The plan begins

Gao Yuan clapped his hands happily.

"Good, I like heroes who know how to adapt to the circumstances. Men, bring a seat for His Highness Khon Kham, and bring over a bowl of meat soup. Oh, make it three bowls."

Soon, three bowls of steaming meat soup were brought in.

Khon Kham might have looked down on such an ordinary bowl of meat soup before, but now it felt exceptionally dear.

After gulping down the soup in a few mouthfuls and even licking the bowl clean, Khon Kham's goodwill toward Gao Yuan reached an unprecedented height.

"I wonder what General Gao wishes to collaborate on with this humble prince?"

Gao Yuan gave a mysterious smile and waved the others away. Only he, Xia Luqi, and Khon Kham remained inside the commanders tent before he spoke.

"I intend to help the Prince ascend to the throne of Lan Xang. I wonder if the Prince is interested?"

*Clang...*

With a crisp sound, the bowl in Khon Kham's hand fell to the ground and shattered into pieces.

His mouth hung open in a daze for a long time before Khon Kham finally snapped out of it, looking at Gao Yuan with an expression of utter disbelief.

"General Gao, surely you are joking?"

"A joke? I never joke about major matters."

Khon Kham swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing with the movement, and fell into another daze.

After a long while, he finally spoke tentatively.

"I wonder what plan the General has?"

Gao Yuan didn't waste words and stated his intentions.

"I will release all of you, along with the prisoners captured previously, and then I will send troops to attack Meng Wei and Chuantong."

Khon Kham was no fool and immediately understood Gao Yuan's intent.

"You want to lure the Vientiane troops to reinforce those two places, and then..."

Gao Yuan gave a knowing smile.

"Exactly as you thought. I'll help you draw away the Vientiane forces, while you take advantage of the vacuum to seize control of Vientiane."

Khon Kham's face showed terror, and his hands waved frantically as if he had Parkinson's.

"No, no, patricide and regicide—such crimes are too great. Even if I take control of Vientiane, the people will never accept me."

"Who said anything about patricide or regicide? You just need to deal with all your brothers. When the time comes, if your father only has you as a son, who else would he pass the throne to?"

Khon Kham pondered for a while, and soon a hint of greed, expectation, and even a trace of ruthlessness appeared in his eyes.

But looking again at the smug Gao Yuan, he probed cautiously.

"Then, I wonder what General Gao wants in return?"

Seeing him ask this, Gao Yuan knew the prince was tempted, so he directly laid out his conditions.

"I want Luang Namtha City, plus fifteen thousand households of people, five thousand oxen, a hundred thousand dan of grain, and five hundred beauties."

Although Lan Xang was a strong power in this region, it hadn't been established long, and its population was only about two hundred thousand households. Losing fifteen thousand households at once was quite a blow.

Not to mention the other conditions, especially the cession of Luang Namtha, the five thousand oxen, and the hundred thousand dan of grain.

However, faced with the massive temptation of the throne, he still nodded resolutely.

Soon, inside the commanders tent, Khon Kham wrote a document—one that proved his intent to rebel and seize power—and handed his official seal over to Gao Yuan.

Now, Gao Yuan held complete leverage over him.

Gao Yuan also promised him that once the matter was successful, it would be a simultaneous exchange of goods for payment.

Once the population, cattle, and sheep were in place, he would destroy the document and return the seal in person.

With the document signed, Gao Yuan kept his promise and cleared the way for Khon Kham to lead his men away, provided they left behind their weapons and armor.

These weapons and armor would only be returned to him after Gao Yuan had occupied Luang Namtha and Khon Kham was leaving with his people.

Upon returning to Luang Namtha City, Khon Kham immediately sent someone to secretly return to the capital, Vientiane City, to inform his mother of the deal with Gao Yuan.

Leaving five hundred men for Huo Jun to clean up the aftermath, Gao Yuan set out with the remaining fifteen hundred troops and subsequently garrisoned Luang Namtha City.

