“Elder Brother Wang, who is this?” Yang Liuzi briefly sized up Liu Yi out of curiosity.
“This is Liu Yi. He’s new to our group, one year older than you. You may call him Elder Brother Liu,” Wang Dashan introduced Liu Yi to Yang Liuzi.
“Nice to meet you, Elder Brother Liu. My name is Yang Liuzi. You may call me Liuzi for short if you like,” Yang Liuzi greeted Liu Yi heartily.
“Nice to meet you, too, Brother Liuzi.”
“Ha-ha. There’s no need to be so courteous, Elder Brother Liu. Just call me Liuzi.”
“Okay, Liuzi.”
Maybe because Yang Liuzi found Liu Yi an interesting man, he started chatting with Liu Yi.
Wang Dashan shook his head. “Young Master and Supervisor Zhou are talking business in there. You’re disturbing them.”
Yang Liuzi hurriedly lowered his voice in embarrassment. “Sorry. I’ve always been talking this way on the farm these days and I’ve already made a habit of it.”
“As far as I can tell, there has been nobody disciplining you for quite some time and you guys have forgotten how to behave.”
“Elder Brother Wang, please don’t wrong me. I’ve been giving them strict training on a daily basis.”
Ling Zhang and Supervisor Zhou finished talking and walked outside with the intention to walk around the estate and take a look.
“What’s that!”
“Is there a fire?”
“That’s the Lee Mountain…”
Ling Zhang and Supervisor Zhou paused and looked in the direction of the Lee Mountain at the same time. They saw that the mountain was shrouded in billows of thick smoke. They couldn’t see any flames, but judging by the thickness of the smoke, the fire must be really big!
‘What’s going on? Did the Prefecture Guards set the mountain aflame on purpose? Such a big fire is not going to burn out any time soon,’ Ling Zhang thought.
Ling Zhang, Supervisor Zhou, Wang Dashan and Liu Yi went to the top of the hill behind the herb farm. Watching from the hilltop, they managed to find out what was happening on the Lee Mountain. The whole mountaintop was in a sea of flames, and there seemed to be distant screeches of despair coming from that direction…
“That’s the top of the Lee Mountain. I’ve been there once before the mountain was occupied by bandits. There was a natural chasm there. On one side of the mountaintop was a cliff, and on another side of it was a precipice separating the mountaintop and the mountainside. If those bandits retreat to the mountaintop and make a position of it, it won’t be easy for Zhang Chong’s army to take their position, but from the vantage point of the present, Zhang Chong has directly set a fire to the mountaintop,” observed Supervisor Zhou.
Liu Yi said, “If Zhang Chong besiege those bandits, they might not necessarily refuse to surrender. As far as I can tell, it was because he wanted to kill each and every one of them that he set the mountaintop on fire.”
Anguished screams of despair could be heard from such a long distance. They could only imagine how horrifying the scene of the fire was on that mountain. Though those people were bandits, picturing them being burnt alive still chilled them to the bone.
Ling Zhang had been silent all along. He just stared in the direction of the Lee Mountain with a frown. Zhang Chong’s deed was not only an act of extreme cruelty but also a dire warning – which one of other bandit gangs would dare to defy him after seeing how these bandits ended up on the mountaintop? After this battle, even if Zhang Chong wanted those bandits to pay him 100,000 taels of silver, they would resort to any means to get the money, not to mention 10,000 taels.
“Supervisor Zhou, please tell all our herb farmers to stay in the estate during the next few days. They may come out after all soldiers of the Prefecture Guards return to the encampment. Remember, under no circumstances should they leave the farm. I’m afraid we won’t be receiving any orders for herbs from any of those drug stores in the city any time soon. Collect ripe herbs and store them up. There’s no hurry to sell them. Try not to go into the city unless you have to, lest you encounter any soldiers of the Prefecture Guards.”
“Okay.”
“Elder Brother Wang, Elder Brother Liu, let’s go back to the city.”
“Yes, Young Master.”
