The Compass needle pointing toward Mount Funiu to the south was a very strange answer.
Very, very strange.
Because by any conventional reasoning, after escaping from Taolin Post Station, the safest, most convenient, most natural destination for Han Shixiong would surely still have been Tong Pass, where his uncle Han Yingong was stationed.
Tong Pass lay only a dozen or so li west of Taolin Post Station. Not only was it easy to reach, but it was full of the Han family's old troops, and Han Yingong himself had always been acknowledged as a man of explosive temper. If Han Shixiong really hid in there, and Han Yingong took him in, then it would be Bai Yousi's turn to face military experts intercepting and killing her in successive waves, or even military formations with true qi attributes unleashing massed crossbow volleys, followed by the detonation of their inner cores.
In fact, this was precisely why everyone regarded this mission as a road to be dreaded.
Of course, there was another possibility: after Han Yingong or someone else rescued Han Shixiong, they might immediately have sent him away to hide in the Western Capital behind them or the Hedong region across the great river, to avoid suspicion... the former was the power base of the great Guanlong clans, where there would always be friends, relatives, and old acquaintances unafraid of death who were willing to shelter him; the latter needed even less explanation. Once across the river, he would have a geographical dividing line behind him and would have escaped the very heart of the court's rule. From there, he could simply keep running in any direction.
He might even have gone to the Eastern Capital, hiding in the darkness beneath the lamp itself, and the Eastern Capital also offered plenty of places to hide someone.
In short, according to their earlier deductions, as long as Han Shixiong had escaped deliberately and had someone to receive him, he ought to have fled in one of the other three directions. There was absolutely no reason for him to have muddled around for several days and still be in Mount Funiu.
"Is your Compass accurate?" After a moment, Bai Yousi raised the most reasonable question.
"It has never been wrong." Beneath the lamplight, Zhang Xing answered earnestly. "But there must be more to this journey. It can't possibly be as simple as going into the mountains and bringing him back..."
"I understand!" Bai Yousi thought for a moment, then tightened her grip on her sword and asked cautiously, "Why did you still use the Compass yourself?"
"Because I didn't want to frame someone else for the sake of a family's private interests, so I let your brother-in-law, who shares neither your father nor your mother, go." Zhang Xing remained expressionless. "But you've shown me great kindness, Inspector, and I couldn't leave that debt unpaid. So this was what I did."
Bai Yousi froze slightly and seemed about to speak, but stopped. After hesitating for a long time, she could only nod calmly. "Don't let anyone else in the Patrol Group see your Compass again, or you'll bring disaster down on them... tomorrow I'll cover for you, and we'll search the mountains together!"
Zhang Xing nodded in reply.
Nothing more was said that night. Early the next morning, Bai Yousi suddenly assembled everyone and ordered a search of the mountains... naturally, this caused some unrest. Seasoned core members with firm views of their own, including Hu Yan and Qian Tang, all voiced their confusion. By this point, they had already formed a vague idea of how to solve the problem, and the two men caught the night before had clearly offered a breakthrough, yet even they had vanished.
Besides, searching mountains required skill, and Mount Funiu was itself part of the Xiao Mountain range, covering an enormous area. The search alone would be difficult.
But Bai Yousi gave her assurance and insisted on proceeding, leaving everyone, high and low, helpless.
Ultimately, it came back to the same point... this journey appeared to be official business, but in essence they were serving the Bai Clan's private interests. With the principal herself having made up her mind, what could they do?
Taolin Post Station had plentiful supplies, along with some Jinwu Guard soldiers, Ministry of Justice clerks, and others who had previously escorted Han Shixiong, all of whom could conveniently be put to use... so they settled on a plan that very day. Hu Yan would remain at Taolin Post Station, directing deployments from the center while handling visiting officials and official correspondence. Bai Yousi would personally lead a small elite party of six or seven, including Zhang Xing, Qin Bao, and Li Qingchen, advancing in a dispersed formation. Qian Tang would lead the main supporting force, following behind... the three groups each prepared their supplies, and the search parties headed into the mountains.
On the surface, they would naturally rely on Bai Yousi's exceptional mobility to relay information and maintain contact; in reality, this was merely an opportunity for Zhang Xing to activate the Compass and lead them straight to their target as quickly as possible.
Sure enough, after two days in the mountains and three uses of the Compass, they had greatly narrowed the area. Everyone gradually realized that this was not the mountain search they had imagined, but a pursuit with a definite objective, because they were plainly heading toward a particular central area around the main peak of Mount Funiu.
This lay on the border between Hongnong Commandery and Henan Commandery, which belonged to the Eastern Capital.
When the third day arrived, Zhang Xing used the Compass again. Under Bai Yousi's leadership, the search party entered a mountain path northwest of Mount Funiu's main peak. They soon discovered so many tracks and suspicious signs that there was no need for Zhang Xing to activate that blasted divine artifact of his again.
Even the possible danger of this journey became unmistakably apparent.
"There's a bandit den in the mountains."
Bai Yousi wore an unmistakably incredulous expression as she reported and explained the situation to Zhang Xing. "Qin Bao found an abandoned village with signs that several people had recently spent the night there. I then followed the tracks back out of the village and found a road leading into a valley. From a distance, I spotted a bandit den, the kind flying a Righteousness Banner... its location also matches your Compass's direction exactly, northwest of Mount Funiu's main peak."
