Chapter 174: Surrender

At noon the next day, the sun shone brightly.

But no matter how gentle the winter sunlight was, it could not warm the anxious hearts of Chuzhou City’s people.

Humans were creatures with astonishing powers of adaptation.

And that ability did not apply only to the natural environment. It extended to many, many other things as well.

The heads and battle standards of the “king’s army” brought back the previous day had shattered the spirit of the Qian people inside the city. Just as everyone had finally lowered their heads and begun preparing themselves to accept this change in identity the Yan army inside the city... left.

And it left completely.

That made the feelings of Chuzhou City’s commoners and powerful households extremely complicated.

Over the last several days, their position had changed again and again.

Everyone was starting to feel they could no longer endure it.

Wen Sutong and Liu Sicheng stood atop the city walls, watching the orderly columns of Yan troops continuously marching out through the gates below.

Wen Sutong remained fairly composed.

The old man had weathered too many storms in his life. Wearing his official robes beneath the winter sun, he looked almost like someone who had gone out for a leisurely walk.

Liu Sicheng’s expression, however, was somewhat gloomy.

Some people could only ever become pieces on a chessboard.

They did not know how vast the sky beyond the board truly was.

They simply kept their heads down and did whatever their role required.

Those he was supposed to kill he killed.

Those he was supposed to kneel to he knelt.

Liu Sicheng was exactly that kind of man.

All the vigor and high spirits he had displayed over the past few days were being washed away with the Yan army’s departure.

“Lord Wen, you already knew the Yan would leave, didn’t you?”

Wen Sutong nodded.

“Then... this subordinate dares ask Lord Wen one question. What are we supposed to do now?”

When the invaders left, their collaborators naturally panicked.

It was precisely because men like them understood exactly what sort of material they were made from that they had been willing to become lackeys in the first place.

“Deal with things as they come,” Wen Sutong said calmly.

“This subordinate... this subordinate... my heart is...”

Wen Sutong smiled.

“How did revenge feel?”

Liu Sicheng’s elder brother had once offended a powerful household in Chuzhou City. He was stripped of office and sentenced to exile, then died of illness on the road.

That powerful household had been exterminated two days earlier beneath Liu Sicheng’s own blade.

The worry on Liu Sicheng’s face eased slightly.

“Satisfying.”

“Then that settles it.”

“But...”

Wen Sutong reached out and patted Liu Sicheng’s shoulder.

His tone became earnest.

“Since you have already made your choice, stop hesitating.

“The worst possible outcome is that the king’s army eventually fights its way back in. When your entire Liu Clan is exterminated, my Wen Clan can accompany yours on the road.

“No matter how you calculate it, General Liu, that is hardly a bad bargain for you, is it?”

“That is true—no, no! That isn’t what this subordinate meant! I didn’t mean...”

Wen Sutong waved a hand dismissively.

“For the days ahead, I will trouble General Liu to handle matters properly.

“Replenish the troops under your command. Even if half of them are only there to make up the numbers, fill the ranks anyway.

“A grand city like Chuzhou—with walls this tall—ought to have at least ten thousand defenders before it looks respectable.”

“This subordinate understands.”

“Truthfully, telling you to trust the Yan sounds strange even to this old man.

“But people like us no longer possess the luxury of putting on airs.

“We have killed too many people in this city. We have offended too many people.

“Even those who benefited from us may smile today, flatter us, and bow until their backs ache—but the instant the winds change, they will be the first to stab us from behind.

“The more miserably we die, the more thoroughly their cowardice today will be washed clean.

“Heh. Isn’t it amusing?

“The entire city is filled with pigs and dogs too terrified to bark. Yet when the proper moment comes, those same creatures will bite more viciously than anyone.”

As he spoke, Wen Sutong raised his head slightly and stretched his old arms and legs after standing for so long.

Then he sighed.

“Of course... we are worse than pigs and dogs.”

...

The army left the city.

This time, its marching speed was nowhere near as ridiculous as when it had raced through Qian’s Three Frontier defensive lines.

In fact, the army moved quite leisurely.

First, there were still plenty of battles ahead. There was no reason to exhaust themselves now.

Second, they also needed to leave Qian’s frontier armies enough room to chase them.

Whether the Blind Man had truly spent his wedding night as a groom, Zheng Fan did not know.

Neither did the other Demon Kings.

The unfair thing was that the Blind Man could “spy” on all of them, while none of them could spy on him.

Even if someone tried sneaking over to his tent in the middle of the night, there was no chance of escaping his mental perception.

Still when men traveled together, dirty jokes were inevitable.

