PCTG Chapter 53

Chapter 53

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The daytime was sunny and cloudless but there was a rainstorm at night.

A vicious lightning bolt split open half of the night sky, illuminating the entire world crystal clear. Accompanied by a huge rumbling thunder, a heavy rain fell between heaven and earth, washing the green moss tiles of the eaves of the Guang’an mansion, while the thick branches were all pressed down.

 In the room, the dim light of the candle penetrated the cotton curtain making everything dense and hazy. Along with the lightning flashing, the once bright, once dim room was like a magical domain.

“ No…… No…”

Li Yuanmin closed his eyes tightly. The black crow feather eyelashes fluttered uneasily, and the snow-white face was covered with sweat. He kept murmuring unceasingly.

Bloody, dirty, hot, restless.

The body gradually became extremely heavy, as if a thousand pounds were pressed on top. The noise gradually rose, and the thick bloody smell between the nose floated in. What came into his view was a field of dusky bloody red.

His body was pressed into the dead ground.

With a loud bang, the heavy city gate could no longer withstand such a huge impact, it fell down heavily, setting off a wave of air several inches high.

The whistle gradually rose, before it broke through the round tent.

A dense mass of rebel armies omnipresently poured in from the city gates. A tall and fierce man dressed in black armor, draped in the bloody aura of Luocha, strode in with heavy steps. His eyes were blood-red and his anger shook the heavens, making humans and gods fearful. 

Ha……Ha…..

Li Yuanmin seemed to be able to hear his beastly low panting. He lost all strength from his body, and could only shake his head while weakly emitting a breathing sound in front of the man: “Don’t…”

The black-brown pupils condensed on his face, indifferent, cold, and completely lacking in human nature. Viscous beads of blood fell from between his eyebrows, and the black qi condensed, swallowing the heaven and the sea.

“A Lie….”

Li Yuanmin shouted hopelessly.

The man, nevertheless, raised his blade up high, its shadow hanging over Li Yuanmin’s bloodless pale face.

Li Yuanmin closed his eyes in despair, tears slipped down, and in that instant, absurdly, he was not afraid at all. There was just pain. His heart was full of pain, as if he could never break free, infinitely. And no one would be able to save him.

A ray of white light – Swoosh!

Li Yuanmin suddenly sat up and gasped. The under clothes on his back were soaked with sweat, his whole face was pale, and there were beads of sweat hanging from his forehead. When he realized that he had only had a terrible nightmare, he couldn’t help but collapse on the warm mattress. However, his heart still beated incredibly fast, as if he was still in a dream. He laid on his stomach for a long time. Not until the sweat on his forehead dried up before he slowly calmed down.

A strange and ridiculous nightmare.

Over the years, Li Yuanmin rarely had nightmares. He didn’t know why tonight he suddenly went into a nightmare so sneakily, and even dreamed of the scene of his previous life.

Li Yuanmin did not dare to think back to the palpitations, he only hurriedly draped a coat on his shoulder and got out of bed. He poured himself a cup of water by the dim candlelight on the table. The warm water went down his throat, and finally soothed some of the inner uneasiness in his heart. He sighed and looked at the leak in the hall. The night was deep, it was exactly midnight but he didn’t even have a slight sleepiness at all. 

Today was the fifth day of the departure of the Lingnan Army, and it was also the fifth day that Ni Lie left him. There were many worries in his heart. It may be because he had a lot to think about during the day, and only then did he dream these chaotic dreams for no reason.

He walked to the window with his outer coat on his shoulder and gently pushed open the window. The rain was rushing down and a burst of moisture directly hit his face. The cold soaked his bones, Li Yuanmin couldn’t help but tremble. He looked at the heavy pouring rain, his heart couldn’t help but be covered with a layer of shadows.

He didn’t know whether everything was alright with his beloved lover who was in a different place.

At the same time, the Jiangbei camp situation was also the same, the rain was falling down very heavily. 

Cao Gang took off his coat, lifted opened the tent door and walked in. He shook his body, threw away beads of water droplets hanging from his body, put the coat down, and immediately went forward to reply to the young general sitting at the head seat: “Reporting to Daren, I had gone to explore the river boundary. I’m afraid the situation over there is not good. The water of the Cangjiang River has a tendency to rise. It looks like this rain is probably going to take two or three days to stop. It may be assumed that we can’t wait for two days, it is estimated that tomorrow the governor will order the camp to change grounds.”

Ni Lie nodded his head slightly, which was considered a response. He did not speak, only closed his eyes to relax.

Cao Gang did not dare to disturb him again, he lightly stepped forward and put away the messy case file on his case, while secretly peeking at Ni Lie’s face.

 In the past few days of training, Xue Zaixing had secretly suppressed him a lot, and as the leader of the most powerful combat force of the three armies, he was actually squeezed out to the position that wasn’t even equal to that of a deputy general. But their young commander acted as if nothing had happened and proceeded to do things calmly.

But Cao Gang understood, that wasn’t it.

He suddenly remembered his previous life. That cold and formidable person was also like this. He acted as Xue Zaixing’s subordinate, staying quietly under him for three years; then he finally seized the opportunity to get on the horse in one fell swoop.

Although the encounters of the two lifetimes were different, Cao Gang always had this kind of miraculous feeling, as if things were moving quietly from different routes but to the same destination.

The curtain moved slightly. Deputy General Li came in, glanced at Cao Gang, and Cao Gang acted tactfully by immediately retreating.

Cao Gang lifted the tent open, there was still endless rain outside. It was accumulating on the ground, flowing everywhere, converging into a rather turbulent stream, and washing away in all directions.

