Death Approaches

"Li Yi, why did you come back so quickly? How are things with your family?"

Blackstone Town was now the frontline in the war against the Qing Kingdom. As a military general in the camp, Song Jie slept fully clothed even in the dead of night.

At that moment, Song Jie took the hot tea handed over by a personal guard and gulped it down to sharpen his mind.

"Centurion, I have urgent military intelligence."

As he spoke, Li Yi's gaze fell upon several personal guards in the main tent.

Seeing this, Song Jie smiled faintly. "Just say it. Everyone in this tent is trustworthy."

With Song Jie's assurance, Li Yi no longer held anything back and said directly:

"After returning home and investigating, I discovered that it truly was the Household Clerk who abducted my family."

"Han Jia and I then entered Qinghe County City overnight. Covering each other, I slipped into the Household Clerk's office."

"As a result, I overheard the Household Clerk meeting secretly with an envoy from the Qing Kingdom. They were trying to work together from within and without to hand Blackstone Town over to the Qing Kingdom!"

"What? The audacity!" Li Yi's words sent Song Jie into a fury. He had already been deeply displeased by the Household Clerk's collusion with the Qing Kingdom.

Now that he heard the Household Clerk was actually plotting to stab the army in the back, his blood surged. The force of his powerful presence was so crushing that everyone in the tent could barely breathe.

After a moment, Song Jie reined in his emotions. His tiger-like eyes shifted and fixed directly on Li Yi.

"Do you have any evidence?"

The Household Clerk had harmed Li Yi's family, so Song Jie harbored a trace of hesitation, worried that Li Yi might be framing someone else.

Having lived two lives, Li Yi naturally saw through Song Jie's thoughts at a glance.

"My lord, these were all found on the Household Clerk and the Qing Kingdom's envoy."

Li Yi took out the letters, tokens, and other items he had obtained from the Household Clerk and the Qing Kingdom's envoy, then handed them to Song Jie.

At the same time, while Song Jie examined the items, Li Yi did not sit idle. He recounted in full how he had acquired them and what the Household Clerk and the Qing Kingdom's envoy had discussed.

Clutching the secret letter tightly, Song Jie frowned. "Other than you, who else knows about this?"

"Han Jia, who went with me to the Household Clerk's residence, also knows. Other than that, no one else is aware."

Song Jie nodded. After pondering for a while, he said to Li Yi:

"For now, rest in the tent next door. Do not go far. If anything happens, I will send someone to inform you."

After arranging for Li Yi to be sent away, Song Jie took out his own token and summoned a trusted subordinate.

"Take this and hurry to Iron Horse Stockade!"

Iron Horse Stockade was a military stronghold west of Qinghe County, roughly twenty li from Blackstone Town. Several hundred soldiers were stationed there as well.

After racing across many places and fighting battle after battle, then forcefully killing dozens of men, Li Yi was exhausted to the bone. Even his wrist throbbed faintly with discomfort. Thus, as soon as he reached the tent Song Jie had arranged for him, he swallowed a few bites of food and collapsed into sleep.

Just as Li Yi was sleeping soundly, waves of hoofbeats rang out beyond the tent, followed by men shouting and horses neighing, along with crisp clashes of weapons.

"What's going on? Has the Qing Kingdom attacked?"

Li Yi jolted awake. Raising a hand, he grabbed the iron-backed bow at his side, then cautiously approached the tent flap and used an arrowhead to lift it slightly as he peered outside.

He saw that numerous torches had been lit throughout the camp. Groups of formidable soldiers clad head to toe in iron armor were filing into the military camp.

"What's going on?"

Li Yi froze at the sight of these unfamiliar soldiers. This was not what he had expected. Could it be that the Qing Kingdom had not invaded after all?

At that moment, several veteran soldiers emerging from their tents cleared up his confusion.

These tall, fully armored soldiers were the personal guards of General Guan, who guarded Qinghe Town.

General Guan had returned?

Li Yi immediately thought of the things he had previously handed to Song Jie. Could the general have returned because of that? Wasn't that too fast?

He had long heard that General Guan loved his soldiers as his own sons. With that in mind, it was only natural that the entire camp had been stirred by the general's return.

While Li Yi was deep in thought, the atmosphere inside Song Jie's tent was rather oppressive.

"Song boy, I promoted you to Centurion because I saw how fiercely you slew the enemy. You summoned me back in such frantic haste—what exactly is this about?"

General Guan knew that Cao Li and Song Jie did not get along. Yet for the sake of maintaining balance, and because there were certain people he could not easily offend, he had never dealt with the matter, allowing the two to remain at odds.

Could this boy have called him back because he wanted to bring down Cao Li?

Whether it had been the purge of the rebel faction some days ago or the newcomers' assessment, both men had sent secret letters accusing the other of negligence and wrongdoing.

At this thought, General Guan's expression turned somewhat displeased as he eyed Song Jie suspiciously.

Faced with the general's questioning gaze, Song Jie first gave a slight bow.

"Please forgive me, General. The matter is truly of great importance. To prevent any leaks, I did not explain it in detail in the letter."

When Song Jie had previously sent someone to contact General Guan, he had only had a personal guard carry his letter token, without revealing the specifics.

After signaling for his personal guards to go outside and stand watch, Song Jie placed the evidence and secret letters Li Yi had handed over before General Guan, then relayed Li Yi's account word for word.

As he looked at the physical evidence before him, General Guan's face gradually turned ashen.

He had faced off against the Qing Kingdom for more than a decade and knew it extremely well.

