Chapter 1038: A vicious plot to divert disaster to others!
When Fang She knew that his family had been moved away, he also learned about the hiding place of the remnants of the Zhennan Army...

Because the Zhennan Army had been defeated, Fang She could not contact the remnants of the Zhennan Army, so he came to this private house out of desperation!
Fang She originally thought that the remnants of the Zhennan Army would hide in this private house, but when he arrived at the house, he did not find the remnants of the Zhennan Army, but instead discovered gold bars hidden in the closet!

After seeing the existence of these gold bars, Fang She realized that the remnants of the Zhennan Army would not give up this wealth easily, so he stayed in this house and tried to wait and see!
Sure enough, within a day, Fang She finally caught the big fish Xu Tu!
Looking at Xu Tu, who was curled up on the ground in pain but still silent, a hint of cruelty emerged in Fang She's eyes!
To be honest, he did not have much loyalty to Xu Zhaojie, the Zhennan Army, and the Xu family. He knew that Xu Zhaojie made him the commander of the so-called Thousand Tiger Guards not because he really valued his abilities, but because this group of Xu family members were useless!
However, the Fengwu Army gave him too much pressure on the battlefield, so in order to cope with the pressure brought by the Fengwu Army, Xu Zhaojie needed intelligence support, he needed himself to monitor the important civil and military officials of the Zhennan Army to prevent them from rebelling, he needed himself to do dirty work to raise money and food for him...

If the Xu family could do something about these things, the position of commander of the Thousand Tiger Guards would not have fallen to Fang She!
Even though Xu Zhaojie needed Fang She's abilities to serve him, he didn't have much trust in Fang She. Not only did he take Fang She's family as hostages, he also placed many of his confidants in the Thousand Tiger Guards to monitor Fang She. Fang She knew all about this!
Faced with this attitude of distrust, it was impossible for Fang She to say that he did not resist, especially when Xu Zhaojie deliberately showed trust in order to win him over. Fang She felt extremely disgusted in his heart, but he still had to pretend to be grateful on the surface!
Therefore, Fang She did not have much loyalty to Xu Zhaojie and the Zhennan Army in his heart, and the little loyalty he had left was almost exhausted in the various tests and tugs of war with Xu Zhaojie over the years!

In fact, Fang She even felt that he had done too many dirty things for Xu Zhaojie over the years, and had made many enemies inside and outside the Zhennan Army. These people wanted to skin him, take out his tendons, eat his flesh and drink his blood!

And if it weren't for the Fengwu Army's overwhelming force, forcing Xu Zhaojie to rely on the Thousand Tiger Guards under his leadership, then Xu Zhaojie might have killed his entire family to ease the conflicts within and outside the Zhennan Army!
Even so, Fang She was vaguely aware that he was just given a suspended sentence by Xu Zhaojie. Whenever the situation of the Zhennan Army on the battlefield improved, or the pressure of the Fengwu Army on the battlefield eased, Fang She’s crisis would reappear...

Knowing all this, Fang She continued to work for Xu Zhaojie. It was just that his family was held hostage by Xu Zhaojie, and he had killed too many Fengwu Army spies at Xu Zhaojie's request, which offended the Fengwu Army's Coordination Office. So he realized that he would die faster if he joined the Fengwu Army, and it was just a helpless move!
To be honest, Fang She, the commander of the Thousand Tiger Guards, did not think that Xu Zhaojie could really turn the tables in the face of the powerful offensive of the Fengwu Army!

Therefore, Fang She had been secretly preparing a retreat route for himself and his family during this period, so that he could take advantage of the chaos to escape after the Zhennan Army was defeated!
Fang She knew that he had offended the Coordination Office. Once the Fengwu Army won the war, the Coordination Office would definitely not let him go easily!

So looking at the entire Chinese land, there is no place for Fang She to stay. So in Fang She's plan, once the Zhennan Army is defeated, he will take his family to Jiangnan first, and then sail to Southeast Asia from Jiangnan!
While doing the dirty work for Xu Zhaojie these years, Fang She himself was not idle either. He was silently filling his pockets. More than a year ago, Fang She, who had sensed that the future of the Zhennan Army and himself was not good, had already quietly transferred his wealth to Southeast Asia!

