Chapter 411: Drowning

The convoy set out.

Eight hundred Snow Sea cavalry accompanied them.

Siniang, A’Ming, and Xue San traveled with Zheng Fan as well.

Liang Cheng needed to remain behind and hold Snow Sea Pass.

No matter what happened someone who actually knew how to fight had to stay home.

Siniang came because, after the last campaign—when Zheng Fan had spent night after night tossing and turning alone inside his tent, unable to sleep he had already sworn that from now on, whenever he traveled any real distance, Siniang absolutely had to come with him.

It was easy to go from frugality to luxury.

Going back from luxury to frugality was difficult.

The Blind Man had the miserable job.

He had to remain behind and handle the enormous pile of affairs as chief steward.

As for Xue San and A’Ming neither had advanced yet.

So whenever Zheng Fan went out, he preferred bringing them along.

Who knew when an opportunity might suddenly appear?

For once, the Demon Child was left behind.

He needed time to recover.

The previous night had squeezed him far too hard, and in the short term he would be unable to contribute much even if Zheng Fan carried him along.

So he was left at home to watch the children.

With Sha Tuo Queshi now sunk into deep sleep, Tian Tian also needed someone constantly nearby.

Relying only on armored guards around the perimeter was never enough to make anyone completely comfortable.

The Commandery Princess remained inside her carriage.

The difference was when she arrived, she had presumably been sitting.

Now, as she left she was lying flat.

Seventh Uncle personally drove the carriage.

The Commandery Princess’s attendants continued surrounding it as before.

Because they had a carriage in the convoy, their speed naturally could not be very fast.

Quite a few days passed before Fengxin City finally appeared ahead.

Count Zheng did not find the journey especially boring.

If anything, it felt more like going out on an excursion.

During the day, he could use scouting the surroundings as an excuse to ride out and hunt.

At night, when he slept in the tent, Siniang was there beside him.

Comfortable as hell.

When the walls of Fengxin City finally came into view someone riding a Pi Beast had already galloped out from beneath the walls.

Because nobody had been informed beforehand, the guards at the front of the convoy were startled at first.

But once they saw the armor on the rider and the Pi Beast beneath him, they immediately relaxed.

The newcomer was Li Fusheng.

“Qian’er!

“Qian’er!”

Li Fusheng was, in many ways, an extremely pure man.

Normally, when nothing was happening, he liked tucking both hands into his sleeves and looked like some old farmer.

When battle began, provided circumstances allowed it, he would inevitably find some way to bathe himself in blood like a lunatic.

But at this moment he looked no different from an elder frantic with concern for a younger member of the family.

The instant he learned something had happened to the Commandery Princess, he became unbearably anxious.

The Marquis of Zhenbei had seven adopted sons.

Aside from Qingshuang, who never changed his surname, all the others officially bore the surname Li.

But because their ages varied so widely, members of the next generation addressed them differently depending on the individual.

Some the Commandery Princess called Elder Brother.

Others—

Uncle.

Li Fusheng was obviously an uncle.

Seventh Uncle stepped forward and saluted Li Fusheng.

“My lord.

“The Commandery Princess is still unconscious.”

The implication was simple.

Do not disturb her.

Li Fusheng drew in a deep breath.

He knew he should not vent his temper on Seventh Uncle.

So he could only plant his hands on his hips and ask irritably:

“What exactly happened?

“How did she end up like this?

“When I heard earlier that Qian’er was coming this way, I was planning to ask the Marquis for a few days’ leave and visit Snow Sea Pass after a while.

“How did she suddenly become unconscious?”

“My lord, for the sake of the Commandery Princess’s reputation, it would be better to discuss this after she has been settled.”

Once the words reached that point—

Li Fusheng could only nod.

He waved his hand.

“Then hurry and enter the city.

“I’ll go ask the Marquis to come examine Qian’er afterward.”

“Yes.”

The convoy entered the city.

The eight hundred cavalry led by Zheng Fan, however, needed to be settled inside the military camp outside the walls.

