Chapter 173: Encounter on the Road

That same evening, Uncle Yang also came to Zhang Xuan’s wooden cabin to chat with him for a while. After breakfast the next morning, Zhang Xuan led Nie Zheng and the other nine men out of the camp. As they departed, Grandpa Tong, Uncle Yang, Zhao Yun, and Tong Fei all stood together to watch them leave until their figures vanished completely. Grandpa Tong then pulled Zhao Yun and Tong Fei aside to practice the Hundred Birds Facing the Phoenix spear technique he had created himself. Uncle Yang went to tend to the livestock, and later joined the Yan family guards to till the fields. Spring had returned once again.

Zhang Xuan wandered aimlessly through the forest with Nie Zheng and his companions, pondering along the way what purpose he actually had in bringing this group out. Surely they could not just make a trip outside and return to camp empty-handed and crestfallen, or Grandpa Tong and the others would mock them endlessly. Having been away from the outside world for two years, Zhang Xuan had no idea what major events might have transpired, nor did he even know the current regnal year. To be honest, ever since he woke up, he seemed to know only that Liu Hong was on the throne and nothing else. Previously, upon seeing someone save lives with talisman water, he had deduced that the Yellow Turban Rebellion could not be far off, but as for how much time remained until 184 AD, Zhang Xuan could only ask: if you ask me, whom am I supposed to ask? The Gregorian calendar system was certainly not the dating method used by feudal dynasties.

After marching at full speed for five or six days, as dusk approached, Zhang Xuan and his men arrived at a desolate official highway. They lingered nearby for a while to rest and recuperate. After all, food is the heaven of the people, and as normal human beings, they naturally needed rest. During the break, Zhang Xuan noticed a long, narrow valley not far ahead of him. As he gazed at it, he heard the chaotic sound of hoofbeats, causing the animals in the forest to scatter in panic at the noise. Zhang Xuan immediately directed Nie Zheng and the others to conceal themselves within the woods.

Soon, from a mountain pass not far behind them, a troop of about a hundred men emerged. In the middle of the procession was a herd of horses, mostly dark gray, looking exceptionally robust and fierce. Several men dressed in foreign attire rode among the horses, holding lasso-like poles as they drove the herd forward. At the very lead of the column seemed to be a military commander, who rode a large black steed. He appeared to be in his twenties or thirties, with the back of a tiger and the waist of a bear, clad in armor-like gear and brandishing a long spear with a murderous aura.

When this group of about a hundred people reached the spot where Zhang Xuan and his men were hiding, they came to a halt. The commander cast a wary look around. Seeing this, Zhang Xuan could not help but shrink back slightly, muttering to himself: are the military commanders of this era truly this perceptive? I’ve hidden so well, could I still have been discovered?

At that moment, a horseman rode up to the commander and exchanged a few words. Upon hearing this, the general burst into hearty laughter and said in a booming voice, "Young master, you worry too much. You came out simply to experience the world, but the matter of escorting these warhorses must still be left to me. I know what I'm doing, so you need not fret. Just follow along and take in the sights."

Just as the man addressed as the young master by the commander was about to say something, the general continued, "I have traveled this road many times. Another thirty or forty li ahead will bring us within the borders of Bingzhou, where a thousand well-trained Bingzhou soldiers are stationed. Which bandit would dare cross paths with government troops here? Besides, this long spear of mine has not encountered an opponent in a long time; I am quite eager to cross swords with those outlaws. Set your mind at ease, young master. Ha ha!"

Having just heard the leader mention that they were not far from Bingzhou, Zhang Xuan wondered to himself whether this was Jizhou or Youzhou. In truth, as Zhang Xuan had followed Grandpa Tong along the way, he had never paid attention to boundary markers, nor did he know which state the camp he had spent two years in actually belonged to, though he guessed it might be Youzhou. As for which state it precisely fell under, probably even Grandpa Tong could not say.

The young master seemed on the verge of speaking again, but after a moment's hesitation, he uttered only a single sentence—though it was spoken so softly that its exact contents remained inaudible—before turning his horse and retreating toward the rear.

At that instant, the commander called out, "Young master, I have solid reasoning for this!" The man called young master turned his head back.

The commander went on, "Young master, bandit infestations are relatively common across the Central Plains. As far as I know, there is a band of outlaws right near here claiming a force of a thousand men, yet they should still be over a hundred li away. We previously wiped out a faction of them, and some of our brothers even infiltrated their ranks. According to the returning brothers, while there are indeed around a thousand people, once you exclude the old, the weak, the women, and the children, the number of able-bodied men capable of fighting or pillaging is only about two or three hundred. Setting aside the fact that they have a long way to travel, even if all of them arrived here, they possess no decent weapons and have received no training. They are nothing more than a mob of rabble. Although we number only a little over a hundred, I am confident that we can take ten of them each without any problem. They pose no threat to us whatsoever. Furthermore, when we entered this valley mouth earlier, we saw the animals in the forest darting about and birds flying from the trees. Based on my years of experience, any woods harboring an ambush will never display such behavior. Therefore, I dare swear that there can be no bandits lying in wait here. Young master, what do you think of my assessment?"