Xu Qinghuan stepped over the high threshold and walked a few paces to the wide red sandalwood desk.
She threw two scrolls onto the desk.
Tie Lanshan, who had been looking down at the military provisions accounts sent by the Central Route Prefecture, was startled by the noise.
"This is a map of the royal court's supply routes drawn by a Helian slave named Amur, along with a confession just extracted from him."
Xu Qinghuan pulled over a grand armchair, sat down, and casually picked up the cold tea on the table, taking a big gulp.
Tie Lanshan put down the account book and unrolled the confession scroll, which was stained with bloody handprints.
After reading just two lines, his normally dark face instantly flushed purple.
The handwriting on the scroll was scribbled, but its contents made his blood pressure soar.
Nobles of Great Qian were smuggling refined iron armor in exchange for eight hundred top-grade warhorses from the Helian Right Luli Prince.
The handover location: White Wolf Valley, sixty miles north of Black Water Ditch.
Tie Lanshan suddenly stood up, tightly crushing the scroll in his hand.
"Kill their ancestors!" a furious roar exploded in the study.
Tie Lanshan panted heavily.
"The soldiers on the front lines are gnawing on tree bark, wearing rotten armor, and can't even get a sip of clean water!"
"Those parasites in the capital actually send Great Qian's refined iron to the Helians in exchange for horses!"
"That's heavy armor capable of stopping strong crossbows! Using Great Qian's iron to arm Helian cavalry, so they can come back and chop off the heads of my brothers!"
He shoved his saber back into its sheath and strode back to the desk.
He pulled open a blank memorial, grabbed a wolf-hair brush, and dipped it fiercely in thick ink.
"I will write an eight-hundred-mile urgent secret memorial right now! Along with this confession, I'll submit it directly to the Three Judicial Offices, straight to the Emperor!"
"I want to see exactly which powerful family dares to engage in this business that warrants the execution of nine generations!"
Before the brush tip touched the paper, a fair hand reached over and pressed down on the blank memorial.
Tie Lanshan glared furiously at Xu Qinghuan.
"Lord Xu, are you going to stop this too?"
Xu Qinghuan did not let go, coldly watching the Commander of the Northern Border, who was on the verge of a violent outburst.
"Commander, if you write this stroke, it will be satisfying, but have you thought about the consequences?"
"Lord Xu, this is treason! If you know and don't report it, when the charge comes down, both you and I will lose our heads!"
Xu Qinghuan met his gaze without backing down.
"Commander, the prerequisite for losing our heads is that someone can uncover the truth. Do you think any ordinary merchant could gather eight hundred sets of refined iron armor?"
She sneered, directly pulling away the blank memorial and tossing it to the corner of the desk.
"Commander, you've been at the border for too long; you think those civil officials in the capital are too clean."
She tapped her finger on the table twice.
"Eight hundred sets of refined iron armor aren't just a few kitchen knives forged in a blacksmith's shop. From mining, smelting, and forging, to loading and transporting them out of the pass, how many checkpoints do they have to pass through?"
"The Ministry of War, the Ministry of Works, the inspection offices along the way, the tax officials at the border markets—which link doesn't have their people?"
Xu Qinghuan stared into Tie Lanshan's eyes, speaking very quickly.
"The capital is in an uproar right now. The Minister of Revenue, Shang Qitai, is being forced by the Emperor to fill a deficit of several million taels in military provisions. Who is standing behind him?"
"I think you should know who this person is."
"He secretly raises death squads and scrambles for money everywhere. This batch of refined iron is their capital to exchange for warhorses and bolster their private armies."
Tie Lanshan's hand holding the brush paused, a flash of astonishment in his eyes. His greatest taboo in life was getting involved in this kind of succession struggle.
Moreover... moreover, it was that person!
It's better... better not to kill...
Xu Qinghuan continued to apply pressure.
"Once this secret memorial enters the capital, before the Three Judicial Offices even open a case, the smuggling route will be immediately cut off."
"The people involved will die suddenly overnight, and the account books will be burned clean."
"Before the memorial reaches the Emperor, the Ministry of War will issue a military order first, punishing you for lax discipline at the border."
"When the time comes, the Commander will be replaced, and the little bit of savings the Northern Pacification Army just scraped together will be entirely taken away."
Tie Lanshan slumped into his chair, speechless for a long time.
He knew Xu Qinghuan was telling the truth.
