"The day after tomorrow? The day after tomorrow will do."
Facing the Li Clan Siblings, who had returned, Han Yingong showed not the slightest alarm. He had been sitting in a daze, listening to the rain, and even seemed rather at ease.
"The day after tomorrow is quite suitable. A whole city, several thousand people-it takes time to make all the arrangements. How could I not understand? Besides, if Eunuch Wang is that forthcoming, I can make things a little easier for him personally. He can go wherever he likes, and taking eight or ten attendants and three or five carriages will be no trouble."
The negotiations both inside and outside the city had actually gone smoothly, with everything settled. Yet, for some reason, Li Shier and Li Shisan exchanged glances, each feeling more uneasy than the other.
From Eunuch Wang's and Han Yingong's attitudes, Li Shier had come to realize even more clearly that these two men had completely disregarded him. Their choices had nothing whatsoever to do with his efforts. His personal abilities, his official position, his family background, even his status as Imperial Uncle Cao's trusted subordinate-all of it meant less than a fart before men who independently controlled an army or a city.
Han Yingong had known long ago that the north was undefended, but he simply refused to march north, and his responses had been nothing but perfunctory. The reason could not have been simpler: he wanted to sit on the mountain and watch the tigers fight. He wanted Zhang Xuguo to gnaw away at Zhang Xing, who had once swallowed up five thousand of Ma Hu's troops, and then march north himself to clean up the aftermath... If his timing was good, he might swallow both commanderies whole; even if it was not, Jiyin