Jiao Tai frowned. "Daqing Commandery is territory of our Yan Province; there's no need for you from Quzhao to get involved."
"Besides," he added with a hint of amusement in his tone, "you can't even take a single county like Linxian, so how could you possibly have the strength to join us in attacking Daqing Commandery?"
Linxian wasn't far from Yan Province, and the Jiao clan had some knowledge of the situation there.
The muscles in Yu Cheng's face twitched, but he quickly suppressed his irritation and spoke in a calm tone.
"How Linxian fares is none of your concern. But tell me, your Jiao army claims to be a million strong, and yet you still can't crack Daqing Commandery—how is that any better?"
Jiao Tai gave a scoffing laugh. "Lu You of Daqing is a damn turtle—he just stays holed up in his shell. If he ever poked his head out, I'd have lopped it off long ago."
To be honest, Yu Cheng's jibe didn't land at all. In over a year, he had taken two counties in Daqing—not bad as far as achievements went. And more importantly, the Jiao clan's focus right now wasn't Yan Province at all—it was Si Province.
Yu Cheng kept a smile fixed on his face. "General, you may not have heard—the man who killed your Grand General Jiao Liang was actually from Daqing Commandery!"
The moment he said it, the hall fell dead silent.
The death of the Grand General—killed by a "heavenly punishment," no less—had been a stinging humiliation for the entire Jiao clan. It had caused no small amount of instability among their troops, and they had to expend considerable effort to suppress the panic that followed.
But no matter how they investigated, they came up empty-handed. All they knew was that it might be connected to Yao Ji and his two companions, and that the ones who had rescued Yao Ji and the others were a pair of triangular-eyed father and daughter.
As for whether it was indeed Yao Ji and the rest who had killed Jiao Liang, they had no way of knowing—because everyone who had seen them was dead.
They were actually aware that someone alive must have witnessed that group at the time, but no one had stepped forward to admit it.
The reason was simple: if you saw them and didn't stop them, yet managed to survive, to the Jiao clan you were as good as a deserter—and deserters were executed by law.
What's more, the chaos that night was utter madness: most of the Han civilians had fled, and a good number of surrendered Han soldiers had slipped away too. There was simply no trail to follow.
He had personally examined the corpses of Jiao Liang and his men back then. "Ghastly" didn't even begin to describe it—their deaths were far too bizarre and unnatural.
The only pity was that the last lead ended in the gorge north of Liang City, because a squad of cavalry sent to chase the culprits had been killed in that very gorge.
Following the drag marks left by bodies along the ground, they had found several cavalry corpses half-eaten by refugees. Under interrogation, the refugees knew nothing—they only said they'd picked the bodies up from the gorge.
He had heard that among those corpses, two had had their stones crushed.
Clearly, that group was utterly ruthless—and utterly obsessed with crushing men's eggs, a pack of twisted psychopaths.
But after the trail vanished in the gorge, they lost all trace of the killers, only guessing that they had fled north.
And north lay Feng Province, which was beyond the reach of the Jiao army.
Jiao Tai leaned forward slightly. "How do you know this?"
Yu Cheng gave a quiet inward sigh of relief—so the Jiao clan still remembered their grudge against Jiao Liang. That meant there was hope for his plan.
He kept his expression unreadable. "How I know isn't important. I only hope that next year, we can join forces to attack Daqing together."
He, of course, knew that killing Jiao Liang hadn't been the work of Daqing at all—it was almost certainly done by Go Feng's people.
After all, the way Jiao Liang had died was very similar to how several Quzhao generals who had gone to attack Go Feng had perished—all by "heavenly punishment."
He even suspected that Magistrate Gao of Linxian had been killed by Go Feng's people too, even if the manner of death had been different.
But at this very moment, there was no way they would let the Jiao army join Qu Zhao in attacking Lin County. Otherwise, whose claim would Lin County be in the end?
They would never do something so foolhardy as inviting a wolf into the house.
As long as Daqing Commandery didn't get involved, Lin County—with only a few thousand Jinyang troops—was nothing more than an isolated city, hardly worth worrying about.
Qu Zhao's thinking was simple: since the Jinyang Army had supposedly joined forces with Daqing Commandery to attack him, then he could just as easily bring the Jiao tribe into an alliance and deal with the Han remnants together.
