Tang Qingyuan said: “I don’t understand the Sang language. I couldn’t make out what they were saying, so I brought two of them back alive.”

Fang Xianlian looked at Tang Qingyuan, momentarily at a loss for words.

This young man — in the dead of night, he had detected the movements on the official road with sharp senses, and had dared to follow them alone. Then, looking at those two captives and the string of heads, only four words remained in Fang Xianlian’s heart: *the young shall be feared.*

This level of martial skill might have been achieved through hard work and practice in his later years, but that quick-wittedness and that courage — those were absolutely a gift of nature.

Especially courage. Everyone claims to have it, but when the moment comes, everyone finds themselves just a little short. And so by comparison, Tang Qingyuan was without question outstanding and exceptional.

But — he still lacked a little experience.

After hearing Tang Qingyuan finish, Fang Xianlian chuckled: “You’re saying you couldn’t understand the Sang language and so couldn’t get anything out of them?”

Tang Qingyuan nodded.

Fang Xianlian said: “That’s because you have never dealt with Sang people before. You were in the northern frontier — before all this, you probably didn’t even know there was such a thing as the Sang nation in this world, did you?”

Tang Qingyuan nodded again. He had grown up on the vast grasslands of the northern frontier, where no one would ever bring up a place called the Sang Kingdom, and no one would ever even think of the sea.

Without exaggeration — given how information spread in this era, many people in the northern frontier didn’t even know the sea existed.

“The Sang are the most treacherous and vicious people in this world, but they are also the most cautious, the most patient, and one might even say the most capable of organized planning.”

After saying this, Fang Xianlian walked up to the two captives, drew his straight saber, and held it above the head of one of them.

Fang Xianlian smiled and said: “Stop pretending. I’ll say this only once — shout ‘Honored Ancestor’ and you won’t die.”

Having said that, Fang Xianlian brought his saber down — it slid along the man’s scalp, and in one stroke, sliced off the Sang man’s ear. Along with the ear came a patch of scalp, so in an instant blood drenched the entire left side of that Sang man’s face.

Fang Xianlian’s blade then shifted to the other side. Another stroke downward, and the second ear was cut off as well.

In the next moment, Fang Xianlian’s blade moved to the front of the Sang man’s nose.

“Honored Ancestor!”

The Sang man could no longer endure it, and immediately cried out.

Tang Qingyuan was stunned at this.

Fang Xianlian turned to look at Tang Qingyuan: “These Sang people, before carrying out any operation, conduct meticulous reconnaissance, thorough deliberation, and formulate a complete plan. So how could scouts they arrange not know how to speak our language?”

The Sang man’s head now looked like a blood-soaked gourd — utterly wretched. He knelt there, kowtowing over and over while crying out “Honored Ancestor.” Though his accent was somewhat off, his Central Plains speech was quite standard.

“You’ll understand in time.”

Fang Xianlian smiled at Tang Qingyuan.

Tang Qingyuan nodded, and made a very serious note of this in his heart.

He remembered: the Sang people were the most cunning and vicious nation in this world, and also the most patient and most cautious.

Not long after, Fang Xianlian had forced out the truth — the Sang people had come to the area of Liaocheng with a grand scheme in mind.

The Sang nation’s naval forces had suffered repeated setbacks in Yanzhou, and especially after Jizhou’s military governor Xu Ji arrived with his forces, the Sang navy’s losses had become even more severe.

Of their eighty thousand soldiers, fewer than half now remained. Yanzhou had been fully mobilized by Xu Ji — countless militia and garrison troops were pouring from towns and counties across the region toward the coastal defenses.

Under these circumstances, it had become extraordinarily difficult for the Sang forces to find a landing point along the Yanzhou coast. They no longer dared to provoke the Ning army there.

At this point, the Black Martial Empire’s prince, Kuokedi Dashi, had conceived a strategy.

Since the main force of the Ning army was already in Yanzhou, the coastal line of Jizhou must be thinly defended and poorly guarded.