Li Fusheng turned around and immediately found Zheng Fan.

He stepped forward and punched Zheng Fan directly in the chest.

Zheng Fan hurriedly raised a hand to block.

*Bang!*

Li Fusheng had put some force into the strike.

Count Zheng blocked it, but his body still slid half a step backward.

Seeing this, Li Fusheng burst out laughing.

“You brat!

“It’s only been two years, give or take, since you followed me south into Qian.

“Your cultivation has advanced damned quickly.

“Aiya, what a pity.

“If you’d started practicing martial arts from childhood, then—tsk, tsk.”

Talent.

Excellent talent.

Undeniably excellent talent.

Li Fusheng regarded Zheng Fan as one of his own, so naturally he felt a little regret on his behalf.

“It’s still not too late now, is it?” Zheng Fan asked with a smile.

“Hehehe.”

Li Fusheng hooked one arm around Zheng Fan’s shoulders.

He pressed Zheng Fan’s head down slightly until their faces were close together.

Then he lowered his voice.

“What exactly happened to Qian’er?

“How did she go unconscious the moment she reached your place?”

“Maybe something happened along the road.

“She had only been at my residence for one night before the problem appeared.”

Zheng Fan could only answer vaguely.

“You know how exalted the Commandery Princess’s status is.

“There should be plenty of people watching her.

“And the Tianduan Mountains are full of spirit beasts too.

“Who knows?

“Maybe some great demon or strange spirit did something.”

“Alas.

“That truly is damned strange.”

“Exactly.

“Oh, right.

“How are things at Zhennan Pass lately?”

Zheng Fan immediately changed the subject.

“Those bastards are cowards.

“Thunder loud enough to shake the sky, rain barely enough to wet the ground.

“They refuse to come out.

“It’s driving me insane.

“I’m honestly tempted to go attack the fortress.”

“Don’t be impulsive about that.

“Yupan City wasn’t even as strong as Zhennan Pass.”

If Yupan City had not run short of food it genuinely would have been difficult to take in the end.

The Yan Army had never excelled at siege warfare.

Or rather siege warfare simply cost far too much.

“You brat.

“Last time, during the feigned attack on Yupan City, I remember plenty of the siege equipment was built by your people.

“Any ideas this time?”

“We should still follow the Marquis’s intention.

“My side has already begun preparing.”

There was another reason Zheng Fan had brought Xue San along this time.

If they truly needed to attack a fortress having Xue San nearby would make things enormously more convenient.

After all, Zheng Fan had come this time to ask the Marquis of Jingnan to bend the rules for him.

He ought to show some sincerity.

Gold and silver would be meaningless.

So instead he could present the Marquis with a dwarven master craftsman.

“Right.

“Better to prepare before the rain comes.

“Oh, and this time—”

“I brought wine.”

“Then we drink tonight.

“Once the Marquis has examined Qian’er and we know nothing serious is wrong, the two of us will have a proper few cups.

“I’m not exaggerating.

“Ever since I drank the wine you sent over, I can’t swallow anything else.

“Tastes like horse piss.”

“You’re short on wine?”

Zheng Fan distinctly remembered that his seasonal gifts to men like Li Fusheng had never been forgotten.

Siniang managed those arrangements personally.

There was no chance she would make a mistake.

Li Fusheng smiled somewhat awkwardly.

“There are plenty of bastards watching my wine.

“By the time I divide it around, how could there still be enough left for me?

“Forget that for now.

“Since you’re here, I’ll take you to see the Marquis.”

Zheng Fan glanced back at Siniang and the others.

Then he followed Li Fusheng into the city.

One could clearly feel that Li Fusheng’s Zhenbei Army formation had now been almost completely absorbed by the Marquis of Jingnan.

The clearest sign was simple.

Whenever Li Fusheng referred to **the Marquis** he no longer needed any additional qualifier.

If even the chief commander himself behaved that way then the Assistant Generals, Guerrilla Generals, and ordinary soldiers beneath him required even less imagination.

Order reigned both inside and outside the city.

