A shaman clan flying rider, bearing the Great Feng’s banner… The clerks and advisors in the hall looked somewhat perplexed, unable for the moment to connect the “Great Feng’s military standard” with the “shaman clans”.
Hmm? Flying cavalry?
The next instant, everyone caught the crucial point and all turned in unison to look at Yang Gong.
“Disarm them and let them in.”
Yang Gong paused for a moment, then spoke unhurriedly.
The clerk received the order and withdrew. A quarter of an hour later, the governor’s guards brought two people into the grand hall.
Yang Gong, Li Mubai, and the assembled advisors all scrutinised the new arrivals.
On the left was a man from the Southern Marches, dark-skinned, light blue eyes, and naturally curly hair. His clothes and explosive muscles made him appear wild and powerful.
However, those pale blue eyes were filled with an intelligent light.
Indeed a heart Gu master… Yang Gong, as the highest-ranking official of the province, maintained his stern dignity and shifted his gaze to the soldier beside Tamo.
Xu Erlang’s deputy general…
Gu Qi immediately understood the governor’s questioning look, clasped his hands and bowed:
“Your humble subordinate, Gu Qi, deputy general to Sir Xu Xinnian.”
He paused, and seeing Yang Gong nod, he continued:
“This is Tamo from the Heart Gu tribe of the shaman clans, commander of the flying beast cavalry, brought in by Silver Gong Xu as reinforcements.”
Li Mubai and the other advisors swore this was the most pleasing and wonderful thing they had heard over the past ten days.
When did Silver Gong Xu go to the Southern Marches? And he’s even brought their flying beast corps as allies?
Moreover, how many flying beast cavalry are there, where are they currently positioned, and what is their combat strength? They had a string of questions they wished to ask, but, before Yang Gong spoke, everyone exercised great self-restraint.
Even so, their hearts were already secretly aflame with excitement.
… Yang Gong straightened his back a little, his gaze fixed firmly on Gu Qi:
“Why have the shaman clans’ flying beast cavalry come with you?”
He voiced the advisors’ collective doubt.
Gu Qi replied:
“The warriors of the Heart Gu tribe are here in Songshan County by the order of Silver Gong Xu, to support the garrison and repel the enemy.”
As he spoke, he took a letter from his robes:
“I have a handwritten letter from Sir Xu as proof.”
A clerk stepped forward to receive the letter and respectfully handed it to Yang Gong. Yang Gong read through it, then nodded to the expectant advisors who stared at him.
Songshan County had been saved…
Yet another piece of uplifting news, the advisors were overjoyed, exchanging looks of excitement and happiness.
At this moment, Tamo produced another letter from his robes and said:
“This is Silver Gong Xu’s letter. He instructed me to deliver it to Administrator Yang upon arrival in Qingzhou.”
This time, Yang Gong raised his hand directly and, with a flick, drew the letter to him through the air, unable to wait any longer.
Unlike Xu Xinnian’s letter, which boasted neat and elegant handwriting, this letter of Xu Ningyan’s was utterly ugly, the characters looked as though they had been forcibly stitched together from random strokes.
Indeed, it’s Ningyan’s handwriting… Yang Gong believed it instantly, his doubts gone.
Not because Xu Ningyan’s handwriting was impossible to forge, but because samples of it were exceedingly rare. In all Jiuzhou, apart from Cloud Deer Academy and the Xu residence in the capital, Xu Ningyan’s handwriting was virtually unseen.
Xu Ningyan was a man who cared about his reputation and greatly cherished his calligraphy, never letting it circulate.
So, even if someone wanted to forge it, they would have no samples.
Yang Gong read on. The first half recounted how Xu Ningyan had engaged in a battle of wits and words with the southern scholars, persuading the shaman clans with matchless eloquence and moving them with noble character, finally dispelling the old enmity and persuading them to head north in support of the Great Feng.
Yang Gong felt the eloquence was likely true, but the noble character was debatable.
Further down was the number of troops each division had committed.
Five hundred flying beast soldiers from the Heart Gu tribe…
At the first line, Yang Gong was stunned.
He suspected Xu Ningyan had made a mistake. After all, in the Battle of Shanhai Pass, the Great Feng’s entire flying beast army had numbered only one thousand five hundred.
After the campaign ended, within a few years, the court had half-disbanded the flying beast regiment and sold off many Scarlet-tailed Flame Eagles.
Why? They simply could not afford them.
If heavy cavalry ate silver, then flying beast cavalry ate gold.
What did five hundred flying beast cavalrymen mean? It must be nearly half the numbers of the Heart Gu tribe’s entire flying beast force.
He read further: four hundred warriors from the Strength Gu tribe; six hundred corpse controllers from the Corpse Gu tribe; eight hundred elites from the Shadow division, and, counting in the five hundred flying beast corps…
Yang Gong’s heart sank, though overjoyed and worried by turn. He was excited because these elite warriors would certainly relieve Qingzhou’s military weakness.
