Chao Lei entered the tent and immediately bowed. "Your Majesty, wonderful news!"
Wonderful news? Had Daji given birth?
That couldn't be right. There were still a few months to go-just enough time to lose a battle and head home to see his son born.
"Where did this joy come from?" Zi Shou asked suspiciously.
Adoration filled Chao Lei's face. "Your Majesty's calculations are divine! From within your command tent, you orchestrate events a thousand miles away. This joy truly did come from the river!"
Zi Shou: "?"
"Your Majesty has been encamped at Mawei Slope for some time, with scouts deployed everywhere. Three of them ventured deep into the valley to search southward and actually discovered a river that wasn't marked on the map. Following it, they even found Your Humble Servant eight hundred li away! Your Humble Servant sent men downstream along this unknown river, and they reached the heartland around E City!"
Chao Lei's excitement surged like floodwater bursting through a dam. "Though Your Majesty's march has been delayed somewhat, following this hidden waterway downstream will surely get us there sooner! Had Your Majesty not wisely encamped here and sent men to search, we could never have discovered it!"
Fang Xiang suddenly understood. His Majesty had held his troops in place to find a faster hidden waterway.
E Chongyu had presented the maps of the south as tribute. How could he possibly have marked a hidden waterway that led straight into his heartland?
Wouldn't that have exposed his own nest right beneath everyone else's noses?
Fang Bi marveled inwardly. One or two hidden waterways would, at worst, hinder their march, but there might also be plenty of deliberately distorted terrain!
If they reached those incorrectly recorded places, the army might move even more slowly than it did now!