Chapter 75: Special Methods; Xie Qianli Has Always Had a Pair of Dark and Clear Eyes…
Jia Ruzhen raised his hand and brought the sword down, the tip of the Yuchang Sword sinking entirely into the Taihu rock. He withdrew the blade; the last two inches of the tip were coated in blood.
Jia Ruzhen let out a cold sneer, his expression dark and sinister as he looked at the blade. It was a pity his weapon was a short sword rather than a long one, but there was certainly someone inside that Taihu rock!
The second strike lunged forward!
The previous strike had already caused a severe injury to Ying Dang. The sword had pierced through his back, potentially damaging his internal organs.
Prince Yong’s brow immediately knotted in pain. In that single instant, his ability to fight back was nearly snatched away, and the scent of blood permeated the entire stone cave.
But if he didn’t dodge, he would die!
The Taihu rock blocking the cave entrance flew outward with a thunderous crash.
Prince Yong emerged from the cave with Ying Xi in tow. Thick blood flowed down Prince Yong’s back, crimson droplets tracing their escape route.
He was injured, after all, and carrying a person. He moved through the piles of Taihu rocks with great difficulty, his pace visibly slowing.
Ying Xi moved his body through the jolting flight. Feeling gradually returned to his upper body. From the corner of his eye, he saw Jia Ruzhen raising his sword for a third strike!
“Set Zhen down!” The voice finally broke through Ying Xi’s throat.
Prince Yong gritted his teeth tightly.
He gathered his qi and kicked off the Taihu rocks, leaping from side to side until he actually managed to climb the rockery and reach the top of the courtyard wall.
The moment Prince Yong’s toes landed on the wall’s edge, his strength failed. He stumbled and fell over the high wall of the Prince Mansion.
The fall exacerbated the sword wound on his body.
Blood seeped from the gaps between Ying Dang’s teeth, splattering across the front of Ying Xi’s robes.
By now, Ying Dang was completely unable to speak. The excessive blood loss made his face deathly pale, and his limbs began to grow stiff and cold. He was decidedly in no condition to engage the rebels again.
Jia Ruzhen naturally wanted to gather his qi to pursue them, but he failed to clear the wall!
From across the courtyard wall, the sound of a body crashing down could be heard—a heavy thump against the earth.
Inside the courtyard, Jia Ruzhen’s disciples cried out in alarm: “Master, are you alright?” “Master…”
It wasn’t just Ying Dang who was injured. Jia Ruzhen had been forcing himself to endure, thinking he could resolve the brothers in two strikes at most. Unexpectedly, his internal injuries flared up. Just as he was about to leap onto the wall, his blood surged, and he vomited a large mouthful of blood.
He forcefully pushed away the disciple who was supporting him: “Jiang Guang, pursue them for me! Catch them and kill them! Kill! You must not leave a single survivor!”
Jiang Guang was a disciple Jia Ruzhen had taken in after coming to Guangling. He possessed excellent innate talent for martial arts but was filled with a certain dullness. He answered hoarsely: “Understood!” He immediately led over a dozen fellow disciples to scale the mansion wall.
Jia Ruzhen coughed up several more mouthfuls of blood in succession, dark shadows flickering before his eyes.
He barely managed to stand steady: “Strictly guard every city gate. Do not let even a single fly out. Pass the order to the garrison to search the entire city. Inform the commoners that spies have snuck in; any who harbor them shall have their entire family executed on the spot.”
A disciple asked: “Should we reveal their identities?”
Jia Ruzhen pondered for a moment.
“No need. In case there are opportunistic commoners who hide the two of them securely, they would only be waiting for the Imperial army to capture Guangling so they can claim the credit for protecting the sovereign.”
He had to exhaust every scheme to deal with Ying Xi.
Although he didn’t know why Ying Xi had snuck into Guangling Prefecture, it was a golden opportunity for him: the little Emperor’s constitution was exceptionally poor, and Prince Yong was severely injured. The brothers could not escape even if they were given wings; they wouldn’t get far.
What’s more, the southern army still held the advantage, and Guangling could still be defended…
As he calculated for a moment, hope surged within him.
Jia Ruzhen breathed a slight sigh of relief.
At that moment, a deafening explosion echoed through nearly all of Guangling.
The wild birds in the thickets of the Yongning Prince Mansion were startled into flight. In an instant, the sound of fluttering wings filled the mansion garden.
Jia Ruzhen looked around. As dusk fell, the setting sun dyed the city in a blood-red hue.
The clouds pressed down relentlessly upon the city, causing a sense of foreboding to flicker across his heart. That massive roar came again, the second louder than the first, the sound wave leaving a long, echoing hum in one’s head.
Dong-weng—
Dong-weng—
The disciples said one after another: “The noise is coming from the south?”
“What is that sound???”
A soldier surged into the garden veranda. He was dressed in the colors of the southern rebel army, his face covered in dust and sweat. He knelt and reported: “Prefect, the main gate is in peril! Xie Meng has launched another assault!”
The battering ram struck the city gate!
The city wall, which had only just been repaired, shed handfuls of dust.
