From bone collectors to the supreme ruler of humanity

Chapter 57 Old Stories

Lin Yan spent two days recuperating in the courtyard.

The wound on my right shoulder started to scab over. Old Meng said that I would be able to move around after two more dressing changes. Xiong Kuo took the hundred-refined steel knife, saying he would find a good blacksmith to forge a new one.

On the third night, Lin Yan was sitting in the courtyard watching Lin Xiu write on the ground.

There was a knock on the courtyard gate three times.

Lin Xiu ran to open the door, and Ye Qingxue was standing outside.

This time, she didn't wear the blue military officer's uniform, but changed into a plain cloth dress, and her hair was casually tied up with a wooden hairpin.

"Sister Ye!"

Upon hearing this, Lin Xiu cried out crisply.

Ye Qingxue patted her head, then looked across the courtyard at Lin Yan.

Lin Yan stood up.

Ye Qingxue's face was somewhat pale in the moonlight, and her eyes were slightly red.

"Xiuer, go inside and keep your mother company," Lin Yan said.

Lin Xiu obediently responded and ran back into the house to close the door.

Ye Qingxue walked to the stone bench and sat down, placing a small cloth bag on the table.

"Why are you here so late? Is something the matter?"

Lin Yan poured her a bowl of water.

Ye Qingxue did not drink water.

She stared at the cloth bag on the table and remained silent for a long while.

"It was left by my mother."

She finally spoke, her voice a little hoarse, "I found this while rummaging through old boxes yesterday."

Lin Yan sat down without saying anything, waiting for her to continue.

"When my mother evacuated from Qingzhou, she didn't ride in an ordinary mule cart."

Ye Qingxue's fingers traced the cloth bag as she murmured to herself, "It's the convoy from the Crown Prince's Palace. She's not a refugee; she found a job at the Crown Prince's Palace after leaving the Ye family."

Lin Yan's brows twitched slightly.

"She entered the Court of Imperial Sacrifices less than three months before Zhenbei Pass fell."

Ye Qingxue raised her head, her eyes bloodshot. "Outsiders have no way of knowing the terrain, troop deployment, and rotation times of Zhenbei Pass. The barbarians were able to attack so accurately because someone sent out intelligence."

"The Eastern Palace?"

"My mother saw it." Ye Qingxue opened the cloth bag.

Inside was a letter; the paper was yellowed and brittle, and the handwriting was somewhat faded, but still legible.

"While cleaning in the study of the Imperial Household Department, she inadvertently found a torn-up letter in the wastebasket. She recognized a few characters and pieced them together to discover that it was a secret letter addressed to the Northern Barbarian King's Court. It contained the locations of three hidden sentries at Zhenbei Pass, as well as the exact date and time of the troop rotation in mid-July."

Lin Yan accepted the letter.

The letter paper was very thin; it was torn into several pieces and then carefully pieced back together.

The handwriting was neat, and the content was exactly the same as what Ye Qingxue had said.

"She was discovered before she could bring the letter out."

Ye Qingxue said, "The people from the Imperial Household Department locked her in the woodshed, intending to dispose of her after dawn. That night, the Northern Barbarians attacked the city, and in the chaos, she was rescued by several kind people and escaped to Zhenbei City by mule cart among the refugees."

"Were those kind-hearted people from the Mountain Battalion?"

Ye Qingxue looked up at him. "How did you know?"

"A guess," Lin Yan said. "The Mountain Battalion was purged back then for colluding with the Northern Barbarians. If this letter was written by the Crown Prince, then the Mountain Battalion was made a scapegoat for him. Gu Changshan's escape by stealing things from the Crown Prince might also be related to this."

Ye Qingxue looked at him and suddenly asked, "Besides the token, what else was in that brocade pouch you received?"

"A fragment of a breathing exercise manual."

"You practiced?"

"I practiced."

Ye Qingxue nodded and did not ask any further questions.

She picked up the letter on the table, her fingertips trembling slightly.

