Chapter 843

The Lingzhou Camp was pitched on a Gobi beach thirty li northwest of Huile City. The camp occupied a square of five li, and the banner of the Lingzhou Governor's Office at the camp gate had faded from the wind and sand, two tassels on the flag corners broken, swaying listlessly in the night wind.

When Chen Yan reined in his horse, a foul smell that was hard to describe first poured into his nose.

The smell was the rancid stench of swill buckets, the putrid smell of horse manure, and the turbid air of sweat stains and wine dregs mixed together, rolled over from the direction of the camp by the late autumn night wind.

Helian Shi rode on Chen Yan's right, his rough face, carved by the northwest wind and sand, turning the color of a pig's liver in the torchlight, the horsewhip in his palm clenching until it creaked.

"Pillar of State, this subordinate has failed in governing the army; this subordinate is guilty!"

Chen Yan did not respond to his words.

His gaze crossed the camp gate and fell upon the crooked tents inside the camp.

There should have been two sentries holding halberds at the camp gate; at this moment, only one stood there, the other squatting beneath the gate pillar, his head leaning against the pillar for a nap, drool dripping from the corner of his mouth onto his armor plates.

The halberd shaft in the hand of the sentry who was standing was covered in rust; seeing a large procession of men and horses pressing over from the official road, his eyelids finally lifted slowly.

Yuwen Ze's complexion was three degrees worse than Helian Shi's, the collar of his purple robes twisted into a ball by him.

"Brother, this is the Lingzhou army; look at what this looks like!"

Chen Yan dismounted, his boot soles striking the gravel of the Gobi beach, his voice flat.

"Let's go in and take a look."

The group walked in from the camp gate.

The interior of the camp was even worse than what Chen Yan had seen from the outside.

The curtain of the first row of tents on the left was lifted, and the crisp sound of dice striking wooden boards came from inside, mixed with laughter and scolding; firelight leaked out from the cracks in the curtain, reflecting several shirtless figures pushing cups and changing lamps inside.

At the entrance of the second row of tents on the right, a pile of uncleaned horse manure was stacked, and beside the manure pile lay a provincial soldier dead drunk, still holding half a jar of unfinished turbid wine in his arms, his snoring louder than thunder.

Patrol soldiers wandered around in twos and threes, some carrying spear shafts on their shoulders like hoes, others simply propping their spears on the ground like canes, their walking posture even more lax than an old woman going to the market.

Helian Shi's complexion turned blue and then white, his voice pressed beneath his throat.

"Pillar of State, these are local old-establishment troops. The battalion I transferred from Xia Prefecture last year is stationed in the south, and their military appearance is much stronger than this side, but local soldiers account for seventy percent, and this subordinate cannot manage them."

His finger pointed toward an area with the brightest lights in the depths of the camp.

"That side is Helan Xiong's camp area. He has one thousand two hundred men under his command, eating the best grain in the military camp and wearing the thickest armor, but his people don't even listen to this subordinate's transfer orders. Last month, I asked him to drill, and he said the brothers were not acclimatized to the water and soil, dragging it out for half a month."

Chen Yan's finger tapped on the hilt of his horizontal blade.

"Where is he?"

Helian Shi's voice dropped by two degrees.

"He should be in his commander's tent. At this hour, if he isn't drinking, he is..."

Before he finished his words, Chen Yan had already walked with long strides toward the training ground in the center of the camp.

"Blow the horn, assemble."

Helian Shi paused for a beat, and then his voice exploded.

"Come! Blow the horn! Assemble the entire camp!"

The sound of the horn exploded from the watchtower, the sharp and harsh wave of sound crushing over the entire camp in the night.

Half a stick of incense passed.

Less than half the people gathered on the training ground, scattered and loose, some not wearing full armor, some only wearing one boot, standing there swaying, as if they had just been fished out of a wine jar.

The blood vessels on Helian Shi's temples jumped as if they were about to explode, his voice raised by another notch.

"All of you, get out here!"

Another half stick of incense passed, and the people finally gathered, but the ranks were crooked, like traces left by a snake crawling.

