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Chapter 437: Building the Army

Everyone feared the worst, the number of fatalities had these two ‘women’ poisoned the food. Fortunately however, they shouldered even more important tasks.

They had marked initially an important general or even so, the Dragon King himself. The two queens changed their target at once after taking their thrones at the same time and made sure everyone remained oblivious to the details.

This was the moment Gu Shenwei had been waiting for.

On the same day he issued two ruthless challenges, forcing Shangguan Feiyi to retaliate equally as heartlessly. Only few would fit such status. The two queens would be the best targets after the Dragon King.

Gu Shenwei used the Princess and Jiang as bait for it would be Long Fanyun and Lin Xiaoshan to do the fishing. The two had each chosen the most elite helpers and with elaborate disguises, had hidden so close around the tent that they could hear the vague voices inside.

In order to lure the killers into the trap, the Dragon King had to be somewhere else in order to clear a comparatively safer route.

The Dragon King had chosen to stay with Dugu Xian. This single-armed general was number one on the hitlist of Fort Jin Peng and needed extra protection.

Long Fanyun and Lin Xiaoshan received orders telling them to kill anyone that attempted to enter the Queen’s tent after darkness fell.

Long Fanyun knew that he had to protect the Princess of the Stone Kingdom but heard suspicious voices come from the tent despite seeing no one enter. It was especially then that anyone would hesitate to enter because it was the day the Queen was to marry the Dragon King. As the Dragon King’s personal guard, he would not dare barge into the tent before dawn.

However, Long Fanyun had felt on edge the whole night, thinking only of the assassins with other thoughts put to the back of his mind. He had not considered the Queens at all. Thence on hearing a noise, he sliced open the tent with his saber, rushing in with his four companions following.

The assassins could have killed the Princess with ease but instead had planned to escape as a group after killing her, slowing them down thus.

The Princess had not been sleeping at all. Seeing her maid walk towards her without reason, she shouted in wary tone, “I didn’t call you,” it was these four words that ushered in the five Big Snowmountain swordsmen.

This was a killer, proficient in the Yi Rong technique. The killer was disguised first as a stout middle-aged woman, kidnapping one of the Princess’ slaves the previous night and changing her identity. The killer then had stayed by the Princess’ side and not been recognised all along.

The five heavy swords were swang towards the assassin like lions’ teeth to a deer. The Princess though previously swearing to accept such violence as part of her life after marrying the Dragon King was still frightened and had fainted.

The other maid screamed.

The killer chose to escape, abandoning the kill, overwhelmed by the alertness and dexterity of the swordsmen from the Great Snowmountain were. He did not want to blow his cover.

The killer’s weapon was an unconventional dagger that flew out the tent after bouncing off the heavy sword of Long Fanyun when it hit it.

Originally, he had to kill the Princess by dawn and had planned to escape immediately disguised as the maid. However, he could only now rely on his sharpness and swiftness to break through the many guards and his other companion coming to his aid.

Lin Xiaoshan’s respect for Jiang was no less than her loyalty to the Dragon King. This was bad. His whole attention was focused on the outside and did not dare pay attention to the voices inside, in fear of betraying the trust of the Dragon King.

When Long Fanyun started the operation, he realised something was wrong but was still hesitated slightly, before pulling his knife and rushing into the tent.

It was late already when the killers too heard the terrible scream outside. Knowing their plan had then been compromised, they darted out of the camp swift as arrows and passed Lin Xiaoshan.

The young swordsman was filled with such panic and rage that he gave his all to attack, even disregarding his own safety. He however had already missed his chance now with a shot of pain through his chest thus falling involuntarily and saw Jiang, before becoming unconscious, sleeping on her bed as though complete unmindful of what was happening outside.

The two killers failed to escape the siege.

The killers still had a chance originally when the troops outside the faced outwards but upon hearing the screams, turned around causing a disruption in their formation as the chaos spread out. The troops then cheered each in self-pride after they captured and killed the thirteenth assassin.

It was the Dragon King that landed the decisive blow.

The whole night, troops marched in and out of Dugu Xian’s tent reporting the army’s situation, allowing Gu Shenwei to seize an opportunity and change his identity with that of a soldier and hide himself amongst the defending soldiers, not far from the tents of the Princess and Jiang.

Many of the soldiers had witnessed the Dragon King’s sabre method for the first time but didn’t have much to tell due to the quickness of the strikes. The two killers had jumped high in the air before the Dragon King suddenly sprang up and landed with two sabre strikes that hit their targets in succession.

It was not until three days later that the soldiers at the scene added salacious detail to what they saw. They described the sabre skills of the Dragon King in such divine light.

However, nothing could make up for the losses of the night. Jiang, the lady of the Great Snowmountain had died, just before she became the Queen of the Dragon King.

The troops’ cheers turned quickly to endless mourning. The swordsmen from the Great Snowmountain were stupefied at the cruelty of the news.

Not every general in the camp regarded the swordsmen as friends but that moment was so depressing, they could only sympathize with them.

