Chapter 282: The Hand Behind the Curtain

The Governor-General of Xia Province had come in person, escorting the very thing every soldier in camp dreamed about—food. Naturally, the frontier troops turned out to welcome him.

The two sides exchanged formal greetings first, trading polite phrases with broad smiles, as if they were old friends reunited rather than meeting for the first time.

In truth, the fate of Xia Province hinged on Zhao Pan.

And whether the northern front could keep fighting now depended on whether Governor-General He could keep sending grain.

Each side relied on the other. That alone meant their relationship was destined to be close from the start.

Zhao Pan looked like he had stepped straight out of a commoner’s ideal of a grand general. He had broad shoulders, a burly frame, thick eyebrows and beard, and a face full of straightforward boldness. When he laughed, the sound boomed like thunder and seemed loud enough to shake the saplings at his elbow.

Once the grain had been handed over, the frontier army would take over from here.

At last, He Chunhua’s convoy could rest.

Zhao Pan hooked an arm through his and pulled him toward the main camp. “Come, come, I’ll give you a welcome feast.”

By the time they entered the command tent, it was already early in the hour of the monkey, which was around three in the afternoon. Five men sat inside, with Zhao Pan and a deputy general sitting on one side, while He Chunhua, his son, and Elder Liang sat on the other side.

One detail stood out, and that was that a hornbill perched on Zhao Pan’s shoulder, its body half yellow, half black. Its curved beak was enormous, nearly a third of its entire length, and above its eyes rose an exaggerated bony casque like a little helmet.

He Lingchuan could not help but wonder.

With that big lump blocking the way, can the bird even see straight ahead?

After the introductions, the food came.

He Lingchuan glanced at the rough wooden table and saw that each man had only two dishes: a bowl of mixed-grain rice, a bowl of stewed meat, and a small bowl for wine.

The wine bowls were filled first. The aroma was surprisingly pleasant.

Zhao Pan had two bowls of meat on the table. His hornbill hopped off his shoulder, landed on the tabletop, and pecked away at one of them.

It had no hands, but with that beak, it did not need any. It clamped down on a piece of meat, flipped it into the air, then opened its beak wide to catch and swallow.

Bite after bite, in a rapid rhythm. Its bowl emptied quickly.

“This morning, a wild boar of about two hundred kilograms ran straight into our fence. So it turned into the meat you’re eating now. Otherwise, aside from mixed grain, wild greens, and this jar of wine, I wouldn’t have a fourth thing to offer you.” Zhao Pan said with a smile, “It must be Heaven’s way of welcoming Governor-General He. If not for today, it’s been a long time since the front saw anything alive out here.”

The birds and beasts in the nearby hills had long since been eaten to extinction by hungry soldiers.

The coarse rice had been bulked out with several kinds of beans. He Lingchuan recognized soybeans and mung beans, and one mottled variety he could not name. The pork had simply been boiled and salted.

The moment he bit down, his mouth filled with strong gamey musk, almost gag-inducing.

Wild boar was nothing like domestic pork.

But this was a front line in wartime, and it was always short on food. They were lucky to be eating meat at all. No one had the luxury of ginger, garlic, star anise, peppercorn, soy sauce—all the things that might have cut the smell and brought out the flavor.

He Lingchuan’s expression did not so much as twitch. He smiled and ate anyway.

Back when he had squatted on the Chipa Highland hunting monsters, he had choked down things far stranger and far worse.

Elder Liang, by contrast, chewed a single bite and quietly set his chopsticks aside.

Zhao Pan’s gaze flicked over, taking it all in.

On the other side, He Chunhua was recounting the battles along the way. He concluded with an apology, “I’ve let our king down. The royal court scraped together nearly one and a half million kilograms of grain, and I’ve delivered only 650,000 kilograms. I truly am incompetent.”

He had already sent someone ahead with this news before he arrived, so Zhao Pan had had plenty of time to chew on it.

He now merely shook his head and sighed. “If Governor-General He hadn’t escorted it personally, I doubt anyone else could’ve saved so much as a single grain from Hong Chenglue’s hands.”

