I traveled back to the Southern Song Dynasty and was actually outmaneuvered by Yue Fei.

From Lin'an to Xiangyang, the official road passed through Quzhou, Xinzhou, and Hongzhou, then turned onto the Han River, a total distance of 1,700 li.

Yue Yinping originally planned to travel for twenty days.

On his first night away from Lin'an, Li Yanxian marked all the post stations, ferries, and passes along the way on a piece of parchment.

The places where horses could be changed and rested, and the places where detours were necessary, were all written in tiny, dense characters.

He presented the parchment to Yue Yinping: "This humble general has traveled this road. In the tenth year of Shaoxing, I followed General Yang from Xiangyang to Yancheng, and then back from Yancheng."

Yue Yinping took the parchment, unfolded it, and glanced at it. She had forgotten some of the place names on it, and she had never heard of others.

She thought all she needed to do on this route was bring a gun, but she was wrong.

On the seventh day of our journey, outside Quzhou city.

Freezing rain fell, and a thin layer of ice formed on the post road. Yue Yinping took shelter from the rain in an abandoned Guandi Temple beside the post road.

She placed the coffin behind the statue of the deity, and Li Yanxian set up a guard post outside the temple, with three imperial guards taking turns to rest.

Yue Yinping was squatting under the eaves of the temple catching rainwater when she heard the sound of horses' hooves.

There were more than one horse, four horses, coming from the direction of Quzhou.

Li Yanxian's hand rested on the hilt of his sword. Three imperial guards emerged simultaneously from behind a temple pillar, their hands tucked into their sleeves, the cuffs bulging.

The four horses stopped in front of the Guandi Temple.

Four people appeared immediately, dressed in gray short browns, with straw raincoats draped over their shoulders, the hems of which were speckled with mud.

The one at the very front dismounted from his horse, took two steps toward the temple gate, and removed his straw hat.

Yue Yinping recognized him; he wasn't the man in gray. The man in gray wore gray as a code, while these people wore gray as a disguise.

The spies in Qin Hui's mansion had the hilts of their swords protruding from their waists beneath their raincoats.

"Miss Yue." The man stood three steps outside the temple gate, without crossing the threshold.

Rainwater trickled down the edge of his straw hat and onto his raincoat.

"Prime Minister Qin has ordered that Miss Yue be brought back to Lin'an, and that Prime Minister Qin will properly bury Marshal Yue's coffin."

Yue Yinping did not stand up. She continued sharpening her spear, stroke by stroke, her rhythm unwavering. "My father's coffin need not trouble Prime Minister Qin."

Li Yanxian stood to the left front, his sword drawn three inches from its sheath, and warned in a deep voice, "We will escort General Yue's coffin."

The man was silent for a moment, rainwater pooling at his feet. Then he took a step back and raised his right hand.

The three men in gray behind him simultaneously dismounted, reaching their hands into their raincoats, which flung out a row of fine raindrops.

Yue Yinping gripped the spear leaning against the temple pillar. Her movement to stand up was small; the shaft of the spear slid out along the base of her thumb, and the tip dragged across the stone slab, scattering a string of extremely fine sparks.

The gray-clad man at the front stepped through the temple gate, the hem of his raincoat billowing in the wind, revealing the hilt of his sword at his waist.

He drew his sword very quickly, reaching his right hand into his raincoat to grasp the hilt, and as he pulled it out, he leaned forward, the blade drawing a diagonal line.

Yue Yinping's spear was faster than his, faster in terms of distance. With a seven-foot shaft and a three-foot tip, before he could even fully draw his sword, the tip of her spear was already at his throat.

He didn't even see how the spear was thrust out; when he fell, the knife was only halfway out, and the blade hit the threshold.

The remaining three men in gray simultaneously drew their swords and spread out.

One approached from the left, around to the back of the temple pillar; another approached the coffin from the right; and the last one faced her head-on, knife raised, staring into her eyes.

They were used to hunting in groups, but the premise of such hunting was that the prey would retreat, and Yue Yinping did not retreat.

She took a step forward, the tip of her spear lifting the gray-clad man's corpse from the ground and flinging it toward the one on the right closest to the coffin.

