Chapter 294: Ajin

The guard’s expression shifted, but he remained still.

Then Zhao Pan’s voice came from inside: “Let him in.”

He Lingchuan strode in and found only He Chunhua and Zhao Pan inside the tent.

Were they arguing?

“Dad, what’s going on?”

He Chunhua plucked a twig from his hair. “General Zhao and I were just exchanging views.” Covered in sand and dirt, where had this boy been to get himself so muddy?

“Victory and defeat are common in warfare, but harm should not extend to families.” Zhao Pan, however, did not mince words with the father and son. “Steward He, what you’re doing is a bit underhanded.”

“Harm should not extend to… families?” He Lingchuan was startled. What had Dad done?

“They looted Xiazhou civilians and killed my Xiazhou people. You want me to talk about ethics with these invaders?” He Chunhua sneered slightly. “General Zhao, you are too pedantic.”

“Ethics are not useless,” Zhao Pan said gravely. “You’ve abducted Hong Chenglue’s wife; he will undoubtedly resort to every possible measure.”

“He seized my provisions and harassed Xiazhou, even severely affecting your front-line operations. Is that not resorting to every possible measure?” He Chunhua shook his head. “Warfare is the art of deception. As long as they can win, what won’t the Xunzhou people do? Look at Hong Chenglue; he used over a hundred of his wounded soldiers as bait, sacrificing them by my hand to eliminate these burdens. What kind of good person is he?”

After their last encounter, he saw everything clearly.

He sneered again. “General Zhao, that truce flag you’ve raised outside your camp gate, I see it as nothing but a pretense. The Xun people will attack whenever they want; they won’t abide by that agreement!”

“Hong Chenglue is just doing his duty, even if he’s obstructing our path.” Zhao Pan felt he had been as subtle as possible. What he really wanted to say was “he made you lose face.” Steward He was clever and capable, but also very concerned with reputation and achievement. Hong Chenglue had burned half of his provisions, and He Chunhua was constantly looking for a way to recover that loss.

Otherwise, his prestige would be damaged, making it difficult to govern the people or deal with the four great families upon returning to Dunyu.

“I’m not asking Hong Chenglue to cut his own throat,” He Chunhua said with a chuckle. “Besides, the person has already been captured, so why would we give up?”

He Lingchuan understood. “Dad, you found Hong Chenglue’s wife?”

A few days ago, He Chunhua had asked him for a comb, and he hadn’t thought much of it then. So that was its purpose.

Before going to war, Hong Chenglue must have hidden his wife well. Dad truly had a way, to find Ah Jin with just a comb.

He Chunhua nodded. “Why do you ask?”

He felt a little displeased. Was his eldest son going to object too?

“Nothing.” In the military, obeying orders from superiors was a sacred duty. Regardless of what He Lingchuan thought, he couldn’t openly defy He Chunhua, especially not in front of an outsider like Zhao Pan.

He Chunhua grunted. “It’s a good thing I brought you along this time. If it had been his second son with the army, he would probably have gone soft.”

He stood up and told Zhao Pan, “My decision is final. We’ll proceed this way.” With that, he walked out with his head held high.

He Lingchuan could only follow him, asking in a low voice, “Dad, how did you catch her?”

“Just a few unsophisticated tracking techniques,” He Chunhua said dismissively. “By capturing her, we’ve turned the tables and are no longer on the defensive.”

They had always been in the open, while the enemy was hidden. He Chunhua was certain that Hong Chenglue’s scouts were still lurking near the front lines, continuing to monitor his group.

Zhao Pan’s opponent was the Xunzhou army, but Hong Chenglue was focused specifically on He Chunhua.

Hmph, this was intolerable!

He Lingchuan hesitated, wanting to say something, but in the end, he said nothing. The person had been captured, and the arrow was on the string; Dad was determined to see this through.

Outside, personal guards raised umbrellas and escorted them back to their respective tents.

The river outside was muddy and yellow. He Lingchuan had no choice but to take a bucket of clean water from his storage ring, wash off the mud and sand from head to toe, and change into clean clothes. He was probably the only one in the entire army with the luxury of using drinking water to bathe.

After his adventure in the Coiled Dragon Desert, he had developed the habit of stockpiling water and food. His storage ring was large enough to accommodate it.

Outside, the wind and rain raged. Since there was nothing else to do anyway, he simply sat cross-legged on a chair, adjusted his breathing, and entered a meditative state.

Perhaps it was due to the insights gained from practicing his blade techniques amidst the waves, but his internal energy circulated a bit more smoothly than before after a few cycles.

Such was cultivation: one’s spiritual attainment could deepen gradually over time, but breakthroughs in realm depended on serendipity and understanding.

It was profound and mysterious, inexplicable and indescribable.

That was why powerful figures like General Hong and Xiao Maoliang advocated for practical combat, to find enlightenment between life and death.

This meditation lasted two hours.

When he concluded his practice, He Lingchuan heard the wind and rain outside intensify, almost drowning out the soldiers’ shouts. It sounded like some tents had been blown away.

He pulled out a rain cloak, draped it over himself, and walked out.

As soon as he stepped out of the tent, raindrops larger than soybeans splattered across his face.

The Han River was already raging. No matter how much he had grasped of the “Wave Slash” blade technique, if he were to jump in now, he would instantly become “Wave Rolled,” and there would be nothing left.

Amidst the wind and rain, all the soldiers were busy.

