Chapter 126: Blood Letter
Dou Jianliang's personal guard looked grim. Yuan Fang was now tightly surrounded by soldiers, making archery ineffective. With a sharp cry, he dug his heels into his horse and charged directly toward Yuan Fang with his death squad disguised as cavalry.
On horseback, Xiao Li drew his bow again, sending three white-feathered arrows streaking like shooting stars toward the enemy.
One aimed straight for the forehead, another for the chest, and the last for the horse's legs.
Dou Jianliang's guard barely dodged the first two arrows on horseback, but his warhorse whinnied and stumbled forward. He abandoned the horse just in time, rolling clumsily on the ground twice to dissipate the force while evading the thrusts of Pei Army soldiers' spears.
Seizing the opportunity, Xiao Li spurred his horse toward Yuan Fang and shouted, "General's orders! Capture this Wei commander alive! Do not harm him!"
The five hundred elite troops from Tongzhou following him all wore uniforms stripped from fallen Pei Army soldiers, with only a cloth strip tied around their arms to distinguish themselves as allies.
As this dark mass surged toward Yuan Fang's group, the Pei Army soldiers on site assumed it was an order from their commander and immediately ceased their deadly assault on Yuan Fang's men.
Only Dou Jianliang's guard, sensing danger, continued fighting desperately, leading his men closer to Yuan Fang.
Zheng Hu, following Xiao Li's signal, led about a hundred comrades to cut off their path. He roared at the surrounding Pei Army soldiers: "Block these Chen troops!"
Tall and bearded, mounted on a warhorse and brandishing a battle sword, he appeared to the Pei Army soldiers in the darkness as some general. They immediately obeyed, raising their spears to swarm Dou Jianliang's personal guards.
Meanwhile, Xiao Li quietly surrounded Yuan Fang's group with several hundred elites, separating them from the Pei Army soldiers.
Yuan Fang, believing Xiao Li was truly sent from the Pei camp to capture him alive, leaned heavily on his spear to stand despite exhaustion. He bared his teeth in a fierce grin and spat: "Brat, if you want to capture your Grandpa Yuan alive, you'd better crawl back to your mother's womb and dream on!"
Xiao Li ignored the taunt. Using his spear tip, he flipped aside a dead Pei soldier's armor and tossed it toward Yuan Fang. "We're the Tongzhou righteous army. General, change into this armor and follow us to break out."
Catching the uniform, Yuan Fang finally understood the strange feeling he'd had when first seeing Xiao Li.
In the army, only cavalry or officers were equipped with warhorses, yet Xiao Li's uniform was clearly that of a common soldier.
Fortunately, the deep night, battlefield chaos, and limited firelight had allowed the deception to work.
Yuan Fang temporarily set aside his suspicion and began removing his heavy armor.
But with multiple wounds already on his body, removing the armor revealed his dark-stained crimson undergarments. His guards tore cloth strips to bind his wounds temporarily stanching the bleeding before helping him into the Pei soldier's uniform.
Once everyone had changed outfits, Xiao Li led them toward Wuqiao Ridge.
The escort agency brothers whistled, signaling Zheng Hu, who then disengaged from Dou Jianliang's guards and led his men back on horseback, leaving the Pei Army soldiers to continue holding them off.As "reinforcements" poured down from both ridges, a considerable number of Pei Army soldiers charged uphill to engage the enemy.
Xiao Li and his men blended in with those Pei troops, finding excellent cover.
But the higher they climbed, the closer they drifted toward the army's periphery—until finally, with a swift turn, they vanished into the dense woods untouched by the spreading flames.
In the pitch darkness, the commanders in the valley below couldn't see this. The Pei soldiers following behind did notice, but assumed they were deserters. Before they could raise an alarm, Song Qin's ambush team leaped out and slit their throats.
Yuan Fang, wounded in the abdomen, had aggravated his injury during the frantic uphill sprint. Fresh blood seeped through his bandages, dyeing them dark again.
