"How dared he perform the Feng and Shan rites at Mount Tai before becoming the common sovereign of the realm!?"
Xiao He furiously hurled the bamboo dispatch slip in his hand to the floor.
Xiao He oversaw logistics, which included all manner of ceremonial affairs. Naturally, he knew what the Feng and Shan rites at Mount Tai represented—and understood even more clearly just how outrageously audacious Xiang An was.
"Does he think the realm is already in the palm of his hand!?"
Bang!
Xiao He slammed his fist down on the table, and the atmosphere throughout the hall turned heavy.
Liu Ji sat in the seat of honor, doing his best to contain his emotions as he took slow, deep breaths.
Xiang An's Feng and Shan rites at Mount Tai were tantamount to sending every lord in the realm a declaration of war—and the kind that was slapped directly in their faces.
Liu Ji accidentally tore out a strand of his grizzled beard and let out a long breath.
"No matter what, it's already happened. Since Xiang An dared to ascend Mount Tai and set up an altar, he must be prepared to be attacked from all sides." A savage gleam filled Liu Ji's tiger-like eyes as he looked toward Zhang Liang. "We need to arrange our next campaign as soon as possible."
For some time now, Liu Ji had been directing small units to constantly harass and contain Western Chu, intending to gradually erode Western Chu's strength through relatively peaceful means, then destroy it in a single decisive battle when the time came.
Yet this plan had been making little progress.
To tie down Xiang Yu's troops and attention to the greatest extent possible, they had to make use of the Han Kingdom's greatest advantage at present—its numbers.
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