Deposed Crown Prince: After three years of service on the frontier, the entire court knelt and begge

Xiao Ce had indeed not noticed that a raven had just flown out.

However, Xiao Ce didn't seem to care at all; instead, he revealed a sly smile.

"Thank you for reminding me!"

Upon hearing Xiao Ce's words, Wu Qimu Gesa's expression stiffened as he asked, "What do you mean?"

Xiao Ce naturally wouldn't follow what Wu Qimu Gesa said.

He looked at Da Lei and said, "Da Lei, I need to ask you for a favor."

Da Lei said to Xiao Ce, "Your Highness, do you intend to send him to Yanbei City?"

Xiao Ce patted Da Lei on the shoulder approvingly after hearing his words: "Not bad! Because looking around, you are the strongest in terms of individual combat ability. Right now, the border between the Mo and Turks is full of Turkic troops, so it won't be easy to bring people over!"

Da Lei patted his chest and said, "Your Highness, I guarantee I'll bring this person over alive. However, after I leave, what about you..."

The axe-wielding bull, carrying two giant axes on his back, said, "Captain, I'm no pushover either... These Turks are no match for me. As long as I'm here, the prince is here! Even if I'm not here, the prince is still here!"

Xiao Ce nodded at Axe Ox's words: "That's right, Da Lei has Axe Ox. Besides, as you've seen, I don't like reckless fighting! You can rest assured. If what Wu Qimu Gesa said is true, then Yanbei City is under great pressure right now!"

Da Lei didn't stand on ceremony and nodded, saying, "Your Highness, no problem! I'll set off right away."

Xiao Ce then asked Da Lei to find some good horses.

Da Lei bowed and agreed, then hoisted Wu Qimu Gesa onto his shoulder.

Wu Qimu Gesa's expression changed drastically: "You...what do you want to do...if you insult me..."

Da Lei slapped her on the butt and cursed, "You old codger, would I be blind to insult you?"

Just as Wu Qimu Gesa was about to curse, Da Lei casually picked up a lump of something from the ground and stuffed it into her mouth.

...

Xiao Ce ignored him and went to find Yan Jia.

"Your Highness? Do you have any orders?"

Xiao Ce asked, "Have you found any ravens here?"

Yan Jia nodded and said, "Yes, they kept their ravens far from their tents, so they survived the disaster, and quite a few are still alive..."

Xiao Ce sent Yan Jia to take a look, and then summoned Wei Wuji.

When they arrived at the raven hut, they looked at the raven.

Axe Bull immediately sensed something was wrong: "Who's there! Show yourself!"

"Axe Bull!" he shouted, pointing to a raven cage in the shadows.

"If you don't come out, I'll kill you!"

After Axe Ox uttered those words, a sound of begging for mercy came from inside.

"No...no...adults, I'm coming out..."

A thin, middle-aged man emerged from inside; judging from his attire, he was likely one of the slaves here.

After the middle-aged man came out, he kowtowed to Xiao Ce.

"My lords, I...I...I am also from the Northern Desert...I am not a traitor...I was forced into this...My lords, please spare my life!"

Looking at this person, Xiao Ce was both amused and exasperated: "I never said I was going to kill you, did I?"

The middle-aged man kept kowtowing to Xiao Ce.

"Thank you, Your Highness... Thank you, Your Highness..."

Xiao Ce asked in surprise, "You know me?"

The middle-aged man shook his head awkwardly: "I heard everything that was going on outside! Your Highness, I like raising ravens, so these Turks brought me here specifically to raise ravens for them!"

Xiao Ce's eyes lit up as he listened to the middle-aged man's introduction.

"Are you in charge of all these ravens? Did you send out those messages just now?"

The middle-aged man nodded and knelt down again: "Your Highness, I...I dare not...I dare not refuse...They forced me!"

The middle-aged man, with a mournful face, kept kowtowing.

Xiao Ce waved his hand and said, "I didn't mean to blame you. Get up."

The middle-aged man observed Xiao Ce's expression and, seeing that Xiao Ce's face was kind, breathed a sigh of relief and stood up tremblingly.

"What's your name?" Xiao Ce looked him up and down.

The middle-aged man said to Xiao Ce, "Your Highness, my name is Fei Jie."

