Chapter 896: Nuhe Ti imposes heavy taxes; Zhang Wenqian intercepts intelligence

A crack in the solid wood desk split from the center to the corner, and wood shavings fell onto Nuhe Ti's knees, but he did not brush them away.

The tent flap was lifted from the outside, and Ba Dou walked in with his head bowed, one hand resting on the hilt of his saber; his boots made no sound as they stepped on the carpet.

"Great Khan."

When Nuhe Ti stood up from behind the desk, he knocked over the tea bowl in front of him; tea spilled onto the silk strips, soaking a large area, but he did not even glance at it.

"Look at this."

Ba Dou walked to the desk and picked up the silk strip, which was half-soaked in tea; the ink on it had been partially dissolved by the water, but the key characters were still recognizable.

Ba Dou read it twice and placed the silk strip back on the desk.

"Qifugu, who was just a stray dog begging for food half a year ago—when did he become a madman daring to challenge the Royal Court?"

Nuhe Ti kicked over the copper basin that had spilled the tea; the basin rolled three times on the carpet and stopped at the base of the tent wall.

"What kind of fat has this dog eaten to grow from a few hundred tents to over ten thousand people in half a year? The Helan tribe is gone, the Seleng, Tuhai, and Puchang tribes are all gone. The livestock and people of these tribes have all entered his belly, and those idiots at the border only sent the news back now!"

Ba Dou stood motionless beside the desk, waiting for Nuhe Ti's rage to burn through its first wave before speaking.

"Great Khan, the speed of Qifugu's annexation is not right. To swallow four tribes in half a year and still keep the people stable—someone must be feeding him from behind."

Nuhe Ti turned around, the bloodshot veins in his eyes dense like a spiderweb.

"Who?"

Ba Dou's fingers tapped twice on the hilt of his saber.

"To the south, the Great Zhou, the Xiazhou trade fair."

Nuhe Ti's fists clenched and then relaxed, his finger bones emitting a series of pops.

"Evidence?"

Ba Dou fished another silk strip from his bosom; this one had been sent back by his own secret agent stationed in the east, arriving half a day later than the one Nuhe Ti had received.

"There is a group of about fifty Han people in Qifugu's camp. The leader claims to be a merchant, but they have been stationed there for a long time without leaving, and they enter and exit the same tent as Qifugu. Their daily routine and actions do not resemble merchants; they are more like military scouts."

Nuhe Ti snatched the silk strip from Ba Dou's hand; it contained several details observed by the secret agent, including records of those people under Gao Jiong releasing carrier pigeons at fixed times.

"Han spies."

Nuhe Ti crumpled the silk strip into a ball, his knuckles turning white from the force.

"The people of Great Zhou fed a dog in the east, and now this dog is jumping up to bite this Khan's nose."

Ba Dou took half a step forward.

"Great Khan, I request to mobilize three thousand elite cavalry from the Royal Court's main force. Within ten days, we can trample Qifugu's camp and hang the head of that self-proclaimed dog-shit Khan on a flagpole to dry in the wind."

Nuhe Ti threw the crumpled silk strip onto the ground and turned to walk to the massive cowhide sand table in the tent. He braced his hands on the wooden frame and scanned his gaze three times between the wooden markers representing the various forces.

"If I pull out three thousand elite cavalry, who will watch the remnants of the Turks in the west? Who will hold the defensive line toward the trade fair in the south?"

Ba Dou's lips moved, but he did not reply.

Nuhe Ti slammed his fist onto the sand table's wooden frame, and a corner of the wood splintered and fell to the ground.

"This Khan is being pinched by them. There are Turks in the west, Great Zhou in the south, and now a Qifugu has popped up in the east. It is fire on three sides; this Khan does not have enough men to go around."

Ba Dou stood by the sand table for two breaths before speaking.

"Great Khan, since we cannot pull out the main force for now, why not use heavy taxes to erode his foundation first? Five thousand sturdy cattle and two thousand warhorses—if he pays, he loses half his wealth and won't be able to make waves. If he doesn't pay, that is open defiance, and the Great Khan will have a justification to send troops. By then, it would be reasonable to shift one thousand men from the western defensive force to the east."

