Chapter 319: Life Needs a Sense of Ceremony

A new stage of the war had already begun.

Along the Wang River line, which had remained quiet for so long, the sound of steel and iron cavalry rang out once more.

At the beginning, one could still say that the Yan people were helping Dacheng—or helping the people of Jin—drive out the savages while incidentally swallowing Dacheng in the process.

But now, the nature of the war had changed.

This was a war of revenge belonging to Yan.

The proud people of Yan, arrogant for a century, had never suffered such a miserable defeat.

They desperately needed another great victory to brush the fresh dust from their glory.

Even in the years when the fighting against the desert barbarians had been at its bloodiest, whenever Yan lost a battle, it immediately gathered another force and went back to fight again.

Compete in courage.

Compete in ferocity.

That mentality had been branded into Yan bones.

If the people of Yan had been even slightly softer, forget possessing the national strength they had today the State of Yan might no longer have existed at all.

That day, tens of thousands of Yan corpses had floated upon the Wang River.

It was a blood debt.

And blood debts had to be repaid.

...

After nightfall, the Shengle Army began crossing the river.

The frozen surface had already been covered with everything useful the surrounding area could provide, maximizing the ease and speed with which the army could pass.

Because preparations had been thorough, the crossing proceeded extremely quickly.

Everything remained orderly.

Not the slightest disorder appeared.

The first thousand-plus cavalrymen to cross were led by Liang Cheng.

They did not choose to establish a defensive position on the far bank or remain there to protect the crossing.

Instead, they boldly rode upstream and began sweeping the surrounding area, hunting down Chu scouts.

This was a lesson learned from the destruction of the previous left-wing army.

Expand the enemy’s blind spot first.

Make it impossible for the Chu army to understand the situation immediately.

By the latter half of the night, the entire army had crossed.

The central army immediately became the vanguard.

The rear became the central body.

Scout riders were sent to notify Liang Cheng’s detachment, which had originally served as the vanguard.

After completing its sweep, Liang Cheng’s force would fall in behind the main army and serve as the rear guard.

Perhaps the Yan crossing had begun too quickly and too suddenly.

Perhaps Xue San and his scouts had simply done too much work reconnoitering the area beforehand.

Combined with the advance preparation completed by the laborers, the entire crossing process was extraordinarily clean.

Before dawn had even arrived, the Shengle Army was already deep inside the eastern bank.

It had effectively broken free of Chu’s Wang River defensive line.

The Chu army had not even had time to organize any effective obstruction or response.

From this point onward, the Shengle Army would become a completely isolated force.

And the time below could essentially be called... free activity.

Tian Wujing understood Zheng Fan’s particular “abilities.”

Perhaps, in the Marquis of Jingnan’s judgment, given Zheng Fan’s military ability and strategic vision, sending his force into the enemy rear without imposing fixed restrictions or assigning a specific target would actually allow Zheng Fan to perform better.

And to a certain extent, Zheng Fan could indeed be considered Tian Wujing’s proud disciple.

Throughout his entire life, the Marquis of Jingnan had taught only one student in the truest sense of the word.

One person whom he had kept beside his own commander’s tent, instructing personally from morning to night.

Even the First Prince had never received treatment that good.

During that period, Zheng Fan’s performance had left the Marquis of Jingnan quite satisfied.

Of course, during that same period, General Zheng’s pressure had genuinely been enormous.

It felt as though he had suddenly been thrown back into school, studying every day for examinations.

Fortunately, an academic genius had always stood beside him and selflessly helped.

That was the only reason he had managed to survive such a demanding instructor.

On the Marquis of Jingnan’s chessboard, Zheng Fan’s Shengle Army was a living piece.

Once placed in a certain position, it could often produce enormous variables.

As for the frontal battlefield that would naturally be controlled by Tian Wujing himself.

...

