Chapter 535: Three Alliances
Before things got worse, Gu Shenwei took actions on both sides. He had revealed Wei Song’s plan to the messenger of Norland two months ago, so Shangguan Nu’s testimony could pose no threat to him.
Shangguan Nu must have discovered that he had been sold out, so he had utilized his ident.i.ty as the advisor of Wei Song to steal several letters between Wei Song and the Court of the Central Plain. Among these letters, Wei Song had vaguely mentioned his plan to a.s.sa.s.sinate the Khan in an attempt to divide Norland.
One of the key figures in his plan was the Dragon King.
“It was wise to have revealed Wei Song’s plan to Norland,” Fang Wens.h.i.+ said flatteringly. Since he had failed to stop the Dragon King and the Naihang Tribe from regarding each other as enemies, he started to work out other plans. He said, “We have not lost this game yet. King Rizhu’s plan will not succeed easily. I’ve found a reliable ally for you. As long as he is on our side, we can easily defeat King Rizhu and the Golden Roc Fort.”
Although they had been writing to each other, Fang Wens.h.i.+ could not include everything in his letters. Therefore, Fang Wens.h.i.+ took every chance to report all the information about the situation in Norland to the Dragon King. Even when he dined with the Dragon King, he didn’t stop talking. Sometimes, he would comment on his own information.
Gu Shenwei slowly began to understand the overall situation in Norland through these talks.
There were over thirty large tribes in Norland. After years of collaboration, they had formed three strong alliances. Fang Wens.h.i.+ named the three alliances, based on their stance and purpose, “The elder son party — King Dari is the leader, ranking first out of the ten lords in Norland. According to their tradition, he is the rightful successor of the Khan. He has the biggest influence among the ten lords, and about half the tribes overtly support him. Unfortunately, King Dari protected the Golden Roc Fort, and therefore he is an enemy to the Dragon King.”
“The Spoilt son party — King Kuari ranks fourth, but he is the Khan’s favorite grandson. On top of that, he has won the support of most of the civilians. As far as I know, although some tribes openly support King Dari, they privately serve King Kuari. Once the Khan pa.s.ses away, the two lords will fight for the throne,” he continued.
“The Bystanders — For self-preservation, some tribes volunteered to step away from fighting for the throne. They will also not get involved in the plots and fights between the other two parties. Whomever wins the fight will be their new Khan. At present, King Dari and King Kuari are in a fierce compet.i.tion. Both parties want to rope in new allies from this party, so these bystanders are receiving lots of attention,” he went on.
Fang Wens.h.i.+ sighed and continued, “King Rizhu happens to be the leader of the Bystanders Party. He has a special ident.i.ty. He is the only lord from the Queen’s family, while the other nine are from the Royal Family. He is called a lord, but he has no claim to sit on the throne, so he will be a crucial figure. Whichever party wins his backing will be invincible. Therefore…”
“Therefore, I must improve my relations.h.i.+p with King Rizhu,” Gu Shenwei finished his sentence. He finally understood what the Military Counselor had meant.
“Just for now. Don’t make others think that King Rizhu will turn his support to King Dari due to his hatred towards the Dragon King. Otherwise, perhaps King Kuari would desert us,” Fang Wens.h.i.+ said.
“Do you have any plans?” asked Gu Shenwei.
“I think the hatred and revenge between you and King Rizhu is easily solved. Gu Lun was the one who killed King Rizhu’s son, so the King only hates the Gu family. But your last name is Yang. Besides, your father worked for the Gu family, so there should be no hatred between the two of you. I am wondering whether the Dragon King could openly claim that the Golden Roc Fort is your only enemy. After all, it was the Golden Roc Fort that killed your father. No matter who was behind the scenes, they never intended to kill a servant from the Yang family. Do you agree with me?” said Fang Wens.h.i.+.
‘”If I told my Military Counselor my real ident.i.ty, he’d be greatly surprised,” Gu Shenwei mused. He said, “I thought that you were opposed to my revenge.”
