Su Danchen's eyes lit up slightly: "Did your granddaughter say something about this?"
Yan Xuanzhi hesitated for a moment before nodding: "You only need to know that Princess Jinyang is a very disciplined person."
Yan Ke had become Jiang Jin's de facto diplomat, and her understanding of current affairs was deeper than ever.
In particular, the policies Daqing implemented to handle minor noble clans allowed her to grasp Jiang Jin's governing philosophy to a certain extent.
She did not state this clearly in her letters, but more or less leaked out bits and pieces of information between the lines.
Su Danchen's mind settled: "That's excellent. Right now, the shipping route from Sizhou to Fengzhou is very convenient, we only need to wait for the rain to stop."
Yan Xuanzhi stroked his beard: "Why not travel together when the time comes?"
Su Danchen was overjoyed: "Great, hahaha."
As if remembering something, he added: "The Mo family should have received the letter too, right?"
Yan Xuanzhi nodded: "Unfortunately, Mo Qi is currently tied up with his official duties, I'm afraid he can't get away."
Su Danchen shook his head with a smile: "He can't leave, but his daughter-in-law is a straightforward person. Some other day, we can have the female members of our families pay a visit to the Mo family."
In a dense forest near the border of Shangjing Prefecture, in Fenglin County under Shouci Prefecture, hundreds of people were running for their lives at full tilt.
The morning dew had not yet evaporated, and it swirled in the air as their figures brushed past the foliage.
"Ah." A scream rang out, and a seven or eight-year-old child tumbled to the ground.
The woman running at the front panicked and immediately turned back to help him up: "Axin, get up quickly, we have to go."
The child's face was streaked with terror, his feet ached so badly they had gone numb, but he dared not cry: "I, I can't walk anymore, Mother, Mother I can't walk."
One companion after another darted past her, yet no one stopped to offer a hand.
Sweat beaded all over her forehead in her urgency, and she pulled with all her might to get the child on his feet.
"You have to keep moving even if you can't, or we'll all die. Hurry up, once we cross this mountain range, we'll reach Shangjing Prefecture."
But she was already slight of build, with a three or four-year-old little girl tied to her back, and she simply did not have the strength to drag the older child along.
Just then, a middle-aged man turned around and spotted them, barking a quick order: "Dalang, go carry Axin on your back."
He was none other than Xu Gui, the village chief of Hehua Village in Fenglin County, and Dalang was his eldest son.
At this critical moment of fleeing for their lives, Xu Dalang did not agree to stop to help, but time was pressing, so he did not argue. He turned back, hoisted Axin up, and threw the child over his back.
"Keep up!" he shouted at the woman, then spun around and sprinted forward.
The woman was overwhelmed with gratitude, too rushed to even say thank you, and got to her feet to follow right behind him.
Shortly after the group left, some seventy or eighty elite Ji troops came rushing over. They glared at the various tracks left on the ground with brutal expressions and yelled: "Chase!"
These Han slaves dared to run away, they were simply asking for death.
They moved extremely fast, and in less than a quarter of an hour, they caught sight of the people trailing at the back of the fleeing crowd.
The leading man smirked cruelly, did not slow down at all, slung his bow off his back, and shouted at the top of his voice as he ran.
"Han slaves, run all you want, hahaha, I'll see where you can escape to. Today I'm going to kill every last one of you, and chop your bodies into jerky to feed my horses."
"Ah ah..." Another scream rang out, and an elderly woman running at the back was shot and collapsed to the ground.
"Don't stop, everyone, keep running, run!" the village chief roared at the top of his lungs.
It was not that he did not want to save her, but if they stopped, all of them would die!
There were hundreds of them, but they were all a mix of old people, weaklings, women and children, completely unarmed. There was no way they could stand up against these Ji soldiers.
None of the villagers stopped, all of them ran forward recklessly. Everyone knew that to stop meant death, and a death so cruel it was unspeakable.
Several more screams rang out, clearly indicating that several more villagers had been shot down.