The military fortress of Luang Namtha was absolutely the type that was easy to defend and hard to attack. With its treacherous terrain, solid walls, and no lack of water, it could hold out for a year or two even if besieged on all sides, as long as grain was stockpiled.

Gao Yuan hadn't expected to take this fortress so easily this time, and he was feeling quite smug.

And the system chose this moment to pop up.

"S-Rank Series Event: 'This Woman is Mine' Phase One: 'The Covetous One' completed, Rating: S;"

"S-Rank Series Event: 'This Woman is Mine' Phase Two: 'Give an Inch, Take a Mile' triggered;"

"As a man with a system, how can you be satisfied with just routing the incoming enemy? Naturally, you must retaliate fiercely;"

"Event Objective: Plunder as many people and resources as possible from Lan Xang's Meng Wei and Chuantong;"

"Event Reward: Receive a resource pack of a corresponding level based on the plundering results."

Simple and crude: just rob them. This was something Gao Yuan was more than willing to do.

After sending off Khon Kham's seven thousand-plus troops, Gao Yuan sent a message back to Menge, telling them to send laborers as quickly as possible to prepare for moving the spoils of war.

Leaving Luang Namtha with his troops, Khon Kham felt as if a lifetime had passed, but the plan had begun, and Gao Yuan held leverage over him; there was no turning back.

In the Lan Xang capital, Vientiane City, inside the magnificent royal palace, the Lancang King Fawang was listening to reports.

Suddenly, a hurried set of footsteps arrived inappropriately, followed by a messenger's loud shout.

"Urgent report! Urgent report! Urgent report from the front!"

Soon, a messenger in tattered clothes ran quickly into the hall under everyone's gaze and knelt on the ground without a word.

Seeing the messenger in such a state, Fawang's heart skipped a beat, and his good mood for the day vanished completely. He said in a sinister tone,

"Go and see!"

The messenger handed over the message tube with trembling hands. A Eunuch took the tube, checked it carefully, opened it, and began to read under Fawang's gaze.

The news was like a bolt from the blue: the army of fifteen thousand had been defeated with over half the casualties, Luang Namtha was lost, and Khon Kham had led the troops to retreat to Location.

Before the Lan Xang monarch and ministers could react, a second messenger ran in shouting.

Same tattered clothes, same kneeling and trembling on the ground, same bad news.

The Han people had begun attacking Meng Wei and Chuantong.

Because of the barrier of Luang Namtha, Lan Xang's defensive focus had always been there. The garrisons of Meng Wei and Chuantong combined were less than two thousand men, and they were scattered across various Locations.

This resulted in Gao Yuan, despite having an attacking force of only a thousand men, sweeping through everything in his path, capturing three towns and two cities in just three days.

At this moment, on the roads leading from the two regions to Luang Namtha, thousands of laborers and over a thousand packhorses were carrying large amounts of money, grain, and military supplies.

Captured along with them were several thousand commoners.

As for the commoners, Gao Yuan didn't just want the young and strong; to increase their sense of belonging, he moved them by entire households.

Hearing two reports of defeat in succession, Fawang felt his vision go dark, and he nearly spat out a mouthful of blood.

After recovering for a long time, he stood up with a grim face and pointed at the two messengers.

"Drag these two harbingers of doom out and kill them!"

Still not feeling appeased, he pointed at the Eunuch who had read the report.

"Drag this one out too and give him fifty lashes!"

For a moment, shrill cries for mercy echoed in the hall. The ministers all looked down at their noses, not daring to speak.

After venting his anger, Fawang sat down again and scanned the officials.

"Tell me, what should be done next?"

The eldest prince, Wu Hean, immediately stepped forward.

"Father, your son believes we should immediately mobilize troops from all regions to reinforce Meng Wei and Chuantong."

The second prince, Wen Huan, also jumped out at this time.

"The Han people have a saying: distant water cannot quench a nearby thirst. Mobilizing troops from various regions takes time; I'm afraid by then, both places will have long been stripped bare by the Han people."