201: Chapter 202 Catching a Turtle in a Jar!

The Minister of Military Affairs opened his mouth. The Minister of Interior twisted his beard, his eyes slowly brightening.

"He has jumped in," Wang Shuai said, enunciating each word, "landing exactly in the jar we set for him. Next, we only need to do one thing..."

He slowly closed his palm.

"Catch the turtle in the jar."

The Minister of Interior stood up abruptly and bowed deeply. "City Lord, you are brilliant! That is right! You anticipated long ago that Flower City would launch an active attack, which is why you retreated in advance to this inconspicuous Gu City... leaving room for a counterattack! From the very beginning, you never intended to consume the Ten Cities head-on against Flower City! The Ten Cities were just bait, bait to lure Flower City into biting!"

Wang Shuai smiled and did not deny it.

The Minister of Military Affairs, however, was not as excited.

He frowned, his voice very low: "My Lord, I do not doubt your judgment. It is just... with our current strength, even if we catch the turtle in the jar, we might not be able to put the lid on."

The atmosphere in the hall sank further.

Everyone was waiting for Wang Shuai's reply.

Wang Shuai turned around, walked to the window, and with his back to everyone, looked at the sky outside.

"Rest assured, everyone."

His voice was steady. So steady it did not sound like someone who had just lost Ten Cities.

"I have requested support from the Wang Group."

As soon as these words were spoken, the air in the entire council hall tightened.

The Wang Group.

These three words were like a mountain in the ears of these people.

The Minister of Interior's hands stiffened inside his sleeves. The scar on the Minister of Military Affairs twitched.

The Minister of Commerce gasped, his voice changing pitch: "The... the Wang Group?"

"Yes." Wang Shuai turned around, maintaining that confident smile on his face. "Two days. We only need two days, and the main army will arrive."

He took two steps forward, standing among the crowd again. "Within these two days, you only need to do one thing... do not expose your whereabouts. Hide the location of this Gu City well, and hide our remaining combat power. As for the rest, once the Wang Group's main army arrives, everything will be clear. At that time..."

He raised his head, his voice suddenly rising a notch.

"We will lead the main army and recapture Flower City in one fell swoop! The hatred of the Ten Cities will be avenged in one battle!"

The hall was silent for a second. Then, everyone stood up in unison.

"City Lord is brilliant!!"

"City Lord is far-sighted! We are far inferior!!"

When the Minister of Interior bowed, his sleeves were shaking.

A flush even appeared on the Minister of Commerce's thin face.

The aides whispered to each other, discussing the scale and momentum of the Wang Group's main army, their voices full of irrepressible excitement.

Wang Shuai observed everyone's reaction. He nodded with a smile and raised his hand, pressing it down gently.

"Alright. Today's matters are settled. Everyone go back and make arrangements. These two days... keep a low profile, hide well, and do not give Flower City any chance to scout our location."

"Yes!!"

Everyone filed out. The sound of footsteps, whispers, and clashing armor gradually faded away. The door of the council hall was gently closed from the outside... with a squeak.

The moment the door closed, the smile on Wang Shuai's face was as if it had been sliced off by a knife.

Suddenly... his eyelids drooped, the corners of his mouth sagged, and his whole face was like a piece of fabric that had been stretched for too long, finally having its threads loosened.

All the composure, certainty, and smiles were gone. They were replaced by something cold, heavy, and almost dragging the air down.

He returned to the main seat and sat down slowly. His hands pressed against the edge of the desk, his knuckles turning white one by one.

"Zhou Yun."

The voice was very low. Lower than all the laughter just now, low enough that only he could hear it.

"Capturing my Ten Cities is one thing."

He lifted his hand from the desk and slowly clenched it into a fist. His knuckles made a faint, cracking sound.

"And you deliberately let my people back to disgust me..."

He gritted his teeth.

Biting without speaking.

Swallowing the rest of the words back into his throat, swallowing them, crushing them, and swallowing them again.

