Chapter 1400: Rumor Incorrect

Chapter 1400: Chapter 1076: Rumor Incorrect

“Hahahahaha…”

A burst of unbridled laughter shook the reeds floating in midair so hard that the drifting fluff flew even more chaotically, making the sky, which had yet to fully brighten, dim again. Yu Wenye slowly lifted his head, his face set in stone, and saw Shi Yutao carrying his hand axe, urging his horse forward at a measured pace.

Through the crowd, he met Yu Wenye’s cold, austere gaze with perfect accuracy.

Seeing the other man penned in by his soldiers like a caged bird, Shi Yutao’s smile grew even more complacent. He stopped several zhang short of the outer edge of that encirclement and said with a laugh, “Didn’t expect it, did you? We meet again.”

These words were, of course, spoken for Shen Tu Tai, who stood before Yu Wenye.

Shen Tu Tai gripped his long spear, blocking Yu Wenye like a towering peak, yet he did not immediately strike back. Instead he glanced left and right at the soldiers hemming them in, then said coolly, “Didn’t expect it?”

That was, naturally, mockery.

When lying in ambush amid the reeds just now, he had been too tense, worried there would be a fierce fight. Shi Yutao had clenched the shaft of his axe so hard that the wound at his tiger’s mouth split open again, and the bandages wrapped around his hand were seeping a faint tinge of blood—how could an ambush like this possibly be “unexpected”?

Shi Yutao raised his brows slightly. Of course he couldn’t have failed to anticipate seeing them again so soon; he had come precisely for this. He just hadn’t expected that a rough fellow like Shen Tu Tai would bother to pick holes in his wording as well—but on the battlefield, mistakes in action are far deadlier than slips of the tongue. Given the choice, he’d rather someone point out ten thousand errors in his speech than a single flaw in his movements.

And now that the man was already ringed in by his own people, no amount of nitpicking would matter. So he laughed aloud and said, “I misspoke. It’s not that I didn’t expect to meet you again. It’s that I didn’t expect—to meet you again this easily.”

The faces of the soldiers surrounding Yu Wenye all darkened.

Even if they’d been too rattled in the chaos to catch the earlier exchange, that last line was perfectly clear. What Shi Yutao was saying wasn’t that it was easy to meet again—it was that it was this easy to pen them in.

And seeing the change on their faces, Shi Yutao felt the stifling frustration from yesterday’s battle swept entirely away, his chest suddenly light.

He looked again at Yu Wenye, who remained outwardly impassive, as if still swallowing some anger, then laughed and said, “What I really didn’t expect was that I’d get to ‘see’ the illustrious Prince Qin of the Dasheng Dynasty, the Heavenly Strategy General, so quickly.”

These words were clearly aimed at Yu Wenye.

Shen Tu Tai tightened his grip on the long spear until his knuckles cracked audibly, and just then Yu Wenye’s voice sounded from behind him, calm to the point of chilliness: “Nor did I expect to end up in your hands.”

“Hahahahaha, there’s plenty you never expected,”

At that word “expected,” Shi Yutao grew even more pleased with himself. Laughing, he said, “You certainly didn’t expect that we’d long since ferreted out the shortage of rations at Hulao Pass on your side.”

“Oh?”

“So you’d come to the North Shore to graze your horses, but to keep from alerting us, you brought very few men.”

“…”

“And I built a floating bridge downstream last night and crossed the river, spent the whole night here drinking the cold wind just to await your esteemed arrival. Fortunately, you didn’t make me wait in vain.”

Hearing his smug words, Yu Wenye frowned slightly, looking somewhat vexed, somewhat angry. He was silent for a long moment before saying, “I didn’t expect Little General Shi to have such scheming either. It seems—”

As he spoke, he slowly flicked the reins and moved his horse two steps forward.

The moment he moved, the soldiers around him dared not slacken and hurried to close in. As they stepped up, the men and horses containing them also shifted several paces, clearly giving them absolutely no room to break away, every motion watched like a hawk.

Catching the wary look of those men at the corner of his eye, Yu Wenye pressed his lips slightly together and said, “It seems the rumors were mistaken.”

“Rumors?”

The two syllables stirred something in Shi Yutao’s heart, and he blurted, “What rumors?”

Yu Wenye said, “Little General, they don’t concern you much. They’re about your esteemed elder sister.”

As he spoke, his gaze slid past Shen Tu Tai’s shoulders, which had twitched faintly, just in time to catch the first light of dawn shining from behind Shi Yutao. The golden sunlight cast a halo around his outline, and that outline clearly jolted at the words “elder sister.” Shi Yutao’s brows knit slightly. “My sister? What rumor about my sister?”

Yu Wenye said, “Wa State brings forth Nu Ying.”

“What?”

Seeing Shi Yutao’s brows furrow even tighter, Shen Tu Tai, who had been standing guard in silence, spoke up: “Your esteemed sister is famed throughout Hebei. Even Liang Shide back then couldn’t gain the slightest advantage under her hand. This time at Hulao Pass, we originally intended to cross blades with her. Didn’t expect that it would be you who came.”

At his words, Shi Yutao’s expression flickered through several changes.

However, with the sunlight blazing behind him, even such drastic shifts were veiled entirely in shadow at this moment. After a brief silence he finally lifted his head, fixing Shen Tu Tai with a keen stare before turning it on Yu Wenye. He let out a cold laugh and said, “Then I’m afraid your hopes will be dashed.”

“…”

“Looks like this time you won’t need my sister. I alone can make your Yuwen Family—”

He never finished the sentence. A sharp, piercing whistle suddenly tore through the air; a streak of cold light shot past Yu Wenye’s back, flying straight toward Shi Yutao’s chest!

His face changed drastically, and he tried to twist aside, but it all happened too fast. In the instant he shifted his body, that cold shaft was already buried in his shoulder!

A searing pain nearly threw him from the saddle!

“General!”

His men were stunned. They saw an arrow lodged in his right shoulder; had he not turned slightly just now, it would have pierced his heart!

Everyone cried out in shock and turned instinctively toward the direction from which the arrow had been loosed—only to see, on the riverbank growing ever brighter under the sunlight, countless cold flashes arcing toward them. In the wind there was not only the sound of arrows cleaving the air, but also the thunder of hooves shaking the earth!

Looking up, they saw that behind Yu Wenye, the warhorses that had scattered in terror just moments ago had now all galloped back—and on every horse’s back sat an armored cavalryman, fully armed, bow in hand, long blade at his waist, charging straight at them.

An ambush!

Yu Wenye had brought only those warhorses over, but on the far side shrouded in darkness, his cavalry had lain in wait!

Shi Yutao’s face went pale with shock, and he shouted, “Quick—”

Before the word “withdraw” could leave his mouth, the arrows were already streaking toward them like falling stars. Screams erupted on all sides, swallowing his shout in an instant. The archers who had just been shooting from the reed-bed now all took arrows and crashed to the ground.