Assistant General Nie counted the casualties, then stepped forward with his sword and kicked Er Ge away, pressing his foot onto his head. He leaned forward, staring into his eyes, and asked, "I caught you once, can’t I catch you a second ti? Fool, you should stay further away from ."
Er Ge, eyes bloodshot, looked at him and spat out a mouthful of blood-tinted saliva, hoarsely saying, "You overestimate yourself. If it weren’t for your good luck, escaping several tis by chance, do you think you could have made it alive into the desert?"
Assistant General Nie was furious. Bai Shan, who had already bandaged the wounded and was covered in blood, heard this and calmly said, "Luck is a form of strength too."
Under Assistant General Nie’s foot, Er Ge struggled to lift his eyes to look at Bai Shan and grinned, glancing at Assistant General Nie, "Nothing but brute strength. If it weren’t for those two, I would have killed you in Liangzhou."
Bai Shan said, "Although I appreciate your recognition, you’re wrong about this. Even if you weren’t paralyzed by us and acted imdiately, among us hundred-plus people, it’s uncertain who would live and who would die."
Bai Shan reached out and patted Assistant General Nie, saying, "Don’t step on him, it’s aningless. The urgent matter is to find out how he got out of Liangzhou prison and where he got these n. I rember Governor Duan said that all the bandits in the mountain were wiped out. Even if there were omissions, there wouldn’t be this many, right?"
"I know!" Junior General ng, who had been sitting silently beside, interjected, "But can you heal first?"
Only then did everyone notice the slash on his waist and abdon, which he was pressing, but his clothes were soaked through.
Bai Shan was startled and quickly said, "Why didn’t you ntion it earlier? I can’t handle this. Wait, I’ll go find Manbao."
It took Manbao a while to arrive, as she was handling a critical case. Once finished, she hurried over.
Junior General ng’s face was sowhat pale, but he pressed firmly, causing the bleeding to slow. The main cut wasn’t very deep.
Seeing this, Manbao breathed a sigh of relief, carefully undid his clothing, and began to clean the wound. Bai Shan moved a torch over to illuminate her work.
Junior General ng watched the two of them discussing over his abdon, "Luckily the cut isn’t deep or long, otherwise, a scar would be unsightly."
Bai Shan: "Who’s going to see his abdon?"
Manbao: "His wife might?"
"Well, that’s a private pleasure. Don’t speculate wildly. What if she happens to like it, since it’s a mark of ritorious achievent?"
Junior General ng: ... Can they not discuss this in front of him?
He simply hissed to assert his presence.
Manbao, while stitching him up, raised her head to glance at him, "Does it hurt?"
Junior General ng nodded, "Yes, it hurts."
"It’s supposed to hurt," Manbao said, "Losing so much blood, how could it not hurt?"
Junior General ng: ... He thought she asked because she had a way to make it not hurt.
Manbao quickened her pace, finishing up his abdon while he hissed, then applied hemostatic dicine, leaving Bai Shan in charge of bandaging. She turned to attend to other wounded.
Bai Shan noticed his gaze follow Manbao’s departing figure, and asked, "Is she beautiful?"
Junior General ng nodded, "This Imperial Doctor Zhou is truly not ordinary. She’s daring and quite different from the young ladies I’ve seen."
Bai Shan tied a knot and smiled at him slightly, "She’s my future wife."
Junior General ng’s smile faded, turning serious, "Brother Bai, don’t misunderstand, I didn’t an anything by it. I heard long ago that Imperial Doctor Zhou was engaged, so it was to Brother Bai."
Bai Shan smiled slightly, "I know. I’m just glad you recognize her. We’re going to Gaochang, and it’s better for everyone to get along on the journey."
Junior General ng frowned, "How did you know we’re going to Gaochang?"
He rembered he hadn’t said anything.
Bai Shan chuckled, "Isn’t that the case? By the way, did you eradicate their bandit lair?"
His gaze drifted over the soldiers he brought, asking, "You wouldn’t have co over a thousand miles from Yun Pass just to bring so few people, right?"
Of course not. They’d co to assist Anxi with a thousand troops, with the rest behind. These were cavalry, and knowing they were pursuing the envoy team, they rushed urgently to provide aid.
But before he could say all this, Bai Shan already knew?
Bai Shan asked, "Junior General ntioned knowing the origin of these bandits?"
Junior General ng returned to his senses, nodded, and said, "The leader is called Jin Kui’an, originally a subordinate captain under Bazhuo. He used to be a slave but was promoted for his exceptional bravery."
Before coming to the Western Regions, Bai Shan specifically did his howork, so he was familiar with the forces here. As soon as he heard this, he understood, "So after Bazhuo died, he beca a bandit?"
Junior General ng nodded, "The two people you sent back have very tight lips, even under torture they wouldn’t confess. But during their ramblings, they revealed quite a bit. Plus, you ntioned you’d seen those people before, so we remained alert and knew when they entered the city."
Junior General ng said, "Later, we set traps outside the city to capture them, but unfortunately, so escaped with Jin Kui’an. We captured quite a few people. With so many, we didn’t even need to use torture to get answers."
Junior General ng glanced at the still-unconscious Jin Kui’an, in his heart feeling sowhat sympathetic. He had learned about Jin Kui’an’s recent misfortunes from his subordinates, which could be summarized in three words—bad luck!
He’d never t soone less lucky than him before. Really, he ran back and forth three tis, and even though he didn’t choose the wrong path the first ti, he ended up missing the people.
Junior General ng, straightforward, pointed at Er Ge, whose face was bruised and body equally injured, "This man was also under Bazhuo back then, considered a confidant. When Bazhuo fled, he entrusted him with a batch of gold and silver, hoping to rise again in the future."
Jin Kui’an’s subordinates knew quite a lot, mainly because there was no need to hide these matters. They went to Liangzhou this ti precisely for the gold and silver treasures, and such joyful news was widely spread.
So quite a few knew the backstory, and once General ng interrogated them, they spilled everything like beans.
He said, "Back then, he took away a group of people, but many dispersed. By the ti he reached Liangzhou, Bazhuo was already killed by the Tubo. Upon hearing this news, he hid the gold and silver, known only to him. Later, he joined a nearby caravan gang, working as bandits with them."
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