“Me?” Kargas smiled confidently and said, “I want to see Ye Jinglue. I will present him with a great gift that he will surely like.”

“Oh?” Zhou Rui shrugged, looking nonchalant, and then asked Jin Xiangyu to take them along when she returned to Gandor. Although the road from here to Gandor would probably be densely packed with Yunzhou troops gathering, he expected safety would be no problem. However, having Jin Xiangyu, who understood the situation in Yunzhou and was good at dealing with people, accompany them would reduce a lot of trouble.

The Special Operations Camp arrived quickly, and although the Flying Tiger Camp suffered another big loss, it also thwarted Zhou Rui's original plan to have those from the Yang family sent to their deaths.

“Use the Duanmu family…” Jin Xiangyu quietly reminded Zhou Rui, which gave him some ideas. The Duanmu family also seemed to have sensed something from Zhou Rui's indifferent and tough attitude towards the Yang family. Furthermore, they themselves didn't have any good feelings towards the Yang family, especially Yang Ming. So, when Zhou Rui hinted that they should find an opportunity to make things difficult and create a conflict, the Duanmu family's steward agreed without much thought.

Kargas and Jin Xiangyu and others departed first, leaving the Longmen Inn for the Special Operations Camp to use as a temporary command post. A large number of tents were then set up around it. Now, this was the front line. After settling things down a bit, Zhou Rui finally took the time to meet with the people from the Duanmu family and the Yang family separately, and then sent them on their way to Gandor.

Just as the two sides were packing their things, the Duanmu family, after careful preparation, made their move. A twelve or thirteen-year-old child from the Duanmu family pretended to be cautious and cut halfway through the ropes on one of the Yang family's carriages. In fact, this child knew that someone was watching him. Just as the Yang family was questioning the Duanmu family, this child stood up. This child was a servant of the Duanmu family, taken in by them from a very young age. With blood and tears in his eyes, he accused the Yang family of forcing his family to ruin and displacement. His mother had even cut off her own flesh to make meat soup, feeding him one last meal before dying with hatred. For many years, he had silently hidden his hatred in his heart. Now, he knew this was his last chance. Once the Yang family arrived in Gandor and completed all the property registration and preservation procedures, they would become legal residents of Yunzhou. In the future, as long as they operated legally, no one would pursue their past actions. Even the blood and sweat money they had squeezed from the people of Northern Liao would become something protected by the behemoth of Dongping, which no one dared to challenge. He would never allow such a thing to happen, but he was powerless to resist. Anything that could threaten or harm the Yang family, he would do. Not only now, but also in the future, as long as he lived, he would constantly try to make the Yang family pay the price…

Zhou Rui didn't care whether this matter was true or false, but the child's acting was really too realistic. The tears, the expression, the language that was almost incoherent due to excitement, the accusations and questions filled with hatred, were all too realistic. Many people in the Yang family lowered their heads, looking guilty. And several stewards of the Duanmu family unanimously stated at that moment that they would never punish the child. If the past could be ignored, then no matter how many bad things the Yang family had done, they had no reason to pursue a child like that. The Yang family, enraged, shoved and clashed with the Duanmu family. At this time, a "young and vigorous" member of the Duanmu family indignantly drew his knife and killed a member of the Yang family with one blow. The conflict escalated immediately.

The Special Operations Camp discovered the conflict immediately and quickly took action to quell the dispute. They were fast and accurate, and when they arrived to stop the conflict, they first appeared on the rear side of the Yang family. With the high-profile participation of the Special Operations Camp, the entire conflict was quelled in less than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea. After it was quelled, both the Special Operations Camp and the Duanmu family "horrifiedly" discovered that everyone in the Yang family was dead.

Such a serious matter naturally had to be reported to Zhou Rui immediately. After narrating the course of events, Zhou Rui sincerely examined the many problems exposed by the Special Operations Camp in handling this incident. He frankly admitted that the Special Operations Camp was insufficiently trained and lacked experience in this type of business that was more inclined to security management, which was unbecoming of Yunzhou's number one camp, and that they needed to "strengthen" it in the future. He deeply reflected on the style of the Special Operations Camp, believing that as a long-renowned core force in Yunzhou, the Special Operations Camp should be the people's own army that safeguards the lives and property of the people, and not a crude killing machine that solves everything with violence. In the future, the Special Operations Camp would further strengthen its ideological and moral construction, strengthen its study of the spirit of the Balanced Scorecard system, which includes unity of purpose, concerted efforts, and jointly building Yunzhou, and truly establish the Special Operations Camp as a mighty and civilized force…

Even at this moment, when a large number of military documents were being circulated and testing the command's processing capabilities, this document caused a huge uproar. Dai Yun spat out a mouthful of hot tea when he saw this document, all of it splashing onto the face of his innocent subordinate, Cheng Chi. "Who said that Zhou Rui only knew how to kill and fight? This thing… is too powerful." And in the Yunzhou Command, which had always had an open atmosphere, this document was immediately copied, and the original was framed and preserved, becoming one of the strongest pieces of writing of the year.

