Foreign Tribes Breach the Pass; the Brotherhood Version of the Prince of Liao Makes His Debut

After taking a small portion of the gold and silver from the treasure vault, Lu Xingshi and Murong Xuan returned to their peaceful lives and waited for intelligence from the Listening Wind Pavilion.

Yet before they received any intelligence, they first heard news that foreign tribes had breached the pass.

This time, it was no longer just the Barbarians. The Four Barbarian Tribes arrived one after another, first breaking through Tiange Pass, then taking control of Saibei. They routed the Song Army so thoroughly that it fell apart like loose sand. In the end, the Tianzhi Mountain Range had to serve as a barrier to halt the four tribes' advance. For now, they had been temporarily held back.

As for the reason, Lu Xingshi and the others learned some of it through the Listening Wind Pavilion. It was roughly the work of military generals, interference from civil officials, and the principle that even if they lost, they could not let the generals earn merit. Thus, a group of outsiders ended up directing experts, and the whole affair died on the spot.

After that, the generals were made to take the blame, followed by a move that caught everyone completely off guard: a great many capable generals were implicated.

During the Prince of Liao's time, Saibei had been the generals' domain, and civil officials would never have dared come over to point fingers and issue orders. After the Prince of Liao died, the entire Saibei fell under the control of the Civil Official Group. They sent in large numbers of civil officials to supervise the army and monitor the generals. They might not have understood warfare, but they certainly understood how to seize credit.

Then, riding this wind, the Barbarian Chieftain Aha Chu united the Four Barbarian Tribes. He claimed to