As these words were spoken, everyone in the camp was startled. Meng Wan said, “The weather is still cold. What use is there in blowing up the River Pass? After a few days, the river will freeze over again.”
“The River Pass area usually has a pleasant climate, and the river water doesn’t freeze in winter. This year we’ve encountered a rare severe cold that happens once in a century, which is why it’s frozen over. But I observe this severe cold won’t last much longer.” He Simu counted on her fingers and said, “In ten days, the temperature will rise suddenly, and the cold will retreat as warm weather returns. If you blow up the River Pass a few days before that, the river certainly won’t freeze again so quickly. Afterward, although the weather may fluctuate, even at its coldest, the River Pass might have thin ice, but not enough for people or horses to cross.”
Duan Xu smiled and said, “I think this is a good idea.”
Wu Sheng Liu looked at He Simu, then at Duan Xu, and asked, “After blowing up the River Pass, then what? Withdraw to Liang Province?”
Until now, the entire Taibai army still didn’t know what General Qin’s orders to Duan Xu were. Wu Sheng Liu thought it was probably to delay the speed of the Dan reinforcements. If they scorched the earth and blew up the River Pass, they could slow down the Dan reinforcements by about half a month, which would be quite good. After all, the entire Taibai army had only eighty thousand men, and for the sake of protecting Liang Province in the rear, only fifty thousand troops had been sent to Shuo Province this time. They really couldn’t ask for more.
Duan Xu raised his eyes and finally dropped a bombshell in a casual tone: “General Qin’s order is for Taibai to defend Shuo Province’s capital to the death, not to let the Dan reinforcements pass, and not to retreat a single step.”
When these words were spoken, the entire assembly fell silent. Only the crackling of charcoal in the fire basin could be heard, the cheerful sound somewhat out of place.
He Simu leisurely took a sip of tea.
“How is that possible? We only have fifty thousand troops!”
“The Dan marching south are the Hulan army, and Awuerqi is a famous fierce general.”
The officers’ voices of doubt had just risen when they were overwhelmed by Wu Sheng Liu’s booming voice: “Not retreat a single step? Is this some kind of joke? If we don’t return to Liang Province, we’ll all die here! Did General Qin say that, or are you, young man, being greedy for military merit and biting off more than you can chew?”
The smile in Duan Xu’s eyes gradually faded, with just a thin layer remaining at the bottom, lacking some sincerity.
The two banks of the River Pass hadn’t seen major battles for many years, only occasional friction. The Great Liang Dynasty enjoyed peace and prosperity in its corner of the world, and even the soldiers had lost their fighting spirit. After several decades, this generation of soldiers no longer knew the fear of national extinction that came with the arrival of the Hu Qi people.
He stood up from his seat and walked step by step toward Wu Sheng Liu, saying as he walked, “General Wu’s words are strange. I am your commander, and haven’t you forgotten…”
He stopped in front of Wu Sheng Liu, leaned forward, and said, “Death is the true nature of war. Even for the victors, the path is paved with white bones and countless casualties.”
“Beneath our feet is not Dan’s Shuo Province, but the former Da Sheng Dynasty’s Shuo Province. Several decades ago, our ancestors were buried here, greatly defeated by Dan, so Dan’s iron hooves could trample across seventeen provinces without restraint, even marching south to Liang Province to plunder and massacre cities. That’s why today we struggle so arduously, fighting bloody battles just to return here. In the face of our country, we should be willing to die a thousand deaths.”
The entire camp was silent. Wu Sheng Liu looked up at Duan Xu, his fists clenched so tightly they cracked.
He remembered the bodies in the streets and alleys of Liang Province, and the sight of all that blood made his blood boil. He understood the principles Duan Xu spoke of, but their meager forces in front of the Dan army were like small ants in front of a wheel. He still had ambitions to command an army—would he be buried here?
Duan Xu smiled again. He raised his chin slightly, his eyes curving.
“General Wu needn’t be so concerned. We will win.”
Wu Sheng Liu seemed to waver but still wasn’t convinced.
“You say we can win, and we’ll win just like that?”
“General Wu, although I may be a bit arbitrary, but until now, I haven’t lost, have I?”
Wu Sheng Liu stared at Duan Xu for a long while, then slammed the table and stood up, cracking the table. Pointing at Duan Xu, he said, “I’ll trust you one more time, damn it! Who the hell is afraid of death? I just fear dying in vain. I’m meant to be a general! If the Dan people don’t roll back to their homeland, I’ll haunt you Duan family even as a ghost!”
