It is said that on the gate of Xiangcheng, the newly appointed duwei Situ Qiang had already received orders.

Tonight there are bandits causing trouble inside the city, the city gate must be strictly guarded and held to the death, so as to prevent the bandits who came from Yushan from coordinating with those inside the city.

Sure enough, in the deeper hours when the dew was heavy, bandit soldiers arrived outside the city.

“——Who goes there?”

“Pei Zhaoye of Yushan, sent by Princess Qinghe to come to the rescue!”

At this moment dawn and dusk met, the night mist hazy, Situ Qiang could not see what the famously named master of Hongye Stronghold looked like.

From the voice alone, he seemed an extremely young and arrogant youth, and a few degrees of contempt arose in his heart.

Situ Qiang seized the long spear from a soldier’s hand and threw it in front of the bandits’ horses’ hooves.

“Bold rebels, how dare you take the name of Princess Qinghe! Take one more step forward and I will have a volley of arrows shoot you dead!”

The spear went three cun into the ground, kicking up dust, several horses were startled and whinnied.

One of them quickly pulled on the reins to slow his horse, then spurred forward, bent and scooped up the spear from the ground, broad back muscles rising like mountains, his long arm erupting with the strength of a tiger and wolf.

The cold light pierced the night mist, aiming straight for the female wall behind!

Crack!

Under the horrified gazes of all, the adjutant beside Situ Qiang who was about to fire an arrow was pierced through the skull by a long spear, his whole body nailed to the wooden pillar of the gate!

The pillar, which two people could embrace, let out a cracking sound, wood chips flew, and the pillar instantly split open with a huge crack.

…What terrifying divine strength!

The man laughed and said:

“I have already given my name, and yet you all still cower inside the city, not daring to send a single person out to meet me?”

The corpse pierced by the spear hung right behind them.

The generals hiding behind the female wall looked at one another, all with faces as if their courage had fled.

However, at present there was an unwritten rule in the army.

When the enemy is few and we are many, if the other side issues a challenge and we only hold inside the city with no one coming out to meet them, morale will plummet, and the commanding general will lose all prestige and be ridiculed.

Situ Qiang had only just assumed command, naturally he did not want to live the rest of his life ashamed to lead troops.

So he pointed to a xiaowei and said sternly:

“Hongye Stronghold bandits are good at water warfare and not good at land warfare, I give you one thousand men, you must cut off their heads. One thousand against several hundreds, if you are defeated, you need not return!”

The grim-faced xiaowei reluctantly accepted.

Before long, the Xiangcheng city gate opened, shouts rose, and the ranks deployed.

The bandits of Hongye Stronghold, seeing the enemy numerous and powerful, could not possibly say they were not afraid.

However, in battle before an array, morale is primary.

Just now Pei Zhaoye’s spear had greatly raised morale; now, once engaged, he leapt into the formation without hesitation, in the blink of an eye cutting down limbs and spilling entrails, unstoppable in momentum.

With a fierce leader, the bandits under him were naturally encouraged, completely forgetting the disparity in numbers, throwing away their lives without retreat.

Only a little over five hundred men, yet they fought with the momentum of a thousand.

“…Send another thousand! Send another thousand in reinforcement!”

Situ Qiang half leaned out from the female wall, hardly able to believe his own eyes!

No wonder this band of brigands could hold Yushan for years; their land fighting was already so fierce, their water fighting would be beyond human reckoning.

…Luckily the commandery had three thousand standing troops.

Even if both sides tore each other to pieces, attrition could wear this group down to death!

Sure enough.

With the city reinforcements’ aid, Hongye Stronghold’s once-unbridled momentum was suppressed.

At this moment, Pei Zhaoye’s face and body were almost soaked in blood, though fortunately most was not his own.

Only the sword wound on his back left from fighting the reed-grass canal water bandits had burst open again, blood soaking the white gauze, draining his strength at a shocking speed.

Pei Zhaoye knew the best plan now was a rapid assault.

If it dragged on, once the enemy’s numerical advantage took effect, even an immortal could not reverse the defeat.

Pei Zhaoye decided at once: “Cover me entering the city. Once I enter the city, you scatter back to the camp!”

Qiu Er, who had gathered around, was astonished: “This place is a den of tigers and wolves, how can the mountain lord charge in alone! Isn’t this asking to die!”

Pei Zhaoye’s expression was shrouded in night and blood; he did not answer, only stared toward the city gate.

Situ Qiang watched Hongye Stronghold’s bandits show signs of fatigue under wave after wave of assaults, his heart overjoyed, eyes fixed on the bandit chief, his hands itching.

If he could personally enter the fray and cut off the head of the mountain fiend, would he not gain fame from a single battle—

Crack!

A crisp sound rang close to Situ Qiang’s ear.

Before he could understand what had happened, he felt the world spin, the last image in his vision was his own body still on the city tower.

The soldiers behind the female wall looked toward the stairs.

The young woman who had shot a head off with an arrow remained in her shooting posture, the bowstring still vibrating; Xu Bi, whip-scarred all over, stood beside her, gasping for breath, clearly having come in haste.

“By order of Princess Qinghe… withdraw the troops! Let them into the city!”

The generals, seeing Xu Bi appear, were first greatly startled, then glanced at the corpse of Situ Qiang who had been shot dead.

“The princess has no authority to deploy troops, Lord Xu; such weighty military matters, you must not bring fire upon yourself!”

Danzhu said, “Who says the princess does not have that authority?”

“The token is here! Officers, heed the order!”

From below the gate came the sound of Lu Yu spurring his horse. He raised a copper tiger token, riding toward Pei Zhaoye’s direction, and cried in a stern voice:

“The rebels inside the city have seized Princess Qinghe. From now on all detachments within Xiangcheng’s main camp are to be commanded by Pei Zhaoye. No clamor, no disorder. Those who disobey and do not advance shall be executed; those who spread news shall be executed. Enter the city at once, do not delay!”

Danzhu kicked Situ Qiang’s corpse off the tower.

The other half of the copper tiger token fell from his bosom; Lu Yu fitted the token to it and displayed it to all.

This was the half-token the Emperor Mingzhao had given him when he left Luoyang; it could mobilize a commandery’s garrison.

Several times Lu Yu had wanted to use this token, but each time the princess stopped him.

She said: Imperial power has waned, Yiling commandery might not recognize this token; unless one is ten to nine sure, this token must not be shown to the public lightly.

Now, at last, the moment had ripened; it was time to use this copper tiger token.

“Pei Shan… General Pei.”

Lu Yu handed the token into Pei Zhaoye’s bloodstained hand, his brow heavy:

“The princess contrived to save Danzhu and the Hongye Stronghold heroes, yet she herself was placed under house arrest by Zhao Weizhen at the office. The princess has not a single guard by her side; her life and death lie in another’s whim. I hope, upon receiving this token, General, you will hurry to rescue her.”

As he said this, Lu Yu lifted his eyelids, his gaze cold and sharp.

A small bronze token represented the three thousand troops of Yiling commandery.

This man, so young and already a bandit chief of a region, was by no means an ordinary fellow.

He did not lack forces; what he lacked was rightful legitimacy. If he grew a treacherous heart, seized this token, and occupied Yiling commandery, would the princess not be sending herself into the tiger’s mouth?

Lu Yu stared intently at the man before him, seeing his nostrils flare, his lips pressed tight, long brows overshadowing a pair of cold, sharp eyes, and the back of the hand gripping the long spear bulging with thick blue veins.

His whole body brimmed with a terribly fearsome anger.

—It was anger, not ambition.

Under the sky between night and dawn, Pei Zhaoye treated Lu Yu’s gaze as if it were not there.

He looked straight ahead, at the silent city, and said:

“Xu Bi, you pick five hundred men to enter the city with me to rescue the princess. The remaining troops will obey the orders of Lu Yu and Zheng Danzhu. Hold the city gate; before noon, no one is permitted to enter or leave the city gate!”

•—–٠✤٠—–•

On the other side, inside the Xiangcheng government office.

After battling with a mouse for half an hour and retreating again and again with no way out, Lizhu heard someone slowly push open the door.

A sliver of dawn light from outside cast into the room, and slow, measured footsteps approached.

The cowardly mouse that bullied the weak but feared the strong squeaked twice at the sound of footsteps, then darted into a hole in the corner of the wall and disappeared.

Disheveled, tear-streaked Lizhu met the gaze of the white-haired old man.

Lizhu suddenly thought of what Pei Zhaoye had said that day—

That he looked forward to seeing her and a sixty-year-old old man fight to the death.

Now it truly had come to that fight to the death.

“Cui Shiyong.”

Lizhu smoothed the hair disheveled by her fright from the mouse, forced herself to calm, and slowly sat back down on her mat.

“You have finally come.”

The silent old man removed his shoes and entered. Under Lizhu’s gaze, he sat down across from her in his official robes, composed and unhurried, as if he were an invited guest.

Yet the first words he spoke—

“Does the princess have any last words?”

Lizhu said, “Zhao Weizhen has me under house arrest here, heavily guarded, clearly with no intention to take my life. If you kill me, how will you leave this office alive tonight?”

“If this minister came tonight, it is without the intention of living to leave.”

Lizhu’s breath caught, and she looked at him in disbelief.

“…Your hatred for the court runs that deep?”

Cui Shiyong lowered his gaze and said, “Though there is resentment, there is no hatred.”

“Then that means I have unknowingly done something to offend you?”

“The princess has long dwelled in the deep palace, never once interacted with this minister. How could you have offended me?”

Lizhu grew furious. “Since neither, then Cui Shiyong—why have you schemed in every way to put me to death!”

“Because the princess must die.”

Cui Shiyong slowly lifted his head. In his clouded pupils flowed an aged, stubborn obsession.

“For the rivers and mountains of Nanyong, I beg the princess, go to death with me.”

He placed both hands on the floor and bowed deeply to Lizhu.

“…”

Cui Shiyong’s eyes and voice were exceptionally calm, which only made him seem all the more deranged.

Lizhu kicked the table aside, about to call for help, but Cui Shiyong moved swiftly, as though long prepared, drawing his sword and pointing it at her.

“Princess, do not make futile resistance. I have already ordered the guards outside to withdraw to the courtyard, you cannot esca—ah!”

“Get away from me!”

Lizhu swung her short sword, knocking his long sword flying. In truth, she had aimed for his wrist, but the blade was too short; even so, the blow sent Cui Shiyong staggering back.

He had not expected a princess of the inner palace to suddenly strike with such ferocity.

Cui Shiyong was, after all, a civil official. Though trained in the Six Arts, he was old. Caught off guard by Lizhu’s sword, he fell heavily to the ground, even knocking over the lampstand by the pillar.

Seeing her chance to flee, Lizhu rushed for the door. But Cui Shiyong, disregarding everything, still showed an old man’s stubborn vigor—he scrambled up, seized his sword, and lunged toward Lizhu’s back!