"Who is Fei Du to you?" Xiao Ce asked hurriedly.

Fei Jie was taken aback, then said excitedly, "Your Highness, do you know my elder brother? That's my elder brother..."

Xiao Ce burst into laughter upon hearing this: "Fei Du, Fei Jie... you two are ravens raised by your ancestors! Not bad, your elder brother is now working under me!"

Upon hearing this, Fei Jie knelt down with a thud and said to Xiao Ce, "Your Highness, I am also willing to do things for you!"

Xiao Ce smiled and said, "Alright, I did indeed ask you to do something! What letter did Ge Sa ask you to send just now, that Wu Qimu?"

Fei Jie cupped his hands and said, "Because it happened so suddenly, they only sent out a simple distress signal. This was agreed upon by them! When they encounter an attack they can't resolve, they send out this signal! Then they will all attack the attacked tribe together!"

"Is there any way to call the raven back?"

Fei Jie shook his head repeatedly: "No! However, we can resend the letter! Your Highness, I know their letter format and their tone. I can send a letter to tell them that this is a misunderstanding."

Xiao Ce waved his hand and said, "No need."

Fei Jie looked at Xiao Ce with a hint of doubt.

Xiao Ce pondered for a moment and said, "What I mean is, don't follow their explanation that this is a misunderstanding. Instead, say that you understand! This attack was launched by the Ashina tribe. Now all the Gesa tribe members have been killed, and the rest of the Gesa tribe members have fled... Let them go and attack the Ashina tribe directly."

Fei Jie nodded after listening to Xiao Ce's words.

After Xiao Ce finished speaking, he asked, "Fei Jie, do you think they will believe it?"

Fei Jie nodded and said, "The Helu tribe and the Ashina tribe have many conflicts. After all, one is the first tribe and the other is the second, and there are various open and covert struggles between them! They will believe it! However, they may not necessarily send troops to attack the Ashina tribe. Instead, they will come to investigate!"

Xiao Ce nodded: "It's alright, just send them out like that! There's no need to send them out to Ashina's side. Later, I'll disguise this side a bit; the Turks here all wear the same clothes, right?"

Fei Jie nodded: "That's right, only the flags are different!"

Xiao Ce nodded knowingly.

As Fei Jie spoke, he went to the side to busy himself with writing a letter.

He was very efficient and finished the task in no time, then released the raven.

When Xiao Ce stepped out of the tent, the eastern part of the grassland was already turning light, and the sun had just peeked over the horizon.

The vibrant sunlight shone on the grassland, bringing some life to this tribe that was littered with corpses.

At this time, Wei Wuji and more than 20,000 slaves had already driven the cattle and sheep together.

Yan Jia stepped forward to report: "A lot of the grain on Your Highness's side has been burned, but there are still tens of thousands of shi left that can be used! The silver and gold were not damaged."

"A considerable haul! Over 100,000 taels of gold, over 300,000 taels of silver, and countless jewels. More than 10,000 cattle, over 21,000 sheep, and over 3,000 warhorses! There are also various weapons and armor."

Xiao Ce was genuinely surprised: "Have you tallied up the slaves? How many do you have?"

Yan Jia cupped his hands and said, "Reporting to Your Highness, the total number is over 18,000. Originally, there were over 20,000 people, but during their Heavenly God Festival, nearly 2,000 were killed."

Xiao Ce nodded.

Yan Jia asked, "Your Highness, what should we do next to settle those people?"

Xiao Ce said to Yan Jia, "The number of slaves here is beyond my expectations. These are from several sub-tribes! It's impossible to bring them all! I've already thought of a solution. Let them become the masters of this tribe. They have cattle, sheep, horses, and money! Most importantly, they have manpower! Go to Zhang Yunqing's place and call all those people over, and let them all come together!"

"Then we'll rebuild a cavalry force here, and support it during battles. I'm confident we can conquer this Turkic tribe, gather all the slaves, and have at least hundreds of thousands of civilians, plus tens of thousands of cavalry!"

Yan Jia's eyes lit up as he listened, and he nodded repeatedly before heading to Zhang Yunqing's camp.

Xiao Ce went and called Wei Wuji and Fei Jie over.

