The birds that returned to their nests fluttered their wings and landed on the treetops, lowering their heads to groom their disheveled feathers.
Suddenly the ground quivered slightly, it raised its head keenly, looked around, then flew away in fright.
At the end of the sky, billowing smoke and dust rolled forward; nearby, over a dozen horsemen galloped on the official road. The sound of hooves swiftly pounded the ground, striking the heart like a sudden downpour.
The riders’ hats were askew, clothes disheveled, and they appeared terrified. They only focused on cracking their whips, wishing they could go even faster.
“Bang.”
This ruthless whipping enraged the originally docile horses. One of them let out a long neigh and actually threw its rider off onto the ground.
The others did not even glance at their miserable companion, continuing to urge their mounts forward.
The one who fell rolled twice on the spot, cursing in pain, while that horse paid no heed, racing off with the main group.
Watching his companion and the horse vanish, the injured man’s face twisted with anger.
That fury quickly turned into fear. He tried to stand up with all his might, only to collapse again. His right calf was bent in an unnatural way.
The smoke and dust behind them on the official road grew thicker, like dark clouds slowly moving in, ready to blanket the entire sky.
“Help, someone come!”
The wounded man cried out in despair. He wore a scout’s uniform and had planned to enter the city with urgent news, but now he only thought about how to keep himself alive.
A long, winding trail of blood was left on the ground. The abandoned scout used both hands to struggle down the official road, trying to crawl into the woods by the roadside.
Just then, he suddenly felt a hand supporting his shoulder and back. Before he could react, he felt as if he were lifted into the air like riding on a cloud.
“You, you…”
The scout stared blankly for a while, finally realizing he had been saved by someone with great martial skill.
He could not see this person’s face; trees flashed past him in reverse. He tried to speak but ended up swallowing a mouthful of wind.
The wind howled. He even saw his companions in the distance, some of whom turned their heads in shock to stare at him. The tall city gate stood close by, yet it showed no sign of opening. Originally, it was always like this: in a dire military situation, scouts had to climb back up the wall by way of a rope lowered from the top, because the gates would not open for them.
If they moved too slowly, they could be shot dead by enemy arrows.
Now that his leg was ruined, how could he possibly climb up?
Before he could finish thinking, the tall, moss-covered city walls filled his vision, seeming about to collide. The scout was so frightened he closed his eyes.
“Your right leg is broken, endure it.”
He hazily opened his eyes and found himself sitting on top of the city wall. In front of him, someone casually picked up a discarded short spear nearby, snapped it into two pieces for setting the bone. Intense pain surged over him like a tidal wave, and the scout let out a scream and fainted.
“Who are you?” stammered a soldier on the city wall.
Anyone who saw the rebel army at the gates, their own scouts fleeing back in terror, and then suddenly a blur racing in, crossing ten yards in a single bound without even using a rope to vault onto the wall, would be too scared to speak.
They did not dare come near.
“I’m a doctor.”
Mo Li did not even lift his head when he spoke. The scout’s injuries were severe, and he would not wake up any time soon; Mo Li had not seen how he got thrown off the horse.
Though it was merely along his way, he could not stand by and watch someone die right before him—he could not crawl to the gate in time, nor could he escape fast enough.
After quickly finishing the bandaging, Mo Li slowly raised his head, looking at the guards on the wall who trembled before him.
——Along the entire length of the wall, there were only a little over a hundred men.
Discarded halberds, arrows, and spears lay everywhere, as if they were cast aside in panicked flight.
At this moment, the other scouts had just finished climbing onto the wall. They were stunned by what they saw. Then someone roared in anger, “What happened here? Where is everyone?!”
No one answered.
Mo Li likewise did not see anyone who looked like a military officer among the crowd. After a while, an old soldier with a white beard came forward, speaking in a rough voice: “They all ran away. Past our Hua County lies the prefectural city of Nanping, less than half a day’s journey from here.”
Hua County’s walls were not high, nor was the city large. There were a few cannons mounted along the wall.
If eight thousand soldiers united and defended the city to the death, they might have been able to hold back the Tianshou King’s army. However, the county officials had no intention of doing so.
“We did not have enough men. Since people from Nanping Prefecture took away a batch of our brothers, we only had fewer than three thousand left.” The old soldier spoke gloomily.
Originally, the county officials hoped the Tianshou King’s army would pass by the city as before, and they would simply seal the gates to survive. But evidently, the Tianshou King had no desire to go out of his way just before reaching the destination, and he galloped straight toward Hua County.
Mo Li turned to face inside the city, where crowds of people and vehicles flooded toward the East Gate—the gate opposite from where they stood.
From the wealthy to the poor, everyone was desperately fleeing.
“Are they insane? If the Tianshou King’s army bypassed the city to hurry on their way, they would all be doomed!” The scout, lying on the wall, said in shock.
Mo Li pursed his lips and did not speak.
In fact, if their only concern was survival, the county officials’ decision was not foolish at all.
Before that pack of Fu Ling cakes was snatched away, Meng Qi had instructed Mo Li like this——
“Once you arrive at Nanping Prefecture, you do not need to go to the prefectural city where King Jing is stationed. First, you go… let me see, it should have been Hua County.” Meng Qi examined the sand table in Fengxing Pavilion for a while, then said solemnly, “All along this route, the Tianshou King had not encountered a single real battle. Even that time he defeated the one hundred fifty thousand Jingzhou Army did not count, because the Jingzhou Army had been too careless, and their leaders had all been incompetent. Now he’s about to meet his first real obstacle. The prefectural city of Nanping Prefecture is not so easy to capture, so he had to find somewhere to rest for one night. If nothing else worked, he also needed a place to store provisions, and possibly to recruit more soldiers. Therefore, he would not massacre the city, since slaughtering all the citizens would only bring him more trouble.”
