Chapter Ten: The Deal is Struck

After hearing this, Yun Yun’s eyes sparkled as she smiled and replied, “As long as you can defeat the British colonizers, reclaim the vast lands of Mexico, and grant the wood elves a homeland of our own, all the spoils of war—half of them—will be yours to choose first. You will also gain the everlasting friendship of our people. If you’re willing, you can even have full command of our forces in battle. No matter what, as long as it’s against the British, we wood elves will not fear sacrifice and will gladly serve as your vanguard. That means, in an instant, you’ll have a band of fearless warriors at your side. Surely such an alliance would benefit your own country, the Great Song, wouldn’t it, Lord Sun Li?”

Hearing this, Sun Li fell into thought. Perhaps sensing his hesitation, Yun Yun tossed out another tempting offer.

“I’ve noticed you and my sister, Lulu, get along quite well. I can make the decision to betroth her to you. That way, you and our wood elf clan will become family. From then on, whatever troubles you face, we will do our utmost to help you. What do you think?” Yun Yun laid her latest scheme bare, intending to bind this lustful knight firmly to the wood elves’ cause. The wood elves lacked many things, but beauties were not among them. To send Lulu—a top-tier beauty even among the elves—to warm his bed, Yun Yun, having discerned Sun Li’s preferences, was supremely confident this alliance would be sealed.

Pfft! Sun Li, in the middle of sampling a wood elf specialty drink, sprayed it all over Yun Yun, who sat across from him. Watching her expression shift from milky-white to red, then to a purplish hue with a trace of black creeping in, Sun Li swiftly made a wise choice.

“Ah, your terms are truly sincere. I do like your adorable Princess Lulu, but matters like this at least require her consent. I won’t force anyone. I am, after all, a knight of great righteousness. Otherwise, I would have taken you already… Uh, what I mean is, I always respect the other’s feelings and will not press the matter. I’ll accompany you to Mexico, don’t worry.” In his haste, Sun Li let slip too much, quickly correcting himself.

Damn that Sun Li! He still harbors such thoughts about me? No, I must enlighten my naive little sister, make her seduce Sun Li quickly, so he’ll stop fixating on me. Though this eccentric knight has principles, having such a powerful man fancy me gives me no sense of security at all!

Poor little Lulu had once again been sold out by her sister. Who knew how she, so innocent, could be awakened to the ways of the world? It was quite the technical challenge.

With the basis of their cooperation established, Sun Li set aside his distracting thoughts of cute maidens and asked Yun Yun, “How many troops can you muster in total, and what are they armed with? Be specific.”

“With this island and Mexico combined, I can muster around eleven hundred warriors—these are adult fighters ready for battle. We have bows and arrows, machetes, longswords, spears—all cold weapons. There are one hundred and fifteen armed with firearms, but more than ninety percent are matchlocks. As for cannons, everything we have is on those two ships,” Yun Yun answered, counting on her fingers.

“Out of more than a thousand armed troops, only about a hundred have firearms? In that naval battle I fought, I captured over a hundred muskets, and all were flintlocks. Didn’t you say half your resistance fighters were armed with firearms? Are you telling me there’s internal inequality among the wood elves?” Sun Li asked, clearly puzzled.

Yun Yun gave an awkward laugh. “Well, actually, I did exaggerate the numbers a little back then to win your support. Besides, we have no industrial base, so once a firearm is damaged, we can’t repair it and have to discard it. That’s why we can’t equip more. We often have small skirmishes with the colonizers to seize supplies. The scale is small, but the fights are frequent, so our firearms break often. If our weapons weren’t so poor, we wood elves wouldn’t have been suppressed by the colonizers for so many years…”

“Even with a high attrition rate, the numbers shouldn’t be off by that much. Your ‘little exaggeration’ seems to have multiplied a few times, hasn’t it?” Sun Li looked at Yun Yun with disdain—a rare moment when he could look down on her.

Yun Yun’s face turned redder and redder. For a long time, she couldn’t think of an explanation. Under Sun Li’s scornful gaze, she wished she could crawl into a crack in the ground. To be rendered speechless by this shameless scoundrel—she felt utterly disgraced.

“Fine. I suppose the other wood elf factions are in a similar state. With this level of military strength, don’t even think about a pitched battle with the British. That’s not resisting tyranny—that’s suicide! I’ll go with you to Mexico to help you establish leadership over the wood elves, but once you have power, you must restrain these fearless fighters and conserve your strength. Trust me, there will be a chance for your people to reclaim your homeland, but now is not the time. If you agree, I’ll go with you. But if you insist on a fight to the death with the British, then, as a friend, I’ll only be able to save you and your sister at a critical moment. As for victory—forget it. The disparity is too great. Don’t be fooled by the fact that Mexico has only ten thousand regular troops. Never mind how many reinforcements Europe might send to quell a rebellion; just the slave traders and mercenary groups in Mexico outnumber the British regulars several times over!”

At this point, Sun Li believed Yun Yun should realize how vast the gap in strength truly was. If she insisted on a headlong charge, he wouldn’t stand by and watch her die, but he was only one man. Even with the Song army, there were only twenty thousand troops—was he supposed to risk everything for the wood elves?

What a joke!

Sun Li was a would-be iron-blooded emperor bent on unifying the world, a man whose orders could send thousands to their deaths. That he was willing to protect these two wood elf sisters out of friendship was already more than generous. What emperor wasn’t a self-serving dictator at heart?

After hearing him out, disappointment flashed across Yun Yun’s eyes. She understood all the reasoning Sun Li had laid out and realized her earlier thoughts were nothing but daydreams—like a child who’d found a piece of gold, suddenly imagining herself rich, living in mansions and driving carriages, yet unable to calmly assess its true worth.

Though she understood, still… did Sun Li have to be so blunt? To be rejected so directly—what girl wouldn’t feel upset? The more she thought about it, the more aggrieved she felt, and tears began to well in her eyes.