Xue San rode beside Zheng Fan and whispered, “Master, based on this subordinate’s experience, the Blind Man definitely didn’t do anything last night.

“That little wife of his was walking perfectly normally this morning.”

Zheng Fan laughed.

“Maybe the Blind Man’s a toothpick and you’re a wolf-fang club.”

“Eh? Hehehehe!”

Xue San grinned like a fool barely over three feet tall.

Master’s words sounded absolutely wonderful to his ears.

After the army had traveled some distance from Chuzhou City, an order arrived from Li Fusheng.

Zheng Fan’s unit was to go monitor the Qian troops at Qingshan County.

Taking Chuzhou City had given the army a tremendous surplus of supplies.

But the Yan army was certainly not bored enough to attack every city it encountered while marching south.

As a result, during the campaign they would deliberately leave some Qian cities untouched.

To ensure those cities did not interfere with the army’s movement, a separate detachment would be sent to watch each one.

The first purpose was to warn the Qian garrison not to make trouble.

The second was to screen the movement of the main army.

Almost every Yan soldier was cavalry.

That was why they could behave with this sort of brazen arrogance.

They were robbers marching through someone else’s home yet they could openly warn the owner not to make any sudden moves.

Different units took turns performing this duty, with the number of troops assigned depending on the size of the garrison inside the city being watched.

This time it was Zheng Fan’s turn.

After receiving the order, Zheng Fan immediately led his twenty-five hundred cavalry away from the main army.

They rode thirty li west and arrived outside Qingshan County.

In the battle the previous day, Qingshan County had nearly become a decisive point.

After Zu Dongcheng realized something was wrong, he had ordered his troops to move toward Qingshan County.

Truthfully if that force had succeeded in entering the city, even though Qingshan’s walls were not especially tall and its defenses were nothing impressive, no matter how insane Li Fusheng was he would never have ordered Zhenbei Army cavalry to storm the walls directly.

The moment Green Willow Fortress’s cavalry appeared in sight of Qingshan County’s defenders, gongs and drums erupted inside the city.

More and more people could be seen rushing onto the walls.

The entire county seat instantly acted as though a great enemy had arrived!

Meanwhile, the leader of that great enemy, Garrison Commander Zheng, had already sat down.

He held a piece of peach pastry in one hand.

He ate while drinking water.

The Blind Man and the Fourth Lady sat beside him.

Their orders were merely to monitor the city and prevent its garrison from sending out small detachments to harass the main army.

No one had ordered Zheng Fan to attack the place.

So Garrison Commander Zheng was feeling extremely relaxed.

“After yesterday’s Qian defeat, Qingshan should have received the news long ago,” the Blind Man said.

“Of course.”

Zheng Fan clapped the crumbs from his hands.

The Fourth Lady thoughtfully tipped a water skin downward so her Master could wash them.

Qingshan County stood very close to the battlefield.

And after winning, the Yan had withdrawn to Chuzhou City to rest.

No matter how stupid the county’s officials and garrison might be, they could not possibly have been stupid enough to never send anyone outside to investigate.

Tens of thousands of men had fought there.

Corpses had covered the plains.

There was no way to hide traces like that.

Besides, although most of the Qian army had been annihilated in yesterday’s battle, a small number of lucky survivors had still escaped.

Some of those routed troops had almost certainly fled to Qingshan County.

“Truthfully, given the merits Master has accumulated, you should have been promoted to Assistant General long ago,” the Blind Man said.

“What’s the hurry?

“The real issue is the Marquis of Jingnan.

“He seems to be deliberately holding me down.”

If Zheng Fan merely wanted the office of Assistant General, he could have accepted the Marquis of Zhenbei’s offer back then and received it immediately.

But Zheng Fan felt no resentment toward Tian Wujing for suppressing his rank.

He could tell that Tian Wujing genuinely intended to promote him.

Perhaps the Marquis wanted him to accumulate deeper foundations before suddenly rising.

“If Master can accept it calmly, that is best.

“This subordinate believes the Marquis of Jingnan wants to give Master a position in the future where you can truly stand on your own.

“At the very least, command an entire county where your word is final.

“So we still need to accumulate as much military merit as possible.

“That will affect what sort of territory we can be assigned later.

“If we could somehow be given Chuzhou City directly—that would be perfect.”

If Great Yan’s war went smoothly then Qian would either be destroyed outright or beaten into a Southern Dynasty.

As long as the armies from the Three Frontiers could be lured out and annihilated all of northern Qian would fall within Yan’s sphere of power.

The cities not yet taken would become isolated islands.

And isolated cities were actually quite easy to capture.

