“Even the greatest thing in the world is pointless unless you can actually put it to use.” - Old folk saying.
“Very well then, Miss Kang, since you have decided to cooperate with us, we would like you to identify some people for us, should it be within your knowledge,” said Nestor after the talk he had with Old Duke Banitu and Griselda. “They will be prisoners from your army that we have captured previously. Are you fine with that?”
“May I be allowed something to hide my face with, Milord?” asked Hua-Li in turn, looking a bit uncertain but clearly having decided to make the request regardless. She was probably worried that asking too much would sour the opinion that the noble had on her. “Just a piece of cloth to use as a veil would be enough.”
“An understandable request. I am going to assume that your family or clan probably has enemies that could make trouble for you if the fact that you were cooperating with us came to light, am I right?” asked Nestor with a confident smile on his face, to which Hua-Li nodded. “Guessed as much. Politics are always the same everywhere.”
By the time the nobles walked out of the tent together with Reinhardt and Hua-Li, the foreign girl had been given a helmet and a cloth to cover her face. It was nothing strange to see in a military camp, and the rather loose clothes she wore also hid her figure quite well. As for her long hair, it was common for the Al-Shanians to have long hair regardless of gender, so it wouldn’t betray her identity either.
As long as she didn’t do anything that would reveal her identity, the other captives wouldn’t have any idea who she was. They might suspect each other, but they wouldn’t be able to be certain of her identity. The measures taken might not be much, but it was plenty to provide Hua-Li with the sort of plausible deniability she asked for, and that was all she wanted.
They took her towards where the captives from the enemy army were imprisoned. Much like in the Free Lances camp, the captives were tied up to poles in a way that they wouldn’t be able to free themselves on their own. The cooperative ones were clearly given better treatment, and unlike in the mercenary camp, the main camp flaunted the fact, at least amongst the lower-ranked captives.
The higher ranked ones were kept separate from the other captives and each other, so they couldn’t plot together to provide false information.
First Hua-Li was brought to look at the captive lower-ranked soldiers, but after she was taken to walk past them, she expressed that she was unfamiliar with them. That was not unexpected, since unless it was someone directly part of her command, it was unlikely for anyone to remember that many low-ranking soldiers. At least she could later help translate for the cooperative ones, but everyone suspected that they wouldn’t gain much more from such a thing.
Either Hua-Li had been sincere, in which case she would most likely know more than soldiers ranked lower than she herself was, or she was trying to trick them, in which case as the translator she could freely change the narrative to whatever she wanted.
When they brought Hua-Li to look at the few captured officers, she also professed that she was not familiar with them, though she could name their ranks based on the armor they wore. After a quick check, Hua-Li informed the nobles that most of the officers they caught were at most at the same rank as the one she was adjutant to, a thousand-man commander, while some were just hundred-man commanders even. None of them were particularly important to the Imperial army, so to speak.
On the other hand, when the somewhat frustrated nobles brought her to where they preserved the three heads Reinhardt brought them after the raid a few days ago, Hua-Li visibly gasped with surprise and recognition.
“Do you recognize them, girl?” asked Nestor immediately, capitalizing on the moment.
“We had our suspicions… but to see it myself…” answered Hua-Li with a bit of a stammer. After she took a moment to collect herself, she then pointed towards the head of the lone woman out of the three. “That is Da Jiangjun Taouan, who was appointed as the supreme commander of the northern detachment of the army,” said the girl.
“The other two should be her nephews, two of the Xiao Jiangjuns she brought as her assistants. The generals have not shown themselves to the troops of late and people were speculating if they had fallen ill or the like, but I had not expected that they had fallen to assassins instead,” she admitted with a shake of her head, clearly surprised about the situation. “Then again, maybe we should have guessed since the night patrols have been made stricter lately. We just thought it was perhaps some spies being caught that caused that.”
“If your supreme commander is dead, who would be the one to take command in their stead?” asked Old Duke Banitu.
“I… cannot be certain. There are two Zhong Jiangjuns in our camp. One of them is my paternal uncle, while the other is a cousin of the Da Jiangjun. Under normal circumstances that cousin should be in command since with his connections he would have a higher seniority over my uncle,” said Hua-Li after some thought. “That said, if your people had the ability to bring three heads back to your camp… did you perhaps send out more assassins after us?”
“We sent out five, and the survivors returned with three heads. Given the timing it is likely that the other two managed to take down a target each as well before they were caught,” said Griselda openly, knowing that the enemy higher-ups likely knew that already anyway.
“In that case, I really cannot tell. The Da Jiangjun brought five assistants with her. The cousin I mentioned would be ahead of my uncle on the chain of command, but the rest wouldn’t. I have not seen uncle these past few days, so the question would be whether your assassins got either him or the cousin,” admitted Hua-Li. “If they got them both, then one of the Xiao Jiangjuns might be in command instead. Most of them are young and untried, though.”
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