Upon hearing the guard's words, Cheng Liang immediately looked at Xuan Yuanhan's face.
After a moment's thought, Xuanyuan Han spoke in a deep voice and ordered, "Bring him in to see me."
"Yes, sir!"
After the guard clasped his hands in acceptance of the order, he immediately went out and quickly brought a thin man dressed as a Northern Lie soldier, who looked travel-worn, into the main tent.
When the soldier entered and saw everything that felt so familiar, he was taken aback for a moment.
It seemed as if tears suddenly welled up in her eyes, and then she strode excitedly toward Xuan Yuanhan.
With a thud, he knelt heavily before him and solemnly prostrated himself, shouting, "Your subordinate greets Your Highness, the Prince of Qin! Long live the Prince of Qin!"
Immediately afterwards, he bowed three times to him with utmost respect.
Seeing this, Xuanyuan Han asked, puzzled, "I don't know what you mean by 'subordinate'? However, as a soldier of the Northern Lie Kingdom, with a great war approaching, instead of devoting yourself to protecting your homeland, why have you come to my Western Qin army camp alone? And what important military information do you have to report to me?"
"Your Highness, you may not know this, but... in fact, I am not a citizen of the Northern Lie Kingdom!" The Northern Lie soldier knelt on the ground in front of him and replied.
"Then who are you?" Before Xuan Yuanhan could speak, Cheng Liang, who had been standing silently to the side, asked anxiously.
"Your Highness, General, this subordinate...this subordinate is a citizen of the Western Qin Kingdom...Where is Zhao Ping'an!"
Recalling the humiliation of being a prisoner in an enemy country for so long, the bullying and contempt he suffered, the longing for his family, and all the heartbreaking past experiences, Zhao Ping'an couldn't help but speak in a trembling voice.
Suddenly, Cheng Liang seemed to remember something, and looked at Xuan Yuanhan's face in surprise. They met eyes for a moment, and then Cheng Liang immediately turned his gaze back to Xuan Yuanhan, staring at him with wide eyes and asking incredulously, "Zhao Ping'an...you said you are...Zhao Ping'an? You are Ling'er's father, Yu Niang's husband, and you have an elderly mother who is over fifty years old, right?"
Zhao Ping'an nodded sadly.
Cheng Liang took a deep breath and said with relief, "You're really still alive. It's a good thing you're still alive. At least those three helpless women at home didn't worry about you for nothing."
After Cheng Liang finished speaking, he looked at his master's face with a look of satisfaction. He saw that Xuan Yuanhan looked serious, as if he had many doubts in his heart.
Zhao Ping'an seemed to have realized that he should explain how he became a prisoner, so he slowly raised his head and began to recall and recount his experience.
"Actually, according to the laws of the Western Qin Kingdom, since I am the only male in my family, I am not qualified to be a soldier and cannot go to the battlefield. However, one day, I witnessed with my own eyes how the people of Western Qin, located on our border, were invaded by the fearless Northern Lie Kingdom. From then on, I secretly vowed in my heart that I would go to the battlefield no matter what. So, I secretly changed my name and infiltrated the army without telling my family."
He paused, his expression suddenly turning extremely grim, as if he were suppressing some immense sorrow and fear within him.
Finally, he said in a deep voice, "That day, in the final battle against the Northern Lie, my Western Qin was certain to win. Unexpectedly, that cruel and despicable Northern Lie general, in desperation, released an unknown poisonous smoke, completely disregarding the safety of the herdsmen. I thought I would die from the poison like my comrades. But miraculously, in the middle of the night, I crawled out from a pile of corpses all by myself. Later, when I was on the verge of death, I met a Taoist priest who saved me. However, later, while escaping in the desert, I got lost and was captured by patrolling Northern Lie soldiers, which is why..."
After recounting these painful memories, Zhao Ping'an closed his eyes tightly.
A moment later, as soon as he opened his eyes, he hurriedly clasped his hands and respectfully thanked Xuan Yuanhan: "What virtue or ability do I have to deserve the kindness of His Highness Prince Qin in taking in and caring for my family? Zhao Ping'an will never forget this in his life!"
Before he finished speaking, he kowtowed deeply to him once again.
"No wonder we couldn't find any trace of you no matter how we investigated. It turns out you secretly joined the army and went to the battlefield." After hearing what he said, Cheng Liang indeed felt that he was a courageous citizen of Western Qin.
However, Xuanyuan Han suddenly came to his senses and asked in surprise, "How do you know your family members are all in my residence?"
"It was a woman I met by chance in the Northern Fierce Army camp who informed me," Zhao Ping'an hurriedly replied.
"What kind of woman is she? What is her name?" Xuan Yuanhan paused for a moment, then continued to ask.
Zhao Ping'an thought for a moment, then said with a mix of shame and helplessness, "That girl didn't reveal her name. She was extremely slender, but very beautiful."
"Does she have many scars?" Xuan Yuanhan asked after a moment's thought.
