Chapter Eighty-Five: To Battle

Shiao Huiyuan’s farce was only a minor interlude, and dealing with it had not cost Ye Pei much time. Afterward, he and the others went to see Yang Tianrui.

Even after they met, Yang Tianrui was still brimming with warmth. It was plain to see that he truly admired Ye Pei and Jiang Zhongqing.

“Brother Ye, Brother Jiang, and our two sisters-in-law, come, sit, sit.”

Ye Pei returned the salute with clasped hands. “Brother Yang, you are too kind.”

Then Yang Tianrui introduced the other man in the command tent. “This is Liu Ziwen, the strategist of my clan. He has come here with me to lead the troops.”

Ye Pei greeted the slight Liu Ziwen. “I am Ye Pei. I have long admired General Liu’s reputation.”

Liu Ziwen smiled and bowed in return. “Young Hero Ye is a rare talent among the young. I am in admiration.”

The man had fair skin and a small frame. His lips were as thin and sharp as a knife’s edge, and his eyes, though small as spearpoints, shone with a keen light.

Ye Pei kept his face calm, but in his heart he quietly became more guarded. A man of letters may disrupt politics, but a man of arms cannot so easily overthrow the law. No matter how formidable Yang Tianrui might be, he was still only a warrior and not to be feared. But Liu Ziwen was clearly not as open and forthright as Yang Tianrui. Working with the Feng family was already like dancing on the blade’s edge, and toward Liu Ziwen he would have to be even more vigilant than toward Yang Tianrui.

Ye Pei said, “Brother Yang, I was wondering... since the Wind family has come in person with troops, will this not completely ignite war between the two clans?”

Yang Tianrui said, “To tell the truth, that is indeed quite possible. But we are only three thousand elite soldiers; nothing to make too much of. We came by the mountain trails, and for now we are stationed directly here. When battle comes, our banners will not be displayed. So long as General Liu and I do not appear in person, no one outside will know we are Wind troops.”

Ye Pei thought it over and saw no real problem with it, so he nodded. “Brother Yang’s words are reasonable. In that case... I am reassured.”

Yang Tianrui laughed. “Exactly so. In your opinion, Brother Ye, when is the best time to march?”

Ye Pei considered it. “Speed is the soul of war. Besides, this is only a small battlefield with a few thousand men, so there is not much to prepare. On the Lin side, Lin Hezhi has just died, and this is the perfect moment to catch them off guard. I think we should move as soon as possible.”

In the Flame Lands, the version of the Flame-Viewing Season War passed down through the generations had almost turned Ye Linhui into the greatest marshal in history, while Ye Pei’s own image had also been heavily exalted, his military talent said to be second only to his father’s.

So Ye Pei’s opinion carried great weight in Yang Tianrui’s eyes. At that moment, the two were already of one mind, and Ye Pei had also brought him the welcome news that Lin Hezhi was dead.

“Hahaha, great minds think alike. Then... once the Yin clan’s army arrives, we will march!”

Ye Pei took a hard swallow of water. “Good!”

The Yin clan had not set out earlier, not because the Yin tribe lacked the courage to fight this war, but because Dongfang Boyi had considered that if the Lin side detected any unusual movement from the Yin clan, they would lose the advantage of surprise.

The moment Ye Pei returned, Dongfang Boyi sent word to the Yin tribe. The two thousand soldiers there, already long prepared and waiting with sharpened weapons, immediately set out and headed for Shiao clan territory.

After that, while the army fought at the front, more soldiers would continue to be recruited here and sent to the battlefield. Dongfang Yin had enjoyed an excellent reputation among the Dongfang, Shiao, and Yin clans, and after his murder, many hot-blooded men had long sought revenge but lacked the opportunity. Now that the army was gathering for campaign, many naturally answered the call.

Seven days later, the Yin forces arrived. Three days before that, Ye Pei and Yang Tianrui had already begun organizing the troops and packing their supplies. After the two thousand Yin soldiers arrived, the army took a brief rest. Ye Pei and the others exchanged greetings with Yin Xiangping, the Yin general, and then the six-thousand-five-hundred-strong host raised the banner of East and set out westward.

After careful consideration, Ye Pei and Jiang Zhongqing decided to keep Ziqing Rong and Zhuang Tianlan with the army. After what had happened with Shiao Huiyuan, and with that idle prodigal son clearly showing no intention of going to war, they simply could not feel at ease leaving the two women in Shiao territory.