So he ordered the Sang great general Chunbian Chili to deploy a large number of scouts to land along the Jizhou coast and find a suitable location for a landing and attack.

In the end, they chose Liaocheng.

The place was unusual — it had not yet entered Jizhou territory, sitting near Jizhou but not falling under Jizhou’s jurisdiction.

After the great Qingzhou bandit Gan Daode had been killed, Ning army general Shen Shanhu had subsequently led her forces through Qingzhou in a sweep, which had left Qingzhou itself now thinly defended.

The main Ning army force in Qingzhou was concentrated along the southern part of the province, on the border with Suzhou, ready at any moment to reinforce Grand General Tang Pidi.

This meant that northern Qingzhou was even more vulnerable — one could say with little exaggeration that its coastline had no soldiers defending it at all.

Taking Liaocheng would be the first step in Kuokedi Dashi’s plan.

Then approximately thirty thousand of the Sang navy’s roughly forty thousand remaining troops would stay behind to hold the city at all costs, regardless of the price.

Liaocheng was not a small city — its walls were tall and sturdy, and it had defensive equipment — but it currently had very few soldiers within it.

After the Sang forces seized it, they would send the naval warships back to the Bohai Kingdom and transport Bohai soldiers from the Bohai homeland.

With this Sang naval fleet operating at maximum capacity, a single voyage could ferry over a hundred thousand Bohai troops from across the sea.

And the straight-line distance between Liaocheng and the Bohai Kingdom was not very great — a fleet could make the round trip in twenty days.

The first batch of Sang troops would garrison Liaocheng, and even if the news leaked out, whether it was the Ning forces in Jizhou or the Ning forces in Qingzhou rushing to Liaocheng — their travel time would far exceed that of the Sang navy making one round trip to the Bohai Kingdom and back.

Forces from Jizhou would take a month to arrive. The troops in Qingzhou were in the south — they would take at least a month and a half.

By exploiting this gap in timing, they could bypass Yanzhou — which was heavily fortified — bypass those hundred-plus thousand battle-hardened Ning soldiers, and bypass Dragon Head Pass with its strong defenses entirely.

Bohai soldiers could be ferried over by sea in batches, one after another. Two round trips, and Liaocheng would hold two hundred thousand Bohai troops.

It must be said — as a commander, Kuokedi Dashi’s abilities were outstanding, and combined with the Sang people’s capacity for planning, this scheme would become a strategy of surprising and decisive brilliance.

Kuokedi Dashi provided the idea; Chunbian Chili turned the idea into a detailed plan.

In his calculations, by the time the Ning forces came to reinforce from north and south, his navy would have been able to complete approximately two round trips.

With two hundred thousand troops in place, Liaocheng would become a colossal fortress for their march into the Central Plains.

In this way, there would be no need to assault Yanzhou’s border fortifications. Instead, the navy would ceaselessly ferry Bohai soldiers across.

And so — not only would there be no need to storm Yanzhou, there would also be no need to attack Dragon Head Pass with its heavy defenses.

Once the Bohai forces gathered here exceeded six hundred thousand — which would require roughly four months of naval back-and-forth — at that point, the combined forces of the Bohai Kingdom and the Sang nation could march directly into Jizhou’s northern territories.

And while the Bohai forces advanced into the northern territories, the Sang navy could continue its round trips, ferrying more and more troops across.

The Bohai region was not large, and it was impoverished and exhausted — but it had many people.

Kuokedi Dashi had once wondered in curiosity: in a land so harsh and destitute, why were there so many people?

His advisor Luye Yanwan had explained at the time, half in jest — *precisely because of this, what else is there for Bohai people to do but make children?*

The poorer they were, the more they bred; the more they bred, the poorer they became — a cycle endlessly repeating.

Yet it was precisely this unique environment that had forged the Bohai people’s cold and callous character. Struggling to survive, they had never placed much value on human life to begin with. Among the common people, killing over a bit of money or a little food was an everyday occurrence.