In that split second, Cao Gang’s heart suddenly jumped up. He looked back at the tightly closed tent door, and his brow couldn’t help but lock tightly.

Inside the tent, Li Jin whispered a few words, and the calm face of Ni Lie finally had a hint of movement. The corners of his lips were gently pulled: “Very good.”

They immediately spread out the map, before pondering the situation of tomorrow carefully.

After seeing something once, he would never forget it. These days, he had already memorized the terrain in various parts of the river, so that even if he closed his eyes, he could silently draw it out.  Looking at this rain, the Cangjiang river water was bound to rise, it was only a matter of time before the camp would change location. 

The timing was just right, but it was fleeting, and he needed to seize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity—This rain could be regarded as a big help to him.

“Let the others know, everything goes according to plan. ”

“Yes!” Li Jin retreated quickly.

On the second day, sure enough the heavy rain still continued. Due to the heavy rain of the previous night, the water of the Cangjiang River had risen; the camp was less than ten miles away from the riverbank. For the sake of the safety of the whole army, the governor had issued an order in the morning to pull out the camp in batches to the Xiling camp starting at noon. The Western Yunnan Army took the lead, escorting the prisoner cart, carrying hundreds of thieves, while the Lingnan army stayed in the rear taking care of all the aftermath.

The rain was getting heavier, and the border line could not be seen clearly on the horizon.

Xue Zaixing rode on horseback in a rain cloak. He turned his back to look at the blurred land before resolutely spitting: “This d*mn weather!”

Misfortune does not come by itself. They haven’t even traveled for two miles yet when the general rushed his horse from the front and said with a solemn face: “Governor Daren, the main road in front is blocked by falling rocks!”

“What – to what extent? ”

“It doesn’t look very optimistic, at least a mile or two. ”

Xue Zaixing secretly cursed. He thought that they would have to waste time digging up the mountain stone for half a day. Moreover, it’s extremely likely to lead to rocks falling again. He was afraid that he would not be able to reach the destination after dark, he really could not afford to delay.

“Is there any other route?”

The general said, “We can only go around to the northeast and travel on foot. It’s just that this route is narrower than the spacious main route.”

Xue Zaixing looked at the dense mass of armies in the rear, pondered for a moment, and ordered: “Change the route!”

“Yes!”

All the soldiers heard the order and moved to execute it. The majestic army immediately changed course, and the troops became excessively long.

The heavy rain was pouring down, while the army stretched for miles, walking in this pouring rain, unable to see the head or the tail.

Because of the narrow road, the prisoner carts carrying the water bandits were lined up, each of which was escorted by two soldiers on horses one after the other. The rain was really too heavy, not only were the soldiers behind splashed from opening their eyes, but even the soldiers on horses raised their arms just to block the showers on the surface, so as not to be covered with the rain.

When passing through a heavy forest, there were a rustle of footsteps that weren’t loud or quiet in the forest. But the huge raindrops hitting the leaves of the forest made splashing sounds therefore no one noticed these subtle and unusual movements.

Everyone, including the prisoners, was thinking of getting to their destination quickly and settling down to take a break.

When several large stones rolled down in unison, the soldiers escorting the water bandits had not yet reacted until a group of masked bandits rushed out of the dense forest.

Finally, a soldier saw it, drew his blade in shock, and shouted with exhaustion: “Jailbreak! There are bandits coming to free the prisoners!”

The shouts were covered by the sound of rain, only alerting a few people surrounding, but it was obviously too late, and the troops guarding prison carts were suddenly scattered by the bandits, causing chaos everywhere.

With a few thuds, the blade slashed at the horse’s back making several horses frightened, neighing and jumping high, breaking free the shackles of the prison cart, and rushing forward madly. The procession of escorting the prison cart became more and more chaotic.

“ Kill—”

“Jailbreak! Jailbreak!”

“Guards! Everyone come back and guard!”

Xue Zaixing’s troop was not far from the prison cart. His first reaction was to immediately take off his raincoat’s hat! With a roar of anger from the left and right, he shouted, “Pass on my orders! Gather and kill them! Be sure to not let those bandits get away with it!”

The crowd followed the order and proceeded to draw their blades and gather around.

However, the front line of the troops was stretched too long by the narrow route. Coupled with the rapid rain, the rear could hardly hear the warning from the front. The huge troop fell into an increasingly huge chaos.

With a flurry of messy cold arrows, Xue Zaixing was suddenly fearful. The secret passage was not good. He drew his blade out, but it was obviously too late. The few guards around him fell down one by one. Seeing the chaos everywhere, no one could take care of his side. He made a prompt decision before turning over and dismounting, rolled on the ground, and hid in the underbrush.

The strong wind brushed through, and several more arrows were nailed to the ground, one of which was only half an inch away from his ear. Xue Zaixinghe had never encountered such a dangerous situation, his heart almost rose up to his throat. 

In the chaotic rain, a guard split apart the rain of arrows and pulled him up: “Daren! Come with me! ”

Xue Zaixing swept his eyes and saw the Jiangbei Army mark on his body. His panicked heart calmed down a bit. He grabbed his hand and borrowed his strength to get on the horse.

“Go!” The guard swung his sword at the horseback, the horse jumped high before soaring out of the chaotic realm.

This chaos lasted for less than an hour before it was calmed down, and Wei Yan, the general of the Yunnan county garrison, had a bad complexion. The leader of the soldiers went forward to take measure of the situation of the prison carts when a high ranking guard hurriedly came up: “General Wei! Bad news! Governor daren is gone!”

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