Chapter 501: Separation
Editor: Atlas Studios
It was the token of the West Xia’s army. Fei Bai had found it in the hands of a villager when he was moving the corpses with his men. At that time, the token was held tightly in the grip of the deceased. He had spent a lot of effort to pull it out and secretly handed it to Qi Haoran.
Fei Bai didn’t understand. Qi Haoran had clearly told everyone that this was done by the West Xia soldiers, but he didn’t show everyone the token. Instead, he asked everyone to spend time looking for traces and evidence left behind by the murderers.
Qi Haoran lowered his eyes and said, “They need time, and so do I.”
Instead of explaining much, Qi Haoran just turned around and returned to his room. He wrote a secret letter and handed it to Fei Bai. “Go to the nearest county with the scouts to ask for information. Take the opportunity to send this letter out.”
Fei Bai did not ask further. He put the secret letter away and turned to leave.
The Imperial Court had already started fighting with the rebels, and there were wins and losses. Overall, the Imperial Court had taken back more cities than they had lost, so it could barely be considered a victory. When they heard the news brought back by the scouts, the soldiers perked up and looked at Qi Haoran.
Qi Haoran lowered his eyes and said, “When the other two teams return, we will continue to look for the Imperial Court’s army.”
Deputy General Zhong was stunned. “Aren’t we going to look for the murderer?”
“Yes, but I want to increase our chances.” Qi Haoran said, “If we can meet up with the Imperial Court’s army, we won’t have to worry about anything.”
“Considering this is the critical moment to suppress the bandits, will the marshal leading the troops listen to our one-sided words?”
“That’s why we have to gather evidence and report it to the Imperial Court. It’s not like we’re competing with them for military merits. With the enemy in front of us, we should unite and ask around for the Imperial Court’s army camp closest to us,” Qi Haoran instructed Deputy General Zhong.
Deputy General Zhong shrugged his shoulders and gave the order. They had originally planned to go to Tongren to rest and await orders from the Imperial Court. However, they urgently needed to meet up with the army, so they naturally could not go to Tongren now. The nearest army base was in Ye County, and it would take two and a half days to travel there at the quickest.
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Just as Deputy General Zhong was about to instruct his men to prepare the rations for the journey, the two reconnaissance teams sent out returned. One team looked alright and reported, “General, other than the commoners being harassed by bandits, everything is normal on our road. The locals can testify that the bandits are all locals.”
The other team looked a little pale. “General, we searched carefully along the way and found traces of large-scale trampling on many mountain passes. After asking the nearby villagers and townspeople, we discovered that some villagers and townspeople have disappeared for no reason recently. They remain missing and their corpses are yet to be found, but because bandits are wreaking havoc now, the government office isn’t paying much attention to this matter.”
“However, we’ve investigated in private. Those people appeared in similar locations at about the same time. We followed those locations and found hidden traces. We roughly estimate that the enemy has about 2,000 men on their side. And at the place where they left, we found a few buried corpses. The strange thing is that the wounds on the corpses seem to be from the same weapon as the villagers’ fatal injuries, but the saber techniques are completely different. The other party seems to be hiding something.”
“Isn’t that obvious? Of course, it’s to cover up their identity. General, it was easy for those people to kill the lone travelers, so they still had time to change their saber techniques. However, when they arrived at the village, it was obvious that the incident happened too suddenly. The other party decided to slaughter the village at the last minute, so they didn’t have time to cover up. Instead, they instinctively used their best saber techniques to kill.”
“General, give the order. I wonder how many more tragedies will happen when these West Xia people barge into our Great Zhou. They’re even worse than bandits.”
However, Qi Haoran frowned and asked, “You said that there are about 2,000 of them? But we only found traces of about 500 people near the village. Where did the other 1,500 go?”
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone fell silent. Qi Haoran spun around on the spot a few times and said, “We can’t just ignore this matter. If we send people out to investigate after we find the battalion in two and a half days, we’ll lose a lot of traces. It’d be as difficult as ascending to the heavens to find 2,000 people in Great Zhou.”
“Then what do you think we should do, General?”
“Split into four teams. One team will continue to look for the Imperial Court’s army. The other three teams will think of a way to find the West Xia soldiers by following their traces along the way.” Qi Haoran said, “Try not to clash with them and not be discovered by them. Our main mission is to find and monitor them.”
“Then who will lead the team back to find the Imperial Court’s army?” Deputy General Zhong was most concerned about this.
Qi Haoran replied with a grin, “Get the regiment commander of the 1st Division to bring the troops back. I want you to bring a team of soldiers to investigate. I’ll lead another team. The regiment commander of the 3rd and 5th Divisions will lead the third team.”
Deputy General Zhong opened his mouth. He wanted to say that he would lead the team back, but when he met Qi Haoran’s eyes, he dared not say it out loud. He did not trust Qi Haoran, and this distrust was mutual. Hence, the best solution was to let someone else go back.
At night, Qi Haoran gathered Deputy General Zhong and the five regiment commanders together and said, “Now that we each have something on each other, we’ll both suffer losses if anything goes wrong. Everyone, you have to consider more when doing things so that you won’t do anything that you’ll regret. I’ll say this first. We can fight however we want normally, but now that the country is in trouble, if I find out who framed their comrades and became the helper of the Hus, I’ll fulfill his wish and let him be a hero for West Xia or the Jin Kingdom.”
Qi Haoran looked at them sharply, making everyone lower their heads slightly. This threat was too heavy, and no one dared to ignore it. This was because Qi Haoran was their superior and had something on them. It was simply too easy to frame them for colluding with the enemy and betraying their country.
At that time, not only them, but even their families would have to die. At this moment, not only the regiment commander who had been ordered to go back and look for the Imperial Court’s army, but even Deputy General Zhong did not dare to have any thoughts about this matter. After interacting with him for a few months, they could tell that Qi Haoran was a little stubborn. Once he set his mind on something, even the heavens would not be able to stop him.
They did not have the guts to gamble with the lives of their entire family.
Qi Haoran took out all the food in this village and divided them into four portions, three large and one small. He handed the smallest portion to the regiment commander of the 1st Division and said, “Since you guys are going back, this much is enough. Leave the rest to the other brothers.”
“It’s all up to you, General.” The regiment commander of the 1st Division had no objections at all. After all, his mission was the simplest and safest.
Satisfied, Qi Haoran distributed the three portions of rations and circled out the scope of everyone’s investigation. “No matter what method you use to find out about the West Xia soldiers, you only have to remember three things. First, you are not allowed to harm civilians. Second, you are not allowed to betray the country. Third, you are not allowed to disregard the lives of your comrades!”
“Yes.” Everyone stood up and obeyed.
Qi Haoran was personally in charge of the West Xia soldiers who slaughtered the village, while the other two teams returned to the place where there were traces of 2,000 people previously.
After everyone left, Qi Haoran turned around and said to the regiment commander of the 2nd Division who was following him, “Get everyone to take off their military uniforms and change into the clothes of the commoners. Let’s go to Huaiyuan County.”
