"...To date, Chi Lei has conducted sixty-nine operations with forces under ten thousand, eleven operations with forces over ten thousand, and coordinated twenty-four operations with Monsul's forces, eliminating a total of seventy-nine thousand enemies. Among them, forty-four thousand were from the Korka tribe army. The list of battlefield spoils and war trophies is as follows..."

Ye Tao listened quietly as Tan Weiran expressionlessly read the military intelligence document recently sent from the forward base located on the northwestern edge of Benlang Plains. It was probably extravagant to have a prince read official documents to him, but Tan Weiran felt something was amiss. Chi Lei's operations were not exactly fierce, but his purpose was very clear. Moreover, Chi Lei really didn't care about the amount of territory he controlled. He spread scouts all over the grassland, and the Korka tribe had nowhere to hide in his direction. Many times, he would evacuate large areas of land and pasture, deliberately letting the Korka tribe advance, and then find an opportunity to attack or simply detour behind them for a surprise attack. Chi Lei emphasized the mobility of his troops, with each unit procuring supplies locally. Even his main force rarely carried more than three days' worth of rations, and he even required his cavalry units to ensure full mobility for all personnel... With increasingly better equipment and supplies, it was becoming increasingly difficult for the Yun Province armies to achieve full mobility. Not to mention anything else, the command headquarters' tents and the various documents and codebooks they carried were a messy pile, and these things took up a lot of space and weight. Usually, even the Frost Wolf and Silver Wing armies now had to carry some wagons to transport these items. Even during forced marches, the vanguard and these self-carried supplies would maintain a distance to ensure that the vanguard could be deployed in time for combat. Chi Lei's order for full mobility caused chaos throughout the army. Both the Frost Wolf and Silver Wing armies had undergone extensive training in full mobility and made many preparations. Although the Iron Cloud Riders and Jing Cloud Riders were in a state of turmoil, they barely managed to achieve it. In this way, not only was the marching speed increased, but also Chi Lei's flexibility in using troops. Relying on those squads shuttling back and forth, Chi Lei forcefully shattered the entire situation on the grassland.

After the Masa tribe had contact with Chi Lei, although nothing was agreed upon, Chi Lei generously told the Masa tribe that they could talk again later. At the very least, the Masa tribe no longer dared to take any hostile action against Chi Lei's forces. The Kyrgyz tribe provided two thousand elite cavalrymen, mainly to serve as guides for Chi Lei's troops; Chi Lei never intended to send these people to the battlefield.

While Chi Lei was attacking north, he had the Intelligence Bureau launch a propaganda campaign on the grassland. The herdsmen gradually learned that these incomparably powerful warriors were not only fighting the Korka tribe, liberating everyone from the Korka tribe's high-pressure rule and exploitation, but also striving to stop the sand bandits from plaguing the grassland. The Intelligence Bureau was now very skilled in this kind of thing. Over the years, the Intelligence Bureau had not done less training in Bei Liao, Xi Ling, and Chun Nan. From making one or two ministers stink to covering up other work they were doing, the Intelligence Bureau increasingly loved this kind of bloodless conspiracy. On the grassland, when well-trained intelligence officers faced those simple herdsmen with eloquent tongues, this propaganda was simply unstoppable. The Intelligence Bureau officials also grasped the propaganda caliber very well. They never said bad things about the Korka tribe, etc., and never challenged the herdsmen's loyalty to their respective tribes.

With this ebb and flow, Monsul finally led an allied army of more than one hundred thousand to confront the Korka tribe and their follower tribes' army of roughly equal numbers. At this time, Chi Lei, who was ostensibly confronting the sand bandits in the north, returned, leading ten thousand Jing Cloud Riders and twenty thousand elite cavalry from Benlang Plains to raid the rear of the Korka tribe. Monsul also seized the opportunity to launch a full-scale offensive. The Korka tribe finally failed to defeat Monsul's allied army in a decisive battle, relying on their ability to control the decisive battle, as they had previously expected, and regain the initiative on the battlefield, but instead fell into a deeper abyss. After this battle, the Masa tribe finally formally surrendered. They felt that they lacked the bargaining chips to negotiate with Chi Lei. However, when the Masa tribe's plenipotentiary envoy came to find Chi Lei to negotiate, Chi Lei was gone, along with the three thousand elite cavalry that had appeared like a miracle.

"Chi Lei has not contacted the forward base since that battle. The weather has been problematic these days, and the airship team has been unable to conduct normal reconnaissance. Moreover... the efficiency of reconnaissance is getting lower and lower, and the area to be reconnoitered is too far from the forward base. And the speed of the airship is too slow, and the time it can stay in that area every day is extremely short," Tan Weiran closed the booklet of intelligence documents and sighed.

"Weiran, take the forward base further into the grassland. Go about two hundred *li* deeper... we should move the airship team further ahead. Once we get in touch with Chi Lei, I think we can even put a branch of the airship team in the north. Let them assist in the operation against the sand bandits," Ye Tao asked for Tan Weiran's opinion.

