Xue Shen hunched his shoulders and dragged his legs as he followed the soldier who delivered the message inside.
He appeared terrified and cowering, but in reality, he was secretly observing the camp's defenses under his bowed head. Not all of the Third Prince's men were incompetent; this one seemed to be a capable leader and was very vigilant.
Xue Shen was led to the central command tent. Just as he was about to enter, he was stopped and searched by the guards at the door.
He appeared meek and obedient, readily accepting the body search. The guards, finding no weapons on him, allowed him inside.
Xue Shen hunched his shoulders as he entered and saw a tall, middle-aged man sitting in the main seat, looking down at him with sharp eyes.
"You said that Gérard encountered the Wei people and asked you to come and ask for their help?"
Xue Shen cautiously glanced up at him, then pulled a blood-stained token from his robes and presented it tremblingly. He quickly lowered his head again, replying meekly, "Yes. The Wei people are cunning; they deceived the general..."
The other party took the token and examined it for a while, then sneered: "It's not that the Wei people are cunning, but that Reang is stupid. The Third Prince didn't even invite him this time, but he insisted on coming along because his sister is favored. He's a fool who's more trouble than he's worth."
Xue Shen lowered his head even further, looking as if he didn't know how to respond.
The other party sized him up for a while, and looked down on the soldiers under Gérard's command, saying lazily, "You can go and rest now."
Upon hearing this, Xue Shen hesitated, struggling for a long time before finally daring to say, "The general said... said the situation is critical..."
The other person waved impatiently, saying, "You can leave now."
Xue Shen looked alarmed, quickly bowed, and withdrew.
After Xue Shen left, the confidant summoned by Bai asked, "Do you think there might be a trap involved?"
After a moment's consideration, the confidant said, "That soldier is indeed Tibetan, and the token on his body is genuine. Shen Mingjiang is cunning and scheming, and General Reang is arrogant. It's not surprising that he would fall into the Wei people's trap and ask for help. However, we don't need to rush to rescue him. After the Wei people kill Reang, the general can then go and annihilate the Wei people at the right time. We can get rid of this annoying pest and make a great contribution at the same time. Wouldn't that be the best of both worlds?"
Bai laughed and said, "There's a saying in Wei: 'The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.' Let's be the oriole for now."
*
The Bai man intended to use someone else to do his dirty work, so he did not send troops that night.
However, the third prince greatly favored Gérard's sister, and although he wanted to get rid of Gérard, he couldn't openly give the prince any leverage over her. Therefore, although he didn't immediately send troops to rescue her, he still dispatched a vanguard of a hundred men to scout the situation.
Xue Shen was naturally the guide for these people.
Xue Shen followed these people out of the military camp and led them eastward.
In the dead of night in the mountains, apart from the torches they held, it was pitch black. Since the landlord had said it was just a show of force to scout the situation, the group wasn't in a hurry to get going, and rode their horses forward, chatting and laughing as they made their way in the dark.
Xue Shen remained silent, hunching his shoulders as he led the way.
His gaze was fixed on the ground. When he saw the markings left by the guards, the corners of his mouth curled up almost imperceptibly. He quickened his pace slightly and carefully rode his horse across the soft fallen leaves.
Meanwhile, the Tibetan soldiers behind them, who were chatting and laughing, did not notice the unusual situation ahead.
They rode their horses one after another across the path piled with fallen leaves, oblivious to the danger, until they realized something was wrong and found themselves in the middle of the road.
Xue Shen had already passed the most dangerous section of the road. He looked at them from the end, drew his sword, and cut the rope that was hidden by layers of fallen leaves.
This place should have been a pool of water, but for some reason the water source was cut off, and after the water dried up, only a dry pit remained.
After Xue Shen discovered the place, he immediately discussed a plan with his guards. They built a simple floating bridge with tree branches over the pit and covered it with layers of fallen leaves. With the darkness of night, no one would notice anything unusual unless they looked closely.
The pontoon bridge was rudimentary and had limited load-bearing capacity. Xue Shen, alone on horseback, was already swaying as he walked across. By the time hundreds of men and horses stepped onto it, the bridge's capacity had reached its limit. Now, with the ropes cut, the pontoon bridge collapsed with a crash, and the hundreds of men and horses on the bridge, along with the falling leaves, plunged into the deep pit.
The pit was two or three zhang deep, and the walls were slippery and steep. If you fell in, even if you didn't die, you would break several bones, and climbing out was a pipe dream.
Xue Shen squatted by the pit, watching the Tibetan soldiers groaning at the bottom, and said to the guards behind him, "Make your move."
The guards then worked together to push down the boulder that they had prepared beforehand.
The boulder crashed to the bottom of the pit, and the previous cries of agony immediately ceased. Xue Shen clapped his hands, stood up, and said, "Let's go, let's go to the next place and wait for the Bai."
There was nothing of value in Gheang's documents; the only useful thing was a few letters containing complaints about the Bai.
Xue Shen deduced from this that the two had been at odds for a long time, and thus used this to devise a plan to annihilate the enemy.
Hundreds of people followed him out, but then disappeared without a trace. Given the Bai's personality, he would definitely bring troops to investigate, and that would be his chance.
Xue Shen led his men to erase the traces of their eastward journey under cover of night, and then deliberately forged marks indicating that the group had gone west before hastily riding off to the next location to set up an ambush.
*
Bai originally thought that someone would return with news in a day or two at most.
But he waited until the next day, and no one returned with news. He then realized something was wrong and summoned his trusted aides, saying, "Things have changed. Gather the troops immediately, and let's go take a look."
The confidant was also surprised that no one had returned with the news for so long. After a moment's hesitation, he said, "Could it be that the distance is too far and they were delayed on the way?"
Bai shook his head, stood up, and said with his hands behind his back, "I have a bad feeling. Go and do it immediately."
Upon hearing this, the confidant dared not say another word and hurriedly went to give orders to muster the troops and prepare to break camp.
This scene was witnessed by the scouts watching from the shadows. After confirming that Bai was indeed about to break camp and leave, the scouts tiptoed away and made their way into a secluded cave. They reported back to Shen Mingjiang, "General, Bai has suddenly broken camp."
Shen Mingjiang frowned: "He chased us all the way here, and even after losing track of us, he stayed for several days and was reluctant to leave. Why did he suddenly break camp?"
The scout was also unsure. The military camp was heavily guarded, and he dared not get too close for fear of revealing his whereabouts, so it was difficult for him to find out any specific information. Hearing this, he simply shook his head: "I don't know, but it seems that a team was sent out last night."
Shen Mingjiang stroked his chin and said strangely, "That's really strange."
He pondered for a moment, then waved his hand and said, "Let's go, let's follow them and take a look." Seeing that some wounded soldiers were about to follow, he shouted, "Those who are injured are not allowed to go. All of you stay here and recover. Don't try to hold me back."
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