Liu Jun spent three days recruiting three thousand young refugees for Xiao Heng.

He then divided these three thousand men into the vanguard, central, and rear divisions, with one thousand men in each division. From these, he selected three skilled and influential refugee leaders, appointing them as Captains, each overseeing one of the three divisions.

The central, vanguard, and rear divisions were further divided into several smaller squads, with fifty men in each squad, led by a squad leader.

In the training ground, the snow fell like cotton fluff.

The three thousand men stood in neat ranks, waiting for Xiao Heng’s inspection on the snow-covered field.

This army, made entirely of refugees, mostly lacked proper equipment. Some wore coarse cotton clothes, others wore self-made cloth armor, and some were unarmed, without even a decent weapon.

But when they shouted in unison, their voices seemed as though they could shake the heavens.

“Your Highness,” Liu Jun stood beside Xiao Heng, “If you give me more time to train them, this army will not be worse than a regular one.”

Xiao Heng stood with his hands behind his back, slowly surveying the refugee army composed of people from Northern Shaanxi.

Liu Jun anxiously waited for his opinion.

After a moment, Xiao Heng walked back to the large pavilion in front of the training ground. He raised his hand and wrote:

—You no longer need to call yourself a commoner.

Liu Jun was momentarily stunned but quickly realized what Xiao Heng meant. He immediately knelt on one knee in front of Xiao Heng with a loud thud.

Xiao Heng:

—Tomorrow, take them to the Governor’s Office to register for military service. Then go to the armory to collect armor and weapons. Their monthly rations and pay will be distributed alongside those of the Northern Army. From now on, I appoint you as Zhonglang General, Commander of the Loyal Military, to formally lead this refugee army.

Coincidentally, they had recently seized a lot of armor and supplies from the Chu army, which could be distributed to the three thousand men.

Li Jichang had money, and Han Hu’s troops were equipped with the finest silver armor, even surpassing the imperial guards of the Great Yan dynasty.

Liu Jun gratefully said, “I will not disappoint Your Highness’s trust!”

Three days later, the three thousand men enrolled in the army were outfitted in the standard silver armor.

This refugee army was given a more formal name.

—Yulin Army.

…

On the fifteenth day after Duan Yunfeng sent an envoy to Western Capital, the latter finally returned to Jinzhou with the news.

In the Governor’s Office, in the conference hall.

“Crown Prince, Your Highness.” The returning envoy was covered in smoke and dust. He had ridden a tall steed on his way there, but returned on a broken-down old donkey. When he spoke about the situation in Chang’an, he appeared as though he had barely survived a disaster, still shaken by the experience.

“At present, the northern Shaanxi bandit leader Sun Haohan has sent troops to occupy the counties surrounding Chang’an, cutting off the official roads and grain supply routes near Western Capital. Chang’an is now a lone city, surrounded for over two months, with all supplies exhausted. The defenders have begun boiling warhorses for food, eating tree bark, and scraping the walls for scraps. If this continues, Western Capital will inevitably fall! The Governor of Western Capital said that if the Crown Prince could send troops to lift the siege of Chang’an, not only will you be able to pass through to Fengxiang, but also…”

Duan Yunfeng roughly knew what had happened to the envoy’s horse, and he asked, “What else?”

The envoy replied, “What I mean is, you could even ride that donkey all the way to Fengxiang.”

“Tell him to get lost!” Duan Yunfeng laughed and cursed, “Who wants to ride that thing?”

He then clasped his hands behind his back and paced back and forth in the main hall, saying, “It’s that bastard Sun Haohan. My older brother nearly wiped him out back then. If it weren’t for that damn An Youliang meddling… Truly an accomplice to evil!”

Song Shiyu was a bit curious. “With so many refugees fleeing from Northern Shaanxi, there must be large swaths of land left untended. Sun Haohan claims to have an army of 150,000, but where is he getting the supplies to keep his army besieging Chang’an for months?”

The messenger turned pale when he heard this.

“If you’ve fought him, you’d understand,” Duan Yunfeng’s eyes darkened, his earlier playful demeanor gone. “Sun Haohan’s army never carries supplies.”

Song Shiyu asked, “Then what do they eat?”

Duan Yunfeng replied, “Guess why the people of Northern Shaanxi are fleeing westward?”

An absurd thought sprang to Song Shiyu’s mind. “Could it be…?”

Duan Yunfeng: “They’re afraid of becoming Sun Haohan’s army rations.”

Anyone who had ever fought Sun Haohan knew that this “local emperor” of Northern Shaanxi never brought supplies or baggage. He would always order his men to turn the bodies of the dead civilians into jerky, eating as they went along.

“Ugh!”

