Chapter 85 – Ghost Sightings In Ancient Village

Up till now, Great Ning had never shown any indication that it was in a vulnerable position, or that it might meet its demise. That was because every one of its emperors was very qualified to run the country. In fact, they were more than qualified to do so.

It was very strange indeed. Ever since the ancient times, in each dynasty, there was at least one emperor who was not competent. For example, the previous dynasty did experience immense glory during their time. The grasslands that stretched over thousands of miles in the north were conquered by the Chu people, hence explaining why there were so many cows and goats roaming everywhere, as well as an endless number of horses.

However, the later emperors of Great Chu eventually became complacent and lazy. They assumed that their empire would last through the ages without experiencing any problems.

Therefore, it ultimately became Great Ning.

For some reason, as Shen Leng was rushing on his journey, he suddenly thought of this issue. Or perhaps it was because Mr. Shen taught him a lot about it back in the day, causing him to think deeper into things a lot. However, he could not help but wonder why Mr. Shen decided to equip him with these knowledge.

Was it because he wanted him to consider the fate of Great Ning, as well as its future?

The ten-man squad swept through like the storm. Even though Shen Leng knew that he had to try his utmost to prevent exposing themselves, it was impossible for them to avoid taking the main interconnecting road if they wanted to get there as soon as possible. All the pedestrians on the road got out of their way. When they saw them, they could not help but speculate that they were rushing to complete some urgent military mission.

The squad exchanged their horses at the second supply point, as well as replenished some medication, rations and water. They rested for less than half an hour before they continued on their journey. Right before sunset, they finally arrived at Feng Cheng ancient village.

They walked their horses towards Feng Cheng ancient village. Shen Leng looked at the rugged path, and looked at the rocks in the ravines on both sides. He could vaguely see how the battle then was like.

The path beneath their feet was paid for with the lives of several Ning soldiers at that time. It was hard to attack at the halfway point of the mountain, and the main interconnecting road was right at the bottom of the mountain. In order to successfully go over from the main interconnecting road, the Ning army had to take down this fort. From the first day they started to attack, the Chu soldiers cut off the only drawbridge that allowed them to enter and leave.

In order to enter the ancient village, one had to cross the deep trench. If they did not attack the ancient village, the Chu soldiers would use their catapult to attack the Ning soldiers who were passing by on the main interconnecting road. If that were to happen, the main force would have had suffered heavy casualties.

In order to take down the ancient village, before the Ning combat soldiers attacked, thousands of auxiliary soldiers had died near the deep trench. Those soldiers carried a bag of sand as they charged forth. Ultimately, they had to rely on the corpses and bags of sand to create a path. After that, the Ning army managed to start attacking with all their might.

The path on which Shen Leng was currently walking on was one that had been stained with the most amount of blood. It had been almost a thousand years ago. He could not help but think back to the time when Mr. Shen first talked to him about that battle.

That battle was too horrendous and tragic. More than 10,000 Great Ning soldiers died there, including the auxiliary soldiers. As for the Chu army, all 8,000 soldiers died – not a single one survived. At that time, Mr. Shen asked Shen Leng – if he were the one commanding the troops back then, what would he have done?

In that place, there was only one path, which meant that there was only one way. There were a lot of food and forage in the ancient village. If the Ning army had surrounded them, the Chu army would not be afraid at all. And the Ning army wanted to pursue and attack the imperial family’s troops. Hence, they could not be delayed for too long.

Shen Leng was deep in thought for a long time, but he still could not think of a better idea.

And at this moment, when he had personally arrived at the actual battlefield, Shen Leng realized that there were a lot of things that he could not have inferred from just studying the map alone, or that perfectly recreating it did not mean that he had truly comprehended it.

Only when he had finally arrived at the scene was he able to comprehend how devastating the battle was.

“The Chu army must have thought about how the Ning army would fill up the trench to create a path.”

Shen Leng suddenly muttered to himself. Yang Qibao, who was walking next to him, stared blankly for a bit. “Military officer, did you say something?”

“Nope.”

Shen Leng snapped out of his thoughts and laughed. “I was thinking about that battle,” he explained.

However, his mind could not help but continue thinking about it. During that battle, the Chu troops must have predicted every single action of the Great Ning soldiers in advance. It was not something extraordinarily brilliant – the Ning army only had those few limited tactics.

At that time, after the Ning troops paved the path, the combat soldiers started attacking. However, the Chu troops threw the logs down from above. The kerosene on those logs were ignited, hence, the Ning army suffered heavy casualties for the sake of charging up.

Because it was very steep, the cavalry were of no use as well.

“So, is deploying elite soldiers and launching a night attack the only way ?” Shen Leng muttered to himself.

However, the Ning troops did use that method back then too. They transferred the best troops from every camp over and launched a night attack on the ancient village, under the command of a general; they climbed up the wooden walls of the ancient village. However, all 120 elite soldiers were ambushed. Every single one of them died, and the Chu soldiers tossed each and every corpse down from above the wooden wall.

When he thought about that, Shen Leng suddenly lifted his head and looked. There seemed to be a ball of flame that speedily flew across the ancient village. It was very small in size – it looked like a torch. However, it was too high up – it was impossible for any person to raise it that high. Furthermore, it flew across at a very high speed.

Chen Ran had seen it too. He was so scared that he started trembling. “Is this place truly haunted?!”

Shen Leng double checked his equipment on his body. He turned around and said in a lowered voice, “Big brother Yang and Gu Le, both of you follow me. We’ll head up. The rest of you wait here.”

