The woman outside the tent wore a brocade skirt and jacket, with flower braids hanging in front of both shoulders wound with ribbons the same color as her skirt. Her appearance was quite delicate and pretty. After hearing A Niu’s words, the hand holding the food box tightened, and she bit her lower lip slightly, saying: “I came… without any other meaning. It’s just that my mother cooked heat-dispelling sour plum soup and asked me to bring some for Brother, as well as the Lord and the soldiers below.”

“Since the Lord is not here…” The woman bit her lower lip until it turned white, seeming to feel somewhat embarrassed: “Then I’ll trouble Guard Tao to take this sour plum soup into the tent.”

Having said this, she thrust the food box into Tao Kui’s hands and ran back in small steps, faintly raising her hand to wipe her eyes.

Inside the tent, Zheng Hu heard the conversation between the two outside clearly.

He glanced at Xiao Li’s expression and said with some displeasure: “Second Brother, that younger sister of Liu Biao seems to have been coming to the camp frequently lately?”

Xiao Li’s attention had already returned to the sand table, turning a deaf ear to this matter.

The more Zheng Hu thought about it, the more displeased he became, saying: “Who knows what play the Liu family is staging now. Back then it was Liu Biao himself who didn’t follow military orders and rashly sought glory by leading his fellow villagers to their deaths. If it weren’t for Second Brother leading the brothers to rescue them, would Liu Biao still have any standing now? Those Liu Family Village people are quite something—treating us brothers with disdain, as if we owed them something.”

As he spoke, Zheng Hu had already lifted the tent flap and said to Tao Kui: “Silly boy, give me that thing!”

Though he told Tao Kui to give it to him, he had actually already snatched the food box, took out the ice-cold sour plum soup inside, tilted back his neck and drank it clean in one go, saying indignantly: “Just sent porridge the day before yesterday, and now sending soup today—no good intentions!”

The one who initially led the common people of Pingdeng County in uprising was a man named Liu Biao. After news spread of Pei Song conquering Fengyang and killing Prince Changlian and his son, the county magistrate colluded with wealthy merchants in the county to forcibly levy grain taxes, becoming a local tyrant. In the harsh winter, countless common people froze or starved to death.

Liu Biao led his fellow villagers in raising the banner of rebellion, killed the county magistrate and opened the granaries to distribute grain. From this point on, all the common people of Pingdeng County quite trusted him.

However, Pingdeng County was originally a poor county within Tongzhou territory. Even after raising the rebel flag, among the seventeen counties within Tongzhou, it was among the weakest batch and dared not clash directly with those several powerful official counties and bandit counties.

Before Xiao Li had Zhang Huai and Tao Kui bring the head of Jinzhou’s deputy general to seek refuge, Pingdeng County had also been courted by several official counties and bandit counties.

The bandit counties needless to say—they rose entirely through brute force, only seeking their own wealth and completely disregarding the people’s lives.

When Liu Biao raised his cause, he promised the people of Pingdeng County that if he had a mouthful of rice to eat, he would never let the common people go without. Naturally he dared not ally himself with the bandit counties.

The official counties’ side put on grand airs, saying they would offer amnesty on behalf of Wei Qishan, but thereafter Liu Biao would have to lead all his subordinates to follow those county magistrates’ instructions.

Liu Biao considered himself the master of an entire county as well and was unwilling to be one rank below those county magistrates. He wanted to wait a bit longer, letting Wei Qishan’s side also extend a proper olive branch to him.

But waiting and waiting, the result never came.

After Zhang Huai brought Tao Kui to Pingdeng County, with the head of Jinzhou’s deputy general, they were treated as honored guests by Liu Biao.

Later when Jinzhou sent troops to attack the official counties within Tongzhou territory, Zhang Huai planned thoroughly and carefully, plus Tao Kui was brave and unmatched on the battlefield. Pingdeng County quickly seized territory equivalent to two full counties amid the chaos.

However, as the forces Zhang Huai persuaded and recruited into their alliance grew more numerous, and he proved extremely insightful, capable of strategy and decisive in judgment, Liu Biao’s influence in the army was already far inferior to Zhang Huai’s.

At first, those who had been from the same village as Liu Biao wanted to help him plot and scheme to distinguish superiority with Zhang Huai.

But after Xiao Li brought Song Qin, Zheng Hu and a group of brothers to join forces with Zhang Huai, they directly achieved the battle record of three counties in three days, successfully expanding the military camp forces by another fold.

Those few fellow villagers loyal unto death to Liu Biao were completely insignificant before this snowballing force that grew larger and larger.

Xiao Li had also come from Pingzhou’s military camp and was thoroughly familiar with various military regulations and systems. Even though his subordinates were mostly night watchmen, menial workers, and farming men of that sort, after he established military rules and discipline and trained them strictly, he quickly trained an army that had proper form.

Liu Biao and his fellow villagers, though they viewed Xiao Li as a great enemy, did not dare rashly turn against Xiao Li openly.