Ling Zhang did not utter a word on their way back to the estate. Others also had heavy hearts and kept hearing those screeches.
“The fire is on the top of the Lee Mountain. From the vantage point of the present, it won’t spread to our farm, but you should still stay alert and keep a close eye on the fire before it burns out.”
All people in the estate responded in obedience, “Rest assured, Young Master. We’ll take care of ourselves.”
“I’m going back to the city. You may take an extra day off. Stay in the estate during the next two days. Don’t go out of the farm unless you have to. Just wait for this to be over.”
“We’ll follow your orders, Young Master.”
“Elder Brother Yang, I’m afraid I’ll have to trouble you to guard this farm for another few days.”
Hearing Ling Zhang address him as “Elder Brother Yang”, Yang Liuzi was rather embarrassed. “Young Master, please just call me Liuzi. As your subordinate, I really don’t think I’m worthy of that form of address.”
Ling Zhang smiled, “Okay, Liuzi.”
“Rest assured, Young Master. My brothers and I will keep this farm safe.”
Ling Zhang nodded, said his farewells and left the farm to double back, followed by Wang Dashan and Liu Yi.
As they passed by the Prefecture Guards, Ling Zhang looked in the direction of it, wondering whether Yuwen Tong was still in there. Zhang Chong should be returning with his men soon. If by any chance Yuwen Tong was still in the encampment and somehow spotted by Zhang Chong’s men, he would be in danger.
But at this time, Yuwen Tong was not in the Prefecture Encampment but on the Grand Mang Mountain.
Zhang Chong had been hiding his armaments in the den of bandits on the Grand Mang Mountain. Yuwen Tong stalked his men for a whole night and finally managed to find out approximately where the armaments had been hidden in that den of bandits.
“Marshal, all your previous conjectures turned out to be true. It is indeed this place that Zhang Chong has been hiding armaments.”
“This place is not only on their route to the capital city but also the best cover for them,” explained Yuwen Tong. The moment he knew the existence of this batch of armaments of Zhang Chong, he asked himself where would he hide the armaments if he were Zhang Chong, and he believed that, after some careful thinking, the Grand Mang Mountain was undoubtedly the best choice. If Zhang Chong led his men onto the mountain in the name of cracking down on bandits, took those armaments and headed straight for the capital city, they would reach the destination before anybody else knew it.
“He’s such an old fox,” said Yao Yi. “Then what should we do? There are too many armaments here. We won’t be able to take them away even if we find them.”
“We’re not taking any of them.”
“We’re not?”
Yuwen Tong was just about to explain when suddenly, as if having just observed something, he leaped onto the highest position nearby and looked into the distance.
He saw the billows of thick smoke on the Lee Mountain.
“It’s Zhang Chong. That bastard set a fire to the mountain.” Yao Yi followed Yuwen Tong and couldn’t help but curse as he saw the smoke. “With this fire, his victory is secured. He may withdraw his man by the end of the day.”
“It’s okay. We’ve already known almost everything we need to know about the encampment. Currently, this place is the key. Go and gather all our men here. I have a task for them.”
“Yes.”
…
Ling Zhang, Wang Dashan and Liu Yi went back to the city and returned the horses to the livery stable. On the way, they heard a lot of residents talking about the fire on the Lee Mountain.
“I heard that those bandits screamed in despair before death, that even their bones were burnt to ashes.”
Ling Zhang was speechless. ‘It has barely been a couple of hours since the fire started. The Lee Mountain is besieged circle upon circle. From whom could this guy possibly have heard this? It’s confusing that there are actually people who believe him. But seen from another aspect, this is also an indication that the fire is really big. People could actually see it from Tangyang.’
“Young Master, finally you came back. Second Master has been worrying about you. Please go home.”
Ling Zhang and the other two had just walked out of the livery stable when they saw a servant of Ling family, who immediately ran up on the sight of them with a mixture of delight and amazement on his face before asking Ling Zhang to go home in an anxious tone of voice.
‘It must be the gate guard who told uncle…’ Ling Zhang thought.