"Men kept by Han Yingong?" That was Zhang Xing's first reaction after an afternoon of hard work, his entire body covered in dodder sap and green cockleburs. "To handle things he can't conveniently do himself at Tong Pass? And he happened to hide his nephew here as well? Otherwise, how could there be mountain bandits along the road to Tong Pass, at such a vital point between the Eastern and Western Capitals?"
Yet no sooner had Zhang Xing said this than he shook his head. "No, that still isn't right. This place is a little too far away..."
"That's not necessarily so. It's far away, but the location is very suitable. It lies between Hongnong and Henan Commandery. If anything happens anywhere, they can head out toward the Eastern Capital or Tong Pass, turn toward Hongnong, or even go south to Nanyang." Bai Yousi had a different view. "And if that's the case, it also fits your Compass. There may be genuine military experts hiding in the bandit stronghold, enough to pose a danger to you... but that's all right. In a chaotic fight inside a valley, they certainly won't be a match for me. I'll go in first and find out what's happening. You go to the abandoned village and join Qin Bao and the others. Once Qian Tang's main force arrives, follow them in with everyone else."
After being burned by the Compass so many times, Zhang Xing did not think things would go so smoothly. But that did not stop him from nodding eagerly, because given the information they had, Bai Yousi's arrangements were undoubtedly the most reasonable.
Make the right judgments and choices based on what was known, do everything possible with the resources available, and don't buckle at the final kick. If that still wasn't enough, then to hell with whoever and whatever came next.
And so, after Bai Yousi left, Zhang Xing did not hesitate. Following the whistles and the directions she had given before leaving, he circulated his true qi and headed toward the abandoned village, quickly joining Qin Bao and the other two waiting there.
Then he sat on the ground and began removing the cockleburs and various other plant prickles from his body, while waiting at ease for the main force led by Qian Tang.
"Third Brother Zhang."
Qin Bao came over and tactfully made no mention of what had happened that night, instead opening a new topic. "There's something strange about this village."
"What?"
Zhang Xing looked around. The abandoned village lay exposed at the foot of the mountain, its doorways collapsed, utterly silent. His curiosity was piqued too. "Could there be some ancient corpse soaking in a well?"
Naturally, Qin Bao did not understand his joke. He simply shook his head earnestly. "How could that happen? If a corpse were soaking in a well, with all the wild animals, flies, and maggots around, it would rot away before long... I mean, this village looks abandoned, but it hasn't actually been abandoned completely."
Zhang Xing balled up the cockleburs he had picked off and tossed them away, then stood and looked around. He, too, felt something was odd, but could not put his finger on it, so he could only look back at Qin Bao-when he had been in another world, he had indeed helped briefly with farmwork as a child, but when it came to actual village life in this world, Qin Bao certainly had more experience.
"Some houses are shabby, but they're actually quite clean inside," Qin Bao answered earnestly. "The more obvious thing is that I climbed that ridge over there just now and saw crops hidden in the hollow behind it. They've been tended quite well."
"I see what you mean." Zhang Xing nodded repeatedly, then suddenly understood. "You're saying the villagers... the villagers went to the bandit den? Or those bandits originally developed out of the people from the surrounding villages themselves? Otherwise, why would they bother growing crops nearby?"
"Yes."
"In that case... it's hard to say." Zhang Xing looked thoughtful. "What do you think?"
"I think that, if so, at the very least the fighting strength of the bandit stronghold won't be as great as we imagined. At most, there would be a few elites backed by a larger number of local villagers," Qin Bao answered earnestly.
"That makes sense." Zhang Xing nodded, but suddenly asked in return, "Then do you think the villagers abandoned their village willingly, or were they forced to?"
Qin Bao paused, then answered immediately, "Either is possible... the bandits might have coerced them, or they might have gone up the mountain themselves. Sometimes it's hard to say whether it was voluntary or forced. Ordinary people always have it hardest."
"Yes, I understand that." Zhang Xing nodded. "But I'm still a little bewildered. Why, exactly? This is Taolin Post Station, Tong Pass, the vital route through the Eastern and Western Capitals, the heartland of the court... and people still have to abandon their villages? Are the taxes very heavy?"
"Over in the Eastern Territories, I wouldn't call the taxes heavy, but I couldn't call them light either," Qin Bao replied sincerely. "Overall, things are still very tight. But ours is former Eastern Qi territory, after all, so it's possible the court is deliberately harsh... here, though, it's just as you said, Third Brother Zhang. This is the court's heartland, its foundation. When the late emperor was alive, he even reduced taxes frequently. So I think it's the corvée labor... think about it, Third Brother. The campaigns against Dongyi exhausted Hebei and our Eastern Territories the most, but what about the labor levies for the Eastern Capital? Back when they built the city, they called up several million laborers every month. Where did they all come from? Even now, Ziwei Palace, Western Park, and all those government offices require huge amounts of corvée labor every month."
Zhang Xing paused, feeling as though something in his mind had been rubbed clear, but at that moment he could only nod.
Because as they spoke, Qian Tang had already appeared in view with the main force. Given his concern for Inspector Bai, he would probably organize an attack very soon.
PS: My thanks to esteemed reader Beneath the Snowy Moon, Mm, for the Silver Alliance donation. ┭┮﹏┭┮ I can't thank you enough... and may everyone keep enjoying the New Year.
Before you continue