If I made you cannon fodder, how did you manage to achieve your goal of conquering the wolf's l

The wind and snow howled outside Broken River Fortress, while the charcoal fire inside the council hall crackled softly.

The messenger from the Yunzhou General's Office, carrying Xu Qingshan's barbed reply, fled in a panic, like a dog with its tail between its legs. Watching the swift horse disappear into the vast snowfield, a hint of worry, difficult to conceal, surfaced in Liu Ruyan's usually cool eyes.

"Centurion, since that old fox Chen Huaishan dared to issue this official document, it means he has already laid a trap in Yunzhou City." Liu Ruyan turned around, looking at the mountain of confessions and account books on the long table. "Even with Lord Tang Su personally overseeing the delivery, it's a two-day journey from Duanhe Fort to Yunzhou. There are too many variables along the way. Chen Huaishan could easily send his secret guards to create an 'accident' halfway there. With just a fire or a chaotic battle, all this evidence would be destroyed. He's been operating in Yunzhou for over a decade; he has plenty of ways to destroy one or two account books."

Zhou Laoqi stood aside, nodding in deep agreement: "Miss Liu is right. Those secret agents of the Chen family are experts at this kind of dirty work that can't be seen in the light. Although we are not afraid of them, as the saying goes, it's easy to dodge a spear in the open, but hard to guard against an arrow in the dark. We risked our brothers' lives to get these account books. If something goes wrong on the way, that bastard Chen Huaiyi will get away with it again."

Xu Qingshan sat upright in the main seat, his deep gaze fixed on the flickering charcoal fire. He did not immediately refute, but instead picked up the hot tea on the table and gently stirred the floating tea leaves.

"Chen Huaishan wants to destroy the evidence, which is to be expected. The more eager he is for these things, the more it shows that this account book holds his life in its hands." Xu Qingshan put down his teacup, making a crisp clinking sound, his tone as steady as the unyielding ice of the frontier. "Since he wants to destroy it, then we'll make sure he can't destroy it all."

Xu Qingshan raised his head and turned his gaze to Shen Qinghe, who was organizing case files to the side.

"Qinghe, summon all the literate clerks and accountants in the fort to the council hall. Also, go to the storeroom and fetch two hundred sheets of fine Xuan paper, and prepare enough thick ink."

Shen Qinghe was slightly taken aback, then a hint of understanding flashed in her clear eyes, and she quickly accepted the order and left.

Watching Xu Qingshan's actions, Liu Ruyan's lips unconsciously curled into a smile: "Is the centurion planning to... replicate?"

"That's right. Chen Huaishan thought that as long as he burned a ledger, the world would be at peace. Well, I'll show him what it means for a single spark to start a prairie fire." Xu Qingshan stood up, walked to the pile of evidence, and placed his palm on the heavy silver ledger.

"One ledger is easily destroyed, but what about ten? A hundred? I want to make every word in these ledgers a nail driven into the bones of the Chen family."

In less than half an hour, a dozen or so clerks and stewards with basic literacy gathered in the council hall. They each sat down at a small wooden table, with writing brushes, ink, paper and inkstones laid out in front of them.

Xu Qingshan distributed the silver account book, the old account book of Black Wind Village, the handover documents of Gray Bear Ridge, and the confessions signed by the prisoners of the patrol battalion to everyone.

"Copy down every single account, personnel list, forging serial numbers of the weapons, and even every single word in the prisoners' confessions, word for word." Xu Qingshan's voice echoed in the hall. "From now on, the doors of the council chamber are locked. No one is allowed to leave without permission until the copying is complete."

The scratching sound of the pen tip moving quickly across the paper became the only sound in the council chamber.

Throughout the night, the scribes, rubbing their aching wrists, went through batch after batch of candles. When the first light of dawn illuminated the windows of Duanhe Fort again, five thick copies, identical to the originals, were neatly arranged before Xu Qingshan. At the end of each copy, the fingerprints of the prisoners were clearly imprinted, along with the weapon serial numbers personally transcribed by Bai Zhi.

"Five copies." Xu Qingshan looked at the pages that still smelled of ink and began to distribute them in an orderly manner. "One copy will be kept in the secret vault of Black Stone Fortress and guarded by the Zhenbei Cavalry; one copy will be sent to Qingya Fortress and hidden in a secret cave in the back mountain; one copy will be sealed in the cellar of Broken River Fortress; and the last copy will be given to Guo Shan to take back to Iron Gate Fortress and keep it under strict guard."

He picked up the last, most detailed copy and handed it to Liu Ruyan.

Xu Qingshan's arrangement was flawless. Distributing the evidence across the four fortresses meant that even if Chen Huaishan wanted to forcibly send troops to seize it, he would have to breach all four heavily fortified border fortresses simultaneously. This was an impossible task for the Yunzhou camp under the current circumstances.