A tendon on the side of his face tightened from his temple all the way to his chin.

"You deserve to die."

"You really deserve to die!"

Four words, squeezed out inch by inch from between his teeth.

Like two whetstones grinding against each other, or like a knife tip slowly scraping on a stone slab. It was a killing intent that only appears after sinking into the bones and becoming chillingly cold.

Outside the window, sunlight fell on the stone-paved courtyard, falling on the broken porcelain shards under the corridor that had not been cleared away yet.

Only Wang Shuai remained in the council hall.

He sat in the middle of the empty hall, his shadow stretched long by the light outside the window, dragging from the main seat all the way to the threshold.

When Old Dao was supporting Luo Ming walking in the corridor, his steps suddenly paused.

"You let it slip just now. Flower City Lord. You said Flower City Lord."

Luo Ming was silent for a moment.

"I know."

"He... also knows."

...

On the other side, Lei Lie sat in the main seat, his brow furrowed into a knot.

He was listening to the report.

But it was very difficult to listen to.

At this time, the nine partial generals were sitting in the hall in order, standing up one by one to report.

From the north three routes to the south three routes, from the frontal assault to the flanking maneuver, from the time of breaking the city to the handling of prisoners. When each partial general reported, they kept their voices low, fearing that they would miss something, and fearing that saying too much would waste time.

Lei Lie propped his chin with his fist, his knuckles sinking into his cheeks.

This report had been going on for an hour.

He could handle battles, he could handle injuries, he could handle anything that charged at him head-on.

But the current information density was no different from ten frontal battlefields bombarding his temples at the same time.

His temples were throbbing, his head was buzzing, as if someone was sawing in his ears.

But he did not say a word.

He was the Minister of Military Affairs.

After the battle, listening to reports was his duty.

No one could do this for him.

Sitting in the main seat meant he had to carry the weight of the main seat.

He gritted his teeth, pressed his back against the chair, and forced himself to open his eyes and aim his ears at the next partial general.

The sixth route.

The seventh route.

The eighth route.

Lei Lie's brows furrowed tighter and tighter.

These partial generals were reporting very well.

Casualty statistics were clear, combat power consumption was detailed, tactical nodes were reviewed properly, and no one was slacking off.

But the more Lei Lie listened, the tighter he gritted his teeth.

Because in these routes, they did not find Wang Shuai.

Not when the city was broken.

Not when checking the prisoners.

Not when searching for remnants.

Alive, no person was found; dead, no body was seen.

The ninth route.

The tenth route.

When the last partial general... General Zhang Tie... stood up, Lei Lie's pupils suddenly contracted.

General Zhang Tie was the tenth route.

The Liang City route.

He had expectations for Liang City.

Because it was the hardest-defended of the Ten Cities, and the only one that fought Flower City head-on for more than half an hour before being broken.

The defending general was Luo Ming, Old Dao's brother.

Lei Lie had left a glimmer of hope for Liang City in his heart: this route might have something different.

General Zhang Tie stood very straight, the blood on his armor had not been wiped clean, and his chin was rigid when he spoke.

He reported a lot.

From the time the city was broken to combat losses, from the defending general Luo Ming personally supervising the battle on the city wall several times, to finally being captured alive.

When he reached the last sentence, he paused.

"I... failed to ask Luo Ming for Wang Shuai's whereabouts. In the end, I even let him go."

The hall was quiet for a beat.

Lei Lie's brain buzzed.

He had fully expected Liang City to pry out something different. Luo Ming was Old Dao's brother, the hardest defender, fighting until the end and having to go up the city wall himself.

Such people have hard mouths and hard bones, but sometimes hard people leave clues.

As a result, there was nothing.

General Zhang Tie caught the person, then let him go.

Both the person and the clues leaked through his fingers one after another.

He opened his mouth, but there was no movement for a long time.

General Zhang Tie called out three times.

"General."

"General!"

"General!!"

