Chapter 290

On the fifth day after Guoguo’s accident, Xu Ran was called to the military camp by the people sent by Lu Qi. It was so urgent that there was no time for him to go home and explain. Fortunately, since Du Xin knew about this, Xu Ran entrusted him to take a message to his family.

There was only one reason that Lu Qi called Xu Ran here in such a hurry. That is, the Barbarians came to attack Yanzhou.

30 Miles away from the military camp of Yanzhou, there stationed 50,000 enemy soldiers, the same number as the army of Yanzhou. This was a very serious matter.

The masses of Yanzhou were still not aware of the presence of the army, and Lu Qi does not want too many people to get the news of it for the time being, because once all people know about it, it would cause panic. Although he was a Master, he was not the master of Yanzhou after all.

As for Xu Ran, needless to say, in ordinary times, people might be willing to listen to him. However, who would take him seriously in such an important juncture of life and death?

After the two discussed, they unanimously agreed that they should not let the matter spread out first. They would not release the news until they couldn’t hide it any loner. It would be best to defeat the enemy troops before the masses had found it.

This was also the purpose of Lu Qi looking for Xu Ran–to discuss with him.

In fact, it was not easy to deal with now, because it was not clear what the Barbarian was up to at all. They could only rely on their own judgement, and they had to be wary of being attacked.

Lu Qi said to Xu Ran, “According to the report of the scout, the Barbarian Army seem to be waiting for something, so they stay put.”

What were they waiting for? Xu Ran stroked his head and started to think what could be used by barbarians to threaten them.

After thinking about it for a while, Xu Ran came to two conclusions. One was Xiao Qingyun, the husband of King Yan. Second, the Barbarian were preparing to sneak attack.

After thinking about these two points, Xu Ran said to Lu Qi, “First, immediately send someone to ambush beside those paths and places with caves. Maybe there would be some unexpected gains. As for the second thing, send a few people with good kung fu to guard the Prince Palace, where Du Xin was alone now. You have to send people to protect him.”

Lu Qi narrowed his eyes and said, “I see. I will arrange it, but you have to do me a favor. Yanzhou has not experienced wars for more that one year. I’m worried that there will be spies in the military camp, so help me find them out.”

The problem of spies was serious. Many people ended up being ruined by their own people, so they had to keep alert.

In terms of helping to find spies, Xu Ran had no experience at all. After all, he had never been a detective in the past. However, as he was an outsider to the military camp, he might accidentally detect something. Hence Xu Ran nodded assent.

Xu Ran stayed in the military camp and asked someone to bring a letter to Liu Tong to let them rest assured. Then he entrusted other things to Lu Qi, and his daily affairs were nothing but wandering around idly.

At the beginning, the people in the military camp did not know him, but Xu Ran was so talkative that he soon familiarized himself with the people and the surroundings.

The suspicious people and things were not discovered. On the contrary, the people sent by Lu Qi had a harvest.

Nothing happened to King Yan’s residence. After all, King Yan’s residence was on the main street, and  was secure with the armed guards, it was not easy to sneak into the Residence without being noticed.

Their ambush around the paths was quite rewarding.The Barbarian, being either too confident or out of some other reasons, without sending anyone to investigate again in advance, directly sent soldiers over. As a result, they were annihilated by the ambushing Yanzhou soldiers.

This was indeed worth celebrating. but after gathering his wits together, Xu Ran felt that something was wrong, because the enemy soldiers were detected in several places at the same time, but not one alive was left among so many people.

Maybe the soldiers at the bottom were kept in the dark, but would the generals not know?

But this happened so coincidentally, not one alive being left. There was not too much coincidence in the world, but too many people with ulterior motives.

It only took a little thought to understand that someone must have done something.

Xu Ran found Lu Qi and told him his guess, letting Lu Qi find out who gave the order.

Lu Qi said, “I can be sure that this is definitely not me, and among the ones who are aware of the matter and have the right to make these people obey, there is only one person left– that is deputy general Luo.”

Lu Qi and Xu Ran looked at each other. They didn’t expect that the deputy general Luo would actually be related to the spy, and it was very likely that he was one.

If deputy general Luo was really a spy, then things would probably be serious. Putting aside the fact that he knew the military’s strength, he was also aware of many other arrangements.

With a sour face, Lu Qi said to Xu Ran, “Deputy general Luo is one of the most trusted generals of the prince. Apart from the matter of Second Master, he basically knows everything else.”

In this case, many of their arrangements had to be changed. Judged from the current situation, this person has not planned to be exposed for the time being, otherwise the Barbarian would not lose so many soldiers.

Xu Ran thought about it and said to Lu Qi, “It’s best that this person is not deputy general Luo. If it is really him, we must finish him off as soon as possible. Find someone to find out who issued this order. We will make plans after we confirm it.”

