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

Koichi Tojo was very happy along the way.

After all, he treated it as a vacation, sitting in the specially made carriage for him on the west side.

The carriage was perfectly smooth, as if it were traveling on flat ground.

Moreover, Xiao Guo and his people are now so poor that they can barely afford to eat.

But roads are still being built everywhere.

This is something the people of Fusang don't understand; in their eyes, Xiao Ce might have some good qualities.

However, they felt that road construction was a waste of resources and manpower, something done only for pleasure.

This made them realize that Xiao Ce was, after all, just a mortal, and had many visible flaws.

Little did they know that if you want to get rich, you must first build roads.

Every day during his meals, Xiao Ce would shower Tojo Koichi with compliments...

On this day, they received another piece of good news: the Kingdom of Fusang was indeed very polite this time.

They sent ten times the amount of supplies as before, a total of one hundred cargo ships.

Although it was less than a tenth of what they had plundered, it was still quite a lot.

And there's more to come.

Anyway, I talked to Koichi Tojo, and they were willing to contribute half of what they had previously plundered from this area.

Xiao Ce was satisfied that they were able to communicate and reveal half of what they had said.

At this moment, Xiao Zhan said to Xiao Ce, "Brother, everything is ready. I have already dispatched the advance troops... The Slavic countries are completely unprepared. This time, we will definitely be able to wreak havoc..."

Xiao Ce said to Xiao Zhan, "Alright, there's no need to send scouts to investigate..."

Xiao Zhan asked Xiao Ce with a puzzled look, "Brother, isn't the key to victory in every battle to know yourself and your enemy?"

Xiao Ce looked at Xiao Zhan's innocent eyes and smiled, thinking to himself, "I haven't told him my plan yet..."

He could only nod and say to Xiao Zhan, "That's right...that's right...that's right...you're right! You're right!"

Xiao Zhan still didn't quite understand what Xiao Ce meant.

She simply smiled and said, "Brother, I know you trust me... but don't trust me blindly... Your excessive trust will only make me arrogant..."

Looking at Xiao Zhan's expression, Xiao Ce smiled wryly and said, "You're overthinking it..."

As he spoke, Yan Jia rode over on horseback from the side.

Xiao Ce saw Yan Jia and immediately told Xiao Zhan to go about his business.

He then waved to Yan Jia, who, upon approaching, glanced at Da Lei again.

Da Lei nodded slightly, seemingly without any change.

However, upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that the guards surrounding Xiao Ce have intentionally divided this area into sections...

Xiao Ce asked Yan Jia, "Yan Jia, is everything going smoothly?"

Yan Jia said to Xiao Ce, "Your Highness, rest assured everything is going smoothly. I have already sent another 100,000 troops over there..."

Xiao Ce nodded: "Okay, well done."

Yan Jia excitedly said to Xiao Ce, "Your Highness, this is a huge gamble... We actually have absolutely no experience with this..."

Xiao Ce said to Yan Jia, "No one expected us to do this... that's how we catch them off guard!"

Yan Jia nodded: "That is indeed the case."

Xiao Ce said with a smile, "Alright, let our people intensify their training."

Yan Jia nodded: "By the way, Your Highness, should we move those prisoners? Because once we enter the area of ​​the Northern Desert King's Palace, there are Japanese prisoners and laborers everywhere we've captured, planting potatoes for us. Although they are controlled by Xiaoyao Wan."

"But when they're at their normal pace, they still want to run away. After all, growing potatoes isn't enough to feed them, and it's even more tiring than working with livestock."

"What if a few manage to escape? That would be bad..."

"We'll arrive at the Northern Desert King's Palace in at least ten days, waiting for their next batch of supplies to arrive..."

"Also, do things the way they should... Now, without even looking at whose territory we're on, we've already gathered nearly half a million people."

"That Tojo Koichi, including his staff and guards, has less than a hundred men... I could chop him into mincemeat in a heartbeat if I wanted to..."

"Even if he finds out, it doesn't matter... He dares to yell and scream, so we'll take him with us to plant potatoes..."