"So we just watch them give the refined iron to the Helians?" He slammed the brush heavily onto the table.
"Who said we're going to watch?" Xu Qinghuan stood up and walked over to the pile of scattered sand.
She picked up a broken stick and drew a line in the sand.
"Commander, we can't play by their rules. They are taking a hidden route, so on the surface, this batch of goods does not exist."
"Since it doesn't exist, whoever steals it, it belongs to them."
Tie Lanshan snapped his head around, staring fixedly at Xu Qinghuan.
"Robbing the robbers?"
"Yes, robbing the robbers. This time we'll just intercept it directly." Xu Qinghuan pressed the stick firmly into the sand to make a pit.
"The handover point is in White Wolf Valley, Helian territory."
"We pretend we know nothing and let Xu Zhan's Sabotage Battalion cross the border directly and swallow the goods."
"Eight hundred warhorses, bring them back to Northern Pacification City. Eight hundred sets of refined iron armor, strip them off and equip our elites. Broaden your perspective; this is called enemy armory sponsorship."
"While we're at it, capture a few alive, keeping the witnesses and evidence firmly in our own hands."
"By that time, whoever wants to manipulate the Northern Pacification Army will first have to weigh whether the blade in our hands is sharp enough."
Tie Lanshan listened to these words, his breathing growing heavy.
This method was too wild! The Northern Pacification Army had always only defended cities; they had never done this kind of cross-border highway robbery. But it sounded so damn satisfying!
He paced around the desk twice, his mind calculating rapidly.
"There definitely won't be a shortage of guards for the smuggling convoy, and the Helian Right Luli Prince will certainly send his main cavalry to meet them. Combined, the two sides will have at least a thousand men."
He stopped in front of Xu Qinghuan, his brow furrowed.
"Xu Zhan only has fifty men. Even with two horses each, they're going to their deaths."
He lowered his voice: "How about I secretly dispatch five hundred elites, dressed in civilian clothes, to go out of the pass as reinforcements?"
"No," Xu Qinghuan refused outright.
"There are too many eyes and ears in the Central Route Prefecture. The mobilization of five hundred cavalry cannot be concealed."
"The smuggling ring definitely has insiders in the army. The moment you move troops, the news will leak. Then you'll alert the enemy, and all your efforts will be in vain."
Tie Lanshan grew anxious: "No troop movement? Just relying on fifty men? A frontal assault won't even be enough to fill the gaps in their teeth!"
Xu Qinghuan walked back to the desk and slowly smoothed out the crumpled scroll.
"Has the Commander forgotten what Xu Zhan took with him before he left the pass?"
Tie Lanshan was stunned: "Fire thunder jars? Three fire thunder jars would blow up a convoy at most; can they deal with a thousand cavalry?"
Xu Qinghuan tapped the table.
"Three is naturally not enough."
"But what if I say Xu Zhan also brought other types of explosives?"
Tie Lanshan's eyelids twitched violently, and the tragic image of a herd of horses being blown to pieces in succession seemed to appear before his eyes.
Xu Qinghuan turned her head, looking at the glaring sunlight outside the door.
"Don't mention a thousand men; even if the Right Luli Prince personally leads his troops here, I want him and his horses all turned into rotting meat in White Wolf Valley."
Tie Lanshan didn't speak for a long time, looking deeply at the young imperial envoy before him.
Initially, he only thought of Xu Qinghuan as a noble lady from the capital who understood some ingenious tricks and acted decisively.
But at this moment, watching her confident demeanor as she mapped out the future for the soldiers of the Northern Frontier, the last trace of prejudice Tie Lanshan held against civil officials completely vanished into thin air.
This Lord Xu had no patience for the convoluted, hypocritical pleasantries of officialdom. What she cared about were tangible rations and weapons; what she fought for were the very lives of the men in the Northern Frontier!
She possessed strategy, courage, and above all, an iron will to protect her own people.
What was there to hesitate about when entrusting one's back to a person like her?
Tie Lanshan let out a laugh of genuine admiration, the stifled frustration in his chest finally dissipating.
He slammed his palm onto the table, his tone ringing with unreserved, absolute trust. "Alright! This commander will join you in this madness!"
"The Raid Camp will have first pick of the captured warhorses! As for the seized armor, I will personally help them put it on!"
Xu Qinghuan smiled as well and turned to leave.
"Commander, just have the victory wine ready. Leave the rest to Xu Zhan."
