The back hall of the Deputy General's Manor.
He Minghu played with a glazed wine cup in his hand. The sunlight pierced through the lattice window, falling on the cup and reflecting a colorful halo.
He tilted his neck back and downed the strong wine in one gulp. His Adam's apple bobbed, and he let out a long breath.
"Lord Ma, do you think that little girl named Xu is hiding under her covers in the posthouse crying right now?"
He Minghu leaned back against his chair, his legs spread wide, laughing loudly.
"Once Zhao Si brings back all the provisions and livestock from Wild Fox Beach, I'd like to see what she uses to fight me! When the time comes, I'll force her to kneel before the Deputy General's Manor and kowtow to apologize!"
Ma Jin'an sat upright to the side, holding a Jian ware hare's fur teacup. He slowly skimmed off the foam and took a small sip.
"General He, speak cautiously," Ma Jin'an glanced at He Minghu. "She is, after all, an imperial envoy. We still need to keep up appearances."
"When Zhao Si returns, these supplies will become the smuggled contraband we seized. Not only will we be faultless, but we will also be credited with a merit. As for Lord Xu... having lost such a massive amount of supplies, what will she use to fill the bottomless pit of Zhenbei City? In less than three days, the starving ruffians in the camp will swallow her alive."
Hearing this, He Minghu laughed even louder. "Hahahaha! Imperial Censor Ma is indeed brilliant! This move of pulling the firewood from under the cauldron is absolutely perfect! I'm just hoping Zhao Si hurries back now. I want to personally go to the north gate and properly admire the expression on our imperial envoy's face!"
A flurry of hasty and chaotic footsteps came from outside the courtyard.
"Report!"
A scout rushed into the back hall, stumbling and crawling. He scrambled up on his hands and knees, kneeling on the ground while panting heavily.
"What is this panic? Where is your decorum!" The smile faded from He Minghu's face as he scolded in displeasure. "Has the sky fallen? Is Zhao Si back? Where did he take the goods?"
The scout swallowed hard and replied in terror, "Ge... General... Zhao Si... is dead!"
"What?!" He Minghu stood up abruptly, bumping the red sandalwood desk in front of him and causing it to slide forward half a foot.
He crossed the distance to the scout in two quick strides, grabbed the man by the collar, and lifted him forcefully off the ground.
"Say that again? Who is dead?"
"Zh... Fourth Master Zhao is dead!" The scout's feet dangled in the air. His face turned bright red from lack of breath as he struggled to squeeze out the words. "Wild Fox Beach... is completely finished! The Helians... the Helians are all dead too!"
"Where are the goods? Where are my goods!"
He Minghu's eyes bulged, his spit spraying all over the scout's face.
"The goods... the goods were hijacked by Xu Zhan!" the scout stammered. "Hundreds of cattle and sheep... several carts of grain... all driven back by Xu Zhan and those cripples from the vanguard camp! They... they are almost at the north gate now!"
Clang!
The Jian ware hare's fur teacup in Ma Jin'an's hand crashed to the ground, shattering into pieces.
The color drained from his previously ruddy face, instantly turning deathly pale.
His sense of superiority at having calculated everything flawlessly vanished in an instant, replaced by a strong surge of humiliation.
He, Ma Jin'an, a dignified Supervising Censor who prided himself on his extraordinary intellect, had actually been played for a fool by a greenhorn of a girl!
She had intentionally shown weakness and handed over the glazed glass just to lure them into sending someone to Wild Fox Beach, using them to block the Helians' blades for her!
He Minghu loosened his grip, and the scout collapsed limply to the floor.
"Xu Zhan? That one-armed piece of trash?" He Minghu paced in circles. "How could he possibly kill Helian elites? Were the twelve fully armored personal guards Zhao Si brought just sitting there doing nothing? Trash! Every single one of them is fucking trash! Incompetent fools who ruin everything!"
