TGPSAC – Chapter 124

In mid-July, the forces around Chi Wan grew larger and larger, but the majority were stationed outside Jiangning. This contingent remained static, their purpose to surround the city and give Yu Yichen a bit of a shock.

It also served to let everyone, both inside and outside the city walls, know that supporting Yu Yichen was not a long-term prospect for survival.

Chi Wan’s strategy was to besiege without attacking. Once the supplies within the city were exhausted, chaos would naturally follow.

Besides, she had people inside the city. Among the Imperial Guard and the Jinwu Guard that the Shengyuan Emperor had brought with him, many were loyal to Yu Jiuzhou, which naturally made them her people.

Yu Yichen’s army was already a disorganized mess, and it was still trying to expand outwards, making its distribution quite widespread.

Chi Wan hadn’t brought many people—only an army of eighty thousand—but it was more than enough to besiege the city.

Word came from within Jiangning that there were only a hundred thousand soldiers inside, and the main force had already been dispatched elsewhere.

Her current objective was to find that main force of Yu Yichen’s.

The man leading the main force was the Duke of Xin, and most of the soldiers were his own men. Yu Yichen was still in the city, where his core troops numbered only twenty thousand. The rest were either from the Imperial Guard and Jinwu Guard, or were temporary recruits.

The Imperial Guard and Jinwu Guard had too many of Yu Jiuzhou’s people, so Yu Yichen didn’t dare to rely on them heavily. He placed his trust in those twenty thousand core troops.

Of course, the eighty thousand soldiers laying siege were all temporarily conscripted from various regions.

However, she had broken them up and reorganized them, placing them under the command of officers from the Capital Camp, with personnel from the Imperial City Division serving as their direct commanders. There were no issues with management.

She had already issued orders for the siege. If any unexpected situations arose, they were to retreat, with Huang Yuecheng in overall command.

She had originally considered using Xia Qu, but Xia Qu had more courage than brains.

Fortunately, through training and examinations, quite a few outstanding young commanders had been selected. Some lacked experience, but others had already been tempered on the battlefields of Yanbei.

In Yanbei, she had divided her forces into many small units. They might not be capable of commanding large-scale battles, but leading a few thousand men in guerrilla warfare was no problem at all.

A few thousand was actually quite a lot. With more training, once this batch of commanders rose through the ranks, Great Zhou would no longer be so short on talent.

Besides, she herself had never been on a battlefield before, yet she had gone straight into it.

She relied on intelligence and guerrilla tactics, never confronting the enemy head-on.

The Beining army was mostly cavalry and was inherently poor at mountain and forest warfare. Moreover, the Capital Camp had firearms.

In a situation where one side had firearms and the other did not, the side with firearms was practically invincible.

Unfortunately, the number of firearms was limited; otherwise, victory would have come even faster.

Chi Wan took stock of the firearms on hand, then led ten thousand soldiers from the Capital Camp to find the Duke of Xin.

The Duke of Xin hadn’t gone far. He seemed to have many men, but few were truly effective.

Chi Wan had people write many large-character posters. These would be distributed everywhere and proclaimed publicly.

Once the Duke of Xin’s army fell into chaos, it would be the perfect time to attack.

Of course, she wasn’t foolish enough to pit ten thousand against the Duke’s tens of thousands. They had to be thrown into disarray first. Chaos created opportunity—the more chaos, the better.

After locating the Duke of Xin’s army, Chi Wan immediately split her forces. One team took explosive packs and set off.

They were to blow up the Duke of Xin’s grain supplies. Without provisions, and with Jiangning under siege, he would be unable to support his large army. Shrinking his forces would be his only choice.

Pillage? After Yu Jiuzhou ascended the throne and claimed the mantle of legitimacy, he was a rebel. Attacking cities would not be easy.

Chi Wan stood by the place where the army drew its water, gazing at the long river. In the end, she made her decision.

She had already sent people to dam the river. The water would not flow downstream, and the upstream flow was also temporarily cut off.

However, she had chosen a laxative. Once the dam was opened, the drug’s potency would be diluted.

Before opening the dam, she would also add an antidote, ensuring it wouldn’t have a major impact on the common people who depended on the river for their livelihood.

Having made up her mind, Chi Wan gave the order. According to the formula she had prepared, as long as the army used the water, those with strong constitutions might be fine, but those of average health would likely lose all combat effectiveness.

In the afternoon, Chi Wan watched as the Duke of Xin’s army began to cook their meals. Wisps of smoke rose above their camp. She waited another two hours, and the sky finally darkened.

