Chapter 964 Dogs and Horses!

"This fish soup is good, really fresh."

Gou Moli held his bowl, sipping the soup leisurely.

Around him sat a circle of generals, the majority of whom were Savages.

"Ah."

After finishing a bowl of fish soup, someone immediately stepped forward to help him refill it.

"Ah! Ah! Ah!"

Turning his head,

Gou Moli saw a man not far away being hung up and whipped. The man's surname was He, and he was the head of a relatively large local Wubao (fortified village), and could be considered a minor local noble in his early years.

Originally, he had been one of the internal agents developed by Gou Moli. After Gou Moli led his army over, not only did he not hinder them based on his official Chu state position, but he also proactively sent a lot of grain to reward the "Yan army."

This man, who should have been meritorious, was now in such a predicament because... two days ago, he led his clansmen in rebellion, and was then suppressed by Gou Moli.

A new bowl of fish soup was brought over. Gou Moli reached out and grabbed a small handful of chopped green onions and put them in, then sprinkled some pepper, and poured in a little vinegar.

Immediately,

He stood up,

Holding the bowl, he walked towards the He family head, sipping the soup in small mouthfuls.

The He family head had already been whipped miserably, his whole body covered in blood.

Gou Moli approached him, took another sip of fish soup, and said with emotion:

"Why bother?"

The He family head raised his head with some difficulty, looking at Gou Moli. In his eyes, there was no hatred, only self-deprecating mockery:

"The grain is going to be... eaten up by you... We won't be able to survive this winter."

"Mm."

Gou Moli sighed.

"General... General... I beg the General, spare my clansmen. It's all my fault, my fault."

"That's a problem. There are quite a few Wubao heads who have surrendered to me. If your He family rebels and I let it go lightly, what if the others follow suit?

As the head of a family, you wouldn't be so ignorant, would you?"

"It's all my fault, General..."

"Heh."

Gou Moli stopped looking at him and continued to drink his fish soup.

The He family head, hanging there, began to sob;

He wasn't afraid of death, but full of regret.

He had secretly allied himself with the Yan people, providing convenience when the Yan army arrived, but what he hadn't expected was that the Yan army would simply stop here.

They stopped here for nearly a month!

Tens of thousands of soldiers, men and horses, all relied on these nearby Wubao to support them, and they had to eat well and be full. How could they withstand that?

If they didn't give it, they would just take it themselves; they started robbing.

Winter was just around the corner, and with so many people in the Wubao, how were they going to survive?

The He family rebelled under these circumstances.

Gou Moli finally finished his soup, took out a handkerchief from his pocket, and wiped his mouth.

He turned to look at the He family head again and smiled:

"Some people always think that being a dog is easy. Knees soften, flattering words are spoken, and a smiling face is presented. A few 'woof woofs' and you can be a qualified dog.

Sigh, is that it?

You are a surrenderer, so you have to have the awareness of a surrenderer. Since your knees are already soft, don't always be aiming to look up. What are you looking at? What's so good about it? If you look too much, you'll naturally feel that you seem to still be a person?

Hehehe."

Gou Moli reached out and gently patted the He family head's face.

"I'll teach you up to here. In the next life, be a good dog."

Gou Moli took two steps back and ordered his subordinates:

"Chop off his head and display it to the surrounding Wubao."

"Yes!"

Gou Moli yawned and rubbed his hands. The temperature had obviously dropped in the past few days, but compared to the winter in the snow plains, this bit of cold was nothing.

After eating and drinking his fill, Gou Moli returned to his command tent and lay down.

He reached out and touched the flesh on his body. What a sin. When he was in Fancheng, he actually had a lot of free time, but he was never idle. But this time, leading troops out and lying here, he had actually gained a lot of weight.

He closed his eyes, ready for an afternoon nap.

But at this moment,

Extremely dense footsteps came from outside the tent. Then, the tent curtain was lifted, and two generals, one from Yan and one from Jin, entered the tent, holding swords.

Gou Moli opened his eyes, sat up, and just looked at the two of them.

The two generals were momentarily intimidated, and their steps faltered.

At this time, outside the tent, nearly three hundred armored soldiers had already surrounded it.

Then, a larger wave of footsteps came. A group of Savage generals led their soldiers, once again surrounding the armored soldiers surrounding the tent.

The whole scene was on the verge of erupting.

However, the three hundred armored soldiers were not too flustered, because the Savage people accounted for the vast majority of the Fancheng army. Right now, everyone was silent.

Inside the tent,

Gou Moli yawned,

and said:

"No manners. Even if you have something to report to this commander, you have to give advance notice first.

It's a good thing this commander was just taking an afternoon nap. If I were sleeping with a woman, wouldn't that make you two feel inferior to death?"

The two generals, one surnamed Chi, named Chi Lin, was from Yan; the other surnamed Hao, named Hao Min.

Both of them were orphans, raised in the Xue She (learning society), and were among the earliest batch of adopted sons. They had been in the army for some years.

