35 Strategy against the northern coalition first half

Tian Xue'er noded to confirm Zhu Wushang guess before he continues.

"Then, When they send a raiding party against us what exactly happens at the raiding spot?." Now He asks both Emperor and Tian Xue'er and specifies in the exact detail.

The both of them looking at each other, they knew that this son-in-law of their try to gather some information to help them with their problem, and according to the identified information this Zhu Wushang is a rare genius.

The Emperor then quickly hide all of his irritation and earnestly answer Zhu Wushang question.

"They kill all of the ones that resist, plunder nearly all of their food and weapon and quickly leave before our reinforcement come."

"Did they do anything else?"

"The Emperor silence and go into deep thought, like he's trying to recall on something.

"Ah! I remember! There are a few times that they kill all of the local and garrison forced and burn down everything."

"There is no raping incident after all these years?"

Zhu Wushang asks in doubt. Because from what he knows from the book. The cheapest and easiest way to maintain the morale of the troops that go to war is to let them lose as a reward. But despite the word barbarian from the north that painted them for all these years, There's no such incident happen even once. Is that really possible?

"No, not even once." The Emperor answer.

"Are you sure? Isn't they burn down everything? including the corpse or any evidence?"

"No, There are some survivors who fake dead and live to tell the tale plus they are just foolish barbarian who didn't bother to cover their tracks and evidence, Why do they want to cover or destroy the evidence in the first place if they already destroy all of the nearby garrisons there?" The emperor smugly told Zhu Wushang and thought that this brat is naive and ignorant.

This confirmation told Zhu Wushang that the northern barbarian warriors are the professional and honorable warrior unlike the reputation of the barbarian they got.

"Do you know why they choose to destroy those few places?" He asks again.

The emperor deep in thought before shaking his head.

"No, We don't know, Isn't it normal for the barbarian like them to destroy something without any reason?"

"Haaaaaahh…" Zhu Wushang helplessly sighs because of the ignorance of the Emperor, No, This Emperor is his father-in-law, so the blame lies to the military advisor.

"Last question, When is the earliest problem of the Barbarian in the north starts?"

The emperor seems to annoy when he hears this question, but before he spoke anything, he just stopped, as something comes to his mind he quickly look at the smiling face of his Empress Tian Xue'er.

"Now you did realize, at last, It took you long enough." She spoke to her husband in a teasing tone.

"Father-in-law, When does it first start? This Northern Barbarian problem." He asks again.

"It starts one year after the bestowal ceremony of Duke Tian Dong." He answers and looking at Zhu Wushang in disbelief.

"You, You already knew?"

Zhu Wushang chuckles a little.

"No father-in-law, I didn't know anything beforehand, That's why I ask you all those questions. Therefore what I will say next is my hypothesis if there's anything that's not making any sense, Please tell me."

Zhu Wushang going to speak but he just making a face like he just remembers something important.

"Oh! How rude of me. Please sit." He produces the chair and table set of a tea ceremony from his storage ring and places it on the floor.

"I'll prepare the best tea I had in my stock for all of you. Lan'er, please entertain our In-law for a moment."

Zhu Wushang then goes to prepare some tea at the corner with the tea brewing set. His tea brewing set is unlike any other tea set that people would see in regular days his teapot made from some unknown metal that sent sweet tea aroma around the room.

Unlike any other tea, this tea also has a sweet fragrance with a strong spirit qi densely concentrated on its aromatic fragrance alone.

In a moment the tea is finish. When Zhu Wushang slowly pours the tea into a white porcelain teacup set the sweet aromatic fragrance made all the people in the room gulping their saliva except Tian Xiulan because she already tasted it when she's alone with Zhu Wushang at night back then in the Zhu manor.

He serves the tea to Zhu Yinbing first then the emperor and empress which is his father and mother-in-law, then Tian Xiulan and to both of his servant Fatty and Azanah.

When they first tasted the tea the spirit qi in their spirit pool stir and benefit from it, their eye opens wide in shock. This tea is a supreme grade spirits tea!

"Ok, I'll continue from Where I left off" Zhu Wushang don't wait for them about this tea origin that he got from the Black merchant home back then. He starts to explain his hypothesis.

"Duke Tian Dong is someone who had great influence, He had the connection with the upper realm, He had spies all over the empire a lot of them even held some important position within the court, And he also can manipulate the northern barbarian to attack the great Phoenix empire. And he was hell-bent on destroying this empire."

He spoke until now and looking at the emperor who has some sweat on his face. He suspects that the reason why Duke Tian Dong is hell-bent on destroying this empire is the secret of the nation and might be a taboo topic if he asks, so he deliberately ignores it.

"If I knew the reason why he's like this I would come up with more plan that I can deal with him, but unfortunately I don't." He tells the Emperor in a roundabout way that he's not going to ask, but he might not come up with the most effective method to deal with this Duke Tian Dong.

"First, the northern barbarian outside of their food problem that they'd let the border town survive their raid is to leave them to do the farming, and they would come back to plunder them."

"Second, They might possibly get manipulate by Duke Tian Dong in to believe that we are some kind of antagonist in their perspective. Duke Tian Dong might send someone to do the audacious thing within their border. This is the reason why they are so pissed and destroy some of the border towns including its garrison troops in revenge."

"These two problems, I have the effective solution for that. But you must kill or send your military advisor team away first. It's no use if we had the solution to this problem in the morning and Duke Tian Dong knows it in the afternoon." He straightly tells his suspicious to the military advisor team of his father-in-law.

"You mean…"

Zhu Wushang nodded and tell the Emperor the truth.

"Yes, Your military advisor team might have some spies. This might include everyone that knew about the attack plan and deployment plan of my mother and Lan'er. Otherwise those bastard from upper realm can't set the correct formation to fight against both of them in advance."

This hypothesis of his made the emperor can't breathe loudly it's not feeling good at all because of his ignorance might cost him his daughter and his Grand General, He's underestimate the connection of Duke Tian Dong too much.

But he still doesn't want to believe it that the people whose hand pick by him would betray him.