Zi Shou was pondering a question.
How could he burn a brocade pouch that had already been brought out without anyone noticing?
After racking his brains for a long while, he still could not come up with anything workable. He could only force a smile and say, "Excellent. Read it aloud for me."
Deng Xiu obeyed and opened the brocade pouch. Inside was a single sheet of yellow paper.
The handwriting on the paper was just like Uncle Wen himself: upright and unbending.
As Deng Xiu read, his astonishment grew. He had never imagined the Yue people could be put to such use.
According to Uncle Wen's thinking, the Five Kings of Baiyue had been captured without anyone being the wiser, and no word had leaked out. Even the Yue forces were still lingering in the forests, unsure what to do and yet to withdraw. This made the situation highly deceptive, giving the impression that the war was still underway.
One could say that nobody knew Baiyue had submitted, much less that the Five Kings of Baiyue had already arrived in Chaoge, given their wholehearted allegiance, and even tattooed the name of the Great Shang on their arms.
Announcing the submission of the Five Kings of Baiyue and the allegiance of the Baiyue Tribes to the world would certainly steady people's hearts for a time. But Uncle Wen felt that people's hearts were steadied not through words, but through battle.
No matter how firmly such good news secured public confidence, once the Shang Army could no longer hold its ground and suffered repeated defeats, that confidence would crumble all the same.
Thus, Uncle Wen's plan was to use Baiyue to secure a resounding opening victory in the war between Shang and Zhou.
Whatever the ultimate outcome, they had to win