A carrier hawk quickly flew into the sky above Langqiao City, heading for the middle of the Wan Kingdom. Knowing that he was no match for a hawk at speed, Ling Zhang wrote Yuwen Tong a letter to inform him before setting off to rendezvous with him.
A lot of people on the scene had heard those words of Xue Yi’s. Since Ling Zhang was leaving, Jiang Ke summoned Jiang Xi and the other officers to have an emergency meeting.
“That guy sounds like someone who has some medical skills and pretty good kung fu, but we don’t know who he is or for what he wants to take revenge on His Majesty. From the vantage point of the present, the only thing we could do is send His Majesty an emergency message cautioning him to keep a weather eye on anybody who tries to approach him,” said Jiang Ke.
“His Highness has already had a carrier hawk deliver a letter to His Majesty, but…” Jiang Xi left his sentence hanging, a grave look on his face, which was fairly uncharacteristic of him. “At that time His Highness had a very serious expression on his face. I keep having this feeling that he had some kind of premonition.”
Jiang Ke raised his eyes which then met Jiang Xi’s, his eyebrows contracting slightly. He knew that Jiang Xi wouldn’t say anything ungrounded, that the severity of this matter might be greater than they believed.
At this time, Ling Zhang, who had just sent a letter to Yuwen Tong, immediately started writing a letter to Mr. Mu who was in the capital city, requesting him to come to the front. Firstly, prevision prevents calamity; secondly, only when Mr. Mu arrived would Ling Zhang have some peace of mind. No matter what, he must have Mr. Mu come to the front as soon as possible.
When all the letters were finished and sent, Ling Zhang immediately summoned Wang Dashan and a couple of others. “Go and pack your things as quick as you can. We leave in a quarter of an hour.”
His bodyguards answered to only Ling Zhang. Their duty was to keep Ling Zhang safe, and they would never question Ling Zhang’s decision. “Yes, Your Highness.”
“Wait. Tell Qiu Bing to come here.”
“Yes, Sire.”
Ling Zhang summoned Qiu Bing because he wanted to ask Qiu Bing whether or not he could save Yuwen Tong if Yuwen Tong did fall prey to the enemy’s trick.
Qiu Bing replied, “I have on me an alexipharmic pill and a panacean pill both of which were given to me by Mr. Mu. I think they’re enough to handle any of the situations His Majesty might find himself in before Mr. Mu arrives. Besides, His Majesty is in the company of my master, and my master also has these two kinds of medicine, so there’s no need for you to concern yourself about it, Your Highness.”
If it weren’t for his foreboding, Ling Zhang wouldn’t have begun to worry after merely hearing some words of Xue Yi’s, but he knew that others wouldn’t be able to understand it even if he tried to explain it to them. “You may go and pack your things.”
“Yes, Sire.”
Jiang Ke and Jiang Xi happened to come to the tent to visit Ling Zhang at the same time. Both of them appeared somewhat apprehensive after failing to dissuade Ling Zhang from setting off to rendezvous with Yuwen Tong.
“You’ll be traveling in the territory of the Wan Kingdom after leaving Langqiao City, and you’ll have to get through Jifang City before you could see His Majesty. Presently the situation in there is unknown to us, but I’m sure Jifang City is at its highest security level, and there’s no doubt you’ll be challenged by a lot of guards and patrols when crossing the city. If they find out who you really are, there will be unimaginable consequences,” cautioned Jiang Ke.
“Jiang Ke has a point. It won’t be long before we get to Jifang City and meet His Majesty there. Do you think you can show more patience, Your Highness?” said Jiang Xi.
Ling Zhang shook his head. “No. I have to go there to see him as soon as possible. I have an idea how to get through all the security there. There’s no need for you guys to worry about me. I’ll keep myself safe. My decision is final and it’s no good trying to talk me out of it. I’ll have two of my bodyguards stay here, because I have plants in the couple of cities you’re going to attack next as well, and my bodyguards will help you get in touch with them. It’s impossible for those plants of mine to open the city gates as those in Langqiao City did today, but they’ll prove themselves helpful when necessary.”