"After my mother arrived in Zhenbei City, she hid and dared not mention the letter to anyone. She was afraid that the people from the Eastern Palace would come after her and that she would implicate the people who saved her. Later, she married my father, gave birth to me, and lived in Zhenbei City for more than ten years without ever saying a word to anyone."

Ye Qingxue paused noticeably at this point.

"Before she died, she gave me this letter, telling me not to investigate this matter. She said the Crown Prince's power was too great, and investigating it would be suicide."

"So you're just pretending you don't know?"

"What can I do?" Ye Qingxue clenched the letter in her hand. "I don't even know how my father died. I only know that he was at Zhenbei Pass that day, on the first line of defense when the barbarians invaded. Less than 20% of his soldiers came back alive."

Lin Yan was silent for a moment, then asked, "Do you still have any of your father's belongings?"

Ye Qingxue was taken aback for a moment, then said, "Yes."

"Can I take a look?"

Ye Qingxue looked into his eyes, and after a few breaths, took out an old purse from her sleeve.

Inside the purse was a polished piece of iron, about the size of a fingernail, with irregularly shaped edges, looking like a fragment that had broken off from something.

Lin Yan took the iron plate, and the moment his fingers touched it, the [Bone Identification] perception automatically appeared.

[Iron fragment: Made of fragments from a military-grade crossbow trigger. The fracture was caused by a severe impact, not by wear and tear from prolonged use. The fracture surface shows obvious signs of high-temperature burning.]

Crossbow trigger.

High-temperature burning.

These two words made Lin Yan's heart tighten immediately.

Then, Lin Yan flipped the iron sheet over.

A very faint "mountain" character was found engraved on the back.

It's exactly the same as the "mountain" character on the black jade plaque.

"Did your father get the crossbows from the supply train?"

Ye Qingxue shook her head. "He wasn't a crossbowman. He was a swordsman and shieldman, assigned to the Left Guard Battalion, the predecessor of the Left Vanguard Battalion. But he had a crossbow with him that day."

"Who gave it to him?"

"I don't know. Those who came back alive that day said that a quarter of an hour before the barbarians attacked, a troop of supply soldiers ran over from the rear and handed each swordsman and shieldman a crossbow, saying that the general had ordered that the barbarian cavalry was approaching and everyone should switch to crossbows to fight back. Less than half a cup of tea's time after my father took the crossbow, the barbarian cavalry charged to the first line of defense's trench."

"Whose men are those supply troops?"

"It was supposedly from the Mountain Battalion. But the lieutenant general in charge of the first line of defense said after the battle that he had never given such an order."

Lin Yan picked up the piece of iron and examined it closely in the moonlight.

The high-temperature scorching marks on the fracture surface were not from fire, but from gunpowder.

Someone tampered with the crossbows sent by the Mountain Battalion, hiding gunpowder in the trigger so they would explode when pulled.

It wasn't just the crossbows that were destroyed.

It was the weapon in the hands of the swordsmen and shieldmen. When the barbarian cavalry charged, these swordsmen and shieldmen were still holding onto their shattered crossbows, unable to switch back to their swords and shields. That's how the first line of defense was torn apart.

"Your father didn't die at the hands of the barbarians," Lin Yan said, putting the iron plate back on the table. "He died at the hands of the man who delivered the crossbow."

He took the black jade tablet out of his pocket and placed it next to the iron plate.

"The Mountain Battalion delivered crossbows to your father, and their crossbows also contained gunpowder. Your father's crossbow exploded, and theirs exploded too. So, on that day, not only your father died on the first line of defense, but also the supply corps of the Mountain Battalion that delivered the crossbows."

Ye Qingxue stared at the black jade tablet. "You mean..."

"Someone wanted to kill two birds with one stone. The first eagle was to tear open the defenses of Zhenbeiguan and let the barbarians pass through. The second eagle was to have the Shanzi Battalion die on the battlefield, since the dead cannot speak up for themselves. So later, when the court investigated the case of colluding with the barbarians, it was useless for the survivors of the Shanzi Battalion to say anything."