The crowd parted like a wave.
Xu Qinghuan, dressed in imperial envoy official robes and holding the Son of Heaven's Sword with both hands, walked out step by step from the back of the crowd.
Jenny Huang followed on her left, and Li Sheng, hand on his sword, guarded her right. The three of them walked at a moderate pace, their footsteps exceptionally clear on the gravel road.
Over a thousand pairs of eyes from inside and outside the North Gate turned to them in unison.
Many of those soldiers, cooks, and grooms were seeing this imperial envoy from the capital for the first time.
A woman.
Excessively young.
But the Son of Heaven's Sword she held in her hands, its scabbard inlaid with a golden dragon motif, blinded people in the sunlight.
He Minghu's expression changed for a moment, but quickly recovered.
He withdrew the hand resting on Zhang Tiezhu's shoulder, stood up straight, turned to Xu Qinghuan, and his voice rose instead of falling.
"Lord Xu, you've come just in time!"
He Minghu pointed towards Xu Zhan.
"This general was just about to ask for an explanation. Your subordinate, Xu Zhan, intercepted and killed soldiers of my Deputy General's Office at Wild Fox Shoal, and plundered the exchanged supplies! The witnesses and material evidence are all here. How does Lord Xu plan to handle this?"
Xu Qinghuan stopped in her tracks.
She was separated from He Minghu by a distance of over ten feet, with Zhang Tiezhu kneeling on the ground between them.
"General He."
"I heard your words just now. Are you saying that Zhao Si hid it from you and secretly stole the sealed colored glaze treasures from the storehouse of the Deputy General's Office?"
"That's right!" He Minghu cupped his fist. "That Zhao Si was blinded by greed..."
"I didn't ask about Zhao Si's character."
Xu Qinghuan interrupted him.
"What I'm asking about is General He's storehouse."
He Minghu furrowed his brows.
Xu Qinghuan took two steps forward, holding the Son of Heaven's Sword level in front of her, the sunlight glinting off the scabbard.
"As far as I know, the armory storehouse of the Deputy General's Office is guarded by dedicated personnel, and entry and exit require registration with a token. The storehouse door has three heavy iron bolts, and there are even patrolling soldiers passing by on a regular schedule at night."
She paused for a beat.
"General He is strict in his military discipline. This storehouse of the Deputy General's Office, I'm afraid even a mouse couldn't squeeze into it, right?"
He Minghu opened his mouth.
"Zhao Si is just a squad leader, managing a dozen or so men under him, and taking the lowest level of pay." Xu Qinghuan's voice laid it out unhurriedly. "How could he open three heavy iron bolts? How could he bypass the night patrol soldiers? How could he transport exactly eight full carts of colored glaze treasures out of the Deputy General's Office without missing a single cart?"
Dead silence fell outside the North Gate.
Hundreds of people looked at each other. This question was too simple, but the answer was also too straightforward.
Zhao Xiong stood behind Tie Lanshan, clenching his fists and glaring at the back of He Minghu's head.
He Minghu's face twitched, his brain working furiously.
"This Zhao Si is a cunning man!" He Minghu answered, biting the bullet. "He has served in the storehouse for many years, and long ago secretly made copies of the keys, and also bribed the night guards! This general only discovered it after the fact, and it was already too late to pursue him."
"Alright."
Xu Qinghuan nodded, unhurried and unpanicked.
"Then I will ask General He a second question."
He Minghu clenched his fists.
This woman's way of questioning made him extremely uncomfortable. It wasn't like a quarrel, nor a confrontation, but rather like a cat playing with a mouse, pressing down paw by paw.
"Zhao Si is a low-level squad leader in North Pacification City. The furthest he's ever been in half his life is the baked flatbread shop outside the North Gate."
Xu Qinghuan tilted her head slightly.
"What channels did he use to contact the people of the Helian Right Luli Prince? And how did he know the handover location between the imperial envoy and the Helian merchants at Wild Fox Shoal? He even knew the exact hour of the handover. When did Squad Leader Zhao Si become a secret agent of the Helian Royal Court?"
This question smashed down heavier than the first.
Just now, some people were still half-doubting, but now even those illiterate grunts had figured it out.
Zhao Si, a petty squad leader, making duplicate keys, bribing guards, contacting the Helian Royal Court, and knowing the handover location and time. This ability was just too great.
Unless someone was directing him from behind.
