Chapter 108
Amidst the swirling yellow sand, a cavalry unit is advancing through the sand.
Xie Chengnan was injured, and his ambush squad was also wiped out, but the original battle plan remained unchanged, and Zhan Xian led the cavalry archery battalion to complete it.
After days of trekking, the cavalry finally spotted an oasis ahead, where the clear waters of the lake reflected the surrounding poplars and sea buckthorn.
Because it's nearing winter, there are only bare tree trunks and yellow leaves that haven't yet fallen. If it were two or three months earlier, this place would be full of life, a veritable paradise in the desert.
"Commander, an oasis has been spotted ahead!"
Without him saying anything, Zhan Xian had already seen it, and her anxious heart finally calmed down a little.
"Leave two men here to support the commander's troops; the rest of you, come with me to scout the situation."
The wooden houses are built around the lake, and there is a sentry post every half mile on the outer perimeter, forming a small town nestled by the lake.
Since the main force hadn't arrived, and to avoid alerting the enemy, Zhan Xian and her men couldn't approach and instead lay prone on the sand dune.
Gu Shu'an's main force arrived quickly and, guided by the two cavalrymen, headed straight for the oasis, drawing all the firepower of the Xili army stationed there. Meanwhile, Zhan Xian's mounted archer battalion took advantage of the situation to flank and launch a surprise attack, capturing the oasis in one fell swoop.
With perfect teamwork, the operation went incredibly smoothly.
The Li army stationed here numbered only a little over a thousand, while the majority of the people here were ordinary households and vagrants who were taking a short break.
Although the people here were not from Anguo, but mostly from Xili, Gu Shu'an did not make things difficult for them. He directed the An army to set up camp by the lake and ordered them not to loot or plunder.
Although the people of Xili were unwilling, they did not confront these foreign soldiers with swords and chose to stay indoors.
For a time, things were peaceful.
Looking at the familiar scene, Lin Yi finally remembered that this was a key plot point in the original book, and it was here that he found clues to the Zhan family's old case!
Zhan Xian had just finished interrogating the prisoners of war.
Those Xili people were incredibly tight-lipped. No matter how much they were threatened, bribed, or tortured, they wouldn't reveal a single detail of Xili's plans. Instead, they shouted and hurled insults. No amount of further torture was of any use, so Zhan Xian finally delivered a swift and painless blow.
When Lin arrived, she was washing her hands, and the blood stained a small patch of sand red.
Upon seeing her arrive, Zhan Xian paused for a moment, then casually shook her hands dry.
Looking for me?
Even Zhanxian herself didn't realize that she was used to giving orders, but when she saw Lin Yi, her voice softened unconsciously.
Lin Yi used the excuse he had prepared beforehand: "I'm running out of medicinal herbs and want to wander around. There's water and trees here, maybe I can find what I need. If you're not busy, could you come with me?"
Zhan Xian thought for a moment and then nodded in agreement.
After the sandstorm, they had been traveling for several days and finally found this oasis. Gu Shuan should order them to rest here for a day.
She handed the whip to the cavalryman beside her: "You continue the interrogation." Then she walked side by side with Lin Yi.
The original book states that Zhan Xian found a crucial clue in the home of a family in this oasis. However, it doesn't specify which family it was; Lin only remembers that the head of the household was a burly man.
She led Zhan Xian, pacing back and forth in front of each household. The atmosphere in the city was tense because of their arrival, and everyone kept their doors closed, so she had to knock on each door one by one.
Some people are quite kind and willing to open the door and have a few words, but most people choose to keep the door closed and ignore the loud banging on it, ignoring it as long as they don't force the door open.
Lin Yi knocked on doors one by one, and when someone was willing to open the door, he explained the situation to them using a combination of words and gestures.
Zhan Xian followed behind her, neither in a hurry nor urging her on. When she encountered someone impatient and ready to fight, she would hold a knife and act as a threatening backdrop.
After being turned away countless times, Zhan Xian suggested, "At this rate, we won't get any results by nightfall. What kind of medicinal herbs do you need? I'll send a few soldiers to help us find them."
Lin Yi naturally couldn't tell her that finding medicinal herbs was just an excuse, and that he was actually looking for a strong man with clues to an old case.
As she hesitated, she heard a soft sound and Zhan Xian looked back suspiciously.
Just now, the door of the house behind them moved slightly.
Lin Yi then said, "Let's finish asking these households first." With that, he walked towards the house where the noise had just come from.
There was a crack in the door, and Lin Yi reached out and knocked, but no one answered.
This shouldn't be happening. Just now, they clearly heard strange noises coming from the door. And the door was ajar, as if it knew they were coming and opened it in advance to welcome them…
Zhan Xian took a step forward and pushed the door open.
The old door hinges creaked open, revealing a simple interior. Apart from the wooden tables and chairs, everything else was covered in dust.
It seems the homeowner is lazy and doesn't clean often, but often sits at the table.
"I'll check if there are any medicinal herbs, I won't touch anything else..." Lin Yi was worried that with the female lead's strong sense of justice, she might not approve of her searching around without the homeowner's permission, but Zhan Xian had already started searching before her.