Killing and looting required a lot of energy.
If the army unleashed its pent-up wrath on Hua County, how would they tackle that tough nut afterward?
Mo Li gazed again toward the outside of the city. That vast and endless army still moved forward slowly.
Tens of thousands of people marching, accompanied by the rolling of hooves and wagon wheels… the tremors in the ground became more and more palpable.
“Strange, did these mongrel thieves slow their pace?”
“Or did we run too fast?”
The scouts, having caught their breath, turned around and saw that the advance of that ‘dark cloud’ was not as frightening as they had imagined.
Only Mo Li knew it was not so.
——All of Meng Qi’s predictions were spot on. For the sake of ‘morale,’ the Tianshou King had been restraining the central main force, giving them no chance to kill.
Now, he naturally would not let the army circle around the city to chase those civilians. He would also try to avoid letting those people see Hua County’s refugees. Thus, the army definitely had to slow down.
Those who fled would exert pressure on Nanping Prefecture again; no matter where they went, they would spread fear.
Mo Li closed his eyes briefly, knowing it did no good. Who could stop the common folk from fleeing?
“…Worthless officials!” one scout cursed, at the same time glaring at the soldiers on the city walls. “Why didn’t you lot run?”
The old soldier smacked his lips, gazing at that crowd that was pushing and shoving to leave the city, revealing an odd expression that was neither weeping nor laughter. “Somebody had to stay here to stall for time. Did none of you have family among those people down there?”
“I… I have nobody. I’m a loner, not worth risking my life for other people’s kin!” that scout shouted, stiffening his neck.
“Go if you want.” The old soldier did not lose his temper, simply speaking. “Go now, or soon it’ll be too late.”
Those scouts hesitated a moment. Some left; more remained.
“If you stay, just pick up any weapon you like from the ground. Move! We’re about to tidy up. At least we can’t leave things around to trip us up!”
As the old soldier barked orders, he surreptitiously sized up Mo Li. Years of defending the city told him that these martial wanderers, who came and went like the wind, were not to be provoked. Normally, he pretended not to see them, but now the situation was urgent, and the stranger did not seem to be leaving, so the old soldier felt nervous.
He was not the only one. Many watchful eyes secretly observed Mo Li. After all, it was their first time seeing someone who, like in a storyteller’s tale, could vault several yards of city wall in a single bound.
Mo Li lowered his gaze. In Meng Qi’s plan, when Mo Li arrived, Hua County would have already surrendered without resistance, and he would enter a city occupied by the Tianshou King. That would have been simple for him.
Who best helped the Tianshou King ‘reclaim’ the people and ‘steady’ the situation?
The Holy Lotus Sect.
The main army would not enter the city; only the supplies convoy and the Holy Lotus Sect would station themselves in Hua County. If luck allowed, they might even ‘run into’ that Holy Lotus Sect Master Luo.
“Do not act recklessly. The main point is to figure out how close the Tianshou King and the Holy Lotus Sect really were, whose orders the rebels’ higher-ups listened to, which of his subordinates the Tianshou King trusted most, and what role Pili Hall played in the rebel ranks, and so on.”
At that time, Meng Qi had clutched Mo Li’s hand, reluctant to let go, and sighed, “We knew too little about everything concerning the Tianshou King. Only by knowing the enemy and knowing ourselves could we respond correctly. A-Li, promise me, no matter what happens, wait until I return before taking action.”
The memories gradually faded, replaced by the sight of the soldiers on Hua County’s city wall—afraid but trying to hold on—and the screams of panicked civilians fleeing within the city.
They did not understand military strategy; they had no courage to fight one against a hundred; they had no martial skills. They were as ordinary as ordinary could get.
Yet this was the one thing Meng Qi had not guessed.
——They were not loyal unto death for King Jing; they were not determined to die rather than surrender. Though they were afraid, they did not run. They defended a city that was destined to fall.
They did it for the families behind them, for the chance of survival for the city’s people, even if it meant dying.
Mo Li unintentionally clenched his fingers, as though Meng Qi’s hand still held them.
Then he opened his eyes, looking at the soldiers who were secretly watching him, and said, “I also had family members in Hua County. They were a large clan, four or five wagons’ worth, in that crowd near the city gates. Even if I made it there, I couldn’t take so many of them away. So for now, all I could do was give my utmost and hold back the rebels. If the city gates did not fall for a while, they would have that much more time to live.”
Everyone’s eyes lit up at those words.
Especially since Mo Li added, “Once they were all gone, we could leave too.”
So there was still hope! The soldiers almost jumped for joy. Looking at the Tianshou King’s army slowing its advance, with fewer and fewer civilians left in the city, the worry faded from their faces.
——They might not necessarily die!
The dull, oppressive atmosphere dispersed at once, and some people even bustled over to offer Mo Li weapons with high spirits.
“This bow works really well. It belonged to our junior commander. His family is wealthy, so it’s top-quality.”
“Yeah, and this spear, too. He tossed it aside when he was running, thinking it got in his way…”
“Step aside—none of yours could beat my arrows. My grandpa was a blacksmith! My archery was poor, so I couldn’t kill any major villains. These good arrows would just go to waste!”
Author’s note:
Mo Li: I could now lie so convincingly, it seemed real.
