Chapter 54 Ploys (1/2)

Chapter 54 – Ploys

Xin Ping received the report that Pan Feng's 2,000 men had escaped from the fortress and returned to his camp. He immediately ordered them quarantined.

”Do not let them enter the camp! I want each of them interrogated of what had happened before they got out of that fortress. And I want their backgrounds checked!”

Xin Ping did not trust the returned soldiers. To him, this move was obviously a ploy by Zhang Tong.

'If I were Zhang Tong, I will mix in my troops into these prisoners and wreak havoc from the inside. There is no way that every single of them were the men of Ye City.'

From night till dawn, they isolated and interrogated every soldiers. However, everyone had an alibi and references from the troops within Xin Ping camp. They all had background or families in Ye district.

However, there were many injured soldiers in the group, so they were separated and wasn't interrogated. One of them even lost an arm, so he wasn't included in the quarantine. Xin Ping felt pity towards the veteran handicapped soldiers, so he excluded them out of sympathy. In his mind, there was no way that a handicapped soldier could be a spy, especially if they had fresh wounds from the battle.

Another report came from the scout teams that Xin Ping had sent to observe the fortress. Last night, there was an explosion and commotions within Tong Army fort. Although, the teams couldn't get a clear understanding of what exactly happened, they all assumed that there was in-fighting or a chaos caused by the escapees.

Xin Ping frowned. His instinct told him that this was definitely an infiltration ploy, but all investigation pointed out that they were all his men without any enemy mixed in.

Furthermore, every returned soldiers seemed happy to be back, and none of them acted alone in secretive or had any suspicious activity during the quarantine.

Xin Ping sighed in relief after he had seen his happy soldiers. Then he called the leaders of the escapees into his tent.

Within ten minutes, Zhang He and his friends entered Xin Ping's tent. All of them were once hundred-man commanders from Pan Feng Army, and they had tokens that identified their identity within the troops.

”So what happened inside the fortress? How did all of you get out?” Xin Ping asked.

Zhang He stepped forward and gave Xin Ping his reports.

”Reporting, after Zhang Tong Army raided us and took us in as prisoners, they decided that they would not give us food because they were short on grain provisions. All of us didn't want to starve to death. And we were afraid that he would kill all of us to save the grain, so we have to make the move. Fortunately, Zhang Tong was just a naïve brat, so we managed to stir chaos within his camp and slipped out.”

Xin Ping frowned. There was something that did not make sense. Could someone that capable enough to construct that complex fortress be naïve and inexperienced?

”What about the southern camp's provision? Haven't they taken all of them? Why didn't they give you food?”

”Reporting, they indeed took all the provisions. But it seems Zhang Tong wanted to save all of them for the prolonged war. Thus, he deemed us prisoners as burden.”

Xin Ping nodded. It made a little more sense now.

”What about Pan Feng? Is he still alive?”

Zhang He shook his head.

”No, Zhang Tong executed him.”

Xin Ping snorted and mocked Pan Feng in his mind. That muscle brain kicked the bucket. Although they were colleagues, but he never grieved for that guy. To Xin Ping, Pan Feng was too incompetence to be grieving over.

”What's your name, young man?” Xin Ping asked.

”Zhang He, sir.”

”From now on, you are 2,000-man commander of our army. You, your friends and the others that came with you will be in the same unit. This is my token. Take it to the armory and the provision center. I want you to rearm yourself and get ready for the next battle. Tomorrow, I want you to be here in the morning for the strategy briefing.”

”T-Thank you very much, commander!!!”

Xin Ping grinned and waved his hand, signaling Zhang He and his men to leave.

Zhang He took Xin Ping's command token and went out. After they walked out to a place that no one was looking, one of Zhang He's officer who was one-arm short spoke out.

”Do as he told you. Tomorrow, we will finish this. Don't forget to give those special wines to Xin Ping's cooks. Make them serve it with his food for tomorrow breakfast.”

Zhang He didn't look at the speaker, but he replied.