The sun was high in the sky.
Old He, the steward of the Deputy General's residence, stood outside the study holding a brass water basin, his legs cramping from standing so long.
"Master, it's time to rise and wash."
His call was met with silence from within the room.
Old He gulped, mustered his courage, and pushed the door open.
Creak—
The door was unlatched.
Old He poked his head inside, and his wrist jerked violently.
Clang! The brass basin hit the blue bricks, warm water splashing across his shoes.
The room looked like it had been ransacked.
The bedding on the canopy bed was neatly folded, clearly untouched all night.
A redwood round table lay overturned, with a few gnawed chicken bones rolling by the threshold.
A thick layer of ash filled the brazier, and as a draft swept through, black soot flew straight into one's nostrils.
Old He scrambled into the room.
Glancing at the corner, he saw the blue bricks had been pried up, revealing a dark cavity.
Old He knew instantly—that was where He Minghu hid his gold bars.
Ordinarily, he wouldn't even dare glance at it while cleaning, but now it was empty, with only a few scattered pieces of silver lying about.
"Something's gone terribly wrong!" Old He slapped his thigh and let out a shrill cry.
The front courtyard erupted into chaos. Gatekeepers, grooms, and the night watch guards were all called into the yard, lined up in a row.
"Speak! Who was on duty last night? When did the master and Lord Ma leave?" Old He hopped about in fury, pointing at the gatekeeper's nose.
The gatekeeper cowered. "Steward He, I swear I saw nothing! I kept watch at the front gate all night—not even a fly got past!"
The night watch captain chimed in, pleading his case: "The back gate was locked too. My men patrolled every half hour, and we never saw either gentleman."
Old He slapped the captain on the back of his head. "Two grown men, did they just vanish into thin air? The Northern Frontier map is gone from the wall! That's something that could cost us our heads!"
The groom, hiding behind the crowd, scratched his scalp and mumbled, "Last night..."
Old He grabbed the groom by the collar. "Out with it!"
The groom stammered, "Last night, halfway through the night, I got up to use the outhouse and heard a commotion in the back alley. I peered over the wall and saw that old dung collector hired by the Camp Fields Office, pushing a cart full of dry manure. The stench was unbearable."
Old He froze.
A manure cart?
"You blind fool! What does a manure cart have to do with anything?"
But they had turned the whole residence upside down and found not a single soul.
"What are you standing around for? Saddle a horse! Report to the General's office!" Old He kicked the groom in the shin.
Though he was a trusted servant of the Deputy General's residence, with his master having emptied the house and fled, how could a servant bear the weight of such a heaven-shaking crime?
At the General's residence, by the training ground.
Tie Lanshan, bare-chested, held a bowl of coarse porcelain cold tea, reviewing a ledger of warhorse injuries presented by the raiding battalion.
"Marshal! Something terrible has happened!"
A messenger from the Deputy General's residence came crawling in, falling to his knees in the sand.
"General He and Censor Ma... are gone!"
Tie Lanshan didn't look up. He took a sip of tea. "Gone? Probably holed up in some whorehouse. That Tiger He has no higher ambitions."
The messenger kowtowed frantically. "Marshal! We've searched the entire city! The study in the Deputy General's residence has been torn apart, even the hidden bricks in the walls pried loose. They've vanished without a trace!"
Crack.
The coarse porcelain tea bowl in Tie Lanshan's hand shattered, tea mixed with shards cutting into his palm, yet he seemed to feel nothing.
He shot to his feet, his tall, burly frame casting a shadow. His voice turned ice-cold. "Say that again."
The messenger trembled, his teeth chattering. "It's... it's true. The steward at He's residence says they took everything—valuables, money, even the city defense map from the wall."
Tie Lanshan shook the broken porcelain from his hand, his face ashen.
"Saddle a horse! We're going to the Imperial Envoy's headquarters!"
Tie Lanshan swung onto his horse, yanked the reins, and the warhorse whinnied as it charged out of the General's residence.
His mind raced, replaying the scene from the study at the Imperial Envoy's headquarters the night before.
Last night, Magistrate Xu had placed the forged military intelligence note that Lao Gou had sent out on the chessboard, tapping her fingers lightly on the table.
"Marshal Tie, don't touch the Wu Family Teahouse, and don't arrest Lao Gou," she had said, calm and in control.
Tie Lanshan had frowned. "Let these traitors stay to celebrate the New Year? I'll go cut them down right now!"
But Magistrate Xu had stopped him. "The fish will bite the hook. Marshal, just do one thing: withdraw the patrols at the back alley of the Deputy General's residence from midnight to the second watch."
Back then, Tie Lanshan had been full of doubt but had complied.
Now, thinking back, he broke out in a cold sweat.
This wasn't fish biting the hook—this was the fish swallowing the bait and snapping the fishing rod before escaping!
What terrified him more was that He Minghu and Ma Jin'an had fled with the city defense map!
That was the lifeline of Zhenbei Pass! It marked every weak point, every hidden passage.
If that map fell into Chen Changfeng's hands, the Helian cavalry could ride straight through!
"Magistrate Xu, you've stirred up a hornet's nest this time!" Tie Lanshan gritted his teeth, snapping his whip with relentless cracks.
At the Imperial Envoy's headquarters.
Tie Lanshan stormed into the study, still radiating agitation.
