Chapter 382: An Arduous Journey

Translator: Atlas Studios  Editor: Atlas Studios

“Wu Shenghou is dead? Great Xia has retreated?”

Outside Sanxi City, there was a huge tent amid a continuous chain of camps set up by the Yun Nation that was a few kilometers long. A middle-aged man cried out when he saw the contents of the letter that he was holding.

This person was the Yun Nation’s commander-in-chief, Zhu Wuzhen.

The Great Xia army had already retreated half a month ago, but the Yun Nation just received this news.

After Wu Shenghou died, the Yun Nation wasn’t able to receive any news. However, the retreat of the Great Xia army was something that couldn’t be concealed.

Zhu Wenzhen was filled with uncertainty. Now that Great Xia had retreated, it might be a little troublesome for the Yun Nation to send their troops out.

If the Yun Nation was united as one, they could still put up a fight against Dayao if they dispatched their elite soldiers.

Yet, thinking about the officials of the imperial court made him feel bitterly disappointed.

As the saying goes, a thing cannot exist without its basis; if the skin doesn’t exist, what can the hair adhere to? They couldn’t even understand such simple logic.

For them, internal struggles and their own selfish calculations were obviously more important than outside threats.Previously, there was Great Xia to drain Dayao’s energy. At present, Great Xia had retreated while he had the intention of withdrawing his troops.

Then, he saw the second letter, and his expression changed greatly. Zhu Wenzhen was outraged. He subsequently smacked the table and saw a palm-shaped cavity form on the table with sawdust falling from it. After some time, his anger dissipated, and he forced a smile.

In this situation, they could actually tell him not to withdraw his troops. Wasn’t this equivalent to being Great Xia’s scapegoat?

It was unknown which court official or influential person had received Great Xia’s bribe and made such a decision.

Did they really think that without Great Xia, the 180,000 soldiers from the West City army and those miscellaneous soldiers could actually obstruct Dayao?

It was practically a joke.

His only hope was that the Chen Nation would send their troops out, just like what the letter mentioned.

…

It began to rain when Ren Baqian, the empress, and the rest arrived in Liao City. The pitter-patter of the rain went on for three days.

Over these three days, Ren Baqian and the empress had been drinking and staring into space.

“Has the rainy season arrived?” Ren Baqian was playing with the wine glass in his hand and asked.

“It’s around the corner,” the empress casually replied.

According to the season, the rainy season was from now to September, and the rest of the year was the dry season. There weren’t four seasons. In Dayao, there were only two seasons, the rainy season and the dry season.As Liao City was slightly further north, the rainy season was somewhat later as a result.

“When the plum blossoms in May, the rainy season begins and croaking noises made by frogs can be heard near the ponds.” Ren Baqian looked at the drizzle outside and racked his brain for a line of poetry.

“Not bad!” the empress said unenthusiastically.

She didn’t know much about poetry, but it sounded pretty good. “There’s something even better!” Ren Baqian immediately smiled.

“Tell me about it.” The empress’s mood was lifted.

“Heavy rain, you are all water! Fine horse, you have four legs! Northern storm petrels…” Ren Baqian spoke energetically and expressively… Smack! The empress lifted the chopsticks in her hand, and a piece of meat flew toward Ren Baqian’s face.

“Thank you for the reward, Your Majesty!” Ren Baqian chuckled mischievously. He took that piece of meat and stuffed it into his mouth. Then, he used a piece of cloth to wipe his face.

The empress ignored him, drank a glass of wine, and threw a piece of chocolate in her mouth after.Downing alcohol with chocolate was rather creative.

However, Ren Baqian got reminded of the liquor chocolates that he used to eat during childhood. He presumed that the empress would love them too.

After staying in Liao City for three days, the weather finally cleared up on the fourth day. Everyone continued their journey again.

Due to the rain, they had difficulties walking on the dirt road as their legs sank into the mud every now and then. They couldn’t pick up speed either.

In addition, it began to rain heavily again after travelling for one day.

Ren Baqian made his way to the empress’s carriage so as to avoid getting drenched.

In fact, there were two other carriages that stored food, other daily necessities, and Lin Qiaole, who had been sleeping ever since she got in the carriage. However, it wasn’t the carriage that was important, but the people in the carriage were.

Listening to the sound of raindrops hitting the empress’s carriage, Ren Baqian resumed his old trade and narrated to the empress, “A Chinese Ghost Story.”

[“A Chinese Ghost Story”: Hong Kong movie] “The story begins with a heavy rain. Ning Caichen, who was going to collect the accounts in Guobei County, encountered heavy rain and hid in the legendary Lanruo Temple…””Ning Caichen? It seems that I have heard this name before.” The empress found this name familiar.