Lei Lie snapped back to reality.

He blinked, and after blinking, he found his eyes were a bit dry. He raised his hand to wipe his face, cleared his throat, and then slowly moved his gaze away from General Zhang Tie, turning to his left.

The young man in the wheelchair.

"That..." Lei Lie's voice was a bit dry, his throat felt like it had just been dug out of a sandy area, "Strategist, what do you think?"

Strategist Zhu Ge's wheelchair was parked at his left hand, and he had not moved from beginning to end.

The feather fan was in his hand, always in that unhurried rhythm, gently waving. The expression on his face had not changed from beginning to end... slightly smiling, as composed as if this hour of intensive reporting was just a breeze passing through the hall.

Hearing Lei Lie call his name, he stopped the feather fan.

"Overall, there are no big problems." Strategist Zhu Ge's voice was not hurried, as if he had weighed the words on his tongue before sending them out, "This time, everyone's performance can be said to have exceeded my expectations."

The partial generals in the hall let out a sigh of relief in unison.

"The Ten Cities were broken together, all ten routes were cleared, and our casualties were negligible." Strategist Zhu Ge pointed the feather fan forward gently, as if setting the tone, "What this battle achieved was not just speed, but coordination precision. Everyone, you should be proud of yourselves."

Hearing this, the partial generals straightened their backs one by one.

General Zhang Tie stood there, the guilt on his face had not faded, but his hands had already clenched into fists unconsciously.

Strategist Zhu Ge paused. He slowly retracted the feather fan, his gaze sweeping across the faces of the partial generals one by one.

"However..."

"There is still a huge gap in this battle that cannot be ignored."

Lei Lie raised his eyebrows: "Wang Shuai?"

Strategist Zhu Ge nodded: "Correct. It is Wang Shuai's whereabouts."

His voice was not loud, but every word was clear.

"This person has been secretly attacking Flower City since the battle of Qing City, repeatedly using others as blades. Last time it was borrowing troops from Qing City, this time it is even more ruthless, ordering the Ten Cities to declare war at the same time."

"If this person cannot be eradicated as soon as possible..."

Strategist Zhu Ge did not finish the second half of the sentence, but filled in the following words with silence.

General Zhang Tie lowered his head abruptly, the iron pieces on his armor clashing together, making a harsh, crisp sound.

"It is my incompetence!" His voice was even hoarser, "I failed to ask Luo Ming for Wang Shuai's whereabouts. In the end, I even let him go."

Strategist Zhu Ge glanced at General Zhang Tie.

That glance was very short.

So short that before General Zhang Tie could lower his head to the bottom, Strategist Zhu Ge had already spoken.

"Letting Luo Ming go..."

"That is not wrong."

General Zhang Tie was stunned and looked up abruptly.

Strategist Zhu Ge's feather fan began to wave again, unhurriedly.

"If you had used heavy punishment on him, or even killed him, because he would not reveal Wang Shuai's whereabouts... that would have gone against the City Lord's wishes."

General Zhang Tie stood on the spot, stunned for several breaths.

His eyes suddenly felt a bit hot.

He did not speak, just lowered his head further.

Lei Lie leaned forward from the main seat.

"Then what should we do now?" His brows furrowed back again, "Now Luo Ming is gone. But that turtle son Wang Shuai has hidden himself. We..." He raised his hand and made a slicing motion, his knuckles rough, strength leaking from his joints, "cannot pinch him to death."

"If we do not manage to kill him this time, who knows what kind of trouble he will stir up next time."

Strategist Zhu Ge turned his head and smiled at Lei Lie.

"Minister. No need to worry."

He placed the feather fan on the armrest of his wheelchair, raised his eyes, his gaze peaceful.

"As long as things are done, it is impossible not to leave traces."

"The more one wants to hide their figure, sometimes the more they will expose their whereabouts."

He tilted his head slightly and glanced outside the hall.