The three of them bent their backs and walked over to the ancient village. Gu Le was the second-in-command of the garrison troops. He was very well-trained in martial arts. He was sent to the garrison troops and had similar experiences with Yang Qibao, hence they were on very good terms.

They approached the ancient village extremely swiftly, and flipped themselves over the truncated wall. Shen Leng did a hand signal; he pointed to the center of the ancient village, before pointing left and right. Thereafter, the three of them split up. Shen Leng headed for the center, while Yang Qibao and Gu Le circled to the left and right respectively.

Shen Leng stayed close to the crumbling and dilapidated wall as he advanced. Even though it was hundreds of years ago, Shen Leng could still vaguely smell smoke.

He heard light footsteps. Hence, he leaned against the wall and squatted down.

Two black figures walked past in front of him. As they walked, they spoke to each other in a lowered voice. One of them seemed to be rather unhappy. “Ah, sect leader. Who would come to such an eerie place? And yet we are required to patrol this area through the night.”

The other person snorted. “You should shut your mouth. Does whining help at all? We have to do what we have to do. Besides, we are like a family, stop saying ‘sect leader’’. When you’re acting alone, you’re a sect leader too.”

The person from before could not help but laugh. “This person is pretty interesting huh? Why divide into smart and foolish?”

The two people continued walking as they talked. Shen Leng looked in front and was no longer able to see any light. All of a sudden, he saw a flame floating by from out of nowhere. Shen Leng immediately lowered his head. The flame floated past above his head.

After it disappeared, a sound was heard, followed by the pungent smell of kerosene.

Shen Leng lifted his head and looked. There was a cold look in his eyes. “Trying to deceive people, huh?”

He lowered his body as close to the ground as possible as he walked forward. Right ahead was where the general’s residence was, within Feng Cheng ancient village. It was the most tragic location of the battle. The last batch of Chu soldiers, as well as their general, died in the yard.

The main room was rather well-preserved. However, the walls and side rooms had already collapsed. Shen Leng noticed that there were people moving around in the yard. Their voices were also very soft. They did not light up any torch – could it be that they were able to see each other in the darkness?

As he was thinking about it, he saw two people enter the main room. The moment the door opened, light shone out of it. Shen Leng suddenly realized that those fellas had sealed the windows. Hence, people on the outside were unable to see the light on the inside.

Not long later, Yang Qibao and Gu Le returned. They squatted next to Shen Leng and whispered, “It seems to be the hideout of a group of evildoers. However, we did not see any weapons.”

“Both of you keep guard here. I will go over there to take a look.”

Shen Leng pointed to the roof. After that, he circled around the side rooms and stepped on the broken wall before getting onto the roof. He removed a tile and looked down. There were several people squeezed within the room.”

“Tomorrow we will continue to dispersing. It’s about time we reel it in. The ignorant masses in the nearby village have already fallen into our trap. Once we are done here, we will make a move. This is the common boundary of Jiangnan and Hedong. We shall head to southwest and earn more in Jiangnan.”

The leader of the group, sitting on the chair, smiled and said, “We spent half a month to lay our trap and take a day to reel it in. I’m guessing huge amounts of silver will come pouring in tomorrow. However, we cannot abandon this place. There is nowhere safer than here.”

“Big brother, why is it that the common folks are so easy to lie to?”

“Hahaha, because they are foolish.”

“All of you know nothing.”

The person who was referred to as ‘big brother’ said, “It’s not that they are easy to lie to – it is because Great Ning is too rich and powerful. Hence, the empire propers and its people lived in peace. When they have the money and are leading a good and comfortable life, they will be willing to spend money on these things. If it is chaotic, who would have the heart and mind to believe in the supernatural?”

It seemed as though several people did not understand. But it did not matter. All they cared about was that following their big brother allowed them to earn money.

Standing next to the big brother was a beautiful young lady, who looked around sixteen or seventeen years old. She laughed exceptionally joyfully, “My father has already operated here for almost two years. He made everybody believe that there are the unrested souls of the Chu soldiers. Hence, nobody dares to casually come up here…Tomorrow, I will lead a group of people, and my father will lead another group of people to split up and collect the money. After that, the two groups will head south immediately, and leave for a month. A month later, we will come back.”

“Understood, patron saint.”

“Hahahaha, when the patron saint speaks, how can small bandits like us dare to disobey?”

The small lady snorted. “It’s ok if you joke around and play a fool here, but if anybody messes anything up when we head out, don’t blame me for being ruthless. Not only will he be unable to collect his share of the money, I will feed him to the wild dogs too!”

The group of people acknowledged. The big brother stood up and said, “Everybody who does these things are used to it and are hence able to complete the tasks with ease. Nothing bad will happen. Even the magistrate of Qingya is very respectful towards me. He can’t wait to give me his family’s wealth to ensure that he will lead a long life.”

“Hahaha, so what if he’s an official? He is still getting played by us.”

“One day, if big brother agrees, I’m guessing that the stupid magistrate will not dare to reject his request to get his daughter to sleep with us.”

“We cannot afford to be careless.”

Big brother waved. “Over the past few years, our business has been going very smoothly. The foolish villagers call me Sect Leader Tong Shen. They feel that we can bless and protect them. However, we cannot be too high profile. If something were to happen, we will be convicted of a serious crime.”

He lifted his head and looked at the roof. He felt as though there was someone watching him.

“Dismissed. Go back and sleep, tomorrow we shall haul it in.”

“Yeah.”

“Understood, big brother.”

The group of people turned around and walked out. Shen Leng, who was squatting on the roof, could roughly guess what those fellas were up to. He drew out his black cord sword from his back. His legs exerted strength and he leapt down from the roof.