if I did not have thousands of blacksmiths killed, the number of soldiers that would fall under Iron Cloud’s vanguard would be at least a million more…” Diwu Qing Rou let out a sigh, “Each of those incidents was inhumane; how could I, Diwu Qing Rou, not know this? But are the soldiers in Great Zhao’s military not nurtured by fathers and mothers?”
“If I did not hatch a plan to kill Tie Shi Cheng, the heavenly talent, Tie Bu Tian, would grow up to join forces with his father. With his uncle’s support, he will become a dominating ruler! Then Great Zhao would be finished!” Diwu Qing Rou sighed, “I, Diwu Qing Rou, could not avoid doing this, even if I have to be scorned for all time. Great Zhao has a billion subjects!”
“Accusations can easily be made!” Han Bu Chu said, “You do not need to pay any mind to those backward scholars, Prime Minister. You are talented and wise. You maintained the vast territory of Great Zhao with the strength of just one person. Such great achievements are seen by the world. The later generations can judge for themselves!”
“Judgement of later generations… Hahaha!” Diwu Qing Rou laughed softly, “What does the judgment of later generations have to do with me? Do I, Diwu Qing Rou, need the judgments of the later generations? Even if they look down on me, then what?”
He slowly took a few leisurely steps. Finally, he paused and said slowly, “Continent Center is in chaos, but we can rebuild it again. If the capital is no more, we can leave it. However, if the people’s hearts are in chaos, it is over. Even gods would be helpless.”
“You are right, Prime Minister.” Han Bu Chu said with complete conviction.
“There is one thing, Bu Chu. You only see the sinister side of King of Hell Chu’s scheme. You cannot see the big opportunity hidden in it!”
“For King of Hell Chu, this is of course a successful scheme. For us, however, it might be a big opportunity!” Diwu Qing Rou’s eyes flashed sharply as he said each word, “We must grab tightly onto this opportunity. King of Hell Chu must be very proud right now, but he will greatly regret it later!”
“Big opportunity?” Han Bu Chu was stupefied.
Right now, it looked like all harm and not one good thing. Where was this big opportunity?
“Almost all of Great Zhao’s spies were gathered in Iron Cloud; there were tens of thousands of them in Iron Cloud. In Iron Cloud Citadel alone, there were thousands.” Diwu Qing Rou said, “The first time King of Hell Chu made his move, he only killed a few hundred people. It could be said that the greater part of the network was still safe. However, we made our move, and King of Hell Chu followed that momentum and killed all of them. This paralyzed our spy network in Iron Cloud.”
“When his enemies remained quiet, he made his move and used all tactics to force his enemies to move. The moment his enemies stirred, he used that momentum to turn over fate! This was King of Hell Chu’s strategy.” Diwu Qing Rou said slowly, “This move of King of Hell Chu to strike at inaction, I am still studying and learning.”
“Studying and learning…” Even Gao Sheng’s eyes showed a look of respect.
Who was Diwu Qing Rou? Diwu Qing Rou was an ultimate statesman and a conniving military strategist! It could be said that in all of Nine Heavens, Diwu Qing Rou was the ideal person to learn from. Who would dare say that there was anyone in this world worthy enough for Diwu Qing Rou to learn from?
However, today, in front of his subordinates, Diwu Qing Rou said that he was learning from his enemy, King of Hell Chu! How tolerant, magnanimous, and generous it was for Diwu Qing Rou to say something like this given his position?
By saying so, not only did it not damage his prestige, it actually put everyone in awe!
“I might not be able to learn King of Hell Chu’s skill, but I can learn his technique.” Diwu Qing Rou sighed slightly, “There are many things that might give the most gain. But some methods can only be done by King of Hell Chu, and not by me.”
Han Bu Chu nodded sympathetically.
In saying these words, Diwu Qing Rou had directly pointed out the fundamental differences between him and King of Hell Chu.
They were age, experience and status. There were some things King of Hell Chu could do with his thick skin, but Diwu Qing Rou could not. At least not up front.
However, King of Hell Chu could do them in the light of day and the dark of night.
It was because he was young, and he was being suppressed by a great giant like Diwu Qing Rou. No matter what, he only needed to want to do so. There was no need to pay attention to tactics. He only needed to defeat Diwu Qing Rou once and people would praise him!
But if Diwu Qing Rou failed once, countless people would add insult to his injuries.
Currently, if Diwu Qing Rou could not push himself up, Great Zhao would also be destroyed.
The starting point of these two people were different!
“The opportunity you talked about, Prime Minister?” Han Bu Chu said respectfully.