As soon as the hai hour arrived, a series of explosions rang out, like the firecrackers of her childhood New Year celebrations, continuing ceaselessly throughout the night.

Soaring flames lit up the Duke of Xin’s military camp. Her people had succeeded.

Chi Wan could see the chaos in the opposing camp. She waited until approximately the end of the hai hour, then waved her hand to the people behind her.

“Shout.”

The ten thousand Capital Guard soldiers she had brought immediately began to yell at the top of their lungs, “Brothers and sisters on the other side! You were all forced into service! Take this chance to go back where you came from! Otherwise, once the battle begins, we will show no mercy!”

Now was the best chance to escape. In such a chaotic situation, the Duke of Xin couldn’t possibly do anything to them.

Once the fighting started, it wouldn’t matter if they were civilians or not—they would all be the enemy.

Chi Wan waited quietly. The other side had all night to make their choice.

Originally, she had considered launching a direct assault on the Duke of Xin’s camp under the cover of chaos. But when she thought of the innocent people inside, and the small number of her own troops, she abandoned the idea.

The chaos lasted until morning. The Duke of Xin’s camp was in complete disarray.

The Embroidered-Robe Guard came to report that the Duke of Xin had fled with his own men.

He had actually just run for it instead of choosing to stay. It seemed the Duke of Xin knew that rather than remain, it was better to regroup elsewhere.

After a night of chaos, his men had no energy left to fight, and their morale was at rock bottom.

Some of the people he had forcibly conscripted had fled, while others were slower. To prevent them from becoming refugees and then bandits, she had to stay and deal with the situation.

Chi Wan had the remaining people form groups with others from their hometowns to travel back together and watch over one another.

People from the same hometown were likely to know each other. Anyone who knew no one else was suspicious.

Through this method, she identified quite a few of the Duke of Xin’s core troops. After questioning them, she learned that they had been forced to follow him in rebellion. Who would want to rebel if they had a choice?

But the Duke of Xin still had thirty to fifty thousand men who had fled with him. They posed no threat to the Capital Guard, but the same couldn’t be said for the local populace.

But Chi Wan was already prepared. Whether the Duke of Xin fled or not didn’t matter much.

Sure enough, the Duke of Xin’s party hadn’t gone far before the familiar sound of explosions rang out again.

The power of gunpowder was something the ancients couldn’t fully comprehend. Great Zhou had cannons, but they were short-ranged and inaccurate, so they were rarely brought to battles.

According to the development in her original world, cannons only came into widespread use during the Yuan dynasty. By the Ming dynasty, they were used in both naval and land warfare, an essential and deadly weapon.

Great Zhou’s cannons had too many flaws; it was better not to bring them at all.

But Chi Wan had seen assembly diagrams for cannons. She’d even seen videos of people making cannons that would shock the world with just a steel pipe.

There were many videos of individuals making their own cannons and guns.

The video platforms in her country were more restrained, showing ones made of cardboard, but their power was still considerable.

Chi Wan’s eidetic memory came in handy. She knew the entire process. She could probably even make them herself, but with so many artisans in Great Zhou, there was no need for her to do it personally.

Great Zhou had already produced steel, so its weaponry was bound to be continuously upgraded.

With steel, Great Zhou’s weapons could have leaped from level nine to level one. But because of the Shengyuan Emperor, large-scale production was impossible; otherwise, the wars wouldn’t have been so difficult.

Under absolute fire suppression, numbers were just a statistic.

Fortunately, after Yu Jiuzhou’s year of governance, every member of the Embroidered-Robe Guard had been issued a short firearm. As for the long firearms, there were enough to equip twenty thousand men. Chi Wan had taken ten thousand of them, meaning every Capital Guard soldier she brought was equipped with one.

She had brought explosive packs, landmines, and cannons. Bombard them before the fight—she refused to believe Yu Yichen could withstand that.

It was just that the civilians in the city and the forced conscripts would suffer terribly.

This was why Chi Wan hadn’t used the cannons directly. But she had planted landmines along the Duke of Xin’s likely escape route, just waiting for him.

Even if the Duke of Xin didn’t go that way, the pursuit team would force him to.

Just as she had planned, the Duke of Xin’s troops stepped on the landmines. The mines exploded, and the horses panicked. At the same time, the pursuing soldiers launched attacks from multiple angles.

With horses, they might have been able to charge the firearm units quickly and deliver a fatal blow while they were reloading.

But their horses were spooked, and some were killed outright in the explosions. Uncontrolled horses did not make for a fearsome cavalry. Without cavalry, even with the reloading time, they couldn’t reach the firearm units.

