QT: Grace To Grass Counterattack System

As a soon as He Yuan returned to the He mansion, he sent out a message to invite his deputy general, Wei Lin, over before heading straight to his study to write down instructions. He had a hundred shadow guards around him so he split them into six different groups.

Three groups of fifteen would be sent to Fu Zu town, Shigai city and Nanshu county respectively. Tian Weisheng's spies were already monitoring the Zhoudong spies so the job of his shadow guards was to discreetly find and monitor Tian Weisheng's spies.

If he wanted to take down Zhoudong without interference, he had to make sure Tian Weisheng was left in the dark until the very end.

As for the remaining groups of shadow guards, one group of fifteen would accompany him to the East. Although he knew what went down in the original timeline, the realm info mostly came from the perspective of the Leaser and a bit from the Special one so he did not really know the appearance of Tian Weisheng's spies. 

He was just one man hence it was impossible for him to monitor every single suspicious person in the Eastern army.

Another group of thirty would be split into three, disguised as travelling merchants and then sent to different farm settlements belonging to the He family to gather large amounts of grain for the army.

Winter was close and it wouldn't take long for the frontier to run out of supplies. With the Zhoudong spies messing with their information and with Tian Weisheng hoping for his and General Gong's deaths, it didn't take a genius to figure out that the army would receive no supplies from the Capital.

Even if they did, it would come late so he planned to supply the army directly from his own pockets. It would cost an arm, a leg and probably two lungs but the realm did a good job this time and the He family was mad rich! Doing this would only increase his merits anyways so why not?

Now for the remaining group of ten shadow guards, their job was to remain in the Capital.... and prevent Lu Xuilan from growing her forces too quickly. This was because, she was the Special one and it was impossible to completely suppress her at this time when her she was still brimming with the luck of the realm.

After going through the instructions one more time, He Yuan nodded in satisfaction and called out towards the window, "Mu Di."

A black clad figure flashed into the study with one knee on the ground and a fist against his chest. "Master."

He Yuan lifted the different parchments holding his instructions and handed them over to the head of his shadow guards. "Everything should be settled before tomorrow." He planned to leave before dawn.

Mu Di accepted the parchments with a firm nod and flashed out of the study.

At that moment,

Knock. knock.

His manservant, Mu Shu's, voice came right after, "Ma- mas..ter He? D.. d.. deputy g-"

"Lead him in." He Yuan cut in helplessly. The first time he met Mu Shu, he'd mistakenly thought the little man was a chronically shy person. Turned out he was just a stutterer.

Wei Lin walked in with an amused smile on his face whilst Mu Shu blushed in embarrassment before lowering his head and cupping his fist at He Yuan in greeting before rushing away.

Wei Lin laughed out loud and walked forward with cupped fists. "General." After receiving He Yuan's go ahead, he seated himself and went straight to the point, "Fifteen thousand soldiers had returned with us from the North. Five hundred of them made up the procession whilst the rest are currently camped outside the city.

-With the current state of things, the Eastern army could hold on for three to six months. That's enough time for another ten thousand soldiers from the Northern army to join us here and for us to journey to the East and reinforce them."

Wei Lin's words made sense but that was based off of the false news that had been delivered to the Capital. The Eastern army did not have three to six months. He Yuan waved. "No need. Send word to the Northern army for the ten thousand soldiers to head straight to the East.

-As for the ones camped outside the Capital, in another one week, prepare and set off to the East immediately."

Wei Lin was confused. Although the Eastern army had lost five thousand, they still had fifty thousand soldiers left. "Why the haste?"

He Yuan couldn't tell the real reason so he just shrugged and said, "A hunch."

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.

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Their discussion lasted until late afternoon before ending.

After Wei Lin left, He Yuan looked in the direction of the Lu mansion with a thoughtful expression. He had originally planned to visit 888 one more time before leaving in order to quickly explain his plan but on second thoughts, he decided against it.

With the Lu family's treatment of Shi Meifen, 888 and Lu Wenduo, he was sure that the System wouldn't be against his idea but...

How was he supposed to explain his reason?

888 didn't have his memories and they'd only encountered each other -face to face- twice in this realm. One time in passing and the second time in a shady situation past midnight.

Anyone would be extremely suspicious if a person they barely knew began doing huge favours for no concrete reason.