The Qing Kingdom's distinctive traits on these pieces of physical evidence undoubtedly meant they had come from the Qing Kingdom.

Secret arts and skilled craftsmen flourished in the Qing Kingdom; their items were difficult for the Chen Kingdom to imitate.

Judging from the evidence at hand, Cao Li and the Ministry of Revenue were colluding with the Qing Kingdom—there was irrefutable proof.

Placing the evidence on the desk, the general closed his eyes and drew a deep breath before looking at Song Jie.

"Where is this Li Yi you mentioned?"

"In a nearby tent."

"Good. Bring him here. There are some matters I wish to ask him about."

Before long, one of Song Jie's personal guards arrived at the tent where Li Yi was staying.

At that moment, Li Yi was maintaining the iron-backed bow in his hands.

"Squad Leader Li, Commander Bai wishes to see you."

Seeing the grave expression on the guard's face, Li Yi instantly guessed what this was about.

"Alright. Please lead the way."

Not long after, Li Yi arrived at the main camp.

"You are Li Yi?"

Li Yi looked up and saw a tall, middle-aged man seated in the center. He had a long beard beneath his chin and a somewhat ruddy complexion. Song Jie stood respectfully at his side.

"This is General Guan. Whatever the general asks later, answer truthfully. Do not conceal anything," Song Jie said.

There were several parts of Song Jie's account and the secret letter he had presented that General Guan found difficult to understand.

Now that Li Yi had arrived, he voiced his doubts.

He's verifying whether it's true. He's afraid I'll lie!

The moment General Guan raised his questions, Li Yi immediately realized that the general had no real doubts at all—he was merely taking the chance to verify the truth of the matter.

As someone who had personally experienced it, Li Yi remained exceedingly calm.

The general asked, and Li Yi answered.

In less than the time it took to burn an incense stick, the general let out a sigh.

"When Cao Li enlisted, he was about your age."

"Back then, he pointed at the Qing Kingdom cavalry and told me that in this lifetime, he would surely crush the Qing Kingdom, ensure they could no longer invade our Great Chen and leave our people homeless and wandering."

"Who would have thought that after barely more than ten years, he would collude with the Qing Kingdom and endanger our Great Chen!"

Enraged, General Guan's face turned even redder.

It reminded Li Yi of Lord Guan from his previous life.

With that thought, Li Yi hurriedly said:

"General, the Qing Kingdom envoy has already arranged with Sima Cao Li to send someone to receive them tomorrow afternoon. At the same time, Cao Li will coordinate from within the army, striking from inside and out to break the camp and seize Qinghe County."

"I believe this is an opportunity!"

"An opportunity?" The general and Song Jie both froze, quickly turning their eyes toward Li Yi.

Li Yi raised his head and looked at them both, speaking frankly.

"The password and token for the rendezvous are now in our hands. I am willing to lead men in disguising ourselves as the insiders sent to receive them, luring the Qing Kingdom soldiers into Blackstone Town. Then we can set an ambush."

"Once they are drawn in, we can wipe them out in one stroke!"

"This is letting the current carry the boat—turning their own scheme against them!"

Li Yi laid out his plan in detail.

In truth, both the general and Song Jie had considered this strategy, but they had not expected Li Yi to be so bold—to volunteer of his own accord and personally serve as the inside man.

For a moment, the general was overjoyed, finding Li Yi more and more pleasing to the eye.

"You brat, you've got guts."

"Good. I'll leave this mission to you! Once it is done, I will not treat you unfairly! When the time comes, I'll recommend you for promotion to Commander Tun!"

At present, Li Yi was merely a squad leader, commanding ten men.

A Commander Tun, however, was an officer who commanded fifty men!

Even Song Jie, a Commander Bai, commanded only a hundred soldiers!

At the thought, Li Yi was immediately overjoyed and hurriedly said:

"I will not disappoint the general's high expectations!"

After settling on the broad outline of the plan, the three began to work through every detail according to the intelligence on both sides' troop strengths.

By the time their discussion was nearly finished, the horizon had already turned the pale white of a fish's belly.

General Guan and Li Yi exchanged a glance. The three shared a knowing smile, then summoned a personal guard.

"Go notify the officers in the camp, company commander and above. Tell them the general has returned and is summoning everyone for a meeting to discuss specific measures for dealing with the Qing Kingdom's army."

"Remember, not a single one of them is allowed to ask for leave. Otherwise, they'll be dealt with under military law!"

Meetings were the greatest open stratagem, ancient and modern alike.

How many heroes had been brought down by this very tactic.

Watching the personal guard leave, Li Yi borrowed a man from Song Jie and had him fetch Han Jia, who was staying with Uncle Liu and the others.

As time passed, officers entered the command tent one after another.

"Commander Cao has arrived!"

As the highest-ranking officer in the camp second only to General Guan, Cao Li cut no small figure. Surrounded by personal guards, he strode into the main tent.

"General, why have you returned?"

Seeing General Guan seated high above, Cao Li gave a chuckle, hurried into the tent, and asked with concern.

General Guan stared at Cao Li's face, so full of concern and familiarity, without saying a word.

For a time, the tent fell silent. The many officers who had no idea what was happening looked around uneasily.

After a long while, General Guan looked at Cao Li with the frustration of hating iron for not becoming steel.

"If I hadn't come back, Qinghe County would've been gone!"

Before his words had even faded, General Guan slammed his palm onto the table.

"Men! Seize Cao Li and all his associates!"

"Kill without mercy anyone who resists!"