He Lingchuan shot his father a quick look. Seeing he meant to hold his tongue, he spoke up instead, “General Zhao thinks that highly of Hong Chenglue? We’d barely heard of him before this.”

“Hong Chenglue’s reputation is all in the northern monster state. He’s fought more in the eastern part of the monster state, and his feats rarely drift down here. But as I’ve guarded the north for years with Nian Zanli, we know his past quite well.” Zhao Pan waved a hand. “Those truly skilled in war don’t always have brilliant, flashy achievements. In times like these, there are plenty who win fame in a single battle. But how many can win battle after battle? Or even win without fighting at all? I’ll name another man whom you surely know—”

“Hong Xiangqian.”

He Chunhua blinked. “The rebel leader?” The moment he heard Zhao Pan mention the name, he suddenly noticed the shared surname.

“That’s right. Hong Xiangqian, the rebel who threw the central regions into chaos and marched on the capital. Hong Chenglue is his own elder brother.”

Father and son were genuinely startled. “Hong Xiangqian’s own little brother... was in Xia Province this whole time?”

Hong Xiangqian’s crime was one that warranted family extermination. By law, that meant Hong Chenglue was a wanted man, subject to execution wherever found.

“Yes. There’s bad blood between the brothers. Hong Chenglue never lifted a finger to help Hong Xiangqian rebel. If he had, I don’t know if Ke Jihai and the others could have defeated him and saved the capital.” Zhao Pan sighed again before continuing, “He’s most adept at seizing the momentum of the battlefield. At least twice, in key engagements, he broke the enemy’s will without a fight. For you to preserve nearly seven hundred thousand kilograms of grain from him, Governor-General He, I truly can’t ask for more.”

He Chunhua’s brow stayed furrowed. “But as long as a man like that roams our rear lines, he’ll be a massive hidden danger. One way or another, we’ll have to remove him.”

He had already gotten a taste of how slippery Hong Chenglue could be. The man had slipped past his forces twice in one night, right under their noses, and had nearly killed his son in the process.

Anyone who had faced Hong Chenglue wanted him dead, yet he was still very much alive.

Suddenly, a thought surfaced in He Chunhua’s mind. “Break the enemy’s will... without a fight?”

He realized he had muttered the phrase under his breath.

“What was that, Lord He?” Zhao Pan asked as he set down his bowl.

“Oh, nothing.” He Chunhua lifted his wine. “Allow me to toast General Zhao. With you guarding the frontier, it is a blessing for Great Yuan.”

Zhao Pan stood shoulder to shoulder with Ke Jihai and Wu Di in fame. Swap him out for someone lesser, and Nian Zanli’s offensive would have punched straight through long ago.

Zhao Pan did not bother with empty modesty. He clinked bowls and downed the drink in one draught.

“My son went to investigate in Bailu Town and heard that Hong Chenglue and his wife have been hiding there for three years, living in poverty.” A proud, ambitious general, hiding in a dusty village and swallowing humiliation—it was the kind of thing even storytellers would hesitate to write, because no one would buy the book. “What’s the real story? Does General Zhao know more?”

“There are many stories that make it down here from the northern monster state. The most popular one goes like this: they say Hong Chenglue had a turbulent childhood and twice narrowly escaped death thanks to his wife A’Jin. The two of them wandered the world together, sharing hardship. They developed deep affection, in other words. Later, A’Jin had a difficult labor. Hong Chenglue swore a blood oath to lay down the blade, but the child died anyway, and the wife was left paralyzed. Heartbroken and bound by his vow, he resigned his post and hid himself in the countryside.”

He Chunhua could not help but snort. “Nonsense. That little thing is enough to make a blazing star of a general never draw his sword again? How naive!”

“I think so too. But commoners love that sort of story,” said Zhao Pan with a grin. “I heard another version. This version states that early on, he got tangled up in one of the royal succession struggles and backed the wrong horse: the mortal enemy of the current monster emperor. You and I both know how deadly that can be. So the chances are high he resigned to escape disaster, using his wife’s difficult childbirth as a cover. In any case, it was a good thing he ran, and ran fast. Once Beijia’s new emperor took the throne, I doubt he would have had much patience for an old courtier on the wrong side of things.”