Besides, the firearm units could fire in volleys. Groups of twenty, a hundred, or even a thousand could fire together, then the next group would take their turn. It was best to divide them into three groups, which would provide ample time.

Chi Wan knelt by the river, cupped some water in her hands, and brought it to her nose to smell. She knew the antidote had dissolved.

The previous night, as soon as the enemy camp fell into chaos, she had ordered the antidote to be added. Now, the dam could be opened to let the water flow.

She had just finished checking the water quality when someone came to report, “Reporting, Commander, Dong Xiaoqi has been captured.”

Captured? Alive? So quickly?

Chi Wan was filled with questions and immediately followed the messenger. The person she saw was indeed the Duke of Xin, Dong Xiaoqi.

“Who captured him?”

Capturing the enemy commander—this was a great merit, second only to saving the emperor.

The messenger paused, then lowered his head. “It was an enemy staff officer.”

Chi Wan looked over. A Qian Yuan who appeared delicate but was very tan stood with his head bowed.

She walked over. “You are Dong Xiaoqi’s staff officer?”

“Reporting to Your Highness, I am not the Duke of Xin’s staff officer. I am merely an adjutant to an ordinary general.”

Chi Wan raised an eyebrow. “Why the betrayal?”

He had betrayed Dong Xiaoqi. Although this was a good thing, some matters had to be clarified.

The man was taken aback for a moment, then said, “My loyalty is to Great Zhou.”

So it couldn’t be called a betrayal. He had done what a general of Great Zhou ought to do.

Chi Wan smiled, neither saying she believed him nor that she didn’t.

Whether this person did it for wealth and glory or for loyalty to Great Zhou, he now held the great merit of capturing the enemy commander.

“Go and rest. This Prince will reward you according to your merits.”

At these words, many people showed expressions of envy. This was one of the three great merits, one that could earn a noble title.

Chi Wan turned her head to look at the Duke of Xin. At this moment, he no longer possessed his former high status and power. Instead, he was slumped on the ground like a dead dog.

She didn’t say anything more. A commander who had lost even his last shred of dignity wasn’t worth talking to.

She turned to leave. Dong Xiaoqi scrambled towards her but was blocked.

“Fuma, I didn’t want to rebel! It was His Majesty… no, it was Yu Yichen who forced me!”

Heh! Who would believe that?

Chi Wan waved her hand, and had him dragged away.

The next step was to mobilize the people inside Jiangning and create internal strife.

Taking Jiangning wasn’t difficult. The hard parts were the East Sea and Lingnan. If chaos erupted there, it would not be easy to handle.

Yu Yichen had no foundation of his own. To think he could rely on the Duke of Xin to occupy the south—did he really think Great Zhou had been established for two hundred years for nothing?

This was why Yu Jiuzhou had insisted on seizing the mantle of legitimacy. In the last life, Yu Yichen had legitimacy, so he could win. In this life, Yu Jiuzhou was the orthodox ruler—and an orthodox ruler with real power, the Zhengtong Emperor. Naturally, a rebel like Yu Yichen was no match for her.

If Yu Yichen had just been a proper prince, returned to his fiefdom to build his strength, or laid low and waited for an opportunity, he wouldn’t have ended up in this state.

Obviously, a man who had once been emperor would never be content to go back to being a mere prince.

At the end of July, Chi Wan cleaned up all the unrest around Jiangning and then pointed her forces directly at the city itself.

Chaos also erupted within Jiangning. Yu Yichen was not the legitimate ruler, yet he controlled a single city and dreamed of being emperor.

The people of Jiangning did not agree. The officials did not agree.

The chaos was normal. The Duke of Xin had been captured, so his core troops would naturally panic. The forcibly conscripted civilians only wanted to escape.

If they could farm, who would want to be a soldier? For some, military service was a necessity, but few volunteered.

Then there were the officials of Jiangning. They didn’t want to serve a false emperor. Jiangning’s defeat was imminent; did they still want to be officials of Great Zhou in the future?

On top of that, with the officials, Imperial Guard, and Jinwu Guard that Yu Jiuzhou had placed in advance, it was impossible for Jiangning not to fall into chaos.

Once chaos reigned, the city would fall without a fight.

Chi Wan returned to the outskirts of Jiangning and ordered the Embroidered-Robe Guard to send a message inside, to find an opportunity to open the city gates.

That very night, the gates of Jiangning were opened from within, and she led her army in.

This battle was won through psychological warfare, and even more so through legitimacy.

The army Chi Wan led was a righteous one. In Jiangning, Yu Yichen was a treacherous rebel.

The moment she saw Yu Yichen, she knew that the man before her had gone mad with the desire to be emperor.