Nuhe Ti released his hands from the wooden frame. His fingertips hovered over the newly added black piece representing the Qifu tribe on the sand table, and then he slammed down, pressing the piece into the sand.

"Levy taxes, double them. Pay in full within ten days. If he is short by even one head, this Khan will peel two layers of skin off him."

He turned and walked back behind the desk, fished out a token engraved with the Royal Court's patterns from a drawer, and slapped it onto the table.

"Tuoba Lie."

Ba Dou answered.

"Waiting for orders in the camp."

Nuhe Ti pushed the token to the edge of the desk.

"Let him lead one thousand elite cavalry as a tax-collecting mission. Use the Royal Court's golden arrow to transmit the order; make Qifugu kneel to receive it."

Ba Dou reached out and took the token.

"Great Khan, is one thousand men enough? Qifugu has over ten thousand under his command."

Nuhe Ti's mouth curled downward.

"Tuoba Lie is leading the Royal Court's elite; one of them is worth ten of his. These one thousand men are not going to fight; they are going to intimidate. Let Qifugu see what the Royal Court's armor is made of."

Ba Dou tucked the token into his bosom, cupped his hands, and retreated two steps.

"I will go transmit the order now."

Amidst the soft sound of the tent flap closing, Nuhe Ti sat back down behind the desk, his hands bracing the half-shattered surface, his gaze passing through the gap in the tent wall to the pitch-black night outside.

What he did not know was that at this moment, in the shadows of the corner of his tent, a pair of eyes belonging to Wuri Gen had swallowed every word of the conversation and every military order between him and Ba Dou.

After Wuri Gen finished his shift as a secret sentry outside the Royal Court's main tent, he slipped back to his own tent, his face still stiff from being blown by the cold wind during his night watch. He tied the tent flap shut, pulled a palm-sized piece of silk from a secret compartment under his bedding, and his fingers quickly wrote on the silk surface with a charcoal pencil.

"Yun Geti issued a levy order: five thousand sturdy cattle and two thousand warhorses, with a ten-day deadline. Tuoba Lie is to lead one thousand elite Royal Court troops as the tax-collection delegation. Carrying a golden arrow as a command, they are to depart from the Royal Court, take the northern route, pass through Wolf Smoke Ridge, cross the Dry River Beach, and are expected to arrive at the perimeter of the Qifu Tribe's camp in five days. Tuoba Lie's unit is equipped with full sets of Royal Court iron armor, two crossbow carts, and twenty supply wagons, carrying only three days' worth of provisions."

The front of the silk strip was full, so he flipped it over and added a few more lines on the back.

"Tuoba Lie's deputy general is named Tie Muzhen, who has a rash temperament and often has quarrels with Tuoba Lie. This time, Tie Muzhen advocated for a steady approach, but was rebuffed by Tuoba Lie."

He blew the ink on the silk strip dry, folded it into a strip one finger wide, and stuffed it into a hollow bone tube, sealing both ends with wax.

Before dawn the next day, an old man wearing a tattered leather coat drove an ox cart loaded with a dozen bolts of linen across the pasture on the outskirts of the White Wolf tribe's camp. The ox cart stopped for a quarter of an hour under the crooked, withered tree at the trading point. The old man handed the bone tube hidden in the lining of a bolt of linen and several other small items to the fabric peddler who was missing half of his left ear.

When the fabric peddler took the goods, there was not a single extra expression on his face. He stuffed the bone tube into a secret compartment in his boot and led his packhorse south without looking back.

Three days later, in the dead of night, the lights in the main hall of the Xiazhou Governor's Office were still burning.

Zhang Wenqian walked in quickly from outside the office gate, the sound of his boots on the stone path as urgent as a drumbeat. He clutched a bone tube in his hand; the wax seal had already been half-peeled away by his fingernails, and the edge of a silk strip peeked out from the mouth of the tube.

The fire basin in the main hall was burning brightly. Chen Yan stood in front of the sand table, the charcoal pencil in his hand drawing something on the area representing the eastern grasslands. He did not even look up when he heard the footsteps.

"What is it?"

Zhang Wenqian pulled the silk strip out of the bone tube, unfolded it on the desk, and pressed down the curled edges with a paperweight.

"Zhuguo, urgent report from the eastern line, goods from Wuri Gen."

