"Heading west..." Lu Yao pondered for a moment, and his expression abruptly changed. "Not good. We can't let them join up with Pei Xinyong." Otherwise, he would be the one forced onto the back foot. "Did they take horses?"
"No. There wasn't room on the boats."
Nor would horses dare set foot on the backs of crocodiles.
"Go to Desheng Town at once and order everyone to be on high alert! Wu Shaoyi took the water route to beat us there, but without horses they can't make good time. Within sixty li, horses can only be found in Desheng Town!"
The kestrel flapped its wings and flew off. A subordinate stepped up and asked Lu Yao, "General, what do we do now?"
"What else can we do? Pick up the pace!" Lu Yao sneered. "We must drag Pei Xinyong into the battle and cut off his contact with Wu Shaoyi. Right now, there should be six or seven hundred brothers in Desheng Town. As long as they stay alert, they won't need to fear Wu's two hundred men!"
Having campaigned for years, Lu Yao was a man of swift decision. He quickly settled on his current strategy: unite with Pei Xinyong as fast as possible to crush the government troops, while pinning Wu Shaoyi and his men down in Desheng Town to sever their communication with Pei Xinyong.
Once the government troops were wiped out, he would have time to confer with Pei Xinyong at leisure, and only then would he send men to deal with Wu Shaoyi.
***
After reaching Langming Cave, the government column followed their guide and turned onto a fork in the road, marching toward Qianteng Town.
Seeing no sign of pursuers ahead or behind, everyone let out a long sigh of relief.
He Chunhua had chosen to head west precisely to exploit a timing window. While Pei Xinyong was busy clearing out the ambush at Shaozi Crag, He Chunhua led hundreds of soldiers and civilians to Langming Cave and slipped into this fork.
That way, they avoided the awkwardness of colliding head-on with the returning bandits.
All in all, the first stage of the objective had been smoothly accomplished.
Next, they had to flee to Qianteng Town as fast as possible.
Zeng Feixiong glanced at He Chunhua, thinking to himself that the Prefect had suffered the greatest loss. The Eldest Young Master had always seemed cynical and heedless, yet in the end, he had died like a hero.
He Chunhua's brow had been furrowed ever since they set out. He was currently asking the guide, "How far to Qianteng Town?"
"Within fifteen li. The road ahead was repaired just two years ago—flat, easy to walk, and wide."
No sooner had the words left his mouth than a burst of red smoke erupted in the eastern sky.
It was a signal flare released by scouts who had climbed the peaks:
Pursuers were coming!
*So fast?* Everyone was astonished. Mountain roads were full of twists and turns; were the bandits drifting around corners with reckless abandon just to catch up?
Before He Chunhua could issue orders, red smoke unexpectedly rose in the western sky as well.
This meant Pei Xinyong's forces had also turned back.
Misfortunes never came singly.
He Chunhua could not be sure how Pei Xinyong would react upon reaching Langming Cave. Would he press forward to clash with Lu Yao, or turn onto the fork to pursue the government forces?
He could not wager the lives of several hundred soldiers and civilians on such uncertainty.
Mozhe Jingxuan approached and whispered, "My Lord, we are moving too slowly. If we cast off our burdens, our speed will increase by at least thirty percent."
By "burdens," he naturally meant the villagers of Xianling Village. How could human legs keep pace with horse-drawn carts, especially when burdened with women and children?
The mountain path was narrow. The civilians took up half of it, inevitably slowing the soldiers down.
They were only fifteen li from Qianteng Town now—a fateful fifteen li! Every step closer mattered.
He Yue's eyes were still red, but he countered, "The mountain path is narrow, and our forces are intermingled with them. If we abandon the villagers and push ahead, they will inevitably wail and cling to us in protest. That might slow the convoy down even further."
He Chunhua remained silent. He summoned two thaumaturges. "Is the ritual still not working?"
"It failed." One of them was dripping with sweat, clutching He Chunhua's State Token tightly in his hand. "N-no response." Ever since a moment ago, a faint, lingering hostility had coiled around the Prefect, placing tremendous pressure on anyone facing him.
Zeng Feixiong immediately detailed thirty more men to reinforce the rear of the column.
Added to the original twenty horsemen, these fifty would form the first barrier should the bandits attack.
He Yue had been watching their surroundings closely. Now, he suddenly pointed to the roadside ahead. "The dawn redwood grove is right there. What enormous trees!"
Everyone looked up. Sure enough, to the right of the mountain path lay a small grove of dawn redwoods. Some trunks were slender, no thicker than the rim of a bowl, while the thickest would have taken ten people with linked arms to encircle, soaring to a staggering height of over a hundred and fifty feet!
Coupled with their arrow-straight trunks, the sight was magnificent.
He Yue pointed at the tallest tree and asked the guide, "Is this the grandfather tree?"
The guide shook his head. "No, not that one. The grandfather tree is much taller than this, and it isn't here either—it's by the lake near Desheng Town."
Locals referred to the oldest, most venerated ancient tree as the "grandfather tree."
He Yue turned to He Chunhua with a serious expression. "Father, since that spirit refuses to help, let these dawn redwoods defend us against the enemy!"
"The dawn redwoods?" He Chunhua's expression shifted. He glanced at the grove, the tight knit of his brow loosening slightly. "A splendid idea!"
Immediately, the Prefect ordered the trees felled to block the road!
Besides carrying their valuables, most of the fleeing men had also brought tools, since life and property alike required weapons for protection. Many carried axes used for chopping firewood in daily life and for self-defense now.
Quite a few of the soldiers were also armed with axes.
At the Prefect's command, soldiers and civilians alike threw themselves into the fervor of logging.
Furthermore, He Chunhua instructed them to fell only the giant trees—the greater the diameter, the better.
Everyone understood that their lives hung by a thread. No one held back now; each put every ounce of strength into the work.
Before long, three enormous trees shook their golden-red canopies and crashed down with long, groaning creaks.
The men felled them carefully so that the trunks tumbled directly across the center of the mountain path.
With these massive logs barring the way, the pursuers' horses would never get through. Their only option would be to clear them away by manual labor.
At that thought, the crowd worked with even greater vigor.
As they set upon the fourth great tree, a violent wind suddenly blew through the forest, so fierce that no one could keep their eyes open.
The howling gale sounded like a roar echoing in everyone's ears:
"Insolence! How dare an outside official harm my subjects!"
The dawn redwood closest to He Chunhua began swaying violently, its canopy drooping in an unnatural slump. Ridges and fissures rose across the trunk's bark, resembling a human face from afar, though the features were quite indistinct—purely impressionistic in style.
Yet everyone could feel its gaze upon them. He Chunhua bore the brunt of it, directly facing the entity's full fury.
Nevertheless, he remained remarkably composed, even brushing a fallen leaf from his shoulder before speaking: "Are you the local mountain spirit? Having prayed repeatedly without an answer, I had no choice but to resort to this inferior measure!"
In truth, this tree was not the mountain spirit's true body; it was merely a vessel borrowed to transmit its voice.
The true mountain spirit was still rooted beside Desheng Town.
The dawn redwood replied with blunt hostility: "You are not the local magistrate. I have no obligation to answer your summons!"
As the Earth God of this mountain range, it was virtually never sought out. Even the local officials had not summoned it for a very long time.
Chapter 140