"The Divine Strategy Army!"
Prince Qi seemed to realize something, a fierce light kindling in his eyes. He had been curious about this matter before he was even ten, and had even asked the great scholar who taught him, as well as secretly consulted the records.
But the books the imperial household allowed him to see contained no specific account of the Divine Strategy Army's origins. They recorded only its achievements and the battles it had fought.
How the Divine Strategy Army had been established, why the founding emperor had suddenly purged and slaughtered it, and why its entire organization had vanished-none of these questions had ever been answered, either in books or when he asked.
Later, as he grew older, there were more matters to worry about and more things to fight for. Prince Qi's interest in the Divine Strategy Army slipped to the back of his mind, left behind in his boyhood.
"Thinking about it now, if I hadn't been an imperial prince, my search for that secret would probably have earned me a sterner warning, or even harsher measures."
In fact, what he had seen was already classified. Outside the palace, even the Divine Strategy Army's achievements went unrecorded; everything had been struck out with a single stroke.
Now, suddenly hearing the name of this elite army again from the mysterious visitor, Prince Qi felt a premonition surge within him.
Sure enough, the next moment, Xie Zhenqing asked with an ambiguous smile, "Doesn't Your Highness find it strange?"
Strange? Why strange? Could it be...
"The founding emperor was originally a Subordinate Ninth Rank patrol inspector in the county. Though he had twenty or thirty men under him, most were local ruffians. Extortion, perhaps, but marching to war clad in iron armor? Absolutely not."
"The county commandant, Hu