Chapter 1206: Seems Familiar

Gao Shaoming wiped away the tears of joy brought on by their long-awaited reunion and answered, "They sent me back."

Gao Jiancheng frowned. "You didn't escape on your own?"

Steward Fan Zhuan interjected from the side, "The Eldest Young Master was indeed sent back. Someone passed word to this old servant, and I went outside the city to receive him. After handing the Eldest Young Master over to me, the other party left. Ah, and the message came through the same channel we used to contact Niu Youdao."

Then there could be no mistake. Gao Jiancheng nodded silently. He seemed to forget his son's presence as he stroked his beard, paced, and pondered aloud. "The people of Maolu Villa have only just established themselves in Nanzhou. We just sent people to keep watch on them and were about to think of a way to act, yet at precisely this moment they released Shaoming. What does this mean?"

In truth, Gao Shaoming had indeed begun as a hostage in Niu Youdao's hands. But by the end, given the cooperative relationship between Gao Jiancheng and Niu Youdao, the matter no longer had anything to do with keeping him hostage. Niu Youdao had effectively only provided Gao Shaoming with a place to hide. Whenever Gao Jiancheng needed him, his son could return at any time. He simply could not return and appear in public.

The reason Gao Jiancheng's side had recently wanted to get Gao Shaoming back was that they feared what might happen after Niu Youdao's death. With Maolu Villa's people left with nowhere to go, they were afraid those people might exploit Gao Shaoming as leverage. The life and death of the entire Gao family were at stake, so Gao Jiancheng had no choice but to take precautions.

Who would have thought those people would voluntarily send his son back? That removed one of his greatest worries.

At the mention of this, Gao Shaoming, still caught up in the emotions of coming home, seemed to remember something. He hurriedly said, "Father, they asked your son to bring you a message."

Gao Jiancheng immediately turned. "What message?"

Gao Shaoming replied, "They said to tell Father not to worry. The people of Maolu Villa will not burn the bridge after crossing the river. They ask Father to wait for Heaven's timing and act with the tide. If anything arises, they will contact you promptly. And they said: do not forget your promise!"

"It seems those people truly have secured their footing in Nanzhou." Gao Jiancheng stroked his beard, eyes flickering as he thought. "With Niu Youdao gone, they ought to be using you to control this old man and force me to serve Shang Chaozong. Instead, they took the initiative to send you back. Such confidence... They know what I fear, so they removed my worries for me. That takes no small measure of boldness. There is still a formidable mind within Maolu Villa!"

"Right, Father, there's also this. They said I had to hand it to you personally. They said it was a letter for you, and specifically warned that no one but you is permitted to see what's inside." Gao Shaoming took a wax pellet from his sleeve and offered it over.

Gao Jiancheng gave a soft sound of acknowledgment, turned, took the wax pellet, crushed it in his hand, and pulled out a small ball of paper.

Since no one else was supposed to see it, Gao Jiancheng turned his back to the other two and blocked their view. He unfolded the paper. The moment he saw what was written on it, his whole body jolted.

Without another word, he looked around. It was broad daylight and no lamp was burning, so he quickly tore the paper into pieces, crushed them into a wad, stuffed the wad into his mouth, and swallowed. Then he snatched up a cup of tea, gulped it down, and washed the secret letter straight into his stomach.

Gao Shaoming and Fan Zhuan were both badly startled. They looked at each other, unable to imagine what sort of secret could make him act with such caution.

"Father, the secret letter..." Gao Shaoming had only just begun when Gao Jiancheng raised a hand and stopped him.

"Knowing too much will do neither of you any good. As for what just happened, pretend you saw nothing. Don't ask, don't speak of it. The moment you walk out of this room, forget it entirely."

"Yes!" both men answered.

Seeing the grave atmosphere, Gao Jiancheng changed the subject with a smile. "Shaoming, you've been over there for so long. How have you been living?"

Gao Shaoming smiled awkwardly. "It was an extremely quiet place. Men plowed, women wove, and no one contended with the world. It was like a secluded paradise beyond the mortal dust. Your son lived easily and comfortably there. I've even put on quite a bit of weight."

Gao Jiancheng laughed loudly and nodded several times before suddenly sighing. "Shaoming, you should understand that you can no longer show yourself openly. I'm afraid I'll have to send you somewhere else to settle."

Gao Shaoming smiled bitterly. "Your son understands. I'm already a dead man. We cannot let the court learn that the Gao family's eldest son is still alive."