Duan Xu’s gaze was blazing. He pushed Wu Sheng Liu’s hand back and said, “Rest assured, General. If we become ghosts, I won’t be absent.”
Looking at the polite Duan Xu, Wu Sheng Liu suddenly remembered hearing that this noble young master was originally being groomed to become a Grand Secretary, a position far higher than a general. Thinking of this, he felt a bit of pity.
Duan Xu seemed completely unaware of this and simply turned to bow to everyone in the tent.
“The capital of Shuo Province, I entrust it to all of you.”
The officers in the tent bowed in return. Most of them were older than Duan Xu, but they too were moved by the exchange between Duan Xu and Wu Sheng Liu just now, their faces showing heroic resolve.
Upon leaving the tent, He Simu walked beside Duan Xu. Looking at Wu Sheng Liu’s retreating figure, she half-jokingly said, “In my opinion, Wu Sheng Liu dislikes you so much largely because you’re too good-looking.”
Men in the military generally dislike clean and handsome men, always priding themselves on being rough and fierce, especially toward someone as exceptionally handsome as Duan Xu.
Duan Xu raised his eyebrows. They walked out of the tent into strong winds and good sunshine. His hair ties fluttered, and the silver hairpin binding his hair flashed in the sunlight, much like his curved eyes.
“Thank you for the compliment. I’m deeply honored,” he smiled, seeming quite pleased.
“General Wu trusts you,” He Simu said.
From Liang Province to Shuo Province, none of the battles had been easy to fight. Duan Xu had kept Wu Sheng Liu by his side in every battle, winning one after another until Wu Sheng Liu was convinced in his heart. Otherwise, even without understanding the situation fully, he wouldn’t have followed Duan Xu’s orders to attack the capital of Shuo Province.
The officers in this camp, and even the Taibai soldiers, had probably developed a respect for Duan Xu through each successive battle.
However, asking Wu Sheng Liu to bow his head before Duan Xu, who was nearly ten years younger than him, was still too much.
“Are you confident you can win?”
This was an extreme disparity of twenty thousand troops against three thousand.
“If I had complete certainty of winning, I wouldn’t be a good gambler.”
Duan Xu winked, escorting He Simu to her carriage. As the carriage began to move, He Simu lifted the curtain and found Duan Xu still standing outside. When his gaze met He Simu’s, he smiled and waved at her.
He looked cheerful and gentle.
A cheerful and gentle, crazy gambler.
He Simu lowered the curtain and sighed in amazement.
As He Simu’s carriage went off toward the Lin family residence in the city, Han Ling Qiu watched it disappear into the distance, then shifted his gaze to Duan Xu in front of him.
Duan Xu was only slightly younger than him, about the same age. This noble person from the southern capital carried himself very differently from the rough men in the army, but he wasn’t aloof. He usually wore a smile, and even with shocking plans in mind, his face remained as calm as a lake.
He always felt this person was familiar, especially when Duan Xu smiled, this sense of familiarity was particularly strong.
“General!” He finally called out to Duan Xu, who turned around to look at him, gesturing for him to continue.
Han Ling Qiu was silent for a moment, then asked, “General, have you ever seen me before? About… five or six years ago, perhaps.”
Duan Xu’s eyes flickered. He put his hands behind his back and smiled, “Why do you ask? If we had met before, wouldn’t you remember it yourself?”
Han Ling Qiu hesitated for a moment, then bit his lip and replied, “My lord General, to be honest, five or six years ago I suffered a serious injury that left this scar on my face. After I recovered, I couldn’t remember anything from before.”
Even the name Han Ling Qiu was given to him by the family that took him in. About his life before the injury, he had only one extremely vague impression—someone saying to him, “Go south, go to Great Liang, and don’t come back.”
Actually, he had been injured in Dan territory. Because of that one sentence, he remembered, that after recovering, he escaped from Dan to Great Liang.
Losing this memory hadn’t greatly affected his life; he seemed quite accustomed to living alone and hadn’t thought about recovering his memory. It was only when he first saw Duan Xu that he suddenly felt Duan Xu was familiar.
Like an old friend returning.
Duan Xu seemed very surprised, then showed a regretful expression. He shook his head and said, “I didn’t realize Officer Han had such an injury. Unfortunately, five or six years ago I was still in Dai Province and don’t remember meeting you.”
Han Ling Qiu then looked somewhat embarrassed. He bowed and acknowledged it. Duan Xu patted his shoulder reassuringly, then turned and walked back to the tent.
As Duan Xu turned away, the smile sank to the bottom of his eyes, his expression ambiguous.