“Yes, tornadoes frequently strike the Northern Lie Kingdom, and the girl’s injuries look like they were caused by a tornado. How did such a frail young woman end up in the military camp?” Zhao Ping’an asked, equally puzzled.
Xuan Yuanhan thought to himself, "It seems it must be her. But didn't she say she was going to the heart of Bei Lie? How did she end up in the Bei Lie military camp?"
For a moment, I was speechless, my head felt as heavy as a boulder, and I was completely unable to think. My heart felt as if it were being pierced by a thousand needles; at first, I felt pain, but in the end, I only felt numbness.
Just then, Zhao Ping'an said apologetically, "Actually... at that time, after that girl learned that I was Zhao Ping'an, she wanted to take me with her, but she was stopped by the second prince of Bei Lie Kingdom, Tuoba Hong. Tuoba Hong said that if she wanted me to leave, she had to let that girl stay and exchange with me, and that girl... agreed to him."
"Then why did Tuoba Hong do this?" Xuan Yuanhan unconsciously clenched his fists behind his back even tighter, asking with suppressed anger.
Zhao Ping'an, of course, knew nothing of the matter between Xuan Yuanhan and Yi Shangyun. He only remembered what the old soldier had told him before they parted, and said, "It seems... the Second Prince of Beilie, Tuoba Hong, has some kind of ambiguous feeling between a man and a woman for that girl, but she seems indifferent and has no such intention. So Tuoba Hong got angry and embarrassed, and having no other way to deal with her, he resorted to this tactic..."
Xuanyuan Han listened silently with his hands behind his back, his already deep and boundless eyes growing colder and more unfathomable.
Seeing this, Cheng Liang quickly gave Zhao Ping'an a wink and interrupted him, saying, "Didn't you say you had an urgent military report? Why aren't you saying it?"
Zhao Ping'an then hurriedly came to his senses: "Right, right, I almost forgot the important matter. Your Highness, General Cheng, I wonder if the water we are drinking in the camp today is water that was stored up in the past few days, or water that was just drawn from the river today?"
Cheng Liang asked, puzzled, "Why are you asking this?"
Zhao Ping'an explained, "Your Highness, General, that eldest prince of the Northern Lie Kingdom, Tuoba Ze, is utterly depraved and intends to repeat his old tricks. After sending men to ascertain Your Highness's whereabouts, he plans to poison the drinking water source in Your Highness's camp with a deadly poison called 'Water Spirit,' hoping to break through and then encircle our entire Western Qin army, intending to annihilate us. Your Highness must quickly devise a countermeasure!"
"Water sprites? What are those?" Cheng Liang asked in surprise after thinking for a while.
Zhao Ping'an looked at his face and said very seriously, "It is a colorless and odorless poison, almost like water. Just a small amount in a porcelain bottle can pollute all the water sources within a radius of dozens of miles, causing all the surrounding flowers, plants and trees to wither and die instantly, never to grow again. If a person or animal drinks this water, just a small sip will cause their whole body to feel as if it is being burned by a raging fire after the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, until their entire body suddenly spontaneously combusts, and they will die in excruciating pain. Moreover... there is no cure for this poison in the world."
Upon hearing this, Cheng Liang was immediately shocked and said indignantly, "What?! That Tuoba Ze is utterly heartless and insane! In order to break through the encirclement, he doesn't even care about the lives of his own people. That's tens of thousands of lives!"
"Is there any poison in the water that the soldiers in the camp are drinking?" Zhao Ping'an asked anxiously.
Cheng Liang
Xuanyuan Han called out in a low voice, and Cheng Liang immediately understood the order, striding out of the tent to verify it himself: "Yes."
"I pray to God for protection, to bless my Western Qin, and that no one else will be poisoned!" Zhao Ping'an murmured silently over and over again.
At this moment, Xuanyuan Han commanded, "Zhao Ping'an, get up! Tell me in detail about Tuoba Ze's plan, and don't miss any detail."
"Your subordinate obeys." Zhao Ping'an quickly snapped out of his daze, stood up, and began to report carefully.
...
In a short while, Cheng Liang hurriedly returned to the main tent, looking preoccupied and full of doubt.
"Your Highness, this matter is of utmost importance, so I have personally verified it."
"How is it?" Xuan Yuanhan was quite worried when he heard about such despicable methods. As soon as Cheng Liang came in, he spoke anxiously almost at the same time as him.
Cheng Liang took a breath and blurted out, "The water the soldiers drink every day is freshly fetched from the river before dawn, so..."
"It's over. I haven't been able to rest for a moment on the road, but I still arrived too late..." Before he could finish speaking, Zhao Ping'an exclaimed in surprise, his legs went weak, and he almost fainted.
"Then why hasn't anyone in the camp been poisoned yet?" Xuan Yuanhan looked into Cheng Liang's eyes as he finished speaking, then turned to Zhao Ping'an's face with a belly full of doubt.
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