OFTLHFRO C77

Chapter 77 A Clean Sweep

The patrol returned having found nothing, grumbled a few words, and went back to sleep.

Watching them yawn one after another, Luo Mingchen couldn’t help glancing at Huo Yan.

This was really quite a vicious tactic…

After all, these men had taken off their armor to sleep, and being woken every hour or half hour was even more torturous than not sleeping at all.

Once awake, they had to patrol the surroundings again, which was extremely unpleasant.

Even those who slept in armor couldn’t stand being roused repeatedly.

One patrol soldier muttered, “Who on earth is doing this?”

Another said, “I’m wondering if it might not even be a person?”

“Don’t scare me…”

“I mean, could it be birds?”

Hearing this, the man looked up at the pitch-black sky. “I don’t see any birds either.”

The more they thought about it, the eerier it felt, and the two fell silent.

The couple, who heard the entire exchange: “…”

In this pitch darkness, no one could see clearly anyway.

As they moved, Luo Mingchen watched Huo Yan, whose motions were practiced and smooth as he knocked out the soldiers one by one and piled them up.

Since Luo Mingchen had never learned how to knock someone out without killing or paralyzing them, he only helped with tying them up.

One knocked out, one tied up; in this way, they bound several piles.

At first light, when the men in the larger tent came out, there wasn’t a single person outside, and they froze.

“Where is everyone? Where the hell did they all go?!”

Having just emptied the weapons and provisions, Luo Mingchen heard the shout, stepped out, and said in confusion, “Missed one?”

The man was about to speak when he felt a sharp pain at the back of his neck and crumpled to the ground.

Holding a wooden box, Huo Yan said, “This was found in his tent.”

Efficiently tying the man, Luo Mingchen used a tendril of water to move him onto the nearest pile and asked, “What is it?”

“Letters.”

“Old Master Ming said the rebels and the roving bandits had joined forces—could these be their correspondence?”

As Luo Mingchen spoke, he picked one up. There was no writing on the envelope, and he didn’t know what might be inside.

Upon opening it, the contents left them both silent.

“If this were brought to the third prince, he’d die of anger, wouldn’t he?”

From the last time he’d seen how the third prince reacted to someone masquerading as constables to commit crimes, Luo Mingchen could tell he was upright. If he learned his own brothers were colluding with rebels to wreak havoc, he’d probably take a blade to them.

Huo Yan said, “Hold onto them for now. Let’s go to Yuanzhou Prefecture.”

“Right.”

Regardless of what the third prince would do, once the matter in Yuanzhou was settled, they would give the letters to Old Master Ming and let those people battle it out.

As for this group of rebels—deprived of their weapons and armor, and tied up—they had no fighting strength left and could be ignored.

Riding into the morning light, the two went to Yuanzhou City.

The city gates, which should have been wide open, were tightly shut.

From atop the wall, a soldier shouted, “Yuanzhou City is closed. The two of you must turn back!”

Hearing this, Huo Yan produced the military order. “Request to see the prefect.”

The soldier squinted to make out what it was and hurried off to find the gate captain.

Soon after, the gates opened, and the gate captain came forward with men.

Huo Yan and Luo Mingchen dismounted and led their horses over.

Puzzled, the gate captain asked, “And you are?”

Holding the order, Huo Yan saluted. “I am Huo Yan, and this is my spouse, Luo Mingchen. By order of His Highness the Third Prince, we have come to support Yuanzhou City. Please lead the way to the prefect.”

Seeing the military order, the gate captain returned the salute. “No need for such formality. This way, please.”

This was their second visit to the Yuanzhou yamen. Luo Mingchen wasn’t exactly familiar with it, but neither was he as curious as before.

The prefect was momentarily stunned to see them, then brightened when the gate captain reported they were sent by the third prince. “Please, sit. How many men has His Highness sent?”

Luo Mingchen glanced at Huo Yan; under such expectant eyes, he really couldn’t bring himself to say it was just the two of them.

Huo Yan remained composed. “My lord, only my spouse and I.”

The prefect: “…”

He felt as if his ears were failing him.

So he asked again, “Only the two of you?”

Huo Yan gave a small nod and handed over the letter.

After reading it, the prefect’s expression was complicated. “Since it is His Highness’s command, we shall of course obey.”

“Many thanks, my lord. How many troops are there in the city?” Huo Yan asked.

“A little over three thousand.”

Luo Mingchen thought to himself that Old Master Ming hadn’t lied to them.

Still uneasy, the prefect said, “These villains are extremely ruthless. They burn, kill, and plunder along their way, and many places have suffered disasters. Their numbers are large. We also have ample grain stored in the city. Should we wait for reinforcements before making plans?”

Seeing the lingering wishful thinking, Luo Mingchen had to crush the dream. “My lord, isn’t it clear? If others could be sent, we wouldn’t have come. Our arrival means there are no reinforcements. On the way here, we encountered a group who had quite a few bombs.”

The prefect was stunned. “Th-then where are they?”

“They’ve been tied up by us,” Huo Yan said. “The bombs and the confiscated weapons are in the woods outside the city. Men can be sent to retrieve them shortly.”

The prefect was even more shocked. “How many were there?”

“Two to three hundred.”

Two to three hundred men, taken down in one sweep by the two of them?!

Hope returned to the prefect’s face. “Then I must trouble you both to take the lead. We will fully cooperate.”

Huo Yan inclined his head. “Please fetch the maps of Yuanzhou Prefecture. They will be needed shortly.”

“Right away.”

As the prefect sent for the maps, Luo Mingchen thought to himself that, sure enough, one needed solid marks in history.

After receiving the maps, Huo Yan glanced over them and took a squad to the small grove to bring back the weapons and the bound men.

While Huo Yan led the team to fetch the captives, Luo Mingchen took the chance to lay out the weapons and armor stored in his space neatly beneath a large tree.

“This should do, right?”

He even used some branches to cover them.

By the time Huo Yan and the others returned with the conscious rebels, they could transport everything back together.

Those who had doubted the pair now felt genuine admiration.

The gate captain thought, since these two could fell so many men and strip them of weapons and armor, they were definitely more capable than he was; if they listened well, perhaps they could weather the crisis without reinforcements.

Once the men and equipment were brought back, Luo Mingchen clearly sensed that the attitude of Yuanzhou’s gate guards toward him and Huo Yan had changed considerably.

After settling the captured rebels, Huo Yan didn’t rush to interrogate them but instead summoned several members of the gate guard.

Listening from the side as Huo Yan laid out the defensive and offensive arrangements, Luo Mingchen felt that the current Huo Yan was not the same person who helped tend the kitchen fires and snuck vegetables to eat before.