His worry stemmed from the shaman clans offering too much, their price must be high, Administrator Yang feared that Xu Qi’an had rashly promised the court something it could never accept.
He frowned and glanced at the end of the letter, the terms Xu Ningyan had promised to the shaman clans.
Yang Gong once more doubted Xu Ningyan had written it wrong.
Previously, he had thought the number of flying beast corps too plentiful, but now, the price seemed too small.
This is too cheap…
Unconsciously, Yang Gong’s back grew ever straighter. Though maintaining his stern dignity, his eyes now sparkled brightly.
He quietly put away the letter and looked at Tamo:
“Has the chief of the Heart Gu tribe seen this letter?”
Tamo did not understand why he asked but, after a moment’s thought, realised the reason and nodded stably:
“Administrator Yang may rest assured, the contents of the letter are completely accurate.”
Heart Gu Masters tended to be above-average in intelligence, which was why Xu Qi’an had entrusted the letter to them.
If he had given it to someone from the Strength Gu tribe, their reply might have been:
“How would I know!”
Or simply: “Me too!”
Tamo continued:
“I hope Administrator Yang will report this swiftly to the court and confirm the matter soon.”
Yang Gong nodded:
“We understand. Commander Tamo, you have come a long way and must be weary. We will have lodgings arranged for you, and tonight, you shall be properly entertained.”
After Tamo had been taken away to his quarters, Yang Gong slowly exhaled and turned his gaze to the gathered advisors.
And these advisors, learned and expert in every field, could not wait any longer.
“What did Ningyan’s letter say? How many flying beast corps are there?”
Li Mubai asked on behalf of them all.
Yang Gong broke into a faint smile. “Five hundred.”
“Five hundred?!”
Exclamations broke out around the table. Even the busy clerks farther away stopped what they were doing and stared in astonishment.
“Let me see.”
Li Mubai stretched out his hand and said in a deep voice, “Come!”
The letter in Yang Gong’s hand suddenly disappeared and appeared in Li Mubai’s hand. He unfolded the letter and read it. As he read, his breathing became slightly hurried, and the hand holding the letter trembled a few times, but quickly steadied.
The letter was passed around among the advisers, and every hand that held the letter trembled, while faces showed excitement and delight.
The arrival of elite shaman clan warriors was like a timely rain for Qingzhou at this time, watering the parched battlefield everywhere.
“With only such a small price, so many elite shaman clansmen were recruited. Silver Gong Xu’s noble character even moved people of the shaman clans.”
One adviser stroked his beard in admiration.
Naive… Li Mubai and Yang Gong glanced at him, and the latter said in a gentle voice,
“Perhaps there are costs that we do not know about, which Ningyan paid himself.”
The atmosphere at the table relaxed, and the advisers spoke half in amazement and half in jest:
“I wonder when Silver Gong Xu will finish dealing with the Southern Marches. If he comes to Qingzhou, there’ll be no need to worry the rebels won’t be annihalated.”
“Even though he is not on the battlefield, his heart is still with Qingzhou, is it not?”
When they spoke of that martial artist whose reputation was at its peak, even though everyone present was a scholar, there was only respect in their hearts. After all, scholars usually looked down on coarse martial artists.
“Looking back now, we must still thank Duke Wei. He enabled the pillar of the Great Feng to stand tall, and did not let it collapse with his sacrifice.”
The Great Feng had lost Wei Yuan, but gained Xu Qi’an, and the legacy continued unbroken.
Li Mubai frowned and grunted:
“Ningyan is indeed worthy to be my student. The art of forming and breaking alliances, he has mastered to the highest degree. My years of teaching have not been wasted.”
Xu Ningyan was his student in name.
Yang Gong, expressionless, regarded his old friend and said mildly:
“Yes, Xu Ningyan is a student with whom I am also very satisfied. He has not disgraced all the years this official has poured his knowledge into him.”
The two great scholars of Cloud Deer Academy exchanged glances, and it was as if electric sparks crackled in the air.
…
Two days later, ten miles outside Wan Commandery, the Yunzhou army’s main camp.
Eight giant birds, crimson as fire, flew in from the horizon, swooped over the tents, and landed on the northwest side of the camp.
At this moment, Qi Guangbo was conducting a sand table wargame with his strategists and the commanders of each camp.
“With our forces, if we attack Wan Commandery head-on, we could take it within ten days. However, there is the great scholar Zhang Shen holding the city. He is a master of military strategy and cannot be underestimated. If we assault directly, we may lose a lot of our elite troops.”
Ge Wenxuan stared at the sand table and analysed.