Upon hearing Xiao Ce's words, Yan Jia realized that Xiao Ce had probably already used Tojo Koichi.

Yan Jia nodded, without saying much: "Your Highness, I understand. Then I'll go directly there this time."

Xiao Ce nodded and said to Yan Jia, "Alright, this time you'll choose the soldiers..."

Before Xiao Ce could finish speaking, Yan Jia interrupted, "Your Highness, please rest assured! They are all the elite of the elite. Of course, our first priority is loyalty! They have all been tested many times, and it's no exaggeration to say that they are all top-notch soldiers!"

Xiao Ce nodded to Yan Jia: "Alright, we'll also have Slavic soldiers with us. Although they've already experienced our power, this time, we must make them realize it even more directly!"

Yan Jia smiled and nodded: "Your Highness, just you wait and see. You've been traveling around all these years, so naturally you don't know much about our situation here. You know even less about our troop training... You'll see when you see it. I dare say, without exaggeration, that the army we've selected is the strongest army ever!"

Xiao Ce was indeed somewhat surprised to hear Yan Jia say this.

After all, the claim of having the strongest army isn't something one can just casually make...

With Yan Jia's confidence.

Xiao Ce became even more determined.

...

At this moment, on one side of the Northern Desert King's Palace, stood a man dressed in rags, emaciated, with lifeless eyes, his face obscured by hair and beard.

He would then mechanically dig the ground with a pickaxe, his face expressionless.

In the distance, several soldiers were patrolling back and forth, each holding a barbed steel whip.

This barbed steel whip, with its spikes and barbs, looks so painful that it makes one's skin ache.

There are also some disobedient people who have experienced this pain.

With one lash, the whip tore through flesh and broke bones.

Most importantly, these people will punish you, and they'll also give you treatment, making it so you can't die even if you want to...

Therefore, in this area, the originally very tough Japanese people are now all obedient.

This person was none other than Tojo Shōki, who had previously held sway over the Xiao Kingdom and nearly brought it to its demise.

"Lord Xiao Ji...Lord Xiao Ji!"

"Lord Xiao Ji...Lord Xiao Ji..."

Seeing that Tojo Shōki was just mechanically digging the ground and ignoring him, the Japanese man who had been shouting kept shouting loudly.

Seeing the person shouting incessantly, Tojo Shōki feared being implicated.

"You're trying to call my soul back! You wanted to get that whipped yourself. I don't want to..."

Hearing Tojo Shōki's lifeless, sullen reply.

A person from Fusang whispered, "Lord Xiao Ji...good news...great news."

Tojo Shōki snorted coldly: "Good thing? If you're willing to give me your cornbread with dirt mixed in with it for dinner later, that's a great thing."

"No problem! Here, have some! Here, have some! If I knew this news, I'd be willing to go three days without food!" the Japanese man said in a low voice.

Despite Tojo Shōki's seemingly straightforward manner, he sensed something was amiss.

"Oh? What's the good news?"

The person who spoke was one of his former underlings.

They are all people with certain status who are being held here.

As they spoke, they had already reached one end of the plow and, in perfect unison, shut their mouths.

He didn't speak until they were far from any oversight.

"Lord Xiao Ji, I've heard that the Third Prince of the Tojo family has arrived and reached an agreement with that bastard Xiao Ce. They're heading this way... probably to rescue us!"

"What, really?" Tojo Shōki exclaimed excitedly upon hearing this.

He suddenly shouted, startling the Japanese man who had spoken.

The supervising soldier also witnessed this scene and pointed directly at Tojo Shōki's location: "What are you doing? Looking for death? What are you yelling about?"

When Tojo Shōki saw the guards approaching with a steel whip, he broke out in a cold sweat.

He was quick-witted enough to say, clutching his foot, "Sir, I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I have a leg cramp... I have a leg cramp."

After watching for a while, the soldier pointed at Tojo Shōki and said, "Don't try anything funny."

Tojo Shōki nodded obediently.