Yu Yichen sat on the throne in his temporary palace. Seeing her enter, he bellowed, “Insolence! Be you person or ghost, why do you not kneel upon seeing Us?”

Chi Wan’s eyes were exceptionally calm. She stared at him without a word.

After a long moment, Yu Yichen finally spoke. “You are not Chi Wan.”

He was so certain because the Chi Wan of his past life had been trash who died an early death—a textbook cannon fodder.

The path this life had taken was clearly different. He didn’t believe a person’s changes after rebirth could be so drastic.

Chi Wan raised an eyebrow. She already knew Yu Yichen was a regressor. “Then who am I?”

“We do not know who you are, but We know you are not Chi Wan.”

Yu Yichen looked utterly convinced.

Chi Wan feigned curiosity. “What makes you say that?”

“Hmph, of course We know. You are not Chi Wan, and We are the emperor. Yu Jiuzhou will be killed by Us—no, she will burn herself to death.”

Yu Yichen was speaking of the events of his past life. He was correct.

But Chi Wan only sneered. “Your Excellency has had a fine dream, and you seem to be quite lost in it.”

“We are not dreaming!” Yu Yichen shouted.

“Is that so? Then you can try pinching yourself to see if it hurts. And take a good look at the current situation.”

Under the watchful eyes of so many, Chi Wan would never admit to things like rebirth or transmigration. She and Yu Jiuzhou would only be seen as freaks.

Yu Yichen knew no one would believe his words. “We are the emperor.”

“Hmph. Then your beautiful dream of being emperor is shattered.”

Chi Wan mercilessly shattered his dream. In a situation like this, talking about a past life was utterly useless.

Yu Yichen came down with a sword in his hand. “We challenge you to a duel.”

A duel?

Had Yu Yichen gone mad? He wasn’t unaware of her battle against the assassins; he had even had a hand in it.

Chi Wan pondered for a moment. With so many of her soldiers behind her, it was indeed difficult to refuse.

“Then let us fight.”

However, while Yu Yichen’s presence was imposing, in reality, he couldn’t even block a single one of Chi Wan’s moves.

She casually swung her saber, and Yu Yichen was knocked to the ground.

Then why was he doing this? Did he enjoy being abused?

The two of them fought for a while until Yu Yichen collapsed to the ground in exhaustion, muttering, “It’s done, it’s done.”

What was done?

Chi Wan thought he was spouting nonsense and paid it no mind. “Still want to fight?”

Yu Yichen ignored her.

Since he didn’t seem to have any intention of dying, Chi Wan had him restrained, to be escorted to the capital in a couple of days.

The matter of Jiangning was concluded. Xu Chenlu had also arrived at the East Sea, so there shouldn’t be any problems there. Next was Lingnan.

Lingnan was far more troublesome. The Nanyue people avoided direct confrontation, scattering through the jungles of Lingnan like monkeys.

Lingnan was already mountainous and forested, with many rainforests. The advantages of guerrilla warfare were diminished there; there was even a risk of being counter-ambushed.

This was because many of the Nanyue people had grown up in the rainforests. They moved through them with ease.

As for Great Zhou’s army, even mosquitoes and insects could harm them. If not for the medicine packs Chi Wan had sent, some of them would have likely fallen ill one after another before the fighting even began.

The insects in Lingnan were highly venomous and could also spread diseases. An army from the interior would be useless even if they went there.

Chi Wan had the Capital Camp soldiers lead the temporarily assembled army back to the capital. These men would later join the Capital Camp as Capital Guards.

Expanding the Imperial Guard, the Jinwu Guard, and the Capital Camp was necessary, as was reducing the regional armies. This was a perfect opportunity.

---

In August, Chi Wan arrived in Lingnan, leading the Embroidered-Robe Guard and a thousand Capital Guard soldiers.

The Heiress of the Prince of Lingnan hurried back from the border. Her first sight of Chi Wan left her stunned; she hadn’t expected Chi Wan to have the appearance of a pale-faced scholar.

The great victory in Yanbei, the subjugation of Jiangning—each was a major accomplishment. How could such a master of military strategy have the appearance of someone who couldn’t even truss a chicken?

“Commander?”

In the army, everyone was to address her as Commander.

Chi Wan nodded. “What is the situation at the front?”

“Reporting to you, Commander, the situation is not optimistic. Nanyue has dispatched too many people this time, and many have split up to infiltrate Lingnan. Lingnan is full of mountains and forests, making it difficult to root them out. It’s possible some have already reached the cities and are lying in wait. They harass our troops from time to time but never attack directly. We have no way to deal with them.”

