Chapter 38: Chapter 38

Liangzhou City, The Little Tavern.

Zhao Jiu had long since heard the hoofbeats coming from the South Gate with perfect clarity.

The Little Tavern stood in the southeastern corner of Liangzhou, not particularly far from the South Gate. With his Third Rank cultivation and External Release of True Qi, Zhao Jiu could not blanket an area of more than a hundred li with his senses as Eunuch Chen could, but perceiving everything within ten or twenty li was not especially difficult.

For the past two days, Zhao Jiu had left early and returned late, purchasing more than two hundred jin of rice in small batches from different grain shops. If he ate it alone, it would last him a month or two without any difficulty.

However, he had been unable to buy vegetables or meat, which left him somewhat frustrated.

It made sense when he thought about it. The New Year was approaching, and any family fortunate enough to possess a little meat would save it for the celebrations. Who would be willing to sell it?

Moreover, the heavy snow had not stopped. There was hardly a trace of green anywhere in the entire city, much less fresh vegetables.

Knowing that something could not be helped and accepting it as fate was also a form of cultivation.

If he could not buy any, then so be it. Although martial artists required a considerable amount of meat, going without it for ten days or half a month would not kill him.

A distant BOOM came from the South Gate as the locking bar shattered.

Zhao Jiu frowned, and his heart sank.

He was secretly astonished.

That rabble had actually managed to break into the city?

Before Zhao Jiu could think further, several sets of hoofbeats thundered along the street. They were immediately followed by the rumble of carriages and the disordered pounding of countless footsteps.

Although the movement was chaotic, the directions were clear.

Within Zhao Jiu’s perception, the mountain bandits who had entered the city divided into three groups and raced in three different directions.

His thoughts suddenly paused.

He felt as though he had grasped something in the dark, but the idea remained vague and indistinct. Then he raised his head and saw the lantern flame swaying and flickering violently in the wind.

“So that is what happened.”

Zhao Jiu abruptly understood.

The fires throughout the city several days ago had most likely been started by spies hidden inside Liangzhou. Their precise objective remained unclear, but they had probably intended to throw the city into chaos.

Otherwise, Liangzhou’s gates would never have been breached so easily.

Had the defenders on the city walls been able to hear Zhao Jiu’s thoughts, they would undoubtedly have shouted, “What an honest fellow!”

Yun Alley off North Street was home to Liangzhou’s Assistant Prefect and Deputy Prefect.

The Assistant Prefect oversaw the troops and possessed supervisory authority, while the Deputy Prefect was mainly responsible for salt and grain. One could say that nearly everything happening tonight fell under the jurisdiction of those two men.

A side chamber in the Lu Residence.

Assistant Prefect Lu and Deputy Prefect Xu sat opposite each other. Only a single candle had been lit in the spacious room, its weak flame illuminating their faces.

Assistant Prefect Lu looked deeply anxious and glanced toward the window from time to time.

Deputy Prefect Xu, however, remained perfectly composed. He drank tea and ate refreshments as though everything happening outside had nothing to do with him.

“Old Xu, you oversee the salt and grain, while I command the troops. If Liangzhou falls and the grain is lost, neither of us will be able to bear the consequences!”

Assistant Prefect Lu was sweating profusely. He continuously wiped his forehead, and the tea he drank seemed to turn into sweat before it even reached his stomach.

Deputy Prefect Xu calmly brushed the floating tea leaves aside with the lid of his cup. After blowing on the tea twice, he slowly took a sip.

“Ah, excellent tea.”

He then lifted the copper kettle and added more water to Assistant Prefect Lu’s cup.

“Old Lu, try it. This Pre-Qingming Silver Thread Tea cost me a considerable sum.”

“Oh, Old Xu!”

Assistant Prefect Lu was far too anxious to drink tea. He rose and paced quickly across the room. Just as he was about to push open the door and leave, Deputy Prefect Xu stopped him.

“Old Lu, when did we first begin serving together?”

Deputy Prefect Xu set down his teacup. Perhaps some distant memory had suddenly occurred to him, for he asked the question without warning.

“What has gotten into you, Old Xu? We traveled to the Capital together for the Imperial Examination in the second year of the Jingde Era. You placed twenty-eighth in the Second Class, while I placed forty-first. We entered the Hanlin Academy together. Have you forgotten all of that?”

“In the fourth year of Jingde, you became an Archivist, while I became an Attendant Scribe. It has been twenty years!”

Although Assistant Prefect Lu did not understand why he was asking, he thought for a moment before answering sincerely. His voice carried concern for his old friend.

Deputy Prefect Xu stood and gripped Assistant Prefect Lu’s hands with both of his own. The leisurely composure he had displayed while drinking tea vanished completely.

“Tongsu, do you trust me?”

