A flicker of surprise passed through Li Zan's eyes. Something occurred to him, and he looked up at Lu You: "General, do you remember how last year, the Great Chanyu of the Jiao Tribe planned to escort the Grand General to Liang City?"
Lu You nodded: "Of course I remember."
Li Zan mused: "If I recall correctly, two princesses were also sent to Liang City, and one of them was said to be the legitimate daughter of Empress Jile?"
Lu You furrowed his brow: "You suspect the master of the Jinyang Army was the legitimate princess from back then?"
"Impossible!" He shook his head in denial: "That legitimate princess was said to have been raised at Yinshan Temple since childhood—clearly an unfavored child. What cards could she possibly hold to make the Grand General follow her?"
He stroked his beard: "Besides, if Zhou Sui truly wanted to choose a master, he should have gone to Sizhou. The First Prince is the orthodox heir of Yan."
Zeng Tong's expression turned strange, his face a mix of shock and uncertainty.
Li Zan glanced at him sidelong: "Say what's on your mind."
Zeng Tong scratched his head: "Among the three thousand elites of the Jinyang Army, there are quite a few women. I heard the leader is a woman too."
The matter of borrowing horses was handled by Jin Feng, with Zeng Tong assisting.
The Jinyang Army arrived at the Xinge docks just before dawn, when he was resting. The Jinyang Army moved too fast—by the time he went to check, they and Jin Feng had already ridden off on horseback.
He'd only heard this from the dock sailors, and at the time he hadn't thought much of it, assuming the darkness had made the sailors see wrong. After all, who ever heard of a woman leading an army?
Lu You leaned forward slightly: "Could it really be the princess?"
He looked down at the note again—it said nothing about Jiang Jin's identity, not even whether they were male or female.
Logically, if the master or commander of the Jinyang Army were a woman, Jin Feng ought to have mentioned it.
What he didn't know was that Jin Feng had indeed been surprised at first when he learned the master of the Jinyang Army was a woman.
But after a few days of interaction, he realized that Jiang Jin was a born leader; her being the head of the Jinyang Army was simply natural.
And since it was natural, he naturally wouldn't bring it up.
To be fair, it just never crossed his blunt mind to mention it.
Li Zan's expression also turned serious. If it truly was the princess, it might not be good news for their Daqing Commandery.
After all, back then, they had defied military orders!
The fall of Dingyang City couldn't be entirely blamed on their failure to send reinforcements, but they would certainly bear responsibility—that was the highest military order issued by the sovereign and the War Department!
As subjects leading the state's soldiers, even knowing they couldn't save the city, they should have fought to the death.
The result was that Daqing Commandery never sent aid, Dingyang fell, the emperor and empress perished, and the Crown Prince, most of the Dingyang nobility, and the common citizens all died in tragic slaughter.
If His Majesty were still alive and investigated, executing their entire clans nine times over would be lenient.
And the princess—surely she would also hold them accountable for not rescuing Dingyang back then?
A thought struck Li Zan, and he asked: "Does the princess have an official title?"
Not every princess had one, though legitimate daughters usually did.
Lu You bowed his head in thought, then shook it after a long moment: "A legitimate princess should have one, but I only know the title of the Grand Princess. I have no impression of the others."
He summoned a steward and had him ask the lady of the house in the inner quarters.
An answer came quickly: Empress Jile's daughter was Emperor Yan's sixth daughter, titled Princess Jinyang.
Zeng Tong hissed again: "Jinyang Army—so it really is Princess Jinyang's?"
Li Zan shook his head: "Not necessarily. Perhaps her name is being borrowed?"
He looked at Lu You: "General, when the Jinyang Army returns, how about we meet them in person? Then we'll know."
Lu You's mind seemed somewhat scattered, and after a long pause he nodded: "Very well."
Li Zan could read his thoughts from his expression: "General, are you worried the princess will demand accountability for our failure to rescue Dingyang?"
Lu You shook his head: "Partly yes, partly no. If Princess Jinyang truly has the ability to rally an army, then she must intend to reclaim the lost territories of Yan. That would mean we..."
Li Zan reassured him: "Since the Jinyang Army chose to cooperate with us and provided us with so many high-yield crop seeds, that shows she doesn't hold a grudge over the past."
"As for reclaiming lost territory, that's no easy matter. It's too early to talk about that now—better to focus on getting through the current crisis."
He added with a sigh: "If Princess Jinyang truly has the ability to drive all the barbarian tribes out of Yan, wouldn't that be a good thing?"
That said, unease stirred within him. The Jinyang Army had traveled a great distance to seize Lin County, which showed she wanted far more than the barren lands north of Fengzhou.
What she wanted was the whole of Fengzhou—perhaps even the entire kingdom of Yan?
Zeng Tong frowned deeply: "Then, then at that point, her and the First Prince...?"
Li Zan smiled faintly: "It's too early to discuss that now. No need for excessive worry."
Something occurred to Zeng Tong, and he asked curiously: "The Jinyang Army has such formidable crossbows and forging techniques—could those have been left to her by His Majesty?"
Li Zan looked at him as if he were a fool: "If His Majesty had possessed such divine weapons, how could Dingyang have been breached? And as members of the War Department, how could we have heard not a single word of it?"
Lu You nodded gravely: "Correct, it couldn't have come from His Majesty."
That was also what puzzled him—how could a young woman like Princess Jinyang have come to possess such divine weapons?
And how had she managed to build such a powerful Jinyang Army?
Even to the point of making Zhou Sui submit to her?
"Could it be the senior monks of Yinshan Temple?" Zeng Tong proposed a possibility.
The others fell silent, because none of them knew.
"Could it be the Ji family?" Li Zan hesitated.
Lu You's pupils contracted. After a long pause, he shook his head: "Unlikely."
On a hillside near Lin County, two Qu recon scouts stared at the "pyramid of skulls" piled before Lin County's south gate, their eyes reddening with fury.
"Unforgivable—how dare they treat our soldiers' remains like this!" the scout with the gray-black leather cap cursed fiercely.
The other scout wore a similar cap, though gray-white, and shook his head: "Not eating them is already a mercy, to be honest. Speaking of which, though—when did their grain shipments arrive near here?"
After the Battle of Lin County, Qu Shilang had sent them to patrol the area and gather intelligence. Naturally, they had seen Jiang Jin lead a group of people hauling large amounts of supplies back into the city that day.
The gray-black cap stamped his foot—it was so cold his feet had gone numb and ached from the frost: "Who knows. I keep feeling there's something uncanny about the Jinyang Army."
The gray-white cap stamped along with him: "Freezing to death. In past years around this time, we'd be preparing for winter. When were we ever sent out on duty like this?"
The gray-black cap sighed: "Tell me about it. What can we do? Lin County was practically ours, and then the Jinyang Army had to show up."
"We lost so many men—should be around twenty thousand. Sigh, I miss the steppes."
The gray-white cap: "We should count ourselves lucky. Didn't you hear the Han guarding the city lost fifty or sixty thousand? The Han are so weak—they lost more people defending than we did attacking."
"It's not very nice to talk about people behind their backs, is it?"
The gray-white cap snorted coldly: "What's not nice about it? You..."
"Wait, why does your voice sound different?" The gray-white cap turned to look at the gray-black cap.
He saw the gray-black cap staring back at him in bewilderment: "I... I didn't just say anything!"
Both of them broke out in a cold sweat in an instant, yanking out the blades at their waists as they spun around, scanning their surroundings.
