ragginovel Chapter 569 Offering suggestions
Chapter 569 Offering suggestions
Chapter 569 Offering suggestions
When Yibula and his two hundred-odd cavalry returned to the Yuan army camp, the first person to greet them was none other than Kunduli.
Needless to say, you can guess that when this guy woke up, he was so angry that he jumped up on the spot when he heard that the warlord's beloved horse had been stolen by that errand boy.
Just as he was enduring the burning pain on his back and pushing aside his men's objections, intending to lead some troops to meet the commander-in-chief, alas, Yibula had already returned with his troops.
Kunduli didn't need to make any further preparations; he could simply wait outside the camp.
But as he waited, he noticed something was wrong... Why was that handyman walking towards the commander-in-chief, chatting and laughing? He didn't look like he'd been caught.
Before long, the two men arrived in front of him. Kunduli was so puzzled by the situation that he forgot to pay the necessary respects to Yibula and asked, "General, why...why didn't you arrest this kid?"
"Hmm?" Yibula didn't think much of it when he first heard this. He hesitated for a moment before preparing to answer.
But before he could finish speaking, Sun Yixie reacted swiftly and shouted, "How dare you! You, Kunduli, not only do you not greet the Commander, but you also dare to ask him all sorts of questions in such an interrogative tone. Anyone who didn't know better would think you were the Khan!"
Ladies and gentlemen, you've all seen those scenes in TV dramas where treacherous officials and eunuchs who follow the emperor around take advantage of his power to deliberately cause trouble, right? Sun Yixie is acting in that same way right now.
Kunduli was taken aback by his shout, but then his anger flared up again: "You bastard! You're the one who dares to interrupt! I'm talking to the commander-in-chief, when did it become your place to interrupt, you lowly servant? I haven't even settled the score with you for stealing my horse yet!"
"What a joke! What do you mean by stealing? I just borrowed your horse for a bit, and now I've ridden it back, haven't I?" Sun Yixie retorted without even thinking. "Besides, every country has its laws, and every army has its regulations. The commander-in-chief will decide right and wrong. Who do you think you are? Who are you to hold me accountable?"
"You!" Kunduli was so angry by his words that he immediately raised his weapon again.
This time, he wasn't wielding a soldier's sword, but his own personal weapon on the battlefield—a twelve-foot-long black iron mace with wolf fangs.
"What are you doing? The commander is right here, how dare you make a move?" Sun Yixie shouted as he shrank behind Yibula.
"Enough!" Ibrahim had indeed seen enough, and he immediately shouted, "Kunduli! What do you want to do? Haven't you embarrassed yourself enough today?"
"General, I..." Kunduli was stunned by the shout and froze on the spot, unable to save face.
"Get back to your tent! Don't come out unless I tell you to!" Yibula knew that Kunduli was bad at talking, so he didn't want him to say anything more and directly ordered him to leave.
Of course, Yibula wasn't really that angry with Kunduli. In fact, after a moment's thought, Yibula realized that Sun Yixie was deliberately stirring things up. But he didn't say anything, because he had already decided on the way back that he would use this Japanese man.
As the commander-in-chief of this Yuan army, Ibrahim's perspective on issues was certainly different from Kunduli's. Once he confirmed that Sun Yixie was "usable" in terms of the overall direction and stance, everything else became a minor issue.
Things like wrestling and horse theft... but in the end, Kunduli didn't suffer any serious injuries, and the horse came back, right? So let's just forget about it.
To give an inappropriate example, after the Fengyi Pavilion incident, did Dong Zhuo do anything to Lü Bu? Not really.
When the affair was exposed, it escalated to the point of wanting to kill him on the spot with a halberd. But the next day, when Li Ru came to persuade Dong Zhuo to give Diao Chan to Lü Bu, what did Dong Zhuo say? "Lü Bu and I are like father and son, so it is inconvenient to give her to him. I will just not pursue his crime. You can convey my message and comfort him with kind words."
Even something as petty as stealing people could be "let go" by someone like Dong Zhuo, let alone stealing horses.
Of course, as we see later in the story, Dong Zhuo did take it into consideration, but Lü Bu didn't; however, that's another matter entirely...
Now, Yibula's order for Kunduli to step down was, to some extent, a way of protecting him. After all, Yibula knew that if his brave but reckless general really got into a fight with Sun Yixie, he would most likely suffer the consequences.
Kunduli had no idea about this. He felt extremely aggrieved after being yelled at by the commander. However, as we mentioned earlier, he was a very "obedient" person. He dared not disobey Yibula's order. So, in a fit of anger, he lashed out... but then he still replied "Yes, sir" and went back to camp.
Before leaving, Kunduli wanted to intimidate Sun Yixie with his eyes again, but when he glared at him, he only saw Sun Yixie hiding behind Yibula, turning around and giving him a dirty look. If Kunduli hadn't been strong and healthy, he would have burst a few blood vessels just from seeing this smug look on Sun Yixie's face.
To make a long story short, a moment later, the troops returned to camp, and Sun Yixie was invited alone to the commander's tent by Yibula.
“Young brother Yixie, sit down and let’s talk. There’s no need for formalities.” This time, Yibula’s attitude was different from the night before last; he was now treating him with great courtesy.
