"The Ninth Prince has come too?"
Li Yao nodded: "This matter must be kept secret. I will give you the Ninth Prince's token later."
As soon as he heard he was doing something for the prince, and especially something as important as rectifying military discipline, Liu Hu immediately slapped his chest and guaranteed he would do it flawlessly.
After arranging Liu Hu's matter, Li Yao slipped back into the woods again.
This time Wu Ling had brought 1,000 troops, and after pitching camp they showed no intention of moving on. It wasn't until the next morning that they slowly marched a few more miles.
It wasn't until noon on the fourth day that they finally came to the woods across from Hong Shan Stockade.
Li Yao climbed the tallest tree and looked out over the gorge separating them.
The geography of Hong Shan Stockade really was easy to defend but difficult to attack. Right in front was a 100-meter deep gorge, and the cliff on the other side was also very steep, making it hard to climb up from the bottom of the valley.
Two thick cables, one high and one low, with one end connected to the mountainside here and the other end connected to the stockade's main gate.
There were guards on both sides, so that in an emergency they only needed to cut the cables to sever the only route into the stockade.
But the stockade was inside the mountain across the gorge, and nothing could be seen of the inside from here. Li Yao decided to sneak over and scout around after nightfall.
Waiting in the bushes until dusk, Li Yao ate some of the rations she carried, and took the grappling hooks she had prepared. She was just about to head down to the bottom of the gorge when several Wu Ling troops came to the higher cable, escorting a well-dressed man.
He looked Han Chinese, but the men guarding the cable were very polite to him, scrambling to get him settled into the sling and slowly lowering him to the stockade gate.
Li Yao deduced this man must be the liaison between Wu Ling and Hong Shan Stockade, and that he had come to the stockade to discuss something.
So she swiftly descended to the valley floor, then used her grappling hook to climb the mountainside behind the stockade, looking down on the whole place from above.
This was a long, narrow valley halfway up the mountain, at least 5 or 6 li deep.
The front section was very narrow, and heavily guarded.
The middle section was living quarters, with many wooden houses; the population seemed substantial, at least a thousand or more.
The back of the stockade was more open, with land cleared for farming. And from the tall mountain at the very back, a stream flowed down continuously.
A place like this was a natural fortress, able to produce its own food, so that even under siege it could hold out for a long time.
Tying her rope to a large tree, Li Yao used the cover of night to slowly descend to the middle section of the stockade. Avoiding the passersby, she climbed onto the roof of the largest wooden building.
Inside, the room was brightly lit, and a man sat in the seat of honor - this must be the Chief of Hong Shan Stockade.
He looked rather angry, and said in awkward Mandarin: "Master Tang, what is the meaning of this? You promised to help me wipe out Xiao Wa Village and Qing Song Village, but it's been half a year with no action at all! What do you have to say? Can I count on your word or not?"
"You can count on it! Why wouldn't you be able to?" The Han Chinese man, Master Tang, replied. "Chief Qiu, don't be impatient. General Wu said, as soon as we finish this business and make enough money from the grain and fodder, he will immediately send troops to attack Xiao Wa Village and Qing Song Village. He absolutely will not go back on his word!"
"Hmph, I've heard that line several times already!"
"Chief, don't be angry. This time it's for certain!" Master Tang said. "Our General has already sent people to plant fire oil all around Xiao Wa Village and Qing Song Village. So before the rainy season, he will certainly launch an attack. Otherwise that fire oil will have gone to waste."
Chief Qiu gave a cold snort. "It had better be so."
"Right," Master Tang asked, "How are the hostages doing?"
"All shut up in the cave, they won't die."
"Best not to have any mishaps. The longer they live, the more money we can get for them."
...
After listening from the rooftop for a while and hearing nothing more useful, Li Yao quietly left. Going around the stockade, she finally found a guarded cave under a rocky outcrop.
The cave wasn't very deep. Inside were confined many people, important members of Liu Yuan's merchant company.
They all looked weak and listless, but at least they were unharmed.
If it was just Liu Yuan alone, Li Yao was confident she could sneak him out, but getting over a dozen people out would be tricky. She could only take Hong Shan Stockade first.
She wondered whether the stockade had an escape route.
Generally in places like this, the Chief would ensure he had a back way out in case of emergency, like a hidden tunnel.
Thinking of this, Li Yao went to the fields at the back and searched around the mountain until midnight, finally spotting a faint light near a very secluded mountain spring.
Approaching silently, she found it was actually a hidden sentry post. The men on duty had probably hung up a piece of mosquito coil on a nearby branch to keep the swarms of night mosquitoes away.
To investigate further, Li Yao threw a rock in the opposite direction.
"Who's there?" came an immediate voice from behind the tree at the spring.
Li Yao threw several more rocks, and soon two figures rushed out to pursue them.
But she didn't reveal herself immediately. If this really was the Chief's escape route, there would certainly be more than two men guarding it.
Sure enough, after the two who had run out returned, two more emerged from behind the tree: "What's going on?"
"Nothing, probably just a rabbit."
Now that she knew the number of men at the hidden post, it would be easy to deal with them. Li Yao waited another half an hour, then made more noises to draw two of them out to investigate.
Once those two had gone, she made sounds from another direction, prompting the remaining two to also run out and check.
Although they didn't go far, just ten-odd meters away, Li Yao's agile movements and the cover of night allowed her to slip through like the wind.
Behind that big tree was a small opening, hidden in thick undergrowth.
Li Yao flashed inside. Once in, she saw oil lamps lit at intervals along the cave walls.
It seemed her guess was right. This cave likely led outside.
Proceeding cautiously along the deep cave, after about 15 minutes Li Yao felt a slight breeze. The exit must be near.
There were probably guards outside as well.
Sure enough, lurking near the mouth of the cave she soon heard voices.
But security here was clearly not as tight as inside. There were only two men, and as the night wore on their voices died down, replaced by soft snores before long.
Like a nimble cat, Li Yao silently left the cave.
Outside was still continuous dense forest, but based on the stars overhead she got her bearings - this was directly behind Hong Shan Stockade.
With this route, the stockade would no longer be an impregnable fortress.