Chapter 834: The Advance

“Yo, Yihan! When are you going out to pick up treasure again? Take your cousins with you next time!”

“Yihan, invite your granduncle for a drink! I want the old yellow wine Widow Cui brews at the village entrance.”

“Quite the commotion at night, eh, Yihan? Just like your uncle when I was young! Hahahaha!”

Teng Yihan walked alone along the narrow village road.

The people of Teng Family Village were unusually warm toward him now.

This young man, once regarded throughout the village as slow, wooden, and not very bright, had volunteered when everyone else tried to avoid the county yamen’s levy.

He went to transport grain, military supplies, weapons, and armor for Qian.

He became a laborer.

People said the armies of Qian and Chu were fighting Yan troops in Liang to the east.

Even villagers living in remote countryside knew how terrifying Yan soldiers were.

Who would willingly go anywhere near a matter like that?

Fortunately, the Ruler of Zhao’s decree had not truly reached as far as Teng Family Village.

Most of the laborers had been levied from eastern Zhao to serve the Qian armies.

Rumor said many Zhao men there wailed miserably when yamen runners and soldiers came to drag them away.

Without whips across their backs and blades pointed at their throats, those men probably could not have been pulled from home at all.

After all... who wanted to become a ghost beneath a Yan saber?

Against that background, Teng Yihan volunteered.

He hurried to sign himself up as a laborer and went to Sanshan Pass between Zhao and Liang.

The village elders mocked him for having a brain truly kicked by a donkey.

His father had gained a son late in life and named him Yihan, “at last, one Han.”

Now, they said, that one remaining line of incense was about to be cut off too.

Who could have imagined... the Yan army that had seemed almost invincible would actually suffer a catastrophic defeat in Liang?

People said the dead and wounded were beyond counting.

Yan corpses had nearly filled Wenxin Lake.

After the battle, Teng Yihan came back alive.

Not only had he received a reward, rumor said he had also scavenged quite a few valuables from dead Yan soldiers across the battlefield.

He had left empty-handed.

When he returned, he led a mule.

A woman sat on it.

Her hair was messy and covered most of her face.

When people called to her, she did not respond.

Several heavy sacks were tied across the mule as well.

Someone well informed said that while passing through the nearby market town on his return journey, Teng Yihan had even asked the price of an ox.

That meant he wanted to buy an ox.

And if he meant to buy an ox, naturally he intended to buy land too.

He must already have set aside the money for land.

Otherwise, what use was buying an ox?

The village fool had struck it rich.

He was going to become a landlord!

On the day he returned, Teng Yihan’s shabby ancestral thatched house suddenly received the enthusiastic friendship of half the village.

People asked questions.

Touched things.

Looked around.

Renewed every relationship they could claim.

Today, all the young men of the village had come and chatted with Teng Yihan for a long time.

After seeing them off, Teng Yihan went inside.

He took a basin to the stove, scooped in warm water, draped a towel across the rim, then carried it over to the woman.

She sat beside the bed.

Her hair had been combed.

A scar crossed her face.

She looked around thirty.

Not old.

But the scar was far too striking.

Far too ugly.

Which made her cheap.

Teng Yihan wrung out the towel and handed it over.

The woman accepted it and began wiping her face.

Then Teng Yihan brought over the coarse yellow buns he had kept warm on the stove, along with half a bowl of pickled vegetables.

He had not been willing to take them out while the villagers were visiting.

Afterward, he went into the courtyard.

A washed Black Dragon Banner hung there drying from a pole along the earthen wall.

The fabric was excellent.

He had scavenged that from the battlefield too.

Teng Yihan stared at the banner for a long time, wondering what he might use it for.

Then... the sound of a bowl shattering came from inside.

Teng Yihan walked back in.

The bowl of pickled vegetables had fallen.

Pickles were scattered across the ground.

“Gone bad,” the woman said.

The pickles had spoiled.

They stank.

Teng Yihan bent down.

He scraped the pickles from the floor with his hands, then picked up the broken pieces of the bowl and set them aside.

They could still be used later to scrape taro.

“They’re not bad. That’s just how they smell.”

The woman shook her head.

“They’re bad.”

Teng Yihan sighed.

“Eat the bun.”

“Dry.”

Teng Yihan went to pour water and brought it over.

The woman ate the bun with water.