Even if the emperor did, Hong Chenglue would not have dared to gamble on it.

“That makes more sense,” He Chunhua mused. “But now that he’s stepped back onto the stage, leading Xun Province’s troops... this is most likely that northern monster state pulling strings behind the scenes.”

“Of course it is. Nian Zanli has suffered two defeats against him, and yet now Hong Chenglue is leading Xun Province’s men for him? If it weren’t Beijia’s idea, why would he serve a loser like that?” Zhao Pan snorted. “Everywhere the war flares up, you see the monster state’s shadow, and yet it refuses to send its own armies in. It’s simply infuriating!”

He Chunhua made a thoughtful sound.

They had chatted long enough that the food was gone and the bowls were mostly dry.

Zhao Pan was still considerate. “You’ve come from far away, and it’s getting dark. I won’t keep you from resting.”

He Chunhua shook his head. “It’s fine. I’d like to see the front line tonight.”

This new Governor-General of Xia Province is quite hardworking. Well, he’s definitely very different from the pampered officials who liked to sit in the rear and indulge themselves.

Naturally, Zhao Pan had no objection. “Then please, come with me.”

Of course, He Lingchuan followed right behind his father.

The front lines of the war lay ahead.

The two armies were separated by the Han River. It was about fifty meters wide. North of the water, the Xun Province troops held the land. South of it, Zhao Pan’s forces were encamped.

The Yuan army’s camp was laid out in neat rows along the southern bank of the river. Across the water, the enemy’s camp glowed with torches as well. From where He Lingchuan stood, he could clearly make out the silhouettes of sentries pacing the ramparts with spears in hand.

The distance was close. The atmosphere, for the moment, was strangely calm.

He Chunhua asked, “Has there not been much fighting lately?”

Even at the front, they were not at each other’s throats every single day.

“These last two days, the farmers in the rear have been transplanting rice seedlings,” Zhao Pan explained, gesturing toward the yellow flags fluttering before his camp. “We agreed to a short truce. The season’s here, so if they miss the timing, there’ll be no harvest next year.”

“So Xun Province isn’t exactly rolling in grain either,” He Chunhua said. If they had reserves to spare, they should have used this window to launch fierce attacks and destroy the Yuan garrison farms.

“Xun Province had a drought last year. The harvest fell short. If Hong Xiangqian hadn’t suddenly attacked Woling Pass, forcing the Minister of War to trigger his coup, I doubt Nian Zanli would’ve chosen this year of all years to defect, but here we are.”

“The northern monster state offered no support?”

“After Sun Fuping was killed and Nian Zanli’s rebellion was exposed, he had no choice but to throw himself on Beijia’s mercy first. From what I’ve heard, Beijia’s response has been rather cold.”

He Chunhua laughed. “That’s what you get when you come begging first. That’s no way to bargain.”

If Beijia had taken the initiative to poach Nian Zanli, his treatment would have been far richer.

“Exactly. If Beijia really wanted him, if it had given him money and grain whenever he asked, we couldn’t have held on this long.” Zhao Pan’s jaw clenched. “It just wants to watch us tear each other apart and swoop in to reap the profits later. Nian Zanli’s a fool!”

“Yet now the northern monster state is moving as well, bringing Hong Chenglue back into play,” He Chunhua murmured. “Its strategy toward Yuan may be changing.”

Zhao Pan let out a long sigh. “There’s no one else around. I’ll be blunt with you. Governor-General He, in the eyes of an ancient state like the northern monster state, we’re just a tiny backwater state. Its true focus is in the east. It probably has no real interest in reaching this far... at least as of yet.”

He Chunhua said nothing for a time. Beijia’s attitude toward Nian Zanli made its arrogance plain enough. A six-hundred-year-old empire, a state that had been strong from the beginning, looked down on the upstart Yuan as an adult might a mere child.

He felt a complicated twist in his chest. On one hand, the contempt stung. On the other hand, a faint, unbidden thought rose in his mind.

Perhaps it’s a blessing that Beijia is underestimating us.

If it really turns its full attention toward us, Xia Province’s situation would be far more precarious than it already is.