ragginovel Chapter 565 Let Me Try
Chapter 565 Let Me Try
Chapter 565 Let Me Try
Now, the Yuan general was named Yibula. He was eight feet tall, with a broad back and a thick waist. He had a rough face and a majestic aura. When he sat there, he looked like a big black bear wearing armor, which made people tremble.
At this moment, Yibula looked the four-eyebrowed Central Plains boy up and down, and upon hearing his shameless words, he couldn't help but burst into laughter.
"Hahahaha..." Yibula looked down at him arrogantly and started to mock him directly, "My men said that you were skilled in martial arts and very difficult to capture. I thought you were some kind of hero, so I had them tie you up and bring you here for me to see... I didn't expect you to be a cowardly and opportunistic villain."
Who is Sun Yixie? To him, this level of ridicule is just a fart in a storm; even if you get thousands of people to surround him and curse him for three or four hours, he will just ignore it and the next day will be another beautiful day.
Therefore, Sun Ge still replied with a firm gaze and without blushing, "General, you are mistaken. As the saying goes, a wise man is one who knows when to yield. With my skills, wouldn't it be a pity to lose my life here for some meaningless fame and integrity?"
"Oh?" Seeing that the other party remained calm and composed despite the humiliation, and answered fluently, Yibula became interested. "You brat, you really have a thick skin. Let me ask you..." He paused, "What skills do you have that you dare to make such boastful claims? Furthermore, if you are so skilled, how did you end up in my hands?"
We're not afraid of him making things difficult for us, we're just afraid he won't ask. If you dare to ask me, I'll dare to brag.
Sun Yixie said, "General, my skills are not limited to martial arts. After all, no matter how high one's martial arts skills are, there is a time when one's strength is exhausted. For example, today, I fought against many opponents with few men. Even though my martial arts skills are superb, I still became your prisoner."
He paused deliberately at this point, keeping everyone in suspense.
He then added, "If we're talking about the true skills of a great man, then it has to be like a general... strategizing, conquering cities and strongholds, and winning battles from afar."
"Heh..." Yibula sneered, but did not expose the other party's flattery, and simply said, "So you mean... you can also command troops?"
“I do have some knowledge of military strategy,” Sun Yixie replied, adding, “Of course, my skills are certainly not comparable to those of the general.”
“You’ve said so much…” Yibula said, standing up and pacing back and forth, “You just want me to spare your life…” He stopped, glancing at Sun Yixie, “But I do admire you; you’ll say anything to save your own life…”
That's the truth. Yibula did interrogate the Ming army's spies, and the prisoners generally had two reactions: the first was to refuse to cooperate, remaining silent until death or simply cursing; the second was to desperately beg for mercy under the threat of death, revealing everything they knew.
But he had never seen anyone like Sun Yixie, who remained completely composed and repeatedly requested to defect to the enemy.
“If I’m not mistaken, you’re not a member of the Ming Army at all, are you?” Yibula immediately followed up.
"General, you are wise. I am a martial artist from the Central Plains." Seeing that the other party had already said this, Sun Yixie quickly went along with it. "Today, I was framed by a villain and mistakenly entered the general's camp, which is why I offended your might."
"A villain?" Yibula thought for a moment. "You mean... the one who was discovered with you but managed to escape?"
“That’s right.” When Brother Sun made up this lie, his eyes gleamed and he gritted his teeth. “This man’s name is Huang Donglai. He usually calls me brother, and I treat him with sincerity. I never expected that this scoundrel would actually harbor evil intentions and always wanted to get rid of me as soon as possible… Today, he tricked me into coming here under the pretext of searching for treasure beyond the Great Wall, and then he ran away using his lightness skill… He’s trying to use the general’s knife to kill someone!”
Yibula appeared reckless, but was actually quite shrewd. He listened quietly as Sun Yixie finished speaking, carefully observing his words and expressions. He then realized that the young man in front of him spoke with genuine sincerity and did not seem to be lying at all.
Moreover, he had another basis, which was...
“By the way, General,” Sun Yixie then prepared to provoke the other party into revealing his evidence, “how…how did you determine that I was not a Ming army spy?”
“Heh…” Yibula chuckled, “That’s easy. Every soldier knows that our Yuanming and Erjun armies have always only had ‘prisoners’ and never ‘surrendered generals’. Only an outsider like you who knows nothing would say to me something like ‘follow me and be at my beck and call’.”
What Yibula said here is based on a "tacit rule" in the war between the Yuan and Ming sides in this era, namely, "since no one will completely trust a surrendered general from a foreign tribe, it is better not to use captured surrendered generals. If an enemy general is captured, either kill him directly or keep him as a prisoner, so that he can be used to exchange for captured generals on our side in the future."
"I see," Sun Yixie said. "General, you are indeed meticulous. You saw through my identity in just a few words. I admire you!"
This is the effect Sun Yixie wanted, because the best deception in the world is to make the deceived believe that they figured things out for themselves.
"Hmph!" But Yibula's face immediately turned cold. "You're all talk and no action. Don't think I'll believe you just because you flatter me a few times... In the end, even if you're not from the Ming army, you're still a Han Chinese. How could you possibly sincerely pledge allegiance to my Great Yuan and turn against the Ming army and your own people?"