Outside the city, over a hundred soldiers used all their strength to push the ram toward the interior. Inside, the defending troops pushed back against the ram, continuously reinforcing the gate.
The dong-weng sound of the impact mixed with the du-du sound of wooden planks being nailed into the gate.
The provinces of Jing and Yang had become blood rivals; both sides shouted their war cries with everything they had.
Outside the city gate, at a distance of about a dozen arrow flights, stood the observation tower. The adjutant was overseeing the battle in Xie Meng’s stead.
From the top of the tower, the adjutant’s uncontrollable roars of command came from time to time, his voice like thunder.
“Is your squad nesting in front of me?”
“Don’t cluster at the foot of the wall! Watch out for the enemy’s fire!”
“Look left and right! The Wolf-Tooth Striker is coming! F*ck it, I’ll fight you to the death…”
The Wolf-Tooth Striker was like a massive, thickened spiked board hanging from the city tower. Attached to ropes, it instantly swept away over a dozen Jingzhou soldiers, their deaths too gruesome to behold.
Everyone was a brother in life and death; the adjutant’s tiger-like eyes were bloodshot as he nearly charged up the city wall himself.
The soldiers beside him couldn’t stop him, so they had to work together to wrap their arms around his waist: “General, you can’t! General…”
It turned out that no matter who stood in that position, facing the life and death of countless comrades, it was difficult to remain emotionally stable.
The observation tower swayed.
Beneath the tower, Xie Meng stood with a grave expression, his hands behind his back. His armor was dyed red by the setting sun. Even though the battle before him was incredibly tense, he could only spare his attention for the more pressing matter at hand.
“You’re saying Bixia still hasn’t been found!?” Xie Meng suppressed his voice to a whisper.
For a man with such a naturally loud voice, when he couldn’t roar, his expression became exaggerated.
Xie Meng’s eyes widened to twice their size.
“The Emperor personally appointed the Longwujun to protect him, yet the Longwujun has lost the sovereign twice! To this day, we haven’t even seen a single dragon scale! If this gets out, not only will the reputations of our Xie family and the Longwujun be dragged through the mud, but your father would jump out of his coffin to beat you to death!”
Xie Meng was not only the Western Front Commander but also the elder brother.
Even if Xie Qianli’s noble rank was higher than Xie Meng’s, on the battlefield, there was only one commander-in-chief.
Ever since Prince Yong jumped ship and fled, Xie Qianli had pursued them along the river, searching nearly every corner of the water’s surface. Still, there was no sign of Prince Yong anywhere.
He did not wish to explain.
The rule of the military was strict obedience to orders, including listening to reprimands. Having joined the army as a youth, he naturally followed this path: “I will continue the search.”
Xie Qianli had always possessed a pair of dark and clear eyes, which were now clouded due to lack of sleep. His pressed lips were parched and white, the skin already peeling.
Lian Qing, thinking he should uphold justice, hurriedly spoke up: “The first time, it was Bixia who ordered me to leave the fleet. That was entirely my fault; the sovereign didn’t allow me to inform the General at all. The second time, Bixia ran into His Highness Prince Yong, so he let the brothers go first…”
Xie Qianli: “Shut up.”
Lian Qing had already taken a fierce kick from Xie Meng, sending him flying two or three feet back!
Lian Qing clutched his stomach and stood up straight in a disciplined manner.
Xie Meng roared in fury: “Then who am I supposed to blame? Blame the sovereign for running too far? Blame the Emperor for deserving it???”
As he shouted these words, Xie Meng could no longer control his volume.
Fortunately, he was drowned out by the noise of the catapults smashing stones. The adjutant’s cursing at the top of the tower remained unceasing.
“Hit that crossbow machine on the wall! Use some strength! Are you blind…”
Xie Meng took several long breaths. Today he hadn’t climbed the tower to passionately curse in battle, so theoretically it shouldn’t have been exhausting, yet bean-sized sweat beads appeared on his forehead.
Xie Meng forced himself to remain calm: “The sovereign surely has his reasons. He was able to put the empire back in order; he is not a foolish Emperor. It was not easy for us to earn Bixia’s trust; we must not show even a hint of complaint.”
These words were meant for Lian Qing.
Lian Qing didn’t have any complaints either; he just felt it was unfair for General Xie to take the blame for them.
Lian Qing said: “Prince Yong is a f*cking bastard!!!”
The Xie brothers let these words drift away in the wind.
Xie Qianli looked toward the city tower with a heavy gaze: “I have searched the entire river surface. If Bixia is not on the river, it is highly likely he has gone ashore. The closest place on land is Guangling Prefecture.”
Xie Meng said: “But the four gates of Guangling are tightly shut. We have been stationed outside the city and haven’t seen a sign of Bixia.”
“Could Prince Yong have taken Bixia into the city?”
Hearing this hypothesis, the expressions of the two grew several times more solemn.
If this were true, the situation was incredibly perilous. It was equivalent to handing the advantage directly to the southern enemy.
Lian Qing’s curse of “Prince Yong is a bastard” was not an exaggeration; it was far too mild!
