The Human Emperor (200-400)

C349: Suspicions!

"Lieutenant Zhang, what was written on the arrow that Siling shot over just now?" Xu Gan suddenly asked.

Bai Siling had shot an arrow with a white cloth on it previously. Other than a few pills wrapped within it, there seemed to be some words written on the cloth itself as well.

But after distributing the pills to the injured personnel, Zhang Lin spoke not a word about the contents of the message.

"This... sigh. Actually, the note was written by the young lord over there. He emphasized for me not to show anyone the note, and that I should only show it to you after we successfully escape from here. Written on it is an escape plan, and it’s probably our only chance at survival," Zhang Lin replied with a bitter smile.

"Oh? Even we are disallowed from looking at it?" Xu Gan asked in astonishment.

"Un," Zhang Lin nodded.

Xu Gan fell silent. A moment later, a thought suddenly came to his mind, and he subconsciously turned to look at Huang Yongtu. The only reason he could think of why Wang Chong would want to hide the plan from them was that he distrusted Huang Yongtu. He didn't think that Huang Yongtu was a reliable man.

"Bastard!" Huang Yongtu had heard Xu Gan and Zhang Lin's words loud and clear, and almost at the same moment as Xu Gan, he came to the same conclusion as well. Veins popped up by his temples as rage blazed in his heart at the realization.

"What does that bastard mean by this? Does he not trust me?" Huang Yongtu's face flushed in anger. They were already in a desperate situation, and yet Wang Chong was indicating that he wasn’t trustworthy. This put him in a very embarrassing situation.

The wise Zhang Lin and Xu Gan chose to turn their heads to the side and ignore his words.

In the end, it was a fact that Huang Yongtu had been trying to provoke Wang Chong the entire way, so it was understandable for the latter to not trust him.

------

"Lord, what do we do now?" Ma Song asked Wang Chong back on the main road. His words captured everyone's attention as they pricked up their ears to hear what the latter had to say.

It had been a while since they had descended into a temporary stalemate. Letting things continue on like this wasn't a solution; they wouldn't be able to save Xu Gan and Huang Yongtu just by waiting around.

"If only we can send word out..." a Ten-Man Squad Commander in the group offered.

"It's no use. We are at least three to four days away from the closest guard post at the moment. By the time reinforcements arrived, it would already be too late," Bai Siling replied, pointing out the impossibility in the Ten-Man Squad Commander's thoughts.

"Siling is right, we can only depend on ourselves to save them. The reason why they shot the dove sent by the royal court as soon as they caught sight of it was to prevent us from getting word out. Even if we wanted to seek reinforcements, they wouldn't give us the opportunity to do so," Wang Chong added with a frown.

In order to prevent the recruits from tapping into their connections to solicit external help in their trial, communication means were severely limited for the mission.

After the communication tools on Lieutenant Zhang Lin were destroyed while he was in the middle of getting word out, the group was left without any means of contacting others.

Furthermore, as the western Silk Road trailed through the mountainous region, it was extremely remote. Other than traveling merchants, rarely would one see anyone else here.

If not for the long distance to the capital, there wouldn't be so many bandits and highwaymen in the region.

In other words, the only ones who could save Xu Gan and the others at the moment were the 42 of them!