Chapter 264: Preventative Measures

Hoofbeats faded into the distance. Jing Chao, the divine archer, had struck and gone, decisive, ruthless, and resolute. Chen Ji turned his head, looking at the arrow holes in the city gate tower. The feathered arrow had struck with such force and weight that it had actually split a gap in the wooden beam of the gate tower. There were two more similar new arrow holes on the tower.

This wasn’t the first time Jing Chao had urged surrender. He turned his head and saw Hu Junxian holding the silk cloth urging surrender, silently gazing at Jing Chao’s large camp in the distance.

The next moment, Hu Junxian threw the silk cloth into the black night, where it fluttered towards the distance. "If you were me, would you open the gate and surrender the city?"

Chen Ji did not answer. This was not a question he could or should answer.

Seeing he didn’t answer, Hu Junxian continued, "If I don't surrender the city, I, Hu, will die for the country, and my name will naturally live on through eternity. Later historians will surely say that I, Hu, was both loyal and righteous. If I surrender the city, I, Hu, will be spat upon by historians for ten thousand years, but the common people of Guyuan can be preserved. If it were you, what would you do?"

Chen Ji remained silent for a long time, still unwilling to answer the question. "General Hu, I am merely an illegitimate son of the Chen family, a person of low standing whose words carry little weight. It is better to discuss this with Vice Commander Zhou."

Hu Junxian leaned on the wall battlement and said indifferently, "Wang Daosheng was indeed right about you. You are truly born with a cautious temperament, hiding and tucking away everything. Someone like you should go to the capital, where even the stone lions grow hearts and eyes, not stay at the border."

Chen Ji did not retort.

Then he heard Hu Junxian continue, "As for Zhou You, he has already been locked up in the big prison by me."

Chen Ji was slightly startled. "What crime did Vice Commander Zhou commit?"

Hu Junxian turned and entered the city gate tower, sitting on a chair like a sturdy mountain. "It was I who trusted him wrongly, giving him the opportunity to torch the grain and fodder."

Had Zhou You truly gone through with the deception?

Chen Ji hesitated and asked, "Why would Vice Commander Zhou want to rebel?"

Hu Junxian sneered, "Half of our border army soldiers think about rebelling day and night. It's not strange for him to want to rebel; it's strange if he didn't."

Chen Ji was stunned. He hadn't expected the other party to say something like that. "Are you suggesting that General Hu also thinks about rebelling?"

Hu Junxian said expressionlessly, "That is not something you should be concerned about."

Chen Ji probed, "General Hu, how long can the border army's grain last?"

Hu Junxian said calmly, "If we kill the requisitioned camels, it can last five days. If we kill the warhorses, it can last another three days."

Chen Ji asked again, "When can reinforcements arrive?"

Hu Junxian said, "Possibly within twenty days, or possibly never."

Chen Ji fell into thought. If that was the case, regardless of whether Hu Junxian opened the city gate or not, Guyuan was bound to fall. Jing Chao only needed to besiege Guyuan for another fifteen days. At that time, the border army wouldn't even have the strength to defend the city.

At this point, a personal guard brought tea for the two of them. Hu Junxian picked up the teacup and drained it in one gulp. "Staying away from the Crown Prince these days, when Jing Chao's Tiance Army enters the city, they will presumably arrest all the border army leaders and the Crown Prince's followers immediately. Disguising yourselves as common people might help you escape this disaster. My words end here; it can also be considered as me having an explanation for your teacher."

Having said that, he called for someone to bring a household register document. "This household register document can help you deceive them. When Jing Chao's Tiance Army sees this document, they will only think you are ordinary Guyuan common people and won't think further."

Chen Ji's heart suddenly became alert. Hu Junxian was planning to open the gate and surrender the city. Calling him here at this time was precisely to teach him how to escape the Jing Chao army's city-wide search.

But he had four people here, and there was only one copy of the household register document.

He gripped the household register document and rose to bid farewell.

Just as he was about to leave the city gate tower, Hu Junxian suddenly spoke and asked, "If your teacher Wang Daosheng were here, would he open the gate and surrender the city?"

Chen Ji stood at the threshold of the city gate tower and turned back, calmly saying, "I don't know what choice Teacher would make... but I would not."

Hu Junxian silently examined Chen Ji, who returned his gaze, neither avoiding nor yielding.

After more than ten breaths, Hu Junxian said indifferently, "Understood, go."

After Chen Ji left, he rose and came to the edge of the wall battlement. His old, calloused hands stroked the even rougher city wall bricks and stones. He sighed deeply, saying, "Guyuan, ah Guyuan..."

Chen Ji urged his horse into a gallop, with utmost urgency.

Hu Junxian hadn't explicitly said whether he would open the gate and surrender the city, but Chen Ji had a vague feeling in his heart that the other party would.

If that moment arrived, whether Jing Chao would keep his promise and not slaughter the city, or follow the ancestral precept and slaughter the city, no one could be sure. Before that, Chen Ji still had things to do.

He rode low through the chaotic streets of Guyuan. When he returned to the front of Longmen Inn, he dismounted and patted Date Date's back. "Go back to the stable yourself."

Having said that, Date Date bit the reins and went towards the backyard. Chen Ji, covered in dust, lifted the door curtain.

In an instant, the gazes of everyone in the inn's main hall turned towards him, like beams of light hitting his body.

