Chapter 107 Old Acquaintance
The personal guard halted and turned back to ask, "Does my lord have further instructions?"
Pei Song tossed the battle report he had read onto the desk and asked, "What exactly happened with the deputy general of Jinzhou who died in an ambush a month ago?"
The number of memorials requiring Pei Song's attention daily was immense—deciding which counties to attack, how to handle prisoners of war, where grain levies fell short, whether to enforce conscription or purchase from elsewhere... When subordinate generals submitted memorials on such tedious military affairs, their main purpose was to inform Pei Song. Once Pei Song stamped and returned the memorials, it signified his review and approval.
But Pei Song was often too busy to attend to everything personally, so for less urgent documents, his personal guards would read them and provide a verbal summary before stamping and returning them.
The death of a deputy general from Jinzhou during a surrender negotiation mission wasn't considered critical military affairs. When the memorial reporting this incident had previously been submitted, it coincided with Pei Song's injury from clashing with Xiao Li and the fruitless city-wide lockdown search. With no mind for peripheral matters, Pei Song had delegated it to his guards.
Now questioned about it, the guard replied truthfully: "Commandant Pei Yuan previously reported that Deputy Commander Cui Hu of Jinzhou was killed in an ambush while traveling to Tongzhou for surrender negotiations. It's suspected to be the work of several official counties in Tongzhou backed by Wei Qishan. To prevent morale from dropping after losing a deputy commander before battle, and to intimidate all counties in Tongzhou, Commandant Pei Yuan decided to launch an attack on those official counties as a warning example."
Pei Song clearly cared less about Pei Yuan's handling of the outcome and more about the ambush details. He unconsciously frowned and asked, "How many ambushers were there?"
The guard said, "Over a thousand."
That day, Xiao Li had brought Zhang Huai, A Niu, and others to set up rolling stones and defensive logs with linked rope traps on the mountain early. When the Jinzhou Pei Army passed below, they cut the ropes to create the illusion of a hundred-plus ambushers.
Unexpectedly, after the Jinzhou deputy general's death, the soldiers didn't dare desert directly but feared punishment upon returning to camp. Squad leaders had instructed their men to unanimously claim they'd been ambushed by over a thousand fighters.
Pei Yuan and Han Qi, who defended Jinzhou, thus concluded it was highly likely the work of several official counties in Tongzhou backed by Wei Qishan.
The two had long intended to eliminate those Tongzhou official counties before the Southern Border war officially began. Once they fell, only bandit-controlled and rebel counties would remain in Tongzhou—short-sighted and unlikely to cause much trouble, surrendering sooner or later.
But leaving those official counties unchecked would allow them to grow restless once Jinzhou engaged the combined forces of Liang, Chen, and Wei.
Thus, sending a deputy general for surrender talks was a courtesy before force.
If those counties recognized the situation and submitted to Pei Song, all the better. If they remained obstinate, there was no need to keep them.
But the deputy general's death surprised everyone.
The fleeing survivors stirred panic throughout the entire Jinzhou army—Jinzhou had gambled and lost.
Pei Yuan and Han Qi determined that those counties had discerned their intent and struck first. While reporting to Pei Song via memorial, they simultaneously launched a surprise attack on the several official counties in Tongzhou that acted like local despots under Wei family support.It was only upon reading the latest battle report from Jinzhou, which mentioned their successful capture of several counties in Tongzhou after the deputy general's death, that Pei Song suddenly voiced his suspicion. He wondered if the death of Jinzhou's deputy general might be connected to Xiao Li.
After all, the timing of the deputy general's death coincided closely with Xiao Li's appearance in Yongzhou.
But after hearing the number of troops involved in the ambush, Pei Song dismissed the possibility. Jinzhou's scouts weren't deaf or blind—they wouldn't have allowed over a thousand Liang troops to cross the border unnoticed.
Unless... after Wei Qishan allied with Great Liang, he revealed that they had operatives within Tongzhou. In that case, Great Liang might have dispatched Xiao Li to leverage the military forces of several Tongzhou counties and ambush Cui Hu.
Pei Song's gaze returned to the report discarded on the table, his eyes dark and unreadable. Finally, he merely told his guard, "Understood. You may leave."
Even if his speculation was correct, Pei Yuan had already securely dismantled those official counties relying on Wei Qishan. Whatever schemes Great Liang's Han Yang faction might be plotting, they could no longer affect the Jinzhou battlefield for now.
His priority was to root out the hidden agents within Yongzhou, rendering Han Yang blind and deaf to his movements. There would be plenty of opportunities later to deal with the fugitives Xiao Li and Zhou Sui.
