Dou Jianliang’s personal guard’s expression turned ugly. Yuan Fang had already been tightly surrounded by the soldiers around him. Shooting arrows now would no longer work. He shouted loudly, fiercely spurred his horse’s belly, and led the death warriors behind him disguised as cavalry charging straight toward Yuan Fang.

Xiao Li, from horseback, once again drew his bow and nocked arrows. Three white-feathered arrows shot toward the opposite side like flowing light.

One aimed straight for the space between the eyebrows, one straight for the chest and abdomen, and the last one shot at the horse’s legs.

Dou Jianliang’s personal guard barely dodged the first two arrows while on horseback, but his war horse still neighed and lunged forward. He abandoned his horse in time, rolling and tumbling on the ground twice in an awkward manner to dissipate the force, while simultaneously evading the thrusting spears of the Pei army soldiers.

Xiao Li seized this opportunity, riding his horse toward Yuan Fang while shouting loudly: “The general has ordered to capture this Wei general alive—do not harm his life!”

The five hundred Tongzhou elite troops following behind him were all wearing military uniforms stripped from dead Pei army soldiers, with only a strip of cloth tied around their arms as a marker to distinguish their own people.

Surging toward Yuan Fang and his group in this manner, the Pei army soldiers on scene assumed these were orders transmitted from the main general’s side, and immediately dared not attack Yuan Fang and his people with lethal force.

Only Dou Jianliang’s personal guard, sensing the situation was unfavorable, was still fighting viciously, leading his men to close in on Yuan Fang.

Zheng Hu, having received Xiao Li’s signal, led about a hundred brothers charging over to cut off their path, shouting at the surrounding Pei army soldiers: “Block this Chen army unit!”

His physique was tall and large, with a full beard, riding a war horse and wielding a battle saber. In the pitch darkness, the Pei army soldiers below assumed he was some general and immediately followed orders, raising their long spears to attack Dou Jianliang’s personal guard unit en masse.

Xiao Li then led several hundred other elite troops, quietly surrounding Yuan Fang’s group and separating them from the Pei army soldiers.

Yuan Fang thought Xiao Li truly was sent by the Pei camp to capture him alive. Already exhausted to the point of needing to prop himself up with his long spear to stand steady, he still grinned fiercely and issued a harsh threat: “Boy, if you want to capture your Grandfather Yuan alive, go back to your mother’s womb and have your pipe dream there instead!”

Xiao Li didn’t respond. Using his spear tip, he picked at the ground, stripping the armor from a dead Pei army soldier and tossing it toward Yuan Fang, saying: “We are the Tongzhou volunteer army. General, change out of this armor and escape with us.”

Yuan Fang caught the Pei army soldier’s uniform that Xiao Li tossed over in surprise, finally understanding where the strange feeling he had when seeing him earlier had come from.

Those in the army who could be equipped with war horses were either cavalry or commanders, but the uniform he wore was clearly that of an ordinary soldier.

Thanks to the deep darkness of night, the chaos of the battlefield, and the limited range illuminated by firelight, he had been able to get away with this deception.

Yuan Fang temporarily set aside his wariness and immediately removed the heavy armor from his body.

However, he had already sustained injuries in multiple places. Once the armor was removed, it revealed the dark crimson-stained inner garment beneath. His personal guards tore clothing into strips and bound them around his wounds to temporarily stop the bleeding before dressing him in the Pei army soldier’s attire.

Once the entire group had changed their appearance, Xiao Li led them in retreat toward Wushao Ridge.

The escort agency brothers blew their whistles. Zheng Hu’s side, receiving the signal, also stopped entangling with Dou Jianliang’s confidants and led his men riding back, leaving only those Pei army soldiers to continue holding the enemy there.

Because “reinforcements” had surged down from both mountain ridges, quite a few Pei army soldiers were charging up the mountain to engage the enemy.

Xiao Li’s group mixed among those Pei soldiers, obtaining excellent cover.

However, the further up the mountain they charged, the more they drifted toward the army’s edge. At the very end, they simply turned and fled directly into the dense forest where the firelight couldn’t reach.

In this pitch darkness, the commanders down in the valley couldn’t see. The Pei soldiers following behind them did see, but assumed they were deserters. Before they could even start shouting, Song Qin’s group, lying in ambush there to provide support, leaped up and slit their throats.

Yuan Fang had an abdominal wound. Running up the mountain in this rush had pulled at the wound again, and the blood that seeped out once more stained the cloth strips wrapped around it a dark color.

