RWNEFE -Chapter 277 Shen Lanxi Plots to Take the Entire Northwest!

“General, the trail just ends like this,” Liu Yanhui said regretfully.

Shen Lanxi replied, “It’s not a total loss.”

Not just anyone could be called the Son of Heaven of Zhou, and not just anyone would submit to such a “Son of Heaven.”

Unless that person was someone from the imperial clan.

A flicker passed through Liu Yanhui’s eyes as he realized something. If what he suspected was true, it would be terrifying.

They had devoted themselves to guarding Great Zhou and protecting the imperial house—yet the very root of the chaos threatening Great Zhou might turn out to be the imperial family itself. If the world learned of this, it would seem absurd beyond belief.

Shen Lanxi reminded everyone who had been with her that day:

“What happened today—you saw nothing, and you heard nothing.”

“Yes!”

Some still didn’t fully understand, but that didn’t stop them from instinctively obeying Shen Lanxi’s orders.

“General, are we heading to the Salt Lake now, or back to the city?”

The same bait would not catch the same fish twice.

Shen Lanxi said, “Send word back to Zhou Ruan: say bandits are running rampant in the northwest, and Mosang Town has been massacred.”

“Yes!”

That very day, Zhou Ruan received news from Mosang Town: an entire town—nearly fifteen hundred people—had been slaughtered by bandits in a single day.

Mosang Town was within his jurisdiction. If word of this reached the court, his brothers would laugh him into disgrace.

Just two days earlier, he had mocked Zhou Ruyuan for his failure in Dongchuan and his memorial begging the court for grain. That memorial had only been sent yesterday—there was no way news of Mosang Town’s massacre could be allowed to reach the capital.

Song Daoxi immediately offered Zhou Ruan a plan: have Shen Lanxi seal off all news from Mosang Town, then send her to suppress the bandits.

The suggestion went straight to Zhou Ruan’s heart. He agreed at once and promptly sent word to Shen Lanxi.

“Shen Lanxi should be almost back by now, right?” Sending her to pass along a message, yet she dragged it out—letting a woman handle things was always troublesome.

Song Daoxi added, “Second Prince, why not take this opportunity to kick the Shen family out of the Northern Suppression Army?”

That idea struck Zhou Ruan just as perfectly.

He had been worrying about finding a suitable excuse to purge the Shen family’s men. Now the reason had practically delivered itself.

“Mr. Song truly lives up to being a Ghost Valley heir—your wisdom is unmatched under heaven!” Zhou Ruan praised.

Song Daoxi flicked his folding fan and replied without the slightest modesty, “Just a minor trick, not worth mentioning.”

Zhou Ruan decided not to remove all the Shen family members at once—he would do it step by step. The first target would be Shen Yuanjing.

Three days later, Shen Lanxi led her people to the poplar forest thirty li outside Hailing City.

Inside the main tent, she pointed at the map of the northwest and drew a circle on it.

“Next, we’re going to take all these places—one by one.”

Liu Yanhui, Che Mingyuan, and the others felt a strange sense of déjà vu.

The last time she said she would take Dongchuan, hadn’t she said almost the exact same thing?

“We can’t move on a large scale—we need a long-term plan,” Che Mingyuan said, fanning himself twice as fast as before, almost creating afterimages.

Shen Lanxi tapped Hailing City on the map. “First, we take this place.”

Qian Feng said, “I’ll take a few men into the city to scout it out first.”

Shen Lanxi nodded. “Be careful.”

Liu Yanhui added, “We have shops in Hailing City—we can enter under the pretext of transporting goods.”

Shen Lanxi said quietly, “There will soon be bandit disturbances around Hailing City. The recruitment offices will likely expand conscription. At that time, we can slip our people in.”

Che Mingyuan frowned. “Even if we take Hailing City, we can’t openly move too many troops in. On the surface, Zhou Ruan is still the one in command.”

Shen Lanxi said decisively, “I want Zhou Ruan himself to come to the rescue—so we can take Hailing City openly and aboveboard.”

Che Mingyuan’s eyes lit up. He understood.

This was the mantis stalking the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind—seizing another’s nest.

“Feasible!”

Two days later, Zhou Ruan borrowed another batch of grain from Hailing City. On the third day, bandits began appearing in the villages around the city.

These bandits robbed but did not kill—snatching grain and money before fleeing, repeatedly harassing the surrounding settlements.

Chen Xiong had loaned grain to Zhou Ruan time and again, and his granaries were now nearly empty. If Zhou Ruan hadn’t promised that Chen Mianmian would become his principal consort once he returned to the capital, Chen Xiong would not have lent him a single sack more.

“General, bandits are plundering the villages around Hailing City—taking all the people’s grain and money!”

“General, we must quickly find a way to gather provisions, or our supplies won’t last a month!”

“General—”

Chen Xiong was at his wits’ end. He wished he could send someone to reclaim the grain he had lent to Zhou Ruan.

“Damn it! I was planning to collect grain from nearby villages, and those bandits beat me to it!”

He paced furiously back and forth in the command tent, already regretting his decision to cling to the Second Prince.

“General, should we suppress the bandits first, or focus on gathering grain?” his subordinates asked anxiously.

Chen Xiong snapped, “Those damned bandits—I’ll wipe them out in one sweep!”

A subordinate offered an idea. “General, why not suppress the bandits first? They stole grain and money from the villagers—they can’t have consumed it all yet. If we find their lair, we can legitimately seize those supplies for military use.”

Chen Xiong’s eyes lit up.

“You—each of you take a thousand men. I want those bandits dug out as quickly as possible!”

“Yes!”

That very night, after five thousand troops left the city, a massive fire broke out inside Hailing City. One-third of the city’s forces rushed to fight the flames.

While the city was ablaze, the gates opened.

Shen Lanxi ordered, “Focus on harassment. Assemble at the poplar forest in half an hour!”

“Yes!”

A squad of black-clad figures, weapons in hand, shouting as they charged, surged straight into Hailing City!

Shen Lanxi led her men inside. Half were left to guard the city gates, while she led the other half straight toward Chen Xiong’s residence, cutting down anyone in their path.

“Where’s the grain? Hand over the grain!”

“Hand over everything valuable—now!”

They killed as they shouted.

Chen Xiong had already gone to bed when frantic knocking woke him. As he dressed, he cursed angrily: “If this isn’t urgent, I’ll twist your heads off!”

“General, something’s wrong!” his subordinate reported breathlessly.

Chen Xiong already knew about the city fire and assumed it was about the flames. He kicked the subordinate hard.

“What good are you? You can’t even put out a fire!”

The subordinate fell, scrambled back up, and hurriedly explained.

“General, it’s not the fire—it’s the bandits! They’ve killed their way into the city!”

Chen Xiong flew into a rage. “What happened? Who opened the city gates for them? How did they get in?”

The subordinate was nearly in tears.

“We don’t know! There’s someone among the bandits who’s terrifyingly strong—he’s cutting his way straight from the city gates toward us. General, please issue orders to mobilize the troops!”