The guard naturally couldn't decipher Pei Song's thoughts. Taking the dismissal at face value, he wisely refrained from further questions and withdrew with another nod.
Eight hundred li away, at Great Liang's military camp in Jinzhou, Li Xun—who had accompanied Fan Yuan to supervise the front lines—was reading a letter while gulping down cold tea.
The weather was sweltering. The tent's tarpaulin roof offered little protection against the scorching sun, turning the interior into a steaming oven. Even with the tent flaps raised for ventilation, the breeze that wafted in felt blisteringly hot.
Having sat in the tent all morning, Li Xun's back was soaked with sweat. When Fan Yuan entered and stood at the doorway letting his guards remove his armor, the accumulated sweat from his arm wraps spilled onto the ground as they came off. Grabbing a towel from a guard, Fan Yuan wiped his face roughly—his face and neck were sunburned a deep red. He grumbled, "This damn heat! You could bury sweet potatoes in the sand under this sun and have roasted yams ready to eat!"
"That'd save firewood..." Li Xun started to reply, then suddenly grew so agitated he knocked over his teacup.
Tea splashed across a stack of documents on the table. Li Xun hurriedly picked up the papers to shake off the moisture, while a guard swiftly fetched a cloth to wipe the table.
Fan Yuan, who had just picked up a cup of cold tea but hadn't yet drunk from it, set it down and asked, "What happened?"
Li Xun carefully reread the letter in his hand, barely containing his excitement. "Zhou... Zhou Sui sent a letter..."
Seeing his reaction wasn't one of alarm, Fan Yuan took a sip of tea and asked puzzledly, "So he sent a letter. Why are you acting like this?"
Mid-sentence, Fan Yuan suddenly froze, quickly putting down his teacup. "Don't tell me there's news about Brother Xiao's mother?"
Li Xun shook his head. Fan Yuan's enthusiasm immediately faded, and he picked up his teacup again. "Then what could have happened in Yongzhou?"
Li Xun finally caught his breath. "He says Xiao Li is alive!"
"Pfft—"
Fan Yuan choked on his tea in excitement. After coughing twice, he still doubted his ears. "What?"
Li Xun repeated, "Xiao Li is alive!"
Fan Yuan asked incredulously, "Is this true?"Li Xun showed him Zhou Sui's letter: "Zhou Sui wrote this himself—how could I possibly deceive you?"
Fan Yuan hastily snatched the letter to examine it closely. While in Yongzhou, Zhou Sui had frequently sent secret messages to Pingzhou. Now that the old forces within Yongzhou had been eradicated, the informants outside Yongzhou remained. Once contact was reestablished, letters could still be delivered to Pingzhou.
Wen Yu had granted Li Xun and Chen Wei joint authority to oversee state affairs. When major decisions proved difficult to resolve, they needed to seek instructions from Li Yao. After Li Xun went to the front lines in Jinzhou, secret correspondence from the heartland of Great Liang—Yongzhou and the Northern Border—would first reach him, enabling timely responses.
After reading the letter, Fan Yuan felt a tumult of emotions and sighed: "I always knew a man like Brother Xiao would surely have divine protection watching over him."
Once his initial joy subsided, Li Xun grew troubled again: "That arrow from the Duke likely created a rift in General Xiao's heart. Judging from Zhou Sui's letter, he seems unwilling to return to Liang territory in the Southern Border."
As a military man and fellow martial general, Fan Yuan understood better the injustice Xiao Li had suffered. After pondering, he said: "Brother Xiao has been wronged, and on top of that, he lost his mother. Even a clay figure wouldn't just let this pass."
Li Xun certainly understood they needed to quickly send word to explain things clearly to Xiao Li. But he feared Xiao Li had been too deeply wounded in Pingzhou. If the general refused to serve Great Liang again, the fault lay with Great Liang, and they would have no right to persistently bother him.
Yet losing such a talented general pained even Li Xun deeply.
After some thought, he said: "Here's what we'll do—I'll first send someone to find Zhou Sui and see if we can contact General Xiao. If we can reach him, I'll go apologize on behalf of the Duke. We must also send word to the Princess immediately. She has been burdened with guilt over mistakenly killing General Xiao and has grown distant from the Duke. Since General Xiao is still alive, there's still room to mend things."
Fan Yuan agreed this approach was feasible and nodded in approval.