At the head of the army, Ye Pei sat astride his warhorse with a blade of grass in his mouth, lost in thought. He remembered how, back then, his father Ye Linhui and his senior martial brother Zijie had stood atop the lofty Investiture Platform to receive the command seal. With a single cry, the hundred thousand soldiers below had answered as one, their voices shaking heaven and earth. What majesty had been.

Thinking of this, Ye Pei glanced back over his shoulder as the column climbed a slope. Behind him was a force of only eight thousand at most, even counting the supply train. Looking at this campaign, which had no real ceremony of departure to speak of, he smiled and muttered, “I wonder if I’m making Father lose face.”

He did not know that among the armies of the Wind, Yin, and Shiao clans, many were veterans of the Flame-Viewing Season War. Now, seeing Ye Pei seated in the commander’s place ahead of them, their hearts were filled with deep emotion.

They bore no direct hatred for Ye Pei. He had killed few in the war, and most of those were officers. The news that the swift march under the banner of East was heading straight for the Lin clan’s capital also spread rapidly along the route. Those who heard it knew at once that Dongfang Boyi had come for revenge. As expected, the four clans along the road made no move to interfere.

Yet there was a difference between not interfering and not interfering. Some had no grievances with either side and merely intended to watch the tigers fight from the mountain. Others were already on bad terms with the Lin clan, and upon seeing the anti-Lin army set out, they were likewise eager to join in, waiting for the moment when, if the battle did not go badly, they might send aid.

The Lin clan naturally received the news as well, and word also spread that Ye Pei was among the commanders. Lin Jingzhi was furious beyond measure. After urgent discussion in the lord’s manor, he quickly mustered five thousand men and prepared for battle.

Lin Jingzhi had never imagined that the Shiao and Yin clans would be so loyal to the Dongfang clan. He had assumed that the fallen Dongfang clan, reduced to the very old, the very young, the sick and the crippled, and a single mother with her son, no longer had any power to resist.

A long story need not be drawn out. Not many days later, the army had already pressed into the true heartland of the Lin tribe.

All the other fiefs belonged to the various clans, but the central eighteen cities and thirty-six counties were the true domain of the Lin family.

The early autumn sun cast warm but gentle light. Birds were rare in the sky, and insects seemed to have vanished from the earth. On the barren plain before the city, six thousand soldiers stood in disciplined ranks, their polished armor flashing in the sunlight and stirring every warrior’s heart.

Ye Pei and Jiang Zhongqing sat astride their horses at the front of the army, neither of them armored. Their martial arts were both of the nimble and agile kind, and heavy armor would only hinder their full strength. Though everyone thought their reasoning rather childish, Ye Pei had silenced them with nothing more than, “This young master has fought battles of hundreds of thousands in exactly this manner.”

In truth, the two were rather leisurely even before the battle. Jiang Zhongqing’s sword was still slung across his back, while Ye Pei showed no sign of any weapon on him at all. Those who knew the situation knew that Ye Pei’s weapon was hidden at his waist; those who did not might have thought him a fraud, one who had forgotten to even bring his weapon to the battlefield.

At the front, Ye Pei could not help recalling the dim dawn, when the army was forming its lines and Ziqing Rong helped him straighten his clothes, the worry in her eyes impossible to conceal.

“I thought that since your martial arts are so good, I wouldn’t worry if you went to war... but now I know I still worry terribly. You must be careful. Leave the dangerous things to the soldiers.”

At the time, Ye Pei had smiled, remembering how his father had taught him that the words soldiers most longed to hear were always, Follow me and kill. And his father, though already a marshal, would still charge first at the head of the line whenever the battle unfolded according to plan.

Ye Pei had not said any of that. He had only reached out with a smile to stroke his fiancee’s hair and said softly, “Rest easy. This sort of scene cannot keep me.”

At the front of the formation, Ye Pei’s expression grew somewhat distant.

He remembered the day he left home for the main battlefield in Luoshui City, the tears that had streamed down his mother’s face and Dragon Sparrow’s, the look on Meng Huaicheng’s face as though he would have followed him at once, and the roar of the Ye Army and Yue Zhe behind him when he fell into the Demon Gate Valley...

“Heh...” Ye Pei gave a faint laugh. “Who would have thought that today I would be standing on the battlefield of an internal war within the Flame Tribe.”

The commander on this side was Liu Ziwen. He was already at the front line together with Dongfang Boyi, while Yang Tianrui did not step forward at this time, since his features were too recognizable.

The city of Jiazhou had a fairly strong garrison of four thousand men, making it extremely difficult to take in a straight siege. So the plan of the East army was to first issue a challenge, cut down a few of their generals, and weaken their morale before doing anything else.