“Heh…” This time, it was Sun Yixie’s turn to sneer. “This general is unaware of something…” He paused for half a second, then lied again without changing his expression, “Actually, I am Japanese.”
…………
Two days later, at the Yuan army camp.
This was Sun Yixie's second day working odd jobs here.
His bluff the night before last worked; Yibula really believed he was Japanese.
Of course, Sun was able to successfully impersonate someone not only because of his few broken Japanese phrases, which no one could expose for the time being, but also mainly because of the local experiences he had accumulated during his trip to Japan last year.
Although Ibrahim himself did not understand these things, there were also learned men in the Yuan army. Ibrahim immediately summoned several strategists to "compare accounts" with Sun Ge.
As for those strategists, they could only know a little about the situation in Japan, since they had never been there in person and their information mainly came from books and correspondence.
As a result, Sun Yixie's account not only matched the information they had, but was also more detailed and timely. Naturally, they gave Yibula the reply that "it seems this person is indeed very knowledgeable about Japan."
If we consider it this way... then the story of Sun Yixie being "secretly harmed by Huang Donglai" can actually be put together; according to Yibula's deduction, it is likely that the man surnamed Huang only decided to take action because he discovered that his "fake brother" was a Japanese spy.
However, even if Sun Yixie's explanation could be plausible, in Yibula's mind, he was nothing more than a "Japanese man with decent martial arts skills who had been living in the Central Plains for many years."
Other claims, such as "being well-versed in military strategy," are just his own boasts and shouldn't be taken seriously.
After weighing the options, Yibula arranged for him to work as a handyman.
To put it bluntly, they wanted to observe him further—if he genuinely pledged allegiance and was truly capable, it wouldn't be long before he rose to prominence. But what if he took the opportunity to run away? Well, let him run away then. He wasn't an important figure to begin with. If he wanted to be a prisoner who did nothing, he'd be at least a minor general. What was he anyway?
It could even be said that Yibula was 80% certain that this guy would run away, and he didn't mind if the guy ran away, because he really treated him as an irrelevant person.
Even Ibrahim hadn't expected this...
Two days passed, and Sun Yixie was still obediently doing odd jobs in the military camp, showing no signs of running away.
And the reason he stayed was also quite ironic.
That very night, as Sun Yixie was being untied and driven out of Yibula's tent, he was still walking out when Yibula behind him began discussing military matters with his advisors.
At that time, Ibrahim thought that since he had already summoned the strategists, he might as well have a small meeting. So he started talking to the strategists in Mongolian, which Sun Yixie should not have been able to understand at all (the Northern Yuan nobles at this time were all very good at Chinese, so Ibrahim had been communicating with Sun Yixie in Chinese before).
However, as we all know, Sun Yixie had just returned from Europe at this time, and his translation magic had not yet worn off. In addition, his internal strength was now quite good, which also enhanced his hearing ability. This allowed him to successfully overhear the general plan of the enemy's next few steps as he walked out of the military tent and slowly moved away.
As a result, Sun Yixie, who originally intended to escape that very night, immediately changed his mind.
While saving one's life is of course important, in this perilous situation where the enemy is at the city gates and about to reach the moat, and one's life is temporarily safe, and there is an opportunity to lie in wait and cause trouble, why not take advantage of it?
So he stayed and took on the odd jobs that Ibula had assigned him.
At noon that day, Sun Yixie had just finished washing a batch of dishes when he heard a commotion in the camp. He sneaked over to take a look and found that a group of people were wrestling together.
At that moment, inside the earthen circle formed by the crowd, a shirtless man had just knocked down his opponent and was cheering with his arms raised.
This man was a subordinate general under Yibula, named Kunduli. He was even a size larger than Yibula and could be described as having superhuman strength.
Kunduli usually had two favorite things: drinking in broad daylight and wrestling with the soldiers.
Yibula turned a blind eye to his subordinates' "hobbies," after all, Kunduli was indeed a fierce general and very obedient to orders; he was almost a perfect "brave but reckless general" who would fight wherever you told him to, and would go into battle without hesitation or even without knowing it, even in the kind of tough battles where he would most likely die.
In any case, drinking and wrestling don't affect his combat effectiveness on the battlefield, and as for occasionally injuring a few soldiers, that's even less of a problem.
Therefore, on days without battle, wrestling matches where Kunduli was well-fed and watered and "mingled" with the soldiers became a daily routine for Ibula's army.
From a certain perspective, this can be considered a good form of entertainment and can also boost morale.
"Hahahaha...who else?" In the blink of an eye, Kunduli won another round. He laughed and said this, then walked to the edge of the earthen circle, picked up a large bowl handed to him by a soldier, and drank another bowl of wine.
The surrounding soldiers also flattered him, saying things like, "General, your strength is divine, we are no match for you," and "General, you are invincible in every battle." But these were all just platitudes.
To put it bluntly, these people have no choice but to flatter; if they don't, they might be the next ones to be called out.
And at this moment...
"How about... I give it a try?" A distinctive voice suddenly rang out from behind the crowd, startling everyone present.