CMWKSD -Chapter 233 Old Affairs of the Imperial Clan

These were merely routine training sessions.

Jiu Yue had already simulated red-versus-blue exercises several times.

To people of this era, this was still something entirely new.

Red side and blue side?

Exercises?

Just hearing it sounded fun.

From the very start, Jiu Yue directly split the three hundred people into two groups of one hundred and fifty each.

The exercise had only one objective.

No matter what methods were used—

Schemes or open tactics, overt killing or covert snatching (borrowing a line here—JJ Lin’s “Cao Cao,” just for reference) …

As long as you could think of it, and as long as you could carry it out in the end, Wipe out the opposing side completely, and you win.

The winning side got half an afternoon off from training.

The moment they heard “no training,”

All the trainees went all out, giving it everything they had!

They stayed in the mountains for four days.

When they came out, every single one of them looked like a savage.

In the end, Ling Yue’s team won.

There was no helping it—Ling Yue’s idol was Jiu Yue.

She had learned nothing else properly, but she’d mastered Jiu Yue’s shamelessness.

The Blue Team prepared to defeat the enemy piece by piece.

They arranged vanguards, central forces, strategists, scouts…

All one hundred and fifty people were somehow each given an “official position.”

They even set traps here and there, devised various schemes and plots.

At a glance, it really did look somewhat like a large-scale army formation.

Their opponents were Ling Yue’s group.

Ling Yue knew she wasn’t smart.

So she didn’t bother with conspiracies, traps, or formations.

She went straight for simple and brutal.

She gathered all one hundred and fifty people together.

Then they lay in ambush.

After that, she used the dumbest possible method—waiting by the tree stump for rabbits.

All one hundred and fifty people lay hidden.

The moment they spotted a lone enemy, they immediately charged in howling, “hunting” them down.

One came—kill one.

A pair came—kill both.

You’d say there was no division of labor?

There actually was.

Just two jobs.

Half the time was spent hunting and killing.

The other half was spent looking for food.

That was division of labor.

Simple and clear.

After all, Jiu Yue had thrown three hundred people into the mountains

Without even leaving them a single dagger.

Anyone with half a brain could tell—

Between picking people off one by one and one hundred and fifty people swarming together, Which side would win?

Human-wave tactics are often very useful.

By the time Wen Yu and the others were chased out of the mountains, They were still running while cursing Ling Yue and Ling Mo for being shameless.

They had learned so many military strategies and tactical drills, Yet none of them had been used.

The instructors, hiding in the shadows, watched scenes where a whole mass of people “hunted” a single person—or a dozen at once.

Putting themselves in the enemy’s shoes—It couldn’t even be described as despair.

Yet it somehow perfectly matched Jiu Yue’s style.

That howling, charging posture—It was like one hundred and fifty Jiu Yues appearing at the same time.

The instructors’ only concern was that there wouldn’t be enough people to kill.

After all, those with slightly slower legs

Could only howl from the back.

They couldn’t even catch fresh shit to eat.

Just howled a couple of times to feel involved.

One had to understand—In Jiu Yue’s world, there was no such thing as military theory or refined tactics.

There was only one word that governed her actions:

Win.

In the next two or three exercises, the trainees felt that two teams weren’t fun enough.

They forcibly split the three hundred people into more than a dozen small squads.

You fight me, I fight him, he fights her, she fights me…

By the end, it turned into mutual slaughter.

It pissed Jiu Yue off to no end.

Because there were too many teams—

Even she couldn’t remember who her own teammates were anymore.

Still, everything Jiu Yue taught—

Disguise reconnaissance, infiltration, ambush, sniping—

All of it came into use.

As for those teams that hadn’t been assigned any female trainees—

A one-meter-ninety giant would smear on rouge, pinch a handkerchief,

Twist and sway his way onto the field, And wouldn’t last a single breath before getting beaten up by both enemies and allies alike.

It was truly eye-searing.

Even their own teammates couldn’t tolerate it.

So…

General Shen was right.

What Jiu Yue taught them,

And what she was willing to let them see, Were definitely not the same thing.

But Jiu Yue also understood this clearly.

Just what they’d seen so far was already enough to convince them.

Before they came, Fengyuan Emperor had mentioned the matter of the Northern Barbarians to Jiu Yue.

