Youzhou. Near the border.
The Wan Kingdom and the Luohai Kingdom joined forces because they wanted to take advantage of the civil strife in the Great Yue to blindside it, break through the fortification line near Youzhou, and then take Youzhou before marching straight south, but unexpectedly, the garrison in Youzhou seemed to have some time ago made preparations for this situation. After attacking it for such a long time, the coalition forces still hadn’t taken the border city. Worse still, Yuwen Tong had arrived, which was very bad news for the two countries.
“Previously a small team of soldiers of the Wan Kingdom were found to be skulking outside our fortification line, and I immediately came to know those fools of the Wan Kingdom were up to something,” said Jiang Xi the deputy commander in a smug tone. By successfully defending Youzhou and thwarting the Wan Kingdom’s and the Luohai Kingdom’s scheme, he had no doubt performed a meritorious wartime exploit.
“Since you’ve got enough time on your hand to boast, how about you go and make an inspection tour? The enemies have been quiet for two days. It won’t be long before they launch another attack,” said Yuwen Tong, reading a letter in his hands, slightly furrowing his brows.
Originally Jiang Xi had wanted to say something, but at the sight of Yuwen Tong’s frown, the complacency on his face disappeared and he asked, “Did something happen in the capital city, Marshal?”
“Everything in the capital city is under control now. Barring accidents, all they need is for me to return,” responded Yuwen Tong.
“Then why are you frowning? I was startled,” said Jiang Xi.
“Someone refused to behave and insisted on coming here.” Yuwen Tong’s resigned voice was tinged with expectation, seeming to be torn between anger and delight.
Jiang Xi was thrown into perplexity by the complicated expression on his face. “Who’s coming?”
After a while, Jiang Xi came to understand. Only when receiving a message about Ling Zhang from the capital city would Yuwen Tong had this kind of expression. Was the one coming by any chance…
“Marshal, is it Childe Ling who’s coming here?”
Yuwen Tong burnt the letter and answered, “Yeah. If his horse is fast enough, in all likelihood he’ll get here in six days.”
Jiang Xi immediately cheered. “Does that mean I’ll soon see what your marriage partner looks like, Marshal?!”
Yuwen Tong flicked a glance at him. Naturally, the form of address “marriage partner” struck him as pleasant, but Ling Zhang undoubtedly wouldn’t be very happy to be addressed as such.
This inscrutable glance from Yuwen Tong made Jiang Xi’s flesh creep. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Don’t disclose this to anybody else yet. I’ll have Lao Qi make arrangements for some men to meet him covertly,” said Yuwen Tong.
Jiang Xi patted his own chest. “You may rest assured that it’ll stay secret, Marshal. I look forward to seeing how charming Childe Ling, the one you’re smitten by, is.”
Yuwen Tong gave a smile and made no reply, but his mind had flied across the borderlands to the road connecting the capital city and Youzhou.
…
The Sanguan Mountains were between Youzhou and Shengzhou. Tongguan Town was a small town located in Youzhou, not far away from the main road leading from the capital city to Youzhou.
Ling Zhang was on the back of Snowflake the horse. Riding alongside with him was Ling Zhaowu, closely followed by Ji Donglin, his twenty-four bodyguards and some men sent by the Millennium Pavilion to protect him. The group of them on fast horses were galloping along the main road.
What with the war, almost all commercial and transport activities in Youzhou had stopped. Barely anybody could be seen traveling on the main road, except for some teams who were leaving Youzhou, heading south.
“Why are these people so anxious to flee when the border city of Youzhou still stands?” said Qiu Bing, disgruntled.
Their trust in Yuwen Tong was absolute, and they had no doubt whatsoever that he would succeed in defending Youzhou against the attack.
“It’s not their fault. They’re all just common townsfolk. You can’t blame them for fearing death,” observed Wang Dashan.
“Humph. The Marshal cannot be defeated,” snorted Qiu Bing.
“Well, we’ll get there in three days. It’s late. Let’s find a place to spend the night. We’ve been traveling for so long. It’s time we got some rest,” said Ling Zhaowu.
Ling Zhang was bent on going to the borderlands as soon as possible, but Ling Zhaowu had just started recovering not long ago. He himself could endure the fatigue, but his father couldn’t.
Wang Dashan walked over and said, “Young Master, we’ll go and scout out the lay of the land first. You and Master Ling may slow down a little bit.”
Ling Zhang inclined his head.
Wang Dashan, Qiu Bing and Zhou Xiang galloped forward. Liu Yi and the rest of the guards gathered behind Ling Zhang and his father, progressing at a gentler speed.
Before long, Wang Dashan and the other two returned.
“There’s a small town ahead, Young Master.”
They went into the town and found that although some stores were still open for business, there weren’t many pedestrians on the streets. Probably because of the ongoing war, residents here all looked somewhat apprehensive.
Since Ling Zhang and the others made a big group, some residents panicked at the sight of them entering the town. All pedestrians ran off, and some storekeepers even directly shut the doors, which showed how watchful people here were.
“It seems that some people have been taking advantage of the war to loot and pillage in this area, which is why townsfolk here are so wary of strangers,” said Ling Zhaowu.
Ling Zhang hadn’t thought of this at first. It was after Ling Zhaowu brought this up that he came to realize the reason.
“This town is not really far away from the fortification line. Even Youzhou is only a half-a-day’s horse ride away. The garrison of Youzhou are still guarding the city, yet there are people in this area who dare take advantage of the war to rob and plunder?” said Wang Dashan, astonished.