After the army crossed the river, General Zheng once again deployed his unique secret technique that had never been included in *The Zheng Treatise on War* the Double Hands-Off Method.

In an instant, the exalted commander of an entire army transformed into a plain and simple ordinary soldier.

So plain, in fact, that even his warhorse and armor looked no different from those of the armored riders around him.

Truly, an exemplary model of being close to the common soldiers and never indulging in special treatment.

Command of the army naturally passed to Liang Cheng.

Truthfully, after two years of tempering, General Zheng’s own military ability had improved enormously.

It was not that he had no desire to personally practice what he had learned.

A man who had just received a driving license would naturally feel his hands itch whenever he saw a steering wheel.

The problem was that the price of making a mistake here was simply too large.

Far more serious than scraping another person’s car on the road.

With a single thought, the lives and deaths of ten thousand men might be decided.

Especially when there was a First Prince right beside him who had only recently been given enormous expectations, then immediately suffered defeat.

For the sake of safety, General Zheng decided he should continue observing for a while longer.

Wait.

He could take direct control in the future, once his foundation had grown thick enough that even losing once would not matter.

After beginning the march east, the army did not stop to rest at all.

The luxurious equipment of the Shengle Army revealed its value perfectly here.

Most soldiers had two horses per man.

Some barbarian soldiers were even extravagant enough to have three: two warhorses and one packhorse.

The army’s mobility and endurance were therefore exceptionally strong.

This was also thanks to the enormous influx of warhorses Shengle City had gained during the Marquis of Jingnan’s previous expedition into the snowfields.

For this campaign, they had emptied the family coffers and brought nearly everything.

They were gambling on this one throw.

Win, and you drink with beautiful models.

Lose, and you carry bricks at a construction site.

Zheng Fan reached up and touched the recessed compartment in his chest armor where the Demon Child rested.

Then he looked at A’Ming galloping ahead.

Then at the Sword Saint riding beside him.

Huuuh.

His heart felt considerably steadier.

The feeling of ten thousand horses thundering forward made Zheng Fan involuntarily remember the days when he had followed Li Fusheng from Green Willow Fort into the State of Qian.

Back then, he and the troops under him had been little more than an accessory.

Now, he could already hold an entire front by himself.

The Sword Saint seemed unusually excited.

Truthfully, he had been suppressed for far too long.

This past year had genuinely been cursed.

Everything he did failed.

And whenever something collapsed, he somehow seemed to be number one.

Now, all responsibility and burdens had finally fallen away.

All he needed to do was kill people.

Kill them with his sword.

Perhaps this was the Sword Saint’s truest happiness.

“How much farther?

“How much farther is Fengxin from here?”

The Sword Saint asked Zheng Fan.

When the Sword Saint spoke, he did not need to shout.

He could transmit his voice directly through qi.

Zheng Fan heard every word clearly.

But when Zheng Fan answered, he had no choice but to yell.

The thunder of ten thousand galloping horses was simply too loud.

“Are you the Jin man, or am I?

“You’re actually asking me?”

“I don’t know.”

The Sword Saint answered with complete honesty.

Fengxin was not a famous city.

Nor was it a major strategic stronghold.

What made it known at all was Fengxin paper, a favorite among painters.

So the Sword Saint had never visited.

One could even say that if Situ Yi had not relocated the false Dacheng court to this place, the little county town called Fengxin might never have deserved mention at all during this war.

Places like this were usually the kind that, once the great battle ended and the broader situation had been decided, could be pacified by nothing more than sending out proclamations.

History, however, often possessed exactly this kind of strange humor.

This little county town known for papermaking would unquestionably receive a heavy stroke in future histories because of what was about to happen here.

“Soon!

“We should reach it tonight!” Zheng Fan shouted.

That estimate was based on the speed of a long-range cavalry raid.

The whole purpose was to exploit a time gap.

When the messengers trying to send news from the front to the rear could not run as fast as Zheng Fan’s army itself, how could Fengxin possibly react in time?