This was just a small ripple in the overall vigorous transition of Yunzhou into the tide of war. The entire Yunzhou could not possibly be so relaxed. The opportunity for both sides to catch their breath, which Chen Xiao Lai had worked so hard for, was finally broken with the conflict between the main forces of both sides reaching battalion level. The Longmen Inn incident became the fuse for the full-scale war between Dongping and Northern Liao, and Ye Tao's spirit of mischief could be considered to have blossomed and borne fruit. When the history of Dongping's unification of the continent is mentioned in the future, it will be impossible to ignore a place like Longmen Inn.

The day after the incident, the Yunzhou Command handed the military order that had been drafted long ago to Ye Tao. At that time, Ye Tao was in Gandor, teaching the children. He was teaching them how to use tools to carve shallow grooves in wooden objects. Dai Yun personally held the military order at the door of the classroom, looking lovingly at the children in the classroom, including Ye Wenji. The peace of these children would be fully guaranteed. If Ye Tao's agreement with Tan Xiao Pei to conquer Northern Liao and Western Ling in fifteen years was for his own ease, then his re-mentioning of this timetable at the military preparations meeting in Yunzhou to strategize Northern Liao was more because he hoped that when these children grew up, at least in the land he could influence, there would be no more wars that required them to shed their blood. These children should leave their bravery for the arena… Yunzhou already had mass sports events such as football, basketball, donkey polo, and horse polo, which were already quite large in scale and very formal. They should dedicate their enthusiasm to the stage. The Yunzhou Grand Theater was completed and opened not long after Gandor's completion. The Yunzhou Grand Theater, which had been sporadically performing various shows, was about to welcome the grand performance of the troupe that Liu Xiangyuan brought to Gandor, and a series of measures to fund cultural and artistic activities would then gradually unfold. In Gandor, even the first professional drama school in this time and space, and in the entire world, would be established… The children had too many things to do, so the adults didn't need to leave them the grand and enthusiastic activity of war.

Dai Yun didn't rush into the classroom, but stood outside the window of the classroom, waiting silently. And Ye Tao, soon after, assigned the children a discussion activity and walked out of the classroom.

"What's wrong?" Ye Tao saw the document in Dai Yun's hand, looked at the red seal indicating top secret on the gray folder and the number below it, and sighed. He was helpless, but also seemed somewhat relieved, and said, "It's finally here. Where is it? Mount Dalun? Southern Ridge?"

"Longmen Inn…" Dai Yun's smile was somewhat forced.

"Go issue the order." Ye Tao took the folder and took out a fountain pen from his pocket. Speaking of which, the fountain pen could be considered one of the recent small inventions that was very popular. After carefully signing his name on the document, he said to Dai Yun, "Yun'er, if you have time, gather the family together, and we'll have dinner together tonight… A little later doesn't matter."

Dai Yun nodded gently and agreed. Although Dai Yun was the commander-in-chief of this war against Northern Liao, Ye Tao couldn't be idle either, and he would also go to the front. And this time, no one knew when the operation against Northern Liao would be completely over. And this kind of war with the fate of the country at stake was definitely not comparable to the previous wars against the northern grasslands, or the several local wars against Western Ling. "I've already sent Yunzhou One to pick up Qiu Yan," Dai Yun said. She had already thought of Ye Tao's reaction and had already done what she, as Ye Tao's wife and Ye Tao's family, should do.

Similar to Ye Tao's family, a warm family atmosphere continued throughout Yunzhou from the afternoon until the next morning. It lasted until the time when, according to the military order, the armies gathered and set off. And those troops who were already near the front line and had lost the opportunity to reunite with their families also had various warm activities. This atmosphere not only did not affect the iron-blooded temperament and strong combat power of the Yunzhou armies, but also strengthened them. When the soldiers left their homes early in the morning and went to the camps for final assembly, there were almost no cries in Yunzhou. Many years ago, when Yunzhou was almost exhausted due to continuously independently resisting the northern grasslands, it was also like this. At that time, it was because everyone had become accustomed to being strong, accustomed to someone in the family going to die for greater interests, for everyone. And now, it was because everyone understood that this was an even greater honor than ever before. War could not be without danger, but this was the glory of every soldier.

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ps:

Everyone should have seen the pk page on the homepage.

"Heart of Time" will, according to plan, end slightly faster, and after that, what will be presented to everyone is "Darkroom," which has been in preparation for almost two years. I originally wanted to leave some time for myself between the two books, but now it seems that this is impossible. The ending of "Heart of Time" may slightly overlap with the beginning stage of "Darkroom." Basically, it depends on how busy I can be, and to what extent I can force myself. "Heart of Time" is a book with a strange theme. Fortunately, with everyone's support, it has today's, albeit not bad, results. And "Darkroom" still relies on everyone's continued support.

As I write this, "Darkroom" already has nearly 400 favorites. God knows, I haven't even uploaded a chapter yet, but occupying a seat first shouldn't be a bad thing, right? "Darkroom" will update the first chapter at 12:00 noon on December 1st, according to the agreement of the pk event. This pk thing is actually quite fun. Looking at the discussion areas of two books without chapters, seeing that everyone has various different opinions, I think I'm still a little depressed. This pk event completely brought out my alias and my real self in one fell swoop. This is really a headache. As for the outcome of the pk, I said at the press conference that day that Qidian is my home field after all. I understand this place and I also understand the preferences of the readers here. I take pride in being able to present good-looking things to everyone.