[UTP] Chapter 113

While they were speaking, Chun Yumin brought a teapot in, but suddenly stopped her steps, stutteringly saying in a soft voice: “I–I want to ask for hot water.”

“Here, let me get it.” Yang Yue hurriedly takes the teapot from her hands.

Looking at Jinxia, ​​Chun Yumin seemed to want to say something to her but hesitated. Jinxia was quick enough to notice her expression. 

“What is it?” She asked.

“Miss Yuan…. this might not be appropriate if I said it, but I…” Chun Yumin hesitated for a moment, “Since that day, you haven’t talked to Mrs. Shen have you?”

Jinxia uncomfortably answered ‘yes’.

“I see. A few days ago her face didn’t seem too good, she seemed to keep thinking about you.” Chun Yumin said.

Yang Yue had finished fetching the water and also persuaded her: “That day because she was too angry and said the wrong thing, but you shouldn’t continue to hide from her either.”

Jinxia’s face looked gloomy for a moment, after which she sighed and said: “I know…. but she kept controlling me, it can’t be like this. Now the situation is really chaotic, if I make peace with her now, later when the pirates come to attack, she will definitely continue to control me and won’t let me go. “

“Pirates are going to attack the city?” Chun Yumin was shocked.

YangYue glared at Jinxia, ​​all this time they had been hiding this from Chun Yumin, they were afraid this matter might scare her.

Jinxia didn’t really agree to keep it from her, she continue to say: “It’s time, she should know, she must also prepare herself in her heart.”

“Pirates are really going to attack the city?” Chun Yumin asked.

Jinxia held her hand and said: “Sister, Xinhe city will soon have a big battle, don’t know if reinforcements will come, but remember, no matter how chaotic the city is, you must go along with my uncle and aunt. My uncle’s kung fu is very high, he can take care of you guys.”

Chun Yumin said anxiously: “What about you?”

Jinxia looked at YangYue and Cen Shou, the three of them looked at each other, they understood each other without needing to say anything. 

“We have limited helping hands here, therefore, we must help Madam Qi to protect the city.”

***

In a blink of an eye, eight days had passed since Yu Dayou gave an order to withdraw the troops back to base. At this time, Cen Fu had already returned from the Capital. 

During these eight days, the soldiers were able to take some rest, pack up their weapons, and during their spare time, they would grieve for their comrades who died but could not be buried, then started thinking about the current situation, whether they were gonna live or die. 

To be honest, with Lu Yi’s plan, Yu Dayou did not consider it at all. Lu Yi’s plan was simple, but not too simple, the main point of his plan was to deceive the enemy, and surprise attack them when they’re least expected. Judging from previous battles, the pirates’ defences are very well built, various weapons are being used, don’t talk about the sudden attack, even winning Cengang was impossible. 

Right now, Yu Dayou’s authority has been revoked, but he still needs to fight, if the whole plan doesn’t work out, the next step would be throwing him into the central prison. 

He walked slowly around the base, visiting and checking on the condition of the wounded and sick soldiers. It just so happened that Wang Chonggu came, carrying a bunch of medicinal leaves, he sat and chatted with the injured and sick soldiers. General Wang’s personality was very different from Yu Dayou’s passionate and fast-paced nature, Wang Chonggu is much easier to talk to. In the eyes of the soldiers, General Yu is sitting in a very high position, and they have to show respect, as compared to General Wang, where they can socially talk to him comfortably. 

“General.” Wang Chonggu laughed and greeted him.

Yu Dayou walked towards him, signalling that the surrounding soldiers don’t need to be formal, then, he casually sat down with them.

“I heard earlier,” Wang Chonggu pursed his lips at the wounded leg soldier over the other side, “General, can you guess how he got back to the base?”

Yu Dayou glanced at him briefly: “You carry him home?”

Wang Chonggu laughed and said: “Lu Daren used his horse to bring him home.”

“Lu Yi?”

“That’s right, that day when he was heading to our base, on the road he happened to meet those who were returning to headquarters, Lu Daren used his horse to accompany them back, while he walked to our headquarters. It was about two hours of walking.” 

Yu Dayou was stunned for a moment, he had never heard about this, nor had Lu Yi brought it up.

