Chasing Jade (Zhu Yu)

In the distance, beacon fires blazed across the sky, yet the central military tent on the mountain remained eerily silent.

Gongsun Yin strode briskly into the tent, unable to conceal his excitement: "By having the soldiers at the mountain's base scrape tree bark and dig up roots to feign a food shortage on the mountain, the rebels have truly taken the bait! Believing we've been cut off from supplies for days, they deliberately slaughtered pigs and sheep to roast meat extravagantly, aiming to demoralize our troops!"

Xie Zheng's injuries were severe, his face still pale. Draped loosely in an outer robe, he reclined against the headboard, the white bandages wrapped around his shoulder faintly visible beneath. His slender fingers held a terrain map, his refined features carrying a hint of languidness as he lifted his gaze to ask, "Has the message been sent to the reinforcements below the mountain?"

Gongsun Yin replied, "It was sent by gyrfalcon yesterday."

Xie Zheng tossed aside the map and said, "Create some commotion to tie down the rebel forces, allowing the reinforcements below to burn their provisions."

He seemed about to rise, but the movement sent a sharp pain through his chest wound. A frosty expression crossed Xie Zheng's handsome features as he asked, "How has Sui Yuanqing been recently?"

Gongsun Yin answered, "Exposed to wind and rain all day, surviving on a single bowl of thin gruel to keep him alive. Yesterday, he seemed to have developed a fever, but I judged he wouldn't die, so I didn't send the army doctor to see him."

A cold breeze intermittently lifted the tent flap, allowing thin daylight to slant across Xie Zheng's face. The corner of his lips curled coldly as he said, "Take Sui Yuanqing to the front lines. If the rebels are roasting meat, you should do the same."

Gongsun Yin immediately grasped his meaning and chuckled wryly, "The flames roasting Sui Yuanqing will likely burn straight into Changxin Wang's heart. With such bait, we needn't worry about the rebels not taking the hook."

This was a stratagem to lure the enemy away from their base—making the rebels believe they were short on supplies to draw them into a trap, then using Sui Yuanqing as leverage to tie down most of the rebel forces. Meanwhile, the Yan and Ji reinforcements waiting below could seize the opportunity to strike directly at the enemy's heart and burn their provisions.

Once the rebels also ran out of supplies, no matter how many troops they had stationed above and below, another day or two of attrition would reverse the roles of attacker and defender.

As Gongsun Yin left the tent to take Sui Yuanqing to the front lines, a personal guard suddenly came running back, his face distraught: "Gongsun, something terrible has happened! Miss Fan has gone to launch a surprise attack on the enemy camp at the rear mountain!"

Gongsun Yin's expression changed drastically. He quickly glanced back toward the tent, ensuring it was far enough that Xie Zheng wouldn't have heard, before snapping, "Wasn't she out hunting? How did she end up at the enemy camp?"

The guard explained, "On our way back from hunting, we heard the urgent horn signals from the mountain's base. As soon as Miss Fan learned the rear mountain was lightly guarded, she charged straight there."

Gongsun Yin paced back and forth a few steps before quickly devising a response: "The Marquis is still severely injured—don't let him know about this yet. Take a hundred light cavalry and pursue her immediately. You must ensure her safety."

The guard didn't dare delay for even a moment and rushed off to muster the troops.

Gongsun Yin rubbed his temples and muttered worriedly, "At this critical juncture, let nothing go wrong..."

Rear Mountain.

Fan Changyu, along with the remaining personal guard and eight soldiers, lay concealed on a mound covered by shrubs, each wearing a makeshift hat woven from branches and vines.

After staring at the narrow winding path leading down the mountain for a while, Fan Changyu couldn't help voicing her confusion: "Are there really no guards here?"

The personal guard answered, "They're all hidden in the woods."Fan Changyu let out an "Oh" and was pondering whether they needed permission from the guards at the mountain pass to approach the enemy camp when she spotted a patrol of allied soldiers coming down the winding mountain path. Their uniforms were stained with fresh blood, and as they walked, they kept glancing around, their bows still drawn with arrows—an odd sight.

Fan Changyu stared at the mountain path for a long time but couldn't figure out where they had come from. She whispered to the personal guard beside her, "Is this a shift change?"

The guard also seemed puzzled. Covering his mouth with his hand, he let out a few sharp bird calls. In an instant, a hail of arrows rained down toward the bushes where they were hiding.

The guard's expression changed drastically. He tried to pull Fan Changyu to cover, but she was faster, rolling to the side and taking shelter behind a large tree. Some of the soldiers, panicking, tried to stand and run, only to be turned into human pincushions by the arrows.

Fan Changyu watched as the men who had just been hunting with her moments ago now lay lifeless on the ground, blood pooling beneath them, their eyes still wide open in death. Her lips pressed into a tight line, and a bitter taste rose in her throat. Her gaze, sharp as a leopard's, locked onto the archers.

Even if she were slow-witted, she could tell something was off about these men.

The bloodstained uniforms they wore were likely stripped from the bodies of Yanzhou Army soldiers.