Before they could take any action, several major bandit counties became alarmed at their overly rapid growth and attacked them en masse. Liu Biao’s group first set aside their prejudices to present a united front against outsiders.

However, in order to also have several achievements worth showing off to compete with Xiao Li, Liu Biao was eager to win and acted arbitrarily. He disdained the tactics formulated by Xiao Li and Zhang Huai, leading those fellow villagers willing to follow him in unauthorized action, ultimately being surrounded by the several major bandit counties.

If Xiao Li hadn’t brought people to rescue them, Liu Biao and his fellow villagers would probably have all died at the hands of the bandit soldiers.

Later, facing the menacing bandit soldiers, it was also Xiao Li who led Song Qin, Zheng Hu and the others to turn the tide, defeating them despite being outnumbered.

Though Jinzhou’s side sensed something unusual about Pingdeng County’s abnormal strength, Jinzhou had already gone to war with Southern Liang’s tripartite allied forces and had no spare manpower to deal with them. They could only have the Pei army stationed in Tongcheng County muddy the waters as much as possible, making the several major bandit counties within Tongzhou territory and their Pingdeng County mutually devour and constrain each other.

Xiao Li also deeply understood this point, so he turned the tables on them. From conquering the first bandit county, he concealed information from the outside, continuing to fly the bandit county’s banner as a front, pretending to cooperate with the other several bandit counties. After learning of their tactics to jointly divide Pingdeng County, he then defeated them one by one.

Tongcheng County was Jinzhou’s eyes and ears within Tongzhou territory. As long as they deceived the Pei army within Tongcheng, Jinzhou would not know the current situation of the various counties in Tongzhou.

After these several beautiful battles were fought, the bandit counties were completely eliminated, and the other small counties also wisely submitted. They only needed to eliminate the Pei army of Tongcheng County, and all of Tongzhou would be in the bag.

Xiao Li had also long since become an absolute authority in the army whose word was law.

Liu Biao deeply knew he no longer had even half a bit of capital to compete with Xiao Li. When those above and below in the army all nominated Xiao Li to be the Lord, he also respectably chose Xiao Li.

However, those fellow villagers who had initially followed Liu Biao in raising the cause still had quite a few complaints about this, feeling that Xiao Li had stolen Liu Biao’s position, and often sought to provoke trouble with Zheng Hu, Song Qin and the others.

Zheng Hu had a hot temper and originally was unwilling to suffer even the slightest loss, but helplessly every time he wanted to explode he was suppressed by Xiao Li. His dissatisfaction with Liu Biao’s group had been building for a long time.

Now seeing Liu Biao’s younger sister suddenly showing consideration toward Xiao Li, even if he were a fool he would know what scheme the Liu family was plotting, and his heart burned with even more frustration.

After downing a bowl of sour plum soup, he finally managed to suppress that anger by a few degrees. He returned the bowl to Tao Kui saying: “Boy, if the Liu family sends any more food over, just eat it yourself and don’t bring it before Second Brother to bother him!”

Tao Kui held up high the bowl still carrying the coolness of ice, turned the entire bowl over, and only then did a single drop of residual sour plum soup juice fall into his mouth. Forget about dispelling heat—he hadn’t even really tasted the flavor.

He muttered: “Second Brother originally meant for A Niu to eat it.”

These words carried a bit of complaint that Zheng Hu had stolen his ice-cold sour plum soup.

Hearing this, Zheng Hu became happy again. Turning back wanting to say something more to Xiao Li, Zhang Huai had already lifted the tent flap and entered. Seeing Zheng Hu was also there, he was quite surprised: “General Zheng is also here? Could it be that Sanhe County has achieved victory?”

Zheng Hu grinned: “Precisely rushed back to report the good news to Second Brother! Does the military advisor have matters to discuss with Second Brother?”

Zhang Huai nodded with a shallow smile.

Zheng Hu said: “Alright, then I’ll head back first.”

As he pulled Tao Kui along to exit the tent together, he did not forget to instruct: “Silly boy, you need to be more alert in the future. Don’t let just any Tom, Dick or Harry into Second Brother’s tent…”

These words carried some implied meaning. On his way here, Zhang Huai had also heard about the Liu family mother and daughter sending sour plum soup to the soldiers in the army.

His eyebrows moved slightly. He looked toward Xiao Li who was still studying the terrain surrounding Tongzhou and Jinzhou, raised his hand in a shallow bow and said: “Huai congratulates the Lord on this great victory in battle.”

Xiao Li lifted his eyelids to look at him and said: “I’ve said many times, there’s no need to call me Lord. If you’re willing, you can call me Second Brother like Old Tiger and the others.”

The shallow smile at the corners of Zhang Huai’s mouth lengthened somewhat as he said: “Huai knows the Lord is magnanimous with subordinates, but what Huai is determined to assist in this life is an enlightened master of one territory.”

Xiao Li frowned slightly and said nothing more.