Wang Chonggu patted his shoulder: “It hasn’t been easy these past few days, he hasn’t complained a word during his time here. He’s not an arrogant man or hard to serve. Don’t furrow your eyebrows every time you see him.” 

“All right, I understand.” Yu Dayou took a deep breath, “If his strategy is successful, no matter day or night, I will pay respect to him like a god, praying to him three times a day.”

Wang Chonggu laughed loudly.

***

When night fell, a man’s shadow slowly approach Lu Yi’s window, after knocking a few times, he slowly prick the thin paper on the window to create a hole. 

Cen Fu was just about to go out to chase after, him but was suddenly stopped by Lu Yi.

Lu Yi slowly walked toward the window, received the letter and softly said: “Are you hurt?”

No sounds were heard. When Lu Yi pushed the window open, the shadow was seen fluttering away under the moonlight. 

“Young Master, who is he?” Cen Fu asked in surprise. 

Lu Yi smiled lightly: “A friend.”

Originally, Lu Yi planned to sneak into Cengang, unsure how Lan Daoxing knew of his intentions. Three days prior, he left a letter addressing Lu Yi, telling him to wait for his return from Cengang. Today, he finally returned. 

How he was able to slip inside the headquarters, Lu Yi doesn’t know either. What kind of difficulties and dangers he encounters, Lu Yi wouldn’t know. Right now, he’s focused on this detailed drawn plan and the layout of where the enemies and weapons are stored. 

Under the candlelight, the floor plan was spread out on the table. Sharp fences are built around the mountain, and various types of firearms are located in a position that’s very hard to see. At each location, where a weapon is located, there’s a description explaining the type of weapon and firing range. The location of these weapons can be considered to be deadly, enough to make the Ming soldiers’ bodies pile on each other.

Lu Yi studied the plan all night and finally concluded that — even if Ming’s forces attacked secretly, they will still lose.

The sun is slowly rising up, Lu Yi stuffed the plan into his sleeve and walked toward the General’s tent. 

The distance between Lu Yi and the tent was about ten steps. Suddenly, the tent’s curtain was lifted from the inside, Yu Dayou was seen walking out. Due to stressing over war matters, he wasn’t able to rest for the past few days. Days and night, he couldn’t help but continue to analyze the war plan. Yu Dayou harshly rubbed his face to wipe his tiredness away, he lifted his head and look at Lu Yi. 

Lu Yi greeted from a distance.

Yu Dayou walked towards him, his eyebrows furrowed as if about to say something but didn’t.

“General.” Lu Yi said.

Yu Dayou finally speaks as well: “As of today, we have rested exactly for nine days, it seems the time has come.”

“General, don’t be in a hurry, I’m here to discuss something.”

Lu Yi did a ‘welcome’ gesture, Yu Dayou walked back into the tent with him. From inside his sleeve, he took out a plan and handed it to Yu Dayou.

Yu Dayou looked at the plan for a while, his eyebrows were heavily tightened, after a moment of silence, he asked: “Where did you get this plan?”

“Friend of mine, he knew that a few days ago I was busy with Cengang’s affairs. He went to Cengang on my behalf, to avoid me encountering dangers and mapped out this plan for me.”

Yu Dayou also knows how dangerous it is to sneak into Cengang: “Please tell your friend, I, Yu Dayou owe him…. all the signs on this chart, are they positively accurate? ”

Lu Yi said: “I believe in him.”

Yu Dayou fell into silence, he studied the plan for a while, with his experience of fighting for several years, he could see that, if the Ming soldiers attacked suddenly and fiercely, many would still be injured and die at gunpoint, seizing Cegang would be impossible.

“…. You have also seen this plan, surely you know winning is not on our side.” Yu Dayou looked at Lu Yi. 

Lu Yi nodded his head: “I came looking for the general, precisely because I wanted to discuss this matter…. I’ve been thinking, if we want the Ming forces to attack successfully, then we need to have the cooperation of insiders and outsiders.”

“Cooperation from inside and outside.” Yu Dayou was silent.

“We can send about ten people to sneak into Cengang, make a big commotion in the city, then use fireworks to signal the outside soldiers. At this point, we would be attacking from inside and outside altogether.” Lu Yi said. 