Seeing that the surrounding commanders frowned and did not take it seriously, he added gravely:
“I’ve already said, when attacking Qingzhou, what matters most is stability, not speed. The faster we fight, the quicker our elite will be depleted. We cannot allow our elite forces to be nearly gone by the time we reach the capital.
“Therefore, in dealing with Wan Commandery, besieging without attacking and wearing them down slowly is the best way. If the Qingzhou army comes to the rescue, we swallow them. No matter how many come, we swallow how many.”
A square-faced commander shook his head:
“Cutting meat with a blunt sabre is only possible if Songshan County can be taken. Only after taking Songshan County and Dongling, can we force the Qingzhou army to go all out to hold Wan Commandery.
“Otherwise, they can use Songshan County as a base and send troops to join Dongling’s defenders to wipe out Ji Xuan’s group. In that case, Wan Commandery would instead become the stubborn rock holding up our main forces.”
The commander-in-chief, Qi Guangbo, finally spoke:
“Has there been any news from Zhuo Haoran?”
A few days ago, Zhuo Haoran had sent an urgent report that his six thousand elite troops had encountered stiff resistance from the defenders of Songshan County and asked for reinforcements.
Qi Guangbo sent forty mounted warriors of the Vermilion Bird Army as the fastest reinforcements.
By rights, Songshan County should have been taken by now.
“This Xu Xinnian really surprised this general. Although Zhuo Haoran is not good at sieges, his six thousand elites are exceptionally valiant. For a mere youth in his early twenties to manage this, it’s quite remarkable.”
Qi Guangbo smiled, “He’s got the makings of a great general.”
As they spoke, the sound of rushing footsteps stopped outside the tent. Qi Guangbo looked to the open tent, watching as a soldier approached and asked,
“What is it?”
The reporting soldier said loudly,
“The Vermilion Bird Army has returned to camp and brought back intelligence. All six thousand elite troops sent to Songshan County have been wiped out. Zhuo Haoran escaped and his whereabouts are unknown. Of the forty Vermilion Bird cavalry dispatched, only eight are left.”
As he spoke, he presented the intelligence report.
Inside the tent, the commanders’ faces all changed.
Qi Guangbo narrowed his eyes, his expression turning somber. Striding over, he took the report from the soldier’s hand and read it.
“General?”
Ge Wenxuan called softly.
Qi Guangbo handed the report over expressionlessly.
Ge Wenxuan finished reading and fell silent.
The intelligence was passed between the commanders, and in the quiet, one finally could not hold back, and said through gritted teeth:
“The shaman clans have allied themselves with the Great Feng.”
After Ge Wenxuan returned to camp recently and informed everyone of the failed alliance with the shaman clans, there had been a vague sense of unease among the Yunzhou army leadership.
All eyes turned to Qi Guangbo.
The supreme commander of the Yunzhou army was silent for a long time, then let out a cold chuckle:
“Interesting.”
Back in the day, when he first joined the army, these were the very words he spoke. When discussing strategy with Xu Pingfeng, they were also the same words.
…
At Dongling, the south city gate had collapsed into ruin.
In the beginning, the Great Feng defenders and the Yunzhou army fought street by street within the city, and the flames of war scorched every inch of land.
After six days of street fighting, the population in the city had halved.
Some civilians escaped from Dongling, some were forcibly conscripted by the Yunzhou or Great Feng armies, and some died in the crossfire.
Afterwards, the defenders of the Great Feng retreated to the east of Dongling and fought the Yunzhou army in open battle.
It was only then that the flames within the city subsided, but what followed was Yunzhou’s plundering: the people’s money, food, and beautiful women were all taken.
In a small, well-preserved courtyard, Xu Pingfeng was coughing with a pale face, blood seeping from his palm.
The Agaruka Bodhisattva sat cross-legged on a cushion. Because of his presence, the small courtyard felt as sweltering as midsummer.
“I haven’t been this badly wounded for many years. Teacher is still teacher.”
Despite his injuries, there was still a smile in Xu Pingfeng’s eyes.
He glanced at Vaidurya and said, “But even teacher failed to injure you badly.”
Agaruka Bodhisattva meditated with his eyes closed and said indifferently,
“The first Jianzheng back then did not injure me either. Apart from nearly dying at the hands of Shenshu during the fall of the Wanyao Kingdom, I have not been hurt for five hundred years.
“It seems the shaman clans have joined the battle.”
Xu Pingfeng shook his head, unconcerned:
“It’s all a trivial matter. The so-called alliance with the shaman clans was just a ruse. The real aim was to let Baidi’s incarnation meet the Gu God. As for my eldest son, let him do as he pleases. He will only qualify as my opponent when he reaches Hedao.
“Sigh, after all these years, I finally resolved a long-held puzzle in my heart.”
Agaruka Bodhisattva opened his eyes and gazed at him:
“What is it?”
Xu Pingfeng smiled, “I have a good idea who the Gatekeeper is now.”
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