On the evening of the second day of the third month, a small funeral was being held in Little Cang River. The bereaved were two families—or rather, one family. Lu Yannian, whose head had been returned, had a surviving old wife. His deputy, Qi Zhenbiao, was a lone wolf, and now his bloodline was completely severed. As for the Bamboo Lodge intelligence personnel who were still missing, since their deaths weren't confirmed, no arrangements were made for them.

Inside the long shed erected on the mountain, most of those who came to pay their respects were soldiers and Bamboo Lodge members who knew the two families. Some, friends of those whose safety was yet unknown, also came to sit for a while. The dishes were not lavish, and each person had a cup of weak wine. Ning Yi's family, along with Qin Shaoqian and other high-ranking military officers, were responsible for receiving guests. They briefly explained the general course of events, the Jurchens' methods, and their own response. Some people became agitated and indignant, but after being spoken to quietly by accompanying officers, they calmed down again, only clenching their fists tightly under the table.

In the half-year after defeating Western Xia, Little Cang River had been developing and expanding in a quiet atmosphere. At times, the bustling scene of outsiders pouring in and goods flowing out almost made people forget the oppressive year before the battle against Western Xia. Even after nearly two years of isolation in a corner, the soldiers who came from the prosperous Central Plains were gradually forgetting what the Central Plains looked like. Only such news of death proved to people that fierce conflicts had never ceased in the lands outside these mountains.

The clashes and killings that had once occurred beneath Bianliang City would sooner or later—or had already begun—appear on this land.

Ning Yi, wearing a white flower, walked through the long shed, nodding and greeting each table in a low voice. Someone couldn't help but stand up and ask, "Mr. Ning, can we defeat the Jurchens?" Ning Yi nodded.

"Of course, we can defeat them." He replied in a low voice, "The state you were all in on Dongzhiyuan is the secret to the Jurchens being invincible with ten thousand men. We may even be better than them. We have a chance to defeat them, but of course, it will be very difficult. Very difficult. Very difficult."

He said the three "very difficult" word by word.

After greeting almost everyone, Ning Yi quietly left from the side, with Chen Fan following him. The two walked along a mountain path. There was no moon, only the vast and boundless starlight. Ning Yi put his hands in the pockets of his clothes—he was used to having pockets, so Tan'er and the others had made many improvements to the current short-sleeved clothes, making them looser, lighter, and more stylish.

"Brother Chen, you haven't been on the battlefield for a long time, have you?"

"I haven't been on it many times to begin with." Chen Fan smiled, a blade of grass in his mouth. "Actually, when I was with Holy Duke, there was no strategy when fighting battles. It was just leading people to charge forward. Now, things here are very different from Holy Duke's uprising. What, do you want to send me away?"

"You're a disciple of Buddha Marshal. It feels like a waste to have you following me all the time."

"You're really meticulous, unwilling to let anyone take advantage of you. Just let me relax a bit. Too many people want to kill you. If a desperate grandmaster really comes, Chen the Hunchback and the others will certainly protect you with their lives, but I'm afraid they might be careless for a moment. And you've already sent Zhu Biao to Shandong..."

"Hong Ti will be coming over in a few days."

"If a real war breaks out, don't you want Green Woods Stronghold? She'll have to go back and take charge eventually."

"Jin'er can take charge too. Just have her ride a horse and wear a mask."

Ning Yi gestured, and Chen Fan laughed along with him. In the past half month, the play "Assassinating the Tiger" had been performed in both Green Woods Stronghold and Little Cang River. The image of the Blood Bodhisattva with a ferocious mask had gradually spread. If it was just to fill a spot, Jin'er might really be able to act the part.

But these words were ultimately just a joke. Chen Fan looked at him a few times. "What do you want me to do?"

"Zhuo Xiaofeng and the others have been here for so long, they're familiar with the situation in Little Cang River. I want to send them back to Miao territory. But after thinking it over, the one who can best keep things in order is still you. The easiest person to coordinate with Watermelon is also you and your wife, so I have to trouble you to lead the team."

Chen Fan frowned. He looked at Ning Yi and was silent for a moment. "I usually wouldn't ask this, but... is it really time for this? Are we still a long way from being able to contend with the Jurchens?"

