Chapter 423 Madness and powerlessness!
Half an hour later, Kobayakawa Takahide quietly left the Park residence from the back door. After turning around several times and making sure there was no trace of him, Kobayakawa Takahide got on a carriage in the alley.

"Mr. President, there are obviously other candidates on the list. Why did you choose Park Sung-hyuk? This person was one of the first batch of secret agents developed by Sato Kaga himself. He has close contacts with Sato Kaga. You want to make him turn against us..."

The petite maid in the carriage, Hashimoto Kishika, hesitated for a moment and said to Kobayakawa Takahide. Although she did not finish her words, the meaning of her words was self-evident.

Upon hearing this, Kobayakawa Takahide, who was resting with his eyes closed, smiled slyly on his pretty face and said lightly:
"I never thought I could persuade Park Sung Hyuk to turn against us!"

After hearing this, Hashimoto Kishika asked in surprise:

"My lord, what do you want to do? If you didn't persuade Park Sung Hyuk to turn against us, why did you go to him? If Park Sung Hyuk told Sato Kaga about you, wouldn't your whereabouts be exposed?"

"Haha, Hashimoto, you underestimated this old fox Sato Kaga. I didn't need Park Sung-hyuk to tell me the news of my return to Gongdu from Liaoyang. I'm afraid Sato Kaga has already known it..." Kobayakawa Takahide said meaningfully:
Listening to what Kobayakawa Takahide said, Hashimoto Kishika was a little confused and didn't know what she was talking about.

Seeing the confusion on Hashimoto Kishika's face, Kobayakawa Takahide, who was in a good mood, did not explain to her, but just pinched the little girl's youthful and beautiful face.

She couldn't help but recall the night before she left Dongning, when she was summoned by that man again.

After spending an hour of extreme humiliation, she learned from that man how to cover up something and make it even more obvious.

When you want to achieve a goal but don't want to be discovered by your enemy, you can create a bigger goal to confuse your enemy. When your enemy's energy and attention are focused on this, you can quietly achieve your original goal.

Kobayakawa Takahide knew that after she left, Park Sung-hyuk would definitely go back to report to Sato Kaga, and Sato Kaga would definitely want to kill him.

But compared to killing himself, what Sato Kaga wants to do more is to catch all the secret agents he has planted in the Black Dragon Society, so Sato Kaga will not act rashly, and he will even tolerate some of his actions so as to play a long game and catch a big fish...

And this is the opportunity that Kobayakawa Takahide wants!
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Liujing, in the camp east of the city.

Wang Kangxin was concentrating on reading the letter Wang Kangxin sent him. Shen Jianzhong, who was supervising the work of the firearms factory in Ruishan County, told him that the monthly output of the firearms factory in Ruishan County has reached 76 firearms. Combined with the monthly output of the Liujing Firearms Factory, the total output of the two firearms factories can now reach 110 firearms per month.

Seeing this news, Wang Kangxin was naturally in a good mood. Now there are about five months left until March next year. According to the current production capacity, by March next year, his new army in Gongdu will be equipped with about one thousand Po Lu guns.

Although one thousand Po Lu guns are not many compared to the fifty thousand soldiers under Wang Kangxin, they can basically play a role in economies of scale...
"Shen Jianzhong, you bastard, I knew you didn't do your best to supervise the firearms. If I didn't push you, I would have let you get away with it!" Putting the letter on the desk, Wang Kangxin said with some pride:
Listening to Wang Kangxin's words, the attendant Li Ben'an beside him had an idea and suggested to Wang Kangxin:

"Sir, since Shen Jianzhong is so dishonest, why don't we just kill him as soon as possible? Although he has some kung fu skills, as long as we have enough people, we can hack him to death..."

Wang Kangxin snorted coldly and said bitterly:
"Do you think I don't want to kill Shen Jianzhong? I wish I could cut him into pieces and torture him to death in front of my second uncle's grave to comfort his soul in heaven!"

At this point, Wang Kangxin closed his eyes in pain, clenched his fists and smashed the desk hard. There was a loud "bang" and all the letters and memorials on the desk fell to the ground.

