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Chapter Nine Hundred and Thirteen – Response
The change in power among the higher levels of the yao proceeded in secret.
Youqin Lie"s plan spanned far and wide, catching almost all of the yao higher ranks by surprise. The timing he chose was also perfect. Because the meeting was so important, few were absent.
The topic of the meeting became establis.h.i.+ng a new council of elders. The higher ranks realized that this was a shuffling of the positions and the discussion and political maneuvering was intense.
Soon, new leaders.h.i.+p came into the public"s view. Ming Yue Ye, Bing Lan and Mu Xi kept their original positions.
The meeting this time did not cause any unrest among the people.
Youqin Lie who had ruled the underworld knew how to attack the weaknesses of people, and after ten years of preparation he struck. In one hand the stick and the other the carrot, the prestigious families of the yao were tamed. And the rebellious families were eliminated overnight and did not have a chance to cause a disturbance.
Youqin Lie was vicious and cruel in carrying out his duties. Everyone who knew were frightened.
Fighting between families existed everywhere, but compared to the Shadow Guard uprooting an entire family until not a stalk of gra.s.s was left, their tactics were like children fighting over candy.
They shuddered in fear.
The new Council of Elders became the top power structure in the yao.
Bing Lan and Mu Xi were alone in the courtyard.
The Shadow Guard did not make things difficult for the two. They retained their freedom, even their status and position hadn"t changed. The two felt as though they had just had a dream.
The two were very intelligent people. They knew that the Nether King had no fear that they would rebel. All of the higher ups, the prestigious families of the yao had submitted. Even if Ming Yue Ye rose up an called for an insurrection, there was no use.
The ruling caste of the yao were useless meatbags.
The two sat in silence for a long time. The air was heavy.
"We are finished." Bing Lan"s voice was hoa.r.s.e and her eyes showed great pain. As a battle general, she instinctively disliked people like the Shadow Guard that worked in secrecy. But she hadn"t thought that she would be defeated so easily by people like them.
"But no one cares." Bing Lan laughed mockingly. "Everyone is cheering that they do not need to fight the mo."
Once the new Council of Elders took power, they announced an eternal alliance with the mo. Both sides promised that they would be forever brothers-in-arms and would stand on the same side against enemies.
Also, the Council of Elders was promoting more communication for the yaomo alliance. The yao and mo realms would construct large numbers of transportation formations to increase interrelations between the two races.
Once the news came out, all of the yao cheered and celebrated.
When the mo had first finished uniting, the yao had felt threatened. They had all been worried about the mo invading. The two sides forming the yaomo alliance meant that the mo wouldn"t invade.
A rock in people"s hearts landed.
The alliance of yaomo was not a novel concept. The yaomo were close to begin with due to a long history of fighting together against the xiuzhe. An alliance was not much different. Unlike with the xiuzhe, there hadn"t been much hatred between the yao and the mo in history.
This caused Bing Lan to find it incredibly ironic.
The Nether King was silently taking control of the yao. She was sure that in a few years, the yao would be completely in the Nether King"s grasp.
But she could only watch as it happened and couldn"t do anything.
She had long since learned a truth about people; people didn"t care who ruled them. They only cared if they would have peace. The elders of the prestigious families didn"t care who ruled them. They only cared who gave them benefits and could make them feel fear.
All the corps commanders of the yao were the representatives of the prestigious elders. Each of them had their families behind them.
As long as Nether King held the Palace Lake Wood Clan hostage, Mu Xi could only bow and listen. Each member of a prestigious families was brainwashed with their responsibility to the clan from birth. They would forever place the good of their families ahead of everything else.
The ones truly loyal to Ming Yue Ye had no chance to struggle under Youqin Lie"s knife.
Even Bing Lan had no room to struggle unless she didn"t care at all about the lives of her subordinates. If she did anything, then the sisters who had followed her for many years wouldn"t be spared.
This was Youqin Lie"s style.
"I"m planning to retire as corps commander," Bing Lan said coolly.
Mu Xi suddenly raised her head.
Bing Lan waved her hand and motioned for Mu Xi to not persuade her. She smiled as though she had been relieved of a burden. "Actually, this result isn"t bad. In terms of breadth of mind and skill, the Nether King will be a good king. After the yaomo alliance is formed, he will not treat the yao unfairly. And once the alliance forms, it will be undefeatable."
She turned around and looked at Mu Xi. She said solemnly. "You need to uphold the banner of the yao. If I am not wrong, the Nether King will definitely create an alliance council of elders to be managed by the elders of the yaomo. Among the yao, you are the only top battle general, your responsibility is heavy."
"Where is Daren planning to go?" Mu Xi looked at this elder who had promoted her and felt great sorrow.