The last to arrive were a group of military officers wearing fine armor.

The one in the lead was burly, broad-shouldered and thick-waisted, his face full of sideburns reddened by the wine fumes; the copper nails on his armor were polished quite brightly, and the hilt of the horizontal blade at his waist was inlaid with two turquoises, as eye-catching as the indifferent smile at the corner of his mouth.

Helan Xiong.

He was followed by seven or eight lieutenant generals and commandants, each of their footsteps carrying a deliberate, slowed-down laziness, as if telling everyone, "I'm not in a hurry."

Helan Xiong walked to the edge of the training ground and bowed toward Yuwen Ze, the arc as shallow as if he hadn't bent at all.

"Prince, you have arrived late at night; this subordinate failed to welcome you from afar."

The horizontal saber was raised.

"This must be the Chen Pillar of State from Xia Prefecture, right? I have long admired your great name."

Chen Yan stood in the center of the training ground, his hands tucked into the side seams of his cloak, not even lifting his eyelids.

Helan Xiong's voice raised by another notch, carrying a tone of sarcasm.

"The Pillar of State has come from afar; this subordinate should have prepared wine and food to welcome you, but the brothers haven't had enough to eat or wear these past few days, and they don't even have the strength to stand in formation."

He turned his head and swept a glance at the crooked soldiers behind him, his voice raised by another three degrees.

"Pillar of State, look, this is the Lingzhou army. The grain and pay were withheld by more than half, and the winter clothes haven't even had a shadow until now. The brothers aren't unwilling to be spirited; they just can't be spirited."

Helian Shi's fists clenched at his sides until his finger bones emitted a cracking sound, his voice squeezed out from between his teeth.

"Helan Xiong, you're talking nonsense! The grain and pay were issued half a month ago; it's you who withheld them and didn't issue them!"

Helan Xiong spread his hands, an expression of grievance hanging on his face that was just right.

"Governor Helian, this subordinate is wronged by these words. This subordinate issued every bit of the grain and pay that was issued, but there are many brothers and little grain and pay, so there wasn't much left when divided among everyone."

His gaze turned to Chen Yan again, a mass of something even more choking than wine fumes hidden in those eyeballs reddened by wine fumes.

"The Pillar of State killed quite a few greedy military heads in Xia Prefecture; this subordinate admires that, but Lingzhou is different from Xia Prefecture. The brothers in Lingzhou have taken root in this land for generations, and whoever comes to manage them must recognize this principle."

Yuwen Ze's hand was already on the hilt of his sword, his voice trembling.

"Helan Xiong, are you challenging this Prince?"

Helan Xiong's lips opened, and just as he was about to respond, Chen Yan suddenly turned his head.

He did not look at Helan Xiong.

His gaze crossed these military officers wearing fine armor, crossed those crooked middle-level ranks, and fell upon the black-pressed area at the very back of the training ground.

That was where the rank-and-file provincial soldiers stood.

Their armor was as broken as a sieve, some not even having armor, only wearing thin, wind-permeable coarse cloth short coats, shivering in the late autumn night wind.

The look in their eyes when they looked at Helan Xiong was filled with a fear that had been tamed for a long time.

The look in their eyes when they looked at Yuwen Ze was only numbness.

Chen Yan's fingers slowly closed inside the side seams of his cloak.

He turned his head and looked at Gao Jiong.

That glance was extremely short, less than half a breath.

Gao Jiong's figure vanished silently into the shadows at the edge of the training ground.

Chen Yan withdrew his gaze from the rank-and-file provincial soldiers at the back and let it fall once again on Helan Xiong's face, his voice flat.

"Are you finished?"

Helan Xiong's mouth twitched.

Chen Yan turned around, walked toward a tent at the edge of the training ground, lifted the curtain to look at the dice and wine jars scattered on the ground inside, and then put down the curtain and walked toward another one.

He walked to three tents in a row, and the scene inside each one was about the same.

When he put down the curtain of the third tent, Gao Jiong's figure flashed out from the shadows again, sticking to his right side, his voice pressed to a mosquito-like sound that only two people could hear.