"Me?" Tan Weiran smiled and said, "Are you planning to talk to the Korka tribe? We haven't beaten them hard enough yet. They still have at least half of their troops left, and they haven't been hurt to the bone yet."

Ye Tao sighed, "We're not here to fight to the death after all. Our own brothers have suffered more than ten thousand casualties, right? Monsul is really brave, with fifty to sixty thousand dead and wounded in his hands, but he's getting fiercer and fiercer. We should control it. If everyone on the grassland fights to the point where the hatred is so deep that it can't be resolved, the future trouble will be great."

Tan Weiran nodded and said, "Okay. I'll go prepare... agreement, or according to the previous articles?"

"Yes," Ye Tao said, "We can't give them better treatment than the tribes on Benlang Plains... some of them may really feel that joining Dongping can make their lives better, but I believe there are still many people who think that they can pretend to cooperate and spend a few years or ten years accumulating strength, and then talk about it. They have something they want to get, so naturally they have to pay something. We have to be a partner, not a benefactor. ...We have to let them become our friends themselves; persuasion is useless."

Tan Weiran chuckled and said, "This is a very difficult job, and it will take a long time, right? Fortunately... we have plenty of time now."

Ye Tao shook his head helplessly and said, "I'm afraid it's not that optimistic... didn't you receive His Majesty's letter?"

Tan Weiran said nonchalantly, "I received it, but so what?"

In the private letters that Tan Xiaopei sent to them separately, he mentioned a letter from the Chun Nan country lord to Tan Xiaopei, which was unclear whether it was a diplomatic letter or a private letter. In the letter, the Chun Nan country lord praised Tan Weizai, who grew up in Chun Nan, saying that he already had the appearance of a generation of heroes at a young age. ...In addition, Jiang Yan, who came to deliver the letter in person, also spoke about the Chun Nan court when he met with Tan Xiaopei. Because the two countries have developed well in their alliance relationship in recent years, their economic ties have become increasingly close, and various folk exchanges are also very enthusiastic. Officially, many families have begun to learn from the various effective measures implemented in Chun Nan over the years, especially those that have not harmed the interests of the great aristocratic families... Chun Nan has also begun to enter a period of learning and change. Any change, in a country with party strife and a struggle for the throne, will eventually evolve into a chaotic situation, and Chun Nan is naturally no exception. In the past, when the Chun Nan country lord did not seek innovation, Jiang Yan was relaxed, but after these years, Jiang Yan was obviously much older. Jiang Yan also revealed that the Chun Nan country lord was very annoyed by the princes' struggle for the throne, especially since the princes' struggle for the throne had reached the point of undermining each other, not taking the overall situation of the country into consideration at all. Conspiring is very expensive, and the two princes have reached out too much to the merchants who are attached to them in order to overwhelm each other, which has made some merchants suffer unspeakably. Some have begun to transfer costs to smaller merchants, while others have begun to engage in some very disruptive business practices in order to make money. The academic circles in Chun Nan are not as pure as they used to be... Under these circumstances, the Chun Nan country lord is really seriously considering passing the throne to his grandson, Tan Weizai... The Chun Nan country lord wrote a very thunderous sentence in the letter, which was reprinted by Tan Xiaopei: "The general trend of the world is that after a long period of unity, there must be division, and after a long period of division, there must be unity."

This attitude made Tan Xiaopei a little headache. He was naturally reluctant to refuse this opportunity if what Jiang Yan said was true. However, it was really difficult to control this truth. Tan Weizai was his child, but Tan Weizai was not a child who grew up in the environment of Dongping, and his relationship with his older brothers and sisters... was probably about the same as that of a passerby. Tan Weizai was more like a conservative and compromising leader that a country with deep traditional origins like Chun Nan needed, far more than someone like Tan Weiming and Tan Weiran who had the ambition to forge ahead... What Tan Xiaopei was afraid of was that from the bloodline, it was indeed two royal families that merged and ruled this continent, but from the culture and system, Dongping would be annexed by Chun Nan in the future.

"What's there to be afraid of? If what Jiang Yan said is true, what if the throne is given to Tan Weizai? Brother doesn't value this thing that much either. Besides, we are still young, and we still have real power in our hands. Our father is in good health and can manage this country for at least fifteen or twenty years. By then, what can Chun Nan still influence us? Besides, there's you. Not to mention anything else, in Yun Province, everyone listens to you. Don't talk about things that are still uncertain, even if the two countries formally merge in the future, you'll live to be seventy or eighty years old and drag those Chun Nan civil servants to death. By the next generation of civil and military officials... hehe, who influences who will be hard to say," Tan Weiran said nonchalantly, "If what Jiang Yan said is just part of a conspiracy to distract us, then it doesn't matter even more. In my opinion, so much conspiracy is just because Chun Nan has no determination to fight. They can play with power, they can play with conspiracies, they can play with all kinds of tricks, but do they dare to risk their lives? I dare! The current Dongping is the result of generations of hard work by our Tan family. I dare not say that we will definitely be able to create peace for all generations, but if anyone dares to destroy our foundation, I will fight them to the death!"