The commander of the West Mountain prefectural army was named Yan Guo. He held the post of prefectural army commander and the Principal Sixth Rank office of Martial Glory Commandant.
He led the way, walking ahead of every other prefectural soldier.
When he entered the mountain passage and saw the two solitary figures ahead, along with a graceful young girl at the valley entrance opposite him, he could not help looking startled.
"Old Yun, what are they playing at?"
He was asking his deputy, Yun Kaiyang, a Subordinate Sixth Rank Commandant of Awe-Inspiring Might.
The man also frowned deeply.
Yun Kaiyang's first reaction was that there was an ambush above the valley, and his heart gave a jolt.
But he immediately relaxed. Both he and Yan Guo had come from the frontier army and were seasoned commanders. They would never leave such a glaring opening.
The scouts they had sent out were currently on the mountaintops on either side.
Earlier, still uneasy, Yan Guo had even sent the two Variant Rock Eagles he had trained to fly low and inspect those two peaks.
If the Iron Banner Gang had laid an ambush, it could never have escaped their eyes and ears.
"I don't know, but we'll find out if we ask."
Yun Kaiyang laughed aloud, then shouted, "Hall Master Jia, what do you mean by blocking the way? Are you trying to obstruct our prefectural soldiers from suppressing bandits, murdering officials and rebelling?"
Jia Dali sneered.
These government figures loved slapping the label of rebellion on people at the slightest provocation.
He held his greatsword in both hands, his expression cold. "Cut the crap! And don't try throwing government authority around. Under the rules laid down by Great Ning's founding emperor, any deployment of more than two hundred local prefectural