Chapter 1013: Arrangements!
“Is this what you called ‘I’ve had it all arranged?’” Throwing a stack of battle reports in front of Bai Xiaofei, Qiu Muxue looked at him contemptuously.
Picking up the reports with a surprised expression, Bai Xiaofei skimmed them before revealing an awkward smile.
“Err… well, there may have been some misunderstandings,” he said and put down the report, but inwardly his heart was filled with confusion.
According to the reports, in the past several days, the Moonlight army had been marching straight toward Colorful Star Fortress and had destroyed all the troops planted by Bai Xiaofei and Qiu Muxue along the way. From those who fled back, they had learned that Moonlight had declared they would recapture Colorful Star at all costs!
“Misunderstandings or not, it doesn’t matter. The important thing is that I can’t cooperate with Moonlight like this,” Qiu Muxue pointed out the key problem. Moonlight’s current actions could be said to be full of openings. As far as Qiu Muxue’s command ability was concerned, it was not a problem for her to swallow the Moonlight army whole.
While Barbaric Godism didn’t send anyone to supervise the war, Qiu Muxue had to regularly report the situation to them. Therefore, her act could not be too fake.
“You should be able to guess why Moonlight is doing this,” she suddenly said with a knowing smile. “I heard that this attack was initiated by the emperor herself, and she is also among the troops. Our schoolmate Bai’s ability to attract butterflies is still as formidable as ever, I see.”
Bai Xiaofei immediately coughed awkwardly.
“Heaven knows I haven’t done anything! Our priority now is dealing with this problem, right?” he hurriedly changed the subject.
“You can just write a letter and I’ll find someone to secretly send it out, then they will stop being so aggressive. After all, it’s all because of you,” said Qiu Muxue. She obviously understood the situation quite well.
“That’s easier said than done. Do you think anyone from your side can reach Ye Qingcheng alive? Besides, you only just announced my execution. Even if I wrote the letter myself, they may just suspect that you faked it,” Bai Xiaofei dismissed the idea.
“Then tell me, what else can I do?!” Qiu Muxue glared at him. Being his enemy was tormenting, but being his ally was not much better!
“Split the troops!” Bai Xiaofei chortled and continued as Qiu Muxue was still confused. “Since Moonlight is concentrating all their troops on attacking Colorful Star, their rear defense is bound to be empty. If you order a sneak attack at this time, no one can find fault with your decision and you will also have much more room to maneuver in terms of numbers.”
He then grabbed a map and marked out all of Moonlight’s fortresses.
“Given the characteristics of Moonlight’s linked defense, you can mobilize more troops with the reason that you want to ensure that you can penetrate their defense line. However, as long as you only focus on the fortresses with the strongest defenses, your troops will surely lose. Meanwhile, we can just abandon Colorful Light, saying we don’t want to make pointless sacrifices and will wait until the front captures those fortresses so we can attack Moonlight’s main force from two directions; while in fact, the one who will be attacked is the army that you’ve split up. We can all imagine how they’ll end up!”
Upon finishing his speech, Bai Xiaofei looked up at Qiu Muxue.
The sudden eye contact flustered the latter. She yelled like a cat whose tail was stepped on, “Why are you looking at me?!”
“I’m finished. Who else do I look at? Is there anyone else in this room?” he asked innocently.
“Even so, you can’t stare at me!”
Being unreasonable was a woman’s unique right. A speechless Bai Xiaofei averted his gaze.
“Your plan is possible, but many people will have to die, which is not what you guaranteed,” Qiu Muxue finally evaluated.
“You told me before that you didn’t care about casualties. Already changing your mind?” Bai Xiaofei was speechless again.
“Why would I want to see so many of my people die when the casualties can be limited? You told me you could control it, so this is your responsibility!” Qiu Muxue concluded domineeringly.
Unable to refute, Bai Xiaofei could only sigh. Damn, turns out it’s still much easier to do business with the strong women of Moonlight!