It was already broad daylight. The morning light poured in diagonally from above the hall door, spreading a large patch of light on the floor tiles.

"At dawn, I already sent out scouts."

Strategist Zhu Ge retracted his gaze and let it fall back on the crowd in the hall.

"Calculating the time now, they should be back soon."

As soon as the words fell, a rush of dense footsteps came from outside the hall.

The footsteps of a large group of people.

Hundreds of scouts returned to the outside of the council hall one after another within half an hour.

They had not changed out of their scout uniforms, some had night dew on their sleeves, some had dry mud on their boot soles, some had chapped lips, obviously having run a long distance in one breath.

After returning, no one made noise, each lined up outside the hall according to their number, and entered to report in order.

Lei Lie listened from the side.

At first, he was still trying to analyze.

But not long after, his brain exploded directly.

It was fine when one person reported.

It was okay when ten people reported.

These hundreds of scouts came in one by one, and what they said was different.

Some reported hoof prints, some reported cart tracks, some reported hidden sentries, some reported cooking smoke, some reported road branches.

Everyone's accent was different, the speaking speed was fast or slow, and the way of speaking was varied.

One said "This road forks three turns to the southwest and then turns back to the north", another said "Someone stepped on that open space in the woods, and then used branches to sweep it flat".

There were even many times when the information between the scouts conflicted, making it impossible to distinguish which one was correct!

Lei Lie sat in the main seat.

He felt his head being pulled by hundreds of information lines at the same time.

Pulled left, pulled right, pulled in front, pulled behind. The thread ends became more and more tangled, and finally turned into a huge, buzzing ball of thread.

His head was buzzing.

The tendon on his temple was throbbing, jumping even more violently than before. The corner of his eye also began to twitch.

He gritted his teeth and did not say a word.

Because he was the Minister of Military Affairs.

Looking at the young man in the wheelchair next to him, the pen in his hand had not stopped.

He wrote while listening.

Asking while writing.

Drawing while asking.

The first batch of scouts reported hoof prints.

After listening, Strategist Zhu Ge placed a direction marker on the parchment, and asked: "How many directions? Are the hoof prints deep or shallow? Dragging or not?"

The second batch of scouts reported cart tracks. He placed another line of markers and asked: "How wide are the tracks? How many carriages? Old tracks or new tracks?"

The third batch.

The fourth batch.

After more than a hundred batches, the parchment in his hand was already densely covered with lines.

There were horizontal lines, vertical lines, diagonal lines, circles, dots, and small text annotations.

The lines crisscrossed each other, like a spider web slowly closing.

Lei Lie stole a glance at the parchment.

He looked away quickly after just one glance... he could not understand it.

What was drawn on it did not look like a map at all.

It looked more like a rune drawn by a madman.

But Strategist Zhu Ge's eyes were always calm.

When the last scout finished reporting and exited the council hall, there was a long silence in the hall.

No one dared to make a sound. Everyone's eyes were fixed on Strategist Zhu Ge.

The partial generals held their breath. General Zhang Tie clenched his hands on his knees, his fingernails digging into his palms. Lei Lie gritted his back teeth, pressed his elbows on the armrests, and leaned more than half of his body towards Strategist Zhu Ge.

Strategist Zhu Ge did not speak immediately.

He lowered his head and stared at the parchment.

He looked for a long time.

The feather fan was always resting flat on his knees.

The pen was also quietly set aside.

Only his line of sight was slowly moving over the dense lines.

Moving very slowly.

From north to south, from east to west.

Then, he suddenly lifted the pen.

Lei Lie could not hold it in anymore.

He leaned his body forward another notch, "Strategist, what exactly are you doing with this map..."

He did not finish his sentence.

Strategist Zhu Ge suddenly lifted the feather fan and pointed forward.

The tip of the feather fan, precisely, pointed to a corner on the east and south of the map.

A very small city was drawn on that corner. So small that it was almost buried in a pile of dense lines.

Above the city, two characters were written.

"Gu City."