Aoyama

Chapter 463 Ambitious Man

"You have no way out."

Princess Liyang disregarded her image and sat down on the ground next to Chen Ji, saying in a low voice, "Rather than waiting to die by Jiang Xiansheng's side, it's better to take a gamble with me. Even if we fail, we'll still die, but if we succeed, we'll have a lifetime of wealth and honor."

Chen Ji leaned against the birch tree, stroking a sharp stone fragment in his hand: "Your Highness, did you deliberately reveal the court's secrets in front of us, just so that I would have no other choice at this moment?"

Princess Liyang calmly said, "Boy, do you remember that old bastard Jiang Xiansheng tried to kill you the moment you met? If I hadn't stopped you, you would have been dead long ago."

Chen Ji's fingers, which had been caressing the stone slab, stopped.

He didn't have much contact with this Princess Liyang, and his only impression of her was that she was ruthless and unscrupulous.

Seeing that Chen Ji remained silent, Princess Li Yang leaned closer and asked, "Don't you want to live? Don't you want wealth and honor?"

“I would like to,” Chen Ji said calmly, “but I am merely a grain transporter. Even if Your Highness were to rely on me, I would be powerless to help.”

Princess Liyang sneered, "You are not ordinary grain farmers."

Chen Ji's fingers, which were holding the stone shard, slowly tightened: "Your Highness is joking. What else are we but grain consumers?"

Princess Liyang said calmly, "My family lives in Liaoyang Prefecture, the capital city. Our ancestors were nobles and we are literate. We could easily find a job as a teacher or accountant in the capital, but instead we are transporting grain all the way here?"

Chen Ji felt a chill run down his spine.

He had also wondered why their travel permit stated that their household registration was in Liaoyang Prefecture, the capital of the Jing Dynasty, so why were they transporting grain to a border town? Master Hu's explanation was that Zhou Zhixue, whom Hong Zu'er had replaced, had gotten a grain transport business by relying on his childhood friend in the Right Valiant Guard... But the Right Valiant Guard of the Jing Dynasty was one of the twelve central imperial guards, and it was not near Baidadan City.

Without time to think about these things, Chen Ji calmly replied, "Your Highness, it's just that I'm forced by circumstances."

Princess Liyang frowned: "I have already sent Jiang Que and Jiang Guo to Baidadan City. With them there, no one can survive. Now that we both have a chance to live, how can we just sit here and wait to die?"

Chen Ji glanced at Jiang Xiansheng, who was resting with his eyes closed by the campfire.

Princess Liyang smiled and said, "Young man, you are also from Liaoyang Prefecture, the capital. You should have heard of my reputation."

Chen Ji did not answer rashly. He was not a true resident of the capital and knew little about this Princess Jingchao.

Fortunately, before he could answer, Princess Liyang said, "If you help me go to Longyou Road, I dare not say that I will be ennobled as a marquis or prime minister, but becoming the governor of a prefecture will be a piece of cake."

Chen Ji calmly said, "You seem to have forgotten that you just caused my wife to risk her life in Baidadan City."

Princess Liyang did not directly address the matter, but instead said, "I'm tired from walking, would you like to massage my legs?"

Having said that, she took off her embroidered shoes and tried to place her foot, clad in silk stockings, on Chen Ji's leg. But as she lifted her foot, Chen Ji had already stood up and stepped back, leaving her foot on the ground.

Princess Liyang was not angry. She looked up at Chen Ji and asked with a smile, "Am I not as good as your disheveled wife?"

Chen Ji replied earnestly, "It's incomparable."

Princess Liyang said casually, "How is it inferior?"

Chen Ji clasped his hands and said, "Your Highness, nothing compares."

Princess Liyang leaned against the birch tree trunk and slowly stood up, putting her shoes back on: "Never mind, she's just someone who can't see the situation clearly."

Jiang Xiansheng, standing by the campfire, opened his eyes and said calmly, "What kind of behavior is it for a princess of our dynasty to use her beauty to please men?"

Princess Liyang sneered as she sat back down by the campfire: "Isn't sending someone to the Ning Dynasty for a marriage alliance also using one's beauty to curry favor? Just because I'm going to sell myself to a grain farmer, and you're going to sell me to the emperor of the Southern Dynasty, does that make you seem more noble?"

