"Broken through?"
The scholar's words rang in Gongxi Chou's ears like a clap of thunder.
He hurriedly asked, "Then what about the Longwu Commandery Governor?"
Gongxi Chou might have spent his days absorbed in playing with beads and musical entertainments, and only lent his strength when it came to fighting, but that didn't mean he knew nothing about the forces around him. Xin Country had once been powerful and treated Ten Crows as an insignificant vassal. Now it was Geng Country's turn to call the shots, and it too treated Ten Crows like a sucker ripe for the picking. Ten Crows was a punching bag for anyone to bully and squeeze dry.
But Gongxi Chou didn't see it that way.
Ten Crows or the Northern Desert—
both had one thing in common.
They had been born on vast but resource-poor lands.
Though they had plenty of room to roam, the land produced far too little to satisfy their ambitions. And with wealthy, powerful neighbors at their borders, deep-rooted envy and hatred had fermented over the years, growing ever more rotten.
The conceit of Ten Crows, who fancied themselves the center of the world, and the Northern Desert's habit of groveling, stealing others' knowledge, and making it their own—both had something to do with their lack of resources. The harder they were suppressed, the fiercer their backlash would be once they gained the upper hand.
Gongxi Chou had received word earlier that, before Shen Tang took office in Longwu Commandery, Ten Crows had massacred the commandery seat. Their methods had been cruel and vicious: they dragged commoners from the commandery seat until they died, and used hooks to rip open boys' bellies and pull out their entrails...
Female captives were violated and humiliated.
In the eyes of the people of Ten