“Brother Wang, you’ve been to Youzhou before?” asked Ling Zhang.
Wang Dashan responded, “Some of my friends travel around the country quite often, and I once heard them talk about this town, so I know it’s not far away from Youzhou.”
Ling Zhang gave a nod.
Ling Zhaowu said, “Although the garrison of Youzhou are still in position, it’s impossible for them to patrol this place. Besides, as this town is near the main road, robbers and ruffians could easily make their escape if they have things well planned out before committing crimes.”
“Let’s make some inquiries later and find out if this kind of things have really been happening,” said Ling Zhang, a grave expression on his face.
They checked into an inn in the town. At first the innkeeper was also very wary of them, but then he noticed that Ling Zhang, Ling Zhaowu and a couple of others were well dressed, of great presence and quite refined; on top of that, Wang Dashan and other guards were acting in a well-trained manner. In the knowledge that they were not robbers or bandits, he let his guard down and invited them to take seats in the lobby.
“Is it a meal or accommodation that you are seeking, my guests?”
“It’s late, so we’d like to spend the night here. There are a lot of us. Do you have enough rooms available?”
The innkeeper hurriedly answered with a nod, “Yes, I do. There are very few outsiders in town at this point in time, so my inn is basically empty. There are enough rooms for all of you.”
“Then please prepare the rooms for us. By the way, we’d like some food first.”
“Right away, my guest.”
The innkeeper quickly took his order and then instructed his two waiters to get to work. It was quite some time before their dishes were served. Ling Zhang and the couple of others sharing the table with him were the first to have all their courses served. The cooked rice and dishes were all fresh and steaming, seeming to have just been prepared in the kitchen.
It took the chef and waiters another long while to have all the others’ dishes prepared and served.
Then the innkeeper took the waiters to prepare the rooms. After Ling Zhang and the others had their fill of food and drink, the rooms were almost ready.
Ling Zhang called the innkeeper over and said, “Hey, keeper, there’s something I want to ask you about.”
“What is it, my guest?” asked the inn-keeper.
“We traveled all the way north to this town and noticed that there were very few pedestrians on the streets. Most people, when they saw us entering the town in the distance, got scared, turned around and fled, and a lot of storekeepers closed the doors at the sight of us. What’s the reason for that? To my knowledge, the defense of the border city of Youzhou is still solid. Marshal Yuwen is personally directing operations there. The Wan Kingdom’s and the Luohai Kingdom’s armies won’t be able to break through the fortification line. Even if residents in this town are somewhat panic-stricken, this kind of overreaction would still sound a little dramatic. They could totally set their mind at ease and continue leading normal lives,” said Ling Zhang.
The inn-keeper’s countenance gradually changed as he listened. His face crumpling up, he let out a sigh and then explained, “You probably don’t know this, my guest. We’re not worried that the Wan Kingdom’s and the Luohai Kingdom’s armies would break through the defense line. It’s those brutal bandits that we’re afraid of.”
“Brutal bandits?” Ling Zhang knitted his brows. Was his father right, by any chance? There were really bandits wreaking havoc on this town?
“Yeah. Two gangs of bandits have been here recently. They were not in great numbers, but they raided every store that was open, took everything they could carry and killed those who tried to stop them. After that, they fled south. We reported it to local authorities but it was no good,” said the innkeeper resentfully.
“Two gangs of bandits? Can you provide some details? There are not many of us, but if you could give us some specific clues, we might be able to help,” said Ling Zhang.
“Oh, thank you in advance, my guest. That’s so kind of you,” said the innkeeper delightedly, but then his face crumpled up again. “I’m afraid it won’t do any good. Those bandits are from the north. As far as I could tell, they are a bunch of northern ruffians and rogues who fled to this area, plundered our town and then escaped to the south. They’ve definitely run far away from this place by now.”
“The north? Right now the north should be under tight control of the North-western Army. How come these ruffians and hooligans still dare to be so unruly?” huffed Ling Zhang.
The innkeeper also furrowed his brows. “Nobody knows why. I think maybe those bandits fled because they heard about Marshal Yuwen’s arrival and got scared. Their doings caused a panic among residents of all towns near the main road. They were targeting small towns and never went into any big ones. It’s so unfortunate of us to be living in a small town.”
Ling Zhang was indignant. It’d never crossed his mind that in these circumstances, there would still be people who dared commit this kind of heinous crime.
Ling Zhaowu patted his shoulders in an effort to allay his anger, and then asked the inn-keeper, “How many people were there in the two gangs of bandits?”
“About a dozen, maybe over twenty,” answered the inn-keeper. “These days some people who are scared of the war are going south in groups, but if they take the main road, I think there’s a very high chance they’ll encounter those bandits again. Alas, this is so…”
A thought suddenly occurred to Ling Zhang and he said, “We didn’t come across either of the two gangs of bandits on our way here. In addition, except for this one, all the towns we stayed in along our journey had never been pillaged.”
The innkeeper looked quizzical and frightened. “Ah? Are they still lingering in this area, by any chance?! My goodness, they might come back here again!”
“No, no, no… I need to tell everybody about this immediately and alert them!” After saying this, the innkeeper ran off. Ling Zhang and some others tried to persuade him to stay but failed.
“Young Master, we’ll go and check the perimeter. If those bandits are really still around, we’ll take care of them,” said Wang Dashan.
Ling Zhang inclined his head. “Okay. Be careful.”