Jiang Xiansheng said in a detached tone, "Your reputation in the capital has already damaged the dignity of the royal family, which is why His Majesty is going to exile you to the Southern Dynasty. How can you still not repent?"

Princess Liyang said expressionlessly, "If my reputation were better, wouldn't I have been married off early like my other sisters to win people's hearts? And who was the fool who came up with the idea of ​​a marriage alliance? If I really marry into the Southern Dynasty, I will tell the Southern Emperor all the secrets of the Jing Dynasty. When I return to the capital, I will be there with a knife."

Jiang Xiansheng didn't want to argue with her, so he just waved to the person behind him and said, "These two grain farmers don't need to be kept alive. Kill them and let the princess give their seductive glances to the corpses."

However, at that moment, startled birds circled in the distant mountains and forests.

Chen Ji suddenly looked up. The direction the startled bird flew was not towards Baidadan City, but towards the route the Jing Dynasty envoys had taken: the people chasing the delegation had arrived.

Jiang Xiansheng's expression changed, and he no longer cared about killing Chen Ji, so he hurriedly got up.

A soldier raised his halberd: "Charge!"

No sooner had he finished speaking than an iron-tipped arrow pierced through the thin mist in the forest, shot towards the soldier, pierced his throat, and sent him flying backward, exploding into a cloud of blood mist.

Hard bow.

This is a 120-pound hard bow.

"Protect your lord!"

"Back off!"

The armored soldiers pulled Jiang Xiansheng away in a hasty retreat, but the soldiers who stood in front of Jiang Xiansheng were shot down one by one. There were more than sixty men when they arrived, but only forty-two remained when they left the campfire.

Every arrow hit its mark, striking the throat with deadly accuracy.

The armor on the soldiers seemed indestructible, but it became a hindrance when they tried to escape. Chen Ji suddenly thought of the sharpshooters in Jingchao's Tiance Army; only sharpshooters could achieve this level of skill.

The troops that arrived were the elite of the Jing Dynasty's Imperial Guards, the cream of the crop.

In this chaotic situation, only one person did not retreat but instead advanced.

Hong Zu'er pulled out the hairpin from his head, staring intently at Jiang Xiansheng's back, and charged towards him. Everyone was dodging the oncoming arrows, completely unaware of the murderous intent lurking behind them.

Just as Hong Zuer came up behind Jiang Xiansheng and raised his hand, Chen Ji appeared beside him at some point and tightly gripped his wrist.

Hong Zuer suddenly turned his head, his hair disheveled, and looked at Chen Ji with eyes full of anger. Chen Ji stared into his eyes without flinching.

An iron-rimmed arrow pierced the throat of an armored soldier, passing between their eyes with blood and wind, yet neither of them blinked. Hong Zu'er flicked his wrist, intending to use his hairpin to strike Chen Ji's wrist, but Chen Ji suddenly exerted force, his fingers plucking at Hong Zu'er's tendons as if strumming a zither string.

Hong Zu's hands involuntarily loosened, and Chen Ji snatched the hairpin away: "You!"

Before he could finish speaking, Jiang Xiansheng was surrounded by armored soldiers as he passed by the two of them. One of the soldiers pulled Princess Liyang back, and Princess Liyang suddenly bent down and bit the back of the soldier's hand.

The armored soldier, in pain, let go, leaving Princess Liyang to run into the mountains.

But she had only taken two steps when Chen Ji grabbed her by the back of the neck and stopped her.

Princess Liyang's face flushed red: "Let me go!"

Chen Ji ignored them, pulling Hong Zu'er with one hand and Princess Li Yang with the other, flying backward at a speed even faster than Jiang Xiansheng. Jiang Xiansheng and the armored soldiers looked at Chen Ji in surprise, but Chen Ji didn't look at them, only solemnly saying, "Retreat to Baidadan City!"

The soldiers in the delegation only had long halberds. Without their two officers, Jiang Que and Jiang Guo, their close-quarters weapons were powerless against the 120-pound bow.

Iron-tipped arrows rained down, so much so that the armored soldiers couldn't even see the archers.

They could only vaguely see figures moving about in the mist, all hiding behind the birch trees.

The elite troops with bows were divided into two groups, left and right. After the left group drew their bows and fired their arrows, the right group immediately took advantage of the pressure from the arrows to leave the birch trees that concealed their figures, and advanced diagonally forward by twenty paces before hiding behind the trees again.

After the arrows were shot from the right flank, the left flank repeated the same tactic.