This was a people in whom even familial bonds were thin — never mind uncles and aunts on either side, even ties of blood between the closest kin were frail.

Loading those mad Bohai people onto ships and ferrying them across, one boatload after another — within a year, at least over a million Bohai people could be landed here.

They would be a plague of locusts upon the Central Plains — this was something Kuokedi Dashi had already foreseen. Once the plan succeeded, this swarm of locusts would strip bare every inch of ground in their path.

Within a year, the Bohai people would certainly open the gates for the Black Martial great army.

Yet neither Chunbian Chili nor Kuokedi Dashi could have imagined that their entire plan would be uncovered by a passing ten-man scout unit.

“If we ride day and night from here, it will still take over a month to reach Dragon Head Pass.”

Fang Xianlian’s expression darkened: “But even if the Sang forces don’t get their scouts back, they will still come to attack — because they know that if their scouts don’t return, it means the plan has been exposed. And if the plan is exposed, they must seize Liaocheng even faster.”

After a brief silence, Tang Qingyuan said: “I’ll stay behind. Squad leader, take everyone and split up to carry the news — don’t all travel the same route. Split into at least four groups taking two different paths: one group goes north to report to our lord, one group goes south to report to Qingzhou’s military governor, General Wu. Make sure at least one group gets through with the message.”

Fang Xianlian said: “What good would it do with just you staying behind?”

“At the very least, someone has to warn the people of Liaocheng that the Sang forces are coming.”

Tang Qingyuan said: “We can’t afford to delay any longer. Squad leader, make your decision.”

Fang Xianlian nodded: “Then we’ll do it your way.”

Another scout hesitated: “But squad leader — the Grand General’s orders were for us to escort the letter to our lord.”

Fang Xianlian looked at him, then was silent for a moment: “I am the squad leader. Whatever happens, whatever the consequences — it falls on me.”

He then began calling names. The unit now numbered eleven with Tang Qingyuan included, and he divided the remaining men into five groups of two. Two groups would head south to seek out Qingzhou Military Governor General Wu; two groups would head to Dragon Head Pass.

Beyond that, he left two men behind to assist Tang Qingyuan, with strict instructions that these two were to obey Tang Qingyuan’s commands without question.

Once the assignments were made, the four groups set off in different directions.

Tang Qingyuan adjusted his gear, then clasped his hands toward the two scouts: “Many thanks to you both. Now — we need to get into the city.”

The three rode to Liaocheng. Sure enough, the great city was now utterly under-defended.

Originally it had been occupied by Gan Daode’s Slaughter King Army. After Gan Daode was killed, the Slaughter King Army splintered and fragmented, and the city had been seized by a minor leader commanding roughly ten thousand men.

Shen Shanhu’s first battle on her push southward had been right here at Liaocheng. Every place she had passed before had surrendered without daring to fight, for she was advancing with a hundred and ten thousand Yanzhou troops at her back.

In the Battle of Liaocheng, Shen Shanhu had put the entire ten-thousand-plus remnant rebel force to the sword, but had left no garrison troops behind — she had only told the townspeople to elect one person as the chief official to maintain order, then led her troops away.

This was in fact the flaw left behind by territory expanding too quickly — Prince Ning, Li Chi, had simply had no time to make proper arrangements.

At this time, the one holding authority in Liaocheng was the elected local notable — a venerable old village elder. He carried weight in the community because he had spent his life as a schoolteacher. Many of the people in the city were his former students, and would show him respect.

However, he had spent the better part of his life teaching — he had never held office, and no one had taught him how.

At the city gate, Tang Qingyuan produced his identification, and was quickly shown to the city’s administrative yamen.

Even though they were only three scouts, they held the formal status of Ning army regular soldiers, so the locals treated them with reasonable courtesy.

However, not long after, when Tang Qingyuan had finished laying out his intentions, the old schoolmaster and everyone present with him abandoned their courtesy entirely.

—