The Heiress of the Prince of Lingnan clenched her fists. Her line had guarded Lingnan for a long time; she did not want to lose to Nanyue.

Chi Wan nodded. “How well do you understand the environment? Do you have a map?”

“Yes.”

The Heiress of the Prince of Lingnan took out a map and spread it open.

The level of detail on it was somewhat beyond Chi Wan’s expectations. Topography, climate characteristics, river distribution, possible locations of Nanyue forces, suitable places for ambushes or defensive encampments, and dangerous areas like swamps or places infested with venomous insects—all were marked with great clarity, showing the mapmaker’s diligence.

Chi Wan asked in surprise, “Did you mark this?”

“No, my mother did.”

Chi Wan paused for a moment. “The old Prince of Lingnan worked hard.”

“It was her duty to the country.”

“The old Prince of Lingnan will be enshrined in the Imperial Ancestral Temple, together with the rest of the Lingnan Prince’s line.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty. Thank you, Commander.”

“Your Highness is too polite. I have also brought the imperial edict appointing you as the new Prince of Lingnan.”

At this, the Heiress of the Prince of Lingnan was startled and quickly moved to kneel and receive the edict.

Chi Wan reached out to support her. “There is no need. His Majesty has decreed that the line of the Prince of Lingnan, having guarded the gates of Great Zhou in Lingnan for generations, need not perform such grand ceremonies.”

The Heiress’s eyes reddened, and she was so moved she was on the verge of tears. “This subject kowtows in thanks for His Majesty’s immense grace.”

After giving the edict to the new Prince of Lingnan, Chi Wan took out something else. “This is what my people have found. Take a look.”

It detailed the locations of local camps, troop deployments, supply lines, retreat routes, and so on.

In any case, it was a substantial amount of information, no less detailed than what the new Prince of Lingnan had in her own records.

The more the new Prince of Lingnan read, the more alarmed she became. “Why would Nanyue deploy their forces like this?”

She couldn’t understand it. It seemed as if Nanyue was just putting on a show of force and wasn’t truly sending a two-hundred-thousand-strong army to attack Lingnan. Moreover, that number was just a claim.

Chi Wan already had an idea. She pointed at the map. “Aside from the obvious ambush points, where else could they set one up?”

“This subject believes it would be here,” the new Prince of Lingnan said, pointing to a location on the map.

Setting up an ambush circle, forcing the enemy to fall into one trap after another.

If the enemy didn’t take the bait, they could use a strategy to lure them in deep.

Encirclement was actually the best option, but Lingnan didn’t have enough troops.

Would she have to resort to psychological warfare again? But she knew too little about Nanyue.

However, psychological warfare wasn’t effective everywhere. This time, for instance, they had no assets within Nanyue. They knew too little about them to wage a psychological battle.

Did they really have to fight? But how? Be led by the nose passively, or be lured in and annihilated?

The only thing Chi Wan could do, perhaps, was focus on logistics: ensure their own were secure while Nanyue’s were not.

“Cut off the supply lines from Nanyue to the Nanyue army.”

Without food, how long could the Nanyue army last? Every extra day they spent in the rainforest increased the risk.

The snakes, insects, mosquitoes, and ants didn’t care who you were.

After giving the order, Chi Wan pondered what method could be used to drive the Nanyue army out for good.

Negotiate with Duan Jinxian? She was, after all, a princess of Nanyue and had the authority to recall the army and bring a halt to the fighting.

Chi Wan had another idea. “Explosives.”

The new Prince of Lingnan’s eyes widened in shock. “What’s the use of explosives? We’ve been preparing them for so many years, yet Nanyue still managed to invade Lingnan.”

She knew her plan was unfeasible—not that she herself thought so, but at least it was in the eyes of the new Prince of Lingnan.

Chi Wan’s idea was to plant explosives in the rainforest, along the paths the Nanyue people had to take. This would strike terror into the Nanyue army without needing to deploy soldiers.

The best tactic was to attack the mind. If she could break the Nanyue army from within, things would be much easier.

Chi Wan immediately made the arrangements, having the new Prince of Lingnan delegate the task.

At this moment, she suddenly found herself with free time. Many tasks were being handled by others, and she wasn’t needed. When a person has idle time, their thoughts turn to longing.

She missed Yu Jiuzhou, who was far away in the capital. If she were in the capital, she would probably be in Yu Jiuzhou’s arms right now.

But something was strange today. As she thought of Yu Jiuzhou, her heart felt odd. A pain seeped into her very bones, and for the first time since gaining her eidetic memory, she felt the sensation of forgetting.

---

Get instant access to all chapters now.