Although it is impossible to transfer all the wealth to Nanyang, as long as I can successfully get away with my family, then it will be no problem for me to be a rich man and live a life of luxury for the rest of my life...
Originally everything was in Fang She's plan. Fang She also felt that the Zhennan Army could hold on for a while, so he was not in a hurry to run away with his family!

However, no one expected that He Jingyun and the Fengwu Army would advance so quickly, which made Xu Zhaojie's original strategy of standing firm and waiting for change in Jingchu fail, and indirectly led to Xu Zhaojie's defeat and capture!
With Xu Zhaojie's defeat and capture, everything about the Zhennan Army was like a mirage in the mirror and a bubble in the dream. This also disrupted Fang She's deployment and made the retreat route that Fang She had originally prepared useless!
So seeing that Xu Tu in front of him said nothing and seemed to be keeping his mouth shut, Fang She planned to use some tricks on Xu Tu for the sake of his family's whereabouts!
Although this bastard Xu Tu is just a steward of the Xu Mansion, he claims to be the Marquis's close confidant and has always been arrogant and insolent in the Zhennan Army!
Fang She had long been disgusted with this man, but he had to look out for the owner before beating the dog, so he had been holding back!

This was a good opportunity to vent his anger. Thinking of this, Fang She did not hesitate at all. He took out several silver needles from his body and stabbed them into several painful points on Xu Tu's body!

Many people only know that Fangshe is a master of martial arts and acts meticulously and viciously, but few people know that Fangshe was originally a medical student. It is precisely because of his medical background that Fangshe knows the structure of the human body very well, knows where to hit the most painful place, and how to destroy a person’s beliefs...

And it was precisely because of this skill that Fang She was initially noticed by Xu Zhaojie and was specially assigned to provide Xu Zhaojie with torture and forced confession services!
Now although this move seems insignificant and is just pricking people with silver needles, but in actual use, it is extremely painful. At the beginning, Xu Tu could still hold on and continue to pretend to be a tough guy!
But after just a few seconds, he was sweating profusely and wanted to shout out, but before he could make a sound, in order to prevent Xu Tu's shouting from attracting others, Fang She stuffed his clothes into his mouth!
After hesitating for a few seconds, Xu Tu could no longer hold on and became exhausted. The look he showed towards Fang She no longer had the initial strength but instead showed a pleading look!
Seeing this, Fang She, who was anxious to find his family, had no mood to continue torturing Xu Tu. He immediately took out the silver needle from Xu Tu's body and asked Xu Tu the original question again.

“Where is my family?”

Hearing this question, Xu Tu hesitated for a moment but still said honestly: "I don't know!"

As soon as these words were spoken, Fang She's eyes suddenly turned cold. He felt that Xu Tu was playing tricks on him and wanted to continue to use force on Xu Tu!
Seeing this, Xu Tu trembled all over, and immediately said without caring about anything else:
"I really don't know. This matter was arranged by Ma Xiang! He wants to use your family to force you to save the Marquis..."

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East Island, Heian-kyō
A carriage slowly drove out of the Muto family's mansion and headed towards the shogunate under the protection of dozens of personal servants.

At this time, a middle-aged man who looked to be only in his early forties was resting with his eyes closed in the carriage. This man was handsome and had an extraordinary demeanor. He was none other than Muto Masaaki, one of the five big bosses of the shogunate who had just taken office!
Although he looks to be only in his early forties, Muto Masaaki is actually fifty-one years old now, and time has not left too many traces on him!
Although Muto Masaaki was resting with his eyes closed in the carriage, he was constantly thinking in his heart!
Ever since the old grandson Toyotomi Ieyasu fell seriously ill a few years ago, he has basically been unable to handle government affairs. As a result, the shogunate's control over various parts of East Island has also weakened!

This also caused the daimyo and feudal lords in various places to become restless, but the old man was still there, so they did not dare to act too rashly!