"..." Well, maybe she has some misunderstanding about justice.
The windows inside the house were wide open. Lin Yi leaned out and looked out. There was only the wooden wall of another house outside, and nothing else.
But there was no one inside. Lin Yi thought that the person had likely broken open the door to lure them in, then quickly escaped through the window after seeing them approach. Perhaps there were clues inside the house that the owner wanted to tell them but was unwilling to show themselves…
Zhan Xian had a strange feeling, as if she was being guided to do some things. For example, when she saw the broken porcelain bowl filled with water on the table, her hand subconsciously picked up the dusty, yellowed book in the corner.
Since I had already picked it up, I symbolically flipped through it, and at that moment an envelope fell out of the pages.
Zhan Xian had no intention of peeping into other people's family letters, but An Guo's handwriting on them was particularly eye-catching.
There are only two characters – “亲启” (To be opened by your loved one). The place where the name should have been written before it is now just a few ink dots, it is unknown whether it was deliberately erased or naturally eroded by the years.
The strange feeling grew stronger, accompanied by a heart pounding like a drum.
She opened the extremely old, seemingly fragile letter. She couldn't open it the first time, but she tried again before finally succeeding.
Lin Yi found nothing. He glanced up and saw Zhan Xian looking at something with a serious expression. He leaned over and asked, "Did you find anything?"
She glanced at it; it seemed to be a letter, the writing on it already blurred. From Lin Yi's angle, she could vaguely make out the words "Defeat the enemy in April and return home."
They actually found it?!
Suppressing his joy, Lin Yi asked, feigning ignorance, "What is this?"
Zhan Xian did not answer her, but her hand holding the letter began to tremble uncontrollably.
Are you alright?
This should be the key clue in the original book that could exonerate the Zhan family, right? But now that it's been found, shouldn't we be happy? Or is the amount of information too much for the female lead to process, stirring up painful memories from the past?
Lin Yi thought about it and felt it was understandable. After all, all the male members of the Zhan family were executed and the female members were exiled for many years, which was not much different from wiping out the entire family.
"Let me be alone for a while," Zhan Xian said.
Lin Yi didn't ask anything more and left, leaving her enough space to grieve.
She held the faded letter, its contents illegible, and ran her fingers over it, reading it over and over again.
Those were letters that Zhan Xian had never received, letters originally written to her and her mother. For some reason, they hadn't been sent back to Mingzhou and ended up here.
Most of the writing on it was blurred and the content was illegible, but Zhan Xian would never forget that familiar handwriting, no matter how many decades passed.
She had never believed that her father and brother had betrayed the country, but when she actually saw the evidence, she couldn't help but feel deeply saddened.
He wanted to weep bitterly, to shout with all his might, to drag that blind old emperor to this barren place, to make him see with his own eyes the place where the Zhan family army had fought so hard, defending the peace of this region for him, to make him see this letter with his own eyes! In April, after defeating the enemy, they returned—defeat! The enemy! Return! But all that returned was the infamy of treason and collusion with the enemy, and the Zhan family army's ten-year silence.
But in the end, she simply and quietly, carefully tucked the letter into her bosom, and walked out of the wooden house. "Let's go."
They walked in silence. Lin Yi wanted to ask what the clue was, and whether this letter could overturn the case, but in Zhan Xian's eyes, it was reasonable for her to know nothing. So she suppressed her burning curiosity.
As night fell, a bugle suddenly sounded. Lin Yi groggily opened his eyes and saw clusters of torches flickering outside the tent, illuminating the camp as if it were daytime.
I was woken up in the middle of the night and was still dazed, but I had developed a habit of being on alert at all times since we started marching.
She quickly got up and, finding Xie Chengnan still beside her, felt less anxious.
Xie Chengnan didn't seem to be in a hurry. He slowly sat up and started getting dressed.
"What happened?" Lin Yi reached for his coat, but Xie Chengnan stopped him.
"It's alright, a few Li soldiers ran away, you can go back to sleep."
He knew outside that they were chasing the escaped Xili prisoners of war without even leaving the house, and there was no sign of anxiety or surprise in his words.
Lin instantly realized that this was probably a play put on by An Jun for Xi Li.
They deliberately created a loophole for the Li army to escape, then pretended to be chasing after them after discovering the trap.
The prisoners who managed to escape from their clutches would eagerly join other Li army units and share information that the oasis had been occupied.
If the An army were to pursue the enemy halfway and then abandon the pursuit, ostensibly returning to the oasis while secretly sending a small contingent to follow the fleeing prisoners, they could pinpoint the main stronghold of the Xili army. This would end the incoherent guerrilla warfare led by the Xili people and allow them to advance into the grasslands in one fell swoop.
Having figured this out, Lin Yi was no longer in a hurry.
She yawned and asked Xie Chengnan, "What time do we leave tomorrow?"
"At 9:00 AM. I will go ahead first; you will stay with the supply troops."
"Your injury..."
"It's alright now." Xie Chengnan watched her crawl back into bed, then ruffled her hair. "Go to sleep peacefully."
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