The mist of dawn awoke the two hundred thousand soldiers in black armor. Leng Changxi got up early. Qin Yunuan fastened the armor for him carefully. The silver helmet and the incomparably hard chest protector made Leng Changxi look more mettlesome. His eyes were piercing, but there were apparent worries in them.
The army came to the gate of the valley smoothly. They could see nothing on the opposite side of the slot canyon. Leng Changxi sat on the large horse as the head of the army. Heiying’s arm was still tied with a bandage which was stained with blood. The bleeding had not stopped completely yet. Qin Yunuan did not ride a horse with Leng Changxi this time but sat on a carriage covered by a black curtain behind. Maner and Ting Xue stayed at the base camp as doctors, while Shuihan, the fragile lady, insisted on following them, who then guarded the carriage with Qin Yunuan.
“I wonder whether brother Heiying’s wound has got better. It was still terrible yesterday when I saw that.” Shuihan looked innocent. Qin Yunuan did not look at her, but just faced forward and replied lightly, “Since he can ride a horse, he must be okay. Besides, the general has let Leng Shuang look after Heiying. Leng Shuang is good at martial arts, so it will be okay.”
Shuihan’s eyes drooped, and she looked regretful, “I really envy sister Leng Shuang to be with brother Heiying all the time. Brother Heiying is a good person.”
Qin Yunuan had been used to people’s pretending to be poor, so she ignored that directly. The army was divided into left wing and right wing. Leng Changxi led the Leng Army with 1,500 soldiers as the vanguard, and the whole army was arrayed in the shape of a cross. The arrival of Leng Army had caused some resentment among the 200,000 soldiers in black armor before, while using Leng Army as the vanguard just quelled the dissatisfaction of them.
“Heiying, how did you get hurt? Let’s talk about it now.” Leng Changxi looked into the distance.
Heiying had become much more haggard than when he was in the Royal Palace in Qi before. A thin layer of beard had formed on his lower jaw, and his hair tangled badly. There was little fresh water in the valley. They just cleaned the wound for Heiying yesterday but got no more water for him to freshen up.
There was a scar on the corner of Heiying’s eye which was close to his eyelid. The brown scar seemed to be new. It was not clear how much he had suffered along the way. Of course, only Leng Shuang noticed such details.
“It’s rock gate strategy.” Heiying said calmly, “Rock gate strategy is more complicated than I thought. The formation of rock gates in this strategy will not only change with the steps and directions of those who enter, but also change with the direction of the sun. In short, the strategies in the morning, at noon and at night are completely different. There is no other way to break the strategy but by entering it. I entered it last evening, and I have figured out the general route. So I suggest that we’d better set off in the evening.”
At this moment, three fast horses suddenly appeared in the valley. The dust that was raised had a strong sour smell. No. It was a rancid smell like rotten meat.
Three men dressed as soldiers of Qi rode a horse to the front of Leng Changxi’s army. The leader wore an official hat with feathers inserted, which was the sign of the envoy of Qi. It was an old rule that envoys wouldn’t be killed even though there was a war between the two countries. With a distance of more than ten meters, the leading envoy raised his head and cupped one hand in the other before his chest to Leng Changxi, “Our general heard that the soldiers of your West Xia have been stationed outside for a long time and dare not enter the valley, so he thought you must be lack of food. Our general is generous, and he specially asked us to send some good wine and meat to you, which can be regarded as alms to all your soldiers.”
When the envoy finished speaking, he signaled to the two people behind him. One of them was carrying a large bag. He quickly untied the bag and threw it on the ground which was full of rotten and smelly meat. It looked so disgusting. It was unknown what kind of meat it was. And the other one directly smashed the jar in his hand towards the ground which was broken into fragments then. The sour smell in it immediately made everyone present cover their nose with hands.
“Damn it. You Qi goes too far in bullying others! Why you give us these rotten meat and wine? Do you think we 200,000 soldiers in black armor are easy targets? I will bring people into your rock gate immediately. No matter how dangerous it is, I will destroy it!” Tuoba Wuyu was the first to get angry.
Leng Changxi looked at the dregs and rotten meat on the ground. It seemed that the young general surnamed Xu who was stationed at Luguan really had some tricks. He knew that they only knew the arrangement of rock gate strategy in the evening, and it was the safest for them to enter it in the evening, so he deliberately sent people to provoke them. If they were all impulsive like Tuoba Wuyu, they would be wiped out then after they rushed in.