Upon reaching safety, his aide helped him lean against a moss-covered boulder and whispered tearfully, "General! General! You must hold on!"
Xiao Li, having just finished helping Song Qin eliminate their pursuers, approached and tossed over a medicine bottle from his robe. "Golden wound powder. Stop the bleeding first."
The aide caught it with both hands, uncorked it, and warily sniffed the contents. Only after confirming it was genuine did he unwrap Yuan Fang's clothing and apply the powder.
Under the bleak moonlight filtering through the treetops, Yuan Fang's lips were cracked and pale. The potent medicine seared his wound like boiling oil, soon drenching him in cold sweat—yet he uttered no sound of pain.
After enduring the worst of it, he listened to the ongoing slaughter down the mountain and spoke to Xiao Li through sweat-soaked temples: "I am Yuan Fang, a martial general under the Marquis of Shuobian. I shall never forget your lifesaving grace tonight. May I ask your honorable name? When I return to the Northern Border and report this to the Marquis, I will repay this great debt."
Xiao Li sat opposite on a broken log, having just chugged half a waterskin. Between the running, torch-setting, and fighting, he was drenched in sweat. He poured the remaining water over his face, washing away sticky bloodstains. Now with soaked bangs and water dripping down his faintly blood-streaked face, he exuded an indescribable ferocity and wildness.
He glanced up at Yuan Fang's words. Meeting that gaze, Yuan Fang felt a jolt of terror—as if pinned by the stare of a forest predator.
Simultaneously, he pondered internally: This youth claimed to be from the Tongzhou righteous army, but if Tongzhou had such an extraordinary figure, he should have heard of him.
Before he could untangle these thoughts, the other man responded: "I merely despise the Chen Army's despicable methods. It was a trivial effort—General need not take it to heart. I am Xiao Li, who has always admired heroic souls. If you find me worthy, I'd be honored to call you a friend."
Yuan Fang was both flattered and startled. The man's speech betrayed no coarseness, yet his name sounded faintly familiar—though he couldn't recall where he'd heard it. He immediately said: "With such nobility, how could you be ordinary? It is my fortune to meet a hero like yourself!"
He had previously heard that Tongzhou's counties operated independently, with the strongest bandit-county and rebel-county constantly clashing—all while Pei forces meddled in their affairs.Judging by the number of ambushers tonight, even if the entire righteous army of Tongzhou were mobilized, they might not be able to create such a spectacle. Or... have the counties of Tongzhou been concealing their true strength all along?
Baffled, Yuan Fang simply asked, "Were the ambushers on the mountain all your men, Benefactor?"
Xiao Li glanced at him and replied, "No."
Yuan Fang grew visibly more puzzled.
Xiao Li said, "It was the Chen Army."
At this answer, Yuan Fang and his personal guards exchanged bewildered looks.
Before Dou Jianliang's personal troops appeared, Yuan Fang had considered the possibility that Dou Jianliang might not have intentionally withheld reinforcements but was delayed by some matter. However, after Dou Jianliang's archer fired that arrow, he was absolutely certain: Dou Jianliang wanted him dead.
Could it be that Dou Jianliang finally sent troops to create some casualties, so he could later report to the Liang Camp? But the Pei Army trapped in this encirclement wasn't twenty or thirty thousand—it was a full fifty thousand! With Dou Jianliang's forces already decimated, engaging the Pei Army again would inevitably cost him dearly, and he might even risk being completely annihilated by the Pei Army. This didn't seem like something Dou Jianliang would do.
Yuan Fang's surviving loyalists, who had narrowly escaped death, harbored deep resentment toward the Chen Army and immediately retorted, "How is that possible? Those Chen traitors even shot a covert arrow at our general! All the brave men present must have witnessed it!"
