Chapter 241
Time flies, and in a blink of an eye, it was the 27th day of the lunar year. Since that day when they parted in the villa, Gu Yanan never appeared in front of Pang Jun again. During this period, Sui Lianzhu came to Yanzhou once. After meeting, Tang Yuxian also recognized this sister who had been silently helping Pang Jun from afar.
At dinner time, Pang Jun suddenly gathered all the women in the backyard together for dinner. Not only that, even Gong Ziyun, who was usually elusive, and the sisters Su Ying and Su Yan, who were assigned by Pang Jun to form the inner guard, were also there. The other women all smelled something unusual.
Sure enough, halfway through the meal, Pang Jun dismissed all the servants and said to the girls, "I will be heading to the front tonight, so I won't be able to spend the New Year with you. Senior Sister, Aunt Ying, Aunt Yan, and Liu Xia will accompany me. Madam will be in charge of household affairs, with Shuanghua and Qiong'er assisting. You must follow their instructions on everything, understand?"
Although Ji Shuanghua was already over fifty years old at this time, and had given birth to two children for Pang Jun, and her third child was six months old, she was more plump and mature than when she had just become Pang Jun's concubine, with a face like a full moon, a full forehead, and a blessed appearance. A few strands of white hair were clearly visible, and they were combed meticulously, making her look only forty-five or early sixty. She looked at Pang Jun gently and said, "My husband, you must be careful about everything when you are away from home. I have my wife in charge of this family, and I will do my best with Sister Qiong to let my husband have no worries."
When Pang Jun heard that he was going to go to war on a snowy night, Pang Yue and several young concubines' faces immediately fell. They asked, "Husband, it's snowing heavily, why do you want to take such a risk? Can't you postpone it?"
"Yue'er," Tang Yuxian interrupted her daughter and said, "This is a military and national affair. Your husband has his reasons for doing this." Seeing Pang Yue pursed her lips and said nothing, she ignored her, picked up the wine glass, turned around, and said to the four girls who were about to follow Pang Jun out, "Sisters, when you are away from home, please take good care of your husband. He is not only the master of Liaodong, but also the pillar of our family. I hope you will be careful. I beg you." After that, she drank the wine glass in one gulp.
Seeing Tang Yuxian, the wife of the Governor General, making such a solemn request, even Gong Ziyun, who had not officially married into the family, and the Su sisters felt very pleased and hurriedly said, "Madam, please rest assured. We will do our best to protect our husband."
Pang Jun smiled bitterly and said, "Is it that serious? I am not powerless."
Tang Yuxian shook her head and said, "On the battlefield, swords have no eyes. You are also the father of a group of children. Your safety is related to their future."
Pang Jun's face straightened and he said respectfully, "I will follow Madam's instructions."
Tang Yuxian smiled sweetly and said, "Go early and come back early. I and the children are waiting for you to come back." After saying that, she touched her lower abdomen.
Seeing her actions, Pang Jun looked at her in surprise and asked stutteringly, "Yes, yes?"
"Well," the beautiful woman nodded and said, "I felt a little unwell in the afternoon, so I asked the doctor to see me, and that's when I discovered it. It's been more than a month."
"Hahahahaha, okay, okay, madam, I, I will definitely come back safely, wait for me." Pang Jun was so happy that he was a little incoherent. This was the second child that Tang Yuxian gave birth to for him after Pang Ning. He suddenly drank a glass of wine and said to his wives and concubines, "Wish me a triumphant return!"
All the ladies said in a sweet voice: "I wish our husbands success and a triumphant return!"
The person in charge of the Japanese army's western front operations was Pang Jun's old acquaintance Saionji Maehisa. Due to his military exploits in recent years, he has been promoted to the rank of Dazai-sho, a third-rank official. However, the domestic strategy of Japan at this time was to stabilize the western front of Liaodong. The commander-in-chief of the expeditionary force, the left guard general Mori Sota, led the eastern front army all the way south to attack the remaining forces of the State of Chao. After the State of Chao was destroyed and digested, they would attack westward. Therefore, as long as Saionji Maehisa did not provoke the Liaodong Army in the west, there would be no war.
He looked at the strange man in fancy clothes in front of him and said with some emotion: "It's been more than two years. Things have changed. I was very optimistic about Sanada-kun back then. What a pity, he is such a talented person."
Abe Hideaki, who was making tea, smiled faintly and said, "In terms of martial arts, Sanada-kun is indeed a talent, but his identity has doomed him to be unable to move forward in the future. Even if Lord Saionji wants to promote him, he will inevitably be attacked by some people in the court. After all, he is a commoner, and there is an insurmountable gap between him and us."
"Having said that, he is after all a rare sharp knife of our Great Ying. If there is Yu, there must be Liang. Liu Jun of Jin has almost become a nightmare of our Great Ying. Including me, from the 36 swords of Jianlu to His Royal Highness Prince Byodoin, everyone has suffered from him. Last time, Mr. Yagyu, Mr. Date, and Master Jingru, the three top masters of our Great Ying, set up a killing plan, but they all returned empty-handed. They were cracked by Yan Huixin who appeared out of nowhere. Such a heaven-defying luck, is it that God does not bless our Great Ying?" Xiyuanjimae sighed.
"So what if an individual is powerful? Can he hinder the general trend of the world? Now the State of Jin is in the midst of civil strife and struggle for hegemony, and the major forces are evenly matched. It will be impossible to unify the country without ten or eight years. According to Lord Mori's speed, he will be able to complete the conquest of the entire country by summer. We will have another two years to recuperate and prepare for Daying, while the State of Jin is mired in civil strife. How can Liu Jun alone turn the tide?" said Abe Hideaki.
