Gou Zi didn’t know what Dan Ying was saying, but he knew this was the signal to retreat. His feet kicked off the ground and his body shot out almost hugging the floor. Approaching Dan Ying’s combat circle, a throwing knife in his hand cunningly flew into an armored soldier’s groin. That armored soldier screamed wildly, his long sword hacking into the window frame, and immediately a red line appeared on his neck. With a gurgling sound, he crashed heavily to the ground.

Dan Ying dragged Gou Zi out of the room. Two incendiary bottles flew into the building. Two armored soldiers swung their swords to strike the bottles. In an instant gasoline splattered. An extremely obvious line of fire ignited from the candles. The two armored soldiers covered in gasoline immediately became human torches. At the same time, the entire room became a sea of fire.

Hearing the hair-raising screams coming from inside the building, Dan Ying took out two more incendiary bottles from his body and threw them into the inferno. Two muffled sounds came, and surging flames gushed out from the windows and main door. With such fierce fire, let alone people—even an iron man would melt into molten iron.

Gou Zi stood outside the door appreciating the fire for a while. Hearing the noisy clamor of people in the distance, he finally chuckled and followed Dan Ying up the wall. The two men ran swiftly along the wall like wildcats, soon arriving at the back garden. Just as they jumped down from the wall, they saw a Goguryeo woman holding a lantern, trembling as she looked at the two of them.

Pressing down Dan Ying’s raised horizontal blade, Gou Zi strode boldly to the frightened woman. Looking at that rosy little mouth, he couldn’t help but lower his head and kiss it.

Only after his face received a slap did he laugh heartily, pulling Dan Ying to quickly cross through the garden and leap onto the wall. Waving at that Goguryeo woman, they disappeared into the night…

Yun Ye’s mood at this moment was simply indescribable. He had always been avoiding nurturing a tiger that would become a threat, never expecting that Gae Suwen had still escaped. He didn’t believe Gae Suwen would drown in the seawater. If this kind of person died so easily, he wouldn’t have had those legendary experiences afterward.

Looking down at the woman still holding him tightly, he said irritably: “Alright, alright, the person has already escaped. How long do you plan to keep holding on?”

Only then did the woman cry out in alarm, release Yun Ye, and squat down hugging her chest. This woman was indeed a rare beauty. Her smooth skin actually appeared ivory-colored under the moonlight. Her body’s lines were beautiful. After squatting down, Yun Ye discovered that below her slender waist was an exaggerated bottom. Though sticky with seawater and blood, it gave Yun Ye a different kind of temptation.

Swallowing a mouthful of saliva, Yun Ye also untied himself from the mast. At this time the waves had calmed considerably. Liu Fang waved the storm lantern in his hand, transmitting information about raising sails. The entire fleet was in a flurry of activity.

Lying at the stern peering into the sea, Gae Suwen had long since vanished without a trace. Now there was trouble. Why did he pretend to be some expert? What kind of expert? He should have stabbed him to death with one knife upon first meeting. Why did he make all those plans? Ten birds in the forest aren’t worth one bird in hand! He pounded his fist heavily on the ship’s rail—it hurt terribly!

“Marquis Yun, may I return to the cabin? I’m not wearing clothes.” That damned woman was still pitifully making requests even now. He had wanted to refuse—since you like running around naked, then just stay naked. Unfortunately, Yun Ye really couldn’t do such a thing. Watching that bare woman return to the cabin like a proud swan, Yun Ye banged his head against the ship’s rail repeatedly with loud thumps.

The entire fleet sped across the water surface. Dense forests on both sides blocked the sea wind. The strong wind could only squeeze into the forest from the river channel. The Liao River was strange—the river water was dark and black, clearly characteristic of white mountains and black waters. Some strange red-colored fish advanced inland together with the fleet. Each one had a bulging belly. It looked like they were preparing to go to the Liao River’s source to spawn. These fish were quite foolish. Yun Ye watched as several jumped directly onto the rafts. Those soldiers happily lifted the fish in their hands, comparing whose catch was larger.

At this time, if he didn’t get some fish roe to eat, he’d really be letting himself down. This stuff only needed to be salted to become an ultimate delicacy. However, after Yun Ye ate one mouthful, he vomited violently. The heavy fishy smell was really killing him.

The forest gradually became sparse. Along the riverbanks everywhere were man-high withered grasses. Watching pheasants flapping in the grass, Yun Ye really wanted to disembark and hunt. Clubbing roe deer and scooping fish with ladles—this was later generations’ praise for eastern Liaodong. Now, this wilderness that rarely saw human footprints must be even more abundant than later generations.

Scout horses went ashore and walked less than ten li before having to retreat back to the ships. There were simply no roads suitable for horses and men to traverse on either side of the river banks. Moreover, most sections were large expanses of marshland. In just half a day, three warhorses were lost.

“Then forget about scout horses. This is a method with no other option. We can only adapt to circumstances. The scout horses’ speed isn’t even as fast as the ships. Even if there’s a situation, by the time they report back it will already be too late.”

