Mount Wangchu.
The last remaining stronghold.
They had thought it could be resolved quickly, but the battle had reached a stalemate.
The bandits on Mount Wangchu were utterly elusive, popping up from one place to rescue their captured comrades, then appearing from another. The government troops were thoroughly worn out.
Mount Wangchu.
Inside the fortress.
The leader of Mount Wangchu's bandits was surnamed Jin, everyone called him Boss Jin.
Currently, he was filled with anxiety, and his desire to flee grew stronger with each passing day.
"Sir, shouldn't we move faster? While the imperial court hasn't fully reacted yet, let's make a quick dash to Nanning! We can slip across their border and start anew elsewhere."
The 'Sir' was Yu Ruo.
Ever since Black Slaughter Fortress was captured last September, he had dragged the fortress chief with him to Tiger-Leopard Fortress. But not long after, that chief insisted he was a spy for the imperial court, forcing him to leave Tiger-Leopard Fortress.
He traveled south, all the while fending off the harassing letters from his so-called fourth brother.
But the Seventh Prince's conquest was too swift. By the time he infiltrated a bandit lair, there was no time to gain trust or secure any authority before that place became hopeless.
He simply headed straight for the final destination: Mount Wangchu.
It was relatively close to the Xiang River and Nanning.
Boss Jin of Mount Wangchu was highly superstitious. After smooth-talking and deception, Yu Ruo successfully used fortune-telling and mystical theories to gain his trust.
However, this man appeared fierce and bold on the outside, but was somewhat cowardly at heart. Hearing all along the way about the Seventh Prince cutting through every obstacle, he had long been growing fearful. Even before the troops approached, he was already planning to take his men and run for Nanning.
The chief of Black Slaughter Fortress was reckless; Boss Jin of Mount Wangchu was timid.
Yu Ruo smiled.
"Hold on a little longer. The tunnel for transporting our wealth out is almost finished. We can't just abandon that treasure. If you give up on it now, Boss, it will abandon you too."
Go to Nanning?
Wishful thinking.
People of Great Zhou should stay in Great Zhou. Nanning won't take them.
Boss Jin swallowed back his words about abandoning part of the treasure for a faster escape and heaved a heavy sigh. "Ah!"
After he left, the smile vanished from Yu Ruo's face.
Gu Xin flipped in through the window. "Your Highness, there's news."
He whispered a few words into Yu Ruo's ear.
Yu Ruo's brow furrowed deeply. "So fast."
He left the room and looked toward the area at the mountain's base where the army camp was stationed.
"Deliver a letter."
They all knew that Zuo Tianlang's merit-report memorial had been approved. They were initially very pleased, but now they had hit a snag at the final hurdle.
Because the bandits they seemed to encounter each time were like different groups, they couldn't even figure out how many bandits were on Mount Wangchu in total.
Having been victorious at every step until now, this setback had significantly dampened morale.
Zuo Tianlang felt a vague sense of regret. His merit-report memorial seemed to have added a lot of pressure on everyone in this situation.
"Your Highness, my apologies. I submitted the memorial thinking the matter was nearly concluded."
Qu Dubian sat on a tree stump, holding a plate of mutton and eating it with small skewers.
The ironclad rule that celebrating victory prematurely leads to trouble held true, whether in ancient times or modern.
However, he wasn't truly stumped.
After all, bandit suppression wasn't a real battlefield war. Each engagement was about accumulating experience. For him, victory was important, but the process of achieving it was even more so.
"What's the hurry? There are many solutions. I was just thinking about them..."
Qu Dubian's eyes suddenly sharpened.
Whoosh—!
An arrow shot from the forest thudded into the ground one meter in front of him!
Adjutant General Zhang's pupils constricted. He sprang up and shielded Qu Dubian.
"Assassin!!"
"Enemy attack!"
"Protect the Regional Commander!"