"I can't do that now. I still need to keep Shen Jianzhong alive so that he can check and balance the Black Dragon Society for me and mediate the relationship between me and the Black Dragon Society. When that bastard Ye Mingsheng enters the country in the spring of next year, that will be my chance!"

"That day I will sacrifice Shen Jianzhong's head, and then fight back to Liaoyang to take back everything that belongs to me!" Wang Kangxin said with a ferocious look in his eyes full of desire:

In his eyes, the reason why Ye Mingsheng could rise to the top was that there was no king in the mountain, so the monkey came to dominate, and there were no heroes, so the young man became famous...
The initiators of his miserable experience of being stranded in a foreign country and unable to return home in the past few years were Ye Mingsheng and Shen Jianzhong!

If Ye Mingsheng had not joined forces with Shen Jianzhong to launch a surprise attack on Liujing, but had honestly helped him block the palace troops in Ruishan County and prepared for his attack on the Luochuan Road granary, then all the credit at that time would have belonged to him, Wang Kangxin, and his second uncle Wang Zhongsen would have become the Liaoyang Pacifier of the Inspectorate. So everything that Ye Mingsheng has now should have belonged to him, Wang Kangxin!
It was Ye Mingsheng, this damn despicable thief, who stole the power and glory that should have belonged to him. He wanted Ye Mingsheng to pay the price for it all!
Ye Mingsheng would never have thought that while he was secretly planning to enter the country, he was also waiting for the opportunity to launch a surprise attack on him!

Thinking of this, Wang Kangxin’s eyes were full of anticipation. He seemed to have already seen Ye Mingsheng’s panicked face and fearful eyes when he led his army to set foot on the land of Liaoyang. He wanted to completely destroy the Fengwu Army system that Ye Mingsheng was proud of, kill all his relatives in front of Ye Mingsheng, and rape An Miaoyi, the most beautiful woman in the world whom he married...

An Miaoyi was supposed to be Wang Kangxin's woman. When he was in Luoan, Wang Kangxin was transferred to be the guard of the An family. He met An Miaoyi several times. Although they only met from a distance and never said a word to An Miaoyi, An Miaoyi became Wang Kangxin's obsession.

When Wang Kangxin learned that An Miaoyi had married Ye Mingsheng, whom he hated, one can imagine the grief and indignation in his heart. He wished he could rush to Liaoyang that night and chop off Ye Mingsheng's head. In the end, he tortured three young and beautiful Silla maids to death before he could vent his resentment.

Just when Wang Kangxin was fantasizing about how to humiliate Ye Mingsheng to relieve the hatred in his heart, the noise outside suddenly became noisy.

The sound woke Wang Kangxin from his sweet dream, and he loudly rebuked:
"What happened? Why is it so noisy?" After hearing Wang Kangxin's words, a personal soldier came in and reported:

"General, something bad has happened..."

Before the personal soldier could finish his words, Wang Kangxin stepped forward and slapped him in the face, cursing:

"You bastard are the bad one, I'm fine!"

Facing Wang Kangxin's bullying, the guards could only kneel down with their hands covering their faces and kowtow, admitting their mistakes:
"I said something wrong, please be magnanimous and don't hold it against me, General!"

"Humph!"

With a cold snort, Wang Kangxin continued to ask:
"Tell me, what happened?"

“General, the Fengwu Army from Liaoyang has split into two groups to attack our palace. They are too strong, and our brothers on the front line can’t stop them at all…”

Before the poor soldier could finish his words, the furious Wang Kangxin grabbed him by the collar and asked him harshly:

"What are you talking about, you bastard? The Fengwu Army is busy preparing to enter the pass. How could they come and attack us?"

Looking at Wang Kangxin who was like a mad dog, the personal soldiers trembled and said with a sad face:
"General, please let me go. I heard this from the spies. I don't know what's going on!"

Although the soldier's words were very humble, Wang Kangxin, who was furious, would not listen to this explanation and cursed like a madman:
"You bastard, liar! Don't try to fool me!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Wang Kangxin drew out the sword beside him and chopped at the neck of the personal soldier. With a scream, the stubborn personal soldier fell to the ground, and the bright red blood splashed all over Wang Kangxin.