He Simu had no intention of getting involved in their plan to blow up the River Pass. The military camp in the city was quite far from the Lin family residence. She stayed in her room, taking good care of this body, occasionally chatting with Feng Yi, and looking at the Ghost Register to see what was happening in the world during her time off.
Shao Yin Yin’s name had disappeared from the Ghost Register on schedule, proving she had been annihilated and removed from the cycle of reincarnation, leaving no trace in this world.
Guan Huai had indeed listened.
The old man had always been a fence-sitter who followed the prevailing wind. When she suppressed the rebellion years ago, he was the first to defect and surrender, always good at reading the situation and avoiding trouble.
He Simu leaned back in her chair, casually flipping through the Ghost Register, observing the various tragedies of the world.
After the city massacres around Liang Province, many wandering souls appeared. People who died in such miserable circumstances easily became wandering souls, but without deep enough obsessions, most were devoured by other wandering souls and ultimately couldn’t transform into evil ghosts.
Those with deep obsessions, like Guan Huai, were different. He had spent his entire life seeking immortality through Daoist practices and medicine, obsessed with living forever alongside heaven. He still died after living over a hundred years, but even death couldn’t break his obsession, and he devoured hundreds of wandering souls to become an evil ghost.
Even as an evil ghost, he was the longest-lived evil ghost in the ghost realm, not extinguished for three thousand years—his obsession was indeed profound.
He Simu closed the Ghost Register and murmured, resting her chin on her hand, “I rather envy you all.”
To know so clearly what you want, to live your whole life for it, and then to abandon reincarnation and die for thousands of years for it.
Unlike her, who was confusedly born as an evil ghost from the beginning.
The wind stirred with a subtle ripple, and those white silk threads curled up. He Simu frowned, walked to the window, and pushed it open. She saw countless bright lights rising above the low houses in the southern suburbs, floating and disappearing into the night sky, illuminating heaven and earth as brightly as a blazing fire.
People dying?
The southern part of the city was the River Pass. Could the young general’s explosion of the river kill so many people?
He Simu waved her sleeve, settling her body on the bed. After her soul left her body, the Ghost King’s Lantern at her waist flickered, and in an instant, she stood on the bank of the River Pass.
Her white boots with red soles stepped on the soft soil by the river, and she immediately felt the vibrations coming from the ground. A series of thunderous explosions accompanied by flashes of light erupted from the frozen surface of the River Pass. Ice particles scattered and flew up, passing through her ethereal soul form and falling to the ground. The entire world shook in panic. On the ice surface were black masses of indistinguishable soldiers, crying and wailing as they fell into the bone-chillingly cold river with the breaking ice.
The River Pass, dark and silent, was like a giant beast opening its bloody maw, endlessly devouring, and then hundreds of bright lights, burning with soul fire, rose from its mouth.
Another grand spectacle of death—the Ghost Register would soon have many more wandering soul names added.
How could the Hu Qi people be crossing the river at this time? And just happen to coincide with Duan Xu blowing up the River Pass?
He Simu turned around and instantly spotted Duan Xu among a dark forest and scattered rocks. Officer Han and Meng Wan stood behind him, along with many Great Liang soldiers hidden among the trees. Those soldiers were arranged in arrow formations, and whenever Hu Qi people managed to climb up to this shore, they fired volleys of arrows, killing them at the riverbank.
His eyes contained a thin layer of a smile, his tall and elegant figure hidden among the trees, like a pine or cypress growing in the forest.
He Simu walked step by step to Duan Xu’s side, standing in front of him, at the edge of the abyss, this border of hell.
“The Hu Qi people from Yu Province wanted to sneak attack the capital through the River Pass, and you ambushed them here while completing your plan to blow up the river. Killing two birds with one stone, young general. Did you know in advance that the Hu Qi people would sneak attack?” He Simu said with a smile.
Duan Xu could neither see her ethereal soul form at this moment nor hear her voice.
Of course, he also couldn’t see the world as she saw it, couldn’t see the spider-silk-like white wind, couldn’t see the blazing soul fires that lit up heaven and earth as bright as day.
He Simu moved closer to Duan Xu, slightly raising herself on tiptoe to look directly into his eyes.
His eyes were bright and upturned, his pupils pure black, like a black mirror. In the mirror, there was no reflection of her, no soul fire lights, only the explosive flames, and the bloody, mangled enemies.
“What does death look like in the eyes of the living?”
He Simu examined his eyes as if trying to see another aspect of death through them.
Duan Xu’s quiet eyes blinked, and suddenly he smiled gently and said, “He Xiao Xiao.”