The pursuit team caught up with the decoys but failed to extract Ming Yu’s whereabouts from them. They could only kill them and then split up to search.
However, there were three routes leading to Luoyang, and no one knew which one they had taken.
As they searched and searched, crossing beyond Yanzhou and nearly reaching Luoyang without finding anyone, someone finally came to their senses: “Could they have gone south and entered Yuzhou directly?”
“General Gou Chun is there.”
“The border is so long, General Gou Chun can’t possibly watch every section.” Moreover, not to be blunt, but General Gou Chun was too strict. Following the principle that more trouble is worse than less, his subordinate soldiers generally wouldn’t report minor issues to avoid having small problems turn into big ones before Gou Chun.
“Let’s go back and search.”
But as he said, the border between Yanzhou and Yuzhou was too long, with major and minor roads everywhere. Not to mention the small paths—some official roads had fallen into such disrepair from years of neglect that they looked no different from wild trails.
If Ming Yu went into hiding, they simply couldn’t find him.
Moreover, playing mind games with a military advisor and counselor, the several teams sent out searched until their eyes nearly went blind without finding him.
Ming Yu and his group were still approaching the Yuzhou border. They had turned, and now had to carefully avoid patrolling Yanzhou troops, which slowed their pace.
The closer they got, the more villages appeared along their route. Yuan Li felt somewhat worried. He sent scouts out to look, finally choosing a route with the fewest villages, and those villages were quite small.
He was polishing his broad blade, his gaze somber.
Ming Yu sensitively looked over and immediately smiled: “Does General Yuan want to silence the villagers after passing through the villages?”
Yuan Li’s gaze darkened slightly as he said: “We are hired swordsmen employed by Master Ming, only following Master Ming’s orders, with no connection whatsoever to the lady. Therefore, everyone who has seen us should die.”
Ming Yu smiled and shook his head: “Not so, not so. Those in power won’t listen to the testimony of common people, so whether they know who you are doesn’t matter at all. General Gou will only firmly believe in the truth he perceives, and General Zhao will only speak the truth that benefits herself.”
“But common people like them will listen,” Ming Yu said. “If you kill them, thinking you’ve sealed their mouths, you’re only making rumors spread more. General Yuan, not all common people are fools.”
He continued: “If General Zhao knew, I think she definitely wouldn’t agree with your approach. If you don’t believe me, you can send a letter to ask General Zhao Ju.”
“He has always followed General Zhao closely and understands her best. I think his meaning is General Zhao’s meaning.”
Yuan Li lowered his eyes in thought. After a moment, he raised them and said: “I still need to kill them, otherwise when the pursuing soldiers catch up, they’ll easily expose our whereabouts.”
“If you kill them, you’ll expose us just the same,” Ming Yu said. “Don’t underestimate the Yanzhou army. I think they’ve already guessed we’re going to join General Zhao Ju and are pursuing this way.”
“The border is full of Gou Chun’s Qingzhou army. Once the villagers inform on us, we simply can’t cross the border.” Silencing witnesses—Yuan Li’s main purpose had always been to seal mouths, to prevent news unfavorable to Zhao Hanzhang from leaking out, and to stop villagers and border patrol soldiers from informing on them.
Ming Yu smiled slightly: “I can guarantee that in the villages we pass through, the villagers won’t inform on us.”
“Why should I believe you?”
Ming Yu lowered his eyes to look at him, his gaze icy cold, the corners of his mouth slightly upturned: “Because your general went to such great lengths to have you come protect me.”
What a joke—if he couldn’t even do this much, why would Zhao Hanzhang want to seize him? Because he knew how to eat, or because he knew how to take medicine?
Yuan Li choked for a moment and fell silent. He glanced at the blade in his hand, then put it away, no longer mentioning killing to silence witnesses.
Ming Yu felt displeased, lowering his eyes to look at the urn of ashes he held in his arms, his lips pressed tightly together.
When they passed those villages, Yuan Li finally understood why Ming Yu said they wouldn’t inform on them.
A very small village with only twenty or thirty households, yet three or four families were dressed in mourning white. Seeing them pass, they only watched with wide eyes, neither blocking nor questioning, just observing and letting them pass through.
When they passed the second village, the sky had already darkened, and they had to stop to rest temporarily.
The villagers, though allowing them to pass through, wouldn’t permit them to stay overnight in the village. The group could only camp outside the village.
Ming Yu supported himself on his servant’s hand as he descended from the carriage and walked to the edge of the field, lowering his eyes to look at the wheat field nearby that had already been completely harvested.
The more he looked, the darker his expression became.
The wheat stubble left in the field was uneven, varying in height. Ordinary farmers wouldn’t harvest like this—even if adults and children worked the field together, this phenomenon wouldn’t occur.
It could only mean someone had seized and harvested the wheat field, cutting hastily to save time.
Thinking of certain intelligence reports, Ming Yu closed his eyes, his body swaying. His attendant quickly supported him, softly calling: “Sir…”
Ming Yu waved his hand, gave a cold laugh, turned and headed back to the carriage.
The soldier sent to the village to buy supplies and gather information soon returned, carrying a butchered chicken and a large bundle of vegetables.
He handed the chicken and vegetables to others, then went to report to Yuan Li: “Following your orders, I bought a chicken from them and had them butcher it. I took notice—this village isn’t large, only forty or fifty households, but from what I saw, twelve families had white mourning cloth hanging. While the farmer was butchering the chicken and plucking its feathers, I asked about it. Those people all died at the hands of Gou Chun’s Qingzhou army.”
Yuan Li frowned: “Why?”
He wasn’t part of the upper echelon. News from Yanzhou only circulated among certain people. Being far away in Luoyang and just a minor adjutant general, he didn’t know.
The soldier lowered his voice: “They say the Qingzhou army wanted to collect grain taxes, but the wheat hadn’t been harvested yet, so the villagers couldn’t pay. Gou Chun was furious and had the Qingzhou army harvest the wheat themselves. At that time, they seized and harvested the entire village’s wheat fields.”
Taking grain from the common people—even though those soldiers carried swords and spears, the villagers weren’t convinced, so conflict erupted.
The people of this era still had backbone. They feared life and death, yet didn’t fear life and death. After all, they had seized some grain for their families, though many died or were injured in the process.
“Your subordinate tested their attitude and heard that the border patrol checks very strictly—any strangers appearing must be reported. But they have a death feud with the Qingzhou army, so they won’t report our presence.”
Yuan Li breathed a sigh of relief and asked: “Did you find out when the border patrol comes through?”
“I did. On odd-numbered days around the late afternoon hour, they pass through this section of the border. Because they’ve made enemies with all the villages in this area, they patrol in groups of two squads each time.”
That meant about twenty people.
Yuan Li lowered his eyes in thought for a moment, then said: “Tomorrow is an odd-numbered day. We need to cross the border before late afternoon. Once we’re in Yuzhou, we’ll be safe. General Zhao Ju should be waiting for us on the Yuzhou side.”
“Yes.”
—