"Pillar of State, it's been investigated clearly."

Chen Yan's footsteps did not stop.

"Speak."

Gao Jiong's voice dropped by another two degrees, every word squeezed out one by one from between his teeth.

"Before Helan Xiong entered the training ground just now, he sent two trusted aides to the East Camp and North Camp separately. My dark agents watched them meet with the squad leaders of each tent, and the message they passed was only one sentence."

Chen Yan's footsteps slowed by half a beat.

"What sentence?"

The blood vessel on Gao Jiong's temple jumped.

"At the second watch tonight, beat the gongs and light the fires, and start a camp riot."

Chen Yan's footsteps stopped in the center of the training ground.

Gao Jiong's voice became even more urgent by two degrees.

"Pillar of State, they know you killed old military heads in Xia Prefecture and are afraid you'll repeat the same trick in Lingzhou, so they're preparing to strike first and use the chaos of the camp riot to give you and the Prince a show of force." My dark agent also heard one term.

Chen Yan's brow jumped.

Gao Jiong's teeth clenched.

"Strike the master in the chaos."

Chen Yan stood in the center of the training ground, the night wind pouring in from the direction of the Gobi beach, blowing his cloak hem until it snapped.

Yuwen Ze walked quickly to his side, his voice trembling.

"Brother, what did you say? Camp riot? They want to start a camp riot?"

His hand was already gripping the sword hilt, his knuckles white, his voice raised by another notch.

"They've rebelled! This Prince will draw my sword and cut down this beast Helan Xiong right now!"

Chen Yan pressed down on Yuwen Ze's wrist.

Yuwen Ze's wrist stopped in his palm.

Chen Yan turned his head to look at him, the arc at the corner of his mouth slowly bending into a curve that sent a chill up Yuwen Ze's spine.

"A Ze, don't be in a hurry."

Yuwen Ze's voice was blocked in his throat.

Chen Yan's fingers loosened from his wrist, and he turned around, his gaze falling on Helan Xiong, who was whispering to several lieutenant generals in the distance on the training ground.

"They want to play at a camp riot?"

His voice was as light as the sound of the night wind brushing against a blade edge.

"Excellent, this Duke was just worrying about not finding an excuse to kill and establish authority."

His palm patted the hilt of his horizontal blade.

"Hongye, Ye Zhuxi, Beiwei Death Guards, take your positions."

Hongye and Ye Zhuxi's figures vanished from behind him in the same breath, one to the east, one to the west, silently hiding in the shadows at the edge of the training ground.

The footsteps of five hundred Beiwei Death Guards stopped in unison in a certain direction on the outskirts of the camp, the muffled sound of iron armor colliding swallowed clean by the night wind.

Chen Yan stood in the center of the training ground, his fingers slowly tracing an arc on the hilt of his horizontal blade.

A scream, shrill to the extreme, suddenly exploded in the depths of the camp.

Immediately following was the sound of gongs being frantically beaten by someone; the gong sounds were urgent and dense, as if urging for life.

Countless torches were thrown onto the tents.

After the tent felt was licked by the tongues of fire, the firelight soared into the sky, illuminating half the camp into an orange-red purgatory.

Thousands of incited provincial soldiers poured out of the tents like headless flies, holding knives, spears, and sticks in their hands, shouting uneven slogans.

"The Inspector doesn't issue grain, we want to survive!"

"If soldiers aren't given food to eat, it's better to go home and farm!"

"Charge! Find the Inspector and demand an explanation!"

The human tide converged from three sides of the training ground, the sound of footsteps merging into a dull drumbeat, getting denser and more urgent.

Helan Xiong stood in the shadows furthest away behind the crowd, those eyeballs reddened by wine fumes flickering with a light darker than the flames in the firelight.

The corners of his mouth twitched, an arc of someone who believed victory was in his grasp.

Chen Yan stood in the center of the training ground, the firelight stretching his shadow to three zhang long, the hem of his cloak fluttering in the fire wind.

His hand patted the hilt of his horizontal blade for the second time.

His voice was not high, but every word was like a steel nail driven into the night.

"Just in time."