Chapter 1 The Standoff

For the next period of time, the imperial army and Dragon King Stronghold remained in a state of stalemate.

However, the imperial soldiers slowed their offensive, contracted their lines, and retreated a distance to encamp, no longer directly pressing on the front line passes and water fortresses of Dragon King Stronghold. It seemed they intended to hold their ground, as if planning to focus on defending against Chen Feng's continuous harassment.

In the main camp, Ling Fengzi attended the military council every day as usual, but Ma Zhen only said to stand still and did not explain the reason.

However, the participating officers noticed something unusual. Huang Ping, also a high-ranking general, had been missing for many days.

When someone asked about it, Ma Zhen claimed that Huang Ping had received military orders to lead troops to receive a batch of important supplies allocated by the imperial court, to prevent them from being intercepted by bandits, and so on.

Everyone believed it and did not pursue the matter. Ling Fengzi, in his passive state, simply faithfully recorded the information and secretly passed it on to Dragon King Stronghold, without taking any initiative to get to the bottom of it.

This was actually false intelligence, an excuse Ma Zhen used to deal with everyone, just to conceal Huang Ping's movements.

In reality, Huang Ping had received his orders and had already quietly left with his troops, heading to the upstream estuary of Huyang to begin executing the breaching plan.

This task was of great importance and could not be lost, so in order to hide their tracks, Huang Ping did not bring a large number of troops.

Due to the implementation of the Five Strategies for Defeating Bandits, the government army centrally controlled many civilians scattered in the countryside, resulting in a reduction in the number of Dragon King Stronghold's scouts scattered in the wilderness, which brought considerable convenience to Huang Ping's covert operation.

And in order to prevent leaks, the soldiers in Huang Ping's team did not know the details of this mission, and thought they were going to relocate for combat.

This team marched cautiously all the way, delaying them for some days, before finally arriving at their destination.

Huyang, Dingbo Estuary.

This is a river embankment, built for many years, with a history dating back to before the founding of the Great Xia Dynasty.

Huyang has many rivers, the largest of which is called the Sha River, running from west to east, connecting the Central Plains. Dingbo Estuary restrains the river water on one bank of the Sha River, and has always been controlled by the government, occasionally repaired.

However, the Sha River floods all year round, and the flood control effect of Dingbo Estuary has become somewhat inadequate, so Huyang has suffered repeated floods in recent years.

But even so, this is still an important embankment. Although it cannot eliminate floods, it can at least control them to a certain extent, so as not to cause a complete flood.

Huang Ping arrived with his troops, ordered the soldiers to stand by for the time being, and looked at the滔滔river with a glint in his eyes.

The adjutant next to him carefully asked, "General, what are we doing here?"

"The commander-in-chief has ordered us to breach the Dingbo Estuary embankment and flood the bandits."

Huang Ping's tone was indifferent, with no emotion.

The adjutant was stunned, and then his face changed slightly: "Is this true? If the Sha River breaches and floods, then the people of Huyang will..."

Before he could finish speaking, Huang Ping turned his head and looked at him, his eyes cold.

The adjutant was looked at by him, and his voice gradually lowered, and finally he closed his mouth.

Seeing this, Huang Ping withdrew his gaze, his tone unquestionable, and said coldly:

"Pass down my military order, breach the embankment!"

The adjutant was helpless and quickly passed down the order.

Only then did the army know the goal of this trip, and the officers and soldiers were in an uproar, unbelievable.

The higher-ups were so ruthless?!

This kind of insidious thing that would cut off future generations was immediately resisted by many soldiers.

However, disobeying military orders is a big taboo, and would be punished by military law. The officers and soldiers did not dare to disobey, and could only do it helplessly, and began to breach the embankment.

But before long, several villagers suddenly appeared nearby, running over in a hurry, shouting anxiously:

"Generals, you can't dig this embankment!"

The officers and soldiers who were working turned their heads and looked over in surprise.

These villagers who suddenly appeared were all wearing ragged clothes, with dark skin and calluses on their hands. At a glance, they were farmers who had been working for many years.

The guards patrolling around immediately stepped forward to control these anxious villagers.

Huang Ping narrowed his eyes and ordered them to be brought to him.

Brought into the military tent, the farmers were uneasy and gave an unspeakable salute.

"Who are you, report your names..."

Huang Ping asked.

Before long, he figured out the origins of these people.

It turned out that there was a small settlement of more than twenty households nearby, in a relatively remote and hidden location.

These farmers were from the village, and happened to run into this team of government soldiers while on an outing. They didn't intend to show up at first.

But when they saw the government soldiers breaching the embankment, they couldn't sit still and wanted to run out and dissuade them.

"Great General, you can't dig this Dingbo Estuary. If it collapses, there will definitely be a flood!"

"Yes, if it breaches here, the whole area within a thousand miles will suffer!"

The farmers were nervous and tried to dissuade him.