Li Xun immediately hurried out to summon messengers, but halfway there, he suddenly turned back: "Look at me—I'm so overwhelmed I've forgotten myself! The Zhou Family has been raided and escaped using the Xu Family's cargo ships. The Princess had long instructed that if this day came, we must quickly divert the trouble eastward. If we can't hide it from Pei Song, the Xu Family must abandon their assets in Yongzhou and prepare to sever ties to survive."
He returned to his desk, grinding ink and taking up his brush to deploy orders one by one.
After learning Xiao Li was alive, Fan Yuan's spirits had soared. Though sweat still beaded on his forehead from the heat, his earlier irritability had faded. He said: "Good, leave these matters to you. I'll send scouts to Tongzhou to investigate further. Recently, Jinzhou suddenly attacked several counties in Tongzhou that had close ties with Wei Qishan, claiming they ambushed and killed Deputy General Cui Hu who was sent to persuade surrender. Northern Wei used this to claim merit and plead victimhood, making excuses to delay forming vanguard camps and deploying troops. I've long found this suspicious—our strategy against Jinzhou was jointly devised by three parties. If Northern Wei had connections with those Tongzhou counties but didn't inform us beforehand, how can they now demand military honors while refusing to contribute troops? What kind of nonsense is that?"Li Xun also found the situation increasingly peculiar as he listened. "There's something odd about this. It seems Jinzhou has had its eyes on Tongzhou for a while. Before engaging us in battle, it was inevitable they'd first eliminate those counties aligned with Wei Qishan. Wei Qishan has guarded the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun for years, fighting countless wars—would he fail to grasp such obvious advantages and disadvantages?"
Using his finger to point at the seventeen counties of Tongzhou on the map, Li Xun continued, "These county magistrates aren't fools. They all know Pei Song's reputation is foul. Initially, being able to rely on Wei Qishan, they naturally wouldn't refuse such an olive branch. But now that Pei Song is seriously moving to attack them, with Wei Qishan's forces in the north and south too far from Tongzhou to provide aid, as long as Pei Song offers sufficient terms, why wouldn't they surrender?"
He paused, speaking with near certainty, "Northern Wei knew from the start these counties were fence-sitters and never truly intended to use them. Jinzhou's mobilization just gave Northern Wei an excuse to make noise."
Fan Yuan clicked his tongue. "If what you say is true, after Pei Song decided to take those counties, Northern Wei likely had no further contact with them. Then who ambushed Jinzhou's troops sent to persuade surrender and killed Cui Hu?"
Li Xun pondered briefly. "Perhaps it was a drama staged by Jinzhou itself, or maybe... a scheme to divert trouble eastward?"
Detecting hidden meaning in Li Xun's words, Fan Yuan asked, "What do you mean?"
Li Xun picked up a brush and wrote a large character for "Struggle" on paper.
Fan Yuan quickly understood. "You mean... infighting among those counties within Tongzhou?"
Li Xun nodded, speaking cryptically, "Although it's always been the big fish eating the small fish, haven't all big fish grown from small ones? With these big fish dead, the small fish in Tongzhou should fatten up considerably. I just wonder which small fish set this trap."
Fan Yuan laughed heartily. "With such cunning, once we flatten Jinzhou, we should soon meet in Tongzhou. You must recruit such talent for the princess, Brother Li."
Li Xun only smiled without responding, appearing somewhat preoccupied.
Tongzhou, Pingdeng County.
Xiao Li sat on a high slope watching the sunset. The elevated terrain allowed him to see the official road to the south where large armies marched northward, as well as the distant southern mountains.
Zhang Huai walked over through the yellowish-brown wild grass, cupping his hands respectfully toward Xiao Li. "Huai congratulates our benefactor on achieving the first step of your great undertaking."
Xiao Li withdrew his gaze from the distance and glanced at Zhang Huai. "I've told you, there's no need to call me benefactor anymore."
Zhang Huai insisted, "Huai intends to follow our benefactor in plotting the great undertaking. Propriety must not be abandoned."
Xiao Li turned to look down at the newly built training ground and properly established camp below the mountain behind them. "I seek no great undertaking—only that the brothers following me can live without kneeling in this chaotic era."
Zhang Huai followed his gaze to the camp below and smiled. "Forget this chaotic era—even in times of peace, living without kneeling is as difficult as reaching heaven."
With ambiguous meaning, he added, "In Huai's view, our benefactor's ambitions are not small."Xiao Li glanced at him, and Zhang Huai chuckled, steering the conversation elsewhere: "The effect of your plan, Benefactor, has far exceeded Huai's expectations. Although those county magistrates hadn't committed atrocities severe enough to incite a rebellion, they were far from virtuous. In counties already overthrown by the people, the magistrates no longer bothered to maintain their hypocritical facade of serving the public, while the remaining ones still pretended to appease the populace."