During the earlier chaos, Fengxin City had once served as the “bandit den” of the Situ Yi brothers.

Later, Zheng Fan himself had personally led troops to seize it once.

So even now, the city’s civilian population remained relatively sparse.

That actually made military operations inside the city more convenient.

Halfway there a mounted messenger galloped toward them and delivered a military order to Li Fusheng.

A Zhennan Pass cavalry formation had been spotted operating to the southeast.

The Marquis of Jingnan ordered Li Fusheng to lead troops out and destroy it.

Ever since General Xue Rang of Zhennan Pass raised a collateral descendant of the Situ Clan and restored Dacheng, the new State of Dacheng had never displayed any serious intention of marching back toward Yingdu and recovering its former territory.

Instead, it behaved almost passively.

At most, it dispatched small detachments from time to time to raid and harass the border, maintaining its presence.

This time, the enemy force seemed somewhat larger.

So the military order directly commanded Li Fusheng to personally oversee the extermination.

They could not be allowed to slip away the way earlier raiding parties had.

A military order was absolute.

Forget the Commandery Princess merely being unconscious.

Even if she were about to die from illness—

Li Fusheng still could not say a single word of refusal in the face of military orders.

So he merely glanced at Zheng Fan, cupped his hands, then immediately urged his Pi Beast away and left the city to assemble troops.

Zheng Fan released a long breath.

Then continued toward the headquarters of the Eastern Expedition Army.

At this point it could also be called the Marquis of Jingnan Residence.

Dujuan was dead.

Tian Tian was staying with Zheng Fan.

Truthfully whether one called the place a Marquis Residence hardly mattered anymore.

The Marquis of Jingnan was essentially a solitary man now.

There was no longer much difference between his army camp and his home.

After Zheng Fan declared his identity, nobody obstructed him.

He passed smoothly through the residence.

In the rear courtyard he saw Tian Wujing.

Old Tian had always possessed frightening resistance to pressure.

**Mountains and rivers could collapse before him without changing his expression** that saying could have been written specifically for him.

At this moment, the Marquis of Jingnan wore a white python robe.

He stood beside a pond feeding the fish.

Strictly speaking, wearing a python robe was no longer appropriate for him.

His princely title had already been stripped.

But nobody cared.

The moment Zheng Fan saw Tian Wujing he drew in a breath and dropped directly onto one knee.

“This subordinate general pays respects to the Marquis!”

“They all call me Prince,” Tian Wujing said, turning to look at him.

“As though they’re afraid I’ll become unhappy if they call me Marquis.”

“This subordinate still finds ‘Marquis’ more familiar.

“Rolls off the tongue.”

“How are things at Snow Sea Pass?”

“Thanks to the Marquis’s blessing, everything is going well above and below.

“This winter should pass comfortably enough.”

“You never seem capable of starving anywhere.”

“The Marquis knows.

“This subordinate used to run a small business.

“I became accustomed to calculating every coin and living carefully.”

Tian Wujing nodded.

Then scattered the remaining fish feed in his hand into the pond.

This entire place had once been the imperial compound of Situ Yi’s puppet court.

It did not possess golden bricks or glazed tiles, but the layout itself remained quite refined.

Back when Zheng Fan led troops here, he had merely killed the Situ brothers by drowning them in filth.

He had not imitated Xiang Yu and burned the place down.

Before setting out, both Seventh Uncle and Zheng Fan had sent messengers ahead to Fengxin City.

Because the Commandery Princess’s carriage slowed the main convoy, they had also dispatched a lone rider every two days along the road to report their progress.

Barring some unexpected problem—

Tian Wujing should already know what had happened.

Tian Wujing looked at Zheng Fan.

“Have you eaten?”

“Not yet, Marquis.”

“Eat with me in a while.”

“Yes, Marquis.”

“Was Qian’er falling unconscious your doing?”

“Uh...

“This...”

“Do you want me to wake her?”

“For... for the moment...

“For the moment...”

“Oh.

“Then I won’t.”

————

[End of Chapter 411]