Zheng Hu, who was wrapping a bandage around his bleeding palm, grinned and said, "The Pei dogs sent fifty thousand troops this time. Of course those Chen bastards didn't dare come out to rescue." He tilted his chin toward the still-burning mountain fire across the way. "See that fire raging across the hills? My second brother ordered it set. Those Chen bastards were hiding in the woods, and when their backsides got scorched, they panicked and scattered all over the mountain!"
As a fellow commander, Yuan Fang understood completely upon hearing this. Xiao Li had ordered his men to set fire to the woods behind the Chen Army's ambush positions, startling the hidden troops and their warhorses. This created the illusion that they were charging down the mountain to reinforce, diverting most of the Pei Army's firepower and creating the opportunity for their rescue.
Yuan Fang marveled at Xiao Li's tactical genius while feeling a chill of bitterness and rage. The reinforcements led by Dou Jianliang had been lying in ambush on the mountain all along! His initial suspicion was correct: Southern Chen intended for their Northern Wei troops to be wiped out here. The only uncertainty was whether the Liang Camp was aware of this vicious scheme...
The images of Northern Wei soldiers brutally slain by the Pei Army haunted Yuan Fang, until a faint glimmer of tears welled in his bloodshot eyes. He slammed his fist against the giant rock behind him, ignoring the pain from his reopening wounds, and swore through gritted teeth, "I will not rest until I take Dou Jianliang's head, to appease the unjustly slain souls of our twenty thousand Northern Wei warriors!"
Though Yuan Fang avoided the subject, Xiao Li pointedly asked the crucial question: "General, was tonight's scheme solely Southern Chen's doing, or was it plotted in collusion with the Liang Camp?"
Yuan Fang tasted blood as he clenched his jaw, closed his eyes, and said, "I don't know."
This plan had been proposed by Li Xun. Before their departure, Fan Yuan had even patted his shoulder armor and said they would share a drink after seizing these provisions and cutting off the Pei Army's supply route to Jin City.He truly did not know whether Fan Yuan and Li Xun were involved in this matter. If they were also aware...
If they were also aware... Just the thought made Yuan Fang feel hatred seeping into his very bones.
That would be a betrayal even more intolerable than being schemed against by Southern Chen.
Xiao Li did not press further, only saying, "In that case, General, why not write a blood letter? I will have someone deliver it to Liang Camp. If Liang Camp is unaware of this matter, the blood letter will serve as a warning against Southern Chen. If they are aware, knowing that you are still alive, they will inevitably give you an explanation."
Although he had not worked with Fan Yuan for long, he knew Fan Yuan’s temperament well enough to be certain he would never agree to such a vicious scheme. However, with the marriage alliance between Liang and Chen, if Wei Qishan refused to submit in the future, another conflict with Northern Wei was inevitable.
Whether someone in Liang Camp had acted without Fan Yuan’s knowledge to weaken Northern Wei remained unknown.
More importantly, if no one in Liang Camp was aware of this and it was entirely Southern Chen’s doing, then their scheming against Northern Wei to diminish their rivals today might very well be followed by plots against Liang generals tomorrow to monopolize military power.
Even though he had already broken with Wen Yu, he owed Fan Yuan for his mentorship and Li Xun for his guidance. For the sake of these two, he ought to help deliver this message to Liang Camp.
Yuan Fang had narrowly escaped death several times tonight, and now, both mentally and physically exhausted, his severe injuries compounded by a splitting headache, found Xiao Li’s suggestion reasonable after brief consideration. He immediately agreed.
He and his trusted followers were covered in blood, their clothes unsalvageable. Xiao Li had one of the soldiers who had not been on the battlefield cut a clean piece from his robe and hand it to Yuan Fang.
Supported by his guards, Yuan Fang used the blood from his wounds to write on the fabric.
Author’s Note: Xiao Li’s inner thoughts: Yes, I’m only sending this letter for the sake of my former comrades. It has absolutely nothing to do with anything else.
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