Chapter 1045: A Moment of Tranquil Years

This was what concerned He Lingchuan.

Sun Fuling took the snails to the water for cleaning, then pulled out scissors and clipped off each of their pointed tails. “Instead of worrying all day, why don't you get rid of him sooner?”

“Exactly what I was thinking.” Initially, Fu Shanlie had led the Xiji puppet army in guerrilla warfare against He Lingchuan, aiming to exhaust Yuheng City. Now, the tables had turned: He Lingchuan was employing a strategy of attrition to eliminate Fu Shanlie's cronies and minimize the cost to Yuheng City for clearing out the remnants. After all, time was on his side.

Both had ample reasons for their respective approaches, but now He Lingchuan decided to speed things up.

There was a large bamboo grove nearby.

He Lingchuan, seeing that no one was paying attention, pulled Madam Sun into the dense bamboo grove.

Dazzling sunlight pierced through the layers of leaves, leaving only scattered patches of light. Madam Sun was held in his arms, her back pressed against a hard bamboo stalk. Her eyes had just caught a glimpse of those patches of light before He Lingchuan completely blocked her view.

This man, thick as a wall and hard as a wall, could no longer be easily pushed away by her.

Then, he stole the air from her lungs.

This bright and refreshing spring day suddenly became hot and sticky.

Sun Fuling's face was as red as the morning glow in the sky. She suddenly closed her eyes, as if even the dim light in the bamboo grove was too dazzling.

While she was lost in a daze, He Lingchuan quietly lifted her and turned her around.

In his arms, she weighed little more than a blade of grass.

At this, Sun Fuling seemed to awaken, opening her eyes in surprise and asking, “What are you doing?”

“Let's go home.” He Lingchuan said. Why should they stay here with a bunch of kids? They should be playing by themselves at home. “And I happen to have time this afternoon.”

Sun Fuling was startled. “No!”

“Or do you want to stay here?” He Lingchuan winked at her. “That wouldn't be good, would it? There are too many kids outside. How about we come back another day, just us?”

Sun Fuling spat at him playfully. “This is a spring outing today; it's work!”

“There are other teachers outside. The kids won't get lost, and they can find their own fun. You're not needed.” Madam Sun twisted a few times in his arms, and He Lingchuan immediately tightened his grip.

She playfully punched his shoulder. “Stop messing around, put me down!”

Just then, rapid, pattering footsteps with short strides were heard from outside.

He Lingchuan and Madam Sun both heard it.

It must be one of the children approaching.

“It's Little Fatty, Little Fatty's coming.” Sun Fuling tried to push him away and leave, but He Lingchuan seized the last chance, pressed her against a dense cluster of bamboo, and stole another kiss.

“Madam Sun, Commander!” Little Fatty entered the bamboo grove.

Having just stepped in from the sunlight, the bamboo grove felt a bit dim, and Little Fatty took a moment to adjust before daring to walk further in.

Wow, it was empty here. There was no sign of anyone!

Er Ya said Madam Sun and the Commander went into the bamboo grove. Could she have been tricking him?

But the fish basket was left on the bank. Was it Madam Sun's?

Little Fatty, emboldened, shuffled forward another hundred steps and called out twice more.

The bamboo four feet away suddenly rustled, making him shiver with fright. But immediately after, two figures emerged from behind the dense bamboo, and the Commander's voice drifted calmly towards him:

“Little Fatty, what's wrong?”

Little Fatty looked closely and saw the Commander smiling as he walked towards him, with Madam Sun two steps behind.

“What were you two doing?” He had called for ages, but neither the Commander nor Madam Sun had replied.

He Lingchuan extended a hand and offered him some dark, mud-caked objects:

“We dug up some bamboo shoots for soup.”

Nothing from the land is fresher than bamboo shoots, and nothing from the river is fresher than fish. How could a spring picnic be complete without such delicacies?

“We've cast our lines four times, and it seems we can't catch any more fish!” Little Fatty carefully took the bamboo shoots, completely forgetting his complaints. “Oh, and Madam Liu and the others are back; they picked lots of mushrooms. Luckily, luckily, we still have quite a few fish in our basket.”

Sun Fuling stepped forward, took Little Fatty's hand, and walked towards the stream. “All right, let's go back and cook.”

She brushed aside the hair from her temples and glared at He Lingchuan.

An unspoken understanding passed between them.

Outside the bamboo grove, the noise was deafening.

He Lingchuan saw about fifty half-human-height figures by the stream and couldn't help but press his brow.

Fifty-plus divine beasts, wow.

The other two teachers had returned leading the wild vegetable gathering army. At this moment, the adults were busy processing the mountain delicacies the children had collected.

The wild vegetables were fine, but the mushrooms included quite a few poisonous ones.

The teachers sorted out the poisonous fungi, explained their dangers and how to identify them, then passed them around for the children to examine.

Education through entertainment was, after all, one of the purposes of the spring outing.

While this was happening, the cooks from Yuheng Academy began preparing the river produce and getting ingredients ready for soup.

The children had caught many small whitefish using the temporary low dam. After being scaled, cleaned, and coated in batter, they were ready for the frying pan.

A few larger fish, after being pan-fried, were simmered with clams, sweet bamboo shoots, and other fungi to make a soup. The resulting soup was creamy white and exquisitely fragrant.

As for the small shrimp and crabs, they were put into a pot to be braised with mustard greens and rice.

The cooks hadn't expected the children to gather so much produce. They had prepared ingredients for many hot dishes, and now they were frantically busy.

He Lingchuan also didn't dare to join the children's group. Just then, two teachers brought over four or five bamboo rats they had just caught, so he simply pulled out his dagger and went to butcher them.