Teng Yihan squatted nearby and watched.

She glanced at him.

“What did those people come here for?”

“War again. The yamen is levying people.”

Clearly, the young men of Teng Family Village wanted to follow Teng Yihan this time.

Follow him to pick up scraps.

Follow him to make money.

The woman looked at Teng Yihan.

“You’re going again?”

By now, after being bought and brought home, she knew everything about his recent past.

Teng Yihan nodded.

“One trip earns as much as five years digging food from the dirt.”

And in those five years, one still had to eat and spend.

“Idiot.”

The woman spat out the word directly.

Teng Yihan nodded.

“If I weren’t stupid, why would I have bought you?”

He admitted his mind was not especially sharp.

He had admitted it since childhood.

On the road back from Sanshan Pass, he had originally intended to buy an ox.

Then he encountered a broker.

She had been standing among a group of women with her hands bound.

She called to him:

“You. Buy me.”

Teng Yihan heard her.

So he took the money intended for the ox and bought her instead.

The men traveling with him laughed at his stupidity.

The woman’s face was scarred.

Frighteningly ugly.

Fine, buy her if you wanted.

But the idiot had not even bargained.

The broker must have laughed himself sick afterward!

The woman tossed the remaining half of her bun onto the dirt before Teng Yihan.

Teng Yihan picked it up.

He brushed off the dirt.

Then broke off pieces and ate them.

The woman began washing her hands.

“Yan is coming again.”

Teng Yihan nodded.

“Probably. War’s coming again.”

“You cannot go,” the woman said. “If you go, you die.”

Teng Yihan smiled.

“Yan men are people too. An arrow hits them, a saber cuts them, they bleed and die.”

In truth, Teng Yihan deliberately made it sound simple.

He had seen the battlefield after the killing ended.

It had looked like Avici Hell.

But he had personally witnessed Yan soldiers defeated and killed.

So the fear inside him was no longer as strong.

People always said Yan men were terrifying.

Heh.

They could lose too, couldn’t they?

Besides... he was only a laborer.

He would not be fighting.

When the woman saw his expression, she flung the wet towel straight into his face.

A red stripe appeared across Teng Yihan’s cheek.

He still did not become angry.

He simply picked up the towel and put it back.

His father had once told him:

Only the most useless kind of man lost his temper with women at home.

Teng Yihan knew he was stupid.

But he did not think he was useless.

The woman frowned.

This man, from whom ten blows could not beat out one fart, seemed to depress her deeply.

Even so, she asked:

“Will you listen to me?”

“Yes.”

Ever since she told him to buy her, from the road all the way home, he had always listened.

The money for the ox... bought her.

The money for the land... bought the mule.

Because she said her feet hurt and she did not want to walk.

“Yan lost for the first time. With Yan temper, they should invite their Prince Pingxi to come out. The man leading the army this time should be Prince Pingxi himself.”

“Oh. Heard of him. Very formidable.”

“So don’t go. If you die, who will wait on me?”

“All right.”

“You’re not going?”

“Not going.”

“Good.”

For once, a smile appeared on the woman’s face.

Then... the smile froze.

Because she saw ripples spreading across the water in the basin before her.

The ground itself seemed to be trembling faintly.

Teng Yihan noticed and stood.

He made to go outside and look.

The woman screamed immediately:

“Shut the door! Don’t go outside!”

Teng Yihan did not understand why.

He badly wanted to see what had come.

But he was obedient.

His father had said:

You are this stupid. When you finally get a wife, listen to her properly. Any woman willing to follow you has already suffered enough.

The Zhao man shut the door.

When he turned around... he saw the woman open an old chest left by his father with practiced movements.

Supposedly, it had once been part of his mother’s dowry.

She threw the winter quilts out.

Then climbed inside the chest herself.

A moment later... she looked at Teng Yihan, who was still standing outside it.

Teng Yihan bared his teeth and smiled.

He picked up the hoe leaning in the corner and stood there holding it.

“If anyone comes inside later, you are not allowed to fight. Hear me?”

The woman gave the order.

Teng Yihan nodded.

“If people come in and want something, let them take it. Do not stop them. Understand?”

“Understand.”

“Even if they want me, do not stop them. Understand?”

Teng Yihan did not answer.

The woman said sternly:

“I’m ugly. You won’t lose anything!”

Teng Yihan shook his head.

