Chapter 88 – Ambush
Shen Leng knew that Dongchi was a little different. He had passed by Dongchi during his last trip to Changan. However, he brought Master Cha and Du Weiming with him, and the three of them sped through. He was not in his uniform either, hence, naturally, there was nothing to be worried about.

Prince Li Chengdong was a very special person. He had spent half his lifetime playing around; everybody said that the reason why the current emperor spared the kid, who almost became the emperor, and kept him alive till now was because his father had knelt down in the emperor’s study and bawled his eyes out, right after his coronation.

His Majesty valued family, and he had always admired that self-aware brother of his. Hence, he showed mercy and told him that he would not hold a grudge against a child.

However, it was said that the crown prince was rather dishonest. Ever since a few years ago, he hired an expert from the underworld as his guard in his manor. And two years ago, he hired Xun Zhi, Prince Li Zhangze’s teacher, to work for him. Who would believe that he hired him mainly for educational purposes?

Due to safety reasons, Shen Leng’s ten-man squad stopped right before they were about to enter Dongchi. His squad set up their tents in the woods right outside the city. The sun was setting right now; Shen Leng intended to rest there for the night, before passing through tomorrow morning, instead of entering Dongchi city.

Back in the Daoist temple, Mr. Shen had told Shen Leng about the crown prince on several occasions. If he truly had not given up, he definitely would not let go of his reign over Dongchi. As for what happened in Qingya, Shen Leng was not worried about Zhuang Yong or Cen Zheng – he was only worried about what Li Xiaoran would do.

Everybody knew that Li Xiaoran was very respectful towards Mu Zhaotong. At that time, the great scholar almost managed to make him the emperor. Moreover, even right now, Mu Zhaotong was an important person in the eyes of the current emperor. He played a critical role. Naturally, Li Xiaoran would curry favor with him.

If Li Xiaoran was smart enough, and if he was well-aware of everything that was happening, the best thing for him to do was to capture Shen Leng. It did not matter whether or not he knew that the person who stripped the magistrate off his official uniform was Shen Leng, he had to capture those Navy soldiers.

He should send them directly to the imperial court. By then, the emperor would be forced into a corner and have no choice. Zhuang Yong just got promoted to a Class A Third pin general; his subordinates secretly left the main force and even barged into the yamen and stripped the magistrate of his official uniform. There was no way that Mu Zhaotong would not jump at the opportunity to get rid of Zhuang Yong.

As long as they got rid of Zhuang Yong, without a doubt, the most suitable candidate to be the next commander of the Navy was Mu Xiaofeng.

Hence, Shen Leng had no choice but to be careful. On the surface, he was only a Sixth pin military officer, but in reality, he was carrying the weight of Zhuang Yong’s rank and fortune, as well as the Navy’s future, on his shoulders.

After he had assigned the night duty roles to his men, Shen Leng looked for an area that was drier, and sat down before opening up the map to take a look. The distance between the north and south of Dongchi was much shorter in comparison to the distance between the east and west of Dongchi. In order to go to Changan city, they had to travel from the east side of Dongchi to the west. It was approximately 90 miles.

Chen Ran sat down next to Shen Leng. “My eyelids keep twitching. Nothing bad is happening, right?”

Shen Leng shot him a glance. “Recently, did you not pay attention to personal hygiene?”

Chen Ran replied, “What do you mean…”

Shen Leng said, “If your eyelids are twitching, it means there is dirt, right?”

Chen Ran did not react for quite a while. When he finally reacted, he could not help but glare at Shen Leng. “You are the one with dirt beneath your skin.”

Shen Leng laughed, “Go to sleep. Later in the night, some of you have to be on duty.”

Chen Ran grunted. “In that case, I will get some shut-eye here.”

Shen Leng responded, “A sense of security, sleeping next to your mother?”

Chen Ran replied, “You’re right.”

Shen Leng blew out the fire. In truth, he had already memorized the map of that area. He was merely checking it again to make sure he was right.

Shortly after, Chen Ran fell into slumber. That fella had always been a person with a heart that was bigger than his brain. Earlier on, he was worried about being unable to fall asleep. However, not long later, he started snoring.

Shen Leng covered Chen Ran with a felt blanket that he brought with him before walking over to Yang Qibao. Wang Kuohai and the rest had already fallen asleep. Yang Qibao was on night duty with five other men. Apart from Yang Qibao, who was alone, the other people were in pairs.

After Li Tuming was killed in Ningwu, Shen Leng revised the number of people on night duty. He demanded that they had to work in pairs for night duty.

Yang Qibao looked up into the sky. “At that time, when you first entered the Navy, I could tell that you would make it big. I saw something in you that I don’t have myself.”

Shen Leng knew what Yang Qibao meant. He also looked up into the night sky. “You think that I’m strong headed enough and that I will never succumb to external forces. That is only because you’ve never met Meng Changan. When we get to Feng Yan Tai, and after you see him, you will know what it means to be truly firm and obstinate.”

Yang Qibao laughed, “You seem to really admire that brother, military officer.”

“I don’t admire him.”

Shen Leng shrugged. “When we were children, I often got beaten up by him. Even if I truly admire him, I can never admit it.”

Yang Qibao was very curious as to what kind of person Meng Changan was. He was someone that the military officer admired to a great extent. And then he thought about himself – how he was always afraid of the slightest things, and that before he did anything, he was always questioning whether or not he was doing the right thing, or that if he would offend anyone…

At this moment, the sound of hooves on the main interconnecting road outside of the woods was heard; it sounded like there were several horses – at least a hundred. Shen Leng looked at Yang Qibao and did a hand signal. Immediately, Yang Qibao bent over and charged into the woods before waking up the rest of the men who were sleeping.