“I see. I’ll go back right now.”
“Young Master, did you encounter any bandits?”
“I didn’t.”
The servant gave a gasp of relief. “I’m glad to hear that. Second Master has been keeping your trip to the herb farm a secret from Old Master all along, but since you were absent from the lunch table, and you were not in your dwelling either, Old Master became skeptical. Then Second Master told him that you had gone out to have lunch with Lord Yuwen. He bade me to tell you to stick to this story and be careful not to give the game away after going back.”
Ling Zhang fell speechless with embarrassment. ‘How will grandfather think when he sees that Yuwen Tong isn’t with me when I get back? There were so many other excuses that were far better choices yet uncle chose this one saying I went out with Yuwen Tong. I hope Yuwen Tong hasn’t returned before me,’ thought Ling Zhang.
As they turned into the street where Ling family was, Ling Zhang suddenly felt that something was not right, as if he was being watched. He jerked his head around to take a look but didn’t see anybody.
“What’s the matter, Young Master?” Wang Dashan and Liu Yi were also alerted immediately, looking around.
Seeing that there was nobody else around, Ling Zhang was suspicious. Since his senses had become far keener than before, he was eighty-percent sure that someone had been watching him from somewhere just now.
“I was watched a moment ago.”
Wang Dashan and Liu Yi quickly split up and searched around but didn’t find anything suspicious.
“Either Young Master made a misjudgment, or that sneaky stalker left really quick.”
Ling Zhang gave a slight frown. He would rather it was just a hallucination. Otherwise he would be in lingering concern for a long time.
“Never mind. Let’s go back.”
No matter who that person was, he or she would show the cloven foot sooner or later.
They speeded up and quickly returned to Ling family so that the stalker would no longer be able to spy on Ling Zhang.
After Ling Zhang entered the mansion of Ling family, a man walked out of a nook and stared at the front gate of the mansion for a while. A faintly scornful look flashed across his eyes, and with that he turned around and disappeared into the shadows.
Unsurprisingly, Ling Zhang had just arrived home when he caught sight of Ling Xingzhong in the ante-room, but Yuwen Tong was not in view, which gave Ling Zhang a faint sense of relief.
“Grandfather, are you by any chance specially waiting here for your beloved grandson to come back?” Ling Zhang walked up to him, smile on face.
“You tell me. Taking such a precipitous trip without telling anybody was madness. Did it ever cross your mind that your family would be worried about you?” Ling Xingzhong stared at him with a severe look.
‘Oh, no. Did he find out?’ Ling Zhang wondered in concern.
“I just went for a walk with Yu… him.” Heedless of the occasion, Ling Zhang nearly blurted out Yuwen Tong’s name out of force of habit. Fortunately, he saw the servant standing outside and changed the form of address in time.
Ling Xingzhong sized him up with piercing eyes for a while. Ling Zhang was worriedly wondering whether his grandfather had seen through the fabricated story of him and his uncle when Ling Xingzhong said, “It’s time you grow up. The identity of Lord Yuwen should be kept a secret. Don’t you ever take Lord Yuwen outside again.”
“I get it.”
“Where’s Lord Yuwen?”
“He said that he had to go somewhere to handle something. I don’t know where he went either.”
Ling Zhang was telling the truth. Even he had no clue where Yuwen Tong currently was.
Ling Zhang had no idea whether his grandfather believed him or not, but Ling Xingzhong didn’t ask for any further details, which relieved Ling Zhang.
In the afternoon on that day, Yuwen Tong finally came back, returning directly to the Green Bamboo Mansion.
Ling Zhang had been paying attention to the Green Bamboo Mansion for signs of activity all along. After Yuwen Tong’s return, he immediately went up there.
“So how’s it going? You didn’t get spotted, did you?” Seeing that Ling Zhang hastily walked up to him and expressed concern for his safety immediately after his return, Yuwen Tong instantly brightened up and felt that the weariness in the wake of a day and a night’s journey dissolved completely. “Have you been waiting for me all along?”
