Thousand Miles of Bright Moonlight

 Chapter 75: Attack

    Haidu Aling’s lips curled up, his pale gold eyes slanting: “Since you want to set up an ambush, you should completely exterminate! No one left alive!”

    The strategist did not squeak.

    Haidu Aling sneered, “Consider it that he has good fate.”

    He once wanted to assassinate Li De and Li Xuanzhen, but later found that the risk was too great. Instead, he planned to kill Li Xuanzhen at the Yelu tribe and then directly plant the blame on the Yelu tribe, but he did not expect Li Xuanzhen to leave that night.

    To put it plainly, it was his own carelessness.

    However, how did Li Xuanzhen notice in advance that the Northern Rong was attacking?

    Haidu Aling frowned.

    Not only Li Xuanzhen but also Jin City, Xiao Pass, Shanzhou… Various important strategic locations he was ready to attack all seemed to have received an early warning.

    He dispatched a few hundred people pretending to be Yelu tribesmen and mixed into Jin City in the name of Princess Wenzhao, intending to take Jin City off guard and coordinate an attack from both inside and out. This malicious plan was foolproof, but the result was that Jin City suddenly closed its gates that night, and all the people who mixed into the city were ordered to be killed by a man named Du Sinan.

    Furthermore, Southern Chu and Shu, who should have sent troops to attack Great Wei, suddenly changed their minds and bided their time. Only the Northern Qi occupying Fengzhou sent troops.

    Haidu Aling rubbed his chin.

    Which part of the process went wrong?

    Only by first figuring out where the mistake was, could he avoid making the same mistake again.

    He instructed his strategist, “You personally torture the captured general of Jin City. I want to know who the divine person who tipped off the news is!”

    The strategist answered yes.

    At that moment, the thundering sound of horses’ hooves came from the east. Banners fluttered, dust rolled, and a group of dense black dots appeared on the endless plain.

    Haidu Aling narrowed his eyes as he surveyed and smiled: “Their reinforcements are coming. Let’s retreat.”

    Li Xuanzhen was one of the best warriors in the Central Plains. If unable to kill him in one go, it was best not to stubbornly continue to battle.

    Haidu Aling turned his horse around and galloped down the hill.

    One day, he will lead an army himself and bring the bravest warriors of his clan to conquer this fertile land.

    This rich earth was destined to become his, Haidu Aling’s, pasture.

    Wherever the Northern Rong horses’ hooves went, they would be conquered by him.

    “Return to the Yelu tribe.”

    The corner of Haidu Aling’s mouth hooked up.

    This time, although he did not provoke the strife between the Central Plains countries as planned, and making the Central Plains get caught once more in the conflagrations of war, he had grabbed many things. He destroyed a few small nations in passing, captured the entire region of Helong excluding Liangzhou, and also got a stunning beauty.

    When he thought of the beauty crouching at the former Khan’s bedside, sobbing in that unbearably delicate manner, his fingers moved.

    He liked to see the tears of a beauty.

    The Central Plains’ beauty had tender flesh, skin like mutton’s fat. From head to toe, every place was just right: meek, tame, delicately soft. She shivered in fear at the sight of him, like a lamb to be slaughtered, waiting to be devoured into his belly.

    It must be the most heavenly taste.

    Haidu Aling smiled lowly.

    That night, they crossed the snow-capped mountains and ran right into a rider sent by the Yelu tribe.

    The warrior immediately dismounted and reported, “The Eldest Prince was killed by a clan elder loyal to the former Khan!”

    Haidu Aling was furious: “You didn’t stop it?”

    He was sure that the Eldest Prince, that fool, could not control the tribe, and left a few of his followers to improvise. How could the Eldest Prince still be killed?

    The warrior said shamefully, “It happened suddenly. This subordinate also did not expect heavenly punishment would suddenly be sent down!”

    Haidu Aling stared blankly: “Heavenly punishment?”

    The warrior narrated with great detail the story of that night: “Princess Wenzhao of Great Wei took revenge for the former Khan and called for a heavenly punishment. The tribesmen were frightened, and the clan elders, with the other princes’ followers, took advantage of the chaos to kill the Eldest Prince. Princess Wenzhao also disappeared.”

    Haidu Aling’s face turned gloomy, a sharp, cold glint flitting through his eagle-like light golden eyes.

    He had been fooled.

    Princess Wenzhao could actually speak Hu!

    How could a princess who had been married off in such a hurry and moreover, was able to learn the Hu language without alerting others, how could she be crying and wailing, complaining over and over to her maids about how her brother sent her to marry?

    By the same token, how could a princess who only cried and complained about her brother sending her to be married have the guts to pretend to be a messenger of the heavens and disrupt the whole Yelu tribe under the pretext of heavenly punishment to escape?

    That frightened appearance, those cowardly acts, were all pretenses to make him think she was just an ordinary delicate and cowardly woman.

    When he left, she immediately showed her true colors.

    So very tame and gentle!

    Haidu Aling sneered.

    “In which direction did she flee?”

    He would personally capture that Han girl back!

    The warrior replied in a loud voice: “The princess went towards the east. Several of my subordinates left at full speed and should catch up with her!”

    Saying this, he pulled out some blood-stained letters from his arms.

    “This subordinate intercepted and killed some of the princess’s personal guards on the way, and each of them carried a letter with them. A total of eighteen people were killed and twelve letters were taken!”

    Haidu Aling’s thick eyebrows wrinkled lightly. Taking a letter, his eyes darted down the page, and a slight look of surprise appeared on his face.

    The person who informed them was actually a woman.

    His whole plan was defeated in the hands of this woman.

    Haidu Aling’s slender, eagle eyes narrowed. With a whistle, he called for and released the eagle he had raised.

    The eagle spread its wings and rode the wind to fly high into the sky.

    This eagle was his eyes. It would hover above the Ninth Heaven1, finding the trail of the Great Wei Princess for him.

    She was his chosen prey.

    She could not escape from those wings.

1 Ninth Heaven, the highest of all the heavens. (I feel as if I may have made a footnote about this?) Anyway, he means to say that the eagle is seeing everything from the highest vantage point.