Chapter 276: He Chunhua's Dilemma

“Someone with a much deeper hunger for wealth, power, and reputation?”

“Otherwise, after such a calamity, he’d either be dead inside and go into hiding under an assumed name, or he’d be seething with rage and waiting for a chance to take revenge. Who, in that situation, throws himself so eagerly into officialdom?”

By the time Dong Rui dragged the ghost ape back from the gates of hell, the sun was already descending toward the west.

Hong Chenglue had just finished hearing from a scout who had spent the night hiding in Xinhuang Town, watching the enemy, and had only now rushed back to the mine.

“They plan to move out tomorrow morning?”

He dismissed the scout with a wave, drummed his fingers on the scarred wooden table twice, and asked, “What about the scout I sent to Bailu Town? Has he returned?”

Xu Yingxian answered at once. “Not yet.”

“We’re this close to Bailu Town. Why is he still not back?”

“Well...” Xu Yingxian was quick to catch on. “I’ll send someone to look for him immediately!”

Hong Chenglue said nothing. Only when Xu Yingxian reached the doorway did he call out, “Wait, come back.”

“General?”

“Who did you send?”

“Liu Si.”

“Is he reliable?” In the end, these were Xun Province roving cavalry. In other words, they were Nian Zanli’s men. A few days ago, they had not even known Hong Chenglue. This was not the Beijia army he had once commanded, and he still did not fully understand their habits and capabilities.

“Liu Si is always punctual and cautious. This is the first time he hasn’t returned on schedule.”

So, this is out of the ordinary.

A faint chill pricked at Hong Chenglue’s chest. This was bad. He had lived in Bailu Town for years; the footprints he had left there could not be wiped clean in a day.

“There’s no need to send anyone after him,” said Hong Chenglue.

The oversight is mine.

“Give the order to break camp. It’s not safe here anymore. We’re relocating.”

This abandoned mine had originally been known only to a few locals. It was an ideal hiding place.

What a pity.

“What?” Tao Ze stared dumbfounded. The others had heard as well. Xu Yingxian answered the order with a sharp “Yes!”, but the remaining two officers rose to their feet.

“This isn’t right! Maybe Liu Si was delayed on the road. It doesn’t have to mean something happened in Bailu Town.”

“General Baili and all those brothers were only just rescued. They need peace and stillness, not jostling and hauling. We can’t assume Liu Si’s been captured just because he’s an hour late and then drag everyone away over a hunch.”

“Exactly. It’s not appropriate!”

These were men of Xun Province, Nian Zanli’s subordinates. Even if Nian Zanli had named Hong Chenglue the main commander of the behind-the-lines operation, that did not mean they truly accepted him in their hearts. Their loyalties were closer to Baili Qing.

Even if they had another place to go, they could not very well trot down the official roads in broad daylight. Any alternate route would be the hardest mountain path they could find. An ordinary rider would be bruised black and blue in the saddle, never mind gravely injured men like Baili Qing. A few jolts could reopen those wounds and push them back to death’s door.

Under those circumstances, it was no wonder they thought Hong Chenglue was jumping at shadows, making a fuss over nothing.

Hong Chenglue did not lose his temper. He merely asked, “Then what do you suggest?”

“Send another man to Bailu Town and get the facts.”

Hong Chenglue voiced no objection. In fact, he even smiled. “All right. We’ll do it your way.”

The two officers felt that General Hong seemed relatively easygoing; at least, he currently appeared nothing like the ruthless, iron-blooded figure of rumor who accepted no contradiction.

* * *

Meanwhile, He Lingchuan and his men were following the old miner into the mountains.

The old man’s surname was Shan. He was no horseman, so He Lingchuan had gone so far as to hire a carriage for him, lest the jolting or bouncing of the saddle scatter his bones before they even reached their destination.