Generally speaking, the aptitude of these adopted sons was selected and assessed in the Xue She, and their loyalty was absolutely reliable. Therefore, their promotion speed in the army had always been very fast.

Chi Lin raised his sword at Gou Moli,

and questioned:

"Why has our army been stagnating here for so long?"

Gou Moli pointed at the sword in front of him, and asked suspiciously:

"Does the Jin Dong army have a custom of pointing a sword at a superior officer?"

Chi Lin hesitated for a moment, but still did not lower his sword, and continued to question:

"The Wangye (Prince) is leading troops in the Wei River area, confronting the main force of the Chu army. Our army should have been ordered to leave Fancheng, pass through Guyue, and cut off the connection between Qian and Chu. Why has the marshal ordered the army to stagnate here for so long!

The marshal is disregarding the safety of the Wangye, disregarding military orders, disregarding the overall situation. What exactly are you trying to do!"

Gou Moli took a breath and sneered:

"Are you the marshal, or am I the marshal? Are you executing military orders, or am I executing military orders?

I am the marshal of Fancheng. How I fight, how I wage war, do I need to listen to you, a Major!"

Beside him, Hao Min also raised his sword and shouted:

"Then why did the marshal secretly send people to contact the Xie family in Guyue? The Wangye has been generous to the marshal. Is this how the marshal repays our Wangye?"

"Oh?"

Gou Moli was not at all alarmed at being caught "in the act." Instead, he relaxed and leaned back, supporting himself on the blanket, giving himself a more comfortable sitting posture.

"You actually discovered that. Impressive, impressive. But what exactly are you two doing?"

"Anyone who dares to be disloyal to the Wangye will not be spared!"

"This is my army, this is my command tent. Here, ninety percent are Savage soldiers. What can you do to me? Kidnap this commander as a hostage? Hehehe."

"This is the Wangye's army. They are Savages, but they are also registered households. They are also loyal to the Wangye!"

"You can try it. I have personally trained this army for so many years. If this army doesn't listen to me in battle, then I might as well find a piece of tofu and kill myself!"

"Marshal, then we two will die with you. You want to betray the Wangye? Dream on! Even if we two lead a group of brothers to be buried here today, we will drag you down with us!"

Gou Moli shrugged.

Just then,

The sound of armor rubbing against each other came from outside the tent, meaning that many armored soldiers were moving collectively at this time.

A man in white walked towards the tent. Whether it was the Savage soldiers on the outside or the three hundred brought by Chi Lin and Hao Min in the inner circle, no one dared to stop him.

The tent curtain was lifted again.

Hao Min and Chi Lin turned to look behind them and saw the person who had come.

The person glanced at them and said, "Sheathe your swords."

Hao Min and Chi Lin obediently sheathed their swords.

"Get out."

Hao Min and Chi Lin looked at each other.

A gloating smile appeared on the corner of Gou Moli's mouth, but then, Hao Min and Chi Lin saluted the person and walked out of the tent.

"Oh dear, two little brats, are they afraid of getting beaten by you, that they don't dare to make a fuss in front of you?" Gou Moli complained to the Sword Saint, sitting cross-legged.

The Sword Saint looked at Gou Moli and said:

"If I hadn't come out, would you really have been killed?"

"Heh, not necessarily, not necessarily." Gou Moli waved his hand, "If I were exposed like that, wouldn't that mean I'm getting worse and worse?"

Gou Moli reached out and lifted the blanket under him. In the splint beneath the blanket, a man and a woman were lying.

They both had broken bone necklaces hanging around their necks, their eyes were closed, and there was no breath.

These two were Star Seizers.

Back when the Wangfu (Prince's Manor) had a newborn child, a Taoist priest came uninvited from afar.

The Star Seizers who were imprisoned in the dungeon next to the Wangfu helped protect the Wangfu and were thus granted a degree of leniency in their status.

Gou Moli was a Savage, and two had been assigned to his side. Right now, the two were sleeping in a way similar to "turtle breathing," but Gou Moli naturally had ways to wake them up immediately.

"Still not safe enough," the Sword Saint commented.

"How can it be safe? Should I just kill them both beforehand? There's no such thing as safe or unsafe. It doesn't exist."

Gou Moli patted his butt, stood up, and continued: "I didn't expect the Wangye to send you here in person."

"I received their secret message, so he sent me here specifically."

The Sword Saint's status as a messenger itself possessed great power, because no one would think that the Sword Saint would betray the Wangye.

In many stories circulating in the Jianghu (martial world), including the most popular local operas in Jin Dong, the Sword Saint always stood by the Wangye, almost like the male lead's close companion.

"The Wangye still cares about me, haha." Gou Moli smiled, then walked out of the tent. The Sword Saint stood by his side.

"Disperse, everyone. Go do what you're supposed to do," Gou Moli shouted.

The armored soldiers dispersed.

Hao Min and Chi Lin saw that the Sword Saint was standing behind Gou Moli, almost equivalent to expressing the Wangye's attitude.

The two looked at each other, walked forward, and were about to kneel down to apologize, but Gou Moli kicked them both, cursing:

"Get lost. Don't give me any of this fake crap. Get down."

