For every day Song Yanqing left the military camp, An Yi would impersonate his family's heir for just as many days.
Apart from climbing the city wall to dispel Wu Guangping's suspicions, An Yi never left the commander's tent again.
According to the plan, Song Yanqing should have led his men back to camp by last night at the latest, but even now that it is broad daylight, he has not seen a trace of them.
This greatly worried An Yi, who was dressed in the prince's everyday clothes and paced around the sand table.
As he circled the sand table countless times, the curtain of the commander's tent was lifted, and the blinding light from outside shone into the tent.
Upon seeing who it was, An Yi's disappointment was palpable. He lowered his head and bowed to Lu Qiqi in a low voice, "Princess Kangle."
Lu Qiqi was unaware of the agreed-upon time, but she had heard An Yi mention that if the round trip from Dayu Kingdom went smoothly, it would take several days.
So, as she entered the tent, she quickly approached An Yi and, mindful of the area outside, lowered her voice, saying, "Didn't you say a couple of days ago that your young master should have returned to camp last night?"
Upon hearing this, An Yi's expression turned even more grim. "The young master instructed that if we had not encountered any danger, we should have returned to camp last night."
An Yi's voice grew softer and softer, and the last half of his sentence was almost spoken in a breathy voice.
Lu Qiqi glanced sideways at the sand table, thinking, 'So, Song Yanqing might have encountered danger, or some kind of trouble?'
After staring blankly at the sand table for a moment, she came to her senses and immediately offered her opinion: "We can't just sit here and wait to die!"
"An Yi, tell me the route Song Yanqing agreed upon with you. If he still cannot return to camp tonight, I will go out of the pass to find him!"
A powerful voice rang out in the tent, and upon seeing the determination in her eyes, a strange sense of conviction arose within him.
At this moment, he was absolutely certain that with the Lord of Kang Le Township present, the Crown Prince would surely return safely.
The two were separated by a sand table about one and a half meters wide. Lu Qiqi listened silently as An Yi talked about the route planned by Song Yanqing.
"The route planned by the Crown Prince is to return along this road."
The routes to and from the capital are the same, which not only bypasses the Tatars' vigilance but also provide the closest route to the Great Yu Kingdom.
Song Yanqing had planned several routes for this trip, just in case, but by the time he calculated, all of these routes should have been completed by last night.
Judging from this, it seems that none of the routes planned on the way there were used.
After revealing the path the Crown Prince planned, An Yi sighed deeply and said, "These paths can all be changed halfway, and now I don't know where the Crown Prince will go."
Lu Qiqi understood perfectly well that Song Yanqing had told An Yi the route so that he could meet him if he failed to return to camp on time.
The numerous alternative routes were also designed to prevent information leaks that could bring them utter destruction.
She stared at the sand table for a long time before finally noticing a clue.
Although Song Yanqing had many options, if he really wanted to avoid the Tatars' interception and killing, the only way to turn the tide was the path between two forests.
Lu Qiqi stretched out her fair right hand, pointed to the sand table with two dried leaves inserted to represent a forest, and asked, "An Yi, how far is it from here to the military camp? Which city gate can we use to get back to camp the fastest?"
An Yi looked at the spot she was pointing to, searching his memory, and then said, "This alleyway leads to the Yanlian Mountain Range. If we're talking about the closest one, it has to be the West Gate, which is guarded by General Qin!"
After saying that, An saw that Lu Qiqi was silent, her eyes fixed on the sand table, as if she was thinking about something.
A sudden, unbelievable thought flashed through his mind. To resolve his doubts, he asked, "Lord, do you suspect that the young master would choose to take the alleyway?"
Upon hearing this, he realized he had gone mad and immediately began to refute himself, "The prince would never return to camp here. There are forests on both sides, and if the Tatars intercept the narrow passage in the middle, there will only be one way to die."
Such actions are tantamount to cutting off one's own limbs, running into a dead end and giving the enemy the opportunity to catch one like a turtle in a jar.
What he didn't know was that the package Lu Qiqi gave to his young master contained not only medicine and food, but also sleeping pills, sleeping smoke, and thunderbolts.
These three tools can have unexpected effects in the forest.
Therefore, Lu Qiqi was certain that if Song Yanqing encountered a situation, he would definitely choose to walk along the forest.
Thinking this, she looked at An Yidao and said, "You and Nineteen stay in the main camp. I'll go to the West Gate to find General Qin and ask her to send someone to meet your young master."
After saying that, she quickly lifted the tent flap and walked out of the tent.
An Yi wanted to call out to Lu Qiqi, but she was walking too fast and her voice was too loud, so he was afraid of causing trouble and could only watch her disappearing figure.
Lu Qiqi went to the horse-feeding camp, selected a spirited horse left behind by Song Yanqing, and then mounted the horse and headed straight for the West Gate camp.
Meanwhile, just as Lu Qiqi had predicted, Song Yanqing encountered a major problem.
The eleven men, who were supposed to return to the camp last night, were intercepted by nearly a thousand Tatars in the middle of the night.
After a night of fierce fighting, the eleven men were reduced by half, and the poison and sleeping potions given to them by Lu Qiqi were almost used up.
By this time, it was broad daylight. The Shadow Guards, including Song Yanqing, numbered only five. They escaped from the alley under the cover of night.
He rushed all the way to the forest not far from the Yanlian Mountains to buy himself time to heal his wounds.
The injuries on the four Shadow Guards were not to be underestimated. Song Yanqing leaned against the tree trunk and touched his chest with his right hand.
He then tossed a porcelain bottle, which was caught by one of the Shadow Guards.
Song Yanqing said, "These are heart-saving pills given by the village chief of Kangle Township. Each person should swallow one pill, quickly bandage their wounds, hide themselves, and break out of the woods at night."
The Shadow Guards distributed the heart-saving pills on their own initiative, while Song Yanqing sprinkled the imperial wound medicine on his own wounds.
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