“I haven’t been to that mine in ten years,” Old Shan said, craning out the window to check the landmarks, clearly terrified of missing the turnoff. “Mr. Hong was recognized as a good man all around. My old woman stole things from his house, and he never made too much of a fuss. When he went into the mountains to hunt, he often shared the game with us. I remember he brought home a wild boar once—a big one that was at least three hundred kilograms, I’d say. He wasn’t stingy about it. He gave a share to everyone in that alley. Sigh, I never would’ve thought... that he’d end up working for Xun Province.”

He thinks Hong Chenglue went to work for Xun Province? Hah, he’s gone to lead their efforts, not serve as a hired hand. It seems that this Old Shan doesn’t have that good a grasp of what happened.

He Lingchuan said casually, “Sounds like you had a lot of wild game out here in the mountains, then?”

“Mm-hm. This place used to be filled with them running about. But these past years, they’ve been getting fewer and fewer. Go into the mountains for a whole day, and bringing back one rabbit is already a gift from heaven.” Old Shan shook his head, then went on, “There was one time Mr. Hong spent two days in the mountains and came back empty-handed. He said that the forests were all but deserted.”

“All eaten up?” They had been traveling a while now and had not so much as glimpsed a hare.

“Exactly. These years, the fields don’t yield much. The officials press us hard for money. If folks can’t fill their bellies, they have to find something else to eat, don’t they?” Old Shan suddenly thrust a finger out the window. “Here. Turn in here!”

He was pointing at a patch of thick scrub. There was no road in sight, only weeds and tall grasses.

Jiao Tai stepped forward with his machete and hacked down two hefty swathes of shrubbery before a faint path came into view. Even that path was shrouded in young trees, all likely grown in the last few years.

“This is the place. Look, I carved a mark on that big rock.”

They all looked over. Sure enough, on the black stone beside a scraggly locust tree was a little triangular mark carved by a knife. Moss had crept over it, obscuring the outline, but the shape was still vaguely discernible.

“Back when we finished work and headed home, we’d cut through this shortcut. It saved us half an hour.”

The carriage could go no farther.

Shan Youjun swung Old Shan onto his own saddle, and they all continued.

The route rose and fell in steep humps, and they even had to wade streams and step through gullies. Without someone familiar with the terrain, they would have had no hope of finding the way.

After a little more than an hour, Old Shan pointed at a ridge ahead. “Once we cross that ridge, we should see the mine.”

Mao Tao crept up to the ridge to peek over the edge, then signaled to He Lingchuan with a nod.

He Lingchuan pulled out three taels of silver and pressed them into Old Shan’s hand. “Thank you. This is your payment.”

He was paying him a full tael more than they had agreed. Old Shan was overjoyed, wiping sweat from his brow. “Want to know the mine’s other way out?”

They all froze. “There’s another exit?”

“There didn’t used to be.” Old Shan drank a mouthful of water, drawing out their anticipation. He Lingchuan passed him a few coins of broken silver. Only then did the old man lead them around the backside of the mountain.

At this moment, He Lingchuan felt that this old man and his wife were truly a perfect match.

Old Shan began talking, “Fourteen years ago, the mine was still active. Nearly a hundred men were working every day. I remember that time well. It was just a couple of days before the New Year. Everyone wanted to finish fast and go home. Work was going hot, picks flying... then the tunnel suddenly collapsed again.”

He paused for a moment, then continued, “Four or five men died on the spot. Another dozen were trapped inside. We thought we were finished for sure. Then, deep in the tunnel, a stone wall gave way. We saw light coming through, but the opening was tiny. We used pickaxes to widen the crack into a real hole, but the rock between kept sliding down, burying it again and again. We cleared it again and again. Only after all that hardship did we finally claw our way out.”

Then, he sighed. “It’s been so many years. I don’t even know if that exit still exists.”

They followed the slope down for a little over half a kilometer when Mao Tao, leading the way, suddenly hissed, “Don’t move.”

The five of them were just passing between two giant boulders. Through the gap, they could see a narrow ravine beyond. Two men sat by a fire there, weapons strapped at their waists.

Sentries.

