Romance of the Four Kingdoms

Chapter 79

A month has passed since Mitsuko did the first task for the bandit queen. Her forces have integrated themselves in the city as well as they could. Though the majority of the inhabitants still viewed them all with suspicion, there was less friction around the city between the two forces. Though still not much information could've been gathered by Pang Tong in terms of who's leading the Tai Dominion however he did manage to find out a little bit of information on the Tai Dominion in general. He was surprised to find that the Tai dominion as of late have been passive, considering the distaste of Zhang Yan from tai Dominion. He chuckled as he started to scheme in the shadows. Gyuki started to become more like a watch master for the city. Keeping an eye out for any potential dangers as the bandit queen ordered men to bring him some food from outside while being constantly visited by the other officers including Mitsuko to make sure he wasn't completely bored.

Mitsuko was eventually summoned from her spartan quarters by a messenger as she finished donning her armour after getting up early in the morning. She followed the messenger to the palace. Zheng Jiang signalled her palace guards to leave. As the doors shut behind the guards Zheng jiang spoke.

'Good morning lady Mitsuko. I hope you slept well?' She asked as her snakes opened their jaws wide like they were yawning.

'You could say that. Couldn't have given me 5 more minutes?' She asked.

'Hehe, my apologies about that but I thought you may have wanted to know about our current situation.' Zheng Jiang responded in a serious manner which has Mitsuko's attention.

'And what pray tell, would that be?' Mitsuko could've sworn she saw a very faint smirk on Zheng Jiangs lips before she spoke.

'Unfortunately, our food resources are running thin here in the city. The extra strain of our resources your forces have on us is starting to concern us. We're not exactly the capital of the country. We don't have an endless supply of food, we had a stockpile ready however your forces have drained that.' Zheng Jiang explained.

'That was something you could've told me the first time before telling me about a good few weeks later when it became a problem.' Mitsuko responded with a clear annoyed tone in her voice.

'I wasn't aware of this problem until recently unfortunately. As soon as I did I thought I'd inform you. Because we could use this as a good opportunity to make this alliance you seek.' Mitsuko narrowed her eyes at her as her snakes hissed inquisitively at her.

'How? What did you have in mind?'

'Well, bandits aren't known for being isolated and keeping to themselves. Word has come to our attention that there is a village to the east who are producing food and trading with Zhang Yan and despite the famine they're producing a lot and we're under the impression that they have a stockpile of food. If you manage to get that food for us it'll prove that you embrace who we are and you can provide for yourselves. From there we can make our alliance official.' Zheng Jiang explained her position. Gai Shu looked at her with shock, he wasn't aware of this sudden shortage of food it looked like. Lu Zheng meanwhile hid most of her face with her fan.

'So how do you want me to do that? Do you want me to talk to them provide us with the food instead?'

'You can most certain try. But just getting that stockpile of food would be enough, you're free to use any means necessary to do so. Anything done to them will put some strain on Zhang Yan. It'll be a win-win situation by the end of it. While you're gone we'll look into more ways to provide for our city.'

'So where am I going in the west? I'm going to assume you have scouts ready to escort us?'

'That's right, they'll be able to show you where you need to go. They won't get involved though which will help not have a repeat of last time.' Zheng Jiang chuckled.