A divine healer, a general, a young marquis! Who can rival them!

The barbarians' offensive was repelled once again, and the sounds of fighting on the walls of Qing Shi Kou gradually subsided, and a rare quiet settled in.

As night deepened, Yang Hu, Qin Ying, and Su Heng, avoiding the attention of others, gathered again in a secluded tent behind the wounded soldiers' camp, and discussed the investigation in secret by the dim light of an oil lamp.

The roll of military report, charred at the edges and snatched from the fire, lay out under the lamp. Su Heng's fingertip touched the two signatures: one was the flowing, elegant seal of the Military Law Department, and the other was the blurred private seal of the Logistics Department. She had risked her life to protect this roll of report from the inferno, and had kept it close to her body every day since.

"These two signatures are the two fingers that the hand extended," Su Heng said in a low voice. In her calm eyes was a resolute determination honed over three years of forbearance. "But we can't find out about it just from this one military report. I've been going through the old files of the military law and logistics departments these past few days, trying to see what other matters these two departments have handled together."

From her bosom, she took out several more transcribed old documents. These past few days, posing as a clerk in the Military Law Department, she had been secretly copying down all the dusty old files late at night, meticulously examining each one, making copies of everything that had been handled jointly by the Military Law and Logistics Departments. Examining documents and comparing handwriting and signatures was her specialty as a disguised clerk.

"We've found out." Her voice was extremely low as she lightly traced the names on the forms. "Three years ago, after my father's battalion 'fought valiantly to the death,' the Quartermaster Department had a batch of weapons shipped out of the warehouse under the name 'damaged in battle and allocated to other battalions.' But the Quartermaster Department's accounts only vaguely recorded the whereabouts of these weapons; it's a muddled account that no one can figure out."

Yang Hu leaned closer to examine the list, his brows furrowing. Although he didn't understand the intricacies of military affairs, investigating a case was like diagnosing an illness—the principles of observation, listening, questioning, and palpation, and following the clues, were all interconnected. This ambiguous account was like a deeply hidden lesion; the more it was concealed, the more suspicious it seemed.

"Why are damaged weapons being taken out of the warehouse?" he said in a deep voice, pointing to the items on the list. "If they're damaged, they should be scrapped on the spot and melted down for recasting. What makes sense to go through all the trouble of transporting damaged weapons out of the warehouse and out of the pass? Unless, of course, this batch of weapons wasn't damaged at all. It's a whole batch of intact swords, spears, bows, and crossbows that was moved out of the warehouse under the pretext of 'damage in battle' and transported all the way out of the pass."

"Where did they go after being transported out of the pass?" Qin Ying asked. Having grown up in the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion since childhood, she was intimately familiar with the intricacies of military troop deployment and the handling of weapons in and out of the armory, more so than anyone else. For weapons to leave the pass, they had to pass through checkpoints, have their military identification tags checked, and bribe checkpoints along the way—the entire route was shrouded in obvious obfuscation. To transport a whole batch of intact swords, spears, bows, and crossbows out of the pass undetected, someone had to press and smooth them down layer by layer.

Her gaze fell on the signature at the end of the form, and her pupils suddenly contracted.

"It's those two signatures again." Her voice carried a chilling undertone. "The signatures that issued this batch of 'damaged' military equipment are the same ones from the Military Law Department and the same ones from the Quartermaster Department. Exactly the same as the ones on that fake military report."

The small tent fell into a deathly silence.

All three of them understood the crucial matter hidden behind these old documents.

My father's three thousand soldiers were framed and killed by an internal traitor who colluded with the enemy and led barbarians to their deaths, making it appear as if they had "fought valiantly for their country." As soon as the soldiers died, the military law and supply departments, under the pretext of "damage caused by the dead," moved a whole batch of intact weapons out of the warehouse and fed them to the barbarians.

Harming people, silencing witnesses, and stealing weapons to supply the enemy are all interconnected and originate from the same person.

Su Heng's eyes reddened. For three years, she had disguised herself as an insignificant military clerk, living in anonymity, enduring three long years in the archives of the Military Law Department, all to unearth these pieces of evidence, piece by piece, hidden in the dust of old files. Now, the hand that had harmed her entire family and three thousand soldiers was finally about to reveal its true face.

"It not only colluded with the enemy and sold military intelligence, but also stole and sold weapons to supply the enemy," Yang Hu said, enunciating each word clearly. His calm eyes held an unyielding coldness. "No wonder the barbarians outside the pass are getting fiercer and more skilled in combat year after year. It turns out that many of those sharp swords and spears, and excellent bows and crossbows in their hands, were stolen batch by batch from Da Cheng's military arsenal and personally delivered by this hand. Half of the blood that has been shed on the walls of Qing Shi Kou these days has been shed on the blades sold by their own people. The knife held to Da Cheng's neck was sharpened by this hand and handed to the barbarians by this hand."

Qin Ying's knuckles clenched so tightly they turned white. She recalled those three thousand soldiers from back then, how brave and loyal they were, yet they were betrayed by their own people, killed, used as stepping stones, and even left with a tarnished reputation. This resentment had been weighing on her heart for three years, and now it almost burst into flames.

"Three years ago, the list of those arms shipments included a person who handled the escort." She tried to keep her voice down as she pointed to an inconspicuous name on the list. "Arms shipments and escorts across the border always require someone to run errands and handle the process. If this person is still in the camp, we can trace them back to who held absolute power above the military law and supply departments, approving all this embezzlement of arms and collusion with the enemy."

The outline of that hand hidden deep within the central command became clearer through these old documents.

However, none of the three expected that as they buried themselves in searching through old files and approached the hand, the hand had already noticed their movements.

The military report that should have been burned to ashes in the fire, and the clerk Su Heng who should have perished in the fire to silence him, not only survived, but also traced the old files back to the batch of military equipment that was stolen and sold abroad three years ago.

This is absolutely unacceptable to that hand.

In the past few days, Su Heng had been going through old files in the Military Law Department's archives, asking more questions than usual. The old case of the theft and sale of military equipment was, after all, the deepest and most shameful scar of that hand. The commotion from the search eventually alerted the eyes lurking in the shadows.

A few days later, a transfer order was suddenly issued to the wounded soldiers' camp.

Yang Hu, the newly promoted medical officer, was transferred by the central army to another outpost thirty miles away to deal with an epidemic there. The order was worded in a grand and official manner, saying that the epidemic was raging in the outpost and the army was short of doctors, so only a skilled doctor like Yang Hu could go. It was also urged that he leave immediately.

"A diversionary tactic." Upon receiving the transfer order, Yang Hu's eyes darkened, and his hand gripping the order tightened slightly. "Whether the plague thirty miles away is real or not is another matter, but this transfer order came so conveniently and was issued so urgently. It's clearly aimed at getting us to check the old files. It wants to get me away from Qing Shi Kou so it can free up its forces to deal with you who remain in the camp, holding the military intelligence."

The other hand's counterattack has finally arrived.

The edges of the old roll were brittle and crumbled at the slightest touch. He spread it out on his lap and looked at it page by page. When he got to the last page, there was a corner missing, as if it had been forcibly torn off.

The torn corner was still fresh. The person who tore it was in such a hurry that they didn't even have time to clean up the scraps.

A deadly trap, more sinister and ruthless than the fire that night, was quietly closing in on the three people who were relentlessly pursuing it.