He explained his plan, and Wei Wuji nodded, saying, "Your Highness, actually, I've been thinking about this issue. How many Turks are there, while we have hundreds of thousands of slaves? Why don't they rebel? Later, I realized that it's because we don't have a leader."

"Now that Your Highness has arrived, I feel there's no problem! Especially now, the Turkic Kingdom is more vulnerable than ever before..."

Xiao Ce looked at Fei Jie, who gave an awkward smile: "Your Highness, I don't know anything about this. All I know is how to raise ravens!"

Xiao Ce said to Fei Jie, "Then you should set up a Raven Intelligence Network here, just like your brother's!"

Fei Jie was somewhat surprised after hearing this.

Xiao Ce said, "This is rather complicated. I'll explain it to you in detail another day!"

"Wei Wuji, I'm asking you to build an army and be the general. What do you say?" Xiao Ce said, looking at Wei Wuji.

Wei Wuji trembled, looking at Xiao Ce with excitement.

"Your Highness, really? I...I...can I do it?"

Xiao Ce said with a smile, "If I say you can do it, then you definitely can! Just tell me if you're willing or not."

Wei Wuji nodded: "Willing...willing...of course I'm willing! Your Highness, I will certainly not let you down..."

Xiao Ce said, "Your army will be called the Wolf Army. All treatment will be the same as the Northern Desert Army!"

Wei Wuji nodded and went to get busy.

Xiao Ce obtained paper and pen from Fei Jie and drew a rough sketch.

Get everyone busy with construction. The most urgent task is to have them dig a ring of horse traps around the outermost edge to prevent cavalry from charging in at once.

They then dressed the slaves in Turkic clothes and made them rush to make some flags with Ashina's totem and plant them here!

Even if it were their scouts, they could be fooled.

After doing all this, Xiao Ce let the Yanjia soldiers take turns resting.

Having not slept all night, Xiao Ce found a shady spot to rest.

Around noon, a commotion broke out.

Xiao Ce stared blankly ahead, only to see Zhang Yunqing leading a large army, herding cattle and sheep.

These slaves now have a completely different mental state than they did yesterday.

Zhang Yunqing came over and reported the situation to Xiao Ce. They had been busy slaughtering sheep, but there were too many. They had only slaughtered less than a third of them when they received a message instructing them to gather in this direction, at which point they stopped.

Then, with some concern, she asked Xiao Ce, "Your Highness, how should we settle these slaves?"

Xiao Ce said to Zhang Yunqing, "The number of people here exceeds our expectations, and there are so many cattle and sheep. Moreover, if we just conquer this place and leave, it won't make much sense. But if we gather all the slaves together and build a new country..."

Zhang Yunqing's eyes lit up slightly: "Your Highness, this is feasible! We have manpower, money, cattle, sheep, horses, and even weapons are readily available!"

Xiao Ce nodded: "That's right! That's my idea right now, but we're missing a leader to oversee everything!"

Zhang Yunqing noticed that Xiao Ce was staring straight at him.

He was both excited and nervous: "Your Highness...you...you mean me? That won't do...I'm just a merchant..."

Xiao Ce said, "If you're not willing, you can temporarily manage it for me. Later, when a suitable person comes along, I'll have him replace you. Actually, managing a trading company is quite similar to managing a city. Besides, I need someone I can trust! Of course, if you're willing, you can stay as the leader! Isn't that much better than being a merchant yourself?"

"You must understand, a person doesn't get many opportunities in their lifetime. This is also an opportunity for you. How much merit would an ordinary person have to make to receive such a fiefdom?"

Zhang Yunqing nodded awkwardly and said, "Your Highness, this land must be protected to remain mine! I'm mainly afraid of holding you back."

Xiao Ce looked at him and said, "I'm still here! I'll go and help you take down the Turks. Their main force isn't here right now! This is the perfect opportunity for us! By then, you'll have hundreds of thousands of people, as well as hundreds of thousands of cattle, sheep, and grain! Do you think the Turks will still be a match for you?"

"If everything were readily available, you wouldn't be in this situation! I'll lead the charge for you, and you can just manage things here! I'm asking you one last time, are you in or not!"

Zhang Yunqing's expression shifted upon hearing this, his eyes hardening: "Let's do it!"