Nangong Yun wanted to argue, what strategy could he possibly come up with? His recent battle with Ye Guixue on Fengming Ridge left him completely exhausted. Sensing the daunting reality of their defeat, he sat there, his face pale, his hand shaking, lost for words for quite some time.
"Second Uncle, we need to make a decision quickly," Nangong Le said. "Though the Marquis has been killed, his son, Prince Zheng, is still alive. He has gone to Dawei for reinforcements."
Nangong Yun summoned his remaining strength and asked, "What’s the current situation in the Royal Capital?"
"After consultation with Madame, the entire Nangong family has decided to leave the Royal Capital and join Prince Zheng in Dawei. Upon meeting Prince Zheng, they will comply with his directives. They can no longer stay in the Royal Capital." Nangong Zhuo shared.
Nangong Yun struggled with accepting the news, "The whole family is leaving the Royal Capital?"
"Yes."
"Are they on the road already?" 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞
"Yes."
Nangong Yun asked, "What about the remains of my eldest brother? What about our Nangong family’s ancestral tombs?"
"The Marquis has been buried and the Nangong family’s ancestral tomb remains." Nangong Xi answered, "At the moment, this is the best arrangement we can make."
Nangong Yun fell silent again for quite a while.
"The Queen has not left," said Nangong Le, "It is said that she refuses to leave."
Nangong Yun immediately asked, "Why?"
"It is rumored that the Queen has chosen to stay. If she is to die, she wants to die in the palace," Nangong Le replied.
Nangong Yun fell silent once more.
Seeing his continued silence, Nangong Le and the others stopped talking, allowing him time to regain his composure.
After a while, Nangong Yun finally calmed down and said, "The decision of the Nangong family to leave is correct. Su Rong has borrowed 300,000 soldiers from Daliang. Fengming Ridge is 200 miles away from here, and since the Liu’an Prince is done for, his private soldiers will surrender, effectively adding to Su Rong’s army. Once she has sufficient resources, she will march her forces to Fengming Ridge..."
Upon saying this, he abruptly stood, "We can’t continue fighting here, we must leave immediately."
He immediately issued orders, "Men, relay the order to all the armies, we will retreat towards Dawei."
Seeing Nangong Yun make the decision swiftly and decisively, a decision they had hoped for, Nangong Le and the others exchanged glances, simultaneously releasing sighs of relief.
Nangong Yun’s 50,000 soldiers had been reduced by more than 10,000 after two rounds of fierce fighting with Ye Guixue. Now, he feared that if they didn’t leave immediately, the remaining 40,000 would be devoured by Su Rong’s forces. Once Su Rong and her reinforcements arrived and joined forces with Ye Guixue’s army, it would be too late for them to leave. The fate of Liu’an Prince would become their own fate.
No, perhaps their fate would be even worse than that of Liu’an Prince. After all, Liu’an Prince Chu Qian was, in the end, a Chu.
The withdrawal movement of the 40,000 soldiers was quick. Almost as soon as Nangong Yun issued the order, they left Fengming Ridge.
Ye Guixue, who had been closely monitoring the movements of the opposing camp, had his scouts report this development instantly. Sensing that something was wrong, he ordered, "Pursue."
Simultaneously, Ye Guixue asked, "Why would Nangong Yun retreat?"
Qin Ruo speculated, "The battle at Wanren Mountain must have ended. The princess went to rescue them and defeated the Liu’an Prince. Nangong Yun must be afraid that the princess would bring reinforcements and retreat before he was defeated?"
Ye Guixue also thought it was for that reason, hence he instructed Yin Yue, "Go and find out."
Yin Yue acknowledged the command.
Chasing after Nangong Yun’s retreating forces, Nangong Yun’s army moved quickly, so Ye Guixue could only gather intel while actively pursuing him.
Half a day later, Yin Yue came back with the news, "Young Master, we’ve won the battle at Wanren Mountain. The Princess has successfully rescued the King and Lord Thursday. Liu’an Prince has been captured, and the 45,000 soldiers under his command have all surrendered to the Princess. It should be this news that made Nangong Yun quickly retreat."
