“Your Highness, just listen to the kind of nonsense those bandits are spouting! Give them an inch and they take a mile. How dare they entertain such filthy ideas about Your Highness!” Hu’erhan was so furious that he stamped his feet around the room. “Your Highness, just give the word and this subordinate general will go up the mountain immediately and bind those outrageous madmen before you!”
“Give the word?” Nalan Xuan sneered. “So I should give you an order to deliver yourselves to their doorstep and be humiliated all over again? Since your skills are inferior, then behave yourselves and do nothing rash.”
Hu’erhan knew he had failed in his duties. Though he was seething with anger, he could only remain sullenly silent.
“How is the matter I ordered you to handle?” Nalan Xuan abruptly changed the subject and asked as though nothing had happened.
“Our troops are fully prepared and ready to move. We are only waiting for Your Highness’s command. But this subordinate general does not understand why we are gathering so many soldiers outside Bitong Pass at a time like this, and why it must be done without attracting attention. If all our troops are concentrated outside Bitong Pass, then the defenses at our other strategic positions will…”
“And what of the information I ordered you to investigate in Hua?” Nalan Xuan ignored Hu’erhan’s questions entirely. Walking over to the sand table, he planted two small red flags on opposite sides of Bitong Pass.
“The scouts report that there is nothing unusual within Hua. Emperor Huawu is diligent in handling affairs of state, and everything in the palace, at court, and throughout the various regions remains as before. Nothing out of the ordinary has happened. This subordinate general does not know exactly what information Your Highness wishes to obtain. Please give us clearer instructions so the scouts will know what to focus on.” Hu’erhan cupped his fists and bowed. When it came to this Prince Nanyang, he had gained a profound understanding of what it meant not to judge a person by appearance. The prince’s thoughts and intentions were forever beyond the guessing of ordinary men like him.
“Everything remains as before?” Nalan Xuan’s hand paused halfway through planting the flag. His gaze sharpened, and he gave a cold laugh. “What a wonderful ‘everything remains as before.’” He casually tossed the flag onto the sand table. “Since they are all living so comfortably, this prince might as well send them a generous gift and teach Emperor Huawu what it means to remain vigilant even in times of peace.”
He took a paper tube from his sleeve and handed it to Hu’erhan. “Give this to Feng Xuanzhe. Have him travel through the night by the fastest urgent dispatch to Bitong Pass and rendezvous with the forces I have hidden outside it. Tell him not to open the note until he gets there. Once he reads it, he will understand what to do—and he will accept gladly.”
“Yes.” The moment he received a military order, Hu’erhan seemed to come alive. “But what about those bandits in Dihua…?”
“This prince will go meet them personally. Since they want to see me so badly, I’ll make sure they get their fill!” Hu’erhan was about to object when he happened to meet the bloodthirsty gleam shooting from Nalan Xuan’s eyes. He shuddered involuntarily. Prince Nanyang clearly believed victory was already within his grasp, and beneath that calm exterior, his fury was raging high enough to reach the heavens.
Their forces split in two. One rider secretly headed toward Bitong Pass, while the other group, though small in number, consisted entirely of the finest soldiers in the army. They did not make a great display of their departure, but the common people still saw them leaving the city. No one said anything aloud, yet everyone understood and felt deeply grateful. A prince standing so far above ordinary people was personally leading troops to suppress bandits for the sake of the local people’s peace and livelihood. What greater honor or source of pride could there be for the people under his rule?
Yet the decision only confused Hu’erhan further. In warfare, dangerous moves depended above all upon surprise. The superior strategy was to strike without warning and catch the enemy completely unprepared. Casualties might still be unavoidable, but at least the enemy would be forced to pay a greater price as well. Marching there openly and conspicuously was a major military taboo, placing themselves in the light while their enemy remained hidden. The journey was not even particularly long, yet it was more than enough to keep Hu’erhan, acting as Nalan Xuan’s guard, tense with worry the entire way.
