Yu Haitang was so straightforward, which made Baili Ai surprised. Few people could tell his true age, so it seemed that Yu Haitang was perspicacious.
Sima Ray immediately stepped forward and reported the latest situation to Yu Haitang anxiously, “I don’t know why Leng Changxi acted so weirdly this time. He sent picked troops to attack our military camp, but they didn’t burn our army provisions or hurt our soldiers. Instead, they blew up the pit where the dead were buried. The soldiers and the people who died from the construction of the water camp were buried there. How it would benefit him?”
Sima Ray frowned and wondered, but Yu Haitang just smiled slightly and teased the lion-faced monkey on his shoulders, “Try to win popular support? He is still green, unless he has already arranged his people into those stupid civilians. Otherwise, it is just in vain.”
Baili Ai was just 28 years old, and Sima Ray and Leng Changxi both knew that. When he appeared in front of people with wrinkled skin and white hair, people were shocked.
Those in the know knew that Baili Ai was poisoned by a strange poison in the early years which no one could detoxify. People who had been poisoned with it before either committed suicide as they couldn’t endure the pain or spent the last few years of their life painfully. Few people could combat poison with poison like Baili Ai.
“The man who caused this was Leng Changxi, my junior fellow apprentice.” This was how Baili Ai explained the cause of the strange poison in his body to Sima Ray.
At the same time, Leng Changxi had just returned to the tent. He rested on the soft couch with Qin Yunuan and then talked about the past.
“As for the poison, my senior fellow apprentice suffered from his own actions. At that time, our teacher was preparing for a test for us, and the winner could get a secret scripture from him. My senior fellow apprentice had always been competitive. He not only studied hard, but even took crooked ways. He got a kind of enchanting powder and wanted to mix it into my book pages. But he didn’t expect that I set up a trick in the book box to prevent outsiders from turning over my book pages. When he rummaged around in my book box, the two kinds of poisonous powder mixed together, which caused his aging instantly.” Leng Changxi said, and shook his head thoughtfully, “His intention was not right, so he just ate his own bitter fruit.”
After hearing what he said, Qin Yunuan smiled and looked at Leng Changxi, “Are you sure that was an accident?”
After a long silence, Leng Changxi stretched himself and said, “Not exactly. In fact, I had guessed that he would do something bad a long time ago, so I specially put the ‘good’ thing in the book box for him.”
That was true. Who would tamper with the books that he would read every day without any reason?
“So, in fact, I have always been wondering why Sima Ray put Baili Ai in such an important position since he is not smart.” Leng Changxi shook his head. For him, Baili Ai had always been his defeated opponent. He contemplated, watching the copper clepsydra in the corner gradually floated to a predetermined moment. At this moment, a soldier came to report that a group of fishermen had been here to seek refuge.
It was only half a day after Leng Changxi and Qin Yunuan left the fishing village, while the scheme just worked. Leng Changxi and Qin Yunuan looked at each other and went out together. Outside the camp, the old village head was followed by the lame man Zhang and some young and middle-aged men in the fishing village. They were all in their neatest clothes, but the old straw shoes on their feet still revealed their identity. According to common sense, the poor could not approach the military camp.
But they were all full of sincerity. They held their heads high, looking proud.
“Zhang, keep your head high. You are lame, but your brain is still fine. Although we are here to ask General Leng for help, we can’t lose our temperament.” The old village head put the pipe on his waist, looking at the camp leisurely with a familiar expression in his eyes.
“The General let you in.” Leng Wu walked out of the camp gate. He glanced at the seven or eight people and led them directly to Leng Changxi’s tent. People’s comments came from the tent. Leng Changxi and the vice generals were discussing something important which should not have been heard by these ordinary fishermen. While the voice inside was especially loud this time. Leng Wu led those people standing outside, and they all heard it clearly.
“I don’t agree.” It was Tuoba Wuyu’s voice. “Those fishermen were all Sima Ray’s stooges. Look at the fishing village in the upper reaches! Their village was slaughtered, and even the big yellow dog which guarded the door had its head cut off. But what’s the result? The more than a thousand people who survived entered Sima Ray’s camp finally! I don’t think the fishermen in the lower reaches will be good.”
“General Tuoba, you can’t generalize about people.” Leng Changxi seemed to be plausible and reasonable.” The fishermen in the upper reaches were also forced and threatened. Moreover, now Sima Ray has lost his humanity and even throws the bodies into the Sui River, completely ignoring the survival of the people in the lower reaches. He did this just to force the fishermen in the lower reaches to submit to him.”
