[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-stealing-ming":3,"chapter-stealing-ming-stealing-ming-chapter-43":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Stealing Ming",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1220660,1614,"Chapter 43: Section Eight","stealing-ming-chapter-43",43,"\u003Cp>Most of the Later Jin cavalry on both wings were indeed scattered skirmishers, and much of the dust was deliberately raised by branches tied behind horses. Most importantly, the Later Jin clearly had not expected such a large, organized cavalry force to charge them in a single mass. By their original estimate, their opponents should have been isolated riders or utterly exhausted infantry.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Some cavalry who had just arrived also broke out of the encirclement together with them. The Later Jin soldiers did not dare pursue them but instead restored their defensive line. When Huang Shi finally counted heads, he found his losses were negligible. Elated, he tallied four hundred and seventy-three cavalrymen — nearly the full establishment of a Mobile Corps Commander.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I owe this entirely to your support.\" After ordering the men to rest briefly, Huang Shi bowed to Fei Liguo with unconcealed excitement.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Frankly, I only half-believed what you said at the time. But I knew that a life-or-death moment is absolutely no time for internal strife. Since we were in the same boat, I had to support you whether I believed you or not.\" Fei Liguo gave a bitter smile, then said fiercely, \"Now we need to have a serious talk!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The two men walked to a secluded corner. After staring at each other for a long while, Huang Shi spoke first.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I believe Sun Degong intends to defect to the enemy,\" Huang Shi said evasively. \"He broached the subject with me.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Did he? Hmm, it seems he hinted at it with me as well.\" Fei Liguo also hemmed and hawed in agreement.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"But I pretended not to understand, so he sent me to my death.\" Huang Shi looked Fei Liguo in the eye as he said this.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I ignored him too, so he also wanted me dead.\" Fei Liguo murmured.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The two men stared blankly at each other for a moment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Damn it,\" Huang Shi swore. \"If we don't figure out exactly what is going on, we'll be dead sooner or later. Damn it, you and I both know perfectly well what the red headbands mean.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fei Liguo stroked his chin. \"Then you tell me first what they mean.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Right now we are still at a life-or-death juncture, still in the same boat!\" Huang Shi ground his teeth. \"Sun Degong said the men wearing red headbands would be safe, but now we both know that if we had really charged over, we would have been shot full of arrows like hedgehogs.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fei Liguo added with a forced smile, \"He told me to charge over first, so as not to be held back by the Ming troops behind me. I imagine he told you the same thing.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Before we marched out, everything was still fine. Otherwise he would never have let us be responsible for slowing the march.\" Huang Shi delivered this judgment without the slightest hesitation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After a brief silence, Fei Liguo said with difficulty, \"When we went back to report the numbers, he was targeting you.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fei Liguo then told Huang Shi that Sun Degong had ordered him to keep Huang Shi under surveillance. The meaning of those final words was to ask whether Huang Shi had shown any irregularities. If Fei Liguo had loudly declared before everyone that Huang Shi had falsified his military report, that would have signaled that Huang Shi had acted suspiciously, and Sun Degong could then have executed Huang Shi under military law.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"But you really didn't do anything irregular. I watched very clearly — you carried out the task Sun Degong assigned you with full diligence.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The moment he finished saying this, Fei Liguo suddenly raised his head. Huang Shi met his gaze, and the two shouted at the same time:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"The problem was this morning!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Sun Degong was absolutely certain you were a problem — that is beyond doubt.\" Fei Liguo stared into Huang Shi's eyes. \"He thought I was covering for you. In the end, he also concluded the situation was already extremely urgent, so he had no choice but to use such a crude ploy to eliminate both of us.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was no time for playing mind games. Huang Shi immediately gave a selective account of his conversation with Xiong Tingbi that morning, picking and choosing what to reveal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Heavens, were you planning to sell out Sun Degong?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Huang Shi naturally would not explain his own plan, so he merely said flatly, \"Sun Degong never told me anything concrete. I wasn't absolutely certain he would succeed, so I wanted to keep a fallback.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Grand Coordinator Xiong must have someone close to him — someone who won Xiong Tingbi's trust on Sun Degong's behalf. And today that person promptly notified Sun Degong that you posed a major threat. After Sun Degong pulled this stunt this afternoon, if you had gone to Wang Huazhen and spoken up, he would have been dead for sure.