“You’re pretty.”

The woman actually laughed from anger.

Outside... the sound of hooves came in wave after wave.

Like a storm tide.

Endless.

At the same time... screams rose one after another.

“Yan! It’s Yan!”

Someone outside shouted.

Then came a scream.

Inside the chest, the woman’s face began turning pale.

It really was...

Yan.

Then... she began muttering:

“How can they have arrived this fast? How can they possibly be this fast? Before troops move, grain and fodder must move first. They cannot possibly... unless...”

She immediately stared at Teng Yihan.

“Quick! Take the grain you bought and put it in the courtyard!”

Teng Yihan walked over.

He shouldered two sacks of grain, opened the door, carried them into the courtyard, then returned and shut the door again.

The courtyard gate stood open.

The young men who had visited earlier had not bothered closing it behind them.

Of course... with earthen walls this low, whether the gate was closed made little difference.

Teng Yihan leaned his back against the house door and looked toward the woman still hiding inside the chest.

He grinned.

“I hid one small sack of white flour for you to eat.”

The woman could not be bothered answering.

She withdrew her head.

The lid dropped shut.

Inside the chest... one person curled up.

Outside it... one man stood.

The screams beyond the house came sparsely at first.

Then densely.

First far away.

Then closer.

At last, after a chain of screams erupted from the neighboring house, the woman pushed open the chest lid.

She understood.

The Yan were killing hard.

She cursed:

“Damn the Ruler of Zhao! Damn the Ruler of Zhao!”

During the Battle of Liang, Wei and Qi had only sealed their passes.

Only Zhao had actively entered the war and chosen to join it.

Because a Commandery Princess of Qian was going to marry the Ruler of Zhao.

Now...

Yan’s fury had begun spilling into Zhao.

...

SLASH!

Chen Xianba cut down an old man holding a firewood knife.

Zheng Man pulled his saber from the chest of the old man’s son.

Liu Dahu held his own saber.

A trace of struggle showed across his face.

Behind them... armored soldiers rushed into the house and began carrying out grain.

Chen Xianba sheathed his saber.

He walked to Liu Dahu.

Glared at him.

Then growled:

“If you dare say these aren’t soldiers, they’re commoners, and now you can’t bear it, I’ll break your leg myself and turn you into a wounded man so you can withdraw to the rear! Your father’s face means nothing to me!”

Liu Dahu looked at Chen Xianba.

He shook his head.

“Do I kill her?”

Liu Dahu’s saber pointed toward an old woman trembling in the corner.

“Heh-heh.”

Chen Xianba laughed.

“No need. The Prince’s order is clear. Kill without mercy only those who dare obstruct our army’s requisition of grain.”

Liu Dahu glared back at Chen Xianba.

He could feel that this mighty young commander had just looked down on him.

Zheng Man walked over with a grin.

He punched Liu Dahu lightly in the chest.

“Dahu has a good heart.”

Chen Xianba spat onto the ground.

“Heh. I heard your mother once fled with you and your granny to Shengle City when you were little, and the Prince protected all of you. Since you suffered hardship as a child, you should understand...”

Liu Dahu interrupted:

“That’s why I think they’re pitiful.”

THUD!

Chen Xianba kicked Liu Dahu to the ground.

Zheng Man was skilled.

Liu Dahu had received physical conditioning and breathing methods from the Sword Saint since childhood and was skilled too.

But compared with this fisherman’s son from a Yan village... neither was enough.

Back when the two of them were still students in the academy... this fisherman’s son had already taken the head of a Chu Pillar of State.

Chen Xianba’s boot pressed down on Liu Dahu’s chest.

His saber sheath touched the earth.

He lowered his head.

Looked at the boy beneath him.

Then said:

“I am Lieutenant Commander of the personal guard camp. Either go home and cry... or obey my orders! Pitiful? Pitiful? You pity these Zhao people. Then who pities Count Huwei and all the Great Yan soldiers who died in Liang? Do you know how short this army is on baggage and grain? If the grain runs out, how are we supposed to fight? And if we lose this battle... you just watch. When the Qian-Chu coalition charges through South Gate Pass, see whether they show any mercy to you Jin people!”

Liu Dahu looked up at Chen Xianba.

“I only think they’re pitiful. But I know what I must do. I know when I should draw my saber too!”