So what he planned to do was get Shi Meifen out first, then explain the rest of the plan to 888. Even if the System was still suspicious of him, it would be too late to try to stop him by then.

At that thought, He Yuan returned to his room instead and prepared to spend the rest of the day and night cultivating the [[Strongest Martial Arts]]. 

Over in the Lu mansion...

Lu Xuilan's exquisite fingers pinched her forehead in exasperation. The courtyard that she and her mother currently inhabited was a little run down with just four servants -three of which were Bai Yun's people and the remaining one was her personal servant, Tin Tin. At least the girl was someone she could trust. For now.

If she wanted to grow her forces then money was important. She could sell some quick action pills but at the moment, she was an unknown daughter of the Lu family so she lacked credibility. This meant that no reliable pharmacy would be willing to buy a bunch of pills they'd never heard of from her.

"A'Lan?"

Lu Xuilan looked up to find that her mother had come into her room at one point. She let out a small smile. "Mother."

Fang Lan returned her daughter's smile and sat down. These days, she'd seen the situation in their courtyard and knew things weren't looking too good. Under Lu Xuilan's curious eyes, she took out a slip of paper and handed it over.

Lu Xuilan stared at the characters on the paper with furrowed brows. It was all a bunch of locations in the Capital. She looked up in confusion. "What's this?"

Fang Lan smiled. "I'd been given three shops by my family as part of my dowry and those are the locations of the three shops."

Lu Xuilan's eyes brightened as Fang Lan continued, "I had been in charge of the Lu household back then so I placed the deeds of these shops in the storage. I don't know the situation of the shops now but since the Matriarch had taken over control after we left, these shops showed be managed by her."

The shine in Lu Xuilan's eyes dimmed a bit. The Lu Matriarch was notoriously greedy, taking back control of these shops would be not be easy. She stood up. "Mother, it's almost time to pay our respects. We better head over to the Matriarch's courtyard now."

When the two people stepped out of the door, they found Tin Tin waiting at the side. Lu Xuilan let Fang Lan go ahead before handing over the paper to Tin Tin.

The fifteen year old servant held the paper in confusion. "Second young Miss, this is?..."

Lu Xuilan waved. "Make up an excuse to leave the mansion and ask around for the situation of these shops in the Capital."

Tin Tin's eyes brightened. Madam Fang was from the Fang family. Although the Fang family had now declined, they used to be one of the top families in the Capital. These shops... They should belong to Madam Fang right?!

As soon as Tin Tin turned to leave, Lu Xuilan pursed her lips before casually adding, "Also... keep an ear out for news about General He." And then she walked away whilst ignoring Tin Tin's confused expression.

The day before, General He had come all the way over to the Lu family to declare in interest in her but had quickly backed off with a few words from the Fifth prince with no hesitation whatsoever.

Now it would have been different if he hesitated but since he didn't, it only meant that he'd only backed up to shut the prince up and didn't really mean it.

Lu Xuilan soon caught up to Fang Lan with a smile lingering on her lips. Although she was bethroded to the Fifth prince, she never took it seriously. One was a dying man she'd casually saved on a deserted mountainside and the other was a man who had gallantly led an imposing procession of soldiers after a victorious battle.

She wasn't someone who could be tied to a random man for the rest of her life so she'd just think of a way to break off the engagement. As for General He...

Her lips lifted even higher. She liked knowing the fact that just as he'd left a deep impression on her, she seemed to have done the same for him.

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Lu Jingye spent the second day kneeling in the dilapidated ancestral hall and by nightfall, his figure was more desolate than the day before.

Bai Yun wasn't stupid enough to play too many tricks during daytime so a meal had been sent over but he didn't dare touch it. Just because she didn't starve him openly did not necessarily mean the food was safe to eat.

As time progressed, the wind outside became louder and the ancestral hall became colder. At some point, a certain General's figure flashed in Lu Jingye's mind and he frowned.

He still didn't understand General He's actions the day before even after spending all day pondering over it. At that moment,

Creak!

Clomp, Clomp, Clomp.

At the sound of heavy footsteps, Lu Jingye's eyes widened in surprise. The General couldn't have sneaked into the Lu mansion again tonight right?

No.

That wasn't right. His gaze turned cold. Those footsteps were too heavy to be General He's!

Ten steps behind, Lu Peng stared at Lu Jingye's figure with burning eyes.