As for how the Northern Barbarians had learned so quickly about the special training camp, Jiu Yue also believed there was a traitor at court.

Or rather, that the Chu Yao faction had not been completely uprooted.

Or even more likely—Chu Yao himself was merely one hidden pawn among many.

In any case, the Northern Barbarians had the heart of wolves.

As for the matter of Consort Rong’s family, it had also been thoroughly investigated.

At the founding of the dynasty, the Rong family had only been a minor official family in the Ministry of Works.

They had participated in the construction and repair of the imperial palace.

That was when the Northern Barbarians approached them.

Generation after generation, they grew stronger, Until they reached their current scale.

There was actually another very obscure matter.

Fengyuan Emperor felt that if he said it aloud, Jiu Yue would definitely look down on him.

So he didn’t say it outright.

When the founding emperor fought to establish and secure the realm, The Northern Barbarians had a Saintess who served as a liaison between the Northern Barbarians and Great Qi.

At that time, Great Qi was not yet a powerful state, and neither were the Northern Barbarians.

The Northern Barbarian Saintess was born with the ability to control insects.

Naturally, the founding emperor wanted to seek the Northern Barbarians’ assistance.

They agreed that the two nations would form an alliance, And that any cities taken would be divided equally.

As for later arguments over which city belonged to whom—That was a matter for later.

In short, that was the initial agreement.

This should have been a very ordinary affair.

Just like seeking help from aristocratic families.

Promise them certain benefits, and they help you—Exactly the same.

But who could have expected—In the end, the Northern Barbarian Saintess actually wanted to hand over the entire Northern Barbarian realm to the founding emperor of Great Qi.

Her only condition was—That the founding emperor marry her.

And even that he have only her.

She claimed she wanted a lifetime of one husband and one wife.

One had to know that back then, in order to conquer Great Qi, The founding emperor had taken in quite a few women.

Some brought money, some brought troops, some brought land…

It was a matter where one move affected the whole board.

In that era, this was entirely normal.

At any time, marriage alliances were a stable and profitable political necessity.

How could he possibly give up all those benefits he had already secured,

Just for a Northern Barbarian Saintess?

The founding emperor wasn’t brain-damaged.

What’s more, he had already formed an alliance with the Northern Barbarian king.

At that time, Great Qi had just been established and was in ruins everywhere.

Even if he wanted to absorb the Northern Barbarians, He simply didn’t have the capacity to do so.

Insufficient troops—if he forcibly took them in, There wouldn’t be enough soldiers to defend the borders.

That would lead to surrounding states invading repeatedly.

Constant warfare would leave Great Qi with no time to recuperate.

In short, at that time,

Great Qi truly could not swallow a nation as large as the Northern Barbarians.

So he refused.

The final result was—

That Saintess, perhaps with something wrong in her head, Stayed miserably in Great Qi for several months.

She wrote many sentimental poems—

“Though the two hearts last forever, why must they stay together day after day,” and the like.

At that time, Great Qi had just been founded and was busy to the extreme.

The emperor of Great Qi had to carve out time even to sleep.

The Saintess seemed to have overindulged in self-fantasy.

She imagined all sorts of reasons why the emperor loved her but couldn’t be with her.

She firmly believed she was the founding emperor’s true love, his white moonlight…

Fengyuan Emperor discovered this only when he stumbled upon unofficial histories.

The official records contained no such accounts.

Perhaps even the founding emperor himself felt it was absurd.

But after the Saintess passed away, The founding emperor never again had any offspring.

One could easily guess the source of the poison.

That Saintess’s skill in poison and insect control was peerless.

Fengyuan Emperor believed—

It was precisely because the founding emperor rejected the Northern Barbarian Saintess’s love

That it brought calamity upon the Chu family.

After all, judging from historical records—

The men of the Chu family were all exceptionally handsome…

Cough, cough—off topic.

In any case, this matter absolutely could not be allowed to reach Jiu Yue’s ears.

Fengyuan Emperor could tell with a single strand of hair—

Jiu Yue’s dog mouth would never spit out ivory.

Of course, if Jiu Yue were to comment on this affair,

There would only be one line: “Boys should also protect themselves.”

Or—

“Shocking! Shocking! A man nearly loses his bloodline simply for being too handsome!!!”