Chapter 1245: Encounter

Actually, Zhao Yong didn’t need to look for those men in black. He only had to get someone to disguise as Little Treasure and the others in order to lure them out.

However, those people’s martial arts were indeed powerful. A few of them escaped from the encirclement of the army in the Central Capital. Zhao Yong only brought back five survivors because the others either died or fled. Regardless, Little Treasure and Little Bear were already very satisfied.

The two of them had already guessed that there were people from Great Yuan and West Xia among the assassins, so they were not surprised to see the faces of the Hu people. They were more curious about the Han assassin who had been caught.

However, the Han assassin had not said a word since he was caught. If not for the fact that he was seriously injured and had his chin dislocated, he would probably have committed suicide.

Zhao Yong interrogated him for two days, but the other party still didn’t speak.

The guards said, “Your Highness, why don’t you hand him over to us and let us interrogate him?”

Having been hunted down along the way, they had a lot of pent-up anger. Since they had this opportunity, they naturally had to vent their anger.

Little Treasure nodded and smiled. “Alright, just make sure not to kill him.”

After the guard left, Little Treasure said to Little Bear, “Regardless of whether we can get a confession or not, we have to return to the capital as soon as possible because we’ve been delayed for long enough due to the Weizhou matter.”

Before leaving the capital, they’d planned to take the route from the west to the north, then back to the capital from the east. By the time they were done, it should be around mid-June. However, because of Ogedei, they were delayed in Weizhou for a month. Originally, they could have shortened the time and played all the way back from the east. However, after this assassination incident, the two of them could not afford any more delay.

After all, their whereabouts had been exposed, and there were many people in this world who wanted to kill them.

“Then let’s pack up and set off as soon as possible. If he still refuses to confess, hand him over to Zhao Yong and have him escorted back to the capital later.”

Little Treasure nodded.

The guards following the two of them were naturally good at interrogating. After all, they had fought on the battlefield with King Rong and captured spies before. Having dealt with many captives, they were not unfamiliar with punishments. However, the Han assassin who was captured refused to confess no matter what. Even after the assassins from West Xia and Dayuan fessed up everything they knew, the Han assassin still refused to speak.

The guards had no choice. Since they could not kill him, they could only go back and report to their two young masters.

When Little Treasure and Little Bear heard that he was so unyielding, they couldn’t help but raise their eyebrows and immediately changed their minds. “Then bring him along.”

It was a very dangerous move to bring an assassin along. Zhao Yong and the guards did their best to object, expressing that they could escort him later.

However, Little Bear said, “Considering the hinterland of Great Qi is further south, it’ll be difficult for assassins to cross the city. Moreover, with his severe injuries, he has become a fangless minion. It’s fine.”

The guards knew that it would be difficult to change their minds once they’d decided upon something, so they could only keep their mouths shut.

After looking at the two young masters and then at the guards, Zhao Yong could only say with a bitter expression, “Then, then can I at least send some soldiers to escort Your Highnesses?”

“That can be done.”

As the two of them were in a hurry now, having more manpower meant they could intimidate the assassins who desired to kill them. They did not want to waste any more time on this.

Hence, Zhao Yong ordered 100 people to protect the two young masters.

Little Bear’s expression darkened. “Just give me two sections. After allocating so much manpower to protect me, are you sure you have anyone left in your camp?”

In the end, Little Bear only chose 20 people.

The group of more than 40 people rushed towards the capital.

It was only after entering Jiangnan that everyone revealed a smile again and felt that the journey was quite smooth. Just then, they heard shouts coming from the forest.

Little Bear reined in his horse and looked at Little Treasure. The guards didn’t need anyone to instruct them to send two people to investigate.

Little Bear looked around and said, “Let’s find a high spot to hide.”

The two guards quickly returned and reported, “Your Highness, the soldiers are suppressing the bandits.”

“Bandits? Why are there bandits in Jiangnan?” Little Treasure asked in surprise.

Little Bear thought for a moment and immediately said, “When my uncle came to the capital, he encountered a group of bandits. However, at that time, my father had already ordered the extermination. It’s been more than three months. Could it be that they haven’t been fully exterminated?”

Wasn’t this too long?

However, the guards didn’t think that there was anything wrong. They said to Little Bear, “Prince, this is perfectly normal. Let alone three months, it’s normal for such an operation to take up to a year. This is different from attacking a city. If the bandits don’t leave their stronghold, we have to consider the casualties and can’t attack forcefully. Therefore, in order to reduce the casualties and exterminate the bandits, the generals won’t be in a hurry unless they’re in a hurry to obtain military merits. But that way, their military merits would be achieved at the expense of soldiers’ lives.”

The soldiers sent by Zhao Yong also nodded repeatedly, indicating that they were most afraid of such generals. They said, “From the sound of it, the battle between the two sides is quite fierce. In that case, there’s no suspicion that the officials are colluding with the bandits and deliberately letting them off. The generals probably want to minimize the deaths of soldiers, which explains why the extermination is taking longer than three months.”

Everyone present was used to fighting on the battlefield. Unlike the Crown Prince and Prince who liked to draw conclusions based on facts and evidence, they could tell good from bad just by listening to the sounds coming from the battlefield.

No one had taught them this before. Little Treasure and Little Bear listened with interest and asked, “Then are we going to help?”

The two guards immediately said, “We’ve taken a closer look. There are quite a number of bandits and they occupy a high point. I’m afraid the soldiers won’t be able to attack the bandit nest anytime soon. There’s only 40 of us, so it won’t be of much use even if we go.”

Little Treasure thought about it and said to Little Bear, “Don’t you have a telescope? Why don’t we find a good spot to take a look?”

Tongue-tied, the guards asked, “Master, are we not going on our way?”

“When they stop fighting, we’ll go to the authorities to take a look. Considering we’re not far from the capital, it’s fine to stay for another day.”

Little Bear stood on the rock and looked at the bandit nest and the battlefield with his telescope. His brows gradually creased.

Little Treasure grabbed the telescope anxiously. “Let me take a look too.”

Little Treasure saw that the bandits on the mountain kept throwing down logs and boulders. Furthermore, they had archers to provide support. As such, the officials at the foot of the mountain could not rush up at all. Fortunately, their casualties were not high.

The other party seemed to know that they could not charge up, so they only asked the soldiers to feign an attack and retreat or dodge when logs and boulders fell from the mountain.

However, once the bandits stopped throwing these things, they would rush up the mountain for real and take the chance to kill many bandits.

After a few times, the bandits could not tell if they were really attacking or feinting. They could only keep throwing logs and boulders down. However, even Little Treasure knew that these two things were limited. After attacking a few more times, would they still have weapons left?

Little Treasure finally understood why the officials failed to take down the bandits’ nest for a long time. It was because it was too time-consuming to exhaust the other party’s weapons and grains like this.

Little Treasure sighed. “Fortunately, the military camp has sufficient rations. Otherwise, they definitely wouldn’t be so calm. When the time comes, I’m afraid they’ll have to sacrifice the lives of the soldiers.”

Little Bear’s expression was cold. “Where did these bandits come from?”

“What?” Little Treasure turned to look at him. “Where else could they have come from? They must be commoners who took to the heather because of poverty.”

“The rations of the soldiers in the military camp are sufficient, and Royal Uncle has lowered the commoners’ tax burden. How can the commoners not have food to eat? Moreover, this is Jiangnan!”

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