He calmly surveyed his surroundings and saw that half of the people sitting in the main hall were Feathered Forest Army soldiers, and the other half were powerful families from Guyuan who had come to buy and sell news. Everyone's face was filled with worry.

Seeing that it was Chen Ji who had returned, the man surnamed Li who had bought news from him earlier rose and asked anxiously, "Do you have any news to sell today?"

Another person stood up. "Do you know Jing Chao's movements? What are the border army's plans?"

"How many more days can Guyuan hold out?"

The crowd chattered, asking questions as if grasping at a life-saving straw.

Li Xuan originally wanted to ask Chen Ji what had happened after he was taken away by the border army, what Hu Junxian intended, and whether the border army still had grain, but now he couldn't get a single word in.

Chen Ji pushed aside the people gathered around him and walked directly towards the counter. "Please make way. I am the same as all of you; I don't know anything."

He squeezed through the crowd and came to the shopkeeper.

The shopkeeper, dressed in a black cloth shirt, was still calmly holding a pen and recording accounts. He said with interest, "Guest, if you sell some useful news at this time, you might earn a large sum of silver. These people are desperately seeking a doctor and are willing to perhaps give up all their family property in exchange for a way to live."

Chen Ji shook his head. "Now is not the time to earn silver. Shopkeeper, I have something to find Hu Sanye about. Do you know where he is?"

The shopkeeper smiled. "Guest, are you looking to buy news from me?"

Chen Ji glanced at him. "Yes."

The shopkeeper shook his head. "Hu Sanye is just in the Tianzi Yihao guest room. Guest, go find him yourself then."

Chen Ji was slightly startled and turned to run upstairs.

The shopkeeper looked at his back, then signaled to Xiao Wu with his eyes. "You watch the counter."

Having said that, he took advantage of the fact that no one was paying attention, bent down, lifted the wooden board under the counter, and squeezed himself into the underground secret passage.

In front of the Tianzi Yihao room door, Chen Ji gently knocked on the door with his knuckles.

The door opened, and Hu Sanye opened a crack. Seeing that it was Chen Ji, he immediately poked his head out to check the left and right sides of the corridor, and after determining there was no one, he said in a low voice, "Come in and talk."

After the room door was closed again, Hu Sanye asked curiously, "What do you need me for?"

Chen Ji lowered his voice and said, "Earlier, Hu Sanye said you could help me buy ginseng. Is that true?"

Hu Sanye smiled. "Naturally, it is true."

Chen Ji took a deep breath. "But I cannot wait four days. Can Hu Sanye advance the time? I need that batch of ginseng tomorrow."

"So urgent?" Hu Sanye wrinkled his eyebrows, his mind working quickly. "Is Jing Chao's Tiance Army going to attack?!"

Chen Ji was silent for a moment. "Sorry, I cannot say."

Hu Sanye said calmly, "In this city of Guyuan right now, only this one matter can be considered urgent. But only one person can make Guyuan fall tomorrow, and that is Hu Junxian. Hu Junxian is thinking of opening the gate and surrendering the city, isn't he?"

Chen Ji said casually, "General Hu is loyal to the monarch and loves the country; I think he would not do such a thing."

Hu Sanye smiled. "I understand my cousin better than you do. He is eager for Jing Chao to drive straight in, enter the capital, and take Ning Emperor's head."

Chen Ji was startled. "Why?"

Hu Sanye sat steadily at the Eight Immortals table and poured two cups of tea. "Sit down and talk."

Chen Ji sat down but did not touch the tea.

Hu Sanye glanced at the cup, then spoke. "Hu Junxian originally focused solely on cultivation, holding only a participating general position in the Wansui Army. At sixteen, he entered the Xiantian Realm, and at twenty-seven, he entered the Xundao Realm. At that time, his ambitions were higher than the sky, and he always felt that the threshold to the Shendao Realm was just a step away. He didn't care about socializing with colleagues, and even the matter of marrying a wife and having children was put aside. But some people couldn't bear to see the Hu family possibly produce two Shendao Realm officials."

Hu Sanye continued, "If both Hu Junxian and Hu Junyan from the Qin Tian Jian were to enter the Shendao Realm, it would likely be dangerous for many people. So someone thought of a way to eliminate the hidden danger of Hu Junxian."

Chen Ji asked curiously, "Did someone poison him?"

Hu Sanye let out a cold laugh. "Why go to the trouble of using poison? In the twenty-second year of Jialing, an imperial edict came to the Hu family, appointing him as the Vice Commander of Guyuan, an official rank of Zheng Sanpin."

Chen Ji's heart turned cold.

The World Son once said that once an official position reached Zheng Sanpin, it would contradict the path of cultivation and disperse one's cultivation realm.

If Hu Junxian didn't accept the edict, he would be defying it. But if he accepted, at the moment Hu Junxian accepted the edict, his cultivation would turn to nothing, and from then on he would only steadily be an ordinary person.

How vicious was this imperial edict granting official position, yet no one could find fault with it.

Chen Ji asked, "Did Hu Junxian accept?"

Hu Sanye sighed. "If he didn't accept, the Hu family would bear the crime of defying the edict. How could he just sit by and watch? If you were him, would you hate?"

Chen Ji frowned. "Promoting to the Shendao Realm is as difficult as climbing the sky. Hu Junxian might not necessarily be able to cross that step. Why bother?"

Hu Sanye said slowly, "To prevent trouble before it happens."