The Road to Glory

Chapter 34

"Has Han Yang walked right into the trap?"...

Around noon, Wen Yu's carriage arrived at Tong City.

The inspection of incoming and outgoing merchant carriages at the city gate was extremely strict. Wen Yu's convoy of over thirty people was at the very back of the queue. While waiting for the merchant carriages ahead to undergo inspection, the guard who had previously served as a scout in the army went ahead to gather information at the city gate.

Shortly after, he returned to the convoy and approached Wen Yu's carriage. Observing the surroundings through the carriage window, he whispered, "Your Highness, the official road from Tong City to Lan City has collapsed due to continuous rain and snow. The local authorities are currently excavating and clearing it. We will have to wait in Tong City for at least two days. However, the authorities have posted a notice at the city gate widely recruiting talents, stating they wish to send people to Pingzhou to serve you! Should we make contact with them after entering the city?"

As they traveled south, the weather grew bitterly cold and damp. Wen Yu, wrapped in a heavy cloak and holding a hand warmer, did not open her lightly closed eyes upon hearing this. She merely said, "Do what an ordinary merchant convoy would do. Pay no heed to anything else."

The guard hesitated for a moment and said, "The journey south is fraught with dangers. If we can recruit more hands in Tong City, it would better ensure Your Highness's safety."

Wen Yu lifted her long eyelashes, her dark jade-like eyes calm and cool. She countered, "What if this is bait to lure us in?"

Her current affairs essay criticizing Pei Song had already been published, aiming to announce to the world that the Wen clan still had survivors, while also rallying old loyalists. This way, when she reached Southern Chen, she would have more leverage in negotiating for military support.

But with the nation in such ruins, how many were still willing to remain loyal to the Wen clan?

In the past, although her father, the king, was trapped in Fengyang, he had not yet settled the conflict with Pei Song. Moreover, they held the imperial title, which made many heroes across the land hesitant to take sides openly.

Now, the Wen clan had been slaughtered, leaving only her and A Yin, whom her sister-in-law had managed to protect.

After revealing her southward journey, more provinces and prefectures would likely seek to capture her and present her to Pei Song as a pledge of allegiance. Alternatively, they might try to use her to command her father's old loyalists and join the fray in the struggle for the empire.

Pei Song's men could no longer catch up to her, but before reaching Pingzhou, she dared not risk trusting any province or prefecture that claimed allegiance to the Great Liang.

Upon hearing this, the guard said shamefacedly, "Your Highness is far-sighted. I was reckless."

Wen Yu only said, "The journey south is still long. We must proceed with caution in all matters."

The guard nodded and retreated.

In the distance, on the official road, another convoy approached. However, instead of joining the queue, they drove straight to the city gate, showed some document to the guards, and entered the city in a grand procession.

The merchant carriages waiting in line grumbled discontentedly: "Whose convoy is that? Everyone else is waiting in line—how come they can just enter the city directly?"

Someone recognized the emblem on the carriage and said, "It looks like the Feng family from Luodu."

Hearing the name "Luodu," Wen Yu paid closer attention. She thought it strange—the Feng family of Luodu had their ancestral home in Taiyuan. Even if they were unwilling to submit to Pei Song, they should have headed north to seek refuge with the Marquis of Shuobian. Why were they coming south?However, a merchant who seemed better informed remarked, "That's not the Luodu Feng family. After Pei Song captured Luodu, the Liu, Zhao, and Feng families, along with anyone connected to the former Party of Ao, were all slaughtered by him. Those pampered noble ladies and titled madams—didn't they all weep and wail as they were dragged into the rebel military tents one night, only to be wrapped in straw mats and tossed into the mass grave the next morning stark naked? The one who just entered the city is probably a daughter of the Feng family who married into Qinghe years ago. Fortunately, she wasn't in Luodu and managed to escape this fate."

While others sighed over the tragic fate of Luodu's nobility, Wen Yu lowered her gaze, lost in thought.

Pei Song's methods were so brutal. Not only had he exterminated the Wen imperial clan, but he had also slaughtered the Liu, Feng, Zhao, and Party of Ao factions down to the fifth degree of kinship. Could it be that he held some deep-seated grudge against these major clans?

Yet the Feng family and the Party of Ao still held considerable prestige at court, while the Liu and Zhao families had declined years ago, retaining only empty marquis titles in the capital and rarely appearing in public. How could they have possibly incurred Pei Song's enmity?

Moreover, when Pei Song served as a lackey for the Party of Ao, her father and brother had already investigated him. He came from a humble background with no foundation, relying entirely on being the Party of Ao's dog to gradually seize power.

While she could list several reasons for his betrayal of the Party of Ao, his extermination of the Liu and Zhao families left Wen Yu utterly perplexed.

As their convoy reached the front of the line, the guard captain negotiated with the officers ahead. Wen Yu lifted her eyelids and lightly tapped the carriage window twice.

The guard who had once been a Scout approached the carriage and asked in a hushed voice, "What are your orders, Your Highness?"

Wen Yu said, "Tongcheng is a small place. Since the Feng daughter's carriage could bypass the waiting merchant convoys and enter the city directly, there must be considerable discussion about the Feng family inside. After we enter, investigate what enemies the Luodu Feng family, along with the Liu and Zhao families and even the Party of Ao faction, might have made."

The guard acknowledged the order and withdrew.

Meanwhile, inside Tongcheng.

A man with a small mustache, resembling a registrar, hurried into the study and called out, "Sir!"

A portly middle-aged man lounged in an armchair, yawning as he asked, "How many more of Hanyang Princess's close associates have we captured today?"

The registrar replied, "Today we only recruited a few greenhorn scholars, whom I've already dismissed. But we've got a big fish!"

The fat magistrate's narrow eyes snapped open: "Has Han Yang walked right into our trap?"