The atmosphere instantly became subtle, and a buzzing sound of discussion drilled out from all directions of the crowd.
The veins on He Minghu's temples throbbed twice. Unable to find an excuse for a moment, he looked back at Ma Jin'an.
Ma Jin'an stepped forward steadily and cupped his hands.
"Lord Xu, please allow me to explain. Zhao Si has been in the Deputy General's Office for many years, and indeed has some unknown channels. This lowly official has also heard of this! But this matter is, after all, General He's internal affair. If Your Excellency wishes to investigate thoroughly, the Deputy General's Office will naturally fully cooperate."
Ma Jin'an suddenly changed the subject.
"However, the most urgent matter is that Your Excellency's subordinate, Xu Zhan, has brutally killed soldiers of our Great Qian at Wild Fox Shoal. Regardless of what crime Zhao Si committed, he is also a registered soldier of our North Pacification City!"
Ma Jin'an bowed towards Tie Lanshan's direction again.
"This lowly official makes bold to ask Lord Xu, did Xu Zhan overstep his authority and kill people under Lord Xu's instruction, or did he act on his own initiative?"
What a good move of besieging Wei to rescue Zhao.
Xu Qinghuan looked down at Zhang Tiezhu kneeling on the ground.
"Zhang Tiezhu."
Xu Qinghuan ignored He Minghu and continued speaking to this man on the ground who had also lost an arm.
"Do you want to take the blame for General He to the very end, and take your whole family to die."
"Or tell the truth in front of all the soldiers of North Pacification City?"
Zhang Tiezhu's crying stopped.
Thousands of people inside and outside the North Gate didn't dare to breathe loudly.
Ma Jin'an's face finally couldn't hold up anymore, and he took a step forward.
"Lord Xu..."
"Shut up."
Li Sheng took a step sideways, hand on his sword hilt, blocking Ma Jin'an neither lightly nor heavily.
Blocked by a guard, Ma Jin'an's face flushed red, but stared at by Li Sheng's emotionless eyes, he unexpectedly didn't dare to move again.
Zhang Tiezhu knelt in the mud, his left hand tightly clutching that handkerchief with a horse drawn on it, his knuckles turning white.
He remembered the sight of Zhao Si being stabbed to death by a poisoned needle on the boat, remembered the crisp sound of the Helian people's scimitars hacking into his brothers' necks, remembered the intense pain drilling out from the marrow of his bones when his right arm was severed.
And then he thought of the sentence He Minghu had just said in a lowered voice, "Tomorrow there will be two more floating corpses in the moat, one big and one small."
But his wife and son had already been taken away by the Imperial Envoy.
The three crooked words on the handkerchief, "Dad, come back quickly," stabbed deeper than the Helian people's blades.
Zhang Tiezhu clenched the handkerchief tightly, his forehead slamming heavily onto the ground.
"Lord Imperial Envoy!"
His voice suddenly tore open.
"This lowly one will speak! This lowly one will tell everything!"
He Minghu's expression changed drastically, and he shouted harshly.
"Zhang Tiezhu! Shut your mouth for this general!"
Zhang Tiezhu turned a deaf ear, his face covered in snot and tears mixed with blood and dirt, howling at the top of his lungs.
"Zhao Si didn't steal it! Zhao Si wouldn't dare steal it at all!"
"It was General He... Lord He who personally gave the order! He told Zhao Si to take eight carts of colored glaze treasures to Wild Fox Shoal to exchange for cattle, sheep, and grain with the Helian people!"
Inside and outside the North Gate exploded.
"The keys were given by Lord He! The handover location, time, and contact persons were all arranged by Censor Ma! Zhao Si was just an errand boy!"
Zhang Tiezhu knelt on the ground, turning his head and roaring at the spectating soldiers.
"Brothers! Zhao Si and the other twelve men all died at Wild Fox Shoal! The Helian people struck to kill right from the start. Zhao Si was stabbed to death on the boat by a poisoned needle or poisoned arrow!"
"If it weren't for Centurion Xu leading the brothers of the Vanguard Camp to fight their way out, I, Zhang Tiezhu, would have also had my head cut off by the Helian people and hung on a horse's back!"
"Lord He..." Zhang Tiezhu gasped desperately for breath. "He never planned on letting us return alive! Leaving survivors is just a liability. When the time comes, all he needs to say is, 'Zhao Si was blinded by greed and stole the goods,' and once he has us all killed, the credit for these supplies will be entirely his!"
