Chapter 973

At dawn the day after Chen Wuji led his army away from Xinglin Zhen, a convoy emerged from the nearby deep mountains before the morning sunlight had fully illuminated the earth, appearing on the main road.

The convoy's leader was a middle-aged man of sturdy build, with bulging muscles, a face full of flesh, and a somewhat dark complexion.

He scanned the dense horse-hoof prints on the main road, then lifted his gaze and narrowed his fierce eyes toward the distance.

"General She, they headed northwest; the northwest... probably only Lingshouzhou." An old man resembling an accountant walked over from behind, his posture upright, his face bearing arrogance.

General She shook his head. "I don't think so."

"Oh? What is your high opinion, General?"

"I don't know, just a gut feeling."

"The General's intuition is indeed usually reliable, but Chen Wuji's march route this time, aside from Lingshouzhou, really seems to have nothing else. Unless he deliberately took a detour to confuse us, only Lingshouzhou remains." The man resembling an accountant, regarding his own judgment, was not so dogmatic, speaking entirely in a consultative tone.

General She nodded. "Going after them will tell us; intuition often deceives. If Chen Wuji goes to Lingshouzhou, he also has ample reason: Cao Lin splits his troops to attack Lingshouzhou, Chen Wuji with light cavalry rushes to strike, launching a 'mantis stalks cicada, oriole behind' maneuver, which is also a beautiful tactic deeply in line with military strategy."

"Yes!" The accountant bowed his hands.

General She leapt onto the lead mule-cart, "Pass the order down; let the brothers move out!"

"Yes!"

……

After two days of marching, Chen Wuji reached Liu Min Ji, setting up a temporary camp more than ten li away from the settlement, ordering Qin Zhanhong to send people to sneak into the city and meet Guo Shuhan to update some information.

At night, when the moon rose, Chen Wuji's Zhongjun Camp remained brightly lit, the tent curtains raised high, the evening wind wrapping a faint coolness that swayed the oil lamp left and right.

"Guo Shuhan says everything remains as usual; please, my lord, proceed according to the plan. My people have covertly observed and indeed seem to show no abnormality." Qin Zhanhong dressed in military attire, presenting as a man, but her gorgeous, alluring face was still hard to conceal, giving her overall demeanor not only no diminishment but rather an added unique charm.

Chen Wuji sat on the Hu bed, head down processing documents: "Have the forces in Liu Min Ji been ascertained? How many usable troops are there?"

"Altogether there are two forces, each controlling half of Liu Min Ji's town, together numbering about four thousand people." Qin Zhanhong said.

"One force is the clan faction; its head is called Hu Baobao, over thirty years old, the second-generation family head of the Hu Family after they settled in Liu Min Ji."

"The other force is called the Wild Dogs; its leader is a hall master named Chu Yun. The Wild Dogs are neither a gang nor a sect; their situation resembles the unique Provincial Troops of the Lingnan Six Commanderies, serving as soldiers in wartime and as farmers in peacetime, with several venerable elders assisting under the hall master."

"The hall master who leads the Wild Dogs is also selected from these elders, and father-to-son inheritance is not allowed."

Chen Wuji raised his head. "Have they managed it?"

"As far as we can tell, it seems they have." Qin Zhanhong said.

"Their method of selecting a hall master is rather brutal: a group fights to the death regardless of life or death, the victor becomes hall master. It is said that the son of the previous hall master died in such a duel."

Chen Wuji nodded.

Such a situation may work temporarily, but in the long run power will surely concentrate.

Even if these elders have greater authority in electing the hall master, human nature cannot be bypassed.

"Any other news?" Chen Wuji asked.

"There actually is one thing, but I don't know if it counts as valuable news." Qin Zhanhong rarely hesitated, "There's a convoy of about three hundred people that has been following us behind, inside which are several experts whose strength approaches that of a master."

Chen Wuji initially paid no heed, but after hearing Qin Zhanhong's later words he finally gave it some thought: "Are master-level experts now so cheap? How can one encounter them at any time?"

"Not masters, but experts of innate transformed strength, merely whose strength approaches that of a master." Qin Zhanhong explained in a sentence, "From innate transformed strength to master is a heavenly chasm that countless people spend their whole lives unable to cross."

"Are there many such experts?" Chen Wuji asked.

"There are still quite a few, but having so many experts in a single convoy is still somewhat strange, which also makes me suspicious; if not for that, I might not have paid attention to them." Qin Zhanhong said.

Chen Wuji gave a slight nod. "What are they hauling?"

"Not clear; their vehicles are covered too tightly, impossible to see."

"Wait, how could a convoy keep following us behind?"

Chen Wuji suddenly realized this problem.

They are cavalry, after all!

Although they had been marching these two days, they only moved when the early morning and evening weather was cool, but their marching speed was not slow; logically, they shouldn't have attracted the attention of a merchant convoy.

"They seem to know some shortcuts." Qin Zhanhong said.

"Indeed, it's a somewhat strange merchant convoy; let's check it out, have Third Master go take a look."

"Yes!"

"Shi Yi Shu, pass down the order: attack Liu Min Ji at dawn tomorrow."

After receiving the order, Chen Li asked: "Family Head, cavalry to infantry?"

"No need, block them outside the city, first threaten them a little and see their reaction." Chen Wuji said.

The city walls are built crookedly, everywhere are places to leverage force in this small town; its garrison numbers no more than four thousand. If we still have to make his cavalry become infantry to attack a siege, that would be somewhat excessive.

Moreover, Chen Wuji does not really want to go on a killing spree at Liu Min Ji.

The Refugees' hard‑won home amid their plight, he does not want to destroy it lightly.

These people ought to have been helped.

If there were a safer way, he would not resort to such a desperate measure as a siege.

……

At the mountain hollow about seventy or eighty li from where Chen Wuji had set up his Lìng, the large merchant convoy circled its wagons and carts to form a wall, with hundreds of people inside lighting a dozen or so bonfires to cook food.

At the innermost spot, only two people sat by the fire.

The burly General She with a fleshy face, and the tall, straight‑postured old man.

"Lao Nian'er, we seem to have been singled out." General She poked the fire with his short knife, muttering glumly.

He was in a very bad mood, his mouth puckered like a sausage, Lao Gao.

Clearly he is a cold‑hearted, ruthless middle‑aged man, yet right now his bearing is exactly that of a child.

Lao Nian'er, the accountant, lowered his head silently, pinching the space between his brows, "General, can we stop pouting and wrinkling our nose? I see you like this, you really can't eat your rice."

"Mind your own business! You should be worried that we've been targeted!" General She said angrily, "Hurry up, think of what to do—I feel awful, I'm panicking!"

"What else is there to doubt? It's definitely Chen Wuji!" Lao Nian'er suddenly lowered his voice.