Chapter 217 What if

The prisoners of war thought they were being interrogated about important military matters of the Blue Feather Kingdom. The few lowly henchmen were filled with despair, thinking that even if they were beaten to death, they would not be able to provide any useful information.

He sighed inwardly, knowing that physical pain was inevitable.

The result was that they asked their captain personal questions.

This doesn't seem like a big deal that can't be discussed.

The prisoners of war looked at each other, guessing that their commander Lan Ying had reached a deal with the King of the Northern Frontier. They wanted to introduce Lan Ying to a potential marriage, so they wanted to find out about Lan Ying's personal relationships.

They tried to say the good things.

"Our general is a man of integrity. Although he likes to make a few jokes, he doesn't even have a woman in his household."

"Whoever marries our general is truly blessed. We have military prostitutes in our camp, which were originally meant for the general to enjoy first, but he never touches them."

"Yes, yes, quite a few girls have their eyes on General Lan, but our General Lan is devoted to serving the country, which is why he has delayed his marriage."

Lan Ying looked to be about twenty-five or twenty-six years old. At that age, not only was he unmarried, but according to these people, he had never even been close to a woman.

Meng Lingge noticed that these people's eyes were shifting, indicating that they were hiding something, so she had them separated and interrogated one by one.

With the statement that the man had revealed more than just this much, the group spilled out all the information they knew.

According to them, Lan Ying only talks the talk when it comes to romantic relationships; if the other person is serious, he runs away faster than anyone else.

Once, a newly arrived military prostitute sneaked into his tent at night. I heard that she only took off his pants and before she could do anything to him, he slit her throat with a knife.

On another occasion, a military colleague got him half-drunk and took him to a brothel to "deflower" him, insisting that he lose his virginity. However, he refused to undress and escaped from the brothel by climbing out of the window.

Over the years, he has rejected several eligible young women, and there are no maids in his mansion. People outside speculate that General Lan may have suffered serious injuries on the battlefield and is now impotent.

Upon hearing this, Meng Lingge was basically certain that Lan Ying was intersex.

Even if that's not the case, his body must have some kind of defect.

In the following days, the military camp was calm and peaceful. The generals of the Blue Feather Kingdom were imprisoned, and the Blue Feather Kingdom acted as if they knew nothing about it. General Leng of the other army outside the two armies also made no move.

However, beneath the calm surface lurks a deadly intent.

All three armies were secretly gathering intelligence, speculating on military situations, and formulating strategies. It was a turbulent and treacherous situation that was invisible to the naked eye.

For the first day or two, Wen Zhiming would occasionally visit Lan Ying, but later he only had people deliver meals on time and ignored Lan Ying's attempts to see him.

It only took Lan Ying about three days to go from feeling confident of victory to being hesitant, and then to feeling worried.

He originally thought that even if the King of the Northern Frontier disagreed with his deal, he would have no choice but to send him back. After all, the current King of the Northern Frontier's ambition lay in the throne, and he certainly wouldn't dare to be an enemy of the Blue Feather Kingdom.

He was quite certain of this from the moment Wen Zhiming captured him but never harmed him.

But now he has been imprisoned for five days, and the King of the Northern Frontier neither agrees to the deal nor releases him. He is even unwilling to see him now, which makes him increasingly confused about the situation and he has a bad feeling.

That night, Lan Ying woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of guards talking in hushed tones outside. A thought struck him, and he crouched down, carefully lifting the chain as he approached the tent flap, holding his breath and listening intently to the sounds outside.

“Everyone else gets a night shift every few days, but we brothers are unlucky to have been assigned this job, and we’ve already worked several night shifts.”

"Who can argue with that? But the time is running out. Once the prince has reached an agreement with the other side, this big Buddha statue can be sent away."

"Is the news reliable? I had no idea about this. Doesn't that mean General Lan is in grave danger?"

Lan Ying's heart was in her throat, and her ears were practically pressed against the tent flap.

The sounds outside were even lowered, and Lan Ying could only hear a few simple words.

General Leng, these gifts are a sign of sincerity, and have been sent these past two days.

Listening more closely, the two guards outside were already discussing unimportant things like how they would schedule shifts after they stopped working the night shift, and what they would eat the next day.

Lan Ying slowly moved back to her original position, her heart filled with turmoil.

He pondered those words repeatedly and concluded that after learning that General Leng of the Golden Moon Kingdom was at the Northern Frontier King's residence, he couldn't sit still and had come to Wen Zhiming to discuss cooperation. Now the two had basically reached an agreement: the two armies would join forces to deal with the Blue Feather Kingdom first, and he, as the general of the enemy country, would be given to General Leng as a gift by Wen Zhiming.

If that's the case, he's doomed.

No, the Emperor of Jin Yue Kingdom hates the King of Beijiang to the bone and would never allow General Leng to cooperate with him. You must have misheard.

Perhaps this was all Wen Zhiming's scheme, deliberately having the guards say these things to scare him, all to get him to change the treaty to one that was more favorable.

But what if it's true?

The guard probably didn't know he was eavesdropping, and the rest of the conversation was spoken so softly that it was impossible to hear clearly.

He guessed these things.

After all, the two armies are soldiers from the same country, and generals in the field are not always bound by military orders. It's possible that General Leng harbors resentment towards the Blue Feather Kingdom for breaking the agreement, and is trying to entice the King of the Northern Frontier to cooperate with him by offering extremely favorable terms.

It's better to be safe than sorry.

If that's the case, his death is not a pity, but the Blue Feather Kingdom soldiers who are kept in the dark are also in danger.

Lan Ying became increasingly worried. He was eager to escape, warn others as soon as possible, and take precautions.

He didn't take the two guards outside seriously, but he was chained up and couldn't leave the tent without the key. Besides, killing the two guards was easy, but after that, the camp was full of soldiers, and he couldn't escape without help.

Lan Ying was wide awake and stayed awake until dawn, hoping to hear more secrets, but the people outside had stopped talking about the battlefield.

Not long after dawn, Wen Weizhu came to see Lan Ying again. This time she didn't come empty-handed; she even went to the kitchen and grabbed two salted eggs.

Today's breakfast in the military camp was porridge with a salted egg. Although Wen Weizhu wasn't very popular in the camp, she was, after all, the prince's sister, so no one would offend her for taking an extra egg.

"General Lan, your eyes are so dark. Didn't you sleep well last night? Is your blanket too thin? I'll ask them to bring you another one."

Wen Weizhu has been visiting Lan Ying several times a day for the past few days. At first, someone followed her, but later, perhaps because she trusted her, no one followed her anymore.

She liked coming here because Lan Ying was pleasing to her eye, and his sweet talk could make her heart flutter. Since the Anshun Prince's Mansion was sealed off, she hadn't heard any sweet words from him.

Although she is now the younger sister of the King of the Northern Frontier in this military camp, and should be the center of attention, she is not much better off than the soldiers in the camp because of Wen Zhiming's indifference towards her.

She'd been in the military camp for a month or two, and Wen Zhiming hadn't even arranged for a maid to serve her.

Not to mention the limited conditions in the military camp, her cheap sister-in-law had two maids with her as soon as she arrived. If Wen Zhiming and her sister-in-law cared about her even a little, they should have given her one of them.

She pondered that the only advantage of being the sister of the King of the Northern Frontier was that it would allow her to find a suitable husband.

If you marry a good husband, you won't have to suffer this humiliation anymore.