For a long time afterward, it was easy to imagine generals being assigned their own troops and ordered to garrison individual cities and regions.

In other words, military rule.

That situation would continue until the Great Yan had digested the newly conquered territories enough for administrative power to be withdrawn from the generals and returned to the imperial court.

Throughout history whenever dynasties rose and fell things often followed much the same pattern.

Garrison Commander Zheng took a relaxed view of it.

He smiled.

“Winning merit shouldn’t be difficult.

“I don’t have any particular plan, but for some reason... maybe my luck in my previous life was too terrible.

“In this life, my luck is genuinely good.

“Military merit practically fights to jump into my arms.”

“Hehehe.”

The Blind Man and the Fourth Lady both laughed.

“Don’t laugh.

“I’m serious.”

“This subordinate is merely happy for Master.

“Master’s fortune reaches the Heavens.

“Luck itself blesses you.”

The Blind Man immediately offered the appropriate flattery.

Just then a detachment of cavalry rushed out from the formation toward Qingshan County’s walls.

Liang Cheng led several hundred riders.

They were not trying to attack.

They were simply bored and had decided to stretch the horses a little while applying some pressure to the defenders.

The walls responded immediately.

Arrows were loosed well before the riders came near.

Liang Cheng did not approach closely.

Before entering effective bow range, he turned the cavalry around and withdrew.

After returning, Liang Cheng dismounted and walked over to Zheng Fan.

“There really are quite a few defenders on the walls.

“Their armor isn’t all the same either.

“My guess is the city absorbed many routed soldiers yesterday.

“They’ve also mobilized local civilians to help defend the walls.”

“Mm.”

Zheng Fan was not surprised.

From now on, relying on sudden gate rushes to take cities would be far too optimistic.

It was exactly like the difference between the first and second times he attacked Mianzhou City.

Qian’s military preparedness might be rotten.

But Qian people were not all idiots.

After eating, Zheng Fan sat cross-legged and began circulating his blood and qi.

His strength had remained stuck at Eighth Grade for some time now.

But as for how to continue improving he genuinely had no idea.

Of course, that was normal.

Garrison Commander Zheng’s rate of advancement had already been astonishing.

No one disturbed Master while he cultivated.

After all, Master was not training solely for himself.

He was cultivating for every Demon King.

The Blind Man went farther away and sat down to read through dossiers collected from Chuzhou City.

They contained a great deal of information about Qian’s imperial court.

A foot soldier squatted beside him and occasionally passed over hot water.

Fan Li and Xue San wandered around together, searching for small holes in the ground to see whether they could dig out hibernating snakes.

A’Ming and Liang Cheng sat together.

A’Ming took one drink from the water skin.

Then handed it to Liang Cheng for a drink.

Neither spoke.

They simply let the winter wind stir the hair across their foreheads.

Half of Green Willow Fortress’s cavalry rested.

The other half rode freely at a safe distance from Qingshan’s walls.

After some time, the two groups switched duty.

Inside Qingshan County after the initial panic the city gradually became quiet as well.

Time slowly passed.

Xue San and Fan Li genuinely managed to catch a snake.

They were already lighting a fire and roasting it.

At that moment, Zheng Fan opened his eyes.

The blood and qi inside his body still showed no change.

“Master, there’s no need to rush.

“Cultivation is something you must take slowly.”

The Fourth Lady, who had been sitting some distance away, noticed Zheng Fan open his eyes and immediately came over.

“I’m not especially worried about it.”

One could not eat hot tofu in a hurry.

Besides although this world certainly possessed so-called experts, sufficient troops and capable generals could also compensate for flaws in one’s personal strength.

“Oh, right.

“Fourth Lady, next time you disguise yourself, make yourself look a little rougher.”

The Fourth Lady froze briefly.

Then immediately understood.

Whenever the army marched, she disguised herself.

Even though she turned herself into a man, the face she created remained far too delicate.

And because Master knew perfectly well that she was a woman and because the two had already shared such physical intimacy looking at that handsome male face sometimes...

Master was worried his tastes might drift in some dangerous direction.

He was taking precautions before disaster struck.

“This servant understands.”

“Master, want some roasted snake skin?”

Xue San came over carrying the roasted snake.

Zheng Fan waved him away.

“You lot eat it yourselves.”

“Yes, Master.”

Zheng Fan looked up at the sky.

“It’s about time.”

He pointed toward Liang Cheng, who was still sitting there in a rather intimate two-man tableau with A’Ming.

“Hey!”

Liang Cheng heard him and turned.

Zheng Fan raised one hand and drew a circle in the air.

Liang Cheng understood immediately.