……

At the same time, White Wolf Village.

This border trade market, once firmly controlled by Black Wind Village and Wanhe Carriage Company, has now been completely transformed. Caravans bearing the "North Wall Merchant" sign come and go in an endless stream, and the taverns and teahouses in the market are filled with merchants from all over the country and veteran border soldiers taking a break.

Su Jinniang, dressed in an elegant fur cloak, sat in a private room on the second floor of the largest teahouse in Bailangji. She held a small purple clay teacup in her hand, seemingly admiring the snow scene outside the window, but in reality, her eyes keenly observed every movement on the street below.

As instructed by Xu Qingshan, she was to do something very important today—to use the opportunity to start a fire.

Before long, Ding Wang, along with a few quick-witted men, quietly slipped into the first floor of the teahouse and several large taverns in the vicinity. They didn't make a fuss, nor did they deliberately fabricate any sensational rumors. Instead, while chatting with the veterans and caravan members, they casually but actually with a pained tone, presented a cold, hard fact.

"Have you heard? The Zhenbei Army fought a battle at Gray Bear Ridge a couple of days ago and intercepted a large shipment," Ding Wang said in a low voice to the several weathered veterans at the table beside him.

"What kind of big stuff? Could it be more valuable than the horses we captured outside the Great Wall back then?" An old soldier with one arm missing took a swig of cheap liquor and shook his head dismissively.

"Horses are nothing!" Ding Wang leaned closer, his voice laced with suppressed anger. "It's armor! Three hundred sets of newly forged fine iron lamellar armor from the North Granary of Yunzhou! And over two thousand heavy military arrows! Guess who this shipment is for?"

Several veterans put down their wine glasses, their eyes filled with doubt.

Ding Wang gritted his teeth and said, enunciating each word clearly, "It was given to the barbarians of the Vulture Tribe! When the Zhenbei Army arrived, those barbarians were testing their swords while wearing our Great Qian's armor!"

This statement was like a boulder thrown into a calm lake, stirring up huge waves.

The noise on the first floor of the teahouse came to an abrupt halt. The drunkenness on the faces of the old soldiers vanished instantly, replaced by an incredulous shock, which then transformed into a raging inferno.

Su Jinniang listened to the commotion below from upstairs and nodded slightly. She knew very well that for these low-ranking soldiers who shed blood and sweat on the border, "embezzling military pay" might be something they could tolerate, but "selling military armor to the enemy" was definitely a violation of their bottom line.

Many soldiers from Yunzhou, in the dead of winter, couldn't even get a winter coat without holes. They shivered on the city walls in their tattered uniforms stuffed with reeds, while the fine iron armor they should have worn to protect their lives was taken by those high-ranking officials and exchanged for the barbarians' silver!

"These beasts!" The old soldier with the missing arm, his eyes bloodshot, smashed the rough porcelain wine bowl in his hand on the ground, shards flying everywhere. "Back in Wild Fox Ridge, I lost this arm because my tattered leather armor couldn't stop the barbarians' scimitars! How dare they... how dare they sell our lives!"

The news spread like wildfire, reaching every corner of the entire White Wolf Village in less than half a day.

Su Jinniang didn't exaggerate, nor did she directly accuse Chen Huaishan by name. She simply used this cold, hard fact to successfully ignite public opinion throughout the border region.

Anger spread throughout Bailangji, and more and more veterans and merchants who had been exploited by the military supply depot began to actively seek out Su Jinniang's connections and provide any clues they knew.

"Manager Su, I used to drive carts for Beicang! I've seen it! I've personally witnessed those large carts covered with black cloth being secretly transported out of the supply depot through the back door in the middle of the night!" A middle-aged groom testified with certainty.

"The grain distributed to the lower camps was all moldy, rotten, and stale! They switched out all the good grain and sold it off!"

Just as various clues were converging like snowflakes, a retired old soldier with gray hair and a blind left eye walked shakily into Su Jinniang's line of sight.

This old soldier had worked at the North Granary in Yunzhou for thirty years, but was laid off due to his advanced age, and now he could only make a living by begging in Bailangji. He looked at Su Jinniang, his cloudy single eye revealing a fear and resentment that had been building up for many years.

"Manager Su... if you really want to investigate the Yunzhou military supplies, just keeping an eye on Chen Huaiyi, the person in charge, isn't enough." The old soldier lowered his hoarse voice, as if telling a terrifying ghost story, "The waters run deep inside the North Warehouse."

Su Jinniang's expression turned serious, and she personally poured the old man a cup of hot tea: "Old man, do you know anything about the inside story?"

The old soldier held his teacup, his withered fingers trembling slightly: "In the North Granary, there's an accounting office that outsiders absolutely cannot enter. That accounting office isn't under anyone's jurisdiction; it only reports to the General's Office. Inside, they specifically handle the so-called 'battle losses,' 'road losses,' and 'bandit losses.' No matter how many good armors or how much good grain you have, once it's entered into that accounting office's register, even if the Heavenly King himself comes to investigate, he'll be dead without any proof."