Reaching a safe area, his personal guards had him lean against a moss-covered boulder, calling to him in a tearful voice: “General! General! You must hold on!”

Xiao Li had just led his men to help Song Qin cleanly eliminate the tail, and walked over. Seeing the situation, he took a medicine bottle from his breast and tossed it over, saying: “Wound medicine. Stop his bleeding first.”

The personal guards caught it with both hands. After opening the bottle stopper, they still cautiously brought it to their noses to smell, confirming it was indeed wound medicine before undoing Yuan Fang’s clothing and sprinkling it on.

The desolate cold moonlight filtered through the treetops, sprinkling down on this clearing in the forest. Yuan Fang’s lips were dry, cracked, and pale. When the potent wound medicine was sprinkled on the wound, his flesh felt like oil in a searing pan. He quickly broke out in a cold sweat but didn’t let out even a single groan of pain.

After enduring the most difficult period, he listened to the unceasing sounds of slaughter from below the mountain ridge. With sweat soaking down from his temples, he said to Xiao Li: “This humble person is surnamed Yuan, given name Fang, a military general under the command of the Marquis of Shuobian. Your benefactor’s life-saving grace tonight—this one will never forget it as long as he lives. I don’t know your benefactor’s honored surname and great name. Once this humble person returns to the Northern Border to report this matter to the Marquis, I will certainly repay your benefactor’s great kindness.”

Xiao Li sat on a section of broken wood opposite him. Having just gulped down half a flask of water—having rushed about setting fires and then experienced a battle, his body was covered in quite a bit of sweat—he simply poured the remaining half flask of water over his face, washing the sticky blood traces from his face. At this moment, his forehead hair was soaked through, and water droplets dripped down from his face that still bore faint blood traces, giving him an indescribable aura of wild arrogance and untamed nature.

Hearing the voice, he raised his eyes to look at Yuan Fang. Meeting that gaze, Yuan Fang secretly felt a chill in his heart, feeling as if he had been targeted by a fierce beast in this forest—the oppressive feeling was no less than this.

At the same time, he was also secretly pondering in his heart. This young man had said earlier that he was from the Tongzhou volunteer army, but if Tongzhou had such a remarkable figure, he should have heard of him.

Before he could work out any clues, he heard the other party say: “I merely disdain such underhanded conduct by the Chen army. It was just a small effort—the general need not take it to heart. This humble person’s surname is Xiao, single given name the character Li. In my life, I most love befriending heroes and brave men. If the general doesn’t refuse, you can become friends with me.”

Yuan Fang felt flattered. Just listening to this person’s manner of speaking, he didn’t seem like some uncouth person. However, the name seemed somewhat familiar, though he couldn’t remember for the moment where he had heard it. At present, he only said: “With such a benefactor’s magnanimity, how could you be an ordinary person? To become acquainted with a hero like you, benefactor, is Yuan’s great fortune!”

He had heard before that the various counties of Tongzhou each governed themselves, with the most powerful being Bandit County and Uprising County, which had been in constant friction, with Pei clan forces mixed in between.

But judging from the number of people in tonight’s ambush, even if all the volunteer armies of all Tongzhou counties came out in full force, they might not necessarily be able to create such a spectacle. Or could it be… that the counties of Tongzhou had actually been concealing their strength all along?

In his confusion, Yuan Fang simply asked directly: “The ambush on the mountain—are they all your benefactor’s people?”

Xiao Li glanced at him and said: “No.”

Yuan Fang was clearly even more confused.

He said: “They’re the Chen army.”

With this answer, Yuan Fang and his personal guards couldn’t help but exchange glances.

If we’re talking about before Dou Jianliang’s personal guard appeared, he had still thought that perhaps Dou Jianliang hadn’t intentionally failed to send troops to aid them, but had been held up by something.

But after Dou Jianliang’s personal guard released that arrow, he was absolutely certain that Dou Jianliang wanted to kill him.

Could it be that Dou Jianliang ultimately sent troops in order to create some casualties so he could report back to the Great Liang side?

But the Pei army that crashed into this trap this time wasn’t twenty or thirty thousand—it was a full fifty thousand!

With Dou Jianliang engaging with the Pei army again after his own forces had been severely damaged, no matter what, he would have to shed a thick layer of skin, and there was even the possibility of being completely wiped out along with the Pei army.

No matter how you looked at it, this didn’t seem like something Dou Jianliang would do.

