As soon as Mu Xu untied his belt, he jumped off his horse, lay down on the ground, and breathed a long sigh of relief.
Ye Shan tied up his horse and sat down beside him, panting heavily.
He patted Mu Xu on the shoulder and laughed, "Thanks, Guard Mu. I owe you a lot this time, otherwise I would have been captured by those people."
When the Marquis saved you, you were just a young boy. I never imagined that you would become so accomplished in just a few years!
No wonder the Marquis always said you were born to lead armies and fight battles, but it's a pity your ambitions lie elsewhere! Mu Xu crossed his legs, casually plucked a blade of grass and held it in his mouth, but then took out an oil paper packet from his satchel and stuffed it into Ye Shan's hands.
"Uncle Shan, what are you saying? Are you saying we kids aren't allowed to grow up and become capable? Have something to eat first. These are some flatbreads from home, baked by Aunt Mei."
Ye Shan hadn't seen his wife for several months. Upon hearing this, he quickly opened the oil paper package, took a big bite, and then squinted his eyes happily.
"Kid, don't think I'll let this go just because you bribed me with a pancake." Ye Shan finished the pancake in a few bites, took a sip of water to clear his throat, and continued his criticism.
"How many fog balls do you have? Share half with me. I'm still being very careful, and I don't dare to use a single one unless it's dangerous. But you're throwing them out one by one."
Mu Xu was smug; he had his beloved girl secretly supporting him.
He spat out the grass stalks, opened the bag, and found there were only a dozen or so grass stalks left.
"This stuff is inherently difficult to make, and the princess didn't have much stock. In fact, most of it was sent to your Northern Expeditionary Army, and only a few were left for me."
"However, the princess said that this is a second-generation product, and the lime powder inside has been changed. If the wind direction is bad, it could easily harm our own people, so I didn't put any poison powder in it."
"Be careful when you use it. Lime can easily blind you if it gets in your eyes. If you do get it on your eyes, remember to clean it with vegetable oil."
"Understood." Ye Shan didn't stand on ceremony, grabbed all the mist orbs, stuffed them into his arms, and then got down to business.
"The Marquis is about to launch a full-scale offensive, intending to drive the barbarians out of the border within half a month and completely recover Jiangbei. However, the imperial court has issued an official document ordering a shift from offense to defense, and the delivery of military supplies is also being delayed."
"The Marquis has decided to bypass the imperial court and fight a swift victory. In that case, we'll have to find a way to supply the army with provisions. I wonder how your preparations, Lord Earl and Mr. Wen, are going? Perhaps they can lend the Marquis a helping hand now?"
"Of course!" Mu Xu's eyes shone brightly, even more clearly in the darkness.
“My family has been secretly stockpiling military rations, especially after the last time the rations were destroyed. Since the Earl and Mr. Wen couldn’t show their faces, I’ve been the one leading people to secretly transport the rations to Jiangbei, where they’re hidden in a valley and guarded by three hundred veterans. Those three hundred veterans were left to me by the Marquis before he went to war, so they’re very reliable.”
Ye Shan was delighted to hear this and casually guessed, "The valley you're talking about, it wouldn't be the Shattered Stone Valley that everyone from Broken Gold Beach has been longing for, would it? The one where the Guo family's collection of books was temporarily stored?"
"Haha, you guessed it, Uncle Shan. That's it!"
Mu Xu leaped up and said, "Let's go, Uncle Shan, let's sneak back and take a look. Although those people may not have left any clues for us, we should at least take a look to put our minds at ease. If there's nothing else, I'll take you to the valley and we can discuss how to transport the grain away."
Ye Shan unscrewed the water pouch at his waist, took a few sips of water, and sighed, "That group of men didn't seem to have much intention of killing us, otherwise we would have been injured or killed by that rain of arrows just now."
"However, having this extra force in Jiangbei is always a problem, and we should find a way to get rid of it."
Mu Xu nodded, "Once the grain has been transported away, it won't delay the important matters of the Northern Expeditionary Army. I'll use my spare time to specifically look for these people, but it won't be easy to deal with them once I catch them."
"Killing them would be a waste, but not killing them is also problematic. It's a real headache!"
"Let's go. We haven't caught the wild goose yet. We'll decide whether to steam or boil it later."
Ye Shan untied the reins and mounted the horse.
Mu Xu then jumped on, and the two of them and the horse quietly made their way back to the place where they had fought earlier.
Sure enough, not only were the soldiers and horses whose eyes had been ruined by lime, but even the corpses of the several men in black who had been cut down by Ye Shan earlier were nowhere to be found.
Apart from a faint smell of blood that drifted away on the night breeze, everything else seemed as if nothing had ever happened here...
Mu Xu wandered around for quite a while, and Ye Shan wasn't idle either. Finally, the two met up.
"Those men in black who initially ambushed me were probably... from that guy in Xindu. He's determined to stall the Northern Expeditionary Army until things are settled in Xindu before letting them fight the barbarians." Ye Shan's face was grim, and he was furious, feeling sorry for his master.
He always calls his cousin "cousin," as if he wants the whole world to know how he and his master have struggled to survive since childhood.
In the end, when it really mattered, he still put his cousin's safety aside for his own purposes.
Perhaps he had other greedy desires, which is why his master toiled for Tianwu for most of his life, only to end up with no good outcome...
Mu Xu also sighed; the worst had still happened.
"These people were indeed from the palace; their tactics showed signs of being used by the secret guards. Judging from the hoofprints, their bodies were likely taken away by that group of men. However, we don't know what their purpose was!"
"That person had been hesitant and hadn't made up their mind. The princess, who was in the palace, saw it most clearly. She was worried that such a situation would happen, and she couldn't eat or sleep well."
"Now that man has sent his men to intercept the Marquis's communication with his family, he's probably really made up his mind."
Ye Shan snorted coldly, "When I get back, I will definitely report this to the Marquis in detail so that he can make preparations as soon as possible. That person was already determined to be ungrateful, and now that the Marquis is disobeying orders and hastening the decisive battle, that person will probably have even more excuses to harm the Marquis."
Mu Xu tilted his head and thought for a moment, then smiled.
"Uncle Shan, you said the secret guards wanted to cut off the Northern Expeditionary Army's contact with their families, and that group of men wanted to destroy the army's supplies."
Since they are all enemies of the Northern Expeditionary Army, should we arrange something to frame that group for the deaths of those secret guards?
Ye Shan's eyes lit up as he asked, "You have a solution?"
"Of course, the palace guards usually have backup plans when they are on duty. If the person on duty does not report back within four hours, someone will follow up and investigate."
“That group is quite large, and their tracks are more obvious. Let’s try to find them, and it would be best to get two more sets of clothes and horses.”
"When the follow-up guards arrive, we'll use a southwestern accent to lead them to that group of people..."
"Great idea!" Ye Shan couldn't help but exclaim, slapping Mu Xu hard on the back. "You're too quick-witted! Let them fight like dogs, and we can take care of this troublemaker from Jiangbei without us even lifting a finger."
Mu Xu smiled, but his eyes were full of coldness.
The group of troublemakers from Jiangbei were nothing compared to the hypocrite from Xindu who coveted his beloved girl; that was his ultimate target.
If the man with the southwestern accent is discovered, it would be strange if the person in the palace didn't suspect the prince consort he had chosen.
What's more, his son-in-law fell ill so suspiciously before the wedding...
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