Shen Leng found the other two pairs, who were on night duty, and instructed them not to act blindly without thinking. After that, he went towards the outer part of the woods on his own. The sound of hooves quietened down. Immediately after, he heard people yelling at the horses to hurry. In that moment, Shen Leng confirmed that the people who came over were not from the military.

The military soldiers were not as disorderly as them. But for a group of at least a hundred people to travel on horses, it was not normal.

Shen Leng pulled up his scarf and covered his face, from the nose and below. When he got to the side of the woods, he squatted behind a tree and looked. Under the moonlight, Shen Leng noticed that even though those people had no order or discipline, those people had a red cloth tied to their right wrists.

After he went to Changan city, Shen Leng did not only cross paths with secret societies once, after helping Meng Changan – he was also very familiar with Liu Yun Sect, Gou Lan Zi and Guan Tang Kou. Only Guan Tang Kou’s men had a red cloth on their wrists.

When he thought about how there were Guan Tang Kou’s men in the town outside of the Navy’s camp, Shen Leng immediately understood what was going on.

Clearly, those people did not intend to enter Dongchi in the night. The woods was the best place to set up tents for the night. They walked their horses into the woods, and several of them were swearing as they talked.

Shen Leng retreated quickly, and speedily returned to where they set up their tents. “Chances are, the people who arrived are here to kill us. This led me to think of a way to go through Dongchi.”

Chen Ran lowered his voice and asked, “What should we do?”

“Chen Ran, take two people with you and walk our horses to the other side of the woods and wait there. Without any signal, do not come over to provide assistance.”

Chen Ran was a willing worker. “I’ll stay. Get them to go.”

Shen Leng said earnestly, “It’s very important, you have to go.”

“Why?”

“Because you can’t fight.”

Chen Ran was speechless.

He had no choice but to bring two garrison soldiers with him and walked all their horses to the other side of the woods. Shen Leng gathered the rest of his men and gave them some instructions. After that, all eight of them split into pairs and went separate ways. Shen Leng brought Gu Le with him and secretly approached those Guan Tang Kou men.

The squatted within the underbrush. The moonlight shone through the gaps between the leaves; they could not see them clearly, but they could see where they were, as well as how far they were from them.

Zhao Feng leaned against a tree and gasped for air. He looked around and said, “Li Dadan, take a few people with you and patrol around the edge of the woods. Later in the night, Xu Laizi, take some men with you and take over. The rest of you take the opportunity to sleep. Early in the morning tomorrow, before the sky gets bright, get up and continue on our journey.”

Xu Laizi was rather angry. “After chasing for so long, we didn’t even see a single shadow. Who knows where those bastards ran to?”

“Shut up.”

Zhao Feng continued, “On our way here, I heard that some people saw some military soldiers head this way. The route is correct.”

Xu Laizi swore and muttered some words. He went to look for a place to rest for the night with the other people. Even though those Guan Tang Kou men did not live a life of extravagance in Changan city, they did not suffer. As long as they did not go hungry, it was sufficient for them. They never had to travel continuously on their horses through the night.

Shen Leng tugged at Gu Le’s clothes. Both of them circled around those people and approached the edge of the woods.

In truth, Li Dadan (Note: ‘da dan’ means gutsy) was not gutsy at all. He was most afraid of dark nights, especially the intense darkness within the woods. A lot of stories about the supernatural beings occurred within places like the woods. The more he thought about it, the more frightened he was. Hence, he made sure that his men stayed close to him.

One man, who was leaning against the tree, said something. Gu Le went over from the back and used his left hand to cover his mouth. The dagger in his right hand made three cuts on his neck in the span of a second.

Li Dadan turned around and glanced; he realized that there was a person leaning against a tree. But since he was alone, he did not pay any attention to him.

The person leaning against the tree was Gu Le.

Shen Leng witnessed what happened and was stunned for a moment. Not long ago, in Qingya’s yamen, Gu Le took him by surprise. At that time, Chen Ran did not dare to use Shen Leng’s scabbard to cut up the faces of the swindlers. However, Gu Le immediately took charge. He did not even hesitate one bit.

The speed at which Gu Le made three cuts sent chills down one’s spine. His ruthlessness was an innate trait.

In the moment when Li Dadan turned around, Shen Leng killed off the people in the hidden sentry post on the other side. When Li Dadan realized that something was amiss, Shen Leng and Gu Le had already released the arrows from their repeating crossbows, causing all the remaining people to fall to the ground. They speedily went over to stab them before laying on the ground at the same time.

The people in the woods heard the sounds and ran over to provide assistance. When they were near, Shen Leng and Gu Le took advantage of the fact that they were unguarded and shot a couple of them. Thereafter, they got up and ran.

Zhao Feng chased from the back. He glanced over and bellowed, “Give chase!”

Dozens of Guan Tang Kou’s men started to give chase at full speed. There was very limited light within the woods; the people at the back only vaguely saw two shadows running in front. After the gave chase for a period of time, they had no idea how far they had ran.

Just at this moment, all of a sudden, the path had opened up – they had finally got out of the woods!

However, the moment they came out of the woods, Wang Kuohai and the rest immediately stood up. The six men started shooting with their repeating crossbows. Within a short period of time, each of them shot all nine arrows. The dozen men in front immediately collapsed to the ground.

Shen Leng stood there and did not run. He took out the black cord sword from his back before turning around and facing the Guan Tang Kou men. He smiled.