This idea happened to coincide with the enemy’s own. The Lin clan, long established as a dominant power, had no reason to be timid. Before the East army even issued its challenge, several of their officers had already led small detachments out through the gates to meet them.

As soon as the roughly two thousand men from the Lin side emerged from the city, a young officer armed with a spear rode out and, in the open ground before both armies, reined his horse and proclaimed, “Listen well, rebels across the way! I am Lin Po of Jiazhou! Which one of you will come first to die?”

Men like this were generally collateral relatives of the Lin family, seeking to earn some merit at such a city so they might return home and receive promotions and honors. They did have some real skill. Moreover, since the East faction was short on military strategists, the Lin side honestly did not take this too seriously and simply let these young officers come out to collect military merit.

Then Liu Ziwen suddenly drew his long sword, startling Ye Pei. He thought, Could this strategist be stirred by some blood in his heart and intend to rush out and duel himself?

But then he heard Liu Ziwen raise his arm and call out, “Which general is willing to ride out and fight?”

Hearing this, Ye Pei could not help but laugh. In truth, he rarely went to war, and he really had never fought in a manner like this.

Seeing Liu Ziwen look at him with some confusion, Ye Pei, who had originally had no intention of fighting, smiled again and said, “I am willing to go!”

Dongfang Boyi shouted, “Good! Then let General Ye take the first charge! Beat the drums!”

The war drums sounded behind them. Ye Pei took a long spear from a nearby soldier, shook the reins, and trotted his horse forward. He looked utterly unruffled.

Once he reached the field, Lin Po took one look at the white-robed youth coming to meet him and burst out laughing. “What little brat is this, coming to answer the challenge? Did your elders never teach you to wear armor?”

Ye Pei smiled. “Since your surname is Lin, I wonder which branch of the Lin clan’s three brothers you belong to?”

He was not at all sure whether the other man was actually a relative of the Lin family; it was only a casual question. To his surprise, Lin Po answered, “The three Lin brothers are my distant cousins! My martial skill may not match that of my Second Cousin Yukong, but it is not far behind! Are you here to die, or do you want to go back and bring someone else? I disdain to kill you!”

Ye Pei touched the bridge of his nose. Lin Yukong? He only remembered that he had once knocked the man’s weapon away with a single thrust and then captured him back in the city. He had not even lasted one round.

Ye Pei did not even bother giving his own name. “Enough nonsense. Come on!”

Toward the Lin family, Ye Pei had no intention of showing mercy. The Wind and Wan clans actually bore him no real grudge. Wan Zheng had once fought against Zijie, but had died in the very first clash at Zijie’s hands; Feng Xiaoyang had also died by one of his own men’s hands. But his father and senior martial brother had both been killed by members of the Lin family.

Holding the spear horizontally at his side, Ye Pei pressed his legs against his horse’s flanks and cried out, “Charge!” The warhorse obeyed at once, letting out a long neigh before thundering straight toward Lin Po. Lin Po would not be outdone. He raised his long spear and charged at Ye Pei as well.

Since he had chosen to fight, Ye Pei intended to establish his might in a single battle. As he charged, he silently circulated his inner power into his hand. A nearly imperceptible ring of transparent light flowed around the shaft of the spear, and with each swing, the air around it seemed to tremble.

Lin Po did not notice this change. Just as the two were about to clash, he thrust with all his force.

The spear in Lin Po’s hand should have been a short cavalry spear, but even so it was still longer than the infantry spear Ye Pei carried. Facing the strike, Ye Pei urged his horse slightly sideways with a squeeze of his knees, and at the same time shifted his own body just enough to evade the thrust. Then he lifted the spear and smashed it viciously down toward Lin Po.

Seeing that the other had avoided his thrust, Lin Po did not think much of it. When he saw that Ye Pei had abandoned the spear’s advantage and was using it like a cudgel, he sneered and raised his own spear to block.

But a downward smash infused with Ye Pei’s inner power was not something a mere young officer could withstand, especially with the added force of the horse’s charge. Even if the two had been evenly matched in strength, this blow would have been anything but easy to receive. It was only because Ye Pei’s skill far exceeded the other man’s that he could so easily evade the thrust and create the opening for such a crushing strike.

Crack! Thud.

With a crisp snap, the wooden shaft of Lin Po’s spear broke in two. The spear’s remaining force slammed into his chest, and he was sent flying back like a cannonball, vomiting blood as he struck the ground and fell unconscious.

For a moment, the entire battlefield fell silent.