General, you should rest now; the lady is even more ruthless.

Jiang Qiqi and her group were the last to arrive. When she entered the tent, Shen Luo was already discussing strategy with Twelve, Thirteen, Sixteen, and Nineteen.

"Madam." "Greetings, Madam."

Upon seeing her enter, the group all stood up and bowed.

Jiang Qiqi nodded slightly to them.

After sitting down in the main seat, she turned to Shen Luo and asked, "How did the discussion go?"

Twelve, Nineteen, and Shen Luo had already witnessed Jiang Qiqi's abilities, so they didn't see any problem and naturally began to talk about their plans.

But this directly shocked Thirteen and Sixteen, who were standing next to him.

The two looked at each other and saw disbelief in each other's eyes.

They had only gone out on a mission, but when they returned, not only did they have a new wife at home, but this wife had even joined the household and become the mistress of the house.

In their eyes, the roles of "madam" and "mistress" are worlds apart.

However, since their masters have tacitly agreed to it, they naturally have no right to comment.

Shen Luo held a straight wooden stick in his hand and pointed at the map.

He drew a semicircle around their current position.

"This morning, Twelfth Prince led three thousand garrison troops from the capital to set up camp nearby."

Twelve nodded proudly. When it came to marching speed and preparation speed, no one here was faster than him!

Nineteen nodded proudly; the straight wooden stick in his master's hand was one he had picked up!

The wooden stick drew a line on the map, leading straight to "Man Town".

“But with such a large number of people, the other side must have already noticed,” Shen Luo said.

Jiang Qiqi nodded: "If they didn't notice so many people suddenly appearing in this desolate wilderness, that would be too stupid."

Shen Luo continued, "Last night I had Nineteen scout out the surrounding terrain and, incidentally, find out how many people the enemy has on the surface."

Upon hearing this, Nineteen laid out the completed topographic map on the map and began his report:

"This place is surrounded by high mountains for dozens of miles. Manzhen is built against the mountains, and many houses are located on the mountainside. It not only has a wide view, but also has a steep terrain."

In short, it all boils down to this: easy to defend, difficult to attack.

“There are many traces of life around here, but we didn’t see many people in the town. If we hadn’t seen Cui Zhi enter with our own eyes, we might have thought it was just an ordinary little town even if we had found it,” Nineteen said.

Jiang Qiqi had seen this situation before.

When she was on missions, many of those vicious criminal gangs were hiding in villages that looked perfectly ordinary.

This is because it's not only troublesome to find them, but even if they are found, if they can't be caught in one fell swoop, they will quickly escape, making it difficult to catch them again.

Thinking of this, Jiang Qiqi said, "It would be best if we could capture them in one fell swoop. Otherwise, the terrain in these mountains is complex, and it will be difficult for us to adapt in a short time. If we start a guerrilla war, we will not have the upper hand."

Shen Luo understood her meaning: "In that case, we need to finish this quickly. Also, Cui Zhi has already gone in. He knows our troop strength, so the enemy should now have tactics to counter us."

Jiang Qiqi held a different view: "I think even if Cui Zhi knew, he might not say it; and even if he did say it, the other party might not believe it."

"Why?" Twelve asked urgently.

Jiang Qiqi said with certainty, "Because the other party has never been with Cui Zhi from beginning to end."

Shen Luo and Sixteen thought for a moment, then slowly nodded.

12, 13, 19: "?"

"Furthermore, we may not be without ways to deal with them."

Jiang Qiqi walked over and carefully observed the topographic map drawn by the Nineteens.

She pointed to a notch: "Nineteen, what is this place?"

"Madam, this is a stream."

"Oh? Is this the only stream nearby?" Jiang Qiqi asked.

“Exactly,” Nineteen replied.

This time, Sixteen was the first to understand what the lady meant, but he said with difficulty:

“Liyuan is currently in the hands of the rebels. We have no way to bypass them to purchase a sufficient dose of medicine, and there is no time to go back to Longcheng to buy it.”

However, he thought that only he knew how to use such a dirty trick.

Jiang Qiqi smiled mysteriously: "Who says there's no way to get around them?"

She asked Shen Luo, "Can I borrow Nineteen for a moment?"

Shen Luo nodded: "You can discuss it yourselves."

Jiang Qiqi beckoned, and Shijiu leaned forward to listen to her whisper a few words in his ear.

He froze, then asked incredulously, "Can it succeed?"

Jiang Qiqi: "It's wrapped."

"Alright, I'll act immediately."

Nineteen nodded slightly to Shen Luo, then got up and left.

Soon, the sound of horses riding horses could be heard outside the tent.

The entire conversation felt like listening to gibberish. Twelve and Thirteen: "?"

There was already a sixteen-year-old, and now there's a lady?

I hate riddle people the most.

……

The group discussed tactics for an entire afternoon, until it was pitch black.

On the way back to camp, Thirteen and Sixteen walked together.

"Sixteen, what kind of person do you think our lady is?"

She seemed to be having a very intense discussion with her master and Sixteen, and appeared quite intelligent.

As for him and Twelve, since they couldn't understand anyway, the two of them sat back to back and secretly took a nap.

Sixteen's face remained expressionless: "I don't know."

That's pretty ruthless anyway.

Thirteen then asked a question that had been bothering him: "What task did Madam assign to Nineteen? What medicine did she buy? Wound medicine?"

Sixteen's expression remained unchanged, and his tone was calm: "You'll find out tomorrow."

Thirteen:"……"

Hate the Riddler.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Shi Hui, Luo Xingyuan, and a group of generals were also anxiously discussing countermeasures.

“This morning, a group of imperial troops suddenly entered the mountains and set up camp less than ten kilometers away from us,” Shi Hui said.

In order not to shake the morale of the troops, he didn't even dare to say that it was led by the General Zhenguo.

The group of people immediately became excited upon hearing that they were going to fight the imperial court.

"Great! After so much preparation, we can finally fight the imperial court head-on."

"Hit me! Tell my mother I'm not a coward!"

"I've been looking forward to this day for a long time. If I win, I'll avenge my whole family; if I lose, my whole family will be reunited. Let's do it!"

It turned out that not telling them was the right thing to do.

Those who don’t know are fearless.

Some people also noticed that Shi Hui and Luo Xingyuan were not as excited as the others.

"General Shi, strategist, why do you two look so strange?"

Someone realized: "Are there a lot of people on the other side? Could it be... an army of 100,000?!"

Luo Xingyuan put away his serious expression and pretended to be relaxed: "How could that be? I estimate there are only four or five thousand people on the other side."

"What's there to be afraid of!"

"That's right, we start fighting in the morning and still have time to come back and have a victory celebration in the evening!"

People became active again.

Shi Hui and Luo Xingyuan exchanged a glance in a corner where no one could see them.

They knew how difficult this battle would be.