As Zhu Zhanjun carried out a cold, merciless purge of the remaining Oirat troops on the snowfield, a fast rider had already burst from the valley and sped toward the Ming army's central command camp, leaving a trail of dust behind him.
"Report—! Great victory! Great victory!"
The Messenger stumbled and crawled into the main tent. His armor was still stained with blood, yet his face wore a nearly crazed ecstasy.
"Reporting to Your Majesty! His Highness Prince Zheng... His Highness Prince Zheng, he... he annihilated Yesen's fifty thousand ambushers!"
"What?!"
Zhu Di shot to his feet. Zhang Fu, Xue Lu, and the other generals at his side all revealed expressions of utter disbelief.
"What did you say? Say that again!"
Zhu Di seized the Messenger by the collar, his eyes wide and his voice trembling.
"His Highness Prince Zheng led three thousand Great Snow Dragon Riders and counter-ambushed Yesen's fifty thousand troops at Gourd Pass!"
The Messenger was so agitated that his words came out in a jumble.
"His Highness... he used their scheme against them, flanked them from behind, and with one charge... one charge, he tore straight through the Oirats' formation!"
"Yesen... Yesen was personally shot from his horse by His Highness and captured alive!"
"Of the fifty thousand Oirat troops, aside from a few who fled, nearly... the entire army was wiped out!"
"Hiss—"
A chorus of sharp intakes of breath rose within the main tent.
A counter-ambush?
Yesen captured alive?
Fifty thousand troops annihilated?
Those words, strung together, formed an incomparably powerful blow that slammed hard into the hearts of these battle-hardened old generals.
It was not as though they had never won battles before. They had even fought classic victories where the few defeated the many.
But three thousand against fifty thousand, and while the enemy had laid an ambush at that—yet not only had they won, they had won with such devastating force, even capturing the enemy commander alive...
This had already exceeded the boundaries of their understanding of war.
"That boy... that boy..."
Zhu Di released the Messenger. His lips moved for a long while, but he discovered that he could not find a single word to describe how he felt at that moment.
Shock?
Delight?
Or... fear?
He realized that his understanding of this grandson had once again been overturned.
He had thought he had already valued him highly enough, yet he had still underestimated him by far.
"Your Majesty!"
Zhang Fu forcibly pulled himself free of that immense shock. He bowed deeply to Zhu Di, his voice hoarse with excitement.
"Heaven has blessed our Great Ming! His Highness Prince Zheng has rendered an achievement unmatched in this age!"
"Transmit My decree!"
Zhu Di drew a deep breath. The complicated emotions in his eyes ultimately turned into lofty pride that looked down upon the world.
"The entire army is to break camp! Advance to Gourd Pass! Go receive My grandson!"
"Also, send men to interrogate them! Interrogate those Oirat prisoners thoroughly for Me!"
"I want to know why Yesen knew My grandson's marching route! Why he dared to set an ambush there!"
Zhu Di's voice was icy enough to pierce bone.
He was no fool. Yesen's ambush reeked of something strange at every turn.
Without an insider, such a thing could never have happened.
Before long, the Embroidered Uniform Guard escorted several captured Oirat Commanders of Ten Thousand back from the battlefield at Gourd Pass.
Under the Embroidered Uniform Guard's tortures, enough to make even an iron man speak, those Commanders of Ten Thousand did not last half an hour before they wailed and confessed everything.
When that bloodstained confession was placed before Zhu Di, the temperature throughout the central command tent seemed to drop to freezing point.
The confession stated in unmistakable terms that the Messengers sent by Prince Han and Prince Zhao had proactively contacted Yesen, leaked Zhu Zhanjun's marching route and troop deployment to him, and promised to divide Mobei equally once the deed was done.
"Good... very good..."
Zhu Di looked at the confession, trembling with rage. He slammed his palm down on the table, and the command desk, made from hard timber, was shattered into four pieces by that single blow.
"What fine... fine sons of Mine!"
"I'm not even dead yet, and they already dare collude with foreign enemies to murder an Imperial Grandson!"
"Men!"
Zhu Di roared.
"Summon Prince Han Zhu Gaoxu and Prince Zhao Zhu Gaosui. Have them come see Me immediately!"
Meanwhile, Prince Han Zhu Gaoxu and Prince Zhao Zhu Gaosui were leading their belated "rescue" army and had just arrived outside the Ming army camp.
All along the way, they had imagined arriving to find Zhu Di surrounded, then charging into battle with their troops, crushing the enemy, achieving peerless merit, and thereby winning Imperial Father's favor.
"Second Brother, do you think Imperial Father will be so moved upon seeing us that tears stream down his old face?"
Zhu Gaosui sat on horseback with a smug smile on his face.
"Of course!"
Zhu Gaoxu puffed out his chest, his face full of arrogance.
"We are Imperial Father's most capable sons in battle! How can that fat Elder Brother of ours, or that bookworm Zhanji, compare with us?"
"As for that useless Zhanjun..."
A vicious glint flashed through Zhu Gaoxu's eyes.
"Judging by the time, Yesen should have chopped him into minced meat by now."
"He failed to protect the Emperor and died amid the chaos of battle. No one could say anything about it."
The two exchanged smiles, each seeing the undisguised ambition and smug satisfaction in the other's eyes.
Just then, a eunuch with a panicked expression rode a fast horse up before them.
"Your Highness Prince Han, Your Highness Prince Zhao, the Emperor... the Emperor has an oral decree summoning both Your Highnesses to immediately proceed to the central command tent for an audience!"
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