Compared with Hu’erhan’s anxiety, Nalan Xuan remained perfectly at ease. It was almost as though he had brought these disguised soldiers out not to suppress bandits but to tour the mountains and enjoy the scenery. He seemed thoroughly delighted by the frontier landscape of the Western Regions, so different from the Central Plains. He stopped at every relay station, sometimes to rest his feet, sometimes to drink a few cups of tea. Even when he was not hungry, he would still stop simply to admire the view. Everyone traveling with him was full of questions. Had they not already witnessed Nalan Xuan’s overwhelming strength during military training and developed genuine admiration for him, they would probably have turned around and left long ago.
Nalan Xuan’s answer was no clearer. “There’s no hurry, no hurry. Since we’ve already come out, whatever our purpose may be, there’s no reason to waste the journey. We should enjoy ourselves properly while we’re here. Besides, why be so nervous? If we don’t give them enough time, how can they possibly demonstrate their sincerity? Rest when you should rest and eat when you should eat. Stop looking so tense all day and enjoy yourselves. Otherwise, wouldn’t we be wasting all the effort they’ve gone to for us?”
Hu’erhan and the other officers listened in complete confusion, but what happened next left them even more astonished.
Every time they arrived at a relay station, an attendant would come forward before they had even dismounted, taking their horses and leading them inside. At one miserable roadside pavilion so desolate that even birds seemed unwilling to relieve themselves there, an entire table of delicacies appeared that would not have looked out of place in the imperial palace. The dishes were even piping hot, as though they had been taken from the cooking pots at exactly the calculated moment. Hu’erhan worried that the food might be poisoned and tried to warn Nalan Xuan to be cautious, but Nalan Xuan had already picked up his chopsticks without hesitation and taken a bite. Under everyone’s horrified gaze, he merely praised it as excellent.
When they stopped for the night, military travel naturally meant sleeping outdoors. Yet every time the soldiers returned after splitting up to gather firewood, the camp would inexplicably contain exactly the right amount of fresh game and wine. Nalan Xuan ordered Hu’erhan and the others to prepare the meat and roast it. When Hu’erhan picked up one of the animals, there was still warmth in its body, proving it had only just been killed. Yet there was no one nearby—not even the shadow of a ghost. Hu’erhan and the others began to wonder whether they had truly encountered something supernatural and remained too wary to touch anything, while Nalan Xuan merely urged them to hurry.
And that was still not the end of it. By the latter half of the journey, it was no longer merely their food and lodging that had been arranged. Even the official road had clearly been swept and cleared ahead of them. The surface was so smooth one could hardly find so much as a loose stone. Hu’erhan could not tell whether it was only his imagination, but he kept feeling that the road somehow looked wider than it had in all the decades he had traveled it.
Still filled with suspicion, Hu’erhan finally saw General Tuxun’s troops waiting beside the road after receiving advance notice of their arrival. Forgetting all questions of rank and etiquette, Hu’erhan leapt from his horse while still some distance away. Gathering strength in his legs, he sprang straight toward General Tuxun, seized the front of his clothes, and hauled the man bodily off the ground. “What the hell have you been doing along this road?!”
General Tuxun looked completely baffled. He glanced innocently between Nalan Xuan and Hu’erhan, his face miserable. “This subordinate general does not know. Your Highness, please enlighten me.”
“Bullshit! Don’t stand there pretending you know nothing!” Once Hu’erhan’s fiery temper erupted, ten oxen would not have been able to drag him back. He spat furiously to the side and cursed, “Who besides you knew we were coming this way? What the hell were all those things you arranged along the road? I’ve never seen you command troops half this well, but you’ve certainly learned every one of those refined Central Plains habits of flattering your superiors! If you sent people ahead, then have them come out and greet us properly. What are you playing at, skulking around and pretending to be ghosts?!”
After being hit with such a rapid barrage of abuse the moment they met, General Tuxun went from merely looking miserable to sounding as though he might actually cry. “This subordinate general truly does not know what General Hu’erhan is talking about!”
“Besides him, there is someone else who knows our route.” Nalan Xuan spoke slowly and unhurriedly, his distant gaze drifting toward the mountain range northeast of Dihua. “The bandits.”