1 - Cai Zhong

continent great pangea

south region - zone 5

ghost kingdom - royal capital, year 50,000 of the world calendar

a weeping sound resounded through the palace, at this time the young concubine Yin was giving birth to her first child, the fourth prince of the kingdom

at 8 pm Cai Zhong was born, the fourth prince of the kingdom and also a reincarnated youth.

The young man's eyes looked around and seemed to contain intelligence, something strange for a baby, instead of crying the child laughed at birth.

the servants around him thought there was something wrong with the child's mind, but they didn't know that a 25-year-old adult male was reincarnated.

'I was called a prince... I'm lucky, I'll finally become a king' Cai Zhong

He already thought about having riches, women and power, but little did he know that his birth would come along with a bad luck of the kingdom.

just 5 minutes after being born, he hears a fire in one of the rooms of the huge palace, a little princess has her face burned and more than 50 servants have suffocated.

The next day, some Confucian ministers linked Cai Zhong's birth to fire, saying that the young prince was cursed by heaven.

Emperor Cai Funxi ignored this, it was just coincidence

1 week later, the southern kingdom called Eagle Kingdom invaded the border

the war lasted only 1 month and ended with the defeat of the ghost kingdom, the peace agreement left a debt of 10 million gold coins and had to cede 10% of the lands to the south to the eagle kingdom

5 days later, there was a massive flood to the east, resulting in a major food crisis, the biggest flood in 200 years

These events were attributed to an innocent baby, even Cai Funxi now believed that Cai Zhong was cursed, the Demon Prince moniker began to spread.

----

17 years later

In the huge hall Cai funxi was sitting on the throne, his face was ugly

"Nobody has any idea? Are your noble families dumb?" Cai Funxi shouted

the 100+ court ministers bowed their heads in shame

The new crisis is that the eagle kingdom invaded again from the south, but this time the ghost kingdom managed to react and the combat was even.

But on the northern border there was an invasion, the Yungi kingdom suddenly violated the alliance and sent an army of 300,000 soldiers that destroyed the fortress on the border.

Now the ghost kingdom has no troops to defend in the north as they are defending the south

the ghost kingdom, the eagle kingdom and the Yungi kingdom are all 2nd degree kingdoms, they should have equivalent strength but the financial crisis and corruption of aristocratic families is very high in the kingdom

This world is martial, but despite the existence of sects, the greatest power are kingdoms, empires and dynasties.

there are 3 grades of kingdoms, the 1st grade being the strongest, if national strength is enough, you can be promoted to a 3rd grade empire, empires also exist 3 grades

above the 3 levels of empire there are only 2 more levels, the dynasty and above it the holy dynasty

right now the ghost kingdom is about to be downgraded from 2nd grade to 3rd grade

Next to the ministers there were 4 young people, Cai Zhi the first prince, Cai Gu the second prince, Cai Lu the third and Cai Zhong the fourth

Cai Zhong's last 17 years weren't very good, countless idiots blamed him for nature's accidents and his father didn't even want to see his face

Luckily he didn't have the crippled body script, he had a good martial talent and worked hard, finally at 17 he entered the court for the first time

17-year-old Cai Zhong was at the 8th level of body forging and had a chance to enter the innate realm before age 20.

"And you princes, any ideas?" Cai Funxi

the 1, 2 and 3 prince were quiet

'It's finally my chance, now it's time to shine and try to gain power to fight for the throne' Cai Zhong

"Father, son has an idea" Cai Zhong

"speak" Cai Funxi

"father, Yungi's army was sent to war in a hurry without enough logistical preparations, that is, their idea is to collect food from the army during the invasion of the northern region, I suggest to send some soldiers and force the northern people to migrate momentarily bringing groceries and then burning everything he cannot carry"

"With that, Yungi's army will have only two options, continue marching south with the hungry army or retreat" Cai Zhong

Cai Zhong copied this strategy from the Soviet army that fought the Germans in World War II.

logistics in this world is even more important as a martial warrior needs to eat much more than a normal person, the food resources needed for an army are astronomical

Also, the northern region of the empire is very thin but extensive, it needs almost 15 days of march to reach the center of the kingdom.

After Cai Zhong spoke the idea, the generals around thought, though cruel to the people of the north, it would force the retreat of Yungi's army.

moreover, the north is poor and has little population, only about 200,000

Cai Funxi had a cruel gleam in her eyes

"General Ou Ki, I order you to go north with 3,000 soldiers from the capital and do as Cai Zhong said" Cai Funxi

'finally I will be known as a military genius hahaha, can't wait for the reward, hope it's a 2nd degree pill, so I can enter innate level at 18' Cai Zhong

Unfortunately, Cai Zhong was unlucky.