Jin Tiancheng sneered. "I'm not Ning Chen, but I'm alive and he's dead.

Which goes to show, a man shouldn't be too clever. A man too clever dies young."

Jin Dongxing's face was as dark as it could get. His voice was cold. "I'd advise you not to get clever. Ning Chen may be dead, but the generals and soldiers under him are still here.

Yuan Long, Lei An, Yue Congyun and the rest. Which of them isn't a brave, fearsome general?

And there's the Ning'an Army, the modao army, and the Great Xuan's hundreds of thousands of troops... We're already at odds with Nanyue. We absolutely must not provoke the Great Xuan again."

Jin Tiancheng only sneered again and again, his contempt plain. "Your Highness is being far too cautious.

With Ning Chen dead, what heart would Nanyue have left for fighting us?

The Great Xuan is vast and rich in resources, far wealthier than we are... I'd guess every state has its eye on that fat piece of meat right now.

If we don't make a move, someone else will... Why hand a fortune falling out of the sky to somebody else?"

Jin Dongxing said sharply, "Whatever you say, I will never agree to attacking the Great Xuan's Qingzhou.

It's the dead of winter. It's no weather for fighting.

Besides, war drains the people and the treasury. The money and grain for a war would be better spent on relief."

Jin Tiancheng gave a cold smile. "Your Highness, I've already reported this to Father Emperor, and Father Emperor has agreed.

You really are too cautious. Once we take the Great Xuan's Qingzhou, we'll have more money and grain for relief."

Jin Dongxing was furious. "And if we lose?"

"We can't lose. We have General Jin."

Jin Tiancheng said it with complete confidence. The General Jin he meant was Jin He, the Gaoli Kingdom's famous general.

Some time back, Jin Tiancheng had gone to Kang Luo to negotiate an alliance. When the talks failed, he'd tried to kill Kang Luo.

But Kang Luo had gotten away by burning the…