“Don’t worry, before I leave, I will leave a message for them. They may not believe a letter you send, but will definitely believe my secret messages left using a special method.” Fortunately, Bai Xiaofei had already thought of a way to deal with it, or he would really have been stumped by Qiu Muxue’s demand…
“A special message?” Qiu Muxue couldn’t expect what kind of message he could leave.
“If it’s like you said, that what Moonlight is doing is because of me, then so long as I can convince them that I’m safe, they will naturally calm down. However, I can’t just say that we have reached a cooperative relationship as it’s too far-fetched to believe, so I will pretend to be captured by you and tell them that you want something from me, which means that I’ll be safe for the time being and they can just proceed with my previous arrangements,” Bai Xiaofei explained.
“Tsk, what’s in that head of yours? So many twists and turns. If it weren’t that Starnet’s admission cannot be forged, I’d doubt if you are really just over twenty years old.” An amazed Qiu Muxue looked at Bai Xiaofei curiously.
“If you grew up with a bunch of old monsters who have experienced countless storms, you would be like me. But believe me, you don’t want this experience.” Bai Xiaofei gulped as many unforgettable memories re-emerged in his mind…
“Forget it, I’ll leave you to your memory lane. I have to go and make arrangements.” Qiu Muxue left in satisfaction. Now what she needed to do was to create a perfect show.
Soon, several hundred thousand Sacks troops set out according to Qiu Muxue’s plan, from Colorful Star and the other fortresses, leaving behind only some meager forces for defense.
No one would doubt that the Saintess who had allowed the Sacks to quickly capture the seven fortresses of Moonlight would trick her own clan, so every Sacks soldier had high expectations for their future.
However, their expectations were ruthlessly shattered by reality…
After sneaking up from behind and beginning the siege, they suddenly felt like they had been bogged down in a quagmire. In the face of the well-guarded target fortresses, the Sacks simply could not achieve the quick victory that Qiu Muxue ‘wanted.’ Moreover, their food supplies fell short as time passed, and when it exposed how fatal their existing food problem was, the Sacks finally realized something was wrong.
At that critical juncture, the news that Colorful Star was captured became the final straw. As Qiu Muxue gathered the remaining troops, the army who had been deployed became a lone log of wood in the sea, isolated and helpless!
After recapturing Colorful Star, Ye Qingcheng turned the place upside down but failed to get any news about Bai Xiaofei. After she ordered the troops to rest and readjust, Tan Xin came up with a smile.
“No need to look, he’s fine.”
“You found him?” Ye Qingcheng asked dubiously.
“We didn’t find him, he left us a message,” Tan Xin said and took out a Recording Eyeball.
There was no image, only Bai Xiaofei’s voice. The gist of the message was: ‘I’m safe. Try and capture as many Sacks as possible as it will be an important bargaining chip for my safe return.’
As Bai Xiaofei had predicted, no one doubted the authenticity of the message, and knowing that he was safe was already enough for them.
After a long silence, Ye Qingcheng’s lips curled up. “If so, those stupid folks really delivered themselves to us.”
Soon, Ye Qingcheng led the Moonlight army to cooperate with the rear fortresses to tighten their net. Of the isolated 500,000-strong Sacks army, she captured 200,000 in one swoop!
When pulling in this big haul, Ye Qingcheng finally realized that something was wrong – It had been all too easy!
She wouldn’t be so surprised if the trap had been laid by herself, but the situation was that the trap had already been laid and she only conveniently collected it. It felt like someone was helping her, and the only person she could think of was Bai Xiaofei.
“It seems you are more than just ‘safe,’ huh?” In the study, Ye Qingcheng revealed a relaxed smile and lay in her long chair, lost in thought. In the end, she murmured, “Sacks, what is your real purpose?”
Even though she didn’t know the specifics, having found the right direction, Ye Qingcheng knew what she had to do.
“Sacks, if this is what you want, then I will lend you a hand…”