Tang Tishou frowned, quickly grasping what he meant. A chill ran through his heart. “You mean she might take us down before the Grand General captures Ze’a Commandery?”
Zhu Dian gave a derisive snort. “How is that possible? Impossible! The Jinyang Army has just finished fighting at Dancheng. Their soldiers need rest, don’t they?”
Rong Liang did not look at him. Instead, he said to Tang Tishou, “Once the Grand General takes Ze’a Commandery, the Jinyang Army will be his next target. We know that, and the Jinyang Army knows it too.”
“So if she does not seize all of Donghu Commandery as quickly as possible, she will be the one at a disadvantage next.”
The hand holding Tang Tishou’s cup went faintly white. A grim, vicious glint flashed through his eyes. “Do any of you have a plan?”
Rong Liang considered for a moment. “We could set up bonfires outside the city. If the Jinyang Army launches a night raid, we’ll be able to see them.”
Zhu Dian snorted coldly. “And what good will that do? With the range of their repeating crossbows, even if we see them, we still won’t be able to hit them!”
Rong Liang smiled faintly. “If the Jinyang Army wants to storm the city, they will have to come close. As long as we can see them, we will have a chance of hitting them.”
Before Jiang Jin reached Heichun County, a scout hurried over to report.
“My lord, the Quzhao Army has hung civilians from the city walls and lit dozens of large fires outside the city.”
Jiang Jin frowned. “It seems Quzhao knows we plan to raid them tonight.”
Zhou Sui’s expression darkened. “Then the night raid has lost its purpose.”
Jiang Jin thought for a moment. “Not entirely. A night raid still works in our favor.”
Zhou Sui’s eyes lit up. He immediately understood her intention. “You intend to put out the fires?”
Jiang Jin nodded. “Tonight, the fires they lit will serve as their funeral pyres!”
Chong Province, Punan Commandery.
Ye Shang brought his blade down. Blood sprayed across his face, but he paid it no mind. Wind stirred behind him. He bent slightly at the waist and drove his blade backward in a reverse thrust.
Thud.
Blood splashed across the ground.
Just then, two Ji tribesmen charged at him. There was no time to draw his blade again, yet he did not panic, for his archers were stationed around the perimeter.
Thud, thud.
Arrows flew. The two Ji soldiers who had rushed at him were struck, crying out as they fell...
Half a quarter-hour later, more than a hundred Ji soldiers lay dead on the ground.
Ye Shang flicked the blood from his blade. This was no one knew how many patrols of Ji soldiers they had encountered since entering Chong Province.
“Clear the battlefield. Leave as soon as possible,” he ordered loudly.
Everyone moved quickly, taking everything worth carrying. Before long, Ye Shang and the others had disappeared into the dense forest, leaving only corpses behind.
The thick woods and trackless mountain terrain were difficult to traverse, yet Ye Shang and his men moved as if taking a leisurely stroll. Clearly, they had long grown accustomed to such surroundings.
Ji Xin grinned. “I think this guerrilla warfare of yours is great. Heh, as long as I get to kill barbarians, I’m happy.”
Wen Ping said helplessly, “This is barely anything. If we keep killing them like this, when will we ever finish them all?”
There were around two hundred thousand Ji troops in Chong Province. Though they had been there for quite some time, they had killed only a few hundred.
Their present goal was not to kill, but to establish contact points throughout the region. In some cities, they would place people whenever they could.
The Ji soldiers they had killed were merely patrols they had encountered by chance outside the cities. They had been forced to act.
After all, killing at this stage was not a sensible choice. It could easily expose them.
Fortunately, Chong Province was home to many bandits. The occasional death among Ji soldiers was nothing unusual, and no one would focus suspicion on them.
Recently, however, such deaths had become a little too frequent.
As they talked, they arrived at the Punan Commandery contact point.
When Li Qian saw them return covered in blood, he asked, “Ran into Ji soldiers again?”
Ye Shang and the others tossed their spoils onto the ground. “Yes. There were quite a lot of them this time—more than a hundred. They cost us some time.”
The group quickly headed to a mountain spring behind the settlement, where they washed up and cleaned away the blood.
The weather had begun to turn warm. Blood dried quickly on their bodies, making it difficult to wash off.
Still, that had its advantages. Once the blood had dried, they would not leave traces along the road on their way back. As long as they took care to conceal their movements, no one could easily discover the route they had traveled.
This contact point had only just been established. Its crude stone-and-mud houses were not yet complete, but Chinese cabbage and white radishes had already been planted beside the spring.
Water ran down Ye Shang’s muscular, scar-covered chest. He shook the droplets from his hair and accepted a piece of cotton cloth from a companion to dry himself.
Ji Xin wiped his face. “Everything that can be arranged in Chong Province has been arranged. Are we preparing to enter Wenxia City now?”
Ye Shang nodded. “Yes. This is the city where the Ji tribes’ Grand Chanyu is stationed. If possible, we should get as many people inside as we can.”
That was also why he had made Punan Commandery the final place to establish a contact point. In the future, this would undoubtedly become the hardest region to capture.
Ji Xin raised a brow. “Are we all going in?”
Xin Bai frowned. “We can hardly enter as refugees. What should we do?”
Their physiques made it obvious that they were not refugees.
Even Ji Xin and Li Qian, after several months of recuperation and disciplined training, had become strong and well-built.
Ye Shang thought for a moment. “Perhaps we can enter as bandits.”
Wen Ping blinked, instantly understanding. “You mean to make use of the recent large-scale killings of Ji soldiers?”
Ye Shang smiled. “Exactly. Ji soldiers have been killed in large numbers, and in different regions. There must be a formidable band of wandering bandits or violent outlaws behind it.”
“We are merely an unremarkable band of mountain bandits, beaten so badly by such roaming outlaws that we could not fight back. That would be perfectly plausible.”
Everyone laughed.
Wen Ping was somewhat worried. “I’m afraid the Ji soldiers will not believe us so easily.”
“Then we’ll use a little self-inflicted suffering.” Ye Shang waved a hand dismissively.
“I wonder what Wenxia City is like now,” he added with a sigh.
They had also been unable to learn anything about Chu Qing, the person Qiu Liao had mentioned.
They only knew that the Ji soldiers had indeed captured a group of people alive and escorted them all to Wenxia.
After that, no one had seen those captives emerge again. They were most likely dead.
As for whether Chu Qing had been among those captured, there was no way to know.
Yet Wenxia City, of which they spoke, was at that very moment steeped in debauchery.
Within a vast hall, shadows moved about, and strange sounds rose from time to time.
Ji Duoyan, the Grand Chanyu of the Ji tribes, lounged crookedly in the seat of honor, watching the “performance” below without much change in expression.
Two women nestled at his sides, occasionally offering him wine and food, allowing him to do as he pleased with them.
Just then, a man hurried in. Unmoved by the depraved scene before him, he strode swiftly to the Grand Chanyu.
“Grand Chanyu, another hundred of our soldiers have been found dead.”
He was one of Ji Duoyan’s advisers, Ji Huairen.
Ji Duoyan paused, his hand tightening around his cup as he looked at him. “Do we know who did it?”
Ji Huairen shook his head. “We cannot tell. They were all killed by ordinary blades and arrows, but as before, the work was clean. Nearly all died from a single strike. It is likely the same group.”
That was also why Ye Shang and his men had not used their repeating crossbows. They were too distinctive.
Although they had brought the Longming Crossbows, they had never used them. Instead, they relied only on ordinary blades and bows.
Ji Duoyan frowned, pushed away the woman before him, and rose to head for the council hall.
