Chapter 37: The Talent of a Commander

"Haha, even if the government troops pursue us this time, they will never guess that we have turned toward Weizhou," Chen Xunping said with a smug look on his face.

Zhao Yutu did not stint on his praise: "Leader Liu, you can truly be called a natural-born commander."

As it turned out, after Liu Heng set off with his large force of refugees, he worried that the government troops would pursue them relentlessly. He had ordered Yang Yuan and two squads of new refugee recruits to take some of the cumbersome items and head toward the county seat of Yangyuan, leaving trails along the way, while he himself led the main group of refugees to change course toward Weizhou.

The path taken by more than a thousand people had left countless tracks. Liu Heng had also arranged for the refugees at the tail end of the column to each carry a tree branch, clearing away the traces left by the main force as they walked.

Li Shuheng asked, "Are we really going to Weizhou and not Guangling?"

"No, we are still going to Guangling," Liu Heng said. "We aren't going to Weizhou. Once Yang Yuan and his men return, we will turn toward Guangling, but we will not take the main road that leads from the Yangyuan county seat to Guangling."

Zhao Yutu, standing to the side, smiled and said, "I understand what Leader Liu means. The art of war says: 'Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.' Leader Liu has intentionally set up a smokescreen. If any government troops do pursue us, they will be led by the traces left by Yang Yuan’s men toward the direction of the Yangyuan county seat."

Chen Xunping fanned himself with his hand and said, "I don't understand all this talk of weak or strong. I just listen to my brother. Whatever he says to do, that’s what I do."

As noon approached, the weather grew increasingly hot. Chen Xunping walked beside a grain cart, drenched in sweat, wiping his forehead with his sleeve every few moments.

Zhao Yutu shielded his forehead with his hand, looked up at the sun, and said, "Should we let everyone take a rest? I can see that everyone is exhausted."

"Let's walk a little further. There is no shade or shelter here. We will let the group rest when we reach the next patch of woods," Liu Heng said, wiping the sweat from his own brow; his shirt was already soaked through at the chest.

Many of the refugees in the column had simply gone shirtless. Beads of sweat trickled down their chests and backs, creating streaks of mud against their dust-covered skin.

After walking another three miles, they finally reached a sparse grove. Liu Heng ordered the column to rest within the woods.

Upon hearing the order to rest, the refugees collapsed onto the ground, sprawled out without any regard for their appearance. Those who were slightly more refined leaned against tree trunks, fanning themselves with their hands.

Liu Heng found Li Shuheng, who was tending to the livestock, and said, "It's too hot. We need to arrange for people to fetch fresh water from the river, boil it, and let it cool for the road. We must take extra care of these animals; we are relying on them to carry all our heavy supplies."

"Rest assured, I have already arranged for that," Li Shuheng replied. "You can leave these small matters to me. Your task is to lead everyone to a safe place to settle. If we keep rushing like this, people will never feel at ease."

"It won't be long now. Once we reach Guangling, we'll be safe." Liu Heng grabbed a handful of beans and held them out to the livestock, watching as the animal began to eat greedily.

Li Shuheng said with concern, "If we take so many people to Guangling, will it attract the government's suppression?"

"The scouts I sent to Guangling have already returned. That place only has an inspector with the surname Li, who has about fifty soldiers under his command. By the time the government troops gather enough men to suppress us, we will have already retreated into the mountains. From then on, as long as we don't move thousands of men down from the mountains, the officials will only treat us as ordinary bandits." As the beans in his hand were finished, Liu Heng grabbed another handful and held it out to the animal.

Li Shuheng looked Liu Heng over carefully and said, "Before, Xunping always said you had finally found your wits, but I didn't believe him. Now it seems you really have, just as the elders used to say. There are so many things I don't know how to handle, yet you already have a plan. You are far better suited to lead this group than Shi Yunhu."

Liu Heng smiled and said, "There is no need for such talk between brothers. As for Shi Yunhu... I fear he has already become a captive of the government troops by now."

***

At the government army camp on Mount Quanliang.

A group of ragged refugees had been driven together by the government troops, surrounded by soldiers holding weapons. Injured refugees were taken away by the soldiers to be executed on the spot.

On the north side of the camp, there was a pit filled with headless corpses, and a pile of severed heads had been stacked beside it.

Refugees were continuously escorted over, brought to the edge of the pit, and decapitated with a single stroke. Their bodies were tossed carelessly into the pit, and their heads were added to the pile.

The ground around the pit had long been soaked in blood and turned into a muddy mire. The thick stench of blood was nauseating, and many soldiers could not bear it, running off to the distance to vomit repeatedly.

Several blades used for the executions had their edges chipped, whether from the sheer number of heads or the poor quality of the steel, no one could tell.

The government camp was situated upwind, so the stench of blood from the north rarely drifted toward the main encampment.

Inside the commander’s tent, Li Kaiyang’s face was terrifyingly dark; even his personal guards were trembling.

*Smack!* He hurled a lidded teacup from his desk, the tea splashing onto the military officer kneeling on the tent floor.

"Have you interrogated them clearly? Could he have hidden among the other refugees and slipped through?" Li Kaiyang asked, suppressing his rage.

The officer kept his head low and said, "We have verified it. He escaped on horseback last night."

"A bunch of good-for-nothings!" Li Kaiyang lifted his hand and flipped the desk in front of him.

The unfinished reports, brushes, ink, paper, and inkstone fell to the ground, the inkstone shattering into several pieces.

"With an army of five thousand surrounding a few hundred men, you still let the bandit leader escape? A bunch of waste! Good-for-nothings!" Li Kaiyang roared inside the tent.

The patrolling soldiers outside glanced at the tent with lingering fear and walked a wide circle around it.

Li Kaiyang said to the kneeling officer, "Go and find out exactly which direction the bandit leader fled."

"Yes!" The officer hurried out of the tent. Only after he was away from the tent did he dare to wipe the sweat from his forehead.

One of the personal guards standing beside Li Kaiyang said, "Sir, more than twenty riders escaped from the north camp last night. Could the bandit leader have been among those who fled?"

"Waste, all of you are waste! A bunch of good-for-nothings—over a thousand men couldn't even stop twenty people!" Li Kaiyang kicked the overturned desk again in his fury.

Taking several deep breaths to suppress his anger, Li Kaiyang said to his guard, "Pass the order down: the bandit leader Shi Yunhu refused to surrender and was shot dead on the spot by stray arrows."

The guard asked cautiously, "What about the corpse? The superiors will certainly want to verify the head."

"Find someone who looks similar, cut off his head, preserve it with saltpeter, and put it in a wooden box," Li Kaiyang said. "Go do it!"

The guard bowed, acknowledged the order, and retreated from the tent.

Li Kaiyang turned to another guard and said, "Take a fast horse and pursue the battalion under Assistant Prefect Huang and Battalion Commander Zheng toward Yangyuan County. Tell them that, no matter what, they must annihilate the group of refugees that escaped."

"Understood."

The guard retreated from the tent, went to the stables to fetch a horse, and galloped out of the camp, racing along the main road toward Yangyuan County.