He Minghu cursed more frantically, his footsteps growing increasingly chaotic. He stopped abruptly and turned to look at Ma Jin'an:
"Censor Ma, it's all over now! Xu Zhan took the goods back, and Zhao Si is dead! If that girl surnamed Xu brings Zhao Si's corpse to confront me and accuses me of colluding with foreign enemies and plundering an imperial envoy's supplies... I won't be able to keep my head!"
Ma Jin'an took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and rapidly calculated a countermeasure in his mind.
He had it! Hadn't they already discussed this earlier? He really was outsmarting himself!
As soon as the plan formed, the color returned to his face.
However, Xu Qinghuan's trick of borrowing a knife to kill another was indeed played brilliantly.
"What are you panicking for!" Ma Jin'an opened his eyes and shouted sternly. "General He, have you forgotten something? What was the plan we agreed upon earlier?"
He Minghu froze, his face full of confusion. "Plan? What plan? The goods are gone, what plan is there to talk about?"
"Fool!" Ma Jin'an cursed, frustrated by his incompetence. "What does Zhao Si going to Wild Fox Beach have to do with the Deputy General's Manor? What does it have to do with you, General He?"
He Minghu blinked, not reacting for a moment.
Ma Jin'an snorted coldly, flicked his sleeves, and sat back down in the armchair.
"Zhao Si, blinded by greed, privately stole the goods confiscated by the imperial envoy and held in the Deputy General's Manor, and fled to Wild Fox Beach to trade with the Helians."
"Such treacherous behavior deserves death! Our Deputy General's Manor is also a victim!"
He Minghu's eyes gradually lit up. He slapped his thigh, suddenly realizing.
"That's right! It was that bastard Zhao Si who got greedy and did it behind my back! I knew nothing about it!"
He immediately played along, adopting a look of deep distress, and pointed at the scout on the floor, cursing, "That ungrateful wretch Zhao Si! I treated him well normally, yet he dared to go behind my back and commit such a treasonous act! He died well! He deserved to die!"
Ma Jin'an looked at He Minghu's expression, a trace of disdain flashing in his eyes, but he kept his face impassive.
He curled his fingers and tapped lightly on the red sandalwood desk.
"Just clearing our names isn't enough," Ma Jin'an's gaze deepened, his tone severe. "Since Xu Qinghuan dared to make the first move, we dare to retaliate in kind."
"She indulged her subordinate Xu Zhan in slaughtering the soldiers of my Deputy General's Manor at Wild Fox Beach. We need to settle this score with her properly."
He Minghu leaned in and asked in a low voice, "Censor Ma means..."
"Put the blame on the victim!" Ma Jin'an spat out. "Although Zhao Si violated military law, it is not the place of an imperial envoy's subordinate to lynch him."
"We will go to the north gate right now and, in front of all the soldiers in the city, question her as to why she allowed her subordinate to murder border army soldiers! If she cannot provide a reasonable explanation, she will definitely bear the charges of inciting mutiny and murdering colleagues!"
He Minghu nodded repeatedly, a fierce light appearing in his eyes.
"Good plan! Truly a good plan! But... what if any of the personal guards Zhao Si took with him survived and fell into Xu Qinghuan's hands, and they confess against us?"
Ma Jin'an glanced at him, his tone calm. "If Zhang Tiezhu and the others come back alive, then they are accomplices who conspired with Zhao Si to steal the contraband. According to the military laws of Great Qian, accomplices are to be executed immediately."
A casual sentence seemed to decide the fate of over a dozen lives.
He Minghu understood implicitly. He strode over to the weapon rack and drew the fine steel sword hanging there.
"Pass down my orders!" He Minghu turned and bellowed at the personal guards stationed outside the door. "Muster three hundred ironclad guards! Follow me to the North Gate! I want to see exactly how Xu Qinghuan plans to give me an explanation today!"
Ma Jin'an stood up, smoothed out his imperial censor robes, and brushed away non-existent dust.
He too arranged his features into a mask of righteous indignation and the bitter grief of losing a beloved general, before walking out the door with measured, dignified steps.
