Pei Liang had already felt suspicious upon seeing the layout of this place, and now, spotting the greasy stains along the edge of the table, she was almost certain of her suspicions. The red hair ribbon only further confirmed her speculations.
Pei Liang remained unfazed and began chatting casually with the woman. Though the woman appeared to be a simple, ignorant farm girl on the surface, Pei Liang noticed how pointed her questions were during their conversation.
With feigned curiosity, the woman asked where their group had come from. Upon learning they had passed through the neighboring county, she exclaimed in delight that she had once visited relatives there—the xx pancakes were absolutely delicious, but only available on market days ending in three, six, or nine. Had they tried them?
Then, with an awestruck gaze, she admired the armor and swords worn by Ying Siji and the others, addressing them in a tone so naive it bordered on ridiculous: "You must all be generals, right? Ordinary soldiers could never look this impressive."
"And those magnificent horses outside—even the conscription officers who came before weren’t half as grand, and they didn’t even have big horses like yours!"
"Oh, by the way, we could only scrape together about three hundred pounds of sweet potatoes. Will that be enough for you?"
Ying Siji and his companions were still young, after all, and came from privileged backgrounds. Though they had been hardened somewhat during this mission, their minds remained guileless—unlike someone like Shi Feiyu, who was naturally shrewd. They had no idea how many traps could be hidden in seemingly innocent words.
Irritated by the farm girl’s incessant chatter, they were about to dismiss her with a few careless replies when Pei Liang smoothly took over the conversation.
The village wasn’t small, and the houses were spread out, so it took the old man half an hour to return with a few others carrying the gathered supplies.
A few hundred pounds of sweet potatoes, some pickled vegetables, dried mushrooms, and a jar of lard.
The old man rubbed his hands nervously and smiled apologetically. "We don’t have much to offer, just this jar of lard—made before the New Year, but we never got around to using it. You soldiers must be exhausted from your journey. Take it to add some flavor to your meals."
Though meager, it was better than nothing. Ying Siji paid without hesitation, but the old man tried to refuse.
Annoyed, Ying Siji retorted, "What, do you think we’re bandits? I’d never take food out of your mouths."
The old man and the others thanked them profusely, praising them as benevolent generals who cherished the people.
As Ying Siji and his group mounted their horses to leave, they kept stern expressions, but the slight upward curve of their lips betrayed their smug satisfaction.
Pei Liang shook her head and teased, "Little fool."
Ying Siji protested, "Hey, no need for insults! It’s the truth. Under General Shi’s command, we’re all disciplined soldiers who care for the common folk."
Pei Liang merely smiled without responding. When they returned to camp, instead of preparing a meal, she announced, "The cooks are off tonight. Everyone, boil some water and make do with porridge."
The soldiers, who had been eagerly awaiting a fresh-cooked meal, were stunned—followed by a chorus of groans.
Ying Siji panicked. "Wait, wait! Don’t do this! Are you worried the sweet potatoes and pickles aren’t enough to work with? Come on, have faith in yourself! You’re the one who can turn bugs into gourmet dishes!"
Shi Feiyu, observing her reaction, understood the situation.
He immediately ordered the troops to eat quickly, rest briefly, and keep their armor on.
The men realized something was happening tonight and stopped fussing about food, swiftly refueling for the task ahead.
Ying Siji wasn’t foolish either, and quickly pieced together the cause and effect. He asked Pei Liang in disbelief, "That village is suspicious?"
"It shouldn’t be. I paid attention to every detail and didn’t notice any flaws."
Pei Liang replied, "Exactly. If it were obvious at a glance, how could they deceive so many travelers—even the local authorities?"
"You didn’t notice that the woman’s chatter seemed random, but its real purpose was to extract information about our travel pace, the condition of our weapons, armor, and horses, as well as our exact numbers."
"The last town was over a hundred li from here, and since it’s along the tribute route, it’s a necessary stop. Any military unit would’ve rested and resupplied there."
"The third was just the other day—market days are usually bustling in the morning but start winding down by noon. If we’d eaten that local delicacy she mentioned, they could’ve calculated our travel speed and gauged our current stamina."
Ying Siji was startled. "No wonder you told her we left the day before and missed the dish. You wanted her to think we were traveling leisurely, with plenty of energy, so they wouldn’t dare act rashly?"
Pei Liang nodded. "Better than nothing. They’ll definitely strike tonight. We’ve been marching hard all afternoon—any extra rest we can get counts."
"But how did you spot their slip-up?" Ying Siji pressed.
Just moments ago, he’d been proud of his heroic image in the villagers’ eyes. Now, he felt like hanging himself from the crooked tree behind Commander Shi with his own belt.
"The grease on the edge of the table, the faint lingering smell of food in the air," Pei Liang said. "A village that can barely afford coarse grains, with only a jar of lard as their sole source of meat—how could they have braised pork trotters for lunch?"
"Most telling was the red hair tie the woman used. Woven with golden threads—even noblewomen in the capital wouldn’t all be extravagant enough for that."
"I knew you wouldn’t be envious of some country girl’s hair, no matter how nice it was. But how could you be sure she’d be careless enough not to realize? From what you said, she may look simple, but she’s sharp as a tack."
Pei Liang chuckled and suddenly asked Ying Siji, "What color is your hair tie?"
"...Blue? No, wait—I think I washed that one the day before yesterday. Gray?"
Shi Feiyu nodded in understanding. "An unexpected move. Even Siji, who’d just been discussing hair ties, struggled to recall immediately."
