Though he said this, he also knew Prince Gong must be extremely distressed over this matter. After thinking for a moment, he gave the messenger a definite answer. “When you return, tell His Highness to rest assured—whether Han Yang lives or dies is entirely at His Highness’s discretion.” Seeing the messenger’s shocked expression, he continued somewhat impatiently, “Also tell His Highness to be at ease—Cui Shaoting won’t remain arrogant for much longer. Have His Highness allocate twenty thousand men to help Yetan launch a full assault on Zijing Pass. At this point, there’s no need to worry about reputation or appearances anymore. It’s either you die or I live.”

The Chief Administrator was somewhat astonished, never expecting Han Zhengqing’s attitude toward his own son to be like this. If this was how Han Zhengqing treated his sons, no wonder Han Yang didn’t take his words seriously. He couldn’t help feeling bewildered.

After his initial shock passed, he immediately acknowledged with a “yes.” Prince Gong’s side was urgently waiting for a reply, and he needed to hurry back to report. After confirming specific details with Han Zhengqing, he went down to have a meal and prepare to take his leave with his men, only to hear that Madam Hu had long since disappeared. Along with Madam Hu, Han Yu’s mother, Madam Su, had also vanished.

Deputy General Chen was sweating profusely with anxiety. These two women, having grown old and lost their beauty, had long fallen out of Han Zhengqing’s favor. If not for having borne children, they would have been thrown into the military camp like other servants long ago. Because they were old and unattractive, Han Zhengqing simply couldn’t remember them. Now that he finally thought of them, he discovered they had already fled.

So it had been premeditated all along. If Han Zhengqing had only been somewhat irritable earlier, now he was truly furious to the extreme. His sons—except for the deceased Han Zhi—not one of them sided with him. It was truly infuriating and hateful. He kicked a stool to pieces with one foot, and his fist slammed into the newly replaced table with a bang, creating a dent. Feeling somewhat embarrassed before the messenger whose expression had grown complex, he could only wave his hand. “Take a message to His Highness for me—tell him I have no such son. He can kill or dismember him as he pleases!”

He wasn’t speaking falsely. The messenger could only acknowledge and returned to Taiyuan empty-handed. Without even having time to go home first to wash up, he entered Prince Gong’s residence to report the matter to Prince Gong. In the end, he felt a mixture of emotions. “This Marquis seems like quite a shrewd person, and on the battlefield he’s famously clever and formidable. How can he not even manage his family affairs properly?”

The Chief Administrator felt an indescribable discomfort in his heart about such a person. He wondered, as the Chief Administrator said, could someone who didn’t care at all about his own sons truly help Prince Gong conquer the realm with sincere devotion?

Prince Gong, however, didn’t concern himself with these matters. Regardless of everything else, as long as Han Yang’s betrayal wasn’t authorized by Han Zhengqing, that was enough. Relieved, he hurriedly had the Chief Administrator write an urgent document to send to Wu Qianli, instructing Wu Qianli to thoroughly eliminate the threat and uproot it completely.

As for Han Zhengqing’s family affairs, he had no mood to care about them.

Han Yang and Han Yu, however, knew nothing of these developments. They were currently holed up on a small road to Yangquan. This road had collapsed at one section, so the government had dug out another route beside it, with a tunnel in between. The Cui family had pointed out this route, saying it had originally been dug by Ma Yuantong’s group to harm people. When that plot failed, the Cui family had reopened it intending to use it for storing ore. Now it had come in handy.

When they waited until midnight, they finally heard great commotion outside. Han Yang first led a small portion of men around from the rear to climb up the mountain. Seeing that few men remained in the camp and that Wu Qianli had indeed dispatched many men to pursue the Prince of Zhennan, he made a gesture. The archers all released their arrows in unison. The arrows were coated with fire oil, and when they struck the tents, they quickly caught fire. With Jinzhong’s strong winds fanning the flames, the area below soon became a sea of fire.

Taking advantage of the chaos, Han Yu and Han Yang led their men charging in. Scouts had already identified where the grain storage tents were located. Han Yu led his men, taking as much as they could carry, and burning whatever they couldn’t take with them. Then they returned to the city along the route they came.

Wu Qianli actually pulled back quite quickly. When still about ten li from the city gate, he refused to advance further, presumably having detected something. The trenches that the Prince of Zhennan and the Marquis of Dingyuan had prepared in advance ended up completely useless.

Fortunately, they had obtained grain. Hu Yingming breathed a huge sigh of relief. With this grain, they could hold out for another period of time.

Wu Qianli, however, returned fuming with rage. Knowing the Marquis of Dingyuan had always been cunning, after pursuing for a distance he had sensed something was wrong and rushed back, but hadn’t expected to have already fallen into the trap.

This fire, aided by the wind, couldn’t even be extinguished. It burned through over twenty tents in total, with casualties exceeding a thousand people combined. He stood beneath the firelight, looking grimly at the devastated encampment, his expression extremely ugly.

Originally, he had already surrounded Jinzhong almost completely. If given just another ten days or so, he could have taken Jinzhong without paying any price at all. Who knew that by harboring the thought of capturing it without losing a single soldier, he had let the Marquis of Dingyuan and Han Yang’s group exploit this opening? The regret in his heart was simply beyond words.

The deputy general and commander both advised him to take shelter in Baihe Village to avoid another sneak attack. He let out a cold laugh and, pointing to the northeast where the fire raged most fiercely, asked them, “Don’t you see that the area that suffered the worst damage was the grain storage tents?! They simply used the stratagem of luring the tiger away from the mountain—first drawing us away, then setting fire to the grain.”

His words had barely fallen when scouts came in to report, saying they had discovered footprints of large numbers of men and convoys on the road toward Yangquan. He sneered coldly. “Seems they not only burned the grain but also stole quite a lot. If we hide again, where will we get grain from? Moreover, with them having seized so much grain, can we still take Jinzhong? Even the front lines are now in danger—they must be planning to take the route through Yangquan to support Cui Shaoting!”

But even knowing this, what could be done about it? After all, Jinzhong now had the Marquis of Dingyuan leading so many men from Weihaiwei. Taking it down in a short time was definitely impossible.

Wu Qianli ignored the deputy general’s concerns and sneered. “So what if they seized grain?”

The deputy general and commander both looked at him, wondering if he had been driven mad with anger.

Wu Qianli himself was nonchalant. “Never mind that they can’t steal all our grain—even if they stole it all, it would only be enough for those ten-thousand-plus soldiers. What about the rest of the common people?”

The commander’s eyes lit up. “The Commander means that the commoners in the city had already been clashing with the officials over lack of grain, and some had been secretly escaping…”

The deputy general also understood Wu Qianli’s meaning. “Does the Commander mean to let the common people stir up trouble?”

Wu Qianli nodded. “Shoot arrows—some will surely make it into the city, right? Also send additional spies to find ways to infiltrate the city. Have our people create disturbances and let the common people know about these people stealing grain. Let’s see whether that old bastard Hu Yingming will first appease the common people or first use this grain to rescue Cui Shaoting!”