Death… and me

The young lady held a pensive yet cold gaze as she turned towards Tie Long Cheng. However, her expression slowly changed, as the sadness in her eyes began to reveal itself.

"It happened 3 years ago when the emperor was injured by a poison arrow. This affected his health drastically as his condition was extremely unstable. The prince was only 10 years of age and despite his brilliance, it would have been difficult for the people of Iron Cloud to accept his ascension to the throne. At that point in time, Iron Cloud was on the verge of destruction with all of the officials thinking of their own future instead of the country."

Tie Long Cheng explained it slowly. His speed made it seem as though Chu Yang was explaining it himself. Moreover, this was their first encounter with each other. Even though Chu Yang was of a high social status, it did not mean that this man should have to explain himself to him like this. This made Chu Yang extremely curious.

Tie Long Cheng continued, "It was then that Diwu Qing Rou apparently made some costly mistakes during a battle. For some unknown reason, the experienced generals of Great Zhao had left their armies in the midst of battle. Although these battles were inconsequential to Great Zhao, it ended up costing them a lot more than it should have!"

"At that particular point in time, all they had to do to win the war was to conduct an attack on Iron Cloud simultaneously. With that, they would have been able to conquer Iron Cloud in about half a year. Iron Cloud was essentially left without anything at that point. However, at this critical juncture, the enemy's movements led by their generals were slightly mysterious. It seemed as though they were courting their own deaths and acting on inaccurate intelligence reports. This subsequently enabled us to easily wipe them out and giving us the glimmer of hope that Iron Cloud required to survive."

"However, upon careful inspection of the entire situation, we realised that no matter what course of action we would have taken, we could never have been able to deliver such a swift and decisive victory over them. We were puzzled by their actions because it seemed as though they were deliberately wanted us to win that battle!"

"After this, the Nation of Great Zhao's military took about a month to regroup. However, it was apparent that they did not need to do so at all. Moreover, it seemed as though they were giving us time to re-strategize and consolidate our forces…"

Tie Long Cheng took a deep breath and said, "It was not till we brought back information regarding Great Zhao and analysed in detail before it we realised that this was all part of Diwu Qing Rou's grand scheme! Not only were we unable to do anything to upset his plans, we were left with no choice but to work according to his plan."

"What Diwu Qing Rou had wanted was a war which was dragged out in order to gather its exploits, purge the oppositions within his nation and increase his following. All of which to bring the military under his full control. However, Iron Cloud needed this time much more than Diwu Qing Rou did in order to regroup our military forces which were the key to our survival."

"If we had not cooperated, Iron Cloud Nation would have fallen in simply a couple of months. Moreover, if we had tried to disrupt Diwu Qing Rou's plans, he could have simply moved on and done it some other way. One of his such options was to utilise Limitless Nation! We really were left without any choice. But in order to survive, we had to swallow our pride and take the opportunity that was presented to us."

When Tie Long Cheng got to this, he let out a very long sigh.

Even though he did not continue, Chu Yang and the others understood.

"At that time, the two sides cooperated to eliminate dissidents and unify their respective nations! Despite not having an actual written agreement between the two, it happened quietly in such a way that one country would achieve battle accomplishments and the other take back their territories or if one was to remove oppositions, the other would be able to eliminate their enemies!"

In short, their goals were the same: Unify all of their respective nation's power to realize their own strength!

Nevertheless, if Diwu Qing Rou went to war at that time, Great Zhao would have had complete victory. However, despite having won, he would still have to face the doubt and opposition among some officials as well as soldiers. At that particular point in his rule, he had not established a strong hold over the political aspect of his nation and in a worst-case scenario, he could end up losing everything! And even if he could keep his life and his position at the time, he would have lost any opportunity to progress further!

With the ambition that Diwu Qing Rou had and the options that lay in front of him, he could not have simply have let it pass!

At the time, the entire Iron Cloud Nation was held together by Tie Long Cheng. In such a precarious situation, the nation seemed as if it could crumble at any time. Naturally, Tie Long Cheng wanted to avoid any confrontation if possible!

The commanders of two countries had never met each other even once. And even though they were separated by tens of thousands of miles their tacit cooperation was terrifyingly perfect! The two sides controlled and restrained each other. Today, you beat me and kill a general opposing me. Tomorrow, I beat you and kill your opposition…

Millions of soldiers killing each other at the border of the two countries became no more than a game of trade off between two people! All to create worldly fame for Diwu Qing Rou and unify Iron Cloud for Tie Long Cheng!

The only thing was that despite this trade-off being made to buy time and gain status for both parties, yet the underlying motives for both parties could not have been more different.

Diwu Qing Rou was working for Great Zhao, but, even more so, he was working for himself. As for Tie Long Cheng, after a long period of battle, he had finally managed to successfully unify a fragmented Iron Cloud. A divided nation had now reunited and turned into a powerful force!

Without such precise cooperation between Tie Long Cheng and Diwu Qing Rou, Iron Cloud Nation would not have been able to remain as it has to this day. Not to mention, Prince Tie Bu Tian would never have had the chance to take control and stand at the same level as Diwu Qing Rou!

All these changes and details would have been unimaginable even if one racked their brain. Moreover, with each move, both commanders had to put out some underlying mutual advantage for their counterparts. It was a mutually beneficial relationship and that was how they both managed to achieve their own goals. Such underlying intentions and inherent advantages would definitely not have been recognized by anyone else!

If you were uninvolved or did not know the context of the battle, it would take an unimaginable amount of intellect in order to understand and think of it! Chu Yang really had no way of imagining how General Tie Long Cheng managed to obtain such a result.

Under Diwu Qing Rou's direction, he had cooperated fully but did not allow his opposition achieve his full goal. Moreover, under the sky net that the enemy threw out, he still managed to construct and think of a countermeasure to deal with Iron Cloud. Up to this point, the border between the two countries was like a fortified wall!

This person's ability to calculate, govern and control in both political and military front, although was not equal to that of Diwu Qing Rou, could certainly compare!

Two enemies that could never be under one sky fought with each other while helping each other amass power. These two were truly terrifying!

But there was one thing that was really odd to Chu Yang: In Tie Long Cheng and Diwu Qing Rou's fight, they had looked at millions of lives on both sides as no more than something that could be thrown away for their objectives

Chu Yang had never understood the phrase "A general build his success on ten thousand dry bones" as he did now!

"Are you now regretting it?"

The person that said this was Gu Du Xing. His gaze cold and directed at Tie Long Cheng, "Millions of soldiers left their bodies in the battlefield because of the cooperation between the two of you!"

"Not just one million, the actual number is two million seven hundred ninety-three thousand seven hundred ninety-six people!"

Tie Long Cheng's face was like that of a statue, emotionless, "This is the number up to now. This count only included those who have lost their lives on the battlefield and does not include the injured, the handicapped, unable to fight, the missing…! This was the great price paid for Iron Cloud's current state!"