A personal guard told He Lingchuan that Shuiling had predicted the Han River’s flood season would arrive early. This location was no longer safe, and the entire military camp needed to relocate backward to higher ground.

Relocating a large army was not easy, especially in such severe weather.

Especially with a team of savage bulls.

When the wind and rain hit, some bull demons were startled and needed to be calmed down. Now, they also had to be mobilized to move along.

Bull temperaments were not easy to handle.

The only good news was that the enemy would not be able to cross the river by boat in such conditions.

He Lingchuan turned his head and suddenly saw a civilian carriage.

The carriage was very rudimentary, with no proper cabin, just cloth drapes on all four sides. In such heavy wind and rain, the drapes instantly became soaked and clung together. He Lingchuan then saw a pile of hay on the carriage, and a person lying on it, covered by a blanket.

The driver was leading the two horses pulling the carriage forward, but the wheel had unluckily gotten stuck in a rock crevice and couldn’t be pulled out.

He Lingchuan walked over, crouched down, grabbed the wheel, and told the driver, “I’ll help you.”

As the driver urged the horses, He Lingchuan applied his internal energy to his arm. With a combined effort from both sides, the wheel, stuck in the crevice, was suddenly lifted, splashing out muddy water.

The carriage could now creak forward again.

He Lingchuan looked up, and the person on the carriage happened to be looking at him as well, politely saying, “Thank you.”

It was a woman, her face pale, her hair and blanket soaked by the icy rain.

Just then, a soldier escorted an old woman over and urged her towards the carriage: “Watch her carefully, don’t be lazy!”

The Kite Army retreated over fifty zhang from the riverbank and re-established their camp.

In fact, it would be safer to be even further away, but Zhao Pan didn’t dare. He still had to guard the riverbanks, preventing the enemy from crossing and seizing the beachhead.

The Han River was a natural barrier; once breached, the Kite Army would be put on the defensive.

The civilian carriage was also pushed into a camp tent for shelter. The tent was very narrow and small, barely able to cover the carriage, incomparable to those used by He Lingchuan and the others.

However, there were many soldiers guarding it. He Lingchuan recognized them as part of the supply convoy, his own people.

The old woman who was caring for the woman went to find a towel to wipe her face. He Lingchuan walked to the carriage, looked down at her, and asked, “Are you Ah Jin, Hong Chenglue’s wife?”

Her lips curved, looking neither like a smile nor not a smile, and then she sneezed.

He Lingchuan stepped out of the tent and called the old woman over. “Change her into dry clothes and give her a dry blanket. Lying like this, she’ll get sick.”

The old woman seemed a bit unwilling, but when He Lingchuan glared, she could only pout and say, “There are no spare blankets.”

He Lingchuan glanced at Shan Youjun behind him, who understood. Shan Youjun went out, came back shortly, and brought a dry quilt and mattress, having procured them from somewhere.

He Lingchuan stepped outside, giving Ah Jin space to change her clothes and blanket.

After a quarter of an hour, the old woman finally came out and said, “It’s done.”

He Lingchuan sent her to heat water, then walked inside. Ah Jin’s condition was much better than before. But instead of smiling, she simply looked at He Lingchuan and asked, “What do you want?”

She realized this young man held a significant position in the army.

“Just to make you more comfortable.” Everyone has compassion, and he was facing a paralyzed woman.

Ah Jin slowly said, “Whatever you intend to do, it won’t succeed.”

“Oh?” He Lingchuan asked, curious. “What do you think we want to do?”

“That Steward He said he wants my Hong Lang to withdraw his troops,” Ah Jin said with a weak smile. “That’s impossible. You’re also in the military; you should know that military orders are like mountains.”

He Lingchuan crossed his arms. “I’m curious, did he retire from military service back then for you?” The more he knew about Hong Chenglue, the more advantageous it would be for future battles.

Ah Jin’s smile faded, and she remained silent.

“You’ve been living in seclusion in White Deer Town for many years. Why would he break his vow now?”

“It was for me.” Ah Jin blinked. “The Betha Imperial Preceptor promised to find him a medicine that would allow me to walk again.”

He Lingchuan frowned. “Not for himself?”

“That kind of medicine isn’t easy to get, even if we return to Betha Kingdom.”

“I heard the old woman say you’re Steward He’s son,” Ah Jin said, looking at him with a faint voice. “People like you probably haven’t experienced the hardships we have, have you?”

He Lingchuan said nothing.

Indeed, he hadn’t, not in either of his lives.

“When Hong Lang and I were little, we escaped from a village where people were cannibals, fought with wild dogs for food, and were kicked off a cliff, barely surviving to climb back up,” she said slowly. “Back then, he just hoped to grow strong and live a good life. But when he resigned from office and moved to Lingzhou, then to White Deer Town, we realized there’s no such thing as seclusion in this world, only struggle. For common people, just staying alive requires all their strength.”

In troubled times, human lives were as cheap as grass; even the suffering of common folk was insignificant, not worth mentioning.

Her eyes, calm yet tinged with sorrow, looked at him: “If it were you, wouldn’t you want to go back and regain power?”

He Lingchuan thought for a while before asking her, “Do you think he won’t agree to Steward He’s terms?”

Ah Jin looked up at the tent ceiling:

“I don’t know. I hope not.”

If Hong Chenglue withdrew from Xiazhou, he would be defying his superiors’ orders.

He Lingchuan chuckled twice. “It seems he’s also someone who goes with the flow.”

“What does that mean?”