Chapter 796 Three Fierce Generals (First Update)
Hu Yang was puzzled: "No, didn't you understand? Prince Han is gone! Now the Black Wind Camp is Lord Xiao's territory! Lord Xiao appreciates you and promoted you on his first day in office! Don't be ungrateful, let me tell you!"
Wenren Chong said, "I said I'm not going, and that means I'm not going."
"Hey! You!" Hu Yang put his hands on his hips, about to point a finger at him, when suddenly a soldier strode up behind him with a swagger. "Old Chong! Is my armor repaired yet?"
Wenren Chong didn't even lift his eyelids, but simply pointed to the wall on the left rear side: "Alright, it's on the third shelf over there, go get it yourself."
The soldiers pushed the poplars aside.
Hu Yang was nominally a secretary, but in reality, he didn't have much status in the military camp. None of the Han family's commanders used secretaries; they had their own advisors.
To put it bluntly, his position as a secretary was just for show, a figurehead who was just there to collect military pay.
Hu Yang staggered for a moment, then steadied himself by holding onto the wall.
He glared at the man, gritting his teeth and muttering under his breath, "You brat, can't you watch where you're going?"
The soldier took his armor, didn't even glance at Master Hu, nor did he pay any attention to Wenren Chong, and swaggered away.
Master Hu had only stood at the blacksmith's shop entrance for a short while when he felt as if he were about to melt from the intense heat. He looked at Wenren Chong sitting by the boiler and simply couldn't understand how this guy could withstand it.
Master Hu wiped his sweat with his sleeve and said earnestly, "Wenren Chong, you were a confidant of the Xuanyuan family back then. You should know that even if it weren't the Han family, but any other aristocratic family, you would never have had the opportunity to be given an important position. You were just incredibly lucky to have met our Lord Xiao. Lord Xiao dared to risk offending all the aristocratic families and even His Majesty to promote a former subordinate of the Xuanyuan family. Didn't you feel even a little bit moved?"
Wenren Chong continued repairing the armor on his legs: "No."
Master Hu: "..."
When Hu Shiye was turned away by Wenren Chong, he turned around and complained bitterly about Wenren Chong to Gu Jiao.
"That guy is so ungrateful!"
"I'll go take a look," Gu Jiao said.
As the commander, she had her own tent, and inside the tent were the commander's guards, similar to the orderly soldiers in her previous life.
Gu Jiao asked him to take Black Wind King and Horse King to the training ground for training, and then went to the blacksmith's shop in the camp with Master Hu.
Master Hu originally intended to lead the way, but he was not as fast as Gu Jiao.
"My lord! My lord! My lord..." Master Hu watched as Gu Jiao turned right and headed straight for the blacksmith's shop. He scratched his head. "My lord knows the way. Have you been here before? Ah, right, my lord came to the military camp for selection... No, the selection was up ahead. This is the reserve camp... Never mind!"
When Gu Jiao saw Wenren Chong, he was no longer repairing his armor, but instead was hammering iron.
Gu Jiao's gaze fell on him.
Because of the heat, he was shirtless, and sweat poured down his bronze skin. Although he hadn't participated in military training for many years, blacksmithing was still physically demanding, and his muscles were very strong and well-developed.
Gu Jiao noticed that he was wearing a leather glove on his right hand.
It was probably to cover up the severed finger.
Master Hu, drenched in sweat, chased after him, bent over, hands on his thighs, panting heavily: "Wenren... Wenren... Chong... Lord Xiao... Lord Xiao has come to see you in person... Hurry up... pay your respects to Lord Xiao..."
Wenren Chong showed no interest in the new commander, remaining indifferent and continuing to hammer away at the iron: "Put the weapon repair on the left, and the armor repair on the right."
Gu Jiao glanced at the mountains of broken armored soldiers piled up on both sides of the courtyard and asked, "Don't we need to register them?"
"No need." Wenren Chong struck the weapon again with his hammer, sending sparks flying from the red-hot weapon.
Gu Jiao asked, "You remember whose soldiers all of these are?"
Wenren Chong finally lost his patience, frowning as he looked at Gu Jiao: "Are you going to fix it or not? If you're not going to fix it, don't block my light—"
The last word was only half-said.
An undisguised surprise flashed in his eyes, clearly not expecting the newly appointed commander to be so young.
Gu Jiao's official age is nineteen, but she is actually less than seventeen. Doesn't she look like a naive and immature young girl?
But the young man exuded righteousness, possessed a calm and composed demeanor, and his eyes revealed a ruthlessness and composure befitting his age.
"Hey! How dare you talk like that?" Master Hu wasn't breathing as heavily as before. He pointed at Wenren Chong, "Zhang Hu was just punished for insubordination! Do you want to end up like Zhang Hu?!"
Wenren Chong lowered his eyes and continued forging: "Whatever."
"Hey—you—" Master Hu was quite angry with him.
Gu Jiao's reaction was quite calm. She glanced at Wenren Chong and said, "Then I'll come back to ask you again tomorrow."
With that, she put her hands behind her back, turned around, and left.
Wenren Chong looked at her straight back and said calmly, "No need to waste your energy. Asking her any number of times will be the same. I'm just a blacksmith."