"By using Pei Song's hand to rid the people of these scourges, yet with Pei Song's notorious reputation for conscripting refugees to build defensive works, the local populace remains hostile toward the Pei Army taking over the counties. The counties that submitted out of fear for Pei Song's authority only did so in name—their soldiers and civilians, terrified of being forced to repair the old Great Wall, have long fled to other counties. This is the perfect opportunity for us, under the banner of the righteous army, to expand. However, several bandit-controlled counties have grown increasingly audacious lately. What does Benefactor intend to do?"
Xiao Li replied, "Let them be for now. The Pei Army in Jinzhou may not have completely given up. Having them as a cover for our actions isn't a bad thing."
Zhang Huai smiled and cupped his hands in acknowledgment. "Huai understands. I will relay the orders at once."
As he descended the slope, Zheng Hu happened to be coming to find Xiao Li. A Niu raced alongside him as if competing, charging forward with all his might. Zheng Hu hadn't initially intended to compete with such a simple-minded lad, but seeing him charge ahead like a spirited young bull, he couldn't resist the challenge. They both sprinted up, arriving drenched in sweat.
Upon seeing Zhang Huai, they greeted him breathlessly. Zhang Huai asked with a smile, "Looking for the Benefactor?"
Zheng Hu, hands on his knees, nodded while panting. A Niu leaned against a large tree, no better off.
Zhang Huai pointed them in the right direction, and the two, utterly exhausted, charged forward again like two fighting bulls. As he ran, Zheng Hu gasped between breaths, complaining, "Second Brother really... why does he always come to this godforsaken barren slope to observe the movements of the three allied forces in the Southern Border..."
A Niu, equally breathless, retorted, "No, he's not! He's looking at the big sister down south..."
Zheng Hu, mid-run, paused in confusion and called out to A Niu, "Wait, what big sister?"
Thinking Zheng Hu was just trying to beat him, A Niu ignored him and pushed forward with even greater effort. "Big sister is just big sister!"
Zhang Huai hadn't meant to eavesdrop on their banter, but A Niu's words suddenly gave him pause, leaving him deep in thought.
—
The Gobi Desert after nightfall was as cold as the deep autumn of the Northern Border.
The soldiers escorting the bride and accompanying the wedding party had arranged their tents in a circular formation, with Wen Yu's tent positioned at the very center, closely surrounded by the tents of the Azure Guard.
Zhao Bai and his men lit a fire outside the tent to ward off the cold and prepare a late-night meal. Wen Yu, having changed into lightweight everyday clothes, sat by the fire with Tong Que and a female Azure Guard, resting her chin on her arms as she gazed absently at the distant flames.
Usually, her imposing demeanor kept others at a distance, but in moments like these, her hardened exterior seemed to soften, flowing under the moonlight with an unconsciously captivating tenderness.
Tong Que brought over the prepared late-night meal and called for Wen Yu to eat. Lost in thought, she only responded with a soft "Hmm" and lifted her head after being called twice.
Tong Que handed her the bowl and said with a smile, "Princess, your meal is ready."When Wen Yu took the porcelain bowl, Tong Que noticed the carp wood carving she had been holding in her hand earlier. Sitting down beside her, Tong Que asked, "This wood carving must have been given to you by someone very important, Your Highness? This servant noticed you've been carrying it with you ever since Yongzhou."
She observed that the wood carving wasn't even painted, unlike some precious object, yet Wen Yu had treasured it enough to bring all the way beyond the frontier. Surely the person who gave it must be extraordinary.
Wen Yu was stirring the thick congee in her bowl with a spoon when she heard this. Her movements paused briefly before she responded after a moment, "Yes, it was given by an old friend who can never return."
Author's Note: Thank you to the little angels who voted for me or irrigated with nutrient solutions between 2024-07-04 23:37:44~2024-07-07 23:58:36~
Special thanks for nutrient solution irrigation: Sun Nuanyangyang, Lam, Cong Wucao, Su Mo - 10 bottles each; Zhong Shi Zizai - 5 bottles; kfpy_L, Xiao Zhao - 3 bottles each; Riri Riri Riri, Suisui Tao Yan Suisui, Career Successful Third Miss, Hahahahahaha, Ming Yun, Fat Fox - 1 bottle each;
Thank you all very much for your support. I will continue to work hard!
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