The man instinctively dodged to the side, but the spear tip had already passed under the corpse and pierced his inner thigh.

He screamed and knelt on one knee. The knife flew out of his hand, hit the side of the coffin, and bounced off.

It wasn't a fatal spot, but Yue Yinping chose this position because she was standing too close to the coffin, and she couldn't risk letting the blade injure the coffin lid.

The gun tip drew a very short arc in the air, shaking off the blood.

The gray-clad figure on the left leaped out from behind the temple pillar, and Yue Yinping released her left hand. Her right hand gripped the butt of the spear, the shaft spun half a circle at her waist, and the spear tip emerged from behind her, sweeping horizontally across the man's neck.

The last gray-clad man still held his knife, but took a half-step back.

At that moment, the sound of horses' hooves came from the direction of the post road again.

This time there was only one horse, which arrived very quickly. Immediately following it was a young man dressed in a short blue cloth robe, without a raincoat, and completely soaked.

He rode his horse to the front of the Guandi Temple, jumped off his horse, and held up a black lacquered waist plaque in his hand.

"The Prime Minister Qin has decreed—" The young man stood panting in the rain, "Yue Yinping is the daughter of a disgraced official, and according to the law, she should be exiled to Lingnan."

The Prime Minister of Qin has submitted a memorial to the Emperor, requesting a decision. Before the Emperor's decree is issued, no one may act arbitrarily. Those who violate this will be punished with private force.

The remaining men in gray looked at each other in bewilderment.

His lips moved as if he wanted to say, "When did Prime Minister Qin issue this order?" but he didn't say it out loud. The black lacquered waist tag was genuine.

The token from the Prince of Puan's residence was genuine. One of them gritted his teeth, mounted his horse, and the other two turned their horses around and disappeared into the freezing rain.

The young man stood in the rain, waiting until the sound of horses' hooves had completely disappeared before turning over his waist tag.

There are no words on the back, only a very fine engraving.

He tucked the waist token into his pocket. "Miss Yue, His Highness asked me to deliver a message." His voice was muffled by the rain.

"explain."

"Qin Hui's men set up an ambush at Maling Ferry. His Highness instructed Miss Yue to take the waterway instead—Sun Yan's boat is located on the upper reaches of the Xin River, and the bow of the boat is painted with a cinnabar fish."

Yue Yinping sheathed her spear: "How did Your Highness know?"

"The news came from Feng Yi within the palace. Qin Hui's spy requested an audience in the palace the night before last. Upon his departure, Qin Hui immediately ordered the dispatch of fast horses from Lin'an Prefecture."

His Highness suspects they will ambush you on the official road, creating the illusion of killing the enemy and gaining merit before the Emperor issues an edict.

The young man wiped the rain from his face; his fingers were rough, with calluses on the base of his thumb. Yue Yinping looked at the hands that held the gun. "Are you a member of the Imperial Guard?"

"Zhang Heng, Third Commander of the Left Wing of the Imperial Guards." He raised his head, his face obscured by the rain, only his sharp jawline was visible.

"Now under the command of Prince Puan, Manager Wang of Shunhe Tea Shop received news yesterday evening that Qin Hui's spies had gathered more than ten people at Maling Ferry, disguised as river bandits."

Yue Yinping planted her spear on the ground and stood up. "You are Master Zhijia's man."

Zhang Heng's voice lowered slightly. "In the tenth year of Shaoxing, Master Zhijia saved my life in Yancheng. My life belongs to him. Now that he is dead, my life is returned to Commander Yue."

He took the waist token out of his pocket and handed it back to Yue Yinping, saying, "His Highness said to keep this waist token for you."

When traveling by water, there are people who will make arrangements beforehand for the checkpoints along the way, but this cannot be openly displayed—it can only be handed through the window when paying the toll, so that the guards can glance at it and then put it away.

"Sun Yan's men use coded messages to make contact. His Highness also said—" Zhang Heng paused, his voice was muffled by the heavy rain, then rose again.

"Xiangyang is a long way, but I'll make it there alive."