The registrar chuckled awkwardly, "Well... not exactly. After we posted notices about the official road collapse at the crossroads along the route, we've indeed lured many merchant convoys into the city. One convoy actually belongs to a daughter of the Luodu Feng family who married out! She seems to be heading to Pingzhou to seek refuge with Hanyang Princess too!"

The fat magistrate could no longer remain seated. His narrow eyes curved into slits as he smiled: "Excellent! Follow the usual procedure—kill the merchants, confiscate their carriages and goods! As for the Feng woman... keep her alive. Since Minister Sikong has exterminated all the collateral branches of the Luodu Feng family, she being from the main lineage should make a fine gift for him!"

Yongzhou Prison.

The jailer had led Pei Song and two personal guards to the cell of the mad old man. The old man paid them no mind, continuing to hum to himself while pulling fresh straw from his bedding to weave grasshoppers.

The jailer glanced cautiously at Pei Song's expression and asked carefully, "This... this is the man. Does Minister Sikong recognize him as the person you're looking for?"Pei Song's gaze fell on the disheveled beard covering most of the mad old man's face and his tattered, stained clothing. A hidden resentment mingled in his gloomy eyes as he drew his long blade. The jailer screamed and collapsed to the ground, clutching his leg.

Clutching the wound on his calf, completely unaware why the other had attacked, he hoarsely cried, "Spare me, Minister! Spare me!"

Pei Song's blade tip dripped with blood as he coldly asked, "All these years, is this how he's been living in prison?"

The jailer was already sweating from the pain, but he keenly grasped something unusual from Pei Song's words and hurriedly said, "Minister, please see reason! I... I've never mistreated this old madman... this elder! If you don't believe me, look at the fresh straw in his cell! There's even a young man who often visits him. I accepted his bribes, so I wouldn't treat this elder poorly..."

Pei Song narrowed his eyes: "Young man?"

Sensing a glimmer of hope, the jailer spilled everything to make his earlier claims more credible: "That young man was imprisoned as a child and spent seven years in jail. The elder always called him 'Huan'er,' but because he's so mad, sometimes he protected him, other times he beat him severely. After his release, he still often comes to visit the elder."

Pei Song stepped on the jailer's throat and leisurely asked, "What's that person's name? Where does he live?"

The jailer found it difficult to swallow, but his survival instinct made him answer truthfully: "He's... he's called Xiao Li. I don't know where he lives, but he recently became a Manor Guard at the Governor's residence."

"Xiao—Li?"

Pei Song slowly pronounced the two syllables, then applied pressure with his foot. A "crack" sound of breaking throat bones echoed, and the jailer lay dead with wide-open eyes.

Pei Song withdrew his foot as if he had merely crushed an ant.

He turned to look at the mad old man in the cell, who was still humming a tune while weaving a grasshopper from straw. He gestured to his guard, who understood, took the keys from the jailer's waist, quickly unlocked the cell door, and tactfully withdrew.

Pei Song entered the cell, looking down at the mad old man weaving the grasshopper for a long while. A red tinge gradually filled his eyes as he sneered coldly, "Have you truly gone mad, Qin Yi?"

The mad old man's hands paused in their weaving, and he slowly murmured, "Qin—Yi?"

His expression suddenly twisted in agony, the grasshopper falling from his hands as he clutched his head and muttered to himself, "Qin Yi? Who is Qin Yi?"

Fragmented images seemed to flash through his mind—battlefields filled with roaring charges, blood-stained spears.

But most memories were distorted into countless shards, impossible to piece together no matter how hard he tried.

Clutching his hair in anguish, he looked up and roared at the man before him, murky tears uncontrollably streaming from his eyes: "Who is Qin Yi?"

As if that name was the source of all his suffering.

Pei Song grinned widely, tilting his head back and covering his eyes with his hand. The white light streaming through the skylight illuminated his form, making his expression momentarily unreadable. Only his voice could be heard: "Mad... it's good that you're mad. What a pity you didn't lose your mind after learning that I personally destroyed the Great Liang dynasty you so foolishly served. After all..."

"Your wife and children, your subordinates, your entire Qin clan—what are they compared to the Great Liang you served so loyally?"

As he roared these final words, his voice thick with hatred, the hand covering his eyes was already streaked with tear stains.The mad old man seemed even more agitated, clutching his head in pain as he shrank into the corner, muttering incoherently: "Zhenniang? Huan'er? Dead? All dead?"

"No! Huan'er isn't dead! Not dead!" He stared at the grass-woven cricket that had fallen to the ground earlier, lunging to pick it up while murmuring: "Huan'er isn't dead. Huan'er recites texts perfectly, practices martial arts excellently..."

Dragging the unfinished straw strands, the half-woven cricket body was suddenly crushed under a brocade boot, ground forcefully beneath it.

Pei Song sneered coldly: "Qin Huan is indeed dead. After uncle bribed the escort officers back then and swapped me out with a starved boy, he was already dead. I am now called—Pei Song.

Author's Note: The past events of the Qin family mentioned so far are only from Pei Song's perspective. Later, other perspectives will be used to restore the actual events.~

Thank you to the little angels who voted for me or contributed with nutrient solutions between 2023-12-20 20:20:02 and 2023-12-21 23:59:20.~

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Thanks to Pilipala for dropping offline for 30 bottles of nutrient solution; Lanmaoxi, Wo xin feiyang xy, Yunzhao zhao for 10 bottles each; Jiedu fengzhou for 2 bottles; Yundong ya, 65140677, Mo'er xiaoxiao, 39874609, Stella, kfpy_L, 27428371, Wo de yang, Keke ai chi tao, Mu zi shuo shu, Santong, Bohe xiangqi, Jiji for 1 bottle each.~

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