Seeing a child fall and unable to get up, nearly trampled by the adults behind, and the child’s parents putting down their carrying poles to pull up the child, the soldiers couldn’t help but look toward Deputy General Gao Yi.

Gao Yi tilted his head to look into the distance and saw a team of horsemen appear within sight, running toward them. There looked to be several hundred people.

Gao Yi gave a cold laugh, spurred his horse, and said: “Move!”

The two thousand troops positioned themselves beside the villagers, raising their shields to form a wall.

Sheltered behind them, the villagers suddenly relaxed and weren’t so panicked anymore. Everyone helped each other run toward the water channel.

The soldiers kept their eyes straight ahead without helping, only staring intently at the Yanzhou army drawing closer.

On the Yanzhou army’s side, the leader was one of Gou Chun’s adjutant generals surnamed Xu. He naturally recognized Gao Yi, knowing he was one of Zhao Ju’s deputies. He stopped outside bow range.

With a wave of his hand, the soldiers behind him also stopped.

He stepped forward, staring at Gao Yi across from him: “Deputy General Gao, this is Yanzhou territory. What do you mean bringing troops to our side?”

Gao Yi said with a serious face: “I came to rescue our Yuzhou people.”

“Who?” Adjutant General Xu’s voice cracked. The Yuzhou soldiers blocked so densely that nothing could be seen, but looking past the distance blocked by those two thousand people, near the small grove, he could still glimpse people passing through.

Furious, his hand trembling as he pointed, he asked: “You say those are your Yuzhou people? They’re clearly our Yanzhou people!”

Gao Yi’s face darkened as he snorted coldly: “Nonsense! They’re clearly our Yuzhou people. You plundered them.”

He continued: “A month ago during summer harvest, you led troops across the border and rushed into our Yuzhou farmlands to seize and harvest wheat. Our villagers refused and resisted you, so you captured and abducted them. You plundered people and dare to say they’re yours? You’re talking utter nonsense!”

Adjutant General Xu paused and couldn’t help turning back to his soldiers: “Is what he said true?”

The soldiers also paused, thinking hard: “We didn’t plunder people. We only seized grain, and we didn’t see anyone else plunder people either.”

One relatively calm soldier said: “General, you must have been deceived by him. If we really plundered people, would we dare leave them unmanaged like this?”

“Right, if we plundered people, wouldn’t we have to send them to the army as military slaves?”

Only then did Adjutant General Xu come to his senses. Furious, he spat toward Gao Yi. Damn it, all because he spoke so convincingly that even he believed it was true.

“You’re the one talking nonsense! These people are from our Yanzhou. Stop falsely accusing us.”

“I say they’re Yuzhou people, so they’re Yuzhou people. If you don’t believe me, shout at them and see if they’ll acknowledge being Yanzhou people.”

They’d be fools to acknowledge it. Everyone had run to the other side. To acknowledge now—could they really come back to die?

But he didn’t care. Those people were Yanzhou people.

The two sides, separated by several fields, started arguing, mutually insulting each other’s generals and top generals. If the Emperor weren’t the same person, they’d have nearly insulted each other’s emperor too.

Gao Yi wasn’t anxious. He let them argue.

As they argued, Zhao Ju and three guards arrived with villagers from two more villages.

Adjutant General Xu’s eyes widened, then his face darkened. With a wave of his hand, archers immediately stepped forward, drawing their bows with a swish and aiming at Zhao Ju and the villagers behind him about to cross.

Gao Yi’s face darkened. With a raise of his hand, archers behind the shields also drew their bows. Then the shields pushed forward, and the entire troop advanced, directly bringing them within range.

Gao Yi said gravely: “Adjutant General Xu, you can try whether your arrows are faster or ours, and are you certain your arrows can reach our general?”

At the current range, they naturally couldn’t. The line was diagonal; he and Gao Yi formed the two shortest points in a straight line, just barely within range.

Zhao Ju naturally also saw they couldn’t shoot him, so he told the villagers to move forward confidently. He rode forward to stand beside Gao Yi and said to Adjutant General Xu: “If Yuzhou and Yanzhou go to war, never mind you—even Gou Chun couldn’t bear that responsibility. Adjutant General Xu, I advise you to return and request instructions from General Gou before deciding.”

Adjutant General Xu’s expression changed. He narrowed his eyes at Zhao Ju and asked: “General Zhao, Master Ming is in your hands, correct?”

Zhao Ju didn’t respond, but Adjutant General Xu already knew what he wanted to know. His heart sank. His gaze swept over those villagers walking past the Yuzhou soldiers, and he said coldly: “I will report this matter to the General. Your Yuzhou army crossed the border without cause and abducted so many of our people. Administrator Zhao must give our Yanzhou an explanation for this!”

Zhao Ju remained silent. First get the people away, then talk. As for explanations, that was a matter for those above to fight over. When they needed him to deploy troops, then he’d act.

However, Zhao Ju felt the two regions probably wouldn’t fight.

Zhao Ju said nothing, but Gao Yi emphasized: “These are our Yuzhou people. We came to rescue them. If we’re talking about crossing borders, your Yanzhou army crossed first. A month ago, you crossed the border to seize and harvest our grain and abducted villagers from our three villages, blah blah blah…”

Zhao Ju couldn’t help but turn to look at him.

Gao Yi struggled greatly to maintain his facial expression, nodding seriously at Zhao Ju.

After a moment of silence, Zhao Ju nodded: “That’s right!”

Adjutant General Xu was furious. He hadn’t expected even Zhao Ju, such a high-ranking general, to lie with his eyes wide open. But now he had no way to deal with them and could only watch helplessly as those villagers crossed the water channel and left, then watch as the two thousand Yuzhou soldiers also withdrew in orderly fashion.

Seeing they’d almost retreated to the Yuzhou side, soldiers couldn’t help but look anxiously at Adjutant General Xu: “General, are we just letting them go like this?”

Adjutant General Xu: “What else can we do? We have even fewer people than them. Do you think we can win?”

The soldier said nothing.

“Even if we could win, would we dare fight?” Adjutant General Xu said: “Starting a war between two regions—who could bear that crime?”

If this were a year ago, they definitely wouldn’t be afraid. If someone came, they’d fight directly. Who was afraid of whom?

But now, the Emperor was in Yuncheng, and Zhao Hanzhang solely occupied Yuzhou and Luoyang, clearly wanting peaceful coexistence with their general. Starting a fight at this time—their top general might not be willing.

Moreover, now was different from a year ago. Back then, Yanzhou was in an expansionary state. As long as someone dared provoke them, they’d dare to fight.

But now their top general was indulging in sensual pleasures. They’d heard he hadn’t left his quarters in Yuncheng for two months. Counselor Yan had merely advised him not to be too extravagant and was killed. At this time, who dared start a war?

Adjutant General Xu bit his teeth, watching them cross the border, then waved his hand: “Let’s go. Return and report to the General.”

“What about Chai Shi and the others? General, our squad leader must be in their hands.”

“Being in their hands is better than in ours. Don’t worry about them. Let’s go.”

The soldier thought about it—that was true. Having lost Master Ming, even if the squad leader and others returned alive, they’d be severely punished. A beating might cost them their lives. Being a captive on the other side wasn’t bad either. Serving as a soldier for anyone was still being a soldier, right?

Thinking this way, the soldier happily turned to leave. After all, both sides would definitely fight in the future. Maybe they’d see each other on the battlefield. If fortunate enough to survive, perhaps they could catch up on old times. Or maybe one would capture the other as a prisoner, and they could be together again.