"I"m planning to start a battle general house." Bing Lan sighed. "We yao have too few outstanding battle generals. No matter what the fate of the yao will be, young talents that can prop up the sky are the true future of the yao!"
Mu Xi said without hesitation. "I will take care of the funds!"
Mu Xi knew that Bing Lan Daren had no family to support her. She had limited resources.
Bing Lan smiled. "No need, the Nether King will not be frugal on this. The King already thinks of this place as his and the people here as his people."
As Bing Lan had expected, Zuo Mo was not frugal at all. Zuo Mo did not hesitate to give enormous resources to Bing Lan and green lit the way.
Bing Lan was truly the t.i.tan of the yao battle generals. No one could compare to her experience. When she became the princ.i.p.al of an art house, the battle general house created a great impact before it was even built.
Bing Lan Battle General House would s.h.i.+ne with great light in the next thousand years. It would be one of the two most famous battle general houses of the yao.
The other battle general house was called Pu Pu"s Home for Battle Generals.
These two battle general houses trained countless famed generals for the yao in the next thousand years.
From every angle, Zuo Mo"s efficiency was astounding.
But for Gongsun Cha and the others, they still found it hard. It was apt to describe it as though they were pa.s.sing through each day as a year. All of Kun Lun seemed to be mad as they increased their forces on the borders without regard for the cost.
In front of this vast ocean, the power of an individual battalion was insignificant.
The shadows of the crowds blackened the land like a slow and unstoppable wave. People gazed at it. A strong feeling of powerlessness filled their minds.
The vast ocean was still growing.
Mo Cloud Sea continued using guerilla warfare to slow the enemy. They had good results, but compared to the speed that the other side was gaining as time went on, the results were negligible.
Kun Lun did not seem to notice their hara.s.sment.
Increase! Continue increasing!
Gongsun Cha and the others didn"t dare to charge into the core of Kun Lun"s forces. Even though the people were untrained, they didn"t dare. If they stepped in, they might not even have a chance to escape.
The other side had gathered more than one million and two hundred thousand people!
"What do we do?"
The situation was growing worse by the day. People did not doubt that if the attack came, they could only flee for their lives.
"We retreat!" Gongsun Cha"s eyes were bloodshot. The bashful smile on his face had disappeared and was replaced with a sharp coldness. Bie Han and Yang Yuan Hao were not much better. Ever since Kun Lun"s battalions appeared on the borders, they hadn"t slept.
Retreat?
Everyone stilled.
The decision that the three top battle generals had thought of after not resting for several days and nights was to retreat?
Yang Yuan Hao explained. "We cannot stop them, if they break through our defensive line, then their morale will grow and while ours would worsen. Rather than letting that happen, we should retreat of our own accord."
People started to think.
Gongsun Cha explained. "Kun Lun"s army is so large that supplies will be a problem. We will retreat and give up the s.p.a.ce, but scorch the earth, stain the other"s supply line. On one hand, we can blunt their morale, and the other is that their supply lines will be exposed."
The people present were all experts in war. Their eyes lit up and they started a heated discussion.
"We will destroy all the transportation formations, every one, force them to go through the jie rivers! Hmmph! One million pigs, even those won"t be easy to transport!"
"Every source of water, every mine, destroyed. So they cannot resume production quickly and produce supplies."
"We need to move every person. Leave an empty jie, we will leave them empty jies!"
"We need to leave behind guide points, but make them hidden. We can leave more, and use them to build small transportation formations. They don"t have to transport many people. This way, we can easily attack their supply lines from the back."
"Martial law, Mo Cloud Sea must be under martial law! It is important for everyone to be controlled to prevent some people from making a nuisance."
When there were many people gathered, the power was great. As people started to discuss, many details were fleshed out. They could not underestimate the details. Advantages in battle were acc.u.mulated through these details.
Gongsun Cha couldn"t help but sigh. While the expansion of the past few years had lowered the unity of Mo Cloud Sea, it had won strategically for Mo Cloud Sea now. If Mo Cloud Sea was as small as before, no matter how strong its defenses were, it couldn"t hold against such an ocean of people.
"This is the final battle!" Gongsun Cha suddenly said. Everyone else closed their mouths and looked at him.
"If this battle is won, then we will win. Lose, we have nothing." Gongsun Cha"s gaze burned and his tone was harsh. "Final battle! This is the final battle!"
"Kill them!" Everyone roared in response, their eyes filling with blood and murderousness!
Translator Ramblings: It"s going to be so weird in three days time when I don"t have to get up and post a chapter. On the other hand, if I somehow disappear in the meantime, WanderingGummiOfDoom can post the remaining chapters.
Editor"s note:
Love these guys. Too bad electroswing never really made it big. Fuzz Face and Clockwatching are solid tracks.
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