Chapter 57 - Start the War

Outside the left gate, Ming had his men lined up the refugees but he couldn't see anyone suspicious or by chance who spoke or sounded like Goding's people or from Youshi's capital city, Fuyu.

Ming stood silent in his room after the inspection. He inhaled deeply, feeling distressed for not seeing any men from the general's side and thought of sending another scout but changed his mind. Saving all personnel for the impending war was his priority.

"General, where are you? Please, don't let us die this way." He struggled inside after not seeing the general or anyone from the capital to support them. His mind drifted, thinking the king might have neglected and sacrificed them by choosing the richer Ninpu City to protect. He threw a punch on the wall, hoping what he suspected wasn't true.

"I don't think the prime minister would leave his own daughter to die because the king neglected us. What is going on here?" Then he recalled his mother's words, "the prime minister is not as bad as you think he is."

"Oh, Ma, I hope you're right." He struck the wall again to forge out courage from his heart to face this war with his few men.

Alas, he couldn't bear the burden and begged Xionmao to send hawks and eagles to survey the roads or trails all the way to Ninpu City to find the General's whereabouts. After Xionmao sent the birds, he could only hope and pray that the birds would report that the general was getting nearer or found wounded somewhere, but not… setting a defense in Ninpu.

The night had come, but no birds came back. Ming knew of this and didn't take it to heart because Xionmao had warned him they could only expect the birds to report tomorrow since Ninpu was far in distance and the wilderness in between was wide, including passing the snowy peaks. Not even a hawk could cover it for two days.

However, this didn't stop him from his plans. Rather, he had to do what they must do to provide for the people's needs. So, as per their agreement, Xionmao asked some skunks to run around Goding armies' tents, leaving their stinky smells behind.

This caused chaos, and some men got irritated and started swinging their swords and spears to kill the critters. Good thing, each of them got away and climb on trees for refuge.

While chaos went on in the camp, big moles as big as a fox, dug underground, creating a tunnel good enough for a man to walk in from an abandoned farmhouse several yards toward one of the enemy's food tents.

Then when the moon appeared in the night sky, monkeys climbed up the hole and silently fell sacks of rice, potatoes, and others in the hole. While Ming and Xionmao waited underground exchanging the contents with rocks and the monkeys pushed them back in place.

Xionmao dragged five sacks at a time. While Ming could only drag one to two sacks at a time. Seeing his weak state, Xionmao gave him an orange root and from then on, Ming could bring out as many as Xionmao carried.

Ming didn't bring his brothers or other humans to avoid any speculations. Most of all, to keep Xionmao's existence a secret. Lifen was the lookout in the residence so if anyone asked for Ming, she would be there to respond. They did this the whole night.

As dawn approached, Ming had brought all sacks at the city gate through a wagon drawn by four horses. Zang Wei was already there waiting and opened the gate for him and hauled the sacks with Zhai and Qinfen to the storage room.

Zang Wei was about to ask on how he did it on his own but Ming only replied, "I got help who could carry a lot and move faster." And dismissed them after warning on not telling a soul of his adventures tonight. The three complied and Ming hit the pillow and went directly to dreamland.

While Ming slept, Xionmao let other animals cover the hole in the camp, but unknown to him, a man brought in a new sack in the storage room filled with bananas. Unfortunately, the two monkeys assigned to fill the hole were still hiding inside and saw the bananas.

To make a long story short, the monkeys didn't cover the hole but opened the sack and ate their fill until the cook came in.

"Ahh, monkeys are stealing our food," the man shouted, alarming the guards outside.

The guards ran to catch the two but the culprits got away and... discovered the hole. They reported it to the forcibly awakened Goding General Lofey Lethmo, who roared in anger after hearing the news, waking the whole camp into an uproar.

Before anyone could eat breakfast, all high-ranking officers stood in line inside the meeting tent. The general, a lofty man of almost two meters, in his full armor with a red cape, sat with his back straight, on a golden chair at the far end of the tent. He sat while his deep-set eyes squinted and his square jaw tightened as he listened to the report.

He couldn't imagine their food supply good for a month was stolen through a hole inside the tent. The worst, after tracing the tunnel, they only saw one pair of human feet and a pair of animal feet who walked like a human did all the hauling. Then they traced the wagon trail and found it went to Fengfu's city gate.

"Who do you think in Youshi's army or anyone from Fengfu City has the ability to do this? Do they have beast tamers who can command animals to do this dirty work, or maybe a bear, to do all those hauling? But… how did they finish the task of creating a hole and stealing those sacks of food for a night without us noticing it?" The general's voice was neither loud nor soft but his face was grim and it meant one thing... START THE WAR.