“Things have changed. Our former goal was the Western Region, and the Golden Roc Fort was just a strong force in it. It did us no good to challenge the Golden Roc. But now our goal has expanded to the whole world, and the Golden Roc Fort is just a small force that blocks us. Overtly claiming our revenge on the Golden Roc Fort might distract the attention of the bigwigs in Norland,” Fang Wens.h.i.+ explained.
“But I heard that King Rizhu had the Golden Roc Fort’s back. If he instructed the Supreme King to kill all the people in the Gu family, the two of them must have been on good terms,” said Gu Shenwei.
“Even if that were true, King Rizhu and the Golden Roc Fort can’t trust each other. Now that the Golden Roc Fort is under King Dari’s protection, they’re involved in King Dari’s fight for the throne. King Rizhu is eager to cut off his connection with the Golden Roc Fort. According to the information I gathered, King Rizhu hasn’t cooperated with the Supreme King in the past few years,” said Fang Wens.h.i.+.
After musing for a while, Gu Shenwei said, “Well, I can claim that the Golden Roc Fort is my only enemy. That’s easy.”
“One more thing — as for Old Man Mu, I advise that…we’d better turn him in,” said Fang Wens.h.i.+.
“Old Man Mu openly pledged allegiance to me. If I turned him in now, others will think that I’m a spinless master who betrays his subordinates. It’s not a wise thing to do,” said Gu Shenwei.
In Gu Shenwei’s eyes, Old Man Mu was still useful to him, so he did not want to hand him over to anyone. Besides, he had a good reason for this: the majority of the Dragon Army were from southern Tianshan. They had no idea what evil deeds Old Man Mu had done in northern Tianshan, as they had only heard that the dwarf had rendered outstanding service in the battle of the seaside slope. In their eyes, Old Man Mu was a loyal soldier of the Dragon King, not a devil.
“Of course we can’t turn him in openly. We can…figure out a plan to satisfy both parties,” said Fang Wens.h.i.+. Before he met the Dragon King, Fang Wens.h.i.+ had thought that Old Man Mu was a black sheep. He had confirmed that opinion about Old Man Mu after seeing him in person.
Gu Shenwei shook his head and said, “We’d better not. However perfect the hoax is, it will be exposed one day. We’ll keep Old Man Mu with us. When we negotiate with King Rizhu, it will give us one more bargaining chip.”
“But King Rizhu will never negotiate with you. All the people in Norland know his violent temper. He’s a narrow-minded man obsessed with achieving revenge on his enemies. Otherwise, he wouldn’t still hate people from the Gu family now,” argued Fang Wens.h.i.+.
“Are you sure that Gu Lun was sent to Norland on a diplomatic mission thirty years ago?” asked Gu Shenwei.
“Yeah, I am. Gu Lun stayed in Norland with the Seventh Prince of the Central Plain for years,” Fang Wens.h.i.+ answered. Then, he asked why the Dragon King suddenly cared about such trivial details.
Gu Shenwei did not answer. “If the information Fang Wens.h.i.+ collected is true, then my sister and I were born in Norland. That’s terrible,” he thought.
When talking about the Gu family, Fang Wens.h.i.+ briefly described what he had heard about King Rizhu and Gu Lun.
As remembered by the people in Norland, the fight between the Seventh Prince of the Central Plain and King Rizhu’s son was exciting and romantic, because it was all due to a woman.
“Both King Rizhu and his son got into trouble over women, so women are dangerous to them,” Fang Wens.h.i.+ commented.
It was said that the woman was engaged to King Rizhu’s son, but the Seventh Prince tried to steal her from him. He thought he could do whatever he wanted here, just as he had done in the Central Plain. King Rizhu’s son was humiliated. According to the custom in Norland, King Rizhu’s son had challenged the Seventh Prince to a duel. King Rizhu’s son had kicked his a.s.s in the duel.
