Masquerade in Bridal Attire and Marry the Prince

227. Riddled with Problems

Translator: Bryan

In early winter, amid this year’s first snow, Yuxing Wei and his massive army departed from the capital city. The commoners believed that the emperor had deep love for the crown prince, which was why he appointed another prince to lead the reinforcements and prepared a lot of provisions and supplies for him. They were positive that the third prince would be able to help the crown prince subjugate Turk at one fell swoop.

The others, naturally, had no way to know what the commoners were thinking. This was the day when the third prince departed with his army, and it was also the last day of the entrance examination. Many people whose sons or nephews were examinees were now standing outside the examination hall, waiting for the examinees who had been racking their brains in the hall for days to come out. It was quite a hopeful sight.

“I can’t wait to see the results and how handsome the one who finished first place is.”

“Have you heard? Those who attended the Imperial Martial Arts Test hit the jackpot! The third prince happened to need some men to join his army. It’s said that the third prince has taken away all those he’s selected. Chances are that those people will have won some medals by the time they return. They’re much luckier than those who took the test in previous years.”

“But they might be away from home for years. If I had a daughter, I would rather marry her to someone holding a post in the court. It’s much safer to be an official in the capital city than it is to be a military officer.”

The lookers-on were discussing the issue animatedly. The streets were packed with pedestrians and peddlers, making a prosperous sight.

The borderlands. Sanyuan City. Du Chuxuan, clad in casual clothes, followed Yuxing Tianrui up the stairs to the gate tower and looked in the direction of the Turkish encampment located a short distance away from the city wall. Yuxing Tianrui had told the soldiers that Du Chuxuan was his advisor. It was common knowledge that Yuxing Tianrui had many talented people under his command, so nobody suspected Du Chuxuan’s identity.

After all, Yuxing Tianrui had told his men that Du Chuxuan was the one who had figured out a way to deliver the food supplies to them, which had been quite an effort for Du Chuxuan. The soldiers and officers, having heard the good news, naturally wouldn’t think ill of Du Chuxuan.

“The army outside this gate alone is 50,000 strong.” Yuxing Tianrui inhaled deeply. It seemed that this time the Turkish emperor was really going all out. It wasn’t difficult for Shenglan country to mobilize 50,000 soldiers, but for Turk, that was a big number.

“These soldiers are nothing but a smokescreen,” Du Chuxuan chuckled. He had better eyesight, but even he couldn’t tell what those people in the distance were doing. He withdrew his gaze and said, “The emperor definitely knows you’re faced with only 50,000 enemies. How many men do you think he’ll send here?”

On hearing his words, Yuxing Tianrui latched on to what Du Chuxuan meant. Yuxing Tianrui had only brought 30,000 men with him. If he hadn’t seized the initiative, he wouldn’t have caught the enemies off guard and successfully taken five cities.

He felt that this time around, the emperor would give Yuxing Wei 30,000 men at the most. The emperor wouldn’t dare risk letting Yuxing Wei lead an army larger than that, and a more important reason was that the emperor didn’t want people to believe that he won the war with weight of numbers.

That was what the emperor was like. Even in a war, he still wouldn’t do anything that might compromise his flawless reputation. All he cared about was his reputation. He had never consider

Both of them lapsed into silence. Du Chuxuan glanced at the soldiers building bulwarks on the side and then glimpsed someone who was standing there supervising the building work. “That guy wasn’t among those you brought from the capital city, was he?” Du Chuxuan had a very good memory, though he didn’t remember the faces of all Yuxing Tianrui’s soldiers.

But before the departure of the army, he and Yuxing Tianrui had been together when making preparations, so the 30,000 soldiers were not complete strangers to Du Chuxuan, but that man looked very unfamiliar to him. At least Du Chuxuan was positive that he had never seen that man before.

Yuxing Tianrui looked where Du Chuxuan was gazing and inclined his head. “He volunteered to join my army when we were passing a village close to Turk. His intimate knowledge of the terrain proved quite helpful when I was trying to take the other cities.”

Du Chuxuan frowned, “It surprises me a villager has kung fu skills and a decent grasp of timing. If he doesn’t have any ulterior motives, I would say he has what it takes to be a general.” His words were encouraging, but his tone of voice was heavy with sarcasm and wariness.

Yuxing Tianrui smiled. He was also quite guarded with that man, but it had been quite some time, and that man’s performance had been outstanding and flawless so far. If he kept having that man under constant watch, the other soldiers would definitely be disappointed. The two of them exchanged a smile, having caught on to each other’s thoughts. Du Chuxuan called in a low voice, “Luo Er.”

“Master.” Luo Er walked out from behind them. He had been following in their wake all along and thus naturally had overheard their conversation. “I’ll take care of it. If I find anything, I’ll report to you immediately.”

Du Chuxuan nodded in satisfaction, tossed another glance at that man and said no more. These were not peaceful times, at least not to the two of them. They couldn’t afford to take a risk like that.

Sanyuan City was located to the north of the capital city of Shenglan, and the weather here was colder. Therefore, in the capital city of Shenglan, it was only slightly chill, and people there could see frost in the morning, but in Sanyuan City, the cold was getting somewhat unbearable. Even being exposed to the wind for a few moments could be an ordeal.

Worried that Yuxing Tianrui might fall ill, Du Chuxuan drew him down the gate tower. “We should shorten the soldier’s shifts to two hours so that they’ll have enough time to find a second wind, and the shift will be less insufferable.”

A moment ago he had distinctly saw that a soldier not far away from him was carrying brisks and tiles to the gate tower, his hands scarlet from the cold, but there was nothing he could do about it.

“Your Highness, the soldiers can rough it for another day or two, but after that…” The deputy general was walking behind. He couldn’t help but say, “Our soldiers are unaccustomed to the climate in Turk. It seldom gets so cold in our capital, and when the temperature is so low, everybody will stay indoors.

“If the stand-off between us and the Turks continues, I’m afraid our advantage will soon turn into our disadvantage.” The deputy general sounded somewhat anxious. However, he couldn’t conjure up clothes or gloves for his men, no more than he could conjure up food. And he couldn’t have every soldier hold a pot of hot soup.

Du Chuxuan nodded. That was indeed a problem. He had never led an army, which was why he had failed to take that factor into consideration.