Secondly, he also didn’t want Bai Qingyan to establish too high a prestige in the military. Otherwise, once Bai Qingyan’s reputation matched that of Bai Weiting, given Bai Qingyan’s resolute temperament and her lack of reverence for the imperial family, she would command troops for her purposes. Not only would the Emperor find her difficult to control, but if things went wrong, Bai Qingyan might even raise an army in rebellion.

Liu Hong deeply respected this daughter of the Bai family who, despite her frail body, had achieved a great victory over Xiliang in Nanjiang.

So initially, Liu Hong also felt the Emperor was being overly worried, but after returning and carefully considering Bai Qingyan’s impassioned speech at the palace banquet, and remembering how she had beaten the drum to force Prince Xin’s execution, he realized the Emperor’s concerns were not without foundation.

Liu Hong knew in his heart that he didn’t possess the same abilities as Duke Bai Weiting and Duke Bai Qishan. The reason the Emperor made him commander-in-chief was simply because he had been loyal to the Emperor even before the Emperor ascended to the supreme throne, never grasping for power, having no grand ambitions, and remaining unchanged to this day.

Therefore, when Liu Hong learned that Bai Qingyan had ridden swiftly from Shouyang with a team of guards straight to Longyang City, remembering the Emperor’s words about not letting Bai Qingyan accumulate more military merit unless necessary, he immediately became anxious. He simply abandoned the main army and came day and night with a team of cavalry.

Liu Hong was afraid that sending others wouldn’t be able to suppress Bai Qingyan – only he, as the army’s commander-in-chief, could make Bai Qingyan obey his orders.

But during this journey, Liu Hong never dismounted, being tormented severely. The inside of his thighs were completely chafed raw by the saddle, and he even developed a high fever before entering the city. He heard from the city’s defending soldiers that… as soon as Bai Qingyan arrived, without resting, she accepted the challenge and faced the fierce Liang general Zhao Tong, subduing him in three moves, greatly boosting Jin army morale.

She had even predicted that the Liang army would make moves during the night, and the Jin army had just captured the Zhao family troops who had secretly infiltrated the city. Subsequently, Bai Qingyan ordered people to go to the Liang camp to burn Great Liang’s grain supplies.

Seeing the defending soldiers’ undisguised admiration, Liu Hong felt pressured in his heart. Not daring to rest, he immediately ordered people to summon all generals to the drill ground.

At the drill ground, all the high-rise fire basins were lit. Banners fluttered, and flames danced wildly in the wind, illuminating the drill ground as bright as daylight.

The pale-faced Liu Hong sat in a chair. He felt feverish and uncomfortable; his breathing was hot, and his mouth was burning.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to rest, but he didn’t want the soldiers who had retreated into Longyang City to think their commander-in-chief was inferior to a young woman.

Liu Hong was forcing himself to sit here on sheer willpower alone. He was afraid that if he lay down, he might not wake up for a day, so he needed to see all the generals first and make proper arrangements.

When Bai Qingyan’s group arrived, Liu Hong sat on the high platform of the drill ground in full armor and cloak, with sword-bearing cavalry standing on his left and right sides, displaying the commander-in-chief’s imposing dignity.

“This subordinate pays respects to the Commander-in-Chief!”

The group stood below the high platform and saluted Liu Hong.

Liu Hong originally wanted to stand up, but his entire body was weak, and his joints ached with feverish pain. He could only remain seated and cupped his hands toward the generals: “Generals, please forgive me. This commander has caught a slight cold, and my whole body is weak, so I won’t stand up. All officers and soldiers listen to this order: from this day forward, without this commander’s orders, no one may engage in battle or take action on their initiative! Those who violate orders will be treated as traitors! Everyone must remain in the city, quietly await the arrival of reinforcements, and then make further calculations.”

The officers and soldiers looked at each other and clasped their fists in acknowledgment.

Bai Qingyan raised her eyes to look at Liu Hong. Liu Hong quickly averted his gaze, feeling somewhat guilty and not daring to meet Bai Qingyan’s deep, calm eyes.

