Chapter 189: Nothing but Predatory Words

"Wu Taimei held no grudge against the Marquis. He had no reason to deliberately lure him over just to imprison him. The Emperor must be behind this."

"The Little Emperor knew the Marquis intended to rebel—he even announced it brazenly in that newspaper. She sent troops to attack Beimeng; it’s impossible she wouldn’t have taken precautions against the Marquis."

"But we never could have calculated that she would arrange for Wu Taimei to feign surrender and lure him into a trap. Such a method is utterly cunning, vicious, and insidious."

Listening to the discussion inside, Xiao Yang felt as if one black pot after another was being smashed onto her head. For once, she truly understood what it meant to be unable to explain herself.

’This really wasn’t my idea.’

’As an Emperor, I might be shameless, but I’m not so shameless as to write someone a ’love letter’ just to trick them into getting kidnapped.’

’This move is a bit below my standards.’

’But even if I shouted the truth from the rooftops, everyone would still think I was involved.’

After everyone finished speaking, they all looked to Su Wu. Their eyes showed trust and obedience as they waited for him to make a decision and give orders.

Su Wu, sitting in the center, mused for a moment before speaking. "Dan State has now reinforced its guards. I’m afraid Wu Taimei won’t allow us to bring men inside. If we mishandle this, it could trigger a war."

The war they wanted to fight was with the Emperor, not to reveal their ambitions in Dan State first and waste their troops. If they couldn’t even reach the Emperor and ended up giving her an excuse to settle the score, the losses would far outweigh the gains.

"Let’s do this: first, select a few dozen skilled martial arts experts. Tomorrow morning, they’ll disguise themselves as porters and merchants to enter Dan State. They will first locate the Marquis, confirm his condition, and send word back. Then we’ll decide our next move."

"General Liang, go back and inform the other generals. The entire army is to get ready, prepare for battle."

"Additionally, while we do our utmost to rescue the Marquis, we must also prepare for the worst. To prevent morale from wavering, if the Marquis meets an unfortunate end, I will nominate the Eldest Young Master as our new leader. Does anyone have any objections?"

Everyone clasped their hands in a salute. "We will follow Mr. Su’s arrangements."

Unflustered in the face of crisis, his thoughts were clear, his considerations thorough, and his decisions swift and resolute.

This Su Wu truly had his merits to have established such a firm position. However, just as he had arranged for his men to disguise themselves and prepare to enter the city, news from within the city arrived.

Wu Taimei had packed up the man and sent him to the Emperor. The city gates had opened before dawn; he was already halfway there.

Xiao Yang: "..." ’I knew Wu Taimei wouldn’t let me down.’

Su Wu quickly looked at a map to plan a route. After roughly determining the paths Wu Taimei was likely to take, he took some men and gave chase.

They chased from the crack of dawn until high noon, finally catching sight of them outside Liangzhou City.

And the direction the column was heading was, surprisingly, Luoyan City.

Xiao Yang stared strangely at the familiar-looking route. ’I never would have thought that after going in a huge circle, this is how I’d come back.’

"Quick, go intercept them!"

Su Wu stood in a mountain hollow and didn’t advance further. Instead, he sent his men out. From his position, he had room to either advance or retreat.

Mainly, he feared that Wu Taimei had an ambush prepared. He was a strategist, not skilled in martial arts, and couldn’t risk his own skin.

A general led three hundred men on horseback, riding quickly to surround the column ahead. Seeing the pursuit, that column continued at an unhurried pace. It was only when they were blocked that a few of them panicked. "What are you doing?"

The leading general angrily strode forward and flung open the carriage curtains, only to find a single scarecrow inside.

"Where is he? Where is Marquis Wucheng?"

The carriage driver trembled in fear. "This lowly one doesn’t know! Governor Wu told us to drive this carriage to Luoyan City, saying he’d give us each ten taels of Silver afterward. This lowly one truly knows nothing else!"

The others were also scared witless. The moment they heard it involved Marquis Wucheng, their faces went deathly pale. "Spare us, my lord! This servant truly doesn’t know where Marquis Wucheng is! Spare us, my lord..."

The driver, plus the escorts, made a total of seven men. They all looked like simple, honest fellows who had never been in any trouble. At this moment, they were desperately kowtowing and begging for mercy.

Their heads hit the ground with a series of THUDS. Blood soon appeared on their foreheads, showing they were genuinely terrified and desperate to live.

The general went forward to inspect carefully. There was indeed only a scarecrow, and the whole situation screamed mockery.

Wu Taimei was playing them for fools!

"Mr. Su, Wu Taimei used a feint! The Marquis’s whereabouts are unknown. What should we do now?"

Su Wu hesitated for only a moment before making a decisive call. "Return to Yizhou."

He had made a two-pronged plan and had still sent men to Dan State. But given the current situation, he felt that even if his people reached the Danzhou Governor Mansion, they probably wouldn’t find Zhao Cheng’an.

No one knew if he was dead or alive, but everyone knew for a fact that Wu Taimei had taken him.

Now that Zhao Cheng’an couldn’t be found, he had to return to Yizhou to control the overall situation. Otherwise, there was no telling how much chaos would erupt.

’That idiot, Zhao Cheng’an! I went to so much trouble to pave the way for him, yet he fell for such a clumsy scheme. Utterly moronic!’

"Mr. Su, what about these men?"

A general pointed to the men kneeling and trembling on the ground. It was clear they’d been duped into being sacrificial pawns.

Su Wu had been rushing all night, his face etched with exhaustion. He lowered his eyes in disgust. "Kill them."

Having said his piece, Su Wu mounted his horse and turned to leave.

Xiao Yang and her two companions had already used the chaos of the chase to slip away onto a side path, hiding in the mountain forest and stealthily making their way to the edge of the main road.

As they were observing the scene, they suddenly spotted a huge, burly man grunting as he dragged what looked like a corpse. Hmm, no, that wasn’t right. It seemed to still be breathing. It was just wrapped up like a dumpling, its mouth gagged.

The man was at least 1.9 meters tall, with a brawny build, broad shoulders, and a thick waist. His arms were corded with muscle, his frame imposing and strong. His features were deep-set and regular, exuding a kind of rugged handsomeness.

He looked like he was struggling to drag his quarry, but he was actually carrying it with one hand, his breathing perfectly steady. With a piece of grass dangling from his lips, he had the air of a cocky rogue, and his words were audacious and predatory.

"Don’t even think about it. Now that you’ve fallen into my hands, no one can save you."

"You’re destined to be mine."

"From the first day I met you, I knew we shared an unbreakable bond of fate."

"You may be ugly, but in my heart, you’re a one-of-a-kind treasure."

The three of them: "..."

They looked at the huge man, then at the middle-aged man on the ground.

’I wish I could unsee and unhear that.’

Over on the main road, a dozen or so soldiers went to kill the men on the ground.

Just as they raised their blades to strike, the kneeling men’s meek and terrified demeanor vanished. In a flash, they disarmed the soldiers and killed them.

It all happened in an instant. The dozen soldiers had underestimated the men who had been kowtowing so hard they’d bloodied their own foreheads. The outcome was that they were no match for the seven, and all ended up as corpses on the spot.

After the seven men finished the killing, six of them dragged the bodies into a ditch, while the driver steered the carriage in their direction.

The scarecrow from the carriage was tossed into the grass, and the huge man casually lifted the bound man into the carriage.

Before getting into the carriage, he glanced in Xiao Yang’s direction and seemed to chuckle, then kicked the horse’s rump with his leg. "Let’s go."