Your Highness, Please Love Me Tender

125. Ambush in the Mountains

Translator: Flying Lines

Inside the city lord’s mansion, when Ju Liandao discovered that Su Jie was missing, he already guessed that it was Su Jie himself who brought Xiao Shengnian out of the mansion because he knew Su Jie was good at disguises. Originally, he was going to send some soldiers to escort Su Jie back, but he heard that they were both outside the city, dealing with the matter of the refugees.

Ju Liandao couldn’t help but sigh, slightly shocked at himself for actually forgetting about the refugees. But, he still didn’t know who that elegant and aristocratic man by the crown prince’s side was.

What relationship did the crown prince have with that man?

Ju Liandao paced forth and back in the courtyard. He felt that Xiao Shengnian’s identity couldn’t be simple. He was also someone the crown prince knew. Perhaps he came from State Yanhui?

Perhaps he was the same as Yue Wanzhi, the son of a State Yanhui’s official?

Ju Liandao didn’t consider the idea of him being a prince. After all, a country’s prince probably wouldn’t go all the way to another country, especially if said country was fighting a war. Or maybe he was a spy sent by State Yanhui?

As he was thinking, he suddenly heard soldiers say that a letter came from the borders.

Ju Liandao opened the envelope and found one sentence on the letter-

The seventh son of State Yanhui’s Emperor desires to approach His Highness. Please be careful.

“The royal family’s person?” A flash of murderous intent flashed through Ju Liandao’s eyes, and he felt even more strongly that Xiao Shengnian probably didn’t have any good intentions by approaching Su Jie.

State Yanling only had one crown prince. If State Yanhui’s people kidnapped or killed… Ju Liandao thought the consequences would be unimaginable, and he hurriedly sent people to find Su Jie.

On the other hand, Su Jie instructed the soldiers to set up tents at the empty space in the west. He also shared his thoughts with the vice-commander. The vice-commander nodded. He didn’t know that Su Jie was the crown prince. If he did, he would be so excited that he wouldn’t be able to sleep for three days straight.

After dealing with the matter, Su Jie started on the journey to return to the mansion with Xiao Shengnian.

After walking for a while, they saw dozens of soldiers running towards him. Each of them had blood-thirsty and solemn expressions on their faces. They surrounded the two people, and one of the soldiers came forwards and knelt towards Su Jie. “Your Highness, the general has ordered us to protect you.”

Su Jie touched the disguise on his face, knowing that they had already guessed his identity and only nodded. “What a coincidence, we were planning on returning too.”

When they returned to the mansion, the soldiers said that Ju Liandao had something to report. Xiao Shengnian left first. After all, this was Yanling’s military secrets. Even if his relationship with Su Jie wasn’t ordinary, he still shouldn’t listen.

“Your Highness!”

Ju Liandao saluted Su Jie.

“Please rise, general.” Seeing Ju Liandao’s solemn expression, Su Jie also waited for him to speak with an expression full of respect.

“Your Highness, I don’t know if I should ask or not…” Ju Liandao was part of the army for so many years. His personality was always straightforward, but since this matter involved Su Jie, Ju Liandao, as a subject, shouldn’t ask about it. However, because this matter involved Su Jie’s safety, Ju Liandao could only brace himself and ask.

“You may ask.”

Hearing Su Jie’s consent, Ju Liandao said bluntly, “Your Highness, the man by your side is State Yanhui’s seventh prince. I fear that he has ill intentions towards you. Should I have him locked up?”

Su Jie narrowed his eyes but didn’t answer.

Ju Liandao didn’t feel that he said anything wrong. After all, he did so for Su Jie but seeing Su Jie not saying anything, Ju Liandao did feel that he acted rashly and admitted his fault. “I was wrong. I didn’t mean to ask about Your Highness’s personal affairs.”

Yet, Su Jie bent over slightly and helped Ju Liandao up. He said smilingly, “General Ju is loyal – the sun and moon can testify to that. General Ju made strategies to attack cities and achieved many things during this war. And now, you are worried about my safety. It was I who was negligent.”

“I am willing to die for Your Highness!” Ju Liandao was always loyal, but now, after hearing Su Jie praise him, blood rushed to his heart, and he knelt again.

Su Jie once again helped Ju Liandao up as he said, “General Ju does not need to worry. State Yanhui’s seventh prince is Elder Zhou’s disciple. He won’t do anything bad to me. Besides, it’s not like I can’t protect myself. Nothing will happen.”