Assistant Prefect Lu’s personal name was Lu Jian, and his courtesy name was Tongsu.

When he heard his old friend address him by his courtesy name, countless memories of their shared past flashed through his mind.

He remained silent for a moment before answering.

“Old Xu, we have weathered forty years of storms together. How could I not trust you?”

“Good. It is enough that you trust me.”

“Tongsu, we cannot go outside. Neither of us can!”

“In a moment, send your Tiger Tally to the Military Headquarters Yamen and order them to assemble the troops, but tell them to wait until the situation becomes clear.”

“If the bandits are merely here to seize grain, we need only recover several carts to escape blame.”

“If they intend to pillage the city for three days, we will wait until they have begun and then lead the troops to encircle and suppress them. Regardless of whether we succeed or fail, we will have earned merit without incurring fault!”

“I have already sent men to observe them. They will report back as soon as they learn anything.”

“If we go out now, then regardless of what the bandits intend, we will be unable to escape accusations of concealing information and neglecting our duties. They might even accuse us of colluding with the bandits and place all the blame from these past several years on our heads!”

“You are a Sixth-Rank official, and I am a Fifth-Rank official. Even if both our heads fell, it would not be enough to atone for such a grave crime!”

Deputy Prefect Xu spoke at length, but every word was sincere, and his speech grew increasingly urgent. He gently tried to reassure his old friend, yet his grip continued tightening, and concern covered his face.

He truly feared that his old friend’s impatient temperament would lead him into disaster.

Lu Jian stared wide-eyed at his old friend. He almost wanted to kowtow to him on the spot.

Instead, he could only tighten his grip on Deputy Prefect Xu’s hands and sniff back his emotions.

“Ziqing, I will never forget this lifesaving kindness for as long as I live.”

Deputy Prefect Xu said nothing more. He merely nodded, helped Lu Jian into a Grand Tutor’s chair, poured him a cup of hot tea, and pushed it across the table.

In northwestern Liangzhou, a black shadow swept across the snow-covered eaves like a gust of wind, leaving no footprints behind.

It was Zhao Jiu.

Zhao Jiu did not know the mountain bandits’ objective, so he could only use the simplest method and follow their largest group from a distance.

The objectives of the smaller groups were unlikely to differ greatly from that of the main force. Following the largest group could not be wrong.

This group appeared to know exactly where it was going. It moved quickly, heading deeper into the remote parts of the city.

Although Zhao Jiu did not understand why, he continued following closely.

About seven or eight minutes later, Fei Ming pulled on his reins outside a Ruined Temple in northwestern Liangzhou.

He exchanged a glance with a man behind him. After the man nodded in confirmation, Fei Ming raised his hand and signaled for the others to stop.

“This is the place! Brothers, get inside and carry out the grain! Quickly! Quickly! Quickly!”

The men behind him had no time to rest before rushing into the temple.

Before long, sacks of grain were carried out and loaded onto the carts one after another. Soon, more than a dozen carts had been filled.

“How much is left?” Fei Ming asked anxiously.

“Big Brother, we will need at least thirty more carts! We do not have enough. We cannot move it all!”

A man who had just finished carrying a sack answered between gasps.

Fei Ming frowned.

He had never expected such a small, dilapidated temple to conceal so much grain.

“I will give you a horse. Go to Fei Shu and Xiong Wu and bring their carts here. Hurry! It will be difficult to leave once the government troops arrive.”

The man did not pause. He accepted the horse led over by another bandit, hastily mounted, and lashed it back along the road they had come from.

Zhao Jiu watched from a distant rooftop and was greatly startled.

He had suspected that grain might be stored here, but he had never imagined there would be so much. One batch had already been hauled away, yet an enormous quantity remained.

It seemed he had no choice but to intervene.

If these mountain bandits were allowed to carry away all the grain, Liangzhou would inevitably descend into chaos.

Once Liangzhou fell into chaos, Zhao Jiu’s identity would certainly be exposed.

He could not forget that he was still implicated in the major Imperial Envoy case.

While Zhao Jiu was still considering how to stop them, the additional grain carts arrived.

There were twenty of them.

“Not good.”

Zhao Jiu’s mind was a complete mess. These people were moving too quickly, and he had yet to devise a foolproof plan.

He could not simply charge out and kill them all, could he?

Had he possessed that kind of ability, would he have needed to hide here with his head tucked in like a turtle?

At the Lu Residence, a man dressed like a steward hurriedly pushed open the door to the side chamber.

“My lords, the Southwestern Granary and the Central Granary have both been emptied. Only the Northwestern Granary remains.”

Lu Jian nearly lost his grip on his teacup. He looked at Deputy Prefect Xu.

“Old Xu?”

“Go and assemble the troops immediately! We must recover at least half of the grain!”

