The Glory After Rebirth

499 - 501

C499 The Death of Xue Chi

Wang Dashan and the other bodyguards came to realize that something was bothering Ling Zhang, but Ling Zhang showed no inclination to talk to any of them about it, and they were unable to guess what it was about, so they just stood guard around Ling Zhang lest anybody disturb him.

Ling Zhang was not having trouble untangling any knots in his mind. He was just astonished by his actions and was introspecting about whether he had gone too far.

Soon night fell and torches were lit in the encampment.

The battlefield was a total mess, but the soldiers responsible for the clearing up were all very efficient. The placement of the injured was dealt with first, and then there was the mass burial of the war dead and the matter of inventorying the spoils.

At the edge of the battleground, some cooks, who had specially brought some fresh ingredients from inside the fortress after the battle ended, had directly built some cooking stoves there and were now cooking a meal.

At the aroma of food, expressions appeared on the dull and lifeless faces of the soldiers who were injured and exhausted.

Ling Zhang leaped on to a height which overlooked almost the whole battlefield. During this battle, the enemy's will to resist had been quite weak, and it could be said that the North-Western Army had won a runaway victory, but the casualty number was still rather high. Those slightly wounded ones would be able to resume the journey after some rest, but those severely injured ones would have to be transferred back into Shengzhou Pass to receive medical treatment. The army needed some fresh troops. On top of that, there would be another several tough battles before they reached Jifang City, and they couldn't keep Yuwen Tong waiting outside Jifang City for too long, which meant they would have to finish those fights quickly. As a result, the army didn't have much time for rest and regroupment after this battle. They had to depart the day after tomorrow.

Late that night, Jiang Ke arranged for the troops to be settled in and then summoned all officers to have a meeting. After that, Ling Zhang wrote Yuwen Tong a letter and had a carrier hawk deliver it

...

On the north bank of the Wan River, Yuwen Tong was still lingering in Zhaoyang City. This time around his army needed a longer time to rest and regroup to be fully prepared for the next battle.

After receiving a message about the battle outside Shengzhou Pass which told him that Shan Congyi was dead, that the North-Western Army had inflicted a crushing defeat on Xue Chi's army, and that Xue Chi was retreating westwards with a couple of thousand soldiers, Yuwen Tong first summoned all the officers to make battle plans for the next fight. It was not until after the meeting that he got some leisure to sit behind his desk to peruse the letter Ling Zhang had written him in reply.

Ling Zhang didn't mention anything about his confusion in the letter, but Yuwen Tong, reading between the lines, perceptively sensed that something had been bothering Ling Zhang when he had been writing the letter. His eyebrows contracted slightly.

Ling Zhang had written the letter by himself. The strokes and the amount of strength Ling Zhang had used to write the letter were no different than usual, which meant that his qi had been steady, and he should be unharmed. If it was not about injury, what was it that had been bothering him?

Yuwen Tong carefully folded the letter, put it away and started writing a letter. He wanted to ask Ling Zhang and get to the bottom of it, but his writing brush had just touched the paper when he paused. Eventually he refrained from asking.

It was only too obvious that Ling Zhang had no intention to tell him about it because he didn't want to worry him. Currently, what he needed to do was have his army fight their way into Jifang City as soon as possible so that he could rendezvous with Ling Zhang and find out the truth.