“I don’t permit you to think it! Treasure this. Right now... your saber is falling on them. Not their saber upon your mother and grandmother. This is the world. This is what the world looks like! Now tell me loudly. Do you understand?”

“I understand!”

“Good. Next time, do not even let your eyes show one damned thing that makes me uncomfortable. Understand?”

“Understood!”

Chen Xianba withdrew his foot.

He was an extremely proud person.

That pride had only become more unrestrained after he reached eastern Jin, put on armor, and fought beneath Garrison Commander Jin Shuke at Zhennan Pass.

Before the Prince... he was naturally obedient beyond measure.

Because from the bottom of his heart he revered and adored the Prince.

Toward those below him... he was tyrannical.

“Move. Next house!”

Liu Dahu climbed up.

He did not even bother brushing the dirt from his clothes.

He immediately followed.

When the group reached the next household...

Chen Xianba suddenly froze at the Black Dragon Banner hanging on the earthen wall.

Then he laughed.

“Fuck me. This one understands the situation. They even hung our banner already.”

The earthen wall was low.

Standing outside it, they could also see the two sacks of grain in the courtyard.

Chen Xianba kicked the gate open.

He entered.

Then gave Zheng Man and Liu Dahu a look.

The two stepped forward.

Each shouldered one sack of grain.

“Move!”

Chen Xianba did not kick down the house door.

He waved and turned to leave.

Inside...

Teng Yihan watched through a crack in the window.

Seeing the Yan soldiers depart, he finally released a long breath.

...

Not far away...

Zheng Fan stood in black armor.

The Sword Saint stood beside him.

“What? Your son got kicked. Hurts?”

The Sword Saint shook his head.

“I thought that boy spoke well.”

“That doesn’t sound like your style.”

“I’ve already forgotten what my old style even was. Besides, is this really your style?”

“When I’m at home, perhaps I still possess a little taste for sentimental refinement. After gnawing a pig trotter clean, I might even recite some line about cherishing moths enough to shade the lamp. But once I’m on a battlefield... I do not allow myself even one trace of hypocrisy.”

“I heard Hero Chen once chased you down.”

“That was a misunderstanding.”

Back when Hero Chen traveled through the Three Frontiers, he passed a small village.

The people there treated him to a bowl of plain noodles.

When he passed through again later... the entire village had been slaughtered.

In truth, some minor Qian commander had killed civilians and claimed their heads as Yan military merit.

Hero Chen mistakenly believed Zheng Fan had done it.

So he traveled into Yan and attempted to assassinate Zheng Fan at an inn outside Yin City.

“And now?” the Sword Saint asked.

“In the end, you still care. You care because my personal guard commander kicked your son.”

“I don’t.”

“No. You do.”

“Heh.”

“The people who want to kill me will not stop wanting to kill me merely because there is slightly less sin on my hands. Even if I were a saint... morally perfect... ethically spotless... so long as I sit in the position I occupy today, many people would still want me dead. Instead of wondering which people want to kill me... it is more useful to think about how to make them afraid to come. And unable to come.”

Prince Pingxi bent down.

He lightly patted the scabbard of Longyuan.

“A pity I’m not Tian Wujing. I don’t have the ability to make every assassin in all Xia retreat at the mention of my name. But I’m not that far behind... am I?”

The Sword Saint said:

“At this point, do you really still need to say things like that?”

“I may burn enough incense normally, but I still like clutching the Buddha’s foot a little tighter at the last moment.”

Zheng Fan lifted one hand.

The Dispatch Officer behind him immediately stepped forward for orders.

“Pass the command. The vanguard advances toward Zhao’s capital. The Central Army camps here today. The Rear Army spreads out and gathers grain, provisions, and military supplies from the surrounding countryside.”

“Yes!”

“You’re going to Zhao’s capital?” the Sword Saint asked.

Zheng Fan shook his head.

“I’d like to meet the Ruler of Zhao. Unfortunately, I don’t have that much idle time. By now he must already know I’ve entered his realm as a guest. I’ll feint at his capital first. Let him pull the garrison from Sanshan Pass back toward the capital and clear the road for us.”

“I’ve gone campaigning with you more than a few times now. Usually everything is done in a mad rush. This time, you seem to be dragging things out.”

“No choice. Gathering supplies is too slow.”

“No. It isn’t that simple.”

“Oh? You noticed?”