There was one decision the Wei court could not bring itself to make. In the end, Supreme General Huyan Wuhen of Qi made it for them.

Several thousand family members of Wei's civil and military officials who had fallen into Jin's hands were buried amid fire and falling stone. Men and women, old and young, had nowhere to flee inside the sea of flames that filled a long valley. Boulders rolled down both slopes. Arrows fell like rain. The screams and devastation were beyond description.

Trapped with them were one hundred thousand elite vanguard troops of Jin.

Only then did the Jin army realize that Qi's earlier withdrawal in the face of the hostages had merely been bait. Qi had deliberately retreated until Jin's forces were lured into a long valley where flammable materials had already been laid, then suddenly launched its attack.

Yet even that was only the appearance of things. Gao Pin had long since discovered Huyan Wuhen's design. He had deliberately walked into the trap, willing to use one hundred thousand elite vanguard troops as bait.

When Huyan Wuhen's main army rapidly counterattacked and reinforced the forces surrounding the long valley, intending to wipe out Jin's one hundred thousand elites, Gao Pin immediately made a show of mobilizing his main force to rescue them. In reality, he took advantage of the emptiness around Huyan Wuhen's central command and secretly dispatched a force straight toward it, intending to decapitate Qi's command in one stroke. For this, he did not hesitate to commit a large number of elite cultivators from his own headquarters.

The surprise force reached its target as planned and smashed the troops Huyan Wuhen had left behind at the central command, only to discover that something was wrong. Huyan Wuhen and the other principal commanders were nowhere to be seen. Many of the tents were empty.

At that very moment, disaster struck Gao Pin's own central command. Huyan Wuhen's Valiant Cavalry had likewise launched a surprise assault, likewise aiming for decapitation.

Gao Pin had moved his main force in a feigned rescue of the trapped hundred thousand. Though the rescue itself was false, he had to send enough strength to make the deception convincing. His principal troops were therefore not at his side. And because he had committed so many cultivator experts to the attempt on Huyan Wuhen, the experts protecting him had also been greatly reduced. Gao Pin himself was suddenly plunged into deadly danger.

Had his personal retainer cultivators not fought desperately to protect him, Gao Pin would almost certainly have lost his life. In the end, he abandoned armor and helmet and fled in disgrace, narrowly escaping disaster.

Nor did the surprise attack on Huyan Wuhen's central command draw Huyan Wuhen's main force back to rescue it. Instead, it forced Gao Pin's own main force—the one conducting the feigned rescue—to turn back in haste to save their headquarters. Halfway back, they were intercepted by Huyan Wuhen himself.

That was exactly what Huyan Wuhen wanted: an enemy rushing in an emergency, unprepared. His method was almost identical to Meng Shanming's. Huyan Wuhen breached a dike and released the waters, smashing apart Jin's main force in the flood.

Fortunately for Jin, Huyan Wuhen had kept only a limited number of troops with him in order to bait the enemy and personally led only a small force in the interception. Otherwise, Jin's main force might well have been annihilated.

After regrouping with the Valiant Cavalry, Huyan Wuhen pursued Jin's routed main force relentlessly, cutting down countless men.

Gao Pin ordered five or six cities of Wei burned one after another, making it impossible for Huyan Wuhen to obtain supplies or rest his forces. Only then did Huyan Wuhen cease advancing deeper, giving the defeated Jin troops enough breathing room to gather again. Gao Pin no longer cared in the slightest whether Wei's common people lived or died.

The one hundred thousand elite troops inside the long valley, however, truly became an isolated army without support. Heavy Qi forces surrounded and pinned them inside, attacking without respite. They were almost completely annihilated. Only a small number fought their way out and escaped. The great majority, together with the Wei hostages they had seized, died under Huyan Wuhen's military order.

Across the fighting before and after this battle, Jin lost more than three hundred thousand soldiers!

Its morale was damaged. The structure of the army itself had been disrupted and needed time to reorganize. For the moment, Jin could not launch another offensive and instead withdrew under pressure from Qi's army.

By this point, how could Gao Pin fail to understand that Huyan Wuhen had deliberately allowed his plan to be discovered? Overcome with regret, he stamped his feet, beat his chest, raised his face to Heaven and wailed, then made a show of drawing his sword to cut his own throat, only to be stopped by his generals and attendants.

Afterward, Gao Pin submitted a memorial to the Jin court, confessing fault and asking punishment.