Besides, there was no complete relay-station network along this route.

No beacon-tower system either.

The Situ Clan’s original beacon and observation system had all been built around the line running from the Tianduan Mountains to Snow Sea Pass.

They had never imagined their own domestic heartland would become the main battlefield of a struggle among several powers.

And this was exactly what made cavalry so terrifying in this age.

In an era without telegraphs or telephones, the rapid movement of cavalry was enough to give any defending commander endless nightmares.

A faint flush appeared on the Sword Saint’s face.

Then, in an unexpectedly adolescent burst of enthusiasm, he said to Zheng Fan:

“My sword can no longer resist drinking blood!”

He was clearly one of the finest swordsmen in the world.

And in Zheng Fan’s eyes, certain qualities of the Sword Saint’s character were enough that Zheng Fan willingly regarded him as the finest sword under Heaven.

Unfortunately, the Sword Saint had suffered a rather miserable run.

First his family declined.

Then his state fell.

Then he himself lost.

Three consecutive defeats.

From the individual, to the family, to the state practically everything had been swept away in one pot.

“I’ll help you!” Zheng Fan shouted.

“You use a saber.

“What the hell do you know about swords?”

This was the hierarchy of weapon snobbery.

People who used swords naturally looked down on people who used sabers.

“I can help package you!”

“What?

“Help build a patina?”

“...”

Zheng Fan.

...

Although the army maintained a continuous marching rhythm, the responsibilities of its individual detachments remained extremely clear.

At this moment, Jin Shuke’s troops served as the vanguard.

The First Prince was among them.

A Pixiu truly did run faster than an ordinary warhorse.

Its endurance was better too.

At the moment, the First Prince looked like a delivery worker who had driven a Lamborghini to his courier depot.

Even if he wanted to keep a low profile, there was simply no way.

Still, he remained exceptionally disciplined.

Since the Marquis of Jingnan had demoted him and sent him here to serve as a Lieutenant Commander, he obeyed Jin Shuke’s orders from beginning to end.

He never overstepped his authority.

By dusk, the vanguard reached the outskirts of Fengxin City.

“Listen carefully!

“From here forward, anything we see soldier or commoner shoot them all!”

Jin Shuke issued the order to his subordinates without the slightest hesitation.

He needed the seven or eight hundred men under him to spread rapidly through the surrounding region and conceal the arrival of the main army.

There was no longer time to distinguish enemy troops from civilians.

Even if someone was an ordinary civilian, who could guarantee he would not run off and spread the warning?

The sweep began.

The First Prince also raised his bow, nocked an arrow, and joined the killing without a word of complaint.

After the sun completely disappeared, Jin Shuke and the First Prince edged somewhat closer to the city.

Fengxin City was not large.

Its walls were not high.

They looked somewhat neglected and poorly maintained.

All in all, this was not a strong city.

Outside the walls stood many tents.

From time to time, laughter and curses could be heard from inside.

So could the crying of women.

Two military camps stood to the west and north of the city.

They had been built extremely carelessly.

To the south and east were what looked like refugee settlements, with large numbers of displaced people gathered nearby.

“Heh.”

Jin Shuke could not help laughing.

Anyone who knew the situation would understand that the place in front of them was currently the capital of a state.

Anyone who did not would probably assume it was a bandit den.

Truthfully, Situ Yi had possessed some ambition at the beginning.

The seven imperial decrees he issued after first taking the throne had shown that although he had committed the act of selling out his state for glory, he had not been completely brainless.

He had genuinely thought about building something properly.

Founding a new Dacheng.

Restoring the glory of the Situ Clan.

But during the Battle of the Wang River, Situ Yi had been sold out so thoroughly that nothing remained.

Yupan City had been occupied by the Chu army.

He had been forced to “relocate the capital” to this remote little city.

By now, he had completely abandoned himself.

