Chapter 845 - 845: Dead End

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

“There’s news from Great Xia that our army suffered heavy losses in the first battle with the Wu Kingdom. Prince Xiao retreated to Nanling Pass with his troops.”

The first battle meant that they would really fight each other, not the small-scale harassment and trouble from before.

“How could that be?” Song Jingchen tightened his grip on the teacup.

Someone must have reported what had happened in the Xuanyuan Kingdom to the Wu Kingdom. It was already a foregone conclusion that Great Xia and the Xuanyuan Kingdom would become allies. By attacking Great Xia now, wasn’t Shangguan Yu afraid that the Xuanyuan Kingdom would retaliate?

Something flashed across Song Jingchen’s mind. He was about to make a note of it when someone knocked on the study door.

Thirty Thousand glanced at Song Jingchen and quickly opened the door.

Xuanyuan Ziming walked in with a solemn expression. “Brother-in-law, my father has something urgent to discuss with you.”

He was halfway through his sentence when he noticed that the atmosphere in the study was off. He paused. “Did you receive the news too?”

Song Jingchen didn’t answer and asked, “What happened?”

“The Wu Kingdom’s army broke through Pingyang Pass and seized Lin’an City.”

Seeing Song Jingchen frown, he asked, “Do you have a piece of paper?”

Song Jingchen took out some paper from the drawer. Seeing this, Thirty Thousand walked forward to help with the ink.

Xuanyuan Ziming drew a map of the Three Kingdoms on the rice paper with his brush and ink. He specially marked the Pingyang Pass and Lin’an City he mentioned.

The eastern border of the Xuanyuan Kingdom bordered Great Xia and the Wu Kingdom. The three countries faced each other and restrained each other.

Among them, Great Xia was in the southwest, and the Wu Kingdom was in the southeast. Pingyang Pass was an important pass between the Xuanyuan

Kinzdom and the Wu Kingdom. To the north of Pinzvanz Pass was Lin’an Citv,

which was also a border city in the southeastern region of the Xuanyuan Kingdom.

The border cities were naturally easy to defend and difficult to attack. If they lost Lin’an City, it would be difficult to snatch it back.

Moreover, this undoubtedly opened a convenient door for the Wu Kingdom for the Xuanyuan Kingdom.

Thirty Thousand asked in surprise, “The Wu Kingdom sent troops to the Xuanyuan Kingdom and Great Xia at the same time. Where did they get so many troops?”

Song Jingchen looked at Xuanyuan Ziming deeply. “I’m afraid the people from the Valley of Heavenly Secrets did something.”

This made sense. The cooperation between Great Xia and the Xuanyuan Kingdom was inevitable. If the Wu Kingdom wanted to attack Great Xia, they had to be wary of the Xuanyuan Kingdom.

He originally thought that Ji Yunxi was using the plague to stall for time so that she could attack Great Xia during this period, but he did not expect her to have designs on Lin’an City.

In the current situation, if the Xuanyuan Kingdom wanted to take back Lin’an

City, they would not be able to help Great Xia. On the other hand, the Wu Kingdom only needed to leave a small number of troops to defend Lin’an City and send a large number of troops to attack Great Xia.

Indeed, the Xuanyuan Kingdom could also put Lin’an City aside and send troops to support Great Xia.

However, in that case, the Xuanyuan Kingdom’s army would have to bypass the Cangbei Mountains from the southwestern region to meet up with Great Xia’s army at the Nanling Pass. It would take at least two months.

Not to mention that distant water could not extinguish a nearby fire, if the Wu Kingdom took this opportunity to abandon Great Xia and attack the Xuanyuan Kingdom from Lin’an City, wouldn’t it be too easy?

No one would be willing to put their country in danger for their so-called allies.

This was practically a dead end.

What Song Jingchen couldn’t figure out was how the Valley of Heavenly Secrets helped the Wu Kingdom take over Lin’an City in less than a month.

Seeing his confusion, Xuanyuan Ziming gritted his teeth and said, “It’s the Yu family.”

Song Jingchen looked over.

“Let’s talk as we walk.”

Song Jingchen nodded and left the study. He instructed Thirty Thousand, ‘You don’t have to follow me. Go and tell Mother that if Jiajia wakes up, tell her not to worry. I’ll take care of everything.”

Thirty Thousand quickly agreed.

Xuanyuan Ziming’s carriage was waiting outside. After getting into the carriage, he told her what the Yu family had done.

Back then, Ji Luo blocked Ji Yunxi’s way in the restaurant.

Ji Yunxi said, “Anyway, we’ve already gotten what we wanted.”

She had mentioned this to Xuanyuan Qi, who was also investigating what she had taken. Unfortunately, there had been no progress because of the outbreak of the plague.

Until an urgent report came from the border.

“It’s a defensive map.” Xuanyuan Ziming looked furious. “Even with Madam Yu as the princess consort, the Yu family has been cowering all these years. No one expected them to have a trick up their sleeves.”

Song Jingchen wasn’t too surprised. The power of the aristocratic families was intertwined and deeply rooted. When they figured out what had happened back then, they couldn’t touch the emperor, but that didn’t mean that they didn’t resent him.

More than ten years had passed. After more than ten years, it was not difficult for the Yu family to obtain a defensive map.

Ji Yunxi and the others had left Phoenix City less than a month ago and would not be leaving the country so soon. They had probably used other methods to send the defensive map of Pingyang Pass back to the Wu Kingdom.

If he guessed correctly, they definitely had spies planted in the army. With the defensive map in hand, it was no wonder that the Wu Kingdom could take down Lin ‘an City in a short period of time and only send the news back to Phoenix City now.

This was all connected. Did the Wu Kingdom’s envoy come to the Xuanyuan Kingdom to seek allies, or did he already know that the Yu family had a defensive map?

Song Jingchen frowned. The Yu family had attacked Jiajia at the border and Lord Jing’an. They were walking towards destruction step by step, as if they had something to do with the Valley of Heavenly Secrets.

The Valley of Heavenly Secrets deliberately lured Madam Yu to court death and forced the Yu family into a desperate situation so that they could force them to willingly hand over the defensive map.. This was the goal of their trip, right?