Emperor Taishu Xiong pardoned him in reply, saying that victory and defeat were common affairs in war. He also informed Gao Pin that Jin had obtained enormous stores of grain from Wei and had already organized a new army at home. Before long, it would march to the battlefield and lend Gao Pin its strength.

The situation Meng Shanming had truly feared had finally appeared. With sufficient grain now in hand, Jin finally began mobilizing the entire population for war. In a very short time, it gathered three million able-bodied men, who marched toward the battlefield while drilling along the road.

When news of the victory reached the Qi capital, the entire city erupted in celebration. Everyone was discussing and praising Supreme General Huyan.

Many of the Wei court officials accompanying the army, however, could not rejoice over the great victory. Quite a few continued attending military deliberations dressed in sackcloth and mourning. Some had lost every member of their household. Huyan Wuhen had killed them all. How could such men be happy?

One man, furious beyond endurance, went to Huyan Wuhen to demand an explanation. He never even saw Huyan Wuhen's face. Archers in the camp shot him so full of arrows that he looked like a hedgehog.

No audience. No argument. For anyone who dared come and make a clamor, there was only one word: kill.

Huyan Wuhen could not be bothered to humor them.

After that, even those who harbored hatred in their hearts no longer dared make so much as half a complaint in front of him.

Naturally, Wei also sent letters to Qi, accusing Huyan Wuhen before the Qi Emperor and denouncing his brutal crimes.

The letter reached Hao Yuntu, and Hao Yuntu read it—but did not reply. Every other exchange of correspondence received an answer. Only the denunciation of Huyan Wuhen went unanswered, as though Hao Yuntu had never seen it. Instead, he issued an imperial decree praising and rewarding Huyan Wuhen and the other officers and soldiers, sending Qi's military morale soaring.

As for what Wei thought after seeing that, Qi's attitude could not have been clearer: suit yourselves.

Wei had reached the point where it had plainly lost the power to bargain with Qi.

"To think the commander-in-chief of mighty Jin nearly lost his life. Ah!"

After learning of Gao Pin's defeat and near decapitation by Huyan Wuhen, Shao Pingbo stood atop the ruined city wall and looked out over the burned-out city Gao Pin had left behind. He raised his face to the sky and sighed deeply.

But after the frustration and helpless emotion passed, reality still had to be faced. Shao Pingbo paced along the ruined wall, brows knitted in thought, muttering continuously, "I refuse to believe you, Huyan Wuhen, have no opening anywhere..."

"Eldest Young Master!" Shao Sansheng approached, his expression grave.

"What is it?" Shao Pingbo asked irritably.

"We have new information concerning that disciple of the Ghost Doctor." Shao Sansheng offered him a folded sheet with both hands.

Jin's main army had just suffered a defeat. Shao Pingbo had no interest in concerning himself with the Ghost Doctor's disciple at a time like this. Without even looking, he waved a hand. "Just tell me."

Shao Sansheng continued holding it out with both hands. "The Eldest Young Master should look for himself."

Shao Pingbo abruptly turned his head. Noticing that Shao Sansheng's expression was unusual, he stepped closer, snatched the folded sheet from his hands, and found that it did not look like an intelligence dispatch. Reports were not folded in this fashion. He opened it and discovered a portrait.

The face looked familiar. "This is that disciple of the Ghost Doctor? Why does he seem so familiar..."

Shao Sansheng asked, "Doesn't the Eldest Young Master see who he resembles?"

Shao Pingbo hesitated. "I do feel as though I've seen him before."

"A portrait is bound to differ somewhat from the person himself," Shao Sansheng said. "When this old servant first saw it, I was puzzled just as you are. The face was familiar. I knew I must have seen it somewhere. Later, because this matter concerns Miss Liuer, I thought of her, and one person immediately came to mind. Eldest Young Master, don't you think he resembles an old acquaintance of the Young Mistress from Beizhou?"

"Beizhou? Liuer's old acquaintance..." Shao Pingbo stared at the portrait, then suddenly jolted. He raised his head sharply. "Him? Tan Yaoxian? Wasn't he killed? How is that possible?"

Shao Sansheng replied, "According to the reports from our people back then, and from what I personally verified afterward, he truly should have been shot dead by a volley of arrows. Several people all said an arrow had pierced his heart. It should have been impossible for him to survive. But the body was never recovered. It fell into the river in the middle of the night, and searching for it was difficult."

[End of Chapter 1206]