“The opportunity is the chaos caused by King of Hell Chu. King of Hell Chu can use our offensive to get rid of our people. We can also use his offensive to increase our strength!” Diwu Qing Rou said casually.
“Increase our strength?” Han Bu Chu’s eyes lit up, suddenly somewhat understanding Diwu Qing Rou’s meaning.
“That’s right. This time, King of Hell Chu uses a saber and sword to cause unrest and loss for our Great Zhao. But he only does what I have been unable to do.” Diwu Qing Rou’s gaze became as sharp as that of a falcon as he slowly said, “It is getting the Jiang Hu people of the world to gather here!”
“So that’s it.” Han Bu Chu sighed softly.
“When we created Golden Horse Riders Department, few people knew about it. Plus, there were many who claimed to be beyond the fight for fame and power of this world and refused our invitations. These people were dispersed everywhere. If these people wants to avoid us, we would not have enough time to convince them even if we were to find them.”
“Later, it was under the efforts of the four King level leaders that Golden Horse Riders Department finally formed. Plus, it grew more powerful over time. Our invitations became more valued by the Jiang Hu people than before. But it is undeniable that there is an extremely terrifying force within Jiang Hu!”
“In certain situations, the fighting force that could be manifested by the Jiang Hu people would be incomparable even by the military!” Diwu Qing Rou said, “If I could incorporate this force, it would definitely be the biggest boost!”
“Therefore, we should not fear them! Just fear that they won’t come! Let them cause chaos! The bigger, the better!” Diwu Qing Rou said, “Tell Qiu Feng Yang to arrest people whenever he has a chance. The garrison outside of the citadel shall not be mobilized!”
“With Underworld Saber and Ask the Heavens Sword here, most of them will have desires. The ones without desires are most terrifying. As long as there are desires, there is nothing to fear. Once they are here, they will definitely fight. Fighting and killing in Continent Center Citadel is a violation of the nation’s laws! We can do this justifiably without worrying about problems!”
Diwu Qign Rou smiled and said, “As the fight progresses, more martial experts will appear. There will naturally not just be one or two. Loose-loose situations will happen everywhere. At that time, King level leader Jing must follow this carefully, and catch anyone that can be caught. Welcome those that can be welcomed. This time, if everything goes smoothly, Golden Horse Riders Department can easily gain ten thousand people.”
“Since King of Hell Chu wants to cause trouble, not only we won’t stop him, we will even cooperate with him fully!” Diwu Qing Rou said casually, “This force is exactly what I want. And what King of Hell Chu wants is time. It would be best if we could kill King of Hell Chu, but if this can’t be done, it does not mean we can’t play with him.”
“All the people captured have to be carefully guarded. Wait until this storm passes, anyone who is willing to work for us will be handed over to King level leader Jing and the Golden Horse Riders Department for processing. Those who are not will be killed!” Diwu Qing Rou said determinately and smiled, “If King of Hell Chu is giving us this big opportunity, and we can even borrow hatred to deal with him and Iron Cloud, why not?”
Han Bu Chu and company immediately realized.
Gathering strength was a tactic. When this ends, they would let everyone know that this was King of Hell Chu’s ploy to make them all foolish bait. That way, even if they did not want to help the royal court, they would not be able to take such humiliation and join in Golden Horse Riders Department’s fight.
Not joining meant death for the legitimate reason of violating the laws of the nation. Joining would mean being valued and a chance for vengeance… Even an idiot would know what choice to make.
At this point, Diwu Qing Rou had taken into consideration psychological factors, human reaction, hatred… As long as nothing unexpected happened, it would be over by the time King of Hell Chu thought he was successful!
Golden Horse Riders Department would have more than ten thousand more people, and they would be Martial Masters or stronger.
Such a force, after some training, would become fearsome on the battlefield. They would be the defining factor for the outcome of the war!
King of Hell Chu came to cause trouble, but he could not shake the foundation of Great Zhao. However, after Diwu Qing Rou gather up this massive force, he would be able to destroy Iron Cloud.
The pros and cons were clear in everyone’s eyes.
Everyone discussed for a while and left with their respective duties. Diwu Qing Rou sat in his study and frowned in thoughts. He was trying hard to think of any possible flaws.
King of Hell Chu… could he have realized this?
If he realized this… what could he do?
Even if Ask the Heavens Sword and Underworld Saber are to disappear immediately, people are already here. Fate is sealed!
Diwu Qing Rou thought at once and finally felt assured.
That very afternoon, among the trainers of the great clans of Middle Three Heavens, three clans entered Continent Center Citadel. One of them was the Mo clan that Chu Yang had long awaited for.
Mo Tian Yun had arrived!