The old soldier raised his head, his one eye staring straight at Su Jinniang.

"Among us old cops, that accounting office had a nickname: 'The Dead Men's Account'."

The Book of the Dead.

Su Jinniang's heart pounded. She immediately sensed the immense darkness hidden behind that word. This was precisely what Xu Qingshan had been searching for: the true link connecting Chen Huaiyi to the core of power in Yunzhou!

……

Just as the intelligence network of White Wolf Village was fully deployed, in the dungeon of Broken River Fortress, Hou San also ushered in the most crucial breakthrough in his interrogation career.

After enduring a full day and night of psychological torture, Han Zhong, the deputy captain of the patrol battalion, finally gave up his last bit of resistance. When Hou San walked up to him again with the whip soaked in salt water, Han Zhong gasped for breath like a fish out of water and shouted in a hoarse voice.

"Stop hitting me! I'll confess everything! I'll tell you everything I know!"

Hou San stopped, sneered, and pulled over a chair to sit down: "Speak, what other good stuff are you hiding? If what you say isn't valuable, this whip won't be blind."

Han Zhong swallowed hard, his eyes darting around in fear, as if wary of some unseen assassin lurking in the air.

"Chen Huaiyi... he has a secret horse ranch in Luoyan Valley, thirty miles outside Yunzhou City!" Han Zhong's voice was low and trembling slightly. "On the surface, the ranch is used to breed warhorses, but in reality, it's a private prison used by the Chen family to deal with people who can't be brought to the light of day. The guards there are all desperados that Chen Huaiyi himself keeps, and even our patrol battalion doesn't allow them to get close."

Hou San frowned: "It's just a horse farm, what's the big deal?"

"No! It wasn't just Mazhuang!" Han Zhong explained urgently, afraid that Hou San wouldn't believe him. "Three days ago, the night before we set off for Gray Bear Ridge, I personally witnessed Chen Huaiyi's manager, along with several assassins, secretly smuggling a person in a large cart used for transporting hay."

"Who is it?" Hou San's eyes gradually sharpened.

Han Zhong recalled the scene carefully, his body trembling slightly: "That person was severely injured, covered in blood, and his hands and feet were chained with thick iron chains. I only caught a glimpse of him from afar... but I recognized the clothes he was wearing! It was the standard cloud-patterned military uniform worn by the vanguard captain in the Yunzhou camp!"

Cloud-patterned military uniform!

Upon hearing this feature, Hou San suddenly stood up, a glint of light flashing in his eyes.

Three days ago, he was seriously injured, the vanguard captain!

This timing and identity perfectly match the person mentioned in Tang Su's secret letter—Zhao Wu, who was ambushed and disappeared during the escort!

"Are you sure that's the uniform of the Vanguard Commandant? Did you see the face clearly?" Hou San grabbed Han Zhong by the collar and questioned him sharply.

"I couldn't see his face clearly, it was covered in blood and mud!" Han Zhong nodded repeatedly in fright. "But I'd swear on my life, those clothes were definitely real! That man must be a high-ranking official, otherwise Chen Huaiyi wouldn't have gone to such lengths to secretly imprison him in the underground horse feed cellar at Mazhuang!"

Hou San released his grip, turned around, and strode out of the cell.

Inside the council chamber, after listening to Hou San's report, Xu Qingshan's deep eyes seemed to ignite with two cold flames.

He finally understood why Chen Huaiyi wanted to intercept and kill Zhao Wu, but didn't dare to kill him directly.

Zhao Wu was a close associate of Tang Su, holding a special position, and was also a valuable tool Chen Huaishan had used to suppress Bei Qiang in the past. Chen Huaiyi spared Zhao Wu's life because he intended to use him as a bargaining chip. If things were exposed, he could use Zhao Wu to pin all the blame on Tang Su or Xu Qingshan.

"Centurion, Zhao Wu is alive!" Hou San's voice was filled with barely concealed excitement. "If we can rescue him, his mouth will be the sharpest awl to nail the Chen family to the ground!"

"Chen Huaiyi was too clever for his own good, but he ended up leaving us with the most important witness." Xu Qingshan strode to the wall where the map of Yunzhou was hanging and pointed heavily at the location of Luoyan Valley.

"Hou San, go and select twelve of the most skilled and discreet scouts. Do not alert anyone, and bring them sharp short weapons and repeating crossbows."

Xu Qingshan turned his head, his eyes revealing a resolute determination to burn his bridges.

"We'll set off tonight and secretly infiltrate Ma Village in Luoyan Valley."

"Make sure you bring this Commandant Zhao back to the north wall unharmed!"