"I also wish there was more time." Ning Yi looked at the valley below and sighed. "Killing the emperor, starting an uprising with less than ten thousand people, struggling to defeat Western Xia in a year, and then facing the Jurchens in another year. There's no such thing. When I chose the Northwest earlier, I never thought it would be like this. If you give me a few years to open up a situation in the cracks, gradually plan for it. This four-way battleground, wilderness, is also suitable for training soldiers. Our situation will definitely be much better then."

He shook his head. "Defeating Western Xia wasn't a good choice. Although we squeezed out all the potential of the team because of this pressure, the losses were also great, and we alarmed them too quickly. Now, other mediocre forces can still live in isolation, but here, we can only look at what Wanyan Zonghan intends to do—but think about it, we're such a small place, not yet established, but we have firearms, something they've taken a fancy to. If you were Wanyan Zonghan, what would you do? Would you allow us to stay here and haggle with him and negotiate terms?"

"Is there any other way?" Chen Fan frowned. "What if we preserve our strength and withdraw?"

"Brother Chen, I didn't realize you were such a hesitant person." Ning Yi joked with a smile.

Chen Fan also smiled. "I can disregard life and death for myself, as long as I die for a worthy cause. Fighting with my life is a common thing, but there are so many people here. I haven't fought against the Jurchens, so I don't know how powerful they are, but I can imagine that this time, their purpose is different from the previous two times. The first time was a test, they weren't sure of themselves, so they wanted a quick battle. The second time was to break Bianliang and destroy the Wu Dynasty, they even captured the emperor. This time, they won't just be playing around and leaving. Three armies are pressing down, death if we don't surrender. Not many people in this world can stop them."

"After all, the West Route Army only has ten thousand Jin soldiers."

"Wanyan Loushi is a god of war. Last year and the year before, he led ten or twenty thousand people to fight against tens or hundreds of thousands here, destroying them like rotten wood. Let alone whether we can defeat him, even if we can, this bone will be very difficult to gnaw on. Moreover, if we really defeat their West Route Army, we would be the first to resist the Jurchens in the entire world..." Chen Fan said, tilting his head and looking at him, "You wouldn't not think of this, what are you thinking of doing?"

"I discussed it with Shaoqian and Chengzong, and I've thought about it myself for a long time, a few questions." Ning Yi looked at the front, "After all, I'm not good at fighting wars. If we really fight, is our chance of winning really not great? How big will the losses be?"

Chen Fan thought for a moment. "Loushi's personal ability must be taken into account. If it's just the West Route Army, of course, there's a chance of winning, but... we can't take it lightly, like you said, it's very difficult. So, we have to consider the possibility of great losses."

"The appearance of firearms will change things after all. The previous estimation methods may not be accurate. Of course, there's originally nothing accurate in the world." Ning Yi smiled slightly, "Looking back, why did we come here to open up a situation in such a difficult place? Did we come to be driven away by the Jurchens a year after we drove away Western Xia? In peaceful times, doing business requires considering probabilities and treating things rationally, but in this time of great chaos, who isn't standing on a cliff?"

"I'm not willing." Ning Yi gritted his teeth, a kind of extremely cold and extremely fierce look gradually appearing in his eyes. After a moment, that look disappeared like an illusion, he tilted his head, "Not yet started, we shouldn't retreat. I want to gamble here. If it's really determined that Wanyan Zonghan and Xiyin are determined to plot against Little Cang River and cannot be coordinated, then..."

The night wind blew gently, on the hillside, Ning Yi's voice paused, "Then... I will not hesitate to kill Wanyan Loushi at any cost, even if Wanyan Zonghan comes again, I will tear a piece of meat from his body, and even consider the possibility of leaving them here."

The matter had not yet been done, Ning Yi's words were just a statement, always calm, and it was no exception at this time. Chen Fan listened, quietly looking at the valley below, after a long time, he took a deep breath, gritted his teeth, and laughed, a fanatical look faintly appearing in his eyes: "Ha, that's how it should be, that's how it should be. I understand, if you really want to do this, I'll follow you, no matter what you do, I'll follow you."

He paused, nodding as he said, "You know what, when Holy Duke started the uprising, he claimed to have hundreds of thousands of people, a mess, but I always felt that it was meaningless... No, the meaning at that time, compared to now, really has no spirit at all..."

