Chapter 517
Scholar Zhang said, "If I knew when the Dayan Army was coming, would I still be standing here waiting?"
"The defender of Ye City is the new emperor's confidant, so he'll definitely defend the city to the death." Staring at the vast expanse of water, he still couldn't help sharing the rumors he'd heard with the villagers.
"Uncles and elders, if it weren't for this rain, we might all have been dragged off to defend the city walls!"
"Making us take swords and blades for them? Damn them!"
"If they try to drag me into defending the city, the moment I see the Dayan Army, I won't even wait for them to attack — I'll open the gates myself!" A young man proclaimed his brilliant idea with smug pride.
The brothers around him nodded in agreement one after another. "Old Seven's right, that's exactly what we should do!"
Smack!
Old Seven Zhang's head was knocked sideways by his father's palm. "Always so clever, aren't you? Opening the city gates for the Dayan Army — you tired of living?"
"Yeah, swords and arrows have no eyes. The first thing the military inspector does is execute anyone who turns coat."
The fathers began scolding their impulsive sons one by one, until Scholar Zhang said, "According to my old classmate, the common folk in those captured cities have already started receiving relief grain shipped in by Dayan."
One sentence from Scholar Zhang silenced every father who had been lecturing his son. Seeing everyone staring at him wide-eyed, he felt he hadn't gone far enough, so he threw more fuel on the fire: "I hear it's distributed by full measure, not a grain short — even babies still nursing get their ration."
"Scholar Liu, are you telling the truth?"
"How could it be false? My classmate has family living in Sui City."
Old Seven's father traded the slap for a pat, smoothing out his son's wrinkled clothes with tender care. "Old Seven's right! If they really try to make us defend the city, the moment we see the Dayan Army, we open the gates!"
Over in Zhang Family Village, they were only talking — but somewhere else, people were already planning to actually do it.
"Chief, we'll follow whatever you say. Tell us what to do and we'll do it!"
"That's right, Chief, we're all with you! My youngest son's been sick for days. Because of this cursed rain, the medicine for him got soaked through, and he just isn't getting better!"
"My little girl hasn't had a full meal in days. We're just waiting to become Dayan citizens and get the relief rations!"
In a small duty room among Ye City's garrison troops, a squad of soldiers huddled together, whispering among themselves. The topic was simple: they were waiting for the Dayan Army to arrive so that those responsible for guarding the city could quietly open the gates and let the Dayan forces in.
For these common soldiers — who barely had a meal today, whose families didn't even have that — surrendering carried not a shred of guilt.
The Dayan Army didn't loot when entering a city, and they didn't kill those who surrendered. These facts had already been proven by the five cities that fell before.
It was from this point onward that Yue Fuguang's strict discipline codes for the Dayan Army's city entries began to bear fruit.
The defenders of Ye City were waiting for the Dayan Army to besiege the city so they could open the gates and welcome the righteous army. In the other cities, both military morale and civilian spirit were shattered as word spread of the Divine Maiden's descent, the ceaseless rain finally stopping, the Dayan Army's arrival, and the delivery of disaster relief grain.
Southern Yue was like this, and Southern Zhao — whose empress had just died — was no different. In the towns and villages surrounding Flower City, which was closest to Southern Zhao, refugees crossing the border from Southern Zhao could be seen almost every day.
Yue Fuguang watched the rain clouds beneath her feet turn to water and fall across the lands of Lian Province and He Province. Yet on the other side of the river, Northern Li, and beyond the mountain, Western Qiang, were so dry that a single spark might set the whole country ablaze.
「System, Northern Li and Western Qiang have already started falling into chaos internally. Do you think they'll lash out and try to shift their internal conflicts outward?」 What could be more inciting than launching a war and invading a country that had water and food?
【Host, haven't you noticed that both countries are reinforcing their border garrisons? According to the intelligence I've received, they're planning to take advantage of Dayan's focus on the war with Southern Yue to launch a sneak attack on Lian and He Provinces.】
「Do the emperor and his ministers already know?」
【Zheng Feng's spies caught wind of their movements early on. The Dayan Army is also secretly mobilizing. When the great battle comes, the Three Forks region will bear the brunt of it!】
「We saw this coming, didn't we? Thank heavens the Ministry of Works has been reliable — gunpowder supplies are sufficient. If soldiers from those two countries dare cross the border, they'll get a taste of what black powder can do!」
Dayan was taking on three kingdoms at once. Without the great equalizer of gunpowder, things would indeed be precarious — the soldiers of those three nations were no pushovers.
Before Yue Fuguang arrived, the fighting strength of Northern Li and Western Qiang had actually been slightly superior to Dayan's.
Just then, the system began a bout of left-brain-versus-right-brain combat — or rather, a data collision between the Gossip System and the Merit System.
【Host, won't this be too much bloodshed?】 This time, the Merit System had the upper hand.
「System, didn't you say that as long as we're completing the mission and the main system verifies it, the karmic consequences won't be counted against us?」
【That's true, but we Merit System hosts usually don't kill more than double digits during missions. You, though — you're talking about killing tens of thousands. Isn't that too many?】
「Then aren't the people I saved even more? Hundreds of thousands, millions — how do you count those?」 Yue Fuguang planted her hands on her hips and lifted her chin. 「Besides, it's not like I did the killing myself. I just provided a bit of technology. It's like a blacksmith forging a blade. If someone takes that blade and kills a man with it, can you blame the blacksmith? No matter how you argue it, there's no logic in that!」
【Right, the host is correct. No matter how you argue it, we have right on our side!】 This time, the Gossip System had beaten the Merit System.
The system seemed to have been poisoned, slapping its own face and immediately switching sides, flipping its stance so fast that Yue Fuguang was momentarily dazed. 「What the heck? System, whose side are you on anyway?」
【I... I'm obviously on the host's side!】
「System, be honest — are you infected with a virus or something? If you're sick, we can spend some points to fix you right away! Don't let a small problem turn into a big one.」
「You systems have doctors, right? Super programmers?」
【Host, I'm not sick. Just now... just now I lost the fight and let the Merit System take the upper hand!】
「Aren't you the Merit System?」
Could her system be developing a split personality, just like a human? Or was it because of the dual-core single-body design? Could it be that she'd used the Gossip System so much that the system's data had inevitably crashed?
「System, whatever you do, don't crash! We're almost there — just two more years and we'll make it!」
【Host, don't worry, I'm never going to crash!】
In the system space, the system had curled itself into a little ball. After hesitating for a long time, it decided to come clean about the tiny bit of information it had learned.
【Host, I have a system friend. It ran into a little problem and doesn't know whether to tell its host.】
Yue Fuguang narrowed her eyes, then took a casual sip of tea and a bite of pastry, responding in a relaxed tone, 「What kind of problem? Let's hear it. It's been a while since I had some good gossip. We can just take it as entertainment.」
The system felt that its host hadn't caught on to its little scheme, so it boldly continued, 【Host, suppose — just suppose — my friend is like you right now, living through a borrowed shell. Do you think its host would be disgusted by it if they found out?】