Author's Note:
Before you read this chapter, please check if you had read Chapter 79! (The notification does not work.)
If you have read Chapter 79, then have fun reading chapter 80!
XH 80 - Our General is not old!
It took a moment for General Tang to summarize what he had gotten from the spy and reported to the Second Prince and Liu Chu Chu. They had not returned to their tent and chose to oversee the soldier's task instead.
"Your Highness, the letter is genuine," General Tang said after he finished with his report. "Please give an order!"
"Choose four of our men to disguise themselves. Tang Jiang, you will lead the operation. I will wait for good news." The Second Prince, with an arm around his fiancée's shoulder, walked towards his personal white tent.
"I will not fail you." General Tang saluted respectfully. He knew that the Second Prince was very interested in the South Guilin Village.
Although Tang Jiang was more of a brawn than brain, he had felt the Second Prince's dissatisfaction towards him. Since the time Tang Jiang had not acknowledged his summon during the second day of his marriage, the Second Prince's behavior was noticeably colder towards him.
He only knew that the Second Prince had called for him on the third day of his wedding when his wife finally let him escape from their bed to visit his home to pay respects.
Tang Jiang had wanted to run to the Second Prince's residence as soon as he knew about the summoning but Ping Shui stopped him. That was their first fight... and they ended up arriving very late to the Tang residence.
With a mocking smile that was aimed towards him, Ping Shui tossed a question to Tang Jiang. "Does he expect you to choose between your family and him?"
"You are not my family."
"I am your wife. That means I'm your family now. One day, when that master of yours orders you to kill every Ping family, would you do it?"
"His Highness will not ask me to do that if the Ping family behave themselves."
His wife laughed humorlessly. "Don't forget, the moment you are married to me, you are already a member of the Ping family, husband dearest."
A punishing kiss from his wife stopped the conversation and he was only able to make it to the Second Prince's side on his fourth-day of marriage. That conversation kept on replaying in his mind, leading to the growing fear, at the same time, unable to stop his heart from surrendered to the beautiful cage known as love.
Tang Jiang sighed and quickly went to complete his task. He had fully expected the Second Prince to personally hijack the carriage but now he pushed every responsibility to Tang Jiang.
General Tang felt that the Second Prince was planning something, but intelligence was not his strong suit. He picked four hidden soldiers and they quickly catched up with the Third Prince's carriage.
Hiding behind the thick trees, he noticed how young and inexperienced the guards that escorting the carriage were. One even fidgeted and looked around nervously with his hand holding tight onto his sword tied to his belt.
"Geng, take down the horse driver," General Tang commanded. Geng, one of the Second Prince's fastest elite soldiers, dashed out of his hiding place. With an impressive long-distance jump, he landed right beside the horse driver.
Geng quickly covered the horse driver's mouth and sliced his neck with his short sword that was half an arm's length. He kicked the corpse away and two soldiers appeared to quickly haul the corpse behind the bushes to be disposed of.
Ang, another Second Prince's elite soldier, quickly joined Geng at the driver seat and grabbed the horse's rein, taking over the control of the carriage.
The four guards of the Third Prince, finally aware that they were under attack, quickly went to attack Geng and his comrade. A fast and forceful arrow coming from the trees stabbed through one of the guard's throat, who immediately died without even knowing what happened.
Another fast arrow headed straight to another guard but the shortest among the escort guards suddenly stepped in front of his comrade and blocked the arrow with a swing of his thin sword.
"He stopped the General's arrow?" Geng exclaimed in disbelief and quickly hopped on top of the carriage to attack the short guard.
General Tang Jiang's arrow was not easy to stop or avoid. The strength that General Tang Jiang used to pull the bow was strong enough to pierce through a large boulder and the speed was not something to scoff at.
Geng's only warning was the sound of wood cracking under his feet. His body instinctively jumped away, but his reaction was not fast enough. The roof of the carriage exploded upward and a white horse hair whip struck across Geng's face.
Geng hissed in pain as he was unable to dodge the horse hair whip from whipping his face. Gathering his qi around his legs, he quickly jumped far away, feeling the right side of his face burned from the attack. Fortunately, his right eye had escaped from the attack or else he might lose his vision.
"Geng!" Ang called out worriedly but he had no time to worry for his friend when it was his turn to jump off from the carriage when the walls of the carriage were blown apart from inside, the four walls of the carriage flew across the clearing following with a large wave of dust.