He began ordering the troops to assemble and prepare to leave.

By now, the main army should already be far ahead.

There was no longer much point in watching Qingshan County.

The important thing was to pack up, catch the main force, and continue south.

The Blind Man came over as well.

“Master, this subordinate has noticed something.

“The number of Yan troops actually continuing south seems considerably smaller than we originally imagined.”

After bypassing Qian’s three northern commanderies, the most direct and shortest route south ran through Chu Commandery, Beihe Commandery, Xishan Commandery, and finally into Bianzhou Commandery, where Upper Capital lay.

If all two hundred fifty thousand cavalry were truly heading south along this route, it could not possibly feel this empty.

At the very least, scout riders from the other commands should have been appearing constantly.

Yet from Chuzhou City all the way south they seemed to have encountered only Li Fusheng’s force.

“Isn’t that very close to what you guessed?” Zheng Fan asked.

“Master jokes.

“Everything has naturally remained within Master’s calculations.”

“Stop putting gold on my face.”

Zheng Fan shook his head.

The highest-level military plan had never been fully revealed.

Even now, many details remained undisclosed.

For example, exactly which forces, and how many men, were supposed to ride all the way to Upper Capital?

And where exactly would the ambush against the returning Three Frontier armies take place?

Still even when the men above did not speak, clues remained.

Once the army began moving south from Chuzhou City, the number of Yan forces clearly began shrinking.

That meant the main Yan army was probably still maneuvering and hiding within Chu Commandery.

The Blind Man had made so many arrangements in Chuzhou City.

He had even “sold” himself and married a Wen Clan woman.

If Qian reinforcements returned later, retook Chuzhou City, and slaughtered the Wen Clan wouldn’t all of his arrangements have been wasted?

“Master, the troops are ready,” Liang Cheng came over and reported.

Green Willow Fortress’s cavalry looked almost as though they had just finished a winter camping trip.

Now they were finally assembled and ready to leave.

Zheng Fan mounted and let out a long breath.

The Blind Man rode beside him.

“That little wife of yours knows how to ride?” Zheng Fan asked.

“She does,” the Blind Man answered.

“She still can’t possibly ride for long.”

“Once calluses form, she’ll be fine.”

“She’s your wife,” Zheng Fan reminded him.

If the Fourth Lady’s thighs were rubbed raw and callused from riding too long, Zheng Fan would definitely feel distressed.

Fortunately, the Fourth Lady possessed martial skill and knew how to care for her body.

There was no need to worry about that with her.

But Yuexin was different.

Even if she knew how to ride, how many opportunities would a sheltered young lady from a prominent household ever have to gallop for hours on end?

“We are at war.

“This subordinate understands priorities.”

“Oh.

“I understand.

“You’re afraid of developing feelings for her, aren’t you?” Zheng Fan teased.

“Men want to sleep with beautiful women.

“Men also like intelligent women.”

The Blind Man did not hide anything.

“She is beautiful.

“And intelligent.”

“Fine.

“Your affairs are your own.

“I won’t worry about them.

“You can certainly handle things yourself.”

Then Zheng Fan pointed toward Qingshan County ahead.

“Blind Man.

“We shouldn’t fantasize about Chuzhou City.

“Probably only a full Commander would qualify to garrison a place like that.

“But Qingshan County seems pretty good too.

“Mountains behind it, water nearby.

“Good scenery.

“And it sits on an important north-south route through Qian.

“If we could establish ourselves here later—it would actually be a very suitable place to develop.”

Liang Cheng said, “Qingshan conceals a sleeping dragon.

“The land matches its name.

“It truly is well suited for beginning a great enterprise.”

Zheng Fan looked surprised.

“Ah Cheng.

“You know geomancy?”

A’Ming immediately mocked him from the side.

“He’s been buried often enough.”

Everyone burst out laughing.

Zheng Fan lifted his riding crop.

“A sleeping dragon is too much for us.

“I don’t think I possess that sort of fate.

“Besides—”

Creak...

At that moment, the gates of Qingshan County opened.

The gate had clearly been blocked from inside earlier.

So this could not possibly have happened by accident.

Someone inside had first removed the barricades before opening it.

Three riders emerged.

The man in front wore the robes of a civil official.

He had been tied up like a rice dumpling.

Liang Cheng immediately sent someone forward to investigate.

A short while later, the rider returned and whispered something into Liang Cheng’s ear.

Liang Cheng’s expression became rather strange.

Still he rode back to Zheng Fan and cupped his fists.

“Master.

“The city garrison has tied up the County Magistrate and opened the gates to surrender to us!”

“............” Zheng Fan.

(End of Chapter)