Chapter 142: Infiltration
Editor: Atlas Studios
“Auntie Mu, ask Fei Bai to send more ingredients over. Take your time to prepare the food. We might be back later.” Qi Haoran felt that they would have to come back very late if they wanted to infiltrate the military camp stealthily.
Mu Yangling said, “Mother, don’t listen to Qi Haoran. I’m hungry. We’ll be back in an hour at most. Hurry up and cook. We’ll eat the minute we get back.”
After saying that, she pulled Qi Haoran out of the door and said, “It’s only half an hour from the military camp to the entrance of your tent. It’ll be very fast.”
Qi Haoran’s face was full of shock. “Is it so easy to infiltrate my military camp?”
Mu Yangling turned around and looked at Fan Zijin, who was following behind the two of them. “You want to tag along too? It’s not that I want to discourage you, but if you follow us in, I’m afraid it will take a little more time.”
Fan Zijin snorted and said, “I’m going to enter via the entrance openly.”
Only then did Mu Yangling remain silent.
Mu Yangling rode her horse and brought them around to the side of the military camp. This place was far from the military camp’s entrance, so nobody noticed them.
Mu Yangling whispered to Fan Zijin, “If you want to leave, leave quickly.”
Qi Haoran nodded repeatedly. “You’re too big of a target here. You’ll expose us.”
Despite being annoyed at being despised by the two of them, Fan Zijin rode away without saying a word.
Seeing that he had entered the gate, Mu Yangling got off the horse and hid the horse in a recess. There was soil and rocks in front that blocked out others’ view, so it was not easy for anyone to discover the horse.
Mu Yangling whispered to Qi Haoran, “Actually, if we want to enter the military camp silently and try our best to delay being discovered, we have to sneak in on foot. Otherwise, it’s very easy to be discovered and arouse suspicions if we tie the horses outside.”
Mu Yangling gestured for him to look around. “There are weeds and vines here. It’s impossible for anyone to discover someone if they hide inside. Besides, you don’t have a watchtower.”
“Watchtower? Is it like the one on the city wall?” Qi Haoran asked in a low voice.
Mu Yangling nodded. “Since this is not a small camp, you should set up watchtowers at the four corners. Even if no one is attacking now, the military camp needs to be guarded at all times. If the guards discover any military intelligence, they can also report it quickly. If you do a good job setting it up, no one will be able to enter or exit the military camp unnoticed.”
Qi Haoran wanted to ask more questions, but Mu Yangling raised a finger by her mouth, indicating for him to be quiet. She leaned her ear against the wall.
Qi Haoran imitated her and stuck his ear close to the wall. He saw Mu Yangling counting one to four on her fingers. When she counted four, the sound of footsteps happened to pass by and gradually faded into the distance.
Qi Haoran’s expression was a little strange. He knew that there were four people in a patrol team, but only because it had been arranged by him. Could it be that Mu Yangling could tell how many people there were just from the sound of their footsteps and even know exactly when they would pass by?
Mu Yangling led him to continue squatting. When the next patrol team passed by, Mu Yangling whispered, “The interval between patrols is 15 minutes. This can be calculated based on breathing. Let’s go in now and not waste any time.”
With that, Mu Yangling took two steps back and rushed up to step on the wall. She grabbed the top and jumped in with a light leap. The entire process took less than two breaths.
Qi Haoran was only stunned for a moment, but he did not retreat. Circulating his Qi in his stomach, he lightly flew to the top of the wall before jumping down.
As soon as he landed on the ground, Mu Yangling grabbed his hand and ran forward. Another patrol team had already appeared in Qi Haoran’s line of sight. Although they still needed some time to reach the spot where they had landed just now, they were already in his line of sight.
Without any hesitation, Mu Yangling pushed him behind a pillar while she hid in the shadows of a tent.
Qi Haoran widened his eyes. Mu Yangling was standing beside the tent, but the patrolling soldiers could not see her at all. They walked forward without looking sideways.
Frowning, Qi Haoran quickly discovered the crux of the matter.
Since Mu Yangling stood in the shadows, no one would notice that someone was standing there unless they deliberately looked that way.
A living person was standing there, right under his soldiers’ noses.
However, Mu Yangling did not give him a chance to think. Almost as soon as those people walked past, she went forward to hold Qi Haoran’s hand and pulled him to the side.
Qi Haoran looked up at the patrolling soldiers and thought that they would be able to see them as long as they turned around slightly. However, Mu Yangling would definitely have a way to deal with the situation then.
Seeing that there was no one around, Mu Yangling said in a hushed voice, “The time between two patrols is too long. If it’s five minutes, the moment the first team disappears around the corner, the other team will appear around the corner. This path can then certainly be seen.”
“How long is five minutes?” Qi Haoran had never heard of such a unit of time.
Mu Yangling was silent for a moment before saying, “It’s one-third of 15 minutes.”
Qi Haoran nodded.
“Let’s go to your tent.” Mu Yangling pulled Qi Haoran along and was about to follow the route she took in the morning when she suddenly heard a large number of footsteps. Having also heard it, Qi Haoran turned to look at Mu Yangling.
Mu Yangling raised her eyebrows and pulled Qi Haoran in a different direction, hiding behind a pile of clods of earth.
This was used to build houses in the camp area. Now that Qi Haoran had divided his soldiers into five teams, each team would take turns to build houses every day. Therefore, there were still many clods of earth and bricks in the camp that Mu Yangling could use as cover for the two of them.
However, Qi Haoran wondered, ‘If there were no more clods of earth and bricks in the camp, what would Mu Yangling use as cover?’
A large group of soldiers had already lined up in front. The leader shouted, “Search this area. From here to Little General’s tent, don’t miss a single spot. The treasure that Young Master Fan lost might have been dropped along the way. You have to find it before dark, do you hear me?”
“Yes!”
Mu Yangling gritted her teeth and whispered, “Fan Zijin is really vengeful for doing this just because of a statement I made.”
However, Qi Haoran chuckled and asked gloatingly, “How are you going to get to my tent now? Can you still get there in half an hour? It’s almost 15 minutes now.”
Mu Yangling snorted, thinking that he was underestimating her. She pulled Qi Haoran and quietly walked away from the back.
Instead of taking the originally intended path, she pulled Qi Haoran to the back and lowered her voice as they walked. “Remember, if you encounter such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in the future, you must seize the opportunity. Hmph, Fan Zijin has transferred men here to block our way. Since he can’t mobilize the soldiers who are training, he can only deploy the soldiers who are patrolling or resting. That way, the defense in other places will weaken, and even the entire camp’s line of sight will be directed a certain way by him. With the other places lax in defense, it’s really the best opportunity to sneak in. Look, we’ve been walking for so long, but we haven’t met a single person along the way.”
Stunned, Qi Haoran was dragged forward by Mu Yangling. From time to time, they would avoid the patrolling soldiers. In less than 15 minutes, he arrived at the back of his tent. There were two rows of soldiers guarding in front. It seemed like they were also transferred over by Fan Zijin.
Mu Yangling took a few glances forward before dragging Qi Haoran to the seam behind the left side of the tent. Just as Qi Haoran was curious about what she was going to do, Mu Yangling pulled out a dagger from the calf of her pants.