With the Commander of Yuheng City personally helping them, the cooks all bowed and were extremely polite to him.

Only one person, while washing fish, stared intently at him. The other cooks poked her arm and whispered, “Auntie Wang, don't stare at the Commander like that, it's impolite!”

It would have been better if no one had said anything. As soon as the words were spoken, Auntie Wang threw down her bucket and walked over. Her companions tried to hold her back, but she shook them off.

Then, she stood before He Lingchuan. “Commander He!”

She was under fifty, thin and small, her posture already a bit stooped. Standing, she was barely taller than He Lingchuan when he was seated.

“Auntie Wang?”

Auntie Wang was momentarily stunned that he had recognized her. She didn't know that He Lingchuan had excellent hearing and could catch almost everything the cooks whispered.

But she composed herself, swallowed, and asked, “May I ask you something?”

He Lingchuan saw that she had mustered all her courage to approach him, so he said gently, “Please speak.”

“How much longer will you wait before taking Takikawa?”

He Lingchuan raised an eyebrow. “Why do you ask, Auntie Wang?”

“My eldest son was a city guard patrolman, but last year he was ambushed and killed by river bandits on the Takikawa trade route.” Auntie Wang's face was rough and seemed expressionless. “Later, you pacified the Takikawa river bandits and gave them a lot of money.”

These two sentences, linked together, conveyed her dissatisfaction. He Lingchuan immediately stood up. “That's called road tax. While collecting it, they are also responsible for maintaining security on the trade routes. Yuheng City pacified them because we don't want unnecessary battles, and we don't want more good soldiers to die in bandit suppression campaigns.”

Years of fighting had cost the people of Panlong City and Yuheng City dearly.

As General Nanke put it, “Whose family hasn't lost a warrior in battle?”

Auntie Wang didn't quite understand all this, but she knew, “I heard there are no obstacles left in Takikawa. Why don't you quickly take down the puppet army?”

Emotion was evident in her voice.

“No obstacles left in Takikawa? Who told you that?”

“Well...” Auntie Wang stammered, “That's what everyone in the city is saying! They say we could have taken down the river bandits long ago.”

He Lingchuan smiled. “Find the person who said that, and we'll confront them face to face. I'd be quite interested to know what kind of strategic plan they have to make such a prediction.”

Auntie Wang, of course, couldn't find such a person. She decided not to press the point with He Lingchuan and returned to her original question: “Then when are you going to attack Takikawa?”

“Auntie Wang, why are you in such a hurry?”

“My eldest son was killed by the Xiji puppet army, and now my younger son keeps clamoring to enlist, to avenge his brother.” Auntie Wang's face hardened. “I don't want him to enlist! I just want to ask, Commander, when will the murderers of my son pay the price?”

“The puppet army is the biggest obstacle. They are supported by several powerful factions, each stronger than Yuheng City. If not for the puppet army, Takikawa would have been taken by us last year,” He Lingchuan said kindly. “To deal with them, I would rather spend more time and more money, if it means fewer lives are sacrificed. Every patrolman is precious to Yuheng City. Isn't there an old saying in Yuheng City, 'Better for money to perish than for lives to perish'?”

When speaking to ordinary citizens like Auntie Wang, he couldn't discuss strategies or policies; those were too grand. He could only lower his perspective and say something she could best understand.

These last two sentences left Auntie Wang momentarily speechless.

She still felt a knot in her chest, but didn't know what else to say.

The cooks behind her stepped forward, pulling her back. “Our apologies, Commander. She just tends to overthink and talk nonsense when there's nothing to do.”

He Lingchuan said gravely, “Auntie Wang, you don't need to worry. Your son's revenge will be swift.”

Auntie Wang said nothing, ultimately letting herself be led away.

While others were still pondering how “swift” was truly swift, the Commander had already picked up a fat bamboo rat and chopped off its head with a single stroke of his knife.

Over the past six months, discontent with him had grown increasingly vocal within Yuheng City, with people saying he used the common folk's money to support river bandits and that he was slacking off and delaying progress.

He Lingchuan's method for dealing with the Takikawa bandit problem was slow to yield results, taking a long time, but it also resulted in fewer long-term consequences and losses. It relied on institutional power to squeeze the Xiji puppet army out of Takikawa.

This conciliatory approach was rarely used by Panlong City in the past, leading to much criticism from both the military and civilians.

“Still, the public relations work wasn't done well,” He Lingchuan sighed to the sky.

However, it was almost time to close the net.

He handed the butchered bamboo rats back to the cooks, noting that the stream fish were also processed and ready for the pot. The river groupers he and Madam Sun had caught were among them.

Uneasy, he walked over, picked up a river grouper, and checked it, indeed finding roe inside its belly.

Fish roe is usually a good thing. The cooks cleaning the fish would remove the internal organs but keep the roe.

“This can't be kept. River grouper roe is poisonous.”

Hearing this, Auntie Wang quickly came over, sifted through the pile of fish, and found six or seven more river groupers. Upon inspection, she discovered that about half of them contained roe.

She quickly removed the roe.

Soon after, the hot dishes were ready and brought out one by one.

He Lingchuan had been busy helping out for a long time and finally got to eat.

He had just squeezed in to sit beside Madam Sun and popped a small fried fish into his mouth when urgent hoofbeats echoed from not far away.

Another rider galloped through the peach grove, trampling fallen blossoms, and headed straight for the stream.

He Lingchuan had arrived the same way earlier. Madam Sun pointed with her chopsticks and smiled, “Looks like you won't be idle this afternoon.”

The newcomer was a messenger from the City Guard Department. The moment He Lingchuan saw his posture, he knew it was urgent military intelligence.