A dozen soldiers swiftly rushed over, surrounding Qu Dubian who was still sitting on the stump.
They vigilantly scanned the surroundings. Qu Dubian slowly chewed a piece of roasted mutton he had just put in his mouth, then reached out and pulled the arrow from the ground.
Tied to the arrow's tail was a folded piece of paper.
He set his meal aside and opened it. A single line was written: [Find me within two days, and you will receive a piece of news that will interest you.]
The handwriting was ordinary, revealing no distinctive style.
Qu Dubian fell into thought. "Could it really be you..."
Remembering the inexplicable, occasional increases in the favorability meter over the past eight months, it seemed quite possible.
Was that fellow a bandit on Mount Wangchu?
Could Nanning not afford to keep him? After being a hostage prince, he turns to banditry, insisting on eating and drinking from Great Zhou, refusing to leave, like a live-in son-in-law.
"Just a provocative letter."
He handed the letter to Zuo Tianlang and Adjutant General Zhang. Adjutant General Zhang, being younger, nearly exploded with anger after reading it.
"What insolence! Flaunting this right under the imperial court's nose!"
"Regional Commander, let's crush them!"
"Show them what we're made of!"
Qu Dubian calmed the soldiers and returned to his tent.
"Thinking about it carefully now, Banban, do you think the Third Chief of Black Slaughter Fortress might also have been Yu Ruo?"
Eunuch Xiaoyuan: "The captured men from Black Slaughter Fortress all said the Third Chief was scholarly and weak. Some of the drawn portraits were really... It's not impossible."
Qu Dubian pondered: "Why would a prince appear in a bandit lair in Great Zhou?"
Eunuch Xiaoyuan: "We'll know once we capture him."
Qu Dubian: "Not necessarily."
If it really was Yu Ruo, he was giving him two days, but the scoundrel didn't say he'd be waiting in one spot.
Once night had completely fallen, Qu Dubian changed into black clothes and left the encampment.
He took Adjutant General Zhang with him, quickly disappearing into the darkness.
Adjutant General Zhang was young with sharp eyesight, possessed decent internal energy, and knew some light-footed techniques.
Qu Dubian grabbed a rock, flipped upward, avoiding a bandit lookout post, and landed on the slopes of Mount Wangchu.
Adjutant General Zhang's nerves were stretched to the limit. "Regional Commander, what exactly are you looking for? You could order me and Commander Zuo to do it. There's no need to come personally."
Qu Dubian pressed a finger to his lips. "Shh."
He searched inch by inch and, behind a cluster of rocks, discovered an inconspicuous small hole.
Moving the rubble aside, the opening widened.
It was just big enough for a person to bend down and crawl into.
"Huh?" Adjutant General Zhang said, "How is there a hole here?"
Qu Dubian lit a firestarter, raised his foot to enter, but Adjutant General Zhang grabbed his arm.
"..." Qu Dubian looked back at him.
Without a single word spoken, Adjutant General Zhang immediately released his grip.
Qu Dubian: "Wait for me a moment."
His frame was lean, so bending down to enter and walk through didn't feel too cramped.
The oxygen in the tunnel was thin; walking for a while brought a stifling sense of suffocation. Qu Dubian felt the tunnel's earth, rubbing it between his fingers.
It wasn't dug recently.
The tunnel had two forks. Qu Dubian followed the left one to its end and found he had passed directly from one side of the mountain ridge to the other.
So there were indeed tunnels here.
The bandits of Mount Wangchu were different from those elsewhere; they knew about tunnel warfare.
When he neared the end of the right fork, he heard faint voices.
Qu Dubian extinguished the firestarter and silently approached the tunnel's exit.
The opening was sealed with sheet metal. He faintly caught the smell of gunpowder, seemingly seeping in from outside.
"Stay alert, don't yawn. If the boss sees you, you'll get another lecture."
"Speaking of which, when is our boss leaving?"