The Seventh Prince intended to get revenge. A few days later, he provoked King Rizhu’s son deliberately at a feast. At his master’s order, Gu Lun pretended to stand up to protect him from the attack. Then he waited for his chance, and stabbed King Rizhu’s son.
Perhaps the Seventh Prince and Gu Lun had never meant to take his life, but King Rizhu’s son still died at the hands of Gu Lun. King Rizhu swore to avenge his son, but it happened that Norland and the Central Plain were in a tense situation. The Khan did not want to start a war when he was not ready, so he commanded King Rizhu to stay calm. Several months later, the Seventh Prince was released from being a hostage and went back to the Central Plain with Gu Lun.
Gu Lun had stabbed King Rizhu’s son in the back, which had irritated the people in Norland more than anything else. In their eyes, it was an a.s.sa.s.sination. They thought that Gu Lun should have defeated his opponent fairly in a tournament.
“The Norland people hate to kill people dirty. As long as it is fair and square, killing is acceptable to them. That’s why the Golden Roc Fort publicly claimed to stop all a.s.sa.s.sination business. They wanted to please the n.o.bles in Norland,” said Fang Wens.h.i.+.
“King Rizhu asked the Golden Roc Fort to kill all the people in the Gu family. That was not ‘fair and square’,” said Gu Shenwei.
“Firstly, King Rizhu thought that Gu Lun had started it. Secondly, it’s not certain whether King Rizhu atually ordered this. In my opinion, it’s not like him,” said Fang Wens.h.i.+.
Gu Shenwei ended their talk quickly. “I can’t let Fang Wens.h.i.+ discover that I am interested in Gu Lun’s past,” he thought to himself.
Gu Shenwei held a feast. He and his men left the next afternoon to continue to head for the Royal Court.
Long Fanyun had come back to Gu Shenwei. Long Fanyun was a good drinker, but he was not eloquent. Shangguan Fei was talkative, but he was not the type the Norland people liked. Fang Wens.h.i.+ was able to blend in in Norland from the moment he set foot there. He was an eloquent person who could drink a lot. One night, he even promised seven men that he would find a way to become sworn brothers with them, but no one ever mentioned it again after the feast.
Compared to Zhang Ji, Gu Shenwei thought Fang Wens.h.i.+ was a better choice to be his Military Counselor. Although Zhang Ji was all-around better than Fang Wens.h.i.+, he was too proud to think highly of the young Dragon King.
On their way to Norland, Gu Shenwei found time to “learn” from Old Man Mu. He told Maid Lotus his plan that the two of them would put stress on Old Man Mu to keep him from lying to them when he answered their questions.
Asking questions was not an easy task. Gu Shenwei and Maid Lotus did not want to expose their idea of three-in-one Qigong, so they divided a small question into countless unconnected questions. Old Man Mu answered every question. He could vaguely guess their purpose, but he did not ask because he wanted to stay alive.
Gu Shenwei usually asked questions in the evening, for he did not want Shangguan Ru to know anything about this.
They were able to figure out many of the probems in three-in-one Qigong. It was a wise decision for Gu Shenwei and Maid Lotus to have not practiced it. Shangguan Fei had not died of three-in-one Qigong practice, and Maid Lotus guessed that the reason was because he had not practiced very hard. Whenever Maid Lotus was not supervising him, he would immediately stop practicing.
That was why Shangguan Fei was still alive.
It had been seven days since they had left for Norland again. They arrived at a place that was four to five days from the Royal Court when they were forced to stop.
King Rizhu, who seldom made concessions, asked to meet the Dragon King before the other n.o.bles in Norland. This was beyond Fang Wens.h.i.+’s expectation. He asked in surprise, “How… is it possible?”
Gu Shenwei was not completely surprised. He was only concerned about one thing: whether or not Shangguan Nu had guessed his real ident.i.ty and told it to King Rizhu.
When he thought of their meeting in Tongtian Pa.s.s, Gu Shenwei found that Shangguan Nu’s behavior was suspicious.