The messenger seemed to recall some unpleasant memories and couldn’t help but bend over and vomit.

Duan Yunfeng frowned, covering his nose and mouth. “Get out! Go outside to vomit!”

The messenger hurriedly left.

A servant rushed forward to clean the floor.

Song Shiyu said, “Sun Haohan really is inhumane. Now that he has cut off the supply and transport routes, if we don’t send troops to rescue Chang’an, it will be difficult to attack Fengxiang.”

Xiao Heng, who had been standing by, picked up his brush and wrote:

—Sun Haohan is brutal and has carved out his own territory. His ambition is no smaller than Li Jichang’s. The disaster in Northern Shaanxi will have to be dealt with sooner or later. Now that he’s besieging Chang’an, I suggest we split our forces into two. One force will attack his old stronghold in Yanzhou, and Sun Haohan will surely send troops to reinforce. That will create a gap in his siege, and the other force can seize the opportunity to break the siege of Chang’an.

Song Shiyu nodded, “What Your Highness says is reasonable. However, if we split our forces, how many men should we send to attack Yanzhou? At present, Jinzhou must have at least ten thousand troops to defend in case the Chu army advances. The remaining twenty-five thousand Northern Army troops will be split into two groups. Won’t this leave our forces too scattered?”

After all, Sun Haohan’s army was reputed to be 150,000 strong. Even if that number were inflated, it should still be around 80,000 to 90,000.

Xiao Heng:

—Doesn’t Jinzhou still have a refugee army? Let Liu Jun lead five thousand Yulin soldiers to rescue Chang’an. That way, the Northern Army doesn’t need to divide its forces.

This refugee army has already recruited five thousand men, including three thousand infantry and two thousand cavalry.

Duan Yunfeng frowned. “Liu Jun has never been a commander and hasn’t led troops to the front. Can he handle it?”

Xiao Heng:

— I will go to Chang’an with the army.

Duan Yunfeng immediately opposed, saying, “That’s even more impossible! How can I feel at ease with that?”

Xiao Heng was silent for a moment and then wrote:

— Then should I go to Yanzhou to fight Sun Haohan?

Duan Yunfeng was momentarily speechless. “Is that what I meant?”

“No matter what… let Song Shiyu follow you.”

Song Shiyu was about to say, “I’m fine with that,” but then saw Xiao Heng write:

— You want him to command the Yulin army? Do you think he can handle it?

Song Shiyu swallowed the words he had been about to say.

Recently, Liu Jun had been the commander responsible for training the Yulin army, and anyone who had been to the frontlines knew that changing commanders at the last moment was a military taboo.

Duan Yunfeng reluctantly pursed his lips. “Then…”

Xiao Heng decisively wrote:

— This is the best arrangement for now. I know what I’m doing.

“Fine,” Duan Yunfeng finally compromised. In truth, it wasn’t that he didn’t trust Xiao Heng’s decision-making; it was just that the thought of being separated from the princess made him feel uneasy, as if something bad might happen if he didn’t send someone with Xiao Heng, as if Xiao Heng would just slip away like a butterfly.

“Then let Uncle Zhou go with you.”

Xiao Heng’s dark eyes flashed with an almost imperceptible coldness as he wrote something. If anyone had been paying close attention to his gaze, they would have noticed the look of a hunter who had finally cornered his prey.

He wrote:

— Fine.

Everything was proceeding according to his plan.

Song Shiyu, who didn’t notice any of these subtle changes, couldn’t help but think to himself that the princess was indeed a remarkable woman, managing to make their young master compromise.

…

The situation in Western Jing was becoming increasingly tense. According to the messenger’s reports, Chang’an was on the brink of falling. Therefore, Duan Yunfeng decided to leave soon to attack Yanzhou.

As the first light of dawn pierced through the city walls and shone into Jinzhou, Xiao Heng watched the vast Northern Army slowly march out of the city gates.

Duan Yunfeng, who had been leading ahead and had already ridden quite a distance, suddenly turned his horse around. Under the blinding sunlight, he rode against the flow of the army and galloped back to Xiao Heng.

Before Xiao Heng could figure out why Duan Yunfeng had returned, Duan Yunfeng had already dismounted and pressed something into his hand.

When Xiao Heng opened his hand, he found it was a safety talisman, one that looked like it had been obtained from a temple.

“Don’t laugh…” Duan Yunfeng lowered his eyelashes, unwilling to make eye contact with Xiao Heng, and said with a slightly evasive glance, “When my father went to the frontlines, my mother would go to the temple to get a safety talisman for him. When I was young, I always thought these things were a bit nauseating. I mean, you can’t rely on a safety talisman to decide the outcome of a battle, but now…”

He suddenly lifted his gaze. His amber eyes gleamed in the sunlight, giving off a faint golden halo. The slightly drooping curve of his eyes added an air of sincerity and innocence to his expression. “I think it’s good to ask for some luck.”