When the dust cleared, only the bottom of the carriage and the four wheels remained, with a man dressed in a eunuch uniform standing on it. There was a tied up maid lying on the carriage floor beside him.
The white horsehair whip was draped over the eunuch's arm, remained clean despite it was the same weapon that had injured Geng's face and made him bled.
The two brown horses were surprisingly undaunted from the violence and were busy chewing grass that was fed by one of the escorting guards.
The guard that was protected behind the shortest guard collapsed onto the ground, his shaking legs could no longer hold him up.
"Xiao Liu, stop coddling the horses. The new recruit needs some consoling."
Xiao Liu glared at Eunuch Lau Liu as he patted the horses. "You hurt Tofu and Red Bean."
Eunuch Lau Liu had long chosen to be deaf on Xiao Liu's naming sense. His distant relative may be a humble and hardworking young adult, but he has a loose screw when it comes to horses. To Xiao Liu, horses were a magnificent beast and best friends.
Eunuch Lau Liu bet that one day Xiao Liu would insist on marrying a horse beast with the ability to take on a human form. Da Liu, the older brother of Xiao Liu, immediately cut off his interaction with horses, but the young lad often sneaked out to visit the horses.
Alas, no one could separate the obsessive lad from his horses.
"I controlled my strength to avoid hitting your horses. They are not injured."
"Even if there isn't any physical injury, you frightened them," Xiao Liu accused.
Eunuch Lau Liu did not even bother replying to that accusation. Xiao Liu loves horses the most and any harm towards them will bring out his fierce protectiveness that was borderline insane.
The short guard yanked up a scarf that was tied around his neck and used it to hide the lower half of his face. While playing a charade, he was not allowed to hide his face because the face cloth was one of his trademarks.
He squatted down and patted the terrified newbie guard on the ground with a poor attempt of consoling. "You must not be scared."
The soldiers' trembling became fiercer and he shook his head violently. "No! No! I can't do it, Sir Da Bei!"
"Xiao Liu, bring the new recruit to the village." Eunuch Lau Liu ordered before Da Bei could say anything more that would do nothing to help the new recruit's mental state.
Xiao Liu stopped petting his horses. "Won't Da Bei bringing the new recruit be the better choice?"
Despite Da Bei's talent, he was still an eight-year-old kid. He could handle few of the attackers at the same time, but they do not know how many men the Second Prince had brought along.
"I want to stay," Da Bei said firmly. He wanted to repent for his mistakes for exposing Xiao Hua to danger. Bringing the new recruit to the village and avoiding the battle was a form of cowardice, in his belief.
Xiao Liu sighed. "Okay, I will bring the new recruit to the village. Don't take unnecessary risks, Da Bei."
"I know, Uncle Xiao Liu."
With the matter settled, Eunuch Lau Liu gave the man that he had injured earlier a warm smile. "Thank you for waiting. We can now resume our fight."
Geng and Ang: '...' Thanking us for waiting? Do you think we want to wait for you?! We were ordered to, okay!
General Tang had signaled them to stop when he recognized Eunuch Lau Liu. Attacking the Third Prince's personal eunuch was not in their plan. The Second Prince had not made a move towards the Third Prince and if General Tang harmed Eunuch Lau Liu, it would bring the Third Prince's wrath towards the Second Prince.
But he does not want to sacrifice Ang and Geng, who were the elite soldiers that he had personally recruited and trained for years.
"Why don't you step out from the bushes, General Tang Jiang?" Eunuch Lau Liu suggested. "Surely it's not a comfortable place to be."
Geng and Ang tensed when the Eunuch revealed General Tang's presence.
With a troubled sigh, General Tang's armor clanked as he walked out from his hiding place and passed his bow to Ang. He cupped his fist towards Eunuch Lau Liu.
"This general is unaware Eunuch Lau Liu would be inside the carriage. It seems that I've wrongly assumed your carriage to be a bandit in disguise. Please forgive this general's mistake."
Eunuch Lau Liu smiled and the crow's feet around his eyes became more obvious. "Of course, I understand very well. General Tang's eyesight that deteriorates as you age is the same illness I've suffered."
Geng and Ang: '...' Our General is not old! You are the one that's blind, you blind old bat!