Xiyuan Temple said: "Is it really like this? I don't know why, but deep in my heart, there is always a throbbing and uneasiness. The first time I suffered a loss in front of him was also on a winter night. Tens of thousands of elite soldiers of Jin State escaped from my hands. Otherwise, our attack on Jin State would be much easier." He took a sip of hot tea and sighed at the heavy snow outside the window, "The snow here is really heavy, it can't be compared with our Daying, but I still like the snow in my hometown the most."
After hearing this, Abe Hideaki smiled but said nothing.
While the two were drinking tea and appreciating the snow, outside the city of Guijin, which was over a hundred miles away from them, with the sparse stars dim and the night as dark as ink, a night attack army of tens of thousands of people was advancing silently. There was not a single torch lit in the team, and they crawled in the night like a group of ghosts in the darkness.
The army stopped less than a hundred feet away from Guijin City. Due to the wind and snow and the thick clouds blocking the moon, visibility was extremely low. Even the soldiers who were loyal to their duty on the city wall could only see twenty rods away. They had no way of realizing that the enemy was already at the gates of the city. What's more, a thick layer of ice had formed on the city walls, making the walls slippery and impossible for anyone to attack. This made the already lazy Ying soldiers even more careless.
At this time, several figures walked out from the army that was attacking at night. They ran towards the city wall at an extremely fast speed, performing light skills and leaving no trace on the snow. After a few breaths, they arrived at the base of the wall. After a few more ups and downs, they climbed up the extremely smooth wall and landed on the city tower.
Among the night attack army, the only ones who could do this were Pang Jun, Gong Ziyun, and the sisters Su Ying and Su Yan, who all possessed superb martial arts skills. They infiltrated for two main purposes: the first was to assassinate the sentry at the highest point of the city wall, and the second was to find a way to open the city gate.
When Pang Jun proposed this method, it was originally opposed by most people. However, this was the only way they could think of to reduce casualties and maximize the effectiveness of the raid, so he rejected all objections and resolutely implemented it.
There are four highest sentry posts at the city gate on this side of Guijin City, which just correspond to the four people who sneaked in. Pang Jun and Gong Ziyun have been carrying out missions for a long time and are first-class killers. The martial arts of the sisters Su Ying and Su Yan are even better than Pang Jun and Gong Ziyun. It only took them two cups of tea to complete the assassination mission and gather at the designated location. The rest is how to attack the hinge control room which is heavily guarded.
Fortunately, since it was snowing at the time, except for those guarding the gate and patrolling in shifts, most of the Ying soldiers hid in the rooms and made fire to keep warm. This greatly facilitated the actions of Pang Jun and his team, because the faster the action, the better. If it took too long, the soldiers outside the city would be frozen to death.
The hinge control room is right next to the city gate, and there are twenty Japanese soldiers warming themselves around a campfire at the city gate. To open the city gate, the enemies in these two places must be dealt with. Although Pang Jun and his men are highly skilled in martial arts, it is still difficult to assassinate these twenty people without alerting the control room and the surrounding patrol soldiers. If they fail and alert other soldiers and make them release warning fireworks, the four of them will be quickly surrounded and unable to escape.
In order to deal with this matter, Pang Jun had already made a plan: the key to breaking the deadlock lies in how to kill two waves of enemies indoors and outdoors without alerting the other side, and have enough time to open the city gate. If the enemies outdoors are dealt with first, the risk is extremely high, so make sure to deal with the people indoors first. The people indoors may go to check the situation outside and be exposed, but if the people indoors are dealt with first, it is almost impossible for people outside to know, and the patrolling soldiers will not arrive immediately, so it will be easier to succeed by taking advantage of the time difference.
He calmly walked around to the other side of the hinge control room, took out a bamboo tube from his arms, and gently put it into the house. A wisp of smoke that was almost invisible to the naked eye overflowed from the bamboo tube and floated in the air. Within a few breaths, with a few muffled "dong dong" sounds, Pang Jun estimated that everyone inside had been dazzled by the smoke, so he naturally sneaked into the hinge control room.
In the room, there were more than a dozen Japanese soldiers lying in a mess. Pang Jun walked over, took out a dagger, and slashed each of them on the neck without mercy. After making sure that all of them were dead, he walked out of the room and waved his hand, signaling the Su sisters and Gong Ziyun to take action!
All four of them were masters of decision-making. The group of soldiers near the city gate had just seen a few blurry figures, and before they could shout or ask, they were killed by Gong Ziyun's willow leaf weapon. Before others could react, the sisters Su Ying and Su Yan had already arrived. The two of them were like soul-catchers from hell, reaping the lives of the Japanese soldiers. In less than two breaths, five Japanese soldiers had been killed.
Only then did they wake up from their dreams and draw their weapons to fight. One of them made a quick decision and planned to run while shouting to report the news, but before he opened his voice, he felt a chill as if from the abyss behind his back. His life was slipping away. He opened his mouth and kept trying to make a sound, but nothing came out. In the end, he could only fall to the ground in despair.
After dealing with the soldier who was going to tip off the enemy, Pang Jun turned around and saw that the remaining ten Japanese soldiers had recovered from the chaos and began to form a battle formation to deal with the attack of the three women.
Pang Jun did not go to help the three women because he knew that even if the Japanese soldiers formed a formation to deal with them, the gap in strength between the two sides was too big. It was only a matter of time to deal with them. Their first task was to open the city gate, so he took out another tube and pulled it hard. A beam of signal fireworks shot into the sky, illuminating the entire West City. Then he ran back to the control room and pulled the hinge switch of the city gate.
When the Liaodong soldiers outside the west gate saw the signal fireworks, they no longer concealed their whereabouts, drew their weapons and charged directly towards Guijin City. For a moment, shouts of killing shook the earth from all directions...