SGSHE117

The seal in Cui Tong’s hand bore the carving of a four-clawed flying dragon, lifelike and majestic. Judging by its specifications, it was indeed a seal reserved for the crown prince.

Yet, the crown prince was still a thousand miles away, how could he have possibly transmitted such an order in just a few short days?

The seal must have been entrusted to Cui Tong beforehand to grant him the authority to act at his own discretion.

However, with the war currently underway, the military campaign took precedence over everything else.

Even if Cui Tong’s words carried official weight, Jing Heguang wouldn’t listen to a single syllable of them!

Jing Heguang said, “I’m not going.”

“Nothing is more important than the war right now, I cannot leave. If you want to rescue someone, go do it yourself!” As he spoke, Jing Heguang looked Cui Tong up and down.

Infiltrating Wucheng was a task demanding exceptional skill and difficulty.

The original owner possessed considerable martial talent and had endured the rigors of military life to hone formidable skills, including superb lightness skill.

As for Cui Tong, let alone sneaking silently into Wucheng, he wouldn’t even be able to reach the top of the city walls.

Cui Tong realized this himself. Jing Heguang’s scrutinizing gaze made his face flush with embarrassment.

Clutching the seal tightly, his face still flushed, he spoke with exasperation: “Heguang, surely you recognize what I’m holding. Let me be blunt: if Wucheng falls and something happens to Leyou, neither of us could bear the consequences!”

Xing Ming glanced at the seal and asked, “In what way could we not bear the consequences?”

Assuming Xing Ming didn’t understand, Cui Tong explained, “I won’t hide it from you: Leyou is someone the crown prince has claimed for himself. That is precisely why the prince entrusted this seal, a symbol of his authority, to me. With this seal in hand, it is as if the crown prince were here in person, you ought to obey my commands.”

Seeing that Xing Ming was actually engaging with him, Cui Tong felt a measure of relief. Jing Heguang had spent a long time in the army and possessed a rough, blunt nature, yet Xing Ming appeared to be anything but a coarse person.

To everyone’s surprise, Xing Ming spoke directly to Jing Heguang: “I won’t allow you to go either.”

Jing Heguang smiled. “I’ll listen to you.”

Cui Tong was both shocked and furious. He held the crown prince’s token of authority, yet neither Jing Heguang nor Xing Ming deigned to look him in the eye.

Jing Heguang had flatly refused him, while Xing Ming had deliberately asked questions just to toy with him.

Cui Tong’s face flushed crimson. “If you refuse to heed me, then just wait and see! See what consequences await you for your actions today!”

Unwilling to accept defeat, Cui Tong turned to leave.

“Wait a moment,” Xing Ming called out to him.

Cui Tong turned back, the anger still evident on his face.

Yet, thinking of Cui Leyou’s safety, he forced himself to calm down.

Cui Tong could not fathom it. They were incredibly close to Wucheng, and the strategic situation was clearly favorable, so why, then, was Jing Heguang unwilling to go and rescue Leyou?

His sister Leyou might not be a princess, but she was the shining jewel of the capital!

The poetry collections she penned were admired and acclaimed by countless people, the novel inventions she created had taken the entire Wu country by storm. Not to mention her immense kindness, at such a young age, she managed a home for the elderly and the destitute, truly, there was no one more benevolent.

Jing Heguang had watched Leyou grow up, how could he bear to let her suffer?

He must have found someone new and forgotten the old, bewitched by some vixen. As this thought crossed Cui Tong’s mind, his resentment extended to Xing Ming as well.

Xing Ming said, “Do you realize how many of our soldiers, our brothers-in-arms, we would lose on the battlefield if Heguang were to leave?”

Jing Heguang possessed immense strength and had played a pivotal role in the siege over the past few days.

With him present, the cost of breaching the city gates would be far lower.

Cui Tong thought for a moment and said, “We are extremely close to Wucheng now, it would take little more than a day to get there. There is plenty of time for him to rescue the captives and return! It won’t result in significant casualties.” It was merely a matter of taking Wucheng a day earlier or a day later.

Cui Tong was not a combat general, he was a military inspector.

The surprise force had swept through everything like a hot knife through butter, the campaign had gone so smoothly that, in Cui Tong’s eyes, the Jin people had become nothing more than paper tigers.

“The Jin were formidable back in the day,” he remarked, “but they are far weaker now.”

Xing Ming nearly laughed out loud.

“So, that person’s life matters, but the soldiers’ lives don’t?” Xing Ming scoffed. “It’s truly laughable. I’d advise a civil official like Inspector Cui to stop coming to the army camp and causing trouble.”

Xing Ming’s words were blunt, dripping with sarcasm and scorn.

Cui Tong was so furious his face burned, and the veins on the back of his hand bulged visibly.

He pointed his free hand at Xing Ming, ready to unleash a torrent of abuse.

But before he could utter a single word, Jing Heguang stuffed a filthy, tattered garment, picked up from the ground, into his mouth and bound his hands.

It all happened in the blink of an eye.

Cui Tong stood stunned, eyes wide, making muffled, incoherent noises.

Jing Heguang and Xing Ming exchanged a smile.

They shared a remarkable rapport. Not a word had been spoken, a mere glance, Jing Heguang waving the dirty garment, was enough for Xing Ming to grasp the plan and coordinate the move perfectly.

***

The two of them bound Cui Tong and led him to the tent of the commander, General Zhao.

General Zhao had just removed his boots, and the tent was thick with the stench of feet that hadn’t been aired out for three days.

