"General Li! Please wait!" The voice was hoarse and weak, as if the person had been seriously injured.
Li Ting looked at the middle-aged man, quickly searching his memory, and found that he had seen this person before. However, Li Ting could sense a righteous aura emanating from this man.
So he quickly ordered the two servants at the door to lead the person to a side hall.
Upon reaching the side hall, the man immediately knelt down and kowtowed, pleading, "General Li, please save us!"
Li Ting quickly helped the man up. "Hero, stand up and speak. I am no longer a general and cannot accept such a grand gesture!"
"In the hearts of our soldiers on the northwestern border, you will always be a general." The man's face bore the unwavering resolve of a northwestern man. Yet, in his twenty years in the northwest, Li Ting seemed to have never met this soldier.
Li Ting remained silent. The man knew that without proof, Li Ting would not believe him. So he took off his shirt, revealing his shoulder. The prominent mark on his shoulder blade immediately excited Li Ting; it was indeed the Northwest Army.
"Whose subordinate are you?" Li Ting asked excitedly.
"I am Hou Minghui, the border commander of the Northwest Tiele tribe. You are familiar with the structure of our army," the man replied to Li Ting, his voice slightly weary as he finished dressing.
“I remember the border commander of the Tiele tribe was Dong Hao, how did it become you?” Li Ting pondered the change.
Hou Minghui knelt down on the ground with a thud.
"General, Commandant Dong... he was murdered before the New Year." Hou Minghui burst into tears after saying this.
"What?! Tell me quickly, what exactly happened?" Upon hearing this, Li Ting jumped up from his seat.
“Before the New Year, a group of refugees suddenly appeared. They said they were from the Tiele ethnic group. They all spoke the Tiele language and dressed in the typical Tiele style. Captain Dong did not investigate them carefully and let the group of refugees settle in Nabu Village.”
"At first, everything was peaceful. Commandant Dong even made a point of having people take extra care of those refugees. But later, in Nabu Village and the surrounding villages, women of the Tiele tribe were gradually being murdered. Their deaths were extremely gruesome."
"Commander Dong ordered his men to investigate the case, but all the evidence pointed to our border garrison. Commander Dong didn't believe it. He said that since you subdued the Tiele tribe, there had never been any conflict between the Tiele tribe and the Han people in the nearly twenty years since then, so there must be a conspiracy involved."
"However, my subordinates have limited abilities, and no matter how much we investigate along the lines of evidence, we cannot find any more favorable evidence."
"So Commandant Dong personally visited several villages where women of the Tiele tribe had died violently. Perhaps he found evidence, so those people wanted to kill them to cover it up."
“That shouldn’t be the case. Dong Hao’s kung fu is more than enough to take on a hundred people, and he has a way of escaping from dangerous situations. How could he be silenced like this?” Li Ting voiced his doubts.
"That's the strange thing. When we found Captain Dong's body, it looked like he died of poisoning. There were no new wounds on his body. Of the people who accompanied him to investigate the evidence, all but one of them died."
"Have you investigated the background of the person whose body cannot be found?"
"We investigated, but couldn't find his origin. It's as if he appeared out of thin air in Nan Chen Kingdom. He has no parents, no one knows where his hometown is, or if he has any relatives."
"Dong Hao is far too careless in his personnel decisions," Li Ting lamented.
"That man was supposedly picked up by Captain Dong during a patrol and raised by his side. Who knew he would hide for so long, a full ten years!" Hou Minghui said indignantly.
"Then how did you get back? And how were you injured?"
"General, the border is in chaos," Hou Minghui said in a low voice.
"What!" Li Ting was startled again.
"When I went to collect Captain Dong's body, he was clutching a piece of cloth tightly in his hand, on which were written only two words—'Find Li!'"
"After Captain Dong's death, I was the most senior, so I was recommended to be the border guard captain. But I have always kept Captain Dong's last wish in mind, so I came to find you."
"After arranging everything, I took advantage of the opportunity when the captain needed to patrol various villages in the spring to leave quietly. But don't worry, I found a deputy envoy to patrol in my place, so the spring planting was not delayed."
"However, despite my careful planning, the news of my departure from the Xiong'an border region still leaked out."
"After I entered the pass, I was chased by a group of people. Those people had the blue lotus symbol on them."
"It's the Green Lotus Society again." In a short period of time, Li Ting heard two things that were related to the Green Lotus Society.
"Captain Hou, go and rest first and let your wounds heal. We have to wait; the enemy will definitely slip up. After you've recovered, tell me in detail all the details surrounding Captain Dong's death." After saying this, Li Ting instructed Liu Fu to take Hou Minghui away to recover.
Li Ting returned to Xu Ningyou's room and saw Xiao Sheng taking care of Li Xingran alone.
The arrogance that once clung to the child was completely gone, and there was no longer any hostility on his face.
Li Ting knew that all these things were aimed at the Crown Prince and the imperial power of Nan Chen Kingdom. He felt as if a dark cloud was drifting over Nan Chen Kingdom.
Before the storm, all was calm in the court. The Southern Chen Kingdom had been at peace for too long, so much so that people had forgotten the danger.
Li Ting hugged Li Xingran in his arms, and Li Xingran gave him a big smile.
[This handsome dad's brows are furrowed into a deep frown. But it's precisely this kind of dad that makes him even more lovable!]
[Father must have learned about the Qinglian Society from Aunt Fu Qing. Hou Minghui, who is guarding the northwestern settlement of the Tiele people, should also be back, and the news he brings is again related to the Qinglian Society.]
My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