"You're too kind, General." Sun Yixie replied as he sat down. "Actually, Yixie is just a pseudonym I used when I was traveling in the Central Plains. My real name is Kameda Ichimine. If you don't mind, you can call me Kameda-kun from now on."
Here, Brother Sun was actually being cautious. On the one hand, he wanted to use this opportunity to further solidify his image as a Japanese person, and on the other hand, he wanted to prevent the name "Sun Yixie" from becoming widely known among the Yuan army and causing unnecessary trouble.
His tactic proved effective, and Yibula immediately nodded upon hearing this, saying, "Oh... I see." As he replied, his trust in Sun Yixie deepened.
From Yibula's perspective, Sun Yixie must have already guessed that he was going to promote him, so this act of revealing his "real name" was a normal reaction to further express his willingness to surrender, which seemed reasonable.
“Well… Mr. Kameda…” Yibula said, then immediately asked, “I forgot to ask last time, with your abilities, you would surely be a prominent figure in Japan. Why didn’t you stay in your hometown and instead travel across the ocean to come to Da Ming?”
“This…” Sun Yixie pretended to struggle with his thoughts, then said, “Alas… it’s a long story.” He had actually thought of this explanation during the two days he was washing dishes in the military camp. “Actually, I was originally a retainer under a daimyo named Oda. Oda Shogun… is not only very confident, but also very ambitious. He felt that it was only a matter of time before he unified Japan, and then he wanted to take over the Great Ming… So many years ago, he began to arrange for some spies under the age of fifteen to infiltrate the Central Plains in batches, using methods such as impersonation to obtain the identities of people from the Central Plains, and to lie in wait in various places for future needs.”
“Oh? So you mean there are quite a few people like you?” Yibula said.
“Yes…” Sun Yixie took a deep breath, “...no.”
“What do you mean by that?” Ibrahim then asked.
“There were indeed quite a few spies sent, but in the end, less than one in ten managed to survive,” Sun Yixie replied. “The commander-in-chief should also understand that the sea is vast… whether it’s storms or pirates, at least half of us perished at sea before even setting foot on the land of the Great Ming. And of the remaining ones, more than half either failed to obtain identities or died unexpectedly due to reasons such as not being fluent enough in the Central Plains language, not being smart enough, or simply bad luck.” He paused. “So in the end, those who can live normally as Central Plains people are extremely rare… and someone like me, who has also learned a lot of skills and made a name for myself, is probably unique.”
Sun Yixie's words actually foreshadowed his past actions of saving the emperor and receiving a plaque for "meritorious service in protecting the country." In case Yibula later learned of this past through some channel, he could say: "As a Japanese spy, isn't it normal for me to gain the trust of the Emperor of Da Ming in this way? I'm here to infiltrate, not to assassinate. What's the problem?"
Yibula processed his words for a moment, then immediately posed an even more dangerous question: "Um... is it alright for you to tell me all this?"
"General, have you ever heard the saying, 'A wise man submits to circumstances'?" Sun Yixie said this with a hint of a colonel's accent.
“Go on,” Ibrahim gestured for him to continue.
"To be honest with you, although General Oda is very confident, in my opinion, the outcome of the war in Japan... is still uncertain," Sun Yixie said. "We, who he sent all the way here to infiltrate, are, to put it nicely, vanguards, but to put it bluntly, pawns he throws out without any real chance... Whether we can even wait until he unifies Japan before sending troops to Ōmyō is a question. Even if he does send troops one day... forgive my bluntness, but with Japan's national strength, trying to take over Ōmyō's territory is like an ant trying to swallow an elephant. Even if he achieves a temporary victory in one place, he will eventually fail and be forced to retreat."
“Oh, so…” Seeing that his analysis was reasonable and well-founded, Yibula went along with it and said, “So you plan to ‘choose a good tree to perch on’ and switch your allegiance to me?”
“Sigh…” Sun Yixie sighed again, “To be honest, if my identity hadn’t been exposed by that bastard Huang Donglai, I might still have had the chance to return to Da Ming and continue to lie low. But now… apart from the commander-in-chief, I really have nowhere else to go.”
“No wonder…” Yibula felt that he had figured it out. “I was wondering why you shamelessly said things like ‘I’ve been wandering for half my life and haven’t met a wise ruler’ the other night when you saw me, and that you were ‘amazed by your divine presence and willing to follow you.’... So you knew back then that you had no way out.”
Yibula not only "figured it out," but he also connected it to Sun Yixie's act of going to challenge the Ming army camp alone today in order to "show off."
"I understand now, I understand everything... Good, good." At this point, he had completed the most crucial step in the process of being fooled—self-persuasion.
"General, what you said the night before last, though born of helplessness, also came from the bottom of your heart." Sun Yixie continued to fuel the fire with shameless flattery.
"Heh..." Yibula chuckled, "Alright... From today onwards, you no longer need to do chores. Come and serve under me..."
"General!" Unexpectedly, upon hearing this, Sun Yixie immediately clasped his hands and said before the other party could even finish speaking, "Since the General is willing to use me, then I have a plan to offer right now!"