[1.Ning Caichen is a character in The Empress’s Gigolo and has a name similar to the character in “A Chinese Ghost Story”]

“He attended your birthday celebration… He came once more afterward and delivered someone.”

“Oh! I remember. It’s him! Continue!” The empress thought that this story happened to the Ning Caichen she met before.

“They have the same name, but this isn’t his personal experience,” Ren Baqian pointed out. Otherwise, when he mentioned the other characters such as Yan Chixia, Grandmother Tree Demon, Black Mountain Demon, etc, the empress would be full of suspicions.

After that, everyone continued to walk on the muddy road while Ren Baqian was in the empress’s carriage narrating “The Strange Tales of Liao Zhai.”

From time to time, the wheels got stuck in the mud, but all it required was for a guard to lift the carriage up, so this didn’t delay their journey. However, their speed of travel was inevitably reduced by a lot.

“An arduous journey!” Ren Baqian sighed just when he finished narrating “Painted Skin.”

This was indeed an arduous journey.

It wasn’t the rainy season yet when they arrived, and they didn’t face much trouble walking. However, on their journey back this time, the path was simply undulating. They sank in the mud every step they took.

The guards outside were like mud balls.

“Can that type of cement repair roads?” the empress looked at the mud outside and asked.

Similarly, Ren Baqian looked outside and responded, “If you want to be rich, you ought to repair the roads first. You can use cement to build roads.””That’s even better.”

“Fortunately, Great Xia didn’t attack now. Otherwise, the marching speed of our soldiers would have been reduced by a lot.” Ren Baqian laughed.

“Great Xia wouldn’t be able to use their bowstrings during the rainy season,” the empress explained.

After listening to the empress, Ren Baqian came to a realization. These bowstrings were mainly made from beast tendons and would soften once they came into contact with water. Even if it didn’t cause blisters, the bowstrings would still soften over time in such a damp environment.

It seemed that Great Xia had intentionally attacked them earlier on.

“However, the manpower and material resources needed to build roads can be quite a lot. We’ll have to rely on the Protectorate of the Northeast.” Ren Baqian thought about it. There were no cars and there wasn’t any machinery in this world. Everything relied on manpower. Even transporting goods also relied on the horned cattle and humans. The amount of laborers required to build roads would definitely be a large number.

On Earth, during ancient times, they used laborers to build roads. Since Dayao didn’t have laborers, he had to find a solution to solve the labor problem.

It was impossible to employ laborers, and Dayao wouldn’t be able to afford it. Also, there weren’t enough aboriginals to build roads.

He then decided to target the Yun Nation people.

“At this time, I’ll inform Zi Donglai to capture some people alive.” The empress nodded.

“They have at least 400,000 soldiers,” Ren Baqian warned the empress.

“400,000 of the Yun Nation soldiers isn’t as strong as 200,000 Great Xia soldiers. If there’s anything worthy of praise, it is that the Yun Nation has pretty good weapons. Yet, no matter how good a weapon is, it has to be wielded by a human,” the empress whispered.”According to the schedule, those recruits still have to wait for two months, but I plan for them to set off in a month’s time.” Now that Great Xia was crippled, those 20,000 recruits could be transferred to the Protectorate of the Northeast. There was another batch of 20,000 recruits behind them. After training this new batch of 20,000 recruits and sending them over to the Protectorate of the North, they would suffice.

Now, the 180,000 Great Xia soldiers weren’t able to set off any storms during this short period of time.

“It’s all thanks to the things you brought.” The empress took a glimpse at Ren Baqian. If it weren’t for the mortars, grenades, binoculars, walkie-talkies, and radio stations that Ren Baqian brought, Great Xia could have actually matched up to Dayao. Mortars and grenades could disrupt the opponent’s battle formations. Binoculars and drones could detect the opponent’s situation at any time. As long as there was any movement, it could be detected.

The role of the walkie-talkies and the radio stations was even more important.

The various military forces could directly contact each other to know the situation in various places without any delay. Furthermore, orders were transmitted in real time. The movement of each section during a battle was also more timely and accurate.It could be said that the role of walkie-talkies, radios, binoculars, and drones didn’t seem as direct as the mortars and grenades, but in reality, the effectiveness of them wasn’t inferior to the mortars and grenades.

After continuously traveling on the muddy road for 20 days, this group of people finally spotted Lan City from a distance.

“Finally back!” Ren Baqian got off the empress’s carriage and did some stretches to loosen his muscles before getting on his fork-horned cow.

After being away for so long, he somewhat missed his students.

Now that the spring break was over, he wondered how many idiots were going to be shot just because they didn’t complete their homework.

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