“Yes.” Hearing that Xiao Shengnian knew Zhou Zaiyue, Ju Liandao no longer worried as much. He only sent people to monitor Xiao Shengnian’s actions like he had before.

*

After resting for ten days, Su Jie started to travel again. Xiao Shengnian stood by his side, wearing a suit of armor. He was going with Su Jie.

The bugle of war sounded once again.

Many villages hadn’t been infiltrated by Lan Buhui’s soldiers. When they heard that the immortal’s descendant was coming with the army, they were naturally very welcoming. Su Jie stood on the chariot. The citizens of the village rushed to kneel at the sides of the street. Sometimes, there would be some naughty children who raised their heads and stared curiously at Su Jie’s face.

“Mom, there’s a flower on the crown prince’s face,” a small child pointed at Su Jie and said to the young woman beside him.

The young woman’s face turned white as she hurriedly wrapped her child in her embrace and muffled his words. She raised her head a little and only when she realized that her child’s action didn’t attract the army’s attention did she breathe a sigh of relief.

Having gone past the village, the army stopped to rest a little bit before continuing.

The attacks on cities after were a little more successful. After all, there were few opponents like Xu Lingtian. When they were about to attack the capital city, the army encountered an ambush on the journey.

There were four generals serving under Lan Buhui. They were: Xu Lingtian, Yun Hui, Xia Zhi, and Gong Che.

Since Xu Lingtian died in battle, the one responsible for the ambush here was Xia Zhi.

Xia Zhi was skilled at leading troops. This time, he led three thousand soldiers to wait in ambush at the mouth of the mountain.

The closer they were to victory, the more cautious Ju Liandao became. He didn’t rashly lead the army into the mountain, but instead sent a scouting party of a thousand soldiers.

When the squad of the thousand soldiers passed by, Xia Zhi didn’t give the order to attack, letting the soldiers pass through the mountain easily.

Xia Zhi’s actions were extremely dangerous. After the group of soldiers passed through the mountain, they could coordinate with the soldiers that hadn’t entered the mountain yet and attack Xia Zhi’s elite soldiers with a pincer attack. If a commander were cautious, they would destroy this group of soldiers even if it meant they wouldn’t be able to kill Su Jie, and then retreat.

But Xia Zhi was determined to kill Su Jie.

He had the soldiers wait in ambush without doing anything. They waited only for Su Jie’s arrival.

Through the information he gathered these few days, Xia Zhi knew the young man on the chariot was the crown prince. Also, the crown prince had a golden flower on his face, so naturally, it would be very easy to recognize him.

Three thousand elite soldiers laid in ambush at the mouth of the mountain. Of which, five hundred archers etched the objective of this mission into their minds: kill the crown prince on the chariot!

It seemed even the wind was silent.

Because the thousand-strong group of soldiers successfully entered the mountain, Ju Liandao felt that the possibility of an ambush couldn’t be big.

After all, Lan Buhui only had two or three cities under his control. Ju Liandao once sent soldiers to convince them to surrender, but the heads of those soldiers were hung in front of the city gates of the capital city on the second day. Lan Buhui refused to surrender, wanting to fight until the very end.

Many citizens felt that Lan Buhui was refusing to admit to his errors. The result of the war was already clear. The descendant of the immortal was following the will of heaven. He had won the hearts and support of citizens and had already taken back many cities successfully, some even without fighting. Even though Lan Buhui and his men had fought desperately to guard some of the cities, they were defeated in the end.

On the other hand, Lan Buhui betrayed the religion of State Yanling and the will of the citizens. He only had two or three cities left, yet he refused to surrender.

When the citizens in the capital city heard that the crown prince returned, they had the spontaneous desire to rebel against Lan Buhui yet, they were all cruelly killed by soldiers. Lan Buhui’s actions naturally sparked rage amongst the citizens and so, the people in the capital city looked forward to the arrival of the crown prince even more.

The decisive battle was at the capital city. After they passed through the mountain, Ju Liandao’s army would have to take one more city before meeting up with Gongsun Yi’s troops.

If there was an ambush at this mountain, it wouldn’t make sense for them to let the scouting group go.

Ju Liandao was thinking as such and gave the order to enter the mountain.

“Continue advancing!”

The noise of horses’ hooves sounded. The armor-wearing soldiers rode to the mountain, where an ambush was prepared long ago.