Liu Hong had desperately chased all this way just to give this order.

“Everyone, go rest and conserve your strength. Once reinforcements arrive, we’ll drive the Liang army back to Great Liang!” Liu Hong finished speaking with full vigor, and his guards immediately supported him from both sides.

Watching Liu Hong leave, Lin Kangle turned to look at Bai Qingyan, whose expression remained unchanged. His lips moved, but he made no sound.

Which intelligent person present couldn’t see that Liu Hong’s order was directed at Bai Qingyan?

“General Bai has traveled day and night to get here, so you should indeed rest. I imagine the reinforcements from the Anping camp will arrive within three days at the latest. When that time comes, our Jin army will likely have a fierce battle with Great Liang, but with General Bai among our Jin forces, we have confidence!” Wang Xiping quickly stepped forward to speak to Bai Qingyan, afraid that Bai Qingyan might feel uncomfortable.

Bai Qingyan nodded and clasped her fists to bid farewell to all the generals present.

Wang Xiping stood beside Lin Kangle, and after cupping his hands to see the others off, he said: “This commander-in-chief seems to be deliberately suppressing General Bai! Is he afraid that General Bai will steal his limelight as commander-in-chief?”

During the Nanjiang campaign, the Crown Prince was the commander-in-chief, but the great victory… was entirely due to Bai Qingyan, who at that time didn’t even have an official position but had taken the tiger tally to lead troops.

Lin Kangle frowned deeply: “Now, with a great battle approaching, instead of thinking about how to unite all the generals to resist the enemy together, as commander-in-chief, he’s worried about his subordinate generals stealing credit!”

Lin Kangle had once fought bloody battles alongside Bai Qingyan, so their relationship was special, and he naturally resented Liu Hong’s behavior.

Lin Kangle was indeed wronging Liu Hong. Liu Hong didn’t want to act this way either – he also deeply admired Bai Qingyan in his heart, but imperial commands were difficult to disobey.

In the great prison, Lu Ping separated and imprisoned all eleven Zhao family soldiers, including the seriously wounded one, to avoid inaccurate information from group interrogations. They were kept in separate cells and interrogated individually.

The entire prison was filled with the desperate, miserable wails of the Zhao family soldiers. At first listen… one might think they had arrived in hell.

It must be said that General Zhao Yi’s methods for interrogating enemy soldiers were indeed skillful. The tortures he used made life worse than death, especially those small iron balls heated red-hot and placed in people’s navels – it was simply living death, making them only wish for quick demise.

Lu Ping not only extracted the location of the granary, but by dawn had also learned that Bai Jinzhi was currently in Fire God Mountain.

The team leader of the Zhao family army, who had come to rescue Zhao Tong, was quite tough-boned, but ultimately couldn’t endure the branding torture. Learning that someone in their small team had already revealed information, he died when his breath failed him.

Lu Ping dared not delay and brought the results of the night-long interrogation to find Bai Qingyan.

Bai Qingyan examined the bamboo slips from the separate interrogations. Three of them said Bai Jinzhi was in Fire God Mountain, while the others… truly didn’t know, but did reveal some other information.

Now that she knew the news of Bai Jinzhi, Bai Qingyan didn’t want to delay. She thought briefly, then had Lu Ping take the bamboo slips to the commander-in-chief’s camp to request permission to lead troops to rescue Bai Jinzhi.

As soon as Bai Qingyan came out, Du Sanbao’s group returned.

Knowing Bai Qingyan was worried about Bai Jinzhi, Du Sanbao, upon returning, had the others go report to Wang Xiping while he ran toward Bai Qingyan’s camp.

Dawn was just breaking. Du Sanbao’s face was blackened by smoke, covered in sweat. He wiped with his sleeve, revealing only a white forehead, showed Bai Qingyan a row of white teeth, clasped his fists, and knelt on one knee, saying: “General Bai, I separately captured two tongues and questioned them. They said they don’t know where the High Righteousness County Princess is, but they said General Gu took ten thousand men to Fire God Mountain, which must be to capture the High Righteousness County Princess.”