Jun Beiyue understood people all too clearly. He knew exactly what General Bai Hu truly couldn’t bear to lose.
Having said this, he turned to leave — but General Bai Hu lunged forward. Jun Beiyue’s words had cut him too deep. He threw his arms around Jun Beiyue’s legs, pleading through his sobs, “Master, anything — anything at all, just please spare that girl’s life!”
“Master, she’s the only daughter I have, the only thing I have left to hope for. Consider it this subordinate begging you.”
Jun Beiyue looked down at him in silence. Though pity stirred in his heart, the last thing he wanted was to see his great general reduced to such abject humility.
Watching General Bai Hu beg so desperately, Jun Beiyue’s already fathomless, ocean-dark eyes grew even deeper.
If General Bai Hu had been unreasonable, selfish to the end, fighting to clear Bai Mengmeng’s name or begging mercy on her behalf out of pure favoritism — Jun Beiyue could have refused without hesitation.
But General Bai Hu had done none of that. He hadn’t needed any explanation at all — he had simply accepted that Jun Beiyue’s judgment was correct.
This girl, Bai Mengmeng — wherever there was something she wanted, there was certain to be harm behind it.
And yet General Bai Hu’s request was so very small. Anything else, he’d accept — he only asked that Bai Mengmeng’s life be spared.
This put Jun Beiyue in a truly difficult position.
The question before him now wasn’t how to deal with Bai Mengmeng — it was whether or not to grant General Bai Hu this one small mercy.
And here was General Bai Hu, clutching his legs, tears streaming down his face, begging.
In that moment, what Jun Beiyue saw wasn’t just a general who had faced death alongside him — he saw an old warrior pleading for the sake of his own wife and daughter.
Jun Beiyue wasn’t a heartless villain. He was a demon, cold and merciless to his enemies — but to those closest to him, those he trusted absolutely, he was a man who never abandoned them.
In this moment, the iron-willed Jun Beiyue relented. But he told him firmly, without room for doubt, “Bai Hu. Only this once. Just this once.”
Hearing this, General Bai Hu’s face lit up with joy at once. He kowtowed again and again. “Thank you, Prince Yao, thank you! This subordinate will serve with everything he has, will make sure Mengmeng never disrupts the army’s morale, will keep this secret safe, will win this war for you, my lord!”
“Don’t thank me too soon. Bai Mengmeng will be kept secretly confined within the army. I’ll assign dedicated guards to watch her — everyone currently around her will be replaced,” Jun Beiyue said seriously.
He couldn’t fully predict how General Bai Hu would react if he killed Bai Mengmeng now, nor what effect it might have on the current state of the war.
All he could do was take precautions.
General Bai Hu’s request was indeed modest. Grateful, he nodded repeatedly before finally releasing Jun Beiyue’s legs.
Jun Beiyue personally helped him to his feet, seeming as though he wanted to say something more, but in the end said nothing further, only remarking flatly, “Go rest for a while. We’ll hold a war council shortly. Starting tomorrow, we sweep through central Dong Qin — how does that sound?”
General Bai Hu wiped the tears from his face and bellowed, “As you command!”
Jun Beiyue, looking almost pleased, gave him a solid punch on the shoulder and finally smiled. “Go on, then.”
In truth, Jun Beiyue had prepared for several contingencies with this matter — but at least, the outcome now wasn’t the worst one possible.
He turned and returned to his tent, spreading the map flat, studying central Dong Qin with a cold eye.
Yandang City truly was a crucial stronghold. Beyond it, the whole of central Dong Qin opened into flat, open plains — bordered to the west by the mountain ranges near Wuxie Ravine, to the east by the sea, and to the north by the highlands of the northern frontier. A vast plain with no natural defenses whatsoever.
The entire central region held only five major cities left, defended now by nothing but scattered remnants of defeated troops. Discounting the cities likely to surrender outright, at the speed of the Three Great Tiger Armies, they could fight their way straight to the northern highlands within a month, without question.