Yuan Fang’s confidants, having narrowly escaped death, also harbored deep hatred for the Chen army. They immediately refuted: “How is that possible? Those Chen Kingdom traitors even shot arrows from hiding to wound our general—all the brave men present at the time should have seen it!”

Zheng Hu, wrapping gauze around his own cracked tiger’s mouth, grinned and said: “The Pei clan dogs dispatched fifty thousand troops this time. Of course those Chen Kingdom grandsons didn’t dare come out to save people.”

He raised his chin, indicating they should look at the mountain fire still burning opposite: “See this fire spreading all over the mountains? My second brother ordered people to set it. Those Chen Kingdom grandsons were cowering in the forest. When their asses got burned, weren’t they scared into chaos, scattering all over the mountain?”

As someone who also led troops, with this explanation, Yuan Fang understood everything.

Xiao Li had ordered people to set fire in the forest behind the Chen army’s ambush position, startling the ambush troops and war horses on the mountain, creating the false impression that they were rushing out to provide support down the mountain, drawing away more than half of the Pei army’s firepower, thus creating the opportunity to rescue them.

On one hand, he marveled that Xiao Li truly was a brilliant strategist, actually able to conceive such tactics. On the other hand, he felt utterly chilled and furious.

The reinforcements led by Dou Jianliang had actually been lying in ambush on the mountain all along!

His initial speculation hadn’t been wrong—Southern Chen wanted to let this Northern Wei army fold here!

He just didn’t know whether the Great Liang side knew of this poisonous scheme or not…

The scenes of Wei army soldiers dying tragically under Pei army blades kept replaying before Yuan Fang’s eyes, to the point that finally, a glimmer of tears emerged in his bloodshot eyes.

He clenched his fist and pounded it forcefully against the boulder behind him, ignoring the pain of his wound splitting open, saying hatefully: “If I don’t take Dou Jianliang’s head from his shoulders, how can I console the wronged souls of my twenty thousand Northern Wei sons who died in vain!”

He had deliberately avoided it, but Xiao Li still hit the nail on the head with that question: “May I ask the general—tonight’s situation, was it Southern Chen’s sole doing, or was it a conspiracy with the Liang camp?”

Yuan Fang bit his teeth until they drew a bloody taste, closing his eyes and saying: “I don’t know.”

This stratagem was proposed by Li Xun. Before departure, Fan Yuan had even patted his shoulder armor saying that after intercepting this batch of grain supplies and cutting off the Jincheng Pei army’s rear route, he would find him for drinks.

He truly didn’t know whether Fan Yuan and Li Xun had participated in this. If those two also knew…

If those two also knew… just thinking about it, Yuan Fang felt that hatred seeped into his very bones.

That would be a betrayal even more intolerable than being schemed against by Southern Chen.

Xiao Li didn’t ask anything more, only saying: “If that’s the case, why doesn’t the general write a blood letter? I’ll have someone deliver it to the Liang camp. If the Liang camp doesn’t know of this matter, upon seeing the blood letter, they can guard against Southern Chen. If they knew, learning that the general is still alive, no matter what, they will give you an accounting.”

Although he hadn’t worked together with Fan Yuan for long, he knew that given Fan Yuan’s temperament, he certainly couldn’t have agreed to such a poisonous scheme. However, Liang and Chen already had a marriage alliance. If Wei Qishan refused to submit in the future, there would inevitably be another battle with Northern Wei.

Whether anyone in the Liang camp would act behind Fan Yuan’s back to weaken Northern Wei—that was unknown.

More importantly, if no one in the Liang camp knew of this matter and everything was Southern Chen acting on their own authority, then if they would scheme against Northern Wei today to diminish their opponent’s strength, in the future they might not refrain from scheming against Liang generals to monopolize military power.

Even though he had already broken with Wen Yu, he had once received the grace of Fan Yuan’s mentorship and the grace of Li Xun’s teachings. Even for the sake of these two men, he should help deliver this message to the Liang camp.

Yuan Fang had passed through the gates of hell several times tonight. At this moment, his mind and spirit were utterly exhausted. Under severe injury, his head ached as if it would split. Hearing Xiao Li’s words and barely able to think it through, he found it reasonable and immediately agreed.

He and his confidants’ clothing had all been plastered with blood beyond recognition. Xiao Li had brothers who hadn’t gone to battle cut off a corner of clean robe and hand it to Yuan Fang.

Yuan Fang was supported up by his personal guards. Using the blood traces from his wounds, he wrote characters on the robe.