Only then did Zhang Huai speak of proper business: “The Liu clan has been frequently showing goodwill to the Lord recently. What does the Lord think of this?”

After contemplating for a long time, Xiao Li planted a flag in the valley of the sand table he had determined, then replied: “As long as Liu Biao behaves himself and no longer openly or covertly incites the people of Liu Family Village to cause trouble, what rightfully belongs to the people of Liu Family Village, I will not shortchange them by even a fraction.”

Zhang Huai also directed his gaze toward the sand table, saying: “I only fear that human hearts are insufficient and the snake tries to swallow the elephant. In former days, Liu Biao could barely stabilize even a small Pingdeng County. The Lord pacified the various counties and recruited heroes from all directions under his command—only then do we have today’s foundation. Yet the people of Liu Family Village are arrogant like frogs in a well, often privately spouting nonsense that all this should originally belong to the people of Liu Family Village.”

“They’ve caused trouble several times, and the Lord has never severely punished them. Huai knows the Lord wants to let the other soldiers of Pingdeng County clearly see the true nature of the Liu clan…” Zhang Huai said, then turned his gaze to look at Xiao Li: “Only this Miss Liu has been appearing conspicuously in the army recently with great fanfare. Huai has already heard some rumors saying you intend to take the Liu family daughter as wife.”

The Liu family was very clever. Every time the mother and daughter came to the army, they did so under the pretext of consoling the soldiers, and “incidentally” also brought a portion for Xiao Li. The people of Liu Family Village had caused trouble frequently before, and those below all knew Liu Biao and Xiao Li were at odds.

By staging this performance, the Liu family appeared to be helping Liu Biao and the Liu Family Village people mend their troubles, letting the other soldiers see they had no grievances with Xiao Li.

The things Miss Liu personally sent to Xiao Li’s side, Xiao Li could not very well openly refuse, otherwise in the eyes of those below it would become that the Liu family intended to let bygones be bygones, but he could no longer tolerate the Liu family.

From the first time the Liu family came to send things, it was Tao Kui who stopped them outside the tent, politely declining by saying Xiao Li was not present. The food Miss Liu left behind all went into Tao Kui’s stomach.

Yet unexpectedly, the Liu family had secretly played another card.

Xiao Li completely raised his head from the sand table, his brows and eyes full of coldness and slight weariness, appearing extremely annoyed by such matters: “It seems you already have an idea. I’ll leave this matter for you to handle.”

Zhang Huai nodded shallowly to indicate he would take it on, then gazed at the map where Xiao Li had newly placed flag markers and asked: “When does the Lord plan to take Tongcheng County?”

Taking Tongcheng County would mean they were completely exposed before Jinzhou’s eyes.

However, currently Jinzhou faced Southern Liang’s tripartite allied forces and had not gained any advantage. If they sent troops to attack Jinzhou together, even if they did not depend on either Southern Liang or Northern Wei in the future, before the common people of the realm they would at least have the reputation of crusading against the Pei bandits.

The hand with which Xiao Li propped himself against the table had slightly protruding tendons. His deep, somber gaze fell back on the map spread before him and the sand table not far away, only saying: “The time is not yet right.”

—

Wind rolled over the pages of books on Wen Yu’s desk, the paper leaves fluttering with rustling sounds.

Zhao Bai entered carrying newly arrived official documents. Seeing Wen Yu had once again reviewed memorials until she was exhausted and had fallen asleep at her desk, she hurriedly lightened her footsteps. After placing the documents in hand on the desk, just as she was about to find a cloak to drape over Wen Yu, Wen Yu had already propped herself up on her elbows and awakened.

A faint weariness showed between her brows as she asked: “What hour is it?”

Zhao Bai said: “Just past the hour of Shen.”

Wen Yu rubbed her aching neck, looking at the newly piled memorials before the desk, and asked: “Sent from Liang lands?”

Zhao Bai nodded, saying: “This servant looked at the date. These are memorials sent out from Pingzhou a month ago.”

Chen Kingdom was far beyond the pass, with the Gobi Desert in between. The climate in the great desert was harsh, and from time to time there were tribes that had submitted to Western Ling causing trouble and plundering.

Even for documents sent by eight-hundred-li urgent courier from Pingzhou to the Chen royal court, no matter how smoothly it went, it would still take most of a month before reaching Wen Yu’s hands.

A month ago, Southern Liang’s allied forces had long since attacked toward Jinzhou. Wen Yu worried about the war situation. Unable to care about fatigue, she opened one of the memorials and began reading it at high speed, taking in three lines at a glance.

Only upon reading to the end, she rarely lost her composure. The vermillion brush in her hand inadvertently slipped away, splashing a patch of vermillion ink dots on the sandalwood desk.

Zhao Bai thought the memorial contained some terrible news and hurriedly asked with concern: “Princess, what is it?”

Wen Yu closed her eyes to steady herself for a while before saying: “He’s still alive.”