"Yes!"

"Yes!"

Gou Moli turned to the Sword Saint and said, "Actually, I'm a bit helpless. I have to buy time."

"I don't know what your plans are."

The Sword Saint remembered that his son didn't seem to know either, even though his son helped the Wangye receive and send memorials every day, and sometimes even had to help him review them, he still just smiled foolishly.

Gou Moli nodded and said, "I can't explain it either."

"More riddles?"

"Riddles can be solved, but this is unsolvable. It can only be understood intuitively, not expressed in words. So why is it so difficult to find a general? In my opinion, a general should actually mean a commander.

It's so far away, how can we have time to communicate with urgent messages?

It's all up to the commander to figure out a plan and face it himself.

What do you think is our biggest advantage against Chu right now?"

Before the Sword Saint could answer, Gou Moli answered first:

"It's not mainly because of our strong soldiers and horses. Of course, it's definitely because of our strong soldiers and horses.

But the real advantage is that we have more talented commanders than Chu. This makes it much easier to implement things."

"Then you can continue to be at ease. I'm tired. I'll rest."

"Don't, don't. Xie Zhuyang is meeting me tomorrow. With you here, I can take you with me."

"You've really hooked up with him?"

"A delaying tactic, a delaying tactic."

……

A meeting between the commanders of two armies before a battle was an ancient practice inherited from the Xia Dynasty. Although the rites and music had been in decline for a long time, it was officially abolished on that afternoon before Xuehai Pass.

From that time on, the so-called pre-battle meeting completely changed its flavor.

Therefore, Gou Moli and Xie Zhuyang's meeting that day was held on opposite sides of a valley.

Xie Zhuyang was in the south, Gou Moli was in the north, separated by a cliff.

Everyone brought some soldiers, but not too many.

When Gou Moli came up, he specially brought a small wooden stool, placed it down, and sat down.

Standing opposite was Xie Zhuyang, who, although old, still had a flamboyant aura.

"Hey, that old bastard Xie Zhuyang even brought a young woman." Gou Moli had sharp eyes and saw the woman standing next to Xie Zhuyang. "Oh, and a little girl."

After joking,

Gou Moli felt it wasn't enough,

and shouted:

"Hey, Old Xie Tou (Old Xie Head), are you motherf\*\*\*ers fighting a war and bringing your wives and having babies? That's really not delaying anything."

"He won't surrender," the little girl said.

Xie Zhuyang didn't care. "I know he's using a delaying tactic. That's good, really good."

"Hey!!! Old Xie Tou, I'm also very lonely. How about this, you send me the young woman standing next to you first, to warm my bed, and I'll come over and kowtow to you in surrender, okay!!!!"

The woman next to Xie Zhuyang was barefoot in the air, and white silk flew out from her sleeves. Although there was a cliff in between, she still sent over a tyrannical wave of energy.

Seeing this, Gou Moli didn't panic at all. Instead, he confidently pointed forward with his finger.

The Sword Saint glanced at him, but still stepped forward and pointed forward with his finger. A sword qi condensed from above the cliff and directly offset the woman's energy wave.

In fact, neither side had really made a move. It was unrealistic to kill someone from so far away, but this kind of aerial confrontation could more clearly sense the other's depth of aura.

The woman landed back in place and transmitted her qi and blood, "What a powerful swordsman."

The little girl smiled and said, "He can enter the sect."

The woman shook her head: "How can a sword in the shadows compare to a sword in the sunlight? The sword intent is a level lower. The swordsmen in the sect probably can't beat him either."

"I've said it before, we are just a group of rats struggling to survive."

Xie Zhuyang didn't know what they were talking about, but he could sense that they should be communicating, so he took the initiative to introduce, "The opposite should be the Sword Saint of Jin, who has always been the bodyguard of the Da Yan Regent."

"I want to take back my guess that the Regent is just a memorial tablet. A memorial tablet isn't worth a swordsman of this level protecting it."

The woman looked at the little girl, "The Emperor will not lack experts."

"Swordsmen are different. Swordsmen pay attention to purity, and he is even different from those pure swordsmen. Haven't you noticed that his sword intent earlier had a sense of suppression? Could he have killed a human emperor?

Would such a person bow down to power?"

Xie Zhuyang looked at the little girl for a while, then at the woman.

Finally, the woman said, "Clan Head Xie, you go ahead with your business."

"Alright."

Xie Zhuyang stepped forward,

and shouted:

"You were once a king. Are you really willing to be a dog for the rest of your life? If you can surrender, we can break the shackles of Jin Dong together and give your snow plains freedom again.

If you're really determined to be a dog,

If you can be one for him,

why can't you be one for my Da Chu?"

On the opposite side,

Gou Moli stuck out his little finger and cleaned his ear;

Then,

he cleared his throat very solemnly,

and shouted:

"You're right, I've long since not wanted to be a dog!!!"

Xie Zhuyang smiled and shouted, "That's right, you were originally a hero..."

"I want to be a groom!!!!"