December 15, New Yu Era 1332

At the border between Jiuhua Dao and Dongyuan Dao, Wanyan Jun and twenty Commandants under his command stood at the boundary marker. He stood alone at the forefront, gazing deeply in the direction of Jiuhua Dao, while the twenty others remained silent.

Suddenly, a strong wind rushed from the south.

A young man dressed in plain clothes arrived, his skin slightly rough, indicating he was a typical Three Northern Provinces person. His fists were covered with calluses, and upon seeing Wanyan Jun, he immediately bowed and knelt:

"Report, my king. Hou Clan's two hundred Red Flame Army soldiers are heading the vanguard. They have just entered the territory of Jiuhua Dao, and they are marching relentlessly. Their target is Dongyuan Dao. Furthermore, according to the rear secret agents, the coalition of eleven million soldiers and the Red Flame Army are separated by five hundred miles. Even if the vanguard doesn't move, the rear coalition will take at least four days to catch up."

Upon hearing the scout's report, strangely, Wanyan Jun and the other twenty Commandants showed no signs of surprise. They simply lowered their heads, looking at the scout kneeling on the ground, a glint of scrutiny in their eyes.

The scout was bewildered, his face filled with confusion.

"Which town are you from, and who is the Commandant of your town?"

Upon hearing Wanyan Jun suddenly ask this, the scout immediately realized and showed a trace of nervousness on his face, hurriedly bowing and answering: "Subordinate from Lin Gu of Ninth Town Scout Camp, Commandant Yu Yanbei."

After speaking, he cast his gaze toward the twenty behind Wanyan Jun, quickly finding Yu Yanbei among the crowd, and hastily shot him a pleading look.

"My King, Lin Gu is an old soldier under my command, there should be no issue!"

Only then did Wanyan Jun show a relieved expression, waving his hand at Lin Gu to see him off. After he withdrew, Wanyan Jun turned to the generals with a slight smile, saying: "Out of the twenty scouts, only one had issues, and the rest brought back the same report. It seems Hou Yuxiao is determined to come to Dongyuan Dao!"

The twenty Commandants nodded in unison, showing a hint of excitement.

To speak of it, verifying the scouts' identities was actually a necessary move.

Hou Clan's two million Red Flame Army, plus eleven million coalition forces hardly requires any scouts; Wanyan Jun doesn't need to approach; he can see from afar. The reason for using scouts was because ten days ago, when Wanyan Jun personally went over, he was in trouble...

Hou Yuxiao was clearly unwilling to expose the army's movements; ten days ago, when Wanyan Jun approached the three-family coalition forces, Hou Yuxiao joined forces with Chu Kuangren and Lu Kangping to deal with him. If he hadn't been far from the coalition forces and his vitality wasn't suppressed, he almost couldn't return.

Learning from the incident, Wanyan Jun was startled into recognizing Hou Yuxiao was unwilling to let him know the coalition forces' movements, which is why he sent scouts in disguise to gather intelligence on the coalition's movements.

Though currently at war, there are quite a number of Martial Artists in Jiuhua Dao. These scouts are merely Grandmaster Realm Martial Artists. As long as they don't directly attack the army, and gather intelligence indirectly, even Hou Yuxiao wouldn't know. After all, he could not possibly find and kill all the Martial Artists in Jiuhua Dao, right?

One million one hundred thousand marching simultaneously, the counties, prefectures, cities, and paths along the way—all aren't blind, anyone with a bit of cultivation could realiz, Hou Clan concealing the movements is almost impossible.

What's different is Hou Clan's two hundred thousand Red Flame Army.

Two hundred thousand Red Flame Army is still a large target, but compared to over a million coalition forces it is considerably smaller, and moreover, they move faster. Without scouts specifically watching them, issues are bound to arise.

As the saying goes, "Know yourself and your enemy, you will never lose a hundred battles."

Wanyan Jun, though he holds the Hou Clan army in disdain, has not lost the vigilance a Commander should possess. M|V|LEM*PYR is the home of this chapter

As for good reason to screen the scouts, it's because Hou Yuxiao has the nickname Thousand-Faced Handsome Man, rumored to have profound facial transformation skills. If they were to fall for it, it would surely be bad. Moreover, previously they even screened out a scout who had been turned by Hou Clan.

That scout was the third to return, his report saying Hou Clan's army hadn't departed Dongyuan Dao, unlike the first two. Initially, Wanyan Jun couldn't confirm who was genuine, but as more scouts returned, once verified, they knew the third returning scout had issues.

After a bout of interrogation, the person admitted being turned, accepting a large sum of silver from Hou Clan for it. It was this incident that increased Wanyan Jun's vigilance, making him rigorously scrutinize each returning scout.

Hou Yuxiao can transform, but he ultimately hasn't been to Great Jin and is not familiar with the Commandants of the twenty towns under his command. Even if he can disguise as a scout, he probably wouldn't recognize his superior.

The first batch of twenty scouts has all returned, and the information they brought back is already verifiable. Next is their response to this on their side.

Wanyan Jun turned and asked those behind him:

"How long will it take for our army to reach here?"

"Report, my king, only half a day's time is needed."

Wanyan Jun pondered slightly for a moment, after the battle outside Shunkang City ended ten days ago, he immediately brought the army over; ten days marching to Jiuhua Dao border, it's not considered slow.

"Issue my military order; once arrived here, the army shall not halt, continue to march south!"

The generals were momentarily stunned upon hearing Wanyan Jun's order.

Their task was to help Emperor Yuliang block the western coalition forces; right where they were, at the must-pass border between Jiuhua and Dongyuan, setting ambushes or building defensive structures and fortifying defenses here would be the best strategy.