Chapter 570: The News

Chapter 570: Chapter 570: The News

As a secret agent who had repeatedly won great merits, Tan Bin was well-known in the Four Divisions. Of course, it wasn’t his real name that stood out, but his alias: Passerby A.

Tan Bin liked this alias very much, not just because it was Lord Shen who personally gave it to him, but also because these three words truly embodied the highest state that every secret agent pursued.

All those Tiger-this and Dragon-that names might sound impressive and formidable, but for a secret agent, that’s just a quick ticket to death.

Passerby A—that’s perfect. Who would care about someone who is just a passerby?

The merits he had earned were already enough for Tan Bin to live a wealthy life for the rest of his days. In fact, to conceal his achievements, his merits would be tallied and later credited to his son, and Lord Shen had promised him that as long as his son wasn’t a fool, the Xuanqing Guard would take him in—at the very least as a Small Banner Officer!

Better to thank his own lord than thank the heavens. Lord Wang Jian, Lord Shen Hao, both were men of their word, never shortchanging those who had put their lives on the line to earn merit.

But despite having survived many life-and-death moments, Tan Bin couldn’t stay idle; retiring to the fields and hanging up his armor was not something he’d consider at this age, so he didn’t choose to quit, but continued sticking to the front lines.

Previously Wang Jian had personally looked for Tan Bin, asking him to leave the front line, enjoy a few easy days in the rear and teach the rookies, but he refused. Tan Bin wasn’t afraid of death—even if he died tomorrow, he didn’t fear it, he had long since earned his due. Every extra day alive now was a bonus, and earning a bit more for his wife and son was all he cared for right now. Enjoying leisure in the rear? Forget it.

This job was assigned to him personally by Lord Shen himself, saying, first, Tan Bin had experience with southern duties, and second, this mission was extremely important and required an elite like Tan Bin to take it on. He was even given five other expert scouts as cover.

On August 11th, Tan Bin followed his orders, adopted the alias Zhou Niu’Er, and arrived in Yu City with a group of brawny men—as a carriage driver in the Hengshun Carriage and Horse Company.

Tan Bin knew how to drive carriages—he learned it back in his hometown, then did similar work in the supply battalion once he joined the military, and at the Xuanqing Guard too he’d handled similar jobs. Last time, it was precisely because he could drive carriages that he got called for his first mission in the south and made his first big achievement. So this time, it was right back to his old trade.

But this time felt different from the ones before—what he needed to observe and collect were pieces of information from within the military, regardless of weight or priority; anything he considered valuable or suspicious could be gathered up and sent back.

The risk wasn’t particularly high, but it was a tough job—because intel within the military was hard to get, and since he was only probing from the outside, the chance of acquiring truly critical information was low.

He still remembered what Lord Wang Jian said to him personally when giving the assignment: "We need you to have a finger on the pulse of the local border army’s daily movements, and any sudden changes." So Tan Bin wasn’t in a hurry—his experience told him that, upon arrival, he had to first stabilize his position, before worrying about intelligence. Clearly, this wasn’t a task that could be wrapped up quickly.

When he first arrived in Yu City, Tan Bin’s group was split up by a squad of soldiers and had their identities checked, one by one, with such thoroughness that, even with his experience, Tan Bin couldn’t help but feel a stir of nerves inside. Fortunately, the fake identity documents made by the Xuanqing Guard were "real" enough. The soldiers checked strictly, sometimes harshly, but still didn’t spot anything off about Tan Bin.

After that, under the command of the soldiers, the scattered group got loaded, in batches, onto cargo ships. They squeezed together in holds stuffed with goods and floated south down the river, finally arriving at Hai Xia.

At Hai Xia, they immediately formed a carriage convoy per the arrangements of the local contact, signed the identity documents, received an iron tag, and officially got to work—driving already loaded wagons south along the official road.

Tan Bin knew that the destination was the direction of Beach Stone.

His carriage was carrying bundled feathered arrows, with just a layer of oilcloth covering them. The other wagons in his convoy were hauling grain, medicinal herbs, leather armor, skin shields, and even general spirit stones.

With his experience in the military, Tan Bin knew that this wasn’t transport "by type of supply," this was "assigned by target unit." In plain terms, whatever the convoy carried went directly to a specific Thousand-Man Battalion ahead or some other unit, so the supplies were all sorts.

A few days later, Tan Bin saw Zhuo Huo Pass again, and the feeling this time was very different from the last. Last time, the place struck him as "heavily guarded," but now it felt like "full war-readiness." Just from the cold, tense faces of the busy soldiers receiving supplies at the roadside, he could sense the killing intent burning inside them.

Looking up at the towering pass walls—there were at least twice as many shadowy figures as last time.

"Tie up your horses! All of you give a hand unloading! When you finish, go over there and get your meal. Leave the horses! Once you’ve finished eating, someone will take you to where you can feed them. Move quickly! Stop dawdling!"

A School Commander shouted at Tan Bin’s convoy to start unloading.

By the time the work was done and they were sweating all over, Tan Bin received his meal: two fist-sized vegetable-stuffed steamed buns with rice, and a meat patty. Soup? None—if you wanted water, you had to use your own canteen and fetch it from the well over there.

While taking his horse to be fed, Tan Bin noticed quite a few soldiers being carried over and put on their wagons—some seventeen or eighteen in all, all unable to walk because of leg injuries, or else wounded in the eyes, or arms. None were lightly hurt, but none seemed gravely wounded, either.

No one had said anything about transporting injured soldiers on the return journey when the steward briefed them, so someone asked a couple of questions, almost getting cut down by the hot-tempered School Commander. The reply: military secrets, not your concern. Just take them back, your pay won’t be docked. If you ask again, you’re prying into military affairs—death!

The carriage drivers kept quiet as cicadas in winter, carefully took on the dozen or so wounded, re-harnessed the fed horses, and started the return trip.

No one in the convoy had noticed the flash of something different in the eyes of the man they called Zhou Niu’Er.

"Judging by the size of that encampment, it was just a thousand-man stronghold, yet there were a dozen or more wounded who’d lost combat effectiveness. I thought there hadn’t been any fighting lately? Where did the wounded come from—or has battle already begun?"

Tan Bin felt this message was important, so just after leaving the official road near Zhuo Huo Pass, he covertly took out his Thousand-Mile Sound and transmitted a brief report back...

Tanshi Inspector’s Mansion. Shen Hao received an update from Zhang Ye on the Carriage and Horse Company’s deployment from Beach Stone to Zhuo Huo Pass.

"Why are so many being cleared out at once? Weren’t they supposed to rotate in three shifts? Why the rush?"

"Yes, sir, this time the swap was suddenly increased on the border army’s side—nearly double what was originally agreed. Afterwards, the Carriage and Horse Company’s transport power could reach all the way to the encampments near Zhuo Huo Pass."