Xie Meng slapped his own saber with a sharp pa sound.
“How do we fight this? Even if you and I were to flip this city upside down right now, if that man named Jia held a knife to the throats of Bixia and the Prince, I would have to immediately lead my brothers to withdraw.”
“Prince Yong’s head was kicked by a donkey! Why didn’t it kick him to death!!!”
Coming from a subject’s mouth, these words were already rebellious.
But his emotions needed an outlet. Moreover, Xie Meng could not figure out even if he died: what was Prince Yong doing kidnapping Bixia and going into Guangling?
“Could Prince Yong be colluding with the enemy? Is he on Li Yilong’s side?”
Ying Dang’s biological elder brother was on the throne; it was only natural for him to be a Prince.
What kind of treatment could Li Yilong offer him? Higher than a Qinwang???
Xie Meng had been in the south for a long time; he didn’t understand the key figures of Chang’an very well. He completely failed to grasp Prince Yong’s psychology, and he certainly couldn’t agree with it.
Xie Qianli knew Prince Yong had illicit intentions in taking Ying Xi. As for kidnapping him to Guangling, it was highly likely because the Yongning Prince Mansion was there.
These filthy thoughts were something Xie Qianli would never reveal for him.
Xie Qianli analyzed: “If Prince Yong were colluding with the enemy, Jia Ruzhen should have reacted by now. It’s impossible for him to remain so composed with the army at his gates.”
“Perhaps Prince Yong snuck into the city, and Bixia is trapped inside.”
“In that case, we must instead act as if the Emperor is overseeing the battle outside Guangling City. Only then will Bixia’s situation be safer.”
Lian Qing said in a small voice: “If only Bixia could contact us proactively, or if someone could send a message to Bixia…” The Emperor was very good at seizing opportunities; the first half of his sentence was reasonable, but the second half was pure fantasy, so Lian Qing simply shut up.
But then, Lian Qing felt his scalp tingle.
Because he recalled a certain memory from outside the Luoshan bandit fortress that he still didn’t quite dare to think back on, cold sweat poured down Lian Qing’s back.
A glimmer appeared in Xie Qianli’s eyes, but it vanished in an instant as he turned his gaze elsewhere.
The setting sun was like spilled blood; Lian Qing felt flustered again.
He had a gut feeling that General Xie was hiding something.
He peeked at the other’s upright and honorable appearance, but the more he thought about it, the more he felt lingering fear. He suddenly thought of the time they fought Jia Ruzhen on the dragon boat, and that man’s exasperated assessment—A kind man does not lead troops; in war, there is no end to deception.
Everyone in Chang’an knew that Xie Qianli was lively as a youth but became cold and upright as an adult, a true gentleman.
Was he really?
The fear in Lian Qing’s heart reached its peak.
Shouts came from the edge of Guangling City: “The fire-oil quilts are coming down again—”
“Scatter! Everyone, hurry and scatter…”
Outside the city, it was as noisy as a boiling pot.
Atop the observation tower, the adjutant had been overseeing the battle for over an hour, and his voice was now exhausted.
Xie Meng had to take over the battle personally. He said sharply: “Xie Qianli, hear my command!”
Xie Qianli and Lian Qing stood at attention.
Xie Meng said solemnly:
“It is now known that the sovereign may be in Guangling City. You must obtain precise intelligence and plan a rescue strategy.”
“Even if you don’t eat, drink, or sleep, you must find the Emperor first. If anything happens to the sovereign, you and I will commit suicide together to atone for our crime!!!”
“Understood!”
He had already gone without food or water and hadn’t rested. His determination to find the person was even greater than Xie Meng’s. Even the Kirin-patterned cloak on his body was gone.
Xie Meng vaguely sensed something was off, but with the enemy before him, he had no time to deliberate. He waved his hand for Xie Qianli to go quickly.
Lian Qing also mounted his horse.
Hooves thundered. Lian Qing’s heart was still drumming as he followed Xie Qianli from the South Gate toward the west, gradually moving away from the siege site and closer to the vast, deserted reed marshes.
Xie Qianli suddenly yanked the reins: “Whoa—”
He raised his arm and released his falcon. The black falcon spread its wings, circling and crying out before vanishing into the reeds.
Before Lian Qing was General Xie’s heroic back, but he himself was looking around guiltily. He saw countless reeds swaying. At first, there was no reaction, but then he suddenly felt a familiar sensation.
It felt as if someone was in the dense marsh.
Lian Qing couldn’t catch the other’s direction, and layers of sweat seeped from his back.
Suddenly, a clear yet unfamiliar voice came from the marsh:
“I await your orders.”
Lian Qing’s heart skipped a beat!
Translator’s Note: Bixia (陛下) is used here for the Emperor, and Zhen (朕) is how the Emperor refers to himself. The Wolf-Tooth Striker (狼牙拍) is a real ancient siege defense weapon—vicious stuff! And who is this mysterious person in the reeds? Xie Qianli definitely has some “special methods” up his sleeve. Ahhhh~ exciting
Recommended Reads