“Ten people?” Yu Dayou shook his head, “If you want to sneak into Cengang, unless you have extraordinarily reliable kung fu skills, being able to escape the surveillance of pirates, crossing from mountain to mountain, then you can enter. From our troops, even though these soldiers have high kung fu skills, but they are not confident enough to carry out such tasks, as soon as they sneak in, they will get caught by the pirates immediately.

“There’s no need to cross the mountain, as long as you can find someone who can dive.” Lu Yi explained to him, “I’ve investigated the dock at Cenggang, many warships stopped, among them there were many pirate robbers passing by, between the dock and into the city there must be a way through the mountain, we can enter from the waterway. ”

“Through the waterway up to the mainland, and then find a way through to the mountains?” Yu Dayou still shook his head, “Ten people are too big of a target, they can easily get caught, afterward, the pirates will start blocking that passage as well. Won’t these ten soldiers be shining targets, all of them will die in vain?”

“I have also thought about this, the canon pipe from the Dafu ship can shoot up to about 30 meters, we can use it to shoot the pirates’ ships, once the ship catches on fire, they will surely have to leave it and run to Cengang. At this time, we will take this opportunity while the city is in chaos, and blend the ten soldiers in.” Lu Yi carefully explained the plan. 

Deep down, Yu Dayou is very satisfied with this plan, there are no flaws at all, but the main point is how to carry it out.

“What if after these ten soldiers sneaked into Cengang, and something dangerous happen, it’s possible that they might never come back.” He sighed, “How do appoint someone as the leader within them, this is also a problem.”

At this time Lu Yi immediately stood up and said in a definite tone: “I am someone, who doesn’t express myself much, I’ve studied several years of martial arts, and I’m a great swimmer. I ask that you allow me to join this time.”

“You?!”

Yu Dayou was very shocked, he immediately shook his head.

“No, definitely no!…. How could I put you in such danger?”

“Does General Yu feel that my kung fu isn’t meeting your standard?” Lu Yi tightened his eyebrows and said. 

“No….”

Lu Yi interrupted Yu Dayou and said without stuttering: “General since our skills are very similar, how about we battle it out in the field. If I win, then you’ll allow me to join in the plan, what do you think?”

Yu Dayou learned his kung fu from his master, Li Liangqin, therefore his martial arts are on an extreme level, and even the Shaolin Monks have to surrender. Seeing how Lu Yi dare to challenge him, he felt was overestimating himself. 

_{*[Li Liangqin = A famous general that lead troops in 1490-1580 during the Ming Dynasty, he’s the one that invented a kungfu that use nunchucks, TN]}

 “You want to fight with me?” He asked.

 “Yes.”

“Good!” Yu Dayou agreed, “If you win, then I will let you go; but if you lose, then you must follow my orders, no objections.”

“Agreed!”

Lu Yi smiled.

For the past days, soldiers continued to take their rest, there wasn’t much for them to do. With the news of their General going to battle with a JinYiWei Master, they couldn’t help but feel excited. In less than a minute, the field was swamped with people, even injured soldiers have to limp their way to the field. 

Cen Fu with great difficulty managed to break through the crowd, his whole body was covered in sweat, and feeling uneasiness in his heart. Since last night, ever since his Young Master received the battle plan, they haven’t talked to each other at all. Cen Fu only watched Lu Yi sit in front of the candlelight all night, he couldn’t guess what was going through his mind. Even now, he doesn’t understand why Lu Yi wants to fight with General Yu. 

Maybe, it’s because Lu Yi is still young, plus he’s the Young Master of the Lu Family in the capital, even if he studied kung fu his whole life, his skill must be limited. Yu Dayou doesn’t bother changing his clothes, he casually walked over to the weapon rack, patiently stand beside it, then signalled Lu Yi to choose his weapon first. 

“I know General Yu is very good at using Jingchu swordsmanship, but deep down, you’re truly a master at Li Liangqin’s kungfu technique.” Lu Yu smiled, then slowly reached out for a stick, “General, Yan Yuan is ready to learn.”

“I don’t dare.” Yu Dayou also took a stick.

Wang Chonggu upon hearing this news broke into the crowd, he furrowed his eyebrows while looking at the practice field. Wang Chonggu wasn’t sure what’s the intention behind the fight, but he’s thinking that this is a result of Yu Dayou’s violent temper and unpleasant counter with Lu Yi, causing them both to fight.