After the volley of arrows, the group advanced with swords drawn, as if to confirm whether everyone was dead.

The personal guard hiding behind a tree opposite Fan Changyu signaled with his lips for her to escape at the first opportunity. Fan Changyu pressed her lips together and didn’t respond.

When the rebels disguised as Yanzhou soldiers were just a few steps away, the guard roared and charged out. The surviving soldiers, their hands trembling as they gripped their swords, also let out battle cries to steel themselves before rushing forward.

Fan Changyu noticed one who looked barely more than a boy about to charge as well. She grabbed him by the collar. The boy kicked and struggled, shouting, "You're a woman—run for your life! A man of Yanzhou would rather die dragging an enemy down with him!"

Fan Changyu shot him a glance. "You—go back and report."

With a powerful throw, she sent him flying far away.

Several rebels spotted her and advanced with their blades raised. Seeing this, Fan Changyu drew her bleeding knife and cleaver, scraping the blades together with a grating metallic screech. Without hesitation, she charged straight at them, a knife in each hand.

The personal guard, skilled in combat, managed to fend off the rebels attacking him. Worried about Fan Changyu, he glanced back—only to see her cutting down one enemy after another. Though she avoided fatal strikes, the rebels she struck couldn’t get back up.

Alone, wielding two butcher knives, she spun through the crowd like a whirlwind. What had been a rebel pursuit now looked more like her hunting them down.

The guard stared in a daze, marveling inwardly—their Marquis certainly didn’t fall for ordinary women.

The boy Fan Changyu had tossed out of the fray was also stunned. Shaking himself out of it, he scrambled to his feet and raced back to deliver the message: The rebels had a two-pronged plan—loudly taunting at the front while sneaking in a surprise attack from the rear!Not far into their escape, they encountered another personal guard who had gone back to report. The young man was nearly overcome with joy upon seeing him bring reinforcements, pointing behind him and shouting, "Quick! Quick! The rebels disguised as our men have come up the mountain!"

Remembering Gongsun Yin's instructions, the personal guard immediately led a hundred light cavalry to assist.

With the reinforcements, the rebels disguised as Yanzhou Army soldiers were swiftly subdued.

After scouting the rear mountain outposts, the scout returned with a grim shake of his head. "Our men were all shot dead by a hail of arrows."

The personal guard who had fought alongside Fan Changyu was so enraged that he punched the captured rebel leader twice in the face.

The leader spat out a mouthful of blood and laughed. "At least my brothers took down so many of you before they came up here—worth it!"

The personal guard responded with another brutal punch to his nose.

Interrogation quickly revealed how they had infiltrated the mountain.

The rebels had stripped the uniforms from dead Yanzhou soldiers on the battlefield, disguised themselves as the scattered reinforcements from the foothills, and deceived the mountain defenders into lowering their guard. Once close, they had unleashed a volley of arrows.

Their goal in coming up the mountain was to rescue Sui Yuanqing while chaos reigned at the front.

Both personal guards suggested taking the captured rebels back to camp for the strategist and Wu'an Marquis to decide their fate.

Fan Changyu glanced again at the smoke rising from the foothills and said, "Since they’ve all come up here, there shouldn’t be anyone left down there, right?"

The personal guard who had gone for reinforcements, fearing Fan Changyu hadn’t given up her reckless idea, said, "Miss Fan, the rebels have a large force, and their deployment in the foothills is complex. It’s not advisable—"

"Wait a moment."

Fan Changyu abruptly cut him off, dragging one of the bound rebel soldiers away.

She threw him behind a tree and pointed downhill. "How many of you are left down there? Where are they hiding?"

The soldier sneered. "I’m no coward who fears death—"

Before he could finish, a fierce punch smashed into his nose.

The soldier screamed as blood gushed from his nostrils.

Fan Changyu glared. "Talk or not?"

"Only a thousand men remain at this pass, waiting at the foot of the mountain for extraction."

She dragged him back. The other prisoners, having heard only the screams and not the conversation, saw their comrade’s face covered in blood and shuddered in fear.

Fan Changyu hauled another soldier away to repeat the questioning.

This method was something she’d learned from Head Constable Wang—he’d said the County Government Office interrogated prisoners separately to prevent collusion, making it easier to distinguish truth from lies.

After questioning three or four and receiving the same answer, she turned to the two personal guards. "Only a thousand remain below, all stationed at the mountain’s base."

The guards exchanged glances. One said, "Miss Fan, wait here a moment. Let me bring more men."

While that guard went for additional reinforcements, Fan Changyu and the other guard led the hundred or so light cavalry trained by Xie Zheng down the mountain, stealthily observing the movements of the thousand rebels below.

The mountain path was steep, so the cavalry dismounted. But as cavalrymen, their physical prowess far surpassed that of infantry—taking on two opponents each was no challenge. This was why the personal guard had allowed Fan Changyu to descend.They had originally planned to wait for the personal guard to bring more reinforcements before taking action. But in the distance, a scout galloped in on a swift horse and seemed to say something to the rebel leader. Suddenly, the thousand rebels stationed at the foot of the mountain turned and followed the scout away.