Jiang Ke and Jiang Xi exchanged a glance, still looking rather concerned.
“If you’ve made up your mind to leave, you should at least take all your bodyguards with you. The twenty-four of them are your source of protection. With two absent, the rest of them wouldn’t be able to fight in a complete formation,” remarked Jiang Xi.
Ling Zhang cast him a look and demurred, “Who told you that? Some formations require twenty-four men, but the others don’t. I know what I’m doing. All you have to do is show up in the eastern suburbs of Jifang City on time.”
The glance from Ling Zhang convulsed both Jiang Ke’s and Jiang Xi’s bodies. The sense of power Ling Zhang radiated in that instant made the two of them feel as though the one standing in front of them were Yuwen Tong. Neither of them dared utter another word to dissuade him.
In fact, before this day, Ling Zhang had never deliberately emanated any powerful air in front of Jiang Ke or Jiang Xi. He was a layman when it came to directing military operations, so he had been sensibly avoiding putting Jiang Ke and Jiang Xi under pressure, but now he really had to leave, which was why he cast aside those considerations.
…
An intense battle had just come to an end. Chen Jing’s army lost control of yet another two cities and were forced into retreating northwards again and again. Chen Jing had strained every sinew to hold back the army led by Yuwen Tong, but the Wan Kingdom was still losing one city after another.
The carrier hawk had delivered the letter from Ling Zhang to Yuwen Tong the day before. After reading it, Yuwen Tong carefully searched his memory for quite some time but didn’t remember making an enemy of anybody who possessed both excellent medical skills and superb kung fu, so he had no choice but to have Yao Yi and some others set out to ascertain it. Given that that person was the one who had cured Shan Congyi of his injuries previously, he undoubtedly had shown his face before and left some traces behind.
Yuwen Tong didn’t think that Ling Zhang’s worries were needles. He trusted Ling Zhang, which was why he didn’t take the message lightly, though it struck him as somewhat baffling.
Yao Yi and some others also thought back to the previous events in an effort to help him figure it out, but none of them had any recollections of anybody fitting that description.
“There are only two possibilities. One is that all of us indeed don’t remember that man, and I earned myself his enmity unawares, and I’ll only recall it when I see him. The other one is that Xue Yi only knows some crumbs of information about this matter, and this man Shan Congyi mentioned has another identity.
But no matter what, considering this man saved Shan Congyi’s life, his medical skills must be consummate. Otherwise Shan Congyi would never have survived, seeing as how grievous his injuries were.”
Yuwen Tong believed that the second possibility was more likely to be the truth. He had every confidence in his memory, which was amazingly retentive. He indeed didn’t remember making an enemy of anybody who was both a miracle-working physician and a kung fu master. There was a high chance that that person had another identity which was familiar to him. And Yuwen Tong felt the possibility that he had earned himself the enmity of that person unawares was next to zero.
“They haven’t started suppressing the information in the capital yet, but it’ll be at least four days before we receive any messages from there. We’ll stay close to you at all times in the next few days, especially Xie Shi. Under no circumstances should he leave his post,” said Yao Yi.
Xie Shi, on hearing Yao Yi mention his name, said, “I’ll prepare some medicine tonight, just in case. Before I left the capital city, Mr. Mu gave me some alexipharmic pills and a panacean pill. I’ll carry them with me.”
Yuwen Tong raised no objections to the arrangements made by his bodyguards. It was true that he was very confident about his kung fu skills, but he wouldn’t say no to those who offered to protect him when he shouldn’t. After all, he was long past the age at which he could afford to act frivolously. Right now what he should concentrate his efforts on was forcing Chen Jing’s army to retreat to Jifang City as soon as possible.
He was not going to be deterred from having his arm resume advancing by this message, and everything that needed to be done was being dealt with as planned.