“I don’t care. The people living by Sui River will naturally support the Prince of their Qi. If we cooperate with them rashly, we will just draw fire against ourselves.”
Their conversation made the fishermen outside frown. Then the old village head couldn’t help it anymore, who opened the curtain and went in directly, saying, “We are ordinary people, but it doesn’t mean we can’t make a distinction between right and wrong. Sima Ray is inhumane, so naturally, we are not willing to help the tyrant to victimize his subjects. Who we want to help is troops representing a just cause. General Leng, all the fishing boats and young people in the 17 villages around us can follow your instructions. This time, as the representative of these 17 villages, I come to seek refuge with you, General Leng.”
At exactly this time, Qin Yunuan walked in with a pot of Pu’er tea with a dozen teacups on the tray. It seemed that she had expected these people to be here.
“That’s not true.” Qin Yunuan smiled, “Now Sima Ray and we are at a stalemate in Sui River. Whether we can march into the Royal City or not depends on the battle of Sui River. Now since you are willing to come to help, you are here to cooperate with us rather than seek refuge. All of us are just trying to fight against the unjust troops.”
The old village head was a little excited and nodded solemnly, “Tomorrow. I will take the fishing boats of our 17 villages to the military camp tomorrow.”
Leng Changxi did not refuse but nodded and said, “Thank you so much.”
After Leng Wu sent away the representatives of the fishing villages, Tuoba Wuyu looked at the placid Sui River from a distance, turned his head and sighed, “General, it’s really a good strategy. You asked people to blow up the dead people pit in Sima Ray’s military camp. Before they reacted, you went to the fishing village to mold public opinion and encourage the fishermen to take refuge with you. When the fishermen came here as you wished, you deliberately performed such a play for them to make them more determined. Since they were struck by words just now, they will try their best to prove their sincerity and ability then.”
Leng Changxi nodded, looking into the distance. The river surface was enshrouded with water vapor, and he could only see the flag which was raised high in the water camp of Sima Ray on the opposite vaguely.
Seven days later, it was a fine and clear day. From the highest level of the water camp which was just built by Sima Ray’s people, they could just see the heavily guarded base camp of Leng Changxi on the opposite side.
There was a twitter which was made by the little lion-faced monkey. The little monkey was very clever. It picked up the peanuts in the small dish, peeling them one by one with its fingers, and stuffed them into Yu Haitang’s mouth cleverly.
Yu Haitang looked at the little monkey with a smile, opened his mouth and allowed the little monkey accurately to throw the peeled peanuts into his mouth.
Sima Ray became a little impatient, “Mr. Yu, now as you said, Leng Changxi has mobilized all the fishermen from the village on the other side to help him. If we still don’t take any actions, I’m afraid we will alienate all the civilians.”
“Alienate all the civilians?” Yu Haitang snorted, “Since the moment you were about to rebel, you shouldn’t think about the civilians again.”
Sima Ray paused for a while. He could only endure the sulks in his heart, and said with a forced smile, “So Mr. Yu, what can we do?”
“Wait.” Yu Haitang looked up at the direction of the wind.
“Wait, wait, wait! We are always waiting!” Sima Ray turned anxious, “Mr. Yu, time and tide won’t wait for anyone. It has been more than a year. Although I have kept my father under house arrest in the Royal Palace, all the people outside are staring at me. They are all eager to try, they are just trying to prove that my father is already unconscious, and then they will join forces to rebel. When I am besieged on all sides, how will I have time to handle Leng Changxi then?”
“Don’t you still have the support of Wanyan Su, the Fourth Prince of North Di?” Yu Haitang squinted his eyes. “There are also the assassins of the Dou Family and Zhao Huijin of East Qin. Although you only master a tenth of the assassins, they are all first-class. What are you afraid of?”
Sima Ray was angry and punched the table with his fist, “The assassins? Even all of them together cannot hurt Leng Changxi!”
Sima Ray said while looking at the seemingly calm river surface. Gradually, several small red dots appeared on the surface of the river. Immediately, hundreds of boats were coming towards them. Those were all fishing boats, on which were the soldiers in armor of West Xia. Several large fishing boats even carried several swift horses. They looked so mighty like duckweed that came with the current, which could swallow the weak water camp of Sima Ray in a flash seemingly.
“Look. I’ve said that we won’t have to wait long.” A weird smile appeared on Yu Haitang’s face, and the lion-faced monkey on his shoulder turned extremely excited as well, jumping up and down.
Sima Ray quickly ordered the soldiers to prepare for battle.
The easterly wind was extremely strong, as if to support. Leng Changxi and Qin Yunuan stood on the leading large boat, which marched forward like flying arrows. The war was about to start.