Fan Changyu asked, "Why are they leaving?"

The personal guard didn’t know the reason either and only said, "Perhaps something happened at the front."

Fan Changyu understood the principle of calling for backup in a fight. She immediately said, "Then we need to find a way to delay this group. Otherwise, what if the front can’t hold out?"

The personal guard was still hesitant, but Fan Changyu had already made up her mind and dashed toward the rebel tents set up at the mountain pass.

Afraid that Fan Changyu might get hurt, the personal guard had no choice but to follow, and the rest of the soldiers rushed out in a swarm.

Fan Changyu barged into the rebel tents, ignoring everything else, and rummaged around frantically for salt.

Once she found where the rebels stored their food and salt, she hoisted two bags of salt onto her shoulders and ran.

Seeing this, the other soldiers followed suit, grabbing sacks of grain.

The rebels, who had just left, turned back when they saw the Yanzhou Army descending the mountain to loot their supplies, intending to surround Fan Changyu and her group.

This was only a small rebel outpost, so the stockpile of food wasn’t large. The hundred or so soldiers who had come didn’t even manage to carry a full bag each.

The personal guard, having fought alongside Xie Zheng for years, immediately urged everyone to flee when he saw the rebels turning back. They also set fire to the empty tents.

Worried that Fan Changyu might struggle carrying two bags of salt, he took one from her and carried it himself.

Fan Changyu acted like a bandit raiding a village. With her hands now free, she remembered that Changning and Yan Zheng had no blankets to sleep under at night, so she snatched two cloaks hanging in the tents and ran off with them.

Passing by the rebels’ cooking area, she spotted a whole roasted lamb—meant to taunt the Yanzhou Army on the mountain—still hanging over the fire. She draped the cloaks over the salt bags, freeing her hands to grab the spit holding the lamb.

The rebels who had turned back to chase them were stunned to see her sprinting away with a bag of salt on one shoulder and the roasted lamb held high in her other hand.

The rebel leader on horseback drew his bow and aimed an arrow at Fan Changyu.

The pursuing scout shouted, "General! The Yanzhou Army and Jizhou Army below are trying to burn our grain stores! Don’t delay the battle!"

The rebel leader cursed, "The Yanzhou bandits from the mountain are stealing our food! Can’t you see they’ve already set our camp on fire?"

The arrow he loosed fell short due to the distance. When the personal guard yelled a warning, Fan Changyu blocked it with the bag of salt on her shoulder.

Furious, the rebels finally closed in on Fan Changyu’s group as they fled with the supplies—only for the personal guard who had gone for reinforcements to return with the Yanzhou Army from the mountain.

The Yanzhou Army rained arrows down, forcing the rebels to halt outside their range. In the end, the thousand-strong rebel army could only watch helplessly as Fan Changyu and the others carried the food and salt back up the mountain.

Panting heavily, Fan Changyu only noticed the thick smoke rising in the distance when she reached the mountainside.

She gasped, "Are the rebels burning the mountain over there?"

But the personal guard, recognizing the direction of the smoke, was overjoyed. He dropped his bag of salt and collapsed onto the ground, laughing. "With all this rain, the mountain foliage is soaked—they can’t burn it. That’s our men setting the rebels’ supplies on fire!"Fan Changyu led them to seize the grain, inadvertently delaying the thousand troops at the foot of the mountain, which indirectly aided their allies who were setting fire to the enemy's provisions.

He looked at Fan Changyu with admiration in his eyes. "Miss Fan, you've accomplished a great deed this time!"

However, secrets are hard to keep. When Gongsun Yin suddenly dispatched a large number of troops to the back mountain, Xie Zheng grew alert. "Has something happened at the back mountain?" he asked.

Gongsun Yin stiffened slightly before replying, "Rebels disguised as our men tried to sneak up the mountain, but they've all been captured. The reinforcements are just a precaution."

Xie Zheng narrowed his eyes. "Has she not returned from hunting yet?"

Realizing he could no longer conceal the truth, Gongsun Yin sighed and admitted, "Miss Fan is at the back mountain."

Xie Zheng's expression turned icy. "Reckless! If you knew it was dangerous, why did you let her stay there?"

He struggled to rise, but Gongsun Yin quickly stepped forward to restrain him. "I've already sent Xie Qi and Xiao Wu after her, along with a hundred light cavalry. They'll bring Miss Fan back soon—"

Just as Xie Zheng was about to push his hand away, a personal guard rushed into the tent, unable to hide his excitement. "Marquis, Miss Fan has returned!"

Xie Zheng's expression softened slightly, and Gongsun Yin also breathed a sigh of relief. However, when Fan Changyu entered the tent moments later—one hand holding a red velvet cloak and the other carrying a roasted lamb—both men suddenly fell into stunned silence.

That cloak bore the insignia of Chongzhou.

Where had it come from?