"Unless someone is obsessively detail-oriented or has an eye for minutiae, most people would overlook such things."
The more routine a detail is, the easier it is to ignore—like breathing. Pei Liang remembered a game from her past life where people would suddenly ask others, "What color underwear are you wearing today?"
Unless someone had a compulsive habit or was wearing new lingerie for a date, most couldn’t answer right away.
Pei Liang had pretended to admire the woman’s hair and deliberately avoided giving her any keywords that might trigger her memory. Though the woman was cunning in her questioning, her eyes had darted around, and she’d faltered when faced with unexpected replies. It was clear her script had been taught to her—part of a deliberate training, not a sign of her own cleverness.
As a ruthless capitalist who’d managed countless employees, Pei Liang knew these tricks all too well.
Ying Siji and the others no longer had any objections. Seeing that General Shi showed not the slightest surprise, they realized he had already noticed the clues—perhaps even orchestrated what followed.
Sure enough, Shi Feiyu then asked Pei Liang, "Are they planning to use poison?"
Since Pei Liang hadn’t mentioned using the ingredients they brought back, given her expertise with food, there must be something amiss.
Pei Liang nodded. "The sweet potato and dried mushrooms should be fine, but the pickles have a strong flavor, easy to mask any tampering. Still, they’re just ordinary fare, not much better than military rations."
"If they want to ensure we eat it tonight, it’d have to be something irresistible—like meat."
That would be the jar of lard.
"Though before we left, I slipped something into the village well by the entrance. A little tit for tat."
Shi Feiyu chuckled. "But most households have water storage jars, and many were already cooking when you went to buy provisions. They likely won’t drink from the well anytime soon."
Pei Liang shrugged. "What does it matter if the elderly and children don’t drink it? As long as the bandits coming down from their hidden tunnels do, that’s enough."
Even Shi Feiyu couldn’t hide his astonishment. "You knew about that too?"
Ying Siji frowned. "Knew what?"
Pei Liang pointed at the barren mountains. "Last year’s locust plague left these slopes stripped bare. Without dense foliage for cover, and facing hundreds of elite soldiers, a direct fight would be suicide. So they had to prepare in advance—but their cleverness gave them away."
"The path up the mountain had a few too many loose rocks. In times like these, when every scrap of food is hard-won, who’d waste effort piling stones on a hillside?"
"But those were just ordinary rock piles. All slopes have them," Ying Siji argued.
"Other slopes don’t have piles rigged to collapse at the slightest push," Pei Liang said with a smirk. "General Shi noticed that too, didn’t he?"
Shi Feiyu nodded. "And the footprints. The soil was damp from recent rain, but the number of tracks going up and down didn’t match."
"They must have another route."
That made the nearby village suspicious. While some bandits terrorized the countryside, this one had all its able-bodied men join the outlaws, leaving only the elderly, women, and children to maintain appearances—far craftier than the average hideout.
Pei Liang continued, "Once I confirmed this village was a bandit stronghold, I knew they’d resort to an ambush."
"Those loose rocks wouldn’t stay in place long—a strong wind would send them tumbling. They must’ve prepared in advance, knowing we’d pass through soon."
"But cunning as they are, they’d avoid a direct fight with elite troops unless desperate. Poisoning us through the village was their best bet."
Shi Feiyu asked, "Yet they couldn’t have expected we’d buy provisions ourselves. What do you think their original plan was?"
"Venomous insects," Pei Liang said. "The river here is wide and fast—contaminating it upstream wouldn’t work. The key to an ambush is crippling the enemy’s strength at minimal cost."
"This region breeds poisonous scorpions, even supplying major apothecaries in the capital. If they released a swarm of starved ones at night, with nothing but our five hundred men as prey in this wasteland, chaos would break us even without precise strikes."
Shi Feiyu was quite pleased with Pei Liang's quick wit, while Qiu Sanxiang and Ying Siji were left utterly bewildered.
Why was it that, despite being human just like them, these two could deduce so much from a pile of stones and a few footprints?
The group quickly finished their meal and took a short rest to regain their energy. Once night fell, they lit a bonfire and left a hundred men behind, creating a lively commotion to deter any scouts from the bandit hideout from approaching.
Meanwhile, the main force had already moved out under cover of darkness, taking a detour from another direction to infiltrate the village.
An operation of this scale meant the villagers couldn’t possibly stay asleep in their homes. Instead, they had gathered in the ancestral hall, waiting to assist the bandits.
Only two lookouts were left at the village entrance to monitor the movements of the troops.
Shi Feiyu and Qiu Sanxiang simultaneously loosed their arrows, killing the sentries in a single strike before they could even utter a sound.
They then surrounded the ancestral hall and subdued everyone inside in less time than it took for an incense stick to burn.
After forcing the captives to reveal the location and direction of the hidden tunnel, a few men were dispatched to search for any stragglers who might have fled toward Gaomi.
When the bandits emerged from the tunnel, they were caught red-handed. Some tried to retreat, only to find their escape route already sealed off. Thick smoke billowed into the passage, forcing everyone out before long.
True to expectations, the bandits had brought several sacks of venomous insects down the mountain—a clear backup plan.
Once the bandits were under control, a signal was sent for the remaining hundred men to join them. They then advanced unhindered through the tunnel, storming the bandit stronghold.
With most of the bandits mobilized for the planned ambush on the troops, the few left behind were no match. The notoriously cunning hideout was swiftly wiped out, and among the spoils, Shi Feiyu finally laid eyes on the stolen imperial tribute.