"Probably in a day or two, I reckon. Things are almost packed up over there..."
Qu Dubian emerged from the tunnel, leaning on a rock as he took a deep breath.
It was almost suffocating inside.
Adjutant General Zhang pursed his lips, nervously fanning him.
Qu Dubian said, "Mark this spot. Let's go scout elsewhere."
The tunnels were well hidden. He and Adjutant General Zhang had searched half the night and found three in total, with six exits. Three exits were inside the fortress, all sealed with iron plates, with gunpowder stored right outside.
If anyone tried to launch a surprise attack from a tunnel entrance, they would inevitably make noise, and what awaited them would be blades and gunpowder.
Adjutant General Zhang avoided the bandits' sentries and only spoke once they had descended the mountain: "Are they rats or something, digging so many holes? We definitely haven't found them all. No wonder they've never been caught. Who could possibly catch them?"
"But knowing about the tunnels is good enough. Flushing them out is just a matter of time."
Qu Dubian nodded, returned to the command tent, and summoned Zuo Tianlang along with the two deputy generals he had promoted.
The men he promoted were his own soldiers.
This was the fundamental reason the First and Second Princes were vying for the bandit-suppression assignment.
He directly circled the tunnel locations on the map. "Prepare for a smoke attack before dawn."
Speed is paramount in warfare.
"Let's disable their tunnels first."
"The tunnels are unusable."
Upon hearing the battle report, Yu Ruo said, "Completely destroy the exposed tunnels. Don't give them any chance to get in."
"They are attacking the mountain now. Have the brothers exit from the back of the mountain, circle around, and approach the garrison camp. Use ropes tied to stones to throw fireballs."
The fireballs only hit their target once.
Qu Dubian had thirty soldiers take aim with repeating crossbows to shatter the stones hurled from above, while he led the remaining twenty or so men to the opposite mountain peak to pick off the stone-throwers.
The enemy relied on the advantage of high ground, circling the mountain to throw fiery stones. He turned their topographical advantage into a disadvantage.
The south was mountainous.
Wangchu Mountain was never the tallest among them.
"They've moved catapults! They're copying your tactic to attack us."
Boss Jin was on the verge of panic, almost ready to abandon the remaining treasure and flee immediately.
"Sir, please stop buying time for me to move the valuables. I don't want them anymore, none of it! If this goes on, none of us will escape."
Yu Ruo: "Relax, we can escape."
His tone was utterly certain, so certain it made Boss Jin feel they weren't facing a government siege, but a group of children playing house.
Crash!
A large rock hurled from a height landed with a tremendous impact. Boss Jin jumped in fright. "No! No, we must retreat now, there's still time if we run now..."
"We'll still have time if we wait a bit longer. For every moment we wait, Boss, you keep a little more of your money."
Yu Ruo: "Let me make one final move, then we withdraw. Alright?"
Seeing Boss Jin's conflicted expression, he gave the order.
"Pour lamp oil into the tunnels. Set the mountain on fire to block their advance."
Once the order was carried out, Yu Ruo left the place without a shred of hesitation.
He didn't take the newly dug escape route. Instead, he went directly to the cliff of Wangchu Mountain.
Wangchu Mountain was split down the middle.
He grabbed a rope tied to a tree and jumped down. Halfway down, Gu Xin caught his arm.
He couldn't help saying, "Your Highness, that was too risky. From this height, if Wu Ying hadn't been waiting below, I'd be half-crippled even from this jump."
Yu Ruo: "No choice. If we took the tunnel, we'd be caught."
Qu Dubian: "Block the tunnel entrances."
With less oxygen, how fierce could the fire burn?
The southern region was humid. The smoke-filled, burning Wangchu Mountain looked from afar like a giant steamer.
Zuo Tianlang was puzzled: "They're pouring lamp oil to set the mountain on fire? Aren't they cutting off their own retreat?"
Qu Dubian: "The one giving the orders never considered the bandits' retreat."