The soldiers supervised Tojo Shōki for a while before slowly leaving.

After leaving, Tojo Shōki frantically dug his way up to the person who had spoken to him earlier.

"Are you telling the truth? Are you talking about the Third Prince, Gu Yi?"

The people from Fusang nodded: "That's right, Lord Xiao Ji, that's the Third Young Master... They've definitely come to rescue us... We're saved..."

Tojo Shōki's eyes were also filled with tears: "Yes...we're saved..."

As he spoke, Tojo Shōki suddenly realized something and exclaimed, "That's not right..."

A Japanese man standing nearby said to Tojo Shōki, "Wait a minute? What's wrong with Lord Shōki? Isn't he perfectly right?"

Tojo Shōki said, "If an agreement is truly reached, given Xiao Ce's usual practices, he would release us... why would he leave us here to do hard labor..."

"It's very likely that bastard Xiao Ce concealed my presence here from our Third Young Master..."

"Otherwise, if the people of Xiao treat us like this, we're worse than animals... If the Third Young Master finds out, he'll definitely make those people of Xiao wish they were dead!"

The people standing nearby nodded in agreement.

"Then, Lord Xiao Ji, according to you... our young master had no idea we were suffering here?"

Tojo Shōki nodded: "Where did you hear this news from?"

A Japanese man standing nearby spoke up, "Wasn't that what the soldiers said when they were getting food? They said they were going to keep an eye on us, that their emperor and Tojo Koichi were going to pass through here or something..."

"I didn't get a chance to hear what happened next."

Tojo Shōki nodded: "Are you sure?"

The person from Japan nodded, "Of course I'm sure..."

Tojo Shōki said, "Then go and ask quickly... There must be others who overheard other things... You go and ask them through relays... Tell everyone to think carefully about whether this matter concerns whether we can get out of here alive. We're just barely surviving here because we're thinking about leaving! One day, we'll kill all these dogs of the Xiao Kingdom!"

After listening to Tojo Shōki's words, the Japanese man beside him nodded: "Good! Lord Shōki, as expected of you...you're really too clever. I'll go ask him next..."

As they spoke, they passed the question around from one person to another.

The people of Fusang are quite united.

Regarding Xiao Ji's matter, they did indeed obtain some information.

After summarizing the information, it was told to Tojo Shōki.

Tojo Shōki probably also learned the general situation: the Fusang Kingdom and Xiao Ce had made peace.

And now they have decided to fight the Slavs together.

This is why they sent troops this time.

However, it seems that Xiao Ce is hiding something from these prisoners, so it is inconvenient for Tojo Koichi to see their situation.

So, the soldiers here are discussing whether or not to move them.

After hearing this, Tojo Shōki was almost certain.

Xiao Ce had fooled their third young master, Tojo Koichi.

"Our Third Young Master is so foolish... How could he believe Xiao Ce's lies? Not a single punctuation mark of Xiao Ce's words can be trusted... We must stop them. At least we need to let the Third Young Master know our situation. Once he knows our situation, I believe Xiao Ce's lies will fall apart on their own..."

Seeing Tojo Shōki's agitated state, the Japanese man beside him quickly asked, "Lord Shōki, what should we do? We have nothing but this pickaxe in our hands... What can we do... We can't do anything..."

Tojo Shōki said, "We still need to find a way to escape... I noticed there are fewer people watching us lately... apparently they've all been transferred..."

"How can we run? If we escape, we might not die, but living will be worse than dying... Tell me..."

Tojo Shōki said, "You just need to set fires in the middle of the night... set fires everywhere. These people from the Xiao Kingdom, although they treat us like cattle, they still can't bear to see us die... I'll take care of running away then..."

"Lord Xiao Ji, aren't you afraid? Aren't you afraid of being caught by them?" asked a person from Fusang Kingdom.

Tojo Shōki's previously lifeless eyes seemed to have been rekindled with hope for life.

With a determined look in his eyes, he said, "Hmph... I'm afraid... but I'm even more afraid of spending my whole life here!"