My reborn husband and son are thinking about how to kill me every day.

Strategist Jia said, "Yes, these are all evidence! We should reveal to the Zhou emperor that they have secretly developed a secret weapon and trained tigers."

Cai Jungong nodded in agreement, then looked at General Yao and asked, "How are the people we sent out doing?"

General Yao said, "The people we sent out have already leaked the information as planned, but the other side hasn't taken any action."

As soon as he finished speaking, the strategists all frowned.

Cai Junshi said, "If we just say that we have reached some kind of agreement, I'm afraid the other side won't believe it."

Adding fuel to the fire, revealing Prince Rui's secret weapons development and tiger training should be enough. Then, as long as the court restricts their military rations, they'll be in serious trouble.

Strategist Jia said, "But our army is also running low on food supplies."

If their five granaries hadn't been burned, they wouldn't have been in a hurry and could have slowly worn down the Zhou army.

But now that five of their granaries have been burned down, their food supplies have suddenly become scarce, and the soldiers have had to reduce the frequency of their meals.

Moreover, the other party is elusive, and they still haven't figured out how they did it.

The atmosphere in the entire camp is now very tense, in preparation for any further attacks on the granary.

They had come from Qi to attack Zhou, and were already exhausted from their journey. Now, the atmosphere in the army was tense, and the soldiers' rations had been reduced, which was very disadvantageous for them.

In particular, the soldiers not being well-fed greatly affected their performance in battle.

For a moment, everyone in the tent fell silent.

After a while, Cai Junshi suddenly said, "This burning of grain must have been done by people on Prince Rui's side. They burned our grain, so we'll go and steal their grain!"

"Do you even need to tell me?" Strategist Jia said, "They have mysterious weapons and fierce tigers. How can we possibly take them?"

If they hadn't suddenly acquired mysterious weapons, they would have launched a full-scale attack long ago!

Currently, they have no idea what mysterious weapon the other side possesses, and launching a direct attack at this point would likely be suicide.

Cai Junshi said, "Send a small team out to rob the common people of Da Zhou."

Qi Jun was no stranger to this method.

In the past, whenever there was a disaster or when there was a food shortage in winter, the border soldiers would disguise themselves as bandits and rob the people of Zhou of their food.

General Yao took out a map of the Great Zhou Dynasty, pondered for a long time, and said, "Let's do it as Mr. Jia said."

Then, the group discussed how many soldiers to send out, what route to take, and where to plunder.

Night fell in Shuanghe Village, but Wei Zhenfang and his men still hadn't left.

Looking outside, Gu Chunzhi became restless.

Lu Xumu also lost his previous composure.

Lu Yanqi was playing with his younger sister in the house when he noticed his grandmother and third uncle looking out frequently. He followed suit and asked, "Why hasn't Tianrui come back yet?"

Gu Chunzhi's attention was drawn to his words, and she smiled and said, "Missing Tianrui, huh?"

Lu Yanqi shook his head and said, "I'm worried."

"What are you worried about?" Lu Xumu said, "Tianrui is so fierce, how could he be in danger outside?"

Lu Yanqi shook his head, "It's not that I'm worried about Tianrui! I'm worried about ourselves."

Lu Xumu chuckled and said, "What do we have to worry about?"

Tianrui said, "But that uncle brought several cartloads of gifts to our house today, and a few days ago, government officials came to our house to deliver rewards. Everyone must think that our family has a lot of money. What if a thief comes to steal from us if Tianrui is not at home?"

Lu Xumu and Gu Chunzhi were initially laughing, finding the little child innocent and adorable. But after hearing Lu Yanqi's words, neither of them could laugh anymore.

Indeed, the day before yesterday, officials delivered a reward to their family, which was witnessed by many households in the village. Today, the Wei family came again to deliver gifts.

Whether they accept it or not, the news that their family has become rich will surely spread far and wide.

At that time, those idlers might very well have their own ideas.

Thinking to himself, Lu Xumu strode towards the courtyard gate. Wei Zhenfang was delighted to see someone open the door, but before he could speak, he noticed that Lu Xumu's expression was off.

"Are you here to apologize to our family, or are you here to get revenge on us because we got your son locked up in jail?"

Before Wei Zhenfang could speak, the soldiers behind him said angrily, "What are you saying? When has our general ever been so humble? He is a great general, commanding thousands of troops, and he has been waiting at your doorstep for a whole day. Isn't that enough sincerity?"

Wei Zhenfang dismissed his personal guards, then cupped his hands in a gesture of respect to Lu Xumu and said, "Young brother, there must be some misunderstanding."

As I said before, in addition to apologizing, I am also sincerely grateful to General Ji for taking in my eldest son.

Now, my second son is a complete waste. My Wei family only has Wei Shen as our one reliable heir; you are his mentor's family, how could I possibly want to harm you?"

Lu Xumu said, "If you don't intend to harm us, why are you coming to give us gifts in such a grand manner?"

You've come to my house so ostentatiously, bringing several cartloads of goods as an apology. Doesn't this make everyone know that we've become wealthy and have many valuable things?

Normally, it's just my mother at home with my nephews and nieces—a house full of elderly, weak, women, and children. What would they do if a greedy scoundrel came along?

The families Wei Zhenfang usually visited all had servants and guards, so he hadn't really considered this aspect.

In addition, he was in a hurry to leave today, and he only thought about being sincere and letting Prince Rui see his sincerity. On the other hand, it was also because Ji Yunshuang's identity was not simple, and Wei Shen had become his disciple. He hoped to turn hostility into friendship with the Lu family.

Upon hearing Lu Xumu's words, he realized his oversight and quickly said, "It was my oversight, young brother, please don't be angry. I will leave a few men here today to protect you."

Lu Xumu wanted to say no, but then he thought that even if the Wei family took everything away now, the news would probably have already spread.

Regardless of his intentions, his entire family is now in danger.

Therefore, this time he did not refuse and accepted the guards sent by Wei Zhenfang.

However, aside from the guards, he still refused the gifts from Wei Zhenfang. He stated that he would return the guards to Wei Zhenfang once he had acquired suitable manpower.

This means that although he has accepted the people sent by Wei Zhenfang, it is only temporary.

"Since they are only temporarily borrowing my people, I can't expect you to subsidize them."

Wei Zhenfang left several cartloads of goods at the Lu family's residence under the pretext of keeping them for his own guards' expenses, and then left.

The two guards he left behind were named Zhong Xu and Qiu Yuan.

Seeing that the Lu family was still unwilling to accept the money, Qiu Yuan spoke up for his general, saying, "What our general said is true; he really wants to apologize to you."

"We are truly grateful to General Ji for taking the young master as his apprentice. Please accept these things! If you accept them, our general will feel a little better."

“Yes, our general has it tough too.” Zhong Xu said, “Actually, the general was also deceived by his wife… Madam Dong. Our general didn’t know what Madam Dong and the second young master did.”

Our general returned from the army specifically to discipline the second young master. Who would have thought that before the general even took action, he would commit such a grave error?

Lu Xumu said, "You don't need to tell me these things. Since your general said that you should thank my sister-in-law for taking your young master as her disciple, then let me ask my sister-in-law first."

He cleared out a separate room to store the belongings left behind by Wei Zhenfang.

As for whether or not to leave the things behind, he planned to write to Ji Yunshuang again to ask. He would leave everything to his sister-in-law's arrangements.

He didn't understand why they all called his sister-in-law "General Ji," and he could only try his best not to cause her any trouble.