Lu Qi frowned. “It’s really difficult for me to confirm this. You know my status. Once I give this order, that person will probably notice it. It’s better for you to go.”

Xu Ran thought it was right. As soon as Lu Qi inquired about it, the people below would probably start to be nervous. Furthermore, it would disturb the military morale. It was better for him to go. Anyway, he was quite familiar with the people below. A random joke would bring out the question, without causing suspicion.

After making up his mind, Xu Ran went out to work.

As soon as he left, the deputy general Luo came in. As soon as he saw Lu Qi, he asked, “Don’t Master think this is weird?”

Lu Qi was slightly stunned, and immediately understood what he was saying, but he didn’t show in his face at all. He asked, “What weird thing is deputy general Luo talking about? Did something happen in the army?”

Deputy general Luo stepped forward to Lu Qi. He looked at him and said, “Nothing happened in the army. It is about people who went out to ambush. There are so many enemy soldiers, yet not one alive was left. Don’t Master think this is weird?”

Seeing the serious expression on the deputy general Luo’s face, Lu Qi almost wanted to help deputy general Luo clear his suspicion in his heart, but soon this idea was abandoned by him, because he felt that this was very likely another trap of deputy General Luo.

Lu Qi frowned and responded to him. “Yes, I also think this is quite strange. None of the people who came back mentioned how these people died and they never told me why not one alive was left. Do you know the reason for that?”

Lu Qi tossed the question back and looked at deputy general Luo with a meaningful expression.

Deputy general Luo said to Lu Qi, “I think it’s weird, so I asked these people before I came. They said that someone gave them an order. I personally mobilized these people, but I have never issued such an order. Didn’t Master think there is something fishy about this?”

Lu Qi looked at deputy general Luo and saw that he had a serious expression on his face. His words did not sound fake at all. For an instant, he could not tell whether he was lying or not.

Lu Qi was silent for a while and asked deputy general Luo, “Deputy general Luo, did you know who gave the order? Who else in this camp could make them so obedient besides you and me?”

Lu Qi did not expect that deputy general Luo would give him the most unexpected name of all. He was referring to Xu Qing, which was Tangtang’s name.

Lu Qi’s face was full of disbelief, which seemed to stimulate deputy general Luo, who began to talk about Tangtang’s abnormal behavior. He said that he felt that it was abnormal since the two entered the military camp last year. Moreover, the sneak assault of the Barbarians happened when the two were there. Between them, one was missing, and the other came back intact, which was quite weird, wasn’t it?

Deputy general Luo’s tone was very certain, and he even used reasonable evidence. After hearing him talk so much, Lu Qi understood what deputy general Luo intended to do– to get Tangtang out of the military camp, or to hand him over to the Barbarians directly. However this was definitely not deputy general Luo’s ultimate goal. The person he feared should be Xu Ran.

Lu Qi narrowed his eyes and said to himself that this deputy general Luo had been quite observant. Before Xu Ran had done anything, he already set his eyes on him.

Lu Qi thought that if deputy general Luo did not come to tell him this, he might not be so sure that Luo was a spy. After all, Luo had been following King Yan for many years, and he did not want to suspect his own fellows.

However, he spoke ill of Tangtang in front of him. As to what kind of person Tangtang was and what his relationship with King Yan was, Lu Qi knew better than anyone else.

Lu Qi was also a little glad that King Yan didn’t tell deputy general Luo about the matter of Second Master.

Lu Qi said to deputy general Luo, “Since you suspect Xu Qing so much, then the investigation of this matter will be in your charge, but you have to remember one thing–you must not let this matter disturb the military morale. As long as something is up, you are the one to blame. You also know that Prince have entrusted the matters of Yanzhou to me.”

The expression on the face of deputy general Luo changed again and again. He seemed to be very dissatisfied with what Lu Qi said at last, and his tone was very stiff when he responded.

Deputy general Luo might feel a little uncomfortable, so he didn’t say anything else and left.

After deputy general Luo left, Lu Qi was going to return to the main seat. Then he saw Xu Ran come in, who looked at Lu Qi with a serious expression, “I know who the spy is.”

Lu Qi looked shocked and quickly asked, “Who is it?”

Xu Ran said, “There are more than one spy, and the two spies don’t know each other.”

Lu Qi asked, “One is deputy general Luo, then who is the other one?”

Xu Ran said, “Someone around deputy general Luo. I just went to ask the several heads who had led the soldiers out. They said that they were told to do so by the people around deputy general Luo. At that time, they even refuted and felt that it was unreasonable, and that person was very hard line. He said that this was the order of deputy general Luo, who instructed that they must carry it out, but in fact, it was not what deputy general Luo said.”

Lu Qi smiled after hearing this. “These spies even worked unanimously.”

Then, his eyes turned cold and said, “Then let’s finish them off together!”

Xu Ran spread his hands, indicating that he had no objection at all.