The Road to Glory

Chapter 209

"Huai truly knows his wrongdoings now..."

After entering the tent, Zheng Hu glanced at Xiao Li who had begun handling military affairs behind the desk, cleared his throat and said: "Second Brother, on such a cold day, the military advisor is a frail strategist who can't compare to us martial generals. If he keeps standing out there like this, he'll surely fall ill from the cold."

Xiao Li didn't even lift his eyes from the official documents: "When did I order him to stand there?"

Zheng Hu fell silent, scratching the back of his head as he paced around the tent before finally sighing: "I know the military advisor broke protocol regarding the Wei camp matter earlier, but he did it for our Xiao Army..."

"Did Zhang Huai send you to plead for him?" Xiao Li suddenly interrupted.

Zheng Hu quickly shook his head like a rattle-drum: "It was my own decision. I couldn't bear seeing the military advisor freezing like that outside."

Xiao Li looked up at him: "Tiger, you and Big Brother are my most trusted brothers."

Zhet Hu detected something unusual in Xiao Li's tone and immediately thumped his chest: "Second Brother, even if you ordered me to climb mountains of swords or dive into seas of fire, I wouldn't utter a single word of refusal. Pleading for the military advisor is also..."

"Then return to your post." Xiao Li issued the dismissal.

As Zheng Hu left the tent, he glanced at Zhang Huai standing outside, whose shoulders seemed to have accumulated another layer of snow. He sighed helplessly, shaking his head at Zhang Huai before departing.

The personal guard stationed outside the camp also approached to persuade: "Military Advisor, the wind and snow are particularly heavy now. Please return first. The Marquis is busy today and isn't receiving guests."

Zhang Huai's elegant long eyebrows were already coated with frost and snow, his lips nearly as pale as his face, yet he still smiled: "It's alright. I'll wait here until the Marquis finishes his work."

The guard had no choice but to retreat.

After about another hour, when the guard entered the tent with a stack of official documents for Xiao Li's review, he cautiously said: "My Lord, the Military Advisor is still standing outside..."

The man bent over the desk reading scrolls lifted his cold, handsome eyes.

The guard immediately stopped speaking and bowed his head: "This subordinate spoke out of turn."

Just as the guard reached the tent entrance, Xiao Li finally spoke: "Let him in."

The guard breathed a sigh of relief and quickly lifted the curtain to relay the message.

Shortly after, Zhang Huai entered the tent, bowing with clasped hands toward Xiao Li: "Huai has come specifically to apologize to the Marquis."

After capturing Wucheng, Xiao Li had received an urgent letter from Song Qin informing him that Mudan was in danger, prompting him to immediately deploy troops to Sishui City.

Only after achieving great victory at Sishui City did he receive Zhang Huai's report, learning that he had taken it upon himself to conceal Northern Wei's request for aid while secretly ordering someone to target Wang Wanzhen, ultimately forcing her to reveal the abnormality with her pregnancy in self-preservation.

Afterwards, both Wei Ang and Yuan Fang had separately visited Xiao Li - firstly to thank him for sending troops again to aid Northern Wei, secondly to explain how Yu Zhiyuan had used his position as Wei Pingjin's chief advisor to manipulate the entire Northern Wei and frame him, and thirdly to request that he take charge of Northern Wei again.

Wei Tong, who had forced Wei Ang to surrender military power and abandoned Yanle Mountain to flee from his crimes, had been intercepted by Wei Ang at Wujiabao. After beheading him from horseback, Wei Ang brought the head to present to Xiao Li.

As for Yu Zhiyuan, who had been sent to the Xiao Army camp for Xiao Li to deal with even before autumn began - Xiao Li had been so busy with campaigns that he had almost forgotten this person was still imprisoned.After Wang Wanzhen claimed the child was not Wei Pingjin's, Zhang Huai had Yu Zhiyuan tortured to verify the truth of her statement. As the weather was still hot at the time and Yu Zhiyuan's wounds were left untreated after the torture, inflammation soon set in, followed by festering and pus. The prison rations given to him were barely enough to keep him alive.