There was, in addition, another matter that concerned him. He was certain that Ling Zhang had lost his composure and might be on his way to this city at this moment, and if he was, he would inevitably have to pass Jifang City.
Ling Zhang and his bodyguards disguised themselves as members of a common caravan in Langqiao City. With ID plates indicating they were affiliated to Jiahe Chamber of Commerce fastened to their belts, their carts loaded with goods, they headed straight for the next city. Thanks to the reputation of Jiahe Chamber of Commerce, they entered the city without much difficulty. Then they met some members of the chamber of commerce in the city, made some adjustments to their disguise, and, masquerading as hired bodyguards of Jiahe Chamber of Commerce, resumed the journey in the company of a caravan delivering goods to Jifang City.
Jiahe Chamber of Commerce had contacts in almost all levels of government authorities. There were officials who had taken bribes from the chamber of commerce in every Wan city. As Jiahe Chamber of Commerce had been weighing officials’ pockets with money and doing business in an honest fashion, hardly any local authorities of the Wan Kingdom had ever made trouble for the organization. This time around, they only encountered some hindrance at the city gates of Jifang City, where each and every one of them was challenged by the soldiers guarding the gates. The main reason was that the geographical location of Jifang City was special, and in these circumstances, Jifang City had become the last barrier of the Wan capital, which the Wan army could use to stop Yuwen Tong’s army from going further north. As a result, the city officials, all of whom feared death, were unwilling to bend the rules for even Jiahe Chamber of Commerce.
“All these are goods from the north, and they’re the last batch,” a supervior of Jiahe Chamber of Commerce said to the commander of the garrison. “You may have your men examine the whole shipment carefully. My boss said that Jifang City might be attacked in a few days, so he had me deliver some goods here, telling me that I may sell them to the garrison at low prices if they’re in need.”
On hearing this, the general in charge of the security at the city gates, who was the commander of the troops garrisoned in Jifang City and had been having dealings with Jiahe Chamber of Commerce on a frequent basis, said, “You guys always prefer to stay out of this kind of matters, don’t you? Why are you being so enthusiastic on this occasion?”
The supervisor of the chamber of commerce, at the sight of the penetrating look in the general’s eyes, hastened to smile obsequiously, “We do tend not to get involved in this kind of things, but we have to keep our business going. I mean, we have a lot of stores in Jifang City, and all of us want the business environment to stay peaceful. The garrison are having a tough time maintaining order and defending this city, so we figured we should do what we can to make a contribution as well, however small it is. Besides, our boss said that Jifang City will never fall, given how strong its defense is, so if we sell the goods to the garrison at low prices at this point in time, in the future the garrison would surely…I believe you know what I mean, General.”
The general snorted coldly, “You people never miss anything you could profit from.”
The soldiers scrupulously examined all the goods and searched every member of the delivery team. Having checked that there weren’t any problems, the general gave the permission for the caravan to enter the city.
When being searched by the soldiers, Ling Zhang suspended the circulation of his internal energy to prevent himself from emanating powerful air, trying to make his eyes which were usually bright and commanding look listless. The soldiers searching him were not surprised to see this, for it was a natural thing that people were lethargic. These days rumors were circulating everywhere that the army of the Great Wen were going to attack this city, and a lot of people were worried that Jifang City was going to fall. The soldiers believed that these people of Jiahe Chamber of Commerce would never have come to Jifang City at this point in time had they had a choice.
“Get in. We like this shipment pretty much. Remember to deliver it to my encampment as soon as possible,” said the general to the supervisor. Since Jiahe Chamber of Commerce had transported a batch of goods to this city to win the favor of the garrison in these circumstances, it would be stupid to say no. All these goods were good stuff, and people of Jiahe Chamber of Commerce were probably the only ones who had the financial strength to make the garrison a gift of these things to win support in this situation. He would be a fool not to accept it. The general in charge of the defense of the city believed that he was not a fool, so he naturally wouldn’t turn down the offer