\" Fei Liguo analyzed this with seasoned cunning, then exploded in fury. \"You've ruined me! Just because I didn't detect your irregularity this morning, Sun Degong now believes I'm compromised too.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"How is that possible? You're still hiding something from me, aren't you?\" Huang Shi, now calm, had keenly detected the flaw. Fei Liguo could not possibly be purged merely for failing to spot an irregularity that morning. \"Brother Fei, we are in the same boat now.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fei Liguo was forthright enough and immediately admitted he had been assigned to keep Huang Shi under surveillance for a long time. \"You don't hold it against me?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Every man serves his own master.\" Huang Shi said this flatly. \"But now it would be best if we are completely candid with each other.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Jin Qiude.\" Fei Liguo promptly supplied a name. \"He used Sun Degong's stratagem to gain your trust — and succeeded. He even became your acting Squad Commander. He reported your situation to me regularly. At first there was some substance, but for the last half-month, even though he was clearly watching you very closely, he told me there was nothing irregular at all.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing the ambiguous smile on Huang Shi's face, Fei Liguo suddenly understood. \"He turned to your side, didn't he?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Yes.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"That little bastard, he's screwed me over royally.\" The moment the words left his mouth, Fei Liguo regretted them and hurriedly apologized. \"Fortunately it turned out this way. Otherwise, if harm had come to Brother Huang, what would I have done?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After saying this, Fei Liguo himself felt the logic was strained. He gave an awkward laugh and then supplied the name of one of his personal guards.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"So it was him.\" Huang Shi gave a cold laugh and decided he would hand the matter over to Jin Qiude to handle shortly. For dirty work like this, he felt Jin Qiude was exactly the right man. \"This one's an idiot.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"A complete idiot indeed — he saw nothing at all.\" Fei Liguo said bitterly. \"That damned idiot.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Anyone else?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"No.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now everything made sense. Fei Liguo had kept reporting that all was well, and then such a colossal blunder had occurred. Even if Sun Degong did not suspect him, he would have to hate him to death. Moreover, Huang Shi reckoned that Sun Degong also feared arousing his own suspicions. Sending Fei Liguo along to die would better ensure that Huang Shi obediently went to defect. Furthermore, even if Huang Shi wanted to make trouble, having Fei Liguo at his side would hamper him, giving Sun Degong time to carry out his own plan.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Having thought everything through, Huang Shi let out a long breath. His suspicion of Yang Luhuo had been unjust, which made him even happier. Yang Luhuo had always been diligent. Now that the suspicion was lifted, Huang Shi felt nothing but guilt toward him and thought he should find a way to make amends. \"Sun Degong took an enormous risk, and he trusts no one — and that includes you, Brother Fei.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Huang Shi knew perfectly well just how great a threat he himself posed. He could also imagine Sun Degong's shock today. That was why Sun Degong had to kill him and silence him in one stroke. Sun Degong could sacrifice three hundred cavalrymen without a moment's hesitation, so of course he would rather wrongly eliminate Fei Liguo than let him go.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"How did you see through it?\" Fei Liguo's face was full of bewilderment. \"I thought Sun Degong was going to strike from the rear. How did you guess in an instant that he meant for us to die?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Huang Shi could hardly say it was recorded in the histories. He gave a bitter smile and answered, \"Don't forget, I am his nominal son-in-law, but I have never trusted him. I always think twice about everything he says.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fei Liguo sighed and fell silent. Sun Degong's scheme was riddled with holes — anyone could see through it if they just calmed down and thought. But at the time, the pressure had been so intense, and Fei Liguo was so accustomed to obeying orders, that naturally he had not given it much thought.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"It's a good thing you guessed right. Otherwise...\" Fei Liguo shuddered.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Huang Shi cut him off. \"It's a good thing I guessed right.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Otherwise the two of them would have been shot into porcupines. Fei Liguo shuddered again. \"Then what else have you guessed? For instance, have you guessed who Sun Degong's collaborator is?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Faced with Fei Liguo's question, Huang Shi shook his head helplessly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Zu Dashou!\" Fei Liguo suddenly shouted.\u003C\u002Fp>",1588,"2026-06-04T07:54:30.907Z",1,"Novelzhen Translator","5b2f254aca4da8c8229500533d9f2a10cb282bb45178ac9d24f1901bec6ea45d","stealing-ming-chapter-44","stealing-ming-chapter-42",323,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fstealing-ming-cover.jpg"]