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Just when Wang Kangxin was going crazy in Liujing, Shen Jianzhong, who was in charge of firearms in Ruishan County, also received news that the Fengwu Army had invaded the palace. Moreover, compared with Wang Kangxin's half-knowledge, the information obtained by Shen Jianzhong, who led the remnants of the Inspectorate, was more detailed.

"Reporting to the Lord, the Fengwu Army has done a great job of keeping the information confidential this time. We don't have much information at the moment. We only know that the Fengwu Army that appeared in Huishan, judging from the flag, is Yuan Song's First Division, with a strength of about 20,000 people, and seems to be heading towards Ruishan County and Liujing."

“The Fengwu Army that appeared in Ning’an Road, judging from their flags, are Guo Zhiping’s Third Division and Peng Ce’s Fourth Division. They have a strength of about 30,000 men. Their target should be Wanfeng Prefecture. These two armies are advancing very quickly. The Gongdu troops along the way are no match for them at all. Many defenders surrendered without even waiting for the Fengwu Army to attack them…”

In the firearms factory, Sun Lin reported to Shen Jianzhong:
After listening to Sun Lin's words, Shen Jianzhong's heart was already half drained. Although he had long realized that after Kobayakawa Takahide was captured by the Coordination Office, his conspiracy would most likely leak it to Ye Mingsheng, but he never expected that Ye Mingsheng would act so quickly!

In less than seven days, he sent a large army to attack, not giving him any time to think!

Although he was in the palace, Shen Jianzhong, who was determined to retake Liaoyang, had been silently following the news from Liaoyang. Naturally, he was also well aware of Ye Mingsheng's disarmament and reorganization of the army!
After the reorganization, the total strength of the Fengwu Army was about 80,000 people, divided into five divisions. This time, Ye Mingsheng invested 50,000 troops from three divisions at once, which was enough to show Ye Mingsheng's determination to wipe out the enemy completely!
The weather is getting colder day by day. In at most one month, it will be a freezing cold winter. So Shen Jianzhong originally thought that even if Ye Mingsheng knew their conspiracy, he could only sigh and do nothing...
By the beginning of next spring, Zhao Fuqu's attack on Yunbing will be at a critical juncture. Ye Mingsheng will be busy entering the pass by then and will not care about the palace at all. At most, he will leave behind a part of the troops and garrison in Fengzhou and Posa Prefecture to resist the invasion of the palace army under Wang Kangxin.

So he now has plenty of time to think about this matter and how to continue his scheme, but what he never expected was that Ye Mingsheng, his former student, would be so decisive and not conservative at all on such a major matter.

Sending troops to Gongdu at such a time, isn't Ye Mingsheng afraid of the coming severe cold, which will put his 50,000 troops in a dilemma in Gongdu?
Sun Lin, who was standing next to Shen Jianzhong, watched Shen Jianzhong's face change from blue to white. Although he didn't know what Shen Jianzhong was thinking, he felt that there were some things he needed to remind Shen Jianzhong of. After considering his words, he said sincerely:

“Lord Shen, Yuan Song’s First Division has passed Huishan. Going forward is Hamheung County. There are less than 2,000 defenders there. They are simply unable to stop Yuan Song’s First Division. After passing Hamheung County, it’s not far from Seosan County. At the current speed of the First Division, it will only take three to five days…”

At this point, Sun Lin looked up at Shen Jianzhong and said with concern:
"The Fengwu Army is coming with such force this time that some of the brothers below are also in a state of panic. Sir, you should come up with that idea and prepare early!"

Listening to Sun Lin's words, Shen Jianzhong felt a little powerless for the first time. Although it is easy to say that making a decision is easy, it is actually not that simple.
He has no military power now, and only has the spies and killers from the Inspectorate at his disposal. How can he resist the mighty Fengwu Army?

Before coming to Gongdu, Shen Jianzhong still had a lot of hope for the tens of thousands of Gongdu new army. However, after he saw with his own eyes what kind of people the Gongdu new army was like and what kind of situation Wang Kangxin was in, there was only a little hope left in his heart. Now that Ye Mingsheng’s army has arrived, he doesn’t know what to do...

(End of this chapter)