It was said that Yu Zhiyuan eventually went mad. Driven to extreme hunger, he even scraped maggots from his festering wounds and stuffed them into his mouth.

After a heavy snowfall in winter, the jailers found him dead in his cell—disheveled, foul-smelling, and emaciated to little more than skin and bones. No one knew whether he died of starvation, cold, or illness.

Compared to his father's gruesome fate of being sliced alive and boiled, the jailers couldn't decide which was worse: his father's end or his own delirious, subhuman death in prison.

Yet it could still be considered a case of retribution for the wicked.

At that time, Xiao Li had not yet returned to camp. After the jailers reported Yu Zhiyuan's death, Zhang Huai ordered his body wrapped in a straw mat and dragged to the mass grave.

Although Zhang Huai had earlier sent a letter to Xiao Li pleading guilty, upon Xiao Li's return to camp, he reassigned many crucial tasks to others. When discussing the subsequent southern campaign, Xiao Li no longer summoned Zhang Huai to participate.

Just as when Zhang Huai had previously taken it upon himself to publicly announce that Liang Camp had once attempted to assassinate Xiao Li with a Poison Arrow—thus clearing Xiao Li of any debt to Liang Camp—Xiao Li did not explicitly reprimand him this time either. Instead, through this cold neglect, he made it clear that Zhang Huai had once again overstepped his bounds.

The first transgression, Xiao Li had let slide.

Having already known Xiao Li's taboos, Zhang Huai still repeated the offense—this was his grave failure as a subordinate.

After several failed attempts to seek an audience with Xiao Li, Zhang Huai finally resolved to wait outside the tent in the snow that day.

Having uttered his plea for forgiveness, he received only an indifferent response from the man above him, who kept his eyes lowered on the scroll in his hands: "What crime have you committed, sir?"

No charcoal fire burned in the central military tent. Although the tent cloth blocked some of the wind, the frost and snow on Zhang Huai's body gradually melted from his own body heat, soaking his clothes and seeping a bone-chilling cold through his skin. A damp strand of hair fell across his forehead, adding to his wretched appearance.

His stiff, frozen fingers barely maintained the bowing gesture: "My first crime was presumptuously spreading word that Liang Camp had once injured you, my lord, with a Poison Arrow. You were magnanimous and did not severely punish me for that fault. Yet knowing this, I repeated the offense—concealing Northern Wei's request for aid and privately acting against Wei's descendants. This is my second crime. I know I have betrayed your trust and committed grave errors. I beg for your punishment."

Xiao Li finally looked up from the scroll. Having spent most of the year in battle, the aura of slaughter he carried from mountains of corpses and seas of blood grew even more suffocating when his sharp, wolf-like eyes fixed on someone.

Under Xiao Li's gaze, Zhang Huai felt the weight of that stare as if it were physical, making it difficult to even maintain his bowing stance.

"If you knew it was wrong, why repeat the offense?"

Hearing this icy question, Zhang Huai bent his waist further and replied: "I wished to eliminate all potential threats for you, my lord. If it means incurring infamy, I am willing to bear it on your behalf. Thus, I acted recklessly and overstepped my authority."

Had these words reached the ears of any other power-seeker, it would have been a perfect response. The superior would not only let the matter pass lightly but would also value such a subordinate even more in the future.Throughout history, emperors have often favored treacherous ministers precisely because these sycophants would act on the ruler's behalf while bearing the infamy for their actions.

When public resentment grew strong enough to threaten imperial authority, executing a few corrupt officials—allowing the masses to vent their fury by cursing and spitting upon their remains—would swiftly quell the discontent.

The emperor, seated high upon his throne, would then be perceived as merely having been deceived by these villains. With the traitors eliminated, the sovereign could resume his image as a wise, courageous, and benevolent ruler who cherished his people.

Upon hearing this, Xiao Li leaned back slightly in his seat.

His stature was imposing even among martial generals, with powerful sinews and bones concealed beneath a well-tailored archer-sleeved military robe. Even when motionless, his mere presence exuded overwhelming pressure.

