Chapter 30: Pre-War Reasoning
Deep in the woods, Black Cloud Village's gunner Zi Laihong rode back to the side of the leader, Deng Erniang, and said with a bow, "Master, Du Yunzhang has fired his three shots. Are we going to follow our agreement with him and retreat?"
"Retreat? Are we going to give up such a big piece of meat right in front of us so easily? Don't forget, the Southern Army has already made an agreement with us to advance upon hearing gunfire from the queued army camp." Deng Erniang, in a green robe, sneered. "I'm just giving them a false start. I reckon the camp is bustling with activity right now, so they'll surely catch the murderer soon. Then, we'll take advantage of the queued army's confusion and strike back with the Southern Army. This time, the harvest will surely be even greater than it was three days ago!"
"But...what about the agreement with that other person?"
"That person? Who cares about him? We'll cooperate with whoever can bring us the greatest benefits. Why bother with him?"
"Oh - I see. It's true that by leveraging the power of the Southern Army, we can gain greater benefits. Great! The boss is so wise!" Zi Laihong gave a thumbs up and kept flattering Deng Erniang.
Deng Erniang was quite fooled by this and laughed as she ordered her men to hide in the woods and wait for the opportunity, ready to attack again at any time.
At this moment in the military camp, Du Yunzhang's eyes fell on one of the officers present, who turned out to be the battalion commander Li Huaide.
"Why...why are you looking at me?" Li Huaide asked in a panic.
"Captain Li, if I'm not mistaken, when everyone saw Shen Hui's head fall to the ground, you were the one who set up the mechanism, right?"
Li Huaide's expression suddenly changed when Du Yunzhang asked him this. Shen Xi's eyes widened. "Okay, Li Huaide, so it was you who did it?"
"Why do you say this matter is related to Captain Li?" Situ Xin was more rational and asked Du Yunzhang, "He was the one who witnessed the scene with us!"
"That's why I said that your design techniques are much more sophisticated than ours." Du Yunzhang explained calmly.
"How did he pull off such a trick?" Shen Xi asked impatiently.
"How should I put it? I really admire Captain Li's ability to make this murder look like a spectacular, eye-popping magic trick, completely blinding us, the spectators, to the fact that a single flaw was completely lost. What everyone saw was a living person's head falling off in public, but it was nothing more than a simple yet ingenious optical illusion. Look—" He squatted down and, using two nearby stools, a chair, and a round object with a rope attached to the top, erected them together. Suddenly, the outline resembled a standing person. Then, with a casual tug, the round, head-like object fell to dust, while the "body" made of the stool and chair swayed twice before collapsing to the ground. It was connected by a simple, thin string, which fell off with a tug.
"That's it?" Situ Xin narrowed his eyes in disbelief.
Du Yunzhang chuckled, "That's right, that's the truth you all saw at the time. The reason I'm sure it was Captain Li who did it is because when we questioned Captain Li, he mentioned the scene where Captain Shen was murdered, which was very similar to the 'Blood Guillotine' in the storytelling 'Swordsman Picture'. I can't hide this from me. The Blood Guillotine mentioned in 'Swordsman Picture' is a hidden weapon. The scene of the head falling to the ground, how could you tell it was the work of a hidden weapon? So, this scene was a farce that Captain Li had arranged long ago for everyone to see!"
"That's not right!" Situ Xin shook his head. "There's a question you need to explain clearly to me. Otherwise, if you try to fool me with such a perfunctory answer, I won't accept it."
"What's the problem?"
"If the real scene was a crude magic show as you said, then how can we explain why we rushed into the barracks and found no props for your performance, only corpses and heads?"
"That's the highlight of this magic show!" Du Yunzhang replied, "When everyone broke into the barracks and saw Captain Shen's beheaded body, it looked like it had just happened, but in fact he had been dead for a long time. In fact, the beheading that everyone witnessed outside the barracks did not happen in this barracks at all."
"Not there? Where?"
"This..."
Du Yunzhang hesitated for a moment, and before he could continue, Yin Chuan suddenly interrupted: "You mean it was in Staff Officer Han's barracks? Yes, it was there. We found things that looked exactly like these props. But Old Du, you can't explain how everyone at the time believed that the incident happened in Shen Hui's room?"
Du Yunzhang seemed at a loss for words. Yin Chuan laughed heartily, then lifted a tent wall that had fallen in the snow and folded it sideways, creating a diagonal angle with the wall of the barracks behind. "Look! With this arrangement, you can see the silhouettes of the tents across the way, just like the reflection of a mirror."
Situ Xin waved his hand. "Impossible! Our tents are made of translucent material. The light will pass right through the wall. There won't be any refraction effect like you mentioned."
Yin Chuan smiled and tugged at the tent cloth before replying, "You're right. Indeed, a barracks wall constructed with this material certainly can't reflect light. But what if the tent wall had two layers? The back layer would be a thin wooden board that doesn't let light through and has a very good reflective effect. Would that be enough?"
Situ Xin was startled at first, then seemed to think of something and fell silent.
"Then tell me, where exactly is this barracks?" Shen Xi asked regardless.
"But when was Chen Hui killed?" Situ Xin ignored Chen Xi's question and continued to ask.
Shen Xi was very angry at Situ Xin's disregard, but his question happened to be what Shen Xi wanted to know, so she stopped worrying about it and waited for Yin Chuan's answer.
"Remember when was the last time you saw Chen Hui three days ago?"
Chen Xi pondered for a moment, "Well... that evening, Big Brother summoned all the regimental and battalion-level officers to the regimental barracks for a military meeting. Afterwards, I brought you in and introduced you to Big Brother. After the meeting, Big Brother left Situ Xin and Han Chi behind, and the three of them continued to discuss military affairs. What happened after that... I don't know. Situ Xin, what happened next?"
"Later..." Situ Xin continued, "Staff Officer Han, the regiment commander, and I discussed strategies for dealing with the nearby banditry. I firmly advocated taking the initiative, stationing troops in Chenjia Village if necessary, and even clearing the countryside. But Chen Hui steadfastly disagreed, insisting that the villagers should not be harassed under any circumstances. So, we argued tooth and nail, and in the end, we couldn't reach an agreement. I stormed out in anger, and I don't know what happened after that."
"In other words, the last person with Captain Shen was Staff Officer Han Chi, right?" Yin Chuan asked.
Only then did everyone realize that after all this talk, where had Han Chi gone? Situ Xin asked the messenger, and the messenger said that he had not found Staff Officer Han, and there was no one in his barracks.
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