“If you want to say it, say it. If you don’t, I can live without hearing it.”

Zheng Fan laughed.

“It’s actually simple. Just like playing a board game. I’ve placed my piece. Now I need to see where the other side wants to place theirs. If I’m going to know where to move next... I have to give them time to answer.”

While Zheng Fan and the Sword Saint were still speaking...

Chen Xianba returned at the head of Zheng Man, Liu Dahu, and a group of armored soldiers.

Under Chen Xianba’s orders... crossbowmen had already taken positions around three sides of the earthen walls.

Shield-bearers stood in the first rank.

The other armored soldiers pressed close behind them.

This was the formation an army used to deal with a genuine Third Grade expert.

Clearly... the Black Dragon Banner and the two sacks of grain placed conspicuously in the courtyard had not truly persuaded Chen Xianba that the people inside were simply “understanding the situation.”

In Chen Xianba’s mind... the house probably concealed some sort of hidden master.

So he left first.

Then immediately gathered troops and returned fully prepared.

Soon...

Chen Xianba personally took a shield and led armored soldiers through the door.

The expected explosion of blood qi never appeared.

Prince Pingxi craned his neck and waited for a while too.

Nothing happened.

Then Chen Xianba led out one man and one woman.

The man looked honest.

Almost pathetic.

The woman... tsk.

Good figure.

But that scar across her face...

This was the first time Yan troops had entered Zhao on a large scale.

Teng Family Village was not some region fought over endlessly by both sides.

If the Yan seized it today and Zhao recaptured it tomorrow, back and forth enough times, then villagers making both Yan and Zhao flags and hanging whichever one suited the current occupier would be understandable.

But this household... was far too “advanced.”

Chen Xianba began beating Teng Yihan with his saber sheath, demanding to know where the Black Dragon Banner came from.

Teng Yihan’s face was soon covered in blood.

He shouted that he had picked it up.

Where?

Outside Sanshan Pass.

The Yan army already possessed tremendous anger toward Zhao, Zhao territory, and Zhao people.

When Teng Yihan admitted he had once served as a frontline laborer... that became an ironclad crime.

Chen Xianba drew his saber.

He intended to finish him.

So what if the man knew how to read the situation?

You deserved to die.

When the woman saw Chen Xianba draw the blade, she immediately shouted:

“I want to see Prince Pingxi! I want to see Prince Pingxi!”

Chen Xianba stopped.

He turned and studied her.

A woman they had just dragged out from inside a chest somehow knew their Prince was nearby?

The woman seemed to see the question in his eyes.

She said:

“The armor on your body, and the armor worn by the two behind you, covers brocade uniforms patterned with Flying Fish. Those are worn by Prince Pingxi’s personal guards. If you are here... then Prince Pingxi himself must be nearby! I want to see His Highness. I have an urgent matter to report!”

“Heh.”

Chen Xianba snorted.

He reached out and seized the woman’s jaw.

The previously pathetic Teng Yihan, who had not fought back even while being beaten, suddenly began struggling.

Two armored soldiers immediately forced him down.

“Who do you think you are? An urgent matter to report?”

The woman stared directly at Chen Xianba.

Then said one word at a time:

“Ask your Prince whether the one they brought back from the snowfields... is still locked up.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

Chen Xianba raised his saber sheath, preparing to strike her.

But Liu Dahu, standing behind him, reached out and caught his wrist.

There were some things...

Chen Xianba did not know.

Liu Dahu did.

Not only did Liu Dahu know... his father had once punished him with an entire day of horse stance because of it.

“Dahu?”

“Inform the Prince.”

Liu Dahu’s expression was extremely serious.

Seeing this, Chen Xianba lowered the saber.

He nodded.

Then waved for the armored soldiers to release the woman.

The woman’s chest rose and fell.

Her expression shifted repeatedly.

She turned toward Teng Yihan.

“You bought me from a broker. Now I saved your life. We owe each other nothing.”

Teng Yihan only grinned stupidly.

When Zheng Fan and the Sword Saint approached... the woman raised her head.

She looked at Prince Pingxi.

He was far younger than she had imagined.

Before Prince Pingxi could speak... the woman pointed toward Teng Yihan in the corner.

Then said:

“I have nothing to say. You can kill him now. Because he and I no longer owe each other anything.”

[End of Chapter 834]