They advanced forward from both the left and right, advancing cautiously and steadily, yet they were faster than Jiang Xiansheng and his men in retreat.

One by one, the armored soldiers in front of Jiang Xiansheng fell, and after escaping a hundred paces, only twelve remained. Just then, startled birds took flight again from the mountains and forests between them and Baidadan City, circling overhead.

Chen Ji suddenly stopped in his tracks; he was surrounded.

An arrow shot from behind, pushing Hong Zu'er behind a birch tree. The two separated, and the arrow passed between them. If Chen Ji hadn't reacted quickly, the arrow would likely have embedded itself in the back of his hand.

Chen Ji dragged Princess Li Yang behind another birch tree, quietly listening to the sounds around them.

Hong Zu'er leaned against the tree trunk and said coldly, "Now look what happened. We didn't get the job done, and we lost our lives. I know you can't bring yourself to do it, but we've been like this for so many years. Every time we went out, we never thought we'd come back alive. This is our fate."

Chen Ji ignored him.

In the mountains and forests, only two armored soldiers remained, hiding behind a tree with Jiang Xiansheng. One of the soldiers said coldly to Chen Ji, "You take the princess and leave first."

Chen Ji ignored him and looked up at the flock of birds in the sky above the mountains and forests.

The elite troops that surrounded us were numerous and came very quickly. If we were carrying any burdens, we would definitely not be able to escape... but even if we were not carrying any burdens, we might not be able to survive.

At this moment, Princess Liyang struggled in his hands, angrily saying, "Let me go! I don't need your help!"

She pulled out the hairpin from her hair and stabbed it into Chen Ji's thigh, but Chen Ji only tightened his grip, and she subconsciously let go in pain, causing the hairpin to fall to the ground.

The surroundings suddenly became quiet.

The sound of rustling footsteps came from all directions, surrounding the six people.

Chen Ji coldly observed that the approaching elite troops were hidden thirty paces away, the optimal firing distance for archers to deal with the officers. This ensured they wouldn't lose accuracy, nor would they be able to close in and break through the encirclement.

Whose person is this? Lu Jin's?
If we reveal our nephew's identity now, is there still a glimmer of hope?
No.

wrong.

Chen Ji closed his eyes and pondered for a couple of breaths. When he opened them again, he used Hong Zu'er's hairpin to press against Princess Li Yang's fair neck and slowly walked out from behind the tree: "Let us go, or she will die."

The armored soldiers protecting Jiang Xiansheng were taken aback: "These people are here to kill us. What use is it for you to hold His Highness hostage?"

Chen Ji said in a deep voice, "They didn't come to kill people, they came to rescue people. I believe it now, there are three military governors standing behind Her Highness the Princess."

Princess Liyang angrily retorted, "Nonsense! They've come to kill me! Let me go!"

Chen Ji did not answer.

The birch trees looked like white, withered bones stuck in the ground. He stood in the center of the battlefield, holding Princess Liyang hostage, surrounded by emptiness.

However, no more arrows were shot from the mountains and forests.

All sounds are silent.

Chen Ji breathed slowly.

One breath, two breaths, three breaths...

At the tenth breath, a clear bird song rang out in the mountains, as if it were a signal.

An arrow shot from behind Chen Ji, who seemed to have eyes in the back of his head, pulling Princess Li Yang to dodge it.

The next moment, Chen Ji plunged the hairpin deep into Princess Liyang's outer thigh, then pressed it against her neck and said coldly, "I told you, let us go, or she will die."

The mountains and forests fell silent once more.

Princess Liyang's leg was bleeding profusely from the stab wound, but she remained calm and said, "Since you know they came to rescue people, why not release me? My previous promise still stands. When my brother ascends the throne, I will grant you the position of governor of a prefecture."

Chen Ji laughed and said, "You can't believe a word an ambitious person says."

As they spoke, a bowstring twanged from deep within the forest, and an arrow pierced through the mist, embedding itself in Jiang Xiansheng's thigh. The arrow struck the exact spot where Chen Ji had stabbed Princess Liyang—a clear act of retaliation.

Chen Ji ignored Jiang Xiansheng's life or death and stabbed Princess Liyang's thigh twice with his hairpin. Blood stained her skirt and flowed down her leg, staining her stockings red.

Chen Ji calmly said, "Don't make me say it a third time, step back!"

(End of this chapter)