When his personal guard announced Jing Heguang’s arrival, General Zhao hurriedly pulled his boots back on. “Show General Jing in.”

Jing Heguang marched Cui Tong inside, with Xing Ming following close behind.

General Zhao was dumbfounded: “General Jing, why have you tied up Lord Cui?!”

Jing Heguang reached into Cui Tong’s robes and produced a seal bearing the emblem of a four-clawed flying dragon.

“Lord Zhao, take a look at this.”

General Zhao examined it closely and frowned: “This is…this is a token of the crown prince?”

“Correct,” Jing Heguang nodded. “It certainly appears to be the crown prince’s token to me as well.”

Jing Heguang looked at Cui Tong: “Cui Tong used the crown prince’s token to order me to secretly advance to Wucheng and rescue a woman, claiming it was the crown prince’s command. But how could the crown prince’s order reach the army so quickly? It defies logic. Cui Tong must have fabricated the prince’s decree!”

General Zhao was somewhat bewildered, but he knew that, at a time like this, they absolutely could not do without Jing Heguang!

On a practical level, Jing Heguang was the person most familiar with the terrain and the situation. On a broader level, Jing Heguang’s valor served as a stabilizing force, an anchor, that put the soldiers’ minds at ease.

Thus, General Zhao agreed: “General Jing is right. Who knows who might have misled Inspector Cui? With the battle situation so critical, let’s tie him up for now and investigate later.”

Cui Tong: …

Cui Tong shouted furiously, but Jing Heguang had gagged him tightly.

No matter how hard he tried, only muffled ‘mmph-mmph’ sounds emerged.

Cui Tong was so angry his eyes turned red. In his heart, he prayed that Leyou would be blessed with good fortune and come to no harm.

For one thing, he feared the crown prince’s wrath, for another…he genuinely did not want anything bad to happen to the fairy-like Leyou.

In truth, the sounds he was straining to make were actually quite loud.

It was just that…

Jing Heguang: Couldn’t hear them.

Xing Ming: Couldn’t hear them.

General Zhao: I couldn’t hear them either.

***

That night.

Lights blazed across many parts of Wucheng.

King Li’s manor was the most brightly lit, as plans for the final line of defense were being deliberated there.

King Li had never imagined that the people of Wu, silent for sixteen years, would suddenly resurface with such ruthless intent, aiming to swallow up the very city he guarded.

After deploying his troops, the king summoned his most trusted confidants: “To know our troop dispositions so well, and to strike so swiftly that I had no time to maneuver…that is truly ruthless. Investigate this, find out who stole a look at the city defense maps!”

The men knelt on the ground, trembling with fear.

“Your highness, the study was guarded with the utmost strictness, not even a fly could have gotten in.”

“Indeed, your highness…”

Crash! King Li snatched up a teacup and smashed it violently against the floor. “Shut your mouths! Someone must have tampered with it, go and investigate. If you fail to find the culprit, bring me your heads!”

The king was a ruthless man, while organizing the defense and counterattack was the priority, he refused to let the saboteur go unpunished. Someone had dared to cross him, and he was determined to make them regret it.

After smashing the cup, the king turned back to consult with his advisors.

Beyond the impending battle, he also had to manage the large population of former Wu citizens within Wucheng.

With trouble looming from the outside, he could not afford any internal upheavals.

Amidst the brightly lit areas of Wucheng, people bustled about in a flurry of activity.

Yet, in the darkness, others lay sleepless as well.

Inside a dilapidated stable…

A gaunt, elderly man lay alongside several older children. Though there were no mosquitoes or insects that night, none of them could sleep, they all lay with their eyes wide open.

A child asked with a look of bewilderment, “Old Man Hu, I heard there’s a war.”

“That’s right,” the old man, Old Hu, nodded. “I heard…it’s the troops from Wu’s.”

The boy speaking wasn’t even sixteen yet, he had grown up constantly scrounging for scraps, watching many of his companions die along the way as their numbers dwindled.

The lad rolled over and asked curiously, “We used to be considered people of Wu, didn’t we? If they capture Wucheng, will our lives get any better? If things improve, if I can actually get enough to eat, then I’m hoping they take the city soon.”

“Who asked you to hope for that? You shameless little brat,” Old Hu scolded with a laugh. “Back in the day, life was good, you know, people would actually give you money when you begged.”

“Hey! That means we wouldn’t have to do such back-breaking work or eat worse than the horses, we could just get by on what we beg!”

The boy was daydreaming happily when Old Hu rapped him on the head.

“Keep your voice down, or you might lose your life.”

Old Hu was a groom for a wealthy family from the Jin’s, responsible for tending the horses.

Because the children weren’t very effective at their chores, they had been banished to the stables to sleep alongside Old Hu.

The air around them was foul, but they were used to it. They drifted off to sleep harboring a glimmer of hope.

Old Hu was the last to sleep, he found it hard to rest.

He wondered: if Wu country really did reclaim Wucheng, would he no longer have to be a slave?

He had once come from a family of proper horse breeders and had lived a good life. It had been so long, however, that he had almost forgotten what that life was like.

It was a quiet night.

The following night, the flames of war lit up the entire length of Wucheng’s city walls.

Amidst the thunderous roars of battle, everyone realized one thing, the troops from Wu’s had truly arrived.

The Jin troops were seized with panic, yet their formidable military discipline enabled them to rapidly establish a defensive line.

In contrast, the former subjects of Wu’s, who had endured years of hardship within the city, stood utterly dumbfounded, then, as the realization sank in, tears streamed down many faces.

Sixteen years.

Finally…they had come.