And just two months ago, the old minister finally passed away, entrusting the young lord Toyotomi Hidetada to his trusted ministers, Ishihara Nobuyuki, Kobayakawa Mitsunari, and Muto Masaaki, hoping that the three of them could join forces to help Toyotomi Hidetada consolidate the Toyotomi family's rule!
Ishihara Nobuyuki, Kobayakawa Mitsunari, and Muto Masaaki knew very well that with the passing of their old lord Toyotomi Ieyasu, the daimyo lords in various places who were already restless would probably not be able to restrain their ambitions, and they might take over at any time...

So in order to deal with this situation, the three of them came up with a vicious plan, which was to divert the trouble away!

Continuing with Toyotomi Ieyasu's unfinished mission of conquering the peninsula, when Toyotomi Ieyasu unified the East Island, his ambition was extremely inflated. He actually wanted to cross the sea to capture the palace capital, and then use the palace capital as a springboard to invade the Great Zhou!
Unfortunately, however, they were hit head-on by the Great Zhou army in the palace capital, and all their ambitions were turned to ashes!
Having learned from the previous experience, Ishihara Nobuyuki, Kobayakawa Mitsunari, and Muto Masaaki, who were afraid of repeating the same mistake, did not stubbornly choose Miyato as their target, but chose the two small countries of Silla and Baekje on the peninsula!
Silla and Baekje are inferior to Gongdu in terms of population and national strength, and most importantly, there are no troops stationed by the Great Zhou on their territories, and they are not vassal states of the Great Zhou, so compared to Gongdu, they are undoubtedly easier targets!
Now, although Ishihara Nobuyuki, Kobayakawa Mitsunari, and Muto Masaaki have restarted this strategy, their core purpose is not to try to capture the palace capital and then use the palace capital as a shift to attack Da Zhou like Toyotomi Ieyasu did back then...
Of course, it’s not that they don’t want to do this. Dongdao is an archipelago with volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occurring every year, bringing heavy pain to the people of Dongdao every year!
In order to escape these natural disasters, the people of East Island are always thinking about changing their habitat!
And their target is undoubtedly the Da Zhou, which is across the sea from Dongdao!
So if possible, the people on East Island would naturally want to conquer Da Zhou and use the resources on the vast land of Da Zhou for their own use!
For this reason, they are always paying attention to the internal situation of Da Zhou. The internal turmoil of Da Zhou in the past few years was also seen as an opportunity by the people of Dongdao!
However, with the rise of the Fengwu Army in recent years and the gradual unification of all parts of the Great Zhou, even the optimistic officials of Dongdao had to admit that Dongdao no longer had a chance to capture the Great Zhou!
In this context, Ishihara Nobuyuki, Kobayakawa Mitsunari, and Muto Masaaki continued to push forward the plan to conquer the peninsula. They wanted to divert the internal conflicts in Higashima Island and use this foreign war to consume the strength of the daimyo and feudal lords in various places, so as to consolidate the shogunate's rule in Higashima Island!

Of course, although there is such a deep-seated purpose, in order to achieve this goal, the shogunate still pretends to be very serious on the surface, and even lets Muto Masaaki coordinate and command the troops in various places and be fully responsible for the combat affairs this time...

Just when Muto Masaaki was in the carriage, trying to better understand the shogunate's goal, suddenly there were loud explosions on both sides of the carriage!
"Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom!"

Just when Muto Masaaki's followers and servants were panicking because of the sudden explosion, suddenly more than a dozen killers dressed as down-and-out samurai rushed out from all directions of the road, and they went straight to the carriage where Muto Masaaki was riding!

Although these killers moved very quickly, the servants around Muto Masaaki were also very alert and immediately guarded Muto Masaaki's carriage closely!
Although these people are followers and servants in name, they are all ninja guards carefully trained by the Muto family since childhood. They are very powerful in combat. However, facing these sudden killers at this time, they are still no match in a one-on-one situation, and often need two-on-one to suppress the opponent!

However, the target of these killers was obviously not Muto Masaaki and his followers, so they did not intend to get too entangled with these people. While fighting, they wanted to continue to get closer to the carriage and kill Muto Masaaki...
(End of this chapter)