He estimated the time was about right. "Their escape tunnel likely has an exit to the south. Have the men advance up the mountain slowly. You take troops to block them at the southern exit."
"Yes, sir."
"Adjutant General Zhang, handle the mopping-up properly."
"Commander, where are you going?"
"Business," Qu Dubian mounted his horse. "No one is to follow! I'll be back soon!"
He grabbed a composite bow, galloped off, crossing mountain streams, the water splashed by his horse soaking his clothes.
Wangchu Mountain's Split Cliff, a line of sky, was a dark, sunless gorge.
If it weren't for being narrow at the top and wide at the bottom, this would be a perfect place for an ambush.
An ordinary person wouldn't choose to leave from here. Narrow top, wide bottom, no footholds on the cliff face—even a martial arts master could easily fall to his death.
But—
Qu Dubian stopped outside the gorge, narrowed his eyes, drew his bow, nocked an arrow, aiming at the white-clad figure ahead. The arrow rest locked on, his fingers released.
Whoosh!
The sound of a projectile piercing the air echoed through the gorge.
Gu Xin swiftly drew his sword to deflect it. Blade and arrow met with a clear ring.
Qu Dubian: "Yu Ruo!"
About a hundred meters away, Yu Ruo turned around.
He smiled. "Caught up so quickly."
"Long time no see. Your greeting is quite fierce."
It really was him.
But the man's face was disguised, not quite looking like his original self.
Qu Dubian: "Yes, long time no see. Won't you come over and catch up?"
Yu Ruo raised an eyebrow: "Why don't you come over?"
Qu Dubian: "Oh, I'm tired."
Yu Ruo: "What a coincidence, so am I."
They both knew perfectly well.
Yu Ruo couldn't come out, because coming out meant being captured by Qu Dubian.
Qu Dubian couldn't go in, because no matter how narrow-top-wide-bottom Wangchu Mountain's Split Cliff was, there was still the possibility of an ambush above.
Yu Ruo: "Since you're wary, why come alone?"
Qu Dubian spread his hands: "If I brought men, would you still tell me the news you have?"
Even if he had brought men, he would absolutely not let soldiers enter the Split Cliff gorge until the situation above was fully cleared. By the time it was cleared and found safe, Yu Ruo would have long since fled.
Yu Ruo: "Of course not."
Qu Dubian: "I'm here. What's your news?"
Yu Ruo raised his hand. Gu Xin grabbed his arm, and they quickly left the gorge, leaving behind a sentence:
"The north wind has risen. If you have any ailing relatives, have them take care to keep warm."
Qu Dubian's expression changed slightly. A few seconds later, he raised the composite bow again.
The first arrow shot out.
Gu Xin blocked it.
The second arrow shot out.
Wu Ying, hidden in the shadows, caught it.
The third arrow came whistling, grazing Yu Ruo's temple before embedding itself in a rock ahead.
Yu Ruo touched the side of his face, his fingers coming away with a trace of blood.
Qu Dubian: "Thanks for the warning. Though I wonder if this north wind has received some aid from the south wind."
He would investigate the matter of the north wind himself. He didn't fully trust Yu Ruo's words.
The intelligence network's message hadn't even arrived yet, yet Yu Ruo, a Nanling man within the Great Zhou, could learn of news from the northern frontier.
There was a suspicion that the northern frontier might be colluding with Nanling.
Yu Ruo turned his head, smiling. "Seventh Prince, you're not as grateful as you were two years ago! When Nanling is unified one day, I'll invite you to drink Nanling's sweet wine!"
Interfering with the banditry in Da Zhou, aiding their growth, and disrupting the defenses of two Da Zhou provinces—the reason he wasn't pursued and killed was that he had chosen an excellent location.
Qu Dubian also smiled slightly. "What flavor could the wine of the mortal world possibly have? On the day your Nanning Kingdom falls, I'll send you to sample Meng Po's craft."