Then he said, "I'll tell this to Watermelon, that little girl will love you to death. She doesn't say anything on the surface, but when she turns around, her eyes will light up, hey, that's how it is..."

Hearing him say this, Ning Yi also laughed, "Just a temporary idea, sometimes, the situation is stronger than people, if there are changes, we can only see how it goes."

"I know." Chen Fan put his hands on his waist, then pointed at him: "Be careful not to die, you have to practice martial arts more."

"I'm already a martial arts expert."

Chen Fan looked ahead, shaking his head, muttering to himself as if he hadn't heard Ning Yi's words at all: "Damn, I should find a time to team up with Zhu Biao and Grandmaster Lu to kill Lin Echan, eliminate a major threat... or find Watermelon, find Chen the Hunchback and the others to send people... I'm always worried..."

"Idiot..." Ning Yi curled his lips quite dissatisfiedly, turned around and walked forward. Chen Fan followed, thinking about things himself. Ning Yi spread his hands as he walked, speaking loudly, "Everyone sees, I now think I've chosen the wrong person."

"I'm serious, we can do it." Chen Fan said.

"I don't have time to deal with that Lin..."

The two discussed for a while, gradually reaching a small courtyard ahead. A figure was wandering outside the courtyard, it was Jin'er, who was staying at home to take care of the child. She was wearing a floral jacket, holding Ning Yi's daughter Ning Wenwen, who was less than a year old, taking a walk outside the courtyard. Naturally, there were sentries nearby. When Chen Fan saw that they had arrived, he went to the side and stopped following.

Ning Yi walked over and sat down with Jin'er on the grass beside him. Jin'er asked a few questions about the funeral, and Ning Yi answered them. At this time, the lights in the valley below stretched out like a line of fire, and the figures of people made everything seem warm. Jin'er recalled the things in Jiangning, and said a few words to Ning Yi, the days in the brothel, the evaluations of the talented Jiangning men by her sisters, the small building by the Qinhuai River, the cohabitation with Yunzhu, the morning mist every day, the running in the morning mist, the strange man who ran over. At that time, she couldn't imagine that this man would become her husband, and of course, she couldn't imagine that the Son-in-Law and talented man she loved would eventually come here.

If everything could be as it was in the past, that would be truly desirable.

"We... can we still live like that in the future?" Jin'er said with a smile in a soft voice, "When we drive away the Jurchens."

"When we drive away the Jurchens, the world will be peaceful, we'll go back to Jiangning, build a wooden building by the Qinhuai River, you and Yunzhu will live there, I'll run every day, you... well, you'll be annoyed by the children all day long, it can be seen that some things will never be the same as before."

Jin'er couldn't help but smile. After a moment, she stretched out her finger: "It's a promise."

Ning Yi reached out and hooked his finger: "It's a promise."

That night, there were brilliant stars in the sky, and the lights of the people living in the Little Cang River Valley stretched out like stars towards the mouth of the valley. At this time, the Jurchens were coming south from the north, and the situation north of the entire Yellow River was completely chaotic. Most of the trade routes had been paralyzed, and the flow of goods in and out of Little Cang River was gradually coming to an end. But on the fourth day of the third month, someone came with a letter, followed by the last large-scale batch of supplies being transported to Little Cang River.

Unexpectedly, it was a letter from Zuo Duanyou. After leaving Little Cang River, until the Jurchens finally invaded the south, Zuo Duanyou had made a decision to move his family south.

And a large amount of military equipment, ironware, gunpowder, grain and other materials were transported to the mountains of Little Cang River, making the valley lively again for a while.

East, the Central Plains.

On the various roads from north to south, the crowds of refugees stretched for hundreds of miles. Wealthy families drove cattle and sheep, carriages, and poor families carried packages on their backs, bringing their families with them. At every crossing of the Yellow River, the ferries traveling back and forth were operating at overcapacity.

Because the first wave of refugees from the Jin invasion had already begun to appear. And the Jurchen army followed closely behind, nipping at their heels. After the first few battles, hundreds of thousands of defeated soldiers were scattered like a tide across the land north of the Yellow River. To the south, the operation of the Wu Dynasty court seemed to have been frightened, completely frozen.

Blood and life, burning war, sorrow and wailing, are the first wave of price paid by this world...