He stated, "I acknowledge possessing only martial prowess with no other merits. A talent like yourself, Sir, is wasted in my service."

Zhang Huai sensed trouble brewing, but before he could respond, Xiao Li continued, "I am deeply grateful for your year of service to the Xiao Army. I shall prepare ample gold and silver so you may seek more distinguished employment."

Zhang Huai could no longer remain standing, sinking to his knees with an expression blending disbelief and sorrow. "I acknowledge my faults, but why must my lord cast me out?"

Xiao Li's countenance remained unyielding. "This is no expulsion. I simply lack grand ambitions, and retaining your service would be squandering your talents."

"Rising from humble origins, I conduct myself with clear conscience before heaven. Even if my actions draw universal condemnation, I alone shall bear the infamy—I require no scapegoat to shoulder the blame."

Kneeling below, Zhang Huai met Xiao Li's stern gaze as the cold wind from the tent entrance pierced his spine with biting pain. He remained silent for a long moment.

He finally understood Xiao Li's meaning.

The general had his own code of conduct and needed no one to make decisions for him.

Even in error, Xiao Li would personally bear the condemnation without shifting blame to others.

Zhang Huai's approach of "acting for the lord's benefit" and willingly bearing disgrace on his behalf—this was something Xiao Li disdained and would never permit.

Though long aware of Xiao Li's unyielding pride and integrity, only now did Zhang Huai truly encounter that fortress-like resolve. Memories flooded back:

His mentor's warning upon his descent from scholarly training: "Your unbridled spirit and sharp edges require tempering. Should you enter another's service, you must learn restraint, lest you invite fatal consequences."

The day he interrogated Yu Zhiyuan—the prisoner's blood-streaked prison uniform crisscrossed with whip marks, his shackled hands bound to the Rack, breathing faint yet still sneering: "Your master's methods are ruthless and vicious. Do you not fear ending up like me—a discarded pawn of the Pei family?"

His own retort then: "How dare a treasonous villain compare himself to my lord?"

Yu Zhiyuan's mocking smile had tightened, eyes reddening as he replied: "My father and I, bound by a single meal's grace, are fated to serve others all our lives. In scholarship and governance, we are not your inferiors. Given another life, we would emulate Li Yao's reformation policies from former Liang!"

Back then, Zhang Huai had dismissed this as the ravings of an arrogant doomed man.

Now every word echoed with crystalline clarity in his mind.

Suddenly, Zhang Huai understood his true mistake.He had been too impatient, too eager to help Xiao Li swiftly achieve unification and realize the ambitions he had failed to attain through reading countless volumes of sage texts.

So much so that he could tolerate not a single hidden peril, arrogantly attempting to clear every obstacle for Xiao Li.

Yet he forgot that the one he served was not the kind of ruler who appeared righteous on the surface but employed underhanded tactics in the shadows.

All of Xiao Li’s ruthlessness was displayed openly.

He could flay Yu Jingwen alive or boil him, and he could slaughter the twenty thousand Pei clan surrendered soldiers in Sishui City who had killed countless innocent Liang civilians.

But he had once promised Wei Qishan that as long the Wei siblings remained obedient, he would not harm his children. Later, when muddle-headed former Wei followers repeatedly stirred up trouble, he truly never once considered harming the Wei siblings.

Such courage and integrity were rare among those who wielded power in this world.

Yet it was precisely this boldness and magnanimity that made his subordinates willing to follow him and risk their lives.

—Abide by his rules, and one would receive the fairness they deserved from him.

Zhang Huai had previously only regarded Xiao Li as a suitable ruler to assist, and all his schemes were merely to help the other achieve greatness so that he could fulfill his own ambitions.

It was only at this moment, after a brief blankness in his mind, that he clearly realized one thing—it was because he had encountered such a ruler that he wished to help him conquer the world.

Zhang Huai lowered his head, the myriad words in his throat condensing into a single sentence: “Huai has truly realized his mistake.”

“I beg the Marquis to allow Huai to remain in the Xiao Army. If I ever err again, Huai will willingly take my own life.”