On the wedding day, my wife was abnormal

In the height of summer, the grasslands are dry, and occasional wildfires are not unusual. But all of this happened too "coincidentally." First came the inexplicable plague, followed by the perfectly timed wildfires.

These two things seem unrelated, but Lin Zhen vaguely sensed that an invisible, malicious net was quietly spreading out in a place he couldn't see.

"Your Highness, this must be a trap!" Zheng Jiao slammed his fist on the table and roared, "This is no accident! It must have been done by spies from the northern desert! They don't dare to raid our grain directly, so they're using this underhanded method to burn our supplies!"

"Perhaps." Lin Zhen's gaze was deep. He walked to the huge sand table, looked at the situation of the enemy and his own side, and fell into deep thought.

Burning provisions, creating plagues… these methods, though insidious, have limited impact on a war involving hundreds of thousands of people. Why would Uvi expend so much effort, risking exposing his spies, just to burn five hundred bushels of grain and poison a few hundred auxiliary soldiers?

This doesn't seem like Uwe's work. Uwe is a wolf, not a scorpion. Wolves hunt with a single, fatal strike. These subtle movements seem more like...

"It's trying to get my attention," Lin Zhen muttered to himself.

"Your Highness, what did you say?" Zheng Jiao didn't hear clearly.

“Commander Zheng,” Lin Zhen turned his head, his gaze sharp, “Don’t you think these things have all happened too ‘smoothly’? Whether it’s the plague or the wildfires, it’s as if they’re deliberately telling us: ‘Look, I’m here, I’m causing you trouble.’”

Zheng Jiao was taken aback upon hearing this, but then realized what he meant: "Your Highness means... this is also a feint? Their real purpose is to divert our attention elsewhere?"

“Very likely.” Lin Zhen nodded. “That old fox Uvi is a master of deception. He keeps creating these minor troubles to keep us busy and force us to deploy our elite forces to guard against these ‘unexpected’ events. His truly deadly move may be hidden in the most unexpected place.”

Just then, the guards outside the tent came to report again.

"Your Highness, Commander Zheng! While inspecting the site of the burned-down granary, we found a letter that was not completely burned on a charred corpse!"

A guard rushed in and presented a charred object wrapped in cloth with both hands.

Lin Zhen opened the cloth bundle, inside which was a roll of silk that had been burned and was incomplete. He carefully unfolded it; most of the writing on it was blurred and illegible, but some sentences could still be barely made out.

"...King Lin is autocratic, and military achievements are unfairly distributed...Commander Zheng's prestige is instead controlled by him...We...are indignant..."

At the end of the letter was a seal that appeared to be that of a general, now burned to half its original size.

"Snapped!"

After reading the letter, Zheng Jiao flew into a rage, slamming it on the table. His eyes widened in fury: "Outrageous! Who is spreading rumors behind my back, trying to sow discord between me and the Prince! Your Highness, I am utterly loyal to you and to the court, and have no disloyalty whatsoever!"

"Zheng Shuai, of course I believe you." Lin Zhen's expression was calm, but his eyes were frighteningly cold.

He picked up the tattered letter and examined it closely. The forgery was masterful; both the handwriting and the tone of the writing resembled those of a disgruntled veteran under Zheng Jiao. If this letter fell into the wrong hands, especially among those already envious of Lin Zhen's youth and high position, it would likely cause a huge uproar.

Plague, wildfires, divisive letters...

Seemingly unrelated threads gradually came together in Lin Zhen's mind, pointing to a vague yet incredibly sinister outline.

This is not Uvi's style. Although Uvi is cunning, his methods are still those of the battlefield. But these... seem more like the work of someone familiar with the internal workings of the Great Qian Dynasty, well-versed in the wickedness of human nature, and harboring a deep-seated hatred for Lin Zhen and Murong Yan.

A name instantly popped into Lin Zhen's mind.

Kong Zhiqian!

"So it was you..." Lin Zhen muttered to himself, his eyes blazing with murderous intent.

He finally understood. These conspiracies weren't about gaining an advantage on the battlefield; their purpose from the very beginning was to demoralize his troops, confuse his judgment, and ultimately lure him into a pre-designed, deadly trap!

Where will this trap be set?

Lin Zhen's gaze fell on the sand table once again. He closed his eyes and quickly reviewed all the recent intelligence about Mobei in his mind.

Uvi's main force is holed up, small groups of cavalry are harassing everywhere, there's plague, wildfires, and divisive messages... and there's that vague intelligence captured by "Night Owl" about the Golden Wolf Riders moving northwest towards the "Death Swamp"...

All the clues eventually pointed to that seemingly most impossible, most desolate, and most dangerous place.

"The Swamp of Death..." Lin Zhen suddenly opened his eyes, his gaze flashing with a sharp light. "I know! I know where Uvi's real killing move lies!"

"Your Highness, are you saying... that old thief Uvina really dares to hide his main force in the Death Swamp?" Marshal Zheng Jiao's face was filled with disbelief after hearing Lin Zhen's deduction.

The Swamp of Death, located deep in the heart of the northern desert, is a vast swamp spanning hundreds of miles. It is perpetually shrouded in miasma, teeming with poisonous insects, and riddled with shifting sands; once people or livestock fall in, there is no chance of survival. In the legends of the northern people, it is a "devil's eye" cursed by the Eternal Heaven, and even the bravest herdsmen dare not approach it lightly.

It's simply unbelievable that they could hide tens of thousands of troops in such a place!

"Warfare is based on deception." Lin Zhen's gaze, sharp as a hawk's, was fixed on the area representing the swamp on the sand table.

"The more impossible something seems, the more likely it is to be true. Uvi is using tricks like plague, wildfires, and divisive messages to create trouble on the eastern and southern fronts, all to draw our attention and forces there. He's betting that we'll never imagine that he'll send his most elite Golden Wolf Cavalry through an extremely secret dry-season passage at the edge of the Death Swamp, known only to a very few old herders, to outflank our rear—the Yanran Protectorate!"

He pointed his finger heavily at the lonely city model of the Yanran Protectorate.

"The Yanran Protectorate is our army's most important transit base for food and weapons, and also the rear route of our entire Northern Expeditionary Army! Once Yanran falls, our hundreds of thousands of troops will instantly be plunged into a desperate situation of running out of food and supplies and having their rear route cut off! At that time, we will collapse on our own without even needing Uvi to fight!"