Chen Yan placed the charcoal pencil on the sand table frame, turned, and walked to the desk, his gaze falling on the silk strip, scanning from the first line downward.

Zhang Wenqian stood to the side without making a sound, only watching Chen Yan's fingers move line by line down the silk strip, pausing when they reached the keywords "Tuoba Lie," "one thousand elites," and "three days' provisions."

Chen Yan finished reading the silk strip, raised his head, and tilted his mouth to the side; the arc was cold to the bone.

"Nuhe Ti is still using the same old tricks: first use taxes to probe, then use elite troops to intimidate, hoping that Qifugu will soften his legs and kneel to pay when he sees one thousand Royal Court armored soldiers."

Zhang Wenqian leaned toward the sand table, his fingers pointing at the place names "northern route," "Wolf Smoke Ridge," and "Dry River Beach" on the silk strip.

"Zhuguo, I have checked the route Tuoba Lie is taking. From the Royal Court, passing through Wolf Smoke Ridge and Dry River Beach to the Qifu tribe's camp, it is about six hundred li in total, and there are two places with extremely narrow terrain in the middle."

Chen Yan walked back to the front of the sand table, picked up the charcoal pencil from the small compartment on the edge of the wooden frame, and drew a black line in the direction of Tuoba Lie's march route on the sand table.

"Which two places?"

Zhang Wenqian's fingers lifted from the silk strip and tapped on the middle and rear sections of Tuoba Lie's march route on the sand table.

"One is the gravel slope south of Dry River Beach. When horses pass through, their speed will drop to a walking pace, and there are low hills on both sides that can hide people. The other is..."

Zhang Wenqian's finger landed on the second point and pressed down heavily on that position.

"Stone Valley."

The tip of Chen Yan's charcoal pencil drew a circle on the position of Stone Valley on the sand table. The circle was drawn with great force, and the sand was plowed into a deep pit by the pencil tip.

"Tuoba Lie only brought three days' provisions, which means he does not intend to entangle with Qifugu. Once the tax collection does not go smoothly, he will have to make a decision to fight or retreat within three days."

Zhang Wenqian looked at the position circled by the charcoal pencil.

"Does Zhuguo want Qifugu to lure Tuoba Lie into Stone Valley?"

Chen Yan threw the charcoal pencil back into the compartment and walked behind the desk to sit down.

"Tuoba Lie is used to being arrogant; in his eyes, one thousand Royal Court elites are invincible. As long as Qifugu does not kneel to receive the golden arrow, Tuoba Lie will definitely choose to use force to suppress him, and thirty li due north of Qifugu's camp is the entrance to Stone Valley."

Zhang Wenqian rubbed his hands twice.

"Zhuguo, should we notify Gao Jiong to temporarily avoid the sharp edge? Tuoba Lie's one thousand elite cavalry are not to be trifled with. If Qifugu cannot hold them off..."

Chen Yan picked up the tea bowl, touched the rim to his lips, and put it down again.

"Gao Jiong cannot retreat. The stage cannot be empty. He must stay there to keep Qifugu's fire burning brightly, making Qifugu prefer death over paying this tax."

Zhang Wenqian swallowed his saliva.

"I understand."

Chen Yan pulled a thin sheet of paper from a secret drawer beside the desk, dipped his brush in ink, wrote two lines on it, and before the ink was dry, he folded the paper three times, stuffed it into a bamboo tube, and sealed it with wax.

"Carrier pigeon, highest priority, direct to Gao Jiong."

He handed the bamboo tube to Zhang Wenqian and added two sentences.

"Tell Gao Jiong that Tuoba Lie will arrive in five days with three days' rations for one thousand elite cavalry. The march route has been marked; have him show this route map to Qifugu."

Zhang Wenqian took the bamboo tube and tucked it into his bosom.

"Does Zhuguo have any other instructions?"

Chen Yan leaned back in his chair, hands crossed in front of him; the light from the fire basin cast a half-bright, half-dark silhouette on his face.

"Add one more death order for Gao Jiong."

Zhang Wenqian waited for him to speak.

Chen Yan's voice rose from the depths of his chest, every word pressing down on the flame of the oil lamp on the desk.

"Use every possible means to fan the flames, making Qifugu and the Royal Court completely tear their faces apart, never to rest until one is dead."