Liu Fang’s words were spoken quite irresponsibly, yet Liu Renyuan and the others all nodded together, believing that the current plan was to race Gae Suwen for speed, killing him unprepared before the enemy could react.

“Fighting wars is taking risks. It just depends on who can hold their nerve, who can grit their teeth and persist, and then see whose side heaven stands on.” The old man seemed quite emotional.

“Don’t ancient books say to plan strategies within the command tent and achieve victory a thousand li away? Aren’t there such generals?” Yun Ye interjected, asking everyone in the cabin.

“Haven’t seen such people. By rights, this dynasty also has several who could be called famous generals, but when it comes to fighting, no one’s been found who could easily achieve victory while hiding in the rear.” Lai Chuanfeng scratched his head answering Yun Ye. As for Liu Fang, he simply ignored him.

Yun Ye had also been on the battlefield twice. Recalling Li Jing on the great grassland freezing like a turtle to pursue Xie Li, and Li Er’s incessantly chattering about the Battle of Luoyang—he too personally rode horses and wielded swords fighting enemies, not hiding in the rear just moving his lips. Thinking of the unceasing descriptions in history books, Yun Ye was convinced those historians were all romantics, trained in the same school as Li Bai. A waterfall as big as a puddle of piss became “like the Milky Way falling from the ninth heaven” from his mouth. Hair three chi long was already incredible, yet he insisted on saying “white hair three thousand zhang.” Today he finally understood the ancients’ writing methods. Except for what Sima Qian wrote, everyone else’s descriptions should be divided by a hundred before reading. Given that Great Tang people were naturally open-minded, Yun Ye planned that in the future when listening to them speak, he would reduce credibility by two hundred times before considering it.

The river channel was narrowing, making the water flow increasingly rapid. All three wind sails front and back were fully raised. The oar blades on the ships also dropped down. Sailors worked hard pulling the oars, preparing to overcome the current’s impact. Fortunately, waves continuously surging from behind could give the fleet some assistance…

That woman kept hiding in the cabin singing, seeming very happy. Regarding Gae Suwen’s escape, no one in the naval forces blamed Yun Ye. Even Liu Fang, who always regarded Yun Ye as a disciple, said not a word. In his view, this was the smallest matter possible. No matter what, Gae Suwen couldn’t possibly beat them to Cangyan City.

“Has Marquis Yun come to this concubine’s cabin to have this concubine attend your bed?” Every time he arrived at Ronghua Nu’s place, this woman would respectfully bow. After greeting Yun Ye, she would very directly ask this question.

“Forget it. I don’t have the habit or interest in rape. Put down your little knife. Aren’t you tired of holding it under your chin all day? Such a small knife and you still can’t kill yourself with it.”

“This concubine knows it can’t kill me. I’m just preparing to slash this face. If the Marquis prepares to use force, this concubine can only take the knife and carve a chessboard on her face. I wonder if the Marquis also likes bloody, ugly women?”

Though this woman spoke these words with a smile, Yun Ye knew that if he really wanted to do something, she wouldn’t hesitate for a moment to slash her face with the knife.

“Gae Suwen has escaped. What will you do? After I finish my business, I’ll return to Great Tang. I also don’t plan to hand you over to Gae Suwen. You can preserve your chastity for Old Gae in Great Tang for a lifetime. However, you didn’t live comfortably in Goguryeo either, right? Just look at those death warriors who wanted to eliminate you—they didn’t come from ordinary families. You two put a green hat on Gao Jianwu. I don’t think he’ll let you off so easily. Perhaps Gao Jianwu even wants to eliminate Gae Suwen.”

“Marquis Yun, you’ve misjudged Gao Jianwu. When this concubine married into the Gao family to become a secondary consort, he never even saw me. I always lived at my maiden home, only carrying the title of secondary consort. When I was five years old, I told Suwen I would marry him. This thought has never changed. Among Goguryeo nobility, he was so outstanding, completely different from those nauseating dandy young masters. He always began practicing martial arts before dawn, then studied military strategy and researched the various schools of thought. At eighteen, he was already the most talented among Goguryeo’s young people.”

“Goguryeo nobles his age had wives and concubines filling their homes by eighteen, but he remained alone. The emperor wanted to marry his younger sister to him, but he flatly refused. I knew he was waiting for me. If I said one sentence—’let’s elope’—he would definitely abandon everything and leave with me.”

“After my father died, I had no more attachments and wanted to give myself to him, then commit suicide. I couldn’t harm him—he was so outstanding.”

“But, hahaha, as a result, though he was in eastern Liaodong supervising the construction of the Great Wall, he rushed back from a thousand li away, took me and killed our way out of Pyongyang, fleeing all the way to Sanshanpu, because his family’s power was all in eastern Liaodong.”

“That night was his plan to lure the enemy, wanting to draw out all the lurking enemies and kill them all. He did it, but unfortunately encountered you. Suwen said you are a very frightening enemy. He wants to kill you, and he will definitely do it. He has never disappointed anyone.”

“There’s something I haven’t told you. I’ve already spread the news that Gae Suwen and I burned Beisha City and destroyed Sanshanpu. I wonder if anyone will believe it?”