“I estimate that, counting inside and outside the city, they probably have around twenty thousand troops,” the First Prince said.

This was the last remaining foundation of the “dynasty” before them.

Perhaps Situ Yi himself had already prepared to wait until the war ended, then beg either the savages or the Chu people to grant him the title of Duke.

He probably no longer intended to pursue anything greater.

The more he struggled, the faster he might die.

If he could simply obtain the treatment of a wealthy, titled noble and live out his days as a rich man, he might already be satisfied.

Naturally, that depended on the Yan army failing to cross the Wang River.

“No wonder when we swept this area earlier, we barely saw anyone along the roads.

“Even the villages only had a handful of people left.

“These bastards have harmed their own people more viciously than us ‘foreign enemies.’

“Honored sir, tell me something.

“If we took five hundred cavalry and charged straight at them right now, do you think there’s a chance we could seize the gate?”

News that fighting had resumed at the front probably had not reached this place yet.

So Fengxin City was essentially undefended.

Even after nightfall, the city gates remained open.

Soldiers wandered in and out constantly.

They were not patrolling.

They were going out to have fun.

A bandit den wasn’t nighttime exactly when everyone inside went out to enjoy themselves?

“You want to try it?” the First Prince asked, looking at Jin Shuke.

Jin Shuke gritted his teeth.

Clearly, he was weighing the risks.

After a short while, he shook his head.

“Forget it.

“The General already made arrangements.”

If he had merely been commanding a normal vanguard, then many things could be handled according to circumstances.

But before setting out, Jin Shuke had received explicit military orders.

Under those circumstances, if he recklessly took a risk on his own, then even if he succeeded, his fault would outweigh his merit.

“Arrangements?”

The First Prince immediately understood.

“General Zheng had his eyes on Situ Yi from the beginning?”

Jin Shuke nodded.

“Yes.”

There was nothing worth concealing.

“Coo... coo... coo...”

The moment Jin Shuke heard the birdcall, he immediately raised one hand and shouted to the men around him:

“Friendlies!

“Lower your bows!”

The surrounding barbarian soldiers put away their bows.

Then, from a grove of dead trees west of their position, Xue San emerged.

One force had actually arrived even earlier than the vanguard.

Xue San and the scouts under him had secretly crossed the river and reached this region nearly two days before the main army.

Xue San merely nodded at Jin Shuke.

Then he sat down, placed a blade of grass between his lips, and silently chewed.

Seeing that Xue San had no desire to talk, Jin Shuke wisely did not approach.

He turned back and continued arranging the defenses of the men around him.

Not long afterward, a rider approached.

After spotting Jin Shuke and Xue San on the other side, the rider immediately dismounted, went down on one knee before Xue San, and prepared to report.

Before he could speak, Xue San asked directly:

“How long until the main army arrives?”

“About half an hour.”

“Good.

“Understood.”

Xue San turned toward Jin Shuke and shook his head helplessly.

Then his gaze shifted to the First Prince.

“First Highness.

“Want to go inside and have some fun together?”

“Seize the gate?”

“Yes, First Highness.”

“If there is anything you need me to do, just give the order.”

Hearing this, Xue San smiled in satisfaction and nodded.

Before long, the sound of approaching hooves arrived.

Only several dozen riders appeared.

At their head was Zheng Fan.

Beside him rode the Sword Saint and A’Ming.

After Zheng Fan dismounted, he first looked at Xue San.

“How are the preparations?”

“Reporting to the General, everything is ready.

“We can move now.”

Zheng Fan nodded.

“I understand.

“Then begin.

“The main army is almost here too.”

“You.

“You.

“You.

“You.

“You.

“And you, sir.

“And you too, sir.

“Come with me.

“Let’s prepare first.

“We’re changing clothes.”

The final two “sirs” were directed toward the First Prince and the Sword Saint.

The clothing had already been prepared.

Xue San pulled aside a pile of dead branches.

