Was this a trap?
Xu Qinghuan picked up her mung bean soup, took a couple of sips, and called out to Li Sheng in the courtyard outside, "Li Sheng! Go fetch a few of the blank official documents we brought. I need to write a memorial to the throne."
"Writing a memorial at this hour?" Li Sheng was somewhat surprised. "Miss, you've been busy all day. It wouldn't hurt to take a rest..."
"It cannot wait." Xu Qinghuan's tone was light, but left no room for negotiation. "Father's letter mentioned the autumn examinations. There are a few crucial details that must be sorted out in advance. Letters to the capital travel via courier stations, taking at least twenty days round trip. If I delay for a few more days, I'm afraid we won't make it in time."
Li Sheng asked no more questions and turned to fetch the documents.
Just as Xu Qinghuan was about to lay out the paper and grind the ink, a muffled sound of galloping hooves suddenly came from outside the courtyard, drawing closer from a distance.
Immediately following that, the sound of wooden clappers rang out from the direction of the city walls. It was the night alarm, its rhythm fast and dense, one beat following right after another, shattering the originally peaceful night into pieces.
"My Lady!" Li Sheng's voice drifted in from outside, accompanied by the sound of footsteps rushing into the courtyard. "The city wall has sounded the alarm!"
Xu Qinghuan set down her brush and stood up, walking out under the eaves. On the horizon to the north of the city, she could faintly see a mass of dark red light rolling upwards. That was not the color of sunrise; it was fire.
Xu Zhan's figure appeared at the courtyard gate almost simultaneously with the firelight. He had not yet removed his armor, and the cross-blade at his waist still bore the dust and dirt left from the daytime drills at the training grounds.
"A fire has broken out to the north, but it's not inside the city," Xu Zhan said, his voice deep. "While I was patrolling the camp, I heard horses neighing. More than one—at least several dozen riders, circling the city's perimeter."
"Let's go. Up to the city tower." Xu Qinghuan did not hesitate. She turned back into the room, grabbed her outer cloak, draped it over her shoulders, and followed closely behind Xu Zhan, walking briskly toward the north gate.
...
By the time they hurried to the north city tower, Tie Lanshan had already arrived.
On the pastures three or four miles north of the city, the flames had already merged into a single blazing expanse. That pasture was one of the few grazing lands around Zhenbei City. Since the beginning of summer, the vegetation had been dry, and the fire spread incredibly fast with the help of the night wind. Orange-red tongues of flame rolled northeastward along the terrain, while thick smoke, carried by the intense heat, shot straight up, dyeing half the sky a dark crimson.
"When did it start?" Tie Lanshan asked without turning his head, his voice kept very low.
The city defense captain, Zhang Hu, knelt on one knee to the side, his forehead covered in sweat. "Reporting to the Commander, about half an hour ago, the hidden sentries to the north suddenly lost contact. I sent men to reinforce them, but before they could even reach the area, the fire broke out."
"What about the men at the sentry post?"
Zhang Hu gritted his teeth. "They haven't returned."
Tie Lanshan was just about to say something when he saw Xu Qinghuan and Xu Zhan ascending the city tower via the horse ramp.
"Lady Xu is here." Tie Lanshan took two steps forward to greet her. Without any pleasantries, he went straight to business. "The Hélians have made their move. The northern pasture has been burned, and we've lost an outer sentry post. Their numbers are unknown, but the enemy moves extremely fast."
Xu Qinghuan walked to the battlements and looked out.
The firelight illuminated the terrain outside the city. In the distance, a few dark silhouettes could be seen moving rapidly along the edges of the flames, but it was too far to make out their exact numbers.
Further away, occasional metallic glints flashed through the darkness—the reflection of the firelight against cavalry armor.
"Have you sent men out of the city to pursue them?" Xu Qinghuan asked.
"No." Tie Lanshan answered flatly. "It is dark and the terrain is unfamiliar. We don't even know how many men the enemy brought. Leaving the city now and falling into an ambush would just be throwing lives away."
Xu Qinghuan nodded and said no more.
Rushed footsteps echoed from below the city tower as the various battalions urgently assembled after receiving the alarm.
The light of their torches formed a long dragon at the base of the city walls. Squads of soldiers surged toward the battlements. Some were still tying their helmet straps as they ran, while others' spears nearly jabbed into the backs of their comrades ahead of them. Amidst the urgency, there was a sense of hurried chaos.
Tie Lanshan glanced at the troop movements below and frowned. He spoke in a deep voice to Zhang Hu beside him, "Go pass down my orders. Only the designated guard forces from each battalion are to ascend the wall. The rest are to return to their camps and stand by. They are not allowed to cluster together at the base of the wall."
Zhang Hu acknowledged the order and jogged off to relay it.
Xu Zhan walked to the battlements, stared into the darkness outside the city for a long time, and then turned back.
"There aren't many of them," Xu Zhan's assessment was straightforward. "Judging by the scattered sound of the hooves, there are no more than two hundred riders, divided into several groups circling outside. However, they aren't here to siege the city. They didn't even bring siege ladders."
As soon as he finished speaking, a sharp horn blast suddenly sounded from the distance outside the city. Accompanying the horn was the dense thundering of hooves and the distinct whistling of the barbarian tribes.
It was the battle cry the Helian cavalry used to boost morale during a charge. It sounded terrifying, but listening closely to the direction, they were merely making a wide circle far outside the city, without actually approaching the walls.
The soldiers who had just taken their positions on the wall turned pale with fear at the sound of the horn. A few of the new recruits had trembling hands.
A veteran soldier cursed, shoving a new recruit beside him, and scolded in a low voice, "What are you panicking for? If they were really coming to attack the city, would they need to blow horns out there? They're just trying to scare us!"
Tie Lanshan's expression was exceedingly grim.
Having guarded the northern borders for over a decade, he knew all too well how formidable this tactic was.
They would come tonight, come again tomorrow night, and the night after that. They wouldn't attack a single time, but every single time they would alarm the entire city, forcing the defenders into full-scale readiness.
Tie Lanshan turned his head to look at Xu Qinghuan. He didn't speak, but the meaning in his eyes was crystal clear—
Imperial Envoy, what do you think we should do about this?
Xu Qinghuan was in no rush to answer. She had been observing the movements outside the city the entire time. From the start of the fire to the sounding of the horns, from the cavalry circling the city to their swift withdrawal—the entire process was clean and efficient, without a single wasted movement.
This did not look like the tactics of prairie barbarians relying on sheer bloodlust to pillage. She feared it had been meticulously orchestrated by someone behind the scenes.
Burning the pastures was to cut off Zhenbei City's source of fodder. Now that summer had arrived, the horses and livestock would consume massive amounts of forage.
Killing the sentries was to create a blind spot outside the city, making the defenders too afraid to easily send men out to scout.
As for the horns and whistling, that was pure psychological warfare, using noise to crush the defenders' sleep and willpower.
A three-pronged approach, each step perfectly linked to the next.
"Commander," Xu Qinghuan finally spoke. "The fire tonight is not the first time, nor will it be the last."
Tie Lanshan's face darkened further. "Your Excellency means..."
"Not attacking the city, not engaging in combat, only harassing the perimeter... This method does not seem like the Helian people's style."
Tie Lanshan was startled.
Xu Zhan interjected from the side, "Could it be a Han Chinese?"