Mu Qi let out a cold snort. "You say Daqing did it? Just because you said so? If they really had the power of 'Heaven's Punishment,' then why haven't they used it again after all the fighting we've done with them?"
He was Jiao Tai's strategist, having been transferred to Liang City alongside Jiao Tai.
Yu Cheng replied unhurriedly: "He's not stupid. If they used it, wouldn't you all know it was them? And if you mobilized the entire army to siege Daqing, they'd have been wiped out long ago."
The military officer Yu He slammed his hand hard on the table, rattling the cups of wine upon it. "Then tell us—what did this person look like? And how many of them were there?"
Yu Cheng naturally knew nothing about the Triangular-Eyed Father and Daughter, but he had already prepared his story in advance.
"There were ten of them. The leader—the one who unleashed 'Heaven's Punishment'—was handsome of face, fair of skin, but tall and imposing, with a chest like a drum."
He grafted Jiang Jin's "head" onto the body of a burly, muscle-bound man, creating a brand new "character."
"This man's hands were like withered branches, four chi long, and with a single raise of his arm, he could call down 'Heaven's Punishment,'" he continued.
Jiao Tai and the others listened in bewilderment, trying to picture the image in their minds—and failing. It was too strange, this description Yu Cheng had given. Could this be what they meant by "extraordinary people with extraordinary forms"?
But if such a strange person truly existed, why had they never heard of him before?
It took Jiao Tai a moment to snap out of his imagination. He snorted coldly. "How do I know whether what you say is true or false?"
Yu Cheng smiled. "That's simple. Capture Daqing Commandery, and you'll catch this man for yourselves."
By then, he could just make up an excuse and say the man had fled. After all, an "extraordinary person" wasn't so easy to capture—failing to catch him was the norm.
Mu Qi frowned, but rather than continuing the topic, he asked: "How do you propose we cooperate? It was agreed from the start that Juanzhou belongs to my Jiao tribe. Even if we join forces to destroy Daqing, Daqing can only be ours."
Yu Cheng waved his hand. "Daqing naturally goes to your Jiao forces. We won't lay a finger on it. Rest assured."
Jiao Tai was somewhat surprised. "So how many troops is Qu Zhao sending to join us in attacking Daqing?"
Yu Cheng shook his head. "The cooperation I speak of is not about attacking Daqing together."
Seeing the frowns and displeasure on Jiao Tai and the others' faces, Yu Cheng continued: "What you probably don't know yet is that Lin County and Daqing Commandery have become allies."
"If you attack Daqing, Lin County is certain to come to Daqing's aid—and might even take the opportunity to strike at the counties near your Juanzhou."
"My Qu Zhao forces will block Lin County's troops and cut off their mutual support."
"At the same time, when we attack Lin County, if Daqing sends troops to besiege Qu Zhao, you must also step in to hold them back."
Mu Qi's heart gave a start, and at last, he understood Qu Zhao's intention.
He couldn't help but frown. Recalling the reports from his spies regarding Lin County, a suspicion slowly formed in his mind: whoever had taken Lin County was no simple character.
Yu He was utterly baffled. "What kind of cooperation is this? We were already going to attack Daqing anyway. Even if you hadn't said anything, once the weather warms up, we would have continued our offensive."
"Hmph, with our strength, how could Daqing Prefecture even have the spare power to worry about matters in Lin County?" He said with a hint of arrogance.
Yu Cheng sighed: "I'm worried that Daqing might come to negotiate a truce with you. If they offer you concessions to make your Jiao army stand by and do nothing..."
His gaze carried a tone of pity for the world: "The Han are the most cunning. They might get you to cooperate with them to suppress me, Qu Zhao. That could seem beneficial to your Jiao tribe in the short term, but in the long run, the Han growing powerful is not a good thing."
"Though we are not of the same race, we share the same origin. That's why the Han are our true enemy—we must never give them a chance to rise again."
Jiao Tai sneered inwardly—so that's what this was: he was worried about them allying with the Han. But on the surface, he remained calm.
"Of course. There's no need for you, Qu Zhao, to worry about that. Why don't you go down and rest for now?"
Yu Cheng didn't press the matter. He stood up and said: "I hope you will consider this carefully."
Watching Yu Cheng leave, Jiao Tai looked around at the others and asked: "What do you all think?"
