Inside the Northern Frontier military camp, a messenger dashed in frantically and said to Pang Yuande, "General, bad news! Over a hundred thousand troops from the Golden Tent Khanate have already advanced to the front lines. The vanguard can't hold them back any longer!"
Yet Pang Yuande showed not the slightest trace of panic. He said flatly, "If they can't hold them back, then why hold them back? To die?"
The messenger froze. How could the great general say such a thing?
Pang Yuande snorted coldly. "The foreign threat has not even been fully eliminated, yet the Imperial Court has thrown all its strength into dealing with its own people. What kind of nonsense is this?
"Now look at this—the Northern Frontier defenses are hollowed out, and the Golden Tent Khanate has come knocking. What are we supposed to use against them? Fill the gap with human lives?
"Pull everyone back! The Ji Family does not cherish its own realm, so why should we cherish it for them?"
The military had been deeply dissatisfied with what the Ji Imperial Clan had been doing lately.
Previously, sending some damn military inspector to divide up his authority had been bad enough. Now, they had even withdrawn so much of the strength under his command to deal with their own people. With the Golden Tent Khanate's blades now pointed at them, what could Pang Yuande possibly do?
If the Golden Tent Khanate had provoked this incident on its own and sought to invade the Central Plains, then as a soldier, Pang Yuande would not have minded fighting to the death.
But the problem was that this battle should never have happened in the first place. If Great Zhou had not pulled out all its forces for internal strife, how could the Northern Frontier