A chest had been hidden beneath them.

When it was opened, inside lay several relatively refined sets of civilian clothing, mostly scholar’s robes.

“Take off your armor.

“Put these on.

“I already arranged everything.

“We enter through the western gate.

“And we seize the western gate.”

The men around him began changing clothes.

The First Prince hesitated briefly, then removed his armor and selected a white scholar’s robe.

“Do we really need to go through all this trouble?”

The Sword Saint looked at Xue San in confusion.

In his opinion, with his sword and several dozen men, they could simply charge the gate in one wave, hold it, and wait for the army to enter.

He was the Sword Saint.

He had every reason to possess that kind of confidence.

But Xue San shook his head.

“Life needs a sense of ceremony.

“Besides, there are still plenty of troops in the camps outside.”

The Sword Saint stopped arguing.

He chose a dark-blue robe and changed into it.

Xue San then pulled several small boxes from the chest.

“Come on.

“Smell yourselves.

“Every one of you reeks of horses.

“Rub some of this on.

“Cover the smell.

“Don’t let someone sniff you out.”

As he spoke, Xue San warmly and enthusiastically began applying powder and rouge to the First Prince himself.

The First Prince stood there and allowed Xue San to smear cosmetics across his face.

Xue San then turned toward the Sword Saint.

The Sword Saint was clearly resistant.

But after Xue San said, “For the greater plan,” the Sword Saint still surrendered.

At this point, as long as it allowed him to reach the city gate and start killing to kill those dogs who had recognized thieves as their fathers he was willing to do almost anything.

Xue San then looked toward A’Ming in confusion.

“Why haven’t you changed?”

“I need to protect the Master.”

A’Ming’s answer was flawless.

“Fine.

“Everyone, follow me.

“My people are waiting ahead.

“Once we start moving, act naturally.

“Don’t be stiff.

“When we reach the gate, wait for my signal before making a move.

“And no matter what happens along the road— endure it!”

Xue San gave the final instruction, then led the nine men forward.

Zheng Fan looked curiously at A’Ming.

“You really don’t want to join the fun?”

A’Ming shook his head.

“Nothing good will come of it.”

Zheng Fan nodded deeply in agreement.

“That’s why I didn’t go either.”

...

There were indeed people waiting ahead.

Three ox carts stood with them.

Xue San gestured for the First Prince, the Sword Saint, and the others to climb aboard, then signaled the men in front to pull the carts forward.

The ox carts moved slowly.

The First Prince’s gaze constantly swept across the surroundings.

To his astonishment, their little group passed openly through the military camps.

Nearby rebel soldiers saw the people sitting on the ox carts and merely laughed.

No one came forward to stop them.

No one inspected them.

Had the defenses truly become this lax?

Or did the group they were traveling with possess some special identity something that made the rebels here trust them completely?

The Sword Saint noticed the same thing.

The rebel soldiers they passed merely pointed at the people on the carts and laughed.

No one paid them any real attention.

Only when the group was nearly at the western gate did a potbellied man who looked like a military officer stagger over drunkenly with several personal guards and block the carts.

“Stop!

“Don’t go any farther!

“Stop right there for this general!”

For a moment, everyone on the carts held his breath.

Had they been discovered?

“Motherfucker.

“Let this general have a look.

“Let me take a nice, close look.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk.

“Handsome indeed.”

The rebel commander approached first.

He pointed at the First Prince.

“A little dark.

“But hard and strong.

“Tsk, tsk.

“He’s got that wild, untamed flavor.”

Then the rebel commander turned to the Sword Saint seated on the other side.

“A little old.

“But that face and those hands are so pale and tender.

“And that body— must be soft as hell.

“Definitely knows how to serve a man.

“Hahahaha!

“Fine.

“These two rabbit boys— this general claims them.”

“...”

The First Prince.

“...”

The Sword Saint.

[End of Chapter 319]