Zhang Wenqian ran this sentence through his mind, cupped his hands in salute, turned, and walked out of the door with long strides.

Only Chen Yan remained in the main hall. He picked up the tea bowl and drank the cold tea inside in one gulp; the empty bowl clattered against the desk with a crisp sound.

His gaze passed through the shimmering heat above the fire basin and landed on the position of "Stone Valley" circled by the charcoal pencil on the sand table.

Nuhe Ti thought he had sent out an iron fist, and Tuoba Lie thought he was facing a group of spineless cowards.

They did not know that the iron fist was walking step by step toward a death trap that had already been marked out for it.

And on the outskirts of the Qifu tribe's camp in the eastern grasslands, the carrier pigeon specially raised in a cage in Gao Jiong's tent suddenly became restless, flapping its wings and hitting the cage wall twice; the bamboo tube tied to its leg shimmered with a layer of wax in the moonlight.

Gao Jiong rolled off his bedding, walked barefoot to the pigeon cage, untied the bamboo tube, peeled off the wax seal with his fingernails, pulled out the thin paper inside, and held it up to the only bean-sized oil lamp in the tent to read it once.

Only two lines of text and three characters circled in cinnabar were written on the paper.

A rustling sound came from outside the tent, followed by someone asking in a lowered voice.

"Boss, what happened?"

"Come in."

The tent flap was lifted, and a man wrapped in a heavy leather robe squeezed in, still looking dazed from just waking up.

"Boss, it's so late, did news come from Xiazhou?"

Gao Jiong lit the paper against the flame of the oil lamp, and the paper burned into a small ball of ash at his fingertips, falling into the frozen soil on the ground.

"Tuoba Lie arrives in five days, one thousand elite cavalry, three days' rations."

The man shivered.

"One thousand elite cavalry? Is the Royal Court trying to wipe out the Qifu tribe?"

Gao Jiong rubbed the ash on his hands onto his trouser legs and walked back to the bedding barefoot to sit down.

"Zhuguo wants us to show Tuoba Lie's march route to Qifugu and tell him that there is a place called Stone Valley in the middle of the road Tuoba Lie is taking."

The man was stunned for a moment.

"Stone Valley? I know that place. I passed by once while hunting last autumn. The terrain is extremely narrow, with high ground on both sides; cavalry can't maneuver at all. Boss, does Zhuguo mean..."

"Zhuguo means to let Qifugu wait for Tuoba Lie in Stone Valley." Gao Jiong raised his head; his face could not be seen clearly in the darkness, only his teeth flashed white. "Wait, and then leave all one thousand Royal Court elite cavalry there."

The man gasped.

"Boss, Qifugu only has five hundred cavalry. Even if he occupies the geographical advantage, wanting to wipe out Tuoba Lie's one thousand elites..."

"That's why Zhuguo wants us to give him confidence." Gao Jiong stood up, walked to a pile of goods in the corner of the tent, lifted the animal skin covering them, and revealed rows of tied-up wooden boxes. "Fifty heavy crossbows, one hundred jars of fire oil, and enough rolling stones and logs are all ready."

The man swallowed his saliva.

"Boss, if this fight starts, the Qifu tribe and the Royal Court will completely tear their faces apart."

"It's not 'if,' it's 'must'." Gao Jiong turned around and looked at the man in the darkness. "Zhuguo's meaning is very clear: this battle must be fought, and it must be won. If Qifugu is still thinking about compromise, we will push him to the dead end so he has no choice."

The man was silent for a while.

"I understand. Should I go find Qifugu tomorrow morning?"

"Not tomorrow, now." Gao Jiong walked back to the side of the bedding, bent down, grabbed the boots on the ground, and started putting them on. "Before dawn, I want Qifugu to know when Tuoba Lie will arrive, which road he is taking, and how many people he brought. I also want him to know that Stone Valley is Tuoba Lie's burial ground."

The man answered, turned, lifted the tent flap, and walked out.

Gao Jiong finished putting on his boots, stood up, walked to the oil lamp in the center of the tent, and leaned down to stare at the flame.

"Stone Valley."

He chewed these three words silently in his mouth twice, chewing out the taste of blood. ===== CHAPTER 897 =====