"Magistrate Xu!"
Inside, Xu Qinghuan stood by the window, holding a small brass pruning shear, carefully trimming a potted pine bonsai.
Li Sheng stood by the door, frowning faintly at Tie Lanshan's frantic entrance, but he didn't stop him.
Xu Qinghuan didn't move, focusing on the bonsai. Snip! She cut off a dead branch.
"Marshal Tie, your temper's flaring. Have some cold tea to cool down."
Tie Lanshan strode to the desk, leaning forward with his towering figure casting a shadow.
"Forget the tea! He Minghu and Ma Jin'an have fled!"
Tie Lanshan stared at her back, his eyes wide.
They took the Zhenbei Pass city defense map out of the pass! You had me withdraw the patrols in the back alley last night just to let those two bastards escape?"
Xu Qinghuan turned around, placing the shears on the table, her expression serene.
" Yes."
Tie Lanshan straightened up, slapping his thigh in frustration.
"Magistrate Xu, Magistrate Xu! You've lost your mind!" He pointed toward the door, spittle flying.
"That's the city defense map! The lifeline of Zhenbei Pass! If it falls into Chen Changfeng's hands, the Helian cavalry will pour through! You're playing with fire!"
Xu Qinghuan picked up the cold tea from the table and handed it to Tie Lanshan, her tone still unhurried. "Does the marshal think I, Xu Qinghuan, would hand over the real lifeline to the Helians?"
She walked to the desk, lifted the purple clay teapot, and slowly poured two cups of tea.
"Marshal, what do you make of Chen Changfeng?" she asked, offering one cup.
Tie Lanshan didn't take it, answering coldly, "Suspicious by nature, cunning as a wolf."
Magistrate Xu took a sip herself and set the cup down.
"Given his suspicious nature, if I sent a dead soldier to defect with a fake map, would he believe it?"
Tie Lanshan's brows were tightly knitted as he followed Xu Qinghuan's train of thought deeper.
Chen Changfeng had planted numerous secret agents in Zhenbeiguan and knew the city's situation like the back of his hand.
If they casually sent someone to deliver the map, Chen Changfeng would surely suspect it was a feigned surrender and might even have the messenger killed on the spot.
"He absolutely won't believe it," Tie Lanshan replied in a heavy voice.
Xu Qinghuan picked up the brass scissors again and walked over to the bonsai.
"So, a map delivered by a death soldier is something he wouldn't dare to use." Xu Qinghuan aimed the scissors at a horizontal, withered branch.
"But what if the ones delivering the map were He Minghu and Ma Jin'an?"
Tie Lanshan's eyes shot upward sharply.
"He Minghu has guarded the border for ten years, commanding a formidable army; Ma Jin'an, as a court official, is deep and calculating."
"These two men I've driven into a corner—fleeing through dog holes in the dead of night, hiding in manure carts, scrambling away in panic."
Xu Qinghuan's tone was calm, but the scissors in her hand tightened little by little.
"The military map they fought tooth and nail to bring out—would Chen Changfeng still doubt it?"
Tie Lanshan opened his mouth, but no sound came from his throat.
He Minghu and Ma Jin'an had truly defected.
That bone-deep fear and desperate will to survive were things no death soldier in the world could ever fake.
No matter how suspicious Chen Changfeng was, faced with these two cornered high-level officials from Zhenbeiguan, he would be utterly convinced.
Crack.
With a slight twist of her wrist, Xu Qinghuan snapped the withered branch, and it fell onto the table.
She turned her head and calmly met Tie Lanshan's gaze.
"In war, deception is the essence."
For a deadly ruse, you don't use expendable pawns—you use defecting generals. Only then can you make that steppe wolf swallow the poisoned bait whole.
After hearing Xu Qinghuan's discourse on the "deadly ruse," Tie Lanshan stood frozen in place, unable to come to his senses for a long time.
He stared at the broken branch on the table, his brows furrowed into a knot.
"Then you mean…" Tie Lanshan hesitated, "that city defense map they took—it was a fake?"
Xu Qinghuan lifted her teacup, skimmed the foam, and took a shallow sip.
"Not exactly. It's half real and half fake."
Clank!
Tie Lanshan's waist knife struck the table as he took a full step forward, his eyes wide with shock.
"Magistrate Xu! You gave them a real map?!"
"That map marks all the secret passages and weak points of Zhenbeiguan—those are our lifelines!"
Xu Qinghuan smiled faintly.
"Ah! Marshal, please calm down."
She looked up at Tie Lanshan.
"If you don't throw out bloodied meat, how can you lure out the hungriest wolf? This map is the bait we use to catch the big fish."
Tie Lanshan breathed heavily, his mind racing.
"Big fish…" he ground his teeth, "a big fish from the Helian Court?"
Xu Qinghuan gave a slight nod.
Tie Lanshan paced back and forth in the study.
After a moment, he stopped, his face full of worry: "Even if you're fishing for big fish, the price is too steep! What if that map really falls into the Helian people's hands? Won't Zhenbeiguan be left wide open? Then what do we have to defend with?"
Xu Qinghuan picked up the brass scissors again and gestured at the bonsai.
"Marshal, rest assured. The map won't be lost—have I ever missed the mark?" She moved her wrist and trimmed away another excess pine needle. "I've already sent my Second Brother to intercept it."