He Lingchuan’s heart steadied at the sight. If the mine had no back door, why would Xun Province post guards here?

Sure enough, Old Shan pointed discreetly in that direction, signalling that the exit was there.

Choosing this abandoned mine as a base had not been a whim. Hong Chenglue had clearly weighed the pros and cons. He had even prepared the escape route.

The five of them retreated at once, careful not to disturb the sentries.

Back near the mine entrance, Old Shan said, “It seems that you lords have work to do. I’ll be heading back.”

The air was already humming with the quiet tension that preceded a battle. An old man like him knew perfectly well when it was time to slip away.

The carriage waited at the end of the path. He could drive it himself.

Only after his figure disappeared down the little road did Mao Tao turn and slip toward the mine to scout ahead.

The other three waited with patience.

Roughly seven to eight minutes later, he returned, speaking in a low voice, “There are at least six sentries around the pit, all posted on the high ground. They’ve got a clear view of everything. The open mine pit is about 250 meters across. From here, it’s hard to get a good angle with arrows on the men below.”

He then seemed to be recalling what he had seen before continuing, “They were cooking down there. A hundred or more men were sitting on the stone steps waiting for food. The pit’s edge has a dozen single-storey houses, and Xun Province soldiers are going in and out. I saw a few carrying basins of bloody water to pour out. I’d wager those houses are full of wounded. I also heard a loud screech that sounded like Dong Rui’s bird monster. It seemed to come from a rooftop. It was probably preening its feathers.”

The aroma of rice drifted up with the wind, reaching their noses.

The men turned to their master. “What do we do now?”

There were a few hundred enemies below, and there were only four of them. They could not possibly take the pit by themselves.

He Lingchuan pointed at Jiao Tai. “You go back to Xinhuang and report to my father. Let him decide. The rest of us will stay put and gnaw on dry rations.”

Jiao Tai accepted the order and slipped away.

With Dong Rui’s giant bird here—sharp-eared, far-sighted, and capable of flight—their movements would have to be all the more cautious.

* * *

In Xinhuang Town, He Chunhua sat inside a single-storey house, staring at the casualty reports spread out across the table.

The grain convoy had been routed in Bailu Town, and over seven hundred thousand kilograms of grain had been lost. The convoy in Xinhuang Town had fared better, but even so, more than a hundred had died or been wounded, and over two hundred kilograms of grain had been burned.

In Yuan’s current condition, every grain levy meant tightening the belt another notch, nearly scraping the common folk down to the bone each time. That much grain alone could have made Ke Jihai, out on the western front, drool with envy.

And yet, even with him personally escorting the shipment, half of the one and a half million kilograms allocated by the royal court had gone up in smoke before reaching the front lines.

When he saw Zhao Pan next, he would be starting from a loss, morally and materially.

No wonder his mood was sour.

At the same time, he was tangled in a knot of indecision. Should he stop here to hunt down the remaining Xun Province cavalry, or prioritize bringing the grain safely to the front lines?

From a strategic standpoint, the latter was the proper choice. This was a grain convoy, after all. The safety of their supplies came first. The frontline soldiers’ food came first.

But even if he made that decision, there was no guarantee that Hong Chenglue would not strike again and try to burn the rest of the grain. If that happened, they would be stuck reacting to his moves, always a step behind.

On the other hand, if he struck first...

The staff officers who had survived the ambush had already argued with him twice. All of them insisted that delivering the grain was the priority.

He Chunhua, however, had yet to make up his mind.

To put a full stop to this ambush, with things as they stood, left a bitter taste in his mouth. He would have a hard time explaining it to others and to himself.

Just then, the guard outside announced, “The eldest young master’s personal guard requests an audience.”

Finally, some news!

He Chunhua’s spirits lifted. “Send him in.”

Jiao Tai stumbled in, worn and travel-stained, his lips cracked from dryness. He had not even had time to drink water. He came straight in and reported, in full detail, the information they had gathered from Bailu Town and the mine.