Faced with such humiliation, everyone was paying attention to Leng Changxi’s reaction. His attitude would determine the position of the two armies at the moment.
While Leng Changxi just smiled faintly, “Since General Xu has prepared such a generous gift for us, we naturally have to repay his kindness since courtesy demands reciprocity.”
After speaking, Leng Changxi motioned Leng Wu with his eyes, and then Leng Wu hurriedly left. After a while, he returned with two soldiers carrying two large buckets.
The envoy of Qi was a fat man with small eyes. Seeing that Leng Changxi took out a gift in return calmly, his eyes suddenly widened. He pointed to the two buckets and said to Leng Changxi, “General Leng, what’s this…”
Before he finished speaking, Leng Changxi said to Leng Wu, “Pour them.”
Leng Wu nodded. Each of the two buckets was very thick, but Leng Wu lifted them directly with his mighty arms. The soldiers behind him immediately opened the lids of the buckets. A foul smell immediately arose. Before the three envoys of Qi reacted, the two buckets of filth had been splashed on them by Leng Wu, especially the fat man with the little eyes in the lead. Leng Wu splashed the filth so well that they all smelled of excrement, and their clothes were dripping with dirty water.
The soldiers present of West Xia couldn’t help being happy. What Leng Changxi did really vented their anger greatly. Envoys of Qi sent rotten food to them, while their general gave them two buckets of excrement in return. It was not a tie. They won!
Looking at the three people ten meters away, Leng Changxi smiled peacefully and patiently, and explained calmly, “What I give you in return is called golden soup. General Xu sends us bad wine and rotten meat just to tell us that we 200,000 soldiers in black armor are only worthy of this food which even a big won’t eat. With what he did, General Xu really doesn’t deserve the title of general, so the excrement of our soldiers is the only food he deserves. Please pass on to him what I’m saying. Both his sword and his tricks can’t do any harm to me. So, please don’t always trample on people’s dignity. On the one hand, it is villainous, and on the other hand, it is easy for him to suffer losses as he can’t do this kind of thing as well as me.”
The fat man had moved his chubby body and was about to ride the horse to leave. But he couldn’t bear the gloom in his heart, so he turned his head and said to Leng Changxi, “You insult our general like this. He won’t show mercy to you then.”
Leng Changxi smiled lightly, and his silver armor gleamed in the afternoon sunlight, “We don’t need his mercy. By the way, remember, this dish for you is called golden soup.”
Golden soup… It was not soup, but just… Thinking of the excrement on his body, the fat envoy was going to break down!
After the three of them left, the army of West Xia was full of joy. What General Leng did was so great! Some soldier said in a low voice, “When the general ordered people to take it? I had a golden piss this morning, and maybe it was in the buckets.”
“Come on, Zhang! Your urine is golden because of you got inflammation. And, when you have used the latrine? You always piss towards the trunk. We all know that.”
At the same time, the three envoys of Qi rushed back to their camp with the smell of excrement all the way. When people of West Xia were studying the way to break the strategy with Heiying’s leading, in the dim sunlight, there was a young soldier in armor with a tender face and fair skin sitting on the high platform of Qi’s side, namely the so-called talented descendant of Xu Family who Sima Ray took pains to find.
Xu Family and Cang Family both specialized in divination and fortune-telling at first, while they became enemies afterwards and the two families did not interact with each other. At that time, Cang Shigu in Cang Family attracted all the attention, and Xu Family was just like a stray dog. While at this time, all the descendants of Cang Family had been dead or missing, so it was the time for Xu Family to flourish again.
This descendant of Xu Family was called Xu Ji, who looked comely with red lips and white teeth. Although he was tall, he was extremely thin and weak. At a sudden glance, he might be regarded as a young lady of some family. While the hostility and tenacity in his eyes looked masculine.
At this time, Xu Ji had one foot on the couch and the other in the wooden clogs before the couch. He had a bunch of cute grapes beside him. He picked out the largest one, looking at the three envoys who were constantly splashed with clean water but still smelly with great interest.
“Good-for-nothing.” Xu Ji gave them a stare.
The envoy with small eyes explained bitterly, “General, that General Leng is extremely arrogant. He treats both you and Prince Ray like dirt. And he said that you are just a good-for-nothing, and he won’t fear both your sword and your tricks.” The envoy with small eyes started talking nonsense.
“Golden soup?” Xu Ji didn’t listen to him at all but just thought to himself, and then he said, “This person is interesting. It seems that we are going to play the trump card. Don’t we have someone in their army? It’s time to come in handy.”