The Ji soldiers burst into loud laughter, as if they had found endless pleasure in the hunt.
"You lowly slaves, our Ji people letting you live is already a gift from the heavens, how dare you try to run away? Ungrateful wretches, you all deserve to die!"
"Haha, you're right. How about we have a competition to see who can kill the most?"
"Sure, I'm game!"
As they bantered, more villagers fell to the ground.
The forest grew thicker and thicker, there was barely a path left, and the villagers' running speed gradually slowed down.
The Ji soldiers also slowed down, blocked by the trees, their shooting speed was not as fast as before.
But they were in no hurry. They trailed behind, shooting whenever they got a chance, turning the whole chase into a game of hunter and prey.
Hua Ruo led her men through the dense forest, surveying the terrain and the surrounding environment.
After three days of handover, all the Ji troops in Shangjing Prefecture had withdrawn.
This stretch of dense forest at the border between Shangjing Prefecture and Shouci Prefecture had to be thoroughly surveyed, and soldiers had to be posted to guard it.
Suddenly, she held up a hand, and the entire team came to an immediate halt.
It did not take long for everyone to hear chaotic noises coming from the distance, with faint screams mixed in.
Hua Ruo's expression turned sharp: "Let's go take a look."
She took the lead, dashing toward the source of the sound, her figure agile and her movements swift.
Mu Chunhua and the others behind her quickly followed suit.
Before long, they saw a group of Han people fleeing in utter panic, with strange laughter and insults coming from behind them.
A sharp glint flashed in Hua Ruo's eyes. Ji soldiers!
"Get ready for combat."
The Han people running at the front spotted them at that moment, their eyes lighting up with hope: "Help, help, we, we are common people from Fenglin County, save, save us..."
"Run this way, hurry!" Hua Ruo shouted, and at the same time made a hand gesture. The team immediately spread out in an orderly formation.
The dispersed formation was carefully arranged, not only to deal with the Ji soldiers chasing from behind, but also to be on guard against the Han civilians.
In this kind of dense forest, a sudden chase scene had unfolded. Even though the people being hunted were Han civilians, she had to take every precaution.
Especially at this critical moment of the handover between the two sides, no one could guarantee that this was not a carefully planned ruse.
The common people finally ran behind Hua Ruo's team, feeling as if they had narrowly escaped death. All of them panted heavily, too breathless to speak for a moment.
The Ji soldiers chasing behind also caught sight of Hua Ruo's group, their pupils shrinking: "You, you are the Jinyang Army?"
Hua Ruo nodded: "That's right. What do you mean by hunting down and killing our Han civilians?"
The leader of the Ji troops was a burly man. He sneered: "What Han civilians? These are all Han slaves from our Shouci Prefecture, they do not fall under the jurisdiction of your Jinyang Army."
Hua Ruo remembered Zhou Sui's previous instructions: when you encounter Ji soldiers at the border, you can take a tough stance. If it really comes down to it, there is nothing wrong with killing them.
The corners of her mouth curled into a cold smile: "This stretch of mountain forest was never marked as part of Shouci Prefecture. If I say this land belongs to Shangjing Prefecture, then these people are the people of Shangjing Prefecture."
The burly man was so angry he almost laughed: "What people of Shangjing Prefecture? They clearly ran over from our side."
Hua Ruo sneered: "So what if they did? Once they step onto our land, they are our people."
The burly man was choked speechless by her overbearing attitude for a moment, then he snapped coldly: "Do you really think our Ji troops are afraid of you? You're nothing but a bunch of cowards who only dare to launch sneak attacks."
Hua Ruo did not back down an inch: "Sneak attacks? So what? You lot don't even have the ability to pull off a sneak attack."
"You..." The burly man's face flushed bright red with rage, and it took him a long time to calm down: "I'm not going to argue with you. You have to return these Han people to us."
Hua Ruo shook her head: "You can ask for something else. For example, to be killed by us."