Jun Beiyue’s gaze finally settled on the northern highland region.
If Jun Beiyao hadn’t interfered, perhaps Minhanmuder wouldn’t have had the wit to think of using this region at all.
Judging from how Minhanmuder had seized the Empress of Dong Qin and led his retreat—
This time, he clearly meant to claim those cities in Dong Qin’s northern highlands for himself.
The northern highlands were a natural stronghold. If Minhanmuder retreated there, he could hold the entire northern territory of Dong Qin and wage a drawn-out war of attrition against Da Zhou.
The northern highlands were brutally cold — exactly the climate the Xiongnu were accustomed to year-round. Da Zhou’s forces wouldn’t be able to endure it for long.
Minhanmuder would likely choose a strategy of attrition, wearing down Da Zhou’s army before striking.
And in the northern highlands, besides Dong Qin’s garrison forces already stationed there, the Xiongnu’s own troops were probably already in position, waiting for Da Zhou to arrive.
Jun Beiyue could already predict how this campaign would end. Minhanmuder intended to carve up Dong Qin with him.
As things stood now, Da Zhou couldn’t swallow the whole of Dong Qin in one stroke — how much each side ended up claiming would depend entirely on the situation at Da Zhou’s western border.
If the western border could hold steady for just one more month, Jun Beiyue could safely deploy Xijing’s three armies, joining forces with the Tiger Army to strike the northern highlands together.
By then, he could at the very least claim all of central Dong Qin, and negotiate peace with the Xiongnu at the foot of the northern highlands.
After the peace negotiations, moving the western border troops back to their own border would take at least another month.
All told, that meant two months.
Could Da Zhou’s western border hold for two months?
That depended entirely on one person — the Emperor of Xijing. More precisely, it depended entirely on Yelu Qianqian.
And yet, to this day, the Emperor of Xijing still had no news of Yelu Qianqian at all.
“Crash!”
A sharp, violent sound — every night, whatever tea and refreshments were brought to the Emperor of Xijing ended up smashed to the floor. It meant another day had passed with still no news.
“You’ve surrounded the entire northern steppe region, even sealed off the border with the Xiongnu, and you still can’t find her? Are you all useless?”
The Emperor of Xijing was in a towering rage. No one was more anxious than he that Yelu Qianqian might be sent to Xiliang.
The northern steppe was a border region shared by three nations, located in Xijing’s northwest — strictly speaking, not truly Xijing territory at all, but shared jointly by Xiliang and the Xiongnu.
Because of the unique status of the northern steppe peoples, the two nations had never disputed the territory.
West of the steppe was true Xiliang territory; north of it, true Xiongnu territory. The Emperor of Xijing had secretly ordered the entire perimeter sealed off — west, north, and the southeastern border adjoining Xijing itself, encircled from every direction.
And Jun Beiyue’s shadow guards had combed the entire region — yet still, no one had been found.
Could this group of people have simply vanished into thin air?
Or had they already crossed into Xiliang territory, already in contact with Crown Prince Lie of Xiliang?
“Keep searching, keep searching! And if you still can’t find her… then… tell Han Ziqing to handle it herself!” the Emperor of Xijing warned coldly.
Clearly, he wasn’t fully committed to cooperating with Han Ziqing.
His heart shifted with the tide of circumstances, for no other reason than that his cooperation with Han Ziqing existed only because of Qianqian. If not for her, his hatred for Jun Beiyue and Han Ziqing ran so deep he would gladly have joined forces with Xiliang to sack Da Zhou’s capital the moment Jun Beiyue marched against Dong Qin.
Though the Emperor of Xijing was a father, he was also an emperor — and his love for Qianqian was tangled up with far too many other things.
But the one who was truly, desperately anxious was none other than Situ Haonan.
Everything had been going smoothly for him — until, on this particular day, disaster struck.