Deputy Prefect Xu no longer looked calm or unruffled. He set down his teacup and barked, “If the Northwestern Granary is emptied as well, exile will be the lightest punishment we receive!”

“I will go with you. Even if we die, it is better for the two of us to die in Liangzhou than inside the Imperial Prison.”

Neither man had time to change into his official robes.

“Bring the horses!” they ordered the steward before hurrying outside.

Zhao Jiu sighed inwardly at his misfortune.

All he could do was hope that the government troops were already on their way.

Stopping so many men would be difficult.

The carts had already been fully loaded. Fei Ming decisively abandoned the grain that remained inside the temple.

“Forget the rest! Drive the carts! Move!”

The moment he shouted the final word, several Throwing Knives tore through the swirling snow and arrived in an instant.

The horses pulling the carts at the front let out shrill, anguished cries.

Their heads burst apart.

Without the horses to pull them, the carts rolled forward several paces before coming to a stop in the snow.

Fei Ming reacted quickly. He immediately ordered his men to pull the disabled carts aside and allow those behind them to pass first.

The carts whose horses had been killed were to be harnessed to new ones, while the remaining men drew their bows, nocked arrows, and vigilantly watched their surroundings.

Zhao Jiu could no longer concern himself with anything else.

He bent his knees slightly and circulated his True Qi. Borrowing the force beneath his feet, he leaped into the air, shattering the roof tiles below him.

While suspended in midair, Zhao Jiu drew his Tang Saber and roared.

The force of his voice blasted the surrounding snowflakes aside.

True Qi surged around him as Momentum merged into his saber technique. The attack instantly drained forty percent of all the True Qi in his body.

The second form of the Heavenly Origin Saber Art—

Heaven-Cleaving!

A long, narrow arc of Saber Qi slashed toward Fei Ming.

Zhao Jiu understood the principle of capturing the leader before dealing with his followers.

Fei Ming was still some distance from Zhao Jiu, but the crushing pressure in the air and the dazzling saber light made him feel as though he were suffocating.

He hurriedly clamped his legs against his horse, pulled hard on the reins, and tumbled from the saddle in a panic.

The men behind him were not so fortunate.

The True Qi carried the falling snow with it. From a distance, it appeared as nothing more than a vast sheet of white. Once it drew near, however, it resembled an enormous curved wave.

The Saber Qi swept past.

More than a dozen men were caught in its path, and both riders and horses were torn apart in an instant.

The men directly behind Fei Ming did not even have time to cry out. The moment the Saber Qi passed through them, they were severed cleanly in two.

The cuts were perfectly smooth.

A cloud of blood mist erupted into the snow.

“Third Rank!”

Fei Ming’s men stared in stunned disbelief.

Only an expert among the highest ranks could possess such terrifying power.

They raised their heads and searched for Zhao Jiu, but he was already nowhere to be seen.

The moment Fei Ming rolled from his horse, Zhao Jiu had propelled himself through the air with True Qi and fled several li away.

Fei Ming knew that the grain was the most important thing at that moment.

He forcibly suppressed his fear, stood in the snow, and shouted, “Move the grain! Hurry!”

Only then did his subordinates recover.

Some pushed the carts, while others drove the horses. Before long, several carts were already racing away amid pounding hoofbeats.

“Leave the grain behind, and your lives will be spared!”

Lu Jian could vaguely see men transporting grain through the snow. He was whipping his mount so fiercely that he almost seemed determined to ride it to death.

Without considering anything else, he shouted at the top of his voice.

In his haste, he had not assembled the full complement of troops. However, he could only bring however many men were available.

His life was more important.

Fei Ming no longer cared where Zhao Jiu was hiding.

He mounted his horse with his spear in hand, shouted, “Move the grain!” and charged toward the government troops.

The two forces slammed into each other.

Sabers and swords flashed as blood and flesh flew through the air.

Lu Jian had brought only about one thousand men.

Fortunately, Deputy Prefect Xu arrived in time and led his troops into the bandits’ flank, forcibly intercepting most of the grain carts.

Fei Ming also understood that a prolonged battle would mean certain death.

Alone with his horse and spear, he charged at the front. Abandoning the carts that had failed to escape, he led a group of men in carving a bloody path through the government troops before fleeing into the distance.

The clash lasted less than three quarters of an hour.

After Fei Ming broke through and escaped, Lu Jian did not pursue him. He ordered part of his force to return the recovered grain to the granaries, while the others were sent to secure the city gates and prevent the bandits from launching a sudden counterattack.

After nearly two hours of frantic activity, Liangzhou finally regained its calm.

However, the stench of blood continued to linger in the air.

Only then did the panic in the hearts of Liangzhou’s residents gradually subside.

Yet the snow falling ever more heavily from the sky seemed to foretell that Liangzhou City would not have an easy New Year.