Ye Guixue nodded, "So, that’s how it was."
Yin Yue continued, "Fu Zhou just sent news saying Nangong Yin was killed by Xie Yuan and his men in the Marquis Wan’an residence in the Royal Capital. However, Xie Yuan fell into the hands of Dawei’s secret agents."
"Master Xie?" Ye Guixue was stunned, "He actually led people into the Royal Capital to kill Nangong Yin?"
Such news, heard, was indeed shocking.
"Yes."
Ye Guixue turned to Qin Ruo,"So, did Nangong Yun choose to retreat because of the death of Nangong Yin, the defeat and capture of Liu’an Prince in the Death Valley of Wanren Mountain?"
"Most likely." Qin Ruo nodded in agreement.
When Su Rong parted ways with them and left Fu Zhou as a contact, Fu Zhou received a distress message from the secret agents in the direction of the Royal Capital several days ago. The carrier eagle was injured and flew here bearing hurriedly written message saying "Save Master, Royal Capital". Without waiting for further details, Fu Zhou immediately led his men towards the Royal Capital.
Now the news returned and it turned out that Xie Yuan has assassinated Nangong Yin? To fall into the hands of Dawei’s secret agents is not good news, but it was certainly better than falling into the hands of the Nangong family. If he had fallen into the hands of the Nangong family, Xie Yuan’s death would have been certain.
Ye Guixue understood the importance of Xie Yuan to Su Rong, or perhaps the entire world understood at this point. The Nanchu princess was brought up and educated by Xie Yuan, he was both a teacher and a father to her.
He speculated, "The princess must have received the news by now. She will definitely take her men to save Master Xie. She will not meet us at Fengming Ridge."
Qin Ruo nodded, "In the battle at Wanren Mountain, even if the Princess was able to save the King and Lord Thursday in time, they must have been badly injured. In her urgency, the Princess can only take the cavalry and go. Lord Thursday is injured and unable to travel. He might lead some of his troops to Fengming Ridge to meet us."
"But we have left Fengming Ridge now." Ye Guixue immediately instructed Yin Yue, "Quickly send someone to pass the message to Lord Thursday. Leave our cipher along the way, informing him that we are following the direction of Nangong Yun’s retreat towards Dawei."
Yin Yue acknowledged the instruction.
Therefore, Zhang Yun and Zhou Gu, who were stationed at the mouth of Death Valley in Wanren Mountain, jointly decided to depart to Fengming Ridge half a day after Su Rong left.
A day after setting off, they received the message from Yin Yue saying that Nangong Yun had retreated. Zhang Yun thought it was a good thing and asked Zhou Gu, "Shall we also pursue?"
"Follow the signs they left, yes." Zhou Gu nodded.
Though they couldn’t catch up, gathering all their forces on the border of Dawei was not a bad strategy. Otherwise, if Dawei declared war on Nanchu, its 500,000 soldiers stationed in Nanchu could step on the door of Nanchu country at once. With no external military force blocking them and with the Nangong family’s inside-outside collaboration, wouldn’t it spell disaster for Nanchu?
Both armies were pursuing Nangong Yun and moving towards Dawei. This was certainly an annoyance for the people like Jiang Zhu, Zhang Mao and Ning Ze, who were in a hurry to join up with Su Rong with a significant number of troops.
Following the clues left behind by the scouts, they went all the way to Fengming Ridge, but saw no trace of anyone. So, they tracked the signals left behind and continued chasing in the direction of Dawei.
Having to move large contingents of troops was a slow process, which made Ning Ze very frustrated. He discussed with Jiang Zhu, "Brother Jiang, can you give me 50,000 troops and I’ll start chasing ahead."
Jiang Zhu looked at him, "Save it. We have foot soldiers now. You’re not familiar with Nanchu’s geographical conditions. If you take 50,000 soldiers and lose them again, we’d be slower than we are now."
Ning Ze choked, feeling mortified, "But this is too slow."
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