Huang Ping remained noncommittal and ordered his guards to take the farmers down.

Then, he turned to the adjutant and said lightly:

"Let these mud legs lead the way, send a few hundred soldiers to follow, and bring all the villagers to work as coolies to help us dig the embankment... In addition, our actions need to be kept secret, and no one can be left alive to leak the news. Kill them all after it's done."

"...Yes, sir."

The adjutant was silent for two seconds before accepting the military order.

He strode out of the military tent, with anger on his face, but it eventually turned into helplessness, and he called out soldiers.

Before long, the government soldiers captured the civilians in the nearby villages and drove them to become coolies.

In order to save their lives, these villagers could only do as they were told.

As the embankment was torn apart step by step, the water became increasingly turbulent, and the roaring river quickly caused a breach.

At this point, manpower was no longer needed. Hundreds of millions of acres of river water poured out, and would inevitably continue to expand the breach. In the end, if one wanted to block it, one could only fill it with human lives.

Huang Ping then ordered the troops to stop working, killed all the captured civilians, and threw their bodies into the river.

The unblinking corpses floated and sank in the river, drifting downstream.

Huang Ping didn't take another look, and immediately led his troops away quickly, successfully completing the task.

Only the angry river was left roaring and unceasingly, breaking through the embankment, flowing more and more, farther and farther.

Somewhere in Huyang, in the woods.

Zhou Jing and a thousand soldiers were resting here, the number being only around a thousand.

He had not been sitting in the stronghold these days, but had personally led troops outside, using hit-and-run tactics, harassing the government army to the point of wishing they were dead.

Because he mainly relied on his own martial power to attack the enemy, he did not bring too many troops, but only as a necessary response, so that fewer people would be more flexible.

During this period, he launched many attacks, and the results were very rich, destroying many government army camps, and a large number of government soldiers shrank back and did not come out.

"If we continue to exert pressure like this, the imperial army will collapse and run away sooner or later. The current situation is favorable to us. I wonder how long the enemy can last... Speaking of which, the government soldiers seem to be at a loss now. Could it be that they really want to give up the conquest?"

Zhou Jing muttered to himself while chewing on jerky.

At this moment, a scout on the lookout suddenly ran in.

"Report! Chief, two villagers have come to see you, saying they have an urgent matter to report!"

"Bring them over."

Zhou Jing came back to his senses and was not surprised.

He had been running around in the Huyang area during this period, and had not hidden his tracks. Although there was no fixed place, there were occasionally villagers who had not been controlled by the government who could happen to run into him and come to see him.

Soon, two dusty villagers were brought in.

Seeing Zhou Jing sitting there with a golden sword, the two immediately bowed their heads and bowed, their tone urgent:

"Chief Chen, something bad has happened, the flood has broken out again!"

Zhou Jing was startled: "Flood? It shouldn't be the flood season, right?"

"It's absolutely true, our village has been flooded!"

The two villagers were adamant and anxious.

"Could it be that something happened upstream, and an embankment collapsed due to disrepair?"

Zhou Jing frowned.

Was this an accident or was it man-made?

Could it be that the government soldiers wanted to use water to attack, like flooding seven armies? But at present, the two sides don't seem to have launched any fierce battles in the upstream area.

Moreover, Bill's side has not reported any corresponding military mobilization by the government soldiers.

His first reaction was not to think in the other direction... The imperial court, as the orthodox ruler of the world, was so "courageous" that it abandoned the territory of a province under its jurisdiction, directly flooded the entire area, and broke the jar and shattered it again, breaking the lower limit once again.

Although driving the people to attack was also insidious, the government army at least had a name, driving those who were "accomplices to the enemy's rebellion."

But digging the embankment and flooding Huyang would be completely unjustifiable. Disregarding the lives and deaths of the people here, it was definitely lacking in virtue, and those who gave birth to children would have no assholes.

"Okay, let's go and see. If it's easy to handle, I'll have someone from the stronghold sent to manage it." Zhou Jing immediately decided.

Flooding is the main disaster in Huyang. Since he regards this place as the foundation, whether it is accidental or man-made, it must be dealt with.

Moreover, this is not the first time this has happened. In the past two years, when the government was ineffective, Dragon King Stronghold would occasionally control the water and save people, and they were already familiar with it.

"Thank you, Chief, thank you, Chief!"

The two villagers were immediately grateful and thanked them repeatedly.

At this time, one of them seemed to remember something and said:

"By the way, on the way here, we found footprints left by a large team of people passing by on a fork in the road to the southeast. I wonder if they are the chief's men."

"Southeast? We don't seem to have gone that way."

A leader next to him interjected in confusion.

Hearing this, Zhou Jing's eyes flashed.

Since it wasn't his own people, then this unknown team was probably from the imperial court.

Appearing suddenly nearby, they must have other plans.

"First catch up with this group of people and bring them back for questioning."

Zhou Jing did not hesitate and immediately made a decision, calling on his men to set off.