Gu Jiao didn't reply or stop walking; she simply led Master Hu away from there.
Master Hu sighed, "Sir, please don't be angry. Wenren Chong has always had this bad temper. When the Han family tried to win him over, he didn't know what was good for him. Otherwise, why would he have been transferred to the reserve camp to work as a blacksmith?"
"Hmm." Gu Jiao nodded, seemingly having taken his advice to heart, and then asked, "You said before that Li Shen and Zhao Dengfeng were no longer in the military camp. When did they leave? And where are they now?"
After recalling for a moment, Master Hu carefully chose his words and said, "They... have been gone for three or four years now. Li Shen left first, and Zhao Dengfeng left a couple of months later... They used to always be at odds. As for where they are now... you go to the camp and rest for a while, and I'll go to the training ground to inquire."
"Okay." Gu Jiao returned to her own tent.
The tent was quite large, divided into two rooms by a screen. The outer room was the council chamber, and the inner room was her bedroom.
The luxurious furnishings in the tents had all been moved away, but the extravagance of the Han family in the military camp could still be seen from the tent tops and walls.
The Xuanyuan family has always been frugal. Although they own many estates and shops, most of the money they earn is used to support the military.
Sitting in the spacious tent, Gu Jiao felt a strange sense of mission welling up inside her.
—Have I adapted to Jing Yinyin's identity so quickly?
"My lord! My lord! I've found out!" Master Hu entered the tent breathlessly, bowed respectfully, and said, "Li Shen... Li Shen and Zhao Dengfeng... are both in a town outside Shengdu..."
Gu Jiao asked, "How far?"
Master Hu wiped the sweat from his forehead and replied, "It's not too far. If you take the shortcut, it will take a little over an hour to get there."
On her first day in office, she was still unfamiliar with the work, but there wasn't much to do... Gu Jiao said, "Come with me."
So decisive and efficient?
Master Hu was stunned for a moment before he reacted: "Yes, I'll go prepare the carriage."
Gu Jiao stood up, grabbed the red-tasseled spear from the shelf, and slung it over her shoulder: "No need, I'll ride a horse."
"Uh... but I..."
I'm not very good at riding horses.
Ma Wang continued his training at the military camp.
Gu Jiao rode on Black Wind King, and Master Hu rode on Black Wind Rider. Together they went to Qiushan Town, where the two of them lived.
Qiushan Town and Tianqiong Academy are in completely different directions. Gu Jiao had never been to the north of the city before and felt that it was not as lively as the south of the city, but it was not desolate either.
There was a cargo dock in Qiushan Town, where Li Shen worked as a laborer.
The dock was bustling with people, including passengers rushing to board and disembark from ships and strong men working hard to carry goods.
Li Shen was strong; he grabbed three sacks and carried them on his shoulders, while everyone else only carried one.
The veins on his forehead bulged, and large beads of sweat poured down like a waterfall, dripping onto the scorched bluestone ground, which was distorted by the blazing sun, and disappearing with a hiss.
Many able-bodied men suffered from heatstroke and slumped helplessly in the shade of the warehouse, panting for breath.
Gu Jiao could tell that Li Shen was also about to suffer from heatstroke, but he gritted his teeth and carried the three bags of goods into the warehouse before he could rest.
He didn't rest for long, and before his strength had fully recovered, he walked towards the cargo ship again.
"Li Shen!" Master Hu called out to him from his horse.
Li Shen turned around and looked at Master Hu, saying coldly, "You've mistaken me for someone else."
Master Hu said solemnly, "I haven't mistaken you! You are Li Shen!"
"Wang Dazhu! Come and unload the cargo!" A crew member on the cargo ship shouted to him.
"Coming!" He jogged over, sweating profusely.
"Hey—hey—Li Shen—" Master Hu howled twice, but in the end he still couldn't stop him.
Gu Jiao sat on horseback, quietly gazing in Li Shen's direction: "What was his situation back then?"
Master Hu said, "Does Your Excellency want to ask why he retired from the army? I heard that something happened to his family. His younger brother died, and his sister-in-law remarried with her child, leaving only his elderly mother. He retired from the army to take care of his mother. But I don't understand why he even changed his name?"
"Where is Zhao Dengfeng?" Gu Jiao asked.
Hu the clerk hurriedly replied, "It's in a restaurant three miles away. He's doing quite well; he owns his own restaurant, and I heard business is pretty good."
As he spoke, he looked around cautiously and said to Gu Jiao, "There were rumors that Zhao Dengfeng had long since defected to the Han family and had been secretly selling information to them. He was also implicated in the Xuanyuan family's defeat. Nobody believed it before, after all, he was Xuanyuan Sheng's most trusted deputy general. But, sir, look, Zhao Dengfeng and Li Shen retired around the same time. Li Shen became a dockworker, while Zhao Dengfeng made a fortune and opened a restaurant. Sir, think about it carefully!"
Gu Jiao said, "So, the money was given by the Han family?"
Master Hu exclaimed admiringly, "Your Excellency is truly wise!"
“Let’s go take a look,” Gu Jiao said.
(End of this chapter)
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