Chapter 67: East Island Wanderer (Thanks to book friend ztym3333 for the monthly vote!)
In the era of cold weapons, the death of a few people during marches and battles was not a big deal, and scouts themselves were a type of soldier with a very high mortality rate. After discovering that they were missing, Ye Mingsheng sent a large group of people to search for them, which was very considerate of him.

If it were a cold-hearted commander, he would just ignore them and no one would say anything. After all, the progress of the large army cannot be affected by the disappearance of a few people.

When Chen Yannian, Wang Xian and others had left and the team of 700 people continued to march, Ye Tie quietly approached Ye Mingsheng and reported in a low voice:

“Master, although we didn’t find the three missing scouts, I found some very fresh traces of cleaning in a willow forest eight miles to the south… If nothing unexpected happens, the three scouts should be in great danger!”

Upon hearing this, Ye Mingsheng sighed inwardly. Ye Tie's report undoubtedly indirectly confirmed his guess.

"How many people know about this?" Ye Mingsheng asked in a low voice:
"The cleaning marks there were handled quite well. I should be the only one who noticed it!" Ye Tie thought for a moment and replied:
Ye Mingsheng nodded and said, "Don't talk about this matter with anyone else for now, and ask Ye Dong, Ye Kui and the others to be smart!"

"Got it, Master!" Ye Tie said seriously:

After explaining everything to Ye Tie, Ye Mingsheng turned around and looked in the direction of Liu Jing.

His commander is really a man with evil intentions. Last time he sent assassins but they failed to kill him. Now he has no idea what conspiracy he has come up with this time. It seems like he is determined to kill him!

Thinking of this, Ye Mingsheng was a little confused as to what means Xu Zhaojie would use to kill him.

You should know that Ye is not alone now. He is surrounded by nearly 700 imperial guards of the Great Zhou Dynasty who are wearing cotton armor and iron armor and equipped with swords, spears, halberds, three-eyed guns, and tiger-crouching cannons.

Moreover, after the last assassination, Ye Mingsheng has upgraded the protection around his tent to a higher level. Every night, there is a full team of soldiers patrolling outside his tent. It is impossible for two assassins to get close to his tent like last time.

If Xu Zhaojie wanted to send someone to kill him now, the only way would be to attack by force, but Ye Mingsheng really didn't believe that Xu Zhaojie would do that.

Although Xu Zhaojie had thousands of troops at his command, he had no way to mobilize these people to kill him. Otherwise, although he could kill himself, he would also give the handle to others.

You have to know that although I tricked him in this surprise attack on Liujing, in the final analysis, it was Xu Zhaojie who betrayed Shangguan Hongyuan first, otherwise this kind of thing would not have happened.

And now, I'm afraid that the great and powerful Prime Minister of the Great Zhou Dynasty has probably already set his sights on him, waiting for him to reveal some flaws so that he can seize the opportunity and kill him directly to serve as a warning to others!

Therefore, Xu Zhaojie would never take such a risk of death for a small seventh-rank commander like himself. If Xu Zhaojie had no choice but to mobilize his army, Ye Mingsheng's safety would be quite guaranteed. After all, he had nearly 700 people in the Great Zhou Imperial Army, so whether facing bandits or vagrants from the palace, it would not be a problem at all.

If they want to kill me under the protection of seven hundred imperial guards of the Great Zhou Dynasty, it means that all of my men must be annihilated. To achieve this, with the combat effectiveness of those bandits, at least five thousand people are needed to do this, not to mention whether Xu Zhaojie has such a great influence to mobilize so many bandits.

Even if he had it, Ye Mingsheng probably wouldn't have so many bandits and robbers for him to call upon on his way back to China!
So Ye Mingsheng was really curious about what tricks Xu Zhaojie would use to deal with him.

Although he felt that his safety was guaranteed, Ye Mingsheng was cautious and did not dare to be careless at all. On the one hand, he deliberately slowed down the team's marching speed so that the soldiers would not be so tired and would have enough physical strength to deal with sudden attacks that might occur at any time.

In addition, Ye Mingsheng also continuously sent out scouts to check the situation around the team. With such caution, Ye Mingsheng walked another thirty miles without any danger and arrived at the county seat of Fengxi County before dark.

Because Fengxi County was a relatively wealthy county in Gongdu, Ye Mingsheng did not feel sorry for them this time. He directly threatened the county magistrate of Fengxi County and demanded that he provide most of the necessary supplies.

Faced with the overbearing officers and soldiers of the Great Zhou, the county magistrate of a vassal state could only consider himself unlucky and obediently provide everything Ye Mingsheng wanted.

After arranging the night watchmen, Ye Mingsheng temporarily requisitioned the government office of Fengxi County as his temporary resting place. Under the protection of the solid courtyard, Ye Mingsheng felt that he could finally have a good sleep...
············
············
Just as Ye Mingsheng was sleeping peacefully in the county government office in Fengxi County, eight strong men were quietly gathering in a small woods outside the city.

Although these eight people were all wearing the coarse linen clothes of ordinary people and looked like ordinary farmers in the palace, they were not holding hoes or other farm tools in their hands. Instead, they each held a long and narrow Japanese sword. Apart from that, if you look closely, you can indeed find that these eight people exuded an unconcealable brutal aura.

"Baka! This Zhou army general named Ye Mingsheng is so alert. I'm afraid he has already alerted us and discovered us!" A short but very strong man in his early thirties said angrily.
After saying this, the man was still not satisfied and punched the ground. His name was Yamazaki Yoichi and he was a foot soldier under the Black Dragon Society. Three days ago, he received a mission from his superiors to keep a close eye on the movements of the Zhou army coming from Liujing.

Feeling the self-blame in his leader's words, Yamazaki Yoichi's most capable assistant, Watanabe Hinata, spoke up:
"Lord Yamazaki, this is not our fault. Who would have thought that these Zhou people would suddenly send out scouts? Those three scouts have already discovered us. If we don't take action, our situation will definitely be worse!"

As Watanabe finished speaking, the other ronin from Higashima who had gathered in the woods suddenly woke up from their dreams and spoke out to comfort Yamazaki Yoichi.

"My lord, you did the right thing!"

"The Zhou people are so cunning!"

·······
(End of this chapter)