“If we take Yanzhou this time and then take Western Jing, we’ll have most of the Guanzhong region. At that point, taking down An Youliang will be as easy as reaching into a bag. Once we control Guanzhong, taking Luoyang will be only a matter of time.” Duan Yunfeng closed Xiao Heng’s hand over the talisman. “As I said, I’ll give you this world sooner or later…”

He pressed his lips together. “When that time comes, you can do whatever you want. If you don’t like your useless brother, I’ll depose the emperor for you.”

Xiao Heng: “…”

Duan Yunfeng spoke with deep sincerity, “I’m leaving soon. I don’t know when we’ll meet again after this. Although you don’t need to go to the frontlines in Chang’an, you must still take care of yourself. Don’t put yourself in danger. If Liu Jun isn’t reliable, don’t be stubborn. Write to me quickly, alright?”

He lowered his eyelashes, his tone somewhat reluctant, “Next time I come back, you mustn’t be so stingy, you know? You have to let me kiss you.”

“It’s a promise, okay? Wait for me to come back!”

After leaving this sentence, Duan Yunfeng mounted his horse, smiled at Xiao Heng, and then turned around. With a flick of his whip, he disappeared into the vast crowd.

Once Duan Yunfeng’s figure had disappeared into the distance, Xiao Heng lowered his head, his expression unreadable as he looked at the safety talisman in his hand.

It was clearly the dead of winter, yet the talisman felt hot to the touch, making it somewhat awkward to hold.

He expressionlessly clenched his fist, hiding the talisman in his sleeve.

…

That night.

Xiao Heng led Liu Jun and the five thousand Yulin soldiers toward Chang’an, leaving Kang Chengye to defend Jinzhou.

The army arrived at the outskirts of Puzhou the next day. A hundred miles beyond Puzhou lay Huazhou and the strategic pass of Tongguan, which were both occupied by Sun Haohan’s Qin army.

Chang’an was surrounded by mountains to the north and south, with the entrances on the east and west controlled by the Qin army. Huazhou was located at the western entrance.

Xiao Heng ordered the army to camp at the current location and sent a team of scouts to investigate the situation in Huazhou.

That night, the soldiers lit stoves to cook their meals, and the smoke curled up into the air. Looking up, one could see the vast plains and starry sky.

Liu Jun, drinking wine, looked up at the sky. In a daze, he recalled that a hundred years ago, the same moonlight had illuminated Emperor Taizong of the Great Yan and his ten thousand troops as they passed through this very plain. He had finally pacified the rebellion in Chang’an and unified the northern borders.

The thought that the person he admired the most was now so close to him filled him with immense ambition. He took out a clay flute from his chest and played a passionate and stirring tune.

The soldiers under him seemed to be infected by Liu Jun’s emotions, and they began to sing in rhythm with the melody, their voices echoing through the camp.

At that moment, someone suddenly came to report that the princess had arrived and had urgent matters to discuss with Liu Jun. She was waiting for him in his tent.

Liu Jun was stunned and quickly put down his flute. He said to Li Jinxi, “Since the princess has business, she could have just sent someone to call me to her command tent. The camp is a mess, it’s not appropriate to trouble her to come all the way here. It would be embarrassing.”

He quickly adjusted his appearance and hurried toward the tent.

As Liu Jun reached the outside of the tent, just before he lifted the curtain, a low, cold male voice came from inside.

“What was the music you just played?”

He instinctively replied, “The battle march of Emperor Wu.”

Then, he suddenly realized—wasn’t the princess waiting for him?

This… who was this man?!

Could it be a servant by the princess’s side?

Li Jinxi reached out and lifted the curtain for him.

Liu Jun saw a person standing in the center, wearing dark robes, hands clasped behind his back. His hair was tied up with a jade crown, and his demeanor exuded an indescribable majesty and dignity.

The person slowly turned around, revealing eyes like phoenixes, dark and piercing. The shape of his eyebrows and face bore a striking resemblance to the princess’s features, though this person’s tall and sharp features made it clear he was a man.

Liu Jun was stunned, unable to speak in shock.

Could it be… Could it be that the princess had a twin brother?

“Don’t be alarmed,” the man said, seemingly anticipating Liu Jun’s reaction. He gave a faint smile, his lips pressed together, and added, “I didn’t mean to conceal my identity earlier.”

“Your Majesty?”

“Your Majesty??”

“Your Majesty???”

Liu Jun’s pupils trembled. Was he thinking of what he thought he was?

It was…

It was that…

That…

Emperor?!!!!