“A solution?” Si Qin lifted the corner of his lips, sneering mockingly. “This Khan thought Lord Lu would have ideas, but didn’t expect you to come asking me when the situation became critical?”
Lu Heng shook his head with a bitter smile. “Khan, please don’t jest. I merely hold a nominal position in Great Zhou. In truth, the Lu family is nothing more than a merchant household, and I’m nothing but a trader. Think about it—what great insights could a mere merchant have?”
“You need not belittle yourself.” Si Qin folded his arms, speaking mockingly. “Now my Tatar warriors have been forced into desperate straits. No matter how wealthy you are, even if you buy grain and transport bedding, you can’t deliver them here. Don’t you want to contribute something to this battle?”
Lu Heng smiled bitterly, sighed, and turned toward the uninhabited desert region. He pointed to the west, then to the east.
“Over there, there are city walls—go straight and you can enter the capital. Here, however, is a wasteland. At this time of year, the weather in the wasteland changes in an instant. Without food or water, entering this wasteland would be a dead end. If we don’t move, Great Zhou’s forces will press directly forward, and we might still have the strength for one battle. If we retreat, we’ll either perish in the desert or retreat directly to the capital.”
Si Qin impatiently shook his head upon hearing this. “These situations you’re describing are obvious. Either retreat to the capital or stand here and fight to the death. I want to ask—if it were you, what would you choose?”
Lu Heng placed one hand behind his back, clenching his fist tightly.
“If it were me, I would naturally choose to fight to the death. Though I lack talent, I cannot allow the troops I lead to retreat, causing the people in the city to suffer the calamity of war.”
“Didn’t expect you to be a man of righteousness.” Si Qin’s words carried some mockery, and his gaze at Lu Heng’s back appeared particularly cold. “Sometimes I wonder whether allying with you to campaign against Great Zhou was falling into your trap.”
“A trap?” Lu Heng’s heart skipped a beat, but he maintained his surface calm, slowly turning around to look frankly at Si Qin. “What trap could I possibly set? Moreover, with Khan being such a hero of both wisdom and courage, if you truly encountered any trap, you would have seen through it at a glance. Would you really have allowed me to run rampant until today?”
“I didn’t want to allow your rampancy.” Si Qin smiled as he approached Lu Heng, his hawk-like eyes staring deadly at Lu Heng, the smile at the corner of his lips adding much coldness. “You really are a good dog of the Great Zhou court. Even when hunted by your emperor, you still don’t forget to set us up, persuading this Khan, saying this is the best time to attack, taking advantage of Great Zhou’s continuous natural disasters and man-made calamities to capture it in one fell swoop. But what about now?”
Si Qin suddenly stepped forward, forcing Lu Heng to retreat a step.
“The natural disasters and man-made calamities you spoke of don’t serve as even half a restraint. No matter how great the famine, that Prince Zhongshun of yours had the ability to obtain grain for emergency relief. In the end, he could even mobilize so many troops to oppose this Khan. What do you call this? Is this what you called a good opportunity?”
Lu Heng’s expression remained steady, but his heart was already somewhat panicked.
Now that the war was going unfavorably, with Pang Xiao and Ji Zeyu approaching menacingly, they clearly had a declining momentum. If the Tatars were defeated, Si Qin indeed needed an outlet to vent his anger. He and Si Qin originally only had a cooperative relationship, not much trust to speak of. Now that Si Qin suspected him, it wasn’t unexpected.
However, in this moment of defeat, if Si Qin harbored such suspicions and developed murderous intent toward him, his subordinates probably wouldn’t be a match.
Lu Heng’s countless thoughts occurred in just the blink of an eye. He smiled slightly and cupped his hands. “Khan is really overthinking. I’m already a criminal of the Great Zhou court, the target of the Great Zhou emperor’s pursuit everywhere. If I deceived Khan, what benefit would it bring me?”
Si Qin stared deadly at Lu Heng’s eyes, the suspicion in his gaze unconcealed, as if for a moment he didn’t know whether to believe him.
Lu Heng continued: “Khan can rest assured. Including my wife, servants, and myself, we’re just that few people, and we’re all currently living in Khan’s camp. If Khan thinks what I’m saying are lies, you can take my life at any time. Do you think my meager strength has any room for resistance?”
With this explanation, Si Qin’s expression softened somewhat.
But with his abilities, he was now retreating step by step, as if he had none of the advantages of timing, terrain, or people. Such a declining momentum was truly difficult to accept.
Seeing Si Qin’s expression had softened, Lu Heng’s anxious heart finally quietly returned to its original position. He stepped forward and said in a low voice: “Khan, actually I was just thinking—could we secretly send people to the capital to request reinforcement? If we could catch the enemy off guard with a pincer attack from front and back, perhaps there would still be room for counterattack.”
Si Qin’s eyes showed contemplation.
“Khan, if the Great Zhou army presses forward directly, our warriors will be outnumbered, and it will be difficult to handle then.”
Currently, Great Zhou had 480,000 troops, while they had scraped together only 200,000 elite soldiers from across the nation, now reduced by more than half due to battle losses. Victory with fewer numbers wasn’t unprecedented in history, but when it actually happened to oneself, it wasn’t so easy.
If he didn’t do this, Si Qin couldn’t think of any other solutions for the moment.
But if he simply followed Lu Heng’s suggestion, Si Qin felt as if he were a puppet on strings, being led by the nose by the man before him.
“This Khan will think about it more.”
Hearing this, Lu Heng no longer urged him further and cupped his hands in acknowledgment.
Si Qin returned to his main tent with a dark expression, and Lu Heng also quickly returned to his own camp.
As soon as Bian Ruohan saw Lu Heng return, she hurriedly rose and rushed over: “You’re finally back! Go talk to them—I want to bathe. They don’t even have hot water here. How can one endure without bathing!”
Lu Heng was full of worries, now with added wariness toward Si Qin, fearing that if Si Qin couldn’t defeat Pang Xiao, he would vent his anger on him. Now Bian Ruohan was causing more trouble, and his heart was simply a tangled mess—chaos upon chaos.
“What kind of place do you think this is? Where you can do whatever you want?”
Bian Ruohan stamped her foot. “What kind of place is this, you ask? Wasn’t it you who brought me here in the first place! I’m your wife. Whatever I want, you should try your best to satisfy. If you can’t satisfy me, that’s your incompetence. But now you’re blaming me instead? I just want to bathe—what’s wrong with that!”
“Bathe, bathe.” Lu Heng grabbed Bian Ruohan by the neck, pressing her head as he walked toward the tent entrance.
Lifting the tent flap, Tatar soldiers immediately followed.
Under their strict surveillance, Bian Ruohan was momentarily frightened into speechlessness, just letting Lu Heng grip her neck and lead her outside.
After stumbling along for a while, Lu Heng pushed her to the ground.
“Ah!” Bian Ruohan cried out as she fell sitting on the ground. Looking up, what entered her vision was a boundless sea of sand.
The dim sky, turbid air, and howling wind swept up flying yellow sand everywhere. Even without entering that desert, one could feel a suffocating sensation from the depths of their heart.