No one however, was sadder than Lin Xiaoshan. So sad in fact that he considered stabbing himself with his sword upon waking up. He felt indeed that he had let down the Dragon King as well as the Great Snowmountain swordsmen. The Princess Long Fanyun protected was still alive,but the other person he was supposed to protect had died in his sleep.

The Dragon King did not allow him anyhow while saying, too in grief, “It is enough for one of you to die. Heal, if you are loyal to me.”

Lin Xiaoshan felt embarrassed, these words were harsh and cruel. He contemplated suicide no longer nevertheless, and lay on his bed for two days. The day he woke was the burial of Jiang. He stood silently among the crowds and felt himself buried with the coffin.

Much had happened in those two days.

Firstly, the wedding of the Dragon King had been postponed. Jiang had already been labelled Queen- the first queen of the Dragon King, despite there being no ceremony. Everyone was sad and felt she deserved such treatment, nay, the generals of the five countries and soldiers from the Xiaoyao Lake that did not know her expressed.

Secondly, Shangguan Jianyi’s countless assassinations had shown that there were still many spies hidden within the camp. This was his modus operandi—cooperation between the inner and outer circles, always choosing to strike whenever the enemy felt triumphed. The Dragon King had seen through his trickery but was powerless to save the queen’s life.

A thorough inspection was carried out throughout the army. Every soldier, those especially that were of the five countries of the Xiaoyao sea had to have two familiar soldiers vouch for their true identity.

Taking the opportunity, Dugu Xian issued formally his orders and started to reorganize the complex structure of the army.

For a long time, the army was centered around the swordsmen from the Snowmountains. It was called the ‘Great Snowmountain Army’ still albeit their proportion lowering. Dugu Xian felt this did not unite the more soldiers of the army and birthed a term hence, unknown to the others—the Dragon army, or the Dragon King’s army.

The Great Snowmountain, the Land of Fragrance, the Xiaoyao Lake and other names had been scrapped. The men nonetheless, were free to choose for themselves, their true alliegances. Dugu Xian and the Dragon King chose ten generals and named them commanders of thousands, seven of whom, were swordsmen from the Great Snowmountain, including five old and young chiefs and two generals of the Xiaoyao Sea. The last place was reserved for Tuo Nengya, who guarded Wushan.

By deduction, the commanders of the thousands would choose ten commanders of their own who would then choose their soldiers. Each army of the ‘commanders of the thousands’ would employ thousands of people.

This way, the swordsmen from the Great Snowmountains would no longer stand lone yet were still a formidable force and their subjects included soldiers from many other regions.

Because everyone was “selected”, they were less likely to rebel.

These 10,000 troops became the elite force of the Dragon King, leaving 10,000, from which, a thousand were made guard troops while the rest served either as reserve forces or were sent to train in concentrated groups and others were sent to guard posts that were relatively unimportant. These less significant troops could fight independently or replenish the elite troops at any time.

These soldiers had ten leaders that became known as ‘vice commanders of thousands’.

The vice commander of thousands Gu Shenwei appointed came from the An Kingdom. He was named Wu Zongheng.

Truly, reorganizing the army was a complex task. There was opposition in the camp much enough that Dugu Xian could be killed by his own people.

Shangguan Jianyi would not watch on while the Dragon army was established. With the spies and killers that he had assigned becoming fewer and the security of the camp ever increasing, after staying silent for ten days, he chose another strategic location.

News came from the Hui kingdom that on the easternmost part of Xiaoyao Sea, a small infantry loyal to Fort Jin Peng had come from the desert without warning, breached the checkpoint and killed countless soldiers and had set off for the capital of the Hui Kingdom. Without receiving aid, the King would only have to surrender.

There was yet more unclear word, of how Shangguan Jiangyi himself commanded the battle in Huiguo. If this was true and everything had gone to plan, he would have left the Stone Kingdom after killing the two designated Queens.

The Dragon army was disroganised, most commanders of the thousands had not chosen all their soldiers. Gu Shenwei chose thus to rescue the troops himself.

This time, he had left the Stone Kingdom for another reason. Prime Minister Zhong Heng had started to rush the Dragon King and the Princess to marry to Gu Shenwei’s distaste. Jiang’s bones were not cold and the soldiers from the Five Kingdom had shown signs of stability. There wasn’t a need it seemed, for the wedding to be rushed.

Zhong Heng, however, did not have patience. He had taken all of Xu Yanwei’s reminders seriously and did not say it but his heart had always rested on the Maid Lotus coming back again, driving his patience away evermore.

Zhong Heng’s focus though was precise. Only he saw through the Dragon King’s plans and said, “Jiang was a good woman. But in truth I say, there isn’t a better time that she would have died. It solved not only, the feud between the Great Snowmountain and the Xiaoyao Lake but also brought numerous benefit. Shangguan Feiyi had no choice than to think more or would have definitely regretted his decision to assassinate.”

Gu Shenwei realised then why a man, cunning like Zhong Heng had not had a smooth time in the officialdom. Sometimes, he knew too much.