Xuanqing Guard

In the eighty-eighth year of the Jing Old Calendar, Xu Hong held the rank of Junior Fourth Grade, serving as a Brave General and commanding an army of thirty-six battalions, totaling thirty-six thousand men.

The army under Xu Hong’s command comprised the "Wood Phase," one of the Five Phases of the Jingxi Army. The later Wind Howling Battalion originated here.

According to Wang Jian’s review, Wind Howling Battalion officially adopted its name in the winter of the eighty-ninth year of the Jing Old Calendar, personally granted by Xu Hong, who then served as Brave General.

By custom in the Jingjiu Dynasty, a unit of the military could only be granted a unique designation under special circumstances, such as achieving significant feats in major battles, or performing deeds deserving to be made exemplary. At the time, the Wind Howling Battalion, then known as the "3-5 Mixed Battalion," belonged to the latter case.

With the strength of a single battalion, deprived of main force support, they fought three fierce days against three rotating Barbarian thousand-man teams, losing over thirty percent of their men yet forcing the enemy to retreat thirty li, unwilling to advance. Later military histories recorded Wind Howling Battalion as cavalry specialists, skilled in riding and archery, moving like the wind, repeatedly harrying and destroying the enemy within arrow range, such that the enemy feared their approach. Thus they earned the honorific "Wind Howling."

At the time, the Barbarian wolf riders possessed formidable power in cavalry combat, their wargs presenting daunting challenges to Human cavalry, leading to frequent defeats and only occasional victories. As time passed, this heavily affected morale.

The exploits and combat techniques of Wind Howling Battalion provided much inspiration and guidance, teaching the Human cavalry to leverage the endurance of their own horses, widen the distance, and strike by mounted archery, thereby wearing down the wolf riders who were difficult to counter in close-quarter combat. For this reason, Xu Hong promoted them as an exemplar, gradually shaping Wind Howling into his elite spearhead battalion.

Afterwards, as the war entered its late stage, the Barbarian forces began to falter, retreating from beyond Zhuo Huo Pass.

The Southern Military Commander at that time was Yang Yansi, now Minister of War. The post of "Military Commander" itself was newly established then, and Yang Yansi, bearing the title of National Pillar General, became its first holder.

Seeing the Barbarians retreat, Yang Yansi seized the initiative, ordering the Jingxi Army and Border Army—a combined force of eighty thousand—to pursue through Zhuo Huo Pass. En route, they seized large quantities of Barbarian supplies, causing chaos during the retreat, and, by repeated raids, forcing the enemy into a rout. Later, at Red Mountain Valley, they trapped the Barbarian King Leiba, defeated him in battle, and took his head.

Wind Howling Battalion distinguished itself in the siege of Red Mountain Valley, with much credit for cutting off the Barbarian King’s escape owed to them.

It could be said, among the many heroic deeds of the last great war, Wind Howling Battalion was certainly among the most prominent.

The subsequent clean-up of remnant Barbarian forces was also undertaken by the "Wood Phase" of the Jingxi Army, Xu Hong’s force. By then, it was the ninety-first year of the Jing Old Calendar, and Wind Howling Battalion had become Xu Hong’s most elite mobile unit. Its personnel, after repeated replenishments and rotations, consisted solely of Xu Hong’s middle and lower level core officers—truly the most trusted of the trusted.

Wang Jian continued to pore over Xu Hong’s personal dossier, finding little remarkable, except that Xu Hong’s promotions proceeded exceptionally smooth—each time his cultivation reached the required stage, he advanced another grade, and there was always something to secure merit. His rise was stable, his experience ample, made even firmer by the foundational glory of the great war forty years prior. Afterwards, he took posts as Border Army Chief Officer, Governor of the Jingxi Army, Vice Minister of the Ministry of War, and finally his current position as Vice Minister of the Ministry of War.

Wang Jian even boldly speculated that, once Yang Yansi stepped down as Minister of War, Xu Hong would surely succeed him. In terms of cultivation and experience, Xu Hong stood unchallenged as the second in command across the entire military.

This made the issue all the more intriguing.

Given the relationship between Xu Hong and Wind Howling Battalion, could Wind Howling Battalion be seen as a cradle for Xu Hong’s faction? Shen Hao had noticed many familiar names in Wind Howling Battalion’s dossiers—names which now filled the ranks of the Four Major Armies, many of whom were already towering figures in various regions.

It seemed clear: those who emerged from Wind Howling Battalion were inevitably linked to Xu Hong, including the ten military generals who were now detained.

This only magnified Xu Hong’s suspicion in the case, but still fell far short of concrete proof; to arrest Xu Hong based on this was utterly impossible.

Wang Jian grew anxious. He had hoped to uncover new leads here, but found it was not so simple after all.

His impatience manifested in his handling of the dossiers, his movements turning brusque. The thick paper produced loud rustling with each turn.

"Be more gentle! If you damage these you’ll have big trouble," the Small Banner Officer overseeing him barked with a frown. Rarely was he so assertive; but with the rude Xuanqing Guard before him also a Small Banner Officer, they were equals, and he was the monitor here in the Ministry of War—who else was he supposed to act tough with?

"What trouble could possibly..." Wang Jian was vexed. The other dismissed him as merely a Small Banner Officer, but he looked down on the other as just a Xiaoqi. Anyway, Wang Jian only wore a Small Banner Officer’s black robe; his rank was a proper Senior Seventh Grade, far above this Small Banner Officer.

But before Wang Jian could finish, he paused suddenly, his gaze fixed on a passage in the dossier that captured all his attention. He no longer cared to argue with the man beside him.

What did Wang Jian see?

"His mother, Mrs. Zhou of the Xu Family, from Xinliang City, birth name Zhou Yueyu..."

This was at the end of Xu Hong’s personal dossier, detailing his family background. Wang Jian had already reviewed the present state of the Xu Family; this page specifically discussed Xu Hong’s mother, Mrs. Zhou of the Xu Family.

Xu Hong himself was nearly a hundred years old, kept young by profound cultivation, appearing around sixty, his vigor even surpassing ordinary men in their twenties or thirties; but his mother was not a cultivator, and long since deceased.

None of this mattered—the crucial points were Mrs. Zhou’s birth name, Zhou Yueyu, and "from Xinliang City." Combined, these stirred a recent memory in Wang Jian’s mind: he recalled that in the personal dossier of one of those ten hard cases, "Zhou Yueyu" and "Xinliang City" also appeared.

This was significant, and Wang Jian remembered it clearly. He hurried to transmit this familial detail about Xu Hong back via Thousand-Mile Sound for immediate verification by the Third Department.

Half a stick of incense later, Thousand-Mile Sound trembled—the message returned. So far, it appeared that Mrs. Zhou of the Xu dossier and Zhou Yueyu from that hard case’s dossier were one and the same. As for evidence, Fengri City had already sent people to Xinliang City to verify.

Only then did Wang Jian relax a little. One way or another, this trip to the Imperial City had yielded some results—it wasn’t a total loss.

After quickly reviewing both dossiers once more to confirm nothing was missed, Wang Jian hurriedly departed the Ministry of War, making his way directly back to Fengri City without pause.