[Yu Ruo Favorability +1]
Yu Ruo: "I'll be waiting!"
He left the Narrow Pass.
On the other end, Qu Dubian, leaning on his bow and mounted on his horse, only looked back after a long while.
The fiery sunset clouds in the sky illuminated the mountain stream like colored glaze, reflecting off the young man's light armor on horseback.
Qu Dubian faintly heard the soldiers' cheers of victory.
He was in no hurry to return. He led his horse to the river to drink and casually found a large rock to lie down on.
For the first time in eight months, a rare moment of relaxation.
The bandit suppression reached a temporary conclusion.
On the evening of escorting the final batch of bandits back to Qingzhou,
the soldiers all relaxed and gathered together.
Several bonfires were lit.
Qu Dubian was reading a message delivered via the covert network. He had just finished reading and burned it when a group of soldiers lifted the flap of his tent. "Commander!"
"Commander!"
"Your Highness, you are here! Eunuch Xiaoyuan lied to us, saying you weren't."
Qu Dubian was momentarily confused. "What are you all doing?"
Adjutant General Zhang said with a grin, "Our brothers are having a dance competition! Come and watch, sir."
Qu Dubian: "A martial arts competition? Alright. I can even give them some pointers."
The moment he stepped out of the tent, he was stunned for a second by the scene outside.
The two deputy commanders he had promoted were stripped to the waist, dancing opposite each other around a bonfire.
The "dui wu" (paired dance) culture was unique to this region. There were several sets of paired dances with varying difficulty. The competition was about who made fewer mistakes and who performed more gracefully.
The two young men, one from Qingzhou and one from Jizhou, each backed by their own fellow soldiers, refused to yield. The soldiers cheered for their own province's representative.
An atmosphere of intense fervor washed over him.
Qu Dubian laughed. "So it's this kind of dance competition."
Adjutant General Zhang winked. "Commander, why don't you join in?"
Qu Dubian: "I don't know how to dance." He was never one to spoil the fun. Since he was already out, he might as well join in the revelry. "However, I can provide accompaniment for you all."
He had someone bring a large drum and place it in an open spot next to the dancers. Then, taking two large wooden mallets, he struck it: "Boom, boom, boom—"
The soldiers were startled and looked back.
Their young commander's face was illuminated by the bonfire, smiling brightly, his eyes spirited.
"What are you looking at me for? Dance! Perform well, and there will be rewards!"
The atmosphere fell silent for an instant.
Then, like a spark flying into boiling oil, it erupted with a fervor intense enough to lift the night sky.
"Alright!!"
"The Commander is the best!"
"We'll follow you from now on!"
Adjutant General Zhang chuckled foolishly, watching happily for a long while before suddenly noticing Ye Xiaoyuan standing in front of the command tent.
He knew this eunuch was always responsible for handling the commander's private affairs and some message exchanges, so he quietly sidled up to Eunuch Xiaoyuan.
"Eunuch, I heard that the Seventh Prince used to be sickly all the time, but during these months of bandit suppression with him, he seems perfectly fine."
Ye Xiaoyuan paused. "His Highness only had poor health as a child."
Adjutant General Zhang: "Oh..."
He shook his head. "Indeed, seeing is believing."
Ye Xiaoyuan: "Mm."
The capital only knew that since Princess Zhiyi went for the marriage alliance, His Highness had rarely fallen ill. But only he knew that it wasn't "rarely"—the Seventh Prince almost never summoned the imperial physicians anymore.
For minor ailments that weren't apparent, he endured them himself, not even telling him. Only when he was suffering severely would he occasionally show a hint of it, listless, clinging to his dog or a pillow and not letting go, or else shutting himself away.
He was no longer the prince who would act spoiled and make a fuss at the slightest discomfort.
His heart ached for His Highness, asking why it had to come to this.
