The Marquis Is Innocent

It was late at night when Zhu Zeng was thinking about the war and was having trouble sleeping. Then, he put on his clothes and went out of the tent to see that the snow had stopped, the dome was as dark as a bowl of ink, and the endless camp stretched for tens of miles.

All voices were silent, and the sound of music coming from the direction of Xing Xun’s central tent was particularly pleasing. Even after such a long distance, the sounds still intermittently drifted over. The big war was about to start, so the noise was out of place.

Zhu Zeng listened sideways for a moment, his heart filled with mixed feelings. Although he left Xing Xun’s side in time and switched to Le Zheng Gong, his heart inexplicably had some worries.

The big battle was approaching, but Xing Xun was so gullible and arrogant, listening to songs night and day. Meanwhile, Le Zheng Gong seemed to retain strength cautiously. Although he did not explicitly say it, Zhu Zeng saw this point.

The number of allied troops claimed to be double of Wei Shao’s army and appeared to be strength-crushing, but the leader was arrogant and selfish. If their opponents were ordinary people, it might not have mattered. Merely by lining up soldiers, they could have overwhelmed the other side. But now, the enemy they faced was the northern overlord Wei Shao. Although Zhu Zeng had not met Wei Shao, he knew all the rumors about the man. If Wei Shao were an easy opponent, he would never have reached his current position at 24 or 25.

No one obtained their territory without a fight. Even if you rely on your ancestors, you have to win the battle, one by one. Wei Shao is a formidable opponent. No need to care about Xing Xun, but on Le Zheng Gong’s side, Zhu Zeng decided to find an opportunity to remind him. Since he was involved in this northern expedition, he had to go all out and seize the opportunity to destroy Wei Shao’s living forces in one fell swoop to avoid giving him any chance to rise again.

Zhu Zeng thought about it, turned around and returned to his tent, put out the light, and went to bed. While he was worried about the war, another man in another tent not far from his was also sleepless.

As one of Le Zheng Gong’s strategists, although Zhang Yan does not claim to have the wisdom of planning, he had advised Le Zheng Gong in several main battles over the years. From the first battle in Hanzhong, he has made a lot of merits. But now, Zhang Yan feels his position is in crisis. Zhu Zeng is rapidly replacing him as if he has become the most valued strategist of Le Zheng Gong. From his standpoint, he naturally wanted Le Zheng Gong to win the battle of the Northern Expedition. But Zhang Yan knew if Wei Shao was defeated, then Zhu Zheng’s importance would be irreplaceable. Thus, he felt some anxiety.

Late at night, he still reads a volume of military books with a candle in his hand. Suddenly outside the tent sounded a creaking footstep through the snow, followed by his servant lifting the tent to enter, saying that the guards at the camp gate reported that a person calling himself Rong Yan was asking to see him.

Zhang Yan was stunned. Rong Yan was his old acquaintance who was an official in Luoyang many years ago. Rong Yan was a court officer who abandoned his post and flew because he had offended Xing Xun. Zhang Yan was not considered his close acquaintance. But their hobby of carving gold and stone made them occasionally contact each other. At that time, Rong Yan lamented a bit about his situation. Later, Zhang Yan joined Le Zheng Gong. After years of separation, he didn’t expect that he would come to visit him late at night.

After pondering for a while, he asked someone to bring him inside. When Rong Yan entered the tent, he smiled happily and said, “It’s been many years since I parted with Brother Yiliang in Luoyang. How is brother doing?” Zhang Yan looked at the fake reaction, vaguely guessing in his heart that Rong Yan should come from Wei Shao’s camp.

He hesitated on whether to call someone to enter and seize him.

“An old friend visited you. Do you want to catch and send me to your master to claim the credit?” Rong Yan laughed brazenly.

Zhang Yan’s face heated up, said, “Brother Changlu misunderstood!”

The two of them are old friends, and although they had their own master, they couldn’t kidnap other people. Then he said, “I’m afraid that Changlu is working for Wei Shao. Now that the two armies are at war, I wonder why you’re looking for me this late at night?”

Rong Yan changed his smile and looked solemn, saluted to Zhang Yan.

Zhang Yan was busy supporting him to stand straight, said: “Brother, why do you make such a serious salute? I’m ashamed!”

Rong Yan said in a low voice: “To tell the truth, I came to join the Marquis of Hanzhong.”

Zhang Yan was stunned.

“Brother, you don’t know that I abandoned my post many years ago to join Wei Shao. I originally wanted to meet a master to show my life’s ambition. But Wei Shao only has an empty name, short-sighted and ignorant. He refused to use me. I am only a marching officer. Now he wants to use 300,000 troops to confront the combined forces of Xing Xun and the Hanzhong Marquis, which is like hitting a stone with an egg. As the saying goes, a wise man knows the moment. I can not join Xing Xun, but the Hanzhong Marquis is like the sky. His future will certainly be like a phoenix, which my heart yearned for. I hate that I do not have a trickle of merit and no way to join him. Good thing I learned that Brother Yiliang is now the trusted officer of Hanzhong Marquis. I was enlightened, so I took advantage of the night to abscond from the Wei Shao camp to meet Brother Yiliang! I hope that for the sake of the old acquaintance, you help introduce me to Hanzhong Marquis.”

He pulled a piece of parchment and displayed it on the desk, saying, “I am a marching officer. I can go in and out of the main tent. This paper is a copy of Wei Shao’s battle strategy map. The detail of military strength and deployment routes of Liyang, Fanjin, and Huangchi’s granary. I want to present this map to show my determination to serve you!”

T/N: the chapters are getting lengthy, so I had to split them more.