His Highness only told him that the current Seventh Prince could not afford to fall ill.
Only he and Lord Liuliu knew about this, and it was something His Highness strictly ordered them to keep secret.
They understood the gravity of the matter and never spoke of it. To outsiders, he only said that as His Highness grew older, his constitution had become quite different from when he was a child.
Ye Xiaoyuan watched His Highness, beating the drum and mingling boisterously with the soldiers.
The bonfire was not as radiant as he was.
The night passed.
The next day, they escorted the bandits back to Qingzhou.
With that, the soldiers from Jizhou had successfully completed their mission. After bidding farewell to their commander, they left Qingzhou.
Qu Dubian still had to handle the final matters of the bandit suppression.
Among the captured bandits, some had been arrested before and weren't very afraid.
The court's attitude towards them was mostly one of recruitment and tolerance. After all, those who resisted to the death had perished during the suppression. The remaining were considered redeemable.
Prefect Ji Huan's prisons were packed to bursting.
The success of the bandit suppression lifted a great weight from his mind, but dealing with these bandits remained a troublesome issue.
Qu Dubian: "How does Prefect Ji plan to handle this?"
Ji Huan sighed. "For those whose crimes are not severe, punish them and then release them. For those with serious offenses, twenty years of penal servitude."
Qu Dubian waited for him to continue. After a long pause: "That's it?"
Ji Huan: "Executing the leaders and minor chiefs to establish authority should be enough, right? The rest can serve as laborers, saving the cost of hiring workers."
"That's exactly what the bandits are counting on."
Qu Dubian took out several sheets of paper and slid them across the table with two fingers. "Take a look, Prefect Ji."
"If you want the deterrent effect to be greater, follow what's written here."
Ji Huan read for a while, then couldn't help saying, "Isn't this too severe?"
Qu Dubian: "There's no reason that, for the sake of recruitment, the outcome for evildoers should be better than for good people. Those who haven't committed crimes, or whose crimes are very minor, should be properly placated, allotted land, and helped to resettle and establish households, so they won't turn to banditry again."
Ji Huan was silent for a few seconds. "This official understands."
The next day.
He brought the list Qu Dubian had given him of bandits captured two or more times, along with several additional sheets filled with red circles.
Ji Huan stood before the cages holding the bandits.
"Those who have reformed three times yet returned to banditry three times, execute them; those guilty of rape, execute them; those guilty of murder, execute them; those who set fire to villages, execute them..."
A series of "execute them" sentences plunged the bandits, who had been smirking and thinking they would at most face penal servitude, into an ice-cold abyss. With servitude, there was still a chance to kill the guards and escape later.
Execution meant there was truly no hope of survival.
"On what grounds!"
"On what grounds! It was never like this before!"
"We won't accept this!"
Ji Huan continued reading steadily.
Five hundred and twenty-three bandits were brought to the execution ground.
The executioners' blades became dull from chopping, yet not all were finished.
Blood spread across the execution ground.
After this chilling, deterrent punishment was widely adopted, and banditry in Qingzhou and Jizhou was completely eradicated.
The bandit suppression was brought to a perfect conclusion.
Three days later.
Qu Dubian and Zuo Tianlang, their mission accomplished, withdrew from Qingzhou.
Adjutant General Zhang saw them off for a hundred li. Finally, he presented Qu Dubian with a box of premium incense and gave Zuo Tianlang the sword of a general from the previous dynasty.
"Please don't refuse, both of you. My lord said that his hospitality was lacking when you first arrived. Now, at parting, he must properly express his apologies."
Qu Dubian smiled. "Fine, we accept."
He glanced at the conflicted Zuo Tianlang and said, "Alright, take it. Just report it to His Majesty when you return."
Adjutant General Zhang